The Things We've Handed Down Lyrics - Marc Cohn

I don't know much about you 

I don't know who you are 

And we've been doing fine without you 

But we could only go so far 

I don't know why you chose us 

Were you watching from above? 

Is there someone there that knows us? 

Said we'd give you all our love 

Will you laugh just like your mother? 

Will you sigh like your old man? 

Will some things skip a generation 

Like I've heard they often can? 

Are you a poet or a dancer 

A devil or a clown? 

Or a strange new combination of 

The things we've handed down? 

I wonder who you'll look like 

Will your hair fall down and curl? 

Will you be a mama's boy 

Or daddy's little girl? 

Will you be a sad reminder 

Of what's been lost along the way? 

And maybe you can help me find her 

In the things you do and say 

And these things that we have given you 

They are not so easily found 

But you can thank us later 

For the things we've handed down 

The things we've handed down, down 

Down, down, down, down 

You may not always be so grateful 

For the way that you were made 

Maybe some feature of your father's 

That you'd gladly sell or trade 

And one day you may look at us 

And say that you were cursed 

But over time that line has been 

Extremely well rehearsed 

By our fathers and their fathers 

In some old and distant town 

From places no one here remembers 

Come the things we've handed down 

The things we've handed down 

The things we've handed down