IN MEMORIAM
In memory of Alfred Clement Bell 1936-2019
Music and Lyrics by Steve Bell
 
Fresh tendernesses burgeoned
with the dying of my dad
I love him all the more for it
He lived his life for others’ gain
His death, he gave away the same
And I love him all the more for it
 
This son was fiercely fashioned
By his father’s dappled life
The way he loved his children
The way he loved his wife
My dad was hardly perfect
But I hardly give a rip
I loved him all the more for it
 
Not scandalized by brokenness
Not scandalized by pain
But Dad could not abide the curse
And hellishness of shame
He’d absorb another’s failures
And return them as a gift
We loved him all the more for it
 
My father was a trumpeter
Those days have long since passed
He passed along his passion to me
Eager as I was
We’d sit for hours and listen
To the Tijuana Brass
I loved him all the more for it
 
I tenderly remember
When a beauty left me rent
I was too young to consider then
That love is never spent
He told me pain would linger
And would likely leave a dent
I loved him all the more for it

My dad was a believer
He believed that God is good
He was certain Jesus lived
To show how everybody could
And that all our earthly sorrows
Couldn’t be the final writ
I loved him all the more for it
 
My father was a fortress 
For my two sisters and I
And more-so for our mom
Who suffered so much of her life
He taught us how to live 
And then he taught us how to die
We loved him all the more for it
 
Fresh tendernesses burgeoned 
With the dying of my dad
I love him all the more for it

In Memoriam (album version)

Steve_Bell