Tin Man

This is a song I wrote for my sister. She was born two days before my first birthday and for two days every year we are the same age, Irish twins. This song was inspired by a picture we took together one Halloween. She wanted to be the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. Each piece of her costume was formed in layers and carefully shaped to fit around her torso, legs, and arms, including a hat that looked like a helmet. Everything was spray-painted silver.

I was her partner in crime and trick or treating, an Indian in baggy pants with a feathered headband and war paint. Our first stop was Grandma’s house, for a picture, and of course a handful of goodies.

Side by side, we traveled through the ups and downs of childhood, then adolescence, into adulthood—underwater races in the pool, backpacking for miles with blisters on our feet, rollerskating on the boardwalk along the beach, chasing boys and working on our tans—two American girls walking on a yellow brick road that went on forever.

This song was included on the album Postcards from the Past. We recorded it in Pegram Tennessee at Manning Hollow Studio with the very talented Steve Wells.

Listen to the song here Tin Man

Tin Man Lyrics

She had a smile from ear to ear

standing tall in her black and white saddle shoes                                      

Specks of silver paint in her hair                                                                      

And a sparkle in her baby blues                                                                        

And while the kitchen table was still covered in glue                                        

She had become someone new

She was a paper-mâché work of art                                                            

Looked like she walked right out of a storybook                                                  

In a California suburb on a Halloween night                                                      

She made her way through the neighborhood                                                    

 A tiny tin man with an oversized heart                                                          

 Who’d give you the world if she could

CHORUS                                                                                                              

And everybody knows how the story goes                                                          

How what we don’t have, is what we want most                                              

And we spend our time chasing something we had all along                          

Searching for love, coming up empty-handed                                                  

Missing the one who’s standing right beside us                                                          

If our hearts had eyes we’d see, that love is all we need                                

And there’s a tin man out there who keeps me believing

In fairy tales and childhood dreams                                                                    

You can be anything that you want to be                                                            

 There’s a yellow brick road that leads                                                                      

To all the faraway places you want to see                                                    

Everyone has a heart that beats                                                                          

Just because you can see it doesn’t mean anything

That costume is long gone, but I’ll never forget that night                              

When the great big heart of one little girl made a tin man come to life

©2019 Elk Mountain Music ASCAP Trisha Leone Sandora