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Songs about Fathers

June 18, 2010

With Father’s Day upon us, I thought to compile a list of songs about fathers. I wanted good songs about fathers or fathers relating to their children or children relating to fathers. This is not a list of gauzy greeting-card songs. The picks run the gamut from the gentle (“Dad’s Yard”) to funny (“A Boy Named Sue”) to proud (“If That Ain’t Country”) to remorseful (“My Old Man”) to angry (plenty of those). To make the list, the songs had to be about a man, so no songs about God or other men (Neil Young’s “Old Man” is about a ranch hand) or songs with the word in the title that has nothing to do with being a father (“Papa’s Got a Band New Bag” or “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line”).

I start with songs that I recommend and then add a list of other songs about fathers or mentioning fathers that you might find interesting. (Thanks to Pat for helping compile the list). I make no claim that this is a definitive list or a comprehensive list. If you see a title highlighted, you can click on it to hear a performance of the song. I welcome additional songs and your comments. Enjoy and Happy Father’s Day.

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Smokestack Lightning – Howlin’ Wolf Dark Mysteries

June 17, 2010

Smokestack Lightning

Performed and written by Howlin’ Wolf

Imagine sitting in a small dark club on the Southside of Chicago. Gaze upon Howlin’ Wolf in all his raging glory, six foot six and three hundred pounds, eyes wide as hubcaps and shining bright as headlights, mouth like a junkyard dog, smiling like a man about to have his way. A nasty guitar note rings out. Wolf’s voice rises from somewhere deep within, it scrapes, growls, stretches and punches; it’s full of broken stones and smashed metal, heartache and sinew. The voice comes from someone who’s taken beatings and given them out too; someone who’s known love and been betrayed by love, someone who knows raw sex of Biblical proportions. That voice is not alone. It’s backed by the one of the best blues bands ever, drums and bass working together, Hubert Sumlin’s guitar as rough and ready as Wolf’s voice. The music shakes your foundation, rattles your walls and makes you quiver in fearful joy. Women be careful cause the Wolf’s hard to resist. Men be careful cause there’s always the chance for trouble. “Ah, whoo hoo, ooh…”

Like many great songs, “Smokestack Lightning” contains great mystery. One can ask exactly what the song is about even as the grunts and howls of Wolf convey all you need to know.

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Birches – Bill Morrissey: A Married Couple’s Love Song

June 16, 2010

Birches – A Married Couple’s Love Song

Written and performed by Bill Morrissey

In his song, “Casey, Illinois,” Bill Morrissey sings, “Now I’m not young in a young man’s game,” a sad truth; playing and listening to rock music favors the young. The quintessential rock music still flows from Elvis’s braggadocio and broken heart rhythm and blues and Chuck Berry’s car songs. We grow excited about that new young band (Kings of Leon, anyone) and often forget or shake our heads over the Stones in their 60’s still trying to rock and roll. Many of the best artists have continued to produce as they enter their senior years and their audience ages too.

Yet much of the best music comes from older artist dealing with themes of maturity and much of the audience has aged too. Think of Dylan’s recent work – perhaps more resonant that anything he has ever written. Neil Young still thrashes about trying to make sense of the world as he sees it while Van Morrison still seeks his vision, only not as a young man would. Springsteen’s movie song, “The Wrestler,” grapples with finding victory in accepting one’s fate. Dylan’s song “Red River Shore” – arguably one of his best ever – may make no sense for the 20-year-old college student who lacks the experiences to understand, but it resonates with sadness and recognition to the older listener.

Bill Morrissey’s “Birches,” a love song as moving as any you will hear, stands as an example of a song that the young man or woman may not comprehend, but will rivet the middle age man or woman as it captures the small defeats and victories that infuse a marriage. Those familiar with Morrissey know the intricate craftsmanship that goes into his story-songs: concise, rich and telling details. Others have likened him to minimalist short-story writers like Raymond Carver, though the better comparison seems to be Andre Dubus given the New England settings, the deep empathy for their characters and the underlying spiritual dimensions in their work.

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Corpus Christi Bay – Robert Earl Keen

June 15, 2010

Corpus Christi Bay

Performed and written by Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen is a master storyteller whose songs show great range from the hilarious (“Merry Christmas from the Family”) to the anthemic (“The Road Goes on Forever”) to the poignant (“Mariano”). Listen to his music and you can tell he learned his craft listening to the Texas masters like Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. This song tells the tale of two hard-living, hard-partying brothers working the oil rigs of Corpus Christi Bay. The mix of country and Tex-Mex music (including a wispy accordion) keeps the song light and Keen’s singing rolls as easy as a convertible cruising along back road Texas highway. The lyrics seem to match the music recounting the escapades of the fun loving boys, though by song’s end we dwell in the darkness of the one brother’s drinking and loneliness. The lightness of Keen’s touch keeps the song from falling into a maudlin puddle of self-pity.

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Gimme Some Truth – John Lennon

June 14, 2010

Gimme Some Truth

Performed and written by John Lennon.

I took a long drive with my eldest son, Patrick, a few weeks ago and along the way, we found ourselves listening to this song and some other of what I call John Lennon’s primal scream music. The raw, angry sound caught Paddy off-guard cause he knew the Beatles music – even at age 20 with a preference for hip-hop, one can’t avoid the Beatles – but he did not know John Lennon’s solo work.

The song and others – “Working Class Hero,” “God,” “I Found Out” – certainly demand that you pay attention. Paddy laughed when I told him about Richard Nixon putting John Lennon on his Enemies List, serious stuff that seems beyond buffoonish now. Lennon crams so many words into his lines and spits them out with a venom that continues to strike a chord. While arising from a specific time and place, the conviction and sentiments remain strong enough that Vin Scelsa took to playing “Gimme Some Truth” on every show during the “Imperial Presidency” as he called George W.’s term. Folks like Travis, Sam Phillips and Pearl Jam have made more recent covers in their effort to respond to the kaleidoscope of world events.

In a funny way, the song shares some unlikely sentiments with so many Tea Baggers who vent their anger at today’s version of “uptight-short sighted- narrow minded hypocritics” and “neurotic-psychotic-pig headed politicians.” Of course, no self-respecting Tea Bagger would align him or herself with a long, haired freak like John Lennon calling Richard Nixon “tricky dick.”

Released on the Imagine album in 1971, the song had its origins back in 1969 while the Beatles recorded what became their Let it Be album. I first came across the song in the summer of 1973, summer between my freshman and sophomore years in high school, a time when I was ripe for change and a few musical bolts by John Lennon and Bob Dylan did the trick. Picture those reenactments of Earth’s primordial goo that lightening strikes and brings forth the first forms of life.

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Life is Large – The Kennedys

June 11, 2010

Life is Large
Performed by The Kennedy’s and written by Pete and Maura Kennedy

Friday morning, sun breaking over the trees, the grass glistening, my boy John Lee chipper about heading off to school and the day seems ripe with possibilities. A perfect time for the hippie anthem “Life is Large” by the Kennedy’s.

How do you want to be remembered?
A raging fire or a dying ember

How can you say no to the jingle-jangle urgings of the Kennedy’s? They’re a husband and wife team – part folk duo, part travelling show – based in the East Village who, as their personal legend tells it, celebrated their first date by visiting Buddy Holly’s grave. This song embodies the spirit of Buddy Holly’s bursts of pop magic. Maura takes the lead vocals with vocal harmonies coming from Pete and friends Peter Hosapple (of the dbs), John Gorka and Susan Cowsill (of the Cowsills), all sounding as if they’ve never had so much fun before in their lives. Imagine a movie musical parade carousing down Main Street and their calling everyone to come along. That’s Pete Kennedy leading the throng with his guitar and Maura high-stepping to her own vocals. Hey, that’s Roger McGuinn(of the Byrds) riding in the float playing his 12-string guitar.

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Thirteen by Ben Kweller

June 10, 2010

Thirteen

Performed and written by Ben Kweller.
This mesmerizing love song rides near stream-of-conscious lyrics made striking by the piano and the quiet insistence of the vocal performance. Kweller defies normal song structure – there is no chorus; instead, he relies on three line verses bursting with images and thoughts and the piano’s rhythm to carry us forward. The effect is like closing one’s eyes and watching scenes from a relationship roll past. The lyrics speak of joy, the images spark images of a world opening up and made more vibrant by the relationship, yet the voice and piano convey a poignancy and sadness. Perhaps the tenderness arises from recognizing how fragile a relationship can be, perhaps from a period apart. It is the underling tension between the music and lyrics that make the song so affecting.

In an interview, Kweller has said the title comes from the date he married his long-time girlfriend, Liz Smith, and the song is peppered with references to their relationship (e.g., the necklace once worn by her mother, the phone calls on which they built the relationship, etc.). Yet the song remains accessible to all listeners.

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Personality Crisis – New York Dolls

June 9, 2010

Personality Crisis

Performed by the New York Dolls and written by David Johansen and Johnny Thunders of the Dolls.

I caught the movie Get Him to the Greek Last Night (bawdy, funny and worth the ticket) which concerns the efforts of a well-meaning music lackey trying to get a drug-addled, alcohol-soaked rock star whose made excess a lifestyle from London to Los Angeles. Along the way, the duo finds themselves coming to New York for a TV interview. As they enter the City, the film runs through a montage of rock clubs, hip scenes and icons all played over a soundtrack of the New York Dolls’ “Personality Crisis.” In that instant, it becomes clearer than ever that “Personality Crisis” is a perfect New York Song.

No one song can capture all of the essence of New York City, but this rave distills the crazy energy that careens from reckless parties to scary encounters all with a wide-eyed enthusiasm. Robert Christgau nails the Dolls and this song when he writes, “It takes brats from the outer boroughs to capture the oppressive excitement Manhattan holds for a half-formed human being the way these guys do.”

They Dolls invented glam rock and cut a path the New York punk groups could follow and widen, boys tottering on towering heels swapping lipstick and mascara backstage and ready to fight anyone who got in their way. This song sounds like a 4 a.m. street party that the cops can’t shut down. John Thunders and Sylvain Sylvain wield guitars like flame throwers; David Johansen struts, stutters, screeches, howls and croons and Jerry Nolan’s breakneck drumming keeps its all from spinning out of control. Sure, you can hear the Stones in there – what hard rocking band didn’t take off from the Stones? – and you can hear some Mark Bolan and the Stooges, but there’s also dashes of the girl groups these boys loved so much, just listen to their efforts to harmonize in the chorus. Is it fair to say that had the Dolls not sprung up in the early 70’s, we wouldn’t have had a Ramones and Blondie in the late 70’s?

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Murder in the City – The Avett Brothers

June 8, 2010

Murder in the City

Performed and Written by the Avett Brothers.

“Murder in the City” features another facet of the Avett Brothers – a quiet, ruminative stream with unexpected twists and a performance that can break your heart. Hailing from Concord, North Carolina and playing a host of hardcore, hard-living songs that sound might be called speed country; a change of pace like this ballad can stop you in place. And the subject matter which catch you off guard as well, especially with the title. No violence here, no dark tale of bloodshed, instead, this song turns into a meditation on family and fate. Scott Avett provides the lead vocal while quietly picking at this guitar; brother Seth adds some minimalist piano. The music pushes the lyrics and vocals front and center.

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Mother of God by Patty Griffin

June 4, 2010

Mother of God

Written and performed by Patty Griffin.

I told myself that I’d write about “Mother of God” because we have tickets to see Patty Griffin (and the Avett Brothers, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Richard Shindell, etc.) at the Appel Farm Festival this Saturday (thanks to Paddy and Jamie for the tickets). Truth be told, this song’s been running round my mind for many months. Griffin’s singing and the ethereal, yet muscular longing of the music persists in memory and functions like the pebble in the oyster agitating its way to something beautiful. The song sounds less like a performance and more a woman talking aloud, as if hearing her own words will help her find some peace and understanding. Far from a mere pop song or simple singer-songwriter confessional, “Mother of God” struggles to understand family and faith, life and purpose, and it avoids easy answers. The song evolves into a type of prayer, an offering of hope in the face of near certain futility.

Griffin builds the song around two women: a mother and the titular Mother of God. The singer/narrator, perhaps the eldest boy in the family or perhaps another sibling, is the third character in a kind of familial trinity, three separate, yet unified characters. Points of view fluctuate, the three main characters conflate and, though we follow a certain story and timeline, in many ways, the song views the same women and same relationship from different viewpoint. It is a song as cubist painting.

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