30 June, 2010

Cats in the Cradle - Harry Chapin

Two blog posts in one day!  A record!  Sort of!  Maybe for the most exclamation points in one sentence!

Okay, so I had an epiphany while I was in the shower the other day. Yes, I take showers.  I like being clean.  And don't all great epiphanies happen in the shower?  I'll bet more do than you'd think. 

Right.  Moving on.  I'd heard Cats in the Cradle on the radio the day before and it had hit the repeat button in my brain.  




Like most people, the first time I heard it I was all "this is so tragic, crimes of the father visited upon the son, blah, blah, blah".   So I was mulling the implications and interpretation of the lyrics whilst shampooing my hair and it came to me.  What if, at the end of the song, the son is basically telling his dad "you never had time for me when I was a kid so now that you're old and suddenly have time for me, you know what?  Fuck you.  My kids need me - they're sick - and I'm going to be there for them like you weren't for me.  Take that, you bastard."  I like that interpretation better, quite honestly.  I like the son being the man and father his dad had never been.   

Do I think that's what Harry Chapin's meaning was when he wrote the song?  Who knows.  That's what's so great about music.  You take from it what you want or what you need.  And no matter what you get out of this song, it's a great one and truly deserving of being a classic.

1 comment:

  1. I never really analyzed it, but that's the way I figured it. Oh, and Shimmer is awesome!

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