Recently it was introduced to new audiences in Marvel’s 2017 film *Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. “Father and Son” has been covered by several artists, the most notable being Boyzone in 1994 and Ronan Keating, who featured Yusef Islam in his version, in 2004, as both had major international chart success. It was originally meant to portray a father trying to convince his son not to go off to join the Russian Revolution. The song was first conceived of as part of a musical theater project that never materialized. But how could I have sung the father’s side if I couldn’t have understood it, too? I was listening to that song recently and I heard one line and realized that that was my father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father speaking. Some people think that I was taking the son’s side. The father addresses the son directly, but the son soliloquizes, as though speaking to himself or to nobody at all. Both parts are sung by Cat Stevens, with the son’s verses in a higher, more plaintive register. In “Father and Son,” a father tries to calm-and keep-his wayward son, who feels that he has to start a new life for himself.
It did, however, eventually chart in Italy and The Netherlands in late 1971. While it’s now one of Stevens' most famous songs, “Father and Son” was not a hit in the UK or US when released in 1970.
0 kommentar(er)
