The monster’s gone, your daddy’s here
Dear Old Dad. He just never seems to get the same respect that Mom does.
While Mother’s Day was established as a national holiday by Woodrow Wilson back in 1914, attempts to establish an official Father’s Day were repeatedly rebuked by Congress 
and others for many decades. Why isn’t exactly clear. It took until 1966 when Lyndon Johnson finally issued a proclamation designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day, “honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society.” Well, better late than never, I guess…
In the popular music arena, songwriters seemed to give mothers and fathers equal attention. From folk to blues, from R&B to Christian, from funk to ballads, from country to swing, every genre is represented with songs about fathers. I was chagrined to find, though, that a preponderance of Daddy tunes were about what a deadbeat he was, leaving home, fooling around, drinking too much. Still, there are plenty of songs that praise Pops… if you look hard enough…
Today, I have assembled 15 titles that I think will make a nice mix of songs for you to play if you’re hanging out with Dad (or you are Dad) this Sunday. I’m betting there are plenty of fathers who can sing along to most of these tunes from his era.
Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads!
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“Father and Son,” Cat Stevens, 1970
In “Father and Son,” the lovely yet powerful call-and-response piece from 1970’s “Tea for the Tillerman,” Stevens creates a somewhat tense dialog between a man and his son, who hold different opinions about life and love. The father admonishes the boy — “you’re still young, that’s your fault, there’s so much you have to know” — and the son retorts, “How can I try to explain, when I do he turns away again, it’s always been the same old story…” In the end, they agree the boy must leave home and find his own way: “Away, away, away, I know I have to make this decision alone…”
“Father and Daughter,” Paul Simon, 2006
One of the most perceptive songwriters of his time, Simon has written lyrics exploring everything from loneliness to jubilation, from troubled water to little towns, from Graceland to Kodachrome. In the best song from his mostly ignored 2006 album “Surprise,” he serves up the kind of reassurance and affection only a parent can offer to a child: “I’m gonna watch you shine, gonna watch you grow, gonna paint a sign so you’ll always know, as long as one and one is two, there could never be a father who loved his daughter more than I love you…”
“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” James Brown, 1965
America had already shown its appreciation in the early ’60s for the Rhythm & Blues genre coming from the Motown groups (The Miracles, The Supremes), but with this infectious track, James Brown’s first Top Ten hit, the Godfather of Soul offered up a whole different, more passionate breed of soul music. Brown wrote the song –perhaps the first funk tune on US charts — about an older man who isn’t shy about strutting his stuff on the dance floor amongst much younger folks: “Come here sister, Papa’s in the swing, he ain’t too hip now, but I can dig that new breed, baby, he ain’t no drag, Papa’s got a brand new bag…”
“Daddy,” Nicolette Larson, 1980
Larson’s fine vocal harmonies were first introduced by Neil Young on his “Comes a Time” LP, and her rendition of Young’s song “Lotta Love” was her breakout single, hitting #5 in the spring of ’79. On her excellent follow-up LP, “In the Nick of Time,” Larson chose to include the 1940s-era Bobby Troup song “Daddy,” made famous by The Andrews Sisters and various orchestras of the time. Troup, who also wrote “Get Your Kicks on Route 66,” wrote this one about a girl who loves to be pampered: “Hey Daddy, I want a diamond ring, and bracelets, and everything, hey Daddy, you ought to get the best for me…”
“My Father’s Eyes,” Eric Clapton, 1998
Patricia Clapp was only 16 when she gave birth to her son Eric. His father, a 25-year-old soldier from Montreal, shipped out before Eric was born, and the two never met. This song’s lyrics, written by Clapton in 1992 but not released until his 1998 “Pilgrim” LP, speak of his longing for a chance to gaze into his father’s eyes, and also refer to the brief life of Clapton’s own son Conor, who died at age 4. In his 2007 autobiography, he wrote, “I tried to describe the parallel between looking in the eyes of my son, and the eyes of the father I never met, through the chain of our blood.” A sample: “Where do I find the words to say, how do I teach him, what do we play, bit by bit, I’ve realized, that’s when I need them, that’s when I need my father’s eyes…”
“Papa was a Rollin’ Stone,” The Temptations, 1972
This tragic song by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong tells the tale of a young man talking about the deadbeat father he never knew, who neglected those who loved him most: “I never got the chance to see him, never heard nothin’ but bad things about him, ‘Mama, I’m depending on you to tell me the truth, Mama just hung her head and said, ‘Papa was a rollin’ stone, wherever he laid his hat was his home, and when he died, all he left us was alone’…” Originally written for The Undisputed Truth as its follow-up to “Smiling Faces Sometimes,” it was instead recorded by The Temptations in a magnificent 12-minute version full of instrumental passages. It was pared down to 6:45 for the single, which turned out to be the group’s final #1 hit.
“Oh Daddy,” Fleetwood Mac, 1977
When Fleetwood Mac was recording the multiplatinum “Rumours” album, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were at each other’s throats, and John and Christine McVie were in the process of divorcing. Mick Fleetwood was having his own problems with his wife back home, but he appeared to Christine to be the “steady rock” holding the band together. With this song, Christine McVie was letting Fleetwood know, in her own way, that he was the father figure of the group at the time they needed one the most: “Why are you right when I’m so wrong, I’m so weak but you’re so strong… Oh Daddy, if I could make you see, if there’s been a fool around, it’s got to be me…”
“My Dad,” Paul Petersen, 1962
The Donna Reed Show, an early ’60s sitcom starring the Oscar-winning actress as the pleasant, level-headed mom, featured two different episodes in which her fictional children, Mary and Jeff, sang songs at a school dance. Their real-life counterparts, Shelly Fabares and Paul Petersen, took those songs to Top Five success on the US singles chart. Fabares’ rendition of “Johnny Angel” went all the way to #1 in early ’62. Petersen,
Carl Betz as Petersen’s Dad
only 17 at the time, followed with the #6 hit “My Dad,” a saccharine ballad written by Brill Building stalwarts Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill expressly for the show episode. Both the song and lyrics are admittedly pretty shmaltzy (“My Dad, now here is the man, to me he is everything strong, no, he can’t do wrong, my Dad, now he understands, when I bring him trouble to share, oh, he’s always there, my Dad…”) but hey, why not? It’s for Father’s Day…
“My Father’s Gun,” Elton John, 1970
Elton John’s lyricist partner, Bernie Taupin, was fascinated by the old American West and its stories of the frontier, as evidenced by the almost country-western feel to the music and words of most of the tracks on their third album, “Tumbleweed Connection.” Taupin reaches back to the Civil War in “My Father’s Gun,” a slow-building, dramatic tale in which the son buries his soldier father and then vows to keep fighting in his father’s place: “I’ll not rest until I know the cause is fought and won, from this day on, until I die, I’ll wear my father’s gun…”
“Daddy’s Working Boots,” Dolly Parton, 1973
For her 11th studio album, “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” Parton recorded a batch of songs she wrote about growing up in rural Tennessee before heading to Nashville for fame and fortune. The title track was a Top 20 hit on the country charts, but equally poignant was this song that paid tribute to her father and how hard he had to work to support her family during tough times: “As long as I remember, I remember Daddy workin’, workin’ on the job or either on the farm, trying to provide for the family that he loves, and Daddy’s working boots have taken many steps for us…”
“Papa Don’t Preach,” Madonna, 1986
Never one to shy away from provocative topics, Madonna tackled teenage pregnancy and abortion in this #1 hit written by Brian Elliot. The narrator, who is pregnant and weighing her options, cautiously approaches her father in her hour of need, pleading for loving support and advice rather than lectures and scolding: “You always taught me right from wrong, I need your help, Daddy, please be strong, I may be young at heart, but I know what I’m saying… We’re in an awful mess, and I don’t mean maybe, please, Papa don’t preach, I’m in trouble deep, Papa don’t preach, I’ve been losing sleep, but I made up my mind, I’m keeping my baby…”
“Daddy’s All Gone,” James Taylor, 1976
The homesickness for hearth and family that strikes touring musicians is the subject of this autobiographical song from Taylor’s seventh LP, “In the Pocket,” one of his best. The lyrics speak of him calling home from yet another night on the road, lamenting the fact that he has many more concerts ahead of him before he can return home where he wants to be: “Oh, I miss you, baby, I sure am on the road, I don’t need to say much more, just the same old well-known stranger that I was before, it seems like yesterday now, Daddy’s all gone, he’s only halfway home, he’s holding on to the telephone singing, please, don’t let the show go on…”
“My Father,” Judy Collins, 1968
One of Collins’s first attempts at composing was this gorgeous piano ballad, written in October 1967 for her blind father, who died only three weeks after she recorded it. They both had suffered from depression and alcoholism, and had forged an uneasy bond over their afflictions. She wrote how he had dreamed of greater things for himself and his family, most of which never came to pass: “My father always promised us that we would live in France, we’d go boating on the Seine and I would learn to dance, I sail my memories of home like boats across the Seine, and watch the Paris sun set in my father’s eyes again…”
“Daddy Don’t Live in New York City No More,” Steely Dan, 1975
Here’s a funky little blues-based track from Steely Dan’s underrated “Katy Lied” LP. Creative duo Donald Fagen and Walter Becker chose to use a different guitarist on each of the album’s 10 tracks; this one features the smooth stylings of jazz great Larry Carlton. The lyrics paint a picture of a typically dark Fagen-Becker character, this time an unreliable father figure who’s either drunk or absent most of the time: “Driving like a fool out to Hackensack, drinking his dinner from a paper sack… He can’t get tight every night, pass out on the barroom floor…”
“Forefathers,” Dan Fogelberg, 1990
The sensitive singer-songwriter from Illinois was well past his commercial peak when he released the criminally overlooked LP “The Wild Places” in 1990. The album contains some of the best music and most perceptive lyrics of his career, including this bittersweet paean to his Scandinavian and Scottish ancestors and the sacrifices they made for the generations that followed: “And the sons become the fathers, and their daughters will be wives, as the torch is passed from hand to hand and we struggle through our lives, the generations wander but the lineage survives, and all of us, from dust to dust, we all become forefathers by and by…”
“Come to Poppa,” Bob Seger, 1976
Seger had been a musical force in Detroit and the Midwest ever since his early band, The Bob Seger System, had a taste of success in 1968 with their #17 hit “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man.” It wouldn’t be until 1976 when Seger truly broke through nationally with the Silver Bullet Band on their excellent “Night Moves,” LP, the first of six consecutive Top Ten albums. The title song was a huge hit, peaking at #4, and two other tracks, “Mainstreet” and “Rock and Roll Never Forgets,” charted as well. Other notable songs include “The Fire Down Below,” “Ship of Fools” and the old Willie Mitchell tune, “Come to Poppa,” with lyrics that suggest whom you can turn to when things aren’t going your way: “If life gets hard to understand, and the whole thing is getting out of hand, come to Poppa…”
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Honorable mentions:
“My Father’s House,” Bruce Springsteen, 1982; “Father of Night,” Bob Dylan, 1970; “The Ding Dong Daddy of the D-Car Line,” Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, 1992; “Daddy’s Tune,” Jackson Browne, 1976; “Dear Father,” Yes, 1970; “Father’s Eyes,” Amy Grant, 1979; “Father Figure,” George Michael, 1988; “Father of Day, Father of Night,” Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, 1973; “Son of Your Father,” Elton John, 1970; “Father to Son,” Queen, 1974; “Sugar Daddy,” Fleetwood Mac, 1975; “My Father’s House,” Kenny Loggins, 1991: “Hey Papa,” Terence Boylan, 1977; “Daddy, Don’t You Walk So Fast,” Wayne Newton, 1972; “Cat’s in the Cradle,” Harry Chapin, 1974.
The author and his daughters
Arcade Fire may be a Canadian band, but they still have the right to make their feelings known about political power in a free society, be it in the U.S. or elsewhere. Written by leader Win Butler with help from singer Mavis Staples in the spring of 2016 and released the day before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, “I Give You Power” is a brilliantly concise reminder to those who win elections that they can lose their political power as easily as they win it: “I give you power, power, where do you think it comes from, who gives you power, where do you think it comes from, I give you power, I can take it all away, I can take it away, watch me take it away…”
The man who offered up such iconic ’60s protest songs as “The Times They Are A-Changin'” and “Masters of War” is still at it nearly 60 years later with a new album of thought-provoking tunes. In addition to a 17-minute epic about the Kennedy assassination called “Murder Most Foul,” Dylan has written “False Prophet,” which comments on our current situation but ends with hope: “Another day that don’t end, another ship goin’ out, another day of anger, bitterness, and doubt, I know how it happened, I saw it begin, I opened my heart to the world and the world came in…” Later, he makes reference to Trump and where he might be headed soon: “Hello stranger, a long goodbye, you ruled the land, but so do I, you lost your mule, you got a poison brain, I’ll marry you to a ball and chain…”
Pearl Jam has a whole slew of overtly political songs in their catalog, and for their 2006 album “Pearl Jam,” several tracks dealt with the Iraq War and its aftermath, as well as the “War on Terror,” as it was referred to by the Bush Administration. I think “World Wide Suicide” is the best of the bunch. Singer Eddie Vedder has never been shy about challenging authority nor bemoaning the horrors of war in his lyrics: “It’s a shame to awake in a world of pain, what does it mean when a war has taken over, it’s the same everyday and the wave won’t break, tell you to pray while the devil’s on their shoulder, the whole world over, it’s a worldwide suicide….”
A Las Vegas-bred rock band since the early 2000s, The Killers have been led by singer-keyboardist Brandon Flowers, who has written or co-written nearly every song in their five-album repertoire, which have sold nearly 30 million copies worldwide. Flowers recently wrote “Land of the Free,” a song that makes ironic use of the title to protest issues that still bedevil us in this country, specifically mentioning immigration, gun control and racism. In regards to the unfairness of systemic racism: “When I go out in my car, I don’t think twice, but if you’re the wrong color skin, you grow up looking over both your shoulders… Incarceration’s become big business, it’s harvest time out on the avenue in the land of the free…” 
Dion DiMucci, popular singer of ’50s and ‘early ’60s hits like “The Wanderer” and “Runaround Sue,” has re-emerged recently with Paul Simon for a powerful duet about the late Sam Cooke, one of the best soul/gospel singers of all time, who was gunned down in 1964 by a white motel owner. The lyrics deal with the racism of those times while reminding us that race relations are still tenuous in many parts of the country today: “I never thought about the color of your skin, I never worried ’bout the hotel I was in, here in America, here in America, but the places I could stay, they all made you walk away, you were the man who earned the glory and the fame, but cowards felt that they could call you any name, you were the star, standing in the light that won you nothing on a city street at night…”
Since the beginnings of the nation, presidents have mentioned God and the need for guidance, but none quite as arrogantly as George W. Bush, who claimed to have actual conversations with God. Conor Oberst, the singer-songwriter behind the indie rock band Bright Eyes, wrote this piece that took strong exception to Bush’s use of God to justify his policies and decisions. In early 2005, NBC surprisingly gave the green light to Bright Eyes performing the song on “The Tonight Show.” It was released as a free track on iTunes shortly after: “Does he fake that drawl or merely nod when the president talks to God? Does God suggest an oil hike when the president talks to God? Does what God says ever change his mind when the president talks to God? When he kneels next to the presidential bed, does he ever smell his own bullshit when the president talks to God?…”
Ben Gibbard, singer-songwriter for the popular alt-rock band Death Cab for Cutie, said he was outraged by then-candidate Trump saying during one of the 2016 presidential debates that he self-made his fortune “with just a small million-dollar loan” from his father. “He made it sound like anyone could get a million dollar loan,” Gibbard said, “which is just insane.” Gibbard poked a sharp stick at Trump’s silver-spoon upbringing: “He’s proud to say he built his fortune the old fashioned way, because to succeed, there’s only one thing you really need, a million dollar loan, nobody makes it on their own without a million dollar loan, you’ll reap what you’ve sown from a million dollar loan, call your father on the phone and get that million dollar loan…”
The Texas-based, three-woman country group, riding high in 2003 as one of country music’s most popular acts, came out against the Iraq War while performing in England, adding, “We’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.” The backlash from the group’s conservative fan base was fierce and instantaneous, and most country radio stations began boycotting their music. It took them off the charts for a few years before they returned with “Not Ready to Make Nice,” which reinforced their previous statements, not angrily but with a heartfelt rejoinder that defended their right to speak their minds: “How in the world can the words that I said send somebody so over the edge that they’d write me a letter, saying that I better shut up and sing or my life will be over? I’m not ready to make nice, I’m not ready to back down…”
Alecia Beth Moore, better known as the multi-talented singer-songwriter Pink, has enjoyed a spectacular solo career since her debut 20 years ago. Selling upwards of 90 million albums worldwide with multiple #1 albums and singles, she avoided being typecast as a mindless pop act by writing songs of real substance and using her gymnast-like dancing skills to reach new levels of artistry in her live performances. When she wrote “What About Us” for her 2017 album “Beautiful Trauma,” she kept it general enough so it could be interpreted to be about a failed relationship, but most believe it to be a political protest song about the Trump administration: “We are billions of beautiful hearts, and you sold us down the river too far, we were willing, we came when you called, but man, you fooled us, enough is enough… What about all the times you said you had the answers? What about all the plans that ended in disasters? What about love? What about trust? What about us?…”
Not so much a song as a chant with gospel overtones, this track (the title is a contraction for “What the hell are you talking about?”) is a powerful message piece that Monae wrote and recorded with a loose collective of musicians she called Wondaland. Originally, the verses painted vignettes of three black people who died at the hands of overzealous police, but as more such incidents began occurring, the lyrics evolved into a chanting of names of the victims, imploring listeners to “say their names!” David Byrne, late of Talking Heads, was so impressed by it that he has been concluding all his concerts lately with his own rendition of it. A live recording of Byrne with a chorus and tribal drums is included in the Spotify list below.
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