Comic Genesis Forums

[quote="M

Send pics...

Andy Partridge (XTC) has written a few songs to his children. Here are a couple:

Holly up on Poppy
Canter never stop
She has escaped from the world
where they bake beautiful girls

Holly up on Poppy
Trotting to the top
She talks and banners unfurl
Their secrets crayoned in swirls

Everyday I have to pluck up courage to look her in the eyes
The eyes of storms
Anyway I love to watch her ride and play the alchemy
That love performed
Laughing

Everytime I look at my watch
I'm reminded we are poor in hours per day
Every second spent with her's a bulging wallet
Overstuffed with angels' pay
Laughter

Kid, stay and snip your cord off
Talk and let your mind loose
Can't all think like Chekov
but you'll be okay

Kid, is this your first time here?
Some can't stand the beauty
So they cut off one ear
but you'll be okay

Welcome to the Garden of Earthly Delights
Welcome to a billion Arabian nights
This is your life and you do what you want to do
This is your life and you spend it all
This is your life and you do what you want to do
Just don't hurt nobody
And the big reward's here
In the Garden of Earthly Delights

Kid pick up with another
Some will even drop you
But hearts are built like rubber
So you'll be alright

Kid, swallow but believe us
You won't die of boredom
Should you have to leave us
It'll be alright

Welcome to the Garden of Earthly Delights
Welcome to a billion Arabian nights
This is your life and you do what you want to do
This is your life and you spend it all
This is your life and you do what you want to do
Just don't hurt nobody
'Less of course they ask you
In the Garden of Earthly Delights

dburkhead wrote: And, IMO, it's a damn shame that more songs aren't about the conflict being resolved the other way.

I don't have the energy for the discussion, so I'll let you be. But in my opinion, the songs mentioned in this thread are mostly not so hot. So yeah. Probably because I'm too cynical, but I'm OK with being that.

My contribution is "Still Fighting It" by Ben Folds. Ain't his strongest, but it's what you're looking for.


PS I don't know if he wrote it or even performed it first, but Roy Orbison sang "I Drove All Night" at least a decade before Celine Dion. Celine gets enough credit for stuff. Roy needs some love.

I don't think it's a matter of "too cynical" so much as simply a matter of taste. Different people like different things and that's perfectly okay.

As for Celine Dion vs Roy Orbison--it was Celine's CD that was in the drive as I wrote that which was the reason I was using it as an example.

oh hey here's this one.


There's a saltwater film on the jar of your ashes; I threw them to the sea,
but a gust blew them backwards and the sting in my eyes
that you then inflicted was par for the course just as when you were living.
It's no stretch to say you were not quite a father
but the donor of seeds to a poor, single mother that would raise us alone.
We never saw the money that went down your throat
through the hole in your belly.

Thirteen years old in the suburbs of Denver,
standing in line for Thanksgiving dinner at the Catholic church.
The servers wore crosses to shield from the sufferance plaguing the others.
Styrofoam plates, cafeteria tables,
charity reeks of cheap wine and pity and I'm thinking of you,
I do every year when we count all our blessings
and wonder what we're doing here.

You're a disgrace to the concept of family.
The priest won't divulge that fact in his homily
and I'll stand up and scream if in the mourning remain quiet,
you can deck out a lie in a suit.
But I won't buy it.
I won't join the procession that's speaking their peace,
using five dollar words while praising his integrity.
Just 'cause he's gone, it doesn't change that fact:
he was bastard in life, thus a bastard in death.

Death Cab for Cutie - 'Styrofoam Plates'

'Weddings, Parties, Anything' did one called 'Father's Day' in the early nineties.



I haven't always been a single man
And I haven't always lived up here,
Along with all these other single men
With a ring around the bath and a cigarette butt in my beer.
And I haven't always been a lonely man
And I haven't always lived alone.
You know I haven't always drunk this much
But here before you cut me down, just try standin' in my shoes.
'Cause I don't have to hear a word of this, no.

On any other day I might care what you say
But every Saturday is Father's Day.
And you might call it sad, you might call me mad,
But I've got one...who calls me Dad.

And all the other blokes who live up here
Know how to leave a man alone.
They're not a bad old bunch who live up here
Ah but you know if it's not family then it's not home.
What of the darling wife who once I had?
Well I'm pleased to say that she still talks to me.
But I try not to think of what went wrong,
'Cause if I say that I was right, she might say that she was right
And the only rights I care about are visiting rights, so

On any other day I might care what you say
But every Saturday is Father's Day.
And you might call it sad, you might call me mad,
But I've got one...who calls me Dad.

We go where he wants to go, we do what he wants to do
I tell him everything I know
'Cause I'd do anything to prove
Yes I'd do anything to prove

That every Saturday I will do just what he says
'Cause every single Saturday is Father's Day.
And you might call it sad, you might call me mad,
But it don't feel so bad when he calls me...
You might call it sad, you might call me mad,
But it don't feel half bad when he calls me...
You might call it sad, you might call me mad
But God, I feel so glad...
When he calls me Dad.

I haven't always been a single man...

I think it's sad that there are so few stories with platonic relationships between a man and a woman.

I can think of quite a few that fit the criteria, but the good ones are few and far between.

I guess writing songs about your kids is a lot like showing their pictures to everyone at work. It's nice, but nobody really cares. But I'm sure I won't stay this cynical forever. Get back to me in a few years and I guarantee you I will be that balding cornball in a minivan who lives for Pee Wee soccer games.

Anyway, here's a few candidates for Daddy Songs that Don't Suck

Loudon Wainwright's done a lot of songs about his kids (although the only one that comes to mind off the top of my head is Rufus Is A Tit Man)
John Lennon - Beautiful Boy
David Bowie - Kooks
Beach Boys - When A Man Needs A Woman (written to Brian Wilson's unborn son, who turned out to be a daughter)
Brian Wilson - Little Children
Brian Wilson - Dream Angel (turgid as hell, but about his daughter Daria)
Liam Gallagher did a song about his kid on one of Oasis' albums.