I was walking down that road, to the place that was my home,
And the memories of a life go on forever,
Here's the village, here's the sea and here's the place where it began,
When I found myself in the arms of Lady Madonna,
And then I listen for those footsteps, coming down the hall,
A father to his young boy, who was hurting from a fall,
You must have heard me crying, you must have dried my tears,
But you know, I just can't remember, just can't remember,
The son and the father, the son and the father;
Now I'm walking with my boy through the place that is our home,
And the memories of his life are growing forever,
And I'm looking through his eyes at all the wonders of the world,
Then hand in hand we will make this journey together,
And we will talk of men and pirates, and heroes in the dark,
I will tell him of the hungers and the mysteries of the heart,
And I will always hear you crying, I will always dry your tears;
And I pray you'll always remember, always forever,
The son and the father, the son and the father,
The son and the father, the son and the father.
"This song went through various stages; we recorded it with a full band, and it just didn't sound very nice. It's a song that I've had kicking around for a couple of years, but I never really got a handle on what it was about until recently. It's about a man re-visiting the place of his childhood. He notices various landmarks, and he goes to the house where he was brought up, which is deserted and empty - well, of course, it would be if it was deserted! Anyway, he starts hearing echoes of his childhood. He stands in the corridor, and he listens out for his father's footsteps coming to a child who has fallen over and is crying; it's him, when he was younger. The lyric goes 'You must have heard me crying, you must have dried my tears but, you know, I just can't remember. I just can't remember the son and the father.' Basically, because he hasn't been getting on with his father, he can't really remember virtually anything about his father. And the second part of the song, is the same person walking with his son through their own home. They're talking and he's watching the world through his son's eyes, and seeing how the memories of his life are growing forever. As the lyric says 'And I'm looking through his eyes at all the wonders of the world, and we will talk of men and pirates and heroes in the dark. I will tell him of the hungers and the mysteries of the heart - and I will always hear you crying and I will always dry your tears. And I pray you'll always remember the son and the father..' Now, this one is actually quite short - it's two minutes, 40 seconds - and I recorded it with orchestra. I would say that this is equally important a track to me as Up Here In Heaven, and I think it is absolutely beautiful. I would say this song is fairly personal. I won't go any further, but I would say that."
The Getaway Gazette, April 1994
Albums
"The Son And The Father" appears on the following albums:
