I'm at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY right now for a Master's Degree. Everyone knows this song--especially Dads--but did you also know that Harry Chapin studied Architecture and Philosophy at Cornell? Wow. No wonder he could craft a piece of art so iconic as this one here in America. Go Big Red!!!
I still cry,miss Harry I went to see him ,I think in Scarsdale in a snowy night. Only he was able to make it. He played for over 2 hours and invited us to sing along with him. Such a fine person 😢
pretty amazing how the grammys used to give a shit. there are no laptops, no cleavage, no dance, no innuendo, no special effects, no gimmicks. just a man and his guitar on a simple stage with a real band playing real instruments. no click tracks, no samples, no faking it. just music and a real message.
🏴🐺💙 x , i am still listening to this song , my neighbour's hate me lol but it is what it is people xb good in life people , life is to short to b something different 😢x
A few years ago a friend of mine mentioned this song, and praised it, saying it was very rare to find a popular song about a healthy parent/child relationship. I asked her, "Are you thinking of the right song?" She said, "Yes, the boy wants so desperately to be like his dad and then his dad sees that he succeeded. What could be sweeter?" I told her to listen closely to the words next time and she might see what she was missing. I'm not sure she ever got it.
This is definitely a timelessly popular English song. I heard it for the first time in an English language class in China 10 years ago and now much has changed in China but I didn’t change and I still like the song and the bond of family.
i'm sorry you were wrong. You did not know the man. I jumped out of that car before it caught on fire. He was trying to kill himself and anybody he could with him he stole UNICEF money. The certified check blew out the window. He was beaten severely and would not pull over
Beautiful indeed because no one records such beautiful songs nowadays. When this performance took place I was in High School 🏫 and this was the music 🎶 of 70’s. America at the time of this performance was undergoing the Energy Crisis. The scandals with Nixon and Watergate were taking place. His 2nd song 🎵 in a way captures those events so things were taking place in America. In 1973 around the Summertime Bruce Lee had died and some months later Jim Croce had died. So in a way it was a dark time especially with the Energy Crisis but good music such as this kept us going.
When I used to spend too much time in work putting up buildings and putting work before family this song used to ground me ,time to spend some quality time with the family and fuck work .
I love this song, and I never knew what it was about. I was told recently "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree", I was like "what does that mean", English is literally my second language, the person said "well, it's like that song, the cats in the cradle song", I said "what do you mean", the person said "listen to the lyrics". I have recently listened to them, and now I understand, I am just like my Dad, luckily for me my Dad was a good man, but I have taken after many of his bad traits too (the smoking and the drinking). The takaway is, that our fathers are the biggest influence's on us, and we should be careful what we expose our kids too. My Daughter is 7 years old, and I want her to inherent all my good traits, and I will always keep an open to what she might take after.
In Harry's introduction to song I thought he was going to tell the story of Charles Whitman, who went to the top of the UT at Austin clock tower and using his sniper rifle killed 17 people and injured 31. He was killed by a policeman and 2 others that were able to get to top of the tower. Read the Wiki. Whitman knew there was something wrong with the thoughts and urges he had. But being 1966 they didn't really have brain imaging. It was very gutsy of Harry Chapin to do a song about a mass murderer. But the tragedy of the people killed and wounded are horrid. So is the story of Whitman. He knew something was wrong with him. But mental health was not popular in the 60's. An autopsy revealed a “mass” (my quotes) that 2 different autopsies discovered but in different areas. Read the Wiki. Again to Harry. Very brave to write a song about this subject. But under the grief was Whitman's sad story. I am so glad his story was told by Harry.
@mikeyeden5791 2nd paragraph first 2 sentences. I knew it was Whitman. I remember when it happened and the TV coverage. Aside from Whitman, there were no mass shootings back then, so media coverage shocked everybody. Now that shit is part of daily life. Sort of like, " Not another one!". Until the bext one. Thanks for commenting.
It reminds me of when my children were growing up, being a single mom they grew up to be great adults. It makes you love your children appreciate them more exclamation mark
