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This song came out on 23 November 1970 as part of Cat’s album, “Tea for the Tillerman”, of which it also served as the lead single. Rather in his own mind he has come to the realization that his father is not genuinely interested in entertaining his personal aspirations.Īnd he understands this to be the nature of their relationship from the time he was born. Indeed it seems that throughout his life he has intentionally kept certain personal issues away from his dad. But he is not shunning his father’s advice outright. Rather there is something, akin to destiny’s calling, burning inside of him. And even if he doesn’t decide to heed the call, that is a “decision” he wants to make “alone”. Or simply put, he does not want his dad’s input on this particular matter.īut it is in the name of love that his dad is trying to prevent him from making what he perceives to be mistake. So the heart of their conflict is akin to a father seriously wanting to advise his son, but the son not wanting the advice. What does the son want?Īnd in terms of what exactly is appealing to the son, although the Russian Revolution element may have been overtly removed from the tale, it is obvious that there is “something going on” in the outer world that is calling out to him. And once again, he doesn’t seem to ever directly respond to his dad. And he is making an attempt to point him in a more slow-paced direction, espousing an ideology of settling down and building his life up slowly. Indeed the “father” in the song is trying to forthrightly prevent his son from taking a certain course of action. Lyrics are autobiographical?Ĭat Stevens has stated that for the most part this song is not autobiographical. Rather his dad was a lot more free-willing, in terms of allowing Cat to do what he wanted, as opposed to the one portrayed in the lyrics. the time in which this track was brought forth. However, since its original conception, the meaning of “Father and Son” has been taken outside of this historical framework and is basically meant to represent a coming-of-age story. And on an even broader scale it is also representative of societal conflicts which were going on in the tumultuous 1960s, i.e. So based on that understanding, the son has decided to join the Revolution, and the father is trying to convince him not to go.
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Originally the lyrics were written within the context of the Russian Revolution. At the center of their debate is apparently the son’s decision to leave home to embark on some type of endeavor.