Rock is full of songs with sons rebelling against fathers, but this is one where a father comes to embrace his son, it is so full of love, so raw in the truth that seeps out that the song aches. Parenting is so humbling, there is so much we want to give our children and so little we can actually do. It is hard to stand by and watch our sons and daughters repeat some of the same mistakes we made and we can’t protect them.
The words from the father range from the banal (call your sister on her birthday), to the realization of what the son is facing (stay off the needle). Yet the lines that go the deepest into our hearts are those where the father admits his own failures and prays that his son doesn’t repeat them:
So don’t try to change who you are boy, and don’t try to be who you ain’t
And don’t let me catch you in Kendale with a bucket of wealthy-man’s paint
What more is there to say?
Jason Isbell wrote the song and first recorded it when he as part of the Drive-By Truckers, which is the version pasted below, that he plays it often enough in his live shows and put it on a live album he recorded.
#Songoftheday #Spreadinghappiness #jasonisbell #fatherson #drivebytruckers
YouTube: https://youtu.be/DkyZI8VW9Vc?si=OjKKYg-TgQH6QNg4
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2nes7xBxT8C2ol7lthypyF?si=abc3074797b04b62