I was driving with a friend of mine (from here on out referred to as LM because she doesn’t want me to use her real name and I am too tired to come up with something mysterious and cool) the other day when Cats In The Cradle by Harry Chapin came on the radio. LM turned it up and started dramatically singing it to me. She likes to do things like this so much so that I downloaded the Virtual Zippo application on my iPhone so that I can wave it around whenever she does one of these very entertaining performances. Anyway our conversation went roughly something like this:
We then both had a moment of “Yeah…word” and then someone tried to cut me off which caused me to honk and scream profanities and our reflective moment passed.
LM: Ooooh. Good song.
Me: Yeah. I like this song. What’s his name? Yusuf Stevens?
LM: No. It’s Harry Chapin.
Me: Ugh. What is wrong with me!? Forget I said that. (My frustration stemming from the fact that I mistook a Who song for Meatloaf a few nights before and have since been getting over the shame)
LM: No. It’s Harry Chapin.
Me: Ugh. What is wrong with me!? Forget I said that. (My frustration stemming from the fact that I mistook a Who song for Meatloaf a few nights before and have since been getting over the shame)
LM: Ha!
Me: God!
LM: I wrote a paper about this is high school.
Me: Of course you did.
LM: Seriously. I used to think that the chorus said “You know we’ll have a good time band” instead of “You know we’ll have a good time then” and I pictured the father and son dressed up in striped barbershop singer outfits with knee cymbals.
Me: God!
LM: I wrote a paper about this is high school.
Me: Of course you did.
LM: Seriously. I used to think that the chorus said “You know we’ll have a good time band” instead of “You know we’ll have a good time then” and I pictured the father and son dressed up in striped barbershop singer outfits with knee cymbals.
Me: Ha! Had they had a good time band they probably would have spent more time together because they would have had something in common that they both loved to do.
LM: Totally. It would have been fun!
Me: Totally fun. And better for their relationship. Music brings people together.
LM: That it does.
At this point, because we had been talking between verses, the final verse came on and she, with a lot of passion and finger pointing, sang “And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me, He'd grown up just like me. My boy was just like me”. I think there was even some fist shaking. She gets very into it. Then she said:
LM: See? His kid grew up just like him. The moral of the song is: don't be a dick to your kids or they're gonna be dicks to you when you're old.
Me: Totally fun. And better for their relationship. Music brings people together.
LM: That it does.
At this point, because we had been talking between verses, the final verse came on and she, with a lot of passion and finger pointing, sang “And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me, He'd grown up just like me. My boy was just like me”. I think there was even some fist shaking. She gets very into it. Then she said:
LM: See? His kid grew up just like him. The moral of the song is: don't be a dick to your kids or they're gonna be dicks to you when you're old.
We then both had a moment of “Yeah…word” and then someone tried to cut me off which caused me to honk and scream profanities and our reflective moment passed.
I also have very strong ties to this particular song. It really speaks to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it does...I'm sure it does. Who doesn't want a good time band? Ha!
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