Father's Day 2009.
Looking over my catalog of 423 songs it jumps out that a significant number of them are about Father-child relationships. People have often commented on this over the years in performances.
When I first became a father in 1984, I wrote "The Singer and His Son". Two years later, my daughter arrived, and as my children grew and taught me new things every day, I wrote "What Our Children Teach". As my kids went through high school, and during my years of volunteering at a Group Home for girls, I heard many stories from teens about parenting gone bad. These stories of kids seeking love and acceptance from their fathers which never came, became some of the most intense and poignant songs I've written: "Teach Me How to Fly", "Most Likely to Succeed", "Another Touch of Gray", "My Name is Mary".
The process of a father letting his grown-up child go off into the world to become the adult that he/she will be is captured in "Six Candles in the Chandlery" and "The Dream".
I lost my father to Alzheimer's when I was just 16, and it took several decades to finally write the tribute to his lost creativity in "Alizarin Crimson", and to try to capture what it must have been like in his failing mind, in "Flickers".
I've have always tried to be the best songwriter I could possibly be, but more so, I've always tried to be the best father I can possibly be.
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©2009 Bill Pere. All Rights Reserved.
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