Father and Son, by the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens.
This 1970 folk rock classic by Cat Stevens captures an exchange between a young, idealistic man looking to break away and live a life of passion, and an old, but wise father telling his son to “Just relax, take it easy.” in an interview in Rolling Stone, Stevens said, “Some people think that I was taking the son’s side, but how could I have sung the father’s side if I couldn’t have understood it too? I was listening to that song recently and I heard one line and realized that that was my father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father speaking.”
From the website
Cats in the Cradle, Harry and Sandra Chapin.
The song is based on a poem written by Harry Chapin’s wife. The couple often worked on each other’s writings, and when Harry first read the poem, he tried setting it to music, but the result didn’t grab him. It was not until his son was born that Chapin felt inspired to give turning the poem into a song another try, and “Cat’s in the Cradle” was the result.
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My Father’s Eyes, Eric Clapton.
Guitarist Eric Clapton grew up not knowing who his father was. In 1991, Clapton’s four-year-old son fell to his death from the window of Clapton’s Manhattan apartment. “My Father’s Eyes” was Clapton’s way of exploring the grief of not knowing his father and the tragic loss of his own son. He shares in his autobiography that the song describes “the parallel between looking into the eyes of my son, and seeing the eyes of the father that I never met, through the chain of our blood.”
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A Boy Named Sue, Shel Silverstein. Performed by Johnny Cash.
This became Cash’s biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and his only top ten single there, spending three weeks at No. 2 in 1969. Recorded the song live at California’s San Quentin State Prison at a concert on February 24, 1969.