This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
A word in your ear, from father to son
Hear the word that I say
I fought with you, fought on your side
Long before you were born
Joyful the sound, the word goes around
From father to son, to son...
And the voice is so clear, time after time it keeps on
Calling you, calling you on
Don't destroy what you see, your country to be
Just keep building on the ground that's been won
Kings will be crowned, and the word goes around
From father to son, to son
Won't you hear us sing
(te de de de de de de de de de de de de de de)
Our family song
(te de de de de de de de de de de de de de de)
Father, father, father, father, ooh yeah, father, father, father, father
(te de de de de de de de de de de de de de de)
Now we hand it on
But I've heard it all before
Take this letter that I give you
Take it sonny, hold it high
You won't understand a word that's in it
But you'll write it out again before you die (yeah yeah)
A word in your ear from father to son
Funny you don't hear a single word I say
But my letter to you will stay by your side
Through the years till the loneliness is gone
Sing if you will - but the air you breathe I live to give you
Father to son, father to, father to, father to son
Joyful the sound, the word goes around
From father to son, to son...
Kings will be crowned, the word goes around
From father to son, to son
Joyful the sound, the word goes around
From father to son, to son...
Kings will be crowned, the word goes around
From father to son, to son
Joyful the sound, the word goes around
From father to son, to son...
Kings will be crowned, the word goes around
From father to son, to son
Joyful the sound, the word goes around
Hear the word that I say
I fought with you, fought on your side
Long before you were born
Joyful the sound, the word goes around
From father to son, to son...
And the voice is so clear, time after time it keeps on
Calling you, calling you on
Don't destroy what you see, your country to be
Just keep building on the ground that's been won
Kings will be crowned, and the word goes around
From father to son, to son
Won't you hear us sing
(te de de de de de de de de de de de de de de)
Our family song
(te de de de de de de de de de de de de de de)
Father, father, father, father, ooh yeah, father, father, father, father
(te de de de de de de de de de de de de de de)
Now we hand it on
But I've heard it all before
Take this letter that I give you
Take it sonny, hold it high
You won't understand a word that's in it
But you'll write it out again before you die (yeah yeah)
A word in your ear from father to son
Funny you don't hear a single word I say
But my letter to you will stay by your side
Through the years till the loneliness is gone
Sing if you will - but the air you breathe I live to give you
Father to son, father to, father to, father to son
Joyful the sound, the word goes around
From father to son, to son...
Kings will be crowned, the word goes around
From father to son, to son
Joyful the sound, the word goes around
From father to son, to son...
Kings will be crowned, the word goes around
From father to son, to son
Joyful the sound, the word goes around
From father to son, to son...
Kings will be crowned, the word goes around
From father to son, to son
Joyful the sound, the word goes around
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This song is the best on Queen II, the bridge is honestly the heaviest thing I've ever heard in a song. Thats what makes it so good, a nice original heavy metal ballad this one is.
@wow thats awesome Agreed, what an amazing track.
I couldn't believe that more people hadn't reviewed this song. This is a powerful song with some of the best heavy metal guitar ever played, even by the guitar god himself. Brian May is the best guitarist in history and with the possible exception of Freddie Mercury, the greatest songwriter. If you have not heard this album you should. It is absolutely amazing beginning to end.
Well I don´t know but this song rocks!
One of my favourite tracks on the album. The way it goes through all the different sections so efforlessly is amazing!
One of the best tracks on Queen II. Underrated.
A very obvious Brian composition, as he can be very personal with his own songs. And this song is no exception to that. A song inspired by his own relationship with his father. It was a very bumpy ride for him i think, because there is so much anger in this song, but in the end there's bliss and serenity. The legacy left behind by a father to his son.
Possibly; I know his father helped him build his first guitar -- the built it together. I always thought he had a good relationship with his father, but maybe I'm wrong? If you listen to "Good Company," he talks about his father giving him the advice to always keep your family close (and his sorrow at not heeding his dad).
@Sir_Larrikin Around this time he had a strained relationship with his dad. His dad was not happy he abandoned a "proper" career in astrophysics for music (felt that he threw his education away). Also he was upset because Brian moved in with Chrissie and they were not married (yet). It sounded like for 1-2 years he barely spoke to his dad.
I totally agree about this album being absolutely amazing... everyone should listen to it.
I seem to remember Brian saying somewhere that he tried not to make his songs too personal... Of course, they were pretty personal in the early 90's, especially on his solo albums. But I don't know how directly personal his early songs were. There probably is a personal element in this song, but I don't think it's a description of Brian's entire relationship with his father.
I this this song is about a king who is about to go off to battle and is giving his son some last advice through a letter. His son doesn't understand the advice yet because he is still young, so he either cannot or will not grasp the meaning. When the father dies and the son becomes king, he will have many struggles, but he will look back at his father's letter and start to understand it, and that will help him. He will eventually pass that advice onto his own son.
It's basically about children not taking their parents' advice until they are older, more mature, and have gone through some of the things their parents went through. It may be hard to understand advice until the children learn it themselves from experience; then when they grow up, they will have the same problem of trying to give their children the advice when they aren't ready to take it yet.
@TheYipskee Brian said kept his songs broad to appeal to more people but he said his personal life almost always bled into the songs he wrote whether he originally planned it (way more than Freddie). All Dead was originally supposed to be about growing up and people dying in their lives and it ended up being about his childhood cat dying and how that affected him in the end. Now I'm Here and It's Late were both about Peaches (first is the excitement of touring America, New Orleans, and meeting Peaches while the second is about realities of hiding an affair). The White Queen was supposedly about a girl he was obsessed with in college.
Well I don´t know but this song rocks!