My Father's Gun Lyrics
We dug his shallow grave beneath the sun
I laid his broken body down beneath the Southern land
It wouldn't do to bury him where any Yankee stands
To wear the colour of the greys and join the fight again
I'll not rest until I know the cause is fought and won
From this day on until I die I'll wear my father's gun
I'd like to know where the riverboat sails tonight
To New Orleans well that's just fine alright
`Cause there's fighting there and the company needs men
So slip us a rope and sail on round the bend
To plant the seeds of justice in our bones
To watch the children growing and see the women sewing
There'll be laughter when the bells of freedom ring

This song is about a Southern man whose father has died fighting in the American Civil War. The lyrics "I'll take my horse and I'll ride the northern plain To wear the colour of the greys and join the fight again" Tell us that he is going back to fighting the yankees as a confederate soldier. The confederacy wore gray uniforms, and the union wore blue. The reference to riding the northern plains puts the location of the song somewhere in the western theater of operations, where deep raids into Yankee and Confederate territory by cavalry were very common. The lyrics "To New Orleans well that's just fine alright `Cause there's fighting there and the company needs men" Again tell us that this is a confederate soldier, as the union troops did not take riverboats (operated by southern citizens) thru the south to New Orleans. Union troops who attacked New Orleans can by sea, through the gulf of Mexico.
This song is about a poor (the vast majority of confederate soldiers were poor and owned no slaves) soldier whose father is killed in combat. He takes his father's gun and vows to continue to fight for their homeland and freedom. The song doesn't mention slavery, instead it talks about the plight of the average southern soldier, fighting a war he feels is just.

I always liked this song, it has one of the bes choruses ever, but Taupins subject matter is...strange. Pointlessly romantisicing the Conferacy seems very weird for an Englishman.

i can't hear this song without thinking of my grandfather, a police office for 27 years, so strong, so hard, but when he died he was soft, just a broken body waiting to die, a sweet man ready to be with my grandmother. it brings me to tears. i was listening to this song on the way to the hospital where he eventually laid to rest. it was a hard but a release to let him go. he was greatly loved.

This song is going to get a lot of play thanks to Cameron Crowe and his new movie "Elizabethtown." Don't know if it'll hit "Tiny Dancer" status, but still a great song in its own right, and seems to fit the film's sentiment perfectly.

I had not heard this song a long time, and then I heard it again when I went to see Elizabethtown. Musically it just fit so well where they put it in the movie, (as did every other song in the movie) but I just love this song. It makes me feel strangely nostalgic about growing up and being young for some reason. I just absolutely love it.

I know I heard this song many many years ago but as pixie and srh1son had said ever since i have seen elizabeth town it has a whole new meaning for me. Aces to that song and that movie

i think it's kinda catchy :)

This song just makes me happy when I hear it. Just like Orlando and Kirsten dance in the film, it makes me dance too, in a certain way to forget all problems and just thinks of the song and dance in a kind of 'trance' way.. you know what I mean? hmm probably not, but anyway, great song!! :D

This song does very well what many have tried to do and failed,dispel the myth that your enemy in a war is an evil villain when in many many instances he's just a man like you trying to live up to his code.

This is the most under rated elton john song. It's one of his best hands down.
Taupin's narrator longs to head south and fight in one of the few major engagements unknowingly fought after the peace treaty ending its war had been signed. You know: "The Battle of New Orlearns." So we have the British-to-the-bone Reginald Kenneth Dwight inhabiting the voice of an American who wants to fight in a war already over because he hears "the Company needs men." The Americans lost 13 and had 58 wounded; the British lost approximately 700 and had 2000 wounded. What would the Americans have done had Taupin not sent intrepid Elton to the rescue? Would fourteen have fallen? Perish the thought!
Then I realized the talk of "southern land" and its partner-in-rhyme "where any Yankee stands" probably place this song in the Civil instead of 1812 War. But that only makes the song stranger. Now Sir Elton is an orphaned Southern Boy who wants to parrot the slave's death sentence by travelling down the Mississippi on a riverboat to a city blockaded the Union Navy? And the reason this anti-Wilberforce wants to join the fight? To ensure that chidlren will grow (Can't have them not now can we?) and women will sew (What else are they good for besides producing stunted children?) and that there'll be laughter when the bells of freedom ring . . . in the infamous New Orleans slave markets wherein wealthy white landowners will again be free to trade in human chattel. While laughing. To murglarize one of my favorite passages in all of literature as thoroughly as they did American history
That's not really it at all. You're transposing. Kudos for correct use of "Wilberforce", though.
That's not really it at all. You're transposing. Kudos for correct use of "Wilberforce", though.
You've made some pretty significant assumptions in your analysis of this song which I wont bother going into. And when I say "assumptions", I do not mean to indicate that your assumptions are wrong. Just simply that they are over-complicating what is otherwise a very simple song.
You've made some pretty significant assumptions in your analysis of this song which I wont bother going into. And when I say "assumptions", I do not mean to indicate that your assumptions are wrong. Just simply that they are over-complicating what is otherwise a very simple song.
"own my fathers gun" is a metaphor, indicating that the narrator has inherited his fathers war through his fathers passing. The sense of duty or responsibility to father and that which was important to...
"own my fathers gun" is a metaphor, indicating that the narrator has inherited his fathers war through his fathers passing. The sense of duty or responsibility to father and that which was important to the father is why he fights.
Children growing and women sewing have nothing to do with his reason for fighting. "Children growing and women sewing" are two of the rewards the narrator feels he will earn through victory, which again is a metaphor for a return to normalcy and a quieter life.
Nowhere in this song is any reference made to "parroting the slave's death sentance". While your knowledge of old American culture and history are definitely reflected in your interpretation, they combine to muddle the intended interpretation of this song.
You're certainly correct about this song referencing the Civil War, the War of 1812 was a stretch and didn't really make any sense. But I agree, that this is one of E. John's most under-rated songs.