Mother, Father

it's story of a broken home.....done with beautiful lyrics and beautiful metaphors.....

Im gonna re-sing this song! its sad to see only one comment! this song is about a divorced family, the son is is asking for help to make this all better. the mother seems sad that the husbands gone 'She sits alone, an empty stare A mother's face she wears Where did she go wrong...'

-'With dreams he tried, lost his pride He drinks his life away One photograph, in broken glass It should not end this way.'

And like many fathers, develops an alcohol problem. Just like my dad... i heard somewhere that the 'seventh son' is from something like Norske mythology or something like that and i think a seventh son is supposed to have powers... i think that the son is saying that he'll be there for both of them when trouble comes '...when lightin' strikes the family ' he will be their defender -'Don't you know that I'm alive for you'

-'Through bitter tears And wounded years, those ties of blood were strong So much to say, those yesterdays So now don't you turn away.' I think this part is saying that when the family was together in the hardships and not facing them alone, they were healthy so they could fight back, but that was in the past. 'So now don't you turn away'

I'm sure there are lotta people like me that are holding the family together, im only 18! its much bigger job than u would think! to all my brothers and sisters,Hang on help is on the way keep fighting! 2012!

I had always dismissed this song. I love Journey, but you generally don't expect much depth from them. I mean, she's a small town girl living in a lonely world. I dig it. They're lyrics are hot metal and oil. The sound of an engine revving. You get some pretty direct symbols like a wheel in the sky. Yeah, it keeps turning...as you're on the road...

Anyway, I didn't care for this one because I didn't think it was saying much. Then one day something hit me from the lyrics. So first you have the description of the mother sitting alone and staring. Then the father, despite his dreams he's drinking his life away.

I don't think they're necessarily divorced. Back then divorce was fairly uncommon. They could be divorced, but it's really not necessary. They're broken, no question there.

I don't think their problem is with each other. The mother asks where she went wrong. That's a typical question of a parent. The father's verse expresses that it should not end this way. That's the regret of a parent. Also, the narrator of the song references them as mother and father, not husband, wife, or lover. No, this is not centering around their marriage, it's centering around their kids.

So who is the narrator? Well, he addresses mother, father, and sister. That last one is interesting because as near as I can tell she doesn't get any other reference in the song. He also references himself as the seventh son. I had always considered that seventh son bit to be a throwaway...but I think it's actually the part that made me see the whole song differently.

Here's the key verse: Don't you know that I'm alive for you I'm your sevenths son

What is a seventh son? It's not the prodigal son, with respect to a previous poster. There is no indication in that story that there are more than two sons. It could be King David, Moses, or Enoch. These are the greatest figures of the Old Testament and are considered seventh sons. Even more compelling though I think is the idea that in American Folklore the seventh son of a seventh son could do magic...or miracles.

The son is dead. I don't know for sure what happened, but I think there are clues in the descriptions of the mother and father. She's staring vacantly and he's drinking his life away and it shouldn't end like this. There is nothing worse I can think of than to lose a child. She wonders where she went wrong. And he has one photograph with broken glass. This suggests some kind of violence, whether he punched the picture or threw it, or something else was thrown or slammed. There was some terrible moment in this family, and at the end of it the son is dead. Perhaps he drove away emotionally and there was an accident. Perhaps something worse happened.

But in typical Journey literalism, the son is speaking from beyond the grave and reassuring his family that there is a solution. He is alive for them. They should have faith, and believe...because he is the seventh son and the seventh son can work miracles.

I love this song! I first heard it over at a friends house and I watched Deen Castronovo sing it while playing the drums and I was blown away! He sang it with such ease! It was incredible! I listen to this song all the time. It makes me think of my own home that's broken. I love this song!

I think it isn't just for divorce. Any broken home sucks. If a family is ripped apart due to parents or kids actions..... any one of these versus can be a cry for help or a reflection on life. Awesome song. :)

''She sits alone, an empty stare A mother's face she wears Where did she go wrong, The fight is gone Lord help this broken home''

I have always felt it was coming from an outside view of a family with a rebellious, teenage son and controlling yet concerned father and the mother stuck in the middle. As often is the case when there is tensions in the family, the mother is often at the receiving end of fire from both sides and often feels she has failed as a mother and herself, hence the fight being gone, its gone in her.

''Don't you know that I'm alive for you I'm your sevenths son And when lightin' strikes the family Have faith, believe.''

In time the father and son clashed to the breaking point and the son being headstrong, decided to leave home with big ideas of making something of his life on his own with no family to help him. The idea of the 'seventh son' being the parable of The Prodigal Son. The mother has faith and believes if given time the son will come around in his views about his father and vice versa.

'With dreams he tried, lost his pride He drinks his life away One photograph, in broken glass It should not end this way.''

Once out in the real world he saw that life wasnt as easy as he thought it would be and that he yearned for the happy home life he had before his teenage years. But his pride prevented him from trying to set things right with his dad and so he lived his life trying something, anything to fill that void, until one day he comes across a broken photograph of his family he had packed away and there he saw the love he had for his father.

''Through bitter tears And wounded years, those ties Of blood were strong So much to say, those yesterdays So now don't you turn away.''

The son, putting his pride aside then decides that the ties of blood were strong and that he could have a relationship with his dad after all. That he needed to set things right as an adult. He was capable of seeing his fathers point of view on things now as a grown man and realised that his father was just trying to protect him from making bad decisions early on in his life. Instead of turning away as he did as a teen, the grown man decides to return home. He's realised that life was too short to hold onto pride and anger and that he needed to fix this before it was too late, ie. his father dying.