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...
@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.
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...
@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.