Horace Silver’s Song for My Father (1963-64)

I must’ve first heard this song sometime in college in the early 1970s. It struck me as one of those revelatory songs which speak in profound and powerful ways to our psyches. I come from a troubled family in which both my father and especially my mother abused us. I spent much of my life looking for decent, good and gentle parental surrogates. Song for My Father (hear it) was such a powerful surrogate because it portrayed a father who was all the things that I wished mine would be and often wasn’t.

I should qualify what I’ve written by saying that my father was the one parent who I believe wanted to, or had the capacity to overcome some of his parenting character flaws. Once his children left home, his relationships improved with them immensely. So my feeling for the song partly derives from a kind of wish fulfillment, but also from a profound thankfulness for those good qualities my own father possessed.

You often hear the song around Father’s Day and it certainly deserves to be the musical anthem for that holiday. But frankly, I don’t ever hear the song anymore, even on that day. And I think that’s a terrible shame. In this age of dysfunctional families, where the Osbournes have become an emblem of the American family, it is more than welcome to think of Horace Silver’s wonderful ode to his dad, the man.<

Song For My Father
by Horace Silver

If there was ever a man
Who was generous, gracious and good
That was my dad
The man
A human being so true
He could live like a king
‘Cause he knew
The real pleasure in life

To be devoted to,
And always stand by me
So I’d be unafraid and free

If there was ever a man
Who was generous, gracious and good
That was my dad
The man
A human being so true
He could live like a king
‘Cause he knew
The real pleasure in life

To be devoted to
And always stand by me
So I’d be unafraid and free

If there was ever a man
Who was generous, gracious and good
That was my dad
The man, The man

–lyrics from Bluesforpeace.com

album background information at Dave Exton’s music site.

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