MR

I love Journeys "Mother Father". Its one of my favourites. The Verse melodies, the guitar work, the intro, the outro, Cains key playing, Stevies drums, everything about it makes it a dark, powerful and moving song..except..the chorus.

I dont know why but imo i find the chorus just doesnt fit with the rest of the song; "Dont you know that i would..". Theres just soemthing about it where the first time i heard it i was dissapointing that this powerful song was cheesed up with this chorus.

Just something i've always thought..

Don't think so much and you won't have that problem

I never got into that song myself. It's impressive on a technical level, but just not appealing to me overall.

Perry sang the hell out of it on the Houston DVD though. Amazing performance from the entire band.

To me, it's a GREAT song, beginning to end!

Seriously though, the chorus is a biblical reference, I think......"Don't you know that I'm alive for you.....I'm your seventh son...and when lightning strikes the family...have faith in me"......means have faith in God.

The tension between Perry's voice and Neal's guitar is sheer artistic perfection. I fucking LOVE that song.

Blueskies wrote:Seriously though, the chorus is a biblical reference, I think......"Don't you know that I'm alive for you.....I'm your seventh son...and when lightning strikes the family...have faith in me"......means have faith in God.

Lyrically i think the song is great.

And its probably my favourite Perry vocals aswell/

Just never really been a fan of the chorus melody

Saint John wrote:The tension between Perry's voice and Neal's guitar is sheer artistic perfection. I fucking LOVE that song.

Same with Little Girl.

NealIsGod wrote:

Saint John wrote:The tension between Perry's voice and Neal's guitar is sheer artistic perfection. I fucking LOVE that song.

Same with Little Girl.

Excellent call. That's one thing that will never be replicated, and that's the way Neal was able to complement Perry's voice by emoting tension via his guitar. Hey loons, Perry isn't the fucking only one that can emote.

NealIsGod wrote:

Saint John wrote:The tension between Perry's voice and Neal's guitar is sheer artistic perfection. I fucking LOVE that song.

Same with Little Girl.

Agreed !

Blueskies wrote:Seriously though, the chorus is a biblical reference, I think......"Don't you know that I'm alive for you.....I'm your seventh son...and when lightning strikes the family...have faith in me"......means have faith in God.

it could mean he comes from a big family,, lightning is liquor..

Little Girl and Toto's song "in a word" to me are just similar in that they are underrated and most people don't know about them.. I can see them being played back to back..2 simple but articulate songs..

larryfromnextdoor wrote:

Blueskies wrote:Seriously though, the chorus is a biblical reference, I think......"Don't you know that I'm alive for you.....I'm your seventh son...and when lightning strikes the family...have faith in me"......means have faith in God.

it could mean he comes from a big family,, lightning is liquor..

I did a typo anyway...instead of "in me"...should have wrote..."have faith..believe" instead ...reference is even more clear with it correctly written

youkeepmewaiting wrote:I love Journeys "Mother Father". Its one of my favourites. The Verse melodies, the guitar work, the intro, the outro, Cains key playing, Stevies drums, everything about it makes it a dark, powerful and moving song..except..the chorus.

I dont know why but imo i find the chorus just doesnt fit with the rest of the song; "Dont you know that i would..". Theres just soemthing about it where the first time i heard it i was dissapointing that this powerful song was cheesed up with this chorus.

Just something i've always thought..

"...and when lightening strikes the family, have faith...believe"

Seems to fit for me. Powerful lyrics, btw. I find the chorus to be a "centering" after the extremely emotional vocals in the verses. The harmonies sort of bring it all full circle.

Thanks for bringing this up...I write a blog and can use this line in a post...

Saint John wrote:

NealIsGod wrote:

Saint John wrote:The tension between Perry's voice and Neal's guitar is sheer artistic perfection. I fucking LOVE that song.

Same with Little Girl.

Excellent call. That's one thing that will never be replicated, and that's the way Neal was able to complement Perry's voice by emoting tension via his guitar. Hey loons, Perry isn't the fucking only one that can emote.

Agreed - I have always said Neal's guitar is like a second lead singer - and I can't think of anyone else I can say that about.

Saint John wrote:Hey loons!

...I can hear the guitar!",yelled the Loon Fleet Admiral,proudly sailing his ship on the Perryific Ocean.





On topic: It's funny to think that I used to skip Mother Father because in my ears it was a too dark song to end "Escape"'s energy fest.
However, I did a 180 after I heard it live on the Houston DVD.It instantly became one of my favorite Journey songs...
I understood that it wasn't a dark song - it was majestic.
The chorus does nothing but enhance the power of the verses by contrast.

mistiejourney wrote:Agreed - I have always said Neal's guitar is like a second lead singer - and I can't think of anyone else I can say that about.

Listening to the pre-Perry albums evidences how vocal Neal's guitar was...it almost had to be with fewer vocal songs back then. Since that combo of Perry's voice and Neal's guitar is so important to Journey's existence I think it can be said that the Journey that made the hits would not have been the same without those first 3 albums...

jrnyman28 wrote:

mistiejourney wrote:Agreed - I have always said Neal's guitar is like a second lead singer - and I can't think of anyone else I can say that about.

Listening to the pre-Perry albums evidences how vocal Neal's guitar was...it almost had to be with fewer vocal songs back then. Since that combo of Perry's voice and Neal's guitar is so important to Journey's existence I think it can be said that the Journey that made the hits would not have been the same without those first 3 albums...

Even the albums pre-Perry sound like "Journey" to me. There is a "Journey" foundation sound, no question.

I'm not sure how anyone could find fault with "Mother/Father"! It's a BRILLIANT song! As someone else in this thread alluded to, I believe the chorus is in fact a biblical reference. Perhaps one of our Bible thumper friends can weigh in on this


At the end of the day, I'm not sure the meaning of the song is terribly important. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a brilliant song, and when Freddie Mercury was asked the meaning behind it, his response was "I have no idea"!


John from Boston

mistiejourney wrote:

jrnyman28 wrote:

mistiejourney wrote:Agreed - I have always said Neal's guitar is like a second lead singer - and I can't think of anyone else I can say that about.

Listening to the pre-Perry albums evidences how vocal Neal's guitar was...it almost had to be with fewer vocal songs back then. Since that combo of Perry's voice and Neal's guitar is so important to Journey's existence I think it can be said that the Journey that made the hits would not have been the same without those first 3 albums...

Even the albums pre-Perry sound like "Journey" to me. There is a "Journey" foundation sound, no question.

Absolutely! You can still hear the influence of the 1st 3 albums in Infinity. And you can hear the evolution already begun on Look Into The Future toward a more vocal structured (less prog more pop) sound. The voice was a huge addition when Perry joined, but the band was already making strides toward that song structure. A friend of mine has said, and I agree, that there was a bigger change in sound from Departure to Escape than there was from LITF to Infinity.

The difference is very noticeable on the last track of Captured.
The Party's Over has a decided ESC4P3 feel rather than Departure feel.

Enigma869 wrote:I'm not sure how anyone could find fault with "Mother/Father"! It's a BRILLIANT song! As someone else in this thread alluded to, I believe the chorus is in fact a biblical reference. Perhaps one of our Bible thumper friends can weigh in on this


At the end of the day, I'm not sure the meaning of the song is terribly important. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a brilliant song, and when Freddie Mercury was asked the meaning behind it, his response was "I have no idea"!


John from Boston

Biblical? It is indeed about alcohol destroying the Family. How the fuck do you thumbdicks pull biblical words out of this?

Rockindeano wrote:

Enigma869 wrote:I'm not sure how anyone could find fault with "Mother/Father"! It's a BRILLIANT song! As someone else in this thread alluded to, I believe the chorus is in fact a biblical reference. Perhaps one of our Bible thumper friends can weigh in on this


At the end of the day, I'm not sure the meaning of the song is terribly important. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a brilliant song, and when Freddie Mercury was asked the meaning behind it, his response was "I have no idea"!


John from Boston

Biblical? It is indeed about alcohol destroying the Family. How the fuck do you thumbdicks pull biblical words out of this?

I don't know? "Seventh son"?

Rockindeano wrote:

Enigma869 wrote:I'm not sure how anyone could find fault with "Mother/Father"! It's a BRILLIANT song! As someone else in this thread alluded to, I believe the chorus is in fact a biblical reference. Perhaps one of our Bible thumper friends can weigh in on this


At the end of the day, I'm not sure the meaning of the song is terribly important. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a brilliant song, and when Freddie Mercury was asked the meaning behind it, his response was "I have no idea"!


John from Boston

Biblical? It is indeed about alcohol destroying the Family. How the fuck do you thumbdicks pull biblical words out of this?

Sorry Dean...

I'm not one of the "Bible Thumpers" I was referring to, but the biblical reference at least sounded plausible to me, so I ran with it Having said that, what the hell does "seventh son" refer to???


John from Boston

I love hearing Deen sing this

Blueskies wrote:Seriously though, the chorus is a biblical reference, I think......"Don't you know that I'm alive for you.....I'm your seventh son...and when lightning strikes the family...have faith in me"......means have faith in God.

Face it most Journey songs are party songs with pretty shallow lyrics- but Mother Father stands out - arguably is Journey's best song in terms of the quality of lyrics- really deep

the music on it aint to bad either

One of my top 5 favorite Journey songs.

With terms like "Seventh Son" and "Have faith....believe", it sounds like they were referencing the some biblical themes. Definately spiritual.

RedWingFan wrote:

Rockindeano wrote:

Enigma869 wrote:I'm not sure how anyone could find fault with "Mother/Father"! It's a BRILLIANT song! As someone else in this thread alluded to, I believe the chorus is in fact a biblical reference. Perhaps one of our Bible thumper friends can weigh in on this


At the end of the day, I'm not sure the meaning of the song is terribly important. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a brilliant song, and when Freddie Mercury was asked the meaning behind it, his response was "I have no idea"!


John from Boston

Biblical? It is indeed about alcohol destroying the Family. How the fuck do you thumbdicks pull biblical words out of this?

I don't know? "Seventh son"?

Jacobs seventh son was named Gad, Hebrew legend has it , he was a heavy drinker, well known for driving his camel whilst well over the limit

xflajrnylvr wrote:I love hearing Deen sing this

He does a fair job, but have you ever heard Perry sing it? Not even remotely close.

youkeepmewaiting wrote:I love Journeys "Mother Father". Its one of my favourites. The Verse melodies, the guitar work, the intro, the outro, Cains key playing, Stevies drums, everything about it makes it a dark, powerful and moving song..except..the chorus.

I dont know why but imo i find the chorus just doesnt fit with the rest of the song; "Dont you know that i would..". Theres just soemthing about it where the first time i heard it i was dissapointing that this powerful song was cheesed up with this chorus.

Just something i've always thought..

Since the rest of the song is so dark, this chorus really opens it up, also rhythmic-wise (just listen to how Perry phrases the verses and the choruses). If they would have kept the dynamics the same in the chorus
the listener wouldn't get any rest at all and then you would have been fed up with it after 2 minutes.

One of the best Journey songs, I think.

Cheers,