Songs that emotionally cut you

I've already posted, but I'll chip in another and it's an instrumental - Albatross, always outs me in a reflective mood.
 
Thinking about this has taken me back to the Saturday after 9/11 when I was listening to the Paul Gambaccini radio show in the car.
Bad as it was, these events don't usually get to me, but as it happened, my dad was terminally ill and I'd just had the dreaded call and set off up the A1. The show was momentous, but the standout track, for me, was James Taylor's 'Fire and Rain'.
 
I've already mentioned a few songs that always touch me and bring back sad memories from my early childhood but there is another
from my teen years that always brings a lump to my throat and waters my eyes, particularly since my father passed almost twenty years ago.

Father and Son, Cat Stevens.

At the age of nineteen, I came home to break the news that I was going to marry my girlfriend who was seventeen and in year twelve
at school at the time.
My parents were horrified and my fathers first thoughts were "is she pregnant?"
After I said that she wasn't he said " Jesus Christ son what the hell are you thinking, your bloody nineteen and had what, had half a dozen
girlfriends do you really want to stuff your life up? Get a bloody grip, you're a right worry you are."

It all came out right there and then.
Mess my life up? You've already made a great job of that yourself, messing my life up.
Immigrating to Perth, Sydney back to England, immigrating to America back to England once again only to pack up and come back to
Australia. Are you kidding me? Do you know how many times I've had to say goodbye to my grandparents and friends. Do you know
how many new schools that I've started mid term and always having to catch up and try to make friends once again just to leave them
all behind once more? You couldn't have stuffed my life up anymore than you already have and stormed out the door.

I didn't come home for a few days in order to get over my anger and frustration.

When I did come home my father wrapped his arms around me and with tears welling in his eyes he managed to get out some words.
He told me that he was so sorry and knew how difficult things must have been for me and my sister with all the disruption to our lives
but I just want you to know, that we did it all for you.
"I didn't want you following in my footsteps, I didn't want you working at the miserable and cold steel works, I wanted a better life for you,
I'm so sorry for putting you through what you have had to go through and I'll be so proud to see you walk down the aisle with your beautiful wife.

Needless to say, we both broke down entirely.

Oh to be able to share that moment with him again.

After he passed, I learned how to play Father and Son on the guitar but more often than not, I never get to the end.

Stay safe all
Love from OZ
UTB
 
redblood said:
I've already mentioned a few songs that always touch me and bring back sad memories from my early childhood but there is another
from my teen years that always brings a lump to my throat and waters my eyes, particularly since my father passed almost twenty years ago.

Father and Son, Cat Stevens.

At the age of nineteen, I came home to break the news that I was going to marry my girlfriend who was seventeen and in year twelve
at school at the time.
My parents were horrified and my fathers first thoughts were "is she pregnant?"
After I said that she wasn't he said " Jesus Christ son what the hell are you thinking, your bloody nineteen and had what, had half a dozen
girlfriends do you really want to stuff your life up? Get a bloody grip, you're a right worry you are."

It all came out right there and then.
Mess my life up? You've already made a great job of that yourself, messing my life up.
Immigrating to Perth, Sydney back to England, immigrating to America back to England once again only to pack up and come back to
Australia. Are you kidding me? Do you know how many times I've had to say goodbye to my grandparents and friends. Do you know
how many new schools that I've started mid term and always having to catch up and try to make friends once again just to leave them
all behind once more? You couldn't have stuffed my life up anymore than you already have and stormed out the door.

I didn't come home for a few days in order to get over my anger and frustration.

When I did come home my father wrapped his arms around me and with tears welling in his eyes he managed to get out some words.
He told me that he was so sorry and knew how difficult things must have been for me and my sister with all the disruption to our lives
but I just want you to know, that we did it all for you.
"I didn't want you following in my footsteps, I didn't want you working at the miserable and cold steel works, I wanted a better life for you,
I'm so sorry for putting you through what you have had to go through and I'll be so proud to see you walk down the aisle with your beautiful wife.

Needless to say, we both broke down entirely.

Oh to be able to share that moment with him again.

After he passed, I learned how to play Father and Son on the guitar but more often than not, I never get to the end.

Stay safe all
Love from OZ
UTB
Click to expand...

Tears streaming for me reading that fella

Tears for your poignant and wonderfully told story and also the reminder that I’ll never have the relationship Id like to have with my father who is still alive
 
Ex Footy Legs said:
Tears streaming for me reading that fella

Tears for your poignant and wonderfully told story and also the reminder that I’ll never have the relationship Id like to have with my father who is still alive
Click to expand...
Sorry about that mate.

Funny thing is, I was so used to saying goodbye to all and sundry that I was almost immune to the pain and sadness.

What hurt more than anything was the fact that he had taken me to so many games home and away to watch his beloved Boro
which quickly became the thing that I loved more than anything else on this planet just to take it all away from me.

He used to come to my school to tell them that my Nan was unwell and that he has come to pick me up.
As we were heading to the school gates I would ask what's going on ? He would say shhh son, We're going to Blackburn.
It must have been a strange sight for the headmaster to witness a kid jumping up and down in sheer delight at the
response of a kid whose just been given some disturbing news about their Nan.

My heart was aching whilst awaiting for newspaper cuttings to arrive from my grandparents to find our results, such was the
lack of interest in English football here in Oz at that time.

The thought of never seeing the Boro again hurt so much more than being on the back of a ship waving goodbye to the
flock of loved ones that we were leaving behind.

PS.
I'm sorry to read that you may have a broken relationship with your Dad.
It's never too late to at least try to mend the relationship until it is too late and one is actually now in the ground.
No matter what the outcome, you can rest, assured, that you at least tried.

To quote my father in law.

When you get old like me and look back through your life, you find that you never regret the things that you did
but you will always regret the things that you didn't do.

Stay safe to all.
Love from Oz.
UTB
 
Ex Footy Legs said:
Tears streaming for me reading that fella

Tears for your poignant and wonderfully told story and also the reminder that I’ll never have the relationship Id like to have with my father who is still alive
Click to expand...
I apologise if you feel that I'm imposing Ex Footy Legs and also to Jostler if it seems that I'm sidetracking the thread for a moment.

It's just that your words in response to mine have been on my mind all morning and feel the urge to say a little more.

The last time I saw my father alive, we were alone together and out of the blue, he asked me if there was anything that I might want to ask him.
Being a kid that had always been brought up to respect peoples thoughts and not to stick my nose into other peoples business as well as people
will tell you only what they want you to know.

I responded with No Dad, why do you ask that? He simply said Oh I don't know son, I just thought that there might be a few things you might
want to ask me.
Again I said No Dad, it's alright.

It was only four months later when I got the dreaded phone call from England to say that my Dad had died.
I'm an idiot. My father in law had years beforehand uttered his words to me that I posted above and I thought that I was a wiser man for having
heard them.
Such a shame and a tragedy for me that I didn't heed them.
Since his death, there have been numerous things that I would have asked him and still to this day, but, like my father in law, I find that
I'm now paying for something that I didn't do.

I wouldn't want anyone else to suffer the same fate as me and regret not asking him to open up and tell me all.

Your father is still alive and you still have the opportunity to reach out to him and ask him some questions that you might want resolved.
Don't be like me and leave it too late.

Best of wishes to you.
UTB
 
A big world wide wide hit in the 60's selling over 13 million copies.
Sadly Kyu Sakamoto was a passenger on Japan Airlines Flight 123 that crashed in 1985 killing 520 including Sakamoto.


 
redblood said:
Sorry about that mate.

Funny thing is, I was so used to saying goodbye to all and sundry that I was almost immune to the pain and sadness.

What hurt more than anything was the fact that he had taken me to so many games home and away to watch his beloved Boro
which quickly became the thing that I loved more than anything else on this planet just to take it all away from me.

He used to come to my school to tell them that my Nan was unwell and that he has come to pick me up.
As we were heading to the school gates I would ask what's going on ? He would say shhh son, We're going to Blackburn.
It must have been a strange sight for the headmaster to witness a kid jumping up and down in sheer delight at the
response of a kid whose just been given some disturbing news about their Nan.

My heart was aching whilst awaiting for newspaper cuttings to arrive from my grandparents to find our results, such was the
lack of interest in English football here in Oz at that time.

The thought of never seeing the Boro again hurt so much more than being on the back of a ship waving goodbye to the
flock of loved ones that we were leaving behind.

PS.
I'm sorry to read that you may have a broken relationship with your Dad.
It's never too late to at least try to mend the relationship until it is too late and one is actually now in the ground.
No matter what the outcome, you can rest, assured, that you at least tried.

To quote my father in law.

When you get old like me and look back through your life, you find that you never regret the things that you did
but you will always regret the things that you didn't do.

Stay safe to all.
Love from Oz.
UTB
Click to expand...
Thanks for those lovely words and additional stories. Welling up again over your love of the boro.
What a top Dad (in some ways!)

I too, was taken to the game at the age of 7 and somehow the love just grew and grew....my dad worked for ici on shifts so occasionally we’d miss a game when we was 2-10 and one memory was when I was 8 I think, we played Norwich at home and beat them 1-0 to go top of the league !!! I was utterly buzzing and couldn’t wait for dad to get home from work to tell him...amazing memories walking to(running 😃) to the paper shop for a sports special gazette. Walking home reading the match report!
Sadly, I learnt something about my dad that changed my life in my mid 20’s and thing’s never been the same again and I don’t think they can be hence hearing your story tapped into my pain (which on a day to day level doesn’t really impact me anymore at over 50) but the sadness is for not having a dad I can look at and truly say, you’re a fantastic person and although I have lots of friends I think you’re fabulous.
I don’t have that and never will. Your story is different from mine but I related to your anguish
 
Ex Footy Legs said:
Thanks for those lovely words and additional stories. Welling up again over your love of the boro.
What a top Dad (in some ways!)

I too, was taken to the game at the age of 7 and somehow the love just grew and grew....my dad worked for ici on shifts so occasionally we’d miss a game when we was 2-10 and one memory was when I was 8 I think, we played Norwich at home and beat them 1-0 to go top of the league !!! I was utterly buzzing and couldn’t wait for dad to get home from work to tell him...amazing memories walking to(running 😃) to the paper shop for a sports special gazette. Walking home reading the match report!
Sadly, I learnt something about my dad that changed my life in my mid 20’s and thing’s never been the same again and I don’t think they can be hence hearing your story tapped into my pain (which on a day to day level doesn’t really impact me anymore at over 50) but the sadness is for not having a dad I can look at and truly say, you’re a fantastic person and although I have lots of friends I think you’re fabulous.
I don’t have that and never will. Your story is different from mine but I related to your anguish
Click to expand...
Mate,
That's very sad news and you've got me welling up now.
I guess you could call us evens.:)

I still hope that whatever it was that there will be reasons for his actions and hopefully some closure for you.

Best wishes to you from Oz

Three points will cheer us both I'm sure.
UTB
 
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