Tag: Father of Mine

Everclear – Father Of Mine

In the 90s I was really into this alt rock band.

Art Alexakis is the lead singer and songwriter of Everclear. This song is a scathing attack on his dad who left his family.

This song is about Art’s childhood when his parents split and it started a difficult life for Alexakis. After spending the first six years of his life living a in a comfortable suburb in Los Angeles area community of Redondo Beach, his parents divorced, leaving Alexakis to be raised by his mother. Left with far less income, his mother moved the family into projects near Culver City.

Alexakis,  no longer had a father in his life, he struggled through childhood. At age 12, his brother, George, died of a heroin overdose. Then Alexakis’ 15-year-old girlfriend committed suicide. He also got into drugs, starting with marijuana and moving on to heroin, cocaine and alcohol before he got clean in 1989.

Everclear formed in 1991 in Portland Oregon. They released their first album World of Noise in 1993. Father of Mine was on the 1997 album So Much for the Afterglow. 

The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard Alternative Charts, and #1 in the Canadian Alternative Charts in 1998.

Art Alexakis: “My feelings for my father haven’t necessarily changed, but my feelings about myself after writing that song have been much better. It was kind of a catharsis to put those feelings into words, it’s a way for me to get things out of my system. The song ‘Wonderful’ is very much like that too.”

Alexakis testified before congress on March 16, 2000 to endorse a child support bill.

From Songfacts

Art doesn’t speak with his father and can’t be sure if he’s heard this or not, but he knows that his stepsisters, who were raised by his dad, weren’t happy about this song. 

As it states in the song, Alexakis really did get Christmas cards from his father containing $5.

This was remixed and included on Hope In Hockeytown, an album celebrating the Detroit Red Wings back-to-back Stanley Cup Victories.

Art talks about the song. 

Father of Mine

Father of mine
Tell me where have you been
You know I just closed my eyes
My whole world disappeared
Father of mine
Take me back to the day
When I was still your golden boy
Back before you went away

I remember the blue skies
Walking the block
I loved it when you held me high
I loved to hear you talk
You would take me to the movie
You would take me to the beach
You would take me to a place inside
That is so hard to reach

Father of mine
Tell me where did you go
You had the world inside your hand
But you did not seem to know
Father of mine
Tell me what do you see
When you look back at your wasted life
And you don’t see me

I was ten years old
Doing all that I could
It wasn’t easy for me
To be a scared white boy
In a black neighborhood
Sometimes you would send me a birthday card
With a five dollar bill
I never understood you then
And I guess I never will

Daddy gave me a name
My dad he gave me a name
Then he walked away
Daddy gave me a name
Then he walked away
My dad gave me a name

Father of mine
Tell me where have you been
I just closed my eyes
And the world disappeared
Father of mine
Tell me how do you sleep
With the children you abandoned
And the wife I saw you beat

I will never be safe
I will never be sane
I will always be weird inside
I will always be lame
Now I’m a grown man
With a child of my own
And I swear I’m not going to let her know
All the pain I have known

Then he walked away
Daddy gave me a name
Then he walked away
My dad gave me a name
Then he walked away
Daddy gave me a name
Then he walked away
My dad gave me a name
Then he walked away

Everclear

In the late-1990s I started to listen to this band. They were formed in the early 90s by lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter Art Alexakis. Art’s dad left his mom and family and they had to survive in rough neighborhoods in LA. Some of the songs he wrote like “Father of Mine” relates that.

I must admit I know more of their radio songs but I have listened to their older albums and they are mostly solid. The album that caught my attention was “So Much For The Afterglow” with songs “I Will Buy You A New Life,””Everything to Everyone,” and “Father of Mine.” When I heard “I Will Buy You a New Life” on the radio I was hooked and got the album.

My favorite song by them is “Wonderful” that was released in 2000 on the album “Songs from an American Movie Vol. One: Learning How to Smile.” It’s about a divorce through a child’s eyes. I can relate to that so the song hit home in a lot of ways.

They also perform a good cover of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl.”

One song off the album is a tribute to the 1970s called “AM Radio.” That one of course I love. Art grew up in the 70s and has said he was influenced by The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Merle Haggard, Motown, Otis Redding, and Punk Rock in general. He knows how to write good hooks that will stay with you.

The AM radio video is hilarious.

Here is “Wonderful”

I want the things that I had before
Like a Star Wars poster on my bedroom door
I wish I could count to ten
Make everything be wonderful again

 

AM Radio

 

You can hear the music on the AM radio

The VCR and the DVD
There wasn’t none of that crap back in 1970
We didn’t know about a World Wide Web
It was a whole different game being played back when I was a kid

Wanna get down in a cool way
Picture yourself on a beautiful day
Big bell bottoms and groovy long hair
Just walkin’ in style with a portable CD player
No, you would listen to the music on the AM radio
Yeah, you could hear the music on a AM radio

Flashback, ’72
Another summer in the neighborhood
Hangin’ out with nothing to do
Sometimes we’d go drivin’ around
In my sister’s Pinto 
Cruisin’ with the windows rolled down
We’d listen to the radio station
We were too damn cool to buy the eight-track tapes
There wasn’t any good time to want to be inside
My mama wanna watch that TV all goddamn night

I’d be in bed with the radio on
I would listen to it all night long
Just to hear my favorite song
You’d have to wait but you could hear it on the AM radio
Yeah, you could hear the music on a AM radio
I can still hear Mama say ?°Boy turn that radio down!?±

?°Aw, Mom. Not that show again! I don’t wanna watch that show! 
Can’t we watch Good Times or Chico and the Man or something cool? 
Turn it off!”

Things changed back in ’75
We were all growing up on the in and the outside
We got in trouble with the policeman
We got busted gettin’ high in the back of my friend’s van

I remember 1977
I started going to concerts and I saw the Led Zeppelin
I got a guitar on Christmas day
I dreamed that Jimmy Page would come from Santa Monica 
and teach me to play
Teach me to play…

There isn’t any place that I need to go
There isn’t anything that I need to know
I did not learn from the radio

Yeah when things get stupid and I just don’t know
Where to find my happy
I listen to my music on the AM radio
You can hear the music on a AM radio
You can hear the music on a AM radio

I like pop, I like soul, I like rock, but I never liked disco
I like pop, I like soul, I like rock, but I never liked disco
We like pop, we like soul, we like rock, but we never liked disco…

No I never liked disco…