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‘Son when you grow up, will you be the saviour of the broken / The beaten and the damned?’/ ‘Will you defeat them (your demons), and all the non-believers, the plans that they have made?’
– ‘Welcome to the Black Parade,’ My Chemical Romance
Goodness. What a lot pressure to put on a young boy. Saviour. Now that’s a big ask! I’m glad my father never spoke to me this way… think of the pressure. But look at it from dad’s point-of-view: he was ‘the chair, for all the broken’. No wonder he wished for a son who would grow up to relieve that strain.
Yet this is number one, so plenty out there must identify with the sentiment and that makes me wonder what goes on behind closed doors. My parents never did sit me down for a discussion on the birds and the bees, something I’m sure would have been rather embarrassing all round. Rather sensibly they left it to school classroom and playground. However, popular music is full of parental sages.
It’s doubtful that the Supremes ever had to resort to Cosmo. But although Michael Jackson’s mother was full of relationship advice, it didn’t stop him getting into a dispute with Billy Jean. Then there’s the poor soul who’s rather scary mother tried to put him off girls with dire warnings of Blues in the Night. But saviour… that’s a big ask.
