As I was sitting thinking about this coming Sunday’s message for Father’s Day, Horace Silver’s “A Song for My Father” kept running through my head. While the song’s iconic bass intro and quick 16th note turns are well know, the song’s lyrics are not. Even Silver rarely sang them when performing the piece. You can hear the instrumental on YouTube in this video made for Danish television in 1968.
Anecdotally, Silver was once asked if he really wrote the piece for his father, or to God. His answer was something like “yes.” I think it works either way.
If you are in Chicago, I hope you’ll join me Sunday as I share the story of my father’s life, and of the journey many of us make reconciling idealized images of fatherhood with the real men who did the best they could to raise us.
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“Song for My Father,” by Horace Silver
This little song for my father
Does things that no other can do
As I sing it to you
It has a rhythm and rhyme
That will fasten his memory in time
As his beauty shines through
All through my heart and soul
My heart will always hold
A special place for him, it’s true
We bow our heads and we pray
Every day’s Father’s Day
Let’s review all that he means to you
Our mother’s love is real nice
But old Dad sacrificed for us, too
We’re very proud to be in his biography
We sing this song for him
And for you!