Here we have a song from my tween years, by Firefall called Cinderella. This is soft rock mixed with pop country. Not really my thing, but I always enjoyed Firefall. Their lyrics stood out for me, especially with this song.
We're told of a young girl who falls for the narrator, a man who disdains her so-called love, yet is still willing to have sex. She gets pregnant and he gets angry, mainly over finances, and sends her away. There is plenty of understated irony here. The notion that she doesn't know what love is, yet this shallow guy does? When he finds she's pregnant, he seems worried about how he'll get the Camaro running and repainted with a kid around.
After a musical bridge, with a lot of "no no no" repetition where the singer/narrator seems to be trying to convince himself that he was in the right, we come to the final verse. Here we discover an older man contemplating possible regret, maybe even remorse or guilt over having abandoned a young woman and his son. Somehow he finds a way to rationalize his wrong by blaming her for not leaving sooner.
The oddly soothing synthesizers, harmonica, and guitars belie the lyrical content of this song. But it works without being a cringing country message song or an intentionally misogynistic pop tune.
It is one of my favorite songs of the '70s and it takes me back to a time that I thought would always be filled with regret for me. Things change. Things are what they are. What is important is how we respond to them. We have to forgive ourselves especially if we want to be forgiven.
Cinderella could have left earlier but she didn't. The man could have kept them all together but he didn't. The boy might or might not have had a happy childhood. None of those decisions can be reversed.
The question is: what are we going to do now? The present decisions are the important ones.
12 comments:
I don't know the song, but very well said as to the meaning. Similar philosophies.
And thanks for stopping by my blog, it was an encouraging welcome.
Great song. Born in 1962, I remember it well. Wish that at end he'd have said he changed his mind and kept them all together.
Wow, I just heard this song for the first time in 30 or 35+ years, I guess. I don't think I ever really listened to the words back then, but now listening, they're heartbreaking. But I think that in the last verse he is saying that she DID stay with him and maybe they weren't happy together and she eventually left with their son. Then at the end, because of the money problems and maybe also the boy didn't have a lot of contact with him, he's wondering if he gave his son all the things that a father should give his son. I think he's saying that she DID stay with him but that she SHOULD have left because he wasn't so good for her and their son.
I wanted to play this song but couldn't stand the implications of the lyrics.
I edited them near the end to take a more responsible tone.
Last December I met a girl
She took a likin' to me
Said she loved me
But she didn't know the meaning of the word
She imagined love to be grand
Me holdin' her hand and
Whisperin' sweet things and
Cooin' softly like a song bird
Then one mornin' she came to me
With a tear in her eye and a
Sigh on her breath Lord she said
"Hon' I'm heavy with child"
I said "god damn girl can't you see
That I'm breakin' my back
Just tryin' to keep my head above water
And it's turnin' me wild"
Cinderella can't you see
This ain't how suppose to be
Remember this mornin' remember this day
When I claimed this child and stayed
No no no no no no no no, No no no no no no no no
No no no no no no no no, No no no no no no no no
Whoa oh oh whoa oh oh oh oh, Whoa oh oh whoa oh oh,
Rockin' chair on the front porch
I'm thinkin' about all the things that I did
As a young man
Now that I'm old
I remember her and the boy
and he had all the toys and the joys
That a young man should have
Before he got too old
Cinderella couldn't you see
I didn't want your company
I coulda left that mornin' left that day
But I took your love and our child and stayed
See this is where the lyrics seem to being saying something.
In the second verse the line is "Should have left that morning left that day
Took your love and your child away"
Since I paid no attention in english and was stoned anyway back then, I can't recall the term, but the sentence is speaking in a reflective manner of regret, as in wish she would have have left that day, as in she stayed and and the end of his days he regrets it, perhaps for he feels he missed with said burden.
Or maybe Firefall was stoned out of their gourd as well and wandered off context because it sounded cooler.
In fact, if go take a puff or two, I'll most likely forget I ever posted this.
That last verse makes me think that they stayed together for some time, but that it probably was not good, and then she eventually left. The man realizes, looking back, that he was completely unprepared to be a father, tried and ultimately did not keep the family together. He was probably resentful of losing the freedom of youth. Clearly he knew the boy, but does not have contact any more.
I was 18 when the song came out. I never went through any of that, but had a number of friends who did. I understood the young man's dilemma and feelings, but could never understand how a person could be so cold. Some of the guys I knew manned-up and raised happy families, and some just cut and ran.
This song is really a cautionary tale.
I remember many songs by Firefall. I liked them mainly for the melodies, but not so much the lyrics. This song in particular, and also the song So Long, always struck me as being very misogynistic.
Blaming the woman for a pregnancy, abrogatiing responsibility for it, and somehow still mad about it years later. Hateful, misogynist lyrics wrapped up in a catchy tune.
It was written by a 16 yr old boy, the lead singer, prior to his days with Firefall.
My wife never understood this song either, and always thought it was about male chauvinism or misogyny or blaming the girl for getting pregnant or about the regret for kicking somebody out. Then I explained that to me it was always about a young guy scared to death about how is he ever going to support a wife and child. Next is his lame attempt to shoo her away. She sees through his fear and will have nothing to do with leaving by repeating no no no no as many times as it takes. His reaction to that is .. ohhh no, ohh no, almost like what have i gotten myself into now. Fast forward to when the guy is old and he looks back on his average life and realizes she had deserved so much more than he was ever able to give her and the boy. He looks over at her also sitting in a rocking chair next to him in puzzlement as to why did she ever stick around with such a loser like him. He then reminders her that she should have left him when she had the chance. In the end it turns out that she was the one that new the meaning of the word "love" from the second line of the song all along, and not him.
I think you got it all wrong re-read the comment I addrd
It's very easy to be morally indignant and superior when reviewing the real life experiences and actions of others, dead or alive. However, the right to praise or criticize the moral value of a creative work which was quite likely a fabrication intended to generate profits ends at the check-out counter; either one liked it enough to pay for it or they didn't.
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