Prompt: "A song that made you cry in public"
Selected by Sunny
"Cat's in the Cradle"
Harry Chapin
Verities & Balderdash, 1974
I had probably heard this song twelve dozen times before the lyrics really sank in. I also thought it was a Cat Stevens / Yusuf song (likely because cat and cat). But then on the 145th play, something about the message really hit home and clicked into all the little parts of my memory and personality and I found myself overwhelmed with feeling.
Art has that strange and powerful effect in that revisiting it as a newer person, you are provided a new experience. The Art is in the interface between person and material. Like, when I was younger, I really loved Super Mario Bros. 2, with its super weird plot and mechanics. And while it's still great, I can see why SMB3 is probably the best of NES. Similarly, when I was younger, the 1990 TMNT movie felt more engaging than the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie. With time and growth (and thinking about Vanilla Ice in TMNT2), I now feel the Mario movie (not the new mario movie, I'll never watch that one) is the superior entertainment. Something about its insane premise outmodes the insane premise of shinobi reptiles.
It's funny because this song is so cliché and well-worn by pop culture now (my knee-jerk memory is the penguin character in BoJack Horseman yelling to his son not to listen to the song) that having an earnest reaction to the core material feels corny. Alas.
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