Songs for Mom

Mother’s Day can bring up a wide mixture of feelings and emotions. Love, happiness, sadness, loss, anger, guilt, safety, comfort; the relationship we have with our mothers is always rich in depth, and therapists and artists love exploring it.

Below we find a few examples of how different songwriters process some these emotions through song.

1.       Julia (John Lennon)

John Lennon lost his mother Julia when he was only 17 years old, after she was hit by a drunk driving off duty policeman. This only further cemented John’s tendency to defy authority. John had a somewhat complicated relationship with his mother since she  was forced to handle care of him to her elder sister when he was little. However, in the time before her death they were developing a strong bond. In fact, Julia deeply influenced John’s love for music. They shared admiration for Elvis Priestly and Julia got John his first guitar. She actually taught him how to play banjo chords on it, which were technically wrong (it was not until John met Paul McCartney that he learned how to play the right chords). John was always looking for a mother figure and it seems she found one in Yoko. He actually stated that this song is a mix of feelings and images about both Yoko and Julia. John sings with such a personal expressive voice that paints a very moving and intimate picture. The opening line is particularly interesting, as he sets the stage to try to connect with his mother  through memories, feelings and song: Half of what I say is meaningless but I say it just to reach you Julia.

*The song is officially a Beatles track originally released on the White Album. John is the sole writer and performer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIf4_KgBcfM

2.       Mother (John Lennon)

Another song from the ever so fascinating John Lennon. Like many of his post-Beatles work, Mother is minimalistic and raw. When John recorded this Plastic Ono Band album, he was undergoing Primal Therapy, a psychotherapy approach that encourages clients to regress and process trauma related to birth and childhood pain. With a few simple words John states such a complex heartbreaking statement: Mother you had me/But I never had you… Father you left me/but I never left you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmhRm_92L_8

3.       Mother (Roger Waters)

On this track from The Wall, Roger Waters turns to mom for comfort while facing his deepest anxieties and fears. Mother do you think they’ll drop the bomb sounds rather cynical, yet representative of the times.  Fellings of social anxiety, confusion and apocalypse resound with images of the cold war.

4.       Mother and Child Reunion (Paul Simon)

This beautiful Reggae song opens my favorite Paul Simon album Paul Simon.  It is unclear what exactly Paul is talking about On this sad and mournfull day, yet the fact that The mother and child reunion is only a moment away, makes it sound utterly hopeful.

5.       Mamma’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys. (Ed and Patsy Bruce)

A classic country song that warns moms about the life that awaits their babies have they wind up living the cowboy dream. Below is the Willie Nelson version.

6.       Summertime (George Gerswhin)

One of the most widely covered songs in the world opens the great american opera Porgy and Bess. The song is a lullaby that appears numerous times throughout the story, which depicts the hard living conditions of African Americans living in the south during the first quarter of the 20th Century. A classic reminder of the importance of mom’s love and comfort in good times and bad.