Shearer’s Spotlight: When Father’s Day Turns Sour

 

Each Friday here on the VH1 Blog, our VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown host Jim Shearer (@jimshearer on Twitter) will be sharing his Shearer’s Spotlight with us. This feature will include three things —sometimes related, sometimes not!— that Jim is obsessing over this week. Be sure to tune into the Top 20 countdown when it airs on VH1 at 9 a.m. ET/PT tomorrow morning; this week’s special guests is none other than American Idol Season 7 winner David Cook!

Father’s Day weekend is almost upon us, and while popular music has given us goodies like “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” and “Papa Has a Brand New Bag”—surely inspiring musical monikers like Big Daddy Kane, Daddy Yankee and even Kris Kross’ Mack Daddy & Daddy Mack—Father’s Day can sometimes be a sore subject with musicians.

If you’re looking to put a smile on your dad’s face this weekend, please DO NOT include these tracks on your Father’s Day mix:

“Cat’s In The Cradle” by Harry Chapin

The mother—or, I guess the father—of deadbeat dad anthems. It’s a classic tale of what goes around comes around, teaching us all that if you don’t play catch with your young son, he won’t want to hang out with you when he gets older.

Ironically, most of your fathers probably enjoy this classic tune, so if you’re thinking of incorporating it into a playlist for him, just make sure you don’t accidentally download the cover version from Ugly Kid Joe.


“Father Of Mine” by Everclear

The beginning of the song starts happy enough, with lyrics about blue skies, movies, and beaches, but then we find out that the only thing Art Alexakis’ father ever gave him was a name…and a whole lot of insecurity issues.

“Serve The Servants” by Nirvana

It’s well known that Kurt Cobainwas not a fan of his old man; heck, he practically made it cool to come from a broken home. On the first song of Nirvana’s highly anticipated In Utereo album, Cobain disses his pops with the following lyric: “I tried hard to have a father, but instead I had a dad.”

Oddly enough, if you put this lyric behind a bubble-gum pop music beat, it almost sounds like a compliment.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]