Child Is Father of the Man
| "Child Is Father of the Man" | ||||||||
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| Song by The Beach Boys from the album The Smile Sessions | ||||||||
| Released | November 1, 2011 | |||||||
| Recorded | October 1966, United Western Recorders and July 1971, Brian Wilson's home studio, Los Angeles | |||||||
| Length | 2:14 | |||||||
| Label | Capitol | |||||||
| Writer(s) | Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks | |||||||
| Producer(s) | Brian Wilson | |||||||
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"Child Is Father of the Man" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. Originally recorded by the American rock band the Beach Boys, it was to be included on their projected album Smile. Due to the project's abandonment, the intended nature of the piece is mostly unknown. The result left is a nearly instrumental piece with the words "child" and "father of the man" sung over the chorus. Biographer Jon Stebbins describes the track: "a brooding and expansive aura, with a plaintive harmonica line not dissimilar to those heard on Ennio Morricone spaghetti western soundtracks."
In 2004, Wilson completed the track for his album Brian Wilson Presents Smile. This rerecorded version incorporated an additional set of lyrics penned by Parks. In 2011, the Beach Boys' version was released for the first time as part of The Smile Sessions box set.
"Child is father of the man" is an idiom originating from the poem "My Heart Leaps Up" by William Wordsworth. In a 1966 interview, Wilson mistakenly attributed it to Karl Menninger, and added that the saying had fascinated him. There exist many different interpretations of the phrase, the most popular of which is man being the product of habits and behavior developed in youth. According to collaborator Van Dyke Parks, he brought up the idiom to Wilson.
Brian had a fervent desire to re-invent himself as an individual, not as a boy, and that's what happened, I think. By the time I met him, he had already done "When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)"; he'd already raised the questions about being a man, and when I met him, that crisis was acute. I knew it was psychologically complex and over my head. The only way I could help with any of this, whatever it was he was going through, was refer him to that poem by Hawthorne [sic] from which the phrase "the child is father to the man" comes. He used it as part of his inquiry of Smile, as a lyric.
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