Kinks: "Some Mother's Son"

"Some Mother's Son" (Ray Davies) [3:21]

Released October 1969 on Arthur.

Ray Davies (voice & guitar), Dave Davies (guitar), John Dalton (bass), and Mick Avory (drums).

Produced by Ray Davies. Engineer, Andrew Hendriksen. Recorded in Pye No. 2, London.

Lew Warburton horn and string arrangements.

The Kinks. 1969. Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire. London: Castle Communications. [CLACD 162]

This song took on significance when some members of the American anti-Vietnam movement adopted it as a protest song.

Section	Meas.	Description	Text
Introduction	8	Piano and harpsichord; add guitar
Verse	24	Solo voice; add strings w/ high-hat and bass drum; add backing vocals; add guitar fill.	a
Verse	24 + 2	As above	b
Verse	24 + 2	As above	c
Bridge	16	Davies contrasts the rising verse melody with this descent.	d
Verse	24+	As in verses above, fade on final chord.	e

Text
Some mother's son lies in a field, some one has killed some mother's son today. Head blown up by some soldier's gun, while all the mothers stand and wait. Some mother's son ain't comin' home today, some mother son ain't got no break.	a
Two soldiers fighting in a trench, one soldier glances up to see the sun. And dreams of games he played when he was young. And then his friend calls out his name. He stops his dreams and as he turns his head, a second later he is dead.	b
Some mother's son lies in a field. Back home they put his picture in a frame. But all dead soldiers look the same. While all the parents sat and wait, to meet their children coming home from school, some mother's son is lying there.	c
Somewhere, someone is crying. Someone is trying to be brave. But still the world keeps turning, while the children have gone away.	d
Some mother's son lies in a field, but in his mother's eyes he looks the same, as on the day he went away. They put his picture on the wall, There, but a thousand picture frames, a mother's memory remains.	e