The Momma 'n' Daddy Collection 45

Now, some of you may be feeling it's been a bit too much family circle nostalgia around this series lately. Worry not. I'm offering you an antidote today. From her album Mercy Now (lent to me by my mate Chris Shannon), Mary Gauthier sets out a less good memory of the old home in 'I Drink':

He'd get home at 5.30, fix his drink
Sit down in his chair
Pick a fight with mama
Complain about us kids getting in his hair
At night he'd sit alone and smoke
I'd see his frown behind his lighter's flame
Now that same frown's in my mirror
I got my daddy's blood inside my veins

Fish swim
Birds fly
Daddies yell
Mamas cry
Old men
Sit and think
I drink

You can follow the rest of the story here, and it isn't a good one, really. The narrator's life hasn't turned out well. Some critics may want to suggest that this song only seems to mark a break from the more traditional problematic (as it used to be said) of Momma 'n' Daddy nostalgia; that it remains captive to that very problematic even in attempting to critique it (ugh). For is not Daddy still the ultimate reference point, the fons et origo, albeit of pain and failure rather than, as more usually, of security, good sense and love? As the song within the traditional problematic, does not the narrator remain trapped within the troubled family circle and to that extent remain still troubled herself and unfree? But then - it might be asked in response - isn't this often the way of the real world? To these deep questions I offer no easy answers. I merely invite you to reflect on them.

[The Momma 'n' Daddy Archive, containing all the details of the series, is here.]