My Father's Gun by Elton John

When I was in elementary school life was simple. There were good guys and there were bad guys. It until late in middle school that shades of grey entered my mind as the true depth of human conflicts began to reveal itself to me.

My understanding of history reflected this naivety and with the American Civil War it was pretty cut and dry. The South used African Americans as slaves. Slavery was evil, so therefore the South, the grey coats were the bad guys. The North, who believed slavery was bad were freedom fighters and they were the good guys. As in every human conflict that I had studied, the good guys won, slavery was abolished and racial harmony ensued immediately after the war.

My firm grasp on the American Civil War soon started to fall apart when I was told the there were other reasons in additional to slavery that were issues, however this idea that the South were the bad guys persisted.

I’m from the Northwest born and was raised in Mercer Island which is a suburb just east of Seattle, Washington. Growing up, something I was very conscious of was not only a social stereotype of southern people (Jeff Foxworthy was just breaking into the pop culture when I was in middle school) but also the culture. It seemed that nobody listened to country music around and no one ate southern food.

When I went to Chicago for college I entered a city that owes much of its cultural roots to the south. I ate southern food for the first time and loved it. Began listening to country music and fell in love with the spirit and soul of the music. And it was in college when I finally watched Gone With The Wind one of my mom’s favorite films of all time and the grandeur and majesty of southern culture came to life.

During my time in college I was just discovering Elton John’s music beyond his greatest hits albums. So when I saw this extended trailer for I was floored.



I had no idea what the song was about when I bought Elton John’s 1970 album Tumbleweed Connection, I just knew I had to get a copy of this song after the chorus had been haunting me for a week.

To my surprise, as I began listening this song, I realized it was a song about a son who lost his dad in the Civil War fighting for the south, swearing revenge on the North. Rather than portraying the south as the enemy, the song takes the side of the south and offers a heartfelt and powerful expression of what this war meant to the south.

The first verse talks about laying his father to rest and burying him. The mournful melody is filled with grief. Elton injects a little bit more energy and motion in his voice in the second verse when the song vows to “wear the colors of the greys." He swears to keep his father’s gun, memory and spirit with him until he dies.

The chorus begins with a question “I’d Like to know where the riverboat sails tonight.” The next line is a response to someone who explains to him where it goes, “To New Orleans well that’s just fine alright.” He continues to tell us “‘cause there’s fighting there and the company needs men, so slip us a rope and sail on round the bend.” He’s not even sure where exactly he’s going or how to get there, but he knows that he has to do something.

The last verse doesn’t sound like the words of an evil slave owner but rather of a freedom fighter.

As soon as this is over we'll go home
To plant the seeds of justice in our bones
To watch the children growing and see the women sewing
There'll be laughter when the bells of freedom ring.

Justice, freedom, slavery?!? If you were raised being taught that the sky was red and then all the sudden someone comes and tells you that it’s actually blue, whose fault is it that you had it wrong? This son was raised believing that what is just is to have the right to own slaves and that freedom is not having the tyranny of the federal government telling you what to do. Freedom and justice are what we define them to be and if someone has a different sense of these things, that doesn’t necessarily make them evil Do I think slavery is wrong? Yes, of course, but do I also understand and on some level sympathize with our protagonist? Very much so.

For the last half of the song, Elton John sings the chorus six times. In some ways it is excessively repetitive but it also gives the opportunity for Elton to express to us the inner conflict within the son, unsure about his actions, in pain from missing his dad and committing to joining a fight that may lead to his own death.

It took two British guys Elton John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin with an epic and beautiful song to show me that there weren’t good guys or bad guys fighting in the American Civil War, there were simply Americans, fighting for what they believed in and honoring their families.

. . . so slip us a rope and sail on down the bend . . .