Cat's Cradle Song Meaning

Cats in the Cradle Story and Meaning This song strikes a theme of time quickly passing and time lost.

Cat's cradle song meaning. This song was wrote by Harry Chapins wife but Harry performed the song. Literally the song is about a father not having enough time to spend with his son then the son growing up to be just like his father. The phrase cats in the cradle is a line from a popular song that people sometimes quote to reference the song itself or the theme of fatherhood or the theme of not having enough time to spend on a relationship.

He had adopted the idea from his wifespoems about her ex husbands and how they treated her children. In December 1974 Harry Chapins Cats In The Cradle was a Billboard 1 hit -- and its fair to say an unlikely one. Cat s in the cradle is a song about the relationship of a son and his father not about a woman with a cat.

Nowhere in the song does it mention a woman only a father and son. The chorus might be confusing as it seems to refer to stories the father never had time to read to his son. For further examples check the following link.

The use of cats in the cradle to describe something dangerous appears to come from an old wives tale that if allowed into its crib a cat would kill an infant by sucking out its breath. And when he has children of his own his son doesnt have time to be with his dad. The phrase the cats in the cradle appears to be a reference to the childrens game where shapes are created with string.

He asks for his fathers attention and his response to his son is not now later. That song put me in the mood for writing a lyric Inspired Sandy scratched out three verses about a child getting older the story of which Harry eventually used as the basis for Cats in the Cradle He came home and I showed him the poem and he sort of brushed it aside she said. The true origin of the name is debated though the first known reference is in The light of nature pursued by Abraham Tucker in 1768.

This earnest folk-rock meditation on fatherhood strikes a chord with young and old alike. Cats in the cradle was introduced into the world of music in 19. When the song Cats in the Cradle came on the radio in 1975 I could relate to it and felt that my life was a mirror image of the song.