Hey guys it's Rylei Franks and if you've ever seen me perform live you know that sometimes I try to tell the story behind lyrics. So, I'm going to try my first podcast to do the same for this new song that I have called The Father Who Raised. This time last year I found out I was going to be a dad. So, over nine months, I started working on the song called The Father Who Raised Me. I began thinking about how my dad raised my brother and me and as I started writing I realized that each line had a memory. so with this blog post, I'm going to dive behind the lyrics and tell you about how the stories behind each line, are tied with some photograph memories. First, I think I should lay down all the lyrics and then break them down for you piece by
I've got a father who's tougher than yours I bet.
Doesn't really say much and knows when it should be said.
The best conversations are those in the morning sun.
I've got a father who's done more than most have done.
He used to rock me in his arms. went to all my baseball games. kept me from home and told me that I’d had fame. He's the best kind of dad that a boy to man could ever have and I hope he gets to see the father he raised me to be.
When I got my first car we took it to his garage. Put a straight eight in it that outran all of the cops.
When my heart broke. He bought me a beer and prayed. I've got a father who's been there in every way.
He used to rock me in his arms. went to all my baseball games. kept me from home and told me that I’d had fame. He's the best kind of dad that a boy to man could ever have and I hope he gets to see the father he raised me to be.
33 years later I've got a child of my own. And I know I'll raise him like the father I've always known.
He used to rock me in his arms. went to all my baseball games. kept me from home and told me that I’d had fame. He's the best kind of dad that a boy to man could ever have and I hope he gets to see the father he raised me to be.
OK, so the first line I've got a father who's tougher than yours I bet that goes back to an argument I had with my best friend Blake when we were talking about our dads and how tough they were argument actually got so heated that we ended up not talking for a week but to prove my . One time I needed to move my truck across the field to work on it and the engine had stalled out so the only way to move my truck was to push it my dad asked me to pull and he would push from the back while it was a neutral I realized after halfway across the yard I wasn't actually pulling anything instead my dad was doing all the work another time this line comes to mind I was trying to move a washer and dryer by myself and I asked my brother for help and his response was you can do it by yourself brother and you know how I know because I saw a man lift a washing machine up and put it on the back of his truck all by himself he'll leave and I said well dad doesn't count the normal human bro.
The second line he doesn't really say much but knows when it should be said comes from one of my favorite stories based on my song Irish Lullabies. When we were sitting in his truck my dad told me, “You know what son you're never gonna find your missus in a bar”. I took this to heart because this man can drive all the way to Seattle and back saying maybe 5 words.
The next line is the best conversations are those in the morning sun. Growing up he and his dad were hay farmers. My grandpa made a deal with him where he would sell the hay and then reimburse my grandpa after he got back. So, during the summer between the ages of 11 to 19 for me, My dad, brother, and I would load up hay in the morning and then drive to Seattle. Sell it and then come back that night. I'm not quite sure what it is about the morning sun and coffee but my dad was the most talkative during those hours and so was I.
Then the line I've got a father who's done more than most have done. It's more of an expression, though, I do feel like my dad has been there for me in a lot of ways looking back at everything in hindsight now. Now that I'm a dad I totally get it
I'm going to save the chords for the last bit and go on to the line that says when I got my first car, we took it to his garage put straight in it that out ran off the cops. Now this story is a little bit more about my brother than me. My mom bought my brother a Mustang, a 66 Ford Mustang actually. That summer he and Dad started working on it because it had a bunch of rust, and the engine was going bad. They found a V8 out of my grandpa's junkyard. So Colton, Dad, and I spent part of that summer fixing up the car and putting the V8 in it. Later my brother’s senior year when we were all wild and young hot rodding around in Soap Lake in his Mustang. The cops were called on us because we were doing brodies or burnouts in somebody's driveway. Now we tried to outrun the cops. But we live in South Lake which has a population of 1000 people. So we didn't get as far as we wanted to because everyone knows where we live.
In my first year of college, my high school girlfriend and I broke up. I wasn't quite sure how to handle it and this is the first heartbreak my dad was dealing with, with his kid. He hugged me and he asked if I wanted a beer. I kind of laughed because I hadn't drunk alcohol at that moment yet.
Now for the chorus. He used to rock me in his arms went to all my baseball games kept me from harm and told me that I'd have fame. Don't remember being rocked in his arms. One of my favorite stories that my mom used to tell me, is that when I was super fussy while my mom was in the shower. He didn't know how to soothe me, so he put me on his nipple until my mom was done with her shower. Thinking about it, I don't know if I would even do that for my kid. When I was growing up my brother and I used to play baseball. He went to every game! We did All Stars, and we did high school. I'm not quite sure where he had the time, but he came to every single one of our games. In the last line, he told me that I'd have fame. When I was in college my dad offered me $10,000 to quit school and do a year of music. Which at the time I turned down. Looking back on it, I probably should have taken him up on it. He also still to this day jokes about how when I get famous, he's going to be my tour bus driver.
So yeah those are the stories behind the lyrics of the father who raised me. I hope this song reaches you guys and you can relate to it a little bit. If you like it give it a share on your social media, like it on your favorite streaming platform, and yeah look for new songs coming.
Thank you,
Rylei Franks