Back when I was a child
Before life removed all the innocence
My father would lift me high
And dance with my mother and me and then
[ LYRICS DELETED BY MODERATOR ]
…song by Luther Vandross…
You aren’t supposed to post the full lyrics of a song here. But anyway what’s your point?
I have no point to make…
it is a song I liked… that is all…
If it is against the rules… well sorry… mods please lock this …
indian: it’s not against the rules to start a thread about a song you like, hoping for comments. It is against the rules to quote full lyrics. The best thing to do is quote a line or two and provide a link to some website that has the author’s permission to quote the full lyrics.
For explanation of the rules, see: FAQ - Rules for Posting on the Straight Dope Message Board and note especially Post #3 in that thread. And also see: Cafe Society Forum Rules and note Post #2.
Dex , noted … thanks…
Luther sung some wonderful songs, didn’t he? Dance with My Father isn’t one of my favorites, however. A little contrived and sappy for my tastes.
P.S. It should never go without note that Luther’s middle name was Ronzoni.
Actually I’m glad this wasn’t locked. indian, what are your personal feelings about this song?
It made me emotional, and appreciate my dad … I call him more often now…
You, the Queen of Cheese? 
The song in the OP, though quite sappy, is made all the more poignant because Luther died right around the time it came out. Never underestimate the power of cheese.
Another song, though uptempo, that has some powerful emotional resonance nonetheless is Power of Love.
What a voice, what a loss.
As I recall it, he held on for several months following his stroke.
Anyway, it’s a really pretty song to listen to, even if the words don’t really stand up to intense scrutiny. What’s that phenomenon called in the second verse, “time dilation”, “telescoping events”, “temporal discontinuity”?
If I was his mother, I’d absolutely hate that song. It’s about her dead husband sung by her dead son. Terrible.
My favorite Luther songs-- and both are two of my favorite songs ever-- Superstar/Till You Come Back to Me and Never Too Much.
You know what? I’m gonna play me some Luther right now.
From wiki:
“On April 16, 2003, Vandross suffered a stroke in his home in Manhattan. . . . He appeared briefly on videotape at the 2004 Grammys to accept his Song of the Year award [for Dance with my Father], where he said, “Whenever I say goodbye it’s never for long because I believe in the power of love”. Other than an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, he was never seen in public again. Vandross died on July 1, 2005 at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey at the age of 54.”
No argument with you, my post was just to say, for me (my telescoping events), that the song appeared on my radar sometime after the Oscars (although I mistakenly thought it was closer to his death), and when I hear it I think of his death.
I never had a relationship with my father. He walked when I was less than a month old. Due to his violent nature he was not given visitation, and back in those days (1973) no visitation=no child support. Mom changed my name to her maiden name when I was 4. My Uncle (Mom’s brother) gave me away at my wedding. Matter of fact, the first time I even had any contact with him was at his Memorial Service about a year after my wedding. Everyone at the service said he was a great guy, but no one knew that he had been married previously or that he had a child. His widow didn’t believe that I was his child until she looked at me. I’ll never know if he even cared or thought about me.
Needless to say, the song has a slightly more different meaning for me.