I'll Always Love My Mama

10 favorite "Mom" songs for Mother's Day

I got really lucky with my mom — with both my parents, really, but since this is Mother’s Day (in the words of the Intruders below) “we ain’t talkin’ ’bout Pop”. She’s always been incredibly loving and supportive of me, even if I wouldn’t have blamed her for wanting to drown my extremely difficult pre-elementary school self (pictured above) on several occasions. And I also have a really wonderful stepmother, which as the fairy tales tell us is never a guarantee, so today’s Jagged Time Lapse is dedicated to them both — as to all the other awesome moms, living or otherwise, whom I have had the good fortune to know or whom have made such a positive impact on those whom I hold dear.

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Moms, good and bad (and occasionally ugly) are well-represented in popular music, so I thought I’d put together a list of ten of my favorite mom-related jams for today. This is hardly a comprehensive selection, nor is it a “Best of” list — so don’t come at me for leaving “Stacy’s Mom” off of it — but merely 10 mom songs that I especially love, in no particular order of ranking. They also don’t necessarily deal with the mothers in the traditional sense; the songs may be more symbolic or oblique, but they’re mother-influenced nonetheless.

Merle Haggard — Mama Tried

Arguably Merle’s greatest song, “Mama Tried” is pretty much the ultimate archetypical tale of the righteous mom and the incorrigible offspring. “There’s only me to blame,” Merle shrugs, “‘cuz Mama tried.” And if you can watch this clip of him singing this song to his actual mom without tearing up, well, you’re obviously made of sterner stuff than I am.

Thin Lizzy — Philomena

From Thin Lizzy’s deeply underrated 1974 album Nightlife comes Phil Lynott’s deeply heartfelt ode to his mother Philomena, who by all accounts was even more of a badass than her son — and she would have had to be, in order to survive as the unwed teenage mother of a mixed-race child in the UK circa 1949. Phil’s Dublin accent was rarely more pronounced in his songs, which gives this one an extra tug at the heartstrings. “She’s home, boys, home,” he wistfully sings, “No matter where I roam.”

Curtis Mayfield — Kung Fu

Speaking of badass moms…

My Mama borned me in the ghetto

There was no mattress for my head

But no she couldn’t name me Jesus

I wasn’t white enough, she said

And then she named me Kung Fu

The above lines are among my favorite in the entire Curtis Mayfield discography, and that’s saying something. Note that the Ghetto-born kid in question wouldn’t have been named “Kung Fu” after the martial art, but rather after the popular early ‘70s TV series of the same name. Though David Carradine’s ever-wandering and seemingly indestructible character — who “came in peace” but inevitably wound up having to kick some racist cowboy ass — was actually called Kwai Chang Caine, he was known colloquially as “Kung Fu” in schoolyards and on street corners across America.

Linda Ronstadt — The Only Mama That’ll Walk the Line

The “Mama” here is more of a mama in the “old lady” sense, although she could also be a stay-at-home mom who’s tired of her worthless husband staying out late and chasing skirts while she’s stuck in the kitchen making yet another pan of cornbread for their family. Lots of great renditions of this song (Waylon Jennings’ being the top “Daddy” version), but I pretty much grew up on Linda Ronstadt’s Hand Sown… Home Grown album, so this one gets the nod. In fact, I was so young when I first heard this version that I thought the chorus went “Big Mama went a-walkin’ by,” which somehow conjured up images in my little head of a 300-pound Black woman with a gigantic Afro. Because it was the early '70s, I guess.

Funkadelic — Cosmic Slop

Speaking of Afros and the early ‘70s… Funkadelic waxed some thematically-heavy songs in their day, but I’ve always been particularly moved by this one, a surprisingly non-judgmental look at a single mom who had to turn tricks in the ghetto in order to keep her five kids fed, clothed and housed. Though the song’s official video has absolutely nothing to do with its lyrical content, it’s still one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen — not least because it demonstrates that George Clinton and his Detroit homies were insanely freaky even by 1973 New York City standards.

Groep 1850 — Mother No-Head

“Who is crying? Who is dying?” ask these hash-addled Dutch hippies. Why, it’s Mother No-Head, of course! This Neder-psych classic has been a WTF favorite since I first heard it on one of the Rubble collections back in the ‘90s, even if I still have no idea what they’re actually getting at. For me the words “Mother No-Head” always bring to mind that 1974 Halloween episode of Happy Days where Richie Cunningham and the gang are menaced by the apparition of a headless woman — who turns out to be the ever-annoying Bag Zombrowski in disguise!

Mott the Hoople — I Wish I Was Your Mother

One of my all-time favorite Mott the Hoople songs, this Ian Hunter lament isn’t meant to be taken literally — he doesn’t actually wish he’d given birth to the person he’s singing it to. Rather, it’s more of a meditation on how growing up in a severely dysfunctional family can come back to haunt your adult relationships, and the impassable chasms that the residual damage can sometimes create between you and someone who was lucky enough to hail from a healthier family situation. Hunter’s resigned delivery of the line “Is there a happy ending? I don’t think so” gets me in the gut every time.

The Kinks — Two Sisters

One of Ray Davies’ greatest two-minute short stories, “Two Sisters” details the envy that young housewife Priscilla feels towards her unmarried sibling Sybilla, who’s seemingly always getting dressed up to go out and party with her “smart young friends”. Priscilla fantasizes about leaving her married life behind, until she’s snapped out of her reverie by the sight of her little children, and realizes she’s actually in a better situation than her sister. The song, of course, is an allegory of Ray’s relationship at the time with his priapic younger brother Dave; I’ve always enjoyed the image of Dave getting dolled up as “the wayward lass” while Ray runs around in a housedress and curlers.

The Intruders — I’ll Always Love My Mama

Pretty much made to order for Mother’s Day, this Philly Soul salute to hard-working moms everywhere (“I never understood how Mama made it through the week/When she never ever got a good night’s sleep”) is best heard in its extended version, where you can hear Little Sonny and the boys laughing about their days as borderline juvenile delinquents while giving their moms serious props for putting up with their shit.

Cheap Trick — Surrender

“Mommy’s all right/Daddy’s all right/They just seem a little weird…”

If there’s a better, funnier plea for tolerance and understanding between children and their parents — particularly the Baby Boomer generation and the Depression-enduring/WWII-surviving folks who sired them — I don’t think I’ve heard it. The narrator’s mom seems overbearing and uptight at first, warning him about loose women and venereal disease, then winds up fooling around with Dad on the couch while smoking weed and cranking KISS LPs. Because hey, it turns out Mom likes a good time as much as you do…

Anyway, Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate. And please feel free to leave some of your favorite Mom songs in the comments!

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