MJJsBADEraLady87;3837342 said:
Hmm...not sure if i remember reading that part in there, but i guess i'll have to look that up, since I have the re-issued 2009 edition!
Thanks for posting that quote by the way
You're welcome. It's in the chapter "Me and Q" a few pages in. Here's some more of the song (by Clarence Carter):
"And at the age of 13
I thought I was carryin’ the weight of the whole world on my shoulders
And you know mama knew what I was going through
‘Cause every day I had to work the fields
‘Cause that’s the only way we got our meals
You see, I was the oldest of the family
And everybody else depended on me
Every night I heard my mama pray
Lord, give him strength to face another day
4 years have passed and all the kids have grown
The angels took mama to a brand new home
God knows people, I shed tears
But my daddy’s voice kept me through the years
Sayin’, “Patches
I’m dependin’ on you, son
To pull the family through
My son, it’s all left up to you”
I can still hear papa when he said, “Patches
I’m dependin’ on you, son
I tried to do my best
It’s up to you to do the rest”
I can still hear papa when he said, “Patches
I’m dependin’ on you, son
To pull the family through"
Now this is what MJ says in Moonwalk:
There was a lot of uncertainty and excitment about our future. We were going through a lot of creative and personal changes--our music, the family dynamics, our desires and goals. All this made me think more seriously about how I was spending my life, especially in relation to other people my age. I had always shouldered a lot of responsibility, but it suddenly seemed that everyone wanted a piece of me. There wasn't that much to go around, and I needed to be responsible to myself. I had to take stock of my life and figure out what people wanted from me and to whom I was going to give wholly. It was a hard thing for me to learn to do, but I had to learn to be wary of some of the people around me. God was at the top of my list of priorities, and my mother and father and brothers and sisters followed. I was reminded of that old song by Clarence Carter called "Patches," where the oldest son is asked to take care of the farm after his father dies
and his mother tells him she's depending on him. Well, we weren't sharecroppers and I wasn't the oldest, but those were slim shoulders on which to place such burdens. For some reason I always found it difficult to say no to my family and the other people I loved. I would be asked to do something or take care of something and I would agree, even if I worried that it might be more than I could handle."
Wow--this says so much IMO. Let me note that he says that in the Patches song that the mother tells the boy she's depending on him, but in the song that never happens. MJ remembers it that way but in fact it is the father who asks the boy to 'pull the family through' and who says he's depending on his oldest son.
