My Father's Gun

Album: Tumbleweed Connection (1970)
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Songfacts®:

  • "My Father's Gun" was recorded for Tumbleweed Connection, a collection of songs based around Wild West themes. This track tells the story of a young Confederate soldier whose father dies in battle during the American Civil War. After burying his dad, the young man takes his gun and rejoins the fighting inheriting not only a weapon but also the cause his father fought for.
  • This song featured on the soundtrack for the Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst-starring film Elizabethtown.
  • A somber cover of the song was performed by country singer Miranda Lambert for the tribute album Restoration: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. A lifelong John fan, Lambert told the Tennesseean she chose "My Father's Gun," having re-discovered the track as an adult, because of the impact it had on her personally.

    "I re-listened to it a couple years ago," Lambert recalled. "Sometimes you hear things differently. And I had gone through some things in my life. It's almost like I re-discovered it, and it impacted me totally differently as an adult who had been through some things. It's crazy how music can touch you over and over again."

Comments: 5

  • Scott from TallahasseeI don’t know it for a fact, and I’m not going to look it up before I answer, but there’s a high likelihood that the guitarist was Caleb Quaye who played quite a bit on Elton‘s early albums before he was able to use his own band full-time. Quaye joined as an official member of the Elton John band after he sadly let Nigel Olson and Dee Murray go, although thankfully, Davy, Johnstone was still a member of the band.
  • Sonztwin from Longwood, FlNope - Caleb Quaye on lead guitar. David Cosby (R.I.P.)? Since when was he known for his guitar sound?
  • Paul S From Marblehead, Ma from MassachusettsThat HAS to be David Crosby playing the guitar...
  • Mike Fom Weston from Weston, TxThe lead guitar sounds like David Crosby to me. I was looking for that fact and I see Daniel has the same question
  • Daniel from Hendersonville NcWho played guitar solo on Elton John’s version of My Fathers Gun?
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