Seein' My Father In Me

Album: Sowin' Love (1989)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • We often become our parents, and that's not always a bad thing. In this song, the singer sees a picture of his father from his younger years and realizes they have a similar look and comportment. He starts to see the world through his father's eyes, and looks forward to a day when his children will do the same.
  • Paul Overstreet had a number of hits as a songwriter before launching his solo career. Many of his songs deal with family and fatherhood, including "A Long Line Of Love" (Michael Martin Murphey) and "Daddy's Come Around" (part of Overstreet's next album, Heroes).

    But the tightly bonded father-son relationship that manifests in his songs isn't true to life. Overstreet had a distant relationship with his dad, who didn't come home one day. It took him a while, but he came to terms with it and started writing songs about how he wanted his kids to feel about him. "I started writing things about what I wanted in life, and what I didn't have as a kid," he told Songfacts.
  • Overstreet wrote this song with Taylor Dunn, a fellow country songwriter who brought some of his own experience into the lyric.
  • The black-and-white music video features a collection of real fathers with their kids. "A lot of them were in difficult relationships, they hadn't been talking," Overstreet explained. "So they came to do this video together, and it kind of healed their relationships as well as people who would see it and hear that song."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Early Days of MTV

Early Days of MTVFact or Fiction

If you can recall the days when MTV played videos, you know that there are lots of stories to tell. See if you can spot the real ones.

Rush: Album by Album - A Conversation With Martin Popoff

Rush: Album by Album - A Conversation With Martin PopoffSong Writing

A talk with Martin Popoff about his latest book on Rush and how he assessed the thousands of albums he reviewed.

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions Answered

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions AnsweredSong Writing

10 Questions for the author of Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces

Jethro Tull

Jethro TullFact or Fiction

Stage urinals, flute devices, and the real Aqualung in this Fact or Fiction.

Country Song Titles

Country Song TitlesFact or Fiction

Country songs with titles so bizarre they can't possibly be real... or can they?

Def Leppard Quiz

Def Leppard QuizMusic Quiz

Can you name Def Leppard's only #1 hit in America? Get rocked with this adrenalized quiz.