Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young created a lot of songs that were not only great, but also iconic: “Teach Your Children” is at the top of the list. This is a song that seems to transcend time. Doesn’t it feel more like a traditional song than like something that was written in the seventies? A lot of their songs give me that feeling. Another one that comes to mind is Our House.
Unique about “Teach Your Children” is that the first half of the song is advice to teach your children well and the second half is for young folks to “teach” their parents. We don’t normally think of kids teaching their parents, but Nash does an interesting thing here in trying to explain parents’ fears to the kids that at the time was his audience. Notice he doesn’t take a side. He feels we could both do better at teaching each other.
The slide guitar in “Teach Your Children” stands out as giving it that country rock vibe that CSN are so often associated with. Of course, CSNYs harmonies are amazing. The secondary singers weave in and out between singing harmony on the lead and singing backup to create a unique sound. It is a hard vocal to pull off.
Teach Your Children Lyrics
You who are on the road
Must have a code- that you can live by.
And so become yourself,
Because the past is just a good-bye.
Teach your children well,
Their father’s hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh,
And know they love you.
And you, of tender years,
Can’t know the fears that your elders grew by.
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.
Teach your parents well,
Their children’s hell will slowly go by.
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh, and know they love you.
written by Graham Nash
This song came out when I was a teenager and it meant a lot to me. My father had suffered a lot during WWII. His teenage years were stolen from him when he became a slave laborer fir the German war machine. While dad was a highly driven man who was a good provider, he also became a distant father rarely showing his love so even though he was living at home he can’t hone from work late and didn’t spend much time with us. When I looked back I can see that he was trying to deal with the demons of war and his many brushes with death. Although I didn’t know these details then, somehow I knew that something was missing in my life abd it was my father.
My father too was a World War II vet and a prisoner of war for the whole four years in Japan. By the time I was born and he was 40 he started showing the signs that we now know are PTSD of working but then coming home and isolating . These hero’s gave their emotional life for our Country and we the children never felt we had the kind of love we wanted/ needed from them- our father’s hell. Then in one way or another for one reason or another we passed this on to our own children, the children’ s hell.
Wow. My late father also suffered physical and mental atrocities in WWII as. Polish POW. He was 25 when his journey of captivity began.
Now, as a 64 year old woman, I understand deeply the things that were difficult to understand as a child.
He was an a wonderful provider. A wonderful dad. But WWII and his demons haunted him.
Everyone deals with their demons a different way. 💕🥲💕
Very touching song with a deep meaning. Each word of this song is like a perl. I always listen it whenever I feel down.
In live versions of this song, the band specifically mentions that it is for the “teachers”. Not only traditional classroom but it was sang at a UNICEF worker convention People that would be (among other duties) providing guidance and knowledge (aka teaching) to many parts of the world. If you listen to the song with that insight, it makes much more sense.
And the phrase ” The one they picks is typically represented entirely wrong. The lyrics are actually sung with no abbreviation and they sign The one they pick is the one you’ll know by. The abbreviations are all wrong as well as punctuation in most Lyrics I have read.
Don’t get me wrong. This is an incredibly powerful and the advice is certainly useful if it is viewed as being written to parents and children. It just make much more sense with the song being meant for all teachers of anyone in any situatio, but incorrect grammar (pick’s as a contraction of pick is ) punctuation, etc. has made things slightly confusing.
Hi l love this song my brother often played this song for me
Thank you 😊