Don's Home Arts Music Lyric Interpretations 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 pick's the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would 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 pick's the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

It's hard to put your own twist on their words, which is where their genius lies.

The "road" is life's journey which we must all go through during which we seek the truth of our existence which may never be found.

This song is a call for parents and children to try to understand that each generation goes through it's own kind of "hell" (growing pains/life issues) and that each should respect that and learn from each other.

"Asks parents and children not to be judgmental of each other's lives."

The lyrics are a Buddhist prescription for not being bound in suffering by not accepting the reality of existence and accepting people as they are and not what you would like them to be and having gratitude for the experience of being.

Other comments:
The incredible message delivered is that you are never done learning. Through all the teachings you give your children, you should be learning more from them every day. And it is also a message to youth that although your parents might not always do the best thing, they (usually, anyways) always mean the best.

The 2nd stanza switches to "Teach your parents well"
I relate to that at my age; I learn more from my son than I give. (A benefit of good teaching from his late mother, LCPC and others.)

This song is about the generation gap between young and old and how both groups dont always understand each other, however, both group must do their best to make the other understand them and meet in the middle somewhere.

Other:
Apple used it in a 1985 TV commercial for the Apple II computer. Bill Siddons, then manager for CSNY, told BAM magazine: "The whole idea of the spot was to show how to prepare your kids for the modern world, which is part of what 'Teach Your Children' is about."

Gerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead, playing the pedal steel guitar, replaced Niel Young on this track.