Paul Simon’s “Mother and Child Reunion” Lyrics Meaning

Paul Simon’s self-titled LP, being his second studio album overall, was originally issued through Columbia Records on 24 January 1972. And the lead track on its playlist is “Mother and Child Reunion”, which was written by Paul and produced by him and regular Simon & Garfunkel collaborator Roy Halee.

AN ANIMAL-INSPIRED OUTING

The “mother” in the title of this song was inspired by chickens, with the “child” being their eggs. That is to say that, according to Paul, the title of this track was taken from a Chinese food dish known as “Mother and Child Reunion” which consists of chicken and eggs.

Also, shortly prior to authoring this piece, Simon’s dog was run over by a car, with the singer describing his response as “the first death (he) had ever experienced personally”. In fact, losing that beloved pet caused him to ruminate on mortality in general, such as imagining how it would feel if he were to just as suddenly lose his wife. And that sentiment also served as an inspiration behind this piece.

THE LYRICS OF “MOTHER AND CHILD REUNION”

That said, the lyrics of “Mother and Child Reunion” are very open-ended, to the point that, in all honesty, it’s difficult to comprehensively ascertain what exactly Simon is chanting about. For instance, in the chorus he defines the present as being a “strange and mournful day”. Yet he immediately follows that statement up by noting that “the mother and child reunion”, which you would expect to be a happy event, “is only a motion away”.

But the first verse does verify the notion that this is a time of mourning, one in which the vocalist cannot recall “a sadder day”. And in the process he also references the ideology of “let(ting) it be”, presumably as inspired by The Beatles’ classic of the same name that was dropped a couple of years earlier. 

Paul does so within the context of noting that some people espouse the notion of taking life’s disappointments in stride. But what the singer seems to be saying in response is that “it just don’t work out that way”. Or put otherwise, some experiences are too striking to adopt a que-sera-sera attitude about.

“No, I would not give you false hope
On this strange and mournful day
But the mother and child reunion
Is only a motion away”

Taking the title into consideration, in this case said experience would likely be that between a mother and child. And it has been reported that this piece was also directly inspired by an antiwar song Jimmy Cliff dropped in 1970 titled “Vietnam”. 

More specifically, that piece is said to be about a mother receiving news of her soldier son’s death while he was out on the field. So it would be reasonable to postulate that such a backdrop serves as the premise to this song. 

That is to say that what Paul may be referring to in the chorus is the prospect of a mother reuniting with a child who has been sent off to war. But of course, some of such children are never coming home. So for those mothers, a day of potential celebration is rather turned to mourning – or something like that.

Or let’s say, as suggested earlier, that there are certain segments of this song, such as the latter half of the first verse or the entire second verse, that leaves something to be desired in terms of understandability.  But obviously, “Mother and Child Reunion” relays a sympathetic sentiment that music fans at the time, during the tumultuous early 1970s, were able to pick up on. And also, its groove is slappin’.

THE TEAM BEHIND “MOTHER AND CHILD REUNION”

Paul Simon went all the way in making this a response song to Cliff’s “Vietnam“. In addition to employing some of the same musicians who participated on that track, he also traveled to Cliff’s homeland of Jamaica and recorded “Mother and Child Reunion” in the selfsame facility (which is Kingston’s Dynamic Sounds Studios). 

And amongst the musicians who participated on both tracks were a couple of members of Toots and the Maytals, bassist Jackie Jackson and guitarist Hux Brown (1944-2020).

Cissy Houston, i.e. the mother of Whitney, contributed background vocals to “Mother and Child Reunion”. And other notable names who participated (i.e. those who have their own Wikipedia pages) were American pianist Larry Knechtel (1940-2009) and Jamaican drummer Winston Grennan (1944-2000).

Simon went on to note how he felt awkward being “the only white guy” in Dynamic Sounds Studios at the time. But he was able to also celebrate “Mother and Child Reunion” being, in his own words, “the first reggae hit by a non-Jamaican white guy outside of Jamaica”. 

This song, which marked his first as a soloist, was a notable success, breaking the top 5 of both the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart, in addition to reaching the summit of the South Africa Top 20.

Also, a rendition of the song can be found on 1974’s Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin’.