Tame Impala’s “Posthumous Forgiveness” Lyrics Meaning

In this song, Tame Impala’s frontman, Kevin Parker, is addressing his deceased dad. His father, whose name was Jerry, was very-influential in his life and indeed the music industry at large. For it was Jerry who actually introduced the singer to playing music in the first place.

And there are two prevailing sentiments permeating throughout. First is that the singer does indeed love and miss his dad, as could be expected considering the abovementioned as well as the fact that Kevin had lived with him most his life. In fact Jerry was still around during the time Tame Impala dropped their first EP in 2008.

A song about forgiveness

But as the title suggests, this song actually serves as an exercise in forgiveness. And it seems that what exactly the singer is forgiving his father for is leaving him and his brother, Steve, ‘on their own’. And he alludes to this idea at various points in the track. For instance in the second verse he states that the addressee “only saved” himself, even though he promised to ‘save them all’. And the singer declares that coming to that realization was an experience akin to a revelation, as in he is now ‘wising up’ to the fact that his father’s departure wasn’t as honorable – so to speak – as it first appeared.

This attitude can be indicative of a time when the vocalist was in the anger stage of the bereavement process. And we can make this assumption because by the time the track actually does conclude, he seems to have finally made peace with his dad passing away. But up until the outro, it is pretty obvious Kevin has some kind of beef with his father. And while we know that Jerry did in fact die from cancer, the specifics of why the singer is so upset with him aren’t known outside of the fact that once again he feels abandoned as a result. Moreover, as highlighted at the end of the song, Kevin is markedly disappointed that his father did not live to see him become a prominent professional musician.

Conclusion

So all things considered, “Posthumous Forgiveness” can be interpreted as the singer finally making peace with the reality of his father having died prematurely. Or put differently, there’s no guarantee that the deceased will ever receive this message anyway. So if nothing else, Kevin can at least walk away with the relief that he has let his true feelings out into ether, finally getting off his chest how he feels about the untimely passing of who was very likely the most-influential man in his life.

Release Date of “Posthumous Forgiveness”

On 3 December 2019, this became the third song Universal Music Australia put forth from Tame Impala’s 2020 album “The Slow Rush”.

The first two singles from this album are as follows:

• “Borderline”
• “It Might Be Time”

Writing and Production Credits of “Posthumous Forgiveness”

Kevin Parker wrote and produced “Posthumous Forgiveness”.

Kevin Parker’s Father, Jerry

A brief history of Kevin’s relationship with his dad is that Jerry and his mom, Rosalind, divorced when Kevin was a small child. But upon reaching puberty, he went to live with his father. At that time, his father had remarried and fathered a couple more kids, including the “Steve” mentioned in the track. His dad was a finance officer by profession but a musician by hobby. And as aforementioned, Kevin learned to play the guitar directly from his father. And despite having fought cancer for a year before finally succumbing, Jerry’s death still obviously caught Kevin off-guard.