"Cats in the Cradle," Harry Chapin

Not today; I got a lot to do. The king of the father-son songs, with moving comments by Chapin's lyricist and widow and their son. Hat tip to No Depression.

"Patriotic Song, "Stephen Oliver

My Nicholas Nickleby post prompted some great e-mail and Facebook exchanges. My Andover buddy David Schwartz sent this video melding the third-season finale of "The West Wing," in which composer Stephen Oliver's "Patriotic Song" appears, with a scene from the Royal Shakespeare Company's marathon 1982-83 production of "The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby," for which Oliver wrote the song.

If you're not a "West Wing" aficionado, all you need to know is that President and playgoer Josiah Bartlett (Martin Sheen) has reluctantly ordered the illegal assassination of a terrorist -- the sometimes dark work of national security as against the idealized vision of nationhood in Oliver's rousing anthem.

"Issac Lewis," Tom Russell

Losing my friend Ed Simons 15 years ago was devastating to his whole family. His father, Clarence, who died last week, never quite got over it. "Issac Lewis" is about a father who buries his son. It came up on my iPod when I went for a walk this afternoon after Clarence's funeral.

Father Songs: "The End Of The Innocence" (1989)

Don Henley (song by Bruce Hornsby, with additional lyrics by Henley)