The one that got away

(video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odXbOwoLAFU&hd=1; credits to the owner)

Story of Song

(image source: http://www.faciepopuli.com/post/24282115465/claude-p-dettloff-wait-for-me-daddy-october)

“The one that got away” by Kenny Loggins speaks of a story about a father that is distant to his child. There is no clear statement about what happen to them before or the reason why they were apart. But with the lines  “Don't ever think I didn't want you or miss you every day…and I'm sick and tired of doin' time
for a crime I didn't do”, we can assume that the father really does not want to be apart with his child and that he was left with no other choices but to do that. As days passed and the child grows without a father, madness comes, “You're carryin' an anger that does not belong to you”, that the father doesn’t want him to have. Years passed, as the father gained his courage to go back and be with his child, the child can no longer accept the father. Leaving with the words “No matter where life takes you know that I'll still be waiting patiently…and I trust that someday you'll no longer be the One That Got Away”, a strong love and longingness of a father to his child.

The song was release in 2003 in Loggin’s album, “It’s about time”, some years after duo performances with Messina had ended. Some of the songs in his album are It’s about time, I miss us and Brothers. We can assume that maybe during this time, Loggins really miss his partner, that he sees as a real brother, Messina. 

Message of the Composer

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  Explicit

It is obvious that the composer wrote this to tell a child that even if parents always loved their children no matter what. They might leave them or be apart with them but they can and will never forget them. They always think of them and they rather suffer and give them all the rest of their lives, for them to live happily. They want them to achieve their dreams, to enjoy life, to learn and they want them to experience all the happy feelings that they did not felt when they were once a child. The composer tends to point out that a parent’s love is incomparable to anything.

(image source: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/71142869086386343/)

 Implicit

One of the implicit messages of the composer is about how parents affect their child as they grow up. In the song, the child cannot forgive his father because of what he did. This makes a child’s heart as hard as stone. Only if he doesn’t leave the child, his foundation and understanding might be strong to forgive people. But it is not because the madness grew. Parents always affect their children, they’re the foundation and so if the foundation is not complete, it will affect on what personality a child might get when he or she grew up.

Relate Yourself

                

(mother, father and me)

               As a child growing with my father abroad, I can somehow relate to it because we are apart. But I and my brothers have never tried to be mad at him because our mother raised us explaining everything; why he should stay in a place far away from us, why we should not see him every day and why does other father stay with their child? These are the questions that were answered as we grow up. And as I said earlier, parents are the foundation and it’s somehow hard growing up without a father. But as a child who knows the reason why, I need to understand him for not staying with us for a long time.

The Composer

Kenny Loggins

(image source: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/kenny-loggins-mn0000081832/credits)

              The composer is great for sending a lot of pictures to the listeners while listening to the song. He made you think of what had happened. What are the reasons; why does the father left his child? Why the child cannot forgive his father? There’s a lot of questions that made you think deeper but the message of the song is heart-melting. “I miss you every day No matter where life takes you Know that I'll still be waiting patiently 'Cause I do believe in you and me And I trust that someday You'll no longer be The One That Got Away”, Parents will always be parents who can never resist their child no matter what mistakes, problems or flaws they have.