Cats in The Cradle

You know I'm gonna be like you."
He learned to walk while I was away
And as he grew he said,
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay..
He was talkin' 'fore I knew it.
Came to the world in the usually way
"I'm gonna be like you, Dad.
My child arrived just the other day;

Chorus :,

We'll get together then.
Little boy blue and the man on the moon.
"When you comin' home ?".
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
You know we'll have a good time then."
"Son, I don't know when

Well, my son turned ten just the other day..
He said , "Thanks for the ball, Dad. Come on, let's play.
And he walked away and he smiled and he said,
Could you teach me to throw ?" I said, "Not today
"You know,
I got a lot to do." He said, "That's okay."
I'm gonna be like him, yeah.
You know I'm gonna be like him."

Chorus

Well, he came from college just the other day,
He shook his head and he said with a smile,
"I'm proud of you. Could you sit for a while ?"
So much like a man I just had to say,
See you later. Can I have them please ?"
"What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys.
Chorus :

He'd grown up just like me.
I've long since retired, my son's moved away.
"I'd like to see you, if you dont mind."
You see my new job's a hassle and the kids have the flu,
I called him up just the other day.
But it's sure nice talkin' to you, Dad.
And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me,
He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I could find the time.
It's been sure nice talkin' to you."
My boy was just like me.
(Yeah, yeah, yeah)

Chorus 

Note:

I mostly use the activity for class discussion for Intermediate or higher intermediate students. Instead of missing lyric, I jumble the lyric since the tempo of the song is quite fast to get the missing lyric. If you take a close look at the song, you’ll find that the song is divided into 4 periods of a child: a toddler, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Therefore, I divide the students into 4 groups, each group is to arrange and discuss the lyric from each period. Later on, they get together for all groups to discuss the whole story.

Further activity from the song is to make a role play. Four students from each group can be a family representing a busy father, an abandoned child, and the other two roles are flexible. So far, the result is quite awesome.

For correct lyric can be found in the following Cats In The Cradle lyric

To listen to the song copy the following link http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14951666/Ugly Kid Joe - Cats In The Cradle.mp3