Father and Son

Stevens sings the father in a deeper register and the son in a higher one, and Alun Davies adds backing vocals from the middle of the song. It was first written for Revolussia, a proposed musical set in the Russian Revolution, starring Nigel Hawthorne, about a boy who wants to join the revolution against the wishes of his conservative farmer father. The project faded when Stevens fell ill with tuberculosis, but the song stayed. Soon after release he told the interviewer from Disc that he had never really understood his father, who had let him go, and that the song was for people who cannot break loose. He told Rolling Stone in 1973 that he could not have sung the father's side if he had not understood it too.

Ben Gerson, reviewing the album for Rolling Stone, called it a dialogue between just those two, and wrote that Stevens betrays a vested interest in neither role. Rolling Stone ranked it number 408 in its 2021 list of the 500 best songs.

Covers and later versions

Boyzone took it to number 2 in the UK and number 1 in Ireland in November 1995. In 2004 Ronan Keating recorded it as a virtual duet with Yusuf Islam, which reached number 2 in the UK, with the profits going to the Band Aid Trust. Johnny Cash recorded it in 1974 with Rosie Nix Adams as Father and Daughter, and Richie Havens's 1971 version is titled Fathers & Sons. The Flaming Lips song Fight Test, from 2002, was thought to be musically similar, and the publishers reached a royalty settlement. For Tea for the Tillerman 2 in 2020, Stevens sang along with his 22-year-old self. The song closes Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017).