Song · Fishbone
“Ma and Pa” by Fishbone
From the album Truth and Soul (1988)
“Ma and Pa” by Fishbone appears on 3 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1988 and 1999. It was first released in 1988 on the album Truth and Soul. Its best result is #51 on the Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1988. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #162 alternative song of 1988 and #4,724 alternative song of all time.
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"Ma and Pa" was the second single pulled from Fishbone's 1988 album Truth and Soul, and it's a sly bit of Trojan-horse songwriting: a bouncing, upbeat ska tune smuggling in a story about a family being torn in half. Angelo Moore, who wrote it with Kendall Jones, sings as an older brother watching his parents' divorce turn into a vicious custody war over his sister, and he doesn't spare them, laying into the pair for being too busy fighting to notice the girl stuck in the middle. When one refrain reaches its strongest profanity, Moore coughs over the word instead of singing it, censoring himself in plain sight.
David Kahne produced it for Columbia. It charted only in the UK, but it has stayed a fan favorite and a fixture of Fishbone's live sets ever since.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 51 | Live 105 San Francisco, CA | Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1988 | 106 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 507 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition) | 1002 |
| 1999 | 797 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) | 1002 |
Also listed as: Ma And Pa; Ma & Pa.
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