daddy

inspired by the fine people over at pretending to be japanese (my new internet-crush) who argues about who's dad is the coolest, i felt an urge to post a tribute to my dad. since my memory still occasionally works and recycling is the shit, i pulled up an old piece i wrote about him two years ago. it's a bit sentimental, and if it doesn't make you see how cool he is, this might: his record collection is still bigger than mine (and i'm really trying here!). among his favorite bands/artists are the doors, the who, the beatles, rollings stones, the moody blues, bryan ferry/roxy music and elton john.

originally written in april 2006 and posted on my old blog. slightly revised.

when it comes to listening to music, i've always had my dad to look up to and be inspired by. i went through his record collection often as a kid, and while i was still young enough to not know better, anything that looked or sounded, shall we say, age appropriate, was the pick of the day.

i used to listen to his 60's collections. status quo. my dad loved status quo - he told me over and over about seeing them live back in the day. i listened to beatles. rolling stones. i know every roxy music cover still. although dad's love for bryan ferry never rubbed off on me, he still tries.

though the biggest moment i remember is when i realized he had rocket to russia. he must have had it since it came out but i'd never paid much attention to it before (after all, in the late 80's, four guys with ridiculously tight jeans and an american 70's punk attitude didn't do it for this pre-teen girl). it must have been around 7th grade, cos i'd just started listening to nirvana and guns n' roses. i had a friend who loved the ramones, so imagine the coolness of finding this record. (when i moved out many years later i brought it with me. the only thing i've ever really stolen from my parents.)

i learned to appreciate the doors through my dad's headphones. he had all the albums. his favorite one is the soft parade. my favorite one was waiting for the sun (although i think i'd go or strange days nowadays). i noticed once when looking through his old photo album from his youth, that he used to have a drawing of a man, in a uniform, without a face, on his wall in his parent's house, that said the unknown soldier.

he's told me stories about listening to radio luxemburg, that played rock n roll on the air, the thrill of it, just like the stories you hear in movies about those magic years. back then he played guitar in his parent's basement when he was in high school, he had long hair and wore jeans to school even though he studied to be an engineer (think late 60's small town sweden, nice haircuts and suits!), he didn't care what people thought of him and he liked awesome music.

when in my most pretentious teenage years and early twenties, i wondered why, with such good taste in music, he listened to elton john. cos elton john for me has always been 80's elton john and piano ballads elton john. until a few years ago. cos being exposed to early 70's elton john through movies like almost famous and elizabethtown i must admit that i'm hooked. i guess i should thank mr crowe for it.

i was the first person in my class and among my friends to have a cd-player in my house. i can still find records in my dad's collection that i didn't know he had. that way it's easier to accept that he grew out of the style, that he nowadays looks like any other 50+ guy; perhaps a bit younger, a bit more groomed and a bit more handsome. cos he still, of course, listens to awesome music.

and he still doesn't care what people think of him. it runs in the family.