We are back from spending a couple of days away with the folks, my brother and his better half for my dad's birthday. He was 70 yesterday.
I haven't really got any music that my dad likes.
I can't recall my father ever talking about music when I was growing up, he was more likely to talk about golf and football. In fact, my abiding memories of my faither and music would be him shouting up the stairs "D, turn that bloody thing down or I'll throw it out the window" when I was a teenager or having to listen to Radio Clyde 2 when travelling to work with him after jacking in Uni. If you've never heard Clyde 2 count yourself fortunate as there are few more unsettling things than hearing Lena Martell belt out " One day at a time sweet Jesus" at 06:30 in the morning in the midst of a Scottish winter when you know that you have eight hours on a roof on a building site, with only the respite of half an hour at 1pm in a freezing portakabin to look forward to.
We haven't always gotten on and most of our views are polar opposites but on reflection I couldn't have done much better for a dad.
It's really strange but since becoming a father I find myself saying some of the things that he used to say to me such as "you'll have somebody's eye out with that" or "why can't you just keep it in one piece" and it makes me laugh. I just hope I don't have as many differences of opinion with my 2 as him and I have had over the years but then again that is probably inevitable.
Anyway, all the best Andy and here are a few songs that you probably wouldn't like.
Johnny Cash - Father And Son
Marvin Gaye - Stubborn Kind Of Fellow
The Pogues - I'm A Man You Don't Meet Everyday
2 comments:
I find myself missing my dad from time to time. I was with him when he died aged 53 from alcohol abuse.
I smile in the railway station when I recall how we went for a 'quickie' in the Railway Arms.
I shake my head as I pass his bedsit and recall how he fell asleep in front of the 3 bar electric fire and badly burnt his legs. Silly sod.
I stop to talk to a Council roadsweeper and recall how my dad did the same job.
I shudder as I pass the bus stop where he pulled me back from a runaway car which careered into a queue of people when I was 9.
I miss our pints in the Social Club and his obligatory plastic carrier full of 'dodgy' meat from the Market.
I bow slightly outside the Church where we visited - before the pub -on a dark Sunday evening. "Don't tell your mum we've been to the pub, son". On arriving home, I'd announce, "Don't worry We haven't been to the pub, mum".
I look lost and confused as I visit his graveside in a bitter wind.
well I was going to write some quippy thing about the Pogues but damn, that's ruined all to hell now, isn't it?
dvd, get thee to a blog immediately!
and many thanks to you all for sharing your memories of your dads. mine passed away last november and although we were never close, i was so very much influenced by his music: nat king cole, ella fitzgerald, benny goodman, loretta lynn.
xoxo,
Tart
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