Talking 'Bout His Generation

Tonight, after sushi with my parents, I went back to my dad's house, where a bizarre instance of father-daughter bonding occurred.

My stepmom was having trouble with her stereo receiver, so dad was trying to get her to understand what was going on. He had the stereo cabinet open, and I noticed some records, including an original release Beatles LP I had found in a thrift store before I had a turntable.

This led to a discussion of records, which led to my dad showing me his vinyl for the first time. He has quite a bit, all meticulously alphabetized in a window seat on the landing of the stairs.

I went through them one at a time, with my dad standing over me, telling me about the records. For example, he has a nearly pristine copy of "Thriller" that he said he bought because everyone was saying how great it is, and it broke some record. I pointed out that it was the number one selling record of all time.

Tucked among the Rod Stewart, Grateful Dead and CCR records were some things I'd actually like to have. He has a copy of "Sgt. Pepper's" with the original inserts. He has T Rex, and "Abbey Road", and "Born in the USA".

There was some overlap - we both own Jethro Tull's "Aqualung", and my copy of "The White Album" is in much better shape than his is. We talked about records we had missed - he had sent back a copy of John Lennon's "Imagine" with a B-side that was apparently nothing but John and Yoko making noises, and over the holidays, I passed up a copy of Dangermouse's "Grey Album" on vinyl.

It wasn't all sunshine, though - I made fun of him quite a lot when he deserved it. Supertramp? My dad is a Supertramp fan. He might be Ian from High Fidelity in disguise. Also, though he has lots of Dylan, he doesn't own "Blonde on Blonde."

Sometimes, it's all too easy to forget that my parents are people. For Christmas, I gave my dad three mix tapes with handmade liner notes. He said that he wanted to talk about them, but he wasn't quite finished absorbing them.

The whole evening reminded me how much I'm like my dad. Normally, when I say that, I'm thinking of the traits that we share that I'm not too proud of. But tonight was good - it reminded me that there's a lot of him in me that's good. And though he is quick to point out that of course my musical taste came from him, (because if he hadn't been around, I'd still be listening to the Beach Boys) I'm ready to remind him that he hasn't ever listened to "Pet Sounds", and that he should give the Beach Boys another chance, in mono, with headphones.

just like Brian Wilson,
Kerry