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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2022
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AP Photo
From left, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison of The Beatles appear at a press conference in New
York in 1966.
A shared
love of music
Remembering a bond on Father’s Day
I came home and put it on a little portable record player
that just a year before was playing musical nursery rhyme
records. It was an evolution for me and my d ad. But I was
y father wasn’t a musician, but he was musical.
off . Off on a journey that would be uniquely my own, but
Other than a year of violin lessons when he
which was paved by my father’s footsteps before me.
was 10 , he never formally studied music.
As I grew, my record collection grew, fi lled with some
But for some reason he could play the piano by ear,
of the best the ‘60s and ‘70s had to off er. Yet I never for-
knocking out many of his favorite jazz standards from the
got what was in my d ad’s collection and the way certain
‘40s and ‘50s .
songs made me feel.
However, it was his record collection that layered my
I remember coming home from college one time. But
childhood — and, indeed, my life — with a musicality
instead of putting on an Eagles or Doobie Brothers album,
that to this day often resonates as strongly as my sense of
I searched out one of my d ad’s obscure quiet jazz piano
smell.
records. I just needed to hear that song to remind me how
His collection was fi lled with many of
fortunate I was to grow up in the home that
the usual suspects of his era — Sinatra,
I did.
... THE
Bennett, Como, Crosby. But there also were
One of music’s great powers is to dis-
obscure jazz artists, soundtracks from musi-
cover emotion and connect it to a time
PHYSICAL
cals, folk music and the New York Philhar-
and place. There are songs that connect to
PRESENCE OF
monic playing the classical repertoire. It
old girlfriends, songs that connect to high
was an early and foundational introduction
dances, songs from my childhood
THOSE ALBUMS school
of the power of music to lift you up, calm
that bring my father to life in a way a sim-
you down, make you think and transport
ple story cannot. Music can remove the
TIES ME —
you to another world.
haze from old memories and can awaken
GRATEFULLY — the best moments of life’s journey. And
When d ad would come home from his
offi ce job, he wouldn’t sit down and watch
music’s ability to create emotional connec-
TO MY PAST IN
Walter Cronkite like a lot of parents did
tion ensures I won’t forget even seemingly
then. He would go to his stereo in the living
small episodes from my past — because the
A WAY A SONG
room, put on a record and relax. Today we
soundtrack was there.
MAGICALLY
might call it “decompressing.” But he was
When my dad passed away in 2015, my
just relaxing and enjoying his music.
mother and my siblings began the unavoid-
PULLED
OUT
On winter Sunday nights, he would build
able task of going through his possessions
OF THE AIR
a fi re in the fi replace, put on some Sinatra
and deciding who wanted what. There was
and play games with us. Like any family,
only one thing I wanted: his record collec-
NEVER WILL.
we had ups and downs, but to this day, Sina-
tion. I needed that connection to my past
tra’s “September of My Years” takes me to
and to him. While my two brothers and my
that living room and wraps me in a security blanket of all
sister had record collections of their own, they knew my
that was right in my childhood.
connection to that music ran deep, and they acceded to my
When T he Beatles landed in America in February of
only request.
1964, I was 5 years old. Their music was diff erent from
Today, the collection sits in boxes in my basement. I
anything I’d heard coming out of my d ad’s stereo. Even at
don’t often play them. Though I almost hate to admit it,
that young age, it captured me — in no small part, I know,
if I want to hear one of those songs, I can usually search
because I had already been exposed to so much variety in
it out on Apple Music. But the physical presence of those
his music.
albums ties me — gratefully — to my past in a way a song
Like many young boys, I wanted to be like my dad.
magically pulled out of the air never will.
So at age 6 , I asked him if he would buy me a Beatles
The other night I decided was not a night when an
record. Though he was not yet a Beatles fan — the hair,
Apple Music version of one of my d ad’s albums would
the screaming girls — he got it. He could see that glimmer
suffi ce. I headed to the basement and searched through
of a future record collection inside me. And he knew the
the boxes until I found it — Sinatra’s “September of My
importance of that.
Years” album. I poured a glass of wine and placed the
We went to J.C. Penney, and he let me go to the “45”
vinyl on my turntable. Cut number one is the title track.
section to pick one out. I selected “I Feel Fine” — not
I sat back, closed my eyes, and thought — “I feel fi ne.”
one of T he Beatles’ biggest hits, but notable for the
This essay was produced through a class taught by
initial fuzzy feedback that leads into a rocking riff by
Tom Hallman Jr., a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter at The
George Harrison.
Oregonian.
By RICH BROWN
For The Astorian
M