Valor
I grabbed a CD from the floor of Dad's car. "Dude! Can I put this in?"
"Sure."
Hits of the '50s. What I'd seen was "Whispering Bells" by the Dell-Vikings, a song I hadn't heard in years.
Whispering bells,
Whisper low,
Whispering bells,
Love you so,
Bring my baby
Oh my baby back to me.
(Baby back to me)
That last line in bass, and I'm an alto but I try anyway. I'm 13 again.
My dad raised me on doo-wop. A curious combination of doo-wop and '80s new wave (but the latter was all me, not Dad). I didn't approve of all the sex in the '80s songs; Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers would never be so uncouth.
I was a weird kid.
Get a job
sha na na na, sha na na na na...
Singing along with Dad. Adam and Elayna all perplexed in the back seat.
Dad's not much of a talker, outside of work. Mom does the talking. But Dad sings along with the oldies station - "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "See You in September".
Pretty as a midsummers morn, they call her Dawn
And that one catches me, for some reason. Frankie Valli, "Dawn".
Dawn, go away I'm no good for you
Oh, Dawn, stay with him he'll be good to you
It occurs to me that this is something you just do not hear in music these days; you hear rappers bragging, you hear emo whining, you hear bratty pop-punk, you hear Britney crap...
Think - think what a big man he'll be
Think - think all the places you'll see
Now think what the future would be
With a poor boy like me...
And that is just not something you hear today - the man thinking of what's best, even if it hurts him.
Frankie Valli could never make it today.
No good guy could.
We've lost something.
I hope we get it back.
"Sure."
Hits of the '50s. What I'd seen was "Whispering Bells" by the Dell-Vikings, a song I hadn't heard in years.
Whispering bells,
Whisper low,
Whispering bells,
Love you so,
Bring my baby
Oh my baby back to me.
(Baby back to me)
That last line in bass, and I'm an alto but I try anyway. I'm 13 again.
My dad raised me on doo-wop. A curious combination of doo-wop and '80s new wave (but the latter was all me, not Dad). I didn't approve of all the sex in the '80s songs; Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers would never be so uncouth.
I was a weird kid.
Get a job
sha na na na, sha na na na na...
Singing along with Dad. Adam and Elayna all perplexed in the back seat.
Dad's not much of a talker, outside of work. Mom does the talking. But Dad sings along with the oldies station - "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "See You in September".
Pretty as a midsummers morn, they call her Dawn
And that one catches me, for some reason. Frankie Valli, "Dawn".
Dawn, go away I'm no good for you
Oh, Dawn, stay with him he'll be good to you
It occurs to me that this is something you just do not hear in music these days; you hear rappers bragging, you hear emo whining, you hear bratty pop-punk, you hear Britney crap...
Think - think what a big man he'll be
Think - think all the places you'll see
Now think what the future would be
With a poor boy like me...
And that is just not something you hear today - the man thinking of what's best, even if it hurts him.
Frankie Valli could never make it today.
No good guy could.
We've lost something.
I hope we get it back.