Sound of His Music (Father's Day Tribute for Dada)

Jessica Zafra puts it aptly that “we are all hostage to our parents’ taste in music.” I couldn’t agree more.

My dad (Dada) – if translated to my generation – is the ultimate groupie. He loves music and this is an understatement. Dada is up early with the radio already on and predictably, the radio puts him to sleep. We grew up with the music of the 60s-70s fossilized into our memories. I realized much later that I can actually sing to the songs of his generation. And that we knew most of the artists of his time.

Every year, DZRJ would hold this poll where listeners can call in and vote for their choice of the ultimate rock and roll king. Year on year it always boiled down to Elvis vs. Beatles. We would call in and vote for the Beatles just to annoy him. Besides, I love Beatles. Of course, there are Frank Sinatra, the Cascades and Everly Brothers, Paul Anka and Neil Sedaka, Petula Clark and Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones and Cliff Richard. Curiously, his favorite song was a country song called Frauline, on the account of which he would jack up the volume gazillion times until our earwax fell out!

He loved Elvis and we ended up with practically a collection of all his LP albums (ie, long playing records). Naturally, this meant he also had a complete line up of turn-table, stereo and amplifiers, speakers, the works! These are stored in a made to order wood cabinet which occupied a great deal of space in our apartment’s living room then in Cubao. When LPs became obsolete, the more compact radio and karaoke player replaced his stuff. In the early 90s, he donated his collection to a local radio station that plays the oldies but goodies music. I wish he hadn’t because they would be priceless by now. And one time, we even stayed late at night to watch the Elvis bio TV series “Elvis and Me”.

Every payday, I recall how he would excitedly bring home his newest LP collection of Elvis or Beatles. There was one song in Elvis’ Blue Hawaii album that made me cry in fear when I was about 5 years old and younger. It was the intro line from a violin. I would cry my lungs out when it played and so Dad had to run to the turntable every time and skip the blasted intro!

He also loved the Beatles. Their songs were immortal and fun to listen to. Their songs have a more universal taste and a sense of timelessness to it whereas Elvis’ songs, being rock and roll are more of “to the moment”. Yesterday and Ticket to Ride was one of the first songs I learned to sing in pre-school, as a matter of fact, my current ring tone for the past 7 years is indeed, Ticket to Ride.

And because he is a true blue music junkie, it rubbed off to us I guess. All of us grew up loving music and radio and although in time, all four of us developed our own preference, I couldn’t help but reminisce that it was Dad who taught us the gift of loving music.

He also understood that to love music meant parallel indulgences (like buying the latest record in town). In my generation, there were no CDs or MP3 downloads. Songs come in singles or LPs and cassette tapes. My Dad indulgently bought us tapes from the sprouting New Wave and 80s era. I think secretly he liked those music as well because it kept him young . I was surprised when he brought home audio cassette tapes of Bagets (no throwing of stones please), Menudo (again, we were young ok?), Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Laura Branigan (he misestimated, none of us liked her), Michael Jackson, and others. We even collected Pepsi crowns to exchange them for limited edition glasses of 80s icon.

He drew the line finally in the mid-90s when Alternative Rock music was born and my younger sisters were into it. For us it sounded like a mass of tin cans waiting for annihilation at the junkyard. And that left the two of us stuck in the worm hole of 60s and 70s music. And for me, the 80s.