My Dead Dad's Vinyl

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Today's album (3) was Franz Schubert, (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - Gerald Moore) Schwanengesang, D. 597. There are a lot of Schubert records. I'm sure I've heard this record before, I just didn't know it. The music belonged in my dad's room. It was pretty, calm, with an undercurrent of sadness. I love Fischer-Dieskau on other albums and this wasn't disappointing. The recording was from Abschied, a Rellstab poem. It sounds mostly like a happy light song, but there are touches of sadness as if the singer is leaving somewhere the deeply love. I don't speak German, but looking at the translation there is a line that briefly goes minor and... “Darf ich hier nicht weilen, muss hier vorbei” - “I cannot linger, I must go on” - then back to the happy tune again. We will listen to this one again. #Schubert #fischerdieskau #geraldmoore #classical #vinyl #album #grief #records https://www.instagram.com/p/CpOWtkuubHI/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Today, I listened to Camelot, the original Broadway Cast (Richard Burton and Julie Andrews). I was far more familiar with this one. When I was young, our vacation was to watch a few days of plays in Canada. On the drive our car broke down and it couldn't be fixed quickly so we got a rental. I remember it being a far bigger deal than I thought it needed to be. Eventually, everyone came around because the show we might miss was Camelot. The movie is a garbage fire and that was my mom's point of reference. My dad was fairly stoic through the whole thing. But, we made it! It was the best show of the season. When we got home from Canada I listened to this record. I know young me was likely the last one to listen to it because it didn't have an internal record jacket. My thoughts on the record, the Mordrid wasn't great, Richard Burton sounds too old but is good, and as always, Julie Andrews is amazing. "If ever I should leave you" regularly gets stuck in my head. I was also shocked that I remember every word to the "7 deadly virtues". I was a weird kid. The reprise of "Camelot" was unexpectedly moving. I know everyone associates it with JFK, but it's got a wistfulness that I think everyone over the age of 30 can relate to. #vinyl #musical #camelot #richardburton #julieandrews #grief #record #broadwaycast https://www.instagram.com/p/CpMTGCCN_sN/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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The inaugural record is the Beethoven Bicentennial Collection (pt 1). I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. It's playful and light. The pianist Wilhelm Kemff is obviously having fun with it. #Beethoven #piano #vinyl #vinylcommunity #vinylcollection #classicalmusic #grief https://www.instagram.com/p/CpIxDMMu2F-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

My dad passed away back in 2018 and after his widow died in 2021 I inherited his vinyl collection. My dad was a complicated man who rarely told me about his past. I'm not sure if it's because I'm the youngest of a bunch of kids so he felt he'd told the stories before or if he just didn't think it was important. He wasn't terribly sentimental, in visible ways at any rate, but more on that another day. There had been some bad years and after being very close through my childhood any real conversation was hard for over a decade. But we'd gotten back to a good place. I'd imagined we'd have his senior years to get to know each other better as people but then he went ahead and unexpectedly died. He was hospitalized on a Friday and died on Monday. I went back to work on Tuesday. It took me years to even know how to grieve his loss. I miss him and wish I knew him better. Music has always been at the core of us both. So to discover a bit of who my dad was, the man I wished I'd gotten more time with, the man I wish I learned more from, and knew better, I'm going to listen to his records. There are probably a literal thousand of them, ranging from rare classical to Bruce Springsteen and the Irish Rovers. Grief is weird. https://www.instagram.com/p/CpIu7aWupEW/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=