Just Like My Dad Did

My dad fell and broke his hip and his shoulder a couple weeks ago. He was in the hospital for a few days. Now he's in a nursing home. He may or may not be getting out in a month or so. It's very strange to visit him in this place. His days are consumed by learning how to walk again.

Because life is one big soundtrack for me, I play certain songs over and over again because they remind me of my life, and the lives of others. This is the song I've been playing lately. It's by a guy named Mark Kozelek, who for some unfathomable reason calls himself Sun Kil Moon. It's really a song about dads. And the kinds of arguments little kids used to get into at the bus stop (Cassius Clay vs. Sonny Liston). And doughnuts. And murder. But mostly it's about yearning and loss. I can't stop playing it. It's called "Glenn Tipton" (former guitarist for Judas Priest, although, really, the song has nothing to do with Glenn Tipton or Judas Priest). It's really a beautiful song, and you can listen to it here:

Cassius Clay was hated
More than Sonny Liston
Some like KK Downing
More than Glenn Tipton
Some like Jim Nabors
Some Bobby Vinton
I like 'em all

I put my feet up
On the coffee table
I stay up late watching cable
I like old movies
with Clarke Gable
Just like my dad did

Just like my dad
Did when he was home
Staying up late,
Staying up alone
Just like my dad did
when he was thinking
Oh, how fast the years fly

I know an old woman
Ran a doughnut shop
She worked late serving cops
But then one morning
Baby, her heart stopped
Place ain't the same no more

Place ain't the same no more
Not without my friend Eleanor
Place ain't the same no more
Man, how things change

I buried my first victim
When I was nineteen
Went through her bedroom
And the pockets of her jeans
And found her letters
That said so many things
That really hurt me bad

I never breathed
Her name again
But I liked to dream
About what could have been
I never heard her calls again
But I like to dream
-- Sun Kil Moon, "Glenn Tipton"