Ponyboy's Profile

Spirits in a material world

My father passed away in 2006.  With his death came a change not only upon me, but upon the way I hear songs... and how their meanings can evolve.

It was mid-2000 and I had moved to Little Rock, Arkansas with the old man.  My parents had just gotten divorced a year earlier, and oddly enough, this was the time in my life I felt I could really relate to my dad.  We were becoming friends, not just father & son.

This song came on in the house and I recall that Dad (who didn't normally reminisce) said that he "loved this song" and that I should "turn up the volume."  Dad then told me he still remembered exactly where he was when he first heard the song, saying: "I was driving down I-95 in Miami sometime in 1982... It was the first time I'd heard the song... and the first time I'd heard a song sound like that one did."

At that moment I realized that this song was a part of the soundtrack of my father's life... his audio bio.  I now treasure that moment between us, and when I hear this song today, I imagine him still alive... cruisin' down the road to this awesome tune!