Dad's So Special, He Gets Two Takes

I thought about it last night, and I guess I owe a lot of my love for music to my dad. He let me rock out with him in our brown truck (nicknamed La Bamba) to classics like Zepplin, the Stones, Pink Floyd, and whatever other classic rock was on the radio. I remember him buying a Beach Boys tape one time, and he forced me to follow the traditional reverence for the Beatles. He's actually willing to give me his honest opinion about my music tastes by telling me that my music hurts his ears or lacks a good melody. He also is a secret rap/hip-hop afficionado when he doesn't understand the words. My favorite is definitely his mistake in thinking that Nelly's "Where the Party At?" was "Where's the Pontiac?" I am sure he probably just didn't understand why this Midwesterner wasn't dropping lines about Bentley's and Cristal.

Sufjan Stevens "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti" - While I cannot deny Sufjan's original Christian imagry about the sacrifice on the cross, this song is also about a father's love for his children. I hope one day to be able to say to my kids, "I did everything for you." To accompany the haunting hollow sound the steel strings, Sufjan's chilling voice is not a moan of burden but a sigh of relief. The phrasing that arrives with the young woman's voice adds great depth to the already emotionally deep tune.

Doron Diamond "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti (Sufjan cover)" - This cover is very similar to the original, yet it is shorter and more folky. The almost low-fi quality of the recording (word has it that it was somehow snagged from youtube) and the emptiness of the sound makes the sound less moving, but more comforting. It sounds as though it might a lullaby softly sung by a father to his child before bedtime.