Sometimes when I'm thinking about getting the best Christmas present for my kids I remember the best Christmas present I ever got as a child. It wasn't an expensive new sports car, but I assure you that if I had received an expensive new sports car that would have been the subject of this entry. Being the child of frugal parents, though, I have my memories of this....
I was twelve years old and resigned to getting the usual assortment of presents for, well, you know, kids. Jumpers, housecoats, socks, meh.
My parents listened to hideously dorky stuff like Perry Como.
All of a sudden my Dad reached over and handed me a gift wrapped album and what should it be but Carole King's brand new album Tapestry.
"I LOVE IT!" I gasped. This was the hottest, hottest thing going back in 1971. I often wonder how Dad picked it out. I picture him wandering into a record store (kids, gather around while Aunt Lorrie tells you about "records" and "typewriters")...anyway, I picture him wandering in and saying to the clerk, "Give me something for the Beat Generation." As he carried it out of the store, he realized that his young daughter was growing up to be a woman. And this album would symbolize the acknowledgement of this transformation taking place.
I still have it and I always will, probably will be dragging it to the nursing home.
I remember sitting on the bed in my girlishly decorated room, listening to the lyrics and wondering what life was going to be like. What would it be to really live the emotions in her songs?
I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky come tumbling down
I feel my heart start to trembling
Whenever...you're around....
oooh baby...When I see your face
Mellow as the month of May
oooh darlin'.. I can't stand it
When you look at me
That way....
And I wondered how anybody could ever feel like this about somebody they loved?
Stayed in bed all mornin' just to pass the time
There's something wrong here, there can be no denying
One of us is changin', or maybe we just stopped trying...
And it's too late baby, now it's too late.
Though we really did try to make it
Something inside has died, and I can't hide and I just can't fake it..
I could not wait to experience it all. And by giving me the album, Daddy opened up for me the the possibility that LIFE was out there and that he would support me as I flew out the door to meet it.
Thanks Dad.
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14 comments:
I'm exactly your age and I still have the album (yes the original record)bought that year.
The CD gets played, the record doesn't as we no longer have a turntable but I am NOT giving it away. NO WAY. It was my very first album.
But I saved up to buy mine..your dad must have been awesome. Mine had no idea!
Best. Album. Ever. I had to buy my own. Yeah, I also still have it (not the original from my childhood), but I no longer have a turntable. I let it go a few years after it became impossible to find needles.
Bravo, dad! Great story...
I listened to it over and over and over, wondering the same things you did.
Just a great post - and a great album, too. Reading this brought back a VERY vivid memory of driving my yellow VW Beetle singing "it's too late baby, now it's too late . . ." Wow.
now, smackwater jack,he bought a shotgun'cause
he was in the mood for a little confrontation....
i got that album too and i still have mine...
I'm going to make you feel really old by saying this but it's one of my mother's favorite albums and she's shared that love with me too. Carol King writes such lovely lovely songs.
I'm just few years younger than you and I still have that album too. I think I remember an older teenage girl introducing it to me when I was about 10.
Like Kris said: smackwater jack! (You don't talk to a man/with a shotgun in his hand...). What a great album, and what a great story.
So did you ever find the moon sand (what the hell is moon sand? I've got a little boy, this year is all about Thomas the Train...)
I LOVE that album, and now I can't get that song out of my head. Love it love it! Great post as always.
brainhell sez:
Likewise, thank my Grandma for giving my sister a Joni Mitchell album.
Great post. I love that album (yes, it's an album)
Deb
We are days different in age. I had to buy the Best. Album. Ever. It died of old age (it probably committed suicide from over-playing). I now have the CD; it's the first CD I bought for myself.
I was listening to this today, dancing around with my kids. It was playing when my husband & I married and when my son was born (he came out screaming to Smackwater Jack). It is the Best Album Ever.
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