As some of my longtime readers know; my dad was a workaholic. He started working, nearly full time, while he was still in primary school. Frankly, I'm surprised my mom was able to convince him to retire.
Dad used to leave for work before we would leave for school. He'd come home for dinner after closing the store up for the evening. But after dinner and the nightly news; he'd head back to the store to work on meat orders for the next morning(1).
Nowadays he gets to spend a lot more time with his favorite hobby; playing the guitar(2). But back then, hearing him play was an infrequent event. So they stood out.
His favored music has always been country. But he also has an oddball sense of humor. Which, of course, meant that a lot of the songs he played and sang were from acts like Ray Stevens & Da Yoopers.
Growing up with that being in the house; Is it any wonder that I discovered The Dr Demento Show at an early age? Is it any wonder that I branched out from funny country to just outright funny?
Kind of explains why I took to the music of Voltaire from the very first song of his I heard.
So thank you dad. Thank you for being the spark behind my love of the music of Stan Freeberg, Tom Smith, The Great Luke Ski and the other denizens of Dementia.
(1) At one point, our lil shoppe was the main meat provider for a number of the local restaurants. He was mentioned by name in a couple of the menus as the one who cut the steaks.
(2) Something my younger brother picked up but I never did.
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