Somewhere You Feel Free!
My dad took me to see Tom Petty in concert when I was 16. He got the tickets well in advance, and when the night of the event rolled around, I was mildly surprised to learn we were still going. Oh, yeah. A night with my dad. I have to do this- no driving around aimlessly with my friends tonight, no sleepover at Jane's house, no movie at the dollar show. I have to go see Tom Petty with my dad, go dancing at the zombie zoo. It's what I'm seeing a lot on social media now, twenty years later, on the occasion of Petty's death. The link between Tom and people's dads. The dads of my childhood loved that guy. And so did we, the good girls and Indiana boys. I remember first discovering music and it started in my family room with the tapes and some shiny CDs that I would divide up between my mom's collection and my dad's. My dad's collection was for sure a lot better. Toni Braxton sucks. Chaka Kahn can only take you so far. ...