Father Knows Best

I asked my father for The "Use Your Illusion" tapes for Christmas.  He said that Guns and Roses was junk and that I couldn't have it.  I asked my mother and she said "we'll see".  I told her my father wouldn't get them for me, and I had them the next day.  I wore them out.  I loved them.  I liked them both, maybe two a little more than one, but both enough.  However on Use Your Illusion one, was "November Rain".  The intro to that song was absolutly beautiful.  Haunting.  Mealodic.  Wonderful.  Then it progressed into a beautifullly written song, and led up to a powerful, emotional, ending. 

My father was not happy that I had the tapes.  Being a Catholic, straight and narrow, "all-american" family man, he thought that Gun's and Roses was pretty much nothing but the end of civilization.  "Why don't you like them dad, you should at least give them a try."  I would say to him.  "Because it is junk, and you shouldn't be listening to it, and I'm your father and I know best."  My father was very old fashion, but he was a huge Bob Dylan fan so I tried to play "Knockin on Heaven's Door" for him, but he told me that they ruined the song and to turn it off.  I played "Don't Cry" for him thinking that he wouldn't mind a slower, sadder side to their music and accept them as being alright to listen to.  Didn't work.  So I just gave up and listened to them when I went to my mother's house.

Then, one day we were driving down the road and "November Rain" came on the radio.  It has a very long intro.  About fourty seconds into it, my father said to me, "See, now this is really pretty.  This is good music.  Not like that other crap you listen too."  I sat there grinning inside.  I don't think it was until the end of the song when Axl starts belting out his screeching octives that he's famous for that my father realized who it was.  He was too proud to say anything.  I just smiled at him, and he stared straight ahead, realizing what he had said.  Always right, my father loved to be, so I didn't even bother saying anything because I knew I didn't have too.  But, he never bothered saying anything bad about Gun's and Roses again to me. Maybe it was because "November Rain" changed his mind on the band.  But I'm guessing it was more likely that he would rather be silent then risk having me point out that it couldn't be crap, for he himself had said that it was good music, and we all know that father knows best.