[Microblog] bookwyrm

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'What do you think I'll be, Dad?' He paused for a few moments, became suddenly very serious, and said, 'You'll be married with a kid when you're 17.' I didn't say anything. I pretended not to know what he meant - but I did know (my brother Pat had already told me how babies are made). In those days, the early sixties, when a girl got pregnant, the boy married her. Plus, Dad had a younger brother, Paddy, who had got married at 16 under those circumstances. Was I bad, weak? What was different about me compared to the others? There must be something wrong with me. I felt he could see right into me. Dad's outlook was the one that dominated our household. He was very strict and he perceived stuff like Elvis lyrics to be over-sentimental. To be clear, Dad did think music and singing were things to be enjoyed, but only in their place - like on birthdays, or later when we had a car and would go on a holiday. Music was not to be confused with work. That was serious. From the youngest age, my dad told me that my interests in music and clothes were wrong. This book isn't some rock'n'roll story of how a kid with a disapproving father rebels, eventually finds his own tribe and becomes a pop singer. This is a story of someone who took what his dad said very seriously, believed it and internalised it, so that it became his reality.

bookwyrm.social/book/2088122/s

Finally... I've started Kevin Rowland's memoir.

#KevinRowland #memoir #book #books #reading @bookstodon

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