Improvised Moments - Nights in White Satin
Maybe you are of the era when your father used to play vinyl records and would cleanly drop the needle in just the right groove to play his favorite song. Maybe you learned exactly where that groove was, so that you could play it too, so you could hear him sing along. Maybe you carefully picked up the square cardboard pocket leaning against the fake wood cabinet with the magnetic glass door and took it to the sofa and lay down or smooshed yourself in the pillowed corner and stared at the album cover, taking in the art and the words, while the music played, while you listened, to it, to him.
Maybe you have another story.
Maybe your father wasn’t around, and there were certain pieces of music that reminded you of him, or had you dreaming of who he could be. Maybe you had other men in your life who became the father-figure(s) you needed at just the right time, who stepped in and helped you feel seen, heard, loved. Maybe there was no man around. Maybe you became the kind of person you wanted a parent to be to you. Maybe, the presence of a “father” or lack thereof, shaped you into who you are today, helped reveal your goodness, your truth.
The Moody Blues are a favorite of my father’s. This portion of Improvised Moments (off-the-cuff, not quite rehearsed, iPhone-recorded) is for him, because every time I hear this tune, I also hear his voice, singing loud, sometimes off key, all parts memorized. Maybe someday, I will record a longer and fuller version of this, and include the reading of the poem “Late Lament,” when the deep voice, after all that orchestration and a moment of silence, booms, “Breathe deep, the gathering gloom…” And if I do record this again, maybe that voice is my father’s. And after we record it, maybe we share some blackberry pie.
Happy Father’s Day. Relationships are tricky, especially the closest kind. Today, may you find pockets of peace in a memory, a dream, and/or this moment. And happy Summer Solstice, the longest day, when we can’t help but turn toward the sun. Much love.
Watch / listen to Improvised Moments / Nights in White Satin, here.
{This portion of Improvised Moments is very loosely based on Sylvia Woods’ arrangement of “Nights in White Satin, ” found in her book “Groovy Songs of the 60's”}.
More writing like this in my monthly letter —> https://tinyletter.com/tristahill