Daddy's good music was the harmonious soundtrack to my life

Waihiga Mutero, a blogger and actress, talks about her groovy dad and how he literally brought harmony to her musical taste and life.

One of the best qualities about my dad is how funny and compassionate he is.

He is a hard worker with so many varied interests and usually has a finger on the pulse of what’s current. He always, for some reason, is very in tune with pop culture of who’s who and what goes on in the entertainment world. My dad is a heavy jammer, “here jams this scientist on his candy red bass guitar”, he would proclaim while laughing out loud.

The actual picture is as hilarious as you imagine it to be.

My dad put me on some good music from a young age. I have memories of us driving in his beige Pajero on a Sunday afternoon jamming to UB40. Then, all through primary and high school, he would drop my sister and me at school in the mornings. To deter us from arguing my dad suggested that we have a music day for each one of us in rotation.

I was Monday, little sister was Tuesday, and Daddy was Wednesday, and most Fridays. My playlist would consist of Beyoncé and Coldplay, or the Black Eyed Peas. My sister’s dreaded playlist would be Britney Spears and The Pussy Cat Dolls.

HARMONY IN THE CAR

Daddy’s playlist would be the Beatles, The Who, Motown soul music, Bob Marley, Cliff Richard, Harry Belafonte and the Beach Boys.

He was like, “You guys don’t listen to good music; you guys don’t have good music at all!”

So, here we were every morning taking the 45 minutes drive to school while listening to all this music. In the beginning I really disliked his taste in music, especially the Cliff Richard and calypso music.

It was too old school, but not a cool old school; the music had no curse words, it was all innocent and about love and the simple things in life. I felt like it was detached from reality because of that.

At that point in my life I really was into rebellious, heartbreaking hype music; I wasn’t in the mood for his calm island jams such as calypso music. It was not cool to me at the time. He too would dislike my Eminem or 50cent “In Da Club” music preference.

However, a couple of months in, I couldn’t wait to listen to his 'old' jams. I began to really like his taste in music. Especially The Who and The Beatles. Before long daddy would also be telling me to play the “Viva La Vida” album by Coldplay more often and he too began to drop comments here and there like “Hmm, these guys are good,” or rather “These guys are okay,” when he would catch himself.

And soon we drowned out my sister’s girly, poppy playlist and began jamming back and forth between ACDC and the Jay Z album Kingdom Come with my finger on the fast forward button to skip the curse words. I didn’t want to give him another reason to not like my rap music and I actually never once let a curse word slip, funny enough, though it was at the tip of my tongue many a time as I sang along.

He could also catch on that there were curse words and he would give me this look of, “Hmm, you’re walking on thin ice my girl.”

It was an amazing almost 8 years of music back to back. He opened my mind to all these different genres and now I appreciate his taste in music, especially the iconic bands like the Beatles and The Who.

FAMILY GUY

He also taught me diversity. We were living in South Africa at this time when there was a lot of racism, prejudice, and to make matters worse, xenophobia because we were foreigners. He was my escape from all the hate and nonsense that the world preached about. He was, yes, a scientist and a black man, but he was so much more than that. He is my hero.

He is my daddy. He is my hip and my hop, rather hope. He is diverse. He is a wonderful husband and an even greater father.

He takes the time to talk to you, really talk to you. He is the man that stayed up with me until 11pm doing Standard 5 Mathematics and stayed up with me until 2AM whilst I was in Grade 10 struggling with me on higher grade Mathematics.

He is the man that would jog with me at least three times a week in the evenings of the summer days. He is the man that takes me shopping and, when he travels to another country, comes back with clothes for my mother, sister and I – our exact sizes and precise taste. He is the man that makes me laugh until I cry. What is so funny about him is that he tells a joke with the most serious face ever, and this just makes the joke even funnier.

He gives me hope. He is the most supportive man I know. I know that I will never find another like him.

He is my daddy. I will always call him that.

As old as I get, he is just daddy.

by THOMAS RAJULA as narrated by WAIHIGA MUTERO