001 – I sleep in a racing car

If you’ve known me for long enough, you probably already know that I have a thing for progressive rock. This passion is clearly influenced by my parents, who had (and my mom still has) a broad and quite eclectic taste in music. I vividly remember sitting in our small living room with my dad, listening to Museo Rosenbach. I was very young, not yet in school, and of course, unable to pronounce the names of the songs or even the band's name. I recall having to hum the melodies when I wanted to request a song. Guess I was a bit of a pretentious toddler.

By the time I was eleven and could finally pronounce my parents' favourite music acts' names, I started exploring my own music and distancing myself from their tastes. This was pretty challenging, considering their massive music collection, which included everything from jazz to thrash metal (hi, mom), some tonada asturiana, and honestly, pretty much any genre you can think of. But you can never underestimate a preteen's determination to differentiate her tastes from her parents'.

Around 2004 or 2005, I was deep into skateboarding and had become a mix of a goth and skater (I was never good at picking sides). I was mostly listening to hardcore, 80s goth music, and nu metal. Anything related to what my parents had introduced me to seemed stupid at the time. I was in the midst of a teenage rebellion phase, further intensified by my dad’s relapse into drug addiction, which fuelled my aversion to anything that reminded me of him.

Life went on, and I started playing bass when I was thirteen, while my dad was in his second or third rehab attempt. We barely spoke during that time. He would send me letters every week that I never really bothered to read. Somehow, he found out I had picked up a new instrument, and in one of those letters, he included a vinyl that I still have: Goblin's Il Fantastico Viaggio del Bagarozzo Mark. That’s the only letter I remember reading. In it he’d written comments on each song, especially raving about the bass lines in a few of them.

Like any teenager, I had a meticulously crafted persona and was initially hesitant to listen to it. I remember thinking it was music for recently divorced bald guys, not for a 13-year-old goth with a massive Christian Death poster in her room. Be that as it may, I ended up playing that album and I obviously loved it.

This was a pivotal moment, as it not only marked the time when I began reconnecting with my dad (I called him after listening to that album a bunch of times), but it also reignited my appreciation for the music I loved as a child. I dove into my parents' music stash and started listening again with a somewhat more mature perspective (not that much more mature, but at least I could pronounce the names now) and rediscovered all those songs I used to hum for my dad to play.

Now I’m 31, and I no longer have a father, but I still cherish the music we shared. To celebrate this connection, I’ve put together a playlist of my 17 favorite 70s prog rock songs. I hope these tracks resonate with you as much as they do with me.

Thanks for reading, my fellow bald divorcee :)