My father passed away my freshman fall in September 2022 after fighting terminal brain cancer for a year. Growing up, my brother and I connected with my dad through our love of music. We listened to his collection of vinyls and CDs that he had begun to grow since he was a teenage boy living in Seoul. They came with him when we immigrated to New York in 2004. Among his collection were iconic bands like the Beatles, each of the Beatles’ solo albums, the Velvet Underground, the Beach Boys, The Smiths, Oasis, and so on. However, a favorite artist of his was Nick Drake. It would play as my brother and I begrudgingly did our weekend chores or as we sneakily slipped in extra chocolate chips into the pancakes our mom was making. 

Saturday Sun Lyrics: 

Saturday sun came early one morning 
In a sky so clear and blue 
Saturday sun came without warning 
So no-one knew what to do 
Saturday sun brought people and faces 
That didn't seem much in their day 
But when I remembered those people and places 
They were really too good in their way 
In their way 
In their way 
Saturday sun won't come and see me today 
Think about stories with reason and rhyme 
Circling through your brain 
And think about people in their season and time 
Returning again and again 
And again 
And again 
but Saturday sun has turned to Sunday's rain 
So Sunday sat 
In the Saturday sun 
And wept 
For a day 
Gone by 

Notes: 

- About living in the moment and not letting life pass you by which was something my dad reminded me of often.
- It was also mirroring how I felt at the time - regretting the things I said or did to my dad (or the lack thereof) - “But Saturday sun has turned to Sunday's rain/ So Sunday sat/ In the Saturday sun/ And wept/ For a day/ Gone by." 
 

From the Morning Lyrics: 

A day once dawned, and it was beautiful 
A day once dawned from the ground 
Then the night she fell 
And the air was beautiful 
The night she fell all around 
So look, see the days 
The endless coloured ways 
Go play the game that you learnt 
From the morning 
And now we rise 
And we are everywhere 
And now we rise from the ground 
And see she flies 
She is everywhere 
See she flies all around 
So look, see the sights 
The endless summer nights 
And go play the game that you learnt 
From the mornin' 

Notes: 
- This album has a general gloomy, depressing mood but ends on this cheerful song.
- Even after a dark night, a new day begins in the morning. 
- This song helped me to reframe my dad’s passing as just a physical loss and not of the memories we had - He is still “everywhere.” 
- It was also uplifting and hopeful in that I can overcome this great loss and grief to begin a life without my dad that can be happy.

From the Morning and Saturday Sun were two songs that I listened to a lot and found comfort in shortly after my dad passed away. Beyond the familiar melody, I found that the lyrics were particularly resonating. Appreciating music is something that I have always and continue to view as a link to memories of my childhood and family, especially my dad. I chose these 2 songs as an ode to the memories we shared and now my journey in growing into my own person without the physical presence of my dad. 

Something interesting that I found while further researching Nick Drake and his own life was his tombstone. Lying in the Tanworth-in-Arden churchyard, it is engraved with the epitaph “Now we rise/ And we are everywhere.” These are lyrics from From the Morning, which was the last track on his final album, Pink Moon. 

[Picture from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Drake]