Daughter
A Christmas Miracle Of Musical Proportions
Happy New Year. And happy first Sunday of the month!
I have a wonderful story to tell you. Possibly extremely niche and only of interest to me and five other people (not unlike my entire first album!) but worth the risk of a few unsubscribes. I’m just not sure whether to tell it from the back or the front. Backstory vs The Big Reveal… Maybe I’ll bump my way through the preamble like a child with a camcorder and then find a tripod in time for the punchline. Ok here goes:
A tequila-fuelled night out in Shoreditch circa 2009… a name I only remembered because it rhymed… a song that pre-existed the crush I wrote it about… a time when music start-ups were actually exciting… the rooftop of SoundCloud HQ in Berlin… the rooftop of Spotify in NYC… the day after Brexit… golden hour in China Town… transatlantic migration… lockdown weddings… and a swift fast forward to a Christmas Party at our new/old friends’ Matthew & Kaye’s house.
I should probably mention that travelling to this party from NW to SE London with a toddler felt like traversing the Amazon. Jungle not Prime. The kind of journey in which you very almost turn back half way because it’s raining so hard and the bus has too many buggies and what about the long way home… Luckily we did not turn back. Luckily as soon as we entered that warm house of fine wine and penguin toothpick holders I knew it would all be worth the Uber we were obviously going to order later.
And then we spotted Kaye’s guitar.
You play guitar? Oh your dad plays guitar? He’s a musician? What’s the band called? What a nice vinyl cover! Japan? Solo? Which song is that? Wait what… Loudon Wainwright covered his song??
[Mind racing:]
But Loudon Wainwright only has one famous song that he didn’t write himself…..
A song that has a permanent place in my family’s pop charts……
The song my sister and I sang for my father’s 70th birthday……
A song about fathers… and daughters……
The song I fell in love with all over again when I became a parent…..
A song so perfect…… could it be???
[Tripod, zoom, focus:]
Daughter in the water…? I ask with trepidation, already overwhelmed by the prospects.
Kaye, smiling bashfully, points to herself with both index fingers.
Upon confirming that her father did indeed write this mythological song, and simultaneously realising that she herself was the immortalised daughter in the water, I burst into tears.
At which, not yet familiar with tears of joy, or his mother’s overly emotional relationship to (certain) songs, our concerned toddler also bursts into tears.
Ladies & Gentlemen, if you have never heard - or want to revisit - this songwriting masterpiece, here is ‘Daughter’ by Peter Blegvad, as recorded by Loudon Wainwright III…
And if you’re curious as to who the water daughter grew up to be, you can follow her beautiful illustrations, artwork and jewellery on instagram: @kayeblegvad
I was toying with the idea of committing to writing a new song each month of this year — probably more for my motivation’s sake than for your enjoyment — but at the moment everything I try to write slowly bends itself towards a song I already wrote. I wish it didn’t feel even more tragically relevant now in 2024 than it did back in 2022. I’ll try to redeem my reputation as an uplifting songwriter (or any kind of songwriter!) in time for February. For now, as we apprehensively enter the new year, and in keeping with the parent-child theme, I hope it’s okay to copy-paste this late night demo…
Lullaby In Hard Times:
Lastly, after various complaints from loyal subscribers that it is near impossible to find specific demos or covers or chapters in my cavernous archives, I’m proud to say I have finally ORGANISED my two years of Substack back-catalogue into beautifully labelled tabs at the top of the homepage! (thanks for the tutorial
). In the words of aforementioned toddler who cannot yet pronounce the letter L… “Have a Yook!” » lailarad.substack.com
So nice!
2 things I would like to add.
1. I first knew of Peter Begvad as a great cartoonist/ illustrator - like his daughter in the water. Still missing his weekly page in the Independent on Sunday.
2. l’m sure you remember , Lail, meeting Loudon after his gig (of course he sang Daughter) where I said to him ‘and here’s my daughter… she grew up on your songs..’
and he responded ‘She turned out al’right!’
Those sections are looking SHARP