What Gets Passed Down: A Music Blog

By Meghan Hirsch

I always joke that I don’t remember anything before the age of six, which is kind of exaggerated, but also kind of true. I was born and raised for the first few years of my life in Los Angeles, but I consider myself to be from Maine since I’ve spent most of my adolescence and now early adulthood there. As a self-proclaimed Mainer, it’s a little odd that one of my favorite songs is “Times Spent in Los Angeles” by Dawes, but let me explain. These lyrics

 

“Cause you got that special kind of sadness 
You got that tragic set of charms 
That only comes from time spent in Los Angeles 
Makes me wanna wrap you in my arms” 

are so melancholic and nostalgic to me, not because of my ties to LA itself, but to my parents. 

 

What do we get from our parents? On the surface, a few things: money, a place to live, food, hereditary diseases, our family tree, and physical features. Under those, there’s: sense of humor, mannerisms, likes, dislikes, beliefs, and pretty much everything that defines us.

 

I can see my parents in me in many ways, but this is a radio station, so let’s talk about music. 

 

For the first years of my life, we lived in Los Angeles so my dad could work in film. This time, though I barely remember it, was important. It’s where I learned to walk, to talk, and to exist.

 

 

The lyrics from the Dawes song “Times Spent in Los Angeles”, spoke to my dad for obviously nostalgic reasons. When I first heard them I was around thirteen and we lived in Maine, but I felt it, too. 

 

For my dad, it was an ode to those early days in LA, and for me it was a way to be closer to him. It became our song and Dawes became our band.  

 

To really understand how I ended up here, with a strange attachment to a Folk-Rock band from LA that not many people have heard of, we have to go way back. 

 

My dad is a bit older (sorry Dad) and grew up with The Beatles, The Doors, etc.  

 

He remembers when Lady Madonna came out in ‘68 and he rushed to buy the record. He played it over and over. He loved the piano.

 

His love for the Beatles (and that song) never stopped, and so, even as a kid, I loved them, too. I remember we both cheered when “The Beatles Channel” was added to Sirius XM.  

 

He was also a big Monkees, Doors, and Mamas and The Papas fan – really all things out of Laurel Canyon. This might have been part of the reason he was so drawn to LA and movies, who knows? Regardless, I liked them too. 

 

The melodies and yearning angsty lyrics spoke to me in a way that the current Pop hits couldn’t. Did I know anything about love, heartbreak, or betrayal? Absolutely not – but when I heard  

 

“She, she devoured all my sweet love 
Took all I had and then she fed me dirt 
She, she laughed while I was cryin’ 
It was such a joke to see the way it hurt” 

 

I was hooked.

 

My mom’s tastes are completely different, but I managed to inherit them, too. 

 

She likes Pop-y stuff, musicals, and things with a strong bridge. I do, too. From a young age, I could sing the entire Wicked soundtrack. “Dancing Through Life”, all 7 minutes and 37 seconds of it, sent me to another dimension. The insides of my mother’s Highlander bore witness to some of the greatest musical performances of all time.  

 

My mom also introduced me to Glee, which although I never actually watched (sorry gleeks) I did have the Wii karaoke game. I’d sit in our living room for hours, belting into the mic while my parents hid. It was awesome.  

 

I got into theater and dance in middle school, thanks to these early days of musicals and Glee. I didn’t stick with these hobbies, but managed to retain my flair for the dramatics and over-the-top facial expressions! 

 

The Beatles, Laurel Canyon Era stuff, musicals, and hits from Glee are still very much alive in my Spotify Wrapped each year (is that embarrassing? Probably), but Dawes remains a favorite.

 

When I listen to Dawes, I feel not only closer to my dad, but to my whole family, closer even to myself, if that makes sense. It’s like through Dawes and the lyrics and the nostalgia I’m both myself and also a collection of my memories and my parents’ too. Here are some lyrics from their song “A Little Bit Of Everything” that kind of sum it up.  

 

“It’s like trying to make out every word,  
When they should simply hum along,  
It’s not some message written in the dark,  
Or some truth that no one’s seen,  
It’s a little bit of everything.”

 

I’m a little bit of everything that my parents are, and they have a little bit of me, too. 

 

Lizzy Mcalpine recently covered this song (it’s a sad version, as you can probably imagine if you know her music). 

 

When I first heard her cover, I was living in New York City, feeling somewhat lonely. Everything that Dawes represented felt so far away. I sent the cover to my dad, and it made him cry (sorry Dad).

 

This was sad, but also reassuring. We were thousands of miles and many years away from our days in Los Angeles. Everything was different, but we still had a little bit of everything.