This article may be a little different than you have gotten used to from Kevy Metal, but that is because something very drastic has happened recently. Just over two weeks ago, the most important man in my life, my dear father Fred Pasman, has passed away at age 70. Although he had been battling intense physical issues for nine years, his passing came relatively unexpected, and my mother, my sister, our cat, and myself are absolutely heartbroken. However, it feels like writing about the music we enjoyed together is the appropriate way to honor him on this site.

While my obsession with music rather than school was a point of contention during my teenage years, we ultimately bonded greatly over music, as well as ice hockey. It may help that a significant portion of the music I love to this day goes back to his youth rather than my own, but I will say that we mutually influenced each other through the years. Sometimes, music that he enjoyed came from the most unusual places. That is also what might make these stories interesting even if you didn’t know him.

I genuinely don’t know any bigger Supertramp fans than my parents. And out of the two of them, my dad is probably the bigger fan. ‘School’ was his favorite song of all time. It was a song all of us love – well, nearly all of us, my sister merely tolerates it – and it still surprises me that it’s only five and a half minutes long, given how much happens in it. The song was featured prominently in the service around his cremation, and I have to say it was perfect for it. That crying harmonica the song starts with cuts right through the soul, and my dad particularly loved how that middle section just keeps building, as well as the piano solo that followed. My favorite parts of the song are exactly the same.

When I ordered a new discman over a decade ago, my dad dropped by my office to give it to me. He had put an Udo Jürgens compilation album in it. He has always been a big fan of the Austrian singer. When it was certain that my dad was going to pass away shortly, my mother suggested playing ‘Immer Wieder Geht die Sonne Auf’ at his cremation. My dad could not possibly have overheard this conversation, but when we were listening to music he enjoyed the evening before he died, he spontaneously requested that song. Clearly the right choice. Maybe the positive message of the song – the title translates to “the sun always rises again” – was his parting message for us. And damn, those vocals are incredible.

Another request on that last evening was Christina Aguilera’s ‘Hurt’. It was quite a difficult song for us to hear that evening, as the theme is clearly a child expressing her regrets to a dead father. I’m not sure if this was a factor for him or if he just appreciates the downright marvellous vocal performance by Aguilera. I know a lot of people accuse her of just being able to sing at full force, but there is plenty of subtlety in her performance here. Also, I highly recommend everyone to check out ‘Back to Basics’, the 2006 double album the song is on. The second disc, which she wrote and produced with Linda Perry, focuses on soul and jazz from the first half of the previous century, making it one of the few great pop albums of its era.

My mom is a Rolling Stones fan, my dad a Beatles fan. It’s a miracle their marriage lasted nearly 46 years, isn’t it? Though The Beatles clearly were his favorite band growing up, we didn’t really catch him listening to them all that much. Still, he talked about The Beatles fondly, and when I was getting into fairly hard-rocking music as a kid, he did try to get me into them via the southern rock avant la lettre groove of ‘Get Back’. I think his favorite Beatles song may actually have been ‘A Day in the Life’, and with good reason; it’s a masterpiece. ‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’ was another clear favorite of his, and I remember him singing ‘Dear Prudence’ on more than one occasion. He hated ‘Revolution 9’ with a passion.

When I really got into Aerosmith around age 10, my parents decided to impart their musical wisdom on me. My mom introduced me to Led Zeppelin, my dad showed me Deep Purple, both of which I am a big fan of to this day. Apparently, when my dad got into Deep Purple as a kid, he used to show my grandmother an article about that noise actually being very intelligent and intellectually stimulating music to justify him listening to it frequently. Turns out we weren’t so different after all. His Deep Purple collection was actually quite interesting, owning all the official Mark III releases with David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes – including the underrated ‘Made in Europe’ live album – but not ‘Machine Head’. And yet, ‘Perfect Strangers’ is the one he has called a great song within my earshot most often.

Although Journey existed when my dad was young, they were never anywhere as big here in Europe as they are in North America. Part of the reason why is that they didn’t tour here very often; when we went to see them at the Arrow Rock Festival in 2006, it was their first Dutch concert since 1979. So perhaps surprisingly, it was actually me who introduced him to Journey, which started his long-standing love for eighties-style AOR, dubbed “Fredrock” in our household. While he enjoyed their hit songs, the deeper cuts were generally the ones he liked the most – apparently it runs in the family. ‘Mother Father’, ‘Live and Breathe’, and his absolute favorite ‘Higher Place’ were the ones he was most enthusiastic about.

Back in 2010, both my parents and I went to a Chris Rea concert in Amsterdam. It was probably the only concert I have ever attended where I was fairly sure it would have been exactly the same if there was no audience. Rea and his band seemed to mostly just experience joy playing together. To my dad, the clear highlight of the concert, and the ‘The Road to Hell and Back’ DVD he gifted me a few years prior, is the two-part performance of ‘The Road to Hell’. He just loved how the song just kept on building, especially from the point Sylvin Marc’s bass adds this huge bottom-end to the track. Personally, I would absolutely agree. This is Chris Rea’s masterpiece. Along with the 11-disc ‘Blue Guitars’ box set, of course.

Foreigner was the first true highlight at Bospop 2011. My dad was very fond of ‘Cold as Ice’, but I don’t think he was super familiar with much of their work. ‘Cold as Ice’ was the third song on the set – they opened with my personal favorite ‘Double Vision’ – but it was actually the fourth song ‘Waiting for a Girl Like You’ that evoked the strongest reaction from my dad. He hadn’t heard Kelly Hansen before, but when he hit the high notes in the chorus, my dad exclaimed: “Where the hell did they get this guy?” Bassist Jeff Pilson’s enthusiasm also drew praise from him, but since he asked me to copy Hurricane’s ‘Slave to the Thrill’ album so he can play it in the car, it was obvious that Hansen was the one who left a lasting impression.

For my birthday in 2012, my dad had a weekend planned during which we went to the Cuby + Blizzards blues farm in Grolloo and to the Scorpions exhibit at the rock’n’popmuseum in Gronau. There were several things that impressed him at the Scorpions exhibit, and I think it directly led to him buying a 3D Blu-ray player, plus, obviously, the ‘Get Your Sting & Blackout – Live in 3D’ Blu-ray. At the end of the year, we went to see the Scorpions live in Oberhausen. It was supposed to be their farewell gig, but that decision was already overturned by the time the concert took place. ‘Big City Nights’ is the song he always sang along the loudest in the car, and the Scorpions will always feel like the band he and I shared together.

While looking through my dad’s old photos for his memorial service, I came across a video I didn’t know he made at a Jeff Scott Soto gig we attended in 2014. It was about a minute out of ‘One Love’, which Soto originally recorded with the largely Swedish supergroup W.E.T., and since he recorded that song, it was presumably the one that impressed him the most. It certainly fits the Fredrock tag. Soto has been one of my favorite singers since forever, and my dad’s interest came from Soto briefly joining Journey in 2006. He would tell several friends how impressed he was that Soto’s band consisted entirely of fantastic singers, and he was right: the harmonies were spot-on. It’s a shame the concert wasn’t that well-attended, because it’s easily one of the best shows we visited together.

My dad’s most recent musical obsession was Rammstein’s ode to large-breasted women. He must have shown the video to everyone who would visit. He and I actually went through a similar journey from not liking Rammstein at all to their music suddenly clicking with us. For him, it was without a doubt hearing ‘Ich Will’ played at German ice hockey games, which he frequented from 2003 until he couldn’t anymore. ‘Rammstein in Amerika’ was probably the heaviest concert video he would actually ask me to put on. He loved their visuals and their sense of humor, the ‘Keine Lust’ video being another favorite of his, but the music as well. Just a few months ago, he told me how impressed he was by the composition and the arrangement of ‘Deutschland’, which I can only agree with.

The Japanese bands I listen to would consistently draw a combination of bewilderment and fascination from my dad. However, there was one band he was absolutely mad about, and that was Lovebites. Another band he would show to visitors just to see their reaction. It wasn’t just about them being different than their looks imply, though; he was particularly blown away by the guitar skills of Miyako and especially Midori. We actually have two copies of multiple Lovebites albums in the house, because he owned them as well. Whenever ‘Scream for Me’ would come on, he would tell me that he really liked that song halfway through the chorus as if it was the first time he ever told me that, so I think it’s fair to assume that it’s his favorite Lovebites song.

My dad started frequenting the ice hockey games of the Krefeld Pinguine in 2003, interestingly the first time they became the German champion in 51 years, which eventually introduced him to my favorite thing from Krefeld: Blind Guardian. He had ‘Memories of a Time to Come’ in the car, and he often wore a zip-up hoodie with the artwork of ‘A Traveler’s Guide to Time and Space’. He really liked their combination of bombast and high tempos. Obviously, I know that they have slower songs and full-on acoustic ballads as well, but whenever a Blind Guardian song he enjoyed came on, he would comment that it’s nice and fast. In all honesty, I don’t know what his favorite Blind Guardian song was, but given his preferences, ‘A Voice in the Dark’ seems appropriate.

While I’m not sure how Helene Fischer’s music entered my dad’s life, his frequent trips to Germany likely had something to do with it. People outside of the German-speaking world might not realize just how famous Fischer is. Her 2013 single ‘Atemlos durch die Nacht’ is arguably the biggest German-language hit of the twenty-first century. Fischer is known as the queen of schlager music, but frankly, if her music was sung in any other language, it would simply be considered pop music. Though I am not the biggest fan of her songs – which is why I picked a performance of a song made famous by Shirley Bassey, another one of my dad’s favorite singers – she has a fantastic voice, and seeing a documentary on her elaborate stage shows made me respect her greatly for being a consummate professional who takes her craft seriously.

It would be an oversight to not include anything from the rich musical history of The Hague, where my dad was born, and where he lived until age 41. Golden Earring is the most successful The Hague band, and he liked them a lot. Robbie van Leeuwen from Shocking Blue would frequently visit the post office where he used to work to post sheet music. The Koerts brothers from Earth and Fire, whose early albums feature excellent mellotron-driven prog, are apparently part of our extended family. But Q65 was his favorite The Hague-based band growing up. Their raw, rhythm and bluesy garage rock sound certainly made them something unique within the Dutch pop landscape of the mid-sixties. Fun fact for the average Kevy Metal reader: Q65 bassist Peter Vink would later play with Ayreon, Star One, Knight Area and Magoria.

One more bit of The Hague. An unusual one, but very important to us as a family. After surgery to remove a non-cancerous, but dangerous tumor from his neck left my dad’s walking ability severely impaired, he initially didn’t feel like doing much. Just over a year after the surgery, my mom and I convinced him to join us to a show from the reunion tour of Klein Orkest. It turned out to be a nice mix of a concert and the comedic theater performances singer/guitarist Harrie Jekkers had since become hugely popular with. The music of Klein Orkest was fairly typical of the Dutch-language pop scene of the early eighties, but their witty, romantic and/or socially engaged lyrics distinguished them. More importantly, it was the first time we had seen my dad enjoy something without reservation in a long time.

Throughout the last year and a half or so of my dad’s life, my parents and I would sometimes just put on a bunch of music all three of us enjoyed for about an hour when there was nothing else to watch, often on Monday evenings. Mostly rock music from the seventies, but The Black Crowes weren’t too much of a departure. My dad and I saw them live when they opened for Aerosmith in 1998, but I don’t think he ever dug into their work. After a handful Black Crowes songs, he simply asked: “Are The Black Crowes the most underrated band ever?” Can’t ask for a much clearer signal that he liked what he heard. I’m about eighty percent sure ‘Jealous Again’ was the song that prompted the question.

Another band we would often listen to on those Monday Evening Music Hours – capitalized to emphasize its importance – was Thin Lizzy. Mostly for my mom and me, admittedly, because despite Thin Lizzy having their best years when my dad was in his early twenties, he wasn’t all that familiar with them. However, he did often express surprise at how much he liked their music. Now, that didn’t surprise me at all; it’s pretty much exactly the sort of stuff he would like at the time. He liked a good riff, and he liked them better if they were part of a good song. And in my opinion, there haven’t been many better songwriters than Phil Lynott to this day. A relatively late discovery for my dad, but one I’m happy he still got to make.

One more Monday Evening Music Hours song then. My mom is actually the one into the Seattle rock bands from the nineties, and Alice in Chains classic ‘Would?’ is definitely one of her favorites. While that scene didn’t necessarily appeal to my dad, Alice in Chains’ unique sound apparently won him over. I remember one late night trying to fix his laptop, putting on one of their Rock am Ring sets, and him commenting that he never heard a rock band that sounds quite like them. In recent years, he started asking for “the guy in the orange shirt” whenever we were watching music videos. It took me a while to figure out which song he meant, but given my mom’s preferences – and my own – ‘Would?’ was never far away.

OverKill might actually be the band my dad saw live the most, starting with picking me up from a gig in Lemelerveld in 2002, where unbeknownst to me, he had entered the venue just after the show had started. He complained about the noise and asked for earplugs. I guess he got used to them over time, as he joined me to concerts at Dong Open Air in 2011, where my friend Big E (R.I.P.) let him watch the show from behind the lighting desk – which made him discover a craft he found fascinating – and in The Hague in 2012, where he ended up talking baseball with singer Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth for quite a while.

This video is taken from the ‘Live in Overhausen’ video, which was recorded at the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen in 2016, a gig we also attended. I haven’t found us in the footage, but my dad always gravitated towards the OverKill songs that leaned towards more traditional heavy metal. ‘Second Son’ seemed to be the appropriate one out of the officially available ones.

These songs will never sound the same to me, but I honestly feel lucky to have so many shared musical memories with my dad. It won’t make me miss him any less, but it does make these songs extremely valuable to me.