Fire and Water Records: A Very Daly Father’s Day

Fire and Water Records is back with a brand new special episode: A VERY DALY FATHER'S DAY. The brothers Neil and Ryan Daly reminisce about their father's passion for rock, folk, punk, and Motown, and reflect on how the music he played during their youth influenced the men they would become.

Listen to the A Very Daly Father's Day playlist on Spotify.

Track list

  1. “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” by Neil Young
  2. "Racing in the Street” by Bruce Springsteen
  3. “Lodi” by Creedence Clearwater Revival
  4. “Here Comes My Girl” by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
  5. “Zero” by Smashing Pumpkins
  6. “Don’t Let it Bring You Down” by Neil Young
  7. “Needle and the Damage Done” by Neil Young
  8. “Change Your Mind” by Neil Young
  9. “Glad Tidings” by Van Morrison
  10. “Caravan” by Van Morrison
  11. “Moondance” by Van Morrison
  12. “10th Avenue Freeze-Out” by Bruce Springsteen
  13. “Born to Run (Live at Giants Stadium)” by Bruce Springsteen
  14. “Drive All Night” by Bruce Springsteen
  15. “Life During Wartime” by Talking Heads
  16. “Trying to Get to Heaven” by Bob Dylan
  17. “Twistin’ the Night Away” by Sam Cooke
  18. “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” by Marvin Gaye
  19. “Rapture” by Blondie
  20. “Too Much Time On My Hands” by Styx
  21. “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” by Elvis Costello & The Attractions
  22. “Metal Firecracker” by Lucinda Williams
  23. “Into the Great Wide Open” by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
  24. “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash
  25. “Train in Vain” by The Clash
  26. “Tumbling Dice” by The Rolling Stones
  27. “Never Going Back Again” by Fleetwood Mac
  28. “Go Your Own Way” by Fleetwood Mac
  29. “Baby I’m a Star” by Prince
  30. “Helpless” by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
  31. “Wild World” by Cat Stevens
  32. “Heaven” by Talking Heads
  33. “Heart of Gold” by Neil Young

Let us know what you think! Leave a comment or send an email to: RDalyPodcast@gmail.com.

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Thanks for listening!

12 responses to “Fire and Water Records: A Very Daly Father’s Day

  1. Wonderful episodes guys. I think a lot of kids would love to have a dad as “cool” as yours. I know all things are relative, but your dad does sound very cool.

    My Dad is a finger-style guitarist in the vein of Merle Travis and Chet Atkins, and also heavy into Bluegrass, idolizing Bill Monroe and the like. In the days before I was born, he’d been in a family band and played lots of gigs in this area. When he was in the army out in Washington state, he was asked to become a session musician, but he turned it down. I think he definitely had the talent to make a career out of it, but my Dad never wanted that. Too much of a rat race for him.

    So needless to say, I grew up with a lot of music in front and all around me. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really music that was “cool” to be into at all, and so I pretty much rebelled against it by never allowing myself to admit I DID like some country music. At least until I got into college and away from home. We did meet in the middle and enjoy country rock acts like the Eagles, and adjacent rock acts like Bob Seger, who we went and saw together in concert about 20 years ago. I took Dad to see finger-style virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel a few years back, and we were both blown away. And of course now we can both admit we like Johnny Cash, Willie and Waylon, Haggard, etc. We often have conversations about music, and graphic art, and we can relate to the similarities between the two. I took more after my Mom, and was the one Franklin male who never picked up an instrument, instead grabbing a pencil. Black sheep!!!

    Again, great episode fellas!

    Chris

    1. Very cool story. I think Ryan and I saw a lot of concerts with our dad too, including going to that Route 91 festival in Vegas the year before the horrible shooting. Like you, there are musical styles and genres I didn’t think I’d like as a kid but sure do appreciate now. That’s cool that you had that same connection thru music. And props to your dad for being a “picker!” Thanks for sharing.

  2. This is, by far, the greatest podcast I’ve ever listened to. I had tears in my eyes. I laughed, I cried, I went to the bathroom twice because it’s so long. Nice job, boys. You made me proud.

  3. Well done gentlemen on, perhaps, your very best Fire and Water Records ever. It was great to hear the stories and memories you shared and how influential your dad was on your music tastes. Those memories echo stories I had with my dad. It was the same thing in our house where we generally had music on most of the time. In fact, my dad told me once told me his story of when he first moved out on his own, he started buying albums before he had a record player. He liked music that much.
    While my mom liked the popular music of her day, my dad listened to a bunch of stuff from James Last Non-Stop Dance Hits and Nana Mouskouri to Herb Alpert and Blind Faith. There was a lot of stuff that wasn’t “cool” to me and my brother but as I started to get older and really listened to these albums, I could see how my dad liked whatever he liked and didn’t care what anyone else thought. I can appreciate a lot of that music now.
    Thanks again for the great memories and stories! Keep up the great work!

  4. Dammit, is this the greatest show on the network?

    I loved this show so much. I think your dad is fantastic for sharing his jams with you.

    And thanks for the mention. My ghost looms large!

  5. Very nice, and I like that your dad actually did listen and comment.

    In my houses, it was all classical on my dad’s side, and his poppier inclinations were basically playing the tape that CAME WITH THE CAR STEREO, I shit you not! I remember songs like Blue Bayou and Strangers in the Night from on there. He could not abide our music. I supposed the 60s and 70s European divas and crooners had a role to play, because Jos Dassin, Dalida and Nana Mouskouri were in heavy rotation, but I always felt like those were OUR records.

    But most of the time, we lived with our mother and played her vinyls and cassettes to the breaking point. I won’t bore you with the French-language selections, or that odd Abba album in Spanish, but it from her tastes, it was mostly classic rock’n’roll from the ’50s.

  6. At first I thought I was going to compare fathers, since mine also has anecdotes about reel-to-reel quadrophonic sound systems and a wide breadth of taste in genres, with a CD collection spanning the 1920s until whoever was playing the morning shows last week. But then you guys kept going, into the Rolling Stone memorization and actually being a capable guitarist and presumably not being an infamous font of unintentional misinformation. Plus, I can actually get mine to show up for a recording.

    My own inherited tastes are a hodgepodge. I got my love of Elvis from my mother, as well as a lot of AM country and late 70s/early 80s crossover stuff. My grandmother’s favorite was Fats Domino, and she probably helped guide me toward early ’50s rock n’ roll. My stepfather was a big ’50s & ’60s pop & soul guy, plus he expanded my country exposure. My brother was into early rap and heavy metal, some of which rubbed off, though we contrasted more than most of my closer family members. My father wasn’t really a factor until well into my teens, since his ’70s AOR core was never my jam. Like your father, he often would hear something my brother and I were listening to, and guide us back toward influences. Other times, he’d drop a reference I didn’t get, then race to the stacks for remediation listening. He definitely helped broaden my knowledge and tastes, but he’s not as foundational as the rest for coming in so late. Also, he dismisses the ’80s & ’90s, and that’s where my heart and soul most sincerely resides.

    My father’s got more Neil Young albums than probably anyone else but the Beatles, but I’m just not that into him. We both like CCR, but parallel rather than related. Ditto Fleetwood Mac, Blondie, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Neither of us have much use for Bruce Springsteen. He likes Van Morrison, and I like a few singles. I don’t recall him having a lot of Dylan. He’s got a swell soul collection, but he’s oddly more of a funk/disco soul, surely conjuring memories of going full Studio 54 hedonist in his day. I bought him 50 Licks. He’s more of a Cat Stevens guy than I am. I randomly got a little bit into Styx because of my former business partner’s second husband dedicating “Babe” to her. I have no reason to believe he has any affection for Smashing Pumpkins, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, The Clash or Prince.

    1. I’m intrigued by what you call a hodgepodge because I fancy myself quite eclectic when it comes to music, and I wonder if, when one’s parents are essentially non-values (my dad stuck in classical, my mom in the pop of her youth), you can really go in one of three ways: Be like them in that you listen to your own stuff and just get mired in a certain genre/era/the mainstream forever. Be like them in that they never really cared about music, and you don’t either; whatever’s on the radio’s fine but you don’t care. Or feel free of actual influence and become an eclectic music lover, the medium for its own sake, like Dad Daly is.

      For me, I feel like my parents wanted to instill an interest in books, music and film from an early age, holding up examples they thought were great, and discussing themes etc. after the experience. I soon found out they didn’t know what they heck they were talking about, but they still transmitted those passions. My twisted soul then made me exceed theirs in taste and expertise.

      1. I’m running on too little sleep across too long of a day, and have been sitting here for a good 45 minutes trying to respond without even being able to grasp my own point. I’ve since given up on being relevant or cogent, but here’s what I wrote before throwing in the towel…

        I figure it all comes down to wiring. Lots of people love “music” without feeling the need to fully grasp what a genre is, much less individual songs/artists/etc. “This sound pleases me,” and they’re good. I’ve had to learn that’s nothing to disparage. I can rattle off most of Suzanne Vega’s discography from memory, but I have a limited capacity for human connection and struggle with bouts of outright anhedonia, so it’s no great trade-off. I mean, I enjoy deli meats, but I barely concern myself with brands, much less which plant processed it or what number of thickness it was sliced at or what spices were added. From that perspective, we’re the nuts for getting caught up in particulars. Unless Land O’ Frost is cutting me a check or I’ve got a gig at the House of Blues, where is the objective requirement for an allocation of fecal matter to be distributed?

        That said, critical assessment exists to make art better, and art exists in part to show people how to humanity better. Our fascinations are not without value, but it’s certainly debatable whether an excellent reviewer provides more positive societal impact than a passable street musician.

        I used to be really passionate about music, but I never concerned myself with the details of it the way I did with comics. Leave it to me to decide to invest the most mental real estate to the least valuable artistic arena. I definitely know comics way better than my father knows music, but I also chose a smaller pond, and he probably spends as much time listening to and appreciating music as I do holding comics against a white hot flame. Music was also a communal thing– something to share and have shared with me by friends, acquaintances, and family. Not so long after I started blogging is when I stopped engaging heavily with music. It also happened around the same time I started my longest term domestic relationship and switched from befriending co-workers to maintaining a professional distance. I still love music and have lots of thoughts on it when inspired, but I’m doing the thing I’m apparently going to do with my life, so I don’t feel the well of emotional need for it that was once present. I don’t listen to it when I’m reading or writing anymore, with my listening time devoted to podcasts. I hit a wall where I ran out of music that I needed, so I don’t worry about it as much as I used to. My father still holds it as a passion, so he’s still listening and acquiring, and I admire that without really envying it.

        1. It was relevant and cogent, if it’s any comfort.

          My path is weird anyway because I ended up working in radio, but even in my teens, with limited resources (because everything went into comics haha), I was already into musical discovery, and that indeed became my talent in radio – finding interesting music to play, in any genre, from any country/language (I was the reference for “international music” for a while there after doing a show devoted to it). I think Ryan is the master of the needle drop on the Network, so adept at thinking of the exact right song to fit the moment, while I fall on my researching skills to find proper cues (as on oHOTmu or NOT) and not coincidentally, they’re often things neither you or I have heard before. That’s just how I’m “wired”. Some people fall into YouTube holes with meme content, YouTuber shows, etc. 90% of my YouTube consumption is music, usually letting mixes roll on. Maybe that should be a show. (Hey, if Ryan can do a sports show, I can dare to drop French song fragments on the FW airwaves, right?)

          That said, all the technical and historical trivia stuff, I don’t really care about that for most artists – no room on the wetware hard drive with all that comics, Trek and Doctor Who floating around in there – I’m almost strictly into it for lyrics and music.

  7. At last the Daly boys are talking about music that I’ve heard! I think that I am closer to Dad Daly in age than I am to Neil, so my musical tastes skew towards the elder Daly. Pops Daly sounds like the coolest older brother of all of my friends. The guy who “knew!” I’m envious of the constant equipment upgrades! The thing that really stuck me from this marvelous conversation was Neil’s apparent disinterest in the music! Do you meant tell me, Neil Patrick Aloysius Brendan Daly, that you shared a bedroom with your Da’s copious collection recorded vinyl and barely scanned the contents?! It seems that you’d discover a song or artist outside the house, tell your old man, and he’d go to your room and show you that record! Were they off limits? Were you afraid you’d mess up the order? Where did you hide your girlie mags?
    Despite my unfamiliarity (or indifference) with most of the acts you’ve spotlighted on this podcast, I really admire your broad tastes in music! I also admire you Mom who allowed Patrick to keep buying audio equipment. My wife is not so understanding!

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