“My first record was Annie and I vividly remember singing ‘Tomorrow’ while it played on my orange plastic record player in my bedroom. I even took the record to school in a grand scheme—I had to sing it in front of my first grade class.”
“My teacher put the record on as I stood in front of my classmates, ready to sing with all the emotion I had felt while performing alone in my bedroom. I opened my mouth and the wheeziest, most tortured sound came out that I didn’t recognize. I told my teacher to turn off the music.
I stared at the picture of Annie on the album cover during the car ride home, realizing that what she and I shared had some kind of magic that could only happen in private. I continued my concerts at home, and it would be another 15 years before I could sing in front of people.
In 5th grade, I had my parents’ old record player in my room and obsessively listened to two records for years. One was The Mamas and the Papas’ Greatest Hits and the other was a Christmas record called The Little Drummer Boy by the Harry Simeone Chorale.
I listened to both no matter the time of year, usually at night when the lights were off. Something about both of those records made me both comforted and sad. They made me cry in a way that felt good. Making deals with myself on how much longer to listen, I would crawl quickly out of bed to turn the record over or turn it off.”
—Cashavelly Morrison
Cashavelly Morrison’s The Kingdom Belongs to a Child arrives in stores on October 30. On vinyl.
