Even the coolest of dads are an embarrassment!

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

The Pope’s Children amongst us will remember Lloyd Cole as the epitome of cool – a singer/songwriter with the soul of a poet and a singular ability to name-check Norman Mailer in a song about rattlesnakes.

Lloyd has morphed into a middle-aged man very comfortable in his own skin – and while he hasn’t enough chart success since the demise of the Commotions – he is currently producing some of the best material of his career.

And while he may have a touch of what is known as furniture disease – his chest is starting to slip into his drawers – and the grey is allowed to flourish on his famous black thatch, he still radiates a certain charisma on stage that makes him a lot cooler than the average 54 year old.

Unless, it appears, you’re his son.

Will Cole – the 21 year old who is a fine musician in the making in his own right – has toured extensively with his dad, creating an interesting familial dynamic and a wonderful, laid-back sound.

It’s just the two of them on stage, as the father goes through the stories behind Lost Weekend or Heartbroken or Rattlesnakes – and young Will hangs his head with the same mix of embarrassment and mortification as all sons adopt when the old man starts droning on with his war stories.

He boasts the same long hair that his father had back in the day, an attribute that allows him to let it hang down over his face like a curtain to separate him from the world in front of the stage.

Perhaps it’s a complete exaggeration to think he’s anything other than in awe of his street-smart father.

But believing that gives us fellow fifty-somethings a life buoy to cling to; that even cool dads like Lloyd Cole aren’t icons of sophistication and style in their own family circles.

And even if we were once the fashion and culture icons of a generation, we probably need a smidgeon of help if we’re to have any chance of retaining our street cred into our silver years.

Young Will has tried to educate old Lloyd in the ways of the world, by recommended new music and television shows for him to latch on it – things like Curb Your Enthusiasm, apparently, and Orange is the New Black – and they clearly enjoy each other’s company.

But watching them on stage at the Westport Festival – admittedly two years ago when Will was barely out of his teens – you just sensed that even pop stars eventually just morph into old people in the eyes of the next generation.

So we think we’re cooler than our parents ever were; more aware of the world around us, more liberal and yet more streetwise, more in touch with the youth of today.

And our teenage sons see old men with grey – or no – hair, expanded waistlines, appalling dress sense, full of stories and old guff.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.