Thank You, Girl

From the Greensboro News and Record
Sunday, June 21, 2009
By Jeri Rowe
Staff Writer
Photo: H. Scott Hoffmann (News & Record)


GREENSBORO — The portrait of John Lennon hangs in the basement of Stan Bullock’s house.

It’s from his daughter, Amanda. She gave it to him last year for Father’s Day. She did it herself, in charcoal pencil, while lying on her living room floor, watching the 2007 musical, “Across the Universe.’’

It took her three days, and it’s beautiful. The detail. The shading. The capture — her capture — of John Lennon, defiant, arms crossed, in his New York City T-shirt, a pop culture pose as ubiquitous as Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe.

She gave it to her dad a few weeks after they performed for the first time together at Abbey Road on the River, one of the country’s biggest festivals honoring The Beatles.

“I don’t feel like I’m done,’’ she told him, handing him the portrait. “But here you go.’’

“Mandie,’’ her dad responded, sounding surprised. “You did this?’’

The drawing is now framed and matted, hanging amid Stan’s collection of everything John, Paul, George and Ringo. Her gift celebrates her father’s gift to her.

But this is where it gets interesting, particularly today on Father’s Day.

“It hasn’t always been peaches and cream between us,’’ she says.

A father and daughter. Not getting along. Imagine that.

Stan traveled a lot while he ran his own independent insurance agency and performed as a drummer in all sorts of places — close to home and as far away as Liverpool, England.

He exposed Amanda to The Beatles all the time. He even sang the group’s tune, “Little Child’’ to her as a child.

But that was a long time ago. She later forgot her dad’s music because, well, it was her dad’s.

But as Amanda grew into a teenager, she discovered the heartache of love and crushes. And she rediscovered her dad’s music.

The Beatles sang about her feelings, her thoughts. So, three years ago, after she graduated from Grimsley High, her dad asked her if she wanted to go to Abbey Road on the River in Louisville, Ky. She jumped.

He performed; she watched; she began to understand.

She saw her drummer dad, not as the adult, but as the 9-year-old boy, living in Winston-Salem, watching “The Ed Sullivan Show’’ mesmerized by the four young Englishmen from Liverpool.

The following year, when her dad picked up the guitar, he asked if she’d sing with him. She did. She had performed in community theater, and she had taken a voice class at UNCG that year.

She felt confident. It showed.

Then came this year. And a bigger stage.

Again, it was Abbey Road on the River. She mentioned to her dad about performing the soundtrack to “Across the Universe,’’ an inventive musical that uses the music of The Beatles to frame a love story.

He bit. He recruited musicians, including one from Russia. She was Alyona Yarushima, the 25-year-old daughter of a Russian rock star. He had performed with her during Beatle Week in Liverpool, and he wanted Yarushima to sing — with his daughter.

It happened last month over the Memorial Day weekend. Amanda stood in the wings of the festival’s big stage, pacing and forth in her feather earrings and hippie dress.

Before she stepped on stage in front of at least 5,000 people, she kept telling herself, over and over: “I’m going to knock it out!’’

She must’ve. After Amanda sang “I Want to Hold Your Hand’’ and played tambourine and sang backup, a little girl named Rachel came up to her, hugged her and gushed, “I’m coming to your next show!’’

Then, there’s Amanda’s dad. During their four shows that long weekend last month, he played the drums about 20 feet from her and watched her glance back, smiling at him, her dimples creasing her cheeks.

“It’s a wonderful thing,’’ Stan says.

They will perform again, maybe later this summer in Greensboro, definitely next year at Abbey Road on the River.

But whenever that happens, they will get what Stan calls the “Beatle Bubble,’’ that feeling of peace and love. And they will get it together, these two people from different generations who once were hardly close.

Not anymore.

“I feel like we’re closer than we’ve ever been,’’ said Amanda, 21, a rising senior at UNCG. “We’re doing the same thing, making music that people enjoy. They’re dancing, smiling and I love to make people feel like that. He does, too.

“So, I realize we’re more alike than I thought,’’ she continued, “and that has helped me understand more things about him and our lives.

“I don’t know, but it seems like a good thing.’’

A good thing? When you ask Stan, her 54-year-old father, about that, he quotes the last line The Beatles sang as a band:

“In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.’’

And today, on Father’s Day, that seems pretty appropriate.