"Dad could fix anything. The only thing he couldn’t fix was getting sick." That line sums up Devon musician Dean McMullen’s emotional song about his father’s experience of Parkinson’s Disease.
The track, called The Only Thing, is part of an album that will be sold to raise money for Parkinson’s UK. The single will be released on Friday, September 18. Two further singles will be released in October and November, and the full album, called Part Two, will be out in December.
Dean’s father Adrian was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s Disease in 2011 when Dean was 18. His condition is now advanced.
In The Only Thing Dean recalls his childhood memories of his dad: playing games at home, going on outings in the car, and the fact that his father was always mending or repairing something.
He said: “Dad could fix anything – technically minded, endlessly resourceful and creative – he was a problem-solver. “Stacked around his garage – which he built himself – were projects and pastimes I couldn’t begin to understand. Give him any broken household item and in an hour it would come back working. “He built his own drones before drones were commonplace, he even attached cameras to them. If there was a problem, he worked out a solution.”
But when the illness took hold, that was one problem his dad’s skills and ingenuity could not overcome. In the song Dean describes his father as ‘getting lost’ as the disease progresses.
The single is accompanied by a video compiled from clips of cine film from the 1950s and 1960s. There’s footage of Adrian McMullen as a child and later as a young man, together with clips of Dean himself with his dad and the rest of the family.
In the lyrics Dean recalls ‘crawling in between the armchairs’ as a small child, with his dad pretending not to know he’s hiding there. He describes the family ‘driving through the country lanes to watch the stormy skies’, when a clap of thunder makes Dean’s mum jump and young Dean in the back seat laughs at her reaction.
The song continues: “What I’d give to go again, just sit with you for an hour or two, like I did when I was ten.”
The album as a whole explores illness, growing older, unfinished conversations, and the acceptance that ‘some things can’t be fixed’. Dean wrote the songs over several years and mainly recorded the music at home.
When the album is released in December, there will be a limited run on eco-conscious vinyl with all the profits donated to Parkinson’s UK. Fifty per cent of digital sales from Bandcamp will also be donated.
Dean said: “I hope the music resonates with the increasing number of families affected by Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions. “More than anything, I hope the project can raise awareness and money to support Parkinson’s UK in their incredible work supporting families and funding research.”
For further information on Dean’s music, visit https://linktr.ee/deanmcmullen
Devon Musician’s Album to Support Parkinson’s Charity