By now, most everyone’s read or heard the story of my Daddy buying Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth” from the rental store’s inventory because we kept it checked out anyway.

But it was absolutely NOT in his cinematic repertoire. With him, I stayed up too late watching age-inappropriate horror, gore and psychological thrillers, and he personally preferred the Michael Bay approach to film: shoot ‘em up, blow ‘em up, save the day.

So… not David Bowie transforming into an owl to steal babies and entrap a teenage ingenue.

Inevitably, Daddy would always find something to disappear into when we started our umpteenth viewing, but I eventually caught on that if he reappeared, he’d always stick around for one song: “Chilly Down.”

Which just so happens to be the ONLY song on the soundtrack written but NOT performed by David Bowie.

(He could get into “Magic Dance” too, but I mean, who couldn’t?)

“Chilly Down” IS different from the others, though. It’s rhythmic, it’s riotous, and if you heard it on the same album as “Aqua Boogie,” you probably wouldn’t bat an eye.

So it’s no surprise at all to me that he’d hover in the doorway for that one song, every now and then stealing our attention by exaggerating his endearing nod in time with the Fireys losing their heads.

Even when it wasn’t his thing, if we liked it, he loved it—and did everything in his power to fill our little lives with whatever we desired, but especially his reassurance, laughter and brightly burning light.

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