It was a play about a boxer grappling with the existential feelings of defeat.” “He told me the record we have isn’t just a song, it’s a whole entire one-act musical called ‘Our Boy’ that he wrote at the age of 22 and not only that, he wanted my grandfather to be the lead. “I already knew I wouldn’t be able to find an email for John so I got in touch with a relative of his and a few days later I had an email from the man himself,” he revealed. With that, Ashrawi set about making contact with his grandfather’s former flame. “To my amazement, the answer was yes! 94 years old,” wrote Ashrawi. I needed to know more,” he added.Īshrawi then turned to the internet to see what he could discover, beginning with whether or not John was still alive. I put the record on and listened…some very moody piano solos, it sounded theatrical. “My mom told me it was a song John had written for Grandpa. Mummers ’51” and was signed by John Kander. It was a record with a handwritten label that said “Our Boy. “I always thought that was so cool, that grandpa and this guy Kander were in love, but during the pandemic, I noticed something on a bookcase,” he said. “They also wrote the theme song for a 1977 Scorsese film called New York, New York originally sung by Liza Minnelli Frank Sinatra would immortalize it a few years later,” he continued.Īshrawi then detailed how he made an incredible discovery. John wrote the music and Fred wrote the lyrics.” One was called Chicago, and the other was Cabaret. “After college, John, along with his partner Fred Ebb, would go on to compose two of the greatest Broadway musicals of all time. “His name was John Kander,” revealed Ashrawi. It wasn’t until his grandfather had passed away that he learned who that boy was - and so much more about his grandfather in his college years.
“My Grandpa Dave told me he was sure he was gay when he was moving into his dorm room freshman year of college and there was a boy ‘with the prettiest eyes,’” Ashrawi began. The love story thread has been liked almost 200,000 times. Sama’an Ashrawi, music producer and host of The Nostalgia Tapes podcast, is used to telling other people’s stories, but on Sunday he opened up about a more personal one - his grandfather’s gay love story - on Twitter.