Friday, June 24, 2005

Going For A Song: Early Days 3

One night early in our musical life on the bar scene, we were on stage in the middle of making "Yellow Bird" an authentic
Caribbean song, when a bleached blonde woman came into the bar, and sat right in front of the stage. She proceeded then, to eye each of us, in turn, with her head cocked to one side, her blue eyes wide, and her over-painted lips blowing the smoke of her langourously held cigarette, in our direction. On stage, the three of us were totally aware of her presence, and were
wondering if this night would be the night when one of those stories we'd heard about what went on "beyond the music",
would unfold. The other customers, most of them paired away at their tables, had been to all intents and purposes, ignoring
us, as they used the low red lighting and alcoholic haze, to further their night's ambitions. This new found intense attention
was, therefore, very welcome, and caused us to turn up the volume on careless Caribbean moves, and casual asides to each
other. When we came off stage, a waiter approached us, saying that the woman in question wanted to buy drinks for us, and
pointed us in her direction, as if we didn't know where she was sitting. We each put on our false modesty faces and sauntered
over to her table, bracing ourselves for the compliments that were about to flow our way. We greeted each other and the
waiter brought the drinks. We toasted each other in courtly fashion, and then she leaned over very deliberately, looked me in
the eye and said: "Why do you guys play everything in three chords?". That remark set our musical careers back at least ten
years. Our egoes certainly weren't ready for such a critique so early on. In my case, in that remark, there was no
actknowledgement of the weeks of work I'd put in mastering G, D7th, and C. Anyway, it was a tribute to our fortitude, that
somehow, we managed to make it back on stage, fifteen minutes after that dagger to our dreams. and were able to fake it through a forty-five minute set, very much with our tails dragging. I am happy to report that I have achieved a fourth chord
since that deflating night, and have not run into any more dissectors of my musicianship, of this kind...............Quester.

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