The first time I heard of “Raindrops”, our drummer (Pat Nuthall) was trying to sell us on it because his older brother (“who sang in a band in Houston”) loved that song. Said brother was a pathetically stereotyped greaseball right out of the ‘50s who thought “Magic Carpet Ride” (Steppenwolf) was recorded at the wrong speed and milk in plastic cartons was poisonous. Seriously, when they sung a few lines, I thought they were handing me a bad jokeHopefully today will have two entries, before and after my first real gig in two months. Check back later this evening. Meanwhile, I’ve pushed ahead with more of Genie’s material. It all has that characteristic of AM stations, where the music is nice, but you have to listen to it a lot before you like it. And who has time for that? None of it has the instant bite like a new CCR tune [would have today]. I remember when people phoned me from Hawaii to hurry turn on the radio because Doobie Brothers just released “Long Train Running”. And you knew it was a hit after hearing two notes.
I have one complete set of new material for this evening, all of it from this decade, I might add. I’ll try it on the crowd but regardless, it stays part of my inventory. The important thing is that it is new and represents a 25% turnover in my music. That compares well with the original “Not Half Bad”, where I was also firmly in charge. That band was normally a trio because Robynette did not play. We went through six guitar players, each time the difficulty was them trying to take over the song list. Behaving as if everybody else’s role was providing backgrounds for their lead breaks.
Mind you, that is also the era I learned two important things. I believe I was the first to state (and publish) that lead players are not necessary. And, it was then I learned to play bass in a way that covers up for a bad guitarist. To this day, there is still one guitar type I cannot mesh with. These are the “soloists” who over-strum behind their vocals. They have not learned that won’t work in most other settings. When a lead break arrives, their fancy rhythm suddenly drops out and they are picking single notes to a bass line. It sounds thin and reedy, yet they won’t agree to a drum machine that would at least keep the chop going because that would distract from their greatness.
I put in a half day at the shoe shop, it’s pretty amazing some of the things we fix over there. I was late getting in because as I biked up 7th Street, I find a kid wondering in the middle of the road. My guess is between 2 and 3, and nobody in sight. I held out my hand so she would take it, but she would not say her name or point “Where’s mommy?” It happens that 7th is one of those streets deserted most of the day, so I figured she must have wondered away. I walked her up the street to see if she’d recognize anything. Finally, I was just about to dial for help and I heard a lady’s voice.
Did you know Broward County finally made top in the nation at something? You bet, and although I may not have the figures exactly right, I’m close. Around 10,600 people had 4,550 houses foreclosed during August. Isn’t that around 5% of the all the houses in the territory? It will take around six months for those properties to begin hitting the market. Watch what that does to prices, just like I predicted five years ago. Predicted here. In writing. Yes, prices were still going up, but nobody could say when it would stop, and that is why I kept out of the market. Now low prices, I can say right away what’s low enough. Bwaaaaa-ha-ha-ha-ha. (Remember the bet I have about getting a three bedroom, three bathroom on Los Olas Blvd for $5,000.)
Eddies got a cast on his arm for the next six weeks, that is, until October 24th. Then again, Jimbos got treated to a one-hour bass & vocals show, and it was clearly unlike anything anybody has seen before. To dispel any ideas that I had a trained audience, note that there were plenty of new faces in the crowd and they were finding the show irresistible. I need more audience microphones. The drum box that I still do not have would have made things better, as I mentioned Eddie still drops measures. I’m waiting for the box to go on sale over at Guitar Center.
The set was CCR, John Prine and Jimmy Buffet. Present in the audience were clearly some guitar players and they were mildly astonished. I always like it when that happens. That look that changes from “it can’t be done” to “these guys are actually doing it”. There can be no doubt now that my theories work and that the bass-vocal act will form at least part of all future shows. I think it even took Eddie by surprise. There is far more to this bass show that it seems. You can’t just get up there and play the bass line, for the audience would not recognize the tune or be able to sing along like they do.
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