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View Full Version : Old rockers never die......


StoneDragon
September 17th, 2000, 07:44 PM
..... they just get more desperate for a gig.

Friday night I met a keyboard player who said he was going down to one of the local watering holes to play on their piano. I didn't even know that this particular dive had a piano... more or less that they would let some rock and roll guy come in and bang on it.

I was intrigued, so followed along.

This guy just walks in, asks the barkeep if he can play the piano, orders a beer, sits down at the piano (what looks to be a very old run down piano bar) and starts banging out tune after tune and singing at the top of his lungs (no mic).

To my surprise, this guy is GOOD! He's whipping out everything from old Beatles tunes to Hank Williams to Steely Dan to Ozzy Osbourne... yes you read right... he pulled off Mr. Crowley, complete with a near note-for-note of Randy's solo PLUS accompaniment!!!!!

About this time, I'm thinking .o0(Damn, I wish I had my guitar!), but I'm not convinced that anybody would be too cool about me hauling in an electric guitar and amplifier. But I am blown away by this guy's ability to just go in there and start playing.

He decided to call it quits, so we walked over to another bar that usually has bands playing. To my disgust, they have turned the place into one of these Kareoke(sp) joints... now if anything could possibly be worse than Disco... this is it. So we tried another bar... this one had a pretty good sounding 3-piece, so we hung out for a couple of songs before deciding to go back to the first place so he can play some more.

Well... this time I got on the phone and called Cybe to see if she would grab my acoustic and bring it down so I can sit in with this guy. Now, I suck on acoustic... it just isn't my instrument, but I don't want to miss the chance to play with this guy so....

Along comes Cybe with my guitar and I end up spending the next couple of hours playing as hard as I can short of breaking strings just so I can be heard along with the piano. It was a blast!!!

Afterwards, the guy turns to me and tells me that he is blown away that I could just jump in and follow him... then he asks me if I want to go on the road with him. Well I'm not in a position to be able to just drop everything and go on the road so we parted with the usual "give me a call sometime".

ghodaddyyo
September 18th, 2000, 09:19 AM
That was totally cool! What's funny to me, is the more I study, the better at lead and accompaniment I've become. But do I know enough tunes to go rock the house for a couple of hours? Heck no. You are very brave just to get up there and do this.

By the way, Mr. Crowley is a great song! I remember learning the first solo in it and how good I thought I was..., until I tried the second solo. I haven't tried since.http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/frown.gif

StoneDragon
September 18th, 2000, 11:48 AM
Well... I didn't know most of the songs that he was playing. I had heard them before, but I didn't know the chords or anything. I was flying totally by the seat of my pants and drawing on every bit of theory and ear training that I have. That and keeping a close eye on his left hand saved my bacon.

bubba
September 19th, 2000, 12:44 PM
wow SD..that totally rocks..man, i am inspired to learn!! way to go dude http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/smile.gif