A Short History of My Musical Career

[Lightning Rod]

A Short History of My Musical Career

When I was about five
the toy xylophone
the mallet had batteries in the handle
I played The First Noel

Then in my grandmother's attic
I found the old Silvertone
Sears & Roebuck guitar
once belonged to my uncle
had been aging like whiskey
under dry Texas eaves
since 1945

It was an old arch-top instrument
they don't build them that way anymore
thank god
the strings stood about a half an inch
above the neck
I couldn't make a note

So I removed the arch and took the larger piece out
and just put the nut back in
now the strings were too low
so I put a nickel and a dime under each side
perfect action
I called it my thirty cent guitar

In those days everybody played the guitar
If you couldn't at least play the bass line for Satisfaction
you were a social retard.

Ah, my first wind instrument, the clarinet.
I had signed up for the band, sixth grade
Benny Goodman was my hero
I had seen the Steve Allen movie
we both wore glasses

But I had no clarinet.
The first day of band practice
and I had no clarinet
I sat in the school cafeteria at lunch
brooding because I had no clarinet
there was a nudge on my shoulder
I looked up to see my mother
she had a case in her hand
It was a brand new Normandy clarinet
I showed up at the first rehearsal, instrument in hand.
I was in the band

I was forced to learn music
I mean the reading and writing kind
It was just another type of arithmetic
math with colors

I marched in the school band until I broke my tooth
the inside corner of my front incisor
it was a pool accident, left a nerve dangling
the clarinet became torture for me
the vibrating mouthpiece on my naked nerve
like fingernails on a chalkboard
plus I hated marching band

I went back to the guitar
I didn't change the strings on that old Silvertone
for two years. I would scour them down with a Brillo pad
when they got too rusty to make the notes.
I had my Bob Dylan Songbook.

In college, my room mate
hijacked my musical sensibilities with Coltrane
and Sun Ra and Miles Davis and Roland Kirk
Pink Floyd didn't help and there were these new things called synthesizers.

Enter: The Flute

Ok, none of the following really happened
but it seems as if it did
A big green peyote-headed monster-god named Mescalito
hit me in the head with a flute and said,
"Here kid, figure this pipe out."
And he handed me the flute.

The fingering was no problem, much like the clarinet.
It was the embechure that gave me problems.
I know, its just like blowing into a bottle
but yoga had taught me the importance of breath and it's subtleties.

I spent ten hours a day for the next three years
wore out two Gemeinhart flutes
by way of taking Mescalito's challenge
now the flute is my signature.
Did any of this happen? Maybe.

Oh yeah, the piano was in there somewhere.
I beat my grandmother's spinet to death.
a spastic theolonius. It's the mother of all instruments.
It's all right there in front of you in black and white.

In my next life, I'll play the violin.

but for now it's the flute

[firsty]

nice.

[stilltrucking]

there was a nudge on my shoulder
I looked up to see my mother
she had a case in her hand
It was a brand new Normandy clarinet

I can't remember his exact words but yabyum had a poem with the line:

"I know the location of every crumb of happiness that has fallen through the cracks"

Thank you Clay and
Thank you for the Music
it made my morning

[stilltrucking]

I learn from you Clay. I would have gone off on a long digression about how I felt when she gave me the clarinet. I like the way you left it out. Leave it up to the reader to go there.

[judih]

very cool
a raw nerve and look where it gets ya

thelonius knocks and pan shows up at the door

[mtmynd]

Growing up I hated the flute
yankee doodle dandy
fairy boys in the school band
blowing their flutes
gawd, it embarassed me
ignored anything flutey

but then as a teen
sixteen.. seventeen
exploring jazz
picked up an album:
herbie mann / live
at the village gate

flute was reinvented
new perception
new joys
new sounds that
whispered and tugged
whistled and caressed
impressed for life

and along came paul
paul horn in the great pyramids
stirring ancient egyptian souls
how could they not dig it?

yeah! hell yeah!
flute me... i still dig it
call me cuckoo
its still flute to me


TY, L'Rod... fly!

[mnaz]

In my next life I just want to play. Hell, I want to play now.

[hester_prynne]

Clarinet, you bet.
Me too, I blew....
when I'm 64,
crowd called out for more,

but it was all I knew,
so then whut did I do?

I did an improvise thing,
with my instrument of sing,

and well you know the rest,
I stuck with whut I did best.....

LOVE THIS LROD!!!!!
great read....

H

[Doreen Peri]

play me a tune......