Ray9
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2016
- 2,707
- 4,506
- 1,970
- Banned
- #1
It has been almost fifty years since I laid down my guitar, got a haircut and and a real job. In 1965 my cousin and I decided to start a rock band when we were freshmen in college. The Beatles were huge, and we wanted in. We grew our hair and went the whole nine yards. I had been playing since 1961 when the hootenanny days were in full swing and I got my first electric guitar in 1963. It was a piece of crap.
A local minister cosigned a loan for us, and we got two fender Mustang guitars, a Hoffman bass, A Super Reverb and a pro reverb amplifier, a Fender Bass Amp, some kind of electric organ-cannot remember the brand. Microphones and mic stands. One of our friends was an electrical engineering graduate and he built a PA system for us. That was 1966.
I quickly mastered the guitar and became the Eddie Van Halen of the city. We got tight as a band and had a lot of gigs for about five years. Unfortunately. my cousin got into drugs and went the San Francisco route-he died in 1972. I played professionally until about 1975 ending my career with the guy that wrote the song Candy Girl for the Four Seasons. He had a nightclub in the city and brought me to New York.
My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, got pregnant and instead of jailing me, they let me marry her in a shotgun wedding. The music was done. I laid the instrument down and never played another note.
When I get the new stimulus check I am going to use it to spend about $2500 on a new guitar, probably a Strat. I will have to learn to play again but I know I can still do it. I can still picture chord progressions in my head, and I have no arthritic health issues. It has been nearly fifty years since I have picked a string but I know in my heart I can still make music on that thing.
I have posted this picture before. It is me with my wife and friends in 1971: We are center she has a drink, I have a cig:
sorry about the quality, it is an old polaroid I found at my dad's house after he died in 2008.
A local minister cosigned a loan for us, and we got two fender Mustang guitars, a Hoffman bass, A Super Reverb and a pro reverb amplifier, a Fender Bass Amp, some kind of electric organ-cannot remember the brand. Microphones and mic stands. One of our friends was an electrical engineering graduate and he built a PA system for us. That was 1966.
I quickly mastered the guitar and became the Eddie Van Halen of the city. We got tight as a band and had a lot of gigs for about five years. Unfortunately. my cousin got into drugs and went the San Francisco route-he died in 1972. I played professionally until about 1975 ending my career with the guy that wrote the song Candy Girl for the Four Seasons. He had a nightclub in the city and brought me to New York.
My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, got pregnant and instead of jailing me, they let me marry her in a shotgun wedding. The music was done. I laid the instrument down and never played another note.
When I get the new stimulus check I am going to use it to spend about $2500 on a new guitar, probably a Strat. I will have to learn to play again but I know I can still do it. I can still picture chord progressions in my head, and I have no arthritic health issues. It has been nearly fifty years since I have picked a string but I know in my heart I can still make music on that thing.
I have posted this picture before. It is me with my wife and friends in 1971: We are center she has a drink, I have a cig:
sorry about the quality, it is an old polaroid I found at my dad's house after he died in 2008.
