The Complete Package

How did I ever consider myself a complete musician when all I did was play the guitar?
No stage presence...see any movement?  Ha, no.
Sing? ...um, no.
All I did was play the guitar.

And I had the gall to laugh at those who did more than just play their instrument.
They were covering for their lack of virtuosity on the instrument by adding fluff.
I mean, Bruce is not a guitarist. Neither is Bob Zimmerman.
[rolling my eyes]
Funny how in retrospect you see how foolish you had been. Those with awareness to catch it while it is occurring - a special genius.

The soul has many outlets. For a musician it can be the execution of a piece, or the intricacy of the piece or the lyrics may touch you. The rhythm - just the drum line. Anything.
If you can combine outlets, the effect is extraordinary. Mythical, magical.
By adding to my repertoire, I have grown. Magic.
And it is a catching disease. It is infectious to those around you.

So I determined to start singing as well as play.
What changed  me was finding that combination turn on...completely by accident. A chance playing backup when the urge to sing overwhelmed me. Swaying about the stage, singing, playing. Heaven upon Earth.
The older I get, the less I worry about these urges, I just acquiesce to them.
Surrender to myself.

The song, 'Gloria,' is easy enough, and what possessed me to sing, I couldn't say.
I was just enjoying myself with the rest of the band. They were playing well. It was sounding good.
So I moved up to the mic in a typical George Harrison sharing the mic with Paul pose. Forty five degrees and a touch behind. Yes, it also surprised  the other guitarist. But it worked.

Like when I quit smoking cigarettes in 1987, is sounds harder than it turned out.
There is an element of patting your head while rubbing your stomach. But how hard was that?
A little practice and you are doing it.



What will I next take up?
Freedom, lack of boundaries is a very exciting thing.

To Earth Day - I vividly remember the day in high school, forty years ago...did I just say that?
We were given complete freedom to run the day - curriculum was in the hands of the student population for the day. To discuss what Earth Day meant and how we'd follow it along.
I sat in a room in which we talked of politics and the words new to us, ecosystems & ecology.

After we finished a friend took a Frank Zappa album and played Peaches En Regalia.
(Remember those incredibly horrid "portable" record players that were de rigueur in every high school?)
For the last forty years I have played that song in one form or another as a remembrance.
Ah Frank, you left too soon.