THE 28-YEAR PLAN
In the summer of 1978, my old band the Back Street Kids rented the cellar of a pre-school. (Looking back, these places must have been a forerunner to daycare, which wasn't so prevalent back then.) NEVER rent the cellar of your pre-school to long-haired dirtbags. We regularly drank the children's fruit punch from the fridge. Well, it was hot, and we had to walk through the kitchen to get to the cellar.
It was dark, damp and devoid of oxygen down there. It smelled like Eau de Cheap Motel Room. Everything we owned was spotted with mold by the end of that summer. On the first day, I hung a poster; by the last day, the image had faded!
We rented the cellar to rehearse because we decided to get serious about our music. We were finally gonna PLAY A CLUB. (It only took us another 11 years to achieve that goal.) Karch wasn't with us when we picked the place out, nor when we paid the entire summer's rent up front. I agreed to front Karch's share ($25 in 1978 money) until the next time I saw him. (I still haven't seen the money, though he's certainly paid me back in Mike's Hard Lemonades since then.)
We decided that Foghat's live version of "I Just Want to Make Love to You" would be a real crowd-pleaser at the clubs. It's a long song with a lot of parts. We painstakingly taught it to ourselves. We did this by borrowing my sister's portable turntable and putting the needle down on each part as we learned them. (This was before CD players and pause buttons.) I can still smell the stink of mold as we crowded around that little girlie turntable listening to Lonesome Dave Peverett wail, "I don't want you to wash my clothes ... I don't want you to keep a home ..."
Learning "I Just Want to Make Love to You" was just about the only thing we achieved in that cellar (although my brother and I frequenly came close to putting each other's eyes out by flinging still-lit cigarette butts at one another). We've never played the song in a club. We plan to OPEN with it on Nov. 3rd -- another goal achieved. THIS one only took 28 years.
It was dark, damp and devoid of oxygen down there. It smelled like Eau de Cheap Motel Room. Everything we owned was spotted with mold by the end of that summer. On the first day, I hung a poster; by the last day, the image had faded!
We rented the cellar to rehearse because we decided to get serious about our music. We were finally gonna PLAY A CLUB. (It only took us another 11 years to achieve that goal.) Karch wasn't with us when we picked the place out, nor when we paid the entire summer's rent up front. I agreed to front Karch's share ($25 in 1978 money) until the next time I saw him. (I still haven't seen the money, though he's certainly paid me back in Mike's Hard Lemonades since then.)
We decided that Foghat's live version of "I Just Want to Make Love to You" would be a real crowd-pleaser at the clubs. It's a long song with a lot of parts. We painstakingly taught it to ourselves. We did this by borrowing my sister's portable turntable and putting the needle down on each part as we learned them. (This was before CD players and pause buttons.) I can still smell the stink of mold as we crowded around that little girlie turntable listening to Lonesome Dave Peverett wail, "I don't want you to wash my clothes ... I don't want you to keep a home ..."
Learning "I Just Want to Make Love to You" was just about the only thing we achieved in that cellar (although my brother and I frequenly came close to putting each other's eyes out by flinging still-lit cigarette butts at one another). We've never played the song in a club. We plan to OPEN with it on Nov. 3rd -- another goal achieved. THIS one only took 28 years.
posted by Mark Voger at 4:16 PM
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