I've spent decades in broadcasting. But I've also spent decades in and out of the music business as a musician.
Radio and music went hand-in-hand for a long, long time. I spent most of grades 9-12 playing in bands and working weekends on the radio somewhere. Guitar was my main instrument; I managed to make very good money playing in a lot of DC-area groups in the 70s. But I also dabbled in reeds (clarinet, alto, tenor, flute) and Hammond B-3 organ. When I was 17; I got a job working Friday-Saturday nights playing solo guitar in between sets at Blues Alley. Huge feather in the cap. No matter it paid just $15 an hour, which was the union rate at the time. Of course; $30 a night went a lot farther then. Fact was--I was suddenly thrust into being able to play with some of the top jazz musicians of the day. I even got mentioned by Felix Grant one night on WMAL! Understand--this was 1972-73--and, when you're a kid and all the planets are aligned; well...
I continued to play through college and into the early 80s. But then, I abruptly gave it up and sold all my equipment. Little things like a '65 ES335; a '59 blond Stratocaster, a vintage 4-10 Bassman amp (perhaps the ultimate guitar amp), plus scads of accessories.
Boy, was that stupid. Had I had some foresight; I would have put those things in temperature-controlled storage!
Been on eBAY lately? My 335 (bought at Chuck Levin's for $300 or so)...would now fetch in the area of $10,000! And my beloved Strat? $15,000 easily! Holy crap! Even the new guitars are going for four figures! The new version of the 335 is over 2 grand. A new, playable Strat is close to that--and that's not even the same-quality guitar made back in the day! Hell; the guy who used to WORK on my guitars, Paul Reed Smith (who was a guitar tech at Chuck Levin's before striking out on his own), is making a fortune selling better-quality guitars than Fender or Gibson. It's said "it's not the guitar; it's the player." But those PRS guitars are wonderful.
Okay. Fast-forward to today. One of the stations I do news for from home for is having a big event this coming Sunday. The Fabulous Hubcaps are headlining. This is a great local band; guys who get AARP and are still going strong! Most I know from years and bands past. But also on the bill is a band made up of guys who work at the station! Turns out we all used to play for a living; a couple still do--so the plan was launched.
Thursday; I'll pack the Hammond XK3 keyboard I play nowadays and truck up to the other side of the Chesapeake Bay and we'll start practicing. We need 20 songs for Sunday's two one-hour sets. We won't get a dime for it; in fact...we might have to pay THEM! But the fun we'll have will outweigh any hassle. We're expecting to have lots of fun with The Hubcaps...and we're also expecting to relive some memories we all thought would go by the wayside.
It must be Reunion Week. Broadcasting last week; music this week. What's next?
Cross your fingers we don't suck. Some of those "memories" may come back slower than others!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment