Sunday, November 02, 2014

Autumn Jukebox...Tune #3.

AlmostAllTheLeavesAreDown
AndMyHairIsGreyVille


Back when I was a much younger man (well, actually, still a kid really) a group of friends and I were on bit of a cross-provincial roadtrip...

On the way home from the Albertalands we took the southern highway that crosses the province just above the American border.

And when we got to Montrose in the West Kootenays in the dead of night we stopped and blasted Space Station #5 out the open car windows for a good 18, or maybe even 20, seconds before we hightailed it out of town.

Boy-oh-boy were we ever trouble makers during that summer the punk broke while we weren't even paying attention.

Interestingly, the guy who was driving the car is the same fine fellow who, a year or so later, started hollering at a bunch of kids at a house party while he was getting ready to hit his tee-shot on the fifth hole of the Cedar Hill Golf Course in Victoria.

Once he had their attention (they were blasting the just released Van Halen cover of 'You Really Got Me') the guy with the driver in his hands had only one thing to say, which was:


That fellow is now a well-respected in-demand accountant who would be happy to retire if he wasn't raking in the dough hand-over-fist.

And while I am not ready to retire, I did have a kinda/sorta milestone birthday a couple of weeks ago that has all the kids in the lab sending me notes and coupons and stuff for all those goods and services I am now eligible to receive discounts for given that that I have hit that 'freedom' number that Sammy Hagar sang about during his dumber than dumb years between really rocking with Montrose and just pretending with the Van Halen brothers and the other guy.

Which is not to say, given my new age and all that, that I actually feel like the character in the tune below that Mr. Springsteen wrote on spec, to run over the credits of the movie after the hair metal was done, awhile back.

But still.

On some days, just for a minute or two...

Maybe...



_______
And how to deal with these transient intrusions of getting older/breaking downery?...Well, I dunno know about you but I've saved up (what with my summer busking and birthday money, just like when I really was a kid!) to buy a new electrical guitar...It's a rhythm machine built by the fine folks at Fender...Even have the colour all picked out...Will not even pretend to ask for the old guy discount.


9 comments:

sd said...

Funny you should mention retirement. I just gave my notice and have 35 working days left until I retire.After 33 years of teaching and enduring the dismantlement of public education over the last 12 years I'm done. Now I'll have time to practice my horns.

RossK said...

sd--

Sad to hear.

About the dismantling, I mean.

Bet you have a heckuva bushel of good memories (and student successes) packed away though.

What kind of horns?

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scotty on denman said...

Hey! The Wrestler! Lay it on me, man!

You're being a bit mysterious...
I mean, Fender-mysterious...

Are we talkin' about what Bill Kirchen would call
"The Hammer of the Honkey Tonk Gods"?

I can't quite call it my fave, but it's the one I play the most (electric, that is---still do most of it on my incredibly trusty, unbelievably durable, handmade, $65 (new) Romanian parlour guitar, "Montana")

Oh, and wishing you many more, many more!

RossK said...

scotty--

Tele...MIM, entry level version.

Bought it today.

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sd said...

Saxes and Flute. When I was young the solo's on R&B records that my brother bought(Little Richard, Fat's Domino) were all sax not not guitar with the exception of the blues guys. So, naturally I got into R&B ,Jazz and funk. It was pretty normal in the East Bay in the 60's.

RossK said...

Aaaaahhhhh.

Have fun with them sd.

Hey....

Have I already asked you if you've read Michael Chabon's 'Telegraph Avenue'?


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sd said...

No but it's on my next to do list.

scotty on denman said...

Tele! Aw-right! That's gonna fit you style just great!
Enjoy, enjoy,...




...and welcome to the club.

RossK said...

sd--

I really enjoyed it...But I was only an East Bay interloper for a few years...Will be interesting to see what you think.

_____

scotty--

Ya.

I don't think there's any turning back now.

(and this is a club I definitely don't mind being a member of)

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