For Musicians and those that have played an instrument.

I was thinking this morning about a Piano player I used to play with and I think you'll enjoy this story...maybe not..anyway...

Years ago a group of us Musicians decided to put a group together...we (finally) had the group that we wanted.. Guitar, Bass, Sax (me), trombone. trumpet, drums...but was looking for a Piano Player.
We settled on a Dude named John (Rasmussen). He was quiet and very strange but played great.
At the time, we were going to learn a bunch of Chicago Tunes along with the current slew of "PopCrap".
On our first practice, I suggested we buy the Score to all the Chicago songs (to save having to sit down and figure out all the chords and horn parts)..anyway John says..in his soft, slow voice: "Oh, I guess I can write them all out for the band if you need me to.."
I said "Well Ok..That would be nice..you can take them home and sit down with your Piano and do it ..Great!"
John says: I don't have another piano at home..I'll just do it by ear. (Wow..cool)
So..the next day John brings the Score to 2 albums of Chicago Tunes and we go over them. The Trombone player takes them home that night and the next day forgets to bring them back to practice. (Agggg!)

I tell John that the Scores are at the Trombone player's house...He thinks for a second and says "Oh..Welllll..I remember them all..Do you want me to write them out for you now?
I remember thinking "Good God..Who IS this Guy??"
I said.."You mean all 2 Albums?...23 songs?.. ALL the chords and bass lines and Horn parts?
John says: Oh sure..not a big deal.
I just about had a "Brain Freeze"...

There were lots of other things that John did that were almost inhuman but my first encounter with this Musical Genius was quite an "Ego Squasher" :)

One sad note: Years later, John's best friend told me he wound up in a Mental Hospital in Michigan,,,Geez....
People like John are hard to forget...

Cool story.

wow

...since one of the first things John Engler did when he became governor was shut most of them down. x(

I've been playing for 27 years or so and still can't read music. I've written a shitload of songs, but know very little of musical structure. It amazes me when I see people like John, who have that ability.
Hell, I can't even sit down and figure out songs by ear too well. I just have someone else do it and show it to me..lol. I mean, I'm not totally musically challenged, just not very technical at all.
That's pretty cool though. I bet it was wild working with a guy like that.

John had "Perfect Pitch" (I do to..Just Lucky Genes) BUT he sang so off-key, I almost wanted to scream!
He would sing a song and afterwards turn to the band and say "That was rather Shitty..Wasn't it!"..LOL!

He also would go shopping for clothes and buy 5-6 of the SAME outfits. I asked him why once and he said "I don't have to decide about what to wear and it's easier to sort clothes when I do Washing".. Geez!

.."brings together" what I suspected all along.
I know TONS of great players that are working at menial jobs because they either can't find work or WON'T play the current crop of Garbage.
..And Jazz gigs are so far and few between that it's really not even worth looking....

and end up in a mental hospital. My favorite guitarist and several of my favorite singers have been rumored to have spent time in the soft padded cells of asylums. I have a super talented friend who just got signed and is working with Rob Zombie (check out Planet 69 if you see the video). He's incredibly talented. He plays every instrument you put in front of him, paints, draws, creates his own artwork for his recordings, and you name anything else involved in music composing and recording.

I enjoyed your story, btw. I always love to hear about truly talented people who have no ego problems. Your friend sounds like a dream band mate. Glad to help out and even offering to do all that twice. You should write stories. Even though I play guitar and I've played in bands before, I found your story to be interesting. Imagine how fascinated nonmusicians would be. :pals:

he was the finest white blues player of all time, an excellent singer, songwriter---phenomenol guitar player and very soulful harmonica player who got his start by replacing Clapton in John Mayall's band. Then he founded Fleetwood Mac (originally a blues band, but Green wrote a bunch of really intresting non blues compositions as well). After a couple of years he was delusional and clearly severly mentally ill. he left the band and then they ended up hooking up with Stevie nicks and Lindsay buckingham and the rest is history

He has since recovered and is playing music again, mostly delta style blues with the Splinter Group.

I know one guy who I started playing in a band with when he was 16 and I was like 21, but this kid was an ace on the guitar. He could play blues naturally, with no effort whatsoever. Never hit a bad note.

Brittany and all the other no-talent hacks get to be stars. That makes sense.

I know one guy like that. This is his current band (he plays drums, guitar and sings all at the same time!)http://www.lawrence.com/bands/this_is_my_condition/

it's not about anyone's idea of "art" or musical aesthetics, it's about hemlines and "the new black" and selling product to consumers. It is hopelessly broken. The word "talent" is neutral. Mozart was a talented musical genius; Britney is a talented blue-jean model.

Today, with affordable recording and digital distribution, there is no excuse for a musician not to do their own thing.

We don't expect the auto industry to build nothing but Mazerattis; if they did, most of us would be walking. So why shouldn't we expect a bunch of Chevies from the music industry too?

over the years. I know folks who are more fluent with musical notation than most people are with English. It is pretty humbling.