A Lighter Side

Enough with the gloom & doom. I'm not always cantankerous.

I HAVE A SAMPLER MY GRANDMOTHER MADE hanging on my wall. That means it’s been in my family for four generations, and will be handed down to my granddaughter after I pass.

It has traveled the world with my family, and has always been prominently displayed. I’ve always loved the sentiment, and it wasn’t until several years ago that I researched the legend. “If music be the food of love, play on.” is from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and is the opening line. The full passage from the play is

“If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.”

Music has been an integral part of my life since my parents enrolled me in piano lessons when I was seven or eight years old. Both of my older sisters were also enrolled, which I find somewhat surprising, since neither of my parents played any musical instrument. Perhaps piano lessons were the “thing to do” for rising middle-class families, but so began my love of music.

Not just mine. One of my sisters went on to become a piano teacher! I nearly gave up the instrument after about eight years because I tired of having to go down into the basement to practice, my back to the door, and plink-plink away every day for at least 30 minutes.

But fate intervened in a way that makes me grateful every time I think of it. The core event that turned me around was the emergence of the Beatles on the music scene! Not just the Beatles, but the fact that they played guitars to make their music. I watched them standing on stage, guitars in hand, moving and shaking, singing and having fun. That appealed to me!

My best friend at the time lived across the street from me, and I saw that he had a guitar he never played. I gave him ten dollars, and all of a sudden I was the owner of an (admittedly cheap) acoustic guitar. Since there was no Internet in those days, I taught myself how to play it by buying songbooks at the local record store (yes, those things actually existed!) and by playing along with the radio or along with records. My experience with piano had given me the fundamental music theory I needed, so all I had to do was practice, practice, practice. Oh, did my fingers hurt! At the time, I didn’t realize how cheap that guitar truly was! I began as I think most beginners do: Learning three- and four-chord songs, like “Gloria,” by the group Them (written by and sung by Van Morrison), “Louie Louie” by the Kingsmen, and “House of the Rising Sun,” an old classic which at the time had been revived by Eric Burdon and The Animals. As I got better, I began branching out to many of the popular songs of the day. I still have a bookshelf lined with the music books I bought.

Matriculating college in Europe, and thanks to my father’s government position, I had access to the military Post Exchanges (“PX”). One of them was a four-story building in downtown Munich, Germany, and on one floor they had a section devoted to musical instruments. I had some “mad money” available, so I picked the prettiest (and one of the most expensive) guitars hanging on the wall and brought it home. It was a 12-string acoustic made by the German company Framus, who at the time was the largest selling guitar maker in Europe. As I recall, I spent a whopping $150 (U.S.) on it.

And I still own it. It’s now over 50 years old and still sounds and plays as well as it did when new (they say guitars improve with age, but I’m not certain how I can quantify that). Keen eyes will note the “zero fret,” and of course, there’s the “mustache” bridge!

Over the years, my playing has improved, I’ve added several guitars to my collection, and recently, have begun playing live at a folk club. The term “folk club” may not be familiar to some, as the concept goes back to England. The founder of the club I go to and am a member of, returned from living and working in England, and not finding anything comparable, started one! This year, the club celebrated its 40th year! I like to choose songs that are a bit off the mainstream, and I use the songs of my youth as my starting point, so I play pieces by the likes of Brewer & Shipley, Spirit, Dwight Yoakum, Hot Tuna and the like. Some pieces I play are by known artists, but aren’t their chart-topping hits. I joke that I play songs nobody’s heard before, so they think they are brand new!

It really doesn’t matter to me how bad the news is, how horrible society seems to have become, how the insane has become “normal,” I still have my music.

Play on.