OF LEAD GUITARISTS AND FIRST LINES...

What is it with lead guitarists? I have two–one in each band–that have gone flaky. Neither one’s been practicing (one maintains he doesn’t need to), and at this point I have worries whether either one is going to show up for the gigs–which are, at this point, just days away. I thought I’d gotten out of coddling people when I ceased being a city manager. (At least I got paid for doing it back then.)

It’d be possible to get by with just a blues harp lead–but in both bands, the blues harp players have been sick. One’s still sick (flu), and the other’s just out of the hospital and recovering from a major operation. The Portland band is at least tight (drummer, bass player, and me), and I hope the Coast band is going to get there, too. Provides a good framework for a lead player to build upon–but are we going to have a lead player? I think problems like this are one reason why so many songwriters prefer to perform solo; it’s not hard to depend on yourself.

Yes, there is probably a song in it. Life and its issues are just chock full of songs. Sometimes, though, you have to sit on something a little, and wait for some of the worry to get squeezed out and get replaced with some humor. Life (and its issues) should not be taken too seriously.

Practice with the Coast band Sunday (without a lead guitarist) did go good. Dick Ackerman is one of the best blues harp players I know, and he did real well on all of the material. If we don’t have Jeff there to play lead guitar, Dick can carry it just fine, so I will try not to worry. Now, if Don, the blues harp player in the Portland band, can get over his flu by Thursday, we should be okay at the Red Room, too.

I saw a discussion on line about the importance of FIRST LINES in songs. The point was made that a lot of hit songs either have the hook in the first line, or have “subordinate hooks” that suck the listener in, and make them listen until the real hook gets there. “True dat,” as they say.

I have a few of those myself, but not many. In “I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas,” “I Broke My Girlfriend,” and “When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You,” the first line is the hook–but in at least half my songs, my suck-you-in line doesn’t happen right away. The first line is actually pretty innocuous; it’s usually the second one that signals that something a little twisted might be about to happen.

That is delaying the suck-you-in maybe a little longer than normally desirable. (The folks who do these studies are right, I think, about attention spans. They are short, and you have to accommodate that.) I think the Rap helps; I almost always have a Rap to introduce the song, that I’ll do when I’m performing, and sometimes I’ll include it on the recording, too. The Rap does help set the stage, I think, and maybe encourages the listener to be patient, and wait for the Something Twisted that’s coming, but just not right away. I suppose that’s not so much violating the rule as just finding a way around it.

Distributed more posters for the Failed Economy Show; found a $5 toilet for our “piggy bank” for donations to the Sewer Discount Program; and I have all but two (I think) of the 22 songs memorized. (I still need to be able to play a couple of them better on the guitar.) John has inspected the Friday Night Group’s PA system and thinks he knows how to adapt it for our purposes. Announced the concert at the Friday Night Group’s get-together, and had posters for everybody there, too. There were still some posters left over after the performance, which I hope were noticed by the Square Dance Club, which had the Dance Floor the following night. (I couldn’t go to the square dance–I was in Portland at band practice.) I haven’t seen any posters up at downtown Garibaldi businesses; I’ll have to distribute them.

At least two more practices before the Failed Economy Show–Monday afternoon, and Saturday morning before the performance Saturday night. (We’re testing the sound system. We might as well make sure we’re okay at the same time we make sure it’s okay.) No more practices with the Portland band before the Red Room concert. We’re on.

Joe