Rock and Roll Band

I’m about to admit my age. I have a group of friends from back in 1979-1980 who together were the greatest basement rock and roll band of our time. At least we thought so. I was the keyboard (piano, organ, synthesizer) player in a cover band playing AC/DC, Cars, Foreigner, Judas Priest, Bad Company, Kansas, ELO and more. We spent a lot of time practicing and getting our sound the way we wanted it. We played some gigs, we spent a little time in a recording studio. We were even friends with other bands from around the region. We never made much money, but we had a lot of friends and a lot of fun. And we were all of 17 or 18 years old at the time.

A few close friends know that lately we have been talking about getting the band back together. Now you know, too.

Let’s think about this for a moment. A few guys who had a band together for maybe a year, about 32 years ago when they were 17 or 18 years old, are going to “get the band back together.” None of us lives in the same city. One of us lives over 1,000 miles away. Most of us haven’t played seriously in years. Ideas this dumb don’t come along too often. But it was my idea and I’m sticking with it.

We do have a few things going for us. First, we really are friends. We always got along back in the day and we seem to still get along now. Second, one of our group is a working professional musician with perfect pitch. So at least we know we won’t all be awful. And third, we do have a small practice studio outfitted well enough to make this happen. So I like our odds.

Our goals are modest. We agreed on about a dozen songs to learn, including a few from back in the day, and even agreed on who gets to (has to?) sing which of them. If we can get together and eventually play even a few of them and have some laughs, we will be happy. We don’t plan to perform for an audience, though a few friends have volunteered to be a cozy audience if and when we are ready.

Next time I blog about this crazy project, I’ll talk about playing keyboards in a rock and roll band. It isn’t very much like playing piano in your living room or organ in your church. I’m being reminded of what it’s really like as I learn my parts in those songs, and I’ll share it with you sometime this fall or winter.

If you are rooting for my old band-mates and me to make this happen, leave a comment and let us know.

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