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Road Lessons; Playing what you want |
Back in 1968 or 1969, I was in a band called Undecayeds Jazz Blues Band and we were from Linköping Sweden. The band was a six-piece outfit and we really played both Jazz and Blues but also some current pop songs.
We had a Hammond Organ (an L 122 I believe) with a Leslie Cabinet, bass Guitar, Drums and myself on guitar and vocals. The main singer was the keyboard player. We also had a small horn section, consisting of Tenor sax, Trumpet and for a short while even a Baritone Saxophone.
We had played quite a few times at this one place situated at the Amusement park Lisebergs premises in Gothenberg and thats where I discovered how people evaluated music.
It is quite popular within the sphere of struggling hardworking "ARTISTS" when it comes to audiences, to maintain the idea that they don´t understand half of what the musicians trying to say through their music and improvised solos.
For that particular gig I was "styled", with a fuzzy hairdo ,tight flower-power shirt, some suede boots with heals and of course bell-bottom pants - the look of the time for headlining bands from around the world. I was trying out another amp that time. I usually played a British made Sound City amp, rated at 100 Watts, along with a Marshall Cabinett with eight 10" speakers. This new amp was a Vox solidstate 100w, with built in Reverb and Distortion. It was pretty loud and I would think not too great sounding. I also had a wha-wha pedal and a Fuzzface "FUZZ-unit".
When it was my time to do an improvised solo, the devil in me took over and I cranked up everything to the most and I was using everything to the utmost to make as much noise as possible - and I succeded. People were running up to my part of the stage to see and hear what was going on. they dídn't want to miss it for the world . So there I was making all this noise and playing the fastest runs I was capable of. Finally I became a Guitar-hero even if it was only for that brief moment.
So, what does this tell you about audience-musician interaction? Who was the most stupid?
- The fuzzy-haired guitar player (who´ll do almost anything to draw attention, except learning how to play exceptionally), or
- Ihe innocent regular audience that doesn´t want to miss something that might be outstanding in some category (not neccesarily in the musical domain)!
I never tried this again - I was 19 then and I´m 51 now.
Its up to each and everyone to decide where you want to go with your music. Some times what impresses the audience is not what you want to keep doing. Which is the right thing to do? I don't think there is only one truth, do you?
Questions? Comments? . Contact Stig? - let me know!
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