Music been beery beery good to me – at least when I wasn’t using it as an excuse to be beery, beery, bad to myself. Music brought me some pretty high highs – no, not that kind; I’m talking about opening for Willie, headlining a few concerts, and above all – to borrow a line from Willie – making music with my friends.
When I lived in Orlando, that could get a little confusing because I made music with four guys named Ed, each of whom was very talented in his own way.
Ed White was a great guitarist and singer – and an even better person. Ed Muurhainen played a mean slide guitar – and once made a 200 mile roundtrip with me to play one song. We called Ed Kavetsky "Fast Eddie" because he was fast – but he was incredibly tasteful, too.
Then there was Ed Durang. Like me, Ed was more of a singer-songwriter than a hardcore musician. He was also a great storyteller, and one of his favorite stories was about his days in Chicago, where he tried to scratch out a living playing music during the Great Folk Music Scare of the early Sixties.
Ed auditioned for a gig at a club in Old Town, and they hired him to play for the princely sum of twenty-dollars a night. They hired the guy he beat out to play on off-nights for ten bucks a night. The other picker was some guy named John Prine.
I took the liberty of turning Ed's story into a song. I hope you enjoy it more than he did.
Ed
This here little nursery rhyme
Is all about a friend of mine
Used to play with ol’ John Prine
In Old Town ... in Chicago
Ed made more than John back then
To sing his songs and pick and grin
And try to sound like Bob Dylan
In Old Town ... in Chicago
A harpoon and a Guild guitar
Playin’ in some hippie bar
Makin’ love, not makin’ war
And he was gonna change the world
Well, John got famous after while
Sam Stone and Illegal Smile
Finally found himself in style
In Old Town ... in Chicago
Ed’s career kinda bit the dust
Now he lives down south and drives a bus
And dreams of nights in bars on Rush
In Old Town ... in Chicago
Most of us, I'm sad to say
Had dreams that slowly slipped away
But it seems like only yesterday
We were gonna change the world
© 1995/2012 Tom Cordle
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Laughed out loud at: " Great Folk Music Scare of the early Sixties."
You had to be there, or know somebody that could tell you that you were.
Great shot of you and Willie. I saw him in concert two summers ago in CT...great music and not a whole lot to say in between the songs, although I would have loved to have heard stories about particular songs as some musicians talk about in their concerts. If you have any recordings you should upload them to YouTube. I transferred to digital some recordings from '76-'77 that my brother's band had recorded on reel to reel and put them up on YouTube as part of post here on OS.
I only went to Old Town once, to hear Spider John Koerner in 1969. First time I'd ever been to a night club, first time I ever paid a cover charge or was faced with a two-drink minimum. Since I was underage, those were very expensive ginger ales.
Rated for that flashback.
I remember reel to reel - and I've made a few edits with a razor blade. I have qualms about YouTube, tho. Once your stuff goes digital on the Great Virtual, it's no longer yours. I am going to be reworking my website one day soon with some music samples in hopes of selling some of my CDs.
I used to hear world-class jazz at the Village Lounge at Lake Buena Vista at Disney World for free -- no cover, no minimum. They finally instituted a two-drink minimum, but I still got to see people like Charlie Byrd and Laurindo Alemaeda (sp?) and Marian McPartland and get a couple of scotches for under $10. Those were the days, my friend.
Had dreams that slowly slipped away"
And as a friend said just yesterday, Nashville is littered with their bones!
Great song. I'm sure there are many who can relate.
I'm afraid the five of us were never in a band together. I have been in bands that ran the gamut of names, however -- Soundsations, Larry Shane and the Prodigal Sons, and the penultimate awful name Mom's Apple Pie, Lassie and Milk. The last band I worked with was called Retro, and it looks like the current band will be called Vintage -- tag line: We Will Make No Music Before Its Time.
As I noted above, I'm working on getting some samples up on my website. Google (First No Harm ha!) has done (and with it's new policy is about to do some even more) insidious things with YouTube, so I'm leery about putting anything up there.
Yeah, my experience in Nashville, while encouraging on one hand, was a real eye-opener. I'd say the town ought to adopt the motto from rugby: Guitar players eat their dead.
I like your lyrics. A bit of fun, reminiscence and a great truth.
I've seen Prine before and been a long time fan. We once drove the kids to Disneyland while singing along and wearing out a tape of "Please Don't Bury Me." While I've never written an entire song, I did write an extra verse to Prine's "Dear Abby."
Dear Abby, dear Abby, my gun is too short
It's no good for huntin' and useless for sport
So I showed it to schoolkids
Figured they could relate
Now I'm in prison doing five-to-eight
Siiiii-iigned, Daring Derringer
Had dreams that slowly slipped away
But it seems like only yesterday
We were gonna change the world"
true.
but you know we did. we changed the world. for a little while. then it changed back. but we made a dent, yes we did. still making a few noticeable dents I'm happy to say.
this was great. :)
"When I die
let my ashes
flow down the Green River
Let my soul run on up
To the Rochester dam
I'll be half way to heaven
With Paradise waiting
Just 5 miles away from wherever I am"
I wanted to be that guy so bad!
Your political posts are of course legendary.
But this is home.
"Dear Abby, dear Abby, my gun is too short" I hope that isn't some sexual euphemism
Designator
I'll have to check that out, thanks
Foolish Monkey/Sheila
Yes, we did change the world, and I don't think we get the credit we deserve for doing so, but we sure as hell get the blame for the fun we had while doing it
Thanks, you're too kind -- but a great judge of talent ;-)
Dr Ziggy
Yes, that's a sign of the progress we've made under Reaganomics -- $20 bucks a night, to playin' real good for free, to payin' to play -- how's that trickle-down thingy workin' out for us?
Deborah MW
Not familiar with that BB song, and no offense intended toward Chico
ChiGuy
Funny, back in the day, every folksinger I knew wanted to be Dylan, not me, I wanted to be John Prine. And thanks, I'm glad I touched home with this one, I figured you'd get a "Rush" from the Old Town reference
Yes, folk musicians were and are an oddity in the music "business". While many I know didn't mind a toke or two, the other wretched excesses associated with musicians were notably absent. I'd like to think that had something to do with their adoration of the musical form, but I'm skeptical -- I've never met any more devoted followers of a genre than in blues and jazz, two musical forms where the trials and tribulations of musicians are legendary
Thanks. Hang in there with the guitar, the first six months are the hardest, and after that you figure out a way to have fun, tho you also learn that "perfection" will always remain out of reach. Still, as I said in this post, nothing in my life has been as rewarding as making music with my friends
but you know they say if you remember the 60's...you weren't really there....
Thanks. Wish I could take credit for that line, but I picked it up from my friend Pete -- no, not Seeger. As the Sixties, I was there, and I actually remember most of it -- except what happened between 2 am and 10 am.
r
Thanks, yeah, I'm the one on the left ;-)
I was hoping you'd show up, thanks for visiting. No need to worry about living up to my image of you -- you'll always be one of my heroes