6/7/2012 – Tired of Waiting

Acoustic rehearsal in the basement. No drums…so nobody called the cops. Lenny brought a little practice amp. Two hundred watts, or 192 more watts than Dave Davies used to record “You Really Got Me”. In that spirit we picked up 3 Kinks songs. I dared not attempt to slash Lenny’s amp with a razor. He’s been known to kill for less.

Me and Lenny were keen to do “Apeman” and “Have a Cuppa Tea” but I think Wiggy thought that was digging a bit too deep into the Davies catalog. So we’ll stick with the early singles. “Tired of Waiting” is a killer song. We’re becoming quite the little punchy British invasion band. Wait until we go over my originals again. We’ll sound like bleedin’ Mods.

It turned into a sort of brain-storming session. We pulled a few Clash songs up but Strummer was apt to use more than 3 chords along with some…er…unconventional timing…..and that tends to confuse a Luddite like myself. Turns out Lenny spent much of an earlier life playing REM covers, so we bashed through “It’s the End of the World” which nobody knows the words to so we just grunted, and even pulled out a version of “Driver 8” which was kinda cool. I played the intro riff to “The One I Love” and Wiggy said “no” and that was that. The man is touchy with the wildly overplayed radio chestnuts. He’s vintage all the way.  “Superman” is a cool song. That’s a possibility if I can get through singing “I am superman” without falling over. Keep in mind this would be one of the newest covers we do. It was released a quarter century ago. What can I say? They don’t make ’em like they used to. Well, maybe they do but you’d never know it by listening to the radio.

On his way to my house Lenny drove past a supermarket that used to be a club that he played in years back. This makes me feel really old ’cause Lenny is only a year older than me. So while I was trying to sneak into bars to hear bands Lenny was in the bands….drinking for free too probably, the little git. Now he’s home tucked in bed when his various bands used to start playing. That makes me feel old too. It makes Lenny feel more rested than the rest of us….especially Wiggy, who sleeps less than I do, if that’s possible.

Made band business cards with the slogan “Maximum R & B redux”. I think it’s fucking clever….so I guess that’s all that matters.

In a bit..

–tf

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