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... was the rhythm guitarist for a very successful local reggae band in the Philly area. He used to come
to our rehearsals and even gave us our first gig opening for his band (and, after two YEARS of rehearsing...
our "overnight" success -- we were all original and, though we didn't do reggae, the reggae crowd LOVED
what we did). To me, George was "Mr. Music" -- he was always saying, "Let's play", "Let's play", "Let's play".
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One night, I went to a local bar with the best musician-oriented open mike (people actually came there
to LISTEN) that I've ever known. George was there in the crowd and I told him that I had spent a good
part of that afternoon learning the lyrics to Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" (still one of my favorite
songs ever).
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He had his guitar with him.
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"Let's play!!!"
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I tried to explain that I hadn't even SUNG the song in private yet -- I had only memorized the lyrics.
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"Let's play!!!"
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George was a FUN guy!!!
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He did relent a bit and, after adding our names to the performance waiting list, we went and sat on the
bar's back porch and rehearsed for about 10 minutes.
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We went back in and played it -- got enthusiastic applause when we were done (I had been nervous as
hell -- I never did get over almost incapacitating staqefright when approaching a gig -- less than a
minute or so into it, I wanted to go all night long).
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My lead guitarist was in the crowd. I asked him how we had done. He said, "That first verse? I wondered
whether or not you had ever HEARD the song before or not."
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That was crushing, but he followed with, "But from the second verse on, you NAILED it."
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George was a human mind-expanding drug -- he always pushed himself and those around him to higher
and higher levels of accomplishment and consciousness.
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I miss him.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Great song.
