Root Note Pleads the Fifth

Hung here again.

They are pissed, stoned, drugged and belong to some sort of group.

The longer the night went on the closer they got. Here’s another bracket. Now there were other songs but I can’t remember them all. Johnny B Goode was one we could pull out on request along with Today is your Birthday by John Lennon another. The singer would set the list depending on his mood. Bill was also a solo performer so at the right venue he would play half a dozen songs either by himself or with me and the drummer, mainly stuff like James Taylor, Neil Young or Paul Kelly.

• Angels – Long Line
• Mustang Sally – The Commitments
• Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
• Black Magic Woman – Santana
• Crossroads – Cream
• Whole Lotta Love – Led Zepelin
• Black Night – Deep Purple
• Paranoid – Black Sabbath
• White Room – Cream
• Lady Writer – Dire Straits
• Money for Nothing – Dire Straits
• Otherside – Red Hot Chilli Peppers
• TNT – ACDC
• Long Way to the Top – ACDC

The Finalé

Things were starting to go wrong, not with the band but with me. The black dog was approaching but I couldn’t see it coming. My job was very stressful and my alcohol intake was really bad. Smoking dope didn’t help either. I became very bored with the other band members who except for Tony I started to see them as ignoramuses. They didn’t want a sound engineer, the song list selection was getting tacky and the singer would get so pissed that by the end of the night you had to pour him in the car while the rest of us did the heavy lifting. Try lifting a woofer out to the truck by yourself at one in the morning after just having played for 3 or 4 hours. Some off the light weight members wanted to drop certain songs as they didn’t like them but I stood my ground as the songs in question would get the girls up that got the boys up, basic stuff really.

The last two gigs were agony.

Princess

We called her Princess but she never spoke to any of us as far as I know. She came to other gigs we did in the area and I think somehow she may have been related to the men in leather jackets. These men in leather jackets never wore their colours, never threatened us and really liked what we played. I think it was because Tony was a great player and had that ability to mimic all of the solos. Page, Hendrix, you name it, he would nail them. One day when I was at Tony’s house he showed me how he did it, a multispeed tape. At first he played the song really slow and Tony would work the solo our by ear then gradually he increased the tempo so he could play it at the right speed. Amazing as regardless of the tape speed it always remained at the right pitch.

Anyway Princess was, hmm lets guess, a professional dancer. She had a stunning figure and long blonde hair but when you got close she wore a stack of makeup. I loved Princess as she would get up and dance by herself in the centre of the stage and she really knew her moves. This would then drag others up and before you knew it the dance floor was packed and everyone was having a good time. This to me was what the whole thing was all about.

Post Script

I then lost my job, my family, my wife and was detained in psychiatric institutions. I gradually got better and Tutu and I built the house I am living in now. Tutu tried her best to stick by me but finally she left. I did try and rekindle my music with a poster here called Astyages however it was too late.

The good news is the black dog did finally leave and after some tough times when Emmjay kicked me out of the Pigs Arms I did get better. The medication has been stopped and Tutu and I see each other every weekend, have holidays together, still love one another.

To the Pigs Arms community, thank you one and all, you are my friends and even though at times I have been horrible, I love you all.