Dave learned to play the guitar first. I only asked him to teach me basic chords at some point because I was in awe of what he had managed to become by beginning to play. Music seemed natural for him and it came off of his 10-year-old hands with breezy strength. It was, for a bigger brother who had already been experiencing fat kid syndrome, too much for me to take. I had to be in on it, whatever the hell it was. And as he improved almost daily, I limped along behind him, fisting shitty ‘Smoke on the Water’ in the wake of his organic and genuine ‘Down on the Corner’. Him, blonde and thin. Me, dirty brown and chubby. I was like some husky cliche right out of Hollywood.
I could not deal with his pulling away from me on that vessel. I think I was scared of being left behind. I already had had that with my Dad so maybe I was scared of the same thing happening to me again, even at that young age.
So maybe I picked up the guitar for the sole reason of saving myself from utter and complete abandonment. Which…well, let’s be honest…that’s a way cooler fucking reason than because I saw the Beatles on The Jiminy Cricket Hour and wanted to be like Paul.
The hell with that.
Check in every Friday for more from Serge!
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