Talent with a monkey on its back

[Lee Knight]

Wednesday night I saw the best local music performance I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot. I used to live in the clubs checking on my fellow musicians when I wasn't earning a living up there myself. 7 nights a week, one way or the other.

 

So I stopped in to see an old friend. We'll call him BOB. I first met BOB when he was a mediocre bassist in a country band. I soon found out he played guitar. Hey, pretty good too. But his guitarist was the local king at that time, so BOB played bass and watched. Blues and jazz, county. Rock? Sure! Throw it in the pot and cook.

 

BOB, over the years taught and gigged and fed his monkey. What a monkey. BOB has always had an issue with the powder. As far back as 20 years. But BOB kept getting better and better. Gigging more and more. Now under his own name BOB and the whatevers. The whatevers would be whatever kick ass player wasn't booked that night. Follow BOB. BOB knows theory like Einstein knew math. I got the facts, now let's forget them and go searching. Follow BOB.

 

BOB has played in some very famous bands from New Orleans. He's good.

 

But BOB is hit or miss. The monkey is distracting. One time years ago, I needed BOB's uncanny ability to channel Coltrane, Jeff Beck and Ray Flacke on a recording. He'd flaked 2 previous times. I decided to pick him up. BOB was sound asleep in his teaching studio. I open the door and in a sleeping bag was a wasted BOB surrounded by Coltrane LPs. I woke him and he put on Coltrane and started tweaking on about his idol. I bought him a beer and got him to the studio. He killed for 20 minutes... then fell asleep.

 

So BOB. Always hit or miss. More often than not, you see BOB twisting a face reaching for a note he couldn't find, and the coke was killing his groove in more ways than one. The heart of a true musical seer, the musical curiosity of Coltrane or Miles. The personal discipline of a sad, abused 13 year old boy.

 

So last Wednesday BOB was onstage. 20 people in the audience. BOB had his old Strat plugged into a Bogner and an old Marshall. And he said "This is for John" and played what can only be described as a transcendent reading of Imagine. Instrumental. It sounded like Beck doing Pork Pie Hat. But it really sounded like BOB. Crying in pain through his Strat. And the 20 people were stunned. Shhhhh. We all know about BOB's monkey and it makes us sad. But tonight... shhhhh. I looked cross the room and everyone was still and focused on BOB. Beautiful. I actually teared up.

 

I spoke to him after but he was in a hurry to "get going". BOB. If only you could see how great you are and how great you could be.

[Jeff da Weasel]

Well, it's the dual-edged sword. Creativity is a flame that's not easy to control. Some people have to douse it or lose their mind. Drugs, booze, irresponsible lifestyles are common to so many of us because it's not easy having that thing inside you.

 

I just write a lot.

[saktr-iyko]

Talent is a vampire

Talent is a whore

Talent is American always wanting more

That which doesn't kill, more grist for the mill

Talent is so sexy

Talent is so bright

Talent is always moving forever towards the light

Talent made me love you

Talent made me lie

Talent comes uninvited and leaves you alone to die.

[Richard King]

Two of my favorite people to go see live many years ago went the same route that BOB is going.

 

Doug Maynard (I Shall Be Released) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBXl5HiyUwE went that wey several years ago. Doug's addiction was alcohol. He always had the best musicians and singers around him whenever he put together a band. I had seen him literally hundreds of times over the years in several bands and several incarnations of his own band. He had MANY opportunities to make the "big time". He recorded songs that were used in at least 3 movie soundtracks over the years (you would recognize the movies). He just couldn't keep it together enough to make it. He died of alcohol poisoning in November 1991.

 

Rico Rosenbaum (real name) was a member of the band Gypsy. Rico was the main songwriter, rhythm guitar and singer for the band. His writing skills were limitless. The band moved from Minneapolis to LA and, after a bidding war signed with Metromedia records in 1970. He had so much good material available that the first record ended up being a double album, which was pretty much unheard of at the time. Chicago (as Chicago Transit Authority) had done one, but that was about it. Metromedia released 2 albums. After Metromedia "went away" they signed to RCA for 2 more records. Gypsy split their time between Minneapolis and LA. They were the house band at The Whiskey in LA and at the club right down the street from me in Minneapolis. Whenever they were home I would catch them. Rico, like Doug, couldn't keep it together. The band split from Rico in 1975. Rico died of "drug related causes" in 1979. Dead and Gone by Gypsy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PlDVIJjvqI&feature=related

 

I hope BOB does better.

[Jotown]

Well, it's the dual-edged sword. Creativity is a flame that's not easy to control. Some people have to douse it or lose their mind. Drugs, booze, irresponsible lifestyles are common to so many of us because it's not easy having that thing inside you. I just write a lot.

Addiction - and addictive personalities - have nothing to do with talent in my opinion. Yes many talented people have - and do have - issues with substance abuse. But many more people not so gifted suffer as well.

 

I just saw Derrick Trucks again in September and man that dude is channeling the holy ghost. He is a straight edge and you can see his clarity when he speaks to you. The point; that you can be talented and not have an addiction issue.

 

The two - talent and addiction - do not go hand in hand. Though it is extremely sad when they sometimes do.

[Jeff da Weasel]

 

Addiction - and addictive personalities - have nothing to do with talent in my opinion. Yes many talented people have - and do have - issues with substance abuse. But many more people not so gifted suffer as well.

 

 

Of course... it just seems that the ratio of creative people who are prone to this is much higher than the median percentage of the rest of people.

 

I'm not postulating WHY this is the case, merely noting that it is. Sadly.

[fetishfrog]

 

Of course... it just seems that the ratio of creative people who are prone to this is much higher than the median percentage of the rest of people. I'm not postulating WHY this is the case, merely noting that it is. Sadly.

 

 

I think musician/artist types are more likely to be open about their substance abuses but to be honest, I've met so many substance abusers in so many other professions that I'm not really sure artist types abuse alcohol/drugs any more than anyone else.

 

Sorry about BOB though, I've met plenty of folks just like him.

[randombastage]

 

Of course... it just seems that the ratio of creative people who are prone to this is much higher than the median percentage of the rest of people. I'm not postulating WHY this is the case, merely noting that it is. Sadly.

 

 

Maybe it's not really that way.

Maybe it's because no one pays attention to an accountant or a welder with addiction issues because no one sees how brilliant they are with numbers or metal work, they only see that instead of banging emotion out of an instrument they smack their kids around in anger and scream at their wives in public. So we don't see them as anything but drunk losers and have no empathy for them even though they are just as talented as Bob in their own way.

 

I think the beauty artists create is such an antithesis to self or inflicted destruction that we notice and ponder with empathy their struggles and pain more readily.

[blue2blue]

Many artists have, shall we say, mood swings...

 

I suspect there may be some truth to what fetishfrog suggests. Go to meetings and you'll find a lot of different professions... and, in some cases, I do mean professions.

 

One of my basically very straight friends dated a handsome young physician for a brief period in the 70s... kind of a summer fling. After they'd gone out a few times the doctor said, I want to share something with you... so he got out his kit, carefully tied off her arm and shot her up with a relatively small amount of heroin. She said it felt pretty good. She said she thought she could have really got to like it. She was smart enough to not do it again and soon after her time in that town ended and she came back to SoCal and took up her rather boring life as a school teacher again. I don't know what happened to the doc.

 

Another friend of mine, at the time a recovering crack head, used to tell amazing stories about his dad, who was, at one time, a highly respected full tenured professor. Who was also a junkie. And... as these things sometimes go, a bigtime drug dealer. For quite a while, all at the same time.

 

With what he made from his professorship and the drug dealing, they lived large... a gated MacMansion on a hilltop in an exclusive area in Orange County (known for a time for its relatively high percentage of drug kingpins, real estate barons, and ponzi schemers).

 

But, as these things go... {censored} happened. He got busted. There was a moral turpitude clause in his tenure agreement. He lost the professorship; the MacMansion went. His old connections either went down, too, or wouldn't have anything to do with him. He couldn't get a teaching gig. And he was still a bigtime junkie. (Never use the merch... that's what the smart guys always said.)

 

When he simply couldn't support his habit anymore he tried to clean up but he kept falling off. Unlike many junkies, he'd always had a taste for expensive wine... but before long he was drinking Mad Dog and other cheap wines and living on the street.

 

One day, the story goes, he was passing a bottle with some other street people and he mentioned he'd been a college professor, had a big house, important friends and made a lot of money selling heroin...

 

The guy next to him sized him up for a few moments, looking at what my old friend, the prof's son, said was a broken man in rags in his early fifties who looked like he was 70 and said something like, Well, what do you know? Here you were a rich professor with fancy friends and I never even finished junior high and been living on the streets since I was 20 -- and here we are drinking in the gutter together... and I had to pay for the wine.

 

Sadly, my friend telling the story, after being sober for 8 years fell off the wagon, started dealing himself, again, and I basically only see him when one of our mutual friends dies...

[BlueStrat]

Man the OP got to me too. That's a sad sad tale as old as the music biz itself. I know a few guys like that-one guy who's a smoking player who always looks like David Crosby with a hangover after sleeping it off in his clothes for three days. Or the phenomenal older keyboard player who starts out the night marvelously but as the night progresses and the empty cocktail glasses pile up, devolves into loungy schlock launching into cheesy standards that half the band has never played. And on and on it goes.

 

As sad as it is and as much as I'd like to see them pull out of it I just learned long ago to avoid those guys like the flu. They are what they are, and while I'll help anyone who wants help, if someone's intent on going to hell they can go by themselves.

[fetishfrog]

 

I suspect there may be some truth to what fetishfrog suggests. Go to meetings and you'll find a lot of different professions... and, in some cases, I do mean professions.

 

 

It's sad stuff. The absolute biggest pill junkie I ever met was a sales person at a mortgage company I worked at briefly. In all honesty, I've never met anyone who consumed like he did. He was simply incredible in his capacity for any and all drugs. I thought he'd have died...last I heard he was promoted to regional manager, managing all mortgages in CA, AZ, and NV.

 

I remember when I first moved to LA, I worked at the 3rd street promenade in santa monica and there was a street musician who played keyboard and would take bets on 'I can play that tune'. I befriended him and the more I tried to stump him, the more I was stumped (I never had to pay, thankfully). I would name the most obscure classical pieces and he would knock them out. I think he'd finish no less than 1 fifth of whisky throughout the course of the day too. Nuts. He was nailing...and I mean NAILING all this very difficult repetiore, drunk as a wet monkey. After a few months, he disappeared.

 

Sad stuff what drugs can do to ya.

[Jeff da Weasel]

A side note: if a monkey becomes a heroin junkie, does he say he's got a human on his back?

 

Sorry, please continue.

[Music Calgary]

We have a couple guys like that currently on our scene. Can't name names but *exactly* like that.

 

And a few who have passed. Back Alley John wasn't Albert Schweitzer but he could play the blues:

 

http://www.killfloorrecords.com/site/back-alley-john-wilson.php

 

 

remember when I first moved to LA, I worked at the 3rd street promenade in santa monica and there was a street musician who played keyboard and would take bets on 'I can play that tune'. I befriended him and the more I tried to stump him, the more I was stumped (I never had to pay, thankfully). I would name the most obscure classical pieces and he would knock them out. I think he'd finish no less than 1 fifth of whisky throughout the course of the day too. Nuts. He was nailing...and I mean NAILING all this very difficult repetiore, drunk as a wet monkey. After a few months, he disappeared.

 

 

Unreal. Amazing and unreal. Wish I could have heard that guy play...

 

Howard Stern has a comedian version of that, "Sour Shoes" -- although it's just comedy the guy is actually quite amazing, he can play almost any request instantly.

[blue2blue]

Man the OP got to me too. That's a sad sad tale as old as the music biz itself. I know a few guys like that-one guy who's a smoking player who always looks like David Crosby with a hangover after sleeping it off in his clothes for three days. Or the phenomenal older keyboard player who starts out the night marvelously but as the night progresses and the empty cocktail glasses pile up, devolves into loungy schlock launching into cheesy standards that half the band has never played. And on and on it goes. As sad as it is and as much as I'd like to see them pull out of it I just learned long ago to avoid those guys like the flu. They are what they are, and while I'll help anyone who wants help, if someone's intent on going to hell they can go by themselves.

Yeah... there's not much you can do to help someone while they're using.

 

About all you can do is offer to talk to them when their head is clear and, perhaps, offer to help them when they're not using.

 

 

 

 

Me, I just drank until I didn't want to drink anymore and then I drank some more. And one day in my early mid-40s, I looked in the mirror and I could see that I was developing the face of an alcoholic... the puffy, loose skin, the broken capillaries across the cheeks and nose. And, well... shallow SOB that I am, I'm vain [nothing to be vain about but vain, anyway] and I just thought... OK, I don't mind losing GFs, endangering jobs, embarrassing myself in public, being a loudmouthed belligerent jerk, getting in fights with strangers -- but damned if I'll let alcohol take my looks.

[UstadKhanAli]

 

A side note: if a monkey becomes a heroin junkie, does he say he's got a human on his back? Sorry, please continue.

 

 

Stop all this, uh, monkey business and stay on topic!!!

[blue2blue]

 

A side note: if a monkey becomes a heroin junkie, does he say he's got a human on his back? Sorry, please continue.

 

 

Ask the Big Pharm addiction researchers who used to -- and maybe still do -- get chimpanzees addicted to various toxic and destructive drugs and chemicals to study the effects and try to develop drugs that will make their companies richer.

 

 

As many folks here have heard me say from time to time: I love animals. It's people I'm not so crazy about...

[blue2blue]

 

 

 

Say a little prayer.

 

 

 

[Jon Gnash]

 

Addiction - and addictive personalities - have nothing to do with talent in my opinion. Yes many talented people have - and do have - issues with substance abuse. But many more people not so gifted suffer as well.

Amen.

 

I think the

[Jon Gnash]

Our imaginations are powerful. Another thing to think about are the things that go though our minds when we watch a performer perform. The idea of a talented musician who

[nice keetee]

What a wonderful, true thread.

[MichaelSaulnier]

Reading these posts made me think of Tommy Bolin.

 

He was a unique and certainly talented performer... who actually hit the "big time".

 

He broke new ground with his recordings, playing with Billy Cobham a new "style" that was to be called "fusion".

 

He played with two "major" bands... replacing huge stars... in James Gang and Deep Purple.

 

His own solo works are among my favorites from any band.

 

His death was tragic and way too soon.

 

M

[Music Calgary]

 

Reading these posts made me think of Tommy Bolin. He was a unique and certainly talented performer... who actually hit the "big time". He broke new ground with his recordings, playing with Billy Cobham a new "style" that was to be called "fusion". He played with two "major" bands... replacing huge stars... in James Gang and Deep Purple. His own solo works are among my favorites from any band. His death was tragic and way too soon.

 

 

Amen, TB was an awesome talent. Heard an interesting jam with Jeff Beck and TB at Glen Holly studio just the other day... Funk #49:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqWWE1YLbh0

 

Nick Drake is another. Many don't know about him for some reason -- but for my money one of the more interesting original acoustic stylists I've ever heard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R7vzeEVoV0

[Lee Knight]

 

Amen.   I think the

[Jotown]

 

Sorry to not have a better formulated moral of the story. It is what it is.

Noi need for an apology. It is always sad to see someone kill themselves whether they are doing it quickly, or slowly.

 

I am sorry to hear about your friend. And I am sorry that I know so many like him.

 

Take care.

[WRGKMC]

Nearly all my buddies I grew up with are dead from that crap. Music has a powerful influence on people. Musicians find music as a form of communication that involves emotions and feelings that dont require words to express. Many musicians can face these emotions and not let them effect them personally like an actor does playing a role. There is often a natureal euphoria experienced at the peak of playing that is akin to a runners high where all is one and everything is in motion yet standing still. Its a wonderful glimpse of grandure where every musician longs to stay but is not withstainable without wholsome living and rigorus diciplined rehursal. It often takes 10 to 50 hours of hard practice to enjoy a minuite or two of that euphoria.

Unfortunately theres always going to be someone going to try to short cut what it takes. They dont realize that they are using up their lifes essence in the process untill its too late. Yet some do recover and move on to make some kind of contribution to society and can be a doorway or beacon for others to follow. But it requires they not carry that monkey you spoke of nor require others to take the detours they were stupid enough to take. Having enough compassion to let those who are strong enough to walk the straight line and only give support when needed requires a selfless act. Hopefully it will be enough to bring back some self esteem and humanity lost through self indulgence. Good people who really want others to recover should be highly valued. But its still up to the individual to take the big steps themselves. They can set an example for others by showing them they arent down and out and can get up and live and enjoy life again without crutches or secret mojo of any kind. Just takes hard work and good living which I dont think any "real" musician is afraid of.