Boston… another memory

02019-05-16 | Ottmar | 1 comment

My loft was on Thayer Street. In the early Eighties it was a pretty rough street, now it looks very nice.

I remember playing at the Rat – which was what everyone called “The Rathskeller” – with Roger Greenawalt‘s “Dead Lennons” one night. It was more performance art than a musical show. Roger would call up musicians a day or two before a Dead Lennons gig and would often ask them to play an instrument they didn’t usually perform with. I played drums. Easiest gig ever. I walked in and asked the drummer of the band that was scheduled to play after us whether I could use his drums. He was probably relieved that he could leave his drums up all night and said yes. I think I might have brought drum sticks.

Roger knew every single lyric for every single Beatles song. He would call out the first tune and we would play whatever we wanted. Roger would somehow manage to sing the Beatles’ song to the ensuing music. Then he would take requests from the audience. I never saw him stumped by a request. He would simply count off the tune and get going. Did I mention that another rule of the Dead Lennons was to never ever rehearse? Usually the mix of musicians he called had never even played together!

I shall always remember the night that a drunk guy yelled at us between songs, demanding that we stop playing those damned covers and start doing something ORIGINAL. I laughed so hard.

1 Comment

  1. Banafsheh

    You were of Harrison Ave. Yes , it was rough then but now you can’t touch the real estate, simply pathetically overpriced …Gentrification all the way to Roxbury and Dorchester…The area has changed to yuppies and Strollers. I had a place on Dwight st but this was in the mid /late 90s when I moved back to Boston.
    The Rat was ! I also held a boycard at Spit ! It was so wonderful..The Rat closed the year I moved back to Boston, 1997 I believe.
    Drums !!! I can’t imagine in my head you playing drums! It’s quite interesting for someone as young then in Boston to move to Santa Fe. I don’t wish to sound ageist but as much as I LOVE Santa Fe, I have always thought I was too young to move there permanently. But now things are different because I have aged too
    Anyways, These memories are priceless….I LOVE reading these blogs..
    Did you like Boston ? They say Boston never leaves you when you live in The Hub ( Boston ) of the solar system. Would you send your kid to live in Beantown ?
    Take care

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Banafsheh Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Archives

Images

Social

@Mastodon (the Un-Twitter)