Tag Archives: music

My favorite four aficianadoes.

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Daily writing prompt
What is the best concert you have been to?
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Now there’s a question.

And I LOVE music.

Back in the 70’s and 80’s, I spent a great deal of time going to concerts.

My first one ever? Not gonna believe this. The Carpenters at Ravinia, maybe mid 70’s. Don’t remember a thing from that show. Not that we were toasty. Just don’t. Wore suits. With “dates”. Awkward to say the least. Yikes.

From there?

Let’s see.

Saw Uriah Heep open for Kiss at the old Chicago Stadium. Peter Criss spun like a hamster on some drum kit thingee they designed. Also saw Led Zepplin there, until Jimmy Page needed a chair because he was “under the weather”. A few songs into the set it was cancelled. Foghat and BTO at the old Amphitheatre, the loudest. I think Elton, Wings, Black Sabbath, Kansas and And for the Rush show, our tickets were for the main floor. But me and JSV were pretty much sitting up in the rafters that whole show, if you catch my drift.

Outdoor ones? OMG

Superbowls and World Series of Rock through out the Chicago area. The Police, Flock of Seagulls, Yes, The Fixx, Lynrd, REO, Ferocious Theodocius, Molly Hatchet and Guns n Roses. Tom Petty, Boston, Stevie Nicks, Phil Collins and the Hot Tub Club, Stevie Ray Vaughn at one of his final performances, Aerosmith before and after they maintained sobriety. Inxs three times in one year. Cheap Trick. Dire Straits. Pink Floyd for the Animals Tour at Arlington Raceway and Frank crooning as only he can at the Taste of Chicago. Had tickets for Mr. Dylan but couldn’t get there. Dang.

Willie Nelson played for three hours straight at Alpine Valley I think. In college, we developed a thing for David Allen Coe. He was to warm it up for Hank Williams Jr. in Chicago. But he also had a tendency not to show up. So me and three other suburban brats went to the show on the ifcome. Mr. Coe was a no show. But Hank played three hours straight to a crowd that was mostly motorcylists and tatted up if you know what I mean.

So yes. Concerts were big in my life.

But to name favorites, I would have to jettison years ahead, to the days my kids played.

When I was in grade school, I didn’t pass a test to allow me to learn an instrument, though my dad was an accordionist and pianist. But I did sing in a barbershop chorus, and was lead for a quartet in middle school.

My kids though?

They must have gotten my dad’s genes. My oldest daughter, son and youngest daughter played the viola, cello and viola in the orchestra from grade to highschool. Once in highschool, the orchestra took trips overseas to play in Europe, going to Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and Spain. Their rendition of “Ashokan Farewell” still remains in my heart.

My youngest son was a percussionist for the band and the orchestra. He still is. So he played drums for the marching band and whatever they needed for an orchestral concert with his siblings. He was the whip in the Christmas song, “Sleigh Ride”. He said that one part was nerve wracking. He and the band went to Hawaii and played at half-time for a bowl game his senior year.

I still grin when I think about sprinting across the infield at Arlington at 7:00 AM to capture a spot to watch Pink Floyd at 7:00 PM.

But my heart smiles most when I remember watching my four play their concerts.

My favorite four aficianadoes.

Only if you sing your song.

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Daily writing prompt
Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?
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Well, my stage career began and ended with Mr. Tantillo’s 7th & 8th grade Barbershop Music classes at the Hinsdale Junior High School, about 1972 or 3 BC. I had the fortune of singing lead in a quartet that travelled as far as Milwaukee, to share “My Wild Irish Rose” when our turn came up during the program.

Heading out on that proverbial limb, I think it was Russ that sang bass, Mike that was our baritone, and the tenor’s name? Escapes me for now. But when I remember it at 1:43 AM, I will add it in. We usually concluded our concerts with “Good-bye My Coney Island Baby”. Upon retirement when I graduated from junior high, my singing moments were reserved for “Rosalita” in college and are now preserved in the friendly confines of my car with my friends at WXRT or the Drive.

However, since then, I have also been blessed with opportunities to create some of my own melodies in public speaking around the community. My involvement in football as a player and now a coach has afforded me chances to speak to players whether on the field at practice or at other events, share my thoughts with the staff, players and families at weekly high school team dinners and teach coaching concepts at football clinics around the state.

I also became a guest lecturer at a near by college and through my involvement as a mentor for the local Boy Scout troops, provide the earned accolades for soaring as an Eagle at their court of honor. Of late, I have had the chance to share a daily devotional with my new team and explore the spiritual essence of other readings with another close coaching friend of mine.

These daily prompts are such a treasure. They reveal things to me I just did not even consider.

Singing was scary to start. Being out in front of many with three others carrying a tune. But now that I look back, it was a sorely needed source of joy for a young man that pretty much kept to himself. Since some arbitrary test I took in grade school disqualified me from learning an instrument, having the opportunity to just sing was a Godsend. A way to express a passion I had for music. Apart from laying on the living room floor next to the RCA console, reading liner notes and playing records at “11”. Not sure what led me to neglect that path once I went into highschool. Maybe it was football that took front and center.

So the melody I have been able to share in public speaking shares the same source of passion. To articulate feelings, sensations and hopes through words. Not telling anyone what to do or how to do it. But moreso what is to be gained if you surrender yourself to that undertaking without regret. The memories it will create within those moments and for the rest of your life. How fulfilling just leaving it all out there, regardless of the outcome, can be. And is.

And when you can connect with another or others within a sea of faces and lives, you just know it.

The eye contact. The body language. The expression. You sense their presence in your melody. And within you. A feeling of connection and intimacy that just escapes description.

Exactly why you just need to leave it all out there, surrender and dismiss the possibility of regret.

How fulfilling that can and always will be.

Only if you sing your song.