Dixie - In Memoriam
New member
Snipped from another thread to spawn a new topic:
I ran across this in the middle of an unrelated topic, and thought it was interesting enough to spawn a new topic. Here we have two posters who are as different as night and day in their political views, finding common ground through music. I have always felt that music is our great unifying force, not only between political rivals, but culturally as well. It's something that seems to transcend our differences and bring us together.
I have been a musician since age 7, when my father bought me a 1967 Fender Stratocaster Sunburst. A guitar that, if I still had, would be worth about $10-15k now. I was way too young to appreciate this, and absolutely HATED music lessons. After fighting with me for about a year, my dad finally gave up on his dream of me being a musical prodigy, and the Strat went under the bed until I was in my teens. It saw some action then.. me and my high school buddies would dress up like KISS and put on shows from the patio, complete with homemade flashpots. (two metal wastebaskets with a cup of gasoline.) The buddy who was Gene Simmons, even learned how to "breathe fire" with lighter fluid... it's a wonder we survived. The Strat survived, but at some point, my stupid teenage ass decided it would be a good idea to sand it down and paint it silver. About 10 years later, a guy I worked with, who was a guitarist, said he would LOVE to get it and restore it. He offered to do all the work, and we would then sell it and split what we made. I agreed, and handed it over for restoration. A week later, he failed to show up at work for 3 days, so I went to his house... he had skipped. Never have seen or heard from him again.
In any event, I didn't seriously begin playing guitar until I was 38, which was 15 years ago. I play acoustic, and have a really sweet cedar-top Seagull. Very much into Bob Dylan, The Band, Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt, Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, The Stones, etc. I like 'reworking' a song from another genre, and making it my own. I've done unusual 'folk' covers of New York, New York by Sinatra, and Crazy in Love by Beyonce. My most requested cover is Alanis Morissette's Not the Doctor. I also have a bunch of my own songs, which people say they like better than my covers.
My music friends are mostly liberal, some of them are VERY liberal. Needless to say, we don't debate politics... (that's why I come here!) Now, my friends and I love each other, and would be there for each other in crisis, and HAVE been. Our political views never enter into the picture, it's as if they simply don't exist or don't matter.
It's a shame the rest of society can't be this way.
I ran across this in the middle of an unrelated topic, and thought it was interesting enough to spawn a new topic. Here we have two posters who are as different as night and day in their political views, finding common ground through music. I have always felt that music is our great unifying force, not only between political rivals, but culturally as well. It's something that seems to transcend our differences and bring us together.
I have been a musician since age 7, when my father bought me a 1967 Fender Stratocaster Sunburst. A guitar that, if I still had, would be worth about $10-15k now. I was way too young to appreciate this, and absolutely HATED music lessons. After fighting with me for about a year, my dad finally gave up on his dream of me being a musical prodigy, and the Strat went under the bed until I was in my teens. It saw some action then.. me and my high school buddies would dress up like KISS and put on shows from the patio, complete with homemade flashpots. (two metal wastebaskets with a cup of gasoline.) The buddy who was Gene Simmons, even learned how to "breathe fire" with lighter fluid... it's a wonder we survived. The Strat survived, but at some point, my stupid teenage ass decided it would be a good idea to sand it down and paint it silver. About 10 years later, a guy I worked with, who was a guitarist, said he would LOVE to get it and restore it. He offered to do all the work, and we would then sell it and split what we made. I agreed, and handed it over for restoration. A week later, he failed to show up at work for 3 days, so I went to his house... he had skipped. Never have seen or heard from him again.
In any event, I didn't seriously begin playing guitar until I was 38, which was 15 years ago. I play acoustic, and have a really sweet cedar-top Seagull. Very much into Bob Dylan, The Band, Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt, Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, The Stones, etc. I like 'reworking' a song from another genre, and making it my own. I've done unusual 'folk' covers of New York, New York by Sinatra, and Crazy in Love by Beyonce. My most requested cover is Alanis Morissette's Not the Doctor. I also have a bunch of my own songs, which people say they like better than my covers.
My music friends are mostly liberal, some of them are VERY liberal. Needless to say, we don't debate politics... (that's why I come here!) Now, my friends and I love each other, and would be there for each other in crisis, and HAVE been. Our political views never enter into the picture, it's as if they simply don't exist or don't matter.
It's a shame the rest of society can't be this way.
