Now that you mention it, I’m going to tell you something that I edited out of the original draft because it felt a little (or a lot) egocentric and self-serving.
In mid-gig that night, the band had to adjourn to another room to play a set. And that necessitated a re setup which of course meant plunking a few notes on the bass to make sure everything was in working order.
At the time, I had a record (as producer, guitar and bass player) just released on Salsoul Records, which if you’re not familiar was a real live record company with hits. The fact that I was playing a wedding while waiting to see if the record was going to happen was a point of dismay — as was (again) how shitty I sounded with this wedding band owing to my not knowing the songs and the band providing no charts for me to play along. (I was a good reader and would have done fine with written music as a guide.)
To the point: While waiting to play the set in the new room — and out of frustration at sounding shitty and being judged harshly by the band leader — I very softly played the bass line to my Salsoul Record to bolster my mood and ego. Yeah, I sucked on this gig. But only because I was too busy writing my own music to keep up with the top 40 tunes of the day.
In the middle of what I thought was essentially a soliloquy, I turned around from the amp to meet Keith’s eyes, which were studying what I was doing. In that moment, I knew that he understood what was going on with the musician he was watching. He recognized that I was just grinding out a buck at this wedding. So you’re right. He saw through the mess and found the pearl. And trust me…I played that bass line very softly. But he still heard.
Here’s the record — and the bass line I played courtesy of You tube. Thanks for the observation.
