30 Days to Chronic Town: Day 29

I had a friend in high school who was a bassist – he thought everything The Police did was the greatest (he’s right). He worked in a record store in Coral Gables and was always hip to the new music. He helped turn me on to R.E.M.

He would go to a house of another friend of ours who played guitar (and later played in a band called Coral Gables), and they would try and figure out the chord arrangements of songs we heard on the radio. Remember, this was before the Internet (laptop computers, even), so it took talent to get the chords correct. Nowadays all you have to do is a simple Google search.

On this particular afternoon, Rich and Jay were trying to figure out the ins and outs of Driver 8, a new R.E.M. song off the album Fables of the Reconstruction, which had come out just a few months before. While I did play some drums in high school, I didn’t have a set at the time, nor did I play with any talent. On this day I sat transfixed, watching the two play the song over and over, trying to figure out the chords and bass arrangement.

They did, not perfect, but good enough to make it work. I was pretty much in awe, I’ve wanted to play the guitar but never got around to it when I was that age.

But I did 13 years later, when I got motivated, bought a guitar and took some lessons from a guy named Dil (like the pickle, as he would say). The first song I learned how to play – Driver 8. And all I needed to do was a simple Google search.