Back in high school, I got along with
everyone, more or less. I had athlete friends, mock trial friends, and school
spirit friends. But, for the most part, I was part of a crowd of kids that just
amalgamated. We played touch football and friendly games of basketball, but we
weren’t the jocks. We all did fairly well in classes, but we weren’t the
overachievers. We had opinions and were generally happy with the school, but we
weren’t the school government or yearbook types. I guess we were the dreamers.
We were all pretty different as
individuals, but collectively we shared a lot (like, ehem, a passion for Dungeons
and Dragons). Something that we all shared was a love for music, rock music. We
were into all the 1960s-80’s bands, the good ones, from the Beatles and the Stones
to Van Halen and Genesis. Weirdly, despite everyone’s interest in music, I was
one of the few who played an instrument, guitar, and sang. I guess that is why
one of the only other guys who played an instrument, the drums, asked if I
wanted to jam. Greg and I got together at the house of another friend, Dennis,
who also played guitar.
It was the first time that any of us had
played in a band. I had jammed a little with another guitar friend, but it was
the first time I played with 2 other people, let alone a drummer. I remember
that first (and last) day, repeating Asia’s Heat of the Moment and Rush’s Tom
Sawyer. I was playing through a tiny Peavey amplifier cranked up to 11 and was
screaming at the top of my voice with no microphone. We sucked in the Dave
Grohl sense – we sucked, but we had so much fun, it didn’t matter, and we
wanted more. We were dreamers.
Greg called me a few months later saying
that he met a bass guitarist, Larry, and that we should get together. Get together
we did, and although we sucked, we sucked less and less with each encounter. We
had no concept of equipment. I was singing through a small black microphone
that was intended for one of those old cassette player/recorders. We didn’t
have a mixer, so no balance. At some point I upgraded to a more powerful
Peavey, but still had no clue about getting the right sound. It didn’t matter. We
couldn’t get enough, and while all of our high school friends would have huge,
drunken mega-parties when parents were away, Greg, Larry, and I would routinely
meet in Larry’s garage.
One of our problems was that I was not a
lead guitarist, so we would play a song, come to the solo and either awkwardly skip
it, or else bravely suffer through some semblance of a guitar solo (actually my
Andy Summers solo wasn’t too bad). At some point, we were introduced to an amazing
guitarist, Shawn, who brought us up several notches. With Shawn, we were
tighter (we learned to listen to each other as we played) and he nailed all the
solos on his Les Paul!
We just clicked together, having similar
musical tastes, and we got along well. We called ourselves Black Swan (I still
have a poster with a black swan that my high school girlfriend, Stephanie, drew
for us). Our repertoire was somewhat limited and we would rehearse again and
again until my vocal cords were shredded. We played The Who’s My Generation, I Can’t
Explain, and I Can See for Miles and Miles, some Zeppelin – Communication Breakdown,
Livin’ Lovin’ Maid, and Rock and Roll –, and The Police’s Driven to Tears. Rock
You Like a Hurricane – the Scorpions, was one of our favorites. We played some
Asia, and, of course Rush – Making Memories, In the End, and Bastille Day.
This was the summer of ’85, and although
we had some success, mostly in the form of neighborhood kids crowding into the
garage with us, we eventually moved in separate directions, like the verse in
the Bryan Adams song. One of our highlights, though, was a battle of the bands
in the Somers High School auditorium. It was billed as a huge event that would
collect donations for cancer research. It was the middle of winter and I remember
that it snowed, a lot. Despite 10 inches of snow that night, the show went on
and there was actually a decent crowd. At some point, we went on stage and played
4 or 5 of our best songs. Our set seemed to end as quickly as it began, but
what a thrill! There were a couple of bands that far exceeded our talents and
won the battle. It didn’t matter, though, because we were rock stars, we were
Black Swan!
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