One Of The Pod Of Great White Whales
By Mitch Berg
Over the years, I’ve had any number of “to-dos”, and ticked most of them off in due enough time.
Some of the “to-dos” that have been ageing longest on the shelf involve guitar parts I need to learn.
Granted, I no longer play in bands; my last real attempt at it was back around 2001, and we never came close to playing out. But I still occasionally sit down and try to learn something new. And the things I try, most often, are the ones that have been ageing on that “to-do” list for the longest.
A few years ago, I more or less picked up “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” by Richard Thompson. And when I say “more or less”, I mean I can either play it really well but just a little slow, or I can play it at speed but about as sloppy as a Bolivian heart/lung transplant.
(It occurs to me that I’ll probably get an irate email form someone, sooner than later, saying “Hey, I am Bolivia’s leading heart/lung transplant surgeon, and I have a 100% success rate over 1,700 surgeries” – or, worse, “Hey, I’m on my way to La Paz with my father to get him a transplant – what are you trying to say?” It’s a dumb, possibly ill-informed joke, although I do know my Google Fu well enough to at least check. Whew . I’m not insulting the Bolivian transplant industry. Good times).
But one that’s been on my to-do list for two decades – through three careers, two children, an entire marriage, five moves and five presidents – has been “Sweet Child of Mine” by Guns ‘n Roses. For whatever reason – not playing in glam-metal bands at first, then being too busy, and then being even more too busy – I just never got around to learning it. And when I say “never got around to”, I mean I took the occasional swat at it over the years, and gave up.
Until this weekend.
Thanks to the miracle of YouTube, you can find people who can show you how to play just about anything. I solved the problem that’d always vexed me with the song (what position of “D” Slash used), and…
…voila! I can play it!
Well, more or less. I can play it slowly pretty well (for now), as I’m still getting the whole lick into “muscle memory” (which isn’t something I’ve done in a while, and lemme tell ya it’s a lot easier when you’re 18). Up to speed? Well, I’m about as sloppy as a Bolivian hear…
…er, pretty sloppy.
September 28th, 2009 at 9:08 am
as sloppy as a Bolivian heart/lung transplant
…and the tangent that followed it made my day! Good times indeed.
September 28th, 2009 at 9:45 am
I was unfamiliar with the Vincent ’52 music until SitD – thank you for the enhancement to my education. It’s good to know you are still as musical as ever.
Although, that one part of the lyrics is wrong, about Nortons not having heart and soul, just the Vincents, but I’m biased. A bike can be dear to one’s heart.
You may not get to Carnegie Hall, but do keep practicing; maybe we can get you to play at a future MOB party.
September 28th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
When I was a freshman at UMD in 1988-1989, There was one guy who lived down the hall from me in Lake Superior Hall. Starting in the fall, I could hear the intro riff to SCoM wafting down the dorm hallways almost every weekend in the afternoon for a month at about half speed. In the spring, I noticed again, that I could hear those same refrains echoing down the halls, at the same speed. I took pity on the guy.