Pat Reilly gave me his copy of Tommy, by The Who. His mom, a practicing Catholic, forbade him from playing it in the house. He let me keep it on the condition that he could come by and listen to it whenever he felt the urge. Pat didn’t just want to listen to it though, he wanted to play air-drums to the entire four sides of vinyl. In addition and as part of the album lending arrangement, I was to accompany him on tennis racket during his furious drum work outs. Pat Reilly was bigger than me and most of my runty middle school chums. He pretty much got his way but I didn’t mind because he was riotously funny. He once got up in front of our advanced placement literature class in sixth grade and gave a spontaneous alternate ending to The Hobbit, hoping to pass it off as his book project. It had something to do with the dragon Smaug eating all of the gold under the mountain and then drowning in the lake because he was too heavy to fly. Bilbo and the dwarves had to go up his ass in a magic submarine to retrieve the gold. He didn’t get credit but he did get a passing grade when he did a presentation on acne and used me as his model. Just as in the Tommy lend-lease agreement, my issues and concerns about the project were not addressed. During our air band performances, Pat would sit on the headboard of my bed, chopsticks in hand and lead me through the the rapid fire progressions of stuttering drums and power chords. When I began windmilling slashing at my Wilson tennis racket, he corrected my technique, advising me to stum upwards instead of coming down at the ‘strings’. He told me that’s how Pete Townshend did it so he didn’t lose the pick or mess up his hands (he was right. It sounds better that way too). The one thing I felt bad about concerning Pat and our air band rock opera performances was that I never told him I had a cheap Gibson Les Paul Jr. copy and a Peavy Backstage 30 amplifier in the closet. I was afraid of what he might make me do if he found out.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
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3 comments:
I bet you played well despite the beginner's technique.
I watched Tommy about a mont ago, once again.
I know a Pat Reilly, he's the Mayor of Willoughby. He's given my duo gigs sometimes and he himself is an Elvis impersonator!
(from his website).."Mayor Reilly donates his time to charity and fund-raising events with his Elvis impersonations.
While his political opponents deride Mr Reilly's theatrical inclinations, the Mayor said, "It actually costs me a lot of money to put on those Elvis shows, but that's my contribution to fund raising activities within the communty. And because I enjoy doing them and enjoy seeing people have fun, yes at my expense."
I could never get a grip on electric 6-string guitar...sort of always felt 'naked' playing it. I'm strictly an acoustics man, and if I'm going electric or banding then it's always the beloved bass for me, or cool keys!
Nice twist in the tale for the Mr Reilly's Hobbit, after all, gold will only continue to increase in value, right up until the final moments..
Sounds like your Pat Reilly is quite a character too. Maybe it's something in their hibernian blood?
I like both electric and acoustic but electric guitar is wot I do. It took a couple of decades to get my own thing going. I'm quite happy with the ones I've got and the amps that do the talking for us.
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