our lives are so busy, events, places and people can become overshadowed by everyday commonplace. some people are easy to forget, others stay with you forever. with those who stay with you, an easy smile can come to your face.
a friend kept telling me he wanted to introduce me to someone that i would get along with, we had alot in common, this friend knowing i really don`t like many people. it just never panned out, life was in the way. well a weekend getaway turned into the introduction of a pretty cool friendship. when i was finally introduced to strummer, he immediately asked me what i was drinking as he was sitting behind the bar. vodka being my choice of poison, it was vodka i blurted out. with his proper educated english accent he apologised and said he had no vodka. not to worry, i`ll drink anything...... well that didn`t settle with joe....... two hours latter, joe shows up with a bottle of stoli.....story goes: joe walks out the front door to get me my vodka, doesn`t want to drive because he has had a few so "finds" a bicycle with the tires flat so walks it a couple miles to pump them up..... pedals to liquor store for "my" vodka, rides back, replaces the bicycle where he "found"it, then proceeds to pour me my drink and hand it to me.......we sat for hours talking and eventually babbling something or the other as the get-together started drifting away.......one of my last photographs that is imprinted in my mind is at 5:00 a.m., palm springs, 76 degrees, the buddy that introduced us sitting on the edge of the pool with his legs in the water playing his acoustic gretsch smoking a cigar with joe laying on the diving board writing lyrics and myself sitting in the middle of the two working minds throwing up profusely with my arms wrapped around a green trashcan..... between breaks of retching convulsively, i had the great fortune of seeing two geniuses in their element of creative juices oblivious of the idiot destined to mediocrity; not letting my growling noises interfer with their minds........actually, during breaks they would bring me bottles of water with the encouraging words, "keep drinking water, you will be fine", with a reassuring pat on the back....... that was the beginning of a pretty cool friendship that i never really got what i brought to the friendship.....everytime he got into town, i got a call, "Michael...........!", with that accent. i would just smile as i am right now.....thinking of you joe. i rest.
our lives are so busy, events, places and people can become overshadowed by everyday commonplace. some people are easy to forget, others stay with you forever. with those who stay with you, an easy smile can come to your face.
a friend kept telling me he wanted to introduce me to someone that i would get along with, we had alot in common, this friend knowing i really don`t like many people. it just never panned out, life was in the way. well a weekend getaway turned into the introduction of a pretty cool friendship. when i was finally introduced to strummer, he immediately asked me what i was drinking as he was sitting behind the bar. vodka being my choice of poison, it was vodka i blurted out. with his proper educated english accent he apologised and said he had no vodka. not to worry, i`ll drink anything...... well that didn`t settle with joe....... two hours latter, joe shows up with a bottle of stoli.....story goes: joe walks out the front door to get me my vodka, doesn`t want to drive because he has had a few so "finds" a bicycle with the tires flat so walks it a couple miles to pump them up..... pedals to liquor store for "my" vodka, rides back, replaces the bicycle where he "found"it, then proceeds to pour me my drink and hand it to me.......we sat for hours talking and eventually babbling something or the other as the get-together started drifting away.......one of my last photographs that is imprinted in my mind is at 5:00 a.m., palm springs, 76 degrees, the buddy that introduced us sitting on the edge of the pool with his legs in the water playing his acoustic gretsch smoking a cigar with joe laying on the diving board writing lyrics and myself sitting in the middle of the two working minds throwing up profusely with my arms wrapped around a green trashcan..... between breaks of retching convulsively, i had the great fortune of seeing two geniuses in their element of creative juices oblivious of the idiot destined to mediocrity; not letting my growling noises interfer with their minds........actually, during breaks they would bring me bottles of water with the encouraging words, "keep drinking water, you will be fine", with a reassuring pat on the back....... that was the beginning of a pretty cool friendship that i never really got what i brought to the friendship.....everytime he got into town, i got a call, "Michael...........!", with that accent. i would just smile as i am right now.....thinking of you joe. i rest.
4 comments:
great story.
Excellent post sir...
Don Letts just dropped show dedicated to Joe Strummer over on BBC 6. It's good, check it before it evaporates...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018grfk
thanks brothers..........
That was great, Rip Joe.
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