Nothing can throw a musician for a bigger loop than a promoter asking for a different set of songs than what the band rehearsed. Such was the case this morning as I woke to an email asking if I’d be performing something for the show tonight. Initially I had a moment of like, are you kidding? I guess people instantly assume that if you’ve written a song then you’d instantly know how to play it.
Hell, I was guilty of that mentality in music school. At the time I could never imagine that I wouldn’t know every single piece of musicalness I ever created. I remember being out in front of school when a famous bassist walked out and a fellow student asked him how he played a particular bass riff on a recording. The famous musician replied by saying, you’d have to play the recording for me because I don’t remember.
Fast forward a few years and now I’m in that boat where I’ve written and recorded so many things that I sometimes hear stuff I’ve written and recorded and I’m surprised by the fact that I don’t recall it. It’s disturbing mostly because many friends think I have an insanely good memory. I guess at some point you create so much stuff that it can become a blur.
Fortunately I’m not being forced to have the band play a song that I co-wrote with someone else, that they have never heard. Even better that it wouldn’t be performed for the first time without a rehearsal. Whew.
Leave to one of my favorite bands to have a song aptly titled, False Alarm. King’s X is the powerhouse that has recorded a plethora of music during the course of their career has got a song from a not so distant release that captures that thought.