Just for You Steve

Ha!

I was going to write about riding to work in the dark after a 5:00 a.m. breakfast, but you have already heard about all that weirdness. At least I got some of the soy bacon and a sip of coffee before the lights went out.

But instead, I'll tell the tale of a hippie wedding.

Around 1973, a friend from high school decided he was going to wed his live in girl friend. They had been living in his Williamsburg crash pad while he was continuing his education (and staying out of the draft) at William & Mary. And he asked his friends to play music for the wedding.

Now let me tell you a little history about the Lil' Spencer Boys and Cliff &/or Joe. The Spencer brothers lived in the fan and knew Joe(l) since Jr. high. I met Joe(l) in high school, along with the elder Spencer through a friend from the First Baptist Church. Joe and I became best of buds and hung out every day after school. I was learning how to play the guitar and he wrote poetry. After a while people saw us so much together we named ourselves Cliff and or Joe. ( In life you learn to answer to many names.)

So Cliff &/or Joe would write songs. Joe being the lyric man and I being the tunesmith. The first ones were silly, but after awhile they got pretty good. And they reflected the thoughts of the time. The elder Spencer boy also played guitar and sang harmonies.

And so the story goes that we accepted the offer to play at the Williamsburg wedding. But what songs do you want to play? Out came the music books. And a set was agreed on.

"Good Day Sunshine" the Beatles

"Gypsy Rover" old folk song

"Dear Doctor" the Rolling Stones

" Sun" Donovan

"Colors" Donovan

"Sing This Song Altogether" the Rolling Stones

"Hide Your Love Away" the Beatles

"Don't Let Me Down" the Beatles

"Blue Suede Shoes / Great Balls of Fire" to end the show

To rehearsal

Any band worth it's guitar strings knows, you got to practice to get all the notes right. So we gathered in the elder Spencer's bedroom, with his younger brother on tape recording and vocal backup. The guitars came out, tuned up, and we sat around in a circle on the floor and began. "What key do you want to sing?" "Only have half a key...." came back from an old Fire sign Theater group skit.

And practice we did, until we got it right. (Recordings of the Bedroom Tapes can be purchased for a small donation)

And so the day came. We had all traveled down to the Colonial town the night before, but I don't remember much after that, but the sky was clear and the weather warm.

Picking up our instruments we all walked over to the college yard to find a group of folks sitting on fold out chairs under a large tree. Joe, Jim, Art and I (dressed in our separate official Williamsburg shirts) sat on the ground. Joe's future wife (actually they had already been married in a civil service earlier) sat near by smiling like a new bride is suppose to smile. Or maybe it was because we were all stoned.

But we played well, hit most of the notes, and impressed passersby who stopped and gawked at the hippies passing around wine and laughing.

Excellent way to start a marriage. And they are STILL married. Wow man!

So there Steve. I know THAT should be the first chapter.