NEW YORK SONG

Roger Gemelle

Text copyright © 2016

For Dinah, Always For Dinah

Excerpt: Germination

After a much less confusing second day at school the twins invited me over to their house, which was only a couple of blocks from where we got off the bus. It was just over Union Turnpike on Bell Blvd. A two story white house of functional design that would become our musical nursery.

Through the front door, down the steps to the basement, where there was a large empty room off of which was a smallish sized bedroom. That was the twin's bedroom and we'd sit on the two beds and play.

That first day I hadn't brought my guitar, but they had two, so just I and Arnie played, and the three of us tried to cobble together some songs and vocals.

We started to play ... mostly Beatles songs but with others in the mix too, and it didn't take too long or me to organize some harmonies with the guys and the vocal blend wasn't too bad. Their intonation needed a bit of work but it seemed workable. They had plenty of volume and energy and sounded pretty good, but they were as hopeless as I was on the chordal structures.

But we knocked it around on our cheap, crappy guitars and over a few weeks it did get a lot better. It was usually me on the lead vocal and the twins doing the harmonies and choruses. Bit by painful bit we began to figure out the correct way to play chords and even learned the notoriously difficult bar chords. I have to laugh now about those neophytic struggles, but to be fair I give us credit for sticking with it.

The thing was we had no guides like others did. Some kids parents knew music well and played, some brilliantly and you know that made a gigantic difference. We were struggling on our own, no one in our immediate family (probably not extended either) played more than a kazoo!

But it's also possible there was something good in having to find our way blindly. We listened with a rapt desperate eagerness to songs that excited us, and then we tried to replicate it. And we got pretty excited in that little bedroom when something fell into place. The guys eyes would light up and I'd yell "Yes!" and we'd do it again. And we were becoming a band!

I had a romantic thing going with 350 Fifth Avenue since I was a little kid. The Empire State Buiding thrills me! And I have no ideas why. It's something to do with the very top shape of her, the way it's gothic lines lead to the tower and mast. Everytime I see it it's the same thrill ... and I've seen it so many times.

I was only five when my parents took me to see her. I remember the long elevator ride and the light colored woods and stepping out onto that viewing platform with the quarter viewing machines, Classic!

But when my dad innocently lifted me up to see better I saw too far down and screamed bloody murder terrified. I have been afraid of heights ever since. I mean even if you were to go near an edge I would have to plead with you to back away.

My parents bought me a beautiful golden souvenir of cast iron of the Empire State Building that I had for many years.

And yes I guess the movies and TV shows and media have built that mystique further, but for me it's a physical thing, a geometric thing. I never tire of seeing it.

When we went into Manhatten to figure out how to get a recording contract I would always scan for that iconic mast in the sky. Sometimes I could only see the square shape rising until it was blocked by other buildings and that never did it for me, I had to see the top. And later when we had cars and could drive in we would see it as part of the shape of the skyline as we went over the bridge and there was a recognition that I was home that felt right.

We got a gig at the Oakland Jewish Center for some sort of small party in the afternoon and it was mostly kids that were pretty young but we were glad to get it. We set up in what looked like a gymnasium and felt like bigshots with all the little kids asking us questions. Weren't we cute?

I was really excited because I had just bought a new amp. An Ampeg Gemini Twin Reverb! It was one of the first amps with reverb and it did sound unbelievably good! It was really the first pro sounding amp I ever had. Lush reverb but great bottom end and killer highs too.

But when we started to play a lot of older kids came in and I must say I was surprised at how decent we sounded and how they all danced to our set. Not bad really. Not everyone was as crazy about The Beatles as we were of course so we threw in plenty of surf stuff and motown and some belly-rubbers! But when I did Twist and Shout they went nuts, and we really nailed it, and I thought: This is what I wanted to do, and I'm doing it and it's possible!

We did This Boy, and Pipeline, and Roll Over Beethoven, and Shout, and it all went over very well.

Of course on breaks we talked with the girls and we could tell it was a heck of a lot easier to introduce yourself after you'd stepped off the elevated platform of the rock and roll band. A very different vibe!

This probably wouldn't help your relationship after a little while, but it was much easier to get started. Even the slightest raise in status is a big leg up out of the pool of male swarm.

But far and away the best surprise was that we thought we sounded like a band. A real for God's sake rock and Roll band!