Two Johns, No Waiting

Rocktober 9 always leaves me with a touch of the melancholy, due to the loss of the aforementioned two Johns - aka Entwistle & Lennon, to be specific.  Both were born on this date, four years apart.  And both left us way, WAY too early.

Their biographies are well known, and readily available; my intent here is to relate how both impacted my life.  Winston Legthigh is a legitimate enigma, as far as I'm concerned.  No, I don't deny how big and influential the Beatles were {and still are}, nor John's large influence within the group.  Nor his talent, wit, etc.  I do have sour tastes regarding his politics and worldview; both being textbook cases of one believing 100% in their own PR, IMHO.  But if you overlay the man's basic wit, and especially his brilliant sense of humor on top of the negatives, well, let's just say I can almost tolerate the sour stuff.

I love to see early Beatles interviews, pre-Ed Sullivan.  John's humor was incredible, even before he really started "playing the game" with interviewers.  There's a cheeky innocence going on that's absolutely priceless, and it's evident up until February 1964 - after that, it vanished - or more likely, "grew up."  The only time post-2/64 there was more than a hint of it was his December 1968 appearance in the stillborn Strolling Bones' Rock & Roll Circus - but even that bit was ultimately ruined the instant Yoko opened her big fat yap!!  

Big Johnny Twinkle, on the other hand, also had a very, VERY special sense of humor that I glommed on to as soon as I was old enough to understand what the hell it was all about.  It also helped that he was on the second record album my brother and I ever had, namely Who's Next.  I perfectly knew the lyrics to "My Wife" long before I understood the story they told, or the wicked, hidden humor within said story.  In later years, I even had a few goes at singing it myself - since John rarely sang it in the same key twice {judging by all the live recorded evidence out there}, I figured a key-less version would suit me just fine.  It went down well enough - didn't even have to dodge one rotten tomah-to - and became the first of two tributes to my dear old Ox that I've done to date.

The second tribute to Boris the Spider's Daddy?

Ironically enough, this is where Winston and John Alec "come together" {pun deliberate} in my personal corner of life.  And to put the icing on the whole bloody cake, their synergy came from a dude who was great friends to both {and another huge influence on me} - one Sir Elton John.  In a nutshell, I fell in love with Sir Reg's "Empty Garden" the instant I heard it 'way back in the Jurassic days of 1982; a love that was cemented that summer when my brother, sister-in-law and I took in Elton's St. Louis VP Fair concert - featuring "EG" - under the Arch.  That gig subconsciously planted a seed in the back of me noggin.

Flash forward exactly thirty years.  The Ox's sudden, shocking death in June of 2002 dealt me an emotional blow of rare power indeed - I was almost physically sick with grief.  Despite both grief and my bitterness over JAE "dying like a rock star should," I soon called the now fully-germinated seed from 1982 forward into my full consciousness.  All I had to do was change three words in the lyric of "Empty Garden," and thus was my tribute to the Two Johns complete.  By substituting "Vegas sunset" for "New York sunset," all that was left to do was perform this lovely dual-eulogy as soon as I could, which happened about eight days later.

Thanks to the ninth incarnation of my beloved Cross Town Traffic being a keyboards-bass-drums trio {my ex on the keys}, I was able to quickly concoct a most suitable arrangement.  However, I didn't reckon on the piece having SUCH a spine-tingling impact on the boards and in front of an audience.  I mean the vibe wasn't there at all during our rehearsals, but boy did it ever spring up quick the instant we took the stage!  It probably had a lot to do with the audience; they not only picked up on it from the get-go, they also reflected straight back to us, amplified from anywhere between 250 to 1500-odd times over, depending on which venue we were working.  As such, who could possibly miss the import of it all?

LSS, we kept EG in our regular setlists for perhaps six months or so, before confining it to October 9 performances exclusively.  And it's been that way ever since, with virtually no dimming of the vibe.  Downright harrowing, it is.

And that's the whole ball of wax, my dear Cats and Kitties.  May God Bless and Keep our Two Johns - With No Waiting.

Peace in, garbage out, and feel the vibe exactly the way I felt it that first time in '82:

.