I played on television twice when
I lived in Charleston, South Carolina. The first time was with the preacher’s
band. We drove down to the ABC studio in Charleston and recorded a Creedence
Clearwater Revival song, Susie Q. I wanted to look cool for the show,
which was called "Tops in Blue" I think, so I acquired an Air Force
jacket to wear. Our drummer at the time was Rick, who only played for a short
time with this group. He dropped out as soon as the band uniform came into play.
During the recording of the song, we played it very straight. I played the lead
work, which was one of my better improvisations of the time, and I nailed it
with no mistakes. I was quite pleased with my performance and the performance
of the band as a whole. The show was prerecorded, so I would get to sit with
my family at home and watch it.
We had two TVs in my house at this time, and old black and white in my sister’s
room and a color TV in the living room. I watched with my sisters Susie and
Debbie and my brother Billy on the black and white. I watched the show and was
quite pleased with the whole performance. I thought I looked cool in the jacket
and the show did a very cool thing, they did a close up on my picking hand during
my lead break. In hindsight, it was probably very boring to the casual viewer,
and would even be boring to me now, but I was quite taken with the camera work
back then.
I wondered what my father would have thought of my performance. It didn’t
take long to find out.
A few minutes after the show was over, Dad came walking into my sister’s
room and simply said, "I don’t ever want to see you wearing a military
coat again," referring to my Air Force jacket.
I was quite hurt by this. He didn’t even notice the playing. He was only
concerned with what I was wearing. Of course, a lot of it could have been that
Dad was an Air Force lifer; that is, he was just four years shy of retiring
from the Air Force, and, despite what he would have told anyone, proud of his
service and proud fo the military in general.
The second appearance on TV was on the same show, but about a year later.
I had been invited to perform at the Charleston Air Force Base Talent Show.
It wasn’t as a participant, because I was considered a professional because
I actually got paid for some of the playing I did. They wanted me to fill some
space between the acts. I had just learned the song Younger Generation
by The Lovin’ Spoonful and decided to do it as my filler. To put a little
heart into the piece, I wanted to sing it to a younger girl, thinking that a
15-year-old boy could somehow seem paternal to an 8-year-old girl.
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This was me singing to Susie Gaspadarek. Click on the picture to see the full-blown picture and Susie's cute smile. |
I chose Susie Gaspadarek for two
reasons. First and foremost, I really liked her older sister and I thought it
might be a way to get a date with her. Second, I liked Susie. She was a sweet
and happy little girl that was probably more interesting than her sister.
I played the song on my Kawai guitar to Susie in the studio, again for the "Tops
in Blue" show which was promoting the talent contest. All she had to do
was sit there and look smiley. She did and I got a lot of compliments on the
performance both on stage and on TV. My father even made a comment. He said
the song was nice, but did it really end like that. If you are not familiar
with "Younger Generation," its final verse ends while sort of hanging
in the air.
I haven’t been on TV since, but I did make a "live" radio show
in Salt Lake City. And recently, some of my original material has been on one
of the local radio stations where I live.
In my opinion, it’s more rewarding to have your own material played on
the radio than to be on TV doing someone else’s stuff.