"Playing The Politician!"

Cream Daze...

 Good Morning February, all bodies.

I’ve heard it said that growing up in New Orleans whether you’re black, white, rich or poor, sometime in your life you will pick up an instrument and attempt to express yourself musically.

I mentioned that there are so many interesting stories Glenn and Reggie can tell, but in order to do so, too many names would be involved. But, one story I can tell involves just we four band mates.

My cousins, Mark and Glenn Fortier introduced me to one of their high school friend who shared similar tastes in music. They suggested since we were forming our own band in my backyard garage that we consider him as a fourth member. I didn’t know Reggie at all since I was involved in my senior year athletic activities. My cousins felt he would be a good fit. After all, he loved the Buffalo Springfield!

Only real problem we had was that Reggie saw himself as a bass guitarist who, at the time, did not own a bass guitar or amp. He did, though, have a sweet, cherry red, Les Paul Junior. It had solid body with a stock single pickup. It was a real classic, which today Reggie wishes he still had.

Everybody says that about the guitars they once owned!

But, we really liked Reggie and his passion for music, so Mark decided to loan Reggie his Fender P-Bass and amp and he would learn to play rhythm guitar. It’s what kids do when there’s no money or fame involved. It’s a garage band. It’s fun, even though my dad was prone to say that all we ever did was tune up!

Fast forward to a few months later when we got the perk of practicing on stage in our high school auditorium after hours and on weekends. It was no longer used as an auditorium during the school year since the drama class was dropped and talent shows became non-existent after Sister Eurose left. It was from that time forward used as a lunch hall.

We were so spoiled. A couple of times, we’d turn on the stage spotlights… for effect, ya know!

At some point, the guys grew tired of playing Creedence Clearwater songs. That band cranked out some incredible back to back hits within a two year period and I learned just about every one of those. Back before computers, one had to learn the lyrics, write them down in a notebook and read chord charts the “analog” way. The guys helped create, sort of, but I was the one who had to learn the lead parts… That was very time consuming! The other thing we had to figure out was that the speed of each individual turntable could significantly change the key you sought to play the song in.

Well, one session, Reggie had worked out at home the lead bass pattern to Cream’s song,”Politician.” He was pretty proud of himself, and suggested we practiced that opening bass and lead riff. And, we did. It was his attempt to steer us in another direction with some newer more contemporary songs but Mark didn’t want to pursue it any further because he thought it was boring riff, and we didn’t know the words. Glenn didn’t want to rehearse it because it was too repetitious and not very conducive to the drums. Undaunted, Reggie said that it was just a blues pattern we all could jam on with each guy having his jam part to play.

After locking down the basic riff, to my ears, it all sounded pretty tight. Reggie looked at me hoping to sway the opinion his way, but I let him down. I said,”I love the idea, Reggie and I understand where you are coming from but, “The only problem is,” I said with a sigh…

“I ain’t no Eric Clapton!”

First cup!

Copyright 2022/Ben Bensen III