Times Beach

Back in the 80s I had the idea to start a band that played all originals. I put an ad in the paper and people called. Nobody seemed too impressed when I said I wanted to mix rock, reggae, soul and jazz and punk into one big mish mash. We tried it anyway. I think we got a gig at a dump called the Bufont Daddy in south county. It fell apart after the drummer quit. Later on, I heard the Bufont Daddy burned down and it could have been arson. I even forget what we called ourselves.

But I do remember meeting an interesting guy named Bob Shea. I was working full time and had a family, but Bob was the real deal living the life. At first he lived in Maplewood with his girlfriend Kim. I think later on Kim moved out to LA and Bob moved above Cicero's in the U City loop. Bob had been in a punk band called Times Beach. I thought the name was hilarious because I had actually worked in Times Beach just as it was declared a toxic waste area and evacuated by the feds. Bob wasn't the lead in Times Beach, but he had a bunch of songs of his own and we played a few. He was into Kung Fu and had some ideas that seemed strange to me and we really didn't hit it off on a personal level. But his his songs were good. I remember he had a tune called Romeo Rocks that I liked. His voice had a good punky scratchy style to it. About 10 years later I ran into him and he was living in an apartment and we decided to get together. He called to set a time once and then I never heard from him again.

So many times music is a shared interest between people, but it just doesn't mesh for some reason. The differences can slight, but the result is that projects don't last. I wonder if Bob ever found a good band to play his stuff. I'm sure he probably did and they got so far and ran out of gas. Just like everbody elses project. We're all just like moths crashing into a porch light to a certain extent. But the music makes us feel right so we never stop. Same in the 80s as now.