ah,, high school bands, I remember them well !!

I started late, picked up my first guitar at 14, I think. So, my first day in high school, there's this guy named Nelson Ferrar playing a gorgeous Gretch Chet Atkins guitar, the one George Harrison played. Now, kids in 9th grade just didn't have that kind of scratch, so it was strange to see such a class guitar in the lunchroom. Then, he starts playing Led Zeppelin, and I mean blindingly fast, note for note Jimmy Page, every detail, just flawless, and my jaw dropped. I'm 15, and I've been playing some Beatles and Stones songs, beginner Led Zep, Hendrix, etc.

I couldn't follow or begin to understand the things he was playing. He was a good guy, and we were friendly, though not close friends. It turns out he's the nephew of actor Jose Ferrer, and Nelson's grandfather Jose Ferrer, was considered the world's second best guitarist, after Segovia. Nelson started a band, and they had a manager, which was unheard of high school in 1969, Their manager had written hit songs, one of the was the hit "Happy Together" by The Turtles. They had great amps, cool clothes, good looks, (like The Faces), and were a really good band.

I practiced like crazy to where I could play some Hendrix and some Led Zep by ear, and started my own band called Triton. It turned out I had a knack for writing, so I wrote the original music for the band, which sounded somewhere between Traffic and King Crimson. We practiced every day in a basement we rented, and did a couple of shows in Manhattan that were a huge success because we had a great local following. Years passed, Nelson got even better, and then it was announced we'd have a battle of the bands at the end of the year. We were all graduating, and Nelson's band was playing as well as mine.

The auditorium was jammed, Nelson's band did a great set and they looked like a real pro band, we played the music I'd written, and when it all was done, we won the battle of the bands. This was like rock & roll David vs. Goliath for us, and it was a wonderful way to finish high school.

It was the songs and presentation, not the technical expertise that put us ahead. We were fairly well accomplished players by then, but since my playing wasn't topping Jimmy Page's, I continued to think of my writing as the most important thing. It took me a lifetime to get back to that same feeling, I'm a writer who sings and plays well, not a player who sings.