I’ve been reflecting on an incident from 1976 that is burned into my memory. That is 42 years ago. A very successful piano player who is my friend played one of my own compositions with me in a hotel bar. I have an original song called “Space Blues.” I wrote it in 1976. One night, I sat in with my friend’s band; I played keyboard. The band’s keyboard player had a beard, and he asked me if I wanted to sit in. He yelled out from the audience for me to play a mambo, since he’d heard me play one before. My friend was playing bass on a Moog Synthesizer. The lead singer had sung on a Motown record, and he worked with my father at the Fisher Body plant in Livonia. My friend asked me what song I wanted to play, since I was sitting in. I told him the chords to Space Blues and the band and I started playing it. The lead singer liked it, and started improvising some lyrics. Actually he really sort of sang tones without words, since I hadn’t written the words yet. I was thrilled to have this song of mine being performed in public. I was thrilled to be playing in a bond with my friend, since I had a lot of respect for his musicianship. Playing Space Blues in that hotel bar with my highly respected friend is seared in my memory.
Now, 42 years later, I have finally recorded Space Blues. I sent it to my friend, the same friend who played with me in 1976, who has been producing my recordings. He did not remember the song at all; it was as if he heard it for the first time. I feel like telling him, “You played this song with me in 1976!” But he has no recollection of any of this. It didn’t make the same impression on him as it did on me. He has played innumerable songs since, has played in countless bands, doesn’t even remember me sitting in with him that night in the hotel bar.
That’s the nature of memory.
David Fekete 