I Shoulda Learned To Play Guitar

I've only been to about 60 live concerts in my life (and who knows how many live via satellite) and one of the most memorable songs I've seen performed was Mellencamp doing Play Guitar and Van Morrison's piece de resistance Gloria. Although, he played The Doors less, erm, sanitary version.

I thought it would remain in my memory until I spotted on youtube. Where else?

The main difference here is the Toronto crowd contained none of the energy Montreal had. They rarely do. At the part where the music slows down and Mellencamp moves into the Jim Morrison version of the song, Montrealers sang along quietly with a pulsating "Gloria" following Cougar's movements reached its zenith with euphoric chants of Gloria. The natural progression between singer and crowd was perfect. It was amazing.

It was at the 1988 The Lonesome Jubilee concert (where my brother got up on stage and played Pink Houses with him. We later met Mellencamp and the band) I was introduced to the music of Bob Dylan. As part of his encore, Mellencamp played 'Like a rolling stone' in a rousing tribute to Dylan.

Before he sang it, he said something to the effect that Dylan was the, 'greatest singer to ever have his name on vinyl..."

***

Despite the title of this post, I did learn to play a little guitar. Precious little I'm afraid. I remember my teacher asking me to bring in a song I wanted to learn and I brought the notes to 'Hurst so good.'

"Wow. What a neat, awesome set of guitar chords!" he said in French. He couldn't stop playing it.

I didn't persist (like piano) and never learned to play a song to its completion.

A big regret.