Insufficient bone spurs When I was in Allen Military academy, our MST (military science and technology) instructors were active-duty Army, assigned to Allen after rotating out of Vietnam. It was 1968, and things were getting a lot worse over there. The ethos of Allen Academy (one of the 10 “honor academies” in the country) was that you attended through high school levels, to two years of junior college levels, then were enlisted as a First Lieutenant. A lot of the gung-ho cadet officers bombarded the Nam vets with questions about what it was like over there. To a man, they … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s obsession with Random Ruminations – “Insufficient Bone Spurs” edition

When I was a pre-teen / teenager, I only had one dream. Go to Hollywood and become a cinematographer – failing that, a sound recordist. I was smart enough to know that I would need a mentor to take me on as an intern, and smart enough to know what happened to the large majority of people who ran off to Hollywood to make it big. Did I know anyone in the  ASC?  No.  Did I think it was a good idea to hitchhike to Hollywood without much more than the clothes on my back? No. Then I got married … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with Random Ruminations – “Why I didn’t run away from home” edition

My greatest concert experience, and my band Grendel   Emerson, Lake and Palmer in Dallas – Oct 20, 1977 I saw ELP on their Brain Salad Surgery tour. Entered Dallas Memorial Auditorium with anticipation. As I topped the balcony steps the audio geek in me fixated on the P.A. system, reportedly (pre-internet info age) quite a big deal. I looked at the stacks on either side of the stage (nobody was flying PA systems at that time) and saw a PA that was the equal if not better than any I had ever seen. – impressive, but not THAT big … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with random Ruminations – I ELPeed myself edition

On playin’ da blooz…   For a bassist, it’s not much fun. I grew up in Texas, where playin’ da blooz is a rite of musical passage. “Nobody gets out of here without playing the blues!” isn’t just a line from a movie, it’s a way of life. It’s why Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lightnin’ Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and Johnny Winter existed. Having said that, it’s one of the most boring and soul-crushing things a bass guitarist can do on stage. You’re basically (see what I did there?) playing I-IV-V-IV over and over and over, and every 16 … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with random Ruminations – Adventures in Babysitting edition

The Invisible Man   Being a bass guitarist is like being the invisible man of the band. The guitarists get all the attention, the drummers get all the women, and you get the bar tab. Bassists seem to compensate for this in several ways. Some jump all around in an attempt to be noticed (see Flea), some retreat even further into the shadows (see Entwistle), and some overplay (see me). . . But do you know something? Without the bass line, the song falls apart. The rhythm stops. The guitar noodling with no sub-strata to hold it up just sounds … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with random Ruminations – The Invisible Man edition

Here we go with my first non-Freeperati post, people. The first reader to reply on what my first non-political post on First Draft should be, said this: “I’ve always enjoyed the reminiscences of the days as an itinerant musician and recording engineer, having some tangential connection to folks in those professions.” gratuitous ********************************** Well, I’m going to start out with my bass guitar stuff, and expand from there – so – it’s The bass guitar and me : Ok – surprisingly enough, other bassists actually ask me how I started and how I developed my style/sound (some people are easily … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with Random Ruminations – bass guitar edition