Memory Fragments

I was driving to the golf course on Monday, listening to a CD... John Mayall was playing... one of my favorites. The song was called "Room to Move" from The Turning Point album. It's what they call a "live album." This is because it is a recording made at a concert. All recordings are made live, of course, since the dead have yet to make any music. Well, except for the Grateful Dead, that is.

It's an interesting album. One of the few performances made by a band without a drummer. There are other groups that work without a drummer; string ensembles and a few folk groups, but it is odd to find a blues or rock band that doesn't use a drummer. The Grateful Dead used two drummers at the concert I saw them at.

I bought the album before I had seen the new band Mayall had put together. It was after I bought it that I went to a concert in Santa Monica back in 1969. I wrote a little about the aftermath of that concert once [link]. What I didn't mention in that post was the ride back from the concert.

It was cool that night so it must have been in the Fall. As I sped down the freeway on my way back to Long Beach, something started rattling behind me. It was the grab bar on the back of the motorcycle seat. The bolt on on side had come out and the other was apparently loose. Loose enough that when I grabbed the piece of chrome tubing and yanked, it came off pretty easily. I tossed it away to my right, off the freeway, into the ubiquitous iceplant that lined them in the Los Angeles area.

I remember nothing more about that ride but that memory has stayed fresh in my mind for over 4 decades. I also distinctly remember where I sat in the theater (Santa Monica Auditorium, I believe)... first seat off the left aisle in the center section, about halfway down.

Memories are such odd things, aren't they? And every time I hear one of the songs on that album, those memories come back... in vivid color and sound.