In coming up with a name for this blog post, I thought "As Good As It Gets?"might be appropriate, but I thought that was too pessimistic. "Living The Dream" is more fitting as it has been a dream of mine to perform music for people for a long time.
This Fourth of July I played percussion with the Greensboro Concert Band at Grimsley High School in which we played for more than two hours, including music to accompany a wonderful fireworks show. During this performance, I was thinking about what it was I was doing, how the person I most admire is doing the same thing, although on a different level, and the feelings those thoughts gave me.
Since it's release in January, 1976, Peter Frampton's best-selling album, (and the best-selling album of the year) "Frampton Comes Alive" was the catalyst in getting my dream started. When I heard that live album--especially the track, "Do You Feel Like We Do", I was hooked. Not only did I love the band's ability to rock, but they way the band connected to the audience was electric and powerfully magical for me. Every time I listened to that track, I would pick up more details of the performance and want to be on that stage with the band. Specifically, I wanted to be the drummer, keeping the steady pulse for the rest of the band to color the performance.
Through the years, I kept alive that drive to perform, but Frampton would not be the guide. A few years later, in 1980, I was listening to the radio (as I did a lot.) I heard "Tom Sawyer" by Rush, and was hooked on a new band. Peter Frampton and his band gave me the spark, but it would be drummer and lyricist, Neil Peart (pronounced, Peert), and his band who would guide me from that point on.
Everyone has someone they greatly admire, and may even like to live vicariously through. Neil Peart is that person for me. In the late 1990's, when he made an instructional drum video, he addressed those who wish to live in the limelight as a rock star, saying not to try and shoot right for the top, rather, begin by performing at the local level. I thought that was good, and if I got good enough, and got the courage to believe I could make a living at it, it would eventually work.
I have been performing at the local level since I heard Frampton's live performance and was moved to play the drums. I have performed with concert bands, orchestras, and jazz groups for the last 33 years, and I am having a blast. Ever since hearing "Do You Feel Like We Do", I have wanted to be on stage playing the drums, and entertaining the audience. Since I lacked the confidence of having the ability, and the courage to save enough money, go out, buy a set of drums, and become good enough to be in a rock band, I settled for performing at the local level, with music that has more wide appeal than my taste in rock music.
So during the performance of the fourth of July celebration, I thought about how I had set up all these percussion instruments, played them, and was getting a charge out of it, I also thought about how wonderful it was to have my idol doing the same thing at his level. He is currently on tour with his band. Still doing what they love for more than 36 years! Those warm feelings gave me a charge to make sure I was playing my best and to get the greatest satisfaction out of doing it. It didn't matter to me that I wasn't in a rock band, I was living the dream.
