World Next Door Music™

An enchanted love affair

Okay you dirty-minded, ill-gotten, sicko's.  I was talking about the love I have for Ed and his musicianship.

He's brilliant!!  I remember needing a lead guitarist to add that extra something to my music — I had skills to write the lyrics, play the piano, rhythm guitars, bass, percussion, and sing, but not lead.  I put up a flyer or a notice on the board at Foggy Mountain Music in Grass Valley in 1984ish, I was working at One Stop Super Market — a bowling alley and the Beam center now reside there — and a women comes in giving me her number to call her husband.

Ed's first day over with his guitar he asks, "So. What do you want?"  I told him, "If I knew what I wanted, you wouldn't be here."  I play him World Next Door and he listens to it over and over and over while playing along and then it happened.  A melody, a feeling, rush of music filled the air and he created the icing on the cake.  I was mesmerized at what I was hearing — it was way beyond anything I had imagined.

Again, he was brilliant and I tried to have him grab my coattails and we would both ride off into the musical sunset of success, but I was overturned by his, at the time, wife and her commitment to her religion which did not allow anyone to have personal possessions, be successful, or be happy for that matter — it was such a waste and a big let down to me knowing I could only use him up to a point then he would have to stop.

I tried to make him change, ignore her, and forget the oddity of the religion — they celebrate marriage anniversaries but not birthdays;  celebrate a man made invention but not the miracle and magical thing called creation that itself comes from nature or for those that insist, God?  Ed never strayed from his family and responsibilities and I have to admire that even if I didn't understand it — he was a better man than I.

I became so distraught with the notion that I eventually began to slip away and hide into obscurity looking for another that had the same attributes as Ed, that came to me as a sign, that would enlighten my music and my life, but I am still looking for that person.  Also Ed and I were in several bands together: he was the guitarist and me as the drummer; all started out to be original music bands but they eventually turned into bar bands that had no originality or future, so I left Ed to play with the losers.

As the years passed, I relived the moments by listening to the songs and thinking about Ed and what he could have become, what he should have become, what I wanted him to become and maybe that is why it never happened — he needed to do it for himself.

I hear from Ed once in a while and listen to his unsuccessful journey — in the back of my mind I want him to succeed, even if it is not with me as music comes from his entire being and is to behold in ones ear, but the other side of me, and I feel terrible about it, is hoping he fails and comes running back to me so we can make beautiful music together (stop it freaks), but I will never force anyone to do what they do not want to do on their own just give them the path, the opportunity, and the freedom to shine as they please.

Ed is a rare and precious person.  His heart is true, his passion and skills are strong, but his mind is young and people take advantage of him — I am one that is guilty of trying, but I never once did it as a negative, just wanted to help him to succeed.

- gerald November 13, 2009