Moments In Time Read Free Page B

began with characteristic modesty, trying to control his quivering voice, forcing himself to speak slowly and to concentrate—no easy task with his life falling apart. “There are any number of very excellen t musicians who started out back in the sixties who have been very successful, much more successful than I. Maybe at times I remained more visible than others because I never stopped recording. Maybe I’ve felt somewhat more pressure to keep working all these years simply due to the fact that I have so many children to support.” He turned to look at Maggie and recognized her “we-are-not-amused” expression. His mild attempt at light humor having failed, he cleared his throat and continued.
    “And many of the others from that time never went away at all. Some of the best performers from the early sixties through the seventies moved around a great deal within different bands. You could start out with just about any of the well-known groups from that period and trace different members into other bands that would lead you to still others. A lot of us did that, you know, went from one band to another.”
    “How would you describe the changes in your music over the years?” She shuffled a small stack of note cards.
    “I don’t know that it’s changed remarkably. There’s been some evolution, of course, as I’ve matured—keep in mind that I was barely seventeen years old when I started, so the songs I wrote back then would reflect a seventeen-year-old’s perspective. In general, though, I don’t think my style has changed dramatically. The same influences are there.”
    “Those influences being … ”
    “A real hodge-podg e, actually. Blues, jazz, rock— particularly American rock and roll—and I’d studied piano for many years, from the time I was five or six years old, so I had a classical background.”
    “How did an aspiring classical pianist end up in a rock-and-roll band?” Hilary asked with mild curiosity.
    “Rick Daily,” he answered simply, as if the name was explanation enough.
    “You hooked up with him at a fairly young age, as I recall. How did all that come about?”
    “My cousin, Robby, had told me about this great band he’d seen at a pub in a town down the road. One night he talked me into going with him—I was only sixteen and Robby had to sneak me in. Rick was already something of a local celebrity by then. Watching him perform was like nothing I’d ever seen or heard—there simply wasn’t anyone like him and still isn’t, by the way. I was starting to fancy myself a pretty decent musician about the same time I heard Rick was looking to start up his own group. I gathered all my courage to ask him if he would listen to me play. We hit it off, and that was how I picked up with Rick and formed our first band: Daily Times.”
    “It sounds like Rick was quite an inspiration to you back then,” noted Hilary.
    “He still is.” J.D. nodded. “He’s still the best.”
    “What caused your eventual split with him?”
    “Nothing dramatic, I assure you. And the split was strictly professional,” he explained. “Over the years, we simply developed differently—musically—as our individual styles matured somewhat. We’d tried working around that for a few years, but neither of us have the ability to compromise gracefully. So, when the split came, it was very natural, very much inevitable. And when Monkshood’s last tour concluded, we simply went our separate ways, though we’ve remained the best of friends.”
    “And that last tour was back in, let’s see, 1976?”
    “Close.” He nodded. “It was in ’75. And of course, that was the year I met Maggie.”
    He shifted slightly to face his wife, but if she noticed, she gave no sign. She had been silent since the show had begun, had declined to participate, as if she were no more than a fixture in the room. Though she shared the same sofa, in her mind, she was clearly thousands of miles away. No doubt rehearsing, he thought