Band In the Wind by William John Rostron

Author:William John Rostron
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: William John Rostron
Published: 2020-09-23T23:30:20+00:00

Entry #42

“Born Under a Bad Sign”

- Albert King/Cream

Bracko looked surprised to see me there. It didn’t occur to Tony to tell him I had been coming there almost every day that week. Would that knowledge have made him stay away? I still had no idea what had happened to him to make him disappear from not just our group, but also the world in general. He looked at me but continued to play for Tony a very long version of Cream’s “Born Under a Bad Sign.” Bracko hadn’t written the words to this song, but its meaning told the story of his life. As I quickly took out my guitar and played an acoustic bass riff that mimicked what Bracko was fingering on his guitar, I realized he was very specific in his choice of this song. He was telling me about the problem. He was reaching out as well as he could in his own way.

I could see the remnants of severe bruises on his face as he sang “Born Under a Bad Sign.” I agreed with the words of the song. If it weren’t for bad luck, he really didn’t have no luck at all.

As we finished the song, Bracko merely held his head down. I could tell he was embarrassed by the way he had treated me and didn’t have any idea what to say. It was Tony who broke the tension by asking me to play the “Maple Tree Song.” Incredibly, a mind that retained almost no memory on a day-to-day basis had remembered the name of my song. Bracko looked confused, or perhaps even amused by the request. I gave him a little smirk and broke into the chords and humming version of the song.

“Where are the words?” muttered a bewildered Tony.

“Yeah, we want words.” chimed in Bracko who let a slight smile form on his mouth. He caught on that I had probably sung for Tony. However, he knew that I had never sung in front of anyone else.

“We want words. We want words,” chanted the two of them in unison.

Trapped, I began my silly song about maple trees. To my surprise Bracko not only didn’t laugh, but he proceeded to join in with harmony on top of my singing. This wasn’t an easy task since my pitch was all over the place. He added some guitar riffs at strategic pauses in the chords that made the song almost sound like something ragtime, thus further emphasizing the silliness of the whole event. I had barely hit the last note when Tony stood up signaling it was his time to leave. He was gone from the garden in seconds, departing with a simple, “Bye, bye, my two best friends.”

Now alone in the Garden of Eden with me, Bracko tried to pack up and leave too. He didn’t want to face me. I knew that asking him outright what was wrong would only drive him away faster and so I didn’t. Instead, I said to him,

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