Truths, Halftruths, and other Lies
by
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When I first started playing music for a living, I was living in
Meridian, Mississippi. I played in a club called the Purple Onion
and I know that is probably dating me and I don't mind. It was
the sixties and everyone was having fun. I was having the time of
my life. I was getting paid for sitting behind a piano bar four
nights a week and singing. I was getting my drinks and one meal a
day free and had lots of lady friends. What better life could a
musician ask for? One night a guy came in the bar and said he was
broke and needed some money for enough gas to get him to Jackson, about
one hundred and twenty miles away, and that the only thing he had to
sell was a monkey. He said the monkey was trained to take a cup
around and collect money from people that would put something into
it. I told him to wait until I took a break and I would go and
look at his monkey. I asked the bartender to give him a drink on
me, and I finished out the set. I went with him out to his car, and
sure enough he had the cutest spider monkey you ever saw. He even had a
little vest and cap sort of like an organ grinders monkey......
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About the Book
These stories are about the life of musicians on the road from the late 60’s, through the late 80’s. Music changed after the advent of all the electronic whiz bangs that now include ipods, and electronic keyboards that have true instrument loops in them. But before, when you could get live music almost every night of the week, and musicians traveled on circuits for large Motel chains, and you could pick up gigs in almost any town that had a “Tavern” or “Beer Joint,” those were the days. Musicians could and did do some of the strangest things imaginable. Some of them are funny, some crazy, some make you wonder what in the world were these guys thinking. Most of the time we were not thinking, we were just living life to the fullest, the best way we knew how.
About the Author
Paul Swain has been a musician, songwriter and entertainer for over 40 years. Starting in the mid 60’s and continuing even today. He was “On the Road” for 26 of those years and traveled extensively throughout the