Could you give up playing your instrument?
What if you had no choice?
This article is mostly inspired by the legendary drummer/singer of the band Genesis: Phil Collins.
When I was 13 years old, I started taking guitar lessons at the local music store down the street from our house. A couple of years later, I began playing the bass guitar in the school band during my sophomore year. The bass guitar quickly became my identity, which I immediately embraced with suffocating tenacity. I loved being a bass player because it was easy for me, and it just made complete sense to me. I was lucky enough to play with some pretty good fellow band mates. We had an exceedingly patient band director who tolerated a lot of noisy, chaotic rehearsals.
We had a keyboard player who was arguably the most popular kid in school. Kevin was talented beyond his years. He studied classical piano and was fluent in jazz and improvisation. Our guitar player, Jon, was not necessarily the best he probably could have been. He just had a really nice jazz guitar and he tried; and that was all that really mattered at the time.
Then there was our drummer, Jimmy. He was the first real drummer I ever played alongside. I knew almost nothing about the bass guitar, but I was lucky enough to get to play with these guys and learn very quickly - especially since Jimmy and I became good friends and band mates outside of school. Jimmy and I put together at least two or three bands, (that I can recall). He lived only a half-mile away from our house, so I was over to his house a lot. His old man encouraged us to have band rehearsals in the basement on Sunday afternoons. He was an extremely supportive fan of the music we tried to play. Jimmy's older brother, Bob, was around a lot too. He was just as supportive in our projects.
It was a common thing for Jimmy and I to hang out in their bedroom upstairs. They had a huge collection of vinyl records, which included bands I knew almost nothing about. Bob was older than Jimmy and I by several years, so he knew a lot more about older music. I was fairly open-minded about the music I was being introduced to by them. I had very little preconceived notions about the music I would or would not listen to; which was probably a good thing - at least for me trying to learn the bass guitar.
This was the late 1970's into the early 80's. Jazz fusion was very popular at the time. I was deeply interested in that style of music. One of the local rock stations in Milwaukee used to have a four-hour segment on Sunday nights where they would only play jazz fusion music. I recorded dozens of cassette tapes of this music. I loved it. Jimmy and Bob introduced me to older classic rock we used to call "Theater Rock", because it was theatrical and thematic in nature and performance. Theater Rock would later become re-dubbed as, "Progressive Rock". I still don't even know what that means.
I knew about the band "Yes", but I only knew of the song, "Roundabout". I also knew about the band "Genesis", but I only really knew of the song, "Follow you, follow me". I kind of knew about Emerson, Lake and Palmer, but at the time, I couldn't tell you the names of the songs they did. The only reason I knew about Pink Floyd was because of the “Dark side of the moon” and the “Animals” albums, but that was it. I also knew nothing about the band King Crimson. I remember one afternoon, we were sitting around and Jimmy showed me the album cover to, "The Court of the Crimson King". I was like, "Whoa, what the f..."
Jimmy was a huge Genesis fan. He loved Phil Collins' drumming. I had no idea who Phil Collins even was, let alone that there were two drummers in that band. We listened to those old albums and talked about key changes and odd time signatures, which at the time, was still a bit over my head. After a while, I started to really get into that genre of music. I wasn't a diehard fan, but I did go out and buy a couple of Yes cassettes to get me started. That's how I started getting into Chris Squires bass playing. I was still very much into the fusion stuff, like Jaco and Weather Report, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola, Jean-Luc Ponty and of course, Steely Dan. To me, fusion was the holy grail of music. If you could play even some or parts of fusion songs, it meant that you could actually "play-play."
Jimmy, Bob, a friend of theirs and I all went to go see Genesis play a concert at the Rosemont Horizon near the O'Hare airport in Chicago. I think it was the "Duke" tour, and I think it was June of 1980. Not really sure. I had no idea what to expect. Jimmy kept telling me about the low notes being played on the keyboards and how they would shake you to your bones (Paraphrased). He was right, they did. Then we waited patiently for the infamous drum solo duel between Collins and Chester Thompson. So many lights, so much theatrics, so much spectacle and impossible displays. Just an amazing, inspiring experience for us all.
I became a Phil Collins fan when he went solo. I didn't really understand if Genesis was still together or not; but honestly, I wasn't really paying attention. The 1980's came in, and Phil Collins was everywhere on pop radio. It seems to me that he dominated that entire decade with his music. The iconic drum fill in the song, "In the air tonight", sort of became his most well-known signature. This was of course, for those who didn't really know his early stuff. Sort of like, "Never mind all of the insane drumming he played in the 1970's with Genesis." I think that many Genesis purists weren't all that happy with Collins going out on his own. However, it was hard to argue his success in both decades. Phil Collins, in my opinion, is one of the most under-rated drummers in rock music. The recognition of his singing all of those pop songs in the 1980's sort of overshadowed the Genesis stuff. Many newbie pop music fans had no idea the level of drummer he was on the older Genesis music.
A couple of decades later, Collins sustained an injury in his neck and spine that rendered his drum playing nearly impossible. Suddenly, he was faced with the very real fact that he may have to stop drumming altogether. Can you imagine being someone who has been a musician all of his life, then suddenly, it is taken away from him? He simply had no choice. The surgeries didn't help, and he wasn't the young rock star he used to be. He tried to go out on tour and sit in a chair on stage and sing. Unfortunately, it just didn't work. His drumming days were behind him and it was time for him to move on without it.
We've had many iconic musicians leave us, these past few years. I think about all of the music that went to the graves with these legends, and how truly sad it is.
I honestly don't know if I could carry on, if I couldn't play the guitar. Like Collins not being able to play the drums, it would feel like losing both arms. Our musical instruments become extensions of our soul. They become part of us, just like any other limb. To have that taken away would be catastrophic in my world. Not many things are worse than an artist who can no longer paint portraits, or photographers who loses their eyesight, or musicians who can no longer make music. Music is the air that we breathe. Without it, we would suffocate and wither away.
I would like to dedicate this article to Robert (Bob) Pietkivitch, 1955-2002; Kevin Kummings, 1963-1981; and Scotty Urick 1963-2019. Rest in Peace.