| January 14th, 2005 04:12 PM |
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| moy |
Parma's answer to Mick Jagger weighs in on past
By Life in the Past Lane
Mike Redelson
"I met a gin-soaked barroom queen in Memphis." Those words will live on forever.
Come on kids, what song is that from? I bet Jim Hahn knows.
The words are the opening lines to "Honky Tonk Woman" by the Rolling Stones that charted back in the summer of 1969.
An e-mail from my old high school friend, Bruce May, took my memory back to a hot summer day in 1973 and that song.
The occasion: my parent's 25th anniversary. The place: the family back yard in Parma. The entertainment: Bruce and me.
I hauled out my white, pearl-adorned accordion and Bruce set up his drum set -- complete with cow bell -- to play some polkas -- rock'n'roll to the older crowd of 50 or so.
Now, Terry was my regular drummer for such occasions, but he was absent for some reason that involved juvenile authorities.
During rehearsal for the big event, Bruce and I started jamming.
I put down the accordion and broke into a version of "Honky Tonk Woman," complete with some of Mick Jagger's best moves ala "Gimme Shelter."
We decided if we did that, as the closer, we would liven things up.
After respectable versions of such classics as "She's Too Fat For Me," "Spanish Eyes" and "Alley Cat," we took a slight intermission from the party to get ready for the finale.
I changed from jeans and a Cleveland Indian's T-shirt to what I call my "Fat Mick Look."
As I strolled onto the stage (my neighbor's driveway), I was attired in a pair of lavender leisure suit slacks, a black, silk, ruffled shirt I'd worn to the prom, a maroon velvet Carnaby hat, a fox head stole. I sprinkled the audience with rice.
I sang "Satisfaction" and "Honky Tonk Woman" to the driving beat of May's drums and a rhythm guitar.
I twirled several of the people in the crowd and pranced about rather gaily with some of the old neighbors, who had to be thinking, "Is Chuck and Ruth's boy coming out of the closet?"
I looked at May, who kept up the study beat, whispering in the microphone, "I don't know him, I don't know him. It's only a gig."
We lived across from the police station in Parma and when two officers returning from their shift stopped we thought we were in trouble, but they just applauded and asked for a encore, this time with a light show.
We were called upon again to do the schtick the next year at a party, but prior commitments prevented us from taking the show on the road.
Good times. Some of the older people asked me if I was embarrassed and I said no: I was the star of the show.
And those people at that show got something not many people can boast of: They got to see a 200-plus pound Mick Jagger impersonator.
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