Just a quick exercise in writing few words – something I generally fail at. Last night I had a wonderful meal with a Formula One racing reporter named Kate Walker, who reports for a web site called girlracer. I mentioned Kate in my Italian Grand Prix race preview story this weekend, which was about women in Formula One.
But I had my guitar with me during the meal, and Kate is as much a music lover as I am, and I got really itchy to play. So after the meal, knowing that I was not going to go out and tramp the streets to find a place to play – this one time – I decided I would stop a little way down the street from the restaurant to play a couple of my songs for, and to, Kate. So I stood in the street near the central train station, in front of a large, well-lit, wooden door on a building, and sang my new song I wrote for an ex-girlfriend, a song called, “Borderline,” and then I sang “Since You Left Me,” and I finished off with “Father and Son.” I was particularly pleased with Kate’s reaction to the song “Borderline,” which she said she found – despite it being about a personal relationship of mine – was universal. It is about being badly treated by the woman (as well as having great, very high times), and Kate pointed out that we’ve all been on both the receiving and giving end of those situations in relationships….
It was really thrilling and fun, but unfortunately, no one threw me any coins. Still, it achieved its purpose of allowing me to sing for a second night in a row in Milan, and also to sing to a woman, and also to feel a certain sense of danger as I recalled being told last year that in this city that seems not to love live pop music, you may be fined 500 euros for playing music in the streets…. And since I did not get a chance to sing with the anarchists this year as I did last year – they did not have a jam this year – I thought a little anarchy would be a good thing.
That’s a lot of words. Failed to keep it short again.