Brad Spurgeon's Blog

Spent the evening at home again last night for around the fourth night in a row, again working on the new song and memorizing a cover. The cover, as it turns out, is by Bob Dylan – of all people! But that brought to mind another rejected piece of my juvenalia, a segment of a memoir I wrote about my early life in show business when as a teenager I decided I was going to be a star…and ended up starving and busking in the streets of London to pay the hotel and food.

One particular day I had to employ strong-arm tactics and sing my most profitable song for 12 hours non-stop. That was Mr. Tambourine Man, by Bob Dylan. So here is the abridged busking chapter of a memoir, written at age 25, that I had never intended to publish, but just to write as a photograph of the period while it was fresh in my mind. A few years later I did try to sell this abridged chapter – a kind of modern Orwellian down-and-out in London – to literary magazines, but it was rejected – and so now joins my series of Brad’s rejected writings…. Like all the other rejected pieces, I have not edited the writing, but publish it here as I found it on my computer. (Even with a typo or three.)

Tonight I plan to finally return to play music at the open mic(s).