Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 85: Belgian beercycling concludes with the Delirium Tremens escapade, and more (2).
When Joe Strummer, leader of the Clash, approached the Ramones after seeing them play in England in 1976, he was worried that his band’s musicianship was still too rough for them to begin performing. “Are you kidding?” guitarist Johnny Ramone answered him. “We’re lousy, we can’t play. If you wait until you can play, you’ll be too old to get up there.”
― from The Economist’s obituary of Ramone (Sept. 23, 2004)
There are times aplenty when inexperience suggests a cautiously pragmatic approach, but for whatever reason, one chooses to ignore present realities and blunder ahead, into the fray, rather than wait until the situation seems less daunting.
But not me, at least not very often.
During my life, I have tended not to be a what the hell; let’s just do it type of person. For me, discretion generally has comprised the better part of valor, and in broad terms I’ve completely ignored Ramone’s solid advice, permitting lousiness to keep me on the sidelines, riding the pines.
All I can do about it now, at this late date, is to own my ambition-deficient lapses, while...
Read more
