ASK ME, DO I LOVE YOU?
(Formerly YES, YES, YES written by
Terry Adams of N.R.B.Q.)
The reason I started even playing in bands was because of NRBQ.
They were the NEW Rhythm and Blues Quartet, you see. They started in the late 60’s/early 70’s with a revolving cast of musicians, except for two. Joey Spampinato on bass and vocals, and piano player to the parallel universes Terry Adams. I had never owned an NRBQ album growing up, and as I was 9 when Eddie Van Halen landed on Earth and 12 when MTV came on the television, it wasn’t in the cards.
Fast forward to that night in 1991 at the Winning Ticket and me hearing these guys blasting through “Howard Johnson’s Got His HOJO Workin'” live from Toad’s Place in New Haven, and I heard the future.
Sure, it was the past I was actually hearing, but it was in MY future.
I wouldn’t hear the name NRBQ again for about a decade. According to John Mayock of THE MAYOCKS, he was playing a show at the ONE WAY FARE and he went to take a bathroom break. Upon coming back he looked up and saw I was up on stage playing his guitar with his brother and drummer Jonathan Lichtig. I had just moved to the Farmington Valley Area in 1999, and didn’t know many locals, and I’d barely even known Jonathan from the old Whitebread/Trading Post days. John Mayock and his brother Tim understood I was ready to perform whenever, and I sure did enjoy the rockabilly sound they had going. I began to work with them like I had with Flipper Dave: I’d learn all their tunes and sing backup vocals and play rhythm guitar and occasional lead guitar. Then I’d do some cheap tawdry cover songs to please the bar-going crowd that didn’t have the patience to listen to ‘original music’. One of those shows, in 2000, while drummer Marshall Grossman was back there thwacking the drums with a furious joy, (or maybe a joyful fury?), I did a guitar solo during a rockabilly blues number John had written. Afterwards, Tim, his brother on bass, asked me:
“Have you ever listened to Al Andersen? You play a lot like him, or at least you just did right there.”
That started a whole new life for me musically. The internet was ablaze with pfp file sharing a la Napster and Dime-a-Dozen and I dove straight in to find this Al Andersen and NRBQ. I must’ve downloaded 50 bootleg recordings off of Dime-a-Dozen. My Sony VIAO was whining day and night with packet after packet being sent to my hard drive. These guys were …… great. These guys were …. hilarious.
These guys were….wait a MINUTE!
THESE WERE THE GUYS FROM THAT NIGHT AT THE WINNING TICKET ON THE RADIO!!!!!
Well, after I just about ran around the house in excitement, they became my new favorite band. Al Andersen, their guitar player for the bulk of their heyday, was actually from Bloomfield, CT and played in a late 60’s band called the WILDWEEDS whom had a huge hit that you still hear today called NO GOOD TO CRY. That’s an 18yr old Al Andersen on guitar and vocals. I began to see where Tim saw any kind of similarities between what I could be and what Al was, but, let’s face it: Al was a monster! Literally, he was like 6’4″ 300lbs and had hands like a baseball catcher’s mitt. I was not that at all and never would be. That didn’t stop me from trying though. Along the way, however, I began to see the real driving force behind the band was the piano player.
A Jazz officianado named Terry Adams.
Terry could play anything he wanted at any time with anyone. He just chose not to. He wanted to play Thelonious Monk songs with NRBQ in places like THE CHICKEN SHACK in Rhode Island, or at THE STONE BALLOON in Delaware. He wanted to play WRECK OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD during a Live Broadcast on WHCN. A 6 minute song that droned on and on… and on…just to prove a point. To the in-crowd, it was hilarious. Then, he would up and write a song like YES, YES, YES for NRBQ’S LIVE AT YANKEE STADIUM album. (They never played Yankee Stadium, and were shown on the cover sitting in an empty Yankee Stadium.) The song is sung by Joey Spampinato, and is such a stark contrast to the other songs Terry had penned or played live that it seemed impossible. But it’s gorgeous. So, I became obsessed with Terry Adams. How was he able to harness this incredible chaos that he could muster on stage yet be able to go …’somewhere else’ …a moment later and play the most touchingly beautiful piano music you’d ever hear? Men have sold their souls at the Crossroads for such knowledge.
I, instead of going into moral debt, began to study the music and take a class in Terry Adams 101. I saved this song for next to last, as I do not play piano. Days, weeks, months. Finally, I had run out of possible notes that the guitar could realistically play and decided I’d done the hard work. I brought this work over to Christopher Eddy’s house. He was the Bomb in the F-Bombz. (You know what that made me). He had seen Terry in person a few times with the SUN RA ARKESTRA. I was already in over my head with the music and couldn’t spare the bandwidth needed to understand SUN RA, so I nodded and smiled. Chris seemed to think I had YES, YES, YES as well as I could get it on guitar. I played it here, at the Granby Starbucks in 2006, because there was no one there and I had been playing it, and only it, for weeks. We got it on tape!? Cool as hell.
EPILOGUE: Some time later, Chris called to say he was going to see SUN RA at TOAD’S PLACE, and that TERRY ADAMS would be sitting in with the ARKESTRA! GTFO. We drove down there, and sure enough Chris had access to the downstairs area and everything. It was pure theatre, or was it? Were they casting a spell down in that dressing room? Or were they casting a spell when they got up on stage? I will never know. What I do know is that Chris pointed to Terry as he was getting his stage uniform ready. I was not completely sure I was doing the right thing, but I trusted my instincts. I marched right at Terry and introduced myself. He shook my hand. It was like the hand of an alien. His long piano playing fingers wrapped around my mere human hand very gently, and I had to hit ‘autopilot’ for a minute to take it in. This guy wasn’t human at all. I saw the look on his face and woke up immediately. I began asking him about YES, YES, YES. It’s chordal structure, the way I learned it on guitar – complete with me making hand-gestures like there was a invisible guitar neck in between us. Mimicking the fingerings for the song, he would point at the imaginary guitar neck and tell me I was indeed correct in that there was not an exact chord, but a modal transposition. I smiled. He smiled. I said “Thank You.” That was a graduation of sorts. A diploma. That smile. He saw I got it. I saw he saw I got it.
I could really go home and rest that night.
Go listen to YES, YES, YES by NRBQ after you hear this…it’s beautiful. And then immediately find HOBBIES, (written by Terry) performed by David Sanborn with NRBQ (Terry, Joey, and Al. A guy named Steve Jordan did the drums on that track). And then maybe listen to THINGS WE LIKE TO DO, or ROCKET IN MY POCKET. So much…so much!!
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