Cleveland
Since several of our bloggers live in the Cleveland area, and since I am signing May 12th at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Lyndhurst, I thought I’d relive some of my days in Cleveland.
Shortly after graduating from college, (69) I moved to Cleveland and played guitar. There were several places downtown that featured single guitar acts. One, that was open for a very short time, was Alice’s Restaurant. Right across the street was a club called, I believe, The Agora. I walked in late one night and saw the Doors closing their show with Light My Fire. Jim Morrison was lying on the stage, out of his mind and people were streaming out.
I played folk music in the the attic of of a club called Dickey Poo’s Tool and Die Works in the flats, while downstairs rocked with bands like Joe Walsh and the James Gang, The Choir, and a couple of bands with Eric Carmen. On Sundays, I would go down and jam with the bands. About two oclock in the morning all the entertainers, bartenders, waitresses and whoever else was left would go out to Captain Frank’s at the end of a wharf and have breakfast. D Poo’s opened under a new roof a number of years ago, but I don’t think it exists anymore.
I was off on Monday and I’d go down with some friends ( Alex Bevin and other musicians) to Diamond Jim Brady’s and we’d sit at the bar and listen to Art Model tell us about the Brown’s weekend game. Pro football wasn’t what it is today.
I became friends with a drummer named Bill Shwark who beat the skins for a group called The Damnation Of Adam Blessing. They played local clubs and got a gig with a big time record label. I corralled Bill into drumming on a demo I recorded in Fremont, Ohio. At the last minute, Alex Bevin came along and added some tasty guitar licks.
36 years ago. What a time. Cleveland was jumping, and I felt like a part of the whole scene. Alive with the possibilities that big things could happen. A disc jockey named Chris Eric Stevens was breaking Cleveland bands with major labels and anything seemed possible.
The funny thing is…anything still seems possible. Take your pessimism, your negatives, the bad news stories of the day and I’ll put up the possibilties, the promise of tomorrow and the chances to make your dreams come true. It’s an exciting time to be alive. It’s an exciting time to try to make things happen. And if you don’t believe that, it will never happen for you!
