91 – Classical Gas -1968 and 122 – Greensleeves – 1969 – Mason Williams

Classical Gas - Mason Williams

Greensleeves - Mason Williams

            “Classical Gas” was the surprise instrumental hit of 1968 by the head writer of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Mason Williams, and “Greensleeves” was his follow-up of the next year.

            “Classical Gas” was the song that made me want to learn to play the guitar. I first started with an acoustic guitar at Norman’s Music in West Dundee in 1968. At the time, they occupied the building in the downtown now occupied by Emmett’s Restaurant and Brewery. The lessons were given one-on-one in studios on the first floor. I never got beyond playing single notes on each of the six strings, never got to play a chord.

            Norman’s also had what they called “band”. Something my parents paid extra for. One Saturday each month you’d trudge up the outside metal staircase to the second floor, where a large, high-ceilinged room contained about 25 other guitar players, sitting on folding chairs, ready to play the 2 songs we learned as a “band”.

            The first was “Under the Double Eagle,” a John Philip Sousa march that we played at a funereal pace. I can still hear it I my head when I want to torment myself.

            The second song we played was “The Ballad of the Green Beret,” another toe tapper you had to hear to believe, and even if you did hear it, you’d wonder what song it was.

            Then we would break for “refreshments”, which consisted of Kool-Aid and cookies (I don’t remember what they were called, they were shaped like windmills).

            After an hour or so of “practice” they’d let us go.

            I talked my folks into getting an electric guitar (a Fender with a small amp) which I then used to take lessons at a music shop in the Wintergarden part of the Meadowdale Shopping Center (long gone, it had an ice rink and restaurant for a time, then partially burned down and was replaced by shops, one of which was a music store).

            This second teacher would write down a series of letters/notes and say, “Figure out what this song is.” I was horrible at making those notes sound like the song it was. It always sounded like a series of notes; my rhythm was/is terrible. I would come back the next week, playing the notes all different ways, never knew the song. I remember one song was the opening of “Day Tripper”. Once I k new what it was , I could play it the right way, but that way of teaching wasn’t working so I changed teachers again.

            The third and last teacher had me buy a music book that when I opened it the pages looked like a nest of ants had walked through ink, then all over the page. It was classical guitar and for a beginner like me (still hadn’t learned a single chord) blew my mind. I tried two lessons, and then dropped the guitar.

            In 1969 I sold the guitar and amp to buy a CB radio. Four other friends and I thought we could get a CB and go to one of the 23 channels and become DJs. Once we got our licenses we found out you weren’t supposed to talk for more than 5 minutes. We tried playing music on channel 21 and we got yelled at by other CBers.  We then used them in place of the phone to talk about weekend plans, etc.

            In 1970, I sold the CB to buy a 9” RCA Black and White TV for my room. I took that TV to Blackburn and had it until 1983 when I took it to Southern Illinois University law school for my ill-fated semester (see #33) and I left it with a guy in the dorm when I skedaddled from there.

            I still wish I’d kept up with the guitar, but I prefer listening to someone else play it, Like Leo Kottke, Lindsay Buckingham, or Mason Williams.