A HAM, A YAMAHA…(a palindrome)

FIVE-CHORD STUD

He bought a guitar just like Chet's,
And the brand is as good as it gets.
   You'd think he'd explore
   Up the neck a bit more
But he stays on the lower three frets.

Not one placed a tip in my jar
While I played my gold-plated guitar.
   When done, I looked back.
   It was gone from the rack.
Man, a dream can be much too bizarre.

I bought a guitar from TV.
(Was it HSN, or QVC?)
   Then pounded a barred chord.
   It sounded like cardboard.
Now no one will take it for free.

An Elvis fan known as Sylvester
Said, "The 'King' has been mocked by the jester:
   A man's out of luck when
   Eternally stuck in
A hundred percent polyester."


"The price of success, I have paid it,
But fate somehow always delayed it.
   Some say I retired
   The day I was hired,
Burned out from the moment I made it."

His time at the top wasn't long.
The things he did right went so wrong.
   The friends he would make
   For that one lucky break
Said he sang for the wealth, not the song.

RESULTS MAY VARY

With many a frustrated claimant,
The few never knew just what fame meant.
   They've all paid the price—
   Some once, many twice,
In the hope to receive their due payment.

DEPARTED GREATS

Our gratitude must be expressed.
The musical world has been blessed.
   They'll never be gone—
   The legends live on,
Fulfilling our final request.

DICK CURLESS (1932-1995)

We've all heard the name Bobby Darin,
And in country, a man known as Faron.
   I preferred the vibrato,
   Ligato, bravado
Of one man from Maine called "The Baron."

A ZIMMERICK (on Bob Dylan)

Right out of the blue, a dark horse
Ran through with phenomenal force.
   His intense ammunition—
   This poet musician
Helped chart a new cultural course.