Pick guitar or pump gas

Subject: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: 53
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 11:42 PM

I was told when I was younger that I might as well pump gas than play guitar. Well here I am old and I never pumped any gas and I love playing guitar. Any other stories.

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: Mark Clark
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 12:02 AM

You made the right choice, Bob. Playing guitar may not be a great living but I don't see anyone being paid to pump gas anymore.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 12:24 AM

Dunno Bob,

When I worked as a petrol pump attendent, I found out the chap who did the body repairs liked folk music and played banjo - I got my first go on a banjo in the garage and ended up buying a banjo from him (well 2 - 1st was a 5 string 5 and the second was a bakalite harmony tenor)...

Who knows, without the "pumping gas", I may have only ever got to play guitar and never tried more exciting things in life...? Not really - I'd have ended up getting a banjo anyway and as it turned out, it was a few years from then that I really tried to learn tenor (melodeon and morris dancing came in-between) but at least it is an alternative view point...

Jon

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: Amergin
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 12:41 AM

Mark, it depends where you live....Bob could easily move to Oregon and get all the offers to become a gas jockey he wants.....

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: Amos
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 01:09 AM

As a rule, playing guitar smells a lot better -- unless you play with your feet.

A

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 08:34 AM

53: I didn't realize that they were mutually exclusive. Most of the old time musicians had jobs as unglamorous as pumping gas. City folks can glamorize being a farmer all they want, but staring at the rear end of a mule at six o'clock in the morning is less appealing than fillin' 'er up.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: Mooh
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 08:48 AM

My first summer (1977 I think) out of school was spent working at a countryside market garden and gas station. It was brutal work, long days, hot sun, very few machines, and enough work for 3 of me. My "breaks" were spent at the gas pumps. My boss would literally call me in from the fields, "Take a break and pump some gas!". I hated the smell at the pumps and would have rather pulled weeds. Besides being in better physical shape than ever before, the real benefit of the job was earning enough to buy my first Telecaster. As for being a gas jockey, well...there weren't as many tips as busking.

That Telecaster got me alot of work however...

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: 53
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 06:16 PM

Still have that Tele, there Mooh?

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 07:31 PM

Boy, I'd sure rather be STARIN' at that mule than "Fillin 'er up, Jerry!

When I started, the vast majority of musicians' day jobs were Driving Cabs, faking Academia, and part time construction.

Nowadays they're doing computer gigs and making more than they'll ever make with the axe. Actors are still waiters though.

Wish I'd taken SOME kind of day job though....playin in bars in between folky gigs made me farrr to cynical!

Rick

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: Mooh
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 07:54 PM

Bob/53,

Sorry Bob, that particular Tele got um...liberated...but I've had several others. Right now I'm using a Tele thinline with an ash body, pearloid pickguard, and maple fingerboard. Nice axe. Like many a starving musician I've sold instruments to feed myself. Occupational hazard.

Forgive me, I'm gonna trip down memory lane now.

Mooh.

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: 53
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 08:16 PM

Thats ok Mooh, Ilike stories about guitars. My son has a nice tele, withe the benders on the B and G strings and also has a couple of Scruggs tuners,its so gased up I don't even know what to do with it when I pick it up.

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: GUEST,Knappo
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 10:20 PM

Sometimes you can do both. I met my current playing buddy while he was "pumping" gas at a local stop. Actually, he was practicing guitar while we pumped our own gas. Anyway, I went home got my guitar and harmonica and came back to help him "work". We've been playing out now for about three years! Cheers, Tom

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 10:40 PM

The ultimate job for a guitar picker? Howzabout being a night watchman? I worked in a factory as a night watchman at one time in my life, and just had to take hourly rounds. The rest of the time was basically mine. I'd bring my banjo or guitar and I could play until my fingers bled. Made no difference if I forgot the words or blew a chord. Just me and the mice.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 10:57 PM

I dunno, Rick. Never did either one.. I guess it depends on what you want to smell like when you go home..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Pick guitar or pump gas
From: 53
Date: 06 May 02 - 03:41 PM

Even though I never really did pump gas I did some other real shit jobs but they always led me back to guitar playing. I', glad that I didnt quit. Bob