Just some thoughts: Maybe one should first learn to play the drums and then later buy a ’57 Chevrolet. In the mid 1950s’ he was seventeen years old growing up in Memphis, Tennessee. He had an interest in learning to play the drums, but he also had a serious interest in buying a used car. You must remember how important a set of wheels are to a teenager. He had worked for some time on a paper route and had saved six hundred dollars. He bought the drums. He started to play in local rock-n’-roll bands while still in high school. One day he received a call from Sam Phillips who owned Sun Records recording studio there in Memphis. Phillips told him that he had a guy scheduled that week for some recording time but he (Phillips) needed someone to come in and play on this recording session. No big deal, so the young man agreed. On that day Jerry Lee Lewis recorded his famous song, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” From that session this young drummer, J. M. Van Eaton, was asked to also record with Lewis on numerous other hits of his. Also from that day, Van Eaton became a part of the house band at Sun Records and recorded on more rock-n’-roll records than we can count. |
Every year thousands of young people graduate from high school or college; talk with them and see what they are thinking. In many cases they think they have an idea of what they want, but often they don’t understand the process of getting there. Sometimes before you get that ’57 Chevy you want so badly, take some lessons and "learn to play the drums first." Often we hear a great deal about the word career. It is my opinion that an awful lot of folks have started out in life and the matter of a career comes to them.
When I was young and working in Doyle Gunn’s grocery store one of the older guys who previously graduated from our local high school was about to graduate from Purdue University. He was in the store talking about his “career” and all that he wanted in his future. One of the local brain giants in the community was standing behind the old coal stove listening to all this, and his take to the young man was, “Get a job first, then you can find out about that career stuff.”
There are many lessons that can be taken from this young drummer’s experience. Before we buy the things we think we need or want, maybe we best make some preparation about how to deliver on those wishes. Sometimes one has to get a "job" in an effort to start or sustain a "career."
“Learn to play the drums first and then you can buy that ’57 Chevrolet.”
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November 13, 2012
Keep on,
Larry Adamson