Monday, February 19, 2007

Anecdote # 303

The Sorrowful Tale Of The Wrecked Refrigerator.
not all anecdotes are funny,
some are educational, informative, even sad.

in early april 1994 the refrigerator (the name given to my new guitar rack)
was well-stocked and had completed its test run with flying colors.
it held an infinite number of possible combinations for future sounds
and was smartly designed to handle programmed midi patches
as well as the on-the-fly improvisation of stomp boxes.
and it sounded awesome!
the dream of the ultimate guitar rig seemed a reality.
I estimated the cost at somewhere north of $20,000.

the mighty beast was wheeled onto a truck headed for woodstock, new york,
home of tony levin and the future double-headed monster 1990's King Crimson.
the six members of the new "double trio" were convening at last
to conceive, write, and record our first new record in 10 years.

noah evens and martha were with me when the truck arrived
at Applehead Studio in woodstock
to unload and unveil the ultimate guitar rig.
the driver opened the rear of the truck and there it was:
a lopsided scrunched mish-mash of metal and plastic.
there were what looked to be forklift scraps down the sides of the twisted mass.
holding back tears we theorized it must have been forklifted off the plane
and dropped.
the next fews weeks of working with the new Krimson
were bittersweet for me as I struggled to get the most basic
decent guitar sound out of the few boxes still working.
(which is why I cringed years later to find out those rehearsals
were released by the King Crimson Collector's Club
as an official bootleg called "The Vrooom Sessions").

suffice to say when all was said and done
the airlines had their small print Rules For Compensation, blah blah.
they paid me a dollar per pound.
the refrigerator (rest in pieces) weighed 501 pounds.

5 comments:

  1. William Perry
    You're lookin' at the Fridge,
    I'm the rookie.
    I may be large, but I'm no dumb cookie.
    You've seen me hit, you've seen me run,
    When I get the pass, we'll have more fun.
    I can dance, you will see
    The others, they all learn from me.
    I don't come here lookin' for trouble,
    I just came here to do
    The Super Bowl Shuffle.

    what a tragedy , do you have any scraps from the fridge disaster left ? if you could put them up on E-BAY , i need some pots , triacs and jacks for a circuit bending project i need to get back to .

    i saw robert fripp's comments on the fernandes endorsement web page , got a chuckle .

    i have observed you alude to the fact that your appeal has nothing to do with the equipment you play through . i would agree a hundred percent , but the other side of the coin shows the prowess of taking the technology that is availible , redefining its own limitations , therefore broadening your own actual creative capabilitys in the process .

    my aproach to a complex musical apperatus is to immediatly seek the non-conformant venues and persue learning something new from them , and that is something i would like to think we have in common .

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  2. A dollar per pound.

    I'm speechless... that's just insulting.

    Even just having a ludicrously low cap on liability would be more respectful, & not give you quite the impression that you're part of a secret sociology experiment on how much you can get away with spitting in somebody's face.

    "I dreamed I saw my guitar
    Toppling off onto the runway...
    Please, be careful with my guitar
    Whoever you are."

    What do you do these days -- insure the gear separately? I can't imagine that's cheap either, but I guess it beats the alternative.

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  3. That is a tragic tale of woe. I lost my stone pick and have felt it's loss for 17 years.
    I am sure that the Fridge is tough to take even toady.
    Do you think you may ever open a thread on equiptment... For some of us "SMARTIES" wanta bees.
    Maybe just a few thoughts or a top ten list of your favorite equiptment.
    Sorry I missed you in Dayton but sounds like it was a fantastic show.
    At least you got Duck Funk from the fridge.
    Duck Funk Rocks

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  4. http://catb.org/jargon/html/S/scratch-monkey.html immediately came to mind, for all us greybeards

    ReplyDelete