The Raindogs |
Seven of Mark’s favorite musical moments (at this moment)
HANGING WITH JERRY LEE LEWIS DOWNSTAIRS AT LUPO’S | He told me things that would get your paper sued if you printed them. He also said to me, “I’m going to hell, Mark, shit, fuck, God bless you.”
PLAYING “SOME FUN” SOLO AT THE RUFFSTONE | When I finished, the whole place erupted. It reminded me of the scene in the film version of Ironweed when Meryl Streep sings in and dreams of something very similar.
BEING PART OF BO DIDDLEY’S BACKUP BAND AT ROCKET | He looked at my pedals and said, “No fuzz.” And he also wanted to be introduced as “The Mighty Bo Diddley”. It was also my good friend Dickie Reed’s last gig before he lost his hearing. Very special poignant night.
PLAYING WITH X AT THE LIVING ROOM WITH THE SCHEMERS | Someone in the audience yelled , “You suck.” I yelled back, “Yeah, but we suck good.” The crowd went wild.
WINNING THE WBCN RUMBLE AND THE WBRU ROCK HUNT WITH THE SCHEMERS | After the Rock Hunt there was a jam session at Steve Dubois’s rehearsal space til the wee wee hours with all my musical pals.
WHEN THE RAINDOGS TOURED WITH WARREN ZEVON | He played “Kansas City” with us when we were in Kansas City, it was pretty sublime. He treated us like his little brothers.
THE RAINDOGS WERE ALSO LUCKY ENOUGH TO PLAY A FEW SHOWS WITH HARRY DEAN STANTON IN PHILLY | Harry and I were walking down a stairway and I noticed he had Sam Shepard’s Motel Chronicles in his hand. I mentioned to him how I really liked the story about the girl in the motel. He lit right up and recited some of it to me — “She was aching to leave, Mark — ACHING.” The magnificence of that moment did not escape me and I’ll be eternally grateful to have witnessed that. A few years later we got to hang with him in LA. We watched the Lakers at his house and I convinced him to do a spoken word piece on the Raindogs’ version of “Some Fun.”
