If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Maybe a Friend Will Kill Him For You

I was thinking about the "Ghost of Bands Past" entry and realizing how my unenthusiastic ex-bandmate may have done me a large (if accidental) favor. That particular band looms large in my history. It was an odd circumstance, being a very inexperienced musician in a very good band. I couldn't have accomplished everything I did later without that experience, and yet I couldn't have accomplished what I did later if that band had remained together because I wouldn't have had as much opportunity to improve individually. I've always suspected that at least part of the reason for my musical retirement was that once I'd put together a band of my own that I thought was in that same league, it felt as though I'd come full circle and proven myself. There was no need to go any further, and the few things I did after that felt like a coda.

In the big picture, it doesn't matter which was the best band I was ever in, or if that last band was as good as the first. The only band that matters at any given time is the one I'm in right now, and there was never really any point in comparing them. It was a trap I'd created for myself, and now I'm free of it, but can't take 100% credit for that. It's true enough that I'd gotten at least partially past the need to impress an audience (or even have an audience at all) on my own, but it took this last gathering to show me the degree to which I was still caught up in that past.

And now enough of all that. Where are the right musicians to play with (and especially somebody to sing with) now that I'm in the mood again?