Dr. Rhythm

[curtisstetka]

Reading the thread on aggressive drunks got me to thinking about Dr. Rhythm.

Dr. Rhythm is still a fixture on the Reading PA bar band circuit. I haven't been out too much lately but I hear he's still doing his thing.

He's this guy probably in his 50s or so. Kind of shabby and homeless-looking with some fairly wild graying hair, beard, thick glasses. He's completely harmless. I don't even think he's drunk. He's just a little... odd.

Dr. Rhythm shows up to your gig with a whole lot of his own percussion gear. His favorite is a cowbell. He stands in front of the band, facing the audience and "helps" the drummer keep the beat for the entire show, three sets and all. Sometimes it's the cowbell, sometimes it's a tamborine, sometimes little bongos.

Oddly enough, as distracting and annoying as Dr. Rhythm is sometimes, he's become sort of a badge of honor. If Dr. Rhythm comes to your gig and plays with you all night you know your band has "it". He used to really love this (now defunct) band called John Flywheel and he played with them all the time.

I've played with Dr. Rhythm on a couple occasions. Never spoke to him. He doesn't seem to have any friends. Nobody knows his real name.

This is how folk legends are born I suppose.


How about it? Any other music scenes out there with some colorful regulars?

[curtisstetka]

Okay, replying to your own post is a real move but I totally forgot to mention this other dude named Tom (maybe).

I used to play in this original rock band that practiced in a garage/machine shop. One of the guys owned the place. In the summer we'd play in there with the doors open and sometimes attracted an audience.

There was this dude Tom who came by regularly. We were never sure if he was a homeless guy or what. He was always kind of dirty and rumpled looking but his clothing wasn't the typical attire of the street folk.

Tom was plain screwy in the head. But he was a great audience. He'd just stand there and not interrupt us while playing a song. After we were done though, he'd sort of interview the band or tell us the impressions he got while we played.

I'll never forget the one time we finished playing an original song and Tom said something along these lines....

Oh man, that was beautiful. What were you thinking about when you wrote that? Clouds and trees and birds and stuff? Yeah. It's all about getting back to nature and Steve Howe...

[shunka]

We moved about ten months ago. In my old neighborhood I used to see a guy who sounds a lot like Dr. Rhythm. I used to call him the Bongo Man. Seems to be one of those guys who are still stuck in the 60s. About 6 feet tall, lanky, almost always wears a blue and white striped railroad engineer's cap. He walks like he's on his way to practice, like he knows where he's going and has time to get there. Always has a couple of drumsticks or hand percussion with him. Bongos, Vibraslap, Tambourine. I've never heard the guy play or know if he can.