I don’t know how many people in this world get to experience a rite of passage like we did.  We were very lucky to have each other, and a bond was created among us all that was stronger than time itself.

One night, coming home from a fraternity party gig, we were walking across the street from our car to our apartment, when for no apparent reason, we all got arrested and herded into a “paddy wagon.”
There was just enough time for someone to ask “is anyone holding?” and the only one to say yes was Jill, Beau’s girlfriend.  We didn’t know what she had, and we didn’t know it was just a couple of pills that she swallowed when nobody was looking.  So we were scared.  But when the cops found nothing on us, they let us go.  Actually they only let me go.  I was driven to my car and had to drive to the police station and get the others.  When we got home, my LSAT results were in the mail.  I had gotten a 711 out of 800.  A lucky number, you have to admit.  I took it as a cosmic sign, that I had to go to law school and be a music lawyer.  Make sure my friends were always taken care of.

I did go to law school, I did become a music lawyer, and I did represent Rob and David for a minute, when they were forming Baby Grand with Chert.  But then I became a company man, went to work for Capitol Records and the rest is my history.

Rob and David were also housemates of mine at Stoke Road, a carriage house in Villanova that I rented on a big estate.  David and Rob practiced in one of the garages, and developed the sound there that later became Baby Grand.

After the second incarnation of the band broke up, there was a third one without Rick and Beau, but with Jimmy, who had now graduated to drummer – they had two drummers and two piano players.  They were great too – and played a legendary party at Stoke Road, where all the parties were legendary.

This was my good bye party to Pennsylvania.  I was off to LA to become a music lawyer, but I never forgot my 7 formative years in Philadelphia, where I made the best friends of my life, who also happened to inspire my career.

 

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