Tattoos in Mayberry

83,189 poems read

Buddy Bee Anthony

I have developed lyrical and vocal weaponry to awe and delight your audience
My work has become my sanctuary. The inner sanctum of my ministry.
I hear others regale their days touring in bands.
I have a sales background. I came from men who could sell.
At some point, something happens to alter our course
if we only listen and sail into more familiar waters.
I kept asking myself the same burning question
when closing a deal along with cashing a check.
Is that all there is?
Maybe it's the eternal question.
It kept calling to me.
So, my ship began drifting away into uncharted waters
I could play the piano.
As a sideline, I wrote beautiful instrumental jazz music rivaling George Winston,
and Keith Jarrret. But, I always was hustling with a telephone in my hand or
on top of a sales interview. The answer man
The pain reliever, and company, fixer.
I longed for more meaning in my life.
So, as I got into my mid thirties,
It became less comfortable to be a professional salesman.
I could still play the game
But,
I had to look like I was twenty.
With the same confident enthusiasm
and a spring in my step.
It was time for me to adapt,
working smarter not harder.
That's when I ran into into a professional singer.
A tribal singer from a Rez.
She took me under her tutelage,
and opened up a new world
By example, she encouraged me to sing.
I found out in my mid-thirties,
Not only could I write
but, I could also sing.
along with my keyboard abilities.
I was a one man band.
I played Open mics,
talent searches,
singing with bands
and open jams at Famous Dave's Rib Joint.
Working sets at Leslie Ball's Cabaret.
I already had showman experience on the sales floor.
At private homes.
At company gatherings.
It was time
to take this show for a test run
on the road.
And gain entertainment value.
Street Music,
and open mics
opening for local bands.
Talent Shows.
Where I could sink or swim,
while learning the finer points of showmanship.
I sank a few times, until I learned how to float
and now I swim.
by deeply connecting with my audience.
On the street, you don't have your friends cheering you on.
You get the straight up scoop what works and what doesn't.
One of my
next projects, is to float a few song tracks,
a few balloons into the Islands, and the South American market..
Record a special version for Jamaicans, Puert Ricans, Cubans, and Brazilians.
A different version for The Japanese.
One for Western Europe and Canada And Australia.
And, one final blast for the States.
When it comes around full circle like a dead eyed boomerang.
Smack...
I won't be playing many band album debut openings,
school lyceums
or birthday parties then.
Once I get to my sound technicians,
maybe with other like minded visionary
musical personalities, who
would like to share in the bounty of the back end of what could only become a profitable and endless tour.
Japan, to Western Europe.
Maybe headlining in South Africa,
And Australia.
Brasilia.
Then to Monaco.
That would be a kick
a worthy challenge.
Only when it's discovered
all their favorite weekend
drive songs were created by us,
We appear, through the smoke, mirrors, hair,
lights,
banging on drums, keys, howlin' at the moon
A vocal, tsunami of rhythm
they wouldn't know what hit them
Then, we record it back home.
Heavy rock n roll
or soft, caressing ballad.
But, totally different than the
foreign version(s).
On the strength of the material,
it could be done.
And it would be big.

A cathedral of sound
a twisting of the knife
Silent as a thief in the night.
Your breath taken away from you.
by a musical wood chipper.
Tempered in sweat equity, sacrifice, and risk.
I cut my teeth as a street performer.
I made the decision never to work
just to make money.
An endeavor had to have more teeth than just
draw against commission.
My musical flips the script, melodies filled with
triumph,pain, want, anguish.
personal struggles of fairness
pecking order, further revealing
the whole cold, brutal truth.
Life is what happens to many of us
while we're making other plans. But, whatever the message received,
My work isn't just a presentation to fill a time slot.
Not the next gimmicky show
but a thoughtful, and flavorful, event.

A garden, growing ever more lush and diverse.
My work is our shared wake up call
asking the eternal question
is that all there is?
Maybe it's a moot question.
Maybe I am chasing illusions.
If so, humor an elder.
for being at home, musically sounding the alarm
that they sounded in the 'radical' 60's.
Music, the last rebellion.

Not just an era, but a pendulum swinging back
that again is questioning everything.
Where activist artists, our last line of defense
those bold enough to ask
dangerous questions of our authority figures we're afraid to question.
I was raised in a family where you didn't ask questions. You kept your eyes open,
your head down, and one day, if you're lucky you get sucked into
into the family business and continue to do as you are told.
So, the destiny chosen for me was altered. my heart kept asking painful questions
I began questioning stale, convenient, notions to keep me squelched,
confused, and away from discovering, better, more tenable outcomes.
Music was my vehicle whereby I could manage the insanity derived from my confusion,
Music moved my assemblage point into
an observer, a sounding board, not as active participant in the madness.

In my quest to open new passages in my brain.
Music as a calling, gave me a fresh new vantage point
Here, monologue transforms into meaningful dialogue.A give and take
conversation on the real side.
Not the lines on a page of a canned speech.
With arpeggio, I share what words cannot.
A sales pitch didn't do it for me anymore.
Not at any price. With music,
triumph or tragedy can turn on a dime.
change a diminished chord into an augmented one.
My goal as an artist is
to keep pushing the envelope further,
shocking and awing
a bigger audience with a wider reach.
If music is magic, and I believe there's a good argument it is.
Then, my magic has the power to gather many more points of light.
I hope you can be one of them.
I'm barely 'woke' enough as a rocker
to comprehend what Meghan The Stallion is?
I'll leave all that to the hit parade.
I am that special entertainer you can't quite take your eyes off of.
I use all my energies, all my powers to change your assemblage point.
If the ground under yur foundation is shaky, I will find it and call you on it,
as a performing artist.
If the old structure caves in, for a new one takes it's place.
That isn't demolition, it's reconstruction.
As a creator, I'm a reconstructionist,
I leave deconstruction to the brain scrambling French Theorists.
Experience me, musically and lyrically.
and you'll sway to the beat of the rhythm of the street.
Isn't it time to open the door and let some fresh air in.
Hire me to re-awaken your audience at your next event
It's the bold, and smart move.
Bestufus@gmail.com
The Genuine Article
Buddy Bee Anthony
Singer, Poet, Activist,
Musician, Entertainer