Roger Zee Memoirs
Lori 07/06/20
I worship the adrenaline rush of a new romance -- always have! I remember meeting Lori at the weekly Sunday Jeff Golub gig at The Dugout club on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village in the young 80s. She, a gorgeous, mellow, hippyesqe-dressed brunette, a "Soul Soother"... Welcome to a new excerpt from my memoirs, "Life and Times of a Pandemic Musician."
Anybody who dug Jeff Golub's guitar playing earned major "Rock Star" head status with me. Jeff worked with a lot of major Rock acts, but probably's best known for his stint with Billy Squier. He played every week at this "hole in the wall," dive bar with stellar musicians -- Billy Squire's drummer Bobby Chouinard (who ended up sleeping with my then girlfriend) and Willie Deville's bassist, Chris Bishop. Sadly, Jeff developed a disease that robbed him of his eyesight. Very tragically, he passed away falling from a NYC subway platform onto the tracks.
Lori came with her own pedigree. She dated (loved) Richard Lloyd of the breakout Underground punk band, Television. We chatted amiably and exchanged digits. Soon we began conversing on the phone. You know I'm dating myself with that, LOL! We arranged to meet up at her beautiful apartment deep in the gay West Village and go out to eat.
What a trip walking subway the few blocks from the subway over to her apartment. A maze of male decorator, small-dog heaven for those who lived and ruled there! We established a routine At the time, she didn't work due to recovering from a car accident that left her in serious back pain. So we would chat, smoke some really good weed, and then head out to a local cafe and eat some appetizers while talking to any of her friends there. We would eventually make our way back to her apartment, smoke more weed, then gently, but exquisitey, bed down for the night.
But she lived a different lifestyle and schedule from me. I needed to show up at Shearson, Smith Barney sharp as a tack for work in Battery Park at 8 am. The late-night, leisurely hours, made me nervous, especially due to Richard Lloyd's reputation of serious drug use...
I used to lend Lori SciFi paperbacks from my extensive collection. One day she called me to return some of those books. She looked very sad and hurt that I no longer reached out to her. But the possibility of me slipping down the rabbit whole of drug and alcohol hole made me sadly pull back.
So on on another grindingly hot, covid-19 day in NY lockdown, I dream of the possibly major life mistake I made with this beautiful lady. Not my first romantic faux pas and surely not my last. But they all add up on my road to potential happiness. So today, I study the bass lines to Billy Squire's epic breakout album, "Don't Say No" as I ponder what could've/should've been especially since I ended up going slightly off the rails anyway... One <3
YouTube - Lonely Is the Night - Billy Squier
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