In the Beginning

Having been inspired by watching the first performance of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, my brother Johnny and I were sure we had found our destiny. After begging our parents for the better part of a month to buy us instruments, they finally relented and bought my brother a set of drums and me a bass. Our cousin, Alvin, already had a guitar and actually knew a few chords, so when I was at the tender age of 15, we were putting our first band together.

When I say that Alvin knew a few chords, I should have said that he knew very few chords. He knew three chords: C, F, and G. So the first song that we worked up used C, F, and G! I thought it was pretty clever at the time. Oh, how we practiced, hour after hour, day after day. Oh, the torture that my parents endured! We endeavored to persevere and before we knew it, we had a whole set list of three chord songs: “Louie Louie,” “Hang on Sloopy,” C, F, and G, you get the picture.

With the addition of Sammy on guitar, we had our first band. We called ourselves Odds’n’Ends. I don’t know why. We played anywhere we could: birthday parties, grand openings, talent shows, sock hops. A funny thing happened. After a while, people actually started offering us money to play! WOW! It came like a flash of light, a revelation so profound that it made me shiver! It was actually possible to make a living playing music! At that age, we thought that $50 a week was a living. We had money to spend, money in the bank and were constantly upgrading our equipment. We had it made.

Read the rest of Billy's Bio at www.billygreer.com