He was heavyset with a languid look but leaned forward in his seat. He spoke with a deep, low voice. I don’t remember how we got started talking, but I’m pretty sure he initiated the conversation since one of the first things he said was “You wouldn’t believe some bands I’ve worked with.”
“Try me,” I said.
He stared for a long time then said, “I won’t name names.” Then why did you even bring it up? I thought. He continued. “I’ll just say I used to tour with some boys who worked for Apple Records.”
The name Apple Records bounced around in my consciousness looking for something to connect to. If he’d said Konk Studios or dropped a name like David Watts that would have meant something to me, but I shrugged. I didn’t know Apple Records.
“Four mophead boys from Liverpool,” he said slowly.
Bingo. I knew, somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind that Apple Records was the label founded by The Beatles, but it wasn’t anywhere easily accessed. Hey, The Beatles are great, but I just don’t give them a lot of thought.
He got off a few stops before I did. When the doors closed the bus driver said, “He’s so full of shit his eyes are brown. He’s never been anywhere near The Beatles.” There’s a reason Nashville is called Music City. Within walking distance of where I work there are blocks and blocks of recording studios and music industry offices. I’ve never been in the industry myself but I’ve done temp jobs alongside people who worked as backup musicians for some of the biggest names in the industry. The odds here of actually being on a bus with either Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr are better than average. And yet I believed the bus driver. She knew without even looking that the guy had brown eyes.
As someone with the brownest of brown eyes, I’m extremely concerned that that particular saying will catch on. I would prefer people not to assume I am making everything up given that I hope to write for a living at some point.
Mind you, I often look at my previous posts and wonder if people think I made it up.
It’s an expression I hear occasionally but rarely repeat, and always as a quote, because I like brown eyes. They’re the windows to the soul and brown eyes always seem deep to me. I think I’m not the only one who feels that way either. I remember an ad for colored contacts that basically said, “Because brown eyes are ugly.” It didn’t last long.
And if it’s a good story I never stop to think if it’s true or not.
And yet, and yet, you’ll never really know if that guy was telling the truth or not. Maybe he was. This is one of those annoying things that I would wonder about at 3AM during a fit of insomnia. The fact that you live in Nashville makes it more believable. But weird shit happens all the time everywhere. Nothing surprises me anymore.
You’re right, and if he’d told me something interesting about The Beatles, something I’d never heard before, I’d have been more impressed even if I couldn’t tell it was true. But I’ve worked temp jobs alongside people I could confirm worked as studio musicians for or toured with Santana and Dan Fogelberg, or who played music on movie soundtracks. That raises the ante a bit.