Not quite there
\nby cricketjeff on July 20, 2008.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved
\nThe trumpet, played badly, is harsh on the ears,
\nMy brother had tears in his eyes.
\nI tried to play softly to comfort his fears,
\nThe noise is beyond a disguise.
\nI wanted a sludge-pump, a shiny trombone,
\nTo dazzle the girls of my age;
\nImagine the sight of a boy on his own,
\nBlowing jazz from the front of the stage.<\/p>\n
I’d tried for two weeks when a message arrived,
\n“We have one, returned to the school”,
\nI had my trombone, and my brother survived,
\nA down-side but “Hey! I’m a fool!”
\nAssiduous practice and neighbours who glared
\nAnd orchestras, bands and the rest.
\nI hadn’t much talent, but gladly I shared
\nMy folk are too nice to protest.<\/p>\n
Glenn Miller and Mozart and Strauss on the side,
\nI tried every score I could find.
\nThe sounds of my sludge-pump could not be defied,
\nThey told me that they didn’t mind.
\nI think I got better, I didn’t get worse,
\nI saved up and bought my own ‘bone.
\nI hated the time that it took to rehearse
\nBut loved when attention was shown.<\/p>\n
I went up to uni. and took it with me,
\nYou never know when you can play.
\nFound other musicians were happy to see
\nMe blasting out tunes every day.
\nRag-week arrived, “Would we play for some girls”
\nThe Stripper, while they played at “tarts”,
\nTwenty young ladies in tinfoil and pearls,
\nThis music’s the finest of arts.<\/p>\n
I no longer play it, my embouchure gone
\nIt sits over there in its case.
\nTrombonist I wasn’t, I never quite shone,
\nNo groupies to set up a chase
\nBut two of my children have blown it at times
\nAnd both of them thought it a scream.
\nMy art is now written and focused on rhymes
\nBut “Jazzman” is still quite a dream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Not quite there by cricketjeff on July 20, 2008.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved The trumpet, played badly, is harsh on the ears, My brother had tears in his eyes. I tried to play softly to comfort his fears, The noise is beyond a disguise. I wanted a sludge-pump, a shiny trombone, To dazzle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9730,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3030","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8478,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3030\/revisions\/8478"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}