The Good, The Bad & The Weird

In August of last year, I did a couple of posts in which I related a few of the memorable busking moments that I and some of my fellow street musicians have experienced. All of those stories shared were all on the positive side, so this time I've also asked around for some that maybe weren't so wonderful, and some that were, shall we say, on the odd side. But, lets start with the good:

I think it might have been my first or second summer in Victoria, 1989 or ’90, I was playing an early afternoon set on the center spot of the causeway when a couple of guys came up off the docks and asked me where the nearest liquor store was. At that time there was one just off Government on Courtney, so I told them how to get there, and they threw some coins in my case and headed in that direction. About half an hour later they were coming back towards the docks carrying some cases of beer and wine coolers, and one of them asked me what I was doing later. When I told them I had no plans, they told me to come on down to their sailboat with my guitar around 4:30 and play some tunes and they’d feed me a meal and a few beers. So anyway, I showed up and was welcomed on board by the guys and their female companions who were all visiting from Anacortes. One of the guys pulled out his guitar and we ended up jamming for a couple of hours, and at the end of it all they sent me on my way well fed and de-thirsted (is that even a word?), with an American $50 in my pocket. So that ended up being a lot of fun and profitable as well.

Dave Harris (one-man-band) – I've had many fine compliments. One special one was one day about seven years ago. A lady came by and said she had seen me playing for many years and always thought nothing of it, just went on by. But one day I guess she stopped to listen, and it had jogged her memory to when she was a girl. Her mum would take them out, I think they lived in the States, for some reason, and while they were out, her dad would set up his one-man-band and play. She remembered seeing him through the window. She said I reminded her of him and she thought my talent was taken for granted by the local public, as she herself had. (That) definitely made me feel good.

Ian Daykin (fiddle) – I was playing at the south corner when two girls stopped and watched for a while. They tipped me and also gave me this folded up piece of paper, which I later opened, they had written this poem about me, and I guess they had just written it as they were sitting there listening to me. I wish I could quote it, but I can’t really remember it all. But that seemed pretty neat.

Jay Garnett (guitar/vocals) – The nicest thing that was said to me, was a young lad in a wheel chair who could not speak, but he had a machine that typed out words for him, and he typed "I love you, Jay."

Jean Bedard (guitar picker/singer) – I was busking outside the James Bay liquor store on Menzies Street when this woman comes out of the liquor store and opens up her bag and she pulls out this bottle of wine and says “I want you to enjoy this.” And I said “Thanks a lot,” and then she looks at me, I swear she was so emotional, I thought she was gonna cry or something, I don’t know if she thought I was down & out or what, but she says “If you ever want a steak and prawn dinner, give me a call and then she starts to walk away and she says “I forgot to write my phone number on the bottle.” (So) I got a free bottle of wine for busking, that was kind of neat.

Jen Book (marimbas/vocals) – I had someone record me singing and playing guitar on the causeway my first year out, and sent it in as a demo for a folk club in Europe. They accepted me without any info and he tracked me down to tell me the good news. I wasn't even aware he had recorded me. This was one of the nicest things that ever happened while busking.

* * * * * * * * * *

If you’ve put in any amount of time as a street musician, as well as the really great moments, you will no doubt probably have a few experiences of the “not so good” variety. I myself remember a couple such incidents.

Back about 1986, I had been busking for about an hour and 20 minutes one morning in front of a liquor store on Davie Street near English Bay in Vancouver, when a guy walked up to me and said “This is my spot, take off.” I politely responded "Look, if you go across the street to McDonalds and have a coffee, I’ll be done in about fifteen minutes, and you can have the spot.” Well, he went away and I started into another song, and about half way through it, here he comes back again waving a 2x4 at me, so needless to say, I was outta there.

Probably, the worst experience that I’ve ever had, was in early 2006, I was down on the harbour waiting around to play, and my guitar case was sitting on the steps holding my spot. Meanwhile, I was not too far down the causeway chatting with one of the artists. While we were talking, I was also kind of peripherally keeping my eye on the guitar, but obviously not well enough, as Dean, the artist said “Dave, your guitar.” When I looked over, there was a guy running up the stairs by Milestone’s Restaurant with the case under his arms. Dean and I and a couple of others who were around at the time, gave chase up Government Street, but we never caught up with the guy. I was very upset at the time, but there was bit of a silver lining to the incident. A week earlier, I had just started a janitorial job, so it wasn’t as bad a situation as it might have been had it happened ten days earlier, when I would have had no other means of income.

Dave Harris – Some of my worst experiences have included dealing with bad drunks or occasionally, the mentally ill, or getting rained on unexpectedly with all of my gear and no umbrella.
(One time) my steel body guitar got blown over and broke it's neck! I had put my umbrella on the tripod guitar stand and the wind took it over. I was able to glue it, and I use it to this day.
In my early years playing on Government Street, maybe 1979 or so, an elderly man came by and said I was the worst singer he'd ever heard in his life. I was hurt at the time, but tried to turn it into a positive, using it as motivation to improve.

Jay Garnett – The worst thing anybody said to me was a couple of times I heard “Why don’t you go back to the East where you came from."

Jonathan Bennetts (guitar/vocals) – I was arrested and beaten up by the Danish police, then thrown out of Denmark for street singing.

* * * * * * * * * *

Sometimes, along with the tips that a busker might receive in their case, there are the strange or weird things that they may find themselves the recipients of. When I asked a few of the other buskers, I found that there were some things that seemed to be commonly received by a number of us, such as bottles/cans of beer, cigarettes, joints, flowers, candies, fruit, foreign currencies, condoms, drawings, tracts, etc.

Over the years, I myself have had cookies, lasagna, video arcade tokens, lottery tickets, guitar picks, once I even got a can of Carnation condensed milk put in my case. The one I remember most was the day a number of years ago, I think it might have been in the off-season, when I was playing down on the harbour. There were several people walking around handing out little bags of peanuts that had a label/tag advertising some airline’s new triangle schedules between, I think it was Victoria, Calgary and Edmonton. Anyway, these people were walking back and forth around the causeway handing out these bags of peanuts to passersby, and several times when they’d pass me, they’d toss a bag into my guitar case. I believe I ended up with about five or six of these bags. So, I guess the gist of the story is that I can quite literally say that “Yes, I have actually played for peanuts”.

Dave Harris – I was playing down here last summer, and a guy came up and put something in my case. I really didn’t think anything of it and I said "Thank you," and then a couple of minutes later, I happened to get up to do something and I looked in the case and there’s this big piece of dry toast.
Another time I was doing some filming of fiddler Graham Sullivan while he was playing, and a young kid came along and he put something down in Graham’s case and Graham says "Thank you," and he’s sawing away on the fiddle. I looked in the case and then I said "Hey Graham, look what you got," and we both couldn’t believe it. It was a woman’s shoe, like an Italian shoe not a high heel, like a wooden sole kind of thing, so that was pretty unusual.

Dylan Driscoll (guitar/vocals) – I once got some really vibrant looking crystals, like gems, they were just really wild patterns and looked pretty magical like.

Ian Daykin – I got a container of yogurt from a fellow who was flying out the next morning. It was really good, Liberty Mediterranean yogurt, that’s like five bucks for a small thing. He said he had planned to eat it that night, but went to dinner instead. He said “I don’t know if you want this”, but I was stoked, I mean, I was happy with yogurt.

Jay Garnett – I have received tokens for the bus, vouchers for free meals and a few hot phone numbers.

Jonathan Bennetts – I had an experience in Amsterdam, when a lady came up, and she’d just been shopping and she said "You boys look very hungry", and put two tins of meatballs in the collection hat.

Micah Walker (guitar/vocals) – I’m not sure what the weirdest thing I got would be. I got rocks, bracelets, pictures, cardboard, individual personal art that people have made, picks, cake. I’m not sure, I’ve never had like panties or shoelaces or anything like that.

Tristan Teal (guitar/vocals) – Me and Micah were busking at Murchies together, and this guy that we kind of know a little bit, one of those crazy out-there street guys that you always see around, and always kinda has something to say to you, he’s walking by and he’s searching in his pockets, smiling at us trying to find something to tip us and he tips us three little maple syrups.

So there you have it. Some of the good, the bad and the weird experiences in the lives of local street musicians. As these are but just a few of the stories out there, no doubt there will be more in future posts.