Diary Of A Busker Day 2394 Tuesday June 25th 2024. Winchester.
My second time out to do my own songs, and in Winchester even…AND at the top spot, the Buttercross, no less. I must be feeling brave as I swore never to sing here, fearing a lynching by the regulars who, for nigh on 14 years, have only ever had my guitar playing to get annoyed about.
I’m assisted in the roadie-ing department by Jude – son and heir, just back from his trip to Canada but not at all jet-lagged, but then he’s only 26.
As I’m tuning up – or down rather as all my songs have the dropped D, a woman gives a coin and asks for The Third Man, so after a minute tuning the two low E’s back up, I go into it, and she walks off! This really amused Jude. I said it happens all the time.
Anyway, after tuning the two E’s back down and getting Jude’s advice on the balance between the guitar and mic, I do Portrait Of A Woman, then a cover, then The Pirouettist, after which follows a discussion, whether I’m singing “bum bum” or “dum dum”. I’m singing “bum bum” but Jude reckons it’s “dum dum” on the recording. It’s so long ago when I did the recording, I actually can’t remember, but Jude is a bit concerned that passers by will think I’m singing about something anus-related. Anyway, the next time I do it, I put a few “dum dum”s. It didn’t matter.
I also did For Ever and When My World Stops Turning along with a load of covers and Jude filmed me doing all the original songs and also Space Oddity and James Bond – he pressed the off button on my phone just as I was beginning to say ‘The name’s Naylor, Marvin B’.
After two hours, my left shoulder was giving me some jip and I’d had enough so that was that. As we walked up the road, Don Lavelle gave his opinion – he’d been painting just down from Lloyds bank. ‘It’s just not you, Marvin.’ I said if he’d heard me play the 12-string for the last 14 years and I suddenly came in one day with the electric 6-string, he’d probably say the same thing.