Diary Of A Busker Day 59 Friday March 11 Winchester High Street (corner of Marks And Spencer, Time 1:45-5:50pm).
Another long session at the ‘noisy corner’. I used to avoid this spot, being quite exposed – and noisy, obviously – but now I’m growing quite literally attached to it. After a few minutes, the flower seller comes over and introduces himself and throws in a request to boot – “Hi, I’m Bertie, you gonna give us Ennio Morricone today?” “Hello, I’m Marvin, (and in answer to his request)…yes, definately.” The temperature’s warming up a bit these days so I’m able to play pretty well non-stop. I don’t even take my usual toilet/warm up hands under drier break.
A man approaches after a Mr. Sandman rendition, correctly identifying it as a Chet Atkins arrangement. He would like me to play it again. But of course! I try and do it a bit better this time – requests are special. Another man, about seventy, comes up after The Third Man and we have a talk about the tunes’ enduring appeal. I say “It’s amazing how many people know this tune – and of all ages, too. And it’s mainly just three notes, right next to each other…” I play the three notes – da da da – da da – da da.. “…and just three chords, too.” “Yes” he says, “and Dylan’s songs are just the same – alot of them are.” We then talk about Bob Dylan and it turns out this man was at the Scottish university when they presented Bob Dylan with some sort of literary scholarship/degree awhile back. “He wasn’t much of a showman – he just appeared, took his award and left – didn’t say anything really.”
Bertie the flowerman walks past – he’s taking a break – “Just going to the pub – you don’t think I stand here for ten hours without three or four pints, do you?” Later on…a lady, early 60s puts a coin in my hat, then – “Do you know Jesus loves you? Let him into your heart and you’ll go to heaven – you don’t want to go to the other place, do you?” I reckon it’s too late, having played at most of the Working Men’s Clubs in Devon, busked in Southampton and been to Dudley. I tell her I believe it is possible to be a good person without following ANY religion. She ignores me, naturally. I think about bringing up stuff like the probability of myriad alien lifeforms and how tiny our planet is but can’t be bothered and she’s got a glazed expression and it’s a one-sided conversation with this lot…I would be wasting my (playing) time, although I could conduct a conversation AND play something simple – The Third Man, at the same time but I’d still be wasting my breath. “Yes” she says, carrying on after my “I can still be a good person without religion…” bit, “…but you will be PERFECT if you let Jesus into your heart! Do you know Billy Graham?” She hands me a leaflet. “Yeah, I’ve heard of him – yeah, I’ll read it.” I gave up. I definately can’t be bothered going on about the Drake Equation – how there are X amount of galaxys containing X amount of life supporting planets – about seventy billion I think I read the other day…and the so-called Goldilocks zone… “Read this and let Jesus into your life and start praying!” she says, still with the frightening, glazed look. “OK!” I say. What I WANT to say is “I’ll take your money – you can keep your religion!” I watch her walk over to Bertie, poor chap – but wait, she’s only buying some flowers. He’s got off lightly!
Later…a man trys to get his toddler son to put a coin in my beret but the little guy just stares at me, open mouthed and holds his arm out, five feet away. “Go on (he says child’s name which I’ve forgotten)…give it to the man, put it in his hat.” He keeps saying it, his son keeps five feet away, open mouthed, arm outstretched. It’s taking us all more effort than it’s worth. In the end, I stop playing, pick up my hat and go over, something I’ve never done before.
…another conversation about The Third Man – “What is that actually called?” a man asks me. “I think it’s just called The Theme From The Third Man but there are other bits from the film that have proper names, like The Cafe Mozart Waltz, but I think this is just The Third Man Theme. Hm, I’ll look into that – you’ve raised quite an interesting point there!”
I’m nearing the end of my session and I blast out The James Bond Theme just as Ragtime Phillip walks by. He’s not heard me do this and is quite amused – “Hey, I didn’t know you were a rock star!” I think he’s referring to my somewhat bombastic arrangement which isn’t very subtle, but faithful to the original, I like to think.
Earnings: £37.39p