Tales from the Road: the Guitarist

As stereotypes go, this is a pretty faithful and consistently-filled one. Has there ever been a guitarist that started playing his guitar at someone else's request? Let alone stopped for the same reason?

Infact has there ever been a backpacker carrying a guitar that wasn't a w@nker?

Not guitarists per se, but people who insist on bringing them on tour. They always ring alarm bells for me. A guitarist seems to play only ever for himself, and travels for exactly the same reason. In some ways this is fine, but when they're playing without regard for others or the context,or it gets in the way of the enjoyment of fellow travellers (or locals) then it's a problem.

Backpacker guitarists seem to play regqrdless of who is listening. Their desire to be the centre of attention is reflected in their choice to being a large instrument with them - it's a huge encumbrance, and probably about the size of a backpack, so it must be fanning a huge ego to be worth the hassle.

As I originally wrote this, I was sitting in my dorm fairly late at night, and someone outside in the courtyard below was murdering various songs fro, Nirvana's Unplugged album (there are people on this mailing list that would find that hard to believe, but trust me). And the choice of songs ... how very original.

I headed outside to visit the bathroom and found he was not outside in the courtyard, he was up on the balcony right next to us; strumming away. Its an area notionally set aside for quiet chats at best, and access to the average showers at worst. But this is bloody typical. He could be down in the courtyard where people an come and go, but he can't get by without a captive audience to smile politely and artificially ,assage his ego. So he come upstairs. Stuff the people who are already alseep. And he strums away.

Christ. Now he's playing Dylan. F*ck me this bloke is selfish. No doubt he's a self-centred traveller also. I wish I could give him his comeuppance.

(Have you noticed that they are always blokes? They figure it'll get them laid but don't realise that:
(i) its not 1968
(ii) they're no f*cking good at playing
(iii) neither they or their "listeners" are hippies and therefore on mind-altering substances
(iv) everyone knows they want to be centre of attention
(v) their poetry and lyrics are complete b0llocks)