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Larry! A round of drinks please and one for The Gangster of Love

We were all big Steve Miller fans at the John Barleycorn and we had several of his 45s on the juke box.

 I particularly loved the Steve Miller thing of including previous song titles in newer songs that he wrote.

 In 1957, 
Johnny Watson wrote and sang about the "Gangster of Love." 

In 1968, 
Steve Miller covered "Gangster of Love" and also wrote about "Living in the U.S. of A."  

 In 1969, 
Miller's "Space Cowboys" had the line, 
"I told you 'bout Living in the U.S. of A. and you know that I'm a Gangster of Love."

 In 1973, 
Miller then wrote "The Joker" and kept this string moving forward with,
"Some people call me the Space Cowboy yeah
Some call me the Gangster of Love
Some people call me Maurice
'Cause I speak of the pompatous of love."

I tell you all this to show just how the John Barleycorn was also a very functioning neighborhood bar, regardless of who you were and what you believed, Larry always welcomed you in as a guest.  We had a very nice senior gentlemen that would frequent the bar for a night cap and let's just use the Jerry Seinfeld reference that he "played for the 'other' team, not that there's anything wrong with it".  This nice, kindly, friendly gentleman was named Maurice and I think you can see where this story is headed.

Maurice always visited the bar alone and would sit off at the sides of the bar and quietly enjoy one or two cocktails before calling it a night.  This was in the 1980s and Maurice had 20 or 30 years on us raucous and rowdy rock n roll knuckleheads and we were mostly gathered at the other end of the bar.

When it was time for a round, one of us, usually me, and just because I loved the way it rolled off my tongue, would order, "Larry!  How about another round of drinks for us and one for the 'Gangster of Love'."

Maurice would always kindly accept a drink and would thank us but he never knew why we were always addressing him as the Gangster of Love.  It just drove him crazy and he would inevitably get very frustrated and whine about, "I don't get it!  I'm NOT a gangster of love!  What does it all mean? What IS a gangster of love?  Why? Why? Why?"

 We never, ever let him in on the joke, because, of course, we were all "jokers, smokers and midnight tokers" and, at best, I may have reasoned to him that, "I speak of the "pompatus of love."  

 There was no such thing as Google at the time that could give him the answer to every question possible.  For us, he was and will always be the G of L.




Comments

  1. Gary GoldsboroughMarch 18, 2020 at 10:03 PM

    I started coming in the JB in 89 and don't recall Maurice. But keep the stories coming. I love em!

    ReplyDelete

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