I’d love to bitch once more about all the shit I’ve accumulated in my time on this planet and the difficulty I’ve had unloading much of it but let’s drill down on one artifact in particular, shall we? It’s this framed original artwork “Genesis of a Rock & Roll Guitar Style” by Jim Ryan…
Jim and I met forty years ago on my first visit to Hoboken as a newly-minted NJ resident (I’d been there for a Christmas party a year prior but still lived in Lindenhurst at the time). I was 23, out on my own, the Nihilistics behind me, and moments after moving into the Tenafly house owned by recently-divorced Jeff Nagle (RIP) – former Drunk Driving guitarist and current alcoholic – we were piling into his Chevy Astro delivery van and careening our way down a dark two-lane road to Hoboken. Street parking in the Mile Square City wasn’t plentiful in 1986 but hadn’t yet become the nightmare it would and Jeff found a space not far from 1030 Hudson Street. In their basement apartment Tom Bergin and roommates were hosting a party and I quickly bonded with Kaz, the visionary who'd launch me into the rest of my life via WFMU (he was recording promos for the station and liked my sense of humor). But Jim Ryan, one of the roommates, and Tom and Carla and I became fast friends, too and would form the core of a tight little unit with 1030 Hudson our de facto hang due to its proximity to Maxwell’s, just around the corner.
Kaz and Jim were both emerging cartoonists, with Kaz eventually running the strip Underworld in the New York Press and Jim’s Guitar Sam featured in Guitar World magazine. Tom was beginning to work in sound-for-film and Carla was on her way to becoming bespoke clothier to bonafide leather-clad rock stars (and the person who’d make my custom trucking suit). 1030 Hudson, Maxwell’s and WFMU became the three ring circus of my social scene, the house in Tenafly little more than a place to flop, make the occasional home-cooked meal and throw a few epic parties. Besides Kaz, who co-hosted the WFMU show The Nightmare Lounge with me, I probably spent the most time with Jim. We even road-tripped together up to Stockbridge, MA where his parents lived, stopping at my father’s antique store in Great Barrington on the way.
Tom and Jim moved out of 1030 Hudson, ending up in apartments stacked on each other on Jefferson Street. In 1995, after a miserable two-year sojourn in Edgewater (Jeff’s father sold the Tenafly house in 1993), I landed in Hoboken after Tom called and alerted me to a grubby little $529 a month ground-floor railroad apartment on Adams. Now I’d be stumbling distance from Tom, Jim (and, soon, my old Lindenhurst friend Jeff, who moved into the same apartment building) and Kaz, a few blocks away on Washington. Christ, the hours upon hours I spent in Tom’s apartment, playing poker, watching TV, getting high or doing all three. It was a heady time because my WFMU talk show Aerial View was hitting its prime and I was moving into paid radio work as an NPR freelancer. Then, not long we did an epic road-trip to New Orleans in his Cadillac Seville, the friendship with Tom broke down (the Caddy did not). Soon, like a bad divorce, I was on the outs with anyone who knew Tom longer than me. I barely saw Jim anymore: visiting him became weird and awkward due to his proximity to Tom.
What the fuck does this have to do with that picture up top?
Jim gifted it to me before we parted ways and I’d like to think I inspired a few of the foundational elements depicted. In trying to empty our basement closet I spent time going through all the framed artwork we’ve never hung and found Genesis of a Rock & Roll Guitar Style. I took a picture of it and sent it to Jim, asking if he might want it back. He replied, saying, essentially, Thanks but no thanks. I get it. Like me, I’m sure Jim has more than enough old shit hanging around. I was going to give the drawing away but after selling my Plush amp and rolling my Orange amp into its former space, I ended up with an expanse of previously-hidden wall space. I relocated my vintage Schlitz light-up sign above the Orange amp but still had enough room below it to finally hang Genesis of a Rock & Roll Guitar Style. It’s now where it belongs, inspiring me to consider all that went into my guitar style.
To Jim’s ingredients I’d add:
Abusive Brothers
Bad At Sports
Childhood Ridicule
Wanting Out However
