London for ever - 23

I then asked him for news of their repertoire. It consisted of many pieces of its own composition, whose lyrics were inspired by the original and authentic roots of the  rock movement, dealing  with his proletarian origins, class struggle, rebellion against adult society and his most conservative institutions, also singing on sexual freedom. Other songs were better suited to the arpeggios and blues sounds and talked of disappointments, youthful nostalgia, and ideal worlds.

 He told me had composed all those songs  several years earlier when he was still attending the Art School in London (where he had met David Bowie, Jimmy Page, Keith Richard, Pete Townshend and other illustrious names who had established themselves in the world Golden rock music).

But he refused to sell his art and his songs to the star system, convinced that the rock-based unit could only be kept by playing live and sharing in the concert the same emotions; while recording discs meant the opposite, breaking the unity of movement by relegating the divas to a golden loneliness, releasing them emotionally and definitively from their own supporters.

He had chosen to earn his living, at the beginning playing the guitar in squares, streets or subway stations; he had later created his group, gaining with it important spaces in the pubs and clubs of London that allowed him to continue to live the unmistakable emotions that only the concerts can give the artist when the music is flowing well and the audience is relaxed and happy and all, artists and spectators, in those magical moments, forget themselves and their problems.

And you do not care to be none  any more, but you just try to flow forever in that feeling of sweet despair.

Then we  talked of our  lives, as if we had been friends forever. That confidential tone seemed to make him slide to a verge of melancholy.

«In the end, he said, every man has his own life, his fate carved in the brain or perhaps written for him somewhere in the Cosmos! If you believe it, of course! » He added, trying to slit and return to the conversation in that compassed, almost suspended tone we had maintained so far!

- «You mean, God, don’t you?» I interjected, seriously.

- « I do not know. Maybe …»he replied without giving too much emphasis to the words, standing up.

- «Shall we go?» He said then to his  friends who had spent time smoking quietly.

  

I followed them in good spirits, though I would have preferred that nice chat did not end there.

Outside, in the street, the insignia  of cinemas, shops, theaters and nightclubs began to shine. London night moved its first steps towards another interlude of triumph and madness against the gray routine of the day.

- «At the next concert in the square I get a glass from you!» - Ruben told me while approaching  with his friends a small street that would bring them home in the Soho district.

- «Be cool!»Phil told me, packing on my shoulder.

- «And also fresh!» echoed Jon lifting two fingers of his right hand in greeting.

«And do not do as Jim did, always putting much water on it!» Ruben said jokingly, turning to his left shoulder and greeting again with a gesture of his hand.

I watched them a little further, with their slouching walk, almost looking to dance with their long hair in the wind and their colorful and eccentric clothing, crossing with a guy in gray dress and black tie, carrying a 24-hour briefcase who  was coming  in the opposite direction.

It was a moment. It almost seemed to me like the man was walk without his head,  carrying it into that square suitcase.