CHAPTER 21
Mrs. McCoy drove them all down to Dorita Beach after school on Friday.
Luckily Jimmy didn't have to bring the drum set, or everyone wouldn't have fit in the mini-van. Mr. Lehrer had told Adler they could use the school's jazz band drum kit for the audition.
"What we do," Bo announced from the front passenger seat, "is we give him 'Brown-Eyed Girl' first. Then 'Sweet Home Alabama'. Hopefully that'll be enough."
"What if he wants more?" Melissa asked.
"Then we give him 'Down on the Corner' if we have to, but that one's a little shaky. You guys keep forgetting the words."
"If you get the gig, how many songs can you learn between now and next Saturday night?" Adler asked.
"I'm thinking one a day, totally memorized," Bo said. "But if we bring the sheet music with us on stage, then two a day."
"So that's 14, plus you have the 3 already, so that's 17," said Adler, calculating. "Say you average 3 minutes per song, and you fool around for another minute in between songs--let's see, 17 times 4--you'd have 68 minutes of material. How long's the dance?"
"Ours are normally two hours, so I'm assuming theirs are too," Melissa said.
"So even learning two songs a day for the next week, we're short," Bo said.
"Nah, we're fine," said Jimmy. "All's we do is repeat our set list the second hour. No one'll know the difference, and if they do they won't care."
"I actually think he might be right," said Jenny.
"When you think about it," said Bo, "hopefully someone even notices that we're up there."
Traffic was bad. They inched slowly along on the 405 Freeway. Mrs. McCoy didn't seem to mind.
"The only way you can live in Southern California is if you don't have to go anywhere," she said, laughing.
"Well we sure do appreciate this," Bo said.
"Oh, it's my pleasure entirely. I think it's so wonderful that you've incorporated Jenny and Melissa and Walter into the band."
"I look at it that we're lucky to have them," Bo said. "They're all really good."
"And I know Jen, for one, is so proud to be in it. She may pretend otherwise, but the other night she spent two hours designing a 'Z Street Band' logo that she hung on her wall."
"Mom!!"
"Really? A logo?" said Jimmy. "Maybe we can put it on the bass drum."
"How about we actually get a gig first, before we start worrying about too many details," Bo said.
"Oh, no question they'll want a live band to play this dance," Mrs. McCoy said.
"I don't know," said Bo. "I'm thinking the kids might actually prefer the DJ thing. It's what they're used to."
"That could be, but don't forget, it isn't the kids making the decision," said McCoy.
Mr. Lehrer was a tan bald guy with sunglasses pushed up on his head and a Hawaiian shirt. He shook hands with everyone and helped them get set up in the band room.
"You all look a little young to drive," he said, smiling.
"Oh, my mom brought us," said Jenny. "She's getting coffee."
"Well, I'm anxious to hear what you've got," he said. "Having a real band at a dance would certainly be an improvement. I was telling Mr. Adler how things were back in my day."
"But just think, you missed out on rap and hip-hop," Jimmy said.
"I think he's trying to make a joke," Bo said, glaring at Jimmy.
"No, I understand," said Mr. Lehrer. "I do see some value in hip-hop--the rhythms can be very interesting and complex. But you can make the case that it's all based on James Brown and Little Richard and the old stuff a lot of us grew up with."
Bo tuned up, he and Mackie checked with at each other, and the band kicked off "Brown-Eyed Girl". It was a clean take--no mistakes, not much that you could criticize about it.
"I see," said Mr. Lehrer. "And I asume you have 25 or 30 such songs in your repertoire?"
"We do," Bo lied.
"Well, then, that takes care of it," he said. "We'll see you on the 14th! Try to be at least a half hour early so you're set up and ready to play right at 7:30 when the doors open."
"Uh, sure...!" said Bo.
"Ooh, that reminds me. We had a couple of young men lined up to DJ. I better call them right now. Incidentally, the school earmarks $200 as entertainment expenses for each dance, so that will go to you now."
"You mean," said Jimmy, trying to keep his excitement under control, "we'll earn the $200 that would have been paid to the DJs?"
"Yes, that's right," said Mr. Lehrer. "Keep in mind, of course, you'll have to split it six ways, as opposed to two."
"Oh, that'll be more than fine," said Bo. "Thank you!"
"See you in a week," Mr. Lehrer said, and he left.
"Dude, did what I think just happened--really happen?!" said Jimmy, slapping Adler a high-five.
"The best part," said Bo, "isn't even that we have a gig and we're getting paid."
"You guys!" said Jenny.
"Jen, you and Mel are in the band, what, four days, and you're already making money," Bo said. "You're professional musicians!"
"Get out of here, Bo," she said.
"And I'm gonna need to see that little smile, right now."
Bo gave her the face-to-face stare-down, and Jenny tried to stay serious but couldn't, and she broke into a big smile within a couple seconds. Bo looked around to see if anyone else was smiling, and they all were.
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Saturday morning, Bo was sitting on the sofa in Jenny's living room while Mrs. McCoy was pulling out vinyl records from her collection and playing them on her old stereo turntable.
It was Bo's job to listen to each song and make a snap judgment: no, it wasn't right for the band--even if it might be a great song otherwise--or yes, it could work.
Bo rejected a lot music, probably three-quarters of what Jenny's mom came up with, but she never once tried to talk him into anything. By lunchtime, he had chosen the 14 new songs the band would try to scramble and learn before the Jasper dance.
They were:
Hound Dog
Summer in the City
Johnny B. Goode
Surfin' USA
Solitary Man
I Fought the Law
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
Barbara Ann
All Right Now
Hello I Love You
Rock Around the Clock
The Joker
Centerfield
and
Surf City.
"Maybe you want to take these records along?" asked Mrs. McCoy.
"Oh, no thanks," Bo said, "I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find them all online and download them. Plus the lyrics, and guitar and bass tabs--they should all be there too."
"My goodness, I'll never catch up to modern technology," she said. "Speaking of which, how about I have Jen put a nice big homemade burrito in the microwave real quick."
"Gee thanks, but we've got practice in an hour," Bo said. "And I need to get back. And get the parts organized and all that."
"Oh, absolutely. I understand."
"What kind of burrito?"
