|
Ron Knight
David - additional Elby & Susan Martin Memories
I will tell the story of one such Rebecca McCurdy's former husband. Yes, and NOT Phil Dyer.
Back in the late 1980's I ran into at a gathering the former Marty Matzen (Duncan) attended. We began dating after that meeting, in that we were both divorced and available. Marty had grown up with her best friends Susan Newsom and Becky McCurdy of the RHS Class of 1970 and have always remained close even to this day.
Marty was telling me about a guy that Becky married out in LA. He was in the music business from what I had heard. Becky and her husband would come out to Dallas over the holidays from time-to-time and everyone wanted to get him to play piano for them. He ALWAYS politely refused to play. Then during the Thanksgiving Holiday while Marty and I were dating, Becky and her husband came back to Dallas for a visit with their two kiddos. We all gathered at Elby and Susan's house off of Forest Lane (just north). We went out to dinner to an informal hamburger joint that Becky's brother was managing. It was at the corner of Northwest Highway and Midway Road on the northeast section. Maybe someone will remember the name of it. Marty had a child named Katie. Becky's two kids loved hanging out with Katie. When we left for the restaurant, Becky's two kids wanted to ride with Katie. So Becky's husband came over to my car and made sure that they were seat belted in for the ride to the restaurant. I thought what a nice concerned father he was. When we got to the restaurant someone made sure that I was seated directly across from Becky's husband so that we would strike up a conversation. He had heard that I too was involved in the music business. I told him yes and I had a song at the radio stations now and I was getting royalties from the airplay. All this this time I could not remember his name. I kept asking and he told me two or three times over dinner, but I kept forgetting it. My personal ego had gotten the best of me. I was actually making money from songs I wrote. And I know there must be a million wannabes in LA trying to make it in the music biz. So I figured he was one of them. Well we left the restaurant and gathered back at Elby and Susan's.
When we got back to Elby's, I noticed a change in Becky's husband's attitude. He seemed determined to play Elby's Baby Grand mahogany piano. So Becky's husband sat down at the piano and he played one chord but the piano was woefully out of tune. He asked Elby for a couple of wrenches. So the three of us march out to Elby's garage and get a couple of crescent wrinches because there was NO piano tuning hammer in sight. We returned to the piano and he told me to sit down next to him on the bench and we were going to do a relative tuning to the piano. I knew that very well. So, after a few minutes we had the piano in tune - not 440 but in relative tune. All this was being done while the girls were getting the kids upstairs to settle down. Becky, Susan and Marty made it back down to see what was going on. Becky's husband made sure I was sitting next to him on the piano bench and he began to play for us- something that had never happened over the time of Becky's visits. The first song he played for us was the "Love Theme To St. Elmo's Fire". I was stunned and had nothing to say but, "You're THAT F'ing David Foster"!!!! He nearly fell off the piano bench laughing. Thank goodness the kids were upstairs and did not hear my foul language that was made in shock!!!
He played for another hour to an hour and a half, playing hit after hit He thought it was great that I did not know who he was. He invited me to their house in Malibu. Unfortunately that never worked out.
|
