The Sounds of the Underground Page #2

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people in the subway than you

have in the whole world. (Laughs)

Because not just music.

Actually, you have

enterprises underground.

(Train sounds)

So, it's a full eight hour day,

when you think about it. If you think

oh it's only three hours performing,

but it's all the other stuff.

Like, when I'm there

adrenaline takes over. I don't

care about anything.

It doesn't feel hard. The hard

part is the hauling.

I'm actually from- I was born

and raised in New York City.

I grew up in the

Lower East Side.

About seven or eight, we moved up

to an area called Inwood;

it's the top of Manhattan and

we lived in the

projects and we were pretty

poor.

I've been busking for maybe six

or seven years.

But, before that, I didn't have

a license. Before about five years ago

and then I auditioned for program called

Music Under New York, which actually

is sanctioned by the city and

gives you a license

and the opportunity to perform

at various stations

throughout the city and what's

good about that is you won't

run off by the cops and you're

allowed to use an amplifier

which is great because then

people can hear you

and you can

sell your CDs in most locations.

-Put it in the case. Thank you.

-Is this the one I should get?

-Yes, definitely.

-The whole street performance culture

is are there rivalries

between different performers

because of their status

or classification as a result

of something like that? I think

the community of the people

that do this sort thing,

it's fascinating.

-Like, if I come here and

somebody's here, it's kind of

thing where you know each other

and you see each other all the time.

You're like, what time are you

gonna be here until? Oh this time.

Alright, we are just going

to come back.

Could you make sure

that you tell people that it's our spot?

You know what I'm saying?

-It's legal to busk, but it's not

legal to have an amplifier on

the subway platform, even though

some do and they get away with it.

It just depends on if the cops

are feeling good or bad

that day. So, it's legal to busk.

You can busk anywhere acoustically

but the moment you bring an

amplifier into place or

roll out your CDs and start

selling merchandise,

that's when they can ticket you,

write you up, force you to leave.

Or worse, arrest you.

(Guitar music)

Don't worry, they're gone.

So play.

-I got

two weeks on the chain gang

or road gang, whatever you want

to call it for playing guitar in Arkansas.

On a Sunday.

(Passing traffic)

But the funny part about that

was it's just slave labor.

They don't have a department of works

like you have around here.

Prisoners go out and do that stuff.

You know, along the road, and

you work

the half a day on Saturday and then

Saturday afternoon you have free time

and Sunday you have free time,

and on Saturday and Sunday

I could have my guitar in jail

and play my guitar,

but I got put in jail for playing the guitar.

So, you're just slave labor.

(Guitar music)

I started in the subway.

Actually, I started playing in the streets.

In San Francisco.

(Background crowd chatter)

We were new recruits for this

orchestra to back up sax artists.

-I have a little

side project, sometimes private

parties. Gigs that I do,

CDs that I sell live, as well

in the subway. I teach

privately here. I coach

voice and guitar and

songwriting. I do workshops.

Um, usually one on one.

Sometimes groups will come to

me. They're doing harmonies

and stuff like that.

(Piano music)

I don't drink anymore.

I gave it up almost a year. I

don't drink anymore and any time I go

in barrooms is to make money,

but I used to live in a barroom.

And you want to see some crazy

sh*t go on. I mean, all the time.

(Cough) All the time.

(Background traffic noises)

I mean, you know, stuff that

would make you

just...

(Saxophone music)

(Crowd chatter)

(Distant crowd noises)

So you can say people are like

songs to me now. I've been coming

up here for forty years.

Forty years.

You know. So, when I see a face,

it just automatically brings back a song.

(Saxophone music)

Sometimes, I can sit here for

maybe,

ten minutes and the first ten minutes

of playing, somebody will throw a ten

or even a twenty dollar bill.

And, other times, I can sit

here for another

hour and break my back and I

won't

get maybe some change. So, a

lot of it is luck.

Beautiful to listen to a violin

or

a Spanish guitar or somebody

doing

breakdancing like it was when I

first came to New York.

It's a world. It's like a city.

It's a city. It's not like a

city. It's a city underneath.

Vibrant, vital, moving,

giving us, in a way, some sort

of oxygen

that we really need to survive

up here.

Sometimes, I got people walking

by me and I don't think they know what

I'm trying to lay on them. I really don't.

And then I have the most

obscure people that would come by

and know what I'm doing.

People in their sixties and seventies

and stuff that know what I'm

doing, and like, there are

other people that

they really don't have any idea

of what I'm doing, you know.

You're down there playing them

Hendrix with another guitar.

And they ask you to play Hendrix

and you play them Little Wing,

and you say, man

I am playing Hendrix.

I'm doing it on an acoustic

guitar.

You know, it's like,

what are you asking me? What

are you telling me?

You know, it's like, where the

f*** are you at, man?

You know, but you sort of just

laugh at it, you know. It's...

(Passing traffic)

(Guitar music)

What up?

So what you want to do, bro?

What you want to do this weekend?

Yeah?

I don't have no money.

Some bullshit, man.

(Background drum music)

Whatever. Alright.

Peace.

Alright, let's go.

(Train sounds)

Yo, I'm going to get my wood.

So, hopefully this sh*t will be here.

That girl looked good, right?

What?

-She's looking at you.

She want them thug, dirty guys,

yeah.

Talk about dirty. This sh*t is

dirty.

(Background crowd chatter)

(Train sounds)

(Tapping sound)

(Tapping sounds)

(Train sounds)

Doing what we do is real hard because

it's hard on your body, you

know.

The dust... just the

pressure on your legs for three hours

straight. It's happened, you know.

All my drummer friends always

look at me and go man, come on man.

Come on man, I don't understand.

I'm jumping around

three hours, you know.

(Tapping sounds)

Musicians appreciate me and

that's all I care about.

You know,

I really could care less about what

somebody who doesn't know anything

about music.

I mean, I definitely care,

but somebody

who doesn't know anything about music

but appreciates what we do,

that's some sh*t.

If you let yourself be taken

by that, man,

the streets will crush you real quick.

Subway performers are dope. I

like them. I am a performer myself.

So, I think they're dope. Plus,

they liven up

the train experience.

(Guitar music)

Don't take it.

Put some money, oh no

You got this incredible,

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