Let it Ride

Item #203. If Flamin’ Harry McGonigal can entertain 500,000 at Sturgis every year, surely Clan Costner can draw a crowd of at least 10 with their performance of BTO’s “Let It Ride”. [26 points]

None of us new "Let it Ride" - a little before our time - but we had a CD and we listened to it over and over again on the drive across South Dakota. James was the beat box, Veronica and I were back up, and Bob was lead singer. We practiced the chorus, and the progressions, and then we practiced them again.

James, who had the most musical talent of any of us, said that he had never seen four people singing in different keys before. "We start out at around the same place, but then somehow we end up all over the place."

Eventually we arrived at Sturgis, South Dakota. Sturgis is home to one of (if not the) largest biker conventions in the country. There were signs everywhere still welcoming bikers, even thought the convention was at the end of the summer. First, we had to do Item 224:

Photos of the Mariner with the youngest, Criminelvis with the oldest, Ray Kinsella with the burliest,
and Robin Hood with the girliest bikers in Sturgis. [4 points per photo]

So we went from biker bar to biker bar, looking for our requisite bikers. By the time we were done, it was after 10pm on Friday night, and the bars were just starting to fill up.

Veronica had the idea of us asking to perform in one of the bars. Certainly there would be more than 10 people there. We went back to the first bar, which had a live band, and asked the owner, whose name I think was DJ, or JD, or something like that.

As we waited, James thought to ask the band to back us up. There was some negociation - we ended up having to go on with the Max team because the owner didn't want groups of badly-singing becostumed college students going up on stage one after another.

The band was great - they seemed really excited to do it, and the owner, too. But they needed to learn the song. I never realized how they learned the song, but somehow they picked up the beat and the tune. And we were ready to go.

Now, I have never sung on stage. Certainly not in a biker bar. And normally I would be terrified of such a situation. But, there was something about having two guitarists behind me, and a bassist, and a drummer, something about the microphone in front of me, and of course, something about the Elvis costume I was wearing, that made the whole thing only wonderful, and not embarrassing at all.

It went great. We all stumbled a little bit, trying to find when we were supposed to come in over the backup, but after a few bars we were rolling. Or...riding.