Lessons Learned from a Snowy Street Sing-Along with Five for Fighting
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[00:00:28] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So I wanna share a story, that really changed my life and slight regret in it that I don't know how it happened, but this changed my life. so when I was at Berklee College of Music, I made friends with my roommates and, some other guys from other rooms on the same floor.for the most part, we all played different instruments and one thing we had in common, except for one person, is we all loved Five for [00:01:00] Fighting.
In fact, Five for Fighting really came out around that time. It was the early two thousands. and the song, Superman was still very big, so Five for Fighting was doing a tour, and Berklee College of Music is in Boston, Massachusetts, but Five for Fighting was doing a show at a pub, a bar and pub, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
So it was snowing out. I think we took the bus across the bridge from Boston to Cambridge and then. Maybe we walked, I don't really remember, but it was snowing out. We made the trek. It was late and we couldn't get in.
We're a bunch of guys in college and we really wanted to see the performance. Right? We're musicians. We didn't just wanna hear, we wanted to see the performance. It was just John, the songwriter for Five for Fighting and I think his guitarist. Even though John plays piano, John plays guitar.
He had a separate person, maybe he had a drummer, I don't remember [00:02:00] perfectly clear. But, basically one of the guys, the one who was not as familiar with Five for Fighting, he had perfect pitch. So didn't matter what music it was, he could just pick it up and play it in a second. But, he started climbing a tree that was outside of this pub.
And I guess John noticed there was a guy out the window in the tree watching and he said to the pub employees, what's going on with those guys out there? And they told him they're not 21, they can't get in 'cause they're not 21, et cetera. so legally John couldn't like push them to let us in. It is what it is.
I think only one of us was 21, but he was not gonna go in when all of us were on the outside. So, we were disappointed. We just listened to the show. Afterwards, something happened. John came outside to talk to us with a guitar in the snow. And mind you and I just talked about this recently on a Lenses & Lyrics episode.
Typically I wouldn't wanna meet one of my favorite [00:03:00] artists, whether it's photography or whether it's music. I wouldn't want to. Mixed business and pleasure and whatnot, right? It could ruin things potentially. Not always, but it could. But he came out, didn't even give us a choice, he just said, I heard what happened that you guys couldn't get in.
he was thankful that we, you know, made the way from across the bridge in the snow, whatever, and stood out there in the cold to listen. So he said, I'm gonna play you a song on one condition. That you all sing with me. Now, keep in mind, at the time being in a music college, I always had an audio recorder with me.
This time it was in my pocket, so I put my hand in my pocket and I hit record. So this was recorded at one point. What happened to that recording? I have no idea. This was one of those little cassette tape recorders. I have no idea what happened to that recording, but I had this [00:04:00] totally recorded with the conversation, everything.
John coming outside the moment I saw him, I hit record.the whole thing was recorded. Him playing, us singing, he said, what song do you wanna play? Do you wanna sing? We said Superman. So of course he played Superman in the cold, in the snow in Cambridge, Massachusetts with fingerless gloves on and
it was just magical.
so of course we're all, we're all just singing along. He's playing. It's, and just, you get so into it, especially with your, when you're there with the musician and it just changed everything. It, it made me my more introverted side just.
Go away. I think that's when I realized I was an ambivert. That's when I realized that while I love music, and I don't always want to perform, I can do it. That's also where, while I love photography, I don't always love [00:05:00] dealing with the clients. That's when I realized that, about myself that. I could teach a huge room of people about something I'm passionate about with no worries.
But I also know that if you put me in a room where there's discomfort, I just wanna be against the wall and not talk to anybody. So while I'm not a singer, and I typically would not sing in front of other people I did on the street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. With John from Five for Fighting and it changed my life.
Just this little thing made me realize so much about myself, but also show me how much music can bring people together. So just another reason why Lenses, & Lyrics is so important to me and just a story I wanted to share with everybody. I just thought
I would share that with you because just a good story, good wholehearted [00:06:00] story.