Word: musicians
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...hair is growing back, and he may replace the outfit he's worn in the streets for the past two years. "Just the other day I said to myself, this is going to end, too--this uniform. I think I'll go through a new stage," the smooth musician says, off the streets and in a coffee house. At a time when the legion of street musicians splits somewhat frantically for the subways, coveted club gigs and regular jobs, Meyreles confidently plans a departure from the street musician life, where he has made his living for three years...
...into the street, a burly, bearded man clad in a tuxedo jacket, narrow pink tie and baggy army fatigues finishes the Motown milestone "My Girl." An elderly gentleman steps forward and drops a bill into the open guitar case. "We should all learn from this man tonight," bellows the musician, mocking the voice of Sunday morning TV-gospel preachers. The crowd laughs, and some swell toward the case appreciatively. The guitarist asks those at the back to move up to the curb to avoid blocking traffic, then gets all singing and many dancing to his one-man version...
Next month, "Keyo and the Essentials" plan to record a single and send it to record companies. The musician realizes recording contracts are hard to come by, but is prepared to "do it myself." His sudden success as a street musician makes Meyreles's plans for further recognition seem viable. While working in the Seattle public school system three years ago, Meyreles needed three separate invitations from a friend before agreeing to take his guitar and talented voice to a Seattle public market. "I finally said, 'O.K. I got nothing to lose so I might as well go out there...
...streets, the musician says he is in heaven. "I used to do drugs--I wasn't addicted--but I get my biggest high from the people who watch me," Meyreles says. "It's something I've always dreamed of since I was a little boy." And so for three years, first in the Northwest and then in Harvard Square, he ignored suggestions from friends who said he should put a band together and try to leave the streets for the big time...
...country than that of the early sixties, the professor says, adding that this trend emerged from a "post-sixties cynicism," caused by increasingly tough economic times in England. Although Schama has a deep interest in classical music and opera, he has maintained his interest in rock. His favorite contemporary musician is Ian Dury, best known in this country for his song "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick." Although Dury "is thought to be a punk rocker," Schama says he could be better titled as "the poet of Mrs. Thatcher's England. He is clearly in love with Britain...