From 1976 to 2003 I was either playing bass in the Boston Pops Fourth of July show or working in the TV truck as a “Score reader.”
I confess, after spending every 4th of July for 25 years working on those extravaganzas, that first empty 2003 Fourth of July felt more than just a bit strange. I had never thought of July 4 as a holiday, it was usually the busiest day of the year.
In 2005 I decided it was time to write a memoir of my days as a Pops bass player . . . sadly, unlike Mozart in the Jungle, I had no salacious stories, but I did have a lot of funny ones. So that resulted in Real Men Don’t Rehearse.
Anyway, for all you folks who are perhaps surfing the net while you’re waiting for the show to start, a few little memories:
One of my favorite Fourth of July stories is of course my first Fourth of July with Arthur Fiedler with the Pops in 1976. I tell the whole story in Real Men Don’t Rehearse. That concert is still in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest audience at a classical music concert ever. Every once in a while they’ll play a snippet of the video from that concert, and if you see a bunch of basses behind Arthur Fiedler, I’m the guy top left:
I’m somewhat bummed that the event has become such a high security zone. Back when I did it, there were no such concerns, and it was such a fabulous parade of humanity walking past the TV trucks all afternoon.
As the TV director’s de facto assistant I was occasionally even invited to go to the post concert private party that Keith Lockhart would have at the Four Seasons Hotel. Pretty posh, I dare say, plus it was fun to hang out with the celebrities du jour.
It was always kind of neat after that party, to walk down a closed Storrow drive to my car parked in the Mass Eye& Ear lot. I always found myself thinking, this is what it must have been like to have walked down here before they invented automobiles. It was a bit of peace and serenity that modern life has robbed us of.
What I will not miss about that event is suffering through the July 3 morning rehearsal. I was on my own to find parking, sometimes a mile away, I was always stuck out in the hot sun, I had virtually nothing to do, but I had to be there and stay awake just in case they changed something in the sheet music. Also the whole deal of driving down there on the Fourth of July with all the police yelling at me even though I had a pass to go to the special parking area . .. yikes.
I will say though that, despite all that, once the show started and I found myself “in the truck” seated next to the director, being an integral part of the magic of television, making the shots happen precisely on cue with the music, was a thrill like none other. Stress like none other too, but I didn’t care.
Just one more little note… on the record-setting Fourth of July concert 1976, we played the entire Tchaikovsky B-flat Piano Concerto, for 500,000 people. 40 minutes of in-your-face classical music. Ah, the days of Arthur Fiedler.
© Justin Locke
Justin Locke is an entertaining speaker. Call him at 781-330-8143 to discuss having him appear at your next event.
