"Regarding my Army thing,
I lucked into an audition for the Old Guard Fife & Drum Corp. It was part of The Third Infantry, Company E Honor Guard at Ft. Myer, VA.
I auditioned on a bamboo flute I made. I actually played that bamboo flute at a few Shades of Brass performances and the only song I played was Eleanor Rigby. It just so happened that it was in tune for that song and I played the melody with an improv section. I played that same song for my army audition and passed the audition. As a member, I per-
formed at the White House, in and around Washington, DC and around the country.
You know, in putting all this together, I am relying on my memory
a lot more than I would like. Many of my recollections are fuzzy and I
wonder if I've gotten it absolutely right. I thought that I had bought my
first Fender Stratocaster in order to be the guitarist in Shades Of Brass.
This predates any photography I've done, so I have no pics of it.
Shades Of Brass was a band that Bob Bjork started and was shut down by the war in Vietnam. Our leader got drafted. His story is interesting and I have it in his own words.
We also performed live for the Ed Sullivan show in NYC. My audition made it in my old hometown paper. It was a very interesting time and I’ll send a few related pics of that event". –– Robert Bjork