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Joey didn’t last long there, as it was a pretty conservative joint, and he was a wild and crazy guy, I, standing behind the bar, was his only fan in the place, and anyway, he must have been subbing for the regular guy who probably was having an eye surgery or went on a tour of dives (this happened a long time ago), a Jewish fellow, who answered to ‘Duke’, and who had an amazing ability, I thought at the time, to play the keys using only 3 fingers of each hand, I didn’t say play well, but play and get away with it. I should have asked him for lessons.

Then, (and since I started, I might as well finish), two georgeous twins were hired, well, maybe not georgeous, but my type, just out of college, having fun before getting serious and settling down, and one evening, one of the regular older career waitresses, Nancy or Mickey, I don’t remember which, they were like mothers to me then, probably long dead and buried along with Duke, only Joey and I are still rocking and rolling, so Nancy or Mickey asked me, “How come you didn’t ask Kathy to unplug the piano?” And it was something like in Tim Hardin’s famous song “The Lady Came from Baltimore”:

I was there to steal her money,
Take her rings and run.
Then I fell in love with the lady,
Got away with none.

As for Joey, he was and remains a braggart, someone who managed to survive on the peripheries of rock and roll scene for half a century, a legend in his own mind, and quite a character. He could have made himself a career in a band, or as a studio pianist, but chose to go solo, with the effects that you can find on Youtube and elsewhere, and not be terribly impressed. I’d love to make a film about him, documentary or dramatic, he really deserves it.