About Me... Adolfo Valencia!
Off
the cuff… about me and the guitar...It all started Winter of 1963 with the
Beatles American Debut album: Meet the Beatles "I Want To
Hold Your Hand" and puberty…"My God". This song was talking
about initial step of getting to "First Base!!!!"...Of course my older
brother and two older cousins decided to start their own band called The
Silverman (I have no idea why that name and neither do they
to this day). Anyway I wanted part of this band only to be told I was
too young
and too short "The Nerve!"...Mind you all this band had was a one
stringed (E 6th), hole in the center of the body Spanish guitar our
uncle, my
brother's godfather, had given him (which my uncle had used in a
wedding brawl), my cousin Albert’s Sear Silverton guitar, and cousin
Richard’s promise he
would soon have a guitar.... This was the band...Right.
By summer of 1964 I had saved enough paper route money to purchase an acoustic
Westbrook guitar (only costing me $35.00)... on my way to fame! My first lesson was
to learn how to tune the darn thing, which I did by matching string for string
off a guitar a much older neighborhood college kid had. Once knowing how
to tune the thing I would play an album's song, listening to leads over and over
on a portable recorder player, until figured it out note by note the best I
could... I'll show them (my
brother and cousins) ...
My first great lead
accomplishment was the intro to "Day Tripper"...Thank you Beatles.. and "Oh yeah", the chords to "Louie, Louie" by
the Kingsmen... (which
my brother could only play on ”that” one string). Now my cousins and brother told
me I was allowed to join their band..."Too late boys! I'm on my
own” Thinking of my accomplishments I purchased the first available Beatle
song book on the market. I couldn't read the musical notes but I could
follow the positioning of the chords drawn above the words which led to
learning rhythm and timing.
By this time I could watch someone else play and figure out the
chords and fill in the leads all without knowing how to read
music…"I'll show them." (By this time I meant the whole world of
non-believers). Unfortunately, my father being the main non-believer in my life,
an old world Mexican (wannabe accordion player in
his head oompa oompa “rancherito”
band) hated American evil rock and roll and
would actually physically punish me if he heard me playing such demonic
sounds. Defiantly I carried on buying what I could afford, then a
Kingston electric
guitar and a Crown amplifier (not the Gibson SG electric guitar and
Marshall amplifier
of my dreams).
One year later in 1969 in a quick sale I scored a 1966 Fender
Pro-Reverb tube amp and a Mosrite electric guitar (I
was told the type the Ventures used). I used to carry both guitars in case and
very heavy amp 19 blocks to practices and 19 blocks back….such dedication.
By this time I was getting good enough to actually be invited to play in real bands in clubs and bars…Unfortunately not 18 yet and still under the rule of an old world tyrant I was not allowed to participate and missed many opportunities to play with some well known San Francisco musicians of that time. Now I don’t even have the heart to write them down. It would just piss me off.
Thinking back now maybe it didn’t matter. In 1971 a draft lottery (the only
lottery I ever came out on top of)… came out in the Call-Bulletin newspaper
which showed 365 days of the year and birthdays corresponding to each day. The
higher the number your birthday was listed 1 thru 365 the less likely you were
to be carted off to war...My brother’s birthday March 29th was listed as the
364th day He got a good laugh
out of it…My birthday October 28th was listed as the 10th
day…That was not funny…Thinking with such good luck so far in life, when the
time came for active duty I turned down the Army and choose the Marines. Thinking I
probably wouldn’t be coming back so I gave my guitar and amps for people to
take care of or keep depending on the final result.
When I returned back to the hood I acquired what was left of my equipment….In the next 40 years life had different paths for me…Today I play for relaxation and I’m always pleased to pass on my skills to those interested.