Tempus Fugit: The Lost Tapes?

Early in the show today, Jay and I had a fun discussion about being in a band in high school.

The topic came about after I recalled my Monday night viewing of a Styx concert from a couple of years ago on one of my new favorite cable channels, Palladia.

All the channel shows are music specials, concerts, videos and more. It's outstanding, and it's in high-def.

Now, I'm not a particularly big Styx fan -- I like a few of their songs, but I don't have any of their albums -- but I sat, transfixed for a good thirty minutes or so, watching them perform all of their hits, minus Dennis DeYoung.

One of the treats was watching the keyboard guy (too lazy to look up his name). He was playing on a keyboard that would rotate on stage -- he stood the whole time.

He was real adventurous, too. There were times when he was looking at the crowd, with his back facing the keyboard, still playing his solo. Other times, he'd stand behind the keyboard, and reach his arms back over to the keys, basically playing upside down.

Cool, dude.

Look, no matter how hard you try -- and this guy was using every trick in the book -- it's impossible to make keyboard playing look cool. I know. I play keyboards.

Don't try to look cool, buddy. Grab a chair, sit down, and play. You're never going to surpass the cool look of guitar players, or drummers. And, it's not like he was pulling a Steve Wonder or Elton John, and singing as well.

After Jay and I talked about our respective bands in high school -- a story that included Jay's reference to his dad being in a battle of the bands in high school against a band that included two original members of Styx -- it would have been great for me to drop down a clip of my band for you, but I don't have any of the tapes. Yet.

Many years ago, the drummer in our band came to my house to borrow the cassettes that had all of our songs on it. He never returned, and I lost touch with him for the better part of almost 20 years.

But, through the magic of Facebook -- a site that really is like walking into a time machine -- I've been able to track him down, and he's looking for those tapes as I type this, so audio of my high school garage band (Tempus Fugit) could be hitting the 95.7 FM airwaves soon.

Consider yourself warned.