Heavy Metal Accordion

Every boy has a best friend in his youth.

In 1959 I was lucky enough to have two. My older brother and a neighbor Chaney. We were in the same year at Pinewood Elementary in Falmouth Maine. We did almost everything together. Our street ended at a bluff overlooking Portland harbor. We swam in the shallow waters beyond the marsh grass.

The two of us crawled under the fence into a strawberry field and ate summer fruit on our backs. The farmer caught us and my father paid him for four quarts. Cheney and I were in love with the same girl. Kathy Burns. She was in love with Chaney. He played the accordion. I had no musical skills, even though my mother was famed for her voice. She could silence the cathedral choir with her singing.

Chaney was a protege on the squeezebox. He played SINK THE BISMARCK and DAVY CROCKETT as well as the standard songs that he had learned from his teacher. YELLOW BIRD and MACK THE KNIFE. I envied his virtuosity as well as Kathy's admiration. She had a birthday party to which I was not invited. Chaney brought me a piece of chocolate cake and told me how he had kissed Cathy in her basement. The cake tasted like chalk, but congratulated Chaney on his success. We were best friends.

When my family moved south from Maine to a suburb south of Boston in 1960, Chaney and I vowed never to go swimming unless we were together. His parents had a place on Lake Sebago. That summer was warm in New England. One day in August my mother received a phone call from Chaney's mother. I was told to sit in our station wagon. After a few minutes my mother exited from our split-level house and said, "Chaney drowned this morning."

I sat in the car for a long time, staring at the silhouette of Great Blue Hill.

Chaney was gone.

He had broken our vow, but so had I at Nantasket Beach. One of us paid the price.

Since that sad day every time I see an accordion I think of Chaney and any time I see a street musician with an accordion I ask them to play SINK THE BISMARCK. None of them know the tune and I request IN-DA-GADDA-DA-VITA. No one knows that 60s hit either, however I'm sure that Chaney would have liked Iron Butterfly.

After all we were best friends.

To hear some heavy metal accordion please go to the following URL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mm3VS0g6MU