“Well?” Roger leaned against his bass as “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” echoed weakly throughout the room.
“Yeah…” Syd rummaged through his plastic bag.
Roger leaned closer. “Well then?”
David and Richard were sitting near the mixing equipment, trying not to stare at him.
“Yeah, yeah.” Syd looked up. “A bit old sounding, but it works fine enough I think.”
Syd thought about old things like his favorite guitar and his dead father Arthur and The Hobbit. Syd thought about being old himself and considered what it was like to be dead. Probably rather drab, he assumed.
“Stay a little longer, we’re just wrapping this one up,” David said, bringing a guitar over.
“Yeah.” Syd stared at David. “Maybe I’ll add some parts, hand me that.”
David and the rest of the band froze.
Syd snapped his fingers. “Hand me that, please.”
David passed him the guitar. A Stratocaster, what a drag, Syd thought.
He strummed the opening chords to “Misery” by the Beatles. Everyone perked up.
“Oh. A bit out of tune, sorry ’bout that.” Syd began to fiddle with the pegs, tuning up the low E and tuning down the B and strumming irregularly for a few minutes. He stopped playing and cleared his throat. “Well, you’ll have to take it in for some work, the pegs are a little off-kilter, that’s all.”
He gave the guitar back to David, who accepted it with a silent nod. Richard and Roger were staring at the floor.
A tune started looping in Syd’s head. He was pretty sure it was Bob Dylan but then again maybe it was a blues song but oh wait actually it was his song “Bob Dylan Blues”. He scratched his chin. “Now that I think about it, this song could use more acoustics, maybe some fingerpicking, like Dylan.” He continued to rummage in his bag.
“So then…” David cleared his throat. “Coming to the wedding?”
“I’m not getting married.” Syd stared at the wall.
“My wedding.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Syd stood up. “Well, I’ll be off now, good work though, keep it up, lads.” He waved and carefully made his way out of the room.
“Fuck man…” Roger dropped his bass on the ground and sat on an amp. “God damn it.”
“God damn it is right.” Richard sat down next to him.
David stared at the empty doorway for a moment and then he turned back and joined them. They sat together for a few minutes, sharing between them the laughter and the tears and the bickering that came with these sorts of affairs. When they were finished they picked up their instruments, tuned them, and plugged them into the amplifiers.
Nick, who had let himself out of the room for the entirety of the visit, walked back inside when he heard the music and the four of them continued recording together.
⨀