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Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

In the morning my head hurt from drinking too much without realizing it. But the bigger discomfort in my head was the feeling I’d discovered my entire worldview was skewed. Now that it had skewed another direction, it was like walking off balance all the time.

Let me see if I have it right. Buddhism, the martial arts, spiritual enlightenment, musical modes, most of the ancestors of the instruments we play, the highest form of improvisational music and the classical tradition, all came from India? How could it be I’d never even given the entire country more than a passing thought?

Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

Our last night at Budokan I got around to asking our translator about the magazine thing. He was a kind of skinny, nervous guy with glasses, who I would have described as nerdy in America, but in Japan I think was normal. His nickname was Rocky. I did ask for his Japanese name and he assured me I should call him Rocky. He said he would ask around about the magazines and would get me some as a souvenir if he could find them.

While talking to Waldo after soundcheck that day I found out there were three Australian dates at the end of the tour. He was futzing around with the daybook and I asked him, “Hey, Wald’, did you book me a flight back to L.A. at the end or to Boston?”

He looked up with that long-suffering look of his. “L.A. You want to go somewhere from there, you’re on your own. Besides, flying all the way from Sydney to Boston would be a bitch and a half.”

Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

What book is it that has that “best of times, worst of times” line? I hope it’s a good one because I’m going to rip it off and it’s best to steal from the best. It was the worst show ever and the best show ever.

I was not ready to go out there and give a polished performance of most of the material. That might have been fine in, I don’t know, a theater in San Francisco, where you can jazz it up. But for Japan? I was under the impression they liked their concerts technically clean and hewing close to the recorded album. So I was nervous as hell when the crowd was so quiet during the first song.