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White to move and mate in two #610 — Fading rockers in obscure places [1]

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Date: 2025-01-05

Noel was my across-the-hall neighbour on the 3rd floor of a condo complex where I was renting a small apartment in Glen Burnie, MD. Noel was an ex-marine — a huge, burly Vietnam vet with long red hair — who you just wouldn't want to mess with. This was in 1978 when I was only 22 years old and fresh out of uni working for Westinghouse in a huge, sprawling factory with 10,000 people on the outskirts of Baltimore. Let's just say, in those days before car alarms, you wouldn't want to forget where you parked your car. Noel and I had common ground in a few areas: drinking, blues/jazz/rock music, and playing 8-ball. This is the tale of one of our musical exploits. There may be other tales.

So one summer afternoon after work we're tooling around in the middle of nowhere in my old Buick LeSabre when we spot a sign outside a huge, isolated bar. It said: "The Kid Band with special guests Iron Butterfly". I exclaimed “WTAF??”, slammed on the brakes and pulled into the vacant car park. We went inside, ordered a few beers and chatted with the barmaid, and she said they were on tonight, and they were expecting it to be busy so we should buy tickets. Now... the Kid Band were just some popular local cover band, but Iron Butterfly were a one-hit wonder from the late 60's with In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968). Clocking in at 17+ minutes, it featured what was up to then probably the longest drum solo of any mainstream rock song. Thus only late night FM stations would play it in its entirety, but I had it on vinyl. Curious but skeptical, we kinda reluctantly bought tickets and said "See ya later".

Later that evening the Kid Band turned out to be pretty good for a cover band, and it was an appropriate moniker because the place was jam-full of kids (which on reflection included moi since 21 was the drinking age there), Noel being one of the oldest people in the joint. They played seemingly forever, though, and we feared Iron Butterfly might be a no-show. But then eventually five dudes with leather jackets strutted in like they owned the place, and I instantly recognised their lead guitarist, one Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt. By this time he had replaced Butterfly's original guitarist, Erik Brann. And yeah, Rhino had a huge, shiny, pale protuberance in the place where his nose should have been. They soon took over from the Kid Band, and about a half hour in Rhino says "I suppose you want us to play In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida". We cheered from the back, and all the kids just turned around and stared at us. Anyway, they launched into it and it was awesome to hear live. I recall that partway through, Rhino broke a string. But he had the whole drum solo during which to replace it before they finished off the song. Even the kids cheered when it was all over. Ah, rock nostalgia.



And now, on to tonight's puzzle. Below are links to an on-line board to help you work the puzzle, and the solution. But don't peek at the answer until you've made an honest attempt to solve the puzzle, or you'll spoil the fun!

On-line board

Solution

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