Lilly played guitar and sang in a band called Elves Are Svelte. She was also a dancer. I came to know her through both her music and her dancing. Her band did shows on a regular basis at Studsy’s laundromat and bar (see chapter 1). Being the odd man out, my performances there were generally ignored and poorly attended. Elves Are Svelte, on the other hand, had a loyal following and were very much entrenched in the Indie scene. I never developed a great love for Indie Music or for Studsy’s but I occasionally dropped by to have a drink and take a picture or two.
The first time I saw Lilly was in the Grunt Bar (see chapter 1), down the street from Studsy’s. I was having an early afternoon drink when she walked in to pick up a lunch carry-out order. Shortly after this, I saw her band perform. They didn’t leave much of an impression on me but that doesn’t mean much since the lure of most Indie performers has a tendency to elude me. I can’t recall talking to her on either of these two occasions.
Music was Lilly’s love but she paid the bills by dancing. She worked at a gentlemen’s club called The Tiger’s Paw in Newport, Kentucky. I went in there one day to admire the ambience and, if memory serves, that’s where we first met. She walked up to me because she recognized me from Studsy’s. I remember buying her a drink but my recollection of our conversation is gone. Considering we started seeing each other after this chance meeting, I presume it went well enough.
The Tiger’s Paw Lounge
Following Lilly’s life as she went from strip club to Indie bar to her absolute wreck of an apartment was like watching a drowning in slow motion. Looking back, I must have been so numbed from prior experiences that I didn’t really care anymore. As with most Indie musicians, her bandmates were aloof and bewilderingly self-important. Her fellow dancers and other employees at the Tiger Paw were much easier to be around. One fellow, in particular, was very memorable. He called himself Johnny Thunder and he acted as DJ and bouncer at the club as well as being charged with getting the girls rounded up and ready for the show. His resumé was extensive. He was a body builder, a member of the Iron Horsemen Biker Gang, he sang at a local bar, claimed to have had a minor hit song in the 1960s and he also bagged groceries at a local supermarket to supplement his income. It is Johnny’s watch that I’m wearing on the cover shot of my Under Whip And Chain CD.
Despite evidence to the contrary, there was something about him that engendered trust. He never came off as the type of person who would knowingly lie about anything. He was Old World America through and through. I recall driving Lilly to the Tiger’s Paw once and sitting at the bar for a while. She had gone into the dressing room and Johnny was getting the songs ready for the dancers. He walked up to me at the bar and started talking. Mentioning Lilly in passing, he said that she wasn’t like a lot of the other girls; that she was “good people.” I got the feeling he meant what he said.
I’d been seeing Lilly for a month or so and I decided to end it. Johnny pegged her pretty well. Appearances aside, she had a good nature, perhaps good to a fault. Her life was a disaster but much of it was not of her doing. Much of it, however, was and there didn’t seem to be much point in carrying on with the relationship. I drove to her place with the intention of calling it quits. My reasons were many, the primary one being what she did to earn a living. As it turned out, when I got there she told me she had quit her job. She timed it perfectly. It’s as if she anticipated what I was going to say.
Regardless of my own misgivings, we continued to see each other. I think much of the reason for this was her unwavering tolerance of my many shortcomings. Within a few months we were expecting our first child. Her band eventually broke up. A year or two passed and after we had our second child, I decided it might be a good time to get married. As of this writing, that was 13 years ago.
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© 2013 by Maurice Mattei
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