Kenny K

Kenny K... one of the City College crew... he played a really great bass... tall dude (6'3' or 6'4" at least) who, despite having a pretty deep voice, had the inflection of what later became known as the valley girl sound... the last syllables always trailed up an octave... everything came out sounding like a question... Hey Man... Gimme a joint? the last word turned it into a question... Anyway, Kenny was the first person who was heavy into Rod Stewart... back when the Faces just cut their first album... and Rod Stewart wasn't the only thing he had first... I remember Kenny and the duffel bag he got from Nam...

I remember the first time I drove home a pound. I went up to Kenny’s apartment in the Bronx. Walking in, I saw people hanging out in a smoky daze all over the place. Kenny brought out a duffel bag, dug in, and filled a bag with the stuff. He had an Ohaus Triple Beam Scale and when he hit 454 grams, he sealed it up and gave it to me. “Look around.” He said. “This stuff is much better than anything you’ve ever had.” And I looked around, and saw that everyone was dazed. “This stuff came back from Nam.” And “Don’t smoke too much at once.” And “It comes on long after you stop.” And “Don’t smoke it now because you have to drive home with it.”

So I paid Kenny, slipped out for the drive back to Astoria. I put the bag in my trunk and get into the car. The second I pull out of the spot, a police car comes down the block and is behind me. I’m freaking out. Oh my God… Oh my God… Please don’t bust me…

And, when I got to the corner, turned right, the cops kept on straight. Now all the way home, I’m thinking about this. If I don’t tell anyone that I have something in my car, what are the odds they could figure it out? Have I ever been stopped before? No. Why should I be stopped now? No real reason unless I screw up. In other words, I was in charge of what happened. It wasn’t about the cops, it was about me. Just be cool and this didn’t have to be dangerous…. After that, I stopped taking the stuff home on the subway.

I'm trying to remember... I think Kenny was the guy who got busted for stealing a loaf of bread out of a bag upstate somewhere... one of those hard to believe tales... Late at night (actually early in the morning) after a real bender... he's starved and nothing is open... cruising through an upstate hick town... sees a bakery truck drop off a huge bag of bread to a local deli spot... so he goes up and reaches into the bag for a roll... and had the misfortune to be eyeballed by a trooper... BAM... The guy's spends a day jail for stealing a fucking roll...

Anyhow, Kenny was a cool dude and the last I heard was at least 15 years ago... he was working at IBM...   

Update: Kenny is alive and well, playing bass in a couple of hot bands upstate and definitely in tune with the higher world.