by Hunter Gordon, Newtown, PA

It was the summer of 1984 (I think) and WMMR announced they would have a random drawing to win Eric Clapton’s guitar. All you had to do was submit your name and information on a 3×5 card. I was determined to get that guitar, to be able to say that I owned a guitar once held, played, brought to life by the great Slowhand. 

I called WMMR and asked if you could send in more than one entry. (Yes) Could you type it instead of handwriting it? (Yes) Did it have to be exactly 3×5? (No, but stiff paper of about that size.) I bought a pack of stiff paper, went home to my little home computer with a dot-matrix printer, and over a few days, printed up 850 entries for myself. I carried them down to the radio station on Rittenhouse Square and somewhat embarrassingly handed them to the receptionist. (I think that was the time I chatted with Pierre Robert as he left to get a haircut — just a snip! — for a charity event.) 

The day of the drawing arrived! I was glued to the radio in a little file room office where I had a transistor radio. I was confident that my barrage of entries would give me an excellent chance of being able to feel the frets once played by Clapton. As the drawing began, they announced two, small, previously unannounced revisions to the contest:

1) It wasn’t really Eric Clapton’s guitar. It was a guitar from a brand new guitar line endorsed by Clapton. (Ugh! Well, it’s still probably a pretty nice guitar - though not the Fender “Blackie” issued in 1988.)

2) They would also give away tickets to the upcoming Eric Clapton concert at the Spectrum, some in the 9th row, some in the 3rd row. And they would draw for those FIRST.

My heart sank. I was now totally confident that I would win seats in the 9th row at the Spectrum. And I did, rather quickly. And as they were pulling out winners for other seats, they kept saying, “And the next winner is. oh, you can only win once. Let’s pick another. oops, again a previous winner, sorry.” I listened somewhat dejectedly as they picked what I was sure were my duplicates, again and again. 

Well, disappointment aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the concert, and felt like royalty sitting so close to a legend (second-tier royalty, like Fergie — not originally part of the family, now divorced and doing commercials). Before the show started I turned to the person sitting next to me and said something like, “Isn’t it incredible that we won such great seats?” The guy responded, “I didn’t win them. My friend did. And he didn’t want them. So he gave them to me” He left about half way through the show. (Oh well. Some people just don’t recognize talent.)

But I still have a guitar pick from that concert. It reminds me of how a legendary musician’s skill and artistic accomplishments can generate incredible enthusiasm in their fans. And I still hold great enthusiasm for music of all sorts, and the talented musicians who create it, many of whom are definitely not legends. (Yet.)