BASSMAN 5 - Finale.

 Pastor Raebrn filled Osted's head with a lot of information about music. He also talked about Osted's chances of salvation.

"The Methodists have got
it all wrong and, as for the
Catholics, don't even start
me off!"

He told Osted a lot about Paganini and his caprices, but very little about the double bass. 

Chief Inspector Betterson itched to get out into the field, to get some results. Raebrn's music rants were quite long, whereas Osted was a man of action.

In the local community there were guys everywhere, looking sinister and wearing the same jacket.

Certainly local people felt intimidated, as they stood around in supermarkets and the mall where you would expect to see security guards. None of them had learnt to smile. I guess they don't teach you that at gang school. Maybe happiness works at a different level when you're a larrikin imbecile?

Neil Senning was out and about as usual. His practice was up to date and now he was shopping. He usually visited the same Countitifwegetitright supermarket, but he liked to move around a bit so that no one could see how many Cleanskins he was actually consuming in a week. On this occasion he was about seven kilometres from home. Then he spotted a familiar face.

The guy with one good eye was standing next to a mean looking guy with a beard.

Then he spotted another mean looking guy wearing a Larakin Imbeciles jacket and needing a haircut.

He could also see another group of gang members just outside the store - a lot of eyes to poke out at more than 480 beats per minute! Not really a realistic way out of this situation.

Then he noticed two people looking on that he didn't know.

The guy wearing the lipstick seemed to be talking nonstop.

He paid for his groceries and moved towards the door. The circle between people seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. He'd played enough bass solos in different situations to know that this was going to get interesting. Hey, like in life, people had different tastes in music.

Neil thought about all the music that had inspired him so far in life. Without praying, which wasn't his thing, he decided to spend these moments,which could be his last, thinking about the people who had inspired him, even at the age of seventy, to keep playing. A contented feeling came over him.

Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen

Ron Carter

Ray Brown

Paul Chambers

Suddenly the whole thing made sense!

The spirit of these great players was much stronger than the brutality of a group of imbeciles.

It was like they all started playing a strong walking line together and the strength of being a thug was lost.

I hope all you readers can find the connection.

It might save some of you.