Subway Musician Comic Strip

Every now and then I come across a painting or a poem about a subway musician. But how about a comic strip?

copyright Derek Lieu, “Kick in the Head” blog, printed with permission

Cartoon artist Derek Lieu says in his “Kick in the Head” blog in the post about this comic strip: “I’m thinking specifically of the old Chinese guy at Union Square playing what looks like an electric saxophone. I feel like whenever I see him he’s playing “The Godfather” theme. I know it’s a popular song in general so a lot of street performers play it, but do I always happen to be passing by when he’s playing it? How many times a day does he play it?”

I have seen this musician many times. I have passed by him when he WASN’T playing the theme from the Godfather… 🙂

Over the past year as I was playing in the subway, a friend of mine has passed by me about 8 times (different days), and each time I happened to be playing the Schubert ‘Ave Maria’. Now I only play this piece at the most twice in every 4 hours (unless somebody specifically asks me to play this piece for them, which happens occasionally). This was a joke between my friend and I, until finally one day we “broke the curse” – he happened by me and I was playing something else. So – stuff like this happens.

I remember years ago it seemed like EVERY subway busker was playing the ‘Godfather’ theme. I, too, was guilty of that (it actually sounds great on the musical saw). I haven’t played it in years, though. I should try to remember to play it next time I’m in the subway 🙂

I play a lot of unknown music in the subway (original music by Scott Munson – as you can hear here). To my joy, many people seem to enjoy original music these days. Though I doubt buskers will ever stop playing the ‘tried and true’ songs like ‘Over the Rainbow’ and, well, the ‘Godfather’ theme…