How to instantly grab the attention of every 80s child in the room using nothing but a piano.
A few days ago I started learning to play “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” the theme song from Cheers, on piano. It’s tough sledding because all I have is a tutorial, I haven’t found any sheet music that gets it right.
Also because I don’t know how to play piano.
This one is really pushing me down memory lane.
Cheers was set in Boston. When I was in college I sold a business to a company in Boston. When we were in negotiations I was too young to rent a car so they had to shuttle me around town in a “limo”–in quotes because it was a nice sedan with a driver, not a big black stretch with a pool on top or anything like that.
On my first trip to Boston, the driver pointed out a bunch of landmarks when I told him it was my first time in town. The Boston Tea Party ship, the Big Dig, the Ted Williams Tunnel, and so forth. He loved his city. I offhandedly mentioned that I’d like to see the Cheers exterior someday. He couldn’t take me there because he was on a schedule, but he must have noted it and communicated it back to the company, because a few trips later they offered to take me into town for an evening at “Cheers” (still called the Bull & Finch Pub at that time.)
I declined the offer. It was late in the day and I was tired. I figured there would be other opportunities.
In all those trips to Boston, I never visited the Bull & Finch. Big stupid youthful mistake. The Bull & Finch no longer exists; now it’s called “Cheers Beacon Hill.” It’s the same place, but going to a place named after a pop culture phenomenon doesn’t have the same cachet as going to a place that led to a pop culture phenomenon. It’s lost treasure in a way.
Fun times to look back on, though.
This song has a more significant place in my life, too, but I’m going to wait to say anything about that until I’ve learned the whole thing.