A little over fifteen years ago, an older incarnation of my school district’s education foundation recruited me to become a member of its board. I felt I had few of the connections to bring in donations, so I thought quickly and put together a rock band composed of teachers, and administrator, and parents. Because our district is in Green Brook (GB), New Jersey, we called ourselves the GeeBees. We played a handful of benefit concerts, raising about ten thousand dollars for our cause, and I felt I had made a reasonable contribution to the organization.

The administrator in that band was my good friend Armand Lamberti, principal of our elementary school. He is truly a remarkable musician and songwriter, having made his living at music before he entered education. He had several original songs that he had written, and I was keen to include some of them in our set list. One song in particular, “Thinking of Me” had a powerfully original, fresh sound about it. Armand had recorded it perhaps twenty years prior on a four-track recorder with only his guitar and two vocal tracks. We played it as a full band at the final benefit that we performed in 2008. His son Armando, also an outstanding musician and songwriter played bass in that incarnation of the band, called Core Standard. We never thought to record the song, and no video footage exists that I know of.

Some months later, on one of the many occasions that Armand and I broke bread, I remarked that “Thinking of Me” was my favorite song. He thanked me, saying that if I had a favorite song from his catalogue, that one might be a song he was proud of.

“No, Armand,” I said. “‘Thinking of Me’ is my favorite song, period.” Its composition, lyrics, and feeling made it appealing to my tastes, and I simply loved playing it on drums with our band.

He was moved by my remark, but fifteen years later, we still haven’t recorded the darn song.

At any rate, here is that little four-track recording he made all those decades ago. Enjoy.

Photo credit: Armand Lamberti

I am participating in the Two Writing Teachers March 2024 Slice of Life Challenge.