| Creative exposure by Andrew Riddle |
“Thank all four of you for coming. … We could take everyone’s name right now,” John McEnroe told a sparse crowd at City Center during lunchtime Tuesday, as his band launched into an appropriately heavy cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown.” (Actually about 40 people were on hand when he struck his first chord, eventually swelling to 100 or so, but who’s counting?)
“We’re a rock and roll band; we’re not a rap act,” said McEnroe, clad in a Rolling Stones T-shirt and slinging a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop for the special event. “We do it kinda old school, like the way I play tennis. We do mostly covers, so if you recognize any of the songs, that would be a good thing.”
Recommended Stories
Among those tunes chosen by Mac and his three old friends (who call themselves the Johnny Smyth Band): the Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes,” Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and three originals.
We even got to see some vintage Johnny Mac, as he kvetched about a moving truck that someone had indelicately parked in his sightline, seemingly disturbing his chi on the guitar.
“We usually get kicked off the stage in New York,” he said, marveling that they’d been playing for nearly an hour.
Mac’s appearance was in advance of his New York Sportimes’ match against the Washington Kastles later Tuesday night. He even tried to plug the match, but got stuck on the Washington team’s moniker.
“The Washington … I don’t even know what they’re called. The Kastles? Where’d they come up with that name?” (Long story, John.)
At an afternoon news conference, McEnroe confessed, “One reason I like playing music is I appreciate my tennis even more.”
But, said the oldest man in the World TeamTennis league this year, music doesn’t always calm the beast within him. He said when some of the league’s franchises play music between points, “you can’t hear yourself think sometimes.”
As for the future of his playing career, the 49-year-old said he’s “certainly going to take a good, hard look” after this year. “The body doesn’t bounce back like it used to.”
