did Buk play the piano?

[Composer]

Bukowski mentions playing the piano in a lot of poems (Chopin Bukowski, for example), but I always thought it was a metaphor for writing. I can't imagine where he would have learned or practiced. But in something I read recently - "Women"? - he says something about playing the piano literally.

Or did he just play the piano drunk like a percussion instrument?

 

[ROC]

He could not play the piano other than in the sense that we all can, i.e. - just striking the keys.
Don't ask me how I know this... I just do. ;)

 

[roni]

Or did he just play the piano drunk like a percussion instrument?

you got it!
(until his fingers ...)

 

[Petey]

Or did he just play the piano drunk like a percussion instrument?

http://bukowski.mikehobo.com/img/gallery/piano.jpg

 

[number6horse]

I dunno - it looks like he is forming a chord with his right hand and looking at sheet music in that photo.

 

[Composer]

Nah, it's just his index and middle fingers clawing at the keyboard.

 

[Ponder]

It looks like he is playing Bach.

 

[Rekrab]

He may have been an intuitive player. I knew a guy (very sick puppy) who was literally genius IQ. He had no musical training, never played, but once every few years, at a party, he would sit down and play brilliantly for hours, then go off and beat his girl friend. He seemed able to play intuitively, as a matter of mathematics. He could hear the relationships between the notes in any song, see the arrangement of black and white keys on the piano, do the math in his head, and get it dead right. So perhaps Bukowski could really play the thing like that. Or maybe he just banged on it.

 

[Composer]

Well, playing the piano is a recurring theme: "chopin Bukowski", "inverted love song", "this poet" (okay, that's not about playing it, exactly). Can anyone think of others?