A lot of people don't understand what a club DJ does. There are a lot of club DJ's who don't either. They play the music they like, in today's day and age on a laptop computer with a DJ software program instead of records or CD's, and they set up the queue so they don't have to do much. They don't like requests for special songs because that means they have to actually work a little.
What a successful DJ plays depends mostly upon his crowd. People tend to like the music they grew up with. If I'm playing for a crowd of older people, say at a retirement party or a wedding anniversary, I'll be playing music from the era of most of the attendees. I'll play requests for newer music as well, but mostly I'll stay with the older stuff. If I'm playing for a crowd of twenty-somethings in a club, I'll be playing the latest hip-hop and pop music. As a result, I have a pretty extensive library of music.
Country/western clubs are a different breed all their own. Most country/western clubs have at least a small dance floor for the line dancers and slow dancers. The music I play in those clubs ranges from old 50's country/western to modern pop and everything in between. Most will be music that somebody choreographed a line dance to, hence the wide range. About every fourth song, I'll play something slow. Most pretend cowboys don't line dance, but they do like a nice soft woman pressed up against them.
That Saturday night in August, 2009, I was playing music for The Silver Stetson, a country/western bar that had hired me after they fired the last DJ. He'd been letting his laptop play the music while he was busy entertaining some of the young girls in a back room of the bar. One of the girls claimed he'd gone farther than she wanted and threatened to sue the bar, so the owners rid themselves of Troy.
The Silver Stetson was a pretty upscale club as country/western bars go. They had an actual dress code -- guys had to wear shirts, and couldn't wear backwards ball caps, spurs, or gangster-style clothing. The dress code for girls was pretty loose and designed to let them dress in a way that would attract guys to the club. Basically, they couldn't be showing bare nipples and if they wore a dress or really short shorts, they had to have on panties of some sort. The club checked ID's and had bouncers walking the floor to stop any disagreements before they turned into fights. It was a safe place to kick back, have a few beers and enjoy the music and the dancers.
It was about one in the morning when she walked up to my DJ booth. That wouldn't normally have been unusual. Girls always came up to my booth to request a favorite song. There were a few I think just came up to talk to me. I'm no prize catch and I was old enough to be a father to most of them, but they'd come up, smile seductively and flirt for a while before requesting their song. It was fun to play along, but they were way too young for me. I was tempted by a couple, but I didn't want to end up like Troy so I never indulged those fantasies.
This was no girl by a long shot, and I wondered why she was even in The Silver Stetson. Judging by the lines in her face, she'd left her forties behind by several years. We did get some older people at The Silver Stetson, but they came early and left about ten before the younger crowd finally got there.
She was a blonde that had probably caught a lot of eyes when she was younger. She was still pretty, but with that mature beauty that comes with age rather than the fresh beauty of youth. Her body, what I could make out of it under her check shirt and snug jeans looked the same. She had nice breasts, waist maybe a little thicker than a young girl's but not fat, and wide, sensuous hips.
When she smiled up at me, her eyes sort of sparkled a little, or maybe that was the lights from the dance floor. All I know is her face was captivating when she smiled.
"Hi", she said. "Would you have 'Proud Mary' up there somewhere, the Creedence Clearwater Revival one?"
As a matter of fact, I did. Like I said before, people usually like the music they grew up with, and in the past I'd done a lot of high school reunions, Legion Halls, and other venues where people growing up in the sixties were the bulk of the crowd. I kept some of the sixties and seventies songs just for them. CCR was always a favorite band, so I had several of their albums.
"I think I might have. Give me a minute to find it."
She kept smiling while I searched my song library. I know she was smiling because I kept looking at her and that made my search take longer. Finally, I found it and added it to the queue.
"Found it. It'll play once this song finishes."
"Thanks", she said, and then walked back to a table. I'd been right about her hips. Each step was pure seduction. I was surprised she was sitting alone. In my experience, most women who looked as good as she did would be with a guy or at least with another group of women. I didn't see any guys walking up to talk either, but that would have been because of her age. Most of our guys, even the ones in their thirties and forties, are looking for young girls and the younger the better for some reason.
When "Proud Mary" began to play over the speakers, the three girls on the floor who'd been line dancing looked at each other, shrugged, and then huddled for a second to decide if they could dance to it. I had to smile. I'd bet none of them had been even thought about, let alone born when CCR recorded it. They did find a dance that worked though, and were soon strutting their stuff. I looked over at the woman who'd requested it. She was sitting on her stool, but her foot was tapping away and she was mouthing the words.
I got a bunch of requests about then and didn't have a chance to do much except find music and queue it up. When I finally was able to look over at her table, she was gone.
The next Saturday night I spotted her when she came in. It was about midnight and a few tables were starting to clear so she was able to find a vacant one. Her table that night was a little closer to my booth, and when she saw me looking at her, she smiled that smile and waved.
Sally, one of the waitresses, hustled over to take her drink order. They talked for a while after Sally brought her drink.
Part of a DJ's job is to stay sober, so The Silver Stetson furnished me with all the club soda I wanted. Sally was pretty good about watching my glass and bringing me a fresh one when that one got low. About ten minutes later, she sat a new glass in front of me and then giggled.
"You have an admirer. Did you know that?"
"No, I guess not. Who is it?"
"She's that older woman at the table over there. She wanted to know your name and some other stuff."
I turned away to start the next queued song, then turned back to Sally.
"What'd you tell her?"
"I told her you're Jerry and you're not married. I don't know how old you are, so I guessed at about forty."
"I'm forty-three, so you were close. Did she ask anything else?"
"Nope, but I think she has a thing for you though."
"Why would you think that?"
"Well, she got this look on her face when she asked me. You probably wouldn't have seen it, but another woman would. She definitely likes you."
I grinned.
"So, does that mean you're jealous?"
Sally grinned back.
"Oh, hell no. I have enough to take care of with Billy. I don't need two men. Besides, I'm twenty-six. You're almost old enough to be my dad. Might be fun, but it wouldn't feel right."
It was about one again when the woman walked up to my booth. She smiled that captivating smile and asked if I had "Bad Moon Rising", by CCR.
Three minutes later, she was sitting at her table tapping her foot as the music flowed from the speakers.
By two, all the dancers had left and the rest of the crowd was just talking. I knew the subject of all the conversations. Each guy was trying to convince the girl he was with to go home with him or take him to her place. Usually he struck out and went back to the bar for another beer.
I'd played that game at one time myself. After a while, I learned that being half-drunk didn't exactly win me points with sober women. When I started staying sober, I figured out the half-drunk girls were easier, but a half-drunk girl sometimes went to sleep on me before we could do anything, so that didn't lead anywhere either. That's when I started my DJ business as a weekend job.
