Livename

Allison Washington
1 min readJun 27, 2016

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We were jamming at my house. Dave was on guitar, and he began picking out the opening to Elvis Costello’s Alison. I picked it up on bass. Charlie — the sweetest man it has ever been my pleasure to know — kicked in on the drums, and began to sing.

It was 1988, and I had recently come out as a trans woman. I was just beginning transition and hadn’t yet settled on my new name.

I was facing the drums, as a bassist will do. Charlie locked eyes with me.

Alison, I know this world is killing you.
Oh, Alison, my aim is true.

And that was that.

This is #1 in the Transitional Moments series.
#2:
Transitional Moment

I make a spare living doing this. You can support my work and get draft previews and my frequent ‘Letters Home’ for less than the cost of a coffee.

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