There can be no doubt that for consistent crowd-pleasing performances, all I need is a semi-decent guitarist. Don’t ask why that is so hard to find, the answer is the persistent belief that each guitarist has his own “style” only lacking an equally hard to find backup band to launch him to stardom. He doesn’t want to learn “other people’s” material as it cramps his imaginary “style”. I scan Craigslist once a month for leads, but I don’t know why. This time I noticed others complaining about bass players, and I agree. Most so-called bassists do indeed play lead or retard riffs and cannot keep time. One comment that says plenty was that, “Afterall, bass is the easiest instrument to learn.” Spoken by a true guitar player, for sure. If you see bass from that perspective, then that statement is probably true. In another likelihood, whoever said that never tried drumming or singing. Rule #1: guitarists rarely make good bassists.
I participated in a lengthy discussion about music this morning. I see that many people do not understand how music has changed in the past five years. The way it is produced, distributed and listened to is not the same as 2004, and completely different than before that. While there will always be a radio market for rap and country, the success stories of yesteryear have no relevance today. Very few artists are discovered or make a fortune off big albums (on CD).
Even the way bands are formed and managed has evolved, the “cult personality” band is stone cold dead along with Jerry Garcia. There is still money to be made going on tour, but it is made by stadiums, bus companies and ticket sellers. These outfits encourage the one big show rather than a series of small ones, but as I said decades ago, there would be no piracy if bands worked a 40-hour week. Everyone seems to know the Monkees and Led Zep were instant hits, but they also seem to think this means anything.
It is the Thanksgiving aftermath, so we are back to simple food for a while. Today I made chicken soup, spaghetti and a supply of jambalaya (which Wallace has never had before). The brisk weather it was all day inside reading with the TV on. Surprising amount of movie reruns for the weekend. I am leery of movie marathons, it usually means somebody has died.
My Nokia cell phone died, I think I said that already. I went into the phone store next to the shoe shop to find a lady in dismay. She’d suffered a couple of bad employees and was, she felt, hopelessly behind in her books. I stayed a couple of hours and showed her the easy way to get back on track. During this time, much information changed hands about how these stores operate. I’m all ears. I know it cannot be that difficult but that is normally the situation where you can’t get a straight answer out of anyone. At any rate, she is renting an entire store when, in fact, all she needs is a small sales area. I’m thinking.
For a laff these days, there is always that Hollywood Ex-Wives show. Listening to these women rationalize is a joke in itself. “I’ve learned another side of forgiveness.” She means forgiving herself in the hopes the world will do likewise, a completely selfish motive. Their bleached hair and sunken eyes and plunging necklines show they have not learned a thing, that they would do the same over again if they could. It is noted that when forced to actually pay their own bills, they become waitresses and motel maids.
By early evening, I biked over to Jimbos to scout the situation. I don’t play on the Friday before or after the first of the month. But I noticed Rhonda did. Her Karaoke show went into that slot. Now I know she must get a healthy float from the bar, for the night was otherwise a money-loser. Don’t get me wrong, I make more playing music than anything else, but I also know what nights don’t pay when working for tips. Interesting, because although I don’t want to cause any hard feelings, hers is the exact type of outdated Karaoke show that I am targeting with my new act.
Last, over at Office Bunker I chanced to meet the pre-eminent web programmer in Florida, from South Beach Grafix. We had a conversation about what projects are most likely to succeed in the upcoming year. For people who had never met, it was astonishing how closely we agreed on reading the economy. More on this later, as we have also agreed to swap considerable amounts of gear each of us own but don’t use any more.
