SEX, DRUGS, AND ROCK & ROLL, RIGHT?
Music has always been a big part of my life. Now before you read too much into that, let me tell you what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean I grew up in a home filled with musicians, or even music. No one in my family played an instrument, except perhaps my sister, who picked up the guitar after she went off to college during the Great Folk Scare of the 60's. But my Sister, and her guitar, never really returned home, so that had nothing to do with my musical experiences. Her input came many years later.
No, my relationship with music came in the popular form, what was on the radio and what my friends were listening to in those days. Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, YES!, The Loving Spoonful, Chicago, Bob Dylan, and also those of the Folk ilk, like The Kingston Trio, The Smother's Brothers, The Mommas and the Poppas, and what was not yet known as Americana. There was a lot of 'stuff' in there including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and all those groups that came along with them. Later there was The Band, Orleans, and those types of sounds. Somewhere around the time I was around 19 years old, I was out in Colorado and heard the name 'Willie Nelson' for the first time and when I got home I checked him out. That led to Bob Wills, Asleep at the Wheel, Patsy Kline, and later something called Bluegrass. Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt, and some guy they called Doc Watson. I had no real access to live music in those days growing up in an area where anything live, outside of a bar, was pretty pricy and disconnected from any real association with true life. Big stadium gigs with travel and parking issues which were not my bag. I never was one for the big crowds. In other words, it was pretty sterile to my sensibilities. It was 'entertainment', and I felt no real connection to the performers, or even the music, except to say that it was 'cool' or that it 'sucked'.
But I can tell you, that Scruggs guy, he had some pretty catchy stuff with that 5 string banjo. Eventually, I went out and bought his book "Earl Scruggs and the 5 String Banjo". It looked like something I might be able to mess with, so I rented a banjo. A very cheap, Bakelite open back job that sounded terrible, but it was the only one available to rent on all of Long Island.. I tried working from the book which was good, but I needed somebody to help me understand what it should look and sound like. I found an instructor (also, the only one I could find) and paid him $50 a lesson (one per week). I won't go into details, but he was terrible. Here, 30 years later, I know I should have cut it off after the first lesson, but he milked me for a few months before I gave up. Somewhere in there I had bought a better resonator banjo which I still have. I will finish this part of the story at another time, you have enough for now. The point I was aiming at was that I worked my way up on the music appreciation ladder pretty much on my own and it grew over the years. I demonstrated to myself, as well as anyone in earshot, that I had no skill at creating music. Got that? OK, lets move on....
There were points during my learning curve that I thought, 'Boy, these guys that make this music have it made. They play the music they love and get paid, lots of money, to do it. That has to be an easy and fun life. Not a care in the world do they have. Life is fun for them."
Fast forward about 30 years. Now I am in a place where I know some of the very folks who made that music back in the 60's and 70's and beyond, that shaped my mind. I am not, by any means, close friends with these folks in most cases, but I know a few and have had the chance to hang out a little and chat. Mostly, I am smart enough now to shut up and listen when they speak. If I am really quiet and unobtrusive, they ignore me and open up freely. When that happens, I get to hear conversation about their real lives, some of their day to day worries, some of the bumps in the road they have endured in the years gone by, or even last week. After a few such nights spent listening, and more than a few nights watching, I begin to learn that there is a bit more to this music business than the fun part.
I have done a lot of menial and distasteful jobs in my life. In many of those jobs I have had to work damned hard all day, only to come home, get cleaned up, eat dinner, go to bed, and do it all again the next day. Day after day, month after month, year after year. No change, same deal every day, and your boss is almost always a jerk, or worse. That’s my perspective on ‘earning a living’.
These days, putting together in my mind what a musician's life is like, it is not far from that. Playing all night, loading the gear back up, driving to the next gig, getting some sleep, sound check in the afternoon after setting up. Playing all night, packing up, and doing it all over again. Covering many thousands of miles every year to pay the rent and buy food. Being home for short periods and knowing you are not making any money when you do that. Having no health insurance or retirement plan, and yet people are constantly asking you to play for free to support this charity or that group, etc. On top of all this, you have to put in years of study and practice before you can even learn if you are good enough to make the cut and get your first jobs.
As hard as I have worked in my life, I don't know if I could work that hard. I used to think they had it 'made'. But now I think they made what they have, and they fight every day and with every gig to keep it.
These days I don’t think of musicians as having it easy and enjoying a care free life of fun and travel. In fact, I view their profession as one the hardest jobs to attain and maintain success (i.e. buying food and paying the rent) that one could chose. Anybody that can make their living from their music impresses the hell out of me. Maybe you have never thought about it, but maybe you will now. And if you do, maybe you will throw a couple of extra bucks in the tip jar the next time you hear some live music or see a street musician. Maybe you will take a moment after a gig and tell the musician how their music impressed you. That is, after all, just one reason they do it. They need you as much as you need them. Perhaps more. Theirs is not a profession for the weak at heart, the soft of mind, or of weak commitment. Their profession is a never ending pursuit of the barely obtainable. I have yet to meet a real musician who doesn't love the music with all their fiber. No, they may not love the performing and certainly not the travel, although some do, but the music they can make, and the others they can play with to create new sounds, now that is why they do it. The rest of us are just lucky enough to get to hear it now and then.
Think about that. You might just get a little more out of the music.
Keep the beat,
Tom
