Wow cool… I asked my Dad if he’d heard of Western Union and he had. That’s actually a good thing – this is the guy that turned me on to Black Sabbath and the Stones, so he’s a pretty hip frood.
Anyways, here’s my dilemma: I love performing, but I’m only of mediocre talent at best. I don’t have time to practice as much as I should, and I am too comfortable in my job to toss it all and throw myself into music. How does someone in my position get into a band and get onstage?
Yep one has to be totally immersed in the music in order to drege up a hit record. However,if you just want to play for the sake of being in a band, your going to have to get in or form one. Put an ad in the newspaper stating your intentions so that you can get together with people who have the same musical goals as you do. Go to the local music store and put your number on the bulletin board. Once you get some other guys who have the same musical ambitions as yourself, locate a place to practice, set up shop and get after it. Then audition everywhere anyone will let you. Sooner or later somebody is going to need a band.
Oh and by the way don’t forget this…musicians are among the most conceited self-centered people on earth.
I’ve always wondered something about you famous people.
Did you have a hard time making and keeping friendships/relationships?Did you ever find yourself writing off people as potential friends/whatever because you felt they were only interested in you because you were famous?Or wanted a free ride?
Seems like it can/could be a rather lonely life.What was your experience with this?
BTW, I love your song and I’m tickled to know that I post on the same board as The Famous Aha.
You are my ‘brush with greatness’.
THanks for your reply Mike, you’re a real cool guy, and I’d love to get my hands on a hot-off-the-presses autographed Biography! <Wink, wink, nudge, nudgE>
All kiding aside, let us know when that work of art is ready!
When you are in the postion of having even a little notoriety you meet many many shallow people. It’s hard to except people at face value. The problem is, that you never meet a stranger. Someone is always saying…“Hey take this, or smoke this, or eat this.” They want to be able to say “hey I gave drugs to someone famous”.
I came out of the whole thing a divorced man… er well boy mostly. I just couldn’t resist the temptations that were out there.
Chiefscott: sed
No, never ran across one of my favorite groups of all times.
GaWd: You got it pal just drop me an email from time to time and I will keep you posted on the book!
Baglady:
No mam I have not tried to see if the gold record would play as it is currently encased in a glass frame…but the next time I get drunk I may just try it.
Do I still fit in the outfits I played in on stage? Well let’s put it this way. I went from a size 28 waist to a 34 skipping all sizes in between. But I am still devilishly handsome.
I’m kinda curious about this. At exactly which point did you realize you had made the big time? I’m sure the buildup between your garage and those sold-out arenas was gradual, but when was the point when you suddenly sat up and thought “Holy shit, we’re famous!”, if there was one?
Dear ARS
I read on arecord cover of Caravan that they all lived in army surplus tents in the summer and drank herbal tea and lived in their tents with their bass. All of them.Did you ever do that?
NTG really glad you asked that. It jarred my memory.
We worked hard in clubs for two years before we had any success. After a serveral of flop releases, we finally wrote and released a tune called I See The Light. Our record company/manager leased out national distribution on the record to Hanna Barbera ( the cartoon people).
Meantime we were continuing to work for clubs and colleges around the area ( Steven F Austin… University of Texas etc for frat dances. All of a sudden people began to request “I See The Light” at dances. I wondered where the hell they had heard it before. Little did I know most stations in Texas had gone on the record just a few days before. The next day I looked at Billboard magazine and our song was in the top twenty in the nation. It was still just on paper for me at the period. Then a day or two later, Hanna Barbera requested that we come to Hollywood and take pictures for a forth coming album. We left for Hollywood in the fall of 1965 and when we arrived at the Continental Hotel on Sunset Blvd there were groupies standing there to meet us.
I said to myself…ummmm we’re in Hollywood, we riding in a limo, there are groupies here to meet us and we have a record in the top 20. HEY!!! Heyyyyyyyy
My husband is a musician. A really, really good musician. He wants to be sort-of famous. Not HUGE, but well-known. He’s a blues guitar player.
Things in the industry have changed so much in the (mumblemumble) years since you were active within it. What’s the best way to get your stuff out there now? He’s in a band, but they’ve lost their drive. He’s got some recording equipment in the basement. He fools with it a lot, and he’s getting pretty good with it.
Does he want to be known for his studio playing? Like ie Larry Carlton?
Either way he has half the battle won…that is the recording equipment. Now he needs some original material. Does he write original songs? If not, does he just want to be known as a guitar player? If he has original songs then he should lay them down in the studio and then he needs to get the ear of a record company. Here’s how I did it after the break up of my first group The Five Americans. I layed down my original songs then went to LA and just walked in the door of every record company I could find. Granted I had a track record to help me out but I still had to pound the pavement. Finally Russ Reagan at universal ( UNI records) agreed to listen. I made a deal for 20,000 dollars up front. Even though the album I had recorded didn’t sell much it was a good deal for me.
Sorry, unless he knows someone in the business… that is the way to do it. MAINLY you got to get something on tape…then start getting people’s attention. Even if you don’t know someone important in the business they might know of someone who knows someone. Make sure everybody hears it. If he loves the music business then don’t ever give up and if it’s good enough somebody will listen to it sooner or later. Meantime don’t quit your day job.
I hope this helps a little, but it’s been a while since I have been out on the open market peddling songs.
Sort of. He’s a front man, really. But he has a very deep admiration of the side guys/studio guys that make everyone else sound good. Achieving a level of respect and or/fame among other musicians would probably make him quite satisfied.
He doesn’t have much original stuff at all. He wants to, but he’s been busy raising our kids. I keep telling him that whenever he wants to, just tell me, and he can disappear in to the basement for a while & do his thing.
Thanks, Aging Rock Star Guy! You’re one of my favorite posters, too!
…wow…an aging rock star replied to my post…I’ll never wash my monitor again!..
When we first arrived in Dallas to try and get a gig in nightclubs we rented an apartment. Well I did. Then the other 4 promptly moved in with me. So there we were, 5 people living in a one bedroom apartment. We pretty much wrecked the place because we weren’t drinking herbal tea we were drinking seagram 7 and coke. A lot of it. Of course we were kicked out of there in short order but not before we found gainful employment in a lovely little dive called “The Pirates Nook.”
Dear aha (aging rock star of the “Teeming Millions”):
Hey, how’s it going?
What instrument did/do you play?
How did your band function as a unit? Did everyone get along? When it came to songwriting, was it a group or individual thing?
I’ve played guitar for many years and while I do projects here and there i’m not currently in a band. I have my own unique style and write/compose all my own stuff. I guess what sets me apart from most guitarists is my technical ability (I can improvise with the likes of technical gods like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Eric Johnson). I am a little of a show off! Anyways, The past couple of years I have written volumes of music which few have heard. Do you think putting my songs on the world wide web is a good way to gain exposure?
Lead guitar…mostly a gibson 330 sunburst through a german made vox amp.
Before we were through we were as one.
Only two serious fist fights in 7-8 years.
There were three writers. The other guitar player and our keyboardist. We collaborated on most all the songs. But any one of us might come up with a seed for a song. I say write, but we mostly just made stuff up. I came up with the idea for Western Union but the other two guys contributed in a huge way. As I recall I wrote ( made up) the guitar riff and melody and the rhythm gutarist came up with most of the lyrics while the keyboardist put in the little de de de sound that was the signature of the song.
You sound like a talented guy. keep it up and something good will happen.
In 1964 when we got together in college, we decided to call ourselves The Mutineers. We thought it sounded british and daring. After we sign up with our manager he decided that in order to combat the british tide at the time that we would be called The Five Americans
As a band we really enjoyed Bo Diddley and tried to emulate him in our early gigs.
I really liked the Lovin spoonful and the Turtles. But I have to admit that when I put on that Meet The Beatles album for the first time I was swept away.
I saw a Western Union sign in Seattle washington while on tour and we came up with the idea of writing a dear john song… only the girl uses Western Union to write instead of a letter.
P.S.:
I was first attracted to the SD site and enjoyed reading Cecil’s column etc…then I saw that the site had a message board so I thought I would try it out. Wasn’t long before I was hooked.
