Before I Get Old; Music B'Ness

["Mark R. Leaman" <mleaman@sccoast.net>]

> Dave Marsh's "Before I get Old" is probably the best Who biography.
> (in my opinion)

Jeremy:

I agree, but we're in the minority...I hope you realize that.

> They'd have to have his permission, though.

Keets:

Not really. Not unless they called themselves The Who. For that matter,
they could call themselves Two From The Who or something like that.

> RD didn't haul those around, though, did he?  Weren't the classical 
> musicians provided locally (although they still have to be paid)?

I thought they traveled, but I don't know for sure.

> Somehow I 
> don't think making money was Roger's major goal on the tour.  It seemed
sort 
> of recreational.

Recreation is a fine thing, and making money's not so bad either, and doing
both is the best of all (I know because that's what I do). Losing money, on
the other hand...it ain't too recreational. All the fun goes out of it, if
you know what I mean.

> you're just planning to go around playing some music that maybe nobody
will 
> like very much, you'd better share the costs.

I think the point still remains: they could go out and do it, and make
enough.

> Yeah, but that's less fun.

I'd have much rather seen that. In fact, I didn't go to see the orchestral
Daltrey. I have my standards, you know.

> It looks like people share their cds around, too--trade, tape, swap, buy
and 
> sell.  Whatever, it's not something the record companies are pleased
with.

Making billions of dollars a year IS such a terrible thing, isn't it?

> My question was (I think), about how Tom Petty's situation didn't happen 
> overnight.  You'd figure his original contract might have had an option
for 
> extensions, or he might have signed a new one.  Whichever, he's still
tied 
> up legally.

These days, a contract is usually for just a few albums with options.
Unless he JUST renewed, which is unlikely, he could terminate whenever. I
don't know the details, of course, but my thinking is an artist in his
postion would leave himself as much room as possible, and the label would
pretty much have to accept it.

> an extent to maintain their control of the artist.  As I recall, Petty
said 
> he figured it was about the same as giving away promotional copies to
radio 
> stations, but his company thought otherwise.

Exactly. Besides, those in the system have a vested interest in keeping the
system intact.

> As for the DVDs, I think I read where record companies are going to that 
> format for music.  This must be so we all have to buy new sound
equipment, 
> of course, but also they think it'll be easier to control.

Good luck to them! By the time they can mass market, a way will be found. I
mean, if you want to spend the bucks you can get a DVD recorder NOW...and
that wasn't true with CDs back when they came out.

> What causes it, do you think?  Media event?  New release?  Air time on
the 
> radio?  MTV?

Saturation. Only so many people want a CD, and when they all have it I have
to wait for a new customer to come in. Also, people move on to the next
one.

> I agree that it's important to stay in the public eye, and pumping out 
> albums is a visible strategy these days for new groups.  It really puts
the 
> artist in a bind, though.  Can you really maintain a level of creativity

Especially when there's not as much room to be creative, because it's
pretty much all been done at this point.

> One thing that reduced the number of albums The Who put out is that Pete
did 
> (almost) all the writing, so they were limited to what he could  produce.
 

This was a factor, of course, but as I see it the main reason was the court
decision in regard to Shel Talmy. The Who had little reason to put out new
material when he was getting his cut for doing nothing. So until 1970, they
had a good reason NOT to make albums. By then, one a year was the industry
standard. If you take the amount of material they actually recorded/wrote,
we could have had two albums a year from 1965 on.

Stupid lyrics:

"I'll meet you halfway/That's better than no way/There must be some way/To
get it together..."
                                                                           
                                          David Cassidy