Have you ever noticed that most of the bands out there do not consist of a bunch of 20-something musicians? Modern Day Romeos, Nothing and a few other groups have a bunch of young guys in them but most bands out there consist of guys and babes in their 40s and "gulp" 50s. There is usually an obligatory 30-something-year-old in each band but most are older types.
I'm thinking this is because of the I-just-got-married-and-my-bride-doesn't-want-me-gone-every-Friday-and-Saturday-night syndrome. New brides don't want their guys being lusted after by other potentially new brides and their guys have had to get real jobs and can't practice as much any more.
After taking as much as a decade off, the now 30-something musician is getting the itch again, the baby is now around 10 years old, the marriage is about 10 years old and the "bride" is glad to see him gone now so she can get the house and the TV and the bathroom to herself for a precious few hours. This guy is also now maybe making enough money to get some decent equipment he couldn't justify owning before and he calls up his old buddies and they start jamming away in the basement.
Money is not the object now. They can play anything they want and maybe pick up a block party gig or a small bar gig somewhere and invite all of their neighbors, friends and fellow work employees and make a good impression for that bar owner.
Then, it happens. After several gigs, the crowds slim down as all of his friends have seen him six or seven times and have better things to do on Fridays and Saturdays and by now, he's in his 40s. He really likes doing this so, after a few personnel changes because of health issues and people just turning into dicks, he decides to get serious about this. By now, he's pissed off all of the other serious musicians who can not demand good pay for their gigs because all of the bands like his have been charging $250 to play and the bar owners who just want some excitement in their establishments have hired guys like his band rather than pay for quality entertainment.
Now, he checks out the other bands and he tries to model himself after them and he picks up some better gigs but he can't make much more money. He does make more,but now, he has to drive all over Chicagoland playing for "beer money" because he doesn't want to piss off some booking agent because he knows that all he has to do is refuse a couple of gigs and the agent won't call him any more. (I think we all know who I'm talking about). He also realizes that when he gets "the door" on top of some measly base pay amount for the gig, he's just been told that he's going to get economically raped because the guy taking the cover charges and checking IDs is letting every nubile babe with a tube top on in for free and of course, all his buddies are getting in for free so whatever they tell him he made at the door, he can add 40% to that and he's probably closer to what they really took in.
At this point, he's in his 50s. He's now doing this so that he can exercise his brain cells so he can stave off Alzheimer's and he really doesn't have much else to do and he needs the money now because his "bride" and children have left him and he really needs the money to pay for alimony and child support. He never got into rap or hip hop and all he knows is classic rock.
Then he dies.
That's the glamorous world of rock and roll. But of course, this isn't reality ... is it?
1 comment:
Hahahahaha... but enough truth in it to be sobering. Nothing really like it in my own experience, but I know of plenty to whom it applies... And JD? Hey, he's a bidnessman. I've worked with him sometimes, not some other times, but I've never had any real problems with him. I've found that if you're a decent band with a decent following, you'll be treated decently. And vice versa, of course. A friend's band got a pretty good ripping from him, but considering that a) that band kinda sucked; b) they lied about how their show went and how many people were there when trying to get more shows; and c) JD received an answering machine message from the owner threatening him (not the band) to never send him another band like that or he wouldn't be booking his club in the future. Face it, some bar owners are jerks, and JD sometimes acts as a buffer for that. I've heard he can be a jerk, vindictive, etc, from other bandpeople but have not had that type of experience. Of course, who knows at this point if anyone will ever read this? I'm responding to a 2-year-old post on a blog that hasn't been updated in 4 months...
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