Showing posts with label joblessness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joblessness. Show all posts

How Things Have Changed Over The Years in the Music Business

Friday, February 5, 2016 9:00 PM Posted by Tondeleo Lee Thomas
Tondeleo: I ran across a quote by Hunter S. Thompson that made me think about some of the things that Doc, Marilyn, and their friends have said about the music business and how ruthless it can be. Here it is:
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."  -  Hunter S. Thompson

I read this to Doc, Marilyn and Big Dave when I was visiting the other night, and got their responses. Marilyn, of course had the most to say about it, even though she is the youngest, and has only been playing and singing publicly, for well less than 20 years. Doc put her to work playing and singing in the streets and passing the hat when she was 10 or 12 years old. Nevertheless, the quotation sparked a fire in her.

Marilyn: Tondy, I don't know who that Mr. Thompson, but he is RIGHT. We know that, and we are just nobodies! But we have experienced a lot of that. People promise you all kinds of things, especially when you don't have a job and are hungry. Things like good connections, good money, and other things, and then you find out that they don't even have anything themselves, and are hoping to just use you to get things for themselves! Like, they act rich and like they are looking out for you, but they are not. A lot of them are broke and owe money to everybody, and are hoping to use you to make some money for them! Like, they line up a gig, and tell us how wonderful it's going to be, and how many hundreds or thousands of people are going to be there, how much money "we'll" all make, meaning how much money HE will make, and then when you get there, it's just something we could have got on our own! Then they introduce us to MORE people who want a piece of the action, and talking about how well connected they are, and how they will open major doors for us...

Big Dave: She's right, Tondy. I've been doing this all my life, and it's always like the next big gig is around the corner. If we play at this crummy little dive, it will open the door to the really BIG crummy dive. After a while, you just stop believing in any of them. They are all a bunch of no talents who want to be big shots, and want to pimp whoever they can...

Doc: I decided a long time ago that ain't nobody gonna pimp me but me. I've had times when it was just me living in my panel truck. Well, me, a couple guitars, an amp and a dog, and when you're broke, everybody wants to take a vantage of you. and you have to smile, you have to pretend you're happy, you have to put on a show like everything is all fine and dandy, even when you're dying inside. That is the show part of show business. You got to "show" that you're happy and that everything is good even when that ain't your reality. 

Big Dave: But this ain't nothing new Tondy. It's always been like that, as far back as you go. If someone's got talent, there are always a dozen people who want to pimp them and make as much money off them as possible, and then when they have worn that person down to nothing, they are through with them and move on to the next one.

Like, one thing that happens is this. I was in a band with a so called agent once. He said he'd take care of all the bookings, travel, food, hotels, everything. He wanted a ten percent commission. So we went for it. He had us playing a lot of good gigs, colleges, resorts, festivals and all that. So at the end of the Summer, he's explaining why there's no money left for us!

Here's why: He CHARGED us for like every phone call he made! He got the cheapest prices he could get for airplane travel, but charged us full price for all of it! He got discounts on the hotels, but charged us full price, marking it all up as much as he could. He'd tell us to go ahead and get room service. Why? Because he'd mark it up so he made a profit on everything! Then he'd take it out of our money, PLUS the ten percent commission on every one of our bookings! Everything he touched had a giant sized mark up on it, and it all came out of our pockets!

Doc: I ain't never had an agent. I had an Asian once, though... that's a joke, Tondy! Anyway, for me, it's better to just do our own bookings, do our own music, work with the close circle of friends that we have, and let whatever happen happens. heck, I ain't never had no money anyway, and I still need to lose 20 pounds. What do I want to be rich for? I ain't never wanted to be rich - never wished for that, and my wish came true!

I have been totally down and out as far as society is concerned, but I have always been able to find food to put in my belly, some clothes to put on my back and a shelter to sleep under. Kings can't do any better than that. Plus I have always had friends. A lot of kings don't even know if the people around them are really friends, so I'm better off... in my book.

Tondeleo: So you've always played music, always gotten to eat, sleep and had friends. 

Big Dave: Right, That's true for me.

Marilyn: It's been true as far as I can remember. Even when mama ran off with that piece of trash from the carnival, Uncle Doc took me in, and made sure I had clothes, food and a bed. I can only wear so many clothes, and only eat so much food and can only sleep  in one bed at a time. Why would I want more than that?

Doc: Yeah, and we're still the same as always. We ain't never been famous or well known. But I'm still high energy. Marilyn's high energy. Our band is a very high energy band - more energy going on than a lot of teenaged bands… 

But I CAN say that when we were young, we'd play and there'd be girls throwing their panties up on the stage… and that still happens sometimes. But, they're a lot bigger now… and sometimes it's boxers what's bein' thrown up on the stage. It IS a little different, in that respect... But that's the music business!

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Poverty, Creativity, Individuality and Inspired Ideas: Big Dave's Truck

Monday, September 29, 2014 10:01 PM Posted by Tondeleo Lee Thomas
 Tondeleo: I've been writing from my notes and recordings about the immense creativity and the drive for self expression in even the poorest and the most uneducated people. In the rural areas of America, at least the ones that I have been to, there seems to be no limit to these traits.

If I was poverty stricken, I would try to not attract attention to myself. But for these rural Americans, it seems that the poorer they are, the more need there is for self expression. They seem to have a need to say, "HEY! Look at ME! I may be poor, but I am SOMEBODY!"

One  example of this is the Ford pickup truck that belongs to Doc's friend, Big Dave. Dave hasn't had it registered or insured for about two years now. Something happened somewhere that caused him to park it in his garden for a while. Neither he nor Doc feel that it is important enough to talk about, and when I pulled Marilyn aside to ask about it, she says it is something that we don't talk about. It just "is" for now.

I asked Big Dave what year it is, and he says that it's a couple of different years.  "It doesn't matter."
I ask about the modifications he's made on it and whatever else he can tell me about it. Here is what he said:

Big Dave: I'm not drivin' it right now and it makes me feel bad, you know? It's sittin' there wastin' under a tree when it ought to be drived. 

Well, it's a 4X4. Got 4 wheel drive. That means it's good for drivin' in the woods and in mud and snow without gettin' stuck. I got 31" tires on it. I lifted it up like 3 inches, to make it a little taller. When I go deer huntin' I can take the truck out there, so I'm not walkin' and draggin' the deer around through the woods. Especially if I get two or three of deer.

Tondeleo: I notice that it doesn't have a grille. And, you've painted what was behind the grille silver. Does that mean you're not going to get a new grille for it, Big Dave?

Big Dave: Yeah, my truck lost his front teeth in a fight with a white oak tree! 

I couldn't find a grille that was any good, so I took some of that mesh that you use in front of a fireplace and put it in there to protect the radiator - that's all a grille does anyway, and then painted it all silver... (laughs) it looks like I at least know he ain't got no teeth anymore! 

I painted the shiny metal around the headlights black, and I painted the bumper black because I had some black spray cans and didn't have anything better to do. So I painted stuff. 

Tondeleo: What else can you tell me about your truck, Big Dave?  Remember, I don't know much about these things, and people who read my blog may not know very much about them...

 Big Dave:  What else? Uhhh, I got a cap on the back. I tried paintin' it cammo by sprayin' around leaves here an' there. It didn't come out too good. 

I can sleep in there if I'm out deer huntin' or duck huntin'  over the weekend or anytime, really. If I got my tools in the back, the cap keeps the rain off of them. Keeps people from just reachin' in my truck and stealing my stuff. Havin' a cap on the back's a good thing... 

I could clean it out back there and have a date back there.

Marilyn: YUCK! You're so GROSS, Big Dave. NO self respectin' woman would get in the  back of your old truck!

 Big Dave: Well, I don't always go for the self respectin' type...

Tondeleo: I notice that you have painted the back half of your truck black. Was that because you were bored, also?

Big Dave: I painted the back part of it black because I'd had a wreck into another tree. 


Tondeleo: Your license plate says Dog Man. Does that have a meaning?

Big Dave: Yeah. I'm a dog man.

Doc: Yeah, he's a dog man, all right.

Marilyn: Big Dave really IS a dog man, Tondy.

Tondeleo: OK, I think I get it... you're a dog man, and it says it on your license plate... 

Marilyn: Well, he loves his dog Bulkley more than anyone on the whole earth, Tondy. Bulkley is head of the pack, fifteen years runnin.

Big Dave: Yeah, ain't nobody better n' Bulkley. Well Christine is, but she's Asian.  

Tondeleo: ... uh, ok... I think I get it...  so, what is the meaning of the four horseshoes on the front of your truck, on the front of the bonnet?

Big Dave: My truck ain't got a bonnet, first off. It ain't a woman. A car ain't got a bonnet either. It's a hood. The meaning of the horseshoes on the front? It means good luck. You oughta know that, boy. But it means somethin' else, too. Somethin' people gotta figure out. But I'll tell you; I don't want you sittin' here all night. It means what might be good luck for me ain't good luck for someone else.

 Tondeleo: Like what?

 Doc: Like for the HORSE! That's a lesson right there, good luck for one is bad luck for another. People can  look at the front Big Dave's truck and get a life lesson, if they're thinking while they're looking.

 Tondeleo: How about the donkey that is also on the front? Does that mean anything, Big Dave?
Big Dave: Uh, well, yeah it's got a meaning... 

Doc gave me that a long time ago. That's the third or fourth truck it's been on. It's outlasted every truck I've had and two women. That donkey, well, he's got a big grin on his face. He's happy. He's sittin' down on the job. He ain't workin' and he ain't doing anything and he ain't goin' nowhere. He'll get up when and if he's a good and ready. That donkey is me, Tondy.  

Doc: It SURE is.That donkey is definitely Big Dave!











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