General Music Chat

What I have to say is that I see so much need.I wish I could make 21 million this year so I could help so many , in so much need. Will that happen..NO.
Most Americans are the most giving and sharing people IN THE WORLD.
We have to stop taking away the opportunity for Americans to be succesfull.
All the great musician on band mix, I have listened to as many as I can,,,,
Even JW posted some of his original material, I thought it was great. He had to overcome his fear of personal non acheivement. Well right now I fear to many great musicians [like JW] are having so much taken away from them ,from so many hidden reasons that their chances of personal success are diminished.
This is America.... IT Is OK to make money, It is OK to be able to save, It is Ok to share , It is OK to be SUCCESFULL.
When any entity is involved in stopping the normal proggression of Life, to succede, there is a major violation of a fundamental right that is directly mandated by a much higher Rule of existance. I am directly avoiding the use of any religious reference because I don't want to use that as a club or gun.

I want to see ALL AMERICANS SUCCCEED. Sorry if I am a bit biased toward musicians.

It's only wrong if you f**k your fellow man to get there.

Amen, stop pushing yourself a leg up at a time by walking on the backs of others.

It'll make ya a better person.

two hundred and thirty years ago this country was founded by free men, with brave heart, strong belief in God, unafraid of hard work, values that allways protected the weak , and values that rewarded good citizenship.

Flash foward, democrat or republican.radical conservative or radical liberal.
America has to return to its roots to survive.

G.W . And BEN F. and all the founding fathers ,never had to deal with any of these issues that are on the table now. BUT think of how brilliant they were to allow abuse and problems into general forum for change that they may have been wrong on.

Take abortion or pot smoking or free health care , or slavery or eqaulity. except for the last two very few of us have the valid IQ to argue for or against.

When our founding fathers signed the declaration of independence against the British , they basically signed their own DEATH warrants.

I am shocked when I see the very ideals our country was founded on are stepped on ,crushed , made lite of , and generally just ignored. I dont see any body but a few taking any personal responsability for there own personal lives.

Our founding fathers had the balls to take responsability for their actions, so much so that they placed everything on the line. Their Lives, Their Property ,all they had just to live as FREE MEN

Most of you have allready given this up, OH well ,so be it , I'm with GEORGE!!!!!!

Being successful in music these days has more to do with dumb luck than talent I'm afraid. I'm talking about real musicial talent. Who gets noticed in music is almost all about image and little about substance. Then who gets noticed has a lot to do with significant financial backing and that includes legal representation. I wish we could just go out and produce music without all the legal loopholes and without having to baffle people with B.S. to get noticed. We have so many rules and regulations in so many areas of our lives, it's like putting shackles on and we have to figure out how to extricate ourselves before we can proceed. Some really good people I know in the music business have GIVEN UP. It's a damn shame...

Effin Crist sakes Glen, educate yourself and stop sounding like a complete buffoon:

http://books.google.com/books?id=P8V7J5 ... q=&f=false

Kramer just take a break ,you keep saying you will. Philby has the courage to at least offer his ideas . I actually like him because he does go out of his way to explain his positions.
All you do is resort to name calling and personal attack. I am sorry you feel life has dealt you such a bad hand. The only way you are ever going make headway is to develope a positive attitude and start to count your blessings,and to become more self reliant.
Your ranting at me ,telling me to STFU, calling me names, just further shows how frustrated you are because nobody is going to bail you out, but yourself.
You don't want to do that, it's to difficult.
When you stop name calling then I will say you have made a positive technical adjustment in your attitude, and your chances to overcome your personal problems will grow exponentially.
In the mean time do what you say, take a break.

Glen, thanks for the props.

I feel I am successful at any endeaver I put my mind too. If at a younger age I had totally committed to being a musician theres no doubt in my mind i would be. I was in a band that had a spec deal way back there, but looking back on that Im glad it didnt happen cause we werent ready, I at one point had a writing deal in Nashville and walked cause it invovled to many compromises for me. The original music I produce as awful as it may be to some is mine and it is exactly how I feel at the giving time it is written. I cross a lot of genre styles, so from that I feel Like musically Im as successful as anyone. I write what I want when I want it. In order to get out and play in front of live audiences I compromise what I would like to do. Im a weekend warrior cover hack. In that Im successful in my mind, cause I do get paid to do it and I turn down a lot more gigs than we ever will do. Why? I just dont want to burn out on it. On a side note my cover band has kinda decided to start writting original material, which should be fun.

I dont share on here other aspects of my life. But, I am involved in a series of business's. For the most part they are successful and allow others to make an above average living for my area, and for the record we have provided health care ot our employees since the early 90s, not cause we were required too, but because its the right thing to do.

I havent been successful in marriage, but thats got nothing to do with government. I was responsible for the biggest part of that failure and I have taken actions on a personal level to make me a better partner to someone.

Im a father of 2. 17 yrs and 13 yrs old, I send them to a very good private school. Cause the public schools in our area are a mess.

Through seperation and divorce I basically support 2 households these days.

I know you and I have had soem sort of disagreements in the past and I have to disagree on this thread that something is holding me back from being successful, particulary the government. I think my success or failure in anything is from me, not some outside source. If something doesnt suit me I have 2 choices, to whine about how unfair it is or too take some sort of action to over come it.

Dont know why I responded but when your name is thrown in something I feel I should respond in some way.

I guess I'm either not creative enough or not energetic enough to overcome some of what faces me, at times. I often feel as though I'm banging my head against a wall instead of making progress.

When I HAVE the work, there's no problem DOING it. I can figure out ways of handling problems that others often miss, & ppl occasionally seek me out to solve thier problems with this job or that.

GETTING the work seems to take up most of my time, & I'm not the best at it...partially due to issues of self-worth, I think, & pertially due to my tendency to underbid, cuz I often empathize with the customer a bit too much. I often sell a cheap fix instead of a complete overhaul, & then put far too much effort into the fix, to make it last.

I'm basically not very good at the business end of my work. I've been working on that aspect, but there are some ppl out there who think I'm a rinkydink cuzza my low bids, while my customers never complain about my work, which I make sure will last. (I've had only one major complaint in nearly 30 years, & that was due to the fact that I did what the customer demanded, instead of doing things my way.)

I've started adding in a misc cost to my bids, which seems to help, esp when it takes an extra 1/2 day to complete a job.

When I view truly successful ppl, I look for what made them successful. Often I find, esp in the case of the super-rich, that they've become that way by exploiting others to the point of abuse.

It bugs me when I see that in the corp business model I spoke of in another thread.

There are damned few ppl I feel in awe of.

There's one local guy I respect more than any other person I've met. He quit school in the 8th grade, & apprenticed under a carpenter for 8 years. Then he apprenticed under a blacksmith for 4 years. By the time he was 30, he was a master in both fields of endeavor, & I've seen him do some truly amazing masonry work, as well.

The day his 13 acres were paid off, he went to live on the property. He had a well & septic put in, & built a 2 story log home almost entirely on his own. His designs are very good, yet he gave me one of the biggest compliments I ever got over one of my jobs, telling me how he admired my design & bldg expertise, esp considering my experience level at the time.

For the rest of us regular folk, we often flounder for most of our lives, never really finding that perfect niche for ourselves. We are the ones at the mercy of the co, & the co often is less than merciful, esp when it's a large outfit.

I do have a problem when our gov't allows corp's to buy candidates. I do have a problem when I see ppl's jobs erased & sent overseas to benefit those huge profits, after the co's made such fine profits from thier American workforce. I also have a problem when I see employee abuse, & it is rampant right now, cuz corp's can replace ppl so easilly in bad economic times.

Sorry if I'm rambling. Blame it on the drugs...i'm doing Tylenol #3 & flexerils...wheeeeeee! My back still hurts, but I don't care...heh heh heh

You two guys are like Fricke and Frake. You are both great musicians and even more Great Americans. You both have tremendous skills, You both understand your shortcomings,you both have confidence in your abuilities,you both would probably share anything you could.
I just wish you any success you desire.Keep writing JW and keep playing Philby.

Glen I just feel that we all should take responsibilitys for our lives.

I could look back and say that this business I closed 10 yrs ago was someone elses fault, but I didnt. I shut it down before it owed more than it could repay. I payed out a lot of creditors, and in the end after liquidation had some money left over to invest in some more endeavers. There was no government bailout for me. I felt when the big companys got in trouble that thye should have to downsize to the point that they could live in their means just like I had too. But Im not bitching about it. It is what it is.

Musically if someone wants to really make it they have to committ 24 hours a day 7 days a week to building thier brand and even then very few will do any good. There were a lot of bands in the Memphis area that got some major deals when I played in the original metal market in the mid late 80s. Not many of them are playing music as a means of living these days. They did get to taste the rock star lifestyle for a while.

In the end it is all about how you measure success and I know that is cliche. In my case I know Im not going to be another Led Zep, I figured that out a long long time ago. but in my area on a local level my band is requested to play on a regular basis, Why? cause we do have a local following that will come out consistently to see us play. I see post on here from bands saying if we play good enough we will eventually make money at this. The only way to make above average money in music is to draw fans. Most of us on here are a little older. I had a guy call me the other night wanting to knwo when we play again. This guy and his wife have followed groups Ive been in since 88. Glen said these days with 3 kids we have to plan ahead. Between going out and getting a babysitter it cost us around $150 just to get out and see you guys. So from this I realize that building an older audience with an older band is hard. Cause the older audience wants to go see bands that they are familiar with and can depend on to entertain them. We have taken steps to scale back our playing schedule so that people like this can afford to come see us more.

I wish everyone on here success with thier own musical pursuits, and theu time I think Ive shared things that Ive found out. I dont go digging around on the net for ideas, I share what has either worked or not worked for me on a personal basis. I think the key is to get out there and jsut do it.

In the end I feel that we are each responsible for our own success or failure. Blaming this or that, I mean who cares? Make your plan and work your plan, set reasonable goals that are attainable, once you reach those set the bar a little higher.

They're the exception, not the rule.

Without exception... there are no role models to follow. True leadership may come from the very places you least expect it.