In Japanese is a saying that means “advantages and disadvantages” and for your humble narrator (who is a “hamidashimono” or misfit in Nipponese) life is one constant struggle for balance, a negotiated settlement. And being in the music business for nearly a third of a century, I must constantly seek that balance by always trying to be aware of the advantage-disadvantage factors. And one of these I’ve thought of is the “ichoitung” of the music business in the long years since committing my troops to this nutty business in 1965.
These days it seems that every little corner tavern has some kind of blues band, unlike the 1960′s, 70′s and most of the 80′s. Of course, very little of it is official blues, but it’s billed as blues so we’ll work from that premise. After all, Richard E. Nixon once said: “The legacy of history depends on who writes it.” Very likely, many of these little joints will fold, change their entertainment policy, or like many alleged jazz clubs, eject all live music playing soldiers and play CDs or tapes. And of course, for the few with any staying power, neither the musicians or club owners will get rich. I believe there’s a two-fold reason for why these places exist now and why they didn’t in my early years. Number one, in the 60′s and 70′s, joints were more “specialized” in the type of music they had. There were jazz piano clubs, jazz organ clubs, funk clubs, rock clubs, folk clubs, top 40 lounges, and so forth. And though most of the music was silly, the people of that time “knew” the type of music they wanted to hear; and I assure you, it wasn’t requests for “Lonnies Lament” by John Coltrane. There was a time that songs like “Proud Mary,” “Send in the Clowns” “Feelings,” were not just requested by patrons and club owners, but DEMANDED. Needless to say for anyone who knows me, I wasn’t too cooperative in learning those lounge lizard “standards,” making those trenches more down and dirty than they were in attempting to survive in this business. Thus, the “disadvantage” factor. But the advantage in recent years I believe is a result of the young yuppie or “gen-X-er” simply not knowing about the songs of that era. Perhaps they’re attempting (though failing in most cases as I see it) to rise to a higher level of sophistication by letting one get away with playing “Infant Eyes” by Wayne Shorter (thought it’s certainly not as requested as “Joy to the World” or was it “Jeremiah was a gosh-darn bullfrog” was 20 years ago. Or perhaps for the twenty-somethings that smoke cigars and talk of meeting someone on the internet are just getting tired of watching “smashing pumpkin” videos on MTV and will tolerate a nutty guy playing a minor blues. Whatever the reason, it’s another example of “ichoitung” and if it ultimately marches my troops to victory, then play some rhythm changes and not worry about Three Dog Night classics. And now we’ll have more stories, but first lets tune in on these words.
- Bill Heid
This story was originally published for the Detroit Blues Society volume: 5 number: 12, december 1997
