At 5:38 PM +0100 4/1/06, Peter Taylor wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Howell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2006 3:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Finale] music literacy (long)
At 2:21 PM +0100 4/1/06, Peter Taylor wrote:
Gone are the days when a few ordinary-looking local lads
You know what? I don't think that's true at all.
Yes, one of my sweeping statements I'm afraid. There's still lots
of genuine talent coming through all the time. The problem for me
is that too often they seem to cater to the current taste of the
buying public rather than being creative. Perhaps that's the real
problem.
Well, I mentioned my group's inability to achieve recognition by
going our own way. At exactly the same time (the mid-60s) many
musicians we knew in passing WERE finding success by following
current taste. They got rid of their letter sweaters and crewcuts
and acoustic guitars, bought amps, let their hair grow, dressed down,
and went from folk music to transitional rock. They didn't get
famous, either, but they were working steadily. Too often we only
look at the headliners and assume that they represent "the biz."
Also there seems to me to be too many cover versions of old songs
being produced these days. Is it possible there aren't enough good
songwriters around?
That's the lounge band mindset, and one reason we got out of the
business is that show rooms all around the country, where our show
was perfect and was well received, were shutting down by the end of
the '60s and lounge gigs were taking over. We weren't a lounge band
and didn't want to be one.
When I took over the college show group here and rebuilt it, one of
the hardest things to sell to my very talented kids was that there
was a very limited market for imitators, whether Steisand, Elvis, or
Patsy Kline.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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