Originally Posted By: GHinCH
<...>Most of the performers will not play a hundred songs today and a different hundred tomorrow and on the next day only songs that have not been played the two days before.<...>

I guess I'm not like most then.

We have over 500 songs in our book, and I call the songs on the fly according to what I think is best for the particular audience near the end of each previous songs.

Example, Saturday we did a High School 50'th reunion - so the room was filled with baby boomers and we played mostly that kind of music with a few newer ones sprinkled in.

Sunday we did an outdoor party for a gated community consisting of younger to middle aged professionals, many with small children. Perhaps a dozen songs were played that we did on Saturday.

Today we play at a marina where we will play a lot of Caribbean and Tropical songs mixed with a lot of listening songs, again a very different mix of songs. But that will depend on who shows up, what they are into, and what they are responding to today.

When I was in the AFofM, the union man came to check on us and collect the work dues. As far as I'm concerned, the PRO should send a rep down to do the list. I have enough on my mind, what song to play next, I also sing, play sax, guitar, flute and wind synth so often I have cue the next backing track, undo the strap so I can switch instruments quickly as I go from song to song without a beat in between.

Reading the audience, pacing the audience, and playing music to the best of my ability is my job. It requires a flip-flop between the "zone" state of making music and the active mental state of the rest of the job. It's very intensive, when the gig is over, I'm beat (mentally and physically) but it's a very good, satisfying kind of tired.

And why should two generations after the songwriter dies receive royalties on his/her creation? Do the children of John Lennon, Carole King, Doc Pomus, Barry Mann, and other famous songwriters really need the money? They've already made millions of dollars on their creations (and deserved every penny) and unless they blew the money, their descendants are set for life. And if the songwriter wasn't successful (like myself) the amount of royalties for that 75 years wouldn't amount to anything worthwhile.

Kurt Weill died in 1950, Mack The Knife (Die Moritat von Mackie Messer) was written in 1928 and you won't be able to play it in public without paying whoever owns the copyright now until 2025 making the copyright span almost a hundred years.

'nuff said about that subject.

We play that one about once every month or two - close to the Bobby Darin arrangement.

The copyright laws were written to protect the songwriter from having his/her work stolen by someone else who could then make a fortune with the song and leave the creator penniless. That's a good thing. But the copyright laws have far exceeded that function and have become a cash cow for a lot of people who had absolutely nothing to do with the song. The famous "Happy Birthday" example - WB makes 2 million a year - how much did the sisters who wrote those two words on a PD song make? Not much.

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Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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