Originally Posted By: Jeff S
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There has to be a claimed moral high ground for not doing something and then a surrender of that high ground for compensation which in effect makes you a hypocrite and a sell out.


What kind of music is immoral?

I play almost anything. I don't do rap or heavy metal because for rap it really doesn't interest me and for heavy metal I don't have the guitar skills for that.

I play rock, disco, big band swing, jazz, R&B, C&W, blues, mambo, merengue, samba, calypso, soca, reggae, beach music, Motown, oldies, new age, smooth jazz, hiphop, dixieland, bubble gum, Broadway, zydeco and one opera song.

I find nothing immoral about any of them.

We do a couple of songs that I find the lyrics offensive, so I simply change them. When we do songs like "Blurred Lines" we change a few lyrics, leave out the misogynous rap part, substitute "chick" for the B word and the words are no longer offensive to me.

I don't do "Let's Get Drunk And Screw" or "Stokin'" because I don't want to offend anyone in the audience. Simple as that, but the songs are light-hearted and I don't find them immoral. People do the things described in the song without guilt. I'm married, and I was a musician on the road before that. (Lucky me).

But the music itself isn't immoral. How can music be immoral?

Immoral words yes. There are plenty of them in rap, but not all rap has immoral words. What about Cole Porter's love for sale? It's a song about a prostitute advertising herself. Immoral? That's a judgement call, I've never had any disrespect for the working girls. As long as they choose to do it, IMO there's nothing wrong with that.

I enjoy learning different styles of music. My country chops help my jazz playing, which helps my rock playing, which helps my reggae playing, and so on. And getting my head into an unfamiliar type of music and learning to express it they way it's supposed to be expressed is fun for me, and when I nail it, I get a feeling of accomplishment.

I love my job, and instead of saying, "I have to go to work today" like some people, I say, "I get to go to work today!" I arrive early, skip my breaks, play extra, have a dialog with the audience, and it ends too soon. I've been a pro since 1964 and have never missed a gig.

That's not being a ho, that's simply loving what I do and doing it the best I can with all the passion that's inside of me.

If that's a sell-out, I'll wear that badge happily.

Insights and incites by Notes

Last edited by Notes Norton; 06/16/15 03:34 AM.
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