I gig and play what they want.

I also play songs for myself.

It's give and take. Once I have the audience on my side they'll listen to a song they don't know as long as it isn't too out of character. And I play variety gigs for the 50+ audience. I can put pop, reggae, rock, light jazz, salsa, country, and so on into most gigs. 50+ is a big market here, the pay is good, and the gigs are usually 3 hours. They often feed us, and appreciate our performance.

And all except for two corporate day jobs that I did while seeing what normal is all about, I've made my living doing music and nothing but music most of my life. The two corporate day jobs taught me that normal is so over-rated. laugh

I'd much rather play "Proud Mary" or "My Way" for a living than work a day job for some thankless corporation so I can play 'art music' at night. I see each as a different kind of sell out, and I like my option much, much better.

I remember a day in the phone company. Climbing poles is dangerous, you are held up by two spikes, each no more than an eighth of an inch into the wood and if you get too close to the pole so the angle is wrong, or if the pole splinters, down you go.

One day I had to climb the pole in the back yard. Four chain link fences joined at the base of the pole and metal cans are in one yard. Falling means a possibility of hitting the cans or worse coming down straddling one of those fences.

So I climb the pole, open the terminal, and about 100 paper wasps had built their nest in there, and weren't happy to have the cover removed.

Now moving quickly and not carefully means a possibility of coming down on that fence so with heart pounding, I slowly climb down the pole. Fortunately the wasps didn't realize it was me who exposed their home and although they were buzzing around in quick circles around the nest and pole, I didn't get stung.

Playing "Yakety Sax" or any of the other war horses again is much better than climbing a pole with wasps!!!!

But I'm weird. When one of the old war horses come out, the worst part is starting the song, once the music starts and I start playing and/or singing, I forget that I've done it too many times, I give it my all, and get lost in the song.

It's all just attitude. So I'm playing "Old Time Rock & Roll" for the zillionth time. The audience is digging it, sending good energy back to me, I'm enjoying the groove and I've got two improvised solos coming up, one on the sax and one on the wind synth. And I've already played a few songs just for us in the night, so what's the big deal?

How many people get off watching another football or baseball game? Come on- they are basically only two kinds, the one where your team wins, and the one where it loses. Other than that it's the same thing.

Or eating the same meal? Watching the same sitcom? Playing the same golf course?

There are a lot of fun things we do over and over and over and over again. Playing those old war horses are just like eating another big juicy hamburger or serving of pistachio ice cream. It's all good, and it's all attitude for me.

YMMV

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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