From: someone@anywheret.net   
      
   "JimD"  wrote in message news:2017022109482190890-email@nowherecom...   
      
   > Rats, I got all distracted in my earlier replay and never got this this   
   > point.  Yes, a great many " hits " are throwaways. It's a guessing game as   
   > to what will sell and what won't.   
      
   It doesn't have to be, becaue there's this thing called MARKET   
   RESEARCH...and to some extent, that's what I do when I let my passengers   
   here the demo recordings of my Originals.   
      
   > Massive amounts of luck involved.   
      
   The word isn't 'luck', it's *guessing*, something that's not really   
   necessary.   
      
   >  When I was recording at a real studio, we went in, did songs, or tracks   
   > for songs, and that was that. I'd first hear the tune in the morning, and   
   > by lunch, we'd have it done. Maybe never hear or think of it again.  It   
   > was a shotgun approach.   
      
   A "shotgun approach" is a lot like a "pinata approach" in that they both   
   rely on Hoping to be fortunate enough to hit something while being   
   effectively BLIND.   
      
      
   > Not at all like I read some big dollar bands did it. You know, rent a   
   > ranch / recording studio up in the california mountains or somewhere, go   
   > there, take drugs and have sex for 6 months, burn thru half a million   
   > dollars advance and come out with one album.  Nice work if you can get it   
   > :-)   
      
   Kind of like  the (in)famous Caribou Ranch - Elton John seemed to get   
   through okay and titled the album he was working on after it...but I   
   understand that when Chicago was there, things started going downhill and   
   most of the band started getting seriously hooked on drugs...which was of   
   course counterproductive.   
   Far better to stay Seriously Focused on Music!!!   
      
   > A friend recently gave me, us, some recordings of radio broadcasts circa   
   > 1977 of people I knew or worked with.  We weren't in this area by that   
   > time, so no " us " on the recordings. Band girl, she is on there, as she   
   > had tunes on the radio in that era. Cute.   As I listen now, I see why   
   > those songs never " hit ".  They just weren't good enough.  It was great   
   > that this area had a thriving music culture, but eh, it slowly died. Not   
   > every band out there has a hit song in them, I guess.   
      
   All I can say is Write songs that ARE good enough!   
      
   I have a Very Simple Strategy for doing it - if the song doesn't Profoundly   
   move you, don't waste your time with it, certainly your intended listeners   
   won't!   
   Or to put it another way, write KILLERS, Not fillers!!!   
      
   > Was talking to my brother about the tape. He immediately jumped in on me   
   > about it. Said, why was I living in the past, thinking about that old   
   > stuff.  After getting off the phone with him, I did quit thinking about   
   > those old songs, and started thinking about his attitude.  That caused me   
   > to look up some ideas on the topic of understanding where you came from,   
   > where you've been.  There's a lot on that. Generally along the lines of in   
   > order to know who you are, you need to know where you came from, where   
   > you've been.   
      
   There is a certain degree of connection between the past, present, and   
   future   
      
   > I'm not hiding from my past. I want to think about it now and then, to   
   > learn what I can from past mistakes.   
      
      
      
      
      
   Jim   
      
   It's always good engineering to learn from past mistakes and only a Fool   
   would overlook that.   
      
   Ouisie   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)