Music Before the Money

“First day in August Last rain was in May
When the rainmaker came to Kansas
In the middle of a dusty day
The rainmaker said to the people
Tell me what you are prepared to pay”
The rainmaker said to the people
“Well, I’ll conjure up a rain today”

Harry Nilsson, Bill Martin: Summer, 1969

Every August 1st I think of this song and Harry Nilsson, of whom a lot of people have never heard. However, along with Gordon Lightfoot, Al Stewart and a few others, Nilsson’s music was the soundtrack for my life for almost 3 years.

My friend, Dave Dixon, was a Nilsson fanatic and had many of his albums: Aerial Ballet, Pandemonium Shadow Show and Harry. I had Nilsson Schmillson and A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night. For you are are not familiar with this guy he won a Grammy for Without You in 1972 and wrote One for Three Dog Night.

We had Harry on 8-track and sang along to his songs on our road trips to the U.S., Alberta and other parts. If I sang them now few people would know the songs. but that’s just like a lot of artists. We all know the hits but not the “fillers” and many of these songs are the writes’ best works.

Rainmaker, from his album Harry, is a haunting song about a town that has been through a terrible drought and hires the services of a rainmaker to help restore their dried up crops and lives. The rainmaker uses his supernatural powers to bring rain but when he goes to get his pay the people refuse. Instead of getting angry he laughed and drove away in wagon. In that instant the people and the listener know that the rain would never stop.

” Then the people of the town heard the sound of his laughter
And they knew the rain had come to stay .

Rain rain go away
Come again another day , hey,
Rain rain go away
Come again another day, hey.”

So, for those of you who want to get in touch with a few nuggets of memory take out an old piece of vinyl or search for the lyrics of an old song. I’m not kidding. It’s like a time machine!

Cory Doctrow just finished a chilling article on the history of music file sharing that points to further gloom for the music business. He states that:

“. . .the latest record-company salvo in the copyright wars, a cozy deal with British
ISPs that will have them spying on and degrading the connections of
subscribers accused of infringing downloading.”

What Cory goes on to say is that this will not stop file sharing but will drive it further underground with private file swapping networks. In other words, the insatiable thirst of the record companies to fleece us out of everything we have is going to backfire on both them and, unfortunately, the musicians and songwriters.

Despite what the media has told us Napster was a very good idea for every one. Here’s how Napster 1.0 worked: Music lovers could download as much as they liked for a base price which worked out to around $15 a month, or the price of 1 1/2 CD’s. Cory also says “they had the fastest-growing technology in the history of the world at their disposal, 70 million internet users in 18 months, and they’d found that the average American user was willing to spend $15 a month for the service.”

So what happened. Napster was sued into oblivion and new operations sprung up to take their place. But these new guys were not as honest as Napster and now file sharing - or stealing - is breeding a new generation of music user who does not feel they have to pay for the labors of those who create music.

As I have stated before, I don’t care about the Michael Jackson-owned Beatle portfolio that makes him millions a year. But I do worry about the guys and gals who can’t get paid for what their music is worth. However, now the moguls have created an underground network of computer-savvy music enthusiasts who can get songs at will. And fewer good people are getting paid

However, what I do like is that making music, even on computers, and sharing it on venues like YouTube is broadening the industry and taking it from the hands of Sony and the other guys who still make billions by just re-releasing a bunch of ’60’s songs that they got basically for nothing. Popular music didn’t just happen. In an older blog I found a pic of an ad put out by the musician’s union in the 1920’s stating that vinyl would kill the music industry. It didn’t. It gave obscure bands and orchestras new fans.

“I think it’s time to smoke the pipes of peace and to just, you know, put away your hatchet because I think it’s a show of friendship . . . I’m very friendly with the French people I know. I know people of all nationalities.”

- Paul McCartney to the CBC before his concert for the 400th Anniversary of Quebec City

Paul McCartney is as big as they come. His songwriting, in collaboration with John Lennon and producer George Martin, changed popular music from a collection of hangers-on from the Swing Era, fading ’50’s stars, skiffle, folk and teen idols to a major force of world-changing anthems in a few records. In fact many major bands began after watching him and the other The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964 or their movie A Hard Day’s Night. Well, he never disappointed the 200,000 revelers that came out to hear him.

McCartney was last in Canada with his former wife, Heather, and he delved into politics by venturing out onto the frozen ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to pet baby seals. Unfortunately, he never won too many converts to his cause and he and his wife split months later. However, he seemed to forget all this when pounding out his tunes.

The separatists who opposed his concert on grounds that Macca was one of “Les Anglais” basically used the occasion to grab some attention to spark their cause which has withered since their ill-fated attempt to break up the country in 1995. The signatories on the document of protest were mainly artists, musicians, sculptors and probably the odd mime (I’m joking). They had a revisionist view of history and want someone to blame for France bailing out on them in 1759. So the artists and musicians can blame the English (including people with names like Wong and Luchansky whom they bunch together as English) but the British won North America by default.

As for the concert McCartney came out with the big guns like Jet from his Wings days and Beatles hits Drive My Car and All My Loving. Those are great songs in any language.

It’s not everyone who gets a chance to see Paul McCartney live . . especially free. But Sir Paul is going to be playing a free concert to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City and, in effect, the French in North America. This should be a great event, right? Well to 99% of the population in Quebec it is. But to 1% who claimed they are separatists, it is a great faux pas. Why? Because they are separatists and hate everything about Canada except their government cheques.

Poor Macca. He can’t come to Canada without stepping into it: baby seals; his wife, Heather; and now the idiots who still think Quebec should be a country. So who represents these malcontents (who now could have their meetings in a phone booth)? well, our wonderful journalists do not pick a politician geared to separatism. Even they like Macca. They pick out some aging long-hair (dyed) who attributes the old Beatle to colonial England 250 years ago.

The poor soul still hangs onto the fact that The Battle of Quebec in 1759 was a devious English plot which forever enslaved French-speaking people. Actually, it was brilliant manuevre where a small party of well-trained British soldiers hauled themselves up a bluff in the middle of the night and marched onto the Plains of Abraham outside the walls of Quebec City. The French under General Montcalm, with a much larger force, had the time to make formations confronting the British. However, just like any confrontation on the field between the French and English (before Napoleon) the French and their colonial allies had neither the musketry skills nor the determination for full-frontal (brutal) warfare and their ranks disintegrated and their general died on his horse.

The British captured Quebec but after suffering a long bout of defeats like Fort William Henry and other battles. There is no question about the bravery of the French. However, their own King deserted them by not resupplying them with soldiers and supplies. Until this battle Montcalm had brilliantly out-generaled the best British had to offer. This is partly why General Wolfe beat him - Montcalm thought the British had no one who could make the soldiers scale the cliffs.

Now the British were not charitable. They did ethic cleansing in Nova Scotia, taking out the French families and sending the southward. But they did let the Quebeckers keep their language and religion - quite a liberal thing at the time. This is why this idiot has free speech and government benefits for the flag he spits on.

So why are these idiots blaming the Macca for something that happened all those years ago and why is the media even printing their ravings? Because they live in a country that tolerates it.

And I’m very jealous of the ones who will hear the Beatle in a free concert.

I own a vinyl copy of Sweetheart of the Rodeo but never got it until 1978. The original was released in 1968 and, although the intention was never there, it became one of the hallmarks of country rock music. It was the “coming out party” of a young prodigy named Gram Parsons.

As a Byrds fan I didn’t know where they were going. I heard Notorious Byrd Brothers and like Mr. Spaceman but there other stuff was out there. I guess I wasn’t as forward thinking as I thought because McGuinn was actually doing what the Beatles were doing only without a George Martin around. He was experimenting with bluegrass music and a Moog synthesizer and it was not the jingle-jangle sound I liked in the past.

Parsons, as it turned out, was an amazing talent but a loose cannon. McGuinn eventually fired him but not before he put his mark on the album, and the English tour introduced him to Keith Richards. That meeting led to a change in focus by the Stones. Parsons returned to the U.S. and, with former-Byrd Chris Hillman, formed the Flying Burrito Brothers.

In 1972-73 we used to play You Ain’t Going Nowhere ( a Bob Dylan tune) and Hickory Wind, the latter a Parsons song and it led to a greater understanding of country rock. Then The Eagles came out and the line was effectively crossed for good.