Music Before the Money

“No matter how hard you work for success, if your thought is saturated with the fear of failure, it will kill your efforts, neutralize your endeavors and make success impossible.”

-Baudjuin

• 27 publishers rejected Dr. Seuss’s first book, To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.
• 21 publishers rejected Richard Hooker’s humorous war novel, M*A*S*H. He had worked on it for seven years.
• 18 publishers turned down Richard Bach’s story about a “soaring eagle.” Macmillan finally published Jonathan Livingston Seagull in 1970. By 1975 it had sold more than 7 million copies in the U.S. alone.
• Emily Dickinson had only seven poems published in her lifetime.
• Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college. He was described as both “unable and unwilling to learn.” No doubt a slow developer.
• Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, was encouraged to find work as a servant by her family.
• William Saroyan accumulated more than a thousand rejections before he had his first literary piece published. Way to not take a hint, Bill!
• English crime novelist John Creasey got 753 rejection slips before he published 564 books.
• Jack London received six hundred rejection slips before he sold his first story.
• Charlie Chaplin was initially rejected by Hollywood studio chiefs because his pantomime was considered “nonsense.”

A Gut Bucket is a single-stringed musical instrument invented by early jazz and blues musicians who either didn’t have the money to afford an upright bass or found one too cumbersome to pack around.

Made from everyday items

It consists of an overturned washtub with a hole drilled in the middle of the bottom panel where a string - anchored to the bottom - passes through the hole and is attached to the end of a broom stick. The other end of the broom stick rests on the lip of the upside-down tub.

The player pulls at the stick toward him/her to tighten or loosen the string. The other hand plucks the string. This creates a bass sound.

Elvis had one in his band

The crude bass sound melded readily with the slide guitar, washboard, spoons and harmonica sound of the early blues and blue grass players. Muddy Waters, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis were in bands that featured the gut bucket. Sun Records impressario, Sam Phillips, sought that type of a bass sound when he first recorded Elvis Presley.

Gut buckets are found around the world, particularly in the choice of resonator, which is what the washtub is called. So here are some variation: “gas-tank bass,” “barrel bass,” “box bass” (Trinidad), “bush bass” (Australia), “babatoni” (South Africa) and many others.

The gut bucket sounds especially good when an actual “D” string for an upright bass is used. For better sound control a microphone is placed under the resonator (or beside it) which is then put through a good EQ.

I had one accompany me on many occasions.