Don’t die with the music still in you … a response

“Don’t die with the music still in you”.  This was a recent blog on Starts at Sixty and being a muso caught my attention. Musicians especially pop, rock and blues are some the most exploited people on the planet.

The pubs are full of pop wannabe’s that never made it and of course they can’t.  Only so many artists, good or bad can be marketed, especially in Australia with such a small population.

Failed pop artists unless they can change are the most venerable as they are exploitable only whilst they are young, and the music appeals generally to the young. A twenty five year old pop performer is considered ancient. I knew many when I was younger, most of them are dead or wasting away with little interest in life wondering what happened. Hard work outside of their world is rare.

Rock performers always seem to prevail.  The guitar man always finds another place to play. I have long time friends whom have rolled with the punches and still work as hard at it as they did decades ago; they seem to be happy and not afraid of a bit of hard work outside of the realms of music.

The prevalence is in the blues, it takes many years to master blues skills and mix them with rock and soul influence.  Many of these people even if only local heroes prevail beyond all. I have seldom seen a young master blues harp player or guitarist the likes of Phil Manning. Even the most respected and affluent work along side their craft or they would not survive.

I agree, don’t die with the music still in you. People with musical goals seldom state the major influence as money. It’s just a green slip of paper that yields survival, the rest is how happy you are with your achievements.

If not for money and exploitation, Elvis Presley would still be alive in some blues bar scraping a living from his craft. Chuck Berry was a master of avoiding the destructive influence of money and exploitation, he this weekend will play somewhere we don’t know, it’s not important to him that we don’t know, as long as he finds another place to play and some inspiring people to play with. It’s in him and it’s got to come out.

Have you got a muso in you?  How do you let it get out?

Brian Cain.