August 28 2012

Consider This A Dropped Jewel: The Game Just Rewinds Edition

Here’s some interesting observations and recollections that Quincy Jones made about the music industry in his autobiography:

“But by and large beboppers were artists, proud, sensitive, intelligent people who practiced for hours and didn’t want to shuffle and entertain white folks anymore. They said, ‘We’re artists and want to be treated that way.’ You can imagine how that kind of attitude came off in the 40s & 50s- Black men and women talking that way. Forget it. That’s why so many turned to drugs.

These were the days when managers would sign an artist, record him, take a million dollar life insurance policy, record him, let the artist tour Vegas, record him again, then smoke him and collect the insurance.

At the first sign of Charlie Parker’s jones coming down at a recording session, they’d have him sign away all his composing, publishing, and artist’s royalties before they’d let in the dealer so that Bird could shoot up. Monk, Bird, Miles, Basie, nobody knew the business. Most of us sold our songs and publishing rights for peanuts to people who didn’t give a s*** about anything but money.”

[SIDEBAR: This is not the first time I posted this post. However, I think it's worth reposting. We must learn from our history! Everything moves in cycles.]

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Posted August 28, 2012 by Elsie Law in category "Books", "Dropped Jewel

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