Quitters.....

Reverend G-Money · #1 06-23-2005, 10:17 PM

ok, here's something... how many of you cats have had issues with a "quitter" that think the world revolves around him?? for example... we have 6 members (including the "singer", we'll call him that to keep it clean and PG-13)... and he actually had the cojones (think acorns or cashews... hahaha

) to tell us that it "wasn't the music that got us this far!!!!"......

hmmm.... so it was all up to the guy that got pissed off and treated us like crap, made a few phone calls, and burned MANY bridges over 5 years....

yet however, we manage to sell out shows, be treated like kings wherever we go (mad respect, honestly), and have people say things like "this was the best show i've seen", or "we came from150 miles away for this..."

but it wasn't the music.....

i'm glad he's gone....

(how's the text?? any Eng. Lit peeps wanna call me out????

)

Reverend G-Money · #2 06-23-2005, 10:56 PM

as a quick extension to this...

Music is a choice i made, i am individual with an individual talent. It is my choice to provide it to whomever i choose. You cannot compromise me or my abilities. i will be the first one to adapt to something new (as a bassist we all should), and put "myself" second should the proper situation arise..... but, we are a special breed. we did this for "fun" at first.. and you know what? some of us freakin excelled to points beyond our own imaginations.

NEVER give in. we are the GLUE in a box of wood pieces. We are the Jelly in a PB&J. We are the "light" in "you light up my life"...

Egos and attitudes will never replace heart and talent. Thank God we have the choice..

**john turner** · #3 06-23-2005, 10:59 PM

unfortunately i've had way too much experience babysitting and coddling these kinds of people.

Reverend G-Money · #4 06-23-2005, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by john turner

unfortunately i've had way too much experience babysitting and coddling these kinds of people.

dammit john, i have one bright moment and you.....

steveksux · #5 06-24-2005, 08:06 AM

Quote:

people say things like "this was the best show i've seen", or "we came from150 miles away for this..."

I've been in bands people should have drove 150 miles to get away from.... Back in my college days when I needed the money..

They were working full time 4-5 days a week. But they worked the crowd well, and developed a healthy following. Very successful.

Amazing how sometimes it ISN't actually the music that gets you that far. There's a connection with the crowd that's hard to quantify. People like what they like, but they don't know music. Sort of like blind people not being very good at choosing paintings. We sighted people don't understand the choices they make. Just as we musicians don't get what makes some bands popular when they clearly suck....

I'm not siding with your singer, by the way... just throwing out something I didn't figure out until years after I was out of that band.

I think as musicians we tend to look strictly at the music, and ignore everything else. There's a personality to a band, are you having fun, and look like it, tune selection, stage presence, etc. Good songs played "relatively" badly can beat "musician" songs played well.

Randy

**Thor** · #6 06-24-2005, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steveksux

Good songs played "relatively" badly can beat "musician" songs played well.

FREEBIRD!!!!

Hey G, that wasn't me it was the drunk behind me at the bar ...!

**john turner** · #7 06-25-2005, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reverend G-Money

dammit john, i have one bright moment and you.....

heh. i'm not talking about talkbass. heh

Reverend G-Money · #8 06-25-2005, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by john turner

heh. i'm not talking about talkbass. heh

....'nuff said....

JimmyM · #9 06-26-2005, 12:50 AM

I have a friend who was fond of saying, "You know how there's always one guy in a band who's a pain in the ass and never wants to do anything everyone else does and always screws up the progress of a band? Every band has one."

Yep, every band he was in had one because HE WAS THE GUY HE WAS TALKING ABOUT! This guy is still my friend but I'll never play in a band with him again.

Life is too short to play in a band with a douchebag. Unless of course he's the driving force behind the band. Then you can either quit or put up with it. I've done both.

Reverend G-Money · #10 06-26-2005, 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyM

I have a friend who was fond of saying, "You know how there's always one guy in a band who's a pain in the ass and never wants to do anything everyone else does and always screws up the progress of a band? Every band has one."

Yep, every band he was in had one because HE WAS THE GUY HE WAS TALKING ABOUT! This guy is still my friend but I'll never play in a band with him again.

Life is too short to play in a band with a douchebag. Unless of course he's the driving force behind the band. Then you can either quit or put up with it. I've done both.

you are on my level man... why compromise the ability/talent/fun times we can have. i think it's pointless. just cuz he "owns the van" doesn't mean he's Quincy-freakin-Jones or something...

fulcrum · #11 06-26-2005, 09:36 AM

I think in retrospect that I might be that guy... the one JimmyM speaks of. Well, maybe not him literally, I've never played with a Jimmy M. Still...

When it came time for me to put a band together, I wasn't looking to inhibit anyone's ability or talent-- or compromise the fun quotient. Of course I wanted that to be enhanced for everyone, but I recognized that there had to be certain parameters set-- a framework outside of which our music would cease to be our music. Whether it would have been better or worse was not the question for me-- it would have been different, and therefore not ours.

I thought I was willing to give everyone a wide berth, but when the guitarist started pushing for us to cover a standard or two, and the bassist and drummer were introducing ultra-funky and grungier stuff-- as much as I would have liked to incorporate those elements I couldn't see a way to do it. So I resisted... moreover I resisted in a very passive-aggressive way, by not really reacting. And if that turned anybody off, well, I was concerned, but only to a point.

I can see where that would have made other musicians walk away, and eventually that's what we all did. I'm still mates with the bassist and drummer, but I haven't seen the guitar player since, and it's been over ten years.

It could be that that framework was unsustainable because it was still too wide a playing field.
My autobiography, A Million And One Mistakes, will be hitting the bookstores shortly.

Just as soon as I finally figure out once and for all whether this really was one of them.