#ik someone who did his paid writing program

[charmac]

wait did other things happen with rob other than that tweet? I actively avoid hearing about him except on tumblr so I’m out of the loop but I’m also deeply nosy lol

Idk if anything else publicly happened with him recently, I just know more than one of his employees from his company, More Better, has quit, seemingly on bad terms with Rob.

(Nothing to do with Sunny at all, which is a unionized workplace and hires under Disney/FX. I've only ever heard great things about the work environment there, as recently as from Season 16 extras)

[justjessame]

Diamonds Are A Boy’s Best Friend Chapter 23

My triumph over my father was short lived.  While I had flashes of rage, always seemingly directed at him, he had the expertise and thrust to watch pain flash across his prey's face.  The next afternoon, as I lay sunning myself on the lounge chair he’d been reclining in while I told him the darkest fantasy I’d ever entertained, I could hear him talking to Bel as his barber trimmed his hair.  

I heard them mention ‘Doug’ and ‘Judi Silver’, but nothing really caught me as all that interesting.  He waxed on about some television program ‘Queen for a Day’ and why the woman playing some game wouldn’t win, even though she had a traumatic and heart rending backstory.  Her dental work was lacking.  So insightful, I thought, flipping to the next page.  

He had other visitors, men who came and went.  Some handing him envelopes, some chatting for a moment or two and rushing away.  I paid no mind.  It wasn’t my business and I didn’t feel like participating.  

I felt too warm to be comfortable after hours in the sun, but as I stood up, he called me to him.  I knew that he would goad me about something I didn’t know, but I had no idea that he was planning on planting the largest seed of doubt inside of me yet.

“Elizabeth, you’re looking very parched.”  He gestured to an uncomfortable looking Bel, and the cigar chomping man stood to grab me a drink.  “Seltzer water, Bel, my daughter hasn’t been feeling well.  Have a seat, sweetheart, something just arrived that I think you need to see.”

I sat down with a sigh, but was pleased that I was in the shade now.  I felt even better when Bel handed me an iced glass of the bubbly water that I was forced to drink, if only to be able to keep it down a little longer than anything else.  He dismissed Bel, who shot  me a look of regret as he left.  

“Now, I want you to know, Liz, that I didn’t set out to catch Ike in this position.”  I waited, taking a sip of my drink, thinking that his act of contrition was getting a tad better.  “Here,” he handed me a manila envelope.  “These were taken earlier, and processed fast because of what my guy witnessed.  I'm sorry you have to see this, Elizabeth.”  So sorry that you look like you're ready to burst into giggles, I thought.

Flipping open the flap, I pulled out the snapshots and felt my world spinning.  It wasn’t because he was meeting with Meg Bannock.  I knew he’d made a deal with her, so being in her company was to be expected, but one snapshot in particular cut me like a knife.  It was Ike, holding open a towel, as the consecutive shots showed just like he had for me at the Miramar pool.  

“I never imagined that Isaac used the same bait for every woman he wanted to catch.”  Was he impressed?  “You have to admit, Liz, that looks very familiar.”  

I swallowed down the feeling of my water coming up for as long as I could, but tossing the photos down, I had to rush to the nearest washroom.  And as the last soda crackers and the seltzer water burned its way back out, I felt like I couldn’t trust anyone.

It felt like I’d only been on my bed for minutes, but I could hear the rain pattering on the window when I opened my eyes and realized it was hours later.  Thinking the rain woke me, I rolled over and realized it was the knocking on my door that yanked me from the only peace I had.  I considered ignoring it, I did, but then Lily’s voice called for me and she sounded desperate.

“Liz?”  I wanted to know what she’d offer before I opened the door.  “It’s about Ike.”  Oh, is that all?  I started to settle back into my pillow, but her next words chilled me to the bone.  “He’s been taken into custody.”  

When I came down the stairs, Lily hot on my heels, I could hear my father in his office.  He was celebrating, because of course he was.  I steeled myself against the onslaught that he was undoubtedly ready to launch at me and walked in with my head high and my back straight.  

“Ah, there she is, my darling daughter Elizabeth.”  He gestured to the chair in front of his desk and I realized we were alone again.  No Lily, no henchmen, just the two of us.  A private torture session then.  

“Lily tells me Ike was arrested,” said as though I was tearing off a bandage.  “I guess you’re ready to gloat now?”  

He nodded, smiling bright.  “The King is dead, sweetheart, long live the King.”  I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.  “They handcuffed your darling Isaac and read the charge of first degree murder out in front of a team from CBS before his pitch even began, but never fear Liz, because his wonderful wife was there to save the day.”  Another slice, more internal bleeding.  “Are you alright, sweetheart?”  He was studying me, looking for a crack, but I said nothing.  “I realized, Elizabeth, a tiny flaw in my plan for you and Ike.”  I waited, my eyes never leaving him.  “Our last name.  You see, Vera was a showgirl,which is a hard enough sell for the upper crust.  But you?  You’re a DIAMOND.  That last name, the implications of your ‘associations’, you’re not as perfect as I thought.  Our name is infamous, clearly NOT good enough to marry and act as the queen to his tiny kingdom.’  Slice, cut, stab.  “If you want, I can find someone to take care of your ‘little’ problem.”  His eyes glanced at my still flat abdomen.  “No man wants spoiled goods, Liz.”  

I stood up and turned to go.  I didn’t have to sit through any more.  And I refused to let him see how deeply he’d cut me.

“You’ll let me know,” he called at my retreating back.  “The world doesn’t need another Evans.”  

Lily wasn’t far off, probably eavesdropping.  “You.”  I pointed at her and gestured for her to follow me upstairs where I grabbed my purse and a pad of paper.  “Write down Sy Berman’s number on this.” I thrust it into her hands and tossed her a pen.  “It’s time I spoke to my bubbe.”  

[startswithat-blog]

Nov 11

happy remembrance day i guess

long time no type, well 3 days but still a few things have happened since we last talked to end off the last post i opened it and he said something along the lines of not now in the future which idk if im hyped about or weirded out but it'll do for now

so yesterday was the big night i ate twoish steaks, showered thinking the night was going to end with me high with some new friends but nope plans went south and im still kinda pissed about it

where to begin okay I was supposed to finally meet T get high with him and his friends and bri was supposed to come with, he friend was supposed to come and we’d go to a party after 

buttt no the friend and party cancelled but hanging at res was still on bri gets into bed i tell her dont fall asleep we need to go she said shell get ready at 9 i get up  to shower at 8:30 i go back down and shes sleeping and im trying my hardest to get her out of bed but nobody can get her to do what she doesnt want to do 

she was all excited for the party but now that its cancelled it doesnt matter about our plans shes all of the sudden exhausted i tried for 30 mins and she starts getting rude and kicking me literally off her bed and i eventually give up and im pissed i say then dont talk to me about anything

all the while T’s snapping me telling me, looking forward to me coming and i had to bail on him bc shes deciding that tonights the night she wants to be a selfish bitch

let me tell you now weve had these plans festering for a week 

and as much i hate to admit care about what people think to an extent so when people are waiting for me expecting me to be somewhere no matter what ill be there unless soemthing serious happens

if i say im gonna do something ill do it yet sis cant say the same

i was pissed and T was snapping me during telling me that we cant not come he already paid for us and in this moment knowing that weve had plans that she said she was gonna commit to people relying on expecting her people have already paid for her this bitch still doesn't come that got me pissed i literally prayed i wouldnt choke her out and hate her forever and swore to myself that i wasnt going to talk to her again

this might be an extra reaction in your eyes yet the true tea is shes done this before frosh week all over again we buy these 40$ braceleet which were just a waste of money bc we didnt go bc she didnt want to and yes ik what youre thinking i couldve went alone then and i couldve went alone now but you know what i suffer from anxiety i

its not as severe i dont think but im uncomfortable in situations where i dont know anyone and its not like i couldve drank to get comfortable bc there was no booze at the parties

but this time i wouldnt have mattered if i was comfortable or not we had plans and she broke them (”you went and broke our lives” a quote from the lovers dictionary i thought of) so with or without the anxiety im still pissed imagine having palns that you and others are looking forward to just for them to get cancelled at the last minute it sucks and when someones being a bitch and acting like theyve done nothing wrong makes it even worse

oh yeah not only are all the people who were expecting us mad, i looked bad and i had to pay him back FOR WEED I DIDNT EVEN SMOKE, MONEY I DIDNT HAVE FOR WEED I DIDNT SMOKE i went to bed not high no new ffriends and pissed one of the worst saturdays to date

the only extra thing that i did yesterday waas believe that we werent gonna speak againa nd that id move

i want to move but im not because she doesnt want to but you know what next semester im leaving whether shes coming or not

its not a product of this i based my living situation completely off of her and where she was going but the tea is the people are weird and its too far especially through the winter

i woke up this morning still mad but as ive proably not mentioned i cant hold a grudge for long not because i have a big heart or whatever but atleast i think because i never could with my mother and it programmed me somehow

im not talking to her and get this im snapping T all about this and he tells me that she snapped me saying sorry and that i wasnt talking to her like ur not gonna apologize but snapping T is gonna change something i was pissed and said her feelings have nothing to do with mine which is the truth i mean i didnt do anything wrong

anyway she comes out and apologizes to me i say whatever ask her if shes paid him back she says she will

i mean i dont think im overreacting it was a shtty thing to do 

soso were talking but im being dry, i mean i want to forgive her and i mostly have but idk it just showed me you cant rely on people 

T’s telling me its fine and i should forget about it and let it go but i wanted to go and the fact that she did killed it for me

now as mad as i was and might sttill be i cant help but to think that maybe eveything happens for a reason i wasnt meant to meet him that night 

i remeber how pissed she was when i accidentally took her case and that was an accident this was purposeful and didnt think how this would effect me it was selfish point blank i think im just pissed that i paid for weed that i didn't smoke and that on tp of eveything she still tells me to clean the bathroom thats also gotta stop her telling me what to do i moved out of my moms house  and i dont plan on returning full time yet here i am

writing about it makes me calm down and i think im gonna forgive i just felt betrayed thats all

i still want to move if not december next semester whther shes coming or not i probably shouldve lived on res or went to trent but whats done is done cant go backwars only ahead 

all that shit aside i spent the day doing absolutely nothing and having another meltdown about how my life was pointless and meaningless and i dont know what im doing with it or where its going so i spent it watching old movies god i wish i knew what my purpose was then i could work towards it and not feel worthless

B went to a meeting almost three hour ago she texted me asking if i was okay and idk why shed ask im not the one outside the house and then her phone ddies 

to be continued

[flauntpage]

RADIO WARS – Some Thoughts on the Changes at 94 WIP

94 WIP didn’t waste any time finding a replacement for Chris Carlin, who is headed back to New York to take over for the retiring Mike Francesa as part of a two-man and one-woman team.

Carlin got on the radio for a few minutes yesterday to confirm his departure, then turned it over to Jon Marks, the evening host who will now do afternoon drive alongside Ike Reese for the foreseeable future. Joe Giglio will take over Marks’ nighttime slot.

I didn’t listen to a lot of Carlin and Reese in that 2 to 6 p.m. slot, but I wouldn’t say I “disliked” the show. It just sort of existed.

Did Carlin’s New York roots bother listeners? I don’t know, but Angelo Cataldi and Jim Gardner aren’t from Philly and they made out okay. Difference is that those guys have been here forever and have their loyal audience, like Mike Missanelli, who was Chris and Ike’s competition at 97.5 the Fanatic. It’s always going to be tough to compete in that time slot, whether it’s Ike, Jon, Carlin, or anybody.

WIP finally had some stability in afternoon drive after going from the Glen Macnow and Anthony Gargano lineup, to the Gargano and Rob Ellis lineup, to the Josh Innes and Tony Bruno lineup, to the Innes and Spike Eskin and Hollis Thomas lineup, to the blah blah blah, you get the point.

But ratings are good for WIP. They’re very good. They’re winning every slot in the key demographics (aka men) except for 2 to 6.

That said, I thought they might stick with Marks in evenings, if only for the recency of his hire (February) and the newness of the Sixers post-game show that he had been hosting. Marks was in the early stages of building something through the station’s beefed up Sixers coverage, a strategy that seems to be successful even without holding the team’s broadcast rights. My guess was that the station’s veteran personalities, guys like Jody Mac, Ricky Ricardo, Glen Macnow, and Ray Didinger, might serve as a rotating cast of co-hosts for Ike until the station was ready to make a permanent hire. That wasn’t the case. Apparently Marks was in the plans for some time.

But even though Jon is coming from the evening show, he has experience in every other time slot dating back to his 97.5 days. He produced Missanelli’s show before taking an on-air midday role alongside Sean Brace. That evolved into a morning show gig with Anthony Gargano, who marginalized Marks and dominated the microphone. So Jon is familiar with important time periods, just not at WIP.

As for Giglio, I think Joe is the most underrated host in Philadelphia.

I really do.

Nobody does more prep than he does. He just watches more sports than anybody else. Baseball, football, college, etc., guy is an encyclopedia. His show is very straightforward. No bullshit, none of the “who is the toughest Philly athlete of all time?” crapola, none of that.

And his takes are fresh, too. Joe was one of the first people to really to go to bat for Doug Pederson as a head coach and play caller when everybody else was ripping him:

-454 yards -39:18 T.O.P. -26 first downs -214 yards rushing -Poised in the 4th

Wake up, haters. Doug Pederson is doing a very good job.

— Joe Giglio (@JoeGiglioSports) October 1, 2017

Joe writes for NJ.com and also does some radio in New York, so I don’t know if those roles continue. He’s covered a lot of shifts at WIP and usually fills in seamlessly. Joe has worked some shitty and inconsistent hours, so he’s certainly paid his dues. He’s extremely baseball savvy, which makes him a perfect fit for the “Leading Off” Phillies pre-game show, as well as post-game coverage.

That leaves a combination of guys to cover nights and weekends, like Rob Charry, Hollis Thomas, Howard Eskin, Jon Johnson, Andrew Porter, Marc Farzetta, Jolly, Roob, Vince Quinn, and the BGN Radio guys. I think Glen and Ray on weekend mornings is the best show on local radio, so sue me. Rich Zeoli from 3 to 6 is a close second.

But does a Marks/Reese pairing move the needle during afternoon drive? I don’t know. I don’t know if anybody competes with Mikey Miss in that time period, but Mike has seemed a little tired and disinterested lately, so maybe you just wait it out here. Play the attrition game and win the other slots. WIP also has to consider Angelo Cataldi’s eventual retirement.

And all of that should wait anyway, since the Entercom merger seems to FINALLY be taking place. I mean, that news was first announced when I still worked at CBS 3, which was more than a year and a half ago. This week, CBS Radio employees finally received information regarding benefit transition, so it appears we’re getting closer to completion.

I don’t know too much about the new bosses that will be overseeing WIP, WPHT, WOGL, and the rest of the cluster. Are they big on sports? Do they have an eye for talent? Will Spike be green-lighted for hirings and firings, or will that responsibility go to someone else? I don’t know. 94 WIP does the highest “billing” (money making) out of any of those stations, so I’m working under the assumption that the focus will be directed there. It’ll also be interesting to see whether Eyewitness News and WIP continue their relationship since they’ll no longer be “sister stations” under CBS ownership. We weren’t allowed to put 97.5 talent on channel 3 for obvious reasons, but WIP personalities were allowed to go wherever they wanted. I always found that one-way street annoying, if understandable.

As far as The Fanatic, I think they’re doing some positive things over there. Mike is Mike. I think Harry Mayes and Jason Myrtetus are a solid combination on the midday show. I honestly haven’t listened to much of the Cuz lately, so I will abstain on judging Bob Cooney’s addition. I enjoy Devon Givens’ Sixers post-game shows and I think Geoff Mosher does a nice job as well on various time slots.

WIP will have new owners while 97.5 adds a new program director, Eric Johnson, so it’s somewhat of a new beginning for each station.

Also, I know he’s happy in Atlanta and isn’t coming home, but I’d still like to see a John Kincade return. I think he’d really push Mike on afternoon drive.

John has always been ahead of the curve with the idea that Philly sports talk falls back on rudimentary “crutch” topics. He did the Crossing Streams podcast with Kyle last year and elaborated on that:

“What (program directors) want to do is ‘Bill from Roxborough,’ ‘Joe from Fishborough,’ – pound calls and everything. There’s no talent in that. You have to entertain. You have to inform. You have to engage in debate. I don’t take one phone call, ever, in my entire career, where I’m taking a survey: ‘Call up and tell us your favorite Phillies moment!’ I hear this crap all the time and I immediately turn it off. ‘Who is the worst Eagles coach of all time?!’ Really? You got out of bed this morning and you’re taking a paycheck and that’s what you come up with? That’s lazy ass radio. It really is.”

I listened to John’s show when I lived in Atlanta for a few months. It’s good. There’s more.. I don’t know, “purpose” in the way it’s produced and delivered. You don’t get the sense that he walks into the station wearing sweatpants and does five seconds of prep before jumping on the microphone. John’s a pro, one of the fewer “big names” out there with a local connection.

Anyway, it feels like the halcyon days of Josh Innes, Andy Bloom, and Matt Nahigian are long gone.

It’s the dawn of a new RADIO WARS era.

    RADIO WARS – Some Thoughts on the Changes at 94 WIP published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[claudecat17]

Bobby Bland and Duke Records

Bobby "Blue" Bland. A name that people of a certain degree of seasoning (and of a brownish hue) may well recognize, but someone whose music has fallen between the cracks, unheard or unknown by many fair-complected Americans. Today we'll delve into this unduly ignored by the general populace singer and the record label that he made famous and profitable.

Robert Brooks was born in rural Tennessee to a cotton farm-dependent, broken family. Raised mainly by his mother and eventually taking his stepfather's last name, Bobby's mom moved what was left of the immediate family to the big city (Memphis), wisely realizing the lack of opportunity in their situation. Before long young Bobby, who dropped out of what little schooling he'd had by age 10 and was illiterate evermore, began finding his path, singing in church to immediate acclaim.

His future was set in stone, especially when Bland began running with some fellas of like age and mind on and around the famed Beale Street. It's amazing in retrospect how many of this young group of musically inclined yet unschooled friends went on to musical fame, if not fortune. B.B. King, Rosco Gordon, Junior Parker and Johnny Ace, among others, became known as the Beale Streeters, all jumping on any available stage and developing a following with their fellow countrified city-dwellers.

It was King that first found success, with a radio show on Memphis's WDIA, the first station ever to switch to all-black DJ's and music programming. Before long the station grew to be a 50,000 watt flamethrower, heard throughout the south and into the midwest, on clear nights into most of the contiguous USA, sowing the seeds of the R&B-into-rock and roll revolution.

The Beale Streeters, buoyed by King's success (1949's "Miss Martha Brown" did not chart but was enough to win King tour dates from coast to coast), were soon in the recording studio themselves, often involving Sam Phillips of soon to be Sun Records and Elvis fame. Ike Turner plays into all this as well, but we’ll try to keep things in focus.

1950, still in Memphis.

Bobby Bland recorded his first sides in 1950, at age 20, in Phillips' studio. They did not sell. In fact, it would be several more years, including a stint in the Army, before Bland would find any success as a recording artist or gain a following as a touring act. Meanwhile, he honed his craft and bided his time, doing valet and driver work for his fellow Beale Streeters, Junior Parker especially. Despite illiteracy, Bland could always fall back on driving as a means of self-support, having obtained a license (somehow) at a relatively young age.

Even after Bland's first big hit, 1957's R&B chart-topper "Farther Up the Road" (Eric Clapton would change this title to “Further On Up The Road” later on, and rarely credit Bland, as he was not a guitar player), he continued touring in partnership with Parker, still driving and setting up the PA and lots of other menial chores. Not until the early 1960's would he finally become a star big enough to end this humiliating (yet still friendly) arrangement.

But we're getting ahead of the story here. In late 1952, Bland had signed with the (temporarily) Memphis-based Duke label. Duke was at first a small operation, soon to be run by the driven and avaricious Houston, Texas black entrepreneur Don Robey. Early in the game, however, Robey was smart enough to hire one Evelyn Johnson, who not only took care of many of the Duke business details but also started the soon to be huge Buffalo Booking Agency. Johnson was the secret sauce that made all the Beale Streeters, and eventually dozens, hundreds of other black acts of mostly southern origin major touring attractions.

Evelyn Johnson was really a fascinating behind the scenes player, and had more than a cameo role in the story of how R&B coalesced into first rock and roll and then into what was eventually called soul music. She developed contacts with every club, theater, juke joint or any other venue throughout the black entertainment world, kept the artists happy and even somewhat profitable as they bused the back roads of the Jim Crow south, kept the books, paid the artists, and most importantly insured that the show went on no matter what.

Don Robey and Evelyn Johnson

Breakdown in Biloxi? She'd figure it out and the show would go on the next night. Fellas in jail in Tuscaloosa? Evelyn to the rescue, by wire and/or telephone. While Don Robey sat back and collected almost all the profits from the records being sold, Johnson took care of his bookkeeping while making an actual living (not a killing like Robey, who was credited as a songwriter on virtually every Duke record despite being tone deaf) with her booking agency. Nobody got rich but Robey.

Duke Records had originally been started by white WDIA program director David Mattis. However, within a year Robey, who had begun his record moguling career with his Houston-based Peacock Records, managed to wrest control and inhale the whole shebang into the ever-growing Duke/Peacock empire, making it the most successful black-owned record company ever, at least until Motown came along several years later. Everyone moved to Texas, despite mostly living on the road.

It took a few years for Duke to really get going in a big way. Johnny Ace was the big star and most consistent seller early on (he died from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound to the noggin in 1954, leading to huge posthumous sales), but as the 50's came to a close it was Junior Parker, then Bobby Bland that would begin making things extra-profitable for the money-hungry Robey. By the early 60's, Duke was a powerhouse of a label, selling more records than almost all other independents. Maybe Atlantic sold more in certain years...

The difference was that Duke sold almost exclusively to blacks. If you were white it was hard to even find a Duke record, as they were stocked only in stores on the wrong side of the tracks. Had their distribution been better, there's no telling how many of the Duke titles that scraped the regular Top 40 might have been bigger. Atlantic and Motown never had that problem. Duke was strictly a chitlin’ circuit operation, and proud of it.

Bobby’s album covers were a hoot!

Which brings us back to Bobby "Blue" Bland. Such an unheralded and important artist. A guy that had R&B chart hits every single year from 1957 through the early 1980's. A guy that never really crossed over to the more lucrative white audience, unlike his buddy B.B. King or some of the rawer blues artists that played guitars. A guy that, making just a half a cent per record in royalties (with all touring and recording, possibly Robey’s gardening expenses too, deducted from same), had to tour incessantly for the better part of 50 years to even pay his bills (mostly back taxes). And one of the greatest performers ever.

It's hard to describe Bland's style. Was it blues? Was it R&B? Was it jazz? Was it soul? Gospel? All of the above really. Bland took the blues, added Joe Scott's jazzy, almost big band arrangements and some churchy sounding songs (nobody knows who really wrote many of 'em despite Robey or one his pseudonyms appearing on most), and sang the shit out of 'em.

For my money “soul” music starts here. Ray Charles was R&B/jazz with gospel elements. This new-fangled blues with horns and deep gospel vocals stuff that Bland was recording (and selling!) is what led to Otis Redding and all the rest of the really good stuff. Stax. Real soul music. Motown was more pop-oriented. The Supremes? C’mon...

Bobby wasn't a screamer. He didn't move around on stage. He didn’t play an instrument or write songs. He wasn't a pretty boy like Sam Cooke, nor did he pander to the crossover audience like him. He was pure soul, pure blues, pure Bobby. He exuded sepia class, and let the subtleties and dynamics of his powerful vocal cords do the rest. It’s the voice, and the demeanor, the look.

By the mid-60's he was as big a sex symbol as existed for adult black women, especially in the south. They bought anything Bobby released and attended every show they could, always dressed to the nines. A Bobby Bland show was a major happening, a chance for the whole community (get the womenfolk, and the menfolk gotta come too) to come together outside the confines of church. Where there was booze. Maybe throw some panties at Bobby. Good times!

The original Duke 45′s looked pretty cool too.

Bland's longevity was pretty amazing. He may not have ever sold huge numbers of units, but his core audience, while they were still alive anyway, was intensely loyal. Even towards the end of his life (he died in 2013 at age 83) he was playing to decent sized audiences and making fairly strong records in the old style more or less. He had a few unfortunate years during and after the disco era, some truly bizarre record covers with scantily clad white women on 'em and lots of strings behind the vocals on sappy tunes, but eventually he came to his senses and realized where his biscuits were buttered.

Duke? Well, ol' Don Robey sold that shit off in 1973 to the ABC/Dunhill weasel factory for a cool million. A pittance, but at the time who knew that a niche market of people would come to their senses and begin to value music on musical terms? Today that catalog of songs and recordings is probably worth hundreds of times that one mill. The ABC (now MCA) weasels have certainly flooded the reissue market, almost yearly, since then.

All the better reason to ingest the best of this stuff via YouTube. The only ones that ever made any cash off this stuff were Robey and then the other, paler weasels. And before we start getting all judgmental on ol' Don, you've gotta realize that, at the time, everyone was doing the screw the artist/songwriter thing. Often the songwriters wanted immediate cash, not royalties. Ka-ching! Robey was no fool...

He may have been more audacious, possibly a bit of a wise guy about it at times (he often flaunted a pistol when asked about royalties by underlings), but people who really knew him almost all say that he wasn't a bad guy. Don Robey just liked his cash is all, and knew how the system worked. Evelyn Johnson even married the guy (according to her - no records exist), and she was revered by all.

For my money Dick Clark was a much bigger sleazeball when it came to record business shenanigans. Or the much-lauded, highly corrupt and mobbed-to-the-hilt Alan Freed. Clark was worse though, because the payola chasers let him get away with it. He was too white-bread dreamy to go down in ignominy. But that's a story for another day...

--------------------------------

So, YouTube, and Bobby. Got off track there for a minute. Here's Bobby's first hit, a tune well known by fans of the watered-down white-boy blues. Clapton heard "further", which really is what Bobby sings, but the label said "Farther". Guitar on this is by Pat Hare, whose story is worthy of its own post. From a 78! Sounds awesome:

And here's my all time fave Bobby tune. Love the guitar, which is played here by the fabulous Wayne Bennett, who was with his band for decades on and off. Here's the classic Bobby Bland sound, lots of horns, everything fitting together nice and tight. Drummer Jabo Starks would leave shortly after this to play with James Brown on several of his seminal funk records:

Wait, I can’t close this out without foisting Bobby’s biggest hit. Maybe you know this one by way of the Grateful Dead or Them or any number of other hideous covers. The mono version heard here is the real thing. Beware the inferior stereo:

-------------------------------- Link to past posts, faster than the top-right icon thingie: https://disqus.com/home/forum/claudecatsplace/recent/ --------------------------------