While being locked up for six months here in my condo in West Palm Beach because of Covid 19 I watched a lot of music documentaries, “Twenty Feet From Stardom,” “The Wrecking Crew” “Muscle Shoals” and the one about The Funk Brothers at Motown.
Being originally from the music business and having a few records out myself before I got into radio, I found the documentaries extremely interesting. What I really enjoyed was hearing all the inside comments made by the unsung heroes of the music biz, the folks who backed up the stars.
However, what I found most surprising about the recording industry, the only people making money while recording, are the backup singers and musicians.The stars don’t make a cent unless the tune is a hit.
I didn’t realize, though, was that Ral got paid to sing those songs; the King didn’t.
They neglected to mention that most records don’t make any money, but the background singers and musicians always got paid.
Most background singers and players don’t step out front because of the financial risk involved, not to mention the great money they make while standing twenty feet from stardom.
Bigness is the result of doing many small things.
I find it amazing that even though thousands of people in America have died from Covid 19, the FDA took a 4 day Thanksgiving weekend instead of working on the approvals for 3 vaccines. Another one of the many reasons you can’t let the government be in charge of anything.
Information scarcity is now a rarity.
The one place that women are definitely equal is as an executive for a giant corporation; they’re all pricks.
The more praise you give, the more of it you receive.
Jed Duvall: George, another of the great lessons that you and Jim taught me along the way at WIBC-AM was that if there was a personnel problem that could not be fixed within the station that was jeopardizing the “Plan,” no matter how inconvenient it was for the staff and me, the program director, take care of the problem immediately. Don’t string it along; orchestrate it out to make excuses while waiting to hire the right person for a replacement. Root out the problem, terminate the employee if rehabilitation (or retraining) is out of the question. Then hire the best available “athlete” for the role, be it the weekend person or whomever…because there are always good coachable people if you look hard enough. You and Jim also taught me by example to make a list and build a “recruitment” file to cultivate talent. I won’t say that every decision I made was great, but my batting average was better than Ted Williams (.406). (The Big One)
Geo: I can’t even imagine it, John.
We think it is great that you could help your dad get through college; we know this is a big accomplishment for him. You are a hard-working gal with so many talents, but he’ll need all the help he can get. Good luck. (Camera Graduates)George, Tim Moore here. Jake Hoot from “The Voice” has been on one of our client stations’ sales team. Great guy, and the team there felt that he would win it all. (It’s The Song Man!)
Geo: I can see the look on the client’s faces when he’s making cold calls; Tim, what a hoot. Oh, I’m sorry. 🙂
You know, I hired Jack in Memphis and Dallas with that magic phone machine he had. It seemed to work and temporarily put lipstick on a ratings pig (In Dallas anyway). Thinking back, I had my reservations about the machine but just wanted to spend time with Jack as he would come to town regularly for checkups and consulting the contest. Truly one of the most interesting guys I have ever known. But then again, so are you, but I would find you even more interesting if you buy me lunch soon! (My Friend Jack)
Bruce Walker: Excellent blog George. I still remember Chuck and Daryl recording our first record at CKY. I really liked both of them. It’s funny but what really sticks out in my mind was Chuck wrapping tape around the center of the recording tape reel to make the recording sound better. I don’t remember how it helped, but the London records guy was impressed. (What The F**k Happened To My FU Account?)
Thank you, George, for being a truly awesome friend to Bob Thomas. Your words of wisdom inspire me. (First, ya gotta get noticed)
Geo: You worked us all very well, Doug. I still remember that great rating book you gave me when I first arrived in Toronto, from it came my first happy ending.
(I just got word that Doug has passed, rest in peace old friend, I miss you already. 🙁 )
I was one of about two or three people at an afternoon theater showing of “Twenty Feet From Stardom” when it was released in 2013 🙂 Loved it. Especially Merry Clayton’s description of her being called for L.A. backup work on “Gimme Shelter.,” and gaving no clue why, or why the Rolling Stones would want her!
“The Wrecking Crew, ” one of MY all time favorites too. I’ll add one similar suggestion to your pandemic viewing list: “Standing In The Shadows of Motown.”
Bill Gardner: I agree. Standing in the shadows of Motown is a wonderful film that finally paid tribute to the real stars of Motown: The “Funk Brothers” band that were the backbone of all the Motown hits. They played on more # 1 records than the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Beach Boys combined!