a2f2a

“I have about 40 covers of your song, and I downloaded them all from the net.”

That’s me to Jack Ely.

If his name doesn’t instantly ring a bell, unless you’ve been living under a rock all your life, you’ll recognize the song Jack and the Kingsmen made famous in the 60s,

It was Richard Berry’s 1955 Louie Louie, banned in Indiana and attacked by the FBI because of its supposedly indecent lyrics.

Actually, there was nothing wrong with the words. It was just no-one could understand them.

Since 1963, when Louie Louie was released with Jack on vocals, it’s been heard literally hundreds of millions of times around the world.  Even today, you can’t listen to a classic rock station without hearing the song at least once. And everyone and his brother has made a cover.

So he must be living in a palace, up to his eyeballs in money. Right?

But he and his wife live in a mobile home in Oregon’s desert country where Jack has a horse farm. Their income is based on her teacher’s pension, and his Social Security cheques. And as far as homes go, they’re still paying a mortgage.

I was talking to Jack because he’s signing up with a2f2a.com: he, too, believes it’s long gone time for artists to be talking to fans, and fans to be talking to artists.

Here’s what he has to say on copyright, artists’ payments, fans — and, of course, file sharing >>>

Back in the day, the only ones who thought record sales were very important were the record companies’ executives who made fantastic profits from artists whom they had signed to whopping three per cent (3%) contracts for ten to fifteen years. La ti da.

We artists thought of records as primarily promotion tools that we used to expand our audience base. In other words, with a current hit record an act could go from playing to 200 people on Friday and Saturday nights, to performing for 11,000 plus audiences six or seven nights a week depending on how much you wanted to work. Most of us had starved so long that we got in as many gigs as we could before the wave ran aground.

Then came along multi track recording. It changed the complexion of the record business because an artist didn’t have to be particularly good live to make a good recording. There were so many ways to doctor a recording that anyone with a good razor blade could end up sounding like the hottest diva ever. This however, was a detriment to the live audiences. They would go to concerts expecting to hear someone as good as they were on the records and find out that what they got was just mediocre. That was very disappointing to them.

Then came FM radio with its clear stereo signal. The FM stations soon found out that their advertisers would pay top dollar for audiences that would not skip from station to station so they started promoting listening to and recording entire albums. They would advertise at least a week in advance that on such a such a night at such and such a time a high profile artist’s album would be played all the way through and they invited everyone to set up their cassette recorders so they could record it at home and not have to buy it from a store. None of the artists complained because the records weren’t paying them squat and they were still making mega bucks from their live performances unless they couldn’t live up to their recordings, in which case the fans were better off recording them.

At this point I have to ask myself why the record companies and artists didn’t complain. The answer was and still is PROMOTION. The radio play was helping promote the live performances and after a fan had seen the act live and liked it, even though they might have previously recorded their music on tape, they would go purchase the album just to have a souvenir of the event.

So what changed the mindset of the artists and recording company executives? How did their roles get so undefined that they are resorting to constant complaining about something over which they have absolutely no control, Downloads?

Blah, blah, blah, complain, complain, complain! This is all the fan hears these days from the artists and recording companies. They are really starting to sound like a broken record, pardon the pun. Their complaining has become so constant in the ears of the fans that it is now just a big YAWN!

Can’t anyone just shut those greedy bastards up? They can’t stop file sharing so why don’t they just stop trying? And the biggy….Who cares!

Let’s face it people, file sharing is here to stay. There is nothing anyone can do about it. It is just a fact of life. The more the government tries to get involved, the sillier they look. In fact, if a file sharing entity is really aggressive about their company and they get shut down by the U.S. government, they can just license someone in China or Iran to run their site and tell the U.S. where to get off.

Are you listening Artists? Are you listening Recording Companies?

There is not one single thing you or anyone else can do to stop file sharing from the internet other than shut down the internet all together.

So, get it through your thick skulls, file sharing can’t be stopped, period. There is an idiom from many decades ago and it still rings true today. If you can’t fight them, join them.

Now that you’ve got that straight, what can be done about it to make everything fair for the artists and recording companies? Plenty. I would be remiss if I presented a problem and didn’t simultaneously present a solution, so here goes.

We have to get one thing straight first, though. These solutions only apply to artists who don’t have to rely on loops and punch-ins to make them sound good. These solutions apply to artists that can perform great in front of a live audience, because after all, records were originally made in order to preserve the essence of a live recording.

Now let’s get on with solutions. First, the artist and recording company have to agree to a partnership wherein the artist does his/her thing and the recording company becomes primarily a promotion agent. In other words, after the recording is made, the artist agrees to share the profits of his live gigs with the recording company and the recording company agrees to share the profits of music product sales with the artists. Got it people? Artists and Record Companies are now partners, not adversaries. Partners who share and share alike! And that means everything; writing, publishing, costs, everything. Look at it this way. The two really do need each other. A song unrecorded is just sitting there not making anyone a cent. An artist, just playing in his/her bedroom and occasionally playing a club, isn’t promoting their songs to very many people and won’t get known very easily or quickly that way. Your friends can only buy your song so many times before they get tired of the same ol’, same ol’.

Ok, ok, I’ll get back to the solutions. First, the Record Company might find it advantageous to contact a file sharing entity and run a banner ad on their site for one or more of their artists, thereby promoting those artists’ recordings and attracting people to download and become familiar with them and want to go see them in person. Yes?

Second, Artists and Recording Companies might partner on web sites and share the recordings there themselves, this way eliminating the need for file sharing sites, and becoming able to keep track of the number of hits a particular track gets. This kind of data is very valuable to promotion entities such as Recording Companies. They could then promote a show as having ‘XYZ, the most downloaded artist of the year’ or month or week, etc.

Third, Artists and Recording Companies can partner together on live gigs. I know, I know there are promoters and others involved, but just remember, if it weren’t for the Artists and Recording Companies, there wouldn’t be a gig at a large venue, so those local promoters just need to get over themselves. Also, if you want the biggest bang for your promotion buck you need to include a DJ or two in on the gig promotion. There is nothing, not any kind of advertising, which promotes live gigs faster than ‘buzz,’ and who creates the buzz in a local area? The DJ. So get one from the largest demographic station in the area which plays your genre, and ask him to join your little group. Remember one thing, in fact this should become the mantra for the entire industry, ‘20 PERCENT OF SOMETHING IS FAR GREATER THAN 90 PERCENT OF NOTHING.’ Repeat after me, ‘20 percent of something is far greater than 90 percent of nothing.’ Got it? Good.

One other thing.

Back in the day, I looked at the competition and thought about what I would want if I was going to a show/dance. I realized that the most important thing was to have the largest crowd. I saw that having 300 people show up to something in a 1500 person capacity dance hall wasn’t much fun. So, I started throwing 99 cent dances. Sure enough, those paying $1.25 somewhere else would prefer to come to a .99 dance. Consequently the places were packed, everyone had a wonderful time, and my band became known as the one that had the biggest parties and could draw the most people. What a deal. I realize that those prices seem ridiculous by today’s standard, but the point is that if you give the public a deal, they will come almost every time. They love a deal.

I’m sure there are many other ways you can think of to come up with self enhancing partnerships that will promote your careers. It’s time to start focusing on what can be done instead of whining about file sharing which you can do nothing about. So remember, ‘20 percent of something is far greater than 90 percent of nothing’ and go for it. If you work hard together, don’t succumb to discouragement and are persistent, there is nothing you can’t accomplish, together.

Thanks, Jack.

And Oh Yeh. The guaranteed genuine lyrics to Louie Louie, from Jack himself?

Chorus:

Oh no, sayin’ we gotta go

Me find little girl, she waits for me

Me never think how I may get home

Chorus:

Three nights and days I sail the sea

I smelled the rose, ah, in her hair

Chorus:

Me see Jamaica the moon above

I’ll tell her I’ll never leave her again

Chorus:

I said, me gotta go now

Let’s go!

Now you know

Click here for the original Louie Louie. Jack points out Lynn Easton is lip syncing to his [Jack's] voice in the video. Under it is Jack as he is today, singing Louie Louie to a horse.

Honest!

Stay tuned.

Jon Newton