The Care and Feeding of a Musician

“Musicians Must Eat” seems an obvious statement.

Just because some of the greatest music and other works of art were produced when their creators were starving, unloved and living in a garret, doesn’t mean that creativity only thrives in similar conditions.

It is true that a number of the World’s greatest musicians lived that way and some died young too, so there is no way of knowing how much greater they could have become if they had been well fed, nurtured and free from economic insecurity.

It should be taken for granted that musicians should aim for economic stability first and then let their creative talents blossom.

When my late musician friend Screamin’ Jay Hawkins couldn’t get work at all when the Beatles hit America in 1964. Back then, when he had no money, he wrote a song called “Poor Folks” that included these lines:

Poor folks are poor wearing hand-me-down clothes,
Fighting starvation, in and out of doors,
Talked the landlord, ‘Ain’t got a Cent
Need to get a gig to pay you the rent

A few months later Van Morrison, Alan Price and Nina Simone all brought out versions of a song called “I Put A Spell On You” that Jay had written back in 1949 and the royalties started rolling in. Fortunately he had never sold the copyright and even today, other artists are still recording “Spell”. It is currently being used in a TV commercial.

Thanks to his old composition, after a long period of being penniless, he was soon living in Hawaii in a nice house and his song writing actually got much better. He wrote some of his best stuff like “Constipation Blues”, and “Feast of the Mau Mau” when he was living in comfortable surroundings.

You don’t have to be poor to be a creative musician.

The general belief is that by “Going Commercial” and playing what the public wants, or even what the musicians think the public wants, they will be successful financially. Sometimes it takes more and it can be frustrating for the musicians too as they feel they are playing beneath their capabilities.

“Going Commercial” can also attract scorn from other musicians – one famous old time trumpet player was said to play with his tongue in his cheek and his heart in bank.

But playing good commercial music that pleases the public is an art of its own and can be achieved without “selling out” or compromising the musicians credibility. Musicians performing a “commercial” set should still be playing at their very best even when the main object is to make some money.

Playing a little more “commercially” and pleasing the public now may give you the freedom to be more creative later.

Later on I will write something about the need to never sell your copyrights.