Hey Strawberry Loving

The Beatles Anthology 1 Disc 2, All My Loving live from Ed Sullivan.

You can actually hear Paul McCartney smiling.  It’s infectious.

Summer after 8th grade is when I heard this for the first time and it blew me away.

But it was earlier in my 8th grade year when my friend Emily Goff let me borrow The Beatles Past Masters Vol. 2 cd that I started down the path. (I don’t think I ever returned it to her. Sorry, Emily)

Hey Jude was on that cd.

I had no idea every single part of a song could be that good.  I had no idea the notes of a melody could be put together in such a beautiful way.  I had no idea that in the key of F you could play an Eb chord before going to a Bb….the 1 7 4 progression in the Na-Na part.

Totally amazed.

And finally the clincher was Strawberry Fields Forever, the first track on “The Blue” album.  That mellotron intro, John’s voice and the drum fill.  So mysterious and inviting.

I love remembering getting into The Beatles because I fell hard.  So many amazing songs, so much evolution, revolution and romance.

Remembering makes me feel like I’m a kid in 8th grade again.

Being able to thumb through Spotify or Apple Music today for and go from one Beatles smash to another brings with it that semblance of discovery all over again.  

It’s good to be a kid again every once and a while, even in two and a half minute increments.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Beatles On Streaming

The Beatles songs are finally streaming (well, they are in a couple hours here in Nashville, at midnight)

The Beatles used to be the first to do things, now they’re the last.  But it’s still a big deal because they have the best songs.  Your adoption and promotion of streaming probably won’t be as big of an event.  But you should still adopt it and promote it.

The next “first” that we’ll see happen is when a huge artist, like, say, Adele, rather than keeping their music from streaming, will ONLY put it on streaming.  It won’t be for sale.  Anywhere.  

And that is the best thing a big artist like that could do to HELP you.  (Keeping their music off of streaming in the name of “artistic integrity” helps you not)

If the six million people who bought the Adele record subscribed to Spotify or Apple Music instead, because they HAD TO in order to hear the album, that would have increased streaming revenue by almost 10%.  

Obviously all six million wouldn’t have, but you get it.

As if The Beatles needed to make sure they’d make more money for even longer, adding their music to streaming ensures it.  Streaming is a long long time.  

The royalty rate will only go up.  And thanks to the Fab Four, there’s going to be a little more leverage to make that happen.  Even if they’re a couple years late.

It’s happening. It’s already happened.

Go listen (starting at midnight) to any Beatles song you want.  No…go listen to all of them.  Because you can, and it will bring you joy and happiness.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Writing A Hit Song Isn’t Easy

Writing a hit song isn’t easy, but it’s simple.

Hitting a fast ball isn’t easy, but it’s simple.

Making people laugh isn’t easy, but it’s simple.

The thing you do that makes you successful won’t be easy, but it’ll be simple.

In achieving the level of success you desire, you’ll find yourself doing something simple, yet far from easy.

Stop looking for easy. Start looking for simple.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

There Are Miracles At Work

Often times miracles don’t happen all at once.

They’re slower.  

They’re in process.

They’re not just in the future or in the past.

They’re unfolding right now, as you’re reading this, as I’m writing this. Be on the look out…but you might have to look a little harder. Miracles are happening, currently.

“There are miracles at work”- A Head Full Of Dreams, Coldplay

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Looking For Work

We’ve all done thankless, lonely work.  

The lonely work that no one else notices or cares about, but also often results in the biggest strides forward.

We’ve done it, but we don’t like it.

We’ve done it, but wish someone would notice.

We’ve done it, but wish we didn’t have to.

We’ve done it, and knew in our hearts it was meaningful work.

We’ve done it, and knew that it was important regardless of recognition.

We’ve done it, and knew it mattered.

So why is the hope to not have to do the thankless work?  The hope that one day this kind of work will finally go away, once and for all.  

Or the hope that we could do the thankless, meaningful work and, by some multi dimensional cosmic shift, be thanked for thankless work….by lots of people.

Why do we wish we won’t have to do THAT kind of work again?

What if we looked for the thankless, meaningful work?

What if we sought it out?

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Stolen Gear

A bunch of years ago I lived with the guys I was in a rock n roll band with.  Along with a few others. There was seven of us total.  It was totally awesome.

Back in those days we were touring a lot on the weekends.  Leaving town Thursday or Friday and getting back late Sunday night.

One particular Sunday night we got back to Nashville late and we were all super tired, so we unloaded all the gear into the garage and went to bed.

We usually would load the gear into the house.

We usually would remember to close the garage door at night.

There was usually always someone awake in that house!

We got all our gear stolen that night.

Guitars, pedal boards, amps, gone.  Nice stuff too.

There’s a couple more chapters to this story (very crazy and entertaining, as we almost got the gear back…almost), but here’s the saving grace…

We had insurance.

We were each spending $12.50 per month to have $10,000 worth of gear coverage.

We might have been poor musicians and definitely weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer, but we paid a few bucks for insurance and it made all the difference.

The subsequent month of touring we had to borrow gear from friends, but after that we all got insurance checks and got to go shopping.

You need to go get Music Pro Insurance.  Now.

Do it.

Do not leave this email without clicking the link and purchasing the insurance.

I would climb through the computer and do it for you if I could.

You need this.

Music Pro Insurance

Pass this email to every musician you know.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com