Meet Girls And Dance

“We came here to meet girls and dance and we can’t meet girls until we dance!!!!”- the heckler/fan at Villapianos- That Thing You Do

It’s important to realize that while the audience is there BECAUSE of you…they are not there FOR you.

They are there for themselves…and to meet girls and dance :)

That’s what The Wonders represent to our heckler/fan. That’s the story he’s telling himself. “The Wonders are a cool band who will create an environment that is beneficial to my value system and priorities”. So he went to the show.

That’s something that Jimmy hated, Lenny loved, Guy understood, and T.B. Player was oblivious to.  Regardless of how they FELT about it, that’s what was actually happening.

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

The Dream You Dream

That Thing You Do

Looking back on his time as The Wonders’ moody frontman, Johnathon Schaech (Jimmy) repeatedly invokes the film’s tagline: 

“In every life there comes a time when that dream you dream becomes that thing you do.”

That’s great. I love the tagline and the way it’s connected to the movie.  It’s very optimistic, which we can all appreciate.

But I’d like to flip it over a little bit…

“In every life there comes a time when you realize that thing you are do is more important than a dream you merely dream.”

I hope you dream the dream, AND do the dream.

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

The 3rd Verse

I love 3rd verses.

The 3rd verse is always good…because it’s not necessary.  It’s only included if it’s that good.

And by the 3rd verse the writers are tired of holding back…they’re not writing for the single anymore…as everyone knows that the 3rd verse isn’t the make or break for radio or playlisting.

The writers throw everything they have at the 3rd verse, because why not? 3rd verses are go for broke.

Another great thing about the 3rd verse is it has two verses and two choruses before it, duh.  You already know what the song is about, so the 3rd verse can be a bit of an inside joke, or have a special detail, or be more personal, or more poetic, or more…

It’s the same reason the punch line doesn’t come at the beginning of the joke, but the end of it. The punch line needs the lead-in in order to be the funniest part.

3rd verses aren’t going to make you a household name…but they are a special little nugget for the households who know your name.

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

Manager

You need one. You need a good one.

You need the best person who also believes in you the most.

Your friend believes in you a lot, but can’t grease the wheels.

The big shot manager invented ‘grease’ but doesn’t give a rip about you.

Everyone on the team has their duties…the booking agent books, the marketing team markets, the engineer engineers…but the manager is your business thread through the whole thing.  They are the key (other than you the artist).

The manager takes responsibility for the things that fall in between…the things that aren’t anybodies job.

If you have one of these, thank them.

If you need a better one, fire the one you have and ask more and better questions next time.  Because now you probably know what to ask :)

If you don’t have one…who DO you have? Who is taking responsibility? Who picks up your phone calls? Answers your emails? Who do you learn from? Connects you? Offers up good ideas? Likes when you’re around? 

You’re on the right track.

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

Blindfolded Toe Tappers

Are you willing to tap your toes…with a blind fold on?

Are you willing to tap your toes when you have no idea if others are tapping their toes?

Most everyone in this business is waiting and looking around…seeing who else is tapping as they consider maybe tapping too.

But don’t we all love the blind folded toe tappers? The ones who are willing to go first and be the ones that the others take cues from.

The people willing to believe first. Those are rare people…and it’s not that everyone needs to be that way, but we could sure use more of them.

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

Write Bad Songs

Instead of making the decision to not write today, make a decision to write a bad song.

And next time you don’t want to write, write a bad song instead of not writing.

Then after a while on a day that you don’t want to write, you’ll write a song that isn’t terrible and the next time a little better song and then a good one and then maybe even a great one…and that was a day that you didn’t even want to write! 

So if you grow to the point where you’re writing good songs on days that you don’t even want to write…

Imagine what you’ll do on a day that you do want to write.

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