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Buddy Holly’s Secretly Taped Phone Struggle With Label Boss
[Via Hypebot]
Man, this is grueling. They call it an artifact of the “old label system,” although frankly, I can’t imagine it working all that differently today, in the majors anyway. The artist imagines the song as an extension of the self, which can’t be owned; it simply belongs to the artist, and possibly the fan. The label paid for the recording, though, and so they own the recording, as well as its contents–the song. Here, Buddy Holly secretly records a telephone conversation with his label, Decca, in which he pleads for the release of the rights to songs recorded in a certain session which included future classic “That’ll Be the Day.” Holly certainly sounds a little naive, which only adds to the soul-crushing nature of the exchange. We all run up against a brick wall of a boss every now and then; best to hear this on a Friday, with ample opportunity to come to blow off the steam.
2 Comments
So.. basically they f@#$ed him, then killed him.
If he had been making the kind of money he deserved, he wouldn’t have been on the circuit he was playing. And flying one step above a crop-duster quality aircraft in crappy weather.
I’ve been to Buddy’s grave in Lubbock. He’s one of the great “what if’s” of music. What if he’d lived? Would he have become truly great, or would he have burned out?
This is just another example of artists being screwed over by record companies. Now, with digital technology, artists can control their own music, their own destinies. Many people lament the decline of the record companies. This is a reason some of us don’t mourn their decline.
It’s also why it’s called “show BUSINESS.” Too many artists were not business savvy, or had “friends” with good intentions but no experience and knowledge acting as managers.