Hey Dig..

No apology necessary...
I didn't think you were being glib at all..
You're right...it ain't the sixties.

Back then it was hard to get a gig like it is now, but in a different way.

There were many many more places to play, so that made it easier.
But there were more bands competing and that made it harder.

In 1968 I worked a neighborhood club in Chicago.
It was a 5 nite gig, 6 hours a nite and 7 on Saturday.
That was pretty much standard for full time work in Chicago at that time.
I got paid enough to raise my daughter, put a down payment on a nice house, and buy a new car.
My wife worked too, but we lived on my income and banked hers.
The club was on a corner on the North side of Chicago in a middle class neighborhood.
Our clientele was primarily from the neighborhood.
Got the picture ?

Now, picture this....
Across the street....another club with the same 5 nite schedule, also supporting 4 and 5 piece bands like mine...and in the middle of that block...you guessed it..another club !

This neighborhood was not unique...there were dozens and dozens of neighborhood locations that supported 2 maybe 3 full time opportunities for bands.

Now you add in the Rush St./Old Town/Hotel circuit and you add dozens more....

Now add in the Bowling Alleys, and VFWs and all the little corner bars that had music on the weekends.

No clubowner would ever consider asking a group to work for the door or tips or any of that.
We were professionals and we got paid according to our ability and drawing power.

Most joints were controlled by booking agents...
If you worked a joint you paid the agent 10 or fifteen percent whether he booked you in or not.
"the price of doing business"
Once an agent represented you in a club..that was a committment for life.
If you returned to a place and played without sending the commission to the original agent...you had a problem (if you know what I mean)
Sometimes you had to kick back 2 or 3 percent to the club manager as well...

That's the way it was in Chicago, and Milwaukee, and St Louis and vitually every big city that I was familiar with.

It was hard work...but it was a good living.

That's why this ASCAP BMI stuff seems like penny ante.
It was just a pimple on the ass of the business in general...
Joints had to pay off alderman or their loading zone would disappear...pay off the health department..pay off the cops..pay off the liquor distributor..pay off the linen service..Jeez..the few bucks they paid ASCAP and BMI was nothing !

I guess things do change....
Joints today pay incredible ammounts of money for insurance and other stuff...

It's a mean old world !

I don't honestly think I could make it starting out in todays music marketplace.

The good old days...?,,,

Yeah.......

I guess they were !

Bob Young