Fast forward a couple of years to the Fall of 1979.  My best buddy on our youth soccer team was Michael Consuelos.  He and his little brother, Mark (who is now married to Kelly Ripa), were having a birthday party with a disco theme in the basement of their home.  My mother suggested that I buy a record album for them for their party.  I went down to the corner store there in sleepy little Lebanon, Illinois, to see what they might have.  Having part of the town paper route, I had a few bucks on me to splurge on something cool for the disco party.  This was going to be my first ever purchase of music so I really didn’t know what to expect.  Right there on a shelf by itself was the newly released Michael Jackson “Off the Wall” LP.  By this time (age 11), I was infatuated with the sorts of classic rock and roll played over St. Louis radio station, KSHE 95, which would filter into my ears as if via osmosis from under my pillow at night.  Although my folks had lights out and radios off by 9pm, I would slide my clock radio under the pillow and turn it on just loud enough for me to hear it if I pressed the pillow down tight.  The Beatles, Stones, CCR, Hendrix, early Police, Blondie, the Clash, Clapton…etc.  The only thing I knew of Michael Jackson was that he was the kid from the Jackson 5ive Saturday Morning cartoon.  So, I figured if he was a cartoon character, it would be cool and the Consuelos boys would be happy.  If I recall, the LP was $4.00.  Pretty good investment for an 11-year-old at a buddy’s birthday bash.  Turns out the LP was a hit and I believe it was the only record played all night that night.  You can probably hear the songs in your head:  “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” and “Rock With You”.  It was probably 20 years later that I learned that LP had such great studio musicians on it like Larry Carlton on guitar, one of the most recorded drummers of all time, John “JR” Robinson, on drums, “Wah Wah” Watson on guitar, Steve Porcaro of Toto on keyboards, produced by Quincy Jones.  One of the songs, “Girlfriend” was even written by one of my favorite Beatles, Paul McCartney.  But for $4.00?  It seems so underpriced when you begin to understand the package as a whole.  What went into making the LP and the quality of the musicians involved.  Granted, the LP sold over 20 million copies worldwide and I am sure none of them are complaining. However, what about music on a smaller scale?

By the time I had entered high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I had started getting mildly competent on the drum kit.  I could at least play along to nearly every Beatle record I owned and most of the songs I was hearing on pop radio.  A drummer friend of mine who was a few classes ahead of me was auditioning for a local band in his garage one day.  He invited me to come over and watch him during the audition.  After the second song, things weren’t going that great and to top it off, his girlfriend called and he disappeared into the house.  The guys in the band were a little perturbed by this and asked me if I played drums at all.  I said I knew a little bit and they told me to hop up on the kit.  The first song they called was “Eight Days a Week” by the Beatles.  They stopped the song after the first chorus and told me they wanted me in the band.  We just left and went to my parent’s garage and started rehearsing.  Needless to say, my drummer friend was a little upset with me (probably not as upset as he was when I started dating his girlfriend later in the year).  This first real rock band I had joined was chasing “The Dream”.  They were hoping, like many young bands, to make the “Big Time” in the world of music.  But it all started with baby steps playing private parties for high school friends for $25.00 per man.  This was 1983 and I was only 15.  It seemed like a pretty good thing to be making $25.00 to play drums for a couple of hours.  But at the time, it was not about the money, but more about the reaction we received from our few listeners.  That Spring, our bass player and front man, Roberto Masterstrafano (who went by his stage name, Bob Masters), landed us the gig at his Del Norte High School prom.  I am not sure how the other guys felt about this, but I thought we had hit the “Big Time” with this one.  $800.00 was equivalent to a million dollars to a 15-year-old.  From there, we were hustling for gigs anywhere we could get them.  Some dank bars in Silver City, NM.  A couple of Holiday Inn shows.  Finally, we were offered a house band slot at the Acapulco Lounge on the Southwest Side of Albuquerque for $100.00 per man per night. Three nights a week.  It was an interesting place to say the least.  I witnessed my first barroom brawl on the first night.  The place also had a hidden brothel in the basement underneath the bar.  Drug trafficking, racial tensions…you name it.  What I came to realize, though, is that even though $100.00 a night seemed like a gazillion to me, it was difficult for Bob and our guitar player, Gilberto Rodriguez, to make ends meet even on that wage in 1983.  It was a good thing we were also pulling in about $30 per man extra in tips.  That helped cover gas and equipment such as sticks and strings and the like.  So, by the man, $300.00 take home pay per week.  Bob taught music lessons on the side at Luchetti’s Music and made an extra $60.00 per night on Monday through Wednesday.  So his weekly income would have been approximately $480.00 or just under $25,000.00 per year if he worked at that rate every week.  Not too bad for a 20-year-old musician I suppose in 1983.  The median income that year was $24,580 (http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=867), so he was hitting it right on the button I suppose.  But probably not the kind of dough a young musician dreams about especially when it barely pays for the rent, the food, gas, gear, flowers for your sweetheart, and whatever cures ya. 

During this time, I had also been dragged into the concert-goer crowd and probably saw a concert or two a week at Tingly Coliseum and then after we moved to Rapid City, South Dakota, at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.  I checked my ticket stubs collected over the years and for what now-a-days seems like a penance, you could see bands like Rush ($10.50), the Beach Boys ($12.50), Cheap Trick ($12.50), Sammy Hagar ($11.00), Triumph ($11.50), Huey Lewis & the News ($12.50), ZZ Top ($15.00), STYX ($12.50), Heart ($13.50), and INXS ($13.50).  Almost all of the shows I attended were in the front row area.

Now, just taking one example from that list of bands that are still touring.  STYX on October 11, 1983 had a front row ticket price of $12.50.  STYX scheduled for a show on October 28, 2010 has an orchestra level seating price of $90.50.  That’s a 624% increase in price!  Of course, ticket prices are all over the board these days as I am sure they were in the early 80’s when I was frequenting concerts.  Some hot tickets these days can exceed thousands of dollars per seat.  Even in a tough economy.  That is what the national “name” acts can command and people still clamor for the sensation of hearing a great band live on stage.  It is, of course, a very different experience.  Just ask anyone that was in the live audience at the Ed Sullivan Theater when the Beatles performed, or any teenage girl that bought a ticket to a Michael Jackson show during the Thriller tour. 

What does this mean for the little guys?  The local or regional bands that pound the small stages on the weekends in many cases work as hard as or harder than the “Big Time” bands.  They still schlep their own gear, sweat under the par cans, choke on night club smoke, drive countless hours to destinations-unknown, and drag into bed oftentimes as the sun is coming up.  Many of these local or regional bands are, as I stated in a previous blog, of an astonishingly high quality.  Some might even blow your mind.  Of course, I am not at liberty to disclose the pay rates for bands subjectively.  Nor am I willing to chat about what venues offer those bands.  That’s none of my business. Let’s just say the rates are varied in both cases.  For the sake of comparison, many bands that I have chatted with recently have eluded to a trend that their shows are netting “about $100.00 per man per show” around the regional small club circuit.  Obviously some much more and some less.  With the trend, though, that is about a 0% increase over the rate my own band received in 1983. This is a very touchy subject but probably worth scrutinizing.  Especially for those musicians that work full time as a musician. 

Per the earlier calculation, $25,000.00 was a good (median) but tight wage in 1983.  In 2009, the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) for a family of 4 was $22,050.00 (http://aspe.hhs.gov/POVERTY/09poverty.shtml).  That said, there are quite a few musicians that would be happy to make that if they were single, had assistance with the rent via a roommate, or were “weekend warriors” that were playing music part time to subsidize their so-called “day job.”  Why the lack of a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for musicians over a span of at least the 27 years discussed?  I am sure there are many reasons.  The primary being what the market will bear for a working musician.  Not that working musicians are in any way unworthy.  If anything, they are more deserving than one could possibly imagine.  Talent levels have increased dramatically over the years and creativity is making a comeback in many arenas.  Since 1975, there have been positive COLAs every year except 2009 and 2010 so far (http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/colaseries.html).  Avoiding a political debate, this should reflect at least some sort of positive momentum in nearly every working persons pay including musicians.  But in my limited research, I have found very little evidence that any other class of worker has had 0% increase in wages over such a period of time.

Another reason?  In a tough economy, many club owners are doing all they can to attract patrons to their venues.  I understand. It’s tough everywhere. Some have even done away with the cover charge which, in most cases, was used to compensate the band(s) for the evening turning instead to a flat rate.  I have heard dozens upon dozens of folks complain about a $5.00 cover charge over the years and I once heard a grumpy fella complain about a $1.00 cover charge!  It all seems a little sardonic when that same fella might drop $80.00 on beer and mixed drinks.  I would easily pay a $5.00 cover charge to hear most all of the bands I know of in Northwest Arkansas.  In many cases, I would pay much more than that and do it proudly.  Because I know how hard they work.  Because I appreciate the talent and artistry these folks are delivering as a result of their hard work.  I love live music.  I love to perform live music.  It may be my only vice if once considers it such.  But it is something that we humans are attracted to for whatever reasons.  We need live bands to survive.  We need more venues to host them.  I am not necessarily stumping on behalf of the bands and musicians here, but just hoping that the compensation environment improves for the regular, local working musician.  Some of them might eventually hit the “Big Time” and we will all be proud.  Like Mark Summerlin formerly of the local Northwest Arkansas band, BE.  He’s working in the “Big Time” now with the artist, Seal.  I don’t know Mark all that well at all.  I met him on two occasions when our bands crossed paths.  But I am proud of him nonetheless.  He was one of us once.  I imagine that somewhere in the world an 11-year-old kid might be having a birthday or dance party.  And that his friend might go down to…well…a Best Buy and pick up the latest Seal CD and they would spin it all night long at the party.  And maybe those kids might realize how great and talented the musicians are and maybe even discover where they came from.  And as those kids grow older, they might learn to appreciate the value of music.  What music does for the human soul and that in so many cases, music is a priceless essential for life.