Building The Band

Episode 2

So many musical influences growing up.
Before the many talent shows that now grace our big screen TV sets there was the staple on which you could say all others followed. 'The Original Amateur Hour' with Ted Mack was broadcast from the mid 50's until 1970 bringing talent from all over the nation to New York's Radio City Music Hall. My sister's and a neighbor actually appeared as a singing trio back then. Imagine being on Live TV back then in all it's black and white glory. No phone, text or internet voting back then. You had to send a postcard in to vote for your favorite and then wait for the results to be announced the next week. No, they didn't become famous from their stint on the small screen but many did get the Big Break. Just to name a few - Gladys Knight, Pat Boone, Irene Cara (at age 8) all went on to a life in show business.

I suppose the 'Variety Show' format will never resurface successfully and that's too bad. Admittedly there were many not-so-great acts that simply filled the time slots but we all waited patiently for the show stoppers to come on in the last few minutes of the show. Oh the agony of watching the jugglers and animal acts, the opera singers and comedians (very talented people) so we could see the rock and roll acts that we got to stay up late to see. The King of those days was Ed Sullivan. His show was what we all waited for each week. Broadcast on Sunday night from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in Black and White from 1948 to 1965, in Color from 1966 to 1971 a total of 1,087 shows went out over the airwaves. Some of my favorites were The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Dave Clark Five, The Doors, Janis Joplin, Gerry And The Pacemakers, Momma's and the Poppa's and even The Rolling Stones. A bit of trivia, The Beatles were paid $25,000.00 for their first appearance which was half of what Elvis was paid, we're talking 1964 now. That's a lot of dough for that year.

So what's that got to do with Building The Band? I guess that's the roots that gave hundreds of thousands of kids the itch to play music and live the dream. You met potential band mates at school, parties, corner stores, places around your house or school. That's as far as you got to look when there wasn't Craigslist, internet and other media like today. You got ideas for equipment to use from seeing it on TV or on album covers. You went to the music store to make your Christmas list. I was sheer luck if you lived near a music store that had good stuff and then you saved up to buy it. I was lucky to have a few friends that wanted to play, though their reasons weren't as clear as I thought mine were. I just wanted to get girls, isn't that why most guys get into it? When that failed I decided to do it because I really loved it. Being able to make a melody live and come from my hands was true love. Happy or sad, there was a song for it. If you don't play an instrument, give it a try. You can fill your life and find something like nothing else. If you played long ago, pick it back up and find it again. It's never too late and someone besides you may like to listen to what you've got to say. Hey, it's worth a shot.  Let me know where you're playing and I'll come cheer you on. See you next time...