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Bill & Pen

Bill Nelson

Article from One Two Testing, October 1984

bill writes his bill of rights


...or the accelerating decadence off popular music. Bill Nelson downs guitar, ups biro, and discusses the etiquette of disillusion.

In a not too recent interview, a once famous synthesiser player and part-time aviator said: "The trouble with Bill Nelson is that he thinks music has got something to do with Art..." Too true, Gary, too damn true, and there's more trouble brewing. Read on...

Eleven years ago I gave up a terminally boring though somewhat secure desk job to become what I can only laughingly describe as 'A Professional Musician'.

The feeling of elation, the sense of personal freedom I experienced on leaving that drab little office for the last time will live with me forever. I walked around the town for an hour or so in the pouring rain, savouring the event to the fullest. In a newsagent's window, on the cover of a now-defunct rock magazine, I glimpsed a photograph of Jimi Hendrix. This I regarded as a good omen. Eater that evening, I polished my guitar and couldn't sleep.

Fulfilling the role of Local Government Officer by day and Struggling Musician by night had been a rather strenuous balancing act. Having never gone in search of the legendary 'big-break', having never sent demo-tapes to record companies, I had no alternative but to accept my inevitable and awkward dual existence.

Whatever qualities were necessary to become a full-time musician, I was convinced that I did not possess them. It was something of a shock when circumstances finally came together of their own accord and the opportunity to turn professional arrived.

I was 24 years old, rather late by contemporary standards, although I had been playing the guitar for ten years at that time. I looked to my new future with the innocent eyes of an idealist. Here was a chance to have the blade, to fine-tune my art, to change the world with the wave of a recording contract. (I was distressingly naive for a 24 year old.) The following 11 years opened my eyes and saddened my heart more than I ever could have guessed.

It wasn't long before I began to develop a healthy cynicism towards my dealings with the music business. This attitude came as a natural by-product of being 'managed' by people whose financial greed far outweighed their meagre sense of ethics. Let me say this right now: THERE IS NO MYSTERY ATTACHED TO MUSIC MANAGEMENT EXCEPT THAT WHICH THE MANAGER ATTACHES TO HIMSELF. To any young musician about to swallow, whole, the myths perpetrated by these forever smiling thieves, I would simply say, "learn how to manage yourself".

The balance of power is hopelessly uneven and is likely to stay that way until the musician grasps the means to make it otherwise.

Here are some Golden Rules: Learn how to say "No" and how to ask "Why?" The frequent use of these two words will magically reveal the mentality behind the music-business mask. Cultivate a studied contempt for the dubious rewards of success. In fact, try to avoid 'success' at all costs. The kind of success this industry encourages is short-lived and hollow. The success of real creative achievement is long lasting and profound.

Don't listen to the radio, listen to your own inner-voices. Be careful not to confuse perfection with perception... perception is a far more valuable commodity.

More facts: Sex, Mortality, Money, Love, Hunger and Power are the basic motivating forces at work behind human nature. Of these, only Sex, Mortality and Love are truly of any positive use, but sometimes a little hunger helps...

Jean Cocteau, in 'Cock and Harlequin', and excellent little book written for musicians, says: "The ear repudiates, but can tolerate, certain kinds of music which, if transferred to the sphere of the nose, would oblige us to run away." An apt description of much of what we are prepared to endure under the guise of 'popular music'.

Of course, the Art versus Entertaimment debate has raged for quite some time. People have pushed these two qualities into corners so far apart that one could almost be forgiven for thinking of them as polar opposites. It is particularly within the realm of popular music that the word 'Art' has become synonymous with pseudo-intellectualism, pretension, elitism, etc., while the word 'Entertainment' equals fun, mindlessness, superficiality and what we might call the 'Money For Old Rope' principle.

Perhaps we should consider Art as an Entertainment, one capable of uplifting not only the heart, but the mind and spirit also. By allowing these benefits to remain the prerogative of the well-educated or wealthy, we deny ourselves much. Art, in truth, is part of a common well-spring of human experience, open to us all.

Even under Art's glorious banner, alas, there is fakery and trickery. Wearing one's art on one's sleeve like a cheap fashion accessory, is all too often the sad deceit of so many young musicians. It is easy to see, faced with the empty pretensions of most pop-stars, why artistic aspirations in popular music are so often mocked.

Despite the pressures of commercialism, I still hold a deep-seated belief that dedication to the cause brings its own rewards. Quoting Cocteau again: "What makes optimists of pessimists like ourselves is the intuition that a work of art tends to maintain a supernatural equilibrium." And so, I believe, it does. But be warned. The maintenance of the work, the attention to purity, demands a far-greater sacrifice than having to record one's next album in Montserrat. For me, being a musician is a process of self-discovery. Everything flows from this standpoint outwards, and in gifted hands, the art will arrive of it's own accord. It has very little to do with chart analysis, radio-play or the principle of the free-lunch.

As always, there will be those who capitulate. They're usually to be found on the almighty Top Of The Pops, cloaked in cliché, all pout and no style, fat-boys in aspic, the sound of a generation telling itself beautiful lies. The trouble with puberty is that it makes you stupid and vulnerable, and adolescence compounds the problem by adding 'impulsive' and 'impressionable' to the list. The indifferent machinations of the music business turn these sad afflictions into profit. Remember, the measure of your gullibility equals the sum of their bank account. This isn't business, it's war.

The sad thing is, I couldn't be happy or complete without the means to make music. For the genuine article among us, music is nothing less than our life-blood, which explains why we so easily become the prey of these vampires. The intimate relationship that the artist has with the essential core of his being has long been an envied and highly marketable commodity. Every act of creativity is a magical act. I advise you to guard it well.



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Going For a Song


Publisher: One Two Testing - IPC Magazines Ltd, Northern & Shell Ltd.

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One Two Testing - Oct 1984

Donated by: Colin Potter

Scanned by: Mike Gorman

Opinion by Bill Nelson

Previous article in this issue:

> The List

Next article in this issue:

> Going For a Song


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