"What do You do When Old Scratch Comes a Calling? What do You do Indeed?"

Dog Poet Transmitting.......

I have what might be considered a problem and I hope the reader can help. Let me know if I am missing something here. I have a friend who was a member of Les Visible and The Critical List back in the 80s. We released 4 albums; 5 if you consider one that was a mix of two of them. One was a double album. In the early 90s, Bernard Stollman of ESP Records, affiliated with Sony/CBS and Rounder Records released two of our works; “Jews from Outer Space” and “Too Old to Rock and Roll” being the slimy and evil reptile that he is, he had the engineers fuck up the recordings to the extent that they were unlistenable. The engineers who had worked with Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna apologized to me for what got done BUT... Bernard and his wife, Flavia, were deaf to reason. They did what they did on purpose. The albums were released in every Tower Records outlet in the world and sunk like a stone. It was a bitter disappointment.

Ed Sanders of The Fugs, who had also been shafted by Bernard, begged me to not let Bernard release my work but... I would not listen to him. I had big hopes at the time; OH HOW WRONG I WAS. We had digital masters and the work, cutting edge as it would have been at the time, might have really done well. I had other people at me to promote the music as well but I went with Bernard because I had a previous history and earlier on had been signed to Columbia Records through him. Bernard screwed and cheated many of the classic black jazz artists of the past and he got hold of some amount of Billie Holiday as well. He is notorious in a field where you really need to distinguish yourself to stand out among the offal. I did not know this at the time.

While I was in Europe, I discovered that Bernard has taken the digital masters that I sent him (but which he never used) and placed them with a San Francisco music distribution venue. I got them transferred to me (or I hope that's the case) and they were sending me dribs and drabs for a while and now for almost ten years, nothing. I don't know what they did with the other contributors to the work. I gave them the names and addresses but I have learned that NEARLY EVERYONE in the music business is a thief and a scoundrel. I tried to reason with Bernard but he is evil all the way down into that place where once his soul may have dwelt. When you are around him you notice the cold that radiates off of him. He has almost no personality; bloodless... I think, is the term. Something very wrong lives in him and has for a long time.

Fast forward to the present. One of the former members of the band has a vendor business on Maui and he has met a lot of celebrities this way and he is ALWAYS looking for an angle to gain from this but so far not much has gone down. He's hung out with them and ridden around with them; Anthony Kiedis of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Steven Tyler of Arrowsmith and others, he has met and socialized with. Now he had managed to run into probably the biggest female star in the business. I'm not naming names here, imagine what you will. Apparently, this star has heard my song, “Alcohol” and likes it well enough to want to record it. Over the course of time this 'friend of mine' has been reworking the tune, changing the music and altering the lyrics and all of that is in order to put his stamp of ownership on it. Originally, his contribution was part of the background conversation of people drinking in a bar, while I sang the song, giving it the atmosphere of a cocktail lounge. Although in truth, I wrote this song, I gave copyright and authorship of the song to certain other members of the band. It seemed like the fair thing to do.

They all have authorship on most of the other songs on the albums. Some more so, some less. However... if anything ever does come of any of it, they stand to profit equally with me. I have known for some amount of time that MY DAY WOULD COME. I've been told this interiorly. Late in the game though it may be, it may also be considerable; probably will be. I don't care about any of that and will most certainly give most of it away and YOU CAN HOLD ME TO THAT. I have formed a church and gotten my ministry degree and shortly I will form that church legally and disburse whatever comes to me through that. I will form a board of directors from close personal associates that I would trust with my life and in some cases it has come to that. I know where it will be located and I know, pretty much, what is going to come of it, in terms of activities and the like.

This friend of mine wants to shop the song to this international artist and given her reach, the return could be considerable and then there is the unique tenor of the song that would render it to classic status. You can listen to it at the end of this posting. I am quite sure that this friend DID NOT play the original and very likely overstated his place in the creation of it. Like many of my songs, it leaped full-blown from my mind and I was singing it acapella probably moments after its composition. The double album we recorded, Not Politically Correct, got written in whole across one weekend in a tequila haze. Franklin and I knocked it out in no time. Franklin was the genius musical end, keyboards player, drummer and arranger and recording engineer, vocal backup group, and it wouldn't have gotten done anywhere near as well as it was without him. This other friend made significant comedic contributions but not at the same level as Franklin. There were a number of other top-level musicians involved now and then and a number of ladies who sang in parts. Some may chime in here after reading this.

Most of the collaborations were extemporaneous flights of imagination. A couple got created and recorded at the same time, spontaneously. There were some wild times back in the day.

My friend is hammering on me about me signing off on the song so that this artist can record and release it; no doubt, HIS VERSION of it. The song has a VERY personal meaning to me and I don't want it messed with lyrically AT ALL. He doesn't like that but it is what it is. It is perfectly fine as it is but then he would have less opportunity to claim a greater part in its creation than he EVER had. People get stars in their eyes and they pursue recognition and fame AT ALL COSTS. They have no idea of the price of it and often don't even care. People would and have, thrown their lives away for a taste of fame and fortune. I am not like this. I've met many famous people and even watched some of them destroy themselves, like my friend, Richard Manuel.. I've no great interest in celebrity. I don't aspire after a hairnet of mosquitoes and flies following me everywhere. You need to be a certain kind of clueless and self fellating creature to appreciate the climate you have to endure.

Also... the artist seeking to record this tune is very spiritually BENT. One might say Satanic. I don't care to associate with her but on my friend's behalf I would permit him to cut a deal BUT ONLY WITH THE ORIGINAL LYRICS. I'm guessing this is causing him grief but there it is. He's still going to get the same amount of money, whatever that is BUT... he won't be able to claim a greater authorship the way he wants to. That is a big deal to him. The idea of being able to hang out with these useless wastes of space is a big deal to him. Me? I would run the other way. I KNOW God and my guardian angel are going to take care of me in due time and protect me too. I don't need to run after these morally and spiritually bankrupt characters with my tongue hanging out of my mouth AND FOR SURE... they are going to try to screw us. That I am certain of cause that is how they are made. It is what they do. By their works you can MOST DEFINITELY know them.

My friend reads the Bible and loves Jesus Christ but for some reason there is a cognitive disconnect when it comes to Mammon and his backup dancers. I try to explain to him but he is hearing impaired in that regard. IT INTERFERES WITH WHAT HE WANTS. I recently did some things for him that came at a considerable cost to me but I won't go into that because I absolutely abhor those freaks who pull out their pocket change and distribute it and then have it announced to the world what fine people they are. As it says in the Bible, when you do such things do them in secret. Do not go trumpeting it in the marketplace like the publicans; THEY HAVE THEIR REWARD. There are any number of readers who know how I personally operate and I don't have much respect for people who behave any other way. There are so many wonderful folk out there who do their level best and we never even hear about them but God knows... GOD KNOWS...

I did this song on the stage at Woodstock 20^th right before Richie Havens came on, I think he followed me and a riot broke out in the audience because people had brought kegs to the event. I put down my guitar and broke into the song and the riot stopped and for the rest of the evening you could hear people screaming out, “Alcohol!!!” That was a memorable moment (grin).

So... I don't know if I am doing the right thing here but I don't see where it matters if she has to sing the original lyrics. I am certain his are no improvement, since that is not his forte by any stretch and because I KNOW WHY he would have changed the lyrics and I don't care for that.


We shall all get our due sooner or later. It is foolish, stupid, dangerous, and doomed to failure to push the river. God is a master of timing and I pretty much knew when my guardian angel appeared and announced his/her identity that all sorts of changes were on the menu. My particular angel presents as either. I cracked up a couple of days ago when I thought about using the right pronouns... heh heh.


Okay... a little something different today, eh?

Well... well... this is ULTRA STRANGE. The song had disappeared off of the website (the only one to vanish) and I had to ask The Elf to put it back in. He couldn't figure out what had happened. Enemy Action? I won't speculate but it is weird.



End Transmission.......



Today's Song is;

♫ Alcohol ♫

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