No one said that to be a great songwriter you have to have the best voice in the world. Some voices have more character without the voice lessons. (This is one of my favorite songs of all time! Christine)
And the man who made the song a Classic Hit and put lots of money in Jimmy's pockets:
The year was 1968. Both had been working a long time before they got this hit. Glen was on staff at American Music for a time and wrote songs but it's his cover of "By the Time I Get To Phoenix" that pushed him to stardom and got Jimmy Webb out of poverty.
Linking to the Jimmy Web official site!
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
(405) THEN THERE'S THE BUSINESS OF SONG WRITING
ASCAP (THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF COMPOSERS, AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS)
BROADCAST MUSIC (BMI)
NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS FOUNDATION
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUSIC EDUCATION : MUSIC COPYRIGHT
PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY for MUSIC (UK)
RECORDING INDUSTRY OF AMERICA
SOCAN CANADA SONGWRITERS REGISTRY
These are links to the left side of the blog on the links panel.
Let's say you've written a song tonight! Is it time to register it with ASCAP, BMI, or another organization, say in the United Kingdom or Canada?
That depends. Copyright law is that an Intellectual Property is copyrighted the moment it is written. Maybe you wrote the song alone, maybe there was a group of musicians and singers working together, maybe you have a verbal agreement with your friends, maybe you don't, about who gets credited.
Let's stick with the easy situation, you and only you have written the lyrics and the melody. No one else can take credit for the song. No one else has even heard the song!
Do you plan to sing it and perform it yourself, for a YouTube video to promote it , expose the song potentially to the Entire World, or at least show your friends at the next party you go to? Do you plan to sing it and perform it yourself at the next Open Mic, or at a club in Hollywood where you like to go?
Let's stick with the easy situation.
If you're on YouTube or at a party or a club I'd announce to the world that I am the singer-songwriter of the song.
You still really don't have to belong to any society to tabulate any money you might make on the song, as the performer, as the singer-songwriter, or as a publisher of the song, though there is always the chance you might be blown away to hear your song or a part of it on the radio, some other singer or band cashing in. Blown away that someone you trusted is profiting off you. IT HAPPENS!
You can, though the Copyright Office of the United States will tell you this is no official way to prove copyright, send your Intellectual Properties to yourself in the mail. They call that the POOR MAN'S COPYRIGHT because it costs a lot less than the Copyright Office.
If you do the POOR MAN's COPYRIGHT, you can send one or a hundred, printed, on a CD or stick full of songs to yourself, just make sure that there is a OFFICIAL POST MARK from the post office on the envelope and then YOU DO NOT OPEN IT! (When it gets to court to hand the envelope to the judge and let him be the one who opens it.)
The point I want to make here, is that if you're serious about making money as a song-writer, there is a lot of business after writing that song!
If you're just starting out (and that doesn't mean that the first song you wrote isn't a hit) you may wait a while to sign up with an ASCAP or a BMI, but if your friend's band starts playing your song at the Whisky, I'd get that going ASAP! If your friend's band gets signed and the song appears on their first album, there is no way you're not going to!
BROADCAST MUSIC (BMI)
NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS FOUNDATION
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUSIC EDUCATION : MUSIC COPYRIGHT
PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY for MUSIC (UK)
RECORDING INDUSTRY OF AMERICA
SOCAN CANADA SONGWRITERS REGISTRY
These are links to the left side of the blog on the links panel.
Let's say you've written a song tonight! Is it time to register it with ASCAP, BMI, or another organization, say in the United Kingdom or Canada?
That depends. Copyright law is that an Intellectual Property is copyrighted the moment it is written. Maybe you wrote the song alone, maybe there was a group of musicians and singers working together, maybe you have a verbal agreement with your friends, maybe you don't, about who gets credited.
Let's stick with the easy situation, you and only you have written the lyrics and the melody. No one else can take credit for the song. No one else has even heard the song!
Do you plan to sing it and perform it yourself, for a YouTube video to promote it , expose the song potentially to the Entire World, or at least show your friends at the next party you go to? Do you plan to sing it and perform it yourself at the next Open Mic, or at a club in Hollywood where you like to go?
Let's stick with the easy situation.
If you're on YouTube or at a party or a club I'd announce to the world that I am the singer-songwriter of the song.
You still really don't have to belong to any society to tabulate any money you might make on the song, as the performer, as the singer-songwriter, or as a publisher of the song, though there is always the chance you might be blown away to hear your song or a part of it on the radio, some other singer or band cashing in. Blown away that someone you trusted is profiting off you. IT HAPPENS!
You can, though the Copyright Office of the United States will tell you this is no official way to prove copyright, send your Intellectual Properties to yourself in the mail. They call that the POOR MAN'S COPYRIGHT because it costs a lot less than the Copyright Office.
If you do the POOR MAN's COPYRIGHT, you can send one or a hundred, printed, on a CD or stick full of songs to yourself, just make sure that there is a OFFICIAL POST MARK from the post office on the envelope and then YOU DO NOT OPEN IT! (When it gets to court to hand the envelope to the judge and let him be the one who opens it.)
The point I want to make here, is that if you're serious about making money as a song-writer, there is a lot of business after writing that song!
If you're just starting out (and that doesn't mean that the first song you wrote isn't a hit) you may wait a while to sign up with an ASCAP or a BMI, but if your friend's band starts playing your song at the Whisky, I'd get that going ASAP! If your friend's band gets signed and the song appears on their first album, there is no way you're not going to!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
WES BRYAN and GLEN CAMPBELL SONGWRITERS : JOEY COOPER : I'M A FOOL
A Jimmy Bowen Production... About 1964-65 Jimmy, who I knew and worked with as far back as Akron, Ohio, got the career making break! (Producing for Frank Sinatra's lable REPRISE.) Here he produced for Joey Cooper on the Chancellor lable.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
(404) FAIR USE : SECTION 107 OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1976
As you know, we Copyright this blog, the original writing on it, anyway. Sites linked to belong to their own owners. That means that you can read us, and you can forward a post in your e-mail to someone else so they can read us too, but like us, you have to use a quote, as OK under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976.
And as you know, if you've been reading us from our early blogging days in 2007 and 2008, we were not too fast to include YouTube videos on our blog, because we weren't sure what the law was going to be about the use of videos. As we go back to old posts and videos to refresh or delete them, we see how we learned as we went. We accept that some videos will be taken down for various reasons, including claims of Copyright, but that most of them are full song samples.
We've noticed that a Copyright Disclaimer like this one appears on many YouTube station accounts:
"Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."
We consider this blog to be a Music History blog, and we really appreciate being able to link to other sites and to YouTube videos. As always, if we link to you and you don't want us to, just get in touch and let us know and we'll take the link down.
Thanks for reading us!
Wes Bryan and Christine Trzyna
And as you know, if you've been reading us from our early blogging days in 2007 and 2008, we were not too fast to include YouTube videos on our blog, because we weren't sure what the law was going to be about the use of videos. As we go back to old posts and videos to refresh or delete them, we see how we learned as we went. We accept that some videos will be taken down for various reasons, including claims of Copyright, but that most of them are full song samples.
We've noticed that a Copyright Disclaimer like this one appears on many YouTube station accounts:
"Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."
We consider this blog to be a Music History blog, and we really appreciate being able to link to other sites and to YouTube videos. As always, if we link to you and you don't want us to, just get in touch and let us know and we'll take the link down.
Thanks for reading us!
Wes Bryan and Christine Trzyna
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
(403) ONE SUMMER NIGHT : U.S. INTERNATIONAL : MY OWN LABEL
Designing a record label I would be proud of for my own business, U.S. International Records (I was thinking Big!) was a major consideration for me. Some time had passed since my songwriting contract at American Music had ended with the death of Sylvestor Cross, and I decided to do what so very many artists are doing today, go independent.
My cousin Dean, an artist, helped me by designing this, and he did the art-work the good old fashioned way - hand drawing. I still think it's a beautiful label.
As for the recording, I took a truck out to the beach in Malibu and recorded seagulls and waves and added it to the production of "One Summer Night," which got a couple great reviews and good airplay, even though there was near no money to promote it to the radio stations.
(We haven't noticed a copy on the e-bay auctions since 2007!)
After I put it out and it started to get that airplay, Randy Wood at Dot Records decided to release it on his label.
One of the people who put it on the air, on his syndicated show, and that meant the record was heard in Europe was famous DJ and funny man Gary Hollis. Gary and I are still friends to this day.
My cousin Dean, an artist, helped me by designing this, and he did the art-work the good old fashioned way - hand drawing. I still think it's a beautiful label.
As for the recording, I took a truck out to the beach in Malibu and recorded seagulls and waves and added it to the production of "One Summer Night," which got a couple great reviews and good airplay, even though there was near no money to promote it to the radio stations.
(We haven't noticed a copy on the e-bay auctions since 2007!)
After I put it out and it started to get that airplay, Randy Wood at Dot Records decided to release it on his label.
One of the people who put it on the air, on his syndicated show, and that meant the record was heard in Europe was famous DJ and funny man Gary Hollis. Gary and I are still friends to this day.
A VALENTINE TO MY COUSIN DEAN
My cousin Dean has been reading and watching this blog for years, and is often the first to call me with opinions, information, or ... appreciation.
If too much time goes by and I don't hear from him, then I worry.
So even though he's another guy, and my cousin... I luv ya Dean! Wes
If too much time goes by and I don't hear from him, then I worry.
So even though he's another guy, and my cousin... I luv ya Dean! Wes
Monday, February 13, 2012
2012 : LAST NIGHT'S GRAMMYS : BEACH BOYS, GLEN CAMPBELL, PAUL McCARTNEY
THE GRAMMY AWARDS, which takes place at Staples Center, near the heart of downtown Los Angeles, is definitely one of those nights that brings excitement into those of us who live in Southern California, the way football brings excitement to residents in other cities.
In many ways, though filming and recording take place all over the United States and the world, this is still a company town. Angelenos take pride in bringing entertainment to the world. The excitement that it was Grammy time was felt everywhere. People were talking about it in coffee houses, on phones, and a lot of parties were celebrated at home as people watched the tube. This is our way of participating. We're still talking about it today.
Last year, we embedded some YouTube videos of the Grammy Awards 2011, and very soon they were taken down from YouTube as copyright violations, so we aren't going to embed any videos from last night's performance.
Christine and I were interested in the performances of the Beach Boys, Glen Campbell and Paul McCartney, since they are artists we blog about here at WES BRYAN-MY LIFE IN MUSIC. (The news here on the West Coast is dominated by the death of the long term drug embattled but superior songstress Whitney Houston.)
The Beach Boys, all the original band members who remain alive, performed "Good Vibrations." That includes songwriting genius Brian Wilson, 70, who had his own long battle with drugs and mental illness but has recovered and reemerged to perform over the last few years.
Glen Campbell, 75,who toured with them for a year or so many years ago - as a Beach Boy - jumped up from his seat to the music. Glen, who now suffers from Alzheimer's and who has won five previous Grammys, was honored with a LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. He performed "Rhinestone Cowboy, his hit from the 1970's. We're attaching to an article that has a video of Glen about his Alzheimer's from CNN on line.
Paul McCartney, 70, sang an original song he wrote for Valentine's Day, which appears on his new album of classics, and some Beatle's songs of the slow variety. He can be heard in a radio promo fo
r the album saying he's channeling Fats Waller and Fred Astaire.
Christine feels that none of these artists were in fine voice, that it was Glen Campbells' voice that still has some of the resonance that it used to. After years of performing, and with age, many artists do loose their voices. What can help, sometimes a whole lot, is practicing vocalizations, in other words, voice lessons. That's the way to keep and improve what you've got. Still, we have to appreciate that they lost their voices performing, for the fans, the audience.
This post was reposted due to configuration errors that were out of control. Thanks for your patience.
In many ways, though filming and recording take place all over the United States and the world, this is still a company town. Angelenos take pride in bringing entertainment to the world. The excitement that it was Grammy time was felt everywhere. People were talking about it in coffee houses, on phones, and a lot of parties were celebrated at home as people watched the tube. This is our way of participating. We're still talking about it today.
Last year, we embedded some YouTube videos of the Grammy Awards 2011, and very soon they were taken down from YouTube as copyright violations, so we aren't going to embed any videos from last night's performance.
Christine and I were interested in the performances of the Beach Boys, Glen Campbell and Paul McCartney, since they are artists we blog about here at WES BRYAN-MY LIFE IN MUSIC. (The news here on the West Coast is dominated by the death of the long term drug embattled but superior songstress Whitney Houston.)
The Beach Boys, all the original band members who remain alive, performed "Good Vibrations." That includes songwriting genius Brian Wilson, 70, who had his own long battle with drugs and mental illness but has recovered and reemerged to perform over the last few years.
Glen Campbell, 75,who toured with them for a year or so many years ago - as a Beach Boy - jumped up from his seat to the music. Glen, who now suffers from Alzheimer's and who has won five previous Grammys, was honored with a LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. He performed "Rhinestone Cowboy, his hit from the 1970's. We're attaching to an article that has a video of Glen about his Alzheimer's from CNN on line.
Paul McCartney, 70, sang an original song he wrote for Valentine's Day, which appears on his new album of classics, and some Beatle's songs of the slow variety. He can be heard in a radio promo fo
r the album saying he's channeling Fats Waller and Fred Astaire.Christine feels that none of these artists were in fine voice, that it was Glen Campbells' voice that still has some of the resonance that it used to. After years of performing, and with age, many artists do loose their voices. What can help, sometimes a whole lot, is practicing vocalizations, in other words, voice lessons. That's the way to keep and improve what you've got. Still, we have to appreciate that they lost their voices performing, for the fans, the audience.
This post was reposted due to configuration errors that were out of control. Thanks for your patience.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
A LABORER, A CRAFTSMAN, AN ARTIST quotation
"A person who works with their hands is a laborer.
A person who works with their hands and mind is a craftsman.
A person who works with their hands, mind, and soul is an artist."
A person who works with their hands and mind is a craftsman.
A person who works with their hands, mind, and soul is an artist."
Monday, February 6, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
BUDDY HOLLY CENTER : LUBBOCK TEXAS
Driving through Texas? Stop in Lubbock and check out the Buddy Holly Center where you can see some of Buddy's things, such as his homework and his personal collection of 45RMP records!
This is a new link for WES BRYAN-MY LIFE IN MUSIC. If you'll use the search feature you can find past posts on Buddy Holly and the Crickets.
If you go to our side-bar you can find three other BUDDY HOLLY LINKS!
This is a new link for WES BRYAN-MY LIFE IN MUSIC. If you'll use the search feature you can find past posts on Buddy Holly and the Crickets.
If you go to our side-bar you can find three other BUDDY HOLLY LINKS!
BUDDY HOLLY : THOSE BIG GLASSES HAD NEARSIGHTED PEOPLE EVERYWHERE PUTTING THEIR GLASSES BACK ON!
BUDDY HOLLY 
JOHN LENNON. the Beatle, PUT HIS GLASSES BACK ON... Today these glasses that Buddy Holly is seen wearing in a famous publicity photo are considered "classic cool." I see the same style on men, young and old, hipster and preppy, everywhere I go.
I'm the first to get the new book on John Lennon - The Man, The Myth, the Music - The Definitive Life by Tim Riley, published by Hyperion - New York, and so far I think this is the best book on Lennon or the Beatles I've ever read. You bet I'll be excerpting from it. Yes, there is a lot about the American Invasion of Britain! in this book... Christine Trzyna
JOHN LENNON. the Beatle, PUT HIS GLASSES BACK ON... Today these glasses that Buddy Holly is seen wearing in a famous publicity photo are considered "classic cool." I see the same style on men, young and old, hipster and preppy, everywhere I go.
I'm the first to get the new book on John Lennon - The Man, The Myth, the Music - The Definitive Life by Tim Riley, published by Hyperion - New York, and so far I think this is the best book on Lennon or the Beatles I've ever read. You bet I'll be excerpting from it. Yes, there is a lot about the American Invasion of Britain! in this book... Christine Trzyna
Saturday, February 4, 2012
THE BIG BOPPER : FROM OUR ARCHIVE 2007
The Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson, is best known for his hit record "Chantilly Lace."
I never met J.P. so I have little personal to say about him. He's part of the history of rock and roll and Elvis and I did love "Chantilly Lace," that part about "a wiggle in her walk..."
The thing about people at the height of their fame who die unexpectedly is that you never know what they would have become if they had lived. The death of JP, Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly had Buddy Knox and me wondering about our own mortality.
I never met J.P. so I have little personal to say about him. He's part of the history of rock and roll and Elvis and I did love "Chantilly Lace," that part about "a wiggle in her walk..."
The thing about people at the height of their fame who die unexpectedly is that you never know what they would have become if they had lived. The death of JP, Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly had Buddy Knox and me wondering about our own mortality.
JILES PERRY RICHARDSON : TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL MUSEUM on THE BIG BOPPER
Here's a new link for us. THE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL MUSEUM handbook on line, profile of J.P Richardson, the Big Bopper. Texas has spawned a lot of musicians, a lot of rock-a-billy, and early rock and roll.
Friday, February 3, 2012
RITCHIE VALENS AT PACOIMA HIGHSCHOOL : HIS SCHOOL
Nothing like going back to your high school to play for the kids. (I played at my high school in Murphy, North Carolina.)
TIM RILEY'S JOHN LENNON : THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE MUSIC - THE DEFINITIVE LIFE
...Early in 1959, after two weeks sleeping on subzero night treks in their broken-down tour bus, Buddy Holly chartered a plane and, along with JP Richardson ("the Big Bopper") and Ritchie Valens, raced ahead from Mason City, Iowa, to the Winter Dance party tour's next gig, in Moorhead, Minnesota. Richardson had caught a nasty flu and had begged his seat off Holly's base player, Waylon Jennings. "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up," Holly told Jennnings. "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes," Jennings shot back. When the plane went down shortly after takeoff in the early hours of February 3, everyone on board perished. Holly's "Heartbeat" had just entered the British charts...
From LENNON, The Man, the Myth, The Music - The Definitive Life by TIME RILEY. Hyperion New York is the publisher C 2011 Tim Riley.
From LENNON, The Man, the Myth, The Music - The Definitive Life by TIME RILEY. Hyperion New York is the publisher C 2011 Tim Riley.
RITCHIE VALENS : LATINO ROCK AND ROLL PIONEER
LINK ABOVE TO THE OFFICIAL RITCHIE VALENS SITE! (There is a Donna photogallery!)
Thursday, February 2, 2012
WE CELEBRATE EARLY ROCK AND ROLL PIONEERS : BUDDY HOLLY, RITCHIE VALENS, J.P. RICHARDSON
Tomorrow, the 3rd, is the day some call "THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED" because its the anniversary of the plane crash that killed three early rock' n rollers who were on tour together. I met Buddy Holly in New York and I was on tour with Buddy Knox when the plane crashed. I also got to record with a couple of the Crickets left behind backing me. So I was there and shocked like everyone else in my early rock 'n roll generation. Of course the music didn't really die. So many others carried on the music.
For the last couple years here at WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC, we've tried to post some videos that we think are special as our celebration and we always link to sites that can give you more information, as a kind of tribute to these musicians, these singer-songwriters.
We're going to post over a three day period, starting tomorrow, on Buddy, Ritchie, and J.P Richardson.
Wes
