Sunday, October 21, 2007

Symmetry in My Play...


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It was the same story we've all heard a hundred times: band plays together; lead guy gets signed...but nobody else. Billy was anxious to sign, but the legal bullscraps took much more time than he thought it should.



In the meantime, the band played a few shows, with Alf being the most insecure one of all about his future as keyboard player. The other members knew they'd be riding with Billy to the top.



Finally, the day came when Billy actually and officially was signed! It was a grand day with TV cameras and reporters and the story lead the news on every local station! They were gonna be stars and now EVERYONE knew about it! Billy's vision and dream was finally real life!!!



While Randy and I were planning our wedding and buying a home, Billy and the boys suffered the 'hurry-up-and-wait." The band was stuck in Portland. They played so many 'Goodbye Party's' that was more like a 'Goodbye Tour' (a quote from Bill Reader's book). Clive was taking his time choosing a producer. Peter McIan was chosen...producer of Men at Work.



Again, it was the same story we've all heard before: finally get signed; producer changes music and ruins the magic. Clive was 'making' the band and took his time doing it, asking the questions: who would they be like, what would they sound like, was it to be heavy or pop and how were they gonna market this thing?



Meantime, I got married and they were all still sitting on their hands with their thumbs up their u-knows. It was a really frustrating time. Karen and Billy were on the outs too, so that didn't make anything any easier. To make matters even worse, there was no payola...they were flat broke.



Billy continued to change even more and got the 'Star Disease.' You know, the one where you forget your friends and treat people like crap who got you there in the first place? What I'm trying to say, is that things got a little ugly before they left to Los Angeles, but that's what 'Stars' do, so it was 'forgiven' (sheesh).



When they got to LA, it was yet another story you've all read: little fish swimming in a sea of sharks. Things didn't go well at all. The personality clashes were awful for productivity...Alf didn't like Ian, Billy didn't like what Ian was doing and John just wanted to get it done. Dave and Bill were their usual quiet and happy-go-lucky selves, respectively.



They began to compromise what they'd been doing for years now, changing the music and trying new things for the label. They did it because they had to...because that's the music industry, but that doesn't mean it didn't go down like eating broken glass either. Billy grew increasingly frustrated.



Even the compromises didn't work though. It was a bad pairing. Whitney Houston was perfect for Arista. They really didn't know what to do for or to, Billy Rancher and the Unreal Gods.



Then came the lawsuits. Oh yeah...I told you that you've heard this story before! Billy had signed some papers with Joe Delia (Alf's family) and decided to sue Arista. No sooner than that was behind them, that the manager that replaced Steve (who was obviously out a job) served papers to McIan and Arista too. They were being sued for another $25-million smackaroos, on top of owing money to Dr. Flaxel and other investors. It was like a deluge.



Then the day finally came when 3 of the members were sent back to Portland. They had their tracks recorded and were of no use now. Only Billy and John were left in LA. That was the last time those 3 boys would see that recording studio from the inside.



Billy was still trying to get Karen back too. The tattoo he got of her name didn't impress her in the least (surprise). Karen insisted on loyalty with her man, but Billy looked at it like, "I've been an angel compared to all the things I could have done with the ladies...big deal I caved in once or twice."



Everything was stress, chaos and compromise. Billy's life was out of his control. One day, John and Billy decided it would be a good time to take a trip to Tijuana...blow off some steam. Unfortunately, Billy had some bad Tacos and got sick.



Well, he said it was bad food, but that didn't explain the lump in his stomach.




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