The Business the Musk Business: the Texas OBSERVER ° the Texas Observer Publishing Co

Senate and AG endorsements, p. 11

ER, R April 14 1978 500

-,- 1.4ktur-;;;"'"; ",•T--- ,2414

NtaGN ag***

The business The musk business: The Texas OBSERVER ° The Texas Observer Publishing Co.. 1978 who pays Ronnie Dugger, Publisher

Vol. 70, No. 7 April 14, 1978 Incorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Demo- the piper? crat, which in turn incorporated the Austin Forum-Advocate. EDITOR Jim Hightower MANAGING EDITOR Lawrence Walsh ASSOCIATE EDITOR Linda Rocawich EDITOR AT LARGE Ronnie Dugger

PRODUCTION MANAGERS: Susan Reid, Susan Lee By Mike Tolleson ASSISTANT EDITORS: Colin Hunter, Teresa Acosta, Austin Vicki Vaughan, Eric Hartman Has everybody got Saturday night fever? It would seem so, if STAFF ASSISTANTS: Margaret Watson, Bob Sindermann, Debbie Wormser, Margot Beutler, Leah Miller, Connie Larson, David the phenomenal growth of the record and music industry is any Guarino, Beth Epstein, Beverly Palmer, Harris Worcester, Gerald guide. McLeod, Larry Zinn, Janie Leigh Frank But as music lovers buy more records, tune in to more hours CONTRIBUTORS: Kaye Northcott, Jo Clifton, Dave McNeely, Don of radio, and drop in more frequently at concert halls and Gardner, Warren Burnett, Rod Davis, Paul Sweeney, Marshall Breger, honky-tonks, few realize that their pastime has become very big Jack Hopper, Stanley Walker, Joe Frantz, Ray Reece, Laura Eisenhour, Dan Hubig, Ben Sargent, Berke Breathed, Eje Wray, business, a bonanza firmly under the control of a handful of Luther Sperberg, Roy Hamric, Thomas D. Bleich, Mark Stinson, Ave record companies, radio chains, talent agents, and other Bonar, Jeff Danziger, Lois Rankin, Maury Maverick Jr., Bruce Cory, middlemen. Between the performer and the music customer John Henry Faulk, Chandler Davidson, Molly Ivins, Ralph Yar- stands a growing army of corporate executives that, while add- borough, Laura Richardson, Tim Mahoney, John Spragens Jr. ing enormously to the cost of music, siphons off a great chunk of profit and at the same time exercises undue influence over BUSINESS STAFF: Cliff Olofson, Alice Embree, the availability of musical styles. The business of music is worth Ricky Cruz a close look. A journal of free voices Total worldwide record and tape sales now exceed $7 billion We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we annually, and observers who will venture to explain the boom find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the say it is the result not only of the general spread of wealth and foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own technology, but of an increase in the average age of record conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to buyers on every continent.' Predictably, the U.S. is the big serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human music consumer. The American dollar is involved in 43 percent spirit. of 'all global expenditures, but yen, marks, rubles and all kinds The editor has exclusive control over the editorial policies and con- tents of the Observer. None of the other people who are associated of other currencies help fuel the world's music industry. with the enterprise shares this responsibility with him. Writers are In the U.S., music sales jumped prodigiously between 1973 responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not and 1977—from $2 billion to $3 billion. The biggest buyers turn themselves written, and in publishing them the editor does not neces- sarily imply that he agrees with them because this is a journal offree out to be Texans. More money is spent on commercial music in voices. the Lone Star State than in any other—$200 million for records in 1977 and at least $25 million more for tickets to live perfor- Published by Texas Observer Publishing Co., biweekly except for a three-week inter- val between issues twice a year, in January and July; 25 issues per year. Second-class mances. Texas is such a strong market not only because of its postage paid at Austin, Texas. Publication no. 541300. fast-growing population, but also because of the state's many Single copy (current or back issue) 50V prepaid. One year. $12; two years. S22; three innovative radio stations and long driving times, which encour- years, $30. Foreign, except APO/FPO, $1 additional per year. Airmail, hulk orders, and group rates on request. age radio listening and cassette tape use on the highway. In Microfilmed by Microfilming Corporation of America. 21 Harristown Road, Glen addition, Texas is culturally diverse, ranking prominently as a Rock, N.J. 07452. source of musical talent in all the popular genres, from rock 'n' Editorial and Business Offices: roll and country-western to Chicano, soul and gospel. 2 600 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701 Although Texas is seen as but a small part of the overall gross 7.430,'"if (512) 477-0746 national profit picture by the record company-owning conglomerates based in New York and Los Angeles, and is largely sub-

2 APRIL 14, 1978 ject to the whims and fantasies of New York desk jockeys, the Wherever they start, the initial leap into the music business state remains a unique bastion of regional roots. It continues to for most musicians/songwriters is like a spin in a clothes dryer defy the sensibilities of the typical national marketing director with a handful of marbles and a couple of cats. Few come carefully plotting his annual sales quota. through without scars, a tinge of paranoia, and a true hate for While most major markets center around one or two large those who run the big machine. metropolitan areas, the Texas regional market encompasses In a business sense, the young performer typically tries to large cities, a vast rural area, and distinct and well-represented advance from the status of an unknown, go-it-alone freelance to sub-groups. The state's unusually broad mix of music business that of a well-known artist who by necessity often heads up a activities has managed to mesh into the national structure. commercial operation grossing from $500,000 to $1 million an- Houston is the home of ZZ Top, Texas' premier rock group, as nually, with many employees and sub-contractors. The ascent well as the state's major black music organization, Peacock is treacherous and costly. The crucial stepping-stones to suc- Records. Lubbock has given us Buddy Holly and Waylon Jen- cess are slippery: the artist must stabilize his income, organize a nings; San Antonio and Corpus Christi are centers of activity band, develop an audience, connect with a record company, for a chicano record industry almost totally self-sustained by its find an honest manager, and produce and promote a hit—all Texas audience. 3 Waco is headquarters for Word, Inc., the with some degree of continuity. largest religious music record company in the world; Dallas is Many musicians decide along the way that their chances of the base of operations for Showco, Inc., one of the largest "getting it together" are better in Los Angeles, Nashville or sound and lights companies providing stage production services New York, depending on which of the national recording cen- to top-name pop music acts; and Austin, which supports a busy ters appears most receptive to their styles. For the artist who club and concert scene, is the present base of Willie Nelson chooses to stay in Texas, put together a band to perform origi- and the point of origin for "Austin City Limits" (a highly suc- nal music, and does not have a record company, the local club cessful PBS network music series). So Texas, as the home of circuit becomes his primary source of revenue. He might find a recording studios, various music production projects, and a niche in one club or one city, but the musician out to establish growing film industry, adds up to a desirable place for musicians himself regionally will try not to overexpose his music in one to live and work. locale; instead, he'll seek "gigs" in other cities to enlarge his audience and build demand for his music that will allow him to Texas would seem a good place for a new group to get a raise his fee. It is extremely difficult for the unknown band—in start in the music business. However, survival here may not Austin, San Francisco or anywhere else—to break into better guarantee successful entry into the national music market. club dates, new cities, and higher fee brackets. Since the com-

1.Billboard magazine, in its April 1 edition, reports on the results of a are country stars at home and abroad, among them Willie Nelson, Warner Communications, Inc.-sponsored survey of consumer age Freddie Fender, Johnny Rodriguez and Jerry Jeff Walker, to name just a trends in the American music market. According to the study's findings, few. Joe Ely, a Lubbock singer-songwriter, was named the best new people 25 and over account for 55 percent of the total dollar expenditure country artist of 1977 in England for his first record release, and the for records and tapes; teenagers, it was found, were good for 23 percent, Texas Playboys, Bob Wills' old band, recently won the Country Music and those in the 20 to 24 age bracket, 22 percent. Association's award as the best instrumental band of the year (1977). 2. Of the various musical styles indigenous to Texas, country music 3. In South Texas, the Zavala County Economic Development Cor- seems to be the most exportable. As a distinctive sound, country is poration is weighing the regional demand for chicano music to deter- building huge followings not only around the U.S. but in Japan, Scan- mine business potential for a possible record pressing plant in the dinavia, Britain, Europe and Australia. Many Texas-based performers county.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3 petition for good bookings is stiff, a band 90/10 between, respectively, the band usually has to develop a word-of-mouth and promoter. 4 A hard-working Texas reputation to attract the attention of band without a record out may gross promoters beyond its home base. This from $50,000 to $100,000 a year, or from `You need a informal process can take a year or more $200,000 on up if it has a regional follow- piranha' to bear fruit in a city like Austin, Dallas ing (the Texas club circuit takes in Loui- or Houston. But even when a desirable siana, Oklahoma, Colorado and New gig is lined up, it may turn out to pay no Mexico) and records on the market. By Steven Fromholz more than union scale until the act proves All of this notwithstanding, the Texas it has a following sufficient to war- music audience spends most of its live You take your average music rant a higher percentage of ticket sales. performance dollar on national touring business deal. Now there's a full- Occasionally, a club operator will come rock acts. The biggest winner in this crap blown disaster on the order of an oil across a band he thinks has significant shoot usually turns out to be the agency well fire—out of control from the potential; if he's smart and adventurous, that books the big concert gigs. Com- very start. If someone had called he may help the group develop a follow- manding a 10 to 15 percent share of an Red Adair the first time Hank ing to the benefit of both club and band. act's gross revenue, the agency in New Williams sang "My Bucket's Got a York or Los Angeles which is the exclu- Hole in It," we might have gotten it An unusually large number of clubs capped and saved musicians a lot of and ballrooms give Texas musicians ac- sive U.S. representative for top-draw acts like Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, grief. cess to a wide range of popular music Every singer/ songwriter needs a audiences. Though clubs come and go, Rod Stewart or James Taylor can count its money before a tour begins. The few piranha—an agent or manager or there always seem to be good gigs for both. It really doesn't matter which both regional and national bands. Places agents controlling the industry's major acts are the most powerful individuals in as long as they can talk fast. Trouble like Gruene Hall (in Gruene), "the old- is, they sometimes feed on you— est dancehall in Texas," founded in 1878, the music business. The three largest national talent book- piranhas specialize in Rock 'n' Roll Longview's Rio Palm Isle (opened dur- Lies, which go like this: ing oilfield boom days), the Cotton Club ing firms, the William Morris Agency, "Listen, man, we can take it out in Lubbock, and Austin's eight-year-old IFA and CMA, dominate the • in the mix." Armadillo World Headquarters come Hollywood-New York film-television quickly to mind. business. They each average billings of • "I know a place down the road $100 million yearly, perhaps 40 percent that has a great chicken-fried An act's share of the gate can vary of which comes from rock music deals. steak." greatly. If a club seats a small audience But the Main Man of rock 'n' roll is • "Fromholz, your check is in the but sells mixed drinks, a band may get Frank Barsalona, whose Premier Talent mail." all of the admission charge, with the Associates books well over $50 million Piranhas are supposed to keep singers/songwriters from dying broke and alone in some home for In b rief itinerant pickers. Through business In the burgeoning music business, market concentration serves connections and expertise, your piranha finds a record executive to cut down variety, but Texas remains a bastion of regional roots. who believes you can be commer- Aspiring musicians typically try to make a deal with middlemen cially exploited. Together, they pick a record producer, send you and the and record companies and run the attendant risks. producer into a studio and hope Some Texas-based performers sidestep this process by aiming against hope that the two of you emerge with "THE HIT." first for success on the state's robust club circuit, then rising from it For the singer/songwriter, a slot in their own good time. in the Top Ten is a slice of Heavenly Pie, not to mention regular trips to If the rewards of national exposure prove too tempting, the artist the bank. How many slices and trips who succumbs may end up plying his trade to a tune called by the largely depend on the quality of your piranha and his or her profi- industry's ten giant conglomerates, whose managers measure the ciency in dealing with all the other value of music by its contribution to gross annual profits. piranhas encountered on the road to stardom, or even the road to Hutto. Learning to read, write and speak club making money from the bar conces- of rock 'n' roll entertainment each year pidgin piranha is also helpful for sion; a larger, beer-only hall may incur with 10 percent of gross sales going understanding contracts and letters greater production expenses and depend straight to Frank. Premier emerged in from piranhas. on ticket sales to recoup part of its over- the mid-'60s after the Beatles invasion head costs. As emphasis moves toward convinced Barsalona of rock's commer- I have found that the most diffi- live performance and bigger audiences, cial promise. He quickly moved to lock cult part of staying in the business is the more divided becomes the ticket up the big name British acts and has staying in the business. Show Biz dollar, with talent usually averaging takes a heavy toll on those who are about 60 percent of the ticket gross and 4. Here's a peek at one of Waylon Jen- timid or rigid and merely want to the production company about 40 per- nings's recent road trips: March 6, Omaha, play the music. I guess that making 6,775 people, $6.50-7.50 ticket, gross $48,872 / it in this business is largely a matter cent. As a band grows in popularity, its March 11, Johnson City, Tennessee, 5,643 negotiating strength increases (ideally) to of luck—you're lucky to have talent people, $6.50-7.50 ticket, gross $42,301 / and timing, and you're lucky if, by the point where its manager can set up a March 12, Knoxville, 4,072 people, $6.50-7.50 nationwide tour of large-capacity au- ticket, gross $28,982. Waylon and the boys the time you figure out how to use ditoriums (with seating for 10,000 or climb in those buses and airplanes and do this these things, you're not too jaded, more). At this stage, the income from the virtually all the time—at least 12 shows a tainted, old, tired and ugly to enjoy going ticket price of, say, $8 breaks down month. them. 4 APRIL 14, 1978

dominated the importation of British rock 'n' roll musicians ever since. In Texas, most agencies are built around one or two strong acts. They rep- RECORD resent local and regional bands on exclu- COMPANY sive or non-exclusive bases, and tend to PROFIT specialize in certain types of gigs either 96 0 locally or within the immediate five-state $1.00 area. Books could—and should—be written ARTIST/PUBLISHER about the pitfalls awaiting an artist— either a musician or a songwriter—trying DISTRIBUTOR to break into the recording business. There is no shortage of people between $1.10 him and the record companies willing to PRESSING & serve as middlemen for a piece of the MANUFACTURE action. Many artists unwittingly get locked into long management, publish- 480 ing, or recording deals with local or regional operators who cannot offer the same services as the large companies but ADMINISTRATION hold out the promise of helping a client advance his career or make a connection with a major. Many a band, stalled by 48E0 inept management or a year or two of STORE frustrating attempts to peddle a demo recording, breaks up in mid-flight. Too often, musicians take on ill-considered $1.60 240 contractual and moral obligations to local operators and friends as they cast PACKAGING about for financial or other kinds of as- 120 AND SHIPPING sistance. Still, a helping hand at the grassroots level in Austin, San Antonio, SLICING UP ADVERTISING Houston or. Dallas can give just the extra & PROMOTION push needed to bring a group or a song to A $5.98 ALBUM Chart by the attention of the record-producing Bill Narum powers that be.

The big picture artist can show a predictable sales pat- price of $7.98 will sell to the consumer at tern, then to a certain extent long-range about $5.98. 5 National record sales by musical cate- revenue can be projected to defend the Major record company revenue from gory break down to about 75 percent outlay of millions of dollars for the rights pop/rock; 12 percent country; 3 percent the sale of a $7.98 list price LP (which to his next ten records.) A second and sells wholesale to distributors at $3.25) gospel; 7 percent soul/disco; 3 percent more common mode of acquisition com- other—classical, jazz, etc. (In Texas, can be divided on a per-unit basis ap- bines scouting trips, word-of-mouth and proximately as follows: advertising and country music commands a much larger submission of demo tapes. The third share of the market—probably 20 per- promotion, 3.7 percent; packaging and method is the straightforward acquisition shipping, 7 percent; administration, 14.5 cent.) According to 1976 industry esti- of U.S. distribution rights from foreign mates, about 1,200 U.S. concerns man- licensqrs. percent; pressing and manufacturing, ufacture and distribute records under 14.5 percent; artist/publisher, 29 per- In a typical acquisition, the new artist cent; and profit, 30 percent. 2,600 different labels. (Of the '40-odd grants the company exclusive rights to labels based in Texas, very few manufac- his recordings for a year and options for These figures can vary from record to ture more than a handful of units of any three to four additional years, and obli- record. The majors do not look at prof- given record, and then only for local re- gates himself to record one or two LPs itability solely in terms of costs per unit, lease and artist promotion purposes.) -annually. The company may agree to ad- since 70 to 80 percent of the 4,000 albums But in reality, the market is much more vance royalties anywhere from $1,000 to released each year are financial losers. A concentrated than these figures suggest. $100,000. It will also pay the costs of company must sell more than 25,000 For instance, at least 90 percent of all producing the album, which can range singles (or 85,000 albums) of each release recorded music sold in Texas passe's from $30,000 to $100,000. Country music to break even. Industry averages for in- through fewer than ten distribution or- comes in on the low end of the scale; vestments in new groups and first-album ganizations. Three of them, CBS, WEA rock is much more expensive. projects run around $100,000, counting and Capitol, through their various labels, royalty advances to artists, payments to control 50 percent of the action on the musicians for studio time, production pop music charts, while six other com- Dollar breakdown costs, pressing, shipping, promotion, and panies, RCA, MCA, ABC, Arista, Poly- advertising expenses. Since advances gram and A&M, control aiiother 33 per- Manufacturers generally sell records cent. (See the profile of WCI on page to distributors for 50 percent of 5. The major record companies have hiked 23.) suggested retail list price or less; dis- the list price of their albums by a dollar in The big companies acquire most of each of the last three years, from $4.98 to tributors, in turn, mark up from 10 to 30 $7.98. Like steel and auto firms, the record their artists in one of three ways. First, a percent for servicing retail outlets, which giants increase their prices in concert, company may simply buy an established then set their prices to compete with suggesting that something less than full com- talent from another manufacturer. (If an nearby stores. Thus, a record with a list petition prevails in the industry. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 5 FAMILY . ARTIST

LAWYER(S) 41111111111 111111111■; MANAGER TALENT AGENT 11.11.1111110 OFFICE STAFF CLUB OPERATORS CONCERT PRODUCERS PUBLIC RELATIONS

SECURITY VISUAL ARTIST SOUND ENGINEER LIGHT ENGINEER BAND MEMBERS ADMINISTRATION ROAD CREW WAITRESSES BARTENDERS LIGHT ENGINEER MAINTENANCE SOUND ENGINEER ADVERTISING TICKET TAKERS STAGEHANDS

CONSUMER CONSUMER

The order-of-battle: Between the performer and the music customer stands a growing army of corporate retainers that adds and production costs are recouped from retailer may buy from a sub-distributor aggressive in-store advertising. This artist royalties (they range from 4 to 12 who has brought "the product" into the trend will continue to concentrate con- percent of an album's retail list price), local market. Among the sub- . trol in a few hands and eliminate the many new artists do not break even until distributors is the "rack-jobber" who small "mom & pop" stores, but it is also their third or fourth record reaches the carries only top-selling LPs. He involves the only factor working to hold down re- retail market, and that's provided they himself in about 40 percent of all sales by tail prices—at least until the retail level is aren't dropped after the first or second servicing the record departments of large securely in the control of the most domi- release, an all-too-common fate. A re- department stores like Target, K-Mart, nant chains. cording artist is lucky to see additional Woolco, Sears and other convenience payments beyond his first advance. This stores. Another sub-distributor is the On one's own effectively means that if royalty ad- "one-stop," a local wholesale outlet car- vances and production outlays on an rying all labels and servicing the smaller If you are a musician with a record not album come to $50,000 and the artist is independent stores by offering them distributed in Texas by one of the six getting an average royalty rate of 8 per- what they need at one place and saving major record manufacturers, you'll cent of list price at $7.98, the record them freight expenses. probably end up dealing with one of the company holds his royalty for the first state's independent regional distributors, 100,000 LPs. Probably the most dramatic trend in mostly located in Houston or Dallas. record marketing today is the rapid Houston's H. W. Daily, Inc., which also Distribution growth in chain store operations. There owns distributorships in Dallas as well as are currently more than 11 such outfits in large supermarket-style retail outlets, A record can take a variety of routes in Texas with from three to 13 or more represents more than 40 labels at a time reaching the consumer. If the retailer can member stores each. Retail outlets like and catalogs in excess of 500 new titles buy in sufficient volume, he may get his Recordtown, Disc Records, Zebra Rec- per year. 'Bud Daily thinks sales volume best deal directly from the manufacturer. ords, Cactus, Evolution, Budget, Music- of 1,000 to 1,500 albums or singles Many dealers buy at wholesale prices land and Discount represent different throughout his South Texas sales area is large quantities which they warehouse chains, most of which plan to add to their a good start for a first release on an inde- and feed to various local outlets or mem- number in the immediate future. The ap- pendent label. Daily makes it clear that bers of their chain operations. Since parent move is toward big record super- the artist who decides to work with the shipping costs are a big factor, the small markets in each major city and highly small independent record company has a 6 APRIL 14, 1978

CONSUMER FRIENDS

STUDIO RADIO PRINT PRODUCER ENGINEER ACCOUNTANT(S) MUSICIANS TELEVISION

PRESIDENT RECORD COMPANY ARTIST & REPERTOIRE MARKETING PROMOTION & ADVERTISING V.P. BUSINESS AFFAIRS

RADIO DISTRIBUTOR STATIONS

RACK JOBBERS ONE-STOPS PROGRAM ECORD STORE DIRECTOR RECORD CLUB JUKE BOXES LEASED LOCATIONS DISC JOCKEY

CONSUMER CONSUMER CONSUMER

enormously to the cost of music and at the same time exercises undue influence over the availability of musical styles. Bill Narum

hard road ahead of him: "He practically has to go out and promote the record himself, create the demand for it, and In merchandising, the apparent move is toward big record then the radio station doesn't want to play it because there is no local distribu- supermarkets and highly aggressive in-store promo. This trend tion and the retailer doesn't want to buy will continue to concentrate retail control in a few hands and it because he wants to be able to return it to an established distributor." What eliminate the "mom & pop" stores, but it is also the only factor Daily neglects to mention is that if an working to hold down prices-at least until record retailing is independently marketed, record doesn't securely in the grip of the most dominant store chains. have , a proven market, then an established distributor isn't interested in han- dling it, which leaves the independent in a Catch-22. out-of-state orders, there is still a lot of 8,000 stations present a variety of musi- But independent record production homegrown gospel, country pop, educa- cal formats along these lines: country, and manufacturing is a common and tional and chicano music being pressed 1,500; gospel, 1,000; album-oriented sometimes profitable way for an artist to into vinyl in Texas. rock, Top 40 and pop (which includes expand beyond the local and regional "easy listening" and "beautiful" music, audience syndrome and boost his per- etc.), 4,000. Soul, Spanish and classical sonal appearance income. If he cannot Radio make up the rest. Stations are bom- immediately hook up with a major com- barded with the more than 4,000 albums pany, it still may be worth his time and The power of the radio broadcasting released each year. The resulting money to produce a limited number of industry to mold the musical tastes of bottleneck varies in size, depending on copies of a single or LP to use for promo- America cannot be overestimated. At station category and local conditions. tion. Musicians making their own rec- the top of the pile are the FM and AM But generally speaking, there is an in- ords have turned to the state's five stations in the country's top 50 audience credible crunch of vinyl all around, with pressing plants in Arlington, Dallas, markets. (Most of these key operations hundreds of new disks competing for a Houston and San Antonio. Although are owned by large communications few minutes of time on the public air- most of the plants' production is tied to conglomerates.) The nation's nearly waves.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 7 How are records selected for performance? A station's program director makes available to his disk jockeys a list of songs or a selection formula with which the DJ then works. The list is often no more than 25 to 50 songs, hence the "Top 40" format. The titles are usually culled from trade magazine top 100 singles charts and LP listings. If a station is a chain affiliate, its record choices may Meanwhile, out on be subject to the decision of a national program director. 6 The result of such a fatalistically: "Sometimes I get bus fare monolithic system is that key stations in By Joe Nick Patoski major markets across the country turn back home. Sometimes I don't." The on to the same songs at about the same Fort Worth, Beaumont, San Antonio money is important. The only other way time. Down on the street, there are no pro- he supports his family is washing dishes. Smaller stations in the same markets moters, record executives, and million But the passion to entertain comes be- as trend-setters frequently adopt the dollar contracts. There are, however, fore all other considerations. leaders' formats; eventually, stations in thousands of pickers, crooners, and In a typical 45-minute set, Barefoot outlying cities and towns fall in line, too. showmen toiling on the moonlight shift sings a couple songs, tells a dirty joke, This cycle perpetuates a system that without benefit of legal advice, a media tickles the piano keys for a few fast shuf- places selection of new music in the con- blitz, and college education in corporate fles, cracks some one-liners, and tap trol of a few people and leaves little lee- rock politics. They might mistake BMI dances on an overturned Coke crate way for an offbeat, locally inspired rec- and ASCAP for new social service agen- while reeling off more jokes. I like the ord to slip onto the airwaves. Rarely cies, but just like Elton John, they, too, one where he's sitting in bed waiting for does a station's management opt for a etch a living out of their art. his girlfriend to join him: new musical mix as KOKE-FM did in The business of music is very real to "She comes in and takes off her wig Austin a few years ago when it pioneered Curley "Barefoot" Miller. Once or twice and puts it on the dresser. Then she the "progressive country" sound. (See a week he hops the bus from Dallas takes out her teeth and puts them on the Carolyn Allen's book review on page 24 across the turnpike to my favorite Fort dresser. She takes off her brassiere and for the fate of KOKE's innovation.) Worth juke joint, the New Blue Bird Nite everything else and puts them on the Club, where he knows the customers ap- dresser. Then she gets into bed. I jump In sum: preciate professional risque blues on the dresser!" comedy. On a jam-packed Saturday If the crowd doesn't laugh, he'll pause It is not just the music industry's size night, he makes $20; less than that when a vaudeville minute, then cackle, "Y'all and rate of growth that should bother ar- he has to. But Barefoot accepts his lot didn't get it, but she sure did!" (Continued on page 21) Barefoot warms up: "Sometimes I get bus fare back home. Sometimes I don't." 6. At least five large radio chain operations own stations in Texas. Gordon McLendon started the move with his flagship station in Dallas, KLIF, and built up a total of 14. The FCC limits any one chain entity to seven AM and seven FM licenses. McLendon's chain has bought and sold many stations since the days when it owned one each in Dallas, Hous- ton, San Antonio and El Paso simultaneously. Fairchild now owns KLIF; Time-Life, KVIL in Dallas; Lynn, KILT-AM and FM in Hous- ton; and ABC, KXYZ in Houston. The big regional news is that Harte-Hanks, the Cor- pus Christi-based newspaper chain, has just paid $60 million for Southern Broadcasting, a large radio group with stations across the South (none, however, in Texas). There is a tendency among big chains to give stations the freedom they need to be more responsive to their home cities. At the same time, the most significant new trend in radio is toward syndication and automated programming. Organizations like Dallas's TM Productions, Drake-Chenault and Shulke of California, and at least six other U.S. firms furnish more than 200 stations each with en- tire, dawn-to-dusk formats. With 90 percent of all broadcast music originating from the recording centers of Los Angeles, Nashville or New York, a locally produced record, cut on inferior equipment and by relatively unsophisticated studio tech- nicians, usually does not have big-time sound quality and is thus unlikely to be aired because it sounds "funky" or "local" when placed alongside of material pressed in L.A. or prepackaged by a syndication/automated programming outfit. 8 APRIL 14, 1978

4fmo..44010‘ At the climax of his routine, Barefoot demonstrates how he got his nickname by removing his shoes and tap dancing. Either the sound of his feet flapping on the floor simulates real taps or, as one Blue Bird veteran claims, bottle caps are curled in his toes. After this penultimate physical feat, Barefoot closes with a little drumming, a few more funny lines, and an earth-shaking somersault across the sagging dance floor. Barefoot says he's 77 and I don't doubt him for a minute. His son, No Shoes, who sometimes comes along to help out on drums, is four, according to Barefoot. I don't doubt that, either. I do harbor second thoughts, however, regarding Barefoot's future every time he tumbles 0 head over heels, especially on those nights when he'll be lucky to make bus 9 fare. Once I asked him how a man his C age could regularly summon the energy ci) and courage for such acrobatics. Bare- Bongo "San Antonio's leading self-made independent musician," is, says one foot fixed his cool eye on me like I was a writer, only upwardly mobile musician I know." crazy man and, putting all matters of mirth temporarily aside, flatly said, "I like to eat." Barefoot could probably use chased him away. Son accepts that fate broadcast his music as he pedaled a good agent. as an occupational hazard. On a Satur- through the city. Bongo had moved up in Clive Davis has never called Barefoot day before Christmas at Gibson's he can the world and bought himself a moped. or Son Shelby. Neither is waiting by the make up td $100. as long as smart ass "I have joined the modern world," he phone, even though Son made a 45 teenagers keep their thieving palms out announced. r.p.m. record five years ago and both of his cup. Bongo, Son and Barefoot could be songs were registered with a bona fide Because he isn't blind and carries a dismissed as relics of a bygone era pre- publishing company licensed by BMI. loaded pistol, Bongo Joe, San Antonio's served for folklorists. But music on the Son is that legit. But he has never re- leading self-made independent musician, street level is still thriving if the banjo ceived a royalty statement, most likely is free of Son's theft problems. Bongo is player, the Trinidad-style, steel drum because country blues, the music the only upwardly mobile musician I band, and the electric autoharpist are analysts tell us, aren't selling this year. know. In the spring he journeys to New any indication. Sometimes I think the Rather than wait for Clive's call, Son Orleans where he performs at the annual state arts commission or some federal survives on the sidewalks. He'd be there Jazz and Heritage Festival. The rest of agency should fund them. Surely they do anyway, selling pencils like a blind street the time he plies the San Antonio Riv- a better job communicating art than a person should, except strumming a erwalk, pounding his homemade rattle- static painting or sculpture. But that guitar sure passes the time easier. Be- sticks on two 50-gallon oil drums, impro- would be about as helpful as hiring a sides, the added income permits him the vising a beat poetry commentary on the manager for them. The beauty of street luxury of a halt pint of vodka in the news of the day. Bongo recently discov- music is its immediacy. I like it better morning. Son started working the foot ered the portability of cassettes and now, than ZZ Top and Willie Nelson because traffic on Forsythe Street in downtown too often, tapes of memorable perfor- the practitioners not only perform for Beaumont around 1948. For 20 years he mances, rather than a live act, blast you, but let you talk back to them, show got by all right on a few dollars a day. In through his customized speaker system. approval by dropping money in a hat, the late '60s he followed the merchants I last saw him on a Sunday morning and express distaste by walking further and their shoppers out to the suburban around 2 a.m. playing tapes across the down the line, Which is not to deny them malls, where the money was better. He street from the Hilton. The public had the pursuit of fat residuals. It's just that personally prefers the Gibson's on South been good to him, he reported. A fresh guys like Son don't want another record- Eleventh. The move exacted its toll, coat of red, white, and blue bicentennial ing contract. But another half pint just though. The Beaumont police tolerated paint decorated his oil drums. His might do the trick. 0 Son downtown, but in suburbia he must Shriner fez looked like it had just come ask each store's manager for permission back from the cleaners. And he was no Joe Nick Patoski often writes on to occupy the establishment's pavement. longer hauling his equipment behind his music for Rolling Stone, Texas Month- Once at Sage in Austin he didn't and the specially designed bicycle, the one with ly, and other publications. He lives in guard took his social security card and the speaker rigged up so he could Austin. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 9 Whose bop in bop-she-bop?

By Steve Chapple thing happened in the '50s: country sing- San Francisco ing combined with a rhythm and blues One afternoon in the late '60s a beat to become a national music, rock 'n' newscaster at San Francisco's KSAN- roll. They no longer existed in the same FM stood up at a staff meeting to protest way as regional styles. It is the the advertising of F-310, a Standard Oil McDonaldization of music, I suppose, gasoline additive which independent with each radio station a franchise, and tests showed did nothing at all to im- the results differ little from what the prove automobile performance. exploitation of other rare resources by When he was finished, Big Daddy Tom other sorts of corporations leads to. Donahue, the father of FM rock and the Still, there is a tension in pop music general manager at KSAN (the station that does not exist in other, non-creative credited with pioneering progressive commodity businesses. No executive in rock on U.S. airwaves), rose to lay out a the MCA tower in Burbank is going to basic truth. "Radical community stations strap on a Fender bass or get behind a kit are supported by advertisers with mon- of drums. This is why an artist like Paul ey," he said. "If you get in bed with the Simon, who consistently provides high devil, you better be prepared." quality "product," as Billboard and even Rolling Stone are wont to say (and

Rock critics and cultural historians il

have too often viewed the development m aptly), is given extra royalty points.

of American pop music as a purely nne How to keep one foot in the MCA aesthetic process, almost as a progres- tower and shake-a-leg on the street h Da sion of chord changes. However, at sev- it where the music is created? The problem eral crucial junctures it has not been Ahe Ke has been solved structurally by the in- national muse but corporations in con- stitution of the independent producer. trol of the broadcasting and music indus- Men like Phil Spector or Lou Adler, who tries that have put the bop into bop-she- ad income totals, the music business, in- produced Carol King, cut label deals bop and determined much of what we credibly, is almost as big as television: with the big companies. The production hear on our radios and play on our $7.3 to $7.5 billion grossed each year. contract offers a certain amount of crea- phonographs. In a successful move to Concentration and bigness obviously tive control to the act and the producer, protect the VHF band for television, for affect the consumer. As in the steel, oil, and distribution and a stable flow of tal- instance, RCA's David Sarnoff banished and tobacco industries, competition is ent to the record companies. FM to a lesser frequency and stalled the never reflected at retail. Record com- Given time and that sweetest of Amer- development of FM high fidelity radio panies raise their prices uniformly and all ican pressures, co-optation, intimacy with for thirty years. Again, by placing corpo- too regularly, sometimes blaming in- the devil affects more than the music or rate emphasis on the truly big money creases on minor shortages of raw mate the air sound of an FM station. It influ- television market in the middle '50s, rials like vinyl. ences the musician as well. Fame and RCA and CBS allowed the many re- The effect on the music is most obvi- cocaine and $250,000 a year are sharp- gional stations which were beginning to ous in distribution and with radio. The toothed off-spring for those lucky experiment with rhythm-and-blues big distributors who "rack" two thirds of enough to make it. Integrity and the long music and, later, rock 'n' roll, to compete the country's records and tapes usually view are as rare in rock 'n' roll as a set of against neglected network affiliates. limit their stock to the 200 most popular glass drums. In a move that is quite natu- Now, in the waning '70s, the excite- albums, forcing new and strange bands ral, too many successful stars check out ment that marked rock 'n' roll's two to wait until radio stations pay their of their home towns into a Hotel Califor- formative periods seems to have all but songs some attention. nia where their roots are as hard to find disappeared. Rock 'n' roll may be here to But radio is increasingly chained and as the way out the lobby door. It be- stay, but the rip-it-up days of Presley, concentrated itself. Freeform FM, now comes too easy to run with the industry, Berry, and Little Richard are no more, less glamorously called AOR (Album with other musicians, producers, promo and the wild creativeness of the Oriented Rock), is often nationally for- men, and deejays, and less and less with psychedelic and British era is also gone. matted, while Top 40 AM has become in the audience or folks back on the block. Many producers and fans fault the some cities Top 15, "cutting off the And here, it seems to someone 1,500 monopolization of the music industry. heads of the record industry," as the miles away, is where Texas music might As a business rock 'n' roll (which ac- president of ABC-Dunhill bellowed a be a little different. Because Texas just counts for 85 percent of manufactured few years back. may be a place you can still go home music) is more concentrated than the oil There is no conspiracy on the part of to. 0 industry. The top four music corpora- the big record companies to produce tions account for better than half of all schlock sounds. The dynamic is more Steve Chapple has written on the records sold. At $3 billion a year, record subtle. Music corporations send scouts music business for New Times, Mother and tape sales are double movie reve- to the ends of the earth to spot new Jones, Rolling Stone, The Boston nues, more than four times the amount trends: reggae, West African soul, Lon- Phoenix and for the Bay Guardian in San Americans lavish on organized sports. don punk. But this constant mixing, Francisco, where he lives. His first book, And if you throw in the sums spent on while very hip at first, eventually breaks Rock 'n' Roll Is Here to Pay, is reviewed record and tape players as well as radio down root music genres. Much the same elsewhere in this issue.

10 APRIL 14, 1978 'ENDORSEMENTS

1978 campaign pledges mark him as a tend to consumers the right to press man who would, more often than not, class-action suits against firms that de- represent the interests of America's fraud them, and he would have sup- common people and restore to the U.S. ported the bill to authorize low-interest Joe. loans to bankroll consumer food, hous- Senate some of the personal integrity and much-needed Texas progressivism ing, medical, and auto-repair coopera- "The major oil companies have two that was lost when Ralph Yarborough tives. And while Krueger and Tower are candidates in this race. The people de- left Washington. strongly committed to nuclear develop- serve at least one." Christie has been the only candidate ment, Christie favors a major federal That's Joe Christie, Democrat for U.S. for statewide office this year willing to commitment to solar power development Senate, saying about as much as any make an issue of the disparity between as the most sensible energy alternative editorial writer could to draw the distinc- the political objectives of the Exxons available to the nation. tion between the former state insurance and the needs of Texas consumers, small Despite Krueger's campaign spending commissioner and his two principal op- business people, and independent oil en- edge—for our taste, far too much of his ponents in this important race— trepreneurs. He took a principled stand money has flowed directly from the ex- Democratic congressman Bob Krueger for the Panama Canal treaties when most chequers of large corporations—this and Republican incumbent John Tower. of the state's other statesmen were either Democratic primary contest is up for During a 17-year tenure in Washington, demagoguing or dodging the canal ques- grabs. Christie has the stands, the rec- while rarely bothering to look beyond tion. He has come out for a "flat rate" ord, and the name recognition to win on the corporate interest, Tower has com- charge for all electric customers that May 6 and there is little doubt that his piled a record that only a Wall Street would deny industrial users electric rates election would make a significant differ- banker could love. Krueger's views cer- cheaper than those paid by individuals ence in the U.S. Senate. But Krueger is tainly are better than Tower's on social and small business. Unlike Krueger, going to dump a load of money into issues, but they nonetheless reflect the Christie, had he been in the U.S. House, well-developed media spots between now same big-business bias on the crucial would have supported legislation to ex- and primary day. To counter this economic questions of our day. eleventh-hour air raid, Christie must The Observer heartily endorses have the all-out support of everyone who Christie—or just plain "Joe," as his is fed up with the plutocratic control of

campaign literature puts it. Born 44 Jr. Texas politics.

years ago in Rising Star and ascendant ns We hope you will send Joe some mon- ever since, he worked his way up e ey, contribute time to his effort, and give through the oilfields, the Marines, law rag

Sp him your vote on May 6. school, and into the state senate. His hn —Eds.

ten-year record of public service and his Jo

a In the first place, we endorse Daniel be-

km cause he is so superior intellectually and

Wic politically to his primary opponent that

da the race should be called for lack of real Price lin competition. But Daniel is not only bet- Me ter than White, he is also much better than what his cautious campaign says of After May 6, students of Texas politics has run an efficient but dull race, cul- him. His middle-of-the-road posture will be able to look back at Price Daniel tivating all the while a responsible-leader notwithstanding, Daniel would make an Jr.'s campaign for attorney general as a image and hewing hard to the middle of activist attorney general, one with the in- textbook example of how a reform- the political track. His major campaign tegrity to stand up to the large business minded candidate with money and a announcements have addressed non- interests that swarm around the AG's of- well-established name runs for office: controversial issues—the need to do fice. He can be counted on to be every very cautiously. something about bureaucratic red tape in bit as strong as John Hill on consumer Daniel had much going for him from Austin, improve implementation of the protection and anti-trust issues, and the start—solid progressive credentials, open records act, combat child pornog- probably stronger on open records and just-as-solid connections to the state's raphy, fund the judicial review commis- pollution enforcement. Daniel will cer- legal establishment, a "good govern- sion properly, and so on. tainly match Hill, if not better him, when ment" record as speaker of the Texas Basically, Daniel is campaigning by it comes to appointing women and House, a politically famous father, a fam- endorsement—hardly a day passes that minorities to significant positions in the ily lineage that traces back to Sam Hous- doesn't bring another batch of press re- AG's office. And despite a 1974 tiff with ton himself, and a weak opponent. The leases into our office hailing still another top Texas labor leaders stemming from Liberty County Democrat was the front- list of lawyers, Cherokee County citi- his compromise at the constitutional runner from the moment he entered the zens, elected officials, or some other convention on the state's right-to-work race last September, and he's not had to Texas group that has embraced his can- law, Daniel clearly will be more sym- look back since. While all campaign polls didacy. There is no question that he has pathetic as attorney general to the rights are suspect, PDJr's worst showing in any pulled politically disparate organizations of unions than Mark White would ever public sampling of voter preference thus onto his bandwagon, from Mexican- dream of being. far has given him a two-to-one advantage American Democrats (MAD) to Moder- Price Daniel Jr. merits our readers' over his Democratic challenger, Mark ate Democrats of Texas (MOD). If these support, and we urge you to throw in White. people alone cast primary ballots, Daniel with him. Daniel's strategy has been simple— is a shoe-in. —Eds. keep up the pace and don't stumble. He The Observer's editors join the crowd.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 11

ctIlittitullat411 1gence Scabbing for Murdoch Race for the bench "A sad and complicated story" is • Franklin Spears, the pro- the way an official of the news- • gressive-minded jurist on the paper guild describes contract negotia- state district bench in San Antonio, is a tions between her union and Rupert good bet to take a seat on the State Murdoch's New York Post. Known for Supreme Court after the May 6 primary his blood-sex-and-scandal formula of results are in. newspaper publishing, the Australian Spears, 47, has run for statewide of- press lord says he is trying to prune fice before, having taken on Crawford "deadwood" from the reportorial and Martin in the 1966 race for attorney editorial staffs of the Post, and a strike general. "I ran as a liberal—and lost," of reporters is a live possibility. he says. "I had pledges from people But who in Texas cares about a who identified with the state's power newspaper strike in New York? A lot structure. When they realized I was not of reporters at the San Antonio Express identified with that structure, the funds and News is who—these labor pains disappeared." may mean a paid vacation in the Big His views undoubtedly are still too Apple for them. The San Antonio paper liberal for most of the state's estab- is also owned by Murdoch, who has or- lishment, but he is getting much of its dered up a supply of scab labor from support anyway, in part because his Franklin Spears the Alamo City in case the New York legal competence is widely respected, Newspaper Guild walks out on him. Al- but also because he has had the luck of been less than formidable. He is little though no one has been ordered to take the draw. When Spears began to line up known around the state and is not cam- strike-breaking duty, none of the 25 re- support for a high court race last year, paigning aggressively. Asked why he is porters and editors approached by early help came from people who be- running, he told the Observer that the management said they would refuse to lieved he would go against associate Supreme Court needs an East Texan on go if called. it. He does have considerable judicial Supreme Court justice T. C. Chadick of If these newsroom hands head north, Quitman, a Briscoe appointee not re- experience and is thought of as a de- cent man. In the recent State Bar poll who will put out the hometown paper? garded in legal circles as a great juridi- The company has thought of that of its members, nice guy Bacon was cal mind deserving of long tenure. But already—with a little reshuffling (some drubbed by Spears 8,084 to 1,848. then Price Daniel Sr. decided to step reporters would get temporary promo- down from the court this year, and Meanwhile, to the chagrin of those tions to editorships), management has Spears lost no time switching to that who like well-written legal opinions, determined, the Express-News could race, since it presented no incumbent Chadick appears to be on his way to a be produced by a skeleton crew. full term. Though respondents to the and looked to be an even easier con- Of more concern to Murdoch, appar- test. Things appeared almost too easy bar poll didn't give him as decisive a victory as Spears enjoyed, Chadick ently, is the question whether the San for Spears when the filing deadline Antonio imports can make the grade at rolled by with no contestant lined up outpolled his relatively unknown opponent, Robert Campbell of Waco, and the Post. But he's thought of an answer against him, but the next day brought in to that, too. On Easter weekend, he a mail entry from O'Neal Bacon, a 57- also won the Texas AFL-CIO's COPE endorsement last month. flew up a contingent of 15 of the year-old district judge from Newton. Express-News's finest to put together a But to date, Bacon's opposition has —Vicki Vaughan dummy edition of the Post. A smaller group was brought back to New York for another dry run over April Fool's Campaign reporting weekend. The way campaign finances are "We're playing a support role," of- • handled by the two Democratic fered Express-News editor Charles gubernatorial contestants points up Kilpatrick in justification of these some interesting differences in styles. strike-breaking efforts. "Management John Hill's money goes to his state intends to publish a paper and we in- campaign treasury as soon as it is tend to help." On the morality of scab- raised, and is then disbursed to local bing: "I don't know anything about campaign offices only after expendi- that. Murdoch is our employer and tures are approved by the Austin head- we're just doing our job." quarters. This makes reporting simple. Practice scabbing has shown that the The Briscoe effort, on the other hand, Post could weather a guild walkout. is made up of a hodgepodge of 45 dif- However, the delivery people, mem- ferent campaign organizations, some of bers of the non-striking Newspaper and which forward receipts to the state Mail Union, may or may not honor headquarters while others raise and picket lines. Murdoch can get his paper spend money locally. This makes re- out, but will he be able to get it out of porting complex and not altogether re- the Post building and into the streets of liable. —David Guarino Manhattan? —Margot Beutler 12 APRIL 14, 1978 The mysterious meeting Brand, the McAllen mayor who has a long record of opposition to In his efforts to boost Dolph Bris- farmworker organizing and anyone coe's re-election effort, state who doesn't conform to his sense of comptroller Bob Bullock convened a order—earlier this year, he directed meeting recently of some 60 top lob- police to use tear gas and billy clubs byists and trade association executives against striking farmers who were in Austin. Representatives of the con- demonstrating on the international struction and highway industries are bridge. Brand also is chief executive of known to have attended, but Bullock Down in the Valley Griffin & Brand, a $34-million-a-year refused to reveal specifically who corporation that grows, processes and showed up. All he would say is that While Texas agriculture commis- Briscoe stopped by. sioner Reagan Brown has been ships vegetables under the G&B and crowing about this year's bumper crop Trophy labels. Why is he close-lipped on such a of onions ("an exceptionally large crop When eight UFW members and or- seemingly insignificant matter? . . . quality looks good"), the United ganizers entered a G&B field March 28 "Because John Hill is an SOB and Farm Workers union has called a strike asking for work, they ended up being he's vindictive. I think he'd retaliate in of onion harvesters that may mean a arrested on criminal trespass charges. some form or manner against these goodly portion will never leave the There are two accounts of the incident. people," Bullock told the Observer. fields of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. G&B officials and the McAllen police Asked if he really believed that, Bul- say the workers were told no work was Farmworkers are supposed to re- lock said he did. ceive the full minimum wage of $2.65 available but then refused to leave —Janie Leigh Frank an hour, but despite this year's bounty when asked to. UFW, however, says that when its people attempted to of onions, pickers are doing well to take leave, a G&B foreman padlocked the in $1.50 an hour for their labor. Work- Armstrong flies a kite gate and held them until Mayor Brand ers most often are paid on a piece-rate basis-50 cents for a 55-pound bag— arrived. They allege that Brand promptly began shoving and cursing for pulling, topping and bagging what them, ripping the shirts of two of the they pick. Problem is, onions are small corralled workers. this year, and it's taking longer for a harvester to bag 55 pounds. As a result, The eight were hauled off to jail, the $2.65 minimum wage is a reality where they were strip-searched and only on paper. UFW organizers, saying fingerprinted before being released on in a press release that "workers see the personal recognizance bonds by a jus- inequity of paying 35 cents a pound for tice of the peace. The workers counter- onions in the grocery store after pick- sued Brand on eight charges of false ing them for less than a penny a imprisonment and six charges of as- pound," have led pickers out of the sault, but the mayor did not even have fields surrounding Mission, Weslaco to show up to post bond, much less be and six other Valley towns. subjected to any of the humiliations of The hottest confrontation during the jail. strike thus far has been with Othal —Vicki Vaughan The News reaches out Fort Worth has its own daily newspaper, of course—the Star Fort Worthians have always con- Telegram—but managers of the srdered• Dallasites a bit patroniz- 200,000-circulation paper are showing ing toward them, but a recent territorial no alarm over the News's expansionist Land commissioner Bob Arm- encroachment by The Dallas Morning foray; they say they'll make no special strong took the trophy for Best News has driven hardcore Cowtowners changes. Phillip Meek, Star Telegram Performance by a Veteran Flyer in right up the wall. The News has general manager, claims that his paper Austin's 50th annual kite flying contest launched "Fort Worth/Metro," a new already had plans for reorganization held last month. On his right is second Sunday supplement that focuses on and enlargement of the city news de- place winner Larry Bales, former state Tarrant County politics and cultural partment, and these steps will be taken representative from Austin and now news. Joe Dealy, president of the Dal- this year. Star Telegram insiders say proprietor of Scholz Garten. Those al- las paper, said that in making this jour- privately, however, that their paper's lowed to enter the event had to have nalistic leap across city limits, the front office types were caught off guard won in the kite competition at least 25 News is paying homage to "the expand- by the News's supplement and that it years ago—only three qualified. Arm- ing importance of Fort Worth and the has thrown them into a dither. The strong, who took first place with an common interests of Fort Worth and Morning News added insult to injury electric blue box contraption that flew Dallas." The News, which boasts a by proclaiming itself a "true" Dallas/ under the name "Even Cowboys Fly Tarrant County circulation of 40,000, Fort Worth metro journal. Meek called Blues," said that kite flying is some- has augmented its Fort Worth-based that "one of the most presumptuous thing "you do when you are running operations with additional editorial and statements I've ever heard." unopposed and have an 11-year-old advertising staff. —Jamie Murphy son:' THE TEXAS OBSERVER 13 1

rat Get a charge from PUC though the company had only re- Now consider what's gone on in Fort quested a $3.50 minimum. To the three Worth. Last fall, the PUC assessed PUC commissioners responsible for Cowtown residents the same $7 mini- this craziness, the subsequent public mum it had in El Paso, and, again, that howl was blood-curdling, and Gov. was more than the electric company (in Dolph Briscoe, who appointed them, this instance the Texas Electric Service suddenly found his good name the Company) had requested. But there target of unflattering graffiti and mut- was little hue and cry in Fort Worth. terings throughout El Paso. The local How come? Some point to TESCO's media barraged Briscoe's utility consumer relations effort (it's far more bureaucrats unrelentingly, rich and impressive than EPECO's); others note poor El Pasoans alike flooded the that the $7 charge is not spelled out on PUC's Austin headquarters with com- TESCO's monthly bill, meaning people plaints, and city officials sued the in Fort Worth may not be as aware of commission. the reason behind the jump in rates as were El Pasoans. Others say that city C Everybody involved beat a hasty re- co treat. EPECO asked the commissioners hall has a close relationship with 0. TESCO, making a law suit on the El U) to reconsider their decision, which they C promptly did—in early March, they cut Paso model not much of a possibility. -C V 0 the allowable base rate to $4.50, citing In addition, Tarrant County's news public reaction to the higher figure. media have not played up the minimum (Note: This does not mean that EPECO charge. • The power of the people can be will get less revenue overall; the in- For whatever reason, Fort Worth's more than a politician's campaign come lost by the imposition of the electric power consumers now pay slogan, as evidenced by two recent lower minimum charge will be made up $2.50 more per month than do El electric rate decisions handed down by by an increase in per-kilowatt-hour Paso's. Will PUC reconsider the Fort the Public Utilities Commission. charges. Thus, low energy users— Worth assessment? No, said a commis- Last fall, the commission ordered the generally individuals with low and sion staffer, there's no reason to since El Paso Electric Company to assess its fixed incomes—will pay less than they there has been so little public stir in customers a $7 minimum monthly would have under the original PUC or- Fort Worth. charge ("base rate" they call it) even der, while big users will pay more.) —Larry Zinn

Shark hunters junction to keep the question off the that he found no basis for court inter- ballot. The suit was brought against the vention in this one. TCFA has not ap- The Legislature may be out of SDEC by the Texas Consumer Finance pealed Jones's decision, and the ques- • session, but the loan shark lobby Association, a group composed of As- tion will appear on the ballot. While the has been quietly busy in Austin and sociates of North America, Avco, Ben- electorate's opinion will not be binding around the state laying the groundwork eficial, C.I.T., Dial Finance, SIC, US- on legislators, the Patmans have at for a major push next year to raise the LIFE, and other large loan outfits. least flushed the developing loan shark interest rate consumer finance com- TCFA contended in court that the re- measure out of the back rooms and panies may charge for small loans. But ferendum question was phrased to pro- given Texas consumers a clear shot at the lobby's early maneuvers have not duce a negative response, that Texas it. —Gerald McLeod escaped the attention of the dreaded voters would almost certainly vote Patmans—Bill and Carrin—the loan down higher rates and, therefore, that sharks' most feared predators. the new Legislature would be preju- Bill is the state senator from Ganado diced against the companies' bill. State who withstood a powerful loan lobby Sen. Lloyd Doggett, lawyer for the charge last year, rallying enough sup- Patmans, termed the TCFA brief "a port to beat back an exorbitant interest desperate attempt by the loan com- hike up before the 65th Legislature. panies to muzzle the voters of Texas." This year, Carrin, who serves on the On March 27, State District Judge State Democratic Executive Commit- Herman Jones refused to grant the in- tee, has struck what may be a lethal junction, saying that judicial restraint blow to the lobby's best-laid plans. On should be exercised in such cases and March 13, she persuaded the SDEC to tack on to the May 6 Democratic primary ballot a referendum that asks voters if they want the 1979 session to authorize higher interest rates. The SDEC adopted the proposal without a dissenting vote. The loan firms had no stomach for such a direct appeal to the electorate, and they immediately sought a court in- Bill Patman, shark hunter from Ganado

14 APRIL 14, 1978 Photos by Roy Hamric A Big Thicket State Park

To Dolph Briscoe, Bill Hobby, John Nor is the utter neglect and spurning of ef- acres of land in the Guadalupe Mountains Na- Hill, and Bill Clayton forts to create state parks in the Big Thicket tional Park in order that the park be estab- area the only neglect of state parks evident lished by the federal government. The state of Gentlemen: from the actions of the present Parks and Texas has done its part for the other three This open letter is addressed to you as the Wildlife Commission. It seems to be a set national parks and preserves in Texas, but highest executive and legislative officers in the practice of the present commission to neglect has done absolutely nothing for this Big state of Texas. It is an appeal for the creation state parks. We now have the biggest state Thicket National Preserve or state parks to of state recreational parks in the Big Thicket. budget in history at $7.5 billion a year. State complement it. Nothing except by keeping State parks are badly needed in the Big Comptroller Bob Bullock's 1977 annual finan- its Parks and Wildlife Commission's policy Thicket, both for recreation and to save some cial report for the state reveals that despite the of secrecy and quietness and do- of the most treasured ecological gems in the great cost increases going on for most sec- nothingism, and thereby encouraging the area, originally recommended for inclusion in tions of state government, the Parks and Wild- destruction of the Big Thicket. the park as among the choicest areas left for life Commission expenditures declined from By contrast with the other states, the state plant species survival. Unfortunately, some of 1976 to 1977 from $59 million to $47 million a park record of Texas is pitiful. The state parks these choicest areas were left out of the com- year, a drop of 19.9 percent. During the same in the state of New York contain 23 times as promise bill passed by Congress in 1974 to period of time, state highway and public much acreage as those in Texas. California create a Big Thicket National Preserve of transportation expenses went up by 537.6 has eight times as much acreage in its state 84,550 acres. percent and public welfare expenses went up parks as does Texas. The state parks systems The last several presidents of the Big by 769.5 percent. In the same year the Texas of Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania each con- Thicket Association have appeared before the Historical Commission expenditures went up tain about three times as much acreage as Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission appeal- by 19.6 percent and Texas Tourist Develop- Texas', while the state parks systems of Mas- ing for the creation of state parks in the Big ment Agency expenditures by 11.3 percent. ,sachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, and New Jersey Thicket area. I followed them as president with Broken down by function of expenditures, each contain over twice as much acreage as an appeal in 1976. To date, the Parks and you will note that the expenses for improve- Texas'. Alaska has vast national forests, na- Wildlife Commission has turned a deaf ear to ments of parks and monuments in the state tional parks, and national reserves, yet its all appeals from all groups for any state parks declined in one year by 19.5 percent. All of state park system contains 13 times as nuch in the Big Thicket area. this shows that the State Parks and Wildlife acreage as Texas'. Each time officers of the Big Thicket As- Commission has abdicated its functions, in- The U.S. National Parks and Preserves in sociation recommend some appropriate area sofar as acquisition or enlargement of state Texas contain ten times as much as the state on Village Creek, or some area which was in parks is concerned. It is said to be doing fine parks. Isn't it a sad commentary on the lack of the original 35,000 acre "String of Pearls" pro- by wildlife, but it is a turned backward board vision of the Texas government that we must posed National Park Monument, the lumber insofar as state parks are concerned. It should depend on the federal government to come company cutters move in and destroy at least either be legislated out of existence under the into Texas to create parks for our people? parts of it, utterly devastating the land, clear- Sundown Provision and a new board be I appeal to you, as the highest executive cutting it (which means destroying everything created which will give the people of Texas and legislative officers in the state of Texas, to on the surface of the land), burning everything some representation in the parks field, or else lift Texas out of this backward position con- that had grown there, planting it with chemi- the parks function taken away from this Wild- cerning its state parks. Start with the Big cals so that nothing but pine could grow, and life Commission, and let them manage wildlife, Thicket where some of the most tragically en- forever denying its use for park sites for the but put people with a vision for the future in dangered biological gems in the United States people of Texas. Now this has been done with charge of the state parks system in Texas. are being ruthlessly destroyed. Create state great diligence along Village Creek, the most The present attitude of the State Parks and parks there, but do not stop there. Build us a wonderful creek for tourism in the park. Now Wildlife Commission is wholly in denigration of state park system that is worthy of the richest an oil company is planning to destroy the the great history Texas has had in the past in state in the union in natural resources, the Giant Palmetto Unit, one of the most spectacu- cooperating to create great national parks in second in the union in size, the third in popula- lar of all units in the area, but left out, strangely Texas, and indeed in expanding the state tion, and growing in wealth and population enough, of the Big Thicket National Preserve parks program. very rapidly. There is an increasing need for a by the Congress in creating the preserve. The The state of Texas bought the Big Bend system of state parks for use by Texans of this oil company is planning to turn it into rice National Park lands of 708,118 acres and generation and of coming generations, as farms. gave all of it to the federal government, more and more open lands are being de- Those who have been making the greatest thereby creating a national park by virtue of manded for residences, highways, airports, fortunes from the Big Thicket area in the past the state's action. The state of Texas donated and many other uses which destroy the sur- two decades have been its greatest de- 38,304 acres of both submerged lands and face growth and impoverish Texas of its natu- stroyers, and the interests most opposed to beaches on Padre Island, and placed it in the ral flora and fauna forever. seeing any reasonable part of the Big Thicket Padre Island National Recreational Park. The Ralph W. Yarborough preserved for posterity. state of Texas bought the minerals in 45,171 President, Big Thicket Association

Bernard Rapoport, Chairman of the Board P.O. Box 208, Waco, Texas 76703 American Income Life Insurance Company

(Advertisement) THE TEXAS OBSERVER 15 Audition:

•

Photos by Bill Canada

16 APRIL 14,1978 we'll callyou

Fort Worth, Sunday afternoon, a proces- sion of hopefuls. The talent scouts have seen it all before. They listen, bored, for five hours. One or two minutes, cut this one off. Three or four minutes-she's a little better: but can you dance, honey? No stopping-there are dozens We hear little country music. more. Tomorrow Dallas, more of the same. Instead: "I Did It My Way" and "Bye Bye Blackbird," or "You We are in a discarded army barrack on the Can't Get a Man with a Gun." TCU campus where these young-and some We wait in fear of "The Impos- not young-singers and dancers and musicians sible Dream," but a 17-year-old are trying to open their own back doors to the in a quilted bathrobe and cur- music business. Auditions. The Grand Ole lers and a pillow pregnancy Opry has come looking for Texas singers and pantomimes Loretta Lynn's hoofers. "One's on the Way," so we're Well-not quite the Grand Ole Opry. Really not disappointed. A self- Opryland USA, an amusement park that described future Miss America claims to be "the home of American music." sucks her thumb. And a singer The auditioners are after slots in theme park waiting his turn bellows an oc- musicals, not-some find to their surprise-in casional "GONG" in someone the real Opry. But they go on. It is a shot at else's mid-performance. He is Nashville, isn't it? usually right. -L.R.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 17 `God made

By Sheila R. Taylor Fort Worth What's a nice girl like me doing in a place like this? More than havin' my picture took, that's for sure. I'm here at the Longbranch on business—real, proper business. I'm singing back-up harmony for Mickey Jolley, and not just for jollies, either. Sometimes, Mickey even lets me keep the tips. Don't laugh. It ain't small potatoes, as they say around here. On an hourly basis, I've made more than I do at my real life job writing editorials for a college newspaper. And singing, or rather humming, which is what I do mostly, is more fun besides. In real life, you'd take me for someone Hey, it's me up here: our writer, herownself, does one with Mickey Jolley. who might be a high school English teacher, maybe a judge's daughter or a places, anyway. The kind with saddles "Hey, I'm really photogenic!" says lawyer's wife, probably a "high" Baptist and haystacks and pictures of highly re- one of the bar-leaners when my friend or low Episcopalian, certainly garded outlaws strewn about reminding starts taking pictures. Everyone wants in somebody's mother. All of which I've you that the famous Fort Worth stock- on the act—all except one. "My wife been or am, and none of which is as neat yard stench waits just outside the door. won't never see these, will she?" he as singing back-up for Mickey. The kind with atmosphere. asks. He relaxes when told what the pic- It all started at a party where Mickey Well, the Longbranch hasn't been re- tures are for, thinking it unlikely she will. was entertaining, and I, shyly at first, juvenated lately, but it does have atmos- One of the Nancies is the only person in sang along, kind of under my breath. phere. the room who has ever heard of the Ob- "Hey, you sing great harmony," he said. As usual, Terry, in his down-filled server. That's all it took. Ever since, I've been jacket, cowboy hat, jeans and boots, uni- Until a few years ago, I didn't know following him around, from gig to gig, bar form of the place and time, is sitting country music. My sociologist brother- to bar, singing louder and louder all the close to the front, and as usual, he's in-law accused me of "denying [my] heri- while. early. tage by denying the influence of country Not so long ago, I'd drop my daughter "Where's Mickey at?" he hollers when music. How could you grow up in Fort Maurie (naming her for Maury Maverick my photographer friend and I walk in. Worth and not know country music?" he is the only other unconventional thing One of the two blondes with him giggles, asked. I've dared do in my whole life) at the "We're both Nancies and both Libras. country club nursery and prance down to "Simple," I said. Neither I nor any of Ole Terry has his hands full tonight, and my friends listened to what we disdain- the tennis courts, properly togged and he's impatient!" outfitted with the latest attire and fully called "hillbilly" music any more Soon, gentle Mary walks in from the than did teenagers growing up in equipment, for a few sets of singles with 1960s and sits by me. We're standouts my friend Karen, or more sets of mixed Westport, Connecticut. So that same from the crowd; we're the only non- brother-in-law (Monahans, class of '55) doubles, if the hour were late and the blonde females. Her jeans are topped by weather cool. introduced me to Bob Wills, Hank a pea jacket; mine with an ordinary polo Williams, the Carter Family, Kristoffer- I still leave Maurie at the nursery, but shirt. son, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, and instead of making the David Crystal/ Four children quietly shoot pool in the most recently, U. Utah Phillips, the Gold- Alligator drag to the courts to meet back corner, undisturbed by several en Voice of the Great Southwest. Now friends, 1 head out solo for Fort Worth's cowboys gathered around the bar, loudly I can play tambourine with a silver jingle northside bars (joints, some might say, exchanging jibes with Jody, the barmaid, and I know the words to at least a million but not me) and America's Happy Hour. who remembers everyone's name and tunes. Tonight I'm at the Longbranch Sa- drink. Just like Terry and his blondes, My friend Mickey, though, is the real loon, a few steps off North Main, just far we're all eagerly waiting for Mickey to singer; he's the one clubs hire. But I do back enough to keep the tourists from tune up, because that's when Happy sing nice harmony, and with a mike, my wandering in. They would prefer the re- Hour really begins at the Longbranch Sa- rather weak voice becomes much better, juvenated "Old West Rides Again" loon. and presto! I'm Emmy Lou Harris!

18 APRIL 14, 1978 honky-tonk angels'

I'd rather be Emmy Lou Harris than country-western band in, I believe it Doris Lessing or Golda Meir or was, Hemphill. Mickey told him I Elizabeth Taylor or Gloria Steinem, and wouldn't be interested; I just sang occa- when Mickey gave me my very own sionally for fun, and that I had a family hand mike . . . well, there's no place that and job I couldn't leave. That's the only I'd rather be than right here. No place. time I've been mad at Mickey. What is it about country music that I've seen all three versions of "A Star makes a 'kicker out of a nice middle-aged is Born," and if Mickey thinks he can woman like me? keep • this star from being born just by Whatever it is, it captures Mary's fancy, splitting the tip jar now and then and too. Mary is in her mid-twenties, went to making guilt-inducing references to school in Mexico City, has a master's motherless children. . . . from Antioch, and, besides pickin' and And come to think of it, how come I singin', is interested in softly but firmly have to use a separate hand mike? Kris overthrowing the government. and Rita use the same mike, center stage. She joins us sometimes, and the three Come to think of it some more, Rita sings of us talk and sing for hours: Mickey, 35, as many solos as Kris does, and I bet she an apolitical raised on the West Texas gets more than ten bucks worth of tips.

Relax, and take a break for lunch or dinner, and watch the river go by. The drinks are ample, and the cheesecake is our own. We have sandwiches to seafood, from 11:30 until 11:30 every day of the week ; open till midnight in the Metro Center, San Antonio, Texas.

plains, who, when he's not singing like a Remember Alice? Alice who doesn't bird—everything from early Jimmy Rod- live here anymore? She knew, she really gers to late Larry Gatlin—works for a knew she could be Alice Faye, just as in Fort Worth factory; I, as middle class as my heart of hearts I know I could be your dentist, and Mary, gentle Mary. Emmy Lou Harris. What I didn't know The three of us constitute what I guess until a couple of years ago was that God you could call your "typical country made honky-tonk angels, and now I are music fan." one. I don't sing "regular," but when I can Just don't tell my mother about all or when I must, I park my daughter at this, will you? Or my father, especially the nursery and head for those northside my father. They think I'm still playing places. where the cowboys never remove tennis. their hats, where they say "let the little gal sing," and where Mickey and my mike are. Sheila Taylor, who describes herself One night a man talked to Mickey as "a thin second soprano," freelances about hiring me to sing with his out of Fort Worth.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19 (Advertisement) "The System Is the Solution" AT&T

"The System Is the PROBLEM" PROGRESSIVE

If you are one of the growing number of convertible to electric power, the sun offers "Because the Defense Department and the Americans who realize that AT&T's slogan the ideal solution to the world's energy corporations have the money, they can en- means, "What's good for big business is crisis. It could become America's energy dow the schools with "free" or "inexpen- good for America," then ... cornucopia—if Congress doesn't turn it into sive" materials that perpetuate militaristic just another corporate asset to be exploited ... welcome to The Progressive, values, racist attitudes, and sexual stereo- the month- for the sake of private greed." ly magazine that knows it's long past time types. Our schools are cluttered with militaristic indoctrination and with conservative to make fundamental changes. More and Mark Northcross more of us see that propaganda.... I wonder why progressives "Who Will Own the Sun?" are always on the defensive in these con- —The System squanders our nation's in THE PROGRESSIVE troversies." wealth. Betty Medsger —The System rapes our natural and human "The ad in Forbes is simple but seductive, environments. the message clear: Come to North Carolina, "The 'Free' Propaganda That FloodS where wages are low, profits are high, and the Schools" —The System pours hundreds of billions unions are almost non-existent. North Caro- in THE PROGRESSIVE of dollars down a rathole called lina's "commitment" to a "favorable" at- "national security." mosphere means that the state uses its If the System isn't —The System puts profit ahead of people. unflagging power to guarantee a supply of your solution, if you're cheap, abundant, submissive, and—most looking for information and solid political, The System works, all right—it works for important—unorganized labor." social, and economic analysis, you'll find AT&T and Lockheed, for IBM and Exxon— The Progressive important and exciting but it doesn't work for us, the American Barbara Koeppel reading. people. "Something Could Be Finer Than Join us in creating a system that works for To Be in Carolina" "Government and business share the as- people—all of us. Your subscription begins sumption that problems will disappear as in THE PROGRESSIVE with the very next issue. production increases; the corollary is that big business offers the surest way to in- r 1 crease production. Open government is impossible so long as corporate-sponsored economic growth is regarded as the highest good." months for Address David P. Thelen Yes! Please send me 9 months of "Our Government: A Wholly Owned THE PROGRESSIVE for just $8.77. Subsidiary" City State Zip in THE PROGRESSIVE 0 Double my savings. Send me 18 monthly issues for $17.54. 1PROGRESSIVE "Solar energy has begun to capture the EXTRA FREE BONUS ISSUE when 408 W. Gorham St., Madison, WI 53703 American people's imagination. Clean, in- payment is enclosed exhaustible, capable of heating and cooling, Introductory offer for new subscribers only 20 APRIL 14, 1978 Music business.. . Good books in every field from page 8 big companies. Their market control is JENKINS PUBLISHING CO. tists and public in Texas and elsewhere, most pronounced at the marketing stage: The Pemberton Press though giantism poses barriers of its own only the industry giants can get adequate to market entry for under-funded radio air time for their singles and LPs; John H. Jenkins, Publisher music-makers. What ought to be of more and only they can get prime shelf space Box 2085 (11 Austin 78768 concern is that control over each sector at the record counters. of the industry is becoming concentrated So competition is far from what it in just a few corporate hands. In effect, a should be. Chains of radio stations, shared monopoly already dominates the many of them fully automated and wed- production and promotion of records ded to Top 40 formats, are increasing nationwide. This business bottleneck their share of U.S. air time and con- narrows the mutual access of artists and sequently limit the free flow of cultural audiences to channels controlled by the (Continued on page 30)

ESTIMATED RECORDING ARTIST'S INCOME FROM Personal Service — Quality Insurance A GOLD RECORD AND U.S. TOUR 1 ALICE ANDERSON AGENCY INSURANCE & REAL ESTATE 1308A E. 48th, Austin, Texas 48941577 Records sold 500,000 Album list price $7.98 Gross sales $3,990,000 ANDERSON & COMPANY Artist royalty rate COFFEE (8% of gross sales) .08 TEA SPICES $319,200 TW() JEFFERSON SQUARE Production costs of $50,000 and advance AUSTIN TEXAS 78731 of $30,000 withheld by company —$80,000 453-1533 Royalties $239,200 Send me your list.

Song Writing and Publishing Income 2 $270,000 Name

...... Street Records sold: 500,000 City Zip Mechanical license fee 3 to writer $65,000 to publisher $65,000 Performing rights royalties to writer $50,000 to publisher $50,000 I F YOU ARE an occasional reader and The Texas Observer Royalties $270,000 would like to receive regularly—or if you are a subscriber and

Tour and Personal Appearances 4 $500,000 would like to have a free sample copy or a one-year gift subscription sent to a friend— here's the order form: Fee per show $10,000 Shows per year 50 SEND THE OBSERVER TO— Gross tour earnings $500,000 name Gross Income $1,009,200 street city state zip ExPenseil -4, $428,380 O this subscription is for myself. Publishing administration $27,000 0 gift subscription; send card in my name. Tour agent's fee ❑ sample copy only; you may use my name. (10% of gross tour earnings) $50,000 • • • • Tour expenses $200,000 0 $12 enclosed for a one-year sub. Manager's fee 0 bill me for $12. (15% of gross income) $151,380 • • • • (if not shown above): Total Income $580,820 MY NAME & ADDRESS

1. A Gold Record—one that has achieved with the writer. A statutory rate of 22 cents is sales of 500,000 units. collected per song per record sold. 2. It is presumed that the artist is the writer 4. It is presumed that the artist is well estab- and publisher of all songs on the album. lished. 3. The mechanical license fee is paid by the 5. Total income before taxes and personal THE TEXAS OBSERVER company to the publisher, who splits it 50/50 expenses are deducted. 600 W. 7th, Austin, Texas 78701

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 21 288 Communities in Need!

Thanks, Observer readers, for your gratifying response to the Italy Round Rock library subscription campaign which was announced earlier this Jacksboro year. The Observer now can be found in more than 700 library Jayton Rowlett Jourdanton Runge reading rooms, including 65 in colleges and universities in other Katy Sabina, states. Yet there still are 288 public and county libraries in Keller Sachse Texas—located in the cities listed on this page—that do not Kendalia Saginaw receive the Observer. Kermit San Angelo Branches: Kingslanci Angelo West Most librarians are pleased to discover the Observer, and the Laguna Vista North Angelo demand for it by library users leads to repeated renewals with Lake Dallas San Antonio Branches: library funds. But they need someone to get them started fora Lake Worth Landa La Marque Las Palmas year or two with a gift subscription. Lamesa McCreless Please examine the list for a city or town which is a sentimen- Lampasas Pan American tal favorite of yours, or for which you have a special concern. We Lancaster San Pedro Park San Benito hope you will give your favorite community a valuable supple- Levelland Liberty City Sanger ment to the views expressed in the local press by getting its Littlefield Schulenburg library on the Observer habit. Lockhart Seadrift You get a tax deduction for the amount of your gift subscrip- Lockney Seagoville Lorenzo Seagraves tions to these libraries. The rates are $12 for one year, $22 for McCarney Sealy two years, $30 for three years. If the postage-paid order en- Mansfield Seminole velope is missing from your copy of this issue, list your selec- Marathon Seymour tions on a separate sheet or mark this page and send it to the Mason Shamrock Memphis Shepherd address shown below. We'll bill you. Menard Sheridan Mertzon Shiner Allen Clarendon Gatesville Mexia Sierra Blanca Anahuac Claude Georgetown Miami Silverton Andrews Cleburne George West Midkiff Sinton Anson Clifton Giddings Midlothian Skellytown Aransas Pass Coleman Glen Rose Mineral Wells Smiley Aspermont Comfort Goldthwaite Moore Sonora Austin Branches: Ooppell Gofiad Navasota Sour Lake Aliandale Copperas Cove Granbury Nederland Spearman Carver Corrigan Grandfalis Needville Stamford Howson Crosbyton Grand Saline New Caney Stanton Oak Springs Crowell Grapevine Newton Stephenville Rosewood-Zaragosa Cuero Gregory Nixon Stinnett Terrazas Dahart Groesbeck North Richland Hills Stratford Austweil Dallas Branches: Grovebn °dem Sulphur Springs Baird Dallas West Gruver Olney Sundown Balch Springs Jefferson Hale C,en ter Orchard Sunnyvale Balmorhea Martin Luther King Hallettsville Overton Sunray Bandera Dayton Haltom City Ozona Sweetwater Barksdale Decatur Hamlin Paducah Tahoka Barstow De Leon Harker Heights Paint Rock Teague Bastrop Denver City Hearne Pampa Terrell Beaumont Branches: Devine Highlands Peadand Texarkana Branches: Central Park Dilley Hitchcock Pearsall College Hill Tyrrell Dimmitt Honey Grove Perryton Iron Mountain Bedford Donna Houston Branches: Petersburg North Heights Bertram Dublin Bracewell Pharr Sanclfiat Glendale Bishop East Bemard Carnegie Pineland Southwest Blanco Eastland Denver Harbor Plains Trinity Blue Mound Eden Dixon Pleasanton Turkey Borger Edna Jacinto City Point Comfort Utopia Bowie El Campo Johnson Port Isabel Van Aistyne Brady Eldorado Lakewood Portland Vernon Breckenridge Elsa MeIcher Port Neches Victor Briggs Fairfield Moody Post Waelder Brownfield Fails City Oak Forest Poteet Waxahachie Buna Ferris Pleasantville Quanah Weatherford Burkbumett Florence Savannah Collier Quemado Weimar Bumet Florence Hill Smith Quitman Wells Caldwell Floresvale Stanaker Rails White Deer Calvert Floydada Vinson Ranger Whitesboro Cameron Freeport Walter Rhome White Settlement Canadian Friona Young North Flichland Hills Whitewright Canton Fritch ldalou Rising Star Wimer Canyon Lake Galena Park Ingleside River Oaks Wink Cedar Hill Garland Branches: Iowa Park Robstown Branches: Winnie Centerville Ridgewood lraan Alpha Municipal Winters Childress Walnut Creek Irving Northwest Nueces County Woodlands Cisco Garwood Irving Southwest Rosebud Yoakum THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 600 WEST 7TH • AUSTIN, TEXAS 78701

22 APRIL 14, 1978

FARM INCOME is the Profile of SAME in 1977-78 as it was in a music giant 1974 Warner Communications, Inc., is not sidiary and bought Reprise Records from while the price we ALL the largest corporation in the music Frank Sinatra. After a series of corpo- pay is inflated by business, but it is huge nonetheless, with rate maneuvers, the Warner-Reprise, 33% total corporate sales of $1.1 billion in Elektra, Atlantic and Asylum labels were 1977. WCI ranks second only to CBS in merged into a common distribution sub- UP OVER 200% ON SOME FARM record sales: together, the two firms con- sidiary called WEA (Warner-Elektra- ITEMS Asylum). The companies operate auton- THE trol about half of the U.S. record market. WE•D LIKE TO CHANGE Warner embodies the pervasive, top-to- omously when it comes to talent selec- COS THAT TO KEEP PRICE 1=111/....:1 EATING bottom control over music production tion, production and advertising, but ' • their disks are marketed by the same and marketing that is typical of the dom- Texas frill inant firms in the industry. WEA sales force, which supplies more than 7,000 retail outlets across the coun- Farmers Lfigi WCI is a relative newcomer to the top Union W. ranks of music power, having built its try. WEA currently handles about 40 record division through numerous mer- labels (including ATCO, Cotillion and 800 LAKE AIR DR. • WACO, TEXAS 76710 • 817 772-7220 gers and trades in recent years. Its musi- Nonesuch) with a total of some 200 acts. cal rise began when the Warner Brothers Its volume of new LPs every year ap- Film Company established a record sub- proaches 500 and features the Beach Boys, Judy Collins, the Eagles, Fleet- wood Mac, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling WEA INTERNATIONAL Stones, and Linda Ronstadt. WEA's stars and marketing punch gave the firm Attending a banner year in 1977; it leads the indus- Subsidiaries in try with a total of 71 gold and platinum France, Canada, records. your precinct Australia, the Foreign production and distribution is Netherlands, handled by WEA International, while convention Brazil, South Africa Warner Bros. Music Publishing prints and markets compositions by such stan- \, on May 6? Record pressing plant in Alsdorf, Foreign Ask us for some sample copies of West Germany 1977 revenue: The Texas Observer to distribute .1 $145.8* WARNER BROS. at the meeting. Free. MUSIC Warner 1977 revenue: $22.3* This is one of the best places to Communications, primqrily from find others who would appreciate license fees, royalties knowing about the Observer. Inc.'s 1977 music for performances, and revenue: $532.4 million sales Of sheet music Each copy will contain a sub- and songbooks scription order form, so you shouldn't feel obligated to make Domestic a sales pitch. All we ask is that 1977 revenue: you hand out the copies or let $364.3* *millions of dollars. WARNER-ELEKTRA- others know that they are avail- ASYLUM (WEA CORP.) Markets and distributes dard and current composers as Bob Dy- able. for other WCI subsidiaries lan, Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein Write or call to let us know how II, Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers. many free copies you will need. If Besides making and marketing records, WCI produces motion pictures: you want to specify certain issue WARNER BROS. recent offerings include "All the Presi- dates, we'll send whatever you RECORDS, INC. dent's Men," "The Exorcist," and "A request as long as the supply Star Is Born." The New York-based holds out. (Please give your pre- conglomerate also publishes books and cinct number, too, just in case distributes a raft of magazines, among ATLANTIC which are Mad , National Lampoon , DC another Observer subscriber in RECORDING Comics, Changing Times , Oui, Playboy, the same precinct has similar CORP. and Playgirl. WCI's entertainment hold- plans. We'll put you in touch.) ings also include an electronic games division (makers of "Pong" and "Super THE TEXAS OBSERVER Pong"), Warner Cable Corporation, and 600 W. 7th Austin 78701 ( ELEKTRA/ASYLUM! the New York Cosmos soccer team. NONESUCH (512) 477-0746 —Debbie Wormser

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 23 Boo. sBool(4 SHIVA'S HEADBAND presents As former program director Joe "PSYCHEDELIC YESTERDAY" Gracey put it, "KOKE-FM had the most new LP on APE ROCK 'N' ROLL IS HERE TO PAY individual format since the days of re- $6.00 postpaid to The History and Politics of gional breakouts." What the station was APE, 909 Post Oak, Austin 78704 the Music Industry up to was awkwardly dubbed "progres- by Steve Chapple and sive country"—a term that didn't make Reebee Garofalo much sense but won KOKE-FM an Nelson-Hall, 1977. $16.95, $9.95 enormous amount of national publicity, as well as Billboard's 1975 Trendsetter of THE COMMODORE the Year Award. Gracey came to refer to SO YOU WANT TO BE A ROCK the format as "American" music or HOTEL 'N ROLL STAR "roots" music, since 'by '76 and '77 by Sharon Lawrence KOKE-FM was playing a multiplicity of On Capitol Hill Dell, 1976. $1.75 Owned by Texans. Run by a Texan. styles that ranged from Mexican con- junto to Cajun zydeco to funk R&B to 520 N. Capitol St., NW By Carolyn Allen blues, jazz fusion, rock 'n' roll, Western Washington, D.C. 20001 swing, and the artists the term progres- Corpus Christi sive country had originally meant to "I don't make culture, I just sell it." identify—Kris Kristofferson, Steve –Dick Clark Young, Joe Ely, Alvin Crow, Billy Joe If you've driven across the country Shaver, Townes Van Zandt, Waylon , lately listening to your radio, as I did a Jennings, David Allan Coe, etc. few months back, you might have de- Gracey, in one of his usually loqua- tected an absence of musical identity cious interviews, told a Country Music from one region to the next. Cincinnati Magazine reporter, "We played Freddie sounds just like Beaumont or Billings, no Fender's 'Before the Next Teardrop matter what you're listening to—country Falls' first—we were the first station in or rock or middle-of-the-road stuff. It's a the world to play Freddy Fender. But it phenomenon representative of what I doesn't particularly matter who a singer like to think of as the Holiday Inning of is. We try to look for quality. It may be a the airwaves. Every station plays the smash hit in Billboard, but if we don't same top-40 records, or as it has come to think it's quality, we don't play it. Our be in the past few years, the same top 25 programming depends a lot on the value or 30; most of the jocks sound like they judgments of each d.j." Bob and Sara Roebuck got their training on an assembly line; and even station jingles and I.D.s, which Anchor National used to be a source of instantaneous rec- `Music for music's sake' ognition in the '50s, have been stan- dardized. And that was, at once, the success and Financial Services If you're 30 or older, it really makes failure of KOKE-FM. The management 1524 E. Anderson Lane, Austin you pine for the days when radio (and and owners couldn't categorize what was music in general) was a lot more fun and going on; record companies and promo (512) 836-8230 certainly a much looser thing. Music on men thought the KOKE people were rock 'n' roll and country stations re- crazy when they'd opt for Doug Sahm • bonds • stocks • insurance flected regional roots and styles; driving and Roky Erickson over Billboard's Top • mutual funds down the freeway, you never knew what Ten LPs. But local artists were always • optional retirement program weirdness might come bouncing off the more important at KOKE-FM than what dial when you hit the wonderbar. It was selling in Boston or L.A. doesn't happen that way anymore, but a Willie Nelson once said all radio sta- HALF few short years ago, there was at least tions would someday be like KOKE- one station in Texas that attempted to FM, that they'd just be playing music PiRiCE give you rock 'n' roll, country, R&B, without worrying about the labels too RECORDS M. AZ IN ES rockabilly—in short, roots music—all in much. American music. And that's all one format. KOKE-FM really was. Having a show IN DALLAS: From the first time I heard Austin's there meant that you could put a stack of 4528 MCKINNEY AVE. KOKE-FM in January of 1973 until its records on your turntable starting with 209 S. AKARD, downtown unfortunate transformation in September George Jones followed by The Rolling RICHARDSON: 508 LOCKWOOD of last year, I was sure it was the defini- Stones (yes, that's really American (west of post office) tive way to deal with the great range of music—after all, the Stones were re- FARMERS BRANCH SHOPPING CTR. American music—and so were thou- sponsible for bringing the blues back SW CORNER, VALLEY VIEW sands of other people who listened to the home to the good ole U.S.A.). Anyway, it made sense and it worked in Austin for IN WACO: 25TH & COLUMBUS Austin Sound. You couldn't believe someone had really done this with a while. It was really music for music's IN AUSTIN: music, the first time you listened to the sake. For a few short years at least, 1514 LAVACA KOKE-FM was a musical island in an 6103 BURNET RD. station—Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, The Rolling Stones, Muddy Waters, Bob ever-increasing stream of national IN FORT WORTH: Wills, Clifton Chenier, and Flaco blandness and hype. 6301 CAMP BOWIE BLVD. (Ridglea Shopping Center) Jimenez all being played on any particu- But eventually the station fell victim to lar day. the R and R syndrome—ratings and rev- 24 APRIL 14, 1978 enues, because as all station owners Banquet Foods, Random House, and the know in their hearts, a radio station is a Alfred Knopf Company. With 1973 sales business, first and foremost, and only in- in excess of $4 billion, RCA ranked as cidentally a medium for art or even en- the 20th largest corporation in the U.S. tertainment. As the bloodletting began If you find all this destructive of previ- and KOKE-FM came under new man- ous impressions of the 'hip' music busi- agement, the newly appointed general ness and you want to learn more, you manager made the following reflections can in a fascinating new book, Rock 'N' on the destruction of KOKE as I knew it: Roll Is Here To Pay: The History and "We do understand that many of our old Politics of the Music Industry by Steve listeners will probably not like our new Chapple and Reebee Garofalo. As the format and we are resigned to losing authors suggest in their preface, "It's not them." And "unfortunately for the lis- the Meat, It's the Motion: There's more teners who enjoyed it, KOKE-FM was to Rock 'n' roll than Music." A helluva not financially successful, and some lot more, it turns out. And their book Garofalo's chart of cover records listing change became a necessity. The owner- attempts to deal with the music business the original artists and the cover artists is ship and management determined that as power, politics, and profits rather than worth the price of the book alone, and so the change should be to a contemporary the usual aesthetics, glamor, and giddi- is their treatment of Philly Schlock and country music format. (Read Top-40 ness surrounding the industry. Rock 'N' Dick Clark. Nashville country.) Our market research Roll Is Here To Pay is Upton Sinclair's Another book about the rock 'n' roll indicated that a large portion of the Aus- Jungle in a latter-day form, or, as its business, but not worth the price even if tin radio audience wants to hear stereo creators define it, "an analysis of the someone gave it to you, is Sharon Law- country music." On a note of high irony, way popular culture is manhandled in a rence's sycophantic, slavish So You Want the new boss concluded, "Like Willie corporate society. To Be a Rock 'N Roll Star. Your first key says, Turn out the lights, the party's Rock 'N' Roll Is Here T, Pay is a to this book's quality is on the cover: in over." two-part polemic—its first section treats big headlines Elton John says, "A fantas- of music industry history, the develop- tic book written by a lady who knows `The cold hard facts' ment of AM and FM radio, the early what she's talking about!" Open it and years of the record companies, their sub- you're knocked out by the tabloid size It took the final disintegration of sequent growth into monopoly corpora- headline, "FIND OUT FOR YOUR- KOKE-FM to make me take a second tions, and their present-day operations. SELF WHAT THEY DO AND WHY look at the music business. But, in fair- The second half of the book examines THEY DO IT!" The same might well be ness, the station's 180-degree turn to a the seamier side of record asked of Sharon's rave reviewer. slick automated Top-40 country format conglomerates—their ownership, their The book purports to be a comprehen- was no less reprehensible than much of co-optation of performances, and their sive look at rock music—how it works, what else I was to learn were the cold consistent abuse and misuse of black and and how you can work in it. It's filled hard facts of life about the rock 'n' roll female artists, among other things. with all kinds of nifty advice like, "Be an industry. innovator, not an imitator," and "It's fun Like RCA's suppression of the devel- Philly Schlock, Dick Clark choosing a band's name, but remember opment of FM radio in the '30s and '40s you don't want to end up with something to insure television's commercial suc- Rock 'n' roll is here to stay, but the silly, faddish, infantile or that you will cess. This effectively put the quietus on authors' contention that it's also here to tire quickly of." The crowning insult: any real experimentation with FM until pay is backed up by two years of full- "Choosing a set is like seducing a girl— the 1960s. time research that included interviews it's all a matter of timing." Like Frank Sinatra's famous 1958 ap- with agents, concert producers, mana- So You Want To Be a Rock 'N Roll pearance before Congress when he told gers, broadcasters, rock press critics, Star reads like Pat Boone's homespun lawmakers that rock 'n' roll was ''the record execs, and artists themselves. mush for kids in the '50s, Ten Tips on most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious Great anecdotes and quotes abound. How to Be a Good Teenager. You'd do form of expression it has been my mis- Like Artie Mogull, former vice president better to spend your $1.75 on a used fortune to hear," and that it was written for A&R at Capitol describing his com- Kingsmen album because this pulp's not and sung "for the most part by cretinous pany's total misunderstanding of the worth the pennies. goons." Five years later, Sinatra traded music business: And remember: "Rock 'n' roll is here his ownership of Reprise Records for $22 "You could tell a good song plugger. to stay, it will never die. . . ." R.I.P. million, one-third of Warner Brothers He'd be on his way home with five Elvis, Gene Vincent, Jimi Hendrix, Records, and one-third of any record dollars and a bill in his pocket from the Janis, Eddie Cochran, Otis Redding, companies they might later acquire. In electric company that says if he doesn't Gram Parsons, Big Bopper, Chuck 1967, Warners bought Atlantic, and the pay his bill tomorrow they're going to cut Willis, Jimmy Reed, Frankie Lymon, man who thought rock 'n' roll despicable him off. He runs into some band leader Johnny Ace, Buddy Holly, Richie Val- was making more money from it than like Guy Lombardo, so he says, 'Let's go ens, Little Walter, Alan Freed, Sam from his own singing. have a sandwich.' Now he knows he's Cooke, Clyde McPhatter, Jim Morrison, Or—who owns the star-maker ma- going to have to pay for it, since he's the Slim Harpo, Arthur Crudup, Brian chinery? Record companies are owned song plugger. But he knows if he does Jones, Johnny Burnette, Hank Williams, by billion-dollar, right-leaning that, he's not going to have any money to and James Dean. How come Frank corporations—the liberal nature of the pay the electric bill. So what does he do? Sinatra and Dick Clark are still here? 0 music business functioning merely as Mogull pauses in his anecdote. "For 35 protective coloring. RCA, for example, years Capitol has been staffed by people Former DJ Carolyn Allen, a.k.a. is one of the largest military contractors who would go home and pay the bill." Kandy Kicker during the good gone days in the U.S. And besides its Pentagon Nobody with an interest in rock 'n' roll at KOKE-FM, is the entertainment trade, it also operates NBC, owns Hertz, should pass this book up. Chapple and editor of the Corpus Christi Sun. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 1 Songwriter-publisher deals Information for The American Society of Composers Gary Nunn, Willis Alan Ramsey and Historians, and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Doug Sahm. Most of these retain some Music, Inc. (BMI), the two major organi- degree of control over their songs Researchers, zations collecting performing rights through self-owned music publishing royalties for composers and publishers, companies. Nostalgia Buffs, list 2,514 songwriter and 959 music pub- For the unknown songwriter, it is & Observer Fans lisher affiliates with Texas addresses. nearly an impossible task to get a song Many publisher affiliates are companies recorded. Where does one begin? The owned in whole or in part by a song- traditional route takes the songwriter to writer who has set up on his own to a music capital—Los Angeles, New oversee the licensing of his copyrights. York or Nashville—where he stands in Bound Volumes: The 1977 bound Most publishing companies—in Texas line outside some publisher's office. If a issues of The Texas Observer are and elsewhere—are built around the publisher likes his material and takes him now ready. In maroon, washable catalogs of two or three prolific and suc- on, the writer transfers to him his binding, the price is $15. Also avail- cessful writers who typically are also copyright claims. In exchange, the pub- able at $15 each are volumes for the musicians and recording artists. Few lisher promises to do his best to exploit years 1963 through 1976. companies function as full-service pub- the songwriter's material, issue periodic lishing entities actively on the look-out royalty statements, and pay any royalties Cumulative Index: The'clothbound for new material, with staffs working to due. The assessment of a particular pub- cumulative edition of The Texas Ob- bring along new writers and get songs lisher's ability to do any of this, while server Index covering the years recorded. crucial, is usually a difficult and subjec- 1954-1970 may be obtained for $12. tive process.' The list of well-known songwriters Today a great many new songs are from Texas would stretch a mile, but a first recorded by their authors them- Index Supplements: The 1971 few who still call Texas home include selves or by the bands they play with. through 1977 paperback supple- Willie Nelson, Mickey Gilley, Jerry Jeff This is particularly true of rock music ments are provided at no additional Walker, Freddie Fender, Charlie Pride, writers, many of whom conclude that the charge to those who purchase the Ray Price, Delbert McClinton, Floyd support services they need are purely cumulative index at $12. Subscrib- Tillman, Red Stegall, Cindy Walker, administrative—most learn to keep con- ers who do not want the cumulative Billy Gibbons, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, trol of their copyrights through arrange- index may purchase any of the supplements separately. The price is 500 for each year.

Back Issues: Issues dated January 10, 1963, to the present are available at 500 per issue. Earlier issues are out of stock, but photocopies of articles from issues dated December 13, 1954, through December 27, 1962, will be provided at 500 per article. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Microfilm: The complete backfile (1954-1977) is $325. A current subscription to the microfilm edition is $15. To order, or to obtain additional information regarding the FILM & TV 35mm microfilm editions, please PRODUCERS write to Microfilming Corporation of America, 21 Harristown Road, Glen Rock, N.J. 07452. RECORD COMPANIES

Address your order (except fOr microfilm) to the Oh- server Business Office. Texas residents please add the 5% sales tax to 'our remittance. Materials will he sent BMI & ASCAP postpaid.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER RECORDING ARTISTS 600 W. 7 ST. — AUSTIN 78701 FOREIGN PUBLISHERS (512) 477-0746 Illustration by Bill Narum

41=111111=1111111111111111111111.

25 APRIL 14,1978 "No special inter_ ments with publishing companies, managers or lawyers retained to look after group should tell the things on a fee or income-percentage People of Texas who basis. The structure of the music publishing should be the next State industry reflects, in the main, the con- tents of the United States copyright law. Treasurer. That is a The law reserves to the copyright owner certain exclusive rights to his original decision the Citizens will work. It is the licensing of these rights that spawns copyright revenue. 2 make when they go to Income from a record is made up of mechanical license fees and performing vote" rights royalties. If a record is successful, People all over Texas are responding enthusiastically to my cam- there are royalties from film sound- paign. I appreciate your support. I know that the public trust must tracks, foreign rights deals, and sheet be earned, and it is a responsibility I accept. I ask for your vote on music. For the right to manufacture me- May 6th. If you share my concerns, encourage your friends and chanical parts containing a composition, neighbors to vote for Harry Ledbetter for State Treasurer in the the copyright law requires a record man- Democratic primary ufacturer to obtain a "mechanical li- election May 6th. cense" and pay the copyright owner a fee. The statute sets a ceiling of two and AR two-thirds cents per song per record sold. The money is paid by the record companies to the publishers who, by the LEDBETTER terms of most agreements, split 50/50 with writers. The moment a song begins to get for State Treasurer airplay it becomes a potential earner of You don't have to have a famous name to be State Treasurer. performing rights royalties—fees paid by Pd. Pol. Adv. paid for by Ledbetter for State Treasurer Committee. Bill Echols, Campaign Treasurer, radio and television stations, bars, clubs, P.O. Box 13524, Capitol Station. Austin, Texas 78711. Telephone (512) 476-6973. concert producers, and other individuals and commercial entities that make use of recorded music in the course of business. By statute, copyright owners are granted the exclusive right to perform their work. Anyone wanting to perform a How tieformers made ghettos. piece of copyrighted music must therefore negotiate with its owner. For In seeking to convert "ethnic" urban immi- convenience to users and himself, an grants into typical white Americans, Thomas Philpott shows how self-styled "progressives" actually perpetuated many of the social ills they 1. In the popular music business the term "publisher" is something of a misnomer, since sought to cure. a song may generate revenue but never reach print as sheet music or be included in a "A very well-researched and very valuable con- songbook. Frequently a publisher will merely tribution to our general knowledge of the rela- serve as an agent between a writer and a re- tions among immigrants, blacks, and reformers cording artist and require both copyright ownership and a share of song income as his in the North'.'—Nathan Glazer commission. Record companies and record- 320 pp., illustated. $17.95 ing artists will occasionally insist that a writer sign over full or partial copyright ownership in consideration for making a record or recording a song. Many songs have ended up in the possession of a "publisher" who at one point appeared to have the connections to insure a recording, but as it turned out, was not able to THE SLUM carry through. Unless a songwriter secures contractual protection from non-performance AND on the part of his publisher, he may lose the legal title to his song and have it "frozen" in a THE file cabinet. Neighborhood Deterioration 2. A revised copyright law went into effect and Middle Class Reform on Jan. 1 of this year. Although the owners of Chicago 1880-1930 copyrighted works complain the revisions to the 1909 law fall short of what they thought Thomas Lee Philpott was called for, the changes provide for numerous increases in revenue and bring the ffils OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 200 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016

4111111140111111612PM11101111111.1111111111M61 7:1‘ rt-ssominr,fras.....tvm7rv. /111111=111.41RAA. THE TEX. * OF1::,ERVER 27 ARE OUR POLITICS YOUR KIND OF POLITICS? Capitalism is the unspoken reality of That job is to bring capitalism into American politics. That is one thing, the politics as the great issue of our time. This major parties agree upon: praise capitalism newspaper is committed to beginning the (not too often and preferably by another job and to seeing it through. It is a job name) but don't discuss it. Preclude ser- whose time has come. ious discussion of the central reality of our The existing socialist parties, either times. through sectarian elitism or failure of This is to be expected. The major par- nerve, also have evaded the task, or ob ties are the protection agencies of corpor- structed it. As if in a silent partnership ate capitalism. They are committed in WO>, pith the major parties, they have brought partisan consensus to the capacitiesan aid and comfort to the bipartisan consen- limits of the system. It is their job to s and thus share responsibility with the corporate capitalism out of, "above" parties for- the impasse in American politics, just as it was the job of the pre es and for the low level and shallow Civil War Whig and Democratic parties to content of campaign debate. keep slavery out of politics. They failed This newspaper is committed to helping then because determined people brought break the impasse, by doing its job as a the reality of slave power into the electoral socialist organ of news and opinion. arena, giving birth to the Republican party. The first step is to break with both the It remains to be seen whether the o sectarian l acy of the socialist left, and cratic and Republican partie' d incapacity of the social in keeping corporate power out o We intend to speak to politics. If they do they will onl calilialisrn as the great issue of their job, and socialists will not . , and to socialism as the popular theirs. verntnt that will meet it. THEN OUR PAPER IS YOUR KIND OF PAPER Sponsors: Robert Allen, Julian Bond, Noam Chorn- isch, Salvador Luria, Staughton Lynd, Carey MeWil- sky, Barry Commoner, Hugh DeLacy, G. William hams, Herbert Marcuse, David Montgomery, Carlos Doinhoff, Douglas Dowd, David Du Bois, Barbara Munoz, Harvery O'Connor, Jesse Lloyd O'Connor, Flirenreich, Daniel Ellsberg, Frances Putnam Fritch- Earl Ofari, Ronald Radosh, Jeremy Rifkin, Paul man, Stephen Fritchman, Barbara Garson, Eugene Schrade, Derek Shearer, Warren Susman, E.P. D. Genovese, Emily Gibson, Michael Harrington, Thompson, Naomi Weisstein, William A. Williams, Dorothy Healey, David Horowitz, Paul Jacobs, Ar- John Womack Jr., James Weinstein, Editor, M.J. thur Kinoy, Ann J. Lane, Elinor Langer, Jesse Lem- Sklai, Associate Editor.

A subscription costs $17.50 per year. Mail your check or money order to In These Times, 1509 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60622. owner will usually license his performing rights to a performing rights society, GINNY'S COPYING SERVICE which in turn negotiates annual license fees and distributes royalties periodically in approximately equal amounts to the writer and publisher of each song handled. BMI and ASCAP, the two major licensing outfits in the U.S., report a combined total of 49,000 U.S. writers and 22,500 publishers as affiliated members and boast an index of more than two million songs between them. The two organizations estimate that together they collected $275 million in 1976, 90 percent of the sum coming from radio and TV, Setting the Pace and 10 percent from the producers of live for Today's Business performances. Approximately $6 million Communications with of the 1976 take was collected from Professional Telecopy Service ... Texas-based licensees. Royalties are set according to a complex formula which takes into account ... Exact Facsimile Transmission (including pictures), the number of times a song shows up in a Here to There in Four Minutes or Less. random sample of radio and television 44 Dobie Mall 108 Congress 400 University Dr.

Austin, It.X.Is San Marcos, Texas station programming. Obviously, the Austin, Texas system is marred by inequities—a song 476-9171 477-9827 392-5885 receiving airplay in just a few markets or only one region may not earn a penny. But a sufficiently popular song can earn up to six cents for each performance log- Give Free Speech a Pat on the Back ged on local AM radio and as much as while you're slapping your knee at the $600 for a one-time use on network television. The licensors are always on the lookout for ways to improve the accu- racy of their formula, and their long-term RIVER CITY REVUE aim is to monitor all performances with (a benefit for Capital Eye, Texas' longest the aid of computers. running press panel show) —Mike Tolleson. statute into closer compliance with the realities presented by current technology. In its new form the law benefits the owners and authors of musical compositions by (1) ex- tending the term of subsisting copyrights from 56 to 75 years and lengthening the term for a copyright to any future work to a period equal to the life of the author plus 50 years; (2) requiring juke box owners, who were specifically exempt from the obligation to pay performance royalties under the old law, to pay an annual fee of $8 per box to copyright owners through the U.S. Copyright Office (a division of the Library of Congress) under a schedule yet to be devised; (3) requiring public radio and TV stations, which, as nonprofit institutions, were formerly exempt from the royalty provisions of the copyright law, to pay Sunday, April 23 performance and synchronization royalties under a negotiable license arrangement; (4) 7 p.m. stiffening the guidelines for photocopying, Saengerrunde Hall especially as they apply to libraries; (5) mak- (next to Scholz Garten) ing the cable television industry liable for payment of performance royalties under a compulsory license arrangement of its own; (6) incorporating provisions of the Anti-Piracy Emcee — AgriComm Reagan Brown; and starring Terry Weeks, Act of 1971, thereby allowing for copyright protection in sound recordings and laying Karol Phelan, Rep. Mary Jane Bode, Ted Taylor, Terrell down stiff penalties for record piracy; and (7) Webb, Jo Ann Schatz & The River City Hooters, Lou providing for the creation of a U.S. Copyright Royalty Tribunal (consisting of five commis- Perry, Silver Battle, Sonny Davis, Phil Maxwell sioners appointed by the president) to periodically review royalty rates set by the new law Scholz Garten's famous food & drink available. for recordings, juke boxes, public tickets & information e 472-2549 broadcasters, and cable television companies. $10 tax-deductible donation * $5 students & senior citizens

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 29 Music business.. . from page 21 expression between performer and public. Narrowing ownership of the elec- PRIME RIP tronic media, with the power it bestows on management, invites misuse of the public airwaves (vide the payola scan- STEAK dals of 1959-60). More subtly—and more to the point—it gives unfair competitive advantage to national labels, those most LOPSTER able to promote themselves. Things are much the same at the retail CRAP level, where the basic truth is as coarse as this: an album isn't going to sell if it's not on the store shelf. While it is more or less left to national chains and big-time rack-jobbers to decide what appears at eye level, retail "competition" is re- stricted to the few outlets with enough market muscle to extract price breaks

elican's had

Austin, Corpus Christi, Victoria, Brownsville, Temple, McAllen, Port Aransas, Tucson

lL DINERS College Station, San Antonio, Lake Tahoe CLUB

■ Songwriters' seminar, Austin, 1975: left to right, Doug Sahm, BMI v.p. Frances Preston, Mike Tolleson, drummer Paul English, BMI p.r. man Russ Sanjek, Willie Nelson and wife Connie. Printers — Stationers — Mailers — Typesetters from manufacturers. The big chains High Speed Web Offset Publication Press — don't want to mess with the albums of obscure artists whose unheralded talents Counseling — Designing won't draw customers in from the side- walk. Even if a local or regional label Copy Writing — Editing wins retailer acceptance, it probably will not rate even a token share of display space unless it can afford to offer promo- Trade — Computer Sales and Services tional discounts. A chain store can thus expect to get an album from a distributor — Complete Computer Data Processing Services for at least 23 cents less than the hometown 'record shop pays, which helps to explain why, in the music business, the rich get richer. It comes down to this: new performers IPROTelA 14:7....t11110,-,G=re MINS (as well as innovators and traditionalists languishing outside the mainstream of American pop music), independent record companies, local record stores—and ultimately all of us who get our music from records and tapes—are going to FUTU11111/1 ► find ourselves financially "had" and ar- 512/442-7836 1714 South Congress tistically straitjacketed by the erosion of competition that characterizes the music P.O. Box 3485 Austin, Texas 78764 industry. ❑ Mike Tolleson is an Austin a ttorney specializing in copyright and entertainment law. 30 APRIL 14, 1978 aVearcFuture

This calendar is an information service for Observer readers. Notices must reach the Observer at least three weeks before the event. March 18-April 30 / Dallas: The views current energy legislation at May 2 / Tues. / Freeport: The the city of Galveston for a permit American Farm, an exhibition 2 p.m. in the O'Kane Auditorium, Environmental Protection to construct a public parking lot celebrating the 200-year evolution 1 Main Plaza, UH Downtown Col- Agency and the Army Corps of on a segment of the city's wet- of agriculture in America, features lege. Free, open to the public. Engineers take public testimony lands. The plans are on view at rural music, oratory and demon- on the proposed construction of a the district office, 400 Barracuda, strations of antique farm equip- April 20-21 / Thurs.-Fri. / Aus- pipeline which would traverse a Galveston. The Corps is accept- ment. From 9 to 5 Monday tin: "Growth in Texas: Who local wetlands area. At 9 a.m. in ing written requests from those through Saturday; 1 to 5 Sundays Plans? Who Pays? Who Profits?" • the Freeport Intermediate School, wishing to take part in a public in the Hall of State, Fair Park. In- is a conference for policy-makers 331 W. 4th Street. For informa- hearing through April 27. Com- formation: (214) 421-5136. and citizens interested in growth tion, write the Corps of En- ments will be made part of the of- and planning. Information: con- gineers, P.O. Box 1229, Galveston ficial record. Submit requests and April 14 / Fri. / Port Arthur: tact the Southwest Center for 77553. comments to the District En- The Texas Department of Human Public Policy, P.O. Box 4841, gineer, P.O. Box 1229, Galveston Resources holds a public hearing Austin 78765. The Corps' Galveston District 77553. on the needs of the state's aged has received an application from —Vicki Vaughan and disabled. From 9 a.m. to noon April 20-21 / Thurs.-Fri. / Aus- at the Senior Citizens' Service tin: The Texas Sunset Advisory Thomas D. Bleich Center Auditorium, 9th Street and Commission holds a public meet- DeQueen Blvd. To submit written ing to hear staff reports. For time testimony, contact Dr. Suzette and place, call (512) 475-6565. Ashworth, Exchange Park, Suite 230-S, 7800 Shoal Creek Blvd., April 23 / Sun. / Austin: "The Austin 78757. For other informa- River City Revue" lampoons tion, call Fred Guarnere, (713) Texas politics and politicians in a 835-3751, ext. 237. series of skits. It's a benefit for the press panel show "Capital April 14-15 / Fri.-Sat. / Austin: Eye." At 8:30 p.m. in Saenger- The American Friends' Service runde Hall next to Scholz Garten, Committee hosts a seminar on 1607 San Antonio. Tickets $5 and economic relations between Mex- $10. Information: (512) 477-2549. ico and the U.S., with speakers Philip Russell, Austin author, and April 23 / Sun. / Austin: The Jorge Buestamante, Mexican Committee for Human Rights in sociologist. For registration in- Chile sponsors the now-exiled formation, call AFSC: (512) 474- musical group Inti-Illimani, once 2399. one of Chile's most popular folk groups. Tickets $4 in advance or April 17 / Mon. / Houston: The $5 at the door. At 8:30 p.m., Ar- federal Department of Energy madillo World Headquarters. holds a public hearing on a proposal to construct a liquified natural April 25 / Tues. / Lubbock: The gas import terminal on Matagorda agriculture committee of the Bay. At 9:30 a.m., Federal Build- Texas House holds a public hearing, 515 Rusk. Information: (713) ing at 1:30 p.m. in the conference 226-5421. room, 5th floor, First National Bank Building, 1500 Broadway. April 17, 24 / Mon. / Houston: For agenda and information: (512) Congressman Bob Eckhardt re- 475-3275.

TYPING. Can't do it yourself? Or don't have NEW ORLEANS ON $8 A YEAR. The CORRECTIONS SHOULD CONCERN the time? Professional typing at reasonable Weekly Courier, 1232 Decatur, New Orleans, YOU! Joint Endeavor is inmate published and rates in Austin or by mail around the state. LA 70116. edited to keep you Wormed of the devel- (512) 477-5420. FOREIGN AUTO SERVICE. In Houston. opments in the nation's prisons. Bi-monthly, Honest, reliable service. VW, Volvo, and send $5 check or money order to Joint En- WRITING, EDITING, RESEARCH. Manu- some others. 1805 Laverne, 467-0664. deavor, P.O. Box 32, Huntsville 77340. script analysis, proofreading, indexing. Arti- cles, brochures, speeches, annual reports, RECORDER PLAYERS. Looking for re- IRISH TIN WHISTLES. Bb, C. D, Eb, F, books. Get your words' worth from THE corder music? We have largest library in and G. Any three for $10 postpaid. Amster WORD DEPARTMENT, P.O. Box 6762, West. Come in or send for catalog. Amster Music, 1624 Lavaca, Austin 78701. Recorder Co., 1624 Lavaca, Austin 78701. Houston 77005. Julia Mazow, (713) 729-3481, JOIN THE ACLU. Membership $20. Texas Rosemary Minard, (713) 668-9156. BACKPACKING - MOUNTAINEERING - Civil Liberties Union, 600 West 7th, Austin RAFTING. Outback Expeditions, P.O. Box 78701. UT LAW STUDENT, female, desires part- 444, Austin 78767, (512) 442-8036. time cooking and/or child care for room/ board or share rent for house. Begin mid- BOOK-HUNTING? No obligation search for Classified advertising is 300 per word. Dis- August in Austin. Jackee Cox, 4102 Shady rare or out-of-print books. Ruth and John counts for multiple insertions within a 12- Oak, San Antonio 78229. References avail- McCully. ARJAY Books. (512) 263-2957. Rt. month period: 25 times, 50 percent; 12 times, able. 8, Box 173, Austin 78703. 25 percent; 6 times, 10 percent.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 31 Dialogu

Who's in charge? Second, your table "Ratings by na- tives." Bob has supported extension of I was impressed by John Davidson's tional organizations of Krueger's voting the Voting Rights Act, Mo Udall's fed- in-depth report on the plight of the record" would be better understood if eral strip-mining legislation, Hatch Act Hidalgo County farmworkers and his you pointed out: (1) that Krueger's reform, voting representation for the fording that ten years of assistance pro- Chamber of Commerce support is well District of Columbia, increased funding grams involving a quarter of a billion below that of most Republicans and for solar energy research and develop- federal dollars has apparently done little "southern Democrats"; (2) that ment, a significant increase in funding for to change things for them (Obs , Feb. 3). Krueger's Consumer Federation score is water pollution control projects consistently low because this group at- Some insight into the relative ineffec- throughout the nation, a bill to provide taches most importance to votes on oil tiveness of these programs might well be federal assistance to coastal areas af- and gas pricing, opposing the option gained by a closer look at the people ap- fected by development of oil and gas which would best serve Texas consum- offshore resources, and Bob Eckhardt's pointed to run them at the state and local ers, that of northern state utility users levels. I have been curious for some time landmark Toxic Substances Control Act. paying prices more in line with what as to why it is that governors and other In addition, Bob Krueger supports an ex- Texas consumers pay thereby lowering public officials invariably seem to ap- tension of the time for ratification of the Texas prices; and (3) the most widely point light-skinned vendido types to head Equal Rights Amendment and has con- used indexes at this time, the American these programs, instead of men of the sistently voted against efforts to restrict people. The people who run these pro- Conservative Union and AFL-CIO rat- Medicaid funds for abortions. grams are often out to feather their own ings place Krueger consistently at or I believe that these votes, if included near the middle of the political nests and those of their fellow staff in the voting summary and combined spectrum—a truly independent record. members with fat salaries, while the par- with additional suggestions above, would ticipants they are supposedly serving get Third, your capsulized version of better convey to your readers a complete the bare minimum wage. "Krueger's stands in Congress" is just sense of Bob Krueger. I wonder why people are not put in flat intellectually dishonest. Granted, it Garry Mauro is a difficult task to prepare a voting rec- charge of these programs who care about Campaign Manager, Krueger of Texas ord extract which accurately conveys the migrants, and who know what it is Austin like to have chopped cotton or harvested the tenor of the whole record, but your attempt falls very short of the mark. Of crops. There must be some qualified the positions actually listed, one is factu- people in this big state who know what it ally incorrect and many others reflect is like to be part of a migrant family, and Jefferson County legal aid who would be capable administrators. only one of several votes on the same subject. Specifically, Bob Krueger voted As a member of the board of Jefferson Let's get them, and put them in charge of against a bill to permit "blackouts" of County Legal Aid, I would like to object these much-needed programs. sold-out home sporting events; your ar- to Marshall Breger's implications regard- Robert Sindermann Sr. ticle states that he voted the other way. ing the board's action in his article Austin Krueger has never advocated the use of "Legal Aid in Texas" (Obs ., Feb. 17). a national identification card to prove cit- Funding for Jefferson County Legal Krueger on the defensive izenship; rather, he has pointed out that Aid came primarily from the Port Arthur this solution to the illegal alien problem United Community Service and Beau- I want to congratulate you on your fair is unworkable and the subject of wide- mont United Appeal. Because of legal and well-written article on Bob Krueger spread public opposition. He has also aid's relative unpopularity, asking for (Obs ., March 17). It was one of the most never supported allowing federal em- adequate—much less generous—funding well-researched and thorough articles I ployees to work for regulated industries was not the easiest of tasks. Though enti- have ever seen on Bob Krueger, and Pat while they are in the employment of the tled, we felt fortunate to receive the aid Black should be commended for his federal government, but he has pointed we requested all the while realizing more work. out that the "revolving door" between funds could have been used. There was only one factual error. In former government employees and regu- To my mind, Jefferson County Legal 1973, Bob Krueger announced for Con- lated industries is a major source of tal- Aid disbanded not because of associa- gress calling himself an "independent ent and expertise for federal regulatory tion with the "larger East Texas Democrat." Contrary to the article, agencies. Congressman Bob Eckhardt scheme," but because the local board neither he nor his literature has ever re- made the same point in a recent confer- realized that with the infusion of money ferred to his candidacy as one of a "con- ence committee meeting on the FTC bill. from the East Texas Legal Services or- servative Democrat." In his first cam- And although Krueger voted against ganization, Legal Aid would be better paign brochure he defined what he meant costly proposals to provide federal pub- funded, more amply staffed, and more by the term: "I call myself an 'indepen- lic service jobs for the unemployed and secure. The prospect of seeking dent Democrat' because I am indepen- to increase mortgage assistance for mid- additional funds at a future date has not dent of political power groups. I have dle income families, he then supported been ruled out; rather, a "wait-and-see" never held political office. I owe no polit- more affordable versions of the same approach has been adopted. ical favors. My only obligation is to the proposals, and the revised versions are Furthermore, the board was well people of this district and this nation. I on the books today. aware that legal service would be con- will not be voting according to a 'party Finally, your summary of Bob tinued without interruption with the staff line,' but according to the views and Krueger's positions is not merely dis- which had so ably served the Jefferson needs of my district, my country and my torted; it is also incomplete. In an at- County office. To have agreed otherwise conscience." I believe a careful analysis tempt to portray Bob Krueger as a would have been contrary to the purpose of his voting record during his two terms champion of business interests, you ne- of the board. in the House would support his descrip- glected to mention those votes which set Janet Fleckman tion of independence. Bob Krueger apart from the "conserva- Port Arthur

32 APRIL 14, 1978