Little Richard PBS Special

Did anyone see the special on Little Richard on PBS American Masters on June 2nd? I missed it but I see I can watch it "On Demand" on my cable by going to Networks PBS American Masters. I hope to have time to watch it in the next few days.

We all know that back in the 60's just about every soul / Motown act made a living from their live show appearance money.
They'd just about all be playing the chitlin circuit, night after night. Not massive venues & not plush venues [[usually) but ones they would play for 3 / 4 / 7 nights to allow everyone who wanted to see them to get in to the venue.
... There were lots of shows that were staged for promotional purposes, for a radio DJ, for a civil rights cause or charity -- for those little or no fee was the usual procedure. But the good publicity or DJ's pleasure would lead to more spins for their next release ... which would help it be a hit ... which would result in lots of new live bookings.
On paid shows, no doubt say of the black theatres along the east coast, 7 nights in Norfolk, Baltimore, DC, Philly, New York, Boston ... a fee would be agreed upfront for each weeks hard graft [[up to 17 shows a week).
BUT, what was the situation with Motown Review packages ... no doubt some lesser acts would be doing it for little more than expenses & the good publicity. But the headline acts must have been drawing a decent salary [[though as Motown ran the booking agency, they'd get their 15% off the top before the artist saw any money).
Anyone know how payment for such reviews went on ??? AFTER ALL, lots of acts would start the tour dates but then leave the package to head back to Detroit for a recording session or the like. Their place would then be taken by another act for the remaining shows.
Or an act would get a new hit and so be added to a package part way thru the run of shows, or the hit would see them promoted up the bill and doing more songs in their section.
Then there's the matter of the backing band musicians; Popcorn Wylie's band, Choker Campbells band or Hamilton Bohannon's guys [[even EVD & the funk brothers on rare occasions). How were they paid [[by the show, by the week or by the tour ?)
..... An added complication then comes in with foreign tours. OK, the shows would probably run one after the other for say 10 to 14 nights. BUT, being in a different country, there'd be record label duties, meet the press duties, TV / radio show slots and the travel time itself [[12 hours on a plane followed by jet lag, etc.) and sight seeing time.
So 14 shows in the UK say would be undertaken over say a 21 day stay here. But the money would only be coming in from the 14 show fees.
LIFE MUST HAVE BEEN VERY COMPLICATED [[money wise) BACK THEN.Attachment 20726

I'm sure most of us were saddened by the recent passing of Tina. Though I had known she was ill, it was still a shock when she finally transitioned. Like so many of the greats who have left us, I never imagined a world without Tina.

My earliest Tina memory was my parents taking me to see the SOUL TO SOUL film. To this day, I can remember seeing this wild woman singing the title track while bopping with the Ikettes. I also had the memory of Ike and Tina performing I SMELL TROUBLE stuck in my mind for many years.

While I was out shopping today, WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT came over the pa system and it made me think of my favorite Tina recordings.

From the Ike and Tina days, my favorites [aside from the hits] are:

THE REAL ME [Sue)
IT'S CRAZY BABY [Kent]
SOMEBODY [SOMEWHERE] NEEDS YOU [Loma]
EVERY DAY I HAVE TO CRY [Philles]
YOU GOT WHAT YOU WANTED [Pompeii]
ONLY WOMEN BLEED [Fantasy]

Tina solo:

LET'S PRETEND WE'RE MARRIED
OVERNIGHT SENSATION
PARADISE IS HERE
WITHOUT YOU
GAME OF LOVE
EDITH AND THE KINGPIN

From memory a typical studio musicians pay rate back in the late 60's / early 70's was around $10 to 15 / hour -- and lots of studios / producers tried to pay less than 'union rate'.
I may well be wrong with my quoted figure.

Today, things have moved on but not by that much. A typical studio musician [[not a 'name' session player) will get around $25 per hour or $50 per completed song. Backing singers getting around the same rate.

So, aside from the cost of hiring the studio, the arranger, the producer [[the cost of the engineer coming in with the studio hire cost), sessions can't have cost that much if we're just talking musician / backing singer costs.
A typical studio session would I guess have involved say 5 musicians & 2 backing singers, so that would run [[back in the day) at around $100 per hour.
I know some record guys would make use of a local 'cheap' resource -- seem to recall the likes of John Richbough / Shelby Singleton using the local music college's student band with very little cost involved [[& that could run to 20+ musicians; strings, brass, percussion, etc.).
So the cost of many sessions were kept quite low, which is probably why so many soul tracks were cut back in the 60's / 70's.
AT MOTOWN, they had their own dedicated studio band [[the Funk Bros), who were never too happy about how much they earned [[& so were always taking outside sessions on the quiet). The backing singers were usually other Motown acts [[or the Andantes).
. . . .So session costs were kept low-ish.
So how come most Motown acts owed BG & Motown loads of money for past sessions, so didn't get paid out much when they enjoyed a hit record. Was this due to a lot of 'creative accounting' ?

Tracy Chapman's 'Fast Car' vs. Peter Gabriel's 'Solsbury Hill'.