[TPIN] Artistic Control (Was Maynard and poor choices)

[RickTrumpetMan at aol.com]

Thanks Jim.
 
I'm a little shocked at the surprisingly high naivete  co-efficient of those 
who REALLY thought that Maynard wanted to do that  schlock.  I think he 
thought that the Rocky tune was  probably "OK". ( I always remember about what he  
told interviewers, including me in that old  TPIN interview-not sure if I got a 
shared byline on it or not, I  didn't belong at the time- from the late 
'90's, about the Charlie  Barnet warning regarding never releasing a song you hated 
as  a single or the fates would curse you by making it your  biggest 
hit.....) 
 
To me, it's really easy to find the tunes that don't have a lot of "band"  
involvement on those later Columbias.
If they sound "read down one time and punch record", VERY  commercial, 
feature a lot of non band involvement (BV singers, movie stars,  guest artist 
friends of the producer/label, etc.,etc.) and (most  significantly) don't show up on 
the live concerts then they were always about  assuaging some external force, 
whatever that might've been.
 
I always thought it was obvious.  More to the point, I find it  interesting 
that Teo Macero's exit coincided with when he first began to cease  making 
every tune on an album a musical "slam dunk".  The last one on the  Columbia 
discography that did that in my opinion was Chameleon.  There  were a couple of 
overtly "commercial" titles on there as well (Livin' for the  City?) but the 
litmus test for "vitamins and minerals" was still pretty high,  especially 
compared to almost anything that came later up until the Palo  Alto/smaller label 
era.......
 
Rick Price
Legacy Brass
Charlotte, NC