Nashville songwriters and performers are lamenting the demise of the "deal": no one wants to sign you or your songs anymore, due to the death of the traditional music industry machine. Nothing new. Check this out, and be heartened: Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer couldn't get arrested in New York City in 1965. After penning such hits as "My Boyfriend's Back" for the Angels, producing "Hang On Sloopy" for The McCoys and similarly headyaccomplishments, they fell victim to the British Invasion like so many of theirBrill Building peers and seemed fated to become twenty-something has-beens. The obvious solution: three Jewish songwriters from Brooklyn were reborn as three aboriginal sheepherders from Australia, by name of Niles, Miles & Giles Strangelove. Glaring inconsistencies were shoved aside one by one: the fact that they looked nothing alike? Same mother, different fathers. Their terrible faux-British accents? Remember, they're Australian, not English like The Beatles or Stones (Bob Feldman: "Who knew what Australians sounded like in 1965?We didn't, neither did anyone else.") Somehow, someway, they pulled it off. Everyone bought it. The media, the fans, everybody believed these guys were Australians, with their black leopard-skin tights, spears (spears!) and African drums. The Bo Diddley-sounding "I Want Candy" landed on top of the charts, and The Strangeloves were stuck in their own fiction for all the world to see.
A ruse this size needs constant nursing and stoking. On one occasion, to satisfy a
horde of screaming teenagers who'd shown up at the airport to see the new
Australian sensations, their manager rented a jet for an hour before a concert in
Newport News, Virginia, and had the Strangeloves board it at a remote terminal.
They then simply taxied the plane around to where the fans were waiting, and
disembarked as though from a 23-hour flight,
throwing stuffed koala bears to the awestruck fans.
If you're in it for the long run, go re-invent yourself...the music is what matters, we'll love it however you serve it up to us. Do a crazy Youtube video with your dog, or with water balloons, or whatever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grnkCPxdTdU
Do it.
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