Cape Breton's Magazine

p tually got?) You see, the way we made the LPs--Beattie and I played for a flat price--a hun? dred dollars a side. So we were pretty well satisfied with what we got. But if anybody took the beating, it was Winston. Far as I'm concerned. Money-wise. But then they took some of the 78s and put it on the first LP. The 78s were kind of fading out then. But this "McNab's Hornpipe" that we recorded, and "The Farmer's Daughter"--that sold. That was the biggest seller of the whole bunch. And they decided to put some of our 78s on an LP. So that's where some of the 78s went. But we could make an LP in an hour. Half an hour for one side And drink a pint of booze. And then make the other side. Some of them now, it takes them two days to make a frigging record. (Two days--some take two months!) Yeah, two months. We'd just sit down--boom! We played it, and that was it. One hour. That's both sides. We never had to come back, wipe it off, nothing. We just sat down, played it, and that was it. We were so used to playing that stuff. So we never really--oh, proba? bly we made mistakes, but they weren't all that prominent that they wouldn't pass. (And maybe you didn't make mistakes.) Well, not a great amount. I don't like bragging too much about the playing. Some of it was probably pretty rough. But I guess we did pretty good. (Just one more question on the business end of it. What puzzles me is that those 78s were made over....) Oh, yes, over a period of time. (Why was there not a stop put to it somewhere and a better deal made, somewhere along the line?) Many a time I asked myself that. See, there wasn't too much Beattie and I could do. (Was Winston just a poor busi? nessman?) Well, there's an awful lot of people claimed that. It seemed that way. 'Cause we should have--you know. The name that we had--you know, we were kind of the ''' CABINET GALLERY EASTLAND DESIGN KITCHENS t CJCB Radio, Mary Jessie (MacDonald Is at the piano, and the announcer Is Al Foster-the MacDonald Tobacco Show Elvis Presley of the music that we were playing. 'Cause every place--we were treated like kings every place we went. We were top dogs in those days.... We were preferred to play for dances. You know, for almost 25 years we did mostly all the dance work. We were on demand night and day. (Did you quit your job and just play mu? sic?) Absolutely not. Worked every day. Mu? sic was still the sideline. (For 25 years.) Twenty-six, to be exact. That was a long time, wasn't it. (It's a long time. Did you enjoy it?) Yes, when I look back at it. Sometimes I wake up in the night laughing about some foolish thing that we did or something. And my wife will poke me in the rib and say, "Are you getting crazy or something?" You know, things that we did. Funniest thing, when we played in lona. Well, you know, the boat (the Grand Narrows Mertz 24 HOUR SERVICE - 7 DAYS A WEEK across from the Sterling Mall GLACE BAY 849-2236 1430 George St. Sydney, N. S. Sydney Airport 539-1538 539-5623 • FAST FRIENDLY SERVICE • FEATURING LATEST MODEL CARS, TRUCKS, & 4-WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLES 'Mertzi • LOCAL PICKUP and DELIVERY To Resen/e a Car 'r'tr'ETLl -800-263-0600 The #1 way to rent a car.