Page 88 - Estwood Davidson: Travels with Beattie and Winston

ISSUE : Issue 54

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1990/6/1

talking to us all night to keep us awake, to get us home. So, she was a prince of a lady, is the only thing I can say about her.... But it's very seldom we ever had an argument. Oh, once in awhile, some- body'd get a bit cranky. But it would be more or less of a discus? sion. Probably Winston would say something that we wouldn't go along with. Some tunes, one time, he got from (a fel? low) , and some of them, they didn't suit us at all. 'Cause there were too many notes in the measure, and the measure wouldn't come out right. Same as sawing a board and put? ting it in a hole. You can't put an 8-inch board in a 6-inch hole, can you? So, if the music didn't figure out, Beat- tie'd balk right there. She said, "No way am I putting chords in that, 'cause you're only frigging up my time. When we get to the end of the measure, we've got no place to go. We're overrunning the measure." So Winston'd hem and haw for awhile, but then he'd see it our way, 'cause we wouldn't play it. Simple as that. ''Glace Bay YMCA I Enterprise Centre • TURNING YOUR IDEA INTO BUSINESS" A NEW SPIRIT is BORN in GLACE BAY ARE YOU UNEMPLOYED? DO YOU NEED CONSULTATION? DO YOU NEED SUPPORT SERVICES? W 1 Giace Bay Enterprise • You may be eligibie for our free Entrepreneurial Training Program. • 'We can iielp you develop and implement your business plan. • We provide rental space, pho? tocopier, computers and printers, typing, answering services, etc., below market cost. P. O. Box 250 YMCA 100 Reserve Street Centre Giace Bay, N. S. 849-1794 (When did you make your first 78 record to? gether?) I think it was in 1953. The old "Judique Jig"--I'll never forget that. And on the other side was "Tarvis Trippers"-- one of the old tunes we got out of books or something. (And who made the record deal?) Oh, Winston. We always let him go ahead. Some of them were bad deals, too, you know. 'Cause those record guys, boy, they had a fine idea how to clip you. As far as I'm concerned. No, we never got paid what we should have. Poor Johnny Wilmot made three LPs. Forty-seven bucks he got out of it. You had no way of checking them. The only thing, we should never have played for a middleman. Should have done our own business. That was a bad, bad mis? take. (Gone in and made your own records, you mean.) Right. And we could have.... One time I was in Halifax and I went to RCA Victor. And I said, "Would you be in? terested in us recording for you?" He asked me who I was and who I played with. And he said, "My God, yes." He said, "You fellows are well, well known." He said, "We'll take you just like that. Come up and record with us anytime." I thought we had her made then. And I came hunting down and told Winston about it. He said, "My God, we can't play for a year. I'm under contract." So we got swindled out of that. It's as simple as that. We really could have made it with RCA Victor, I think. Well, it's a better company. You see, these other companies--fly-by-night compa? nies- -they were making the bucks and we were making nothing. Oh, chicken feed-- good for nothing, see. (Let me understand this. Are you saying you were promised more money than you ac- The Tole Shed ' Townsend Street & Shierrif Avenue Sydney, N. S. • Telephone 564-4424 Large Selection oS Tole PsUnting Folk Art & Paper Tole Crafits Books, Paint, Brushes, Sprays, Wood Pieces Door Harp Hard''are, & many hard-to'nd items A Complete Une of PAPER TOLE & TOLE PAINTING SUPPLIES I.G.Tax Services mc Quality Tax Preparation • Fast and courteous service • Special rates for seniors • Year round tax service 350 Charlotte Street Sydney, Nova Scotia 564-8800

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