I remember getting a copy of these on a bootleg cassette back in the late 80's and he was always notorious for being really tough on his band members and these tapes always used to crack me up:
---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
My friend Jimmy Bruno started playing for him when he was 19. Buddy fired him all the time but he Jimmy said when he hired him back he had to get a ten dollar raise. Jimmy had the same personality as Buddy. ----------
I heard a story from Wayne Bergeron one drunk night not long after Buddy passed that ties into this. A member of Buddy's band called the house a couple of days after Buddy passed and asked to speak with Buddy and was told that Buddy had passed away. This guy called back 5 minutes later and asked for Buddy again and once more he was told that Buddy had passed. A few minutes later the guy made the same call and the woman on the other end said "didn't you just call a couple of time and ask for Buddy and didn't I tell you he had passed away?" The former band member said "yeah, that was me--I just wanted to hear the good news again."
Cold.
Last Edited by PropMan on Mar 17, 2015 1:53 PM
Buddy actually reminds me of some of the old black blues players I've played with who wouldn't think twice about getting on your ass in a hurry when you did ANYTHING that screwed the groove up, like losing the time, as an example. There are plenty of pros who are perfectionists and won't stand for anything else but that. One of the first things I learned about dealing with musicians like that is never to take that stuff personally and if you're the type who hasn't grown thicker skin, you'e gonna wilt in those circumstances like a stick of butter left outside when it's over 100 degrees outside.
Albert King at times was similar to Buddy tho nothing quite as bad. Remember, it just ain't like an open jam session thing where there's zero pressure to be on your game every night.
Buddy was more in line with many old school black blues musicians, and both old school white AND black big band jazz musicians and those guys ran their bands with an iron fist. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I remember one night Jimmy Bruno Buddy's old guitar player picked up a napkin and wrote his drummer a traffic ticket for playing 150 mph in a 100mph zone. ----------
Years ago I had the priviledge of shuttling The Funk Brothers from the Toronto airport up to Wasaga Beach. I had five or six of them in the van and Tom Scott (I think) played that tape that had four or five others on it, including Paul Anka, he really went off !!! As well as a guy who had the memory on his computer wiped clean and he had not backed up his novel. Between the tape and just listening to the Funk Brothers it made for a very interesting trip !!! ----------
If it ain't got harp - it ain't really blues!!!!
Last Edited by jawbone on Mar 19, 2015 10:28 AM
You can't really judge him and others too harsh, they were from a different era of real headcuttin' and they were the top boys and they really did learn from the school of hard knocks!
we live in a world today that claims to be kind and caring but the violence in todays world in the average Joe's day is way beyond the stuff in Buddy's day. The good thing was when you played it right they shined gold vibes on you. Like Bob said, playing with the old blues guys could be pretty intense. Not all were like that but many were and if push came to shove most were in your face direct. Today people get that way on the internet with words but in the flesh most will not be so direct. I prefer the honest way of living. You know where you stand. Today in music one rarely knows this because the smile is always present and your throat will be cut with passive aggressive ways. Today's musician is really challenged to be the super nice guy 24/7. To me that gets no respect from me because you become a puppet on a chain of your audience, which today is everyone with a computer. Walter
PS: Having well over 500 people in my band over the years I can state 98% of musicians are a big pain in the butt to deal with. I prefer being a 1 man band even though it limits ones range to some extent. ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year in the Tunnel of Dreams Studio. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
@Waltertore -- From years of band leading, I agree with you 100% that other musicians can be a royal pain in the ass to deal with at times, partly due to dealing with extremely fragile egos and some of them who basically haven't matured one freaking lick at all, and many don't realize when they screw up at a gig and the club owner gets pissed off, they won't hear a damned thing, but as a bandleader, the bandleader ALWAYS will and then many are the same people who are the first complain about almost everything and the last with any positive solutions or even basic music business sense at all. As much as one wants to be a nice guy, with some people, you can't always be that way and you may have to be upfront right in their faces about things and sometimes, as a bandleader it can be a necessity to be the royal asshole to keep some of these musicians in line. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
