The lyrics pretty much speak for themselves as far as what I was thinking when I wrote this song. The music industry is full of people who want to tell you how to become successful, usually for a price. Obviously you want to produce something that will capture people's attention and make them want to buy; otherwise you will need your own record company and distribution network and your own this, that and the other thing.
So eventually, they get to you and you spend a lot of time trying to write music that people might like. I've got scores of those and after 10 years or so it is easy to see that they all stink.
The song really needs to say something you think or express something you feel or achieve an objective you have in mind. The most important thing is to have something to say and to express it in a way that pleases you. If other people like it too, that's great but I think that should not be the priority.
When I wrote the song (around 1976 I would guess) I wouldn't have explained it that way of course. All I knew then was that I was tired of hearing people tell me how to become a "commercial success". It was frustrating for several reasons:
I was not a "commercial success"
I wanted to be a "commercial success"
I didn't know how to become a "commercial success"
All I wanted was to write songs and perform them and to have enough people like them so that a record company would want to produce them. I didn't want to have to pander to people in order to survive.
Enough of that. The lyrics kind of spread out into a half-baked social commentary as well. So whatever, "Blah, blah, hlah"; I like it.
Recording Notes:
This recording is one of those produced in the basement studio of the Rockville Center house. It is a live recording made on my 2 track TEAC with no over-dubbing. The players are from a country band I was working with, Robert on bass and Chris on drums. It is a kind of sister recording to Bummed Out in that the same setup and players were used. I think the arrangement and "feel" of both these songs was influenced by Robert and his punk-rock leanings.