THIS IS WHY I GOT ON THE INTERNET IN 2007

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Message from Bobby Jameson (via Eagle Wolf)


A Message from Bobby Jameson/Chris Lucey


To Whom It May Concern:


In 1985 I finally gave up trying to be in the record business. I couldn't get paid, and I couldn't get anyone to release anything of consequence regarding my work.


It was always "commercial" crap. After getting thrown out of ASCAP's office, having been told to get a lawyer, I made one last attempt and spoke to Martin Cohen, who had represented Frank Zappa. I told Martin that I had never received any payment from any record company, publisher, or any other company or collection agency, for any song I had ever written or any record I had ever made.


His response was, "That's impossible!" I told him again, but he refused to believe me. I argued and he still refused.


Completely demoralized, I realized that if I did not leave LA and the "music business," I would either finally commit suicide, or kill some dumb shit "record company" executive out of complete frustration.


The list of records and songs I have written is longer than you know, but what went into my pocket was always short.


You may be asking how could this happen? Well, I'll try to explain:


I didn't start out thinking about the "music business" in business terms. I was just a kid who wrote songs and wanted to make records. If someone said, "Let's go in a studio and cut a record," I said, "O.K."


The trouble is that these recordings kept ending up as "records," and got released. They're still being released, and I am still getting nothing. Not one penny.


It's not like I got paid before, and now I want to get paid again; it's I never got paid.


The only reason I am even talking about this now is because of the internet, and the attention I have been getting regarding my past and some of the records I have made.


My life for the past 40 years has been a series of ups and downs, mostly downs.


I've been sober and clean for 31 years, and that's an up, but my life, truthfully, has been hard as hell.


I've been sick for about 10 years, and that's due to hard physical labor for nickels and dimes. It's O.K. to work hard, but when I gotta go out and kill my body while some son-of-a-bitch in an office collects money off my music and I get nothing—I get a little pissed off, if you know what I mean.


After leaving L.A. , I ended up in San Luis Obispo , CA , where my mother and brother live, and I've been here ever since. Nobody here knows anything about my past and that's the way it stayed for almost 20 years, until Steve Stanley (he wrote the Mojo Music Magazine article) found me via my social security and a private detective.


He just called me up one day and asked if I was "Bobby Jameson." I told him I was, and asked him who he was.


"I'm Steve Stanley, and I represent a record company in England named Revola Records, and we have re-released the 'Chris Lucey' album."


Well, I gotta tell you I had no comeback whatsoever—I thought it was a joke.


We talked for an hour or more, and he assured me I could count on royalties from the release, and said they'd like to release other records of mine.


Like the foolish child of old, I believed everything he said.


To date, I have received one (1) copy of the Chris Lucey CD, and one (1) copy of the Mojo Magazine article—nothing else.


There are many songs I have written and recordings I have made over the years that I have kept away from record companies. If there is any interest in these songs and recordings, I would be curious to know.


If you didn't like what I have said here, all I can say is, it's pretty hard to switch from nobody to somebody after all these years.


The other day, I went to a local music store and paid $16 for the recently released "Jameson, Color Him In" CD that I learned about on the internet. I walked in a nobody and left a "celebrity" after the guy in the music store found out who I was. What a trip!


I probably don't need to say this again, but I'm going to. The "Jameson, Color Him In" CD was released by another English record label, Fallout Records, and I—you guessed it—have gotten zip!


Just in case people don't know this, I released a couple of records under the name, Robert Parker Jameson, in 1977 on RCA.


* * * * * *


Now about Eagle Wolf: Eagle and I have never met. We communicate by telephone and e-mail. His mother, Donna Wolf (now deceased), is someone I knew well in the sixties around the Sunset Strip. Eagle was raised to believe I was his father. As of yet, we don't know the answer, but sooner or later we will. In the meantime, I will do my best to honor what he believes to be true.


If anyone has any questions, post them on this site, and I will try and respond as best I can.


P.S. If anyone is interested in helping, please e-mail Revola Records in England, and Fallout Records, also in England, and ask them why they release the recordings of artists and pay them absolutely nothing, while selling these same recordings world wide.


My deepest thanks,


Bobby Jameson/Chris Lucey

"PEACE"
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Below are comments to the original post above

John

Rev-Ola properly licensed their CD release from the UK owners of the material, which is Ace Records. I'm told my Rev-Ola's founder/director Joe Foster that he will look into why Bobby is not receiving any payment, which he says must come from Ace since that is who to whom Rev-Ola paid up front licensing fees. Joe noted that Rev-Ola also pays all the monthly royalty fees due under UK law, but again it is Ace that is supposed to be paying Bobby. NOTE one thing more: did Bobby maintain ownership of his songs and performances, or did he sign away those rights years ago to some manager or label? That becomes the key issue in a lot of these cases when newer labels do small quantity reissues. Those like Rev-Ola who do try to operate fully above board have to deal with the legal owner of the material, and in some cases that is complicated by past dealings the musicians may have had with "manager types" who may indeed have been dishonest or at least sly. I don't know the specifics of what happened with Bobby; but I do know that it is hard to expect a label like Rev-Ola to be able to sort out past problems over ownership of material!

Now, concerning Fallout, they are a UK operation (not Italian) and from what I understand they have paid some bands but not most, and they have to be considered basically a bootleg label. Joe Foster told me that he feels embarrased by labels like Fallout that just make things that much harder for him and Rev-Ola to gain the trust of musicians like Bobby who've been ripped off so many times. Joe went to the trouble of checking with Universal Music (which owns the rights to the "Jameson: Color Him..." album) to see if Fallout had properly licensed the music, and they have not.

Hopefully, if Bobby does indeed still retain some measure of legal rights to his material, he will at least receive some payment from Ace from the CD that Rev-Ola licensed and released.

John Berg, Seattle area

Posted by John on Friday, August 17, 2007 - 2:16 PM
[Reply to this]
Eagle5471

eagle wolf


Hi Bobby,

I don't know exactly how it's done because I've never done it, but I think the way to get your material to people nowadays without record company influence is via the internet!! I'm sure there are ways you can get your music on a website and have people pay you directly for it. I'd be happy to look into it for you, maybe with Eagle's help since we're both in LA? I personally would love to hear what you've got!!

I'm honored to somehow be a conduit for this issue to be opened up for you.

Warm regards,
Tita

Posted by tita on Sunday, August 19, 2007 - 11:22 PM
[Reply to this]
Eagle5471

eagle wolf


Hey, John, it’s interesting that you are in a position to speak with Joe Foster at Revola; he has never spoken to me.

Ace Record’s license agreement with Revola, that you refer to, is not much good for two reasons: (1) Ace acquired the Chris Lucey and other masters from Randy Wood’s secretary after his death. It is questionable whether she had the legal authority to sell anything to Ace Records. (2) There is not, and never has been, an artist or writer’s agreement between Surrey Records and Randy Wood with Bobby Jameson for the Chris Lucey album. Surrey Records and Randy Wood had all of its agreements only with the original album artist, Chris Ducey. Randy Wood is dead, so he can’t speak, but Abe Summers, attorney, was present with me and Randy in 1965 when I refused to sign the agreement they offered me. Randy released the album anyway due to prior commitments he had made in Europe .

You state that Ace Records is supposed to pay me, but for five years they have not. Revola knows how to get in touch with me, so why didn’t they tell Ace Records? Steve Stanley, who is listed as co-producer on Revola’s Chris Lucey CD, has been to my house, (see article about me in Mojo Music, June, 2004, pp. 24-25). Steve wrote the article and is pictured standing beside me in my home. I think if either Revola or Ace Records wanted to be sure I got paid, it would have been easy.

As far as ownership of my music and performances is concerned, I couldn’t have given up ownership if I never signed an agreement regarding the Chris Lucy album. It is Revola’s responsibility to reasonably know that what it licenses from another party has not been obtained illegally.

Your reference to Fallout Records, via Joe Foster, as being a bootleg label, is laughable considering what I said above about Revola’s acquisition of the rights to the Chris Lucey album. As to “Color Him In,” the only reason Joe Foster wanted to know about it is that he wanted to release it himself. I know this because I have a paper I wrote giving Steve Stanley the right to speak for me with Verve Records about it. I also withdrew that right from Mr. Stanley soon after it was given. I also possess a Revola contract that was sent to me in the hope that I would sign away rights to other recordings I have made, which I did not do. If I should choose to post these documents on the internet, I do not think the position I am taking would be challenged. I don’t think either Revola or Ace Records had any intention of ever paying me. Record companies don’t pay artists and writers unless they are forced to, or see it in their own interest to do so.

Anyone who reads this can go out on the internet and find a lot of Bobby Jameson songs and recordings, and if it has my name on it as artist or writer, one thing will be true: I didn’t get paid—ever! I have never received a record royalty statement in my life, or any statement from anybody regarding any song I have written. I said in my last remarks posted on this site. I was kicked out of ASCAP’s office. It was because they told me they had money of mine, but they weren’t going to give it to me. I objected loudly. They told me I had to get a lawyer to get my money, and to leave their office or I would be thrown out. That’s the “music business”—keep everybody’s money until legally forced to pay.

I am not alone in this. There are thousand of singers, writers, and musicians who just wanted to make a record, write a song, or play the guitar. They know exactly what I’m talking about, and now, because of sites like this one, they can have a voice and tell it like it is. The “music business” is based on a collective unspoken conspiracy to withhold as much of other people’s money as they can for as long as they can. Damn the little guy!

Bobby Jameson/Chris Lucey

Peace

P.S. If anybody wants to help, please e-mail Revola, Fallout Records, and Ace Records, and ask them why they don’t pay their artists.

Posted by Eagle5471 on Sunday, August 19, 2007 - 2:53 PM
[Reply to this]
Terri


Thank you message to Fallout Records from Bobby Jameson:

Thank you, Steven Carr, director, Sound Links Music Ltd. and Fallout Records, for your personal telephone call. I received a box with 50 CDs of “Color Him In” and a bank draft for $1000 as you promised. I look forward to any further conversations we may have in the future.

Unlike my nonrelationship with Revola Records, who released the Chris Lucey CD five years ago, and its director, Joe Foster, speaking to you was a pleasant surprise for me. In the last five years, Revola and Ace Records have made 0 attempts to contact me, even though they found out I was actually alive.

Steve Stanley is the only person to ever contact me about Revola and Ace, and he maintains that he does not work for them, even though he has credit as Co-Producer on the Chris Lucey CD.

In fact, a couple of days ago, I got a call from Steve Stanley regarding some money Ace and Revola wanted to send me, but they needed my address. I asked him “How much is it—50 bucks?” He answered, “$168.” After five years of selling “Songs of Protest and Anti Protest” they had managed to sell 1600 copies world-wide, and were giving me a royalty of 10 cents a copy. Wow! Revola, you really know how to sell records! It sounds like Joe Foster needs the money more than I do. I’ll let those reading this decide whether this passes the smell test.

I told Steve Stanley that I could have sold more CDs in five years out of the trunk of my car than Revola did, but Revola never gave me any CDs, like Fallout has. Thanks again, Fallout and Steven Carr.

In ending, I would like to give a special word of appreciation to John Berg of Seattle, Washington, for helping me and Fallout connect.

By the way, if you are a singer or writer, had some connection to a recording released by Fallout, and you never got any money for your work, contact Steven Carr at Sound Links Music, Ltd., Cherry Orchard House, 43 Cherry Orchard Road, West Molesey, Surrey KT8, 1QZ, England. E-mail: Scarr@btconnect.com. Tel. No.:
011 44 8941 0594. Give it a try. You may be treated with a little respect.

Thanks,

Bobby Jameson/Chris Lucey

Peace



Posted by Terri on Sunday, September 16, 2007 - 9:38 AM