Real Music & Real Estate . . .

Yiddishe Cup’s bandleader, Bert Stratton, is Klezmer Guy.
 

He knows about the band biz and – check this out – the real estate biz, too.
 

You may not care about the real estate biz. Hey, you may not care about the band biz. (See you.)
 

This is a blog with a gamy twist. It features tenants with snakes and skunks, and musicians with smoked fish in their pockets.
 

Stratton has written op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.


 
 

ROCK STAR #53

by Bert Stratton

I was a rock star of sorts in the 1990s.  My band was on MTV and charted #53 on the Billboard Hot 100.  But we had a problem; nobody wanted to be a sideman, everyone wanted to be the star.  I wrote the songs but everybody thought they were the star.  I was the star!

rock star #53

Now I mostly do solo gigs and give private piano lessons.  I don’t play klezmer.  I knew you’d ask.  I like klezmer, but I don’t play it.  I like the blues — all kinds.   The Jewish blues, by the way, is all about the flatted 2nd.  Last shabbes my rabbi’s sermon was “What I Learned at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”  The rabbi must have seen 20 Feet from Stardom recently.  He said you’ve got to balance your sideman role with your star-tripping goals.  Joseph was a star-tripper, and his brother Judah played in Joseph’s band as a sideman, not as a star-tripper.

You don’t know the story of Joseph?  Look it up.

The rabbi asked for comments from the congregation.  He likes to work the room. I chimed in about my old band.  The worshipers loved my comments!  Most people didn’t even know I was a rocker.  I talked about my record deals and my A-hole managers.  I even said “A-hole.”

I’m a sideman.  I accept that now.  Deep breath.  Om.

We’re all sidemen.  But, hey, don’t forget this: I hit #53 on the Billboard Hot 100, June 21, 1995, with “My Afterlife is After Yours.”
—
This is a fake profile.
—
Yiddishe Cup plays tonight (Wed. 12/31) at Akron (Ohio) First Night, 9:30 p.m., John S. Knight Convention Center.

shareEmail this to someoneShare on FacebookTweet about this on Twitter

4 comments

1 Ben { 12.31.14 at 11:56 am }

I trust you know the Dave Frishberg song “I want to be a sideman.” If not, it’s worth the Google.

2 Bert Stratton { 12.31.14 at 12:05 pm }

To Ben:

I didn’t know the tune. Thanks for the lead. I particularly liked the line (paraphrased) “I want to be a sideman and ask for an advance.”

3 Dave Rowe { 01.17.15 at 8:48 pm }

In Cleveland in the 80’s and early 90’s, I played guitar and sang some in garage, front porch and living room bands, mostly rock and roll with some Hank thrown in.

Now here in Asheville, I’ve partnered with a guy who plays sax – we do stuff like “Autumn Leaves” and we get gigs, albeit non-paying ones. Have yet to down here hook up with anyone who plays klezmer.

4 Dave Lull { 12.23.20 at 2:26 pm }

“It was a clear trade-off: You choose music, you say goodbye to financial security and a predictable future.” “My parents listened to my pianistics with puzzled disapproval, and I once overheard my dad telling his friends that I wanted to be a ‘klezmer.’ I could hear him shrugging with disappointment. In his mind, a dance band musician was a low performer, a clown, maybe a step above organ-grinder”—Dave Frishberg, My Dear Departed Past (Backbeat Books, 2017), page 13.

Leave a Comment