After All These Years
By mcscraic
- 57 reads
After All These Years
By Paul McCann
Johnny and Chris first met by chance in a music shop . They both were looking for a new set of guitar strings and casually started talking about music . One thing led to another and Chris mentioned he was on a band that had just broke up and Johnny mentioned he was a songwriter trying to put a band together .So that evening they arranged to meet and go busking in the city . They had received a lot of money that night from passers-by so they both decided to make it a regular event every Friday . They soon became good friends and started writing songs together. So, they took their songs to tin pan alley hoping to sell them .
Most of their songs had been an idea which they worked on and expanded that to a written form on scraps of paper with rewrites on ribbon fed typewriters to be played and sung by others . Their dream was to record their own songs and become famous with their name sup in lights on Broadway.
After years of playing their songs to music publishers they weren’t able to sell anything that would help their careers . Due to their financial hardship’s, they normally sold over the copyright to the songs they sold and afterwards that song had become popular because of the promotions people and the artist who performed and recorded the song . Johnny and Chris still remained unknown to the music business even though they had written some big songs , they tried to sell their songs directly to the well-known singers however those artists were usually under contract and were well paid by publishers and recording companies to sing the songs they wanted to promote .
They were the meat in the sandwich and felt frustrated about what was going on . Looking for a way in was like breaking into Fort Knox . In desperation Johnny and Chris tried to perform some of their songs to audiences in cheap wine bars and sleazy joints scattered around the city . They hoped that somehow, they might get a larger fan base or even discovered by someone however most times the audience’s they performed before were hostile and only wanted to hear the popular songs that were being played on the radio . Some nights they would travel around the city doing a thirty-minute show in a half a dozen of venues .
They saved up the money they earned to pay for studio time where they recorded their songs so they could hand out free copies to people in the business and to the radio stations in the hope to get some promotion.
The years passed by and continued to fund their own tour around the country unannounced to perform their songs . It was a journey of hardship and heartache .
Not long after arriving in Ellis Island they were offered one night a week to sing at a The Open Window a bar near the docks where sailors would go for a few drinks ,
They were lucky enough to get a room nearby and had a daily struggle for their existence on that hungry mile around the wharfs . They were hard times indeed and so many prayed for death instead of enduring the hardship without work or food .
They were writing some great songs and hoped for that saved all the money they could , while they were waiting for that big break into the music business that would Sometimes when they arrived to a new town they would go to some unknown theatre or club and busk in their foyers . They never gave up hope .
One night a man introduced himself as Sean Kelly from American Music Enterprises and he complimented Johnny and Chris on their songs . Then he offered then the chance of a lifetime and an option of entering into a contract that would take them on the journey of a lifetime , travelling around form San Francisco to Paris and Rome and back to New York . They were both in a state of shock with what was put on offer and could hardly put the right words together in acceptance of the offer .
Eventually Johnny said ,
“Yes we; are excited about this and want to accept the offer" .
Chris began to see some new face new places and sang on stage with a new confidence . Many who heard his voice complimented him but Johnny rarely got any accolade even he was the one doing most of the work writing the songs .
Johnn y and Chris had been working together for twenty years and never once had an argument but now there was friction between them because of the compliments that were coming in on a one-way street for Johnny .
The day that Chris was offered a contract with a leading film producer to star in a new movie was the last straw for Johnny . Chris had already accepted the offer and was going out on his own without Johnny . Chris has visions of becoming a star and a leading light as a singer and an actor on the world stage . As part of an AME Production starring Chris , the show was already receiving very promising feedback and the rumour going around hinted that it would become the best musical of the year which would propel Chris into fame and fortune , The new movie was about a singer with a passionate voice who was discovered in a wine bar by a music producer who just happened to be there in the audience one night . The movie would be built around Chris and he would be given all the promotion available .
Johnny was very hurt about Chris walking out form their relationship and after an argument he left Ellis Island in a new direction with his songs and ventured into a Christian fellowship for a while where he began writing and singing gospel songs for an unpaid tour around the country . For Johnny it was more for a personal development growth reason than anything else . Johnny toured around on a bus for a few years before leaving to join up with a circus where he played the organ for the trapeze big flyers and the clowns. His job with the circus lasted for four years and during that time he had written some of the best songs in his life . As yet none of his songs had found favour with anyone and the songs he wrote while part of the Christian fellowship were mostly worship songs that had won him the respect of some of the community but never any kudos from anyone else .
Towards the last years of Johnnys life he was started to recite some of the poetry he had written to people in the old folk’s home . He was at a stage in his life now where it never mattered if he never found the fame and fortune, he had chased for most of his life . He was happy with his life and what he had done , He had given his life to sharing his music and songs with many people and in the end he felt he had made the right choices in life and never allowed himself to be influenced by others and only after he died did his songs become recognised . Just before his death he had sent the entire collection of his life’s work to an American music publisher , there was an immediate reaction and a movie was going to be made called , Life is a Song .
The movie became a huge success .
The End
.
- Log in to post comments