But I Did Mine Through A Production Company. All The Music I Did, I Gave To The Production Company. Then The Production Company Would Give The Record Company The Album. I Used To Do All My Albums Like That. It Was Fantastic. But Now, Understand, I Have Never Planned To Do Anything With These Other Tapes. The One That Are Released, Like The Virgin Ubiquity You Have There, I Wasn't Going To Do Anything With That Music. One Day, I Was Talking To This Guy That Owns Bbe Over In England, And I Said I've Got Some Tapes And Stuff That You Might Be Interested In, And He Went Berserk.
Artists Don't Always Know. Almost Every Song I Ever Recorded That Was A Hit At The Majors That The Promotional People Picked I Didn't Think It Would Be A Hit. I Was Wrong Every Time!
Now I Get Exposure First With People Directly In The Clubs. This Is A Unique Situation For Me.
I Don't Think I'm Really So Unique. If Every Black Person Looked At Their Life They Would Quickly Discover That They Have Been Influenced By Every Type Of Music Prevalent In America.
I Was With Polygram; That Was The Big Label That I Was With For The Longest, Like 12 Years.
Only A Certain Number Of People Go To A Store Over The Period Of A Year. When A Person Sees My Record On The Shelf, It Eliminates Someone Else's Record From Being Sold. It's About Continuing To Try To Find New Ways To Sell Records.
When I Was Recording From '70 To '82, I Always Played Piano And Laid The Tracks Down. But I Used To Talk To The Other Musicians While The Track Was Playing.
The Majors, They Have To Control The Distribution, The Record Outlets, The Radio And, In Some Cases, Even The Venues. And Downloading And Pirating Have Also Put Pressure On The Majors.
Most Artists Have Contracts Directly With The Record Company, And When They Do Music, All Of Their Music Is Owned By The Record Company. But I Did Mine Through A Production Company.
I Couldn't Get My Album Played Over The So-called Smooth Jazz Stations. Jazz Stations Would Not Play It. You Don't Always Know Who You're Making That Soul Connection With.
