The Greatest Song Ever Went Nowhere

most people have things like this actually they don't this is an old hard drive of mine that's probably 20 years old or so but it houses i don't know probably 10 different albums on it that i produced back in the early 2000s or maybe you have something like this it's a reel of tape that uh is a one inch reel from a 16 track session or this is a two inch reel that weighs a ton this is from my band billionaire this is from 1998. then when the reels are full and the songs are finished you mix them down and then what do they do well sometimes you put them out in records sometimes you put them on on spotify on apple music band camp soundcloud or they just sit on a hard drive collecting what i like to call digital dust i had a song in 2013 that went number one for two weeks on the country charts called carolina sold a million copies but the song was written with me in the band back in 2007 and for years it collected digital dust just sitting on a hard drive well the band was out playing it but they didn't get a record deal to 2012 they re-recorded the song i made a whole video about it but most people's music doesn't go anywhere you put it on apple music spotify band camp soundcloud or it just stays on a hard drive like the parmelee song did for years that's where songs go to die because of neglect because no one hears them if you think about youtube there's hundreds of millions of videos on youtube but the only ones you ever see are the ones that are at the tip of the tip of the tip of the tip tip of the pyramid it's a great veritasium video about this where he talks about this you just never know about them same thing with all the songs on these streaming platforms you've never heard of them there's bands that spend their whole career years and years and years i spent you know four years of my life with this band billionaire we recorded 100 and some odd songs all we have out there is one indie record that's okay and one terrible major label record that's it but there are demos of 130 songs something like that there's no reason to release them unless anybody wants to hear them and if they did they'd have to be put in some new form or something where they actually make sense so when the parley song was about to go number one i went up to nashville to meet the bmi rep clay bradley who's now a very very dear friend of mine and clay said you know the song's gonna be number one here in a couple weeks i said yeah it's unbelievable he'd been on the charts for 40 something weeks he goes do you need any money and i said what do you mean he goes oh i can write you a check today and i said for how much he goes well how's 75 grand this is 75 grand what he goes oh well this song's making way more than that but i can write you a check and take it home with you right now i remember coming home telling my wife i just got a check for 75 grand what 75 grand for what for that song that that permaly song that's going to go number one clay who i met up there said yeah i'd write you a check so when i was there clay goes you know i've got these two girls that came into my office last week and you showed me a picture of them jesse and callie now jesse was a singer for john legend background singer from new york i believe and cali is from mississippi and he's like they have this amazing chemistry together would you be interested in writing a song with them and i said yeah they ended up calling themselves muddy magnolias so he sent him down to my studio and they walk in and i had my guitar tuned to this dadgad tuning and i came up with this riff just on the spot [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's kind of a weird riff it's a nine bar idea i didn't realize at the time i just made it up on the spot but then the two girls just started singing to it as i played it over and over and they came up with this idea down by the river side let me actually play it for you [Music] [Applause] [Music] riverside [Music] what you know [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] down by the river [Music] to the rhythm in the sky we'll be dancing in the dark [Music] oh [Music] riverside [Music] that song never went anywhere they recorded it a couple times with a couple big producers and never got a version of it that they liked that exceeded the demo here that i did with no bass or anything it's basically acoustic guitar hand claps vocals and then organ and a shaker i think there's a shaker in there but the elements of the song it's just one acoustic guitar part right there's a bass drum [Music] are amazing [Music] down by the riverside you know i look back at songs like this and i won't say there's hundreds of songs but there's a number of songs that are sitting out there collecting digital dust on hard drives that i've been involved with that are great songs that no one will ever hear you know this hard drive right here like i said contains probably 10 artists records songs that they worked on for years and years and years that are recorded in here some of these are 13 14 song albums they're all in this platter here that i don't even know what's on here but it's people's lives years of their lives that they spent making music making art that they believed in that they entrusted me to produce that we finished and they put out or they didn't put out or we don't even know what happened but i guarantee you there's nothing on this drive that you've heard of i mean there might be maybe one thing it could be a shine known song on here i don't know it's pretty early pretty much there's nothing on here that you would have ever heard of but these people spent years going to practice spaces working crappy jobs that they hated to make enough money to afford the practice space to buy their marshall amps and their guitars or to get singing lessons or pay somebody like me to produce the record all that work the only thing they have to show for it is they have the recording that they can play for their friends or their kids or their wives or whoever but most people will never hear this music i'm in a unique position i have a big youtube channel but people don't really want to hear my songs i mean i'm not under any illusion to that but it's pretty profound when you think about it all that work i was in a couple different bands i mean i have hundreds and hundreds of songs that i've written out of those people know a few of the records i worked with this band need to breathe i didn't write any of these songs people know the songs and the records because three of the songs sold half million records shine down you know the parmly song but i mean my production career i produced some really good albums that no one has ever heard and that's just the way life is just uh a thought love to know your thoughts leave them in the comments and thanks so much for watching for now don't forget to subscribe ring the bell and leave a comment check out my new quick lessons pro guitar course that just came out also the biato book if you want to learn about music theory that's how you do it and check out my biato ear training course at beautiertraining.com and don't forget if you want to support the channel even more think about becoming a member of the biato club thanks so much for watching [Music] you

Channel: Rick Beato

Views: 1,253,828

Keywords: rick beato, everything music, rick, beato, music, music theory, music production, education, Digital Dust, hit song, Acoustic Guitar, Muddy Magnolias, How to write a song, Song Demo, Record Label, Music Business, Parmalee, Shinedown, Rock Music, Gospel Music, How to make a demo, Country music, Music Producer, songwriting, songwriting for beginners, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Veritasium, viral song, viral video, Music streaming

Id: JHlxTiR1zsk

Length: 12min 2sec (722 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 22 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/MEmpire25]

Sharing it because I was genuinely touched. It is an obvious statement and outcome but there is something both inevitable and tragic about the millions of beautiful artistic expressions of individuals that they put their souls, money and years of their life and just end up never even seeing the light of day. And I guess something easy to relate with as well.

[u/BubblesAndGum]

He perfectly catches the vibe of hanging out with a somebody in a music studio talking about music