or a combo of both
Cause They painted Chess as a nice guy, but got a feeling he was a BIT of a bastard
and really took the LIONS SHARE of thier cash
that why they got sued at the end in the little blurbs
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Oh note I think he DID care about the people. Probally actully out and out love Etta
But he also ripped him off
He was like the dad who puts you through college, but also has sex with your prom date if you turn your back on him.
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dont know they did have to sue for royaltys
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yes but were they suing for royaltys that they didnt get during chess time.
cause Cedric character only really became rich AFTER he sued
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Read Nadine Cohodas' book, or just read reviews of it. Her book is more detailed than the film.
to me, the Chess brothers were heroes. They got that music on the air when no one else was.
There are so many brilliant artists out there whose work is never shared with the public, because there is no equivalent of the Chess Brothers to come along and discover the artist and market the work.
Remember, before Chess, Muddy waters was singing in fields and on street corners. After Chess, he was rich and famous and loved around the world.
Not too shabby.
And, the lawsuits mentioned on the closing credits were not against the Chess brothers, I don't think. One was against the Beach Boys, one was against Led Zepplin, iirc.
Chuck Berry was smart with his money, the other artists were not. However, many rock stars of the 60s discovered that all their costs and freebies were actually taken from their proceeds, not the record company. All the Cadillacs were basically bribing artists with their own money and that was standard practice.
sharethat why cash is king.
Chuck berry also seem to not let Chess take to much control
namely due to his reaction to the..
"I make him famous, and you rich line"
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Chess was not necessarily ripping the artist off, at all. BLACK PEOPLE had no rights a white person was bound to respect. The black artists had NO RIGHTS to their music because they were black. Chess gave them what nobody could or would, a decent amount of money and respect.
The white artist who played the same music made it bigtime because they were white and had rights in the USA (even if they came from England!). It is only in recent years that black artist are getting paid lots of money and own their own productions. But still to this day, a white person who performs music generally dominated by blacks (ex. Emiminem) still sells more and makes more.
The USA has race issues that back then blacks had not overcome.
DP
The Beatles were white and didn't own their publishing, Michael Jackson owned it. Elvis sold his rights to RCA in 1973 for all songs recorded up to then, for pennies on the dollar. It's not just white taking advantage of blacks, people need to take responsibility for themselves.
I think it was a combination of both. But, you have to remember that many of these artists had no formal education. Nothing in their background could have prepared them to deal with large amounts of money, or contracts. That's not an excuse but it helped some of them get in the financial hole that some of them found themselves in. It's hard to imagine that one day you are picking cotton in a field and the next day you are standing on a stage in front of hundreds of people making more money that night than most people make in a year.
shareHowlin' Wolf learned how to read and write when he was in his 40s or 50s, but from other documentaries I have seen it seems he was careful with his money unlike the other artists portrayed in the movie.
You can get a sense of this in the scene where Muddy and Howlin' Wolf first meet, and he says something like "I own this truck, it doesn't own me."
Both.
I'm glad Obama won, but I will not jump on the Pro-Choice bandwagon
I don't think he was ripping them off it was just a classic case of black people =rich, white people =wealthy.
chess put his money into investments, things that increase in value over time such as a house, but as you could see, muddy put his money into cars and jewellery for his many women. at the height of his success he was still living in the same flat, it wasn't until years later that they moved.
even though they didn't own the rights to their music at the time, it doesn't mean they didn't make money, black people just chose to spend it the way they typically did and still do today: on cars, sex, jewellery, alcohol and drugs.
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Yes it is known that Chess was knowingly paying them less than the standard percentage in the record industry, including blacks in New York. Your implication about the Chess Bros (and all their bros) is correct.
Chess wanted to presume that the singers would make the money up in personal appearances, but that wasn't enuf at all.