William E Simmons

Thanks David, Steve Hinson on steel. Also, thank you Daryl.

Hi Philip, there are still some vocal timing issues to deal with. I am not sure I can fix them and I may have to redo the vocal. I am tied up at the moment trying to do a latin song and struggling with writing lyrics in Spanish. Thanks for listening.

"Darlin'" is a word that can only be used in Texas and only near closing time....lol Well...I guess if you still own a Nash Rambler it could be possible to get away with it.

Thank you Bjorn for your kind comments. In these turbulent times, with much of the current music being far removed from styles of the past, it is hard to know what anyone will think about a song. Living with the restrictions of Covid-19 has reduced the options I would normally have to write and produce a song. I have no idea how a song like this would be received in today's world. I do seriously miss the option to go to Nashville and do a radio ready version. I always wonder how things like this would have sounded if everyone was in the studio together. It really makes no difference if a song produced live in a studio is really good or also ran. I can remember every time and every one I ever worked with live. The fun we had and the excitement of working together. I went to your soundcloud account and listen to several of you songs. You have a lot of very humorous material that I enjoyed listening too. Psychobabble Blues and It's Not That I'm Old made me laugh out loud. Good stuff. The photo of the mountains reminded me of how much I sometimes miss that part of the country. I lived in LA for a long time....well, I don't really miss the 405 freeway....lol Cheers, Billy

Thank you for you comments. I am not very knowledgeable about recording at home. I have spent a good bit of time in a studio but always had a professional doing the recording and mixing. We always sent our mixes off to someone else to master. Doing all this myself is a pretty difficult. I had the vocal pretty out front and was not sure if that was a good mix. Thanks, Billy

Thanks for taking the time to listen. I grew up in Texas so I have been around that style of music. I just never played it live except for a time or two of being invited to play with a Red Dirt band in North Texas. Blues has been my thing for the most part. Thanks again.

Thanks for the kind words. I like "the weight of the world" I had a listen of some of you songs. Nice stuff! Billy

One more of my attempts at real old school country. Perhaps the last for a while. Covid-19 is preventing many of us from doing things in a way we are use too. I think Mickey Gilley would smile if he listen to this. Billy

I am starting to think about closing up shop. Lived through some really good times. The last ten or fifteen years have gone steadily down hill. I also am beginning to fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way. Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught or half a page… Anytime is a good time to be alive. For all the young people I hope they have that opportunity. If you do plan on sticking around better try to do something about that pile of plastic trash the size of Texas floating in the Pacific. Thirty percent of the Great Barrier Reef is dead because of two degrees of sea water temperature rise, the actual rise in some places is more than five degrees F. Your body's normal temperature is 98.6 F. Add two degrees, that would be 100.6, the beginnings of a pretty bad fever. Add five degrees to your body temperature and you will likely die. We just landed a rocket ship on a asteroid 200 million miles away from Earth, that is so far away it will take two years for it to return with the sample it collected. Pretty smart stuff right? So how come we are so stupid we have let over a quarter million people die here in the good old USA from Covid-19 ? When was the last time you play a gig? When is the next gig schedule for? Just sayin.

lol...Currently, the four major record labels (known as the Big Four) are EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. In November 1990, Japanese multinational conglomerate Matsushita Electric agreed to acquire MCA for $6.59 billion. In 1995, Seagram acquired 80 percent of MCA from Matsushita. On December 9, 1996, the company was renamed Universal Studios, Inc., and its music division was renamed Universal Music Group; MCA Records continued as a label within the Universal Music Group. In May 1998, Seagram purchased PolyGram and merged it with Universal Music Group in early 1999. I worked for Universal Studios who was then owned by Seagram and after Seagram purchased PolyGram I helped to consolidated the two companies. I also flew back and forth between LA and London every week to do the same sort of thing in Europe. Seagram, Universal, and PolyGram all had buildings and IT infrastructure which needed to be consolidated world wide. There has been a ton of wheeling and dealing since that time. Now Vivendi owns Universal. Vivendi SA is a French media conglomerate headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Universal Music Group, Groupe Canal+ and Dailymotion, the company has activities in music, television, film, video games, book publishing, tickets and video hosting services. Music get bought for all those things. The market for music for film and TV is huge. The right move there can make you a multimillionaire almost overnight. I never got even one bottle of Whiskey out of the deal...lol They did pay me a lot of money for my services. One of the best companies I ever worked for.

I read another thread here about Taxi and if it was worth it. That reminded me of something that I experienced a good many years age. I had to shut down a Polygram office in Chicago . In the process we filled a very large construction dumpster with unsolicited CD's that they had received that year, Never opened. At one time I wanted to see if Alligator records would publish something for me. I called and ask to speak with Bruce Iglauer the owner. The person answering the phone said Bruce was busy and who was I anyway. I said " hell, this is Billy, tell him to call me we he has a minute". He called back about ten minutes later. He said to send him the tape. I did and he called back and said no but he gave me the phone number of someone in Europe who would be interested. That actually worked out and they published the record. I think sometimes you have to be a bit pushy with a lot of self confidence to get anything done. Right place, right time, right stuff, right look, right contact, and all the stars line up...then maybe, sort of, kinda, perhaps, if you don't screw something up you can actually sell something and actually get paid. I think we musicians feel like we get singled out to be screwed around. Sometimes that is true, lot of no good SOB in the music business. Build and marketing a "better mouse trap" is really no different. Selling stuff at a profit is just difficult, no matter what. The cost of sales and marketing of a product is often 40% of total cost. It takes money to make money. The people buying your music have near zero interest in your "art work". They have to think that your music will make money for them. It is all about money. Cheers, Billy

Hi guys, I am trying to set up audiomovers for the first time. I need someone to help me test this software. You would need Zoom installed. Perhaps some of you are using this software currently. You can contact me at planobillyfl@gmail.com direct and I can send you my cell number. Thanks, Billy

How do "you" know about them little white pills?

OMG, Oct. 30 1973...I been to sleep since then!

Thanks to everyone for all the kind words. It's been right at a month since I posted this. I have not listen to it again until today. After listening, the song is OK, not something I would write home about but I think I can take down the chicken wire...lol Anymore I just write songs, country, ghetto rap, rock, pop...whatever comes to mind on any given day. I think many people generally only write in one or two styles. Perhaps I would get better faster if I did. I been going over all your comments for improvement and will go try some of them out. Thanks again, Billy

This is what I thought was going to happen in the world of music sometimes in the past. I envisioned going to a club where a large screen on the stage would project these type of images. Live musicians dressed in costumes would perform. That would sort of be something like a modern day version of Alice Cooper. This was very fun for me to watch and hear. Better living vicariously through my computer than nothing at all. Very artistic music and visuals. Billy

I am not sure what I think about this song...lol There was a lot of hair pulling and teeth gnashing to get too this point. Don't worry, I put chicken wire up around the stage just in case! Billy

Not everything I have done is old school...lol Never give an old guy a computer....he's likely to do most anything. https://soundcloud.com/planobilly/cyber-space-redo-2

You got that right Bob. I stay far away from the keys in mini season.

Bob...those are northern lobster....I thought you were a Florida spiny lobster mini season kind of guy...lol LOL Billy

Makes me think of WiseGuyz, a rockabilly band from Ukraine. I have a lot of footage shot with a GoPro out the window of the car in Europe. I don't know if you could use something like that but at least it is free. PM me if you can use something I got. I started to try some video stuff but ran into the issue of where to get video material without being a millionaire. Cheers, Billy

Cool stuff. You can feel the Covid-19 tension. Cheers, Billy

OMG...the only thing wrong with this song is I didn't write it...lol Had me laughing at Jagermeister...lol I did one about MD2020 but it was way to serious and my black friends told me not to be singing about that stuff in this part of town...lol I have always wished I knew how to write like you do. I am a engineer, pilot, ship captain, all kinda serious sort of things to do. I want to be funny, but as close as I get is the way I look...lol Really good stuff. I have to keep my eye on you. Cheers, Billy

As I was reading the lyrics while listening to the song everything seemed good to go. There is one issue in the chorus " scarin’ you" which has been mention by Mark. I speak a few languages other than English so I understand how it is to be a little unsure about singing in a "foreign " language. You have nothing to worry about as it is obvious you have a really good command of English. If you want hear something really comedic, I can sing you a line or two in French...lol Many times in songwriting very unusual ways of expressing something are used. Example, "The force that through the green fuse drives the flower" a Dylan Thomas line from a poem. Sometimes saying something in English structured in a manner consistent with another language can be a cool thing. Don't worry, be happy...you are doing great. Cheers, Billy

Hi guys, Thanks for all the kind words. I have just about finished up a complete re-write of this. Real drum track. Much better mix. I played the guitar on the new version. It may not be as good as Brent's ability to play but at least it's mine. I have a few more things to do and I will post it. Sometimes it takes me a long time to decide if I like something I write. This one is very repetitive in the harmonic structure. Songs like that are pretty rare to be liked by very many people, me included. Thanks to Mark Skinner, Barry Seymour, Philip G Hunt, John Maar, and Freddy J for responding. Philip, as to your question about shopping it around...no I just do this for my own amusement and amazement. I use to write and play songs in hopes that the girls would like me...lol Now I am happy if I like me...lol Cheers, Billy