Hi Lee,
I understand where you are coming from. I want David to keep making his own music and keep making it available as well. That's exactly what he said he'd do. He also said his music is personal. I would understand that to mean that it is very meaningful to him. I would hope that it would be. I'm not trying to speak for David but I think the point he was making is that he'd like to present it to the general public on his terms. That he doesn't want to alter it or twist it up to fit someone's format. So what you get is pure unadulterated D.B. and Friends doing their thing. In that state it stays pure to what it is and what it was when they made it. You think Van Gogh would have liked Lars looking over his shoulder while he painted saying "Vinnie, look, that's just fine and all but I think it'd be much better if we put a pink stripe right here." Quite, honestly I would hope Vincent would turn around and say "Fuck you Lars!" and without hesitation break his god damn nose! You know there is such an abundance of bullshit out there why try to add to it or wedge your thing in with it?
I don't think David really needs the major labels to put a record out these days anyway. Just go to cdbaby.com and you will find hundreds of independent musicians just waiting to be discovered. They are getting their stuff out there without the help of Elektra or any of the other big bullshit conglomerates. Hell, David just assembled and released a two cd set of his stuff without having to deal with any of that. He just had to listen to us giving him crap about when he shipped the thing or if he got our cash. Don't get me wrong here, Lee, I'm on your side. I want David Baerwald to keep writing and making music. So by all means hassle him to stay up off his ass and be what he is, a damn good songwriter. Let's just not try to make him another monkey in some megaconglomerates zoo. Oh, and let's all keep telling him how good he is cause I think he likes that too. I don't know about the sexy or good looking thing that may be a stretch but hey everybody's got their own opinion.
I'll close with this little story. One morning an old man was taking his regular walk along the beach. There had been a storm the night before and thousands of starfish had washed up on the beach during the night. He soon came upon a little boy who was picking up starfish and throwing them back into the ocean. The old man stopped and watched this for a few moments.
"Do you really think you can make a difference, there are thousands of starfish on this beach?" the old man asked the boy as he heaved another starfish back into the ocean.
"I made a difference to that one didn't I?" the boy said.
A wry smile crossed the old man's face and he felt a tug in his chest. He stood a moment and watched the boy throw another into the waves then the old man bent down and picked up a starfish and threw it into the sea.


I guess you can try and find my point in that. Reg