jo77, Gargoyle, others,

Steve Goodman wrote "City Of Cnw Orleans" and in Chicago we all knew what a fine song it was. Arlo Guthrie was playing a great club there---the Quiet Knight. The owner of the club, Richard Harding, kept telling Arlo about this fine song a local kid had written. Steve was in the club one night just to listen and Richard introduced the two of 'em. Arlo said, "Yeah, you're the kid with the train song, huh? Send me a lead sheet..." Mr. Harding wasn't about to let it go & he just erupted: "No, man, you gotta hear this and take this to Nashville. It's a train song. Ya hear me? Take it to Johnny Cash. It's a great song for him." Arlo agreed to listen after that and he liked it. Steve figured he'd never hear about it again. Well, we all know that Arlo recorded the thing and it went to #1. Both Steve and Arlo made great money from it.

Years later, after fighting leukemia for almost 20 years (15 of which were total remission) Stevie was in terrible shape and possibly near death. Willie Nelson was doing a new LP at the time. The story we heard around Chicago then was that Willie had planned to put "City Of New Orleans" on the LP but, when he heard about how ill Steve was, he made the song the title of the album. That meant a whole lot more cash for the composer of the song. It was a grand thing for him to do; it meant quite a bit more money for the family during the terrible times they went through when Steve did pass away.

All I am trying to say here is that sometimes the system works well. Writers of the songs not only deserve their part of the song's success, but they deserve the protection of the laws in place that strive to do just that. And I say that knowing full well about the excesses done by the collection strongarm tactics employed by people trying too hard to show their bosses they're doing a decent job at taking in the cash. The I.R.S. was recently called on the carpet for doing the same thing and some of the bad stuff has been reformed to an extent. Has enough been done to make it better? Surely not! But, somehow, I think your energy and your anger and your vehimence might better be seved by trying to pass laws that make ASCAP and BMI amend their Mafia tactics. Few players of the game ever scored a touchdown by running down the sidelines out of bounds unless they were lucky enough not to get caught by the ref. So go ahead---take your chances. That must be why desperate and hopeless (but apparently fearless) people rob banks.

Art Thieme