TRACK BREAKDOWN: 'Dorellia du Fontaine" Performed By The Last Poets, Jimi Hendrix, & Buddy Miles. The L.P.'s Are Early Pioneers of Thee Art of Rap & Hip Hop Music

This Just In From Seattle Music History!!!                                                                        

Thee Above Link Is A Song Titled   "dorellia du fontaine"  and here is the gist of this song and who made it  and how it was created!            ~~~~~~~>                                                       Basically a studio jam session with jimi(who overdubbed bass later), Buddy Miles(who overdubbed organ), and Lightnin' Rod, a member of the Last Poets. In an Alan Douglas Interview, AD talks about the jam as well as producing the Last Poets.

It's hard to know how to adequately describe the Last Poets as I am not very familiar with them at all. They are one of the original "rap" groups. But then, this little explanation probably doesn't do them justice. Check out the interview for AD's description. They are still recording these days.

The CD is a must for completists, but its not your typical Hendrix. It's probably of more interest to lightning rod/last poets/rap fans, but it is jimi. Jimi doesn't do anything flashy, he's just laying down a funky jam groove, but the jam is TIGHT!--particularly for a one-take, impromptu jam.

The track list is
8:47 Doriella Du Fontaine
4:54 Doriella Du Fontaine (Radio Edit)
4:10 Doriella Du Fontaine (Instrumental)
2:28 O.D. (no Jimi involvement)
Doriella comes in several versions, but from what I hear, the entire 13 minute jam has never been released in full.

The first version there of DDF also appears on "The prime time rhyme of The Last Poets"

In the booklet to that album, the following is listed as the lyrics to DDF, which aren't all that accurate, but interesting. There are several omissions and glaring mistakes like "Comin' # 3" instead of "Comet #3". It's not I laid my "Shack" on top of Carmen's back. Its I laid my "SHOT" on top of Carmen's back. And its "YOU DON'T EVEN have to show me to those other squares, like I'll take their dough and make you rich". NOT 'Although you'll have to show me to those other squares"
I was standing on the corner in the middle of the square,
Tryin' to make me some arrangements
to get some of that dynamite reefer there.

Now, I was already high,
and dressed very fly,
just standin' on the corner
watchin' all the fine hoes
When up drove my main man big money Vann
in his super ninety-eight Olds Now as Van stepped out
and he looked about to me He began to speak,
Came his real fine freak
She wore a black chemise dress
considered to be one of the very best.
Hair was glassy black
Eyes a deep see green-blue,
Her skin boss dark hue.
Man! She was some kind of fine!

Now, as I spoke to Vann, and I shook his hand,
and I asked him "Is that your honey?"
Without no jive
This was the dude's reply, "Like she's anybody's. who wants to make some
money."
"She's really down
And known all around
As Doriella Du Fontaine.
She plays her stick,
mind you, she's slick,
She's one of the best in the game.
This girl's no jerk
I've seen her work,
She's nice and she can use her head
And she's good with her crack
>From a long way's back,
And she's done made me a whole lot of bread."

Now, Vann was sporting a Panama Straw,
had a Corona-producto stuck out the side of his jaw,
He wore a beige silk suit
That looked real silky,
And my man was dressed like to make Rockefeller feel guilty.

Now I was pressed, I must confess,
Although I couldn't compare with Vann,
It's not that his taste is better than mine.
Just that he is the big money man.

"Hey, fellows," Doriella said,
"I'm starving as can be.
How about a bite to eat?"

So we all agreed
on a fabulous feed,
down at the Waldorf
Now the Waldorf was blowing
in bright neon light,
Although this was my first flight,
We were all clean as the board of health.
Three players, that's true,
in rainbows of blue,
And we painted a picture of wealth
Now as we were dining,
Vann started unwinding,
He began to run his mouth off to me.

But as we left,
I dug his woman, Doriella Du Fontaine,
Was standing pinning on me
"Hey fellow," Doriella said,
"Since we met I'm glad,
So here's the address to my pad."

So next Saturday
I got real fly.
And I went to see Miss Du Fontaine.
I stopped off at my main man Jaws,
he dealt in snow,
And I copped me some cocaine.

Now I got to her pad,
Jim it was some kind of bad.
It was really a bar set.
She had a 5-inch carpet,
which was limited in a market
Somewhere from the far-East Orient.
The high file was sailin'
And I wasn't failing,
But I just couldn't rap to this queen.

She dug my feet was cold
and took a tight hold
And gave me some pot, Chicago Green.
She said "You be my man.
And together we'll trick the land,
And I'll be your true-blue bitch,
Although you'll have to show me to those other squares,
I'll take their dough and make you rich."

Now you know where I'm at!
I really went for that.
And I put this fine ho in her bed.
Me and this queen made love supreme,
and I flipped when she gave me some head

Now, next Saturday round one,
We were out having fun,
at the club known as the Island of Joy,
When in walked Dixie Fair,
Drugstore millionaire,
International playboy.
"Hey, fellow," Dixie said, "
How's that fine model in red?
Why I'll give you a fee, if you introduce her to me."

So I did, and my woman, D, she did the rest.

"Next morning in bed horse honey she said,
I can beat Dixie for all his bread.
But you have to wait patiently,
like a hustler on the sunny lands of New Mexico,
Because I don't want you around
When I take off this clown,
and I get him hung up in my den,
But when I pull through
I'll come straight to you,
And you'll never have to hustle again."

So the next morning,
I jumped in my $500 dollar grey silk vine
Downed me an ice cold pint of vine
I snatched my bank book
And I made reservations on TWA airline.
Now, my stay wasn't bad.
I had a fabulous pad.
I pulled plenty of fabulous hoes
.I pulled Miss Carmen Vista
Who was huge in the Keister,
And first cousin to Mexicaly Rose.

The climat was hot,
And there was plenty of pot,
And the tequila's were dynamite.
As I laid in my shack, on top of Carmen's back,
I had her on her knees all night.
Now one morning,
As I patiently waited,
I got a telegram that stated,
It said, "Papa daddy,
I made a real grand slam.
I'm on my way. TWA.
Comin' number 3.
Be in New Mexico by four.
Can't say no more. Love, your fine woman, D."

Comin' then gave me a bath in ice cold milk,
and I jumped in my $500 dollar grey silk,
and downed me a pint of ice-cold wine,
when I dug the New York news,
That shook me in my shoes,
with its bold daring headline..
It read Bulletin. Last night, Dixie Fair..
Drug store millionaire..
Committed suicide..
Left all his fame
To Miss Du Fontaine,
And stated to be his bride."

So Jim I made a B line on down to the airport,
Just in time to hear the announcer say,
"Attention in the lobby,
Attention in the Lobby:
Relatives and friends
All passengers on comin' number 3,
Wait no longer,
For fate's cruel hands
The good comet has crashed
Off the coast of Chili Sands
But wait! The rescuers said there was a woman alive!
Age 25...
Hair glassy black..
Eyes deep see green-blues
Skin a boss dark hue,
She said she was on her way
To her fine man in grey,
Stated to be his bride.
She would have been his true-blue bitch,
And made him rich,
but then she coughed up her blood and died."

Man!  I pulled through,
Like all damned stud's due,
But I know I'll never be the same.
Cause there'll never be another Miss Doriella Du Fontaine.
That's her name Miss Du Fontaine
I'll never be the same
Cause there'll never be another Miss Doriella du Fontaine

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So, You Say You Are A Songwriter Huh? How Do You Get Paid? How Do You Regulate Your Publishing Demands? How's The Elevation Of Your Demandability Plan Working?

This Just In From Seattle Music History!!!                                                                              So, You Say Are A Songwriter? How Do You Get Paid? How Do You Regulate Your Publishing Demands?                                                                                                      How do songwriters make money? It depends on who they are. 

If the songwriters are pop writers like Max Martin or Ryan Tedder, they carefully craft a hit single, find a boy band or celebrity diva to sing it, and rake in the millions. The music publishing company takes a cut, and the performer responsible for the recording, and the record label. But if the hit is a hit, album sales, and streaming, and radio plays, and use of the song in movies and television and ads are usually significant enough that the songwriter makes bank.

If the songwriters are indie musicians like Rennie and Brett Sparks of the Handsome Family are, things work a little bit differently: they write their own music, tour and record albums themselves to promote it. On top of that, they take what they can get in royalties on their compositions.

Because many people find The Handsome Family’s songs strange and captivating, those royalties have become pretty significant in recent years. In 2014 one of their old songs got picked up as the theme for the HBO show, “True Detective”. In 2014, the famed “singer-songwriter-whistler-violinist-etc.” Andrew Bird released an album entirely of covers of their songs. Those covers do more than just raise the band’s profile -- Rennie and Brett make money off of them.

“Everything is percentages of percentages,” Rennie writes in an email. “[But] we get paid when our song is covered by other artists and we get paid when their cover is licensed.” 

It all has to do with the business end of songwriting -- the way songs get sold and divied up, and the way copyrights and royalties get managed.

Early Music Publishing

16th century music printing, by Ottaviano Petrucci

Before a concept of copyright or intellectual property emerged, music publishing was literally just the printing and distribution of sheet music. In late medieval Europe, a printer could pay the monarch in exchange for monopoly rights over the printing and the sale of a work. This protection was called a “crown privilege”, and could be applied to both text and music.

As Martin Kretschmer and Friedemann Kawohl write in Music and Copyright,in 1498, the printer Ottaviano Petrucci petitioned the Doge (duke) of Venice for the exclusive rights to print any music for 20 years. Because there are no known examples of printed music from other Venetian printers until 1520, historians think his petition was successful.

These protections were printing rights, given to printers, not artists. Up until the end of the 18th century, the author of a printed work -- its writer or composer -- typically handed it over to a publisher in exchange for a single, one-time payment. In the early 19th century, things began to change, in a wave of laws, passed in revolutionary France, Prussia, and the UK. Under these new laws, the creator of the work became the central copyright holder. Statutes of protection were pinned to the author or composer’s life span, and a work needed to be original to the author in order to be protected.

Protections also started to extend beyond printed material. As German jurist Eduard Ganswrote in 1836, “In performances the author exposes himself to the risk of disapproval and thus  the dramatic author should be able to decide every time anew to which public he presents his work.” Most of the great classical composers and dramatists of the time made their money, and their names, off of performances. These new laws granted artistsperforming rights: authority over when and how their works were performed.

"Behold the Pirate Publisher stand,/Stealing our brains for Yankee-land”; From Puck, 1886, restored by Adam Cuerden

The United States was a little behind in these reforms: printed music wasn’t protected in the United States until the Copyright Act of 1831, and even then, performing rights weren’t covered. More importantly, copyright laws in any country only applied to works created within the country’s borders, and not to any foreign works. Thus, British works could be copied and sold by anyone in the US, Germany, France or Holland, legally, and works from those countries could be reproduced in the UK. As the global economy grew, overseas piracy of printed documents did also.

In 1878 Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables, founded the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale with the object of creating an international convention “for the protection of writers’ and artists’ rights.” Eight years later, this resulted in the Berne Convention -- an international agreement on copyright.

The original signatories of the Berne Convention were Belgium, France, Germany, Haiti, Italy, Liberia, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom. One of the biggest features about the Berne Convention is that it assigned copyright to creators by default, as soon as a work was “fixed” -- written or recorded -- without needing to be submitted or declared. The United States, wanting to still require people to register for copyright, entered other international agreements without this clause before finally coming around and joining the Berne Convention in 1989. There are 168 states participating in the Berne Convention, today.

Other Rights and the Hit Factory

A theater organ for silent film accompaniment

A copyrighted song consists of the music, “as written”, and any accompanying lyrics. If the composer and the lyricist are two different people, together they are considered the author of the work. Both the lyrics and the music are protected.

Once a copyright is granted, its holder has the option of licensing the work out to others for distribution, often in exchange for compensation. One common option is to work out aroyalty agreement, by which the copyright holder gets a cut of the profits from each derivative work -- in this case each performance or article of sheet music. Printing rights and performing rights were the first of several different ways to license out music, as music was soon to find even more forms.

At around the same time Victor Hugo was campaigning for the Berne Convention, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. Suddenly, sound could be reproduced and distributed in recorded form. This (and, oddly enough, the player piano) gave rise to mechanical rights, first codified in the U.S. Copyright Act of 1909. Mechanical rights license the distribution, reproduction, and modification of sound recordings and other ‘mechanical’ copies of music.

A few decades later, “talking pictures” made their ascent. Movies used to be “silent”, dialogue would appear between scenes on title cards, and musical accompaniment was usually provided by a live, in-cinema piano player. But “talkies” were synched with recorded dialogueand synchronized scores. Thus came synchronization rights -- authority over when a song appears synched other media (as in movie scores, television, and commercials.) Sampling rights entitle copyright holders to compensation when their work is included in a collage, as in a DJ mashup.

...Baby One More Time, performed by 16-year-old Britney Spears, written by Max Martin

The present system rapidly took shape. Music publishing companies provide capital to promising songwriters in exchange for a cut of their future royalties on particular songs. Eager to see their investment return, the publishers then promote these songs to popular artists who might want to cover them, either in a recording or on stage, and track down owed royalties on the songs and manage their licenses -- whether mechanical, synchronized, sampling, print or performing. When somebody covering, or synching, or sampling a song, does not pay for a license, they can be sued. Record labels basically do the same thing, but for a sound recording. They pay publishers for the license to make the sound recording, and then issue their own license for whenever someone wants to use that particular recording. Synchronization and sampling royalties get paid to both the label and the publisher. Some companies do both -- purchasing the copyrights of both a song’s composition and sound recordings of it.

If you want to post a YouTube video of yourself playing a cover song, you’ll need a mechanical license -- to make an audio recording copy of the song, and a synchronization license -- because your recording will be synched with video. That means figuring out who holds the copyrights and obtaining those licenses. There are agencies that specialize in this.

This system has resulted in other pretty particular specializations, which is the secret to the present day pop industry. You end up with songwriters who might have production or performance careers of their own, but are also the ultimate creative source of most pop music: Ryan Tedder (who co-wrote Beyonce’s “Halo”, Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love”), Max Martin (The Backstreet Boys’ “I Want it That Way”, Britney Spears’ “...Baby One More Time”). On the other side of the coin are the celebrity performers who are essentially sparkly media vehicles for songs written, arranged, and produced by other people. 

You also end up putting artists like Paul McCartney in some pretty awkward situations. The publishing rights to the Beatles’ Northern Songs catalog -- which contained practically every Beatles song -- became valuable enough in the 1960s that the Beatles and their publisher decided to trade it as a public company to save on capital gains tax. The publisher then sold his shares to a company, ATV, which wrested control of the catalog away from the Beatles. The ATV catalog, including the Beatles songs, was bought at auction by Michael Jackson in the 1980s (for £24,400,000). Then in the 1990s, Jackson merged his catalog with Sony/ATV. Paul McCartney, a former Beatle, now has to pay royalties to Sony/ATV every time he plays a Beatles song, even though he wrote and popularized it himself.

This juggernaut of a system has made many people rich. But not every musician wants to fit into that system. Some musicians want to make pop hits. Others, it seems, just want to make music. For those in the latter category, things work a little differently.

Such Handsome Folk

Brett and Rennie Sparks of the Handsome Family; photo Jason Creps, 2012

“We really have no plan and never have had one,” Rennie Sparks of the Handsome Family says. “We just sit around and write songs because it gives us great pleasure to finish a good one. Then we release records and we tour and play live in order to support that habit of loving to write songs.”

Rennie and her husband Brett are indie musicians. They’ve been writing songs and playing together since 1993. Rennie usually writes the lyrics, Brett the music. Their band, The Handsome Family, has been signed to small record labels. And even though Andrew Bird has said in concerts that the two of them are some of the greatest living American songwriters, they’ve never been approached by a music publisher, so they manage all of their own licensing and royalties. This means more work for them, but it also means they don’t have to share their royalties with a publishing company.

This freedom also means they can write some very weird music. As a reviewer wrote of themin NME, “Each song is like an abridged Flannery O'Connor story read aloud by Johnny Cash, hovering somewhere between the metaphysical and the mundane.” 

"They do what the best songs can do: Condense all this meaning into the fewest possible words," Andrew Bird has said in an interview. “[Their writing] is so subtle and strange, it gives the listener credit for having imagination.” From their song, “Drunk by Noon”:

There once was a poodle who thought he was a cowboy

He lived in a cage the size of his thumb

Though his white horse was a box of toothpicks

He galloped around until hit by a car

Sometimes I flap my arms like a hummingbird 

Just to remind myself I'll never fly

Sometimes I burn my arms with cigarettes 

Just to pretend I won't scream when I die

“[Our songs are] not, ultimately, about anything,” Rennie says. “They are a thing unto themselves. A lot of my thoughts, dreams and experiences go into them, but the end result is not a direct sum of parts. Art is mystical not mechanical.”

This mystique has not made them pop sensations. Their songs don’t get a lot of radio play, outside of niche college stations. They perform smallish venues, and their shows don’t always sell out. But their idiosyncratic style has won the hearts of other artists, and those artists have evangelized them to new listeners. The Handsome Family gets paid whenever someone covers their music, and whenever a cover is licensed (for synchronization, download, streaming, or performance). Andrew Bird’s Handsome Family cover album, Things are Really Great Here, Sort Of (which Rennie describes as a “great honor, and a breathtaking thing to hear”), did well. Two of his five most popular tracks on Spotify are Handsome Family songs -- one has over one million plays, the other over 2.5. That’s more than four times more plays than almost any song in the Handsome Family’s catalog, as they performed them themselves.

Still from the Season 1  True Detective title sequence

One track of theirs has exceeded the popularity of Andrew Bird’s album on Spotify, however.“Far From Any Road” has over 12 million plays. Released in 2003, the song was relatively unnoticed until T. Bone Burnett, music director for True Detective, selected it as the show’s theme song last year. It came as a surprise to the Sparks, who had never met Burnett nor heard of the show. Rennie has said in interviews that this exposure seems to have translated into a bump in record and ticket sales, and also to more activity across their catalog.

Now they’ve got money trickling in from many different directions. Performing royalties, whenever Andrew Bird covers a song, or anybody covers Andrew Bird covering them (Andrew Bird does have a publishing contract, so these royalties are professionally managed). Royalties on the sales and synchronization of the recorded covers. Synchronization fees from the TV show and youtube. Sales of their own albums, streamed tracks, and shows.

While it’s not been an easy path, nor a particularly lucrative one, it seems that there’s still a place for the strange and personal songwriter in today’s music industry.

“I do think there are a lot of really goal-oriented musicians out there who want to have ‘hit’ songs and definitely write for that,” Rennie Sparks, of the Handsome Family says. “[It’s a] different kind of pursuit. We’d probably be a lot more successful if we thought that way, but in the end it wouldn’t give us much pleasure. So we just do what we do.”