Its very easy to see what is going on

The music world has a case of gluttony

Supply and demand

Has crippled every last musicians hand

–

No more venues to play

There is a new price in town

A way called pay to play

It’s no longer about music friends

–

I must know at least 100+ musicians

Me being included in the big mix

A mix of everyone

Fighting everyone

Pushing anyone

Lower and lower

Until we have reached a new low

Below the impossible line of zero

Now we must pay

Out of our own dusty pockets

To create music for people to enjoy

How did this folly become the one

That I rely on as a means to be employed

–

But the venues enjoy the high chair

Bib wrapped around their necks

With a golden spoon in their mouth

Fuck what music used to be about

–

Its about the bottom line now

And it seems if you commit to this profession

You are bound to lose

Bound by something you did not choose

–

So I ask every musician do not play for free

Do not pay or even a shitty guarantee

Because if one falls for the silly trick

The rest of us will be doomed by silliness

–

In a world that has the x graph pushing us down

Rather than go lower push back and don’t give ground

We have to be an alliance

Of strong resolve

In a desperate attempt

This deficit we can solve

–

The challenge of the modern musician is ever daunting

Full of empty bars and feedback so haunting

We only have each other in the end

So stick it to the man asking you to pay

And this is what you say

–

I am a musician of hard work and dedication

Your cheap bar provides my weary eyes no medication

For what music creates there is no other sensation

So throughout all the nation

We will not play for free

This is just the way it must be