Ask The Boss for dosh? What an extraordinary suggestion! I think, Steven, that you're interpreting my occasional yearnings for the more lucrative stages of my career as desperate, pining obsessions. Probably, you are referring to my answer to someone's query about whether I would use horns again on any of my albums, and my answer was that I thought a few tracks on "Acid" could have done with them but that their use would have blown the budget. Yes? Whatever. While it would certainly be nice to have that budgetary freedom, I think my records have definitely benefited from a lack of the indulgences that a producer and extra instrumentation affords. Some of the advances that financed my early eighties albums could have fed numerous third world countries, and I look back on that period with amazement and not a little distaste. If I ever hear a track from "Grey Area" now, for instance, I can't believe that the wretched object cost $300.000 to make. We are dealing with a deeper issue here than finances. I have (perhaps contrary to any impression I might, in my feeble, semi-literate way be conveying) in fact been, compared to 90% of the worlds' populace, reasonably well-off since I signed my first record deal in 1975. If one writes all the songs on album after album which sell in virtually every country in the world, extort ridiculously overblown advances from major record labels on both sides of the pond (simultaneously), sing on the occasional Beer commercial (whoops! The man is too honest - but which brand?), have tracks released on innumerable compilations and have songs covered by more artists than you know about, one tends not to be poor. The deeper issue is that, while I actually prefer the one-take, slap-on-a-few-quick-overdubs approach to making records (Hiatt's "Bring The Family" was allegedly recorded in about 4 days, for Chrissakes, and he hasn't since touched it for brilliance), I also hear a lot of my songs (in my head, I mean) gussied-up like Christmas turkeys, fat as hogs for the radio playlist. What I am continually attempting to get across (obviously, judging by your response, with varying degrees of success) is that I cannot, at present, justify spending on horn sections, girl singers, massive orchestrally reinforced choruses, or any of the other fun (but often, admittedly detrimental) studio jobs that a so-called successful artist does not have to think twice about. I cannot justify this kind of splurging because even if I did resort to these common-place tactics my records, due to poor brand-name value, would still not get a shot on high-demographic, consultant-deviated radio stations, and even if they did (for 5 minutes, perhaps, until Soundscan showed them the error they were making) there is no audience for them! The fact is, no amount of production money would make more than a gnat's whisker of difference. As I think I have said, all I'd like is to half-fill 500 seaters (this will probably drop to 1/4-fill by this time next year) and sell enough records to make a minor label happy, something that was not happening during the duration of my last record releases and tours. It is not so much frustrating to not be able to make high-budget albums as it is to know that it will not make a shred of difference to the attention or sales that a record of mine will get. Comprende? I don't want to "make it" or become a "star." I already did that in the 70's, for goodness sake, and it was, in fact, a crushing bore (contrary to the copy-line every representative of the music press has on me, I was, in my opinion, very successful for a few years, which is a few more than most artists can muster...I mean, I must have been - I can't imagine where all this money came from if I wasn't! {Jokette}). I think that what I am trying to convey in this column is the antithesis of the typical, simplistic way most alleged artists would communicate with their fans and so the truths may seem a little harsher than they really are (is the damn clown admitting that he is an exaggerationist of monstrous proportions?). With me, you will receive a reality fix, a deep desire to transcend the banalities of the basic fan/artist interface in order for that sublime clarity to intercede the normally clogged arteries of your sleeping cortexes (steady boy...steady) and wake you the fuck up to the way the wind is really blowing. This method, I can see, may cause more concern than is intended and inspire some of you to wrack your brains for ideas on how to assist the old bugger into the blessed twilight of his career without him having to record his future songs on a Sony Walkman in his filthy, vermin-riddled garret (come to think of it, this sounds like a pretty accurate description of what I'm doing now - kidding!). But thanks anyway. I appreciate the thought, but basically, I'm just chewing the fat. In fact, what I'm really up to with this Q&A thing is keeping my hand in, sharpening my writing skills so that when my short story collection is finally accepted and published and they are demanding a follow up, I'll be honed and ready to oblige. You see, this whole exercise is merely that: an exercise; I don't really give a bugger about what anybody has to say; I just want to run off at the mouth because it amuses me and keeps my pen pointy and because as yet, there are no editors presiding over the internet. (Can't wait to see how many po-faced, humourless bastards take umbrage at that! Fun!)
Back to the point, if I really wanted to extend a budget and "bring on the dancing girls," as Jack N. used to say he didn't need to do when he was producing "Sparks," then I suppose I could reach into my own sporran and do so. But after those rather lackluster early eighties albums which took unnecessary months to make and cost silly amounts of dosh, I can't tolerate waste on such a luxury as a record album and I take great pride in getting a dozen songs completed in a dozen days. Cheers.

From Tom Mannarelli: