Dec. 27: The reluctant proposal

The mythos behind the Van Morrison song Brown Eyed Girl is legendary.

The way I heard it, Van signed a contract saying that he wouldn't get paid royalties for the songs he wrote when he first embarked on a solo career. The way I heard it, at the time, he was so impoverished that he signed that proposal, reluctantly, for some fast cash. How was he to know that Brown Eyed Girl, a song he considered a "throwaway" would go on to be a monster hit.

Since its release in the late 60s, Brown Eyed Girl has clocked up more than 10 million radio plays in the US alone. When you consider that an artist should get paid everytime his or song is played on the air, that adds up to a lot of moolah. 

But hey, if there's one thing that no artist knows, it's how the general public will react to anything they create. I mean, heck, the American director, Barry Sonnenfeld, turned down an opportunity to direct Forrest Gump so he could work on - wait for it, Addams Family Values.

That's all I got.

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