Mike Chimeri’s Music Collection videos, outlines, slideshows, and script January 17, 2018

Last night, I received an e-mail from YouTube that announced changes to the YouTube Partnership Program that affects my channel. One paragraph in the e-mail stood out:

Under the new eligibility requirements announced today, your YouTube channel, Mike Chimeri, is no longer eligible for monetization because it doesn’t meet the new threshold of 4,000 hours of watchtime within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers. As a result, your channel will lose access to all monetization tools and features associated with the YouTube Partner Program on February 20, 2018 unless you surpass this threshold in the next 30 days. Accordingly, this email serves as 30 days notice that your YouTube Partner Program terms are terminated.

This completes the failed experiment that was Mike Chimeri’s Music Collection. Having been inspired by other YouTubers, I worked from May to July last year putting together eight videos while preparing for four more that I never made. The videos were watched by as many people that watched most of my other videos: ones to tens of people, not thousands or more. And I only picked up tens of subscribers. It was heartbreaking. All the work was for naught. Money was wasted on a Parrot TelePrompTer, camcorder light, and chroma key matte. I hope to find uses for those items in the future, but I think only the light will be put to use.

The videos that got the most views were live performances from Smooth Jazz for Scholars, some of which I took down when I applied for monetization in the first place. And the highest-viewed video couldn’t be monetized because of the subject matter.

This morning, I scanned PDFs of the outlines I wrote for the eight videos I posted, the four I never completed, and one scrapped introductory video. I also made slideshows of the pictures I would have used for the four videos I didn’t complete. I am sharing all of that, and one partial script, below. (NOTE: The slideshows were uploaded to WordPress rather than YouTube.)

Introductory Video outline (scrapped)

Episode 1: 6 Albums from 1981
Outline
Video

Episode 2: 1970s Debut Albums
Outline
Video

Episode 3: 8 Albums from 1992
Outline
Video

Episode 4: 2000s Debut Albums
Outline
Video

Episode 5: 9 Albums from 2000
Outline
Video

Episode 6: Albums by Sidemen
Outline
Video

Episode 7: 1980s Debut Albums
Outline
Video

Episode 8: 1990s Debut Albums
Outline
Video

Episode 9: 9 Albums from 1977 (incomplete)
Outline
Slideshow:

In addition to an outline and slideshow for the first incomplete video, I also have a partial script that I worked on one day in September.

RAMSEY LEWIS – TEQUILA MOCKINGBIRD
Ramsey Lewis released two albums in 1977.
The second of the two was Tequila Mockingbird, a play on To Kill a Mockingbird, the Harper Lee novel-turned-Academy-Award-winning film.
Tequila Mockingbird continued Ramsey’s association with Earth, Wind & Fire that began with Sun Goddess a few years earlier.
EWF keyboardist Larry Dunn produced three tracks: the title track, “Skippin’,” and “That Ole Bach Magic.”
He wrote the title track himself and co-wrote “That Ole Bach Magic” with Eddie del Barrio.
I like all eight tracks on “Tequila Mockingbird,” including the ones produced by Bert deCoteaux.
But my absolute favorites, thanks to Ramsey’s solos, are the title track, “Camino el Bueno,” “Caring for You,” and “Intimacy.”
Ramsey would re-record “Intimacy” on Chance Encounter in 1982 and Taking Another Look in 2011.
He re-recorded the title track on Ivory Pyramid in 1992, his first album with GRP after two decades with Columbia.

BOB JAMES – HEADS
After putting out his first four solo albums on CTI, Bob James started his own label, Tappan Zee Records, in 1977.
His inaugural album, the second of the year, was Heads.
From One in 1974 through 12 in 1984, most of Bob’s early albums were numbered directly or indirectly.
Heads refers to the Buffalo nickel.
Nickels are 5 cents.
Ergo, Heads is Bob’s fifth album.
The album personnel is who’s who of New York City musicians of the day: Eric Gale, Steve Khan, Steve Gadd, Idris Muhammad, Gary King, Will Lee, Richard Tee, Ralph MacDonald, Hubert Laws, David Sanborn, Grover Washington, Jr., the Brecker Brothers, Michael and Randy, Jon Faddis, Eddie Daniels, and Mike Mainieri.
And that’s just the beginning.
There are six tracks on the album, but Bob only wrote two of them: the title track and “Night Crawler,” not to be confused with “Nite Crawler,” which Larry Carlton wrote for The Crusaders.
More on that later.
The other four tracks are what I consider to be the ultimate cover of Boz Scaggs’s “We’re All Alone,” “I’m in You” by Peter Frampton, Joe Cocker’s “You Are So Beautiful,” and a classical ballad by Henry Purcell: “One Loving Night.”
“One Loving Night” features recorder by George Marge and tenor sax by Grover Washington, Jr.

THE CRUSADERS – FREE AS THE WIND
Free as the Wind was the first Crusaders album without original member Wayne Henderson and the last album with Larry Carlton as a member.
Larry would appear as a guest on Standing Tall in 1981, which I showcased in the first episode, and The Good and Bad Times in 1986.
The rest of the Crusaders at the time were Joe Sample, Wilton Felder, Pops Popwell, and Stix Hooper.
Like Tequila Mockingbird, Free as the Wind contains eight tracks.
The title track leads it off, followed by “I Felt the Love,” which first appeared on Chain Reaction two years earlier.
After that, you have “The Way We Was,” a Pops Popwell composition with intermittent chatter, and the aforementioned unrelated “Nite Crawler,” which Larry would play on his eponymous solo album the next year.
Fifth on the album is “Feel It,” written by the entire band with a lyrical refrain by Lamont Dozier of Holland-Dozier-Holland fame, followed by the longest track – “Sweet N’ Sour,” and the shortest track – “River Rat.”
Free as the Wind closes with the Joe Sample ballad, “It Happens Everyday.”
Joe would re-record the song 20 years later on his solo album, Sample This.

PAT METHENY – WATERCOLORS
Pat Metheny Group debuted in 1978, as I shared in the second episode of Mike Chimeri’s Music Collection.
Pat’s solo offering in 1977, Watercolors, was like the group’s beta test.
75% of the band is here: Pat Metheny on guitars, Lyle Mays on piano, and Danny Gottlieb, now of the Lieutenant Dan Band, on drums.
Playing fretless bass on Watercolors was Eberhard Weber.
This is the third album in this episode thus far with eight tracks on it.
Two of them are a suite: “Florida Greeting Song” and “Legend of the Fountain.”
The title track leads off the album, followed by a solo guitar piece called “Icefire,” “Oasis,” a duet with Eberhard and with many layers of guitar.
The middle tracks are my favorites: “Lakes,” an exercise in chord progression, and “River Quay” (“key”).
After the two-part suite, Watercolors ends with the ten-minute “Sea Song.”

WEATHER REPORT – HEAVY WEATHER
The lone Weather Report album in my collection is the commercial smash, Heavy Weather.

That was as far as I got.

Episode 10: Best Ofs with New Tracks (incomplete)
Outline
Slideshow:

Episode 11: Collaborative Albums (incomplete)
Outline
Slideshow:

Episode 12: 11 Albums from 1987 (incomplete)
Outline

And with that, Mike Chimeri’s Music Collection is officially a thing of the past. It lives on through all that I’ve shared here.

I made a mere 68 cents in ad revenue while my YouTube channel was monetized. That’s $99.32 short of the point where I’d get paid.

Now, my channel will go back to its previous purpose: blizzard timelines, aircheck videos, and WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony videos. Thank you to anyone that watched Mike Chimeri’s Music Collection. You’re in rarefied air.