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Post by Michael Messer on Mar 15, 2015 8:37:17 GMT
I am sorry to hear that Scott Cameron has died. As well as being the manager of many great blues and jazz artists and a successful singer in the late 50s, Scott also looked after the publishing and managed the estates of numerous dead blues and jazz musicians, and some who are still alive. I didn't know Scott personally, but through my involvement with Ted Hawkins I have had dealings with his ex business partner, Nancy Meyer, many times over the years.
Here is a list of some of their clients.....
Muddy Waters, Jimmie Rogers, Bukka White, Eddie Shaw, Buddy Guy, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Willie Dixon, Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, James Cotton, Koko Taylor, Billy Cobham, Ted Hawkins, Little Milton, Eddie Boyd, Sonny Boy Williamson, Otis Rush, John Lee Hooker, Lowell Fulsom, Robert Nighthawk, Billy Boy Arnold, Snooky Prior, Stan Kenton, T Bone Walker, JB Lenoir, Memphis Slim, Big Mama Thornton....
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Scott A. Cameron,
Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Scott began his career in the music business as lead singer of the vocal group “Honey & The Dew Drops” and their recording “Come My Little Baby” in 1958 on MMC Records. His second single as Scottie Stuart, “It Was A Nightmare” and “Little Rocker” were released in 1960, again on MMC Records. Since the advent of the internet, both songs have seen significant play with over 20,000 views.
“I wrote ‘It Was A Nightmare’ while riding a city bus back and forth from my job at a small printing shop. ‘Little Rocker” was written by my guitar player Tom Kropp, a/k/a Tom Gibson. Much to my surprise ‘Little Rocker’ has become almost a cult Rockabilly classic.” – Scott Cameron
He toured locally and as part of the “1960 Star-A-Thon” which toured a number of theatres in Wisconsin. He shared the bill with Donnie Brooks who had a major hit with “Mission Bell” in Minnesota. In 1966 Cameron moved to Omaha, NE where he was the manager of the Guest House South Motor Inn.
“One day a group of teenagers walked in, all had silver hair calling themselves The Silver Haired Beach-Niks and were playing a teen club that night in Omaha. I went to catch their show and I was back in the music business.” – Scott Cameron
Over the next couple of years Cameron managed and produced a number of regional rock bands. Among a host of other recordings, he produced the 1967 single “Mr. Moon” by a group from Lincoln, NE called The Coachmen. The record reached the top of the charts in Omaha, Lincoln, throughout the Midwest and a number of other markets in the U.S. with sales topping 100,000 units.
In June of 1969 Cameron relocated to Chicago where he was named Vice President of Willard Alexander, Inc., a national booking agency specializing in big bands. Their clients included Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Harry James, The Glenn Miller Orchestra and others. Working closely with Willard, Cameron helped to establish a rock division within the Agency bringing in The Guess Who when they were just beginning to chart with “These Eyes” and Frijid Pink who had a big hit with “House Of The Rising Sun.”
In the spring of 1971 Cameron got a call asking if the Agency would be interested in booking the legendary bluesman Muddy Waters. Excitedly he called Willard in New York and told him. Willard’s comment was “he’s a great blues singer but I don’t know if he means anything today.”
“Muddy was a great influence on me” Cameron says. “When I was a teenager growing up in Madison, late at night we could pick up WLAC Radio out of Nashville. It was before the advent of Rock and Roll and they would play all the great bluesmen and a lot of what would become rock, rhythm & blues and doo wop, so the opportunity to work with Muddy was amazing.” – Scott Cameron
Over the next 2 years Cameron worked closely on Muddy’s career. “Muddy had influenced such rock artists as The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers Band and many more. In fact, the Stones and Rolling Stone Magazine took their names from the classic Muddy song of the same name.” Cameron redirected Muddy’s career to take advantage of the artists he had influenced by moving away from touring the traditional blues circuit and into the rock and roll showcase rooms across the U.S. and booked his first tour of Australia and New Zealand where Muddy headlined many of the same venues and festivals that major rock attractions played.
Cameron was so involved in building Muddy’s career he resigned from Willard Alexander and formed The Cameron Organisation, Inc. in 1973 to become Muddy’s personal manager. Over the course of the next several years the company also managed Willie Dixon, Mighty Joe Young, Stan Kenton, The Shadows of Knight, Skafish, Bonnie Koloc, Buddy Guy, Ted Hawkins, Ernie Watts, Billy Cobham and others.
“As I became more involved with the careers of Muddy and Willie I was startled to learn that neither of them was receiving royalties anywhere near the amounts I thought they should be. Their songs were recorded by a number of major artists including the Stones Clapton & the Allman Brothers but also by Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Elvis Presley and almost every English rock & roll band at the time.” –Scott Cameron
Cameron began making trips to the Library of Congress Copyright facilities in Washington, DC where he could research information on their various songs. “At that time all copyright records were on 3” x 5” recipe cards” he recalls. During his research Cameron discovered that both Muddy and Willie had been induced to sign retro-active “employee-for-hire” agreements which purportedly made them employees of the music publishing company that held the vast amount of their copyrights.
In 1977, Cameron on behalf of Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon engaged and assisted attorneys in filing formal lawsuits against the music publisher for defrauding them of their royalties; hiding behind those agreements which essentially took away all their rights to their own copyrights, including ownership of the renewals.
Following months of negotiations during which Cameron insisted that in addition to past royalty accountings; the full ownership of the copyright be returned to each of them world-wide, unheard of at that time. As the actual court date approached the publishing company relented and returned full ownership of their songs. At his direction, Muddy formed his own publishing company called Watertoons Music and Willie formed his under the name Hoochie Coochie Music.
Their families currently own those copyrights, all well into their initial renewal periods, world-wide, the rights of which would have been divested from their heirs due to the nature of the employee-for-hire agreements they had signed. Cameron believes this was the first time songwriters of their prominence ever won back world-wide rights to copyrights from a major music publisher.
In 1976 Cameron has negotiated Muddy’s release from Chess Records and negotiated a new recording contract with Blue Sky Records. The first release on Blue Sky was ‘Hard Again’ produced by legendary rock/blues icon Johnny Winter. Acclaimed by many as Muddy’s best-selling recording of all time, ‘Hard Again’ received a Grammy Award, one of many awards and nominations he received from the Grammy’s. To date Muddy Waters has also been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, won numerous awards including several W.C. Handy and Downbeat Music awards.
Chess Records was sold by Chess Producing Corp. to GRT Corporation to All Platinum Records and in turn to MCA Records. Muddy had never received a royalty payment from Chess, GRT or All Platinum.
“When MCA purchased the Chess catalog I began negotiations with them that brought about a new contract for all his legendary Chess recordings and he began to get paid royalties on his record sales.”
Many of the living Chess artists or their heirs began to contact Cameron asking him to negotiate new contracts for them as they had never received royalties either. This included John Lee Hooker, Otis Rush, Koko Taylor, Jimmy McCracklin, Little Milton, Lowell Fulson, Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon and the heirs of Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin’ Wolf among others.
Muddy Waters died on April 30, 1983 at his home in Westmont Illinois. Muddy named Scott as the Executor of his Estate. Cameron still oversees all aspects of Muddy’s copyrights and recordings for the family. A few years after Muddy’s death, Cameron relocated to southern California and opened offices in Burbank where he remained until locating back to Chicago to take on the personal management of Buddy Guy who he managed from 1991 until 2001.
As word spread that Cameron could recover royalties, copyrights and even some master recordings he began working with artists and songwriters or their heirs in many genres of music.
It was Cameron that discovered royalties were due to Robert Geddins for the Stevie Ray Vaughan recording “Roughest Place In Town” retitled from the original Geddins song “Tin Pan Alley” that Stevie had heard on a juke box at the original Stubbs BBQ in Lubbock Texas, resulting in a large amount of royalties for Mr. Geddins. His family continues to receive royalties due to Cameron’s efforts including on the multi-platinum recording of “Mercury Blues” by country mega-star Alan Jackson.
“While our client list has expanded into the musical genres of rock & roll, jazz, country & western, western swing, bluegrass & hillbilly it all began with the blues, the roots of all American music.” – Scott Cameron
In 2010 Cameron relocated to the Ozark Mountains near Lebanon, Missouri. In addition to policing and monitoring royalties for his clients, he continues to spend many hours weekly searching for songwriters, recording artists and/or their heirs who may have royalties and rights due to them they are not receiving.
“From day one it has always been my philosophy that if a record company or music publisher has one-dollar due to a writer, artist or their family, it belongs to that writer, artist or family, not in the company’s accounts.” – Scott Cameron
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R.I.P. Scott A. Cameron
Shine On
Michael
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dale
MM Forum Member
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Post by dale on Oct 5, 2023 13:39:03 GMT
I did not know Mr Cameron, but so sad of his 2015 passing. I learned of this through research on a box of tapes I bought at an estate sale.
Six boxes of unreleased music that once belonged to Bob Hite of Canned Heat.
The prize is a live recording of Muddy Waters in Montreux, Switzerland in November 1968.
With help of a music attorney in Houston, Texas, Sony Music agrees it’s never been heard nor did anyone know about it.
The reason is that it was recorded for Bob Hite as a favor. It’s on AGFA tape and is 42 minutes long.
Excellent recording.
I do know that the estate of Muddy Waters court case was continued to January 7, 2024. This tape alone would raise the value of the estate
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Post by Michael Messer on Oct 5, 2023 15:41:09 GMT
Hello Dale
Welcome to our forum.
That is indeed an amazing find!
It is a long time since I was in touch with the Cameron Organization, which may now be called BatesMeyer. My contact there is Nancy Meyer, who is a partner in the company.
My advice is that the tape should not be played on anything but the very best equipment, and that it should only really be played once to copy it in real time to a high resolution 24bit 48khz digital file.
If that tape, which is old and fragile gets damaged, it might result in a chunk of the recording being lost forever.
Many years ago I was involved with trying to release a live Muddy Waters recording and the label backed out because it was too complicated dealing with the estate.
Please keep us posted and if I can help in any way, I would be happy to do so.
Shine On
Michael
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Post by hawgwash on Oct 6, 2023 17:16:08 GMT
Damn - talk about a resume … !!
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Post by Michael Messer on Oct 8, 2023 10:04:50 GMT
Lovely people too.
Shine On
Michael
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