Busking

One time me and my friend went busking. We had this telemarketing job in '09, and there was no one left to telemarket, with the economy being in the shit state of affairs it was in those days, so we both brought it our guitars and started playing. Both of us were too shy to play alone, but as there was no song that was in both our repertoires, we had to make songs up. Most of them were me playing one of two riffs, recorded below for your convenience:




My friend Kurt would then play the other part at the same time. We earned one dollar and five cents in two hours, including travel time.

Wikipedia has a nice article on the subject of busking. The best part is in an antiquated style, the Wikipedia free-form list. It's something that is out of vogue because the people at Wikipedia who do 90% of the work figure that its where any bumpkin can add lots of trivial information, which doesn't really look that encyclopedic. That list is Famous Examples of Busking, the best items of which have been reproduced here for posterity. You're welcome, future generations.

Paul McCartney of the Beatles donned a disguise to be filmed busking for Give My Regards To Broad Street in 1984:

"They just made me up and dropped me off. [...] So I was standin' there plunkin' chords, doing this silly version of the song, and no one noticed it was me. No one wants to look a busker (street singer) in the eye, of course, 'cus then they get his life story. So they'd toss coins and I'd be going 'Yesterday, all my troubles - thank you, sir - seemed so far away.' [...] After we did it, I made sure the money was donated to the Seaman's Mission."^[16]

Sting has also donned a disguise and gone out busking. He reportedly made £40. "He pulled a hat down over his eyes, but one woman said: 'It's Sting.' The man behind her said: 'You silly cow. It's not him. He's a multi-millionaire.'"^[18]

In a stunt organised by the Washington Post, the classical violinist Joshua Bell played as an incognito street busker at the Metro station L'Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C. on 12 January 2007. Among 1,097 people who passed by, only one recognized him and only a couple more were drawn to his music. For his nearly 45 minute performance, Bell collected $32.17 (not counting $20 from a passerby who recognized him). He did this using a Stradivarius violin valued at around $2,000,000.^[19]

That's about all that's interesting in the article, with few exceptions.

1. A wildly editorial comment, which seems to illuminate more about the writer's life than busking: "Some people stereotype buskers as being unemployed, homeless or beggars. Most buskers are none of those things. Some people will heckle buskers and stigmatize them as such, regardless of the buskers' social status. When performing in public hecklers can be a real problem."
2. In the great style of internet business of taking something that works in real life and then making an awkward, nonfunctional version online, some people have got into cyber-busking. "Artists post work or performances on the Internet for people to download or 'stream' and if people like it they make a donation using PayPal."
3. This charming picture of a mother-son busking team:
   

BONUS BEGGING FUN:

If you had access to the internet in the late 90's, then you knew about The Amazing "Gimme A Buck (please)" Website. Go check it out.