12 Step Program, part two, chapter twenty-nine
whatever happened to Abe Stern?
Abe was killed in a car crash in 1984.
He was driving his own car, a Ford Galaxy, when he was hit by a car that had crossed the line and was coming directly at him. The other car was attempting a pass and didn’t have time to get back into the proper lane. Abe was unable to swerve out of the way and took the subsequent impact full on, dying instantly. His seatbelt undone, he went through the windshield.
The other driver suffered minor injuries, but bad enough he had to be hospitalized for two weeks. He was tested as drunk and charged with manslaughter.
At the time of his death, Abe Stern was characterized as rudderless. Barbara, his wife, had died of cancer in 1982, the same year Bob Jansen disappeared.
Although Barbara stayed in the background and let Abe make the business decisions, he’d still named his label after her and she was his anchor. Without her, Abe drifted.
Maybe he wanted to die, the cold hearted speculated. The crash was his way of fulfilling a death wish.
He was thought to be seeking Bob Jansen in order to sign half the rights to 12 Step Program back to him. Abe always had felt guilty about taking 100% of the publishing, though he rationalized his behaviour at the time. Barb simply needed the money and 12 Step was providing it.
After that, the song proved too good an earner to give back, but had cooled considerably by 1984.
In his will, Abe stipulated that his sons, Abe Jr. and the tellingly named Bob, who would inherit his estate, were not to change Barb. No new signings, no unnecessary investments. Barb would be strictly a caretaker label.
That was fine by Abe Jr. and Bob. Neither knew music or the music business and didn’t care to know. Ask them to run a paint store or a one-stop pharmacy, they could do that. A record label? No.
Barb became dormant, although before he died, his label started to use the slogan, “Barb has hooks,” sometimes “If it has hooks, it’s on Barb.”
As Barb shut down, the acts moved on. The Steppers went to another label, The Grantchesters seeemed to have dissolved, The Joss came to the same conclusion as The Steppers and Running On Empty concluded that Barb wasn’t for it. The band was more country than rock and thought it would be better off with a Nashville based label. Ultimately it was wrong as Nashville no more took to Running On Empty as it had The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers or Poco.
There were a few releases nonetheless such as a Best of The Steppers, a Best of The Grantchesters, a Best of The Joss but, just as Abe wanted, nothing new got signed or developed.
Barb made money when the catalogue was converted to compact disc. As downloads. Then streaming. Then vinyl again.
Wire, though, remained active, thanks to Nora Washington. She’d consistently had hits in the gospel market, easily enough for another Barb Best Of.
The surprise, though, was that she’d taken the producer’s chair and instantly had a hit with her production of The Chula Vistas’ Jesus Christ. It was a song by Big Star that was shimmering pop-rock. She and the Vistas played with it, making it a cappella doo wop.
It’s a Christmas song, figured Nora. You know “Jesus Christ was born this day, Jesus Christ was born.” That’s good enough for me.
Good enough for the Chula Vistas too. It went top 10.
Then, Nora produced her own The Promised Land Never Looked So Good.
Always knew she had major talent crowed a vindicated Abe Stern before he died. After this hit, he let her do whatever she wanted. Wire was Nora Washington and she chose to use Barb as a resource. It still had distribution and she made use of its promotions list. She rejected the demands and responsibility of starting her own label and had a deeply ingrained distrust of the music industry that extended to Christian labels.
Otherwise Abe Jr. and Bob just fielded offers.
One was from a label that specialized in reissues. It wanted to put out a compilation of the best of Barb. OK, said the brothers.
They didn’t have to do anything but keep Barb alive and approachable.
Which they did until a major label offered to buy Barb. The label mainly was after Barb’s publishing division and assured Abe Jr. and Bob nothing would change once they stepped own. The label would make any necessary corporate decisions but they still would be able to determine Barb’s direction.
The offer was too tempting. OK, said the brothers again.
