This is SO good, I want you to immediately stop reading this and go on Amazon and buy it.
Not because it's the Allman Brothers, but because it'll give you insight into what it was like, fifty years ago, being a musician, wanting to make it.
Gregg picked up the guitar first.
But it was all about Duane. Duane believed they could make it.
On the way up there are so many bad turns, so many discouragements, you need someone on your team who believes, who keeps you going when you're ready to give up. And that's Duane.
You also need the unsung heroes... The music store owners, the girlfriends, the fans of the band...who not only put you up at night, but buy you instruments, lend you money when you've got none.
So it's the racist south. The one kids today have never heard of, never mind remember. When you not only didn't want to be black, you didn't want to have long hair. Roads were dirt and the cops were on the wrong side. Not yours.
And growing up most people had no ambition. Gregg missed out on graduation and prom for gigs but remarks when he went to his high school reunion no one amounted to shit. It takes determination and guts to make it.
And practice.
Boy did they practice.
And gig. Multiple times a night.
And they'd practice and gig on the same day.
The first thing a kid wants to do today is be famous. He believes he's entitled to it. His parents gave him that instrument, he filmed himself on YouTube, why isn't everybody clamoring!
So he'll e-mail you, implore you to help him achieve his dream... Which is to appear on TMZ. It's no longer about riches, they're better in banking and tech, it's about fame and lifestyle.
But the lifestyle these musicians had back then was better than any one on TMZ. Because they got high and got laid when nobody was paying attention. There were no cameras busting them, it was a freewheeling world.
Gregg talks about being inspired to write "Melissa", hearing the name of the song from a grandmother calling her kid in the supermarket.
He talks about writing "Dreams" after being given tips by Mike Finnegan on his B3.
He talks about learning to write songs from a summer of apprenticing under John Loudermilk.
Buying all the records, learning all the licks, the Allman Brothers were on a mission. Of survival. Because there was no backup plan. No safety net. No college if this didn't work out.
And people dropped out all the time. To go to school, because of stage fright, because they just didn't believe.
But not Duane and Gregg.
Duane tortured Gregg. But he also inspired him. And vice versa.
I know, I know, this sounds like nostalgia, for the seventies, listening to those long, dreamy, extended cuts.
And I love the Allmans, but that's not what I like about this book.
I like it first and foremost because it's readable. It cuts like butter. It's written in Gregg's voice. You get the impression there's somebody home, and it's not the drug-addled laughingstock he's occasionally played.
And I like it because it portrays a family, not just an endless string of events. Life is like Jenga, you keep pulling out parts, waiting for it all to fall. But, can you pick yourself up after it crumbles?
And I like it because it doesn't start with the Beatles. That's not why the Allmans became musicians. First and foremost they loved music. All the old R&B and blues tunes, played on the radio. They were students of the music. They worked harder at their craft than a guy who goes to law school. Because they needed it, they were excited by it, they wanted to get closer to it.
And it's so different from today.
And we're never going to go back to yesteryear. Not with modern connectedness.
But when you're slaving away in obscurity, remember that despite being able to connect with everybody, nobody really cares. Used to be everybody knew this. Which is why they practiced so hard, paid their dues, just hoping for a shot at the big time.
Today people believe they're born ready.
Ain't that a laugh.
Gregg had to learn how to sing. He just didn't open his throat and sound good.
Today everything's easy. At least that's what the media tells us.
But it's really damn hard.
Some people need to make it.
Those are the ones who do.
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Saturday 16 June 2012
Friday 15 June 2012
Rhinofy-Similar
"Meadows"
I had the world's worst case of mononucleosis.
At first I didn't think it was that bad. I had a sore throat and I went to the University of Utah infirmary under Al's name. That's what you do when you're a starving ski bum. Cut corners. And they did the test and said it came back negative. But when I got to the point a couple of weeks later that I could not swallow, and walking to the end of the block was tiring, I called my dad for some cash and went to see a real doctor. Turns out there are two tests for mono, and they did the cheap one at the U of U. Oh, I had it, bad. And after recovering for two months on Al & Jimmy's couch I got in my car and drove back east, which was incredibly stupid, because I was still so sick, hell, six months after that, nine months after infection, my blood test still came back as bad as it could be, but...that's just the kind of family I come from, being sick is illegal.
Anyway, to fuel the ride, I went down to Main Street and bought six cassettes at Odyssey Records. Which I never did. Buy cassettes, that is. Because you could roll your own better at home. Buying some high quality Maxell and recording in real time. But I had no tape deck, other than Jimmy's 8-track, and I had a Blaupunkt cassette machine in the car, and it was a multiple thousand mile ride, so...I broke down and bought 'em.
One of the cassettes was Joe Walsh's "You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind", which was a live album I'm sure was concocted to fulfill his ABC commitment. But I was a huge Joe fan, and this album was a bit disappointing, but there was one cut I kept playing again and again, that got me through...
"Meadows".
I didn't have the original, from "The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get", Joe's breakthrough album from a few years before. That's how it was back then. Of course I knew the single, "Rocky Mountain Way", but not the rest, you had to own it to know it, and that cost money. So, this was a surprise.
And this take of "Meadows" is so great, I immediately went out and bought "The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get" to hear the original.
And I vividly remember playing "Meadows" on Vail Pass, where they have the snow fences. On a warm spring day, early June.
But it was before that I realized... I'd heard this song before. It was "Woman From Tokyo"...
"Woman From Tokyo"
You have to understand, Deep Purple was the band that did "Hush", on Tetragrammaton Records, Bill Cosby's label. Sure, they got some ink thereafter, but even casual readers of the rock press knew it was a different band, what we called heavy metal, when Led Zeppelin pioneered that genre, before it was taken over by speed metal, before it became the music without melody metal is today.
And the band had no traction in the U.S. until the summer of 1973, when the live take of "Smoke On The Water" invaded the radio and stayed there, for decades.
And with the public's acceptance of "Smoke On The Water", radio went back and embraced the album it came from, "Machine Head". Kind of like after "Back In Black" broke through they played AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap".
And at this point, "Machine Head" is seen as Deep Purple's masterpiece. Containing not only "Smoke On The Water", but "Space Truckin'" and "Highway Star". But "Woman From Tokyo" came from the studio follow-up to "Made In Japan", whose take of "Smoke On The Water" was the one we knew best. And the album "Who Do We Think We Are" was entirely forgettable, maybe the band was spooked by its newfound success, but the opening cut was..."Woman From Tokyo". And lo and behold, it's the same damn song as "Meadows". Only "Woman From Tokyo" came first.
"The Stake"
Unfortunately, "Book Of Dreams" is not on Spotify. If Steve Miller had a clue, he'd put not only this on the service, but my absolute favorite, "Brave New World", which has not only the original "Space Cowboy" and the title track, but the absolutely infectious "Kow Kow" and the incredibly beautiful "Seasons". But I guess he'd rather have them go unheard.
Yes, these acts are all living in the past (thanks Ian!) If you're waiting for someone to buy something to hear it, you're dreaming. In the old days, there were many fewer records, the labels were the gatekeepers, now anybody can play. It's a different game. Used to be if you got any traction, somebody would buy your album. Now you're starting at ground zero, nobody knows, you must make it easy for them. "Brave New World" is too good to be forgotten, but that's what Steve's trying to have happen.
Anyway, "Book Of Dreams" was the follow-up to "Fly Like An Eagle", which was a surprise hit. Steve was already a faded has-been when he hit in '73 with "The Joker". Sixties acts were already forgotten by '76. But Steve was now bigger than ever. And if you don't love "Jet Airliner", the Paul Pena cut opening the second side of "Book Of Dreams", you're a perennially depressed Goth dressed in black.
And on that same second side, was the curious cut "The Stake". Which sounded so similar to "Rocky Mountain Way", anybody would see the connection. And you have to know, "Rocky Mountain Way" was one of FM radio's staples. It was a classic just one notch below "Stairway To Heaven" and "Free Bird". You would have thought Miller would have heard it...
P.S. I'm including a live cut of "The Stake", which is on Spotify, but you'll get the idea...
P.S. I'm also including Allen Toussaint's 1972 cut "Soul Sister" which is so similar to "The Joker"...
"Rocky Mountain Way"
Frampton burned out the voice box, not that that was his intent, overplaying of the version of "Show Me The Way" from "Comes Alive" did that, but Joe Walsh had ubiquity with that sound first. And I can live without hearing "Rocky Mountain Way" for a few more years, because I know it by heart, but I've never burned out on it, it's that good.
"Surfin' U.S.A."/"Sweet Little Sixteen"
I was just young enough to believe that "Surfin' U.S.A." was a complete original!
Yes, there are cuts that share the same riff, that sound the same, but don't share credits. Then there are songs that are truly the same! But since I heard "Surfin' U.S.A." first, I always liked it better. Then again, I think it IS better! The sound of the guitar, and the chorus works a bit better. Credit Brian Wilson's production skills. Chuck Berry's track sounds rudimentary, the Beach Boys' is a force of nature, a veritable tour de force that heralded the sixties youthquake.
"Sidewalk Surfin'"/"Catch A Wave"
Turnabout is fair play!
Joe Walsh ripped off Deep Purple and then HE was ripped-off by Steve Miller! The Beach Boys eclipsed Chuck Berry with a remake/cover of "Sweet Little Sixteen" and Jan & Dean had the hit with a remake/cover of "Catch A Wave", in this case known as "Sidewalk Surfin'".
"Grab your board and go sidewalk surfin' with me"
Skateboarding was huge in the midsixties. But we didn't call it that, we called it "sidewalk surfing"... And then the trend died out, because of the steel wheels that gave little traction and a rough ride, but was reborn with better wheels a decade later and has never left us.
For a long time, I liked Jan & Dean more than the Beach Boys. Sure, there was a connection, but Jan Berry was a great producer in his own right. Just listen to the sound of "Surf City"! And "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena" sealed the deal. Jan & Dean had a sense of humor to go with their hooks.
But years later, when I finally got "Surfer Girl" as a birthday present, a used copy from a girl I had a crush on, I heard the original. And in this case, "Catch A Wave" is superior. IT'S THE HARP! Played by Mike Love's sister, Maureen, it's unexpected but oh-so-right...
"Catch a wave and you're sittin' on top of the world"
Ain't that the truth. Some sports just deliver that high whose only competitor is sex.
And you combine the aforementioned harp with Brian Wilson's falsetto and the carousel organ and you've got a masterpiece, which sounds like the sixties preserved in amber.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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I had the world's worst case of mononucleosis.
At first I didn't think it was that bad. I had a sore throat and I went to the University of Utah infirmary under Al's name. That's what you do when you're a starving ski bum. Cut corners. And they did the test and said it came back negative. But when I got to the point a couple of weeks later that I could not swallow, and walking to the end of the block was tiring, I called my dad for some cash and went to see a real doctor. Turns out there are two tests for mono, and they did the cheap one at the U of U. Oh, I had it, bad. And after recovering for two months on Al & Jimmy's couch I got in my car and drove back east, which was incredibly stupid, because I was still so sick, hell, six months after that, nine months after infection, my blood test still came back as bad as it could be, but...that's just the kind of family I come from, being sick is illegal.
Anyway, to fuel the ride, I went down to Main Street and bought six cassettes at Odyssey Records. Which I never did. Buy cassettes, that is. Because you could roll your own better at home. Buying some high quality Maxell and recording in real time. But I had no tape deck, other than Jimmy's 8-track, and I had a Blaupunkt cassette machine in the car, and it was a multiple thousand mile ride, so...I broke down and bought 'em.
One of the cassettes was Joe Walsh's "You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind", which was a live album I'm sure was concocted to fulfill his ABC commitment. But I was a huge Joe fan, and this album was a bit disappointing, but there was one cut I kept playing again and again, that got me through...
"Meadows".
I didn't have the original, from "The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get", Joe's breakthrough album from a few years before. That's how it was back then. Of course I knew the single, "Rocky Mountain Way", but not the rest, you had to own it to know it, and that cost money. So, this was a surprise.
And this take of "Meadows" is so great, I immediately went out and bought "The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get" to hear the original.
And I vividly remember playing "Meadows" on Vail Pass, where they have the snow fences. On a warm spring day, early June.
But it was before that I realized... I'd heard this song before. It was "Woman From Tokyo"...
"Woman From Tokyo"
You have to understand, Deep Purple was the band that did "Hush", on Tetragrammaton Records, Bill Cosby's label. Sure, they got some ink thereafter, but even casual readers of the rock press knew it was a different band, what we called heavy metal, when Led Zeppelin pioneered that genre, before it was taken over by speed metal, before it became the music without melody metal is today.
And the band had no traction in the U.S. until the summer of 1973, when the live take of "Smoke On The Water" invaded the radio and stayed there, for decades.
And with the public's acceptance of "Smoke On The Water", radio went back and embraced the album it came from, "Machine Head". Kind of like after "Back In Black" broke through they played AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap".
And at this point, "Machine Head" is seen as Deep Purple's masterpiece. Containing not only "Smoke On The Water", but "Space Truckin'" and "Highway Star". But "Woman From Tokyo" came from the studio follow-up to "Made In Japan", whose take of "Smoke On The Water" was the one we knew best. And the album "Who Do We Think We Are" was entirely forgettable, maybe the band was spooked by its newfound success, but the opening cut was..."Woman From Tokyo". And lo and behold, it's the same damn song as "Meadows". Only "Woman From Tokyo" came first.
"The Stake"
Unfortunately, "Book Of Dreams" is not on Spotify. If Steve Miller had a clue, he'd put not only this on the service, but my absolute favorite, "Brave New World", which has not only the original "Space Cowboy" and the title track, but the absolutely infectious "Kow Kow" and the incredibly beautiful "Seasons". But I guess he'd rather have them go unheard.
Yes, these acts are all living in the past (thanks Ian!) If you're waiting for someone to buy something to hear it, you're dreaming. In the old days, there were many fewer records, the labels were the gatekeepers, now anybody can play. It's a different game. Used to be if you got any traction, somebody would buy your album. Now you're starting at ground zero, nobody knows, you must make it easy for them. "Brave New World" is too good to be forgotten, but that's what Steve's trying to have happen.
Anyway, "Book Of Dreams" was the follow-up to "Fly Like An Eagle", which was a surprise hit. Steve was already a faded has-been when he hit in '73 with "The Joker". Sixties acts were already forgotten by '76. But Steve was now bigger than ever. And if you don't love "Jet Airliner", the Paul Pena cut opening the second side of "Book Of Dreams", you're a perennially depressed Goth dressed in black.
And on that same second side, was the curious cut "The Stake". Which sounded so similar to "Rocky Mountain Way", anybody would see the connection. And you have to know, "Rocky Mountain Way" was one of FM radio's staples. It was a classic just one notch below "Stairway To Heaven" and "Free Bird". You would have thought Miller would have heard it...
P.S. I'm including a live cut of "The Stake", which is on Spotify, but you'll get the idea...
P.S. I'm also including Allen Toussaint's 1972 cut "Soul Sister" which is so similar to "The Joker"...
"Rocky Mountain Way"
Frampton burned out the voice box, not that that was his intent, overplaying of the version of "Show Me The Way" from "Comes Alive" did that, but Joe Walsh had ubiquity with that sound first. And I can live without hearing "Rocky Mountain Way" for a few more years, because I know it by heart, but I've never burned out on it, it's that good.
"Surfin' U.S.A."/"Sweet Little Sixteen"
I was just young enough to believe that "Surfin' U.S.A." was a complete original!
Yes, there are cuts that share the same riff, that sound the same, but don't share credits. Then there are songs that are truly the same! But since I heard "Surfin' U.S.A." first, I always liked it better. Then again, I think it IS better! The sound of the guitar, and the chorus works a bit better. Credit Brian Wilson's production skills. Chuck Berry's track sounds rudimentary, the Beach Boys' is a force of nature, a veritable tour de force that heralded the sixties youthquake.
"Sidewalk Surfin'"/"Catch A Wave"
Turnabout is fair play!
Joe Walsh ripped off Deep Purple and then HE was ripped-off by Steve Miller! The Beach Boys eclipsed Chuck Berry with a remake/cover of "Sweet Little Sixteen" and Jan & Dean had the hit with a remake/cover of "Catch A Wave", in this case known as "Sidewalk Surfin'".
"Grab your board and go sidewalk surfin' with me"
Skateboarding was huge in the midsixties. But we didn't call it that, we called it "sidewalk surfing"... And then the trend died out, because of the steel wheels that gave little traction and a rough ride, but was reborn with better wheels a decade later and has never left us.
For a long time, I liked Jan & Dean more than the Beach Boys. Sure, there was a connection, but Jan Berry was a great producer in his own right. Just listen to the sound of "Surf City"! And "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena" sealed the deal. Jan & Dean had a sense of humor to go with their hooks.
But years later, when I finally got "Surfer Girl" as a birthday present, a used copy from a girl I had a crush on, I heard the original. And in this case, "Catch A Wave" is superior. IT'S THE HARP! Played by Mike Love's sister, Maureen, it's unexpected but oh-so-right...
"Catch a wave and you're sittin' on top of the world"
Ain't that the truth. Some sports just deliver that high whose only competitor is sex.
And you combine the aforementioned harp with Brian Wilson's falsetto and the carousel organ and you've got a masterpiece, which sounds like the sixties preserved in amber.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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Thursday 14 June 2012
The Deejays
"The 30 Richest DJs in the World": http://bit.ly/KK5aM8
Don't e-mail me and tell me it's inaccurate. That's missing the point.
The bottom line is the public knows record labels rip off artists, that you can be on "American Idol" and be nearly broke. Musicians are people to be made fun of, derided, deejays are to be embraced. For now anyway.
Deejays do it for themselves. If they've got a label at all, it's a minor element of their business. Which is playing live gigs. At extraordinary prices. Flying on private jets from job to job.
That's all real.
And people want a piece of that.
Which is why so many people now spin records. It's pure economics.
Fed by commercials like this, from:
Afrojack: youtu.be/U7XFrex-QpA
Armin van Burren: youtu.be/Q2okqtcHCN4
Who wouldn't want that lifestyle?
I'll quibble with the after-effects of these sell-out commercials.
And make you laugh with this ancient David Guetta clip:
youtu.be/IgvWD4vtKS0
But the deejays have power and money. All the things rock stars say they've got but so rarely possess. Traditional rock stars will whore themselves out to anybody with a buck, they're tools of the man. Who'd want to believe in that?
But an entrepreneur...
Deejays are no different from software coders, app-writers... They're the new heroes.
We'll see for how long, but right now the audience is embracing them, they got the message. The Internet doesn't only allow you to steal music, it allows you to study up and learn the truth, that the traditional music business is run by old men making all the money. If you don't think most people are aware of this and want no part of it, you've got no Internet connection.
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Don't e-mail me and tell me it's inaccurate. That's missing the point.
The bottom line is the public knows record labels rip off artists, that you can be on "American Idol" and be nearly broke. Musicians are people to be made fun of, derided, deejays are to be embraced. For now anyway.
Deejays do it for themselves. If they've got a label at all, it's a minor element of their business. Which is playing live gigs. At extraordinary prices. Flying on private jets from job to job.
That's all real.
And people want a piece of that.
Which is why so many people now spin records. It's pure economics.
Fed by commercials like this, from:
Afrojack: youtu.be/U7XFrex-QpA
Armin van Burren: youtu.be/Q2okqtcHCN4
Who wouldn't want that lifestyle?
I'll quibble with the after-effects of these sell-out commercials.
And make you laugh with this ancient David Guetta clip:
youtu.be/IgvWD4vtKS0
But the deejays have power and money. All the things rock stars say they've got but so rarely possess. Traditional rock stars will whore themselves out to anybody with a buck, they're tools of the man. Who'd want to believe in that?
But an entrepreneur...
Deejays are no different from software coders, app-writers... They're the new heroes.
We'll see for how long, but right now the audience is embracing them, they got the message. The Internet doesn't only allow you to steal music, it allows you to study up and learn the truth, that the traditional music business is run by old men making all the money. If you don't think most people are aware of this and want no part of it, you've got no Internet connection.
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Call Me Maybe
1. Justin Bieber
Musical acts have had vanity labels for eternity, whether it be Sinatra with Reprise, the Beatles with Apple, even the Youngbloods with Raccoon. But the difference is those entities functioned within the usual system. They didn't translate to the mainstream because said musical artists did not have a direct connection with the public.
2. Twitter
Fans are literally hanging on every word. Which is why your feed really needs to be written by you, why it can't be ghost-composed. Because it's less about information than connection. Your fans are now your best friends. You're not above them, but with them. Justin Bieber controls an army. Just like the Internet giants organized and got the public to stop SOPA, entertainers with huge social media followings can draw attention and create hits.
But this power must be used wisely.
Then again, one can gauge reaction and act accordingly.
3. The Track
It's a hit. The soaring keyboard figure in the chorus is infectious.
What's wrong with the non-Top Forty music business is it's de-emphasized hooks. Hell, listen to the Beatles, they were the masters of hooks! They didn't stray from this formula until everybody was on board. But today, musicians want fans to rally around their non-hooky productions. You almost can't stop listening to "Call Me Maybe". But it's almost impossible not to tune out everything else, despite the protestations and ministrations of the sad-sack, chip on the shoulder wannabes.
4. It Started Out As A Folk Song
A great song can be produced in many ways. One can argue "Call Me Maybe" isn't great, but it's certainly serviceable.
5. Nothing's Overnight
Bieber tweeted about the track at the end of last year. But it was only when the big boys, Scooter Braun and Interscope, got behind the track, had it featured on "Ellen", that it truly gained traction.
a. It's hard to gain everybody's attention overnight, unless you commit murder.
b. The gatekeepers are all from Missouri, the Show Me State. Now, more than ever, no one goes on their gut, they need proof before they take a chance.
6. Spreading The Word
Radio and TV made "Call Me Maybe" gigantic. But that doesn't mean Bieber's fans didn't keep it alive in the interim.
7. Ubiquity
Despite those paying attention, there are tens of millions of people who still haven't heard "Call Me Maybe" and never will. This is unlike the sixties/seventies or the eighties/nineties eras, the original Top Forty and MTV heydays. Back then, everyone was paying attention. Today, Carly Rae Jepsen is bigger than most everybody in the pool, but she's not as big as she once might have been.
8. Career
No one listening to Carly Rae Jepsen thinks she's forever. This is just a trifle. Once upon a time, music was about careers. But the Top Forty audience has been burned too many times. You're only as good as your last hit. So, unless Carly Rae Jepsen delivers many more, she'll fade into obscurity.
9. The Lyrics
Over the last few decades, women have gained power in the dating world. It's de rigueur to be aggressive and ask a boy out. The embodiment of this concept in the lyrics, the fact that the female protagonist is taking a chance, appeals to girls and is also embraced by boys, who too often are shy and inhibited.
The lyrics are a great change from the I'm rolling on huge rims and am gonna kick you to the curb of hip-hop and the platitudes of rock.
10. YouTube
108,285,437 plays and counting. The images are secondary to the ability to hear the song on demand. YouTube is the new radio, especially amongst the financially-challenged younger generation. Used to be you had to save your pennies and/or nag your parents to buy the single, which required a drive to the store to boot. Now you just fire up your computer and watch. As a result, everybody "owns" the song, revenue might be down, but songs are nearer and dearer to one's heart than ever before.
______________
CONCLUSION
Music has become a business of sour grapes. Everybody complaining. Whether it be the oldsters bitching about "Napster" or the wannabes saying they just can't get traction, just can't break through.
Well, first and foremost you've got to pay your dues. Carly Rae Jepsen is not wet behind the ears, she's twenty six years old, she was on "Canadian Idol" in 2007, it takes just that long not only to get in the public eye, but find your voice, and by that I mean more than your ability to sing! Many can sing, few are artists.
Top Forty is professional. Lowest common denominator professional, but imagine if those in other genres paid attention to its game and used some of its clues. Now, more than ever, it's hard to gain someone's attention. So you've got to make it easy for them. By hooking them almost immediately.
Carly Rae Jepsen has achieved this. She's become an Internet meme. Covered on YouTube and embraced in a Jimmy Fallon production. But one meme is replaced by another, never forget that.
CONCLUSION 2
I want to EMPHASIZE that the key here is the track itself. Everything else is secondary. This is a hit song. Yes, it was lucky to be embraced by Bieber and promoted by Interscope, but you've got to be in the game long enough to get lucky, having driven down many blind alleys beforehand.
If you're too smug to see the charm in "Call Me Maybe", I feel sorry for you. Yes, it's far from groundbreaking, but it just sticks in your brain, it makes you feel good, you want to hear it again and again.
That's a hit.
"Call Me Maybe": http://bit.ly/zPFn29
P.S. There are 155 versions of "Call Me Maybe" on Spotify.
a. Spotify needs to find a way to keep the detritus out.
b. Everybody's a lowest common denominator bottom-feeder, they want to get in on the action.
c. The barrier to entry is incredibly low, credit GarageBand and Tunecore.
d. Just because you put it up on Spotify, that does not mean anybody listens to it!
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Musical acts have had vanity labels for eternity, whether it be Sinatra with Reprise, the Beatles with Apple, even the Youngbloods with Raccoon. But the difference is those entities functioned within the usual system. They didn't translate to the mainstream because said musical artists did not have a direct connection with the public.
2. Twitter
Fans are literally hanging on every word. Which is why your feed really needs to be written by you, why it can't be ghost-composed. Because it's less about information than connection. Your fans are now your best friends. You're not above them, but with them. Justin Bieber controls an army. Just like the Internet giants organized and got the public to stop SOPA, entertainers with huge social media followings can draw attention and create hits.
But this power must be used wisely.
Then again, one can gauge reaction and act accordingly.
3. The Track
It's a hit. The soaring keyboard figure in the chorus is infectious.
What's wrong with the non-Top Forty music business is it's de-emphasized hooks. Hell, listen to the Beatles, they were the masters of hooks! They didn't stray from this formula until everybody was on board. But today, musicians want fans to rally around their non-hooky productions. You almost can't stop listening to "Call Me Maybe". But it's almost impossible not to tune out everything else, despite the protestations and ministrations of the sad-sack, chip on the shoulder wannabes.
4. It Started Out As A Folk Song
A great song can be produced in many ways. One can argue "Call Me Maybe" isn't great, but it's certainly serviceable.
5. Nothing's Overnight
Bieber tweeted about the track at the end of last year. But it was only when the big boys, Scooter Braun and Interscope, got behind the track, had it featured on "Ellen", that it truly gained traction.
a. It's hard to gain everybody's attention overnight, unless you commit murder.
b. The gatekeepers are all from Missouri, the Show Me State. Now, more than ever, no one goes on their gut, they need proof before they take a chance.
6. Spreading The Word
Radio and TV made "Call Me Maybe" gigantic. But that doesn't mean Bieber's fans didn't keep it alive in the interim.
7. Ubiquity
Despite those paying attention, there are tens of millions of people who still haven't heard "Call Me Maybe" and never will. This is unlike the sixties/seventies or the eighties/nineties eras, the original Top Forty and MTV heydays. Back then, everyone was paying attention. Today, Carly Rae Jepsen is bigger than most everybody in the pool, but she's not as big as she once might have been.
8. Career
No one listening to Carly Rae Jepsen thinks she's forever. This is just a trifle. Once upon a time, music was about careers. But the Top Forty audience has been burned too many times. You're only as good as your last hit. So, unless Carly Rae Jepsen delivers many more, she'll fade into obscurity.
9. The Lyrics
Over the last few decades, women have gained power in the dating world. It's de rigueur to be aggressive and ask a boy out. The embodiment of this concept in the lyrics, the fact that the female protagonist is taking a chance, appeals to girls and is also embraced by boys, who too often are shy and inhibited.
The lyrics are a great change from the I'm rolling on huge rims and am gonna kick you to the curb of hip-hop and the platitudes of rock.
10. YouTube
108,285,437 plays and counting. The images are secondary to the ability to hear the song on demand. YouTube is the new radio, especially amongst the financially-challenged younger generation. Used to be you had to save your pennies and/or nag your parents to buy the single, which required a drive to the store to boot. Now you just fire up your computer and watch. As a result, everybody "owns" the song, revenue might be down, but songs are nearer and dearer to one's heart than ever before.
______________
CONCLUSION
Music has become a business of sour grapes. Everybody complaining. Whether it be the oldsters bitching about "Napster" or the wannabes saying they just can't get traction, just can't break through.
Well, first and foremost you've got to pay your dues. Carly Rae Jepsen is not wet behind the ears, she's twenty six years old, she was on "Canadian Idol" in 2007, it takes just that long not only to get in the public eye, but find your voice, and by that I mean more than your ability to sing! Many can sing, few are artists.
Top Forty is professional. Lowest common denominator professional, but imagine if those in other genres paid attention to its game and used some of its clues. Now, more than ever, it's hard to gain someone's attention. So you've got to make it easy for them. By hooking them almost immediately.
Carly Rae Jepsen has achieved this. She's become an Internet meme. Covered on YouTube and embraced in a Jimmy Fallon production. But one meme is replaced by another, never forget that.
CONCLUSION 2
I want to EMPHASIZE that the key here is the track itself. Everything else is secondary. This is a hit song. Yes, it was lucky to be embraced by Bieber and promoted by Interscope, but you've got to be in the game long enough to get lucky, having driven down many blind alleys beforehand.
If you're too smug to see the charm in "Call Me Maybe", I feel sorry for you. Yes, it's far from groundbreaking, but it just sticks in your brain, it makes you feel good, you want to hear it again and again.
That's a hit.
"Call Me Maybe": http://bit.ly/zPFn29
P.S. There are 155 versions of "Call Me Maybe" on Spotify.
a. Spotify needs to find a way to keep the detritus out.
b. Everybody's a lowest common denominator bottom-feeder, they want to get in on the action.
c. The barrier to entry is incredibly low, credit GarageBand and Tunecore.
d. Just because you put it up on Spotify, that does not mean anybody listens to it!
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Wednesday 13 June 2012
EDM
1. Word Of Mouth
The media was there last.
This is akin to the seventies, when your favorite band finally hit and then everybody went back and bought the catalog and you could take a victory lap. Only in this case, as a result of the changes in the media landscape, it took more like twenty years.
Electronic music was closed out of the old gatekeeper game. Believing not enough people were interested, they stifled it.
The Internet broke EDM. You could hear it, see it and talk about it. On some level, it's no different from the Arab Spring. It was about communication. Unfettered by the machine. We keep hearing from the disinformation committee known as the RIAA/major labels that the Internet has been bad for music. EDM proves them wrong. EDM burgeoned because of the Internet!
2. The Scene/Culture
There was culture at Woodstock, at the Fillmore, but there's no culture at the Jiffy Lube/Verizon/Car Wreck Amphitheatre. It's only about commerce. The Top Forty is skin deep, the EDM scene goes to your core. It's not about getting up close, getting the right ticket, it's about inclusion as opposed to exclusion. Which is the mantra of the generation embracing it.
3. The Music
We're at the advent. It's kind of like the Beatles being on Ed Sullivan and everybody going out and buying a guitar. Except that now everybody's making music at home and utilizing SoundCloud. We couldn't foresee "Sgt. Pepper" in 1964 and we should be optimistic as to where electronic music is going as opposed to dismissing it.
4. Killing It
This is the number one problem facing EDM today. Its embrace by the mainstream in a dash for cash, which will hollow out the scene so fast you'll think the boy bands were forever.
It all comes down to the deejays. The deejays are in control of their culture, just like traditional musical artists. Can the deejays say no? First and foremost to the money?
We've had a short term mentality in the music business ever since 1981, the beginning of MTV. Let's overexpose it, get every last dollar and then leave its carcass behind.
And once something breaks through today, it's like the MTV of yore, except instead of having to sit in front of the tube waiting for your video, you can go online and dig deeper and deeper, feeding your habit.
In other words, EDM has to disconnect from traditional business to survive.
The deejays have to say no to major media. They have to say no to endorsements. They have to say no to everybody who wants to get between the music and their fans.
I know, I know, this is contrary to the so-called American way, where you utilize your fame to overexpose and become profitable, a paradigm Paris Hilton defined and Kim Kardashian refined. And they both got rich, but they're both despised.
That's not what an artist wants. An artists wants fans, who love them, forever.
5. Radio Crossover
That helped put the music into every nook and cranny. The collaborations that ended up on Top Forty radio. This is both good and bad. It's good, because why not have the music exposed. It's bad, because it muddies the waters and risks overexposure.
6. The Music
That's what will grant the scene longevity. Dance clubs come and go. But great music remains.
7. Bloviating About It
It doesn't matter what I say, never mind the mainstream media. Electronic music arrived fully-formed, with its own stars, promoters and infrastructure. Now the traditional forces want in. Used to be they were necessary, because of their power, money and influence. Now you can grow these at home.
The deejays are rich enough, they don't need the label's money.
The gigs are so successful, the promoters have profit.
And the media can't spread the word to anybody but outsiders, old farts who don't matter anyway. EDM lives on the Internet.
8. A Fad
Are the Yankees a fad? How about the Lakers?
We have been mistreating the music, paying it no respect for decades. This is a chance for change. New people beget new systems.
9. Fans first
So far, this has been the case. But in the traditional concert promotion sphere, this is anything but true. From the artists on down, it's all about ripping fans off, like the subterfuge of ticket fees. Never mind the overpriced concessions.
10. Music Should Be Free
You can charge, but only for high quality and singles. It's truly about the show, how can you get people to go?
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The media was there last.
This is akin to the seventies, when your favorite band finally hit and then everybody went back and bought the catalog and you could take a victory lap. Only in this case, as a result of the changes in the media landscape, it took more like twenty years.
Electronic music was closed out of the old gatekeeper game. Believing not enough people were interested, they stifled it.
The Internet broke EDM. You could hear it, see it and talk about it. On some level, it's no different from the Arab Spring. It was about communication. Unfettered by the machine. We keep hearing from the disinformation committee known as the RIAA/major labels that the Internet has been bad for music. EDM proves them wrong. EDM burgeoned because of the Internet!
2. The Scene/Culture
There was culture at Woodstock, at the Fillmore, but there's no culture at the Jiffy Lube/Verizon/Car Wreck Amphitheatre. It's only about commerce. The Top Forty is skin deep, the EDM scene goes to your core. It's not about getting up close, getting the right ticket, it's about inclusion as opposed to exclusion. Which is the mantra of the generation embracing it.
3. The Music
We're at the advent. It's kind of like the Beatles being on Ed Sullivan and everybody going out and buying a guitar. Except that now everybody's making music at home and utilizing SoundCloud. We couldn't foresee "Sgt. Pepper" in 1964 and we should be optimistic as to where electronic music is going as opposed to dismissing it.
4. Killing It
This is the number one problem facing EDM today. Its embrace by the mainstream in a dash for cash, which will hollow out the scene so fast you'll think the boy bands were forever.
It all comes down to the deejays. The deejays are in control of their culture, just like traditional musical artists. Can the deejays say no? First and foremost to the money?
We've had a short term mentality in the music business ever since 1981, the beginning of MTV. Let's overexpose it, get every last dollar and then leave its carcass behind.
And once something breaks through today, it's like the MTV of yore, except instead of having to sit in front of the tube waiting for your video, you can go online and dig deeper and deeper, feeding your habit.
In other words, EDM has to disconnect from traditional business to survive.
The deejays have to say no to major media. They have to say no to endorsements. They have to say no to everybody who wants to get between the music and their fans.
I know, I know, this is contrary to the so-called American way, where you utilize your fame to overexpose and become profitable, a paradigm Paris Hilton defined and Kim Kardashian refined. And they both got rich, but they're both despised.
That's not what an artist wants. An artists wants fans, who love them, forever.
5. Radio Crossover
That helped put the music into every nook and cranny. The collaborations that ended up on Top Forty radio. This is both good and bad. It's good, because why not have the music exposed. It's bad, because it muddies the waters and risks overexposure.
6. The Music
That's what will grant the scene longevity. Dance clubs come and go. But great music remains.
7. Bloviating About It
It doesn't matter what I say, never mind the mainstream media. Electronic music arrived fully-formed, with its own stars, promoters and infrastructure. Now the traditional forces want in. Used to be they were necessary, because of their power, money and influence. Now you can grow these at home.
The deejays are rich enough, they don't need the label's money.
The gigs are so successful, the promoters have profit.
And the media can't spread the word to anybody but outsiders, old farts who don't matter anyway. EDM lives on the Internet.
8. A Fad
Are the Yankees a fad? How about the Lakers?
We have been mistreating the music, paying it no respect for decades. This is a chance for change. New people beget new systems.
9. Fans first
So far, this has been the case. But in the traditional concert promotion sphere, this is anything but true. From the artists on down, it's all about ripping fans off, like the subterfuge of ticket fees. Never mind the overpriced concessions.
10. Music Should Be Free
You can charge, but only for high quality and singles. It's truly about the show, how can you get people to go?
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Questions
1. Why do the slowest drivers drive in the fast lane?
I was rushing to UCLA hospital...
Now that sounds like I was in a crisis. But that is untrue. I was going for a routine scan, they're checking my kidney stones, of which I've got a plethora... And you never know how long it's gonna take, because they're doing construction on the freeway. And on this particular day, today, I gauged it wrong, traffic was heavier than usual, and when I finally got on the 405 I was confronted with the question...fast lane or slow?
Felice has taught me the slow lane is oftentimes the fastest. You know, the one to the right. But because of said construction, traffic tends to be backed up at Sunset, and I was going all the way to Wilshire, so I decided to get in the fast lane. What a mistake!
First and foremost I'm behind an old Dodge van, so I can't see a damn thing. But then everybody around me starts to speed up, and I'm confronted with that age old question, should I change lanes?
Finally I did.
And after doing this I noticed a huge gap in front of said Dodge. The driver wasn't on the phone, he was just taking his sweet time. And it wasn't an issue of acceleration/power, he maintained about a ten car gap between himself and the driver in front...
We live in a lawless country. In so many states, California included, it's illegal to drive with a cell phone to your ear. But I see it all the time. Especially in the expensive cars driven by the people who believe they're immune, that the laws don't apply to them. Hell, why should they? They just pay off the politicians to go free and easy, and there aren't enough cops to stop them.
And I know the days of three freeway lanes, slow, medium and fast, are behind us. Hell, there are already five lanes on the 405 and they're adding a sixth, but didn't these people learn in driver's ed that slower traffic stays to the right?
2. Toilet paper rolls...
Actually, yesterday’s doctor, another routine check-up, at the House Ear Clinic, an appointment that's almost impossible to get, you've got to make it months in advance, Steven Tyler called me Monday to go hear the new Aerosmith album and I said no, because I wouldn't be able to hear the next morning for the test and I didn't want to reschedule and wait until fall to see the doctor again, told me a great aphorism he heard from a friend in Tennessee...
"Life is like a roll of toilet paper, when you get to the end, it goes really fast!"
Ain't that the truth. The doctor was remarking that it didn't seem like a year since he'd seen me last, which is the same thing Felice said when I left the house.
And speaking of toilet paper, at UCLA this morning I went to the john and I noticed... The toilet paper had a tiny core.
Let me try to explain this...
Ever notice that toilet paper rolls have this huge, inch and a half or two (I've never measured it...) hole in the middle? Why? Is it an issue of leverage/torque, are they fearful we won't be able to pull out the initial sheets?
Or is it just a scam. Manufacturers wanting us to believe we're getting more than we are.
But at the hospital, the hole in the middle was positively tiny. The paper went right down to the middle.
This is a breakthrough we need at home.
3. Foreign language
I don't hear that well. So when the people giving me the tests don't speak the language that well, it spooks me.
Yesterday, the woman was Spanish. I don't mean Latina, from Mexico, I mean she grew up overseas. And she's giving me the hearing test and I can't understand her. And when I try to tell her this, she can't understand what I'm saying! And I want to make sure the test is right, and it's a subjective one, unlike the ultrasound today...
And today, the woman was from Korea. And she was telling me to do things that seemed impossible... "Hold your breath and stick out your stomach..." Huh? Don't we usually hold our breath and HOLD IN our stomachs? Was it an issue of communication? Was it a language barrier or...
And do you get a bad result if you don't hold your breath during an ultrasound? Do I have to be uptight about this, or can I be cavalier? Does a powerful person talk on the cell phone during an ultrasound?
These are the questions that went through my mind today.
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I was rushing to UCLA hospital...
Now that sounds like I was in a crisis. But that is untrue. I was going for a routine scan, they're checking my kidney stones, of which I've got a plethora... And you never know how long it's gonna take, because they're doing construction on the freeway. And on this particular day, today, I gauged it wrong, traffic was heavier than usual, and when I finally got on the 405 I was confronted with the question...fast lane or slow?
Felice has taught me the slow lane is oftentimes the fastest. You know, the one to the right. But because of said construction, traffic tends to be backed up at Sunset, and I was going all the way to Wilshire, so I decided to get in the fast lane. What a mistake!
First and foremost I'm behind an old Dodge van, so I can't see a damn thing. But then everybody around me starts to speed up, and I'm confronted with that age old question, should I change lanes?
Finally I did.
And after doing this I noticed a huge gap in front of said Dodge. The driver wasn't on the phone, he was just taking his sweet time. And it wasn't an issue of acceleration/power, he maintained about a ten car gap between himself and the driver in front...
We live in a lawless country. In so many states, California included, it's illegal to drive with a cell phone to your ear. But I see it all the time. Especially in the expensive cars driven by the people who believe they're immune, that the laws don't apply to them. Hell, why should they? They just pay off the politicians to go free and easy, and there aren't enough cops to stop them.
And I know the days of three freeway lanes, slow, medium and fast, are behind us. Hell, there are already five lanes on the 405 and they're adding a sixth, but didn't these people learn in driver's ed that slower traffic stays to the right?
2. Toilet paper rolls...
Actually, yesterday’s doctor, another routine check-up, at the House Ear Clinic, an appointment that's almost impossible to get, you've got to make it months in advance, Steven Tyler called me Monday to go hear the new Aerosmith album and I said no, because I wouldn't be able to hear the next morning for the test and I didn't want to reschedule and wait until fall to see the doctor again, told me a great aphorism he heard from a friend in Tennessee...
"Life is like a roll of toilet paper, when you get to the end, it goes really fast!"
Ain't that the truth. The doctor was remarking that it didn't seem like a year since he'd seen me last, which is the same thing Felice said when I left the house.
And speaking of toilet paper, at UCLA this morning I went to the john and I noticed... The toilet paper had a tiny core.
Let me try to explain this...
Ever notice that toilet paper rolls have this huge, inch and a half or two (I've never measured it...) hole in the middle? Why? Is it an issue of leverage/torque, are they fearful we won't be able to pull out the initial sheets?
Or is it just a scam. Manufacturers wanting us to believe we're getting more than we are.
But at the hospital, the hole in the middle was positively tiny. The paper went right down to the middle.
This is a breakthrough we need at home.
3. Foreign language
I don't hear that well. So when the people giving me the tests don't speak the language that well, it spooks me.
Yesterday, the woman was Spanish. I don't mean Latina, from Mexico, I mean she grew up overseas. And she's giving me the hearing test and I can't understand her. And when I try to tell her this, she can't understand what I'm saying! And I want to make sure the test is right, and it's a subjective one, unlike the ultrasound today...
And today, the woman was from Korea. And she was telling me to do things that seemed impossible... "Hold your breath and stick out your stomach..." Huh? Don't we usually hold our breath and HOLD IN our stomachs? Was it an issue of communication? Was it a language barrier or...
And do you get a bad result if you don't hold your breath during an ultrasound? Do I have to be uptight about this, or can I be cavalier? Does a powerful person talk on the cell phone during an ultrasound?
These are the questions that went through my mind today.
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Tuesday 12 June 2012
E-Mail Of The Day
From: Scott McKain
Subject: Re: WWDC
Bob --
You're the only one I've been reading who "got" what made the Apple session yesterday so important.
May I add one more item to your list? Apple delivers on the front line to the customer.
I'm on the road on speaking gigs, and after the WWDC program, called the Apple Store at the Forum Shops to see if they already had the new MacBook Pro with the Retina display in stock. Nice guy on the phone said no, but he would know more tomorrow, so I should call back and ask for Josh. I gave him my name and asked for him to expect my call.
Today, I was by the store anyway...so, I walked in. The employee at the front welcomed me, then got something over her earpiece. She asked, "Are you Mr. McKain?" A little surprised, I responded I was...but how did she know? She smiled and said, "Josh told me over the radio."
A young guy -- college age -- walks up and introduces himself. "After we hung up," Josh told me, "I Googled your name, saw your website and YouTube videos. I want to know my potential customers!"
They had ONE of the new retina display MBP's in stock -- and after that, I had to make it mine. But, here's another unreal thing -- as I was leaving, someone announced, "We have just sold the very first of the new MacBook Pros! A round of applause to the customer giving it a new home!" The store employees...some lined by the door...started clapping as I walked out! (Some other customers did, too, wondering what the hell was happening.)
Sure, I know it doesn't work perfectly all the time. But, Apple is making the technology seamless while simultaneously making the customer feel appreciated. Think Best Buy or Fry's has a chance when it comes time to buy my next computer? Sure, there's a premium you pay for Apple...or any other product or service of distinction...but it's worth it for the magical mix of technology and experience.
If I go see "The Avengers" and the theatre is dirty, and the projector's bulb is dim and old, the experience is soiled no matter what's on the screen. Why would a promoter or venue think it's any different when security is rude, getting to concessions and restrooms require the patience of the Dalai Lama, and everything from parking to drinks cost a fortune, regardless of the act onstage?
In music, the artist gets the applause...not the fans. What if the experience -- from clubs to coliseums -- was set up to make the audience feel connected and appreciated, instead of gouged? Maybe...just like we do with Apple...the audience would spend more -- more frequently.
Thanks, Bob.
Scott
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Subject: Re: WWDC
Bob --
You're the only one I've been reading who "got" what made the Apple session yesterday so important.
May I add one more item to your list? Apple delivers on the front line to the customer.
I'm on the road on speaking gigs, and after the WWDC program, called the Apple Store at the Forum Shops to see if they already had the new MacBook Pro with the Retina display in stock. Nice guy on the phone said no, but he would know more tomorrow, so I should call back and ask for Josh. I gave him my name and asked for him to expect my call.
Today, I was by the store anyway...so, I walked in. The employee at the front welcomed me, then got something over her earpiece. She asked, "Are you Mr. McKain?" A little surprised, I responded I was...but how did she know? She smiled and said, "Josh told me over the radio."
A young guy -- college age -- walks up and introduces himself. "After we hung up," Josh told me, "I Googled your name, saw your website and YouTube videos. I want to know my potential customers!"
They had ONE of the new retina display MBP's in stock -- and after that, I had to make it mine. But, here's another unreal thing -- as I was leaving, someone announced, "We have just sold the very first of the new MacBook Pros! A round of applause to the customer giving it a new home!" The store employees...some lined by the door...started clapping as I walked out! (Some other customers did, too, wondering what the hell was happening.)
Sure, I know it doesn't work perfectly all the time. But, Apple is making the technology seamless while simultaneously making the customer feel appreciated. Think Best Buy or Fry's has a chance when it comes time to buy my next computer? Sure, there's a premium you pay for Apple...or any other product or service of distinction...but it's worth it for the magical mix of technology and experience.
If I go see "The Avengers" and the theatre is dirty, and the projector's bulb is dim and old, the experience is soiled no matter what's on the screen. Why would a promoter or venue think it's any different when security is rude, getting to concessions and restrooms require the patience of the Dalai Lama, and everything from parking to drinks cost a fortune, regardless of the act onstage?
In music, the artist gets the applause...not the fans. What if the experience -- from clubs to coliseums -- was set up to make the audience feel connected and appreciated, instead of gouged? Maybe...just like we do with Apple...the audience would spend more -- more frequently.
Thanks, Bob.
Scott
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WWDC
It's an ecosystem.
Contrary to popular wisdom, the iMac didn't save Apple, the iPod did. The iMac spoke to the faithful, however disenchanted they may have become. The iPod spoke to newbies, who didn't think they cared. Then they joined the reinvigorated faithful and became an army.
You might have read about the introduction of the new MacBook Pro with the Retina display. But yesterday wasn't about hardware, but software. The integration of all of Apple's products, from the iPhone to the iPad to the Mac. Suddenly, you need all three, because they speak to each other. And so far no one is even competing, certainly not Google, and although the moribund Microsoft has introduced a decent Windows phone, there's no uptake, there are no apps, there's no reason to buy it.
Yesterday was all about sync. They didn't call it that, but that's what it is. Syncing your phone with your tablet with your computer, so they're all up to date, automatically, from the documents you're working on to the photos you're shooting to the music you're listening to. No one else has a complete solution, and as a result they're going to be lost in the dust.
iMessage and FaceTime work on all three products. And if you're not a Mac user, you're out of the loop. And if you think this is insignificant, you're unaware of the power of BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), which kept the BlackBerry alive longer than it should have been.
You want to play with your friends. And now, you can do this wirelessly, with said friends, who might be on an iPhone while you're on your computer, watching the action unfold on your TV, wirelessly. But even more you don't want to be disorganized yourself, you don't want to waste time syncing all your machines. But now that's done seamlessly.
What Apple has done is bring its operating systems together. Lion and Mountain Lion are all about making the Mac more like the iPhone and iPad. Now you can control your Mac with gestures.
And the notifications and sharing built into Mountain Lion are staggering. You think of your computer as being discrete programs, now they're all operating together, like life.
And what's great about Apple, unlike the music industry, is they're ahead of the customer. Most people not only didn't watch this presentation and have no idea of the capabilities, they don't believe they even need the capabilities! Just like they thought they didn't need e-mail on their phone, just like they thought they didn't need apps.
Call me a fanboy, but that's missing the point. Apple is making an end run around the entire technology business. And neither Wall Street nor the mainstream media are catching it. They keep looking at today's numbers, at Android penetration, hell, they couldn't even foresee the death of the BlackBerry when it was self-evident.
Android is hampered by multiple handsets running multiple generations of the operating system, with most people not upgrading to the latest, if that's even possible. Whereas Apple is unified. You can check the slide. Almost everybody upgraded to iOS 5. Which then ensures adoption of the latest gee-whiz functionalities. And there is no full-fledged Google computer, hell, there's not even a hit Google tablet.
Apple's stock is going to go through the roof. Adoption of the iPhone is in its infancy. The integration of all three devices will make Windows domination laughable. Because Apple is not only going for the desktop, it's going for hearts and minds. It's invading your home, your car, it's with you everywhere. And what's going to sell Apple is not the company's advertising, but the fanbase, the same way it spread the word on the iPod and then the Mac.
Please, please, please don't have a knee-jerk reaction. Don't think I've sold out to Tim Cook, et al. Please be dispassionate about this. Imagine if your CD spoke to your CD player and your car radio too. That's what this is about. And imagine if this aforementioned integration could even speak to your buddies. Yup, you can now share your photos with friends, seamlessly.
This is so big, and seemingly everyone missed it.
Sure, the hardware is up to date, shiny and flashy, but it's what you can do with it that counts.
Your life is about to change. You just don't know it yet.
The keynote: http://bit.ly/MCoRnB
P.S. Tim Cook was more relaxed, but he had the great sense to let others do the talking. The keynote was not disconnected from Steve Jobs, but part of the continuum. As for the vaunted Apple television, watch closely and you'll see they're already introducing so much of the functionality, without any hardware involved. The key to Apple's resurgence has been software, oftentimes hidden under the packaging of shiny hardware. Unfortunately, its competitors in the consumer electronics business can make their products shiny and new on the outside, but inside, functionality is still positively twentieth century.
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Contrary to popular wisdom, the iMac didn't save Apple, the iPod did. The iMac spoke to the faithful, however disenchanted they may have become. The iPod spoke to newbies, who didn't think they cared. Then they joined the reinvigorated faithful and became an army.
You might have read about the introduction of the new MacBook Pro with the Retina display. But yesterday wasn't about hardware, but software. The integration of all of Apple's products, from the iPhone to the iPad to the Mac. Suddenly, you need all three, because they speak to each other. And so far no one is even competing, certainly not Google, and although the moribund Microsoft has introduced a decent Windows phone, there's no uptake, there are no apps, there's no reason to buy it.
Yesterday was all about sync. They didn't call it that, but that's what it is. Syncing your phone with your tablet with your computer, so they're all up to date, automatically, from the documents you're working on to the photos you're shooting to the music you're listening to. No one else has a complete solution, and as a result they're going to be lost in the dust.
iMessage and FaceTime work on all three products. And if you're not a Mac user, you're out of the loop. And if you think this is insignificant, you're unaware of the power of BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), which kept the BlackBerry alive longer than it should have been.
You want to play with your friends. And now, you can do this wirelessly, with said friends, who might be on an iPhone while you're on your computer, watching the action unfold on your TV, wirelessly. But even more you don't want to be disorganized yourself, you don't want to waste time syncing all your machines. But now that's done seamlessly.
What Apple has done is bring its operating systems together. Lion and Mountain Lion are all about making the Mac more like the iPhone and iPad. Now you can control your Mac with gestures.
And the notifications and sharing built into Mountain Lion are staggering. You think of your computer as being discrete programs, now they're all operating together, like life.
And what's great about Apple, unlike the music industry, is they're ahead of the customer. Most people not only didn't watch this presentation and have no idea of the capabilities, they don't believe they even need the capabilities! Just like they thought they didn't need e-mail on their phone, just like they thought they didn't need apps.
Call me a fanboy, but that's missing the point. Apple is making an end run around the entire technology business. And neither Wall Street nor the mainstream media are catching it. They keep looking at today's numbers, at Android penetration, hell, they couldn't even foresee the death of the BlackBerry when it was self-evident.
Android is hampered by multiple handsets running multiple generations of the operating system, with most people not upgrading to the latest, if that's even possible. Whereas Apple is unified. You can check the slide. Almost everybody upgraded to iOS 5. Which then ensures adoption of the latest gee-whiz functionalities. And there is no full-fledged Google computer, hell, there's not even a hit Google tablet.
Apple's stock is going to go through the roof. Adoption of the iPhone is in its infancy. The integration of all three devices will make Windows domination laughable. Because Apple is not only going for the desktop, it's going for hearts and minds. It's invading your home, your car, it's with you everywhere. And what's going to sell Apple is not the company's advertising, but the fanbase, the same way it spread the word on the iPod and then the Mac.
Please, please, please don't have a knee-jerk reaction. Don't think I've sold out to Tim Cook, et al. Please be dispassionate about this. Imagine if your CD spoke to your CD player and your car radio too. That's what this is about. And imagine if this aforementioned integration could even speak to your buddies. Yup, you can now share your photos with friends, seamlessly.
This is so big, and seemingly everyone missed it.
Sure, the hardware is up to date, shiny and flashy, but it's what you can do with it that counts.
Your life is about to change. You just don't know it yet.
The keynote: http://bit.ly/MCoRnB
P.S. Tim Cook was more relaxed, but he had the great sense to let others do the talking. The keynote was not disconnected from Steve Jobs, but part of the continuum. As for the vaunted Apple television, watch closely and you'll see they're already introducing so much of the functionality, without any hardware involved. The key to Apple's resurgence has been software, oftentimes hidden under the packaging of shiny hardware. Unfortunately, its competitors in the consumer electronics business can make their products shiny and new on the outside, but inside, functionality is still positively twentieth century.
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Monday 11 June 2012
Mailbag
From: Don Law
Subject: Robert Johnson
Bob,
Loved your story about Robert Johnson but it was off the mark on a number of points. My father was the only person to record Robert and John Hammond had heard my fathers recordings and hoped to find him for a Carnegie Hall concert. He contacted my father and asked him if he could contact Robert and the rest is well documented. If you would like to discuss the background please send me your number and I will call.
Best,
Don Law
________________________________________
From: John Boylan
Re: Robert Johnson
Hi Bob,
On your recommendation, I listened to the podcast on Robert Johnson, and you're right - it's a great story. Faust in the Delta - Joseph Campbell would love it. The McCormick part is heartbreaking. And the ending reminds of that great old maxim: "When the truth and the legend contradict each other, always print the legend."
However, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details, and I have to point out a major problem with the podcast - John Hammond did not discover Robert Johnson, and he would have been the first to say that.
I loved John Hammond - most of us who worked with him or around him at the old CBS Records felt the same way. He was the consummate music man, completely uninfluenced by anything except the authenticity and quality of the music. And the number and variety of artists he discovered is staggering. Robert Johnson is not one of them.
To be sure, he heard Johnson's records and liked them, and wanted Johnson to appear on the "Spirituals to Swing" concert, but when he tried to book him, he found out that Johnson had died. In Hammond's book, he says that Johnson was "killed by his girl friend." Later, in a video, he said that Johnson had been killed "in a barroom brawl." Neither story, as we know, is true. John Hammond did not know a great deal about Johnson because he was never really involved with him.
Johnson was discovered by two people and recorded by a third. In 1936, Johnson went to Speir's Furniture Store in Jackson, Mississippi. In those days, furniture stores were the main place one would buy both a phonograph and records to play on it. Many of them would also make their own records for customers for a fee. H.C. Speir, the owner was impressed with Johnson and brought him to a talent scout he knew named Ernie Oertle, an independent who had ties to the American Recording Company, later part of Columbia Records. Oertle also liked him and brought him to San Antonio, where Don Law (father of Live Nations's Don Law in Boston) produced the initial sessions on him at the Gunter Hotel in late November, 1936.
The sides that they did there, plus a few more later in Dallas, comprise the entire works of Robert Johnson. Initially, they were not very successful, although one single, "Terraplane Blues," made some impact. The vinyl reissue in the 1960s on Columbia is what kicked off the Robert Johnson revival, and allowed all those players of my generation to hear him.
Peter Guralnick, one of the best writers in American music, wrote a small volume called "Searching for Robert Johnson." It's well worth reading.
Unfortunately, we'll probably never know the whole Robert Johnson story - but all the legends work fine for me.
Best,
JB
________________________________________
From: Don Law
Subject: Re: Robert Johnson
Bob,
John is right about the Speir/Oertle connection to my father. I remember sitting on the floor of our living room in 1960 when my father had many of the original recordings spread out on the floor along with his recording log. The surroundings for the sessions were incredibly crude and it is a wonder that the original recordings did not melt on site. My father had an ice-filled bathtub with a fan blowing over it trying to prevent the recording from melting in the Texas heat. There was an engineer, my father, Robert, and a bottle of whiskey, and everyone drank. Most recordings were done on first or second take. My mother and father each had a few recollections of Robert. A few years later, when my father went back to find Robert he was told that Robert's liquor had been poisoned with naphthalene by a vengeful husband. Since so many people have made a cottage industry out of Robert Johnson I would not trust anyone on the subject other than the author Peter Guralnick who is also mentioned by John.
Best,
Don Law
________________________________________
From: Geoffrey Cushing-Murray
Subject: Thanks
To: Bob Lefsetz
for your continued support of Angel. Warms my heart. I did get the girl back though it took about 15 years. We've been married for 19.
____
From: Bob Lefsetz
Subject: Re: Thanks
To: Geoffrey Cushing-Murray
Wow, you're blowing my mind! Tell me the story!
____
From: Geoffrey Cushing-Murray
Subject: Re: Thanks
To: Bob Lefsetz
It was a typical starving artist story. I was writing songs in the early to mid -70's that were good but not material that anybody wanted to cover. Jerry Fuller and Bud Scoppa were early champions. I worked casuals and bar bands as a singer living a somewhat dangerous lifestyle and not making much money. I was on and off with a girl who had a great job in TV production. I was convinced that we were meant to be together, but she... not so much. She didn't think I was doing enough to promote myself pounding the pavement and such and she was right. I had enough connections that I believed if I continued to produce material that I could be proud of things would work out. Well, the girl dumped me and ran off with a soap opera actor and moved to NYC. This is now referred to as her BIG MISTAKE. Shortly there after Carl Wilson got hold of some of my demos via Billy Hinsche of Dino, Desi and Billy who was also Carl's brother-in-law and I at once became hot and cool. I scored a cover by Johnny Cougar called Hot Night in a Cold Town and moved on to playing original stuff on the Madame Wong/Hong Kong Cafe/Club 88 circuit. Some 6 years after my dumping I had cause to call my old flame because of the passing of the guy who introduced us. Next thing you know we're carrying on a doomed bi-costal thing over another 6 year period which ended with her not returning my calls. Freshly devastated I moved on and was married to another good looking Jewish girl from Brooklyn same age who even lived on the same street, Freedonia off Cahuenga. That was my big mistake and it lasted another 6 years. I had, by the end of that affair, soured on the music biz and either ran out of things to say or ran in to a colossal writer's block and, being cash poor with medical bills, started working in the limousine business. Word of my impending divorce got back to NY and within a year we were married and have remained happily so for 19 years. Music is still a big deal to me but all in private and I keep it that way by never finishing anything I start. When I committed to songwriting I believed that if I could write just one song that could stand the test of time then all the other crap would be worthwhile. You've done your part in bringing me a measure of satisfaction. Thanks again.
____
From: Billy Hinsche
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Some Beach Boys You Might Have Missed
There's a lot more to the Geoffrey story - we dated sisters and that's how we met. He is a decorated Viet Nam Vet who wrote "Love Surrounds Me" with Dennis and "Full Sail" with Carl for the LA LIGHT album) - Geoffrey remains a good friend to this day. Best to you and Felice, Billy
P.S. Geoffrey earned a degree in English from UCLA - probably class of '71 - '72 and so I knew he was erudite - thus, the introduction to Carl as a potential songwriting partner. Later, Billy
________________________________________
From: William Hinsche
Subject: Re: Eric Carmen On The Beach Boys
If I might add one more point of interest to Eric's excellent email: I was on the road as a Beach Boys' band member during those tours of '74 and '76, and when Eric played the Roxy in LA around the same time period I asked him if he would like to meet Brian; so in-between sets I drove him to Brian's Bel Air home on Bellagio to make the introduction, getting Eric back to the Roxy in time for his second set.
All best,
Billy Hinsche
________________________________________
From: Eric Carmen
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Some Beach Boys You Might Have Missed
Bob,
Couldn't agree with you more about "Marcella." I don't know if that strummed chord before each downbeat of the verse was played on an autoharp or (more likely) they slowed the tape speed way down, and played it on a twelve-string with a capo, and then sped the tape up again, but it is the standout of that album. I was thrilled to hear Brian and his band play it during the "Smile" tour. I thinks it's as close as The Beach Boys are going to get to the Rolling Stones. It rocks!
Reading your columns these past few nights make me realize I need to go back and listen to all these tracks again!
Eric
________________________________________
From: Don Berns
Subject: Eric Carmen
Bob-
Next time you talk to your pal, Eric Carmen, ask him if he knows why the Raspberries version of "Go All The Way" was not used in Tim Burton's "Dark Shadows," a film that otherwise (mostly) succeeded in re-creating the 70s with the original music of the era.
I like The Killers...a lot...but their version of "Go All The Way" is a sacrilege compared to the original.
doN Berns
________________________________________
From: Eric Carmen
Subject: Re: Eric Carmen
It's all about the money. If they had used the Raspberries' version, which I control the copyright and publishing for, they would have had to negotiate a price with me. By having The Killers re-record it, they didn't have to deal with those issues, and probably got it a lot cheaper. I'm just happy to know Tim Burton loved the song. My daughter is the biggest tim Burton fan on the planet, and it made her day knowing Tim had asked The Killers to re-record it. No harm, no foul. I thought they did a really good job, and, believe me, it's not an easy song to do.
When I was touring with Ringo, in 2000, an interviewer asked us whose songs were the hardest. The entire band ( Jack Bruce, Dave Edmunds, Simon Kirke and Ringo) immediately pointed to me, and said "Eric's".
I think Dave's quote was : "There's a fucking chord for every WORD!!!!" All the other songs we played were basically "grooves". If you can play the groove, i. e. "Sunshine Of Your Love", "I Knew The Bride ( When She Used To Rock 'n Roll )" you were good. My songs have very sophisticated chords and harmonies, owing to my influences, The Beach Boys and The Who, and The Byrds and The Beatles.
It was much more difficult for the band to process my stuff than the "riff" based R&R we were all used to.
Having said that, it was the greatest band I have ever worked with. You can't imagine the joy of having Ringo and Simon Kirke drumming on "All By Myself" every night. Amazing!
e
________________________________________
Subject: Re: The Power Of One
Two things that Michael Eisner said when we were working for him, starting Hollywood Records in '89/'90:
"You don't fire people for making mistakes, you fire people for not making mistakes"
and
"If someone's not mad at you, you're not doing a good job."
truer words...
Best,
Steve Jones
Executive Producer
"Swamp Hunters"
TRUTV
T GROUP
________________________________________
Subject: Re: Sillerman
BINGO, Bob.
I am a outdoor venue owner/operator, and booking agent. My venue, 5600 capacity Whitewater Amphitheatre, is located on the banks of the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels Texas. We are a very seasonal venue (Summer Tourist destination). We are also the third highest grossing Amphitheatre in Texas, and most likely #1 grossing Amphitheatre in the State in the Summertime. Last year we hosted Bob Dylan, Leon Russell. Willie Nelson, Dwight Yoakam, Robert Earl Keen, Gary Allan, and many other country acts. We also hosted acts like GIRL TALK and GHOSTLAND OBSERVATORY. These last two just killed it, and Ghostland has sold out four years in a row.
Two weeks ago we hosted Skrillex (on Memorial Day Weekend) and the cheapest ticket was $50.00. This show sold out six weeks in advance and the gross tickets sales were over a quarter million dollars. The Skrillex agent called to ask if we could end the show by 11:30 (which we are normally done just before midnight) The reason he wanted it to end by 11:30 was for Sonny to hop on a plane to Vegas from our local airport so he could play the late night party at the WYNN. ( West Coast time two hours earlier) He then played San Diego the next night.
We are looking forward to our future sellouts on Ghostland Observatory on July 21, and GIRL TALK on August 4th.
Oh, one other note, 5600 people, not one single issue with the crowd. Sonny Moore was and his tour manager, and the rest of his group where probably the classiest team we have ever worked with. I hope they come back for two nights in 2014. Im glad we diversified to Electronic.
Will Korioth
www.whitewaterrocks.com
________________________________________
From: Theresa K.
Subject: Re: Bits & Bytes
re: UCLA
I was an English major at UCLA back in ye olde 1970s.
I wanted to be an English teacher - maybe even teach college. What could be better than getting paid to sit around all day talking with people who wanted to study Shakespeare? What could be more relaxing than sitting around all day getting paid to talk about Elizabethan life, times & literature?
But then, when I was a TA with a section of "Bonehead English," which is what we called the "English for jock scholarships" section... a full-ride sports scholarship student was failing - combination of being ill-equipped for this level of education, him not caring, and him being practically close to illiterate.
One day, an assistant coach under a big famous one comes to have a talk with me about said student. "X is failing your section but he needs a 'C' to stay on the team" and I reply that "X" can't read and what if he doesn't make it into the major leagues? WORSE... he does make it and he can't read the contracts presented to him by an agent, let alone a sports franchise! How is a fake passing grade going to help him? Passing him helps no one but the sports program!
I complained to my advisor who advised me that I might be better served getting my advanced degree in English in the homeland of the language... so off to the UK I go, forever changed by my first-hand eye witnessing of and participation in the rise of punk rock.
True story.
UCLA, you and your star-f*ckery made me the obnoxious, literate hard-ass I am today.
Thanks?
________________________________________
From: Hugh Surratt
Subject: Ray Bradbury--A Recollection
1979.
Preface:
Having all recently lost our jobs at record labels, some friends and I had decided to manage bands in LA.
One of the bands was a SoCal country-rock outfit called Blue Steel. Their leader was a very talented guitarist named Richard Bowden, who grew up with Don Henley in Linden TX. Because of that friendship, Blue Steel opened for the Eagles' "Long Run" Tour that year. I spent three months out there on that tour (which is a whole other story--have you seen Almost Famous?).
The thing about artist management is that if your clients don't make money, there ain't no dough.
Ours didn't, and there wasn't.
Story:
Anyway, when I got off the road, I was flat broke. So one of my partners and I decided to take the Eagles' Tour Manager, Tom Nixon, up on his offer to paint his house.
Yeah, that was j-u-s-t a little humiliating!
So, one day we're out deep in The Valley, smokin' reefers and climbing ladders with buckets of paint, and Tom's wife comes out and tells us that her dad is coming by to float in the pool for the afternoon: "So be cool and stash the joints, guys."
An hour later, here comes a guy around into the backyard with his bathing suit in hand.
It's fucking Ray Bradbury!
Turns out Tom's wife Susan is Ray's daughter!
I did one of those Looney Tunes' Triple takes.
Ha-min-ah-ha-min-ah-ha-min-ah.
I certainly gave him his space, but yeah, I spent about a half hour talking to him. Me on the side of the pool, and Ray floating around on air mattress in his swimmin' trunks.
Of course, I couldn't resist telling him what a fan I was of the EC Comics' adaptations of his stories--and he told me the famous story (at least amongst us old comics fans) about how that all happened--in a friendly and humorous fashion, I might add. Embarrassingly, it was the first time I'd ever heard that story.
Oh yeah, he had arrived in a taxi--Bradbury told me he NEVER drove a car. And if I recall correctly, he said he didn't fly unless it was absolutely necessary.
Mr Martian Chronicles didn't drive or fly!
A very funny and really quite engaging gentleman.
RIP.
________________________________________
From: Robin Millar
Subject: RE: Sales
V happy with your sales review this week....but may I make one er
clarification re Adele?
The phrase "The game here is..."
Not Adele's game. She's not playing. The whole Sony team have privately admitted that if Adele had agreed to play even 5% of the super-saturation flesh pressing coast to coast jamboree they had planned for her debut album the hunger when 21 broke through would not have been there.
She just refused to play the game. She's a singer and songwriter who HAS to sing to cathartise her over-felt emotions. She writes as a reaction to catastrophe and it's that truth everyone hears and buys into. And your comment about Jack white having no great songs? You are right and Adele's manager was brave and told her that after the first record and adele was sussed enough to listen and go and collaborate with great people and up the anti and come up with a devastating collection of music for 21 where all the raw power and emotion came from her and the objectivity to translate this into how others would react came from the other pro in the room.
Adele does not play the game. She never will. I'm sure your comment was aimed at the label, the product managers, her management and so on....but if we are thinking Adele is going to spend time worrying about her release strategy? Naah
All the best
Robin
________________________________________
Bob..
if you wish to print this, please don't use my name (or label)...you'll understand...a lot of people have no idea....
4/22/09 I cut my wrists.....big ol' gaping hole in my left wrist you could have placed a golf ball in....for some reason, I didn't die...kept waking up and cutting deeper....actually woke up the next day (after a bottle of sleeping pills and a lot of blood) feeling quite refreshed..drove myself to the ER...
go figure
I can't speak for Bob, of course,....i can only speak for myself but no one could have helped or stopped me..it wasn't a cry for help..i was tired and wanted to go...I didn't want to be saved....
my suicide note was a list of assets, debts, and an apology to my parents,,,,not a whining list of "poor-me's"
I placed my severely cut wrist in a box of rags so my landlord wouldn't have a mess to clean up, wrapped the other in an old sweatshirt, and watched 'The Fifth Element" hoping to go to sleep and not wake up..love that movie...
having failed, I learned just how many people I would have really hurt but..to be honest...at that moment...I'm not sure i would have cared if I HAD known...really known.....one of the reasons I was so tired was living for other people..being THEIR rock......I think it might have made me cut the darned hand off...
so..I have read and re-read your letter and there is a part of me that understands but...I was tired...I was alone..so.who was it REALLY hurting.....having moved 6 times in 8 years while at _______, I already knew that people forget you and go on with their own lives...you don't have as many friends as you think...just acquaintances...
so...to address your points...I didn't want help..it was there....I didn't want it...was I less than macho by quitting?...to be honest, never crossed my mind...I was TIRED....it turns out that being tired is part of depression but at the time I didn't care and just wanted to go to sleep....and not wake up..
I'm starting to ramble and I'm sorry for that but..you have been so wonderful with your emails....filling me with musical happiness with your links and playlists...and info I never would have known otherwise..I hope I answered at least one of your questions...
as it turns out, Bi-Polar, PTSD, and a few other things...plus a mother ...ahh..my mother...
hahahahahahaha
____
From: Bob Lefsetz
To: _________
Wow, what a story, so how are you now?
____
From: _________
well
thanks to meds and my 4th shrink, I am very very well..surprisingly happy...and..believe it or not..in a stable relationship...and working
I hope I helped you if only a little
________________________________________
From: Mike Lawson
Subject: Re: Bob Welch
Wendy Welch was very grateful for your posting. She asked me to convey some of these thoughts with her gratitude. She wants everyone to know that Bob had the professional help he needed, and most importantly, he had her, with whom he shared an epic love affair. They were rarely apart from each other. I've known them all but the first three years they were married. Bob had Wendy, they were inseparable, it was an epic soulmate love many people will never experience.
Bob was in a lot of pain. He had a titanium plate put in his neck three months ago because he was in so much pain, the surgery was supposed to fix it, it made it worse. He had a spinal chord injury. He also had an A-Fib heat condition, which he got treatment for at the Mayo clinic a few years ago from, and was constantly worried he would have a stroke, end up an invalid like his father, the late film producer Robert Welch (he did those Pale Face movies for Bob Hope, among others), who had to be cared for by his mother. He said he couldn't put Wendy through that. He didn't want to slide down hill, was having trouble doing simple things, and between the pain and the depression it creates and/or amplifies, I guess he did what he thought he had to do.
Chronic pain is a horrific situation. Post-surgical pain is really hard on people, especially as we get older, and its especially hard when that surgery was supposed to stop the pain. I know this, first hand. In Bob's case, the surgery to stop the pain only increased it. He was miserable. We talked about medications, we talked about heating pads, we talked doctors, about soaking in hot baths, all the things that can help. Doctors are scared to treat pain for patients, scared of the DEA, scared of losing their licenses, they'd rather risk a patient be miserable than risk their license, and its because of the pill junkies gaming the system, combined with the crooked doctors who feed them. The innocent suffer who need the help. Bob had been to see the doctor the day before. Obviously, he did't feel like things were going to get better after whatever he learned in that visit. He did not like the idea of a pain management clinic being a next step.
The other side of this is that Bob was a heroin user 30 years ago. It was the hardest thing he ever kicked, and without his wife Wendy, he would not have done so. She was his rock. He was hers. When Wendy was hospitalized a couple of times the past few years, Bob and I had long conversations about him trying to make it without her, or vice versa. I promised I would be there for either when that terrible call comes, but it was still in my mind decades away. I never dreamed the call would be because of this.
Bob did not want to face dealing with the hell that is being in pain management systems, pissing in cups, random pill counts, monthly visits to the pain clinic and pharmacy, being treated like a potential suspect instead of a patient. The fact that eventually they have to up the dosage as the tolerance builds and at some point still be in pain anyway was not appealing. He didn't want to become dependent on pain medications. He wanted the pain to stop, that's all he wanted. He wanted to play his guitar again. Yesterday, Bob finally stopped the pain. I am comforted only by the fact that he is not hurting anymore, even though the price of his pain stopping is such devastatingly painful for his wife, for his family, for his friends, and even his fans to whom his hits became "their song" or held some special meaning in their lives, the way amazing music often does.
Bob, Wendy and I are/were close, and we talked many times a week, nearly every week. Over the past few years we started drifting from music business, politics, talking guitars, computers, recording, guffawing at the latest Lefsetz rant (which were frequent, believe me), to what doctors we were seeing, what medications we were on. I guess that comes with getting older. Several months ago, I tried to get him recording in his home studio again. He was a musical wizard, a mad-scientist, in that little home studio, using now-dated digital recording tools to achieve amazing results. What he could do with digital "stone axes and animal bones" compared to more modern recording tools, was out of this world. I had an extra Mac Pro and a couple of LCDs, and a MOTU 828 interface, that I gave to him, because the fan part of me wanted to see what wonders Bob could created with modern digital recording tools like Logic, on a super-fast Mac. He managed to set it all up, but he never got to use it much, Bob. He couldn't sit at the computer, use a mouse, or anything because of the pain. He had trouble making a chord on a guitar in the past few months. Imagine having the ability to feed your very life-giving muse slowly snatched away from you in a painful cruel fashion.
For the record, Bob was clean and sober, wasn't taking any strong medications, his actions were not the result of side effects of something. He was not a heavy drinker, or abuser of anything since getting clean from smack so long ago. Ultimately, he did this because he didn't want Wendy to suffer the long term care of a man fading in his senior years, he was hurting terribly, and he couldn't make music now. He did this, he said, because he loved her. As hard as that is for me to understand, and certainly even harder for her to understand, he did this tragic thing out of love. It wasn't anger, it wasn't depression (though his condition was depressing), he did this out of love. He detailed these thoughts in what he left behind in his notes. The exact words are to remain private, but this is the basic message.
His last words to me, late in the evening on June 5th as we hung up the phone, "I love you, Mike." Please remember Bob for the amazing music he left us, not for the way he left.
Thank you for your tribute to Bob Welch. You were a Bob Welch fan, but Bob Welch was also a bona fide Bob Lefsetz fan.
Mike Lawson
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Subject: Robert Johnson
Bob,
Loved your story about Robert Johnson but it was off the mark on a number of points. My father was the only person to record Robert and John Hammond had heard my fathers recordings and hoped to find him for a Carnegie Hall concert. He contacted my father and asked him if he could contact Robert and the rest is well documented. If you would like to discuss the background please send me your number and I will call.
Best,
Don Law
________________________________________
From: John Boylan
Re: Robert Johnson
Hi Bob,
On your recommendation, I listened to the podcast on Robert Johnson, and you're right - it's a great story. Faust in the Delta - Joseph Campbell would love it. The McCormick part is heartbreaking. And the ending reminds of that great old maxim: "When the truth and the legend contradict each other, always print the legend."
However, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details, and I have to point out a major problem with the podcast - John Hammond did not discover Robert Johnson, and he would have been the first to say that.
I loved John Hammond - most of us who worked with him or around him at the old CBS Records felt the same way. He was the consummate music man, completely uninfluenced by anything except the authenticity and quality of the music. And the number and variety of artists he discovered is staggering. Robert Johnson is not one of them.
To be sure, he heard Johnson's records and liked them, and wanted Johnson to appear on the "Spirituals to Swing" concert, but when he tried to book him, he found out that Johnson had died. In Hammond's book, he says that Johnson was "killed by his girl friend." Later, in a video, he said that Johnson had been killed "in a barroom brawl." Neither story, as we know, is true. John Hammond did not know a great deal about Johnson because he was never really involved with him.
Johnson was discovered by two people and recorded by a third. In 1936, Johnson went to Speir's Furniture Store in Jackson, Mississippi. In those days, furniture stores were the main place one would buy both a phonograph and records to play on it. Many of them would also make their own records for customers for a fee. H.C. Speir, the owner was impressed with Johnson and brought him to a talent scout he knew named Ernie Oertle, an independent who had ties to the American Recording Company, later part of Columbia Records. Oertle also liked him and brought him to San Antonio, where Don Law (father of Live Nations's Don Law in Boston) produced the initial sessions on him at the Gunter Hotel in late November, 1936.
The sides that they did there, plus a few more later in Dallas, comprise the entire works of Robert Johnson. Initially, they were not very successful, although one single, "Terraplane Blues," made some impact. The vinyl reissue in the 1960s on Columbia is what kicked off the Robert Johnson revival, and allowed all those players of my generation to hear him.
Peter Guralnick, one of the best writers in American music, wrote a small volume called "Searching for Robert Johnson." It's well worth reading.
Unfortunately, we'll probably never know the whole Robert Johnson story - but all the legends work fine for me.
Best,
JB
________________________________________
From: Don Law
Subject: Re: Robert Johnson
Bob,
John is right about the Speir/Oertle connection to my father. I remember sitting on the floor of our living room in 1960 when my father had many of the original recordings spread out on the floor along with his recording log. The surroundings for the sessions were incredibly crude and it is a wonder that the original recordings did not melt on site. My father had an ice-filled bathtub with a fan blowing over it trying to prevent the recording from melting in the Texas heat. There was an engineer, my father, Robert, and a bottle of whiskey, and everyone drank. Most recordings were done on first or second take. My mother and father each had a few recollections of Robert. A few years later, when my father went back to find Robert he was told that Robert's liquor had been poisoned with naphthalene by a vengeful husband. Since so many people have made a cottage industry out of Robert Johnson I would not trust anyone on the subject other than the author Peter Guralnick who is also mentioned by John.
Best,
Don Law
________________________________________
From: Geoffrey Cushing-Murray
Subject: Thanks
To: Bob Lefsetz
for your continued support of Angel. Warms my heart. I did get the girl back though it took about 15 years. We've been married for 19.
____
From: Bob Lefsetz
Subject: Re: Thanks
To: Geoffrey Cushing-Murray
Wow, you're blowing my mind! Tell me the story!
____
From: Geoffrey Cushing-Murray
Subject: Re: Thanks
To: Bob Lefsetz
It was a typical starving artist story. I was writing songs in the early to mid -70's that were good but not material that anybody wanted to cover. Jerry Fuller and Bud Scoppa were early champions. I worked casuals and bar bands as a singer living a somewhat dangerous lifestyle and not making much money. I was on and off with a girl who had a great job in TV production. I was convinced that we were meant to be together, but she... not so much. She didn't think I was doing enough to promote myself pounding the pavement and such and she was right. I had enough connections that I believed if I continued to produce material that I could be proud of things would work out. Well, the girl dumped me and ran off with a soap opera actor and moved to NYC. This is now referred to as her BIG MISTAKE. Shortly there after Carl Wilson got hold of some of my demos via Billy Hinsche of Dino, Desi and Billy who was also Carl's brother-in-law and I at once became hot and cool. I scored a cover by Johnny Cougar called Hot Night in a Cold Town and moved on to playing original stuff on the Madame Wong/Hong Kong Cafe/Club 88 circuit. Some 6 years after my dumping I had cause to call my old flame because of the passing of the guy who introduced us. Next thing you know we're carrying on a doomed bi-costal thing over another 6 year period which ended with her not returning my calls. Freshly devastated I moved on and was married to another good looking Jewish girl from Brooklyn same age who even lived on the same street, Freedonia off Cahuenga. That was my big mistake and it lasted another 6 years. I had, by the end of that affair, soured on the music biz and either ran out of things to say or ran in to a colossal writer's block and, being cash poor with medical bills, started working in the limousine business. Word of my impending divorce got back to NY and within a year we were married and have remained happily so for 19 years. Music is still a big deal to me but all in private and I keep it that way by never finishing anything I start. When I committed to songwriting I believed that if I could write just one song that could stand the test of time then all the other crap would be worthwhile. You've done your part in bringing me a measure of satisfaction. Thanks again.
____
From: Billy Hinsche
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Some Beach Boys You Might Have Missed
There's a lot more to the Geoffrey story - we dated sisters and that's how we met. He is a decorated Viet Nam Vet who wrote "Love Surrounds Me" with Dennis and "Full Sail" with Carl for the LA LIGHT album) - Geoffrey remains a good friend to this day. Best to you and Felice, Billy
P.S. Geoffrey earned a degree in English from UCLA - probably class of '71 - '72 and so I knew he was erudite - thus, the introduction to Carl as a potential songwriting partner. Later, Billy
________________________________________
From: William Hinsche
Subject: Re: Eric Carmen On The Beach Boys
If I might add one more point of interest to Eric's excellent email: I was on the road as a Beach Boys' band member during those tours of '74 and '76, and when Eric played the Roxy in LA around the same time period I asked him if he would like to meet Brian; so in-between sets I drove him to Brian's Bel Air home on Bellagio to make the introduction, getting Eric back to the Roxy in time for his second set.
All best,
Billy Hinsche
________________________________________
From: Eric Carmen
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Some Beach Boys You Might Have Missed
Bob,
Couldn't agree with you more about "Marcella." I don't know if that strummed chord before each downbeat of the verse was played on an autoharp or (more likely) they slowed the tape speed way down, and played it on a twelve-string with a capo, and then sped the tape up again, but it is the standout of that album. I was thrilled to hear Brian and his band play it during the "Smile" tour. I thinks it's as close as The Beach Boys are going to get to the Rolling Stones. It rocks!
Reading your columns these past few nights make me realize I need to go back and listen to all these tracks again!
Eric
________________________________________
From: Don Berns
Subject: Eric Carmen
Bob-
Next time you talk to your pal, Eric Carmen, ask him if he knows why the Raspberries version of "Go All The Way" was not used in Tim Burton's "Dark Shadows," a film that otherwise (mostly) succeeded in re-creating the 70s with the original music of the era.
I like The Killers...a lot...but their version of "Go All The Way" is a sacrilege compared to the original.
doN Berns
________________________________________
From: Eric Carmen
Subject: Re: Eric Carmen
It's all about the money. If they had used the Raspberries' version, which I control the copyright and publishing for, they would have had to negotiate a price with me. By having The Killers re-record it, they didn't have to deal with those issues, and probably got it a lot cheaper. I'm just happy to know Tim Burton loved the song. My daughter is the biggest tim Burton fan on the planet, and it made her day knowing Tim had asked The Killers to re-record it. No harm, no foul. I thought they did a really good job, and, believe me, it's not an easy song to do.
When I was touring with Ringo, in 2000, an interviewer asked us whose songs were the hardest. The entire band ( Jack Bruce, Dave Edmunds, Simon Kirke and Ringo) immediately pointed to me, and said "Eric's".
I think Dave's quote was : "There's a fucking chord for every WORD!!!!" All the other songs we played were basically "grooves". If you can play the groove, i. e. "Sunshine Of Your Love", "I Knew The Bride ( When She Used To Rock 'n Roll )" you were good. My songs have very sophisticated chords and harmonies, owing to my influences, The Beach Boys and The Who, and The Byrds and The Beatles.
It was much more difficult for the band to process my stuff than the "riff" based R&R we were all used to.
Having said that, it was the greatest band I have ever worked with. You can't imagine the joy of having Ringo and Simon Kirke drumming on "All By Myself" every night. Amazing!
e
________________________________________
Subject: Re: The Power Of One
Two things that Michael Eisner said when we were working for him, starting Hollywood Records in '89/'90:
"You don't fire people for making mistakes, you fire people for not making mistakes"
and
"If someone's not mad at you, you're not doing a good job."
truer words...
Best,
Steve Jones
Executive Producer
"Swamp Hunters"
TRUTV
T GROUP
________________________________________
Subject: Re: Sillerman
BINGO, Bob.
I am a outdoor venue owner/operator, and booking agent. My venue, 5600 capacity Whitewater Amphitheatre, is located on the banks of the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels Texas. We are a very seasonal venue (Summer Tourist destination). We are also the third highest grossing Amphitheatre in Texas, and most likely #1 grossing Amphitheatre in the State in the Summertime. Last year we hosted Bob Dylan, Leon Russell. Willie Nelson, Dwight Yoakam, Robert Earl Keen, Gary Allan, and many other country acts. We also hosted acts like GIRL TALK and GHOSTLAND OBSERVATORY. These last two just killed it, and Ghostland has sold out four years in a row.
Two weeks ago we hosted Skrillex (on Memorial Day Weekend) and the cheapest ticket was $50.00. This show sold out six weeks in advance and the gross tickets sales were over a quarter million dollars. The Skrillex agent called to ask if we could end the show by 11:30 (which we are normally done just before midnight) The reason he wanted it to end by 11:30 was for Sonny to hop on a plane to Vegas from our local airport so he could play the late night party at the WYNN. ( West Coast time two hours earlier) He then played San Diego the next night.
We are looking forward to our future sellouts on Ghostland Observatory on July 21, and GIRL TALK on August 4th.
Oh, one other note, 5600 people, not one single issue with the crowd. Sonny Moore was and his tour manager, and the rest of his group where probably the classiest team we have ever worked with. I hope they come back for two nights in 2014. Im glad we diversified to Electronic.
Will Korioth
www.whitewaterrocks.com
________________________________________
From: Theresa K.
Subject: Re: Bits & Bytes
re: UCLA
I was an English major at UCLA back in ye olde 1970s.
I wanted to be an English teacher - maybe even teach college. What could be better than getting paid to sit around all day talking with people who wanted to study Shakespeare? What could be more relaxing than sitting around all day getting paid to talk about Elizabethan life, times & literature?
But then, when I was a TA with a section of "Bonehead English," which is what we called the "English for jock scholarships" section... a full-ride sports scholarship student was failing - combination of being ill-equipped for this level of education, him not caring, and him being practically close to illiterate.
One day, an assistant coach under a big famous one comes to have a talk with me about said student. "X is failing your section but he needs a 'C' to stay on the team" and I reply that "X" can't read and what if he doesn't make it into the major leagues? WORSE... he does make it and he can't read the contracts presented to him by an agent, let alone a sports franchise! How is a fake passing grade going to help him? Passing him helps no one but the sports program!
I complained to my advisor who advised me that I might be better served getting my advanced degree in English in the homeland of the language... so off to the UK I go, forever changed by my first-hand eye witnessing of and participation in the rise of punk rock.
True story.
UCLA, you and your star-f*ckery made me the obnoxious, literate hard-ass I am today.
Thanks?
________________________________________
From: Hugh Surratt
Subject: Ray Bradbury--A Recollection
1979.
Preface:
Having all recently lost our jobs at record labels, some friends and I had decided to manage bands in LA.
One of the bands was a SoCal country-rock outfit called Blue Steel. Their leader was a very talented guitarist named Richard Bowden, who grew up with Don Henley in Linden TX. Because of that friendship, Blue Steel opened for the Eagles' "Long Run" Tour that year. I spent three months out there on that tour (which is a whole other story--have you seen Almost Famous?).
The thing about artist management is that if your clients don't make money, there ain't no dough.
Ours didn't, and there wasn't.
Story:
Anyway, when I got off the road, I was flat broke. So one of my partners and I decided to take the Eagles' Tour Manager, Tom Nixon, up on his offer to paint his house.
Yeah, that was j-u-s-t a little humiliating!
So, one day we're out deep in The Valley, smokin' reefers and climbing ladders with buckets of paint, and Tom's wife comes out and tells us that her dad is coming by to float in the pool for the afternoon: "So be cool and stash the joints, guys."
An hour later, here comes a guy around into the backyard with his bathing suit in hand.
It's fucking Ray Bradbury!
Turns out Tom's wife Susan is Ray's daughter!
I did one of those Looney Tunes' Triple takes.
Ha-min-ah-ha-min-ah-ha-min-ah.
I certainly gave him his space, but yeah, I spent about a half hour talking to him. Me on the side of the pool, and Ray floating around on air mattress in his swimmin' trunks.
Of course, I couldn't resist telling him what a fan I was of the EC Comics' adaptations of his stories--and he told me the famous story (at least amongst us old comics fans) about how that all happened--in a friendly and humorous fashion, I might add. Embarrassingly, it was the first time I'd ever heard that story.
Oh yeah, he had arrived in a taxi--Bradbury told me he NEVER drove a car. And if I recall correctly, he said he didn't fly unless it was absolutely necessary.
Mr Martian Chronicles didn't drive or fly!
A very funny and really quite engaging gentleman.
RIP.
________________________________________
From: Robin Millar
Subject: RE: Sales
V happy with your sales review this week....but may I make one er
clarification re Adele?
The phrase "The game here is..."
Not Adele's game. She's not playing. The whole Sony team have privately admitted that if Adele had agreed to play even 5% of the super-saturation flesh pressing coast to coast jamboree they had planned for her debut album the hunger when 21 broke through would not have been there.
She just refused to play the game. She's a singer and songwriter who HAS to sing to cathartise her over-felt emotions. She writes as a reaction to catastrophe and it's that truth everyone hears and buys into. And your comment about Jack white having no great songs? You are right and Adele's manager was brave and told her that after the first record and adele was sussed enough to listen and go and collaborate with great people and up the anti and come up with a devastating collection of music for 21 where all the raw power and emotion came from her and the objectivity to translate this into how others would react came from the other pro in the room.
Adele does not play the game. She never will. I'm sure your comment was aimed at the label, the product managers, her management and so on....but if we are thinking Adele is going to spend time worrying about her release strategy? Naah
All the best
Robin
________________________________________
Bob..
if you wish to print this, please don't use my name (or label)...you'll understand...a lot of people have no idea....
4/22/09 I cut my wrists.....big ol' gaping hole in my left wrist you could have placed a golf ball in....for some reason, I didn't die...kept waking up and cutting deeper....actually woke up the next day (after a bottle of sleeping pills and a lot of blood) feeling quite refreshed..drove myself to the ER...
go figure
I can't speak for Bob, of course,....i can only speak for myself but no one could have helped or stopped me..it wasn't a cry for help..i was tired and wanted to go...I didn't want to be saved....
my suicide note was a list of assets, debts, and an apology to my parents,,,,not a whining list of "poor-me's"
I placed my severely cut wrist in a box of rags so my landlord wouldn't have a mess to clean up, wrapped the other in an old sweatshirt, and watched 'The Fifth Element" hoping to go to sleep and not wake up..love that movie...
having failed, I learned just how many people I would have really hurt but..to be honest...at that moment...I'm not sure i would have cared if I HAD known...really known.....one of the reasons I was so tired was living for other people..being THEIR rock......I think it might have made me cut the darned hand off...
so..I have read and re-read your letter and there is a part of me that understands but...I was tired...I was alone..so.who was it REALLY hurting.....having moved 6 times in 8 years while at _______, I already knew that people forget you and go on with their own lives...you don't have as many friends as you think...just acquaintances...
so...to address your points...I didn't want help..it was there....I didn't want it...was I less than macho by quitting?...to be honest, never crossed my mind...I was TIRED....it turns out that being tired is part of depression but at the time I didn't care and just wanted to go to sleep....and not wake up..
I'm starting to ramble and I'm sorry for that but..you have been so wonderful with your emails....filling me with musical happiness with your links and playlists...and info I never would have known otherwise..I hope I answered at least one of your questions...
as it turns out, Bi-Polar, PTSD, and a few other things...plus a mother ...ahh..my mother...
hahahahahahaha
____
From: Bob Lefsetz
To: _________
Wow, what a story, so how are you now?
____
From: _________
well
thanks to meds and my 4th shrink, I am very very well..surprisingly happy...and..believe it or not..in a stable relationship...and working
I hope I helped you if only a little
________________________________________
From: Mike Lawson
Subject: Re: Bob Welch
Wendy Welch was very grateful for your posting. She asked me to convey some of these thoughts with her gratitude. She wants everyone to know that Bob had the professional help he needed, and most importantly, he had her, with whom he shared an epic love affair. They were rarely apart from each other. I've known them all but the first three years they were married. Bob had Wendy, they were inseparable, it was an epic soulmate love many people will never experience.
Bob was in a lot of pain. He had a titanium plate put in his neck three months ago because he was in so much pain, the surgery was supposed to fix it, it made it worse. He had a spinal chord injury. He also had an A-Fib heat condition, which he got treatment for at the Mayo clinic a few years ago from, and was constantly worried he would have a stroke, end up an invalid like his father, the late film producer Robert Welch (he did those Pale Face movies for Bob Hope, among others), who had to be cared for by his mother. He said he couldn't put Wendy through that. He didn't want to slide down hill, was having trouble doing simple things, and between the pain and the depression it creates and/or amplifies, I guess he did what he thought he had to do.
Chronic pain is a horrific situation. Post-surgical pain is really hard on people, especially as we get older, and its especially hard when that surgery was supposed to stop the pain. I know this, first hand. In Bob's case, the surgery to stop the pain only increased it. He was miserable. We talked about medications, we talked about heating pads, we talked doctors, about soaking in hot baths, all the things that can help. Doctors are scared to treat pain for patients, scared of the DEA, scared of losing their licenses, they'd rather risk a patient be miserable than risk their license, and its because of the pill junkies gaming the system, combined with the crooked doctors who feed them. The innocent suffer who need the help. Bob had been to see the doctor the day before. Obviously, he did't feel like things were going to get better after whatever he learned in that visit. He did not like the idea of a pain management clinic being a next step.
The other side of this is that Bob was a heroin user 30 years ago. It was the hardest thing he ever kicked, and without his wife Wendy, he would not have done so. She was his rock. He was hers. When Wendy was hospitalized a couple of times the past few years, Bob and I had long conversations about him trying to make it without her, or vice versa. I promised I would be there for either when that terrible call comes, but it was still in my mind decades away. I never dreamed the call would be because of this.
Bob did not want to face dealing with the hell that is being in pain management systems, pissing in cups, random pill counts, monthly visits to the pain clinic and pharmacy, being treated like a potential suspect instead of a patient. The fact that eventually they have to up the dosage as the tolerance builds and at some point still be in pain anyway was not appealing. He didn't want to become dependent on pain medications. He wanted the pain to stop, that's all he wanted. He wanted to play his guitar again. Yesterday, Bob finally stopped the pain. I am comforted only by the fact that he is not hurting anymore, even though the price of his pain stopping is such devastatingly painful for his wife, for his family, for his friends, and even his fans to whom his hits became "their song" or held some special meaning in their lives, the way amazing music often does.
Bob, Wendy and I are/were close, and we talked many times a week, nearly every week. Over the past few years we started drifting from music business, politics, talking guitars, computers, recording, guffawing at the latest Lefsetz rant (which were frequent, believe me), to what doctors we were seeing, what medications we were on. I guess that comes with getting older. Several months ago, I tried to get him recording in his home studio again. He was a musical wizard, a mad-scientist, in that little home studio, using now-dated digital recording tools to achieve amazing results. What he could do with digital "stone axes and animal bones" compared to more modern recording tools, was out of this world. I had an extra Mac Pro and a couple of LCDs, and a MOTU 828 interface, that I gave to him, because the fan part of me wanted to see what wonders Bob could created with modern digital recording tools like Logic, on a super-fast Mac. He managed to set it all up, but he never got to use it much, Bob. He couldn't sit at the computer, use a mouse, or anything because of the pain. He had trouble making a chord on a guitar in the past few months. Imagine having the ability to feed your very life-giving muse slowly snatched away from you in a painful cruel fashion.
For the record, Bob was clean and sober, wasn't taking any strong medications, his actions were not the result of side effects of something. He was not a heavy drinker, or abuser of anything since getting clean from smack so long ago. Ultimately, he did this because he didn't want Wendy to suffer the long term care of a man fading in his senior years, he was hurting terribly, and he couldn't make music now. He did this, he said, because he loved her. As hard as that is for me to understand, and certainly even harder for her to understand, he did this tragic thing out of love. It wasn't anger, it wasn't depression (though his condition was depressing), he did this out of love. He detailed these thoughts in what he left behind in his notes. The exact words are to remain private, but this is the basic message.
His last words to me, late in the evening on June 5th as we hung up the phone, "I love you, Mike." Please remember Bob for the amazing music he left us, not for the way he left.
Thank you for your tribute to Bob Welch. You were a Bob Welch fan, but Bob Welch was also a bona fide Bob Lefsetz fan.
Mike Lawson
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