My mother had a two-tone Maxima, light and dark blue. It replaced the five cylinder Audi which was a great car when it ran right, which was rarely. Only buy Japanese cars. Unless you're rich, or leasing, or both. And it was in this car I found myself driving on Route 7 from Middlebury to Rutland on one of those days when it's not sure whether it wants to rain or snow. When the temperature is hovering around thirty two degrees and God can't decide whether to add to the snowpack or deplete it. And on the radio I heard "My Hometown."
It used to be a boonie ritual. Driving with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the radio knob, trying to pull in a station. You'd get the farm report, some country music, the real, twangy stuff, not the faux rock and roll of today, and if you were lucky something you wanted to hear on a Top Forty station.
This was back when our relationship was teetering. A year and a half after we got married. And when things are going south you know it because of the silence. Suddenly there's nothing to say. And if you venture a few words you get no response, except maybe a guttural "um" or "mm." And the song keeps playing on the radio and you keep listening and your whole life plays out in your brain as you stare at the highway.
"I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
I'd sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He'd tousle my hair and say son take a good look around this is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown"
My father loved his hometown. He took pride in the location of our domicile, just a block from the main drag, where we could get a quart of milk or a loaf of bread whenever we wanted. The upwardly mobile moved to Skytop Drive, but things were good down on Black Rock Turnpike, where we had Richelsoph's Bakery. Where they sliced the rye after you bought it and it was still warm and if your mother didn't restrict your grabbing you could eat half of the loaf before you got home.
But my dad never put me on his lap to drive. He was a safety bug. Nothing untoward was ever done. But the cancer got him anyway. He died five years after the purchase of that Maxima. I told my mother to give it to my little sister when he passed. They trucked it to Minnesota where it never died, but was replaced when my brother-in-law's career floated upwards in the boom of the last decade.
"In '65 tension was running high at my high school
There was a lot of fights between the black and white
There was nothing you could do
Two cars at a light on a Saturday night in the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed in a shotgun blast
Troubled times had come to my hometown
My hometown
My hometown
My hometown"
Big Al struck it rich and bought a barn in Newtown. He died in a hotel in New York, his Parkinson's felled him while he was waiting for the elevator. But back in the seventies, we used to drive over and play tennis, badly, during the boom, when it caught the national mood. This was after the sixties, when every year someone got assassinated and everybody was fighting for his rights, when the youth took the country from the old men, when we were all in it together. Before greed and income inequality created a gap so wide in my hometown the poor don't interact with the rich unless they're bused in to clean.
"Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more
They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back to your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown"
They never made much in my hometown, but I know too many people who lost their job and their house and are struggling. As we get older every day. We assumed our kids would do better than us. We no longer believe that.
"Last night me and Kate we laid in bed
Talking about getting out
Packing up our bags maybe heading south
I'm thirty five we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel and said son take a good look around
This is your hometown"
I got out. I saw Los Angeles on television, I listened to the Beach Boys & Jan and Dean sing about a happy, carefree life and when I graduated from college I moved. And it is better. But now I'm approaching sixty and I've got no kids and instead of worrying about finding a station on the radio I'm overwhelmed with input. I've got AM, FM, XM, iPod, iPhone, Internet...and we're all closer together, just an e-mail or a text away, but we've all retreated into our niches, we've lost our cohesiveness. We're no longer all in it together, we're doing our own thing. And when you take a break and look up and realize no one's around you wonder...are we better off?
"My Hometown": http://spoti.fi/Jhc5p4
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Saturday 5 January 2013
Update
1. The Wheels Of Progress Move Quickly
The e-reader is being killed by the tablet. And the initial Kindle was only introduced five years ago.
The first Kindle Fire was a disaster. It sold prodigiously upon release but its lack of functionality was evidenced in the little web-surfing purchasers did with it. But credit Jeff Bezos, he realized he not busy being born is busy dying. Kind of like the classic rock acts. Convinced no one is listening, they've stopped making new music. They've put the stake in their own hearts.
Then again, I was at Christmas dinner with David Glenn and he told me he was a fan of Cal Newport. So I sent myself an e-mail and looked him up on the web and found this page. It's important.
http://calnewport.com/blog/2013/01/02/does-luck-matter-more-than-skill/#more-2677
"a. For activities with clear fixed rules - such as sports, chess and music - the only way to succeed is to put in more deliberate practice than your peers.
b. For activities with rapidly evolving rules - such as business start-ups or book writing - success comes when you CHANGE the rules to a new configuration that catches the zeitgeist just right. Johansson uses Stephanie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, as a key example. Meyer, in Johansson's estimation, is not a good writer. Her first Twilight book reads more like fan fiction than a professionally-scribed genre novel. She had not, in other words, spent much time in a state of deliberate practice. But this didn't matter. Something about her new take on vampire tales hit the cultural moment just right and earned her extraordinary renown. The lesson, according to Johansson, is that luck plays the central role in success for these activities. If you want to do something remarkable, therefore, you have to keep trying new things - placing, what he calls, purposeful bets - hoping to stumble into an idea that catches on."
Eureka! That's it!
Johansson has got it half right. If you want to be a classical musician, playing in an orchestra, you need to practice and be better than almost everyone else.
But if you want to be a popular musician, it's more about capturing the zeitgeist than practiced skill. It's more about innovation and thinking than musical building blocks.
Instead of lamenting that your time has passed, question whether you've become calcified. Once upon a time classic rock musicians were cutting edge, they were challenging old norms and defining new ones. They expected that once they made it, people would continue to be interested in their creations.
This is untrue.
Sure, people like to visit the museum. But if it's in the hallowed halls, it's already happened. The new stuff is out on the street.
2. The Wheels Of Progress Move Slowly
Digital outlets just sold more albums than brick and mortar/physical for the very first time:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/04/download-me-maybe-u-s-music-market-up-by-3-1-fuelled-by-1-3b-digital-track-sales/
The iTunes Store opened in 2003, almost a decade ago.
Recently, there's been all this hogwash that the slowdown in sales of e-readers means physical books are here to stay.
Wrong!
It just takes a long time for the old to give up their ways.
So, you shouldn't jump ship from the past too fast. Then again, Apple became the world's most valuable company by doing this. Don't you remember when people were horrified the iMac didn't come with a floppy drive? And today's new MacBooks come sans disk drives.
Used a floppy recently? I don't ever remember putting a CD in my MacBook Pro, except for the Microsoft Word install disk, and now you download all your programs, even the operating system, wirelessly.
There is a business in being the last person to sell a typewriter. But there's more money on the leading edge.
The music industry has done itself a disservice by focusing on the CD. It's not only hampered the development of hi-res digital files online, it's skewed the entire structure and perception of the business. The CD is the tool of the major label. The days of the major label are dead. They're like ribbon salesmen in the era of software development. And most of the early software companies of the computer revolution are carcasses on the side of the road. Use WordStar recently? How about a Borland product?
You see the record business is run by old men with no vision.
Technology is run by young people challenging all the rules.
Music is old school. Selling overpriced albums to people who only want one track. You wonder why people laugh at it.
Furthermore, the old people have control of old media, where they spin their spurious ideas. When technology boomed in the eighties, the mainstream press barely covered it. Think about it... Congress held a hearing on Napster? That's like nursery schools holding a hearing on NASA.
3. "The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when masks are dropped."
Schopenhauer
At least they used to be. Before everybody got plastic surgery in order to appear young.
But you're old on the inside.
You can't deny death. You can't stop aging.
Have contempt for those trying to cheat. Aging is a natural process with benefits. It's good to allow the masquerade to end. To see the photo beauty come back to earth. To see the rich man with the same health problems as the poor. To realize being good is better than being rich.
4. "No matter how she pleaded, she couldn't climb in someone's head and start steering. People did what they would do."
My shrink said this a different way yesterday. He said people have to want to change.
Most people do not.
You can know what's best for someone all day long, you can even tell them, but it seems they have to find out for themselves.
5. "She was grateful life could be long."
This is a secret you never see in the mainstream press. Where youth is glorified.
Being young is frequently being unhappy. You worry if you're beautiful enough, popular enough, you're clueless as to your career, you're scared.
But when you get older you become comfortable in your own skin. What you thought was important is not.
6. "I'm not intimidated by anyone. Everyone is made with two arms, two legs, a stomach and a head. Just think about that."
Josephine Baker
This is when entertainers were trailblazers, artists who made you think. Now they're nitwits like Kim Kardashian and Jessica Simpson, uneducated idiots who are followed around, their every activity plastered in magazines and online, who've got nothing to say, they're not leaders, they're not even three-dimensional. As for musicians, they're just as bad. Followers the lot. Usually too young to even know what life's about.
I've never heard this put better.
You can win.
But you've got to believe you can play.
Note: Numbers 3-6 are quotes from the book "The Chaperone," by Laura Moriarty. One of the main characters is Louise Brooks, the silent film star. She was done in her early thirties. She had to reinvent herself, she ultimately became a writer. Today's young stars don't reinvent themselves, they just rob 7-11's and die prematurely.
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The e-reader is being killed by the tablet. And the initial Kindle was only introduced five years ago.
The first Kindle Fire was a disaster. It sold prodigiously upon release but its lack of functionality was evidenced in the little web-surfing purchasers did with it. But credit Jeff Bezos, he realized he not busy being born is busy dying. Kind of like the classic rock acts. Convinced no one is listening, they've stopped making new music. They've put the stake in their own hearts.
Then again, I was at Christmas dinner with David Glenn and he told me he was a fan of Cal Newport. So I sent myself an e-mail and looked him up on the web and found this page. It's important.
http://calnewport.com/blog/2013/01/02/does-luck-matter-more-than-skill/#more-2677
"a. For activities with clear fixed rules - such as sports, chess and music - the only way to succeed is to put in more deliberate practice than your peers.
b. For activities with rapidly evolving rules - such as business start-ups or book writing - success comes when you CHANGE the rules to a new configuration that catches the zeitgeist just right. Johansson uses Stephanie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, as a key example. Meyer, in Johansson's estimation, is not a good writer. Her first Twilight book reads more like fan fiction than a professionally-scribed genre novel. She had not, in other words, spent much time in a state of deliberate practice. But this didn't matter. Something about her new take on vampire tales hit the cultural moment just right and earned her extraordinary renown. The lesson, according to Johansson, is that luck plays the central role in success for these activities. If you want to do something remarkable, therefore, you have to keep trying new things - placing, what he calls, purposeful bets - hoping to stumble into an idea that catches on."
Eureka! That's it!
Johansson has got it half right. If you want to be a classical musician, playing in an orchestra, you need to practice and be better than almost everyone else.
But if you want to be a popular musician, it's more about capturing the zeitgeist than practiced skill. It's more about innovation and thinking than musical building blocks.
Instead of lamenting that your time has passed, question whether you've become calcified. Once upon a time classic rock musicians were cutting edge, they were challenging old norms and defining new ones. They expected that once they made it, people would continue to be interested in their creations.
This is untrue.
Sure, people like to visit the museum. But if it's in the hallowed halls, it's already happened. The new stuff is out on the street.
2. The Wheels Of Progress Move Slowly
Digital outlets just sold more albums than brick and mortar/physical for the very first time:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/04/download-me-maybe-u-s-music-market-up-by-3-1-fuelled-by-1-3b-digital-track-sales/
The iTunes Store opened in 2003, almost a decade ago.
Recently, there's been all this hogwash that the slowdown in sales of e-readers means physical books are here to stay.
Wrong!
It just takes a long time for the old to give up their ways.
So, you shouldn't jump ship from the past too fast. Then again, Apple became the world's most valuable company by doing this. Don't you remember when people were horrified the iMac didn't come with a floppy drive? And today's new MacBooks come sans disk drives.
Used a floppy recently? I don't ever remember putting a CD in my MacBook Pro, except for the Microsoft Word install disk, and now you download all your programs, even the operating system, wirelessly.
There is a business in being the last person to sell a typewriter. But there's more money on the leading edge.
The music industry has done itself a disservice by focusing on the CD. It's not only hampered the development of hi-res digital files online, it's skewed the entire structure and perception of the business. The CD is the tool of the major label. The days of the major label are dead. They're like ribbon salesmen in the era of software development. And most of the early software companies of the computer revolution are carcasses on the side of the road. Use WordStar recently? How about a Borland product?
You see the record business is run by old men with no vision.
Technology is run by young people challenging all the rules.
Music is old school. Selling overpriced albums to people who only want one track. You wonder why people laugh at it.
Furthermore, the old people have control of old media, where they spin their spurious ideas. When technology boomed in the eighties, the mainstream press barely covered it. Think about it... Congress held a hearing on Napster? That's like nursery schools holding a hearing on NASA.
3. "The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when masks are dropped."
Schopenhauer
At least they used to be. Before everybody got plastic surgery in order to appear young.
But you're old on the inside.
You can't deny death. You can't stop aging.
Have contempt for those trying to cheat. Aging is a natural process with benefits. It's good to allow the masquerade to end. To see the photo beauty come back to earth. To see the rich man with the same health problems as the poor. To realize being good is better than being rich.
4. "No matter how she pleaded, she couldn't climb in someone's head and start steering. People did what they would do."
My shrink said this a different way yesterday. He said people have to want to change.
Most people do not.
You can know what's best for someone all day long, you can even tell them, but it seems they have to find out for themselves.
5. "She was grateful life could be long."
This is a secret you never see in the mainstream press. Where youth is glorified.
Being young is frequently being unhappy. You worry if you're beautiful enough, popular enough, you're clueless as to your career, you're scared.
But when you get older you become comfortable in your own skin. What you thought was important is not.
6. "I'm not intimidated by anyone. Everyone is made with two arms, two legs, a stomach and a head. Just think about that."
Josephine Baker
This is when entertainers were trailblazers, artists who made you think. Now they're nitwits like Kim Kardashian and Jessica Simpson, uneducated idiots who are followed around, their every activity plastered in magazines and online, who've got nothing to say, they're not leaders, they're not even three-dimensional. As for musicians, they're just as bad. Followers the lot. Usually too young to even know what life's about.
I've never heard this put better.
You can win.
But you've got to believe you can play.
Note: Numbers 3-6 are quotes from the book "The Chaperone," by Laura Moriarty. One of the main characters is Louise Brooks, the silent film star. She was done in her early thirties. She had to reinvent herself, she ultimately became a writer. Today's young stars don't reinvent themselves, they just rob 7-11's and die prematurely.
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Friday 4 January 2013
A Little More Lowell (And Little Feat)
"Juliette"
This was the first track I got. I bought "Dixie Chicken" based on a review and played it twice through and was flummoxed until this track, the second to last on the album, emerged.
"Juliette" is sweet and subtle, in a world inundated with these qualities, which are absent from the hit parade.
Think short winter days, alone in the living room on the couch.
"Juliette" sounds like that.
"Fool Yourself"
Most people know this from the Bonnie Raitt cover on her second Paul Rothchild album, "Home Plate"... Still, I'm sure even Bonnie would admit Little Feat's take is superior.
The magic is in Lowell's vocal, the way it goes up and down, twists around, like regular human speech.
Still, there are those lyrics...
"You might say you ain't got a hold on yourself
You might say you always try your best
You might say you only need a rest
You might say you can only fool yourself"
Ain't that the way it always is...you're your own worst enemy.
But it gets even better...
"Don't believe the words you read
They're written on the street
And every time you know you play their game
They'll knock you down and take your pride away"
That's their goal, to not only knock you down, but take you out of contention.
Don't be intimated by anyone. You've got a right to your opinion.
But you've got no right to make someone listen.
"See how bad you need to cry
But no matter how you try
It's the same old story once again
You always hide from the one who calls you friend
I call you friend"
We have trouble relying on those who are nice to us. We all need friends, they're the key to life. You might think it's about money and fame, but they pale in comparison to interpersonal relationships.
Listening to "Fool Yourself" you feel Lowell George is your best friend.
"Angry Blues"
A seemingly minor track on James Taylor's "Gorilla," after you've become inured to "Mexico" and "Lighthouse" and the rest of the magic tracks on that album suddenly this emerges. It seems just a little ditty. But it's the subtle extras that make it work. And those extras are contributed by one Lowell George. Listen for his slide and background vocals... They're barely there, but they make the song complete.
"I Feel The Same"
It's the chicken pickin' in the break that totally slays me. It begins around 3:38 and if you do no other listening from this playlist, be sure to check out Lowell's work here. The whole track sounds like a Little Feat number, as well it should, since Bill Payne plays the piano... And sometime check out Chris Smither's original, but Bonnie makes this song her own, it's my favorite of this whole playlist.
"Face Of Appalachia"
Lowell cowrote this song with John Sebastian, which originally appeared on John's "Tarzana Kid" LP.
Credits are not complete on the album, but I've got to believe it's Lowell on the track. Even if it's not, listen just to hear Valerie Carter wail at 3:24.
Imagine a day when music was not made for the hit parade, to make you rich and famous, but to enrich your and your listener's lives.
"Face Of Appalachia" is pure magic.
"Sailing Shoes"/"Hey Julia"/"Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley"
Already forgotten, Robert Palmer was a giant long before he broke through on MTV. Not only does he cover Little Feat's "Sailing Shoes," Lowell's all over the album. But the way these three songs interweave and connect will truly blow your mind, when Palmer finally segues into "Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley" you'll thrust your arms in the air stunned at the triumph.
"Long Distance Love"
For some unknown reason Little Feat's fifth album, the commercially disappointing "The Last Record Album," is missing from Spotify. Therefore, you'll be unable to hear this magical track.
Then again, through the magic of YouTube, it's right here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaQ3VGeQ8Uw
You think you're sticking it to the man by not signing up with Spotify, but it's available on YouTube anyway!
As well as this live take you'll find fascinating if you're a fan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJPwV14Xhnk
As for the lyrics and heartbreaking sound...
If you've ever been on the losing end of a long distance relationship, this is your anthem.
"Roll Um Easy"
The famous take is on Linda Ronstadt's "Prisoner In Disguise," the follow-up to her smash "Heart Like A Wheel."
But if it's a cover you're interested in, check out J.D. Souther's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4F5xJxa2h8
It's got the magic of the original, it's even more haunting in its own way.
And speaking of J.D...listen to Lowell wail on "Midnight Prowl" from "Black Rose." Lowell's playing, along with J.D.'s plaintive vocal, makes the track. You didn't call Lowell to dominate, but to enrich.
But be sure to check out the original from "Dixie Chicken."
"Two Trains"
After getting "Juliette," I flipped "Dixie Chicken" over again, and discovered this, the second track on the first side.
Play this once, and you'll spin it twenty times, intrigued by the lyrics, the playing, the sound. Ain't that Lowell, nailing it by shooting just a bit left of center. You know what he's talking about, but he dances around it, evidencing the underlying tension in the situation.
"On Your Way Down"
Not an original, it was composed by Allen Toussaint. But Little Feat did the definitive version. It's smoky, late night tired, but full of wisdom.
And it's got the most famous line about the music business ever.
You might be quoting that cruel and shallow money trench line by Hunter Thompson, but no one knows the real deal like someone who's lived it:
"Well it's high time that you found
The same dudes you abused on your way up
You might meet up on your way down"
It's true.
And we all descend.
Unless you're planning on committing suicide at your peak, pay attention.
"Spanish Moon"
This is one of those rare instances where the live version eclipses the studio take. It's the bass, it's the keyboard, it's the horns, IT'S THE GROOVE! And lying dead center is Lowell himself. This is one of the greatest advertisements for live music ever.
"There was hookers and hustlers
They filled up the room!"
You've been there, a place dark and electric, where you can feel the danger but have no desire to leave.
"There's whiskey and bad cocaine
Poison gets you just the same
And if that don't kill you soon
The women will down at the Spanish Moon"
It's an absolute killer. And if you're lucky, one night at a Phish show, they'll whip it out. (Check out this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEVpweU-eb8)
"All That You Dream"
And while we're on the live album, "Waiting For Columbus," we've got this smoking number which is almost as good in its studio take on "The Last Record Album" and was covered by Linda Ronstadt but is definitively recorded here....
Meanwhile, this is not a Lowell George original, it was written by Bill Payne and Paul Barrere, whose grave misfortune it was to be in a band with a certified superstar, so their star qualities were overshadowed.
Still... If you're a big fan, the lyrics are indelibly imprinted upon your brain...
I'VE BEEN DOWN, BUT NOT LIKE THIS BEFORE!
In the seventies it was o.k. to not be a winner. Hate to inform you, but most of us are not.
"Mercenary Territory"
Another "The Last Record Album" song defined in its live take.
Between the horns and the vocal, you want to run right down to the gig!
And there's that famous line...
"And I did my time in your rodeo..."
Now that's how to describe life! A series of experiences where you're roped up and brought down yet get up and do it all over again...
And for those of you focusing on fame more than music...
"I've been out here so long dreamin' up songs"
Writing music is a full time job. It's about distilling your experiences. Which is why if you haven't lived you've got nothing to say. Which is why all the two-dimensional young 'uns have oldsters write their lyrics!
"Rock And Roll Doctor"
Only because if it wasn't for this, the band probably would have broken up. Finally, they had radio success. When fans had given up, the band finally broke through, albeit still on a limited level.
"Gringo"
This has got nothing to do with Lowell, it's pure Bill Payne, and its genius, check it out.
"Fat Man In The Bathtub"
That's Lowell.
Listen to this tale about someone who doesn't want nobody who won't dive for dimes. Because even fat people need sex. And when they're as charming and talented as Lowell George they get it. This son of a furrier grew up in Hollywood and found a way to make it.
And then he expired.
But while he was here, he dazzled all those paying attention, and is still remembered by those who were exposed.
We were enamored of the fat man in the bathtub with the blues.
Coda:
It was on his promotional tour for his initial solo album that Lowell O.D'ed. So early in the album's cycle that it seems like a posthumous work. It's not his best effort, but it contains a positively exquisite cover of Allen Toussaint's "What Do You Want The Girl To Do." That was Lowell's magic. Sure, he could write, but it was his ability to see a production in his head, to see the necessary parts and then put them together in the studio that was his true skill. It was all in service to the final production. It wasn't about fame or lifestyle, but the music.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/VJwEBm
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This was the first track I got. I bought "Dixie Chicken" based on a review and played it twice through and was flummoxed until this track, the second to last on the album, emerged.
"Juliette" is sweet and subtle, in a world inundated with these qualities, which are absent from the hit parade.
Think short winter days, alone in the living room on the couch.
"Juliette" sounds like that.
"Fool Yourself"
Most people know this from the Bonnie Raitt cover on her second Paul Rothchild album, "Home Plate"... Still, I'm sure even Bonnie would admit Little Feat's take is superior.
The magic is in Lowell's vocal, the way it goes up and down, twists around, like regular human speech.
Still, there are those lyrics...
"You might say you ain't got a hold on yourself
You might say you always try your best
You might say you only need a rest
You might say you can only fool yourself"
Ain't that the way it always is...you're your own worst enemy.
But it gets even better...
"Don't believe the words you read
They're written on the street
And every time you know you play their game
They'll knock you down and take your pride away"
That's their goal, to not only knock you down, but take you out of contention.
Don't be intimated by anyone. You've got a right to your opinion.
But you've got no right to make someone listen.
"See how bad you need to cry
But no matter how you try
It's the same old story once again
You always hide from the one who calls you friend
I call you friend"
We have trouble relying on those who are nice to us. We all need friends, they're the key to life. You might think it's about money and fame, but they pale in comparison to interpersonal relationships.
Listening to "Fool Yourself" you feel Lowell George is your best friend.
"Angry Blues"
A seemingly minor track on James Taylor's "Gorilla," after you've become inured to "Mexico" and "Lighthouse" and the rest of the magic tracks on that album suddenly this emerges. It seems just a little ditty. But it's the subtle extras that make it work. And those extras are contributed by one Lowell George. Listen for his slide and background vocals... They're barely there, but they make the song complete.
"I Feel The Same"
It's the chicken pickin' in the break that totally slays me. It begins around 3:38 and if you do no other listening from this playlist, be sure to check out Lowell's work here. The whole track sounds like a Little Feat number, as well it should, since Bill Payne plays the piano... And sometime check out Chris Smither's original, but Bonnie makes this song her own, it's my favorite of this whole playlist.
"Face Of Appalachia"
Lowell cowrote this song with John Sebastian, which originally appeared on John's "Tarzana Kid" LP.
Credits are not complete on the album, but I've got to believe it's Lowell on the track. Even if it's not, listen just to hear Valerie Carter wail at 3:24.
Imagine a day when music was not made for the hit parade, to make you rich and famous, but to enrich your and your listener's lives.
"Face Of Appalachia" is pure magic.
"Sailing Shoes"/"Hey Julia"/"Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley"
Already forgotten, Robert Palmer was a giant long before he broke through on MTV. Not only does he cover Little Feat's "Sailing Shoes," Lowell's all over the album. But the way these three songs interweave and connect will truly blow your mind, when Palmer finally segues into "Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley" you'll thrust your arms in the air stunned at the triumph.
"Long Distance Love"
For some unknown reason Little Feat's fifth album, the commercially disappointing "The Last Record Album," is missing from Spotify. Therefore, you'll be unable to hear this magical track.
Then again, through the magic of YouTube, it's right here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaQ3VGeQ8Uw
You think you're sticking it to the man by not signing up with Spotify, but it's available on YouTube anyway!
As well as this live take you'll find fascinating if you're a fan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJPwV14Xhnk
As for the lyrics and heartbreaking sound...
If you've ever been on the losing end of a long distance relationship, this is your anthem.
"Roll Um Easy"
The famous take is on Linda Ronstadt's "Prisoner In Disguise," the follow-up to her smash "Heart Like A Wheel."
But if it's a cover you're interested in, check out J.D. Souther's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4F5xJxa2h8
It's got the magic of the original, it's even more haunting in its own way.
And speaking of J.D...listen to Lowell wail on "Midnight Prowl" from "Black Rose." Lowell's playing, along with J.D.'s plaintive vocal, makes the track. You didn't call Lowell to dominate, but to enrich.
But be sure to check out the original from "Dixie Chicken."
"Two Trains"
After getting "Juliette," I flipped "Dixie Chicken" over again, and discovered this, the second track on the first side.
Play this once, and you'll spin it twenty times, intrigued by the lyrics, the playing, the sound. Ain't that Lowell, nailing it by shooting just a bit left of center. You know what he's talking about, but he dances around it, evidencing the underlying tension in the situation.
"On Your Way Down"
Not an original, it was composed by Allen Toussaint. But Little Feat did the definitive version. It's smoky, late night tired, but full of wisdom.
And it's got the most famous line about the music business ever.
You might be quoting that cruel and shallow money trench line by Hunter Thompson, but no one knows the real deal like someone who's lived it:
"Well it's high time that you found
The same dudes you abused on your way up
You might meet up on your way down"
It's true.
And we all descend.
Unless you're planning on committing suicide at your peak, pay attention.
"Spanish Moon"
This is one of those rare instances where the live version eclipses the studio take. It's the bass, it's the keyboard, it's the horns, IT'S THE GROOVE! And lying dead center is Lowell himself. This is one of the greatest advertisements for live music ever.
"There was hookers and hustlers
They filled up the room!"
You've been there, a place dark and electric, where you can feel the danger but have no desire to leave.
"There's whiskey and bad cocaine
Poison gets you just the same
And if that don't kill you soon
The women will down at the Spanish Moon"
It's an absolute killer. And if you're lucky, one night at a Phish show, they'll whip it out. (Check out this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEVpweU-eb8)
"All That You Dream"
And while we're on the live album, "Waiting For Columbus," we've got this smoking number which is almost as good in its studio take on "The Last Record Album" and was covered by Linda Ronstadt but is definitively recorded here....
Meanwhile, this is not a Lowell George original, it was written by Bill Payne and Paul Barrere, whose grave misfortune it was to be in a band with a certified superstar, so their star qualities were overshadowed.
Still... If you're a big fan, the lyrics are indelibly imprinted upon your brain...
I'VE BEEN DOWN, BUT NOT LIKE THIS BEFORE!
In the seventies it was o.k. to not be a winner. Hate to inform you, but most of us are not.
"Mercenary Territory"
Another "The Last Record Album" song defined in its live take.
Between the horns and the vocal, you want to run right down to the gig!
And there's that famous line...
"And I did my time in your rodeo..."
Now that's how to describe life! A series of experiences where you're roped up and brought down yet get up and do it all over again...
And for those of you focusing on fame more than music...
"I've been out here so long dreamin' up songs"
Writing music is a full time job. It's about distilling your experiences. Which is why if you haven't lived you've got nothing to say. Which is why all the two-dimensional young 'uns have oldsters write their lyrics!
"Rock And Roll Doctor"
Only because if it wasn't for this, the band probably would have broken up. Finally, they had radio success. When fans had given up, the band finally broke through, albeit still on a limited level.
"Gringo"
This has got nothing to do with Lowell, it's pure Bill Payne, and its genius, check it out.
"Fat Man In The Bathtub"
That's Lowell.
Listen to this tale about someone who doesn't want nobody who won't dive for dimes. Because even fat people need sex. And when they're as charming and talented as Lowell George they get it. This son of a furrier grew up in Hollywood and found a way to make it.
And then he expired.
But while he was here, he dazzled all those paying attention, and is still remembered by those who were exposed.
We were enamored of the fat man in the bathtub with the blues.
Coda:
It was on his promotional tour for his initial solo album that Lowell O.D'ed. So early in the album's cycle that it seems like a posthumous work. It's not his best effort, but it contains a positively exquisite cover of Allen Toussaint's "What Do You Want The Girl To Do." That was Lowell's magic. Sure, he could write, but it was his ability to see a production in his head, to see the necessary parts and then put them together in the studio that was his true skill. It was all in service to the final production. It wasn't about fame or lifestyle, but the music.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/VJwEBm
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Rinofy-Sailin' Shoes
I started with "Dixie Chicken." It was the reviews and the song on the Warner Brothers sampler. And it took me a hell of a long time to get into it, to understand its understated magic. If you can put Patti Smith in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and not Lowell George, I don't want to visit. For that matter, Rush and Heart and all the people they're inducting now... Even they'll admit Lowell George influenced more people than they did, left an even bigger mark.
Then again, that's art. It's open to debate, unlike sports. Well, sports not dependent upon judging.
The initial album, cut after Lowell left the Mothers, fell flat. As did "Sailin' Shoes." It wasn't until "Feats Don't Fail Me Now" that Little Feat had a radio hit. Then Lowell fell out of the band, despite still being in it, cut a solo record and died. But talk to Bonnie Raitt or James Taylor or Valerie Carter, they'll all testify. You see Lowell George was the chef, with the special sauce, and he never added more than necessary. Everybody thinks it's about more more more, showing off, but Lowell infected you with his subtlety, like his playing on James Taylor's "Angry Blues."
And to say there's a Little Feat masterpiece would be to lie. And you're probably best off starting with the live album. Then again, the band, although never bad, could be wildly uneven live. I remember a night at the Santa Monica Civic after the release of "Times Love A Hero" that had too much jamming and didn't quite gel, then again, three years before I'd seen them at the Troubadour...
It wasn't even sold out. Even though the fourth album had already come out, the one with "Oh, Atlanta" and "Rock And Roll Doctor." And I'm sitting mere feet away, the Troub had tables and chairs back then, when we still respected the music, when we weren't packed in like lemmings, and the band laid into a groove so syrupy and thick that you'd be closed instantly. But only fans were there. This was no victory lap, no celebration, just a band firing on all cylinders...back when you had to know how to play to perform.
And that was mere weeks before I decamped to Utah to ski the bumps, where "Sailin' Shoes"'s opening cut, "Easy To Slip," was my anthem.
"It's so easy to slip
It's so easy to fall"
In the bumps. When the sun is shining, your skis are twisting and you're slamming through the zipper line.
"It's so easy to slip
It's so easy to fall
And let your memory drift
And do nothin' at all"
Ain't that the truth. For all the winners testifying, there's a world of people hanging back, reflecting, wounded by life. The older you get, the harder it is to soldier on. That's what we depend on music for...to fill us up and get us going.
"Well I don't want to drift forever
In the shadow of you leaving me
So I light another cigarette
And try to remember to forget"
Whew! How eloquent! Ever been left? Knocks your socks off. You rarely see it coming. And then you find yourself off balance, it can take years to right yourself. Some never do.
But the music sounds NOTHING like these lyrics!
It's like Lowell's been down in the dumps for days, but band practice is scheduled so he's decided to WAIL! To exorcise all the demons.
This is not radio music.
This is not club music.
This is personal music. Cut just for you. Play it when you're driving down the highway, when you need inspiration. It'll lift you right off the couch and insert you into life. It's got more optimism than a handful of antidepressants.
Listening to "Easy To Slip," you'll be stunned Lowell George is dead, because the track sounds so positively ALIVE!
"A Apolitical Blues"
You know this one. From Van Halen's "OU812." You see the players listen. They don't focus on fame so much as music. Without roots, without a foundation, you're nothing. The hoi polloi may not have known this track, but Sammy Hagar did. Back when stars were fans.
"Sailin' Shoes"
"Lady in a turban
In a cocaine tree
Does a dance so rhythmically"
This is quintessential Lowell. From the slide guitar to the subtlety to the oblique story to the feeling you just want to get inside the music, inside the lyrics...you wanna be involved. And that's what Little Feat was, a cult, which never grew so large that everybody didn't think they were an insider. Listen to Lowell squeeze out the notes, the background singers, the whole number is zippered up, there's nothing unnecessary... The more you listen, the more you marvel.
"Tripe Face Boogie"
Exactly what it sounds like. As if Foghat had grown up in Los Angeles and played the same music.
And it's not only Lowell, Bill Payne works out furiously and Richie Hayward drives the whole enterprise forward with Roy Estrada, on his last album appearance with the band.
"You bring your guitar
I'll bring the wine
Blow out our speakers
Just one more time"
It sounds like a party. And there's even guacamole! (Which I knew nothing about when I first heard this album in Vermont, we were essentially clueless when it came to Mexican food.)
And be sure to listen to "Cold, Cold, Cold" and "Teenage Nervous Breakdown," but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "Willin'."
Linda Ronstadt made it famous, and it took Little Feat two tries to get it right, "Willin," was also on the band's debut, but forty years later it's the one Lowell George standard, probably the best and most famous truck-driving song ever written. A combo of loner stoner driver and band on the road.
And just like I was clueless as to guacamole, I was stunned to come to California and see a sign for Tehachapi. And now I know not only that mountain burg, but Tucumcari and Tonopah.
That's the west. Spread out. With enough room to be yourself and do your own thing.
There was never a band that sounded like Little Feat. Despite Lowell's huge influence his own sound could not be copied. And despite the great group that still employs the moniker Little Feat, it's not what it was when Lowell was a member.
If you've got time.
And almost nobody does anymore.
You will be rewarded by listening to Little Feat.
And I'm not saying to start with "Sailin' Shoes," but you'll eventually find yourself here. And will be amazed. That once upon a time being a band was going on your own journey, finding your identity, becoming what you weren't sure of, hoping an audience found you on the way.
So different from today. When the man demands a single and puts you together with someone you don't know to write it.
Lowell George is a rabbit hole a certain cadre of us fell into.
And it changed our lives.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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Then again, that's art. It's open to debate, unlike sports. Well, sports not dependent upon judging.
The initial album, cut after Lowell left the Mothers, fell flat. As did "Sailin' Shoes." It wasn't until "Feats Don't Fail Me Now" that Little Feat had a radio hit. Then Lowell fell out of the band, despite still being in it, cut a solo record and died. But talk to Bonnie Raitt or James Taylor or Valerie Carter, they'll all testify. You see Lowell George was the chef, with the special sauce, and he never added more than necessary. Everybody thinks it's about more more more, showing off, but Lowell infected you with his subtlety, like his playing on James Taylor's "Angry Blues."
And to say there's a Little Feat masterpiece would be to lie. And you're probably best off starting with the live album. Then again, the band, although never bad, could be wildly uneven live. I remember a night at the Santa Monica Civic after the release of "Times Love A Hero" that had too much jamming and didn't quite gel, then again, three years before I'd seen them at the Troubadour...
It wasn't even sold out. Even though the fourth album had already come out, the one with "Oh, Atlanta" and "Rock And Roll Doctor." And I'm sitting mere feet away, the Troub had tables and chairs back then, when we still respected the music, when we weren't packed in like lemmings, and the band laid into a groove so syrupy and thick that you'd be closed instantly. But only fans were there. This was no victory lap, no celebration, just a band firing on all cylinders...back when you had to know how to play to perform.
And that was mere weeks before I decamped to Utah to ski the bumps, where "Sailin' Shoes"'s opening cut, "Easy To Slip," was my anthem.
"It's so easy to slip
It's so easy to fall"
In the bumps. When the sun is shining, your skis are twisting and you're slamming through the zipper line.
"It's so easy to slip
It's so easy to fall
And let your memory drift
And do nothin' at all"
Ain't that the truth. For all the winners testifying, there's a world of people hanging back, reflecting, wounded by life. The older you get, the harder it is to soldier on. That's what we depend on music for...to fill us up and get us going.
"Well I don't want to drift forever
In the shadow of you leaving me
So I light another cigarette
And try to remember to forget"
Whew! How eloquent! Ever been left? Knocks your socks off. You rarely see it coming. And then you find yourself off balance, it can take years to right yourself. Some never do.
But the music sounds NOTHING like these lyrics!
It's like Lowell's been down in the dumps for days, but band practice is scheduled so he's decided to WAIL! To exorcise all the demons.
This is not radio music.
This is not club music.
This is personal music. Cut just for you. Play it when you're driving down the highway, when you need inspiration. It'll lift you right off the couch and insert you into life. It's got more optimism than a handful of antidepressants.
Listening to "Easy To Slip," you'll be stunned Lowell George is dead, because the track sounds so positively ALIVE!
"A Apolitical Blues"
You know this one. From Van Halen's "OU812." You see the players listen. They don't focus on fame so much as music. Without roots, without a foundation, you're nothing. The hoi polloi may not have known this track, but Sammy Hagar did. Back when stars were fans.
"Sailin' Shoes"
"Lady in a turban
In a cocaine tree
Does a dance so rhythmically"
This is quintessential Lowell. From the slide guitar to the subtlety to the oblique story to the feeling you just want to get inside the music, inside the lyrics...you wanna be involved. And that's what Little Feat was, a cult, which never grew so large that everybody didn't think they were an insider. Listen to Lowell squeeze out the notes, the background singers, the whole number is zippered up, there's nothing unnecessary... The more you listen, the more you marvel.
"Tripe Face Boogie"
Exactly what it sounds like. As if Foghat had grown up in Los Angeles and played the same music.
And it's not only Lowell, Bill Payne works out furiously and Richie Hayward drives the whole enterprise forward with Roy Estrada, on his last album appearance with the band.
"You bring your guitar
I'll bring the wine
Blow out our speakers
Just one more time"
It sounds like a party. And there's even guacamole! (Which I knew nothing about when I first heard this album in Vermont, we were essentially clueless when it came to Mexican food.)
And be sure to listen to "Cold, Cold, Cold" and "Teenage Nervous Breakdown," but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "Willin'."
Linda Ronstadt made it famous, and it took Little Feat two tries to get it right, "Willin," was also on the band's debut, but forty years later it's the one Lowell George standard, probably the best and most famous truck-driving song ever written. A combo of loner stoner driver and band on the road.
And just like I was clueless as to guacamole, I was stunned to come to California and see a sign for Tehachapi. And now I know not only that mountain burg, but Tucumcari and Tonopah.
That's the west. Spread out. With enough room to be yourself and do your own thing.
There was never a band that sounded like Little Feat. Despite Lowell's huge influence his own sound could not be copied. And despite the great group that still employs the moniker Little Feat, it's not what it was when Lowell was a member.
If you've got time.
And almost nobody does anymore.
You will be rewarded by listening to Little Feat.
And I'm not saying to start with "Sailin' Shoes," but you'll eventually find yourself here. And will be amazed. That once upon a time being a band was going on your own journey, finding your identity, becoming what you weren't sure of, hoping an audience found you on the way.
So different from today. When the man demands a single and puts you together with someone you don't know to write it.
Lowell George is a rabbit hole a certain cadre of us fell into.
And it changed our lives.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
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Thursday 3 January 2013
Sonos Streaming
I'm having trouble with my Slingbox. It won't connect.
But it's worse than that. It says it's not connecting to the Internet in my own house! Good luck having it make a connection in Colorado so my girlfriend can watch cable TV finales.
So I get home and start to troubleshoot...and end up nowhere.
I disconnect the power. I restart the router. But I cannot reset the Slingbox, despite what the online instructions say. Talk about frustrating... Before we had all this electronic crap there were answers. You called someone, took your device somewhere, somebody knew how to fix it, or told you so... But today we're on our own. I feel like I'm a full time IT person. Sure, I'm connected, I can call someone, but I'm the kind of guy who wants to know how something works and why it does not. Because if it breaks down once, it's gonna again.
So, frustrated with my Slingbox, I decide to fire up some music to soothe my nerves. And the Sonos app on my iPhone won't connect. And won't connect. And won't connect.
So I go to my iPad. Which says an update is required. Which I execute. But my iPhone still won't connect. And I'm wondering why.
Turns out the issue is bigger than that. My iPhone isn't even connected with my wireless network. LTE is so fast at my home I didn't even realize it. And I'm not sure why the iPhone dropped the connection. And maybe this has got something to do with the Slingbox... But when I select my home network and enter the password I finally get to try...
The most incredible new feature.
Yes, you can now stream your music wirelessly from your iPhone.
It's like magic.
I know, I know, I can do the same from Spotify. But it's not the same. I mean I'm not connecting to the pipe, it's coming straight from the phone itself! Wirelessly!
So I'm in the bedroom, listening to "Stephen Stills 2" on that zone. But I click to hear the Silencers' "Answer Me" in the living room. And it's not quite loud enough for me to hear over Stills so I switch the bedroom zone to the living room zone and...
Jimme O'Neill comes pouring out of the speakers and all of a sudden all of my frustration slips away!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_GK47HItCI
Yes, check it out. You won't hear it anywhere else. It's not on Spotify.
But it is on my living room stereo right now...
"Won't you answer me
Said the coal miner
It's dark down here
Gas creeps through the walls"
It's dark inside my mind. Do you get that feeling? That there's a plethora of stimuli surrounding you but there's a force field between you and the rest of the universe? That you're locked inside your head and you can't break out? That no one understands you and you're dying to make a connection but it's impossible?
I feel that way all the time. My whole life is about trying to eradicate this feeling, I'm trying to make a connection. That's what's got me sending these missives morning noon and night. The desire to find someone else who feels like me, who thinks like me, who isn't an automaton inured to the world I find so confusing.
And I get blowback from people telling me I'm not entitled to an opinion and I should crawl back into my hole despite the fact that they keep reading and writing to me. But still I soldier on. Because of you. No one specific. Just the people who write back and testify, who tell me they're on the same path, have the same questions, feel the same way.
Once upon a time the band was called Fingerprintz. And despite being on Virgin Records, they never broke through. Then they reconstituted as the Silencers and released a masterpiece known as "A Letter From St. Paul" with the radio track "Painted Moon" and it looked like another band from the U.K. was gonna break through. But they were on RCA Records and Bob Buziak was too busy promoting Michael Penn and the second album, "A Blues For Buddha" made a giant thud which almost no one heard.
But it's absolutely one of my favorite albums.
It starts off quietly, like there's a troupe of merrymaking musicians coming over the rise, through the Scottish fog, and then Jimme hums and the bass starts to thump and the drums start to pound and the strings start to wail and...you're enthralled.
"Won't you answer me
Said the exile
Is there a message for me?
Now I feel so far away"
I made it this far. I didn't O.D., I wasn't hit by a bus, I know so much more than I once did, but the world changed to the point of unrecognizability and I'm completely flummoxed. I'm never gonna be rich, without money few listen, and I wonder if the joke is on me. I spent decades of my life listening to records but don't feel akin to those enthralled by the punks, to those who think everything mainstream sucks. But then I hear a record...
"Won't answer you me
Said the soul singer
There's a murmur in here
Sound thunders through the wall"
That's who I am. A soul singer. This is coming directly from my heart to yours. Do you feel it? Do you have more questions than answers? Do you feel you just weren't made for this world?
I'M HERE! I'M WITH YOU! CRANK THIS MUSIC! IT WON'T CHANGE YOUR LIFE BUT IT WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE WORTH LIVING!
IT'S STREAMING FROM MY PHONE! CAN YOU FUCKING BELIEVE IT?
I love technology.
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But it's worse than that. It says it's not connecting to the Internet in my own house! Good luck having it make a connection in Colorado so my girlfriend can watch cable TV finales.
So I get home and start to troubleshoot...and end up nowhere.
I disconnect the power. I restart the router. But I cannot reset the Slingbox, despite what the online instructions say. Talk about frustrating... Before we had all this electronic crap there were answers. You called someone, took your device somewhere, somebody knew how to fix it, or told you so... But today we're on our own. I feel like I'm a full time IT person. Sure, I'm connected, I can call someone, but I'm the kind of guy who wants to know how something works and why it does not. Because if it breaks down once, it's gonna again.
So, frustrated with my Slingbox, I decide to fire up some music to soothe my nerves. And the Sonos app on my iPhone won't connect. And won't connect. And won't connect.
So I go to my iPad. Which says an update is required. Which I execute. But my iPhone still won't connect. And I'm wondering why.
Turns out the issue is bigger than that. My iPhone isn't even connected with my wireless network. LTE is so fast at my home I didn't even realize it. And I'm not sure why the iPhone dropped the connection. And maybe this has got something to do with the Slingbox... But when I select my home network and enter the password I finally get to try...
The most incredible new feature.
Yes, you can now stream your music wirelessly from your iPhone.
It's like magic.
I know, I know, I can do the same from Spotify. But it's not the same. I mean I'm not connecting to the pipe, it's coming straight from the phone itself! Wirelessly!
So I'm in the bedroom, listening to "Stephen Stills 2" on that zone. But I click to hear the Silencers' "Answer Me" in the living room. And it's not quite loud enough for me to hear over Stills so I switch the bedroom zone to the living room zone and...
Jimme O'Neill comes pouring out of the speakers and all of a sudden all of my frustration slips away!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_GK47HItCI
Yes, check it out. You won't hear it anywhere else. It's not on Spotify.
But it is on my living room stereo right now...
"Won't you answer me
Said the coal miner
It's dark down here
Gas creeps through the walls"
It's dark inside my mind. Do you get that feeling? That there's a plethora of stimuli surrounding you but there's a force field between you and the rest of the universe? That you're locked inside your head and you can't break out? That no one understands you and you're dying to make a connection but it's impossible?
I feel that way all the time. My whole life is about trying to eradicate this feeling, I'm trying to make a connection. That's what's got me sending these missives morning noon and night. The desire to find someone else who feels like me, who thinks like me, who isn't an automaton inured to the world I find so confusing.
And I get blowback from people telling me I'm not entitled to an opinion and I should crawl back into my hole despite the fact that they keep reading and writing to me. But still I soldier on. Because of you. No one specific. Just the people who write back and testify, who tell me they're on the same path, have the same questions, feel the same way.
Once upon a time the band was called Fingerprintz. And despite being on Virgin Records, they never broke through. Then they reconstituted as the Silencers and released a masterpiece known as "A Letter From St. Paul" with the radio track "Painted Moon" and it looked like another band from the U.K. was gonna break through. But they were on RCA Records and Bob Buziak was too busy promoting Michael Penn and the second album, "A Blues For Buddha" made a giant thud which almost no one heard.
But it's absolutely one of my favorite albums.
It starts off quietly, like there's a troupe of merrymaking musicians coming over the rise, through the Scottish fog, and then Jimme hums and the bass starts to thump and the drums start to pound and the strings start to wail and...you're enthralled.
"Won't you answer me
Said the exile
Is there a message for me?
Now I feel so far away"
I made it this far. I didn't O.D., I wasn't hit by a bus, I know so much more than I once did, but the world changed to the point of unrecognizability and I'm completely flummoxed. I'm never gonna be rich, without money few listen, and I wonder if the joke is on me. I spent decades of my life listening to records but don't feel akin to those enthralled by the punks, to those who think everything mainstream sucks. But then I hear a record...
"Won't answer you me
Said the soul singer
There's a murmur in here
Sound thunders through the wall"
That's who I am. A soul singer. This is coming directly from my heart to yours. Do you feel it? Do you have more questions than answers? Do you feel you just weren't made for this world?
I'M HERE! I'M WITH YOU! CRANK THIS MUSIC! IT WON'T CHANGE YOUR LIFE BUT IT WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE WORTH LIVING!
IT'S STREAMING FROM MY PHONE! CAN YOU FUCKING BELIEVE IT?
I love technology.
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Top Ten Issues
1. Filter
People don't know what to listen to. You can't trust the radio, you can only trust your friends, and who's to say your friends have the same taste as you?
He who tells us what to listen to will have all the power in the future.
It will not be an algorithm.
If you think Pandora has great recommendations, you've got no taste. If that's the future of radio, I want no part.
2. Money Trumps Art
Everyone's trying to get rich, or bitching that they're poor. People no longer discuss music, but their financial stability. Furthermore, money is the ultimate arbiter. If someone sells a lot of tickets or a lot of tracks you can't say a negative thing about them. This coarsens our society. Critical thinking is crucial to a healthy arts scene. Something can be successful and suck. Conversely, it can be obscure and great. If your first question is how do I make money, you shouldn't be in music.
3. Everybody Thinks They're A Star
We're only interested in the exceptional. It's kind of like the Olympics, if you don't medal, we don't know your name. In the old days, with a limited universe, mediocre, with exposure and promotion, could make it. Today, you've got to be positively A-team. Or, the beneficiary of A-team marketing and promotion. But if your music doesn't sell itself, your career will be very brief.
4. You Can't Get A Good Ticket At A Fair Price
Therefore people don't even try to buy. For all the bitching from people who overpay or sit in the cheap seats there are legions who've opted out of live music. This is the industry's problem. With no one leading the charge against it. It's easy to fall out of the habit of going to the show.
5. Greed
This is just how the rich like it. The hoi polloi fighting amongst themselves, oblivious to the true enemy. The acts and executives, the agents and the promoters, they're fighting over a tiny pot.
6. Con Artists
You know, the websites that give you advice and hope, and charge you for the privilege. Not everybody can work in the music business, not everybody can be a star. If you're paying someone to host your stuff, to get you gigs, you're either not good or delusional or both.
7. Classic Rock
It was too good. Just because the kids like something that does not make it good. Come on, all you trumpeting the Jonas Brothers, name one of their songs... Until modern acts truly reach the brass ring, the whole sphere will suffer. As for those saying today's music is just as good as yesteryear's...you don't have ears.
8. Old Media
From radio to newspapers to movies it's old world thinking, a circle jerk trying to perpetuate something that's dead. The sooner old media dies, the clearer the landscape will be. Radio is not coming back. Newspapers will not survive in print, and most won't survive at all. And while we're at it, CDs are history and physical books are goners. The fact that something still exists does not mean it isn't over. If you're discussing piracy, the death of the CD, singles and streaming, you're wasting your breath. The modern music world is not like Congress, there's no consensus amongst an elite. Instead modernity is an endless rushing river controlled by nobody. If you're doubling down on old media, you're probably investing in the PC business and feature phones.
9. Working The Numbers
Whether it be authors scamming Amazon reviews or record companies garnering fake YouTube plays you can no longer trust statistics and reviews. Everybody's a scumbag. Trying to game the system. And it'll only go away when e-mail spam is eradicated. Which probably won't be in my lifetime.
10. Lack Of Knowledge
No one knows history. Before you sit down to write your song, listen to the Beatles catalog, learn about a bridge, learn about harmony. You can't break every rule and be successful. If you're familiar with the basic building blocks, you've got a chance of making it.
NOT A PROBLEM
1. Peer To Peer File-Sharing
It's declining. Everything's free on YouTube anyway. To worry about piracy is to be shortsighted. If you don't want people to trade your music you're living in the last century. Your enemy is not piracy, but obscurity. Just because the RIAA controls the media discussion, that doesn't mean you should pay attention. Focus on your career. Focus on being great. There's plenty of money to be made if you are. Not as much as being a banker, but that's got more to do with the meshuggeneh country we live in and its flawed economic policies than piracy.
2. Sound Quality
The baby boomers listened to 45s on some of the worst systems imaginable. If it's a hit song, it sounds good on anything. Yes, a hi-fi boom would lift all boats, but it won't happen by badgering people their sound sucks, but creating stuff so marvelous you want to hear it at a high level, which is not today's compressed, loudness wars crap.
3. Electronic Music
You didn't understand rap, does your opinion on EDM count?
4. Texting & Shooting Photos At Gigs
People live to communicate, it's human nature. Maybe they'll communicate about you! The best way to combat social media at a show is to be absolutely riveting. But even that won't work...people live to connect. And at these prices do you blame them?
5. Information
Google yourself. You'll find the bread crumbs of your life. You never know when someone will decide to check you out. If you've got no online presence, you will have no success. The first thing someone does when they're interested is read your Wikipedia page. And they can tell if you wrote it yourself, they laugh behind your back. If someone can't research your history and find out almost everything about you, you're doing it wrong. Don't think campaign, think land mine. People will find you when they're good and ready.
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People don't know what to listen to. You can't trust the radio, you can only trust your friends, and who's to say your friends have the same taste as you?
He who tells us what to listen to will have all the power in the future.
It will not be an algorithm.
If you think Pandora has great recommendations, you've got no taste. If that's the future of radio, I want no part.
2. Money Trumps Art
Everyone's trying to get rich, or bitching that they're poor. People no longer discuss music, but their financial stability. Furthermore, money is the ultimate arbiter. If someone sells a lot of tickets or a lot of tracks you can't say a negative thing about them. This coarsens our society. Critical thinking is crucial to a healthy arts scene. Something can be successful and suck. Conversely, it can be obscure and great. If your first question is how do I make money, you shouldn't be in music.
3. Everybody Thinks They're A Star
We're only interested in the exceptional. It's kind of like the Olympics, if you don't medal, we don't know your name. In the old days, with a limited universe, mediocre, with exposure and promotion, could make it. Today, you've got to be positively A-team. Or, the beneficiary of A-team marketing and promotion. But if your music doesn't sell itself, your career will be very brief.
4. You Can't Get A Good Ticket At A Fair Price
Therefore people don't even try to buy. For all the bitching from people who overpay or sit in the cheap seats there are legions who've opted out of live music. This is the industry's problem. With no one leading the charge against it. It's easy to fall out of the habit of going to the show.
5. Greed
This is just how the rich like it. The hoi polloi fighting amongst themselves, oblivious to the true enemy. The acts and executives, the agents and the promoters, they're fighting over a tiny pot.
6. Con Artists
You know, the websites that give you advice and hope, and charge you for the privilege. Not everybody can work in the music business, not everybody can be a star. If you're paying someone to host your stuff, to get you gigs, you're either not good or delusional or both.
7. Classic Rock
It was too good. Just because the kids like something that does not make it good. Come on, all you trumpeting the Jonas Brothers, name one of their songs... Until modern acts truly reach the brass ring, the whole sphere will suffer. As for those saying today's music is just as good as yesteryear's...you don't have ears.
8. Old Media
From radio to newspapers to movies it's old world thinking, a circle jerk trying to perpetuate something that's dead. The sooner old media dies, the clearer the landscape will be. Radio is not coming back. Newspapers will not survive in print, and most won't survive at all. And while we're at it, CDs are history and physical books are goners. The fact that something still exists does not mean it isn't over. If you're discussing piracy, the death of the CD, singles and streaming, you're wasting your breath. The modern music world is not like Congress, there's no consensus amongst an elite. Instead modernity is an endless rushing river controlled by nobody. If you're doubling down on old media, you're probably investing in the PC business and feature phones.
9. Working The Numbers
Whether it be authors scamming Amazon reviews or record companies garnering fake YouTube plays you can no longer trust statistics and reviews. Everybody's a scumbag. Trying to game the system. And it'll only go away when e-mail spam is eradicated. Which probably won't be in my lifetime.
10. Lack Of Knowledge
No one knows history. Before you sit down to write your song, listen to the Beatles catalog, learn about a bridge, learn about harmony. You can't break every rule and be successful. If you're familiar with the basic building blocks, you've got a chance of making it.
NOT A PROBLEM
1. Peer To Peer File-Sharing
It's declining. Everything's free on YouTube anyway. To worry about piracy is to be shortsighted. If you don't want people to trade your music you're living in the last century. Your enemy is not piracy, but obscurity. Just because the RIAA controls the media discussion, that doesn't mean you should pay attention. Focus on your career. Focus on being great. There's plenty of money to be made if you are. Not as much as being a banker, but that's got more to do with the meshuggeneh country we live in and its flawed economic policies than piracy.
2. Sound Quality
The baby boomers listened to 45s on some of the worst systems imaginable. If it's a hit song, it sounds good on anything. Yes, a hi-fi boom would lift all boats, but it won't happen by badgering people their sound sucks, but creating stuff so marvelous you want to hear it at a high level, which is not today's compressed, loudness wars crap.
3. Electronic Music
You didn't understand rap, does your opinion on EDM count?
4. Texting & Shooting Photos At Gigs
People live to communicate, it's human nature. Maybe they'll communicate about you! The best way to combat social media at a show is to be absolutely riveting. But even that won't work...people live to connect. And at these prices do you blame them?
5. Information
Google yourself. You'll find the bread crumbs of your life. You never know when someone will decide to check you out. If you've got no online presence, you will have no success. The first thing someone does when they're interested is read your Wikipedia page. And they can tell if you wrote it yourself, they laugh behind your back. If someone can't research your history and find out almost everything about you, you're doing it wrong. Don't think campaign, think land mine. People will find you when they're good and ready.
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Monday 31 December 2012
Irving Walks
It's an entrepreneurial business.
Remember when Matsushita bought MCA? They left David Geffen out of the loop, despite his huge stockholdings. Because Geffen plays by his own rules, he could cock up a deal, make it turn out in his favor. Best to leave wildcatters out of corporate business.
The same goes for Irving Azoff.
To think Irving Azoff could work for a public company is to believe Kim Kardashian could marry a white guy. He doesn't believe in any controls that he doesn't impose upon others. That's what the Front Line rollup was about to begin with. It may be hard to recollect, but there was a time, at the turn of the last decade, that the major labels held all the power in the music business (and if you still believe that, you work for one!) Irving would call them and ask for something and some lawyer would refuse, saying it was "corporate policy." It was then that Irving decided to gather all the artists and tell the labels that they had their own policy. Then the record companies failed and the artists gained all the power. Musical artists have more power than ever since the Beatles, if you don't believe this you're never going to make it, you're too busy looking for a sugar daddy, someone to tell you what to do. But today you make your own decisions. And you want someone in your corner to advise you. And that's Irving Azoff.
A better artist representative has never existed. Acts don't leave Irving, even though every once in a while he fires one. Because Irving extracts what no one else can. And if you look up the word "loyalty" you see his picture. If you're on his team, Irving will do anything for you, literally anything, even carry your dope. Ask him to tell you that story, how he was willing to take the fall for...
But a guy like that can't work for the man.
Could Steve Jobs work for the man?
No, he got fired.
If you haven't been fired by the man, or walked in frustration, then you're not an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur makes things happen. A corporate citizen plays politics, wins for himself, not others. Whereas when an entrepreneur wins, cash rains down on many.
So Irving had fourteen months left on his contract, had no intention of renewing and didn't want to be a lame duck. So he ankled Live Nation. Why now? THE FISCAL CLIFF! And everybody's happy. He walks with twenty acts, the ones you think, but his goal is not to stick it in the side of Live Nation but to do something new. To go back to his natural skill. Of artist representation.
But you may have heard that the music business is challenged.
So Irving's not limiting himself to music, but is kicking the tires at sports, fashion, tech...
But what about power?
It all comes down to contacts. And the only person with a better rolodex than Irving Azoff is Barack Obama.
So where does this leave us?
With a whole new music business.
The progenitors, those who constructed the modern music business, they're gone. Not even Doug Morris was there at the beginning. As for Lucian Grainge and Jimmy Iovine... Business was booming when they got in. Whereas Irving Azoff got started representing WLS deejays and dealing with Morris Levy
Michael Rapino is forty four. He's the last man standing at Live Nation. Everybody else walked or was killed. It's his company to run. And he's not beholden to the past, he can't remember it because he wasn't there.
Over at AEG... Irving gave Randy Phillips his job.
So what happens now?
You take over.
You young 'uns who are Internet savvy who don't even remember when MTV played videos. It's your sandbox. Record at home, distribute online and ignore the old farts lamenting the way it used to be, those days are never coming back.
Music has been a second class citizen for this entire decade. Sure, it was the canary in the coal mine for technology, but it's become a football kicked around by fat cats and is peopled by lowest common denominator denizens. Music can't drive the culture, because the people in it know little about data and think that you win through intimidation.
No, you win through ideas.
That's what songs are.
One great one can change the world.
Rihanna can't change the world. There's no there there. Hell, Kendrick Lamar sold more albums in the first week and he didn't even have a radio hit!
And if you write a great song, Live Nation and AEG are there to write you a big check to perform live.
But music will only really count when it recaptures the ethos of Irving Azoff. Isn't it interesting that the most powerful person in music can't work for the man and everybody in the business is looking to sell out to the man! You can't go anywhere without someone talking about a payment from the Fortune 500 or a TV network or...
Music must stand by itself. The acts must be beholden to no one but themselves.
Irving's been unleashed. Will he re-emerge as the most powerful person in the media landscape, will he become a household name, or will he retire with his riches like David Geffen or be an almost powerless blowhard like Barry Diller who owns a ragtag bunch of almost worthless companies but has the dying press at his beck and call?
I don't know.
But nature abhors a vacuum. Someone always comes in to fill the space.
It's not Lyor Cohen. What he did best was extract money from others. He's not a builder, he's a stealer.
Nor Jimmy Iovine, who doesn't have the balls to walk from Interscope, despite building Beats. I mean if he's so good at signing and breaking talent why does he need Universal again? Isn't that like someone too afraid to leave Microsoft?
The future of entertainment is not selling out. Art is not widgets. It makes people uncomfortable, angry, it's frequently banned. But art always emerges triumphant. It's no different from Warner caving to pressure and getting rid of Interscope and Death Row. Rap only went on to become more successful! The man never understands the game.
Everything's intertwined now. From music to the Internet to mobile handsets to politics. Without the shenanigans in D.C., Irving's exit never would have happened today.
Can you manage all this data? Can you be emotional in your art but cold-hearted in your business? Can you forget the past and look to the future?
That's what Irving Azoff did today.
Look to him for direction.
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Remember when Matsushita bought MCA? They left David Geffen out of the loop, despite his huge stockholdings. Because Geffen plays by his own rules, he could cock up a deal, make it turn out in his favor. Best to leave wildcatters out of corporate business.
The same goes for Irving Azoff.
To think Irving Azoff could work for a public company is to believe Kim Kardashian could marry a white guy. He doesn't believe in any controls that he doesn't impose upon others. That's what the Front Line rollup was about to begin with. It may be hard to recollect, but there was a time, at the turn of the last decade, that the major labels held all the power in the music business (and if you still believe that, you work for one!) Irving would call them and ask for something and some lawyer would refuse, saying it was "corporate policy." It was then that Irving decided to gather all the artists and tell the labels that they had their own policy. Then the record companies failed and the artists gained all the power. Musical artists have more power than ever since the Beatles, if you don't believe this you're never going to make it, you're too busy looking for a sugar daddy, someone to tell you what to do. But today you make your own decisions. And you want someone in your corner to advise you. And that's Irving Azoff.
A better artist representative has never existed. Acts don't leave Irving, even though every once in a while he fires one. Because Irving extracts what no one else can. And if you look up the word "loyalty" you see his picture. If you're on his team, Irving will do anything for you, literally anything, even carry your dope. Ask him to tell you that story, how he was willing to take the fall for...
But a guy like that can't work for the man.
Could Steve Jobs work for the man?
No, he got fired.
If you haven't been fired by the man, or walked in frustration, then you're not an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur makes things happen. A corporate citizen plays politics, wins for himself, not others. Whereas when an entrepreneur wins, cash rains down on many.
So Irving had fourteen months left on his contract, had no intention of renewing and didn't want to be a lame duck. So he ankled Live Nation. Why now? THE FISCAL CLIFF! And everybody's happy. He walks with twenty acts, the ones you think, but his goal is not to stick it in the side of Live Nation but to do something new. To go back to his natural skill. Of artist representation.
But you may have heard that the music business is challenged.
So Irving's not limiting himself to music, but is kicking the tires at sports, fashion, tech...
But what about power?
It all comes down to contacts. And the only person with a better rolodex than Irving Azoff is Barack Obama.
So where does this leave us?
With a whole new music business.
The progenitors, those who constructed the modern music business, they're gone. Not even Doug Morris was there at the beginning. As for Lucian Grainge and Jimmy Iovine... Business was booming when they got in. Whereas Irving Azoff got started representing WLS deejays and dealing with Morris Levy
Michael Rapino is forty four. He's the last man standing at Live Nation. Everybody else walked or was killed. It's his company to run. And he's not beholden to the past, he can't remember it because he wasn't there.
Over at AEG... Irving gave Randy Phillips his job.
So what happens now?
You take over.
You young 'uns who are Internet savvy who don't even remember when MTV played videos. It's your sandbox. Record at home, distribute online and ignore the old farts lamenting the way it used to be, those days are never coming back.
Music has been a second class citizen for this entire decade. Sure, it was the canary in the coal mine for technology, but it's become a football kicked around by fat cats and is peopled by lowest common denominator denizens. Music can't drive the culture, because the people in it know little about data and think that you win through intimidation.
No, you win through ideas.
That's what songs are.
One great one can change the world.
Rihanna can't change the world. There's no there there. Hell, Kendrick Lamar sold more albums in the first week and he didn't even have a radio hit!
And if you write a great song, Live Nation and AEG are there to write you a big check to perform live.
But music will only really count when it recaptures the ethos of Irving Azoff. Isn't it interesting that the most powerful person in music can't work for the man and everybody in the business is looking to sell out to the man! You can't go anywhere without someone talking about a payment from the Fortune 500 or a TV network or...
Music must stand by itself. The acts must be beholden to no one but themselves.
Irving's been unleashed. Will he re-emerge as the most powerful person in the media landscape, will he become a household name, or will he retire with his riches like David Geffen or be an almost powerless blowhard like Barry Diller who owns a ragtag bunch of almost worthless companies but has the dying press at his beck and call?
I don't know.
But nature abhors a vacuum. Someone always comes in to fill the space.
It's not Lyor Cohen. What he did best was extract money from others. He's not a builder, he's a stealer.
Nor Jimmy Iovine, who doesn't have the balls to walk from Interscope, despite building Beats. I mean if he's so good at signing and breaking talent why does he need Universal again? Isn't that like someone too afraid to leave Microsoft?
The future of entertainment is not selling out. Art is not widgets. It makes people uncomfortable, angry, it's frequently banned. But art always emerges triumphant. It's no different from Warner caving to pressure and getting rid of Interscope and Death Row. Rap only went on to become more successful! The man never understands the game.
Everything's intertwined now. From music to the Internet to mobile handsets to politics. Without the shenanigans in D.C., Irving's exit never would have happened today.
Can you manage all this data? Can you be emotional in your art but cold-hearted in your business? Can you forget the past and look to the future?
That's what Irving Azoff did today.
Look to him for direction.
--
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