Mailbag

From: Paul Dean
Subject: Slippery When Wet

Hi Bob

I'm a big fan of yours, you remind me of another great thinker in our field, Bruce Allen. Like you, outspoken, fearless and usually right. I just wanted to say thanks for the mention, and give you a bit of back story regarding Bruce Fairbairn.

Jon Bon Jovi called me one day out on the road. "Hi Paul, got your number from my manager who knows your manager, blah blah. I wanted to ask you about working with Bruce Fairbairn. What's he like, patient, creative, tyrannical, bored, insightful, lazy, deaf?"
I said something like, "His best quality is he's super organized. He has charts and progress graphs, every song is broken into parts - Drums, done. Bass, done. Rhythm guitar, done. Solos, not done. BGs, not started. Lyrics, need work. The part gets done, it gets a star, when it's all stars, we mix."
So he thanked me, wished me well on our tour, and I didn't think much about it.

A year goes by, and I'm back at Little Mountain Sound recording "Loving Every Minute of It" with Tom Allom, and Fairbairn comes across from Studio B, and says, "Hey Dean, got a minute?" "Yeah man, what's up?" "I got something I want your opinion on. Have a listen to this cassette, and pick the best song."

So I'm listening to "You Give Love A Bad Name", and "Wanted Dead Or Alve", and "Living On A Prayer." What would you say? I heard the whole album, and picked those 3, right off. Looking back, I wish I had said, "They're OK I guess. I'd probably use them as filler for our album."

'Cause recently I heard Jon And Richie were writing them for us, they wanted us to record them. If only! Yeah, we would've killed.

Thanks again.

Paul Dean
Loverboy

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From: Glen Phillips
Subject: Blind Pilot-Half Moon

Bob -
Thanks for the kind mention. Toad is back in the studio as we speak.
Hopefully we'll equal the moment this time around….
Best
g

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From: Wayne Jobson
Subject: Volkswagen Commercial featuring Jimmy Cliff's Music

Just saw Jimmy in LA and he was recording this.

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A Volkswagen commercial featuring Jimmy Cliff's music with the Jamaican accent has been released and will be featured during this Sunday’s Super Bowl. Please click this link to view the commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_697164&feature=iv&src_vid=NfCm9P8naDQ&v=9H0xPWAtaa8.

The downloadable version of the song is included on the VW website: http://www.vw.com/en.html.
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Bless,

Native Wayne

(Note: Be sure to watch this video. It's got all the creativity most mainstream music does not. It's all about perspective, creativity, the idea. Execution is secondary.)

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From: Jay Sweet
Subject: Newport Folk Festival

The reality is, as a small non-profit, we simply can't go toe to toe with all the new fests backed by the big boys, so we just do our own thing and deliver the best we can to our community. Out entire programming budget is equal to one second or third line headliner on any of the uber-festivals.

We're at 75% sold for Sat & Sun after 14 days on sale (we added a Friday this year too) and we didn't do a press release announcing we were on-sale, haven't announced any artists, or spent a dollar on marketing. We just told our community via social media in hopes that they would have the best shot at grabbing them. Mainstream hasn't even sniffed it yet, and I'm fairly confident Sat & Sun will be clean by the time they do. Not like it really matters anyway.

We are scrubbing all sales for scalpers... and yes some scuzbags have put their tickets on Stub Hub and marked them up 5X, which is truly moronic because, even though they are going fast, you can still get tickets for all days directly from our site. We try and remind people NOT to go to any third party sites for tix because, as we have seen the last two years after selling out, the majority of the time they are bogus. We beg are fans to not feed into it. If no one buys from the scalpers there are only two results a) they will eat their costs and think twice about it next year or b) flood the market right before the date with either face value or below market costs. It's about unifying our community and of course being patient.

Someday I'd love to tell you more about the seemly underbelly of how this festival game is played over coffee... truly the only way to survive is to ignore what anyone else is doing and hope your crowd trusts you. Unless you have the biggest wallet, if you try and play the game the way it's rigged you are DOOMED.

Hope you are getting some turns

Jay

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From: Taylor Raboin
Subject: Re: Django Unchained

Your line, "we want limit-testers, people not beholden to the system...," is brilliant and absolutely true.

As Hugh MacLeod puts it: "the sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will."

This is the essence of almost everything you write.

It's the fact that Tarantino's films exist in their own UNIVERSE, an alternate reality of life on Earth, 'The Realer Than Real World Universe,' one defined by a ton of violence (Google: "Tarantion film universe"). He CREATED that, and it is uniquely his. That turns his fans on far more than the films themselves, whether they realize it or not.

And anyone who wishes to do anything substantial and unique in their life should read MacLeod's manifesto on 'How To Be Creative' (the above quote is from it). It's the 26 commandments on how to create something and truly inspire people. And it's free: http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/6.HowToBeCreative.

Seriously. Bob. Read it. I know what I'm talking about.

P.S. I bought some Sennheiser 380's (I know they're no 800's, but I'm a Vanderbilt dropout on a budget. have you seen their tuition these days?) and my life has forever been changed. I honestly feel like I'm hearing music for the first time. Thanks for turning me on to the good word. And f*** Beats.

Taylor

Nashville

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From: Darren Templeton
Subject: Re: Django Unchained

Hey Bob. I'm the guy that wrote to you about going to EDM shows in a wheelchair. You should see the things that go on in the handicapped parking areas! You wanna see the worst people on earth?! Camp out in front of a movie or theater lot by the handicapped spots!!


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