Mailbag

From: Rick Warren
Subject: From Rick Warren

Bob, here's the backstory.

Years ago, I was asked to teach a class of Rabbis at University of Judaism. Through that I met two of my dear friends, Rabbi David Wolpe and Songwriter/Producer Craig Taubman of Sinai Temple in L.A. When they invited me to preach there, I took my church's music leader, Rick Muchow and he became close friends with Craig, and invited Craig company anddown to lead music at a Saddleback Church service.

Craig told Rick Muchow about you and your excellent blog, so he started following you. Yesterday, Rick sent me your quote, since I am famous for preaching long (often a full hour) every week, and yet 24,000 show up to hear it. I thought your quote was great so I tweeted it. Then last night Rick M came over and we played guitars for a while and laughed about it.

You are right about how people are drowning in over-communication. There's too much information and not enough meaning.

Bless you Bob.

Rick
Dr. Rick Warren
Saddleback Church
Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan

____________________________________________

From: Alex Winter
Subject: Re: Downloaded

I first met Fanning in 02, as his company was crumbling around him. As an early Internet user (BBS and Newsgroups on early 90's), I was blown away by both the community and file sharing aspects of Napster. It was an overnight seismic leap forward.

Fanning was pretty burned out when we first met, and I first pitched a way to tell their story. It took him and Parker a long time to recover from the beating they took, however self-imposed that beating was. But it was immediately evident that Fanning was an idealistic genius, working from a place of pure, unfiltered idealism for his 'Vision' of creating a global community connected through music. And despite having created that community, where before him no one had succeeded, he was humbled and brought low. And broke. Napster was never about the money and it was never about the 'free'. It was about community and convenience. And there's no service that provides those two things today the way Napster did 13 years ago. And that's a crying shame.

Thanks for a great piece man.

Alex Winter
Director/Downloaded

____________________________________________

From: Andrew Oldham
Subject: Re: The International

bob;
the wood.... two feet away.... love it.....
one of the ingredients that made - or did not , dependent upon your taste - the mono recording of the stones " tell me " from the first album was the kick drum leaking through keith's acoustic guitar mike.
continued best, o

____________________________________________

From: Russ Titelman
Subject: Higher Love

Bob,

Saw Philippe's note to you via Linda M. I had almost forgotten that he accompanied me to Steve's house in Gloucestershire for two weeks when we tweaked and edited the songs preparing for recording in NYC.
We actually started at Right Track Studios for the first two weeks, then went to Power Station for another couple of weeks and then to Unique where we finished the record with Tom Lord Alge for the remaining 6 or 7 months.
The intro to Higher Love is actually John Robinson playing his toms and not Jimmy B. We flew it in from a different place at the end of the track. Chaka spotted it when she was doing her bit. It was a complicated and joyous process.
And Philippe is right to mention Jimmy Bralower. He did an amazing job taking Steve's programs and making them come alive.

Best rt

____________________________________________

From: Dave Mason

Hi Bob,

Just thought I would drop you a line, thanks for the Traffic and Tommy LiPuma articles, you obviously have good taste.

I am planning on doing shows next year based around the first 2 Traffic albums, DAVE MASONS TRAFFIC JAM.

Already have a number of dates in place.

Dave

____________________________________________

From: BERTON AVERRE
Subject: Re: Jay-Z/Samsung/SoundScan

Well, at the risk of going a little TOO old school, Alfred E. Neuman's "It's A Gas!" wasn't going to crack the Top 40 no matter how many of those issues Mad Magazine sold.

A record's a record, a promotion's a promotion, for f**k's sake. Bank the money, buy another gas guzzler with it, and move on to the next paycheck, Mr. Hyphen Z.

____________________________________________

From: Marty Winsch
Subject: Re: Jay-Z/Samsung

The lines have become severely blurred. Used to be clear (to the public) that those with the music were the "artists" and the ones on the other side of the table were those who were looking to profit from a relationship with content, a specific brand of art. In this case, the technologists are the "artists" and the content providers the businessmen. This is no different than MySpace and then Facebook hijacking accessibility to artist fan bases by trading "free" promotional opportunities as the artists stand by, blindly, and pay via the severely compromised value of their individual brands. Artists need a cause, a purpose, war to fight and increasing their very own probability of accessibility to a certain level of affluence isn't it, is not sustainable viscerally speaking. The allied forces of Jay-Z and Samsung fighting the evils of iTunes Radio can hardly be considered Country Joe & the Fish v. the Vietnam War.

____________________________________________

From: Peter Malick
Subject: Re: Jay-Z/Samsung

Right on, Bob,

I feel that the sad reality is that the quest for corporate sponsorship now directly impacts the creative process. Bigtime.

About a year ago, I was working with a baby artist on an EP for a fairly large indie label. The artist & I got together to write when she was in town, and over the course of 3 extended visits we penned about a dozen songs.

The plan was to choose 3 or 4 of our co-writes for inclusion in the EP. We'd penned a pretty clever, (if I do say so myself) light hearted jab at the natural food industry titled "Overboard". We both felt it was among the best songs that we wrote, and it certainly was the most unique. Quirky in a good way.

When it came time to commit to the songs we were going to track, though, she became nervous that Overboard might foul any chance of a future Whole Foods endorsement or sponsorship, even though Whole Foods was never mentioned in the song. Believe me, this song was not a political rant, but a more a humorous nudge to those of us who are a bit obsessive (and I count myself among that crowd).

The chill factor is real, and where the path ends we do not know. I get her hesitation. It's tough making a living in this business. I also fully agree with you, and if we can't express ourselves as artists, what exactly are we doing?

Peter Malick

____________________________________________

From: Toby
Subject: Re: Tell Me What You Want, And I'll Give You What You Need

I finished the Clive Davis book. Compelled to keep going, looking for any signs of life. There were none.

Next I read Tony Bennett's book "Life Is A Gift: The Zen of Bennett." Tony - who never has a bad word to say about ANYbody - twice goes off on Clive. TWICE. He was so pissed that Clive tried to make him go strictly commercial that he had to come back around and mention it again!

Note that Clive never once mentioned Tony Bennett - and the millions of records he sold for them - in his laundry list of accomplishments.

In his new autobio, Burt Bacharach tells a quick tale of Clive promising Burt and then failing to tell Luther Vandross he'd been kicked off "That's What Friends Are For" in favor of Elton John. Which then inadvertently put Burt in an awkward position that hurt Luther.

Point being, the best Clive bio will be after he dies and they can reinstate all the bad stuff edited out for the first edition.

____________________________________________

From: Kevin Oliver
Subject: Re: The Way John Fogerty Should Have Done It

Darius Rucker made it in country because that's what he wanted to do in the first place...

I know this because I've known him since we were 10 and 11 in middle school, and we sang in high school and college choral groups together, too, and he has always wanted to be a country singer. I can remember attending club shows in Columbia, SC with him and also Mark Bryan (Hootie guitarist), seeing Nanci Griffith, John Hiatt, and New Grass Revival, and there is footage of Darius singing Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" at the 1984 presidential inaguration in D.C. with our collegiate choir, Carolina Alive. Hootie was just a detour (a very successful one, albeit still a detour) in his master plan.

He's loved country music since forever; his mother raised him on Al Green and classic country. It's that genuine love for the genre which made him a quick hit with the country music crowd; he wasn't slumming for a paycheck like Jewel or Bon Jovi, and country fans can smell a fake in a heartbeat. Too bad he's got crap for song-pickers, as each country album has had worse and worse songs on it for some reason...you'd think he'd get better material, being a rising star. He needs to cut an album of cutting edge writers' songs, not the same old cookie cutter junk that only sounds good because he has a God-given voice that can make even that stuff sound decent.

Kevin Oliver

____________________________________________

From: Danny Whittle
Subject: Re: The Daft Punk Album

Regarding daft punk fans wanting them to go forward, well I think them doing a disco sounding live album is genius because they know they have written songs and it will be all the other DJs and producers who remix and rework their album that will present it in the "newer electronic way" by putting this album out they were inviting other upfront trendy DJs to rework it. Luciano dropped an amazing "his version" of get lucky at coachella and it went off.

This will be the most remixed album if all time and its mostly because daft punk didn't do the electronic thing themselves. Very smart

____________________________________________

From: Jay Coyle
Subject: Re: Success Is Elusive

Bob-

I wrote to you back in January and closed it with "I await your missive in March about Bowie's sales numbers." well- I was off by a few weeks but we both knew this was coming!

And I will send it along again based on your recent spot on "Success is Elusive."

Bowie lost the chance to speak directly to his fans. He missed the golden opportunity to super serve his fans and allow them to connect with him in such a way that they felt their importance to him. All rock stars would be nothing without their fans, right? So if Bowie took the time to do the talking himself, going directly to his e-mail list and webpage with PERSONAL missives on what, when and why and let the PR happen out of that- just think what would have happened? All of those obsessed Bowie fans would hang on every word and then tell two friends and then tell two friends and so on. The Tribe would have taken over and the "man behind the curtain" would have been seen to be a real artist doing new music FOR HIS FANS. But what we got was a rock star stuck with the Star-making Record Biz of yesterday who let the PR machine do all the work. And in the end, he seems to me to be more detached and distant than ever before.

Sadly- if Bowie wants the ALBUM (another chat all together) to sell- then he just cut his sales in half as the fans feel out of the equation. Pre-sale on iTunes...WHAT THE F%*k! What about his elder fans who want a piece of Vinyl to obsess over and absorb this new ALBUM. The whole pre-sale on iTunes just proves that he (and his management) are not thinking about his core super fans. I went to his web page in search of the other part of the pre-sale equation (shirts, t-shirts, vinyl) and the ONLY thing you can do is go to iTunes. UGH! Why do bands miss the most simple fact- SUPER SERVE THE FANS.

Bowie missed the boat on an opportunity to straddle a new Millenium as a coming out of retirement and connecting directly with the fans. To your point that most stars are treated as Heroes and thus the myth of the supernatural rock god still seems to be in place. That is what bummed me out.

And fast forward to today- here we are when the fans really did not feel invested, the PR machine stopped and the product (mainly pushed to an iTunes pre-sale) left this thing dying on the vine. The fans got new music but it was all about the product and not about the artist + fan connection.

Could you imagine if he blew up the old record business model and just went direct-to-fan on PledgeMusic and made it all about the EXPERIENCE by giving the fans a way to have been included in on the whole process? THAT would have been a PR story that would have sustained and when it was time for the Press to move on to the next story then the thousands of fans would continue talking about it. Just think what type long-tail fan engagement that would have been...plus he would have made more money to retire on but the fans would have had more of investment to be his Tribe and carry his legacy onwards without him around...thus making more money for him from the grave!

Oh-well!

Cheers-
Jay Coyle
Music Geek

____________________________________________

From: Heather Church
Subject: Re: Buyer's Guide

Hi Bob...
Agreed on all of your best-to-buys. After reading it, I was putting away my laundry and realized that this best-to-buy should also apply to t shirts, and specifically merch shirts. I buy a shirt at every show I go to...I love art and know that small bands make their money through touring, so I when I see quality music, I buy whatever they are selling...if I LOVE what they do, I will buy extra and give them away. I'm also an avid Kickstarter (etc) junkie and love getting prizes for my donations. With that said, there are two things that bands should know...1) women like music too and we will buy your stuff, so get shirts that fit girls and 2) stop using cheap, crappy shirts to put your band name on. They suck, and I won't wear them. American Apparel (or the like) shirts may cost a few bucks more, but they're comfortable and they look good on. I'm happy to be a walking billboard for your band, but not at the cost of my own comfort or appearance.

Heather

____________________________________________

From: Britt Benston
Subject: Re: Zach Braff's Kickstarter

Three separate project contributions on Kickstarter months ago, no product yet.

____________________________________________

From: Kendra Hite
Subject: Re: Emily Ratajkowski

Hey Bob!

I'm not sure about the other 7 girls in Robert Palmers 'Simply Irresistable' video but here's one of them, me.

Then there were the professional dancers and the awesome female guitarist, who wore the same dress as us, which the great English director Terence Donavan filmed close ups shredding that ridiculous guitar line.
I wanted to be her.

That was 1988. Now I'm 43 and recording my first record in New Paltz, NY. Rhett Miller of the Old 97's is my producer. Lucky me. I've got Paul Frazier, David Byrnes bassist, and his buddy Adam Jackson as my rhythm section.

My career as a model was a successful 25 year run. I quit because I could neither think nor do anything other than write songs and learn how to play guitar. I believe my marriage even ended because of the obsession/dedication to the craft. C'est la vie. I have two beautiful teenagers from that 15 year relationship.

I can even say that filming with Mr. Palmer saved my life as I was schedule to fly on Pan Am flight 103 which was bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21st, 1988. The video took an extra day to film so my agency re-booked me on flight 104 on the 22nd. I overheard about the bombing from two stewardesses discussing it on the plane. Unsettling to say the least. God bless all those touched by that tragedy.

I was a huge fan of the 'Addicted To Love' video so booking 'Simple Irresistable' was one of the highlights of my career. Mr. Palmer's sudden death saddened me along with millions.

He was an exceptionally lovely gentleman to work with and is sorely missed.

Love you Bob!

Kendra Hite

p.s. A year later Pepsi used footage from the video to create a very cool commercial!


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25




--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --