What You Want Is In The Limo

http://amzn.to/1bnNsdj

I'm fried from dental work, but I don't want another moment to go by without hipping you to this book, could be the best rock and roll primer on the planet.

Huh?

I've about given up reading rock and roll books. Always poorly written, they never tell you what you want to hear and they leave out the essence, the myth and how it came to be.

Most people believe the concept of rock star was born with MTV. Oldsters will pooh-pooh that and say it's all about the sixties, baby. Michael Walker points to the seventies, more specifically 1973, he says that's when the screw turned, when Zeppelin, the Who and Alice Cooper went on stage.

I don't agree with his exact premise. Led Zeppelin IV was much more important than "Houses Of The Holy" and "Physical Graffiti" was a return to form, but the point is once upon a time it was about peace and love, then it turned out to be about world domination and money. Yup, everybody from Lady Gaga to the living room wannabe is living out the paradigm that these acts established exactly forty years ago, when there was so much money in music, you lived in a bubble and could do whatever you wanted.

This was back before bankers were loaded.

Back before the tech revolution.

Oh, there was always a music business. But the lion's share of the cash went to the promoters and the intermediaries. The acts were along for the ride. But not when Peter Grant got involved.

Beginning with Donn Arden, and ain't that a story, Peter Grant came from the Irving Azoff school of music management. He didn't get involved in the music itself, but he paved the way for Jimmy Page to do exactly what he wanted. He was his adorer and protector. High on coke, sometimes a teddy bear and sometimes a tyrant, it was Grant who invented the modern music business. He was the one who changed the deals so that the acts got all the money, after all, all you had to do was put the tickets on sale and they were instantly gone!

If you lived through this era you remember. Scalpers were not prevalent. You lined up overnight to get tickets. And you were thrilled just to be inside, no one complained about sitting in the last row, you were part of the shenanigans!

Woodstock illustrated there was an audience.

Grant, Gordon and Peter Rudge capitalized on it.

Yes, Shep Gordon. Who comes to L.A. with bupkes and fakes his way into managing Alice Cooper, leaving behind his days as a dope dealer at the Landmark Hotel. Read this book and you'll believe that management is everything. That you won't make it without it. Because a manager not only has a vision, he capitalizes on your luck. Alice Cooper almost didn't make it. Frank Zappa had them cut their first album in a day. And it stunk. But they convinced the unknown Bob Ezrin to produce "I'm Eighteen" and truly the rest is history. Without Ezrin, there's no Alice Cooper. And if there's no Alice Cooper, there's no Madonna and certainly no Miley Cyrus. Alice self-consciously tested limits heretofore unseen. The audience was in on the joke, the mainstream was horrified. But it's only rock and roll, back when the acts used to actually write their own songs and perform on their records.

Peter Grant got leverage by paying for Zeppelin's first record with his and Jimmy Page's money. They ended up with artistic control. Remember that when you're looking for a handout.

Furthermore, Zeppelin got terrible reviews. Yup, this was the first time in the rock and roll era reviews no longer mattered, the public was in charge. The Zeppelin you revere today? Abhorred by the cognoscenti back then. But it made no difference, just like reviews are meaningless today.

But you might know all this. But did you know promoter Jack Boyle used to fill his ice cream tubs with plaster of Paris, only putting the frozen dessert a half inch down? He charged $75 for that ice cream, he told Chip Rachlin he put his kids through college on the profits.

Yes, the promoters were trying to screw the artists. It was the job of the manager to make sure they didn't. The entire modern rock and roll business was created way back then, we've just been living on fumes ever since.

And the reason you read this book is for the tiny touches, the little stuff you did not know. And I was stunned how much of the book was new to me. Yup, after all these years you can still teach an old dog new tricks.

And you've got to know the tricks. That's why I'm recommending this book. I don't care if you hate these three bands, you'll learn more about how the rock and roll music business works than in a month of web-surfing and a year of "Billboard."

And I never ever read anything about this book other than the one review that got me to check it out. It's like it wasn't even released. The guy made some previous headway with his book about Laurel Canyon, but either he's got a bad publicist or the mainstream press is ignoring him, but this is the most insightful book about the music business since "Hit Men."

Oh, there's a big gap. And the writer is constantly executing turns of phrase that cause you to wince. And he throws in big words for no reason. But by reading this book you'll understand how it once was, when we weren't enthralled by tech but music. When these musicians were never laughingstocks but heroes. When they had more power than anybody on the planet and lived like it.

Really. Buy this book IMMEDIATELY!

"What You Want Is In The Limo: On the Road with Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, and the Who in 1973, the Year the Sixties Died and the Modern Rock Star Was Born": http://bit.ly/13vVuwj


--
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 --