Music is a popularity contest.
That's right, you can't bitch about your Spotify payments if no one wants to listen to your music.
This is where we've arrived, the data-centric world. The old days of Tommy Noonan manipulating the "Billboard" chart are done. Now all we've got is raw statistics, which will leave most people out.
And they don't like it.
That's the number one bitch in the music business, that you can't make any money, that the internet destroyed the paradigm and now you're broke.
Well, just like Sam Kinison said not to send food to Africa, but suitcases, if you want to make money...MAKE MUSIC PEOPLE WANT TO LISTEN TO!
Sounds simple, I know.
But you don't want to do it. You want to make the music you want to make, and then bitch that people won't listen to it, that the label won't sign it and that radio won't play it, ignoring the fact that YouTube and Spotify are open worlds, and if there's any demand, it can be instantly filled.
Are you a member of a club that is marginalizing yourself? Are you so busy talking to your friends in the echo chamber that you don't realize you've got to convince those outside it to make money?
Being a hipster might make you cool, but it won't make you rich.
Of course, some hipster music breaks through. And that's great, we need the bleeding edge, that's what's wrong with too much of today's pop, the formula. But most hipster music is just not made for mainstream consumption, which is fine, but please stop complaining that no one wants it.
Imagine making a tech product no one wants. Do these people complain, no they PIVOT! An incredible percentage of tech companies started out making something different, and when no one wanted it, they took the essence and turned it into something else.
Which means if you know how to play, you don't only have to play the music you do.
And if you can't sing, you can get someone who can.
And you can learn how to write songs.
Just because the barrier to entry in music is so low that does not mean everyone is entitled to be successful.
As for Taylor Swift bitching about Spotify payments, not only is she already rich, she gave the biggest injection of publicity to the Swedish streaming music service ever. Now everybody knows what Spotify is. Thanks Taylor!
And if you're successful on Spotify you're gonna get rich. Don't conflate low Pandora payments with Spotify royalties, they're a different animal, although songwriter payments need to be improved (thank the government for screwing that up.)
There's tons of money in music. You've just got to make stuff people want!
And if you're decrying everything successful as pabulum, the joke is on you.
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Saturday 27 December 2014
Friday 26 December 2014
Dark Sky
"Dark star, I see you in the morning
Dark star, a' sleeping next to me"
No, not "Dark Star," DARK SKY!
I love this guy Slava Rubin, he's the Founder and CEO of Indiegogo. You know how some people rub you the wrong way at first and then you become best friends? That's Slava.
We were at the Summit Series, in Utah, at the top of Powder Mountain, debating crowdfunding, the music business and the world in general. It started out as a heated debate, and then Slava and I entertained questions for hours and when all was said and done there were smiles all around.
And the very next morning we were in the van to the lake, pondering when it was going to stop raining, and Slava said...DON'T YOU HAVE DARK SKY?
I hate to feel inadequate, especially in front of techies, I like to know what's going on, and then Slava pulled up the app which said it was going to stop raining in two minutes...and THEN IT DID!
Like magic. I had to have it.
I know, I know, no one likes to pay for apps, including myself.
I know, I know, it's a failed business model.
But I will tell you, for my $3.99 I've gotten endless entertainment. It's a parlor trick. I was at Amy and Leo's in Pacific Palisades and it was clear and I pulled up Dark Sky and it said it was going to start raining in 25 minutes, and it did, even though every weather forecast said it would not!
There's no human element in Dark Sky. It triangulates radar and algorithms to come up with an up to the minute forecast for exactly where you are, or want to be, you can plug in alternative locations.
Like right now it says it's 13 degrees and falling, and it feels like 2 degrees.
For the next hour there's no precipitation.
The nearest precipitation is 45 miles to the northeast.
Meanwhile, there's a Winter Storm Warning for Eagle County, that's where I am, where it's been blowing and snowing all day long, it was a veritable winter wonderland, there's nothing I like more than being out in the elements, riding the chairlift, banging the bumps in the quietude of a snowstorm.
Dark Sky says there's a 56% chance of snow until 8 PM.
Tomorrow, the high will be 10, the low -7, BRRR! It always gets cold after a storm.
Sunday, there's a 72% chance of snow. Dark Sky is predicting 2-4 inches in the morning and afternoon.
Is Dark Sky always right?
No.
But I will say yesterday it was pukin' snow and I pulled up Dark Sky and it said it was gonna stop in 25 minutes. No one believed it, including me, I mean it was coming down as heavy as it does in Vail.
And then, right on time, it STOPPED!
Whew!
Slide backward from the homepage and you get the radar.
Click on the temp and you get the wind speed and direction, humidity, pressure and visibility.
It's absolutely incredible. And since I've been in Colorado, more accurate than the National Weather Service, more accurate than all of the weather prognosticators, and let me tell you, here in snow country, people take the weather VERY seriously.
So I know you're not gonna buy it. Because you don't want to spend $3.99.
And you weather acolytes are gonna tell me you've got an app as good.
But then I'm gonna whip out Dark Sky and convert you.
I promise.
Thanks Slava!
http://darkskyapp.com
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Dark star, a' sleeping next to me"
No, not "Dark Star," DARK SKY!
I love this guy Slava Rubin, he's the Founder and CEO of Indiegogo. You know how some people rub you the wrong way at first and then you become best friends? That's Slava.
We were at the Summit Series, in Utah, at the top of Powder Mountain, debating crowdfunding, the music business and the world in general. It started out as a heated debate, and then Slava and I entertained questions for hours and when all was said and done there were smiles all around.
And the very next morning we were in the van to the lake, pondering when it was going to stop raining, and Slava said...DON'T YOU HAVE DARK SKY?
I hate to feel inadequate, especially in front of techies, I like to know what's going on, and then Slava pulled up the app which said it was going to stop raining in two minutes...and THEN IT DID!
Like magic. I had to have it.
I know, I know, no one likes to pay for apps, including myself.
I know, I know, it's a failed business model.
But I will tell you, for my $3.99 I've gotten endless entertainment. It's a parlor trick. I was at Amy and Leo's in Pacific Palisades and it was clear and I pulled up Dark Sky and it said it was going to start raining in 25 minutes, and it did, even though every weather forecast said it would not!
There's no human element in Dark Sky. It triangulates radar and algorithms to come up with an up to the minute forecast for exactly where you are, or want to be, you can plug in alternative locations.
Like right now it says it's 13 degrees and falling, and it feels like 2 degrees.
For the next hour there's no precipitation.
The nearest precipitation is 45 miles to the northeast.
Meanwhile, there's a Winter Storm Warning for Eagle County, that's where I am, where it's been blowing and snowing all day long, it was a veritable winter wonderland, there's nothing I like more than being out in the elements, riding the chairlift, banging the bumps in the quietude of a snowstorm.
Dark Sky says there's a 56% chance of snow until 8 PM.
Tomorrow, the high will be 10, the low -7, BRRR! It always gets cold after a storm.
Sunday, there's a 72% chance of snow. Dark Sky is predicting 2-4 inches in the morning and afternoon.
Is Dark Sky always right?
No.
But I will say yesterday it was pukin' snow and I pulled up Dark Sky and it said it was gonna stop in 25 minutes. No one believed it, including me, I mean it was coming down as heavy as it does in Vail.
And then, right on time, it STOPPED!
Whew!
Slide backward from the homepage and you get the radar.
Click on the temp and you get the wind speed and direction, humidity, pressure and visibility.
It's absolutely incredible. And since I've been in Colorado, more accurate than the National Weather Service, more accurate than all of the weather prognosticators, and let me tell you, here in snow country, people take the weather VERY seriously.
So I know you're not gonna buy it. Because you don't want to spend $3.99.
And you weather acolytes are gonna tell me you've got an app as good.
But then I'm gonna whip out Dark Sky and convert you.
I promise.
Thanks Slava!
http://darkskyapp.com
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Song Of The Year
"She was sittin' all alone over on the tailgate"
That's right, the boys and their trucks. But wouldn't you want a guy? If you had a desire to hug and kiss and more? Is there anything wrong with being red-blooded and desirous?
OF COURSE NOT!
"I was lookin' for her boyfriend
Thinkin', no way she ain't got one"
Insecurity, it's in the DNA of men. That's right, all you women worrying about being picked, feeling at the mercy of the opposite sex, the truth is guys are riddled with self-doubt, don't mistake the bluster for confidence, it's just a way they screw up their courage to interact with you WHATSOEVER!
"Soon as I sat down I was fallin' in love"
Guys don't fall in love gradually, that's women. You know, the people who testify in the Sunday "New York Times" Style section that they were friends first. Guys are never friends first, no matter what they tell you, the truth is they fall in love right at the very first, and then they wait for the signal...
"Talkin' over the speakers in the back of that truck
She jumped up and cut me off"
There's a canard that men want you to be demure, look good and keep quiet. Nothing could be further from the truth. Men are clueless without women. We might be able to make some money, but we don't know how to create a social schedule, we need to be led, we need your help. And what attracts us, after looks, is someone who is alive, who is so excited by life that she can't help but jump up and take action, who's a live wire waiting to react.
"She was like, oh my God, this is my song
I've been listenin' to the radio all night long
Sittin' 'round waitin' for it to come on and here it is"
And here we come to the heart of the matter, the exuberance, the excitement, the way the unexpected heart's desire can send us over the moon (and there's a cliche for you!)
If you're over the age of thirty you know exactly what Luke Bryan is singing about, pushing the buttons on the radio and hearing the one song you've been waiting for all day. That's why kids cannot understand the power of radio, because they don't remember when it was the only thing, the only way to hear it, when music was not free, when everything ever recorded was not at your fingertips.
"She was like, come here boy, I wanna dance"
Most guys don't. Dance, that is. But if you ask us, we will, especially if it's the beginning of a relationship.
"And she gave me a kiss
And she said, play it again, play it again, play it again
And I said, play it again, play it again, play it again"
We just want to do it over again. Everything. With you. Start with a kiss, graduate to sex, we're completely enthralled. Women lead, never forget that. And when they do, we doofuses cannot help but be thrilled and play along.
I could try and be cool, tell you my favorite track of the year is something obscure that you've never heard of, recorded by someone in Iceland to an Afro-beat by someone who never shows their eyes and dresses totally in black. But that would be a futile effort by me to look cool.
And I'm not cool. A few people are, the rest of us are not. We commit faux pas. We stay stupid stuff. We lie in bed at night replaying the day, wishing we could pray away mistakes. We stumble through the world alone, and then we uncover a record that gets us through.
"Play It Again" serves that purpose for me.
I wish I could tell you I have all the answers. Oh, I'm looking, constantly. But unlike many, I'm willing to separate the wheat from the chaff, I know that in this Internet era usability is everything, that it doesn't matter what hits you intellectually, but emotionally. Windows Phone ain't bad, but not good enough to buy. Ditto on Fire Phone. There's plenty of good out there, but I'm only interested in great.
And Luke Bryan's "Play It Again" is great.
I heard about his album "Crash My Party" from a friend. An agent in Nashville who issued a caveat, how Luke was decried but "Drink A Beer" delivered.
And it did. Deliver, that is. And yes, we always hate the people at the top. Everyone from Obama to Taylor Swift to Luke Bryan. But unlike so many, Luke Bryan is not beating us over the head, telling us to pay attention, issuing statements how great he is. His music is speaking for itself. The public is embracing it.
And what's so wrong with the public taking you into your arms?
I feel sorry for those so outside they cannot embrace the mainstream, whose identities depend upon being different. Once upon a time, when society was cohesive, when art was limited, those people had a place in the firmament. But the truth is we now live in a Tower of Babel society and it's the mainstream moments that keep us together, that connect us, whether they be sports, news or...hit music. We gravitate towards these shared moments. If you refuse to, the joke is on you. With so much info, you're not only ignored, it's like you don't even exist.
So I went to Stagecoach where the Americana man of the moment played to fewer than a hundred people.
But when Luke Bryan took the stage there were 70,000, a sea of people as far as you could see, with their heads in the air, singing along with every song.
"Play it again, play it again, play it again."
That's why we go to the show. To hear the songs we know by heart one more time. We can't believe it's really happening, it's like heads exploding in that SNL skit about Oprah giving away cars. No one else matters in these moments, you bond with the heavens, where your eyes are looking, because this is as good as it gets.
Then I got deeper. I memorized Luke Bryan's Spring Break EP. I learned what a Yeti was. I tried to play other music, but I couldn't stop digging deeper. Luke wasn't brand new, there were old albums I could explore.
"I'd 'a gave that DJ my last dime
If he would have played it just one more time"
We'll do anything to make you happy. Anything.
"I was scannin' like a fool, AM, FM, XM too"
This roots the song, I scan XM ALL DAY LONG!
"But I stopped real quick when I heard that groove
Man, you should have seen her light up"
That's our goal. To get you to light up.
Tom Petty may have called country music "rock music of the 70's" but the truth is despite a scorched earth publicity campaign Petty's last LP was essentially a nonstarter, it had no cultural impact, except for a few hard core fans no one listened to it, it had almost no radio action, few played it again and again and again.
But Luke Bryan's "Crash My Party"... IT WAS A CULTURAL INSTITUTION!
Check not only the sales figures, but the Mediabase chart. Luke Bryan is all over the airwaves. He's big, he's successful.
And I'm proud to say I'm a fan.
You can like "Homeland," "True Detective," all the TV shows everyone else does. But when it comes to music why do you have to trumpet the obscure? Does it really keep you warm at night? Do you run into a desired love who melts when they hear the same arcane song?
Probably not. That's like finding a needle in a haystack.
And there's another cliche. And the reason they're cliches is they're true.
And the truth is country music is the most dominant format in America. Because it focuses on the basics. First and foremost the song. Then the singer. And then the humanity. We can relate.
We need more of this in the rest of music.
In the meantime, I'm gonna play it again.
And again.
And again.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1JTU5TY
YouTube link: http://bit.ly/1h5yOtu
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That's right, the boys and their trucks. But wouldn't you want a guy? If you had a desire to hug and kiss and more? Is there anything wrong with being red-blooded and desirous?
OF COURSE NOT!
"I was lookin' for her boyfriend
Thinkin', no way she ain't got one"
Insecurity, it's in the DNA of men. That's right, all you women worrying about being picked, feeling at the mercy of the opposite sex, the truth is guys are riddled with self-doubt, don't mistake the bluster for confidence, it's just a way they screw up their courage to interact with you WHATSOEVER!
"Soon as I sat down I was fallin' in love"
Guys don't fall in love gradually, that's women. You know, the people who testify in the Sunday "New York Times" Style section that they were friends first. Guys are never friends first, no matter what they tell you, the truth is they fall in love right at the very first, and then they wait for the signal...
"Talkin' over the speakers in the back of that truck
She jumped up and cut me off"
There's a canard that men want you to be demure, look good and keep quiet. Nothing could be further from the truth. Men are clueless without women. We might be able to make some money, but we don't know how to create a social schedule, we need to be led, we need your help. And what attracts us, after looks, is someone who is alive, who is so excited by life that she can't help but jump up and take action, who's a live wire waiting to react.
"She was like, oh my God, this is my song
I've been listenin' to the radio all night long
Sittin' 'round waitin' for it to come on and here it is"
And here we come to the heart of the matter, the exuberance, the excitement, the way the unexpected heart's desire can send us over the moon (and there's a cliche for you!)
If you're over the age of thirty you know exactly what Luke Bryan is singing about, pushing the buttons on the radio and hearing the one song you've been waiting for all day. That's why kids cannot understand the power of radio, because they don't remember when it was the only thing, the only way to hear it, when music was not free, when everything ever recorded was not at your fingertips.
"She was like, come here boy, I wanna dance"
Most guys don't. Dance, that is. But if you ask us, we will, especially if it's the beginning of a relationship.
"And she gave me a kiss
And she said, play it again, play it again, play it again
And I said, play it again, play it again, play it again"
We just want to do it over again. Everything. With you. Start with a kiss, graduate to sex, we're completely enthralled. Women lead, never forget that. And when they do, we doofuses cannot help but be thrilled and play along.
I could try and be cool, tell you my favorite track of the year is something obscure that you've never heard of, recorded by someone in Iceland to an Afro-beat by someone who never shows their eyes and dresses totally in black. But that would be a futile effort by me to look cool.
And I'm not cool. A few people are, the rest of us are not. We commit faux pas. We stay stupid stuff. We lie in bed at night replaying the day, wishing we could pray away mistakes. We stumble through the world alone, and then we uncover a record that gets us through.
"Play It Again" serves that purpose for me.
I wish I could tell you I have all the answers. Oh, I'm looking, constantly. But unlike many, I'm willing to separate the wheat from the chaff, I know that in this Internet era usability is everything, that it doesn't matter what hits you intellectually, but emotionally. Windows Phone ain't bad, but not good enough to buy. Ditto on Fire Phone. There's plenty of good out there, but I'm only interested in great.
And Luke Bryan's "Play It Again" is great.
I heard about his album "Crash My Party" from a friend. An agent in Nashville who issued a caveat, how Luke was decried but "Drink A Beer" delivered.
And it did. Deliver, that is. And yes, we always hate the people at the top. Everyone from Obama to Taylor Swift to Luke Bryan. But unlike so many, Luke Bryan is not beating us over the head, telling us to pay attention, issuing statements how great he is. His music is speaking for itself. The public is embracing it.
And what's so wrong with the public taking you into your arms?
I feel sorry for those so outside they cannot embrace the mainstream, whose identities depend upon being different. Once upon a time, when society was cohesive, when art was limited, those people had a place in the firmament. But the truth is we now live in a Tower of Babel society and it's the mainstream moments that keep us together, that connect us, whether they be sports, news or...hit music. We gravitate towards these shared moments. If you refuse to, the joke is on you. With so much info, you're not only ignored, it's like you don't even exist.
So I went to Stagecoach where the Americana man of the moment played to fewer than a hundred people.
But when Luke Bryan took the stage there were 70,000, a sea of people as far as you could see, with their heads in the air, singing along with every song.
"Play it again, play it again, play it again."
That's why we go to the show. To hear the songs we know by heart one more time. We can't believe it's really happening, it's like heads exploding in that SNL skit about Oprah giving away cars. No one else matters in these moments, you bond with the heavens, where your eyes are looking, because this is as good as it gets.
Then I got deeper. I memorized Luke Bryan's Spring Break EP. I learned what a Yeti was. I tried to play other music, but I couldn't stop digging deeper. Luke wasn't brand new, there were old albums I could explore.
"I'd 'a gave that DJ my last dime
If he would have played it just one more time"
We'll do anything to make you happy. Anything.
"I was scannin' like a fool, AM, FM, XM too"
This roots the song, I scan XM ALL DAY LONG!
"But I stopped real quick when I heard that groove
Man, you should have seen her light up"
That's our goal. To get you to light up.
Tom Petty may have called country music "rock music of the 70's" but the truth is despite a scorched earth publicity campaign Petty's last LP was essentially a nonstarter, it had no cultural impact, except for a few hard core fans no one listened to it, it had almost no radio action, few played it again and again and again.
But Luke Bryan's "Crash My Party"... IT WAS A CULTURAL INSTITUTION!
Check not only the sales figures, but the Mediabase chart. Luke Bryan is all over the airwaves. He's big, he's successful.
And I'm proud to say I'm a fan.
You can like "Homeland," "True Detective," all the TV shows everyone else does. But when it comes to music why do you have to trumpet the obscure? Does it really keep you warm at night? Do you run into a desired love who melts when they hear the same arcane song?
Probably not. That's like finding a needle in a haystack.
And there's another cliche. And the reason they're cliches is they're true.
And the truth is country music is the most dominant format in America. Because it focuses on the basics. First and foremost the song. Then the singer. And then the humanity. We can relate.
We need more of this in the rest of music.
In the meantime, I'm gonna play it again.
And again.
And again.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1JTU5TY
YouTube link: http://bit.ly/1h5yOtu
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Tuesday 23 December 2014
The Big C
"I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try"
"For A Dancer"
Jackson Browne
My friend just died. You can Google him, search for him on Facebook, you won't find much. Although he was addicted to Foursquare for a time. He loved being the mayor.
I met Andy Oliver at the Vail Mountain Club. New members, we knew nobody and he seemed to be the center of attention, everybody came up to talk to him, I told Felice to say hi.
And thus began a beautiful friendship. One of my closest. That didn't quite last five years.
Andy was the only person I've ever met who was as into skiing as I was. He knew all the hills, the lifts, the vertical drops. He'd been everywhere from Whistler to Val d'Isere, but now he was in Vail, because he could no longer work.
It wasn't long before you knew something was off. You see Andy had a very soft voice. And when riding the lift the day after we met, I can tell you exactly which one it was, #26, the Pride Express, I asked Andy what was up. I mean he could barely talk and I could barely hear.
You can do that when you've been afflicted too. That was my ace in the hole. My own experience with the Big C. It's kind of like being Jewish, you can tell anti-Semitic jokes when you're a Jew, but if not...
Andy was Jewish too. Maybe that was part of our bond, the shared values. There was a streak of Jewish skiers in the sixties, back when assimilation was everything and skiing was an everyman's sport, before it became about the haves and the haves only.
Andy told me he had salivary gland cancer. That it was a result of radiation for lymphoma two decades before. That it had been hard to diagnose, he'd gone to multiple doctors and spent time uncovering the cause of something that wasn't quite right.
There was treatment.
And then there was the day Andy removed his feeding tube to ski the powder.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Andy grew up in Baltimore. At least that's what I recall.
But then he went to Boston University. My sister and mother went to BU.
Then he went into real estate.
Then he got sick.
Then he got another job.
Then that job ended and Andy skied and traveled.
He took a train trip to Russia. He'd e-mail me from Asia. Sounds fantastic, I know, but Andy knew that time was running out.
Then it became harder to eat. It could take Andy an hour to finish a sandwich. People lost patience with him. But Andy was always up for making some turns. He was always optimistic, then again he bitched that people were beating the EpicMix system. He was high on the leaderboard, since he skied every day. But there were some with so many vertical feet that Andy couldn't believe it was real. Andy had a strong sense of fairness.
But life was not fair to Andy.
Andy's wife Nancy would talk about Andy not being around, not living forever. I didn't believe it.
But then Andy got worse.
It happened two years ago. I got to Vail and went to the VMC, the Vail Mountain Club, where everyone knew Andy, where Andy held court...and he was not there.
I called, I texted, and there was no response.
Days later he sent a message that he had pneumonia. He'd been in the hospital. He was recovering at home. But I knew the truth, he was too depressed to connect, I've been there.
But after going back to NYC and returning to Vail Andy was back on the slopes. However, he was using a feeding tube. Ensure was his friend. But I'd get off the lift and see him there in his puffy Uniqlo jacket, ready to hit it.
But then Andy faded further. His voice got worse.
Oh, there's much more. Much, much more. The stuff those who've been dragged through the travails of the Big C are utterly familiar with, but don't broadcast. For all the advancements too often cancer is a slow sink to the bottom. With endless doctor visits. Trials. Hope that is too often extinguished.
There was radiation for spots on his back. The first time the doctor told Andy he couldn't ski. But Andy found a doctor in Vail who said it was okay. And if you can't do what you live for, why go on living?
But then the spots returned. Andy would go underground when things were bad. That's how I knew they were bad, I'd e-mail him ski stories and get no response. Andy lived for ski stories.
And I'd see Andy in New York. And we'd get together during the summer.
And when the double vision came and went it seemed Andy had nine lives. If only he was that lucky.
There comes a point when you know the screw has turned, that you've passed the point of no return. That was last March, when Andy was complaining of pain on the chairlift. He wasn't even trying to speak.
That's what they don't tell you about cancer, the pain.
And then Andy disappeared. Except for the wedding invitation. His only daughter was getting married in August, would I come?
Of course I would.
By this time Andy was wearing glasses with one lens fogged, the double vision had returned. His voice was so low and indecipherable that he typed his words on his iPhone. Andy was happy that night. But when I put my arm around him, all I felt was bones.
You can't will someone to health. The latest studies show positive thinking to be a myth. You just pray for a miracle. That's what Andy told me a couple of weeks back, he was praying for a miracle
But at least he was responding, I thought Andy was on the upswing.
But when I texted him on Sunday about coming to the VMC for wine and cheese, Andy never missed wine and cheese, he said no.
I then asked if he could ski.
And he said...
I don't want to pull up the text. But the essence was the double vision remained, he couldn't turn his head, and if someone ran into him on the slopes it would be very bad, he didn't think he could ski.
Nor did I think he could. But he'd come to Vail. Andy was so sick, but sometimes people hang on for years.
But not Andy.
Andy Oliver died last night. Not even sixty. Unlucky in life.
And this might all be meaningless to you. But the time will come when you're touched by the Big C, when Mr. D. comes dancing into your neighborhood. Suddenly life will get very narrow, very constrained, what was important just moments before will lose all meaning. You'll be left with the question WHY? You'll be soldiering on in a fog, like a zombie, not one on TV, but one who is truly marching in one's own universe.
It's the nature of life, it ends.
We just don't know when.
Get old enough and health dominates conversation. Some become hypochondriacs, still others are deniers, believing if they just don't go to the doctor they'll survive forever. There's a trail of dead who adhered to this philosophy. You might feel fine, but be completely unaware that plaque is building and you're about to stroke out. Happens every day. Doesn't have to, if you go to the doctor, but you don't want to.
But that wasn't Andy. Andy went.
But he didn't make it.
No one does.
But what is important is what you do while you are here. Andy provided for his family, his wife Nancy and daughter Danielle. And Andy skied.
You've got to live to do something. Time passes slowly and then it accelerates so fast, you want more, but you see time running out of the hourglass and then you're done.
You can't play it safe.
But you can't test all the limits either.
You can just reach out and grab it. You can live for moments. You can be thrilled by exhilaration.
That's why we're skiers. Because of the thrill. Of sliding down the slope. Of being amongst the mountains.
But there comes a time when we can't even do that. You think you're gonna live forever, but you don't. And you are not healthy until the day you die. My mother still regrets she can no longer play golf, she's using a walker.
But my mother is still here.
Andy is not.
Andy is now pain-free. He's been released. His pain has been transferred to Nancy and Danielle and me and the rest of those who loved him.
You've got an Andy in your life. Whether you know it or not. The Big C lurks everywhere.
So smile. And laugh. And gaze at the landscape and treasure this great world of ours.
Because you're not gonna be able to forever.
Trust me.
Unfortunately.
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Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try"
"For A Dancer"
Jackson Browne
My friend just died. You can Google him, search for him on Facebook, you won't find much. Although he was addicted to Foursquare for a time. He loved being the mayor.
I met Andy Oliver at the Vail Mountain Club. New members, we knew nobody and he seemed to be the center of attention, everybody came up to talk to him, I told Felice to say hi.
And thus began a beautiful friendship. One of my closest. That didn't quite last five years.
Andy was the only person I've ever met who was as into skiing as I was. He knew all the hills, the lifts, the vertical drops. He'd been everywhere from Whistler to Val d'Isere, but now he was in Vail, because he could no longer work.
It wasn't long before you knew something was off. You see Andy had a very soft voice. And when riding the lift the day after we met, I can tell you exactly which one it was, #26, the Pride Express, I asked Andy what was up. I mean he could barely talk and I could barely hear.
You can do that when you've been afflicted too. That was my ace in the hole. My own experience with the Big C. It's kind of like being Jewish, you can tell anti-Semitic jokes when you're a Jew, but if not...
Andy was Jewish too. Maybe that was part of our bond, the shared values. There was a streak of Jewish skiers in the sixties, back when assimilation was everything and skiing was an everyman's sport, before it became about the haves and the haves only.
Andy told me he had salivary gland cancer. That it was a result of radiation for lymphoma two decades before. That it had been hard to diagnose, he'd gone to multiple doctors and spent time uncovering the cause of something that wasn't quite right.
There was treatment.
And then there was the day Andy removed his feeding tube to ski the powder.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Andy grew up in Baltimore. At least that's what I recall.
But then he went to Boston University. My sister and mother went to BU.
Then he went into real estate.
Then he got sick.
Then he got another job.
Then that job ended and Andy skied and traveled.
He took a train trip to Russia. He'd e-mail me from Asia. Sounds fantastic, I know, but Andy knew that time was running out.
Then it became harder to eat. It could take Andy an hour to finish a sandwich. People lost patience with him. But Andy was always up for making some turns. He was always optimistic, then again he bitched that people were beating the EpicMix system. He was high on the leaderboard, since he skied every day. But there were some with so many vertical feet that Andy couldn't believe it was real. Andy had a strong sense of fairness.
But life was not fair to Andy.
Andy's wife Nancy would talk about Andy not being around, not living forever. I didn't believe it.
But then Andy got worse.
It happened two years ago. I got to Vail and went to the VMC, the Vail Mountain Club, where everyone knew Andy, where Andy held court...and he was not there.
I called, I texted, and there was no response.
Days later he sent a message that he had pneumonia. He'd been in the hospital. He was recovering at home. But I knew the truth, he was too depressed to connect, I've been there.
But after going back to NYC and returning to Vail Andy was back on the slopes. However, he was using a feeding tube. Ensure was his friend. But I'd get off the lift and see him there in his puffy Uniqlo jacket, ready to hit it.
But then Andy faded further. His voice got worse.
Oh, there's much more. Much, much more. The stuff those who've been dragged through the travails of the Big C are utterly familiar with, but don't broadcast. For all the advancements too often cancer is a slow sink to the bottom. With endless doctor visits. Trials. Hope that is too often extinguished.
There was radiation for spots on his back. The first time the doctor told Andy he couldn't ski. But Andy found a doctor in Vail who said it was okay. And if you can't do what you live for, why go on living?
But then the spots returned. Andy would go underground when things were bad. That's how I knew they were bad, I'd e-mail him ski stories and get no response. Andy lived for ski stories.
And I'd see Andy in New York. And we'd get together during the summer.
And when the double vision came and went it seemed Andy had nine lives. If only he was that lucky.
There comes a point when you know the screw has turned, that you've passed the point of no return. That was last March, when Andy was complaining of pain on the chairlift. He wasn't even trying to speak.
That's what they don't tell you about cancer, the pain.
And then Andy disappeared. Except for the wedding invitation. His only daughter was getting married in August, would I come?
Of course I would.
By this time Andy was wearing glasses with one lens fogged, the double vision had returned. His voice was so low and indecipherable that he typed his words on his iPhone. Andy was happy that night. But when I put my arm around him, all I felt was bones.
You can't will someone to health. The latest studies show positive thinking to be a myth. You just pray for a miracle. That's what Andy told me a couple of weeks back, he was praying for a miracle
But at least he was responding, I thought Andy was on the upswing.
But when I texted him on Sunday about coming to the VMC for wine and cheese, Andy never missed wine and cheese, he said no.
I then asked if he could ski.
And he said...
I don't want to pull up the text. But the essence was the double vision remained, he couldn't turn his head, and if someone ran into him on the slopes it would be very bad, he didn't think he could ski.
Nor did I think he could. But he'd come to Vail. Andy was so sick, but sometimes people hang on for years.
But not Andy.
Andy Oliver died last night. Not even sixty. Unlucky in life.
And this might all be meaningless to you. But the time will come when you're touched by the Big C, when Mr. D. comes dancing into your neighborhood. Suddenly life will get very narrow, very constrained, what was important just moments before will lose all meaning. You'll be left with the question WHY? You'll be soldiering on in a fog, like a zombie, not one on TV, but one who is truly marching in one's own universe.
It's the nature of life, it ends.
We just don't know when.
Get old enough and health dominates conversation. Some become hypochondriacs, still others are deniers, believing if they just don't go to the doctor they'll survive forever. There's a trail of dead who adhered to this philosophy. You might feel fine, but be completely unaware that plaque is building and you're about to stroke out. Happens every day. Doesn't have to, if you go to the doctor, but you don't want to.
But that wasn't Andy. Andy went.
But he didn't make it.
No one does.
But what is important is what you do while you are here. Andy provided for his family, his wife Nancy and daughter Danielle. And Andy skied.
You've got to live to do something. Time passes slowly and then it accelerates so fast, you want more, but you see time running out of the hourglass and then you're done.
You can't play it safe.
But you can't test all the limits either.
You can just reach out and grab it. You can live for moments. You can be thrilled by exhilaration.
That's why we're skiers. Because of the thrill. Of sliding down the slope. Of being amongst the mountains.
But there comes a time when we can't even do that. You think you're gonna live forever, but you don't. And you are not healthy until the day you die. My mother still regrets she can no longer play golf, she's using a walker.
But my mother is still here.
Andy is not.
Andy is now pain-free. He's been released. His pain has been transferred to Nancy and Danielle and me and the rest of those who loved him.
You've got an Andy in your life. Whether you know it or not. The Big C lurks everywhere.
So smile. And laugh. And gaze at the landscape and treasure this great world of ours.
Because you're not gonna be able to forever.
Trust me.
Unfortunately.
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Buggin' Me
FALSE MODESTY
"I'm such an idiot."
"I'm so stupid."
"I'm so ugly."
When I hear guys say these things, and it is usually guys, my eyes roll. This self-righteous blather does one of two things, it either takes the person out of the equation, eliminates risk, so you won't judge them, or it demonstrates their superiority.
Let's dig deeper. There are the wannabes, the insecure, who are too lame to compete. Rather than take the assets they possess and play, they want an advantage, they want to get a pass because if they played for real and lost they'd go home crying.
And then there are those who believe their poop doesn't stink. They think that by telling us how inadequate they are it removes them from judgment, it makes them just like us, even though they're gorgeous, rich and accomplished.
I mean come on, just own it.
But everybody in America is afraid to own it except for the rappers. That's right, if you're playing to the faceless masses you can boast, but if you're one on one you have to be self-denigrating.
How did we get to this point? To where you have to put yourself down to fit in?
That's what I hate about the corporation, all the gamesmanship. All the falsehoods.
So do me a favor, give it your all, own your strengths and do your best to make do with your deficiencies.
As Bob Dylan so eloquently put it, "each of us has his own special gift." When you keep putting yourself down I want to run from you, I don't want to take you seriously, you're not dealing in the real world.
And it's not only men.
It's the women who talk about their "fat ass" who look like they haven't had a meal in a week. Or those who worship their figure who say they're full after a french fry. Just say you're on a diet because if you weren't a skinny-minnie you'd have no worth, even though this is untrue.
And the truth is most winners don't undercut their assets. They own who they are. They play with all they've got.
Life is hard enough as it is, why do you have to play this phony game?
TOP TEN LISTS
Let's call them what they are, not the ten best records or books, but the ones that are gonna make you look good by quoting them.
Earlier today I was reading the Top Ten records from the L.A. "Times" critics. In some cases, I'd never even heard of the albums.
Check 'em out here: http://lat.ms/1JQdyF4
Have you heard of "Ought" and "Cold Specks"? They're on Chris Barton's list.
How about Tinashe, White Lung and Arca? August Brown listed them.
I could keep listing the obscurities, but it's just going to give fodder to the experts, so deep in their holes that they think this off the radar stuff deserves to go mainstream and the problem is radio doesn't play it and Spotify doesn't pay for it and you wonder why most people tune out music.
You can't list Eric Church's "Outsiders," because too many people bought it, it's too popular. You can't be a member of society, you must be an "other."
This is an old paradigm run rampant.
Used to be there were comparatively few albums released and you made yourself feel good by denigrating the taste of the masses. That's right, you put on your black and judged anything popular as junk. But the internet blew a hole wide open in that paradigm. With so many albums released, that which is not successful is just obscure. And when you tell those who are not deep into your hole they're great and these people check them out and discover they're not, you do a disservice to music in general.
That's right, what's holding back music is all the self-righteous pricks who need to believe their obscure favorites are the best, that they're being ripped off by the system. It's these people who are muddying the water, making the scene incoherent.
Let's assume you're not a fourteen year old addicted to Top Forty radio... How do you penetrate the scene, how do you discover what to listen to?
You certainly can't trust these critics. Who go to the shows of favorites and crap upon them and then recommend stuff few are listening to and even fewer can comprehend. You just end up listening to the oldies and watching television.
And then there are the algorithms and the playlists and...
Recommending music is a skill. Talk to a program director. It's not about their taste, but whether the music will resonate with the listener.
Think about that when you recommend stuff.
ANTI-STREAMING RANTING
This is an old topic, but I experience it every day.
Please don't react with your emotions, but with intelligence, having digested the facts. Low payments from Pandora don't translate to unjust Spotify payments. They're calculated differently, they're two completely different services.
But you just want to pile on the future, you just want to bitch that someone moved your cheese, as if the reason you're broke is because Spotify exists. As for paying attention to the words of Taylor Swift, it's her right to put her music wherever she wants, but she's an uneducated wealthy person who's got little idea what's going on. If she weren't already a platinum artist, she'd be begging to be on Spotify. She's like a Democrat who gets rich and becomes a Republican.
But this is not about Taylor Swift, who has no power anyway. This is about you complaining that the public doesn't hew to your vision, that the public doesn't want to overpay to buy your album. Automakers keep improving their products, as do tech companies. Hell, where are Nokia and BlackBerry today? But somehow in music everything must remain the same.
We've got no leadership in the music business. It's run by old men inured to the old ways who don't want to break the game. That's right, eliminate radio and the major labels would be clueless as to how to proceed. Music is so old school even Will Ferrell doesn't want to participate in it. The reason the Top Forty dominates is because the rest is nearly incomprehensible, and too much mediocre stuff is promoted instead of the good.
BOB DYLAN'S SINATRA ALBUM
This is the future. The press release is the album. The music is irrelevant and goes unheard. No one wants to hear Dylan's Sinatra covers, no one. It's dead on arrival. Even worse than that Metallica/Lou Reed abomination.
This is how far we've come. Where albums by superstars go unheard. Because we've got so much at our fingertips and we've only got time for that which is great. And believe me, Dylan can barely sing, we need his covers of Sinatra standards like we need an album of pre-schoolers singing Led Zeppelin.
But the brain-dead media, the same one with the obscure Top Ten lists, prints this promotional drivel giving it the appearance of news when nothing could be further from the case.
We've got all the time in the world for great music.
But everybody in the music business is busy propping up dreck. It's like allowing Pop Warner players to be considered next to NFL stars.
I don't really care. The music business can drive itself off a cliff, that's fine with me, along with the self-righteous people who believe that the Bruno Mars/Mark Ronson funk number is anything but a retread of what once was. How come music has become so insular? Is it that the barrier to entry is insanely low and those who've dedicated their lives to it can only feel good about themselves by championing that which is not mainstream?
Give me mainstream any day of the week.
Remember, these are the same pricks who castigated the Carpenters and are now in love with them.
There's a reason Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line dominate the chart. Your bitch is that you had nothing to do with their success and your fandom is no different from that of the great unwashed.
Get over yourself.
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"I'm such an idiot."
"I'm so stupid."
"I'm so ugly."
When I hear guys say these things, and it is usually guys, my eyes roll. This self-righteous blather does one of two things, it either takes the person out of the equation, eliminates risk, so you won't judge them, or it demonstrates their superiority.
Let's dig deeper. There are the wannabes, the insecure, who are too lame to compete. Rather than take the assets they possess and play, they want an advantage, they want to get a pass because if they played for real and lost they'd go home crying.
And then there are those who believe their poop doesn't stink. They think that by telling us how inadequate they are it removes them from judgment, it makes them just like us, even though they're gorgeous, rich and accomplished.
I mean come on, just own it.
But everybody in America is afraid to own it except for the rappers. That's right, if you're playing to the faceless masses you can boast, but if you're one on one you have to be self-denigrating.
How did we get to this point? To where you have to put yourself down to fit in?
That's what I hate about the corporation, all the gamesmanship. All the falsehoods.
So do me a favor, give it your all, own your strengths and do your best to make do with your deficiencies.
As Bob Dylan so eloquently put it, "each of us has his own special gift." When you keep putting yourself down I want to run from you, I don't want to take you seriously, you're not dealing in the real world.
And it's not only men.
It's the women who talk about their "fat ass" who look like they haven't had a meal in a week. Or those who worship their figure who say they're full after a french fry. Just say you're on a diet because if you weren't a skinny-minnie you'd have no worth, even though this is untrue.
And the truth is most winners don't undercut their assets. They own who they are. They play with all they've got.
Life is hard enough as it is, why do you have to play this phony game?
TOP TEN LISTS
Let's call them what they are, not the ten best records or books, but the ones that are gonna make you look good by quoting them.
Earlier today I was reading the Top Ten records from the L.A. "Times" critics. In some cases, I'd never even heard of the albums.
Check 'em out here: http://lat.ms/1JQdyF4
Have you heard of "Ought" and "Cold Specks"? They're on Chris Barton's list.
How about Tinashe, White Lung and Arca? August Brown listed them.
I could keep listing the obscurities, but it's just going to give fodder to the experts, so deep in their holes that they think this off the radar stuff deserves to go mainstream and the problem is radio doesn't play it and Spotify doesn't pay for it and you wonder why most people tune out music.
You can't list Eric Church's "Outsiders," because too many people bought it, it's too popular. You can't be a member of society, you must be an "other."
This is an old paradigm run rampant.
Used to be there were comparatively few albums released and you made yourself feel good by denigrating the taste of the masses. That's right, you put on your black and judged anything popular as junk. But the internet blew a hole wide open in that paradigm. With so many albums released, that which is not successful is just obscure. And when you tell those who are not deep into your hole they're great and these people check them out and discover they're not, you do a disservice to music in general.
That's right, what's holding back music is all the self-righteous pricks who need to believe their obscure favorites are the best, that they're being ripped off by the system. It's these people who are muddying the water, making the scene incoherent.
Let's assume you're not a fourteen year old addicted to Top Forty radio... How do you penetrate the scene, how do you discover what to listen to?
You certainly can't trust these critics. Who go to the shows of favorites and crap upon them and then recommend stuff few are listening to and even fewer can comprehend. You just end up listening to the oldies and watching television.
And then there are the algorithms and the playlists and...
Recommending music is a skill. Talk to a program director. It's not about their taste, but whether the music will resonate with the listener.
Think about that when you recommend stuff.
ANTI-STREAMING RANTING
This is an old topic, but I experience it every day.
Please don't react with your emotions, but with intelligence, having digested the facts. Low payments from Pandora don't translate to unjust Spotify payments. They're calculated differently, they're two completely different services.
But you just want to pile on the future, you just want to bitch that someone moved your cheese, as if the reason you're broke is because Spotify exists. As for paying attention to the words of Taylor Swift, it's her right to put her music wherever she wants, but she's an uneducated wealthy person who's got little idea what's going on. If she weren't already a platinum artist, she'd be begging to be on Spotify. She's like a Democrat who gets rich and becomes a Republican.
But this is not about Taylor Swift, who has no power anyway. This is about you complaining that the public doesn't hew to your vision, that the public doesn't want to overpay to buy your album. Automakers keep improving their products, as do tech companies. Hell, where are Nokia and BlackBerry today? But somehow in music everything must remain the same.
We've got no leadership in the music business. It's run by old men inured to the old ways who don't want to break the game. That's right, eliminate radio and the major labels would be clueless as to how to proceed. Music is so old school even Will Ferrell doesn't want to participate in it. The reason the Top Forty dominates is because the rest is nearly incomprehensible, and too much mediocre stuff is promoted instead of the good.
BOB DYLAN'S SINATRA ALBUM
This is the future. The press release is the album. The music is irrelevant and goes unheard. No one wants to hear Dylan's Sinatra covers, no one. It's dead on arrival. Even worse than that Metallica/Lou Reed abomination.
This is how far we've come. Where albums by superstars go unheard. Because we've got so much at our fingertips and we've only got time for that which is great. And believe me, Dylan can barely sing, we need his covers of Sinatra standards like we need an album of pre-schoolers singing Led Zeppelin.
But the brain-dead media, the same one with the obscure Top Ten lists, prints this promotional drivel giving it the appearance of news when nothing could be further from the case.
We've got all the time in the world for great music.
But everybody in the music business is busy propping up dreck. It's like allowing Pop Warner players to be considered next to NFL stars.
I don't really care. The music business can drive itself off a cliff, that's fine with me, along with the self-righteous people who believe that the Bruno Mars/Mark Ronson funk number is anything but a retread of what once was. How come music has become so insular? Is it that the barrier to entry is insanely low and those who've dedicated their lives to it can only feel good about themselves by championing that which is not mainstream?
Give me mainstream any day of the week.
Remember, these are the same pricks who castigated the Carpenters and are now in love with them.
There's a reason Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line dominate the chart. Your bitch is that you had nothing to do with their success and your fandom is no different from that of the great unwashed.
Get over yourself.
--
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Monday 22 December 2014
Joe Cocker
That couldn't possibly be his name.
In the late sixties America was inundated with British acts, a second wave that was not about hit singles, but albums, wiping away the detritus of the British Invasion and pushing the populace forward via the newly embraced radio format known as FM.
Previously littered with simulcasts and classical music, because of the higher quality bandwidth, suddenly FM was the home to free-format rock, where owners let hippies do what they wanted, the government decreeing that they could not broadcast the same signal on both AM and FM.
Suddenly, we heard Phil Ochs, "Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends." And Cream. FM was a club which was accessible to all but only the hippest were members. Seemingly every week there was a new act deserving attention. Including, in 1969, the guy with the indelible cover of "With A Little Help From My Friends." Joe Cocker, wasn't that a sexual reference, wasn't the real name "Crocker," like the deejay's, took an untouchable classic and made it his own. His rendition even got a second life as the theme song to "The Wonder Years," but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Records were expensive. You didn't own them all, no one could. You were glued to the radio, to hear what you should. And it wasn't only the Beatles cover that entranced us, but the one by FM compatriots Traffic, that seemingly no one knew until Joe covered it.
I'm speaking, of course, of "Feelin' Alright."
"Seems I've got to have a change of scene"
We were looking for more. We were not satisfied with what we had. And it was the music that opened our horizons.
And Joe Cocker took Dave Mason's reflective number and turned it into a triumph of not only introspection, but exuberance, with the background vocals of Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway and Merry Clayton sealing the deal. Joe and his troupe found a groove that was not present in the original, he made the track his own, this was no karaoke star, Joe Cocker was going his own way.
And then we heard he was playing Woodstock.
You've got to know, we didn't think it would happen, it seemed a fantasy, how could all these acts appear on one stage? But just by being included, you knew Joe was cool, he possessed stature.
And the debut LP blazed the trail.
But really, it was all about the second album.
Where do we start?
How about the beginning, with "Dear Landlord."
"Whoa, dear landlord
Please hear these words that I speak"
Those words were written by Bob Dylan. "Dear Landlord" was on his comeback LP, "John Wesley Harding." Which at this time I did not own. I learned the words I recite so frequently from Joe Cocker:
"Now each of us has his own special gift
And you know this was meant to be true
And if you don't underestimate me
I won't underestimate you"
Actually, Joe changed a few words, but the meaning was the same, from back when music could affect your life and change your soul, when it just wasn't about mindless dancing and money.
Then there was "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window," which was every bit as famous as the iteration on "Abbey Road."
Then comes my personal favorite, opening side two, "Hitchcock Railway." I was at a party last June and writer Don Dunn came up and introduced himself to me, I couldn't stop testifying how much I loved this song, Joe did the definitive version.
Credit Milt Holland's percussion and the Grease Band, "Hitchcock Railway" is a tour-de-force.
Then, of course, comes Joe's rendition of "Darling Be Home Soon." It was the piano groove that added the magic, taking one of John Sebastian's best songs and making it Joe's own. That was his specialty, his skill, the ability to take songs we knew by heart and reinvent them, turn them into something new. Joe took "Darling Be Home Soon" into the stratosphere.
And then, of course, came "Delta Lady."
You've got to know what it was like to hear this come out of the speaker, to not be overhyped, to not find it on the countdown, just a random FM track. This romp that enraptured you immediately and then built to a level where everyone was firing on all cylinders, you couldn't help but drop the needle on Leon Russell's composition over and over again.
Yes, Leon Russell. Joe Cocker's friend and foe all at the same time.
You see not only did Leon provide Joe this signature song, he then constructed the largest band ever to appear on a rock stage, and then utilized the success of the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour to ensure his own stardom. Joe ended up drunk on the sidelines, he gained weight, disappeared and then stunned us by climbing back up to where he belonged.
I saw the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour. With not only Joe and Leon with his top hat, but everyone whose name you'd seen in the credits and hadn't. Everyone from Jim Gordon to Don Preston, to Claudia Lennear to Rita Coolidge, the tour's other superstar in waiting.
You've got to imagine this. Rather than bring tapes or hard drives, rather than faking it, Joe Cocker fronted a veritable orchestra. The double album was a must have. For the rendition of "Cry Me A River," Matthew Moore's "Space Captain" and..."The Letter."
"Give me a ticket for an airplane..."
Without Joe's take, the song would never be as famous.
Then came "High Time We Went."
It was a disappointment. We'd waited, Leon was blazing up the chart, and Joe released his first...dud. It failed on the chart and in our minds, to the point where many stopped paying attention and missed "You Are So Beautiful" and "I Can Stand A Little Rain" when they were released years later, in 1974. That's right, even back in the album era, people had short memories.
But it wasn't until 1982 that Joe was truly back, over a decade past his initial success, with a Jennifer Warnes duet that wouldn't die, the theme song to the Richard Gere/Debra Winger pic "An Officer And A Gentleman."
Debra Winger was the Jennifer Lawrence of her day, only she radiated more maturity and intelligence. Back when the movies were still an American addiction, when a song could still reach everybody, you could not escape "Up Where We Belong," it was ubiquitous, not a cover, but an original, composed by a who's who of writers, Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Will Jennings.
And then Joe's career was capped, he was ensured a place in the firmament, he was a certified legend.
Yes, the good guys win in the end. Elton John may have made an album with Leon Russell, but it's Joe Cocker we love and remember.
Of course there were other tracks. Everything from the cover of Randy Newman's "You Can Leave Your Hat On" to a take on Jackson Browne's "Jamaica Say You Will." One of my favorites is "Shelter Me," from Joe's 1986 album, "Cocker."
That's right, Joe soldiered on, from label to label, album to album, his work always demanded attention, he seemed to gain a second wind, he was running on Sheffield steel.
But now he's gone.
Another one bites the dust. Another member of rock royalty. Not someone who manipulated the media, but led with his music, imagine that!
Back when a song was enough.
And, of course, the "Woodstock" movie helped cement his reputation, we made fun of his movements. But one thing was for sure, the music lived in Joe Cocker, he had it in him.
And unlike so many stars, there's not much to say about his personal life, no scandals, nothing to note but alcoholism, which he seemed to recover from so dramatically, at least artistically.
So, will these songs last centuries? Will Joe Cocker be remembered by our children's children's children?
I don't know. Get old enough and you realize almost no one is remembered. You see it's all about your own personal experience, what goes in your ears and eyes, what fills up your memory banks.
And way back when records ruled the world, you had to go to the show to get closer to the music, to sustain your soul.
And if you were lucky enough to see Joe Cocker you know he never phoned it in, he was always the genuine article, he was always about the music.
And what more can we ask?
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1wCcSOq
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In the late sixties America was inundated with British acts, a second wave that was not about hit singles, but albums, wiping away the detritus of the British Invasion and pushing the populace forward via the newly embraced radio format known as FM.
Previously littered with simulcasts and classical music, because of the higher quality bandwidth, suddenly FM was the home to free-format rock, where owners let hippies do what they wanted, the government decreeing that they could not broadcast the same signal on both AM and FM.
Suddenly, we heard Phil Ochs, "Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends." And Cream. FM was a club which was accessible to all but only the hippest were members. Seemingly every week there was a new act deserving attention. Including, in 1969, the guy with the indelible cover of "With A Little Help From My Friends." Joe Cocker, wasn't that a sexual reference, wasn't the real name "Crocker," like the deejay's, took an untouchable classic and made it his own. His rendition even got a second life as the theme song to "The Wonder Years," but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Records were expensive. You didn't own them all, no one could. You were glued to the radio, to hear what you should. And it wasn't only the Beatles cover that entranced us, but the one by FM compatriots Traffic, that seemingly no one knew until Joe covered it.
I'm speaking, of course, of "Feelin' Alright."
"Seems I've got to have a change of scene"
We were looking for more. We were not satisfied with what we had. And it was the music that opened our horizons.
And Joe Cocker took Dave Mason's reflective number and turned it into a triumph of not only introspection, but exuberance, with the background vocals of Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway and Merry Clayton sealing the deal. Joe and his troupe found a groove that was not present in the original, he made the track his own, this was no karaoke star, Joe Cocker was going his own way.
And then we heard he was playing Woodstock.
You've got to know, we didn't think it would happen, it seemed a fantasy, how could all these acts appear on one stage? But just by being included, you knew Joe was cool, he possessed stature.
And the debut LP blazed the trail.
But really, it was all about the second album.
Where do we start?
How about the beginning, with "Dear Landlord."
"Whoa, dear landlord
Please hear these words that I speak"
Those words were written by Bob Dylan. "Dear Landlord" was on his comeback LP, "John Wesley Harding." Which at this time I did not own. I learned the words I recite so frequently from Joe Cocker:
"Now each of us has his own special gift
And you know this was meant to be true
And if you don't underestimate me
I won't underestimate you"
Actually, Joe changed a few words, but the meaning was the same, from back when music could affect your life and change your soul, when it just wasn't about mindless dancing and money.
Then there was "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window," which was every bit as famous as the iteration on "Abbey Road."
Then comes my personal favorite, opening side two, "Hitchcock Railway." I was at a party last June and writer Don Dunn came up and introduced himself to me, I couldn't stop testifying how much I loved this song, Joe did the definitive version.
Credit Milt Holland's percussion and the Grease Band, "Hitchcock Railway" is a tour-de-force.
Then, of course, comes Joe's rendition of "Darling Be Home Soon." It was the piano groove that added the magic, taking one of John Sebastian's best songs and making it Joe's own. That was his specialty, his skill, the ability to take songs we knew by heart and reinvent them, turn them into something new. Joe took "Darling Be Home Soon" into the stratosphere.
And then, of course, came "Delta Lady."
You've got to know what it was like to hear this come out of the speaker, to not be overhyped, to not find it on the countdown, just a random FM track. This romp that enraptured you immediately and then built to a level where everyone was firing on all cylinders, you couldn't help but drop the needle on Leon Russell's composition over and over again.
Yes, Leon Russell. Joe Cocker's friend and foe all at the same time.
You see not only did Leon provide Joe this signature song, he then constructed the largest band ever to appear on a rock stage, and then utilized the success of the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour to ensure his own stardom. Joe ended up drunk on the sidelines, he gained weight, disappeared and then stunned us by climbing back up to where he belonged.
I saw the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour. With not only Joe and Leon with his top hat, but everyone whose name you'd seen in the credits and hadn't. Everyone from Jim Gordon to Don Preston, to Claudia Lennear to Rita Coolidge, the tour's other superstar in waiting.
You've got to imagine this. Rather than bring tapes or hard drives, rather than faking it, Joe Cocker fronted a veritable orchestra. The double album was a must have. For the rendition of "Cry Me A River," Matthew Moore's "Space Captain" and..."The Letter."
"Give me a ticket for an airplane..."
Without Joe's take, the song would never be as famous.
Then came "High Time We Went."
It was a disappointment. We'd waited, Leon was blazing up the chart, and Joe released his first...dud. It failed on the chart and in our minds, to the point where many stopped paying attention and missed "You Are So Beautiful" and "I Can Stand A Little Rain" when they were released years later, in 1974. That's right, even back in the album era, people had short memories.
But it wasn't until 1982 that Joe was truly back, over a decade past his initial success, with a Jennifer Warnes duet that wouldn't die, the theme song to the Richard Gere/Debra Winger pic "An Officer And A Gentleman."
Debra Winger was the Jennifer Lawrence of her day, only she radiated more maturity and intelligence. Back when the movies were still an American addiction, when a song could still reach everybody, you could not escape "Up Where We Belong," it was ubiquitous, not a cover, but an original, composed by a who's who of writers, Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Will Jennings.
And then Joe's career was capped, he was ensured a place in the firmament, he was a certified legend.
Yes, the good guys win in the end. Elton John may have made an album with Leon Russell, but it's Joe Cocker we love and remember.
Of course there were other tracks. Everything from the cover of Randy Newman's "You Can Leave Your Hat On" to a take on Jackson Browne's "Jamaica Say You Will." One of my favorites is "Shelter Me," from Joe's 1986 album, "Cocker."
That's right, Joe soldiered on, from label to label, album to album, his work always demanded attention, he seemed to gain a second wind, he was running on Sheffield steel.
But now he's gone.
Another one bites the dust. Another member of rock royalty. Not someone who manipulated the media, but led with his music, imagine that!
Back when a song was enough.
And, of course, the "Woodstock" movie helped cement his reputation, we made fun of his movements. But one thing was for sure, the music lived in Joe Cocker, he had it in him.
And unlike so many stars, there's not much to say about his personal life, no scandals, nothing to note but alcoholism, which he seemed to recover from so dramatically, at least artistically.
So, will these songs last centuries? Will Joe Cocker be remembered by our children's children's children?
I don't know. Get old enough and you realize almost no one is remembered. You see it's all about your own personal experience, what goes in your ears and eyes, what fills up your memory banks.
And way back when records ruled the world, you had to go to the show to get closer to the music, to sustain your soul.
And if you were lucky enough to see Joe Cocker you know he never phoned it in, he was always the genuine article, he was always about the music.
And what more can we ask?
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1wCcSOq
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Sunday 21 December 2014
Rebel Heart
It used to be a leak trashed an album's commercial chances. Could just the opposite be true now?
Madonna's a has-been. Like Paul McCartney and Tom Petty. Someone everybody knows who has trouble selling new music. But unlike McCartney and Petty, Madge is a trendster, she didn't just replicate an old sound on her new album, she worked with hitmakers of the moment. However, this is no guarantee of success.
But now, unlike in the early part of this century, when the leak occurred the label didn't just fold its arms and huff and puff, they put out a bunch of tracks, they capitalized on the leak, right now the album dominates iTunes, why it's not on Spotify I don't know.
Because everyone knows Madonna makes her money on the road. The best result would be to have people hear her new music. That's the goal of all artists, and especially the oldsters, who tour to the classics.
Will the album continue to dominate iTunes?
We'll find out.
But the point is we've done a 180. The criticized labels now react swiftly. And with this and last year's Beyonce album and this year's D'Angelo and J. Cole LPs, could it be the paradigm is shifting? Could it be that the front-loaded game of yore is dying?
The old game was about making a bunch of noise so the album would have a big first week and retailers would reorder. But today, physical retail is dying. And album after album has a huge lead-up and then dies after the first week. It's all about records being listened to. The worm is turning. No one's gonna care how many you sold in week one, how many you sold at all, but how many times people listened, on Spotify, YouTube...
Think about this. Once you eliminate the first week game, there's no reason to release a single in advance of an album, no reason to promote intensely for a few weeks and then give up. It's no longer about the media, but the audience. The media likes news. It's news when an album is released, it's not news when the audience embraces it and continues to listen to it six months later.
Madonna herself was initially tone-deaf in her response to the leak. Then again, everyone gets angry when their well-laid plans are upset. But that's the world we live in, where everybody knows everything and it's hard to keep a secret. And why should music creation be such a secret anyway? PledgeMusic built a business on letting pledgers in on the creation of the record.
The X factor, of course, is radio. Radio turbocharges hits. Makes careers. If radio picks up on Madonna's new music, she's home free.
But does it have to be this way?
It does because there's chaos in the rest of the marketplace.
Radio is stupid, antiquated in an on demand culture. Radio's only advantage is adding coherence to the scene, delineating what records to listen to. This doesn't have to be done by radio, but so far no one else has picked up the mantle. We've got endless playlists, when we really only need a couple. There's only one "Billboard" chart for every format, only one MediaBase report. If we could clarify online listening, we could capture the flag from radio and create a new power.
Something like this will happen, that we can be sure of. The same way leaks are no longer death to an album.
Once again, Madonna could be ahead of the curve. She got intense publicity for a couple of days, the music is available, and if she's smart, and we know Madge is brilliant, she'll make an appearance on "New Year's Rockin' Eve," or another first night of the year special, stealing the thunder from Taylor Swift.
It could happen.
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Madonna's a has-been. Like Paul McCartney and Tom Petty. Someone everybody knows who has trouble selling new music. But unlike McCartney and Petty, Madge is a trendster, she didn't just replicate an old sound on her new album, she worked with hitmakers of the moment. However, this is no guarantee of success.
But now, unlike in the early part of this century, when the leak occurred the label didn't just fold its arms and huff and puff, they put out a bunch of tracks, they capitalized on the leak, right now the album dominates iTunes, why it's not on Spotify I don't know.
Because everyone knows Madonna makes her money on the road. The best result would be to have people hear her new music. That's the goal of all artists, and especially the oldsters, who tour to the classics.
Will the album continue to dominate iTunes?
We'll find out.
But the point is we've done a 180. The criticized labels now react swiftly. And with this and last year's Beyonce album and this year's D'Angelo and J. Cole LPs, could it be the paradigm is shifting? Could it be that the front-loaded game of yore is dying?
The old game was about making a bunch of noise so the album would have a big first week and retailers would reorder. But today, physical retail is dying. And album after album has a huge lead-up and then dies after the first week. It's all about records being listened to. The worm is turning. No one's gonna care how many you sold in week one, how many you sold at all, but how many times people listened, on Spotify, YouTube...
Think about this. Once you eliminate the first week game, there's no reason to release a single in advance of an album, no reason to promote intensely for a few weeks and then give up. It's no longer about the media, but the audience. The media likes news. It's news when an album is released, it's not news when the audience embraces it and continues to listen to it six months later.
Madonna herself was initially tone-deaf in her response to the leak. Then again, everyone gets angry when their well-laid plans are upset. But that's the world we live in, where everybody knows everything and it's hard to keep a secret. And why should music creation be such a secret anyway? PledgeMusic built a business on letting pledgers in on the creation of the record.
The X factor, of course, is radio. Radio turbocharges hits. Makes careers. If radio picks up on Madonna's new music, she's home free.
But does it have to be this way?
It does because there's chaos in the rest of the marketplace.
Radio is stupid, antiquated in an on demand culture. Radio's only advantage is adding coherence to the scene, delineating what records to listen to. This doesn't have to be done by radio, but so far no one else has picked up the mantle. We've got endless playlists, when we really only need a couple. There's only one "Billboard" chart for every format, only one MediaBase report. If we could clarify online listening, we could capture the flag from radio and create a new power.
Something like this will happen, that we can be sure of. The same way leaks are no longer death to an album.
Once again, Madonna could be ahead of the curve. She got intense publicity for a couple of days, the music is available, and if she's smart, and we know Madge is brilliant, she'll make an appearance on "New Year's Rockin' Eve," or another first night of the year special, stealing the thunder from Taylor Swift.
It could happen.
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A Few Winter Songs
"Winter"
Tori Amos
My favorite Tori song, from before she lost the plot. Did she become more obscure because of her success or was she headed that way? We'll never know. But at this point this is my favorite winter song, the one I think about when the day is gray.
"Winter"
The Rolling Stones
Coming after "Exile On Main Street," "Goats Head Soup" was highly anticipated, and almost as disappointing. The song that got all the pre-press was "Star Star," whose name was unfortunately changed from the f-word and lost its power as a result. The best song is the unfortunately titled "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)," you know, "The police in New York City"... I love the way Mick sings PO-lice. Actually, the best tracks on "Goats Head Soup" are the ones that got no press, not only "Heartbreaker," but "Hide Your Love," with that great piano groove, sounding like an outtake from "Exile," "Can You Hear The Music," slow and dreamy, and "Winter."
Of course the album contained "Angie," but I prefer the moody "Winter."
Speaking of unheralded Stones tracks, do you know "Hand Of Fate" from "Black And Blue"? This is the Stones I love, the one wherein Mick is not coy, not cloying, but belting. That's when they work best live, when the manipulation takes a backseat to the song. And, of course, the duet with Dave Matthews rescued "Memory Motel," "Black And Blue"'s best song, from obscurity.
And since I'm on a Stones tear, after Bobby Keys died I got a bunch of e-mail about "Ventilator Blues." I'll let Charlie Watts tell the story from Wikipedia:
"Bobby Keys wrote the rhythm part, which is the clever part of the song. Bobby said, 'Why don't you do this?' and I said, 'I can't play that,' so Bobby stood next me to clapping the thing and I just followed his timing. In the world of Take Five, it's nothing, but it threw me completely and Bobby just stood there and clapped while we were doing the track - and we've never quite got it together as well as that."
And while we're on unheralded "Exile" tracks...
The best is "Let It Loose." It's the backup vocal at the end. Remember lying on your bed after dark listening to "Exile" on headphones? I do.
And having said that, the track that got me into "Exile" is the very last one, "Soul Survivor," it's the tonality of the intro guitar, the piano-playing, and the machine gun guitar after the chorus. From back before it didn't need to be a hit to get notice.
"Song For A Winter's Night"
Gordon Lightfoot
No song I know embodies the feel of winter as much as this. It captures being inside when it's snowing outside, when you're alone in your cocoon. What makes it so great is the strings, from back when there was debate whether to use them, before they were replaced by synthesizers and ultimately ostracized.
"A Hazy Shade Of Winter"
Simon & Garfunkel
This is not the best song on "Bookends," and it's now more famous in its Bangles iteration, but "Bookends" is one of the best albums ever made, even though it's been nearly forgotten.
How did this happen?
Could it be that Paul Simon is not a warm guy? Could it be his eighties MTV success eclipsed his earlier work? But the truth is "Bookends" and "There Goes Rhymin' Simon" are two of the best albums ever made.
"Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
On the high shoes
Of the old friends"
Can't you see it? If you've been to NYC you can. The people who've lived in the city for their entire lives who've got nothing left to prove, who are not worried about being judged.
"Can you imagine us
Years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly
How terribly strange
To be seventy"
This lyric flows through the brain of all baby boomers. We thought it was impossible, but we got old. Replaced by people with unbroken bodies, who like us believe they know everything. That's what's so weird about life, you look into the mirror and you no longer recognize yourself, you feel about thirteen, but the truth is time has passed by.
The best song on "Bookends" is "America."
We were disillusioned, the country was no longer the empire they told us it was in the fifties, but that did not mean we didn't love it, didn't want to experience it, didn't want to know everything about it back before we grew up and got rich and sent our children to Europe and wanted nothing to do with flyover country which is now just as sophisticated as the coasts.
But there's nothing like taking to the highway, driving in the middle of nowhere, watching the endless miles go by. You can fly across the USA in a few hours, but if you get behind the wheel it takes days. Only when you slow down can you really understand our country.
"Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said 'Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera'"
That's love. The shared experience. When your world is your own. Back before you shared every private moment on Instagram and Facebook looking for acknowledgement, recognition. Used to be the moment was enough. It still is.
For a long time, "Fakin' It" was my favorite cut on "Bookends." But the most famous is "Mrs. Robinson."
Mike Nichols made it famous. Putting it in "The Graduate," which I caught a bit of on TCM after the man died.
Lost. Finding yourself. That's the essence of a baby boomer. We were a searching generation. And we're still looking.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1AMF2W0
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Tori Amos
My favorite Tori song, from before she lost the plot. Did she become more obscure because of her success or was she headed that way? We'll never know. But at this point this is my favorite winter song, the one I think about when the day is gray.
"Winter"
The Rolling Stones
Coming after "Exile On Main Street," "Goats Head Soup" was highly anticipated, and almost as disappointing. The song that got all the pre-press was "Star Star," whose name was unfortunately changed from the f-word and lost its power as a result. The best song is the unfortunately titled "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)," you know, "The police in New York City"... I love the way Mick sings PO-lice. Actually, the best tracks on "Goats Head Soup" are the ones that got no press, not only "Heartbreaker," but "Hide Your Love," with that great piano groove, sounding like an outtake from "Exile," "Can You Hear The Music," slow and dreamy, and "Winter."
Of course the album contained "Angie," but I prefer the moody "Winter."
Speaking of unheralded Stones tracks, do you know "Hand Of Fate" from "Black And Blue"? This is the Stones I love, the one wherein Mick is not coy, not cloying, but belting. That's when they work best live, when the manipulation takes a backseat to the song. And, of course, the duet with Dave Matthews rescued "Memory Motel," "Black And Blue"'s best song, from obscurity.
And since I'm on a Stones tear, after Bobby Keys died I got a bunch of e-mail about "Ventilator Blues." I'll let Charlie Watts tell the story from Wikipedia:
"Bobby Keys wrote the rhythm part, which is the clever part of the song. Bobby said, 'Why don't you do this?' and I said, 'I can't play that,' so Bobby stood next me to clapping the thing and I just followed his timing. In the world of Take Five, it's nothing, but it threw me completely and Bobby just stood there and clapped while we were doing the track - and we've never quite got it together as well as that."
And while we're on unheralded "Exile" tracks...
The best is "Let It Loose." It's the backup vocal at the end. Remember lying on your bed after dark listening to "Exile" on headphones? I do.
And having said that, the track that got me into "Exile" is the very last one, "Soul Survivor," it's the tonality of the intro guitar, the piano-playing, and the machine gun guitar after the chorus. From back before it didn't need to be a hit to get notice.
"Song For A Winter's Night"
Gordon Lightfoot
No song I know embodies the feel of winter as much as this. It captures being inside when it's snowing outside, when you're alone in your cocoon. What makes it so great is the strings, from back when there was debate whether to use them, before they were replaced by synthesizers and ultimately ostracized.
"A Hazy Shade Of Winter"
Simon & Garfunkel
This is not the best song on "Bookends," and it's now more famous in its Bangles iteration, but "Bookends" is one of the best albums ever made, even though it's been nearly forgotten.
How did this happen?
Could it be that Paul Simon is not a warm guy? Could it be his eighties MTV success eclipsed his earlier work? But the truth is "Bookends" and "There Goes Rhymin' Simon" are two of the best albums ever made.
"Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
On the high shoes
Of the old friends"
Can't you see it? If you've been to NYC you can. The people who've lived in the city for their entire lives who've got nothing left to prove, who are not worried about being judged.
"Can you imagine us
Years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly
How terribly strange
To be seventy"
This lyric flows through the brain of all baby boomers. We thought it was impossible, but we got old. Replaced by people with unbroken bodies, who like us believe they know everything. That's what's so weird about life, you look into the mirror and you no longer recognize yourself, you feel about thirteen, but the truth is time has passed by.
The best song on "Bookends" is "America."
We were disillusioned, the country was no longer the empire they told us it was in the fifties, but that did not mean we didn't love it, didn't want to experience it, didn't want to know everything about it back before we grew up and got rich and sent our children to Europe and wanted nothing to do with flyover country which is now just as sophisticated as the coasts.
But there's nothing like taking to the highway, driving in the middle of nowhere, watching the endless miles go by. You can fly across the USA in a few hours, but if you get behind the wheel it takes days. Only when you slow down can you really understand our country.
"Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said 'Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera'"
That's love. The shared experience. When your world is your own. Back before you shared every private moment on Instagram and Facebook looking for acknowledgement, recognition. Used to be the moment was enough. It still is.
For a long time, "Fakin' It" was my favorite cut on "Bookends." But the most famous is "Mrs. Robinson."
Mike Nichols made it famous. Putting it in "The Graduate," which I caught a bit of on TCM after the man died.
Lost. Finding yourself. That's the essence of a baby boomer. We were a searching generation. And we're still looking.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1AMF2W0
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Saturday 20 December 2014
Not North Korea
This was on Techmeme days ago.
That's right, some security expert knows more than the government. The same intelligence agencies we've sacrificed our privacy to in order to be safe.
The President stands up and denounces a country based on the protestations of an ignorant film studio, corroborated by the intelligence gang that can't shoot straight. And we're supposed to trust these people to lead and keep us safe?
But it turns out the hackers, both good and bad, the lone rogues, are better than the system. Especially in science, those who go their own way are the ones responsible for breakthroughs, not those reading the WSJ for office tips and networking on LinkedIn.
Social, schmocial. There's a fantasy that if we all just self-promote and raise the noise in the echo chamber that things will work out. But the truth is as a result of the internet we all just pay attention to those we agree with and shout down those we don't. And the best and the brightest go into banking and those with no social skills push the envelope. Come on, was Steve Jobs nice? Mark Zuckerberg?
It's a fascinating time to be alive, when a President gets it so wrong and one can reach the world from your laptop.
Assuming anyone is listening. Assuming you can break through the noise.
No one is guaranteed to be popular. No one is guaranteed to be rich. And it looks like no government has the power to get it right.
My sources tell me it's an inside job.
But take that rumor with a grain of salt.
One thing we know is a group of nobodies has brought not only a movie studio, but a whole country to its knees.
But Congresspeople are voting for more tanks. And rather than study computer science, the unwashed want to be on reality TV, networks pound their chests over the ratings of inane singing shows.
Turns out that the smart and insightful inherit the earth.
Not the dumb and beautiful, no matter how aggressive.
As for baby boomers... They believe bluster triumphs.
Ain't that a laugh.
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That's right, some security expert knows more than the government. The same intelligence agencies we've sacrificed our privacy to in order to be safe.
The President stands up and denounces a country based on the protestations of an ignorant film studio, corroborated by the intelligence gang that can't shoot straight. And we're supposed to trust these people to lead and keep us safe?
But it turns out the hackers, both good and bad, the lone rogues, are better than the system. Especially in science, those who go their own way are the ones responsible for breakthroughs, not those reading the WSJ for office tips and networking on LinkedIn.
Social, schmocial. There's a fantasy that if we all just self-promote and raise the noise in the echo chamber that things will work out. But the truth is as a result of the internet we all just pay attention to those we agree with and shout down those we don't. And the best and the brightest go into banking and those with no social skills push the envelope. Come on, was Steve Jobs nice? Mark Zuckerberg?
It's a fascinating time to be alive, when a President gets it so wrong and one can reach the world from your laptop.
Assuming anyone is listening. Assuming you can break through the noise.
No one is guaranteed to be popular. No one is guaranteed to be rich. And it looks like no government has the power to get it right.
My sources tell me it's an inside job.
But take that rumor with a grain of salt.
One thing we know is a group of nobodies has brought not only a movie studio, but a whole country to its knees.
But Congresspeople are voting for more tanks. And rather than study computer science, the unwashed want to be on reality TV, networks pound their chests over the ratings of inane singing shows.
Turns out that the smart and insightful inherit the earth.
Not the dumb and beautiful, no matter how aggressive.
As for baby boomers... They believe bluster triumphs.
Ain't that a laugh.
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Friday 19 December 2014
Sony
Yes, the hack was a criminal attack.
But I'd be lying if I didn't say I've been laughing over the revelations, while I'm not crying over the racist comments.
The truth is these Hollywood mavens think they're better than us. And they can't stop crying about piracy, can't stop bitching that someone moved their cheese, all the while believing they're entitled to their millions because they've been anointed with "special juice," that gives them divine insight into America's entertainment wants. Hell, if the entire Sony studio caved in, our culture would be none the worse.
But it's the racist comments that bug me. We've got a Supreme Court which declares racism is over, with voting rights laws no longer needed, and then we have the so-called west coast liberals making fun of the President.
Makes me puke.
I agree we should not be beholden to terrorists. We must not be cowed as a nation, certainly not artistically. But I'd be more upset if the movie wasn't "The Interview" but something meatier, whether it be "They Shoot Horses Don't They," or "Carnal Knowledge" or a true work of art, like "Ulysses." But we don't make those in America anymore. Business is the religion of America, God is second to cash, just ask the evangelists passing the plate, and if it delivers cash, it's all right.
Now no one wants their private e-mails revealed. Then again, what kind of nincompoop puts heinous bigoted thoughts on the company server? Do these nitwits truly believe they're untouchable? Can't they at least get a Gmail account for the stuff they don't want to ever go public? Hell, the regular Fortune 500, the Wall Street Fortune 500, the industrial Fortune 500, know that e-mail is forever, that it will be subpoenaed in some case where the corporation skirted the law or someone wants to make the company pay, rightly or wrongly. How come Amy Pascal doesn't know this? Teenagers know this! They know they're building a public record all the while, they self-edit all the time, afraid they're going to lose a job or be unable to get into the educational institution of their choice. But the Sony execs, they're above the law, above public suspicion. And then they hire David Boies to scare the media into submission. As if Boies won all the time. As if anybody should listen to anything these
people say. I think it's great this info comes out. It's great that everybody knows these execs are as bigoted and stupid as the rank and file. You mean you want to influence our culture, whether it be with smoking or the products you place in your films, but we cannot comment upon you?
Ain't that an entertainment exec. Criticize the actors, those on stage, while I hide in anonymity. While I keep my gig as the talent fades. If it's all about money, are you really entitled to judge Adam Sandler flicks? No one put a gun to your head to make them. As for making a Steve Jobs biopic, wouldn't it be fine if Sony actually innovated itself, moved the culture in significant ways, but the execs are all about keeping their jobs while they party amongst their brethren, believing, once again, that they're better than us.
We've got a security problem. One that corporations don't want to take seriously because they don't want to pay an IT department. Hell, they can't take these problems seriously, they've got more important things to do. But it's funny, because they keep saying technology is the enemy, you'd think they'd be more savvy in their own house.
But the truth is we all have dirty laundry. We all have flaws. As Chris Rock stated, just because you're rich, that does not make you smart.
We're so busy pointing the finger at someone else, we take no responsibility for our own actions. Everyone in entertainment is above the law. Entitled to their seven and eight figure salaries. Deeming the public to be a parasite out to get them, even though it's these same people keeping them alive. Which way do you want it? To criticize downloaders or have them overpay to see dreck?
Meanwhile, you still can't stream all movies for one low monthly price online. At least we figured that out in music. Oh, that's right, the idiot acts want to kill Spotify!
So, Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton... Just know, the more you protest, the more you try to steer this story from your behavior to that of the hackers, know that it's not working in the eyes of the public.
You won't lose your jobs. You're too successful. They only fire those who don't keep their companies in the black.
Furthermore, if you do get fired, you'll just get hired elsewhere, the film business is a cabal run on relationships.
We live in a technological world.
We live in a global world.
And the oldsters want to deny technology and the ignorant want to save manufacturing jobs whilst paying a hundred fifty dollars for a flat screen.
Everybody's out for themselves.
Everybody's ignorant.
The rich are no better than us, they just have more money.
If west coast white people are making racist jokes about Obama, you wonder how he can govern at all.
Meanwhile, it's just a movie. Sony is not curing cancer.
But thoughts and dreams are the currency of our culture. And when these blowhards are in control, when they decide who gets to shoot flicks, it makes you happy that YouTube stars are getting rich, that suddenly there's an alternative to YouTube itself, that's the big story of this week, Vessel.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Those in power want more of it with no scrutiny.
And technology keeps changing the game.
And I'm stuck here in the middle with you.
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But I'd be lying if I didn't say I've been laughing over the revelations, while I'm not crying over the racist comments.
The truth is these Hollywood mavens think they're better than us. And they can't stop crying about piracy, can't stop bitching that someone moved their cheese, all the while believing they're entitled to their millions because they've been anointed with "special juice," that gives them divine insight into America's entertainment wants. Hell, if the entire Sony studio caved in, our culture would be none the worse.
But it's the racist comments that bug me. We've got a Supreme Court which declares racism is over, with voting rights laws no longer needed, and then we have the so-called west coast liberals making fun of the President.
Makes me puke.
I agree we should not be beholden to terrorists. We must not be cowed as a nation, certainly not artistically. But I'd be more upset if the movie wasn't "The Interview" but something meatier, whether it be "They Shoot Horses Don't They," or "Carnal Knowledge" or a true work of art, like "Ulysses." But we don't make those in America anymore. Business is the religion of America, God is second to cash, just ask the evangelists passing the plate, and if it delivers cash, it's all right.
Now no one wants their private e-mails revealed. Then again, what kind of nincompoop puts heinous bigoted thoughts on the company server? Do these nitwits truly believe they're untouchable? Can't they at least get a Gmail account for the stuff they don't want to ever go public? Hell, the regular Fortune 500, the Wall Street Fortune 500, the industrial Fortune 500, know that e-mail is forever, that it will be subpoenaed in some case where the corporation skirted the law or someone wants to make the company pay, rightly or wrongly. How come Amy Pascal doesn't know this? Teenagers know this! They know they're building a public record all the while, they self-edit all the time, afraid they're going to lose a job or be unable to get into the educational institution of their choice. But the Sony execs, they're above the law, above public suspicion. And then they hire David Boies to scare the media into submission. As if Boies won all the time. As if anybody should listen to anything these
people say. I think it's great this info comes out. It's great that everybody knows these execs are as bigoted and stupid as the rank and file. You mean you want to influence our culture, whether it be with smoking or the products you place in your films, but we cannot comment upon you?
Ain't that an entertainment exec. Criticize the actors, those on stage, while I hide in anonymity. While I keep my gig as the talent fades. If it's all about money, are you really entitled to judge Adam Sandler flicks? No one put a gun to your head to make them. As for making a Steve Jobs biopic, wouldn't it be fine if Sony actually innovated itself, moved the culture in significant ways, but the execs are all about keeping their jobs while they party amongst their brethren, believing, once again, that they're better than us.
We've got a security problem. One that corporations don't want to take seriously because they don't want to pay an IT department. Hell, they can't take these problems seriously, they've got more important things to do. But it's funny, because they keep saying technology is the enemy, you'd think they'd be more savvy in their own house.
But the truth is we all have dirty laundry. We all have flaws. As Chris Rock stated, just because you're rich, that does not make you smart.
We're so busy pointing the finger at someone else, we take no responsibility for our own actions. Everyone in entertainment is above the law. Entitled to their seven and eight figure salaries. Deeming the public to be a parasite out to get them, even though it's these same people keeping them alive. Which way do you want it? To criticize downloaders or have them overpay to see dreck?
Meanwhile, you still can't stream all movies for one low monthly price online. At least we figured that out in music. Oh, that's right, the idiot acts want to kill Spotify!
So, Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton... Just know, the more you protest, the more you try to steer this story from your behavior to that of the hackers, know that it's not working in the eyes of the public.
You won't lose your jobs. You're too successful. They only fire those who don't keep their companies in the black.
Furthermore, if you do get fired, you'll just get hired elsewhere, the film business is a cabal run on relationships.
We live in a technological world.
We live in a global world.
And the oldsters want to deny technology and the ignorant want to save manufacturing jobs whilst paying a hundred fifty dollars for a flat screen.
Everybody's out for themselves.
Everybody's ignorant.
The rich are no better than us, they just have more money.
If west coast white people are making racist jokes about Obama, you wonder how he can govern at all.
Meanwhile, it's just a movie. Sony is not curing cancer.
But thoughts and dreams are the currency of our culture. And when these blowhards are in control, when they decide who gets to shoot flicks, it makes you happy that YouTube stars are getting rich, that suddenly there's an alternative to YouTube itself, that's the big story of this week, Vessel.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Those in power want more of it with no scrutiny.
And technology keeps changing the game.
And I'm stuck here in the middle with you.
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Rhinofy-WABC All American Survey for Week of 15 December 1964
1. "Come See About Me"
The Supremes
My favorite Supremes cut!
A Holland-Dozier-Holland composition, it's all about the groove.
I distinctly remember dancing to this at the following year's bar mitzvah parties. That's right, some tracks are so rhythmic they incite us to get up from our chairs and ask Nancy or Betty or Jennifer to dance. And it's not about them so much as us. We hold our heads high in the air as we sing along. At least I did!
2. "I Feel Fine"
The Beatles
The flip side was "She's A Woman," number 7 on this list, and the funny thing is I never dug it back then but it resonates with me now even more than "I Feel Fine"!
It was all about George's guitar, the distortion, the riff, we were banging our heads long before metal came into vogue.
This was off "Beatles '65," which everybody had and played until the grooves turned grey. But even though the album contained these hits, it was the one-two punch of the opening cuts that made us swoon. Come on, remember dropping the needle and hearing John singing "This happened once before..."? And then, when that was done, "I'm A Loser" with that jaunty beat and the lyric that no one would sing today. Today everybody's a winner, no one's three-dimensional, all we get is smiling idiots. No wonder people tune out.
Of course the Beatles are not on Spotify, but you know this song by heart, right?
3. "Mr. Lonely"
Bobby Vinton
That's right, the British Invasion didn't wipe the slate completely clean, not right away, some of the oldies held over, and as a result I know this by heart, we all do, back when we couldn't tune out for fear of missing the next Beatles/British Invasion hit.
4. "She's Not There"
The Zombies
Haunting!
That's the power of music, it sets a mood instantly, takes you away from the humdrum to a mystical, magical world where you're your best self and it's all right to be sensitive.
5. "Love Potion No. 9"
Searchers
Of course it was a cover of the Clovers hit, but that hit back in 1959, before most Beatlemaniacs were listening to the radio, before transistors became ubiquitous.
Composed by Leiber and Stoller, this track still sounded positively British. Listening you felt like you were experiencing a movie, you were right inside it. Back when music infected you and took you away. When the notes were more powerful than the flicks. Before both caved and faded and we all paid penance to television, the seemingly only honest medium left.
6. "Goin' Out Of My Head"
Little Anthony and the Imperials
Funny how something so dated sounds so modern.
I always liked this. But I prefer "Tears On My Pillow" and "Hurts So Bad," but they're all good.
7. "She's A Woman"
The Beatles
See number 2 above.
8. "Time Is On My Side"
The Rolling Stones
It's that screechy, whiny, thin guitar intro and then the way Mick Jagger seems to sing with his mouth wide open.
"You'll come runnin' back"
This sounded like it was about a neighborhood in London inhabited by no one else on the radio. We were intrigued.
Of course, this is a cover of the Jerry Ragavoy composition. Furthermore, there are two iterations. The famous one, the one you know, begins with guitar, but the one on "12 X 5" begins with an organ. I've included both iterations.
9. "My Love, Forgive Me"
Robert Goulet
I had to hear this to remember it.
Our parents' music was not completely done, the MOR artists were all over television, dominating variety shows and late night. Little did everyone know we were at the advent of a youthquake, about to turn the entire nation upside down.
10. "You Really Got Me"
The Kinks
Funny how time changes things, "You Really Got Me" is now seen as a Van Halen song, even though we thought it was a cheap shot when it appeared on the band's debut album.
Sure, the guitar is great, but it's Ray's sneer that endears you. What kind of people are these? Who don't care about authority, who don't know to respect their elders, who have such attitude.
Soon we all had attitude.
12. "Ringo"
Lorne Green
Our Jewish patriarch from the Great White North who headed up the Cartwright family which beamed into our homes every Sunday night this was the William Shatner hit before Bill became famous as a vocalist but this was no joke. And by this time we all knew Ringo Starr, we could not deny the connection to this song, even though there was none.
Once again, note the mood.
13. "Any Way You Want It"
The Dave Clark Five
Not on Spotify, of course, Dave Clark is waiting until Spotify is superseded before he deigns to license his group's material, but of course it's on YouTube, check it out here: http://bit.ly/1sHi6J0
This exploded out of the dashboard.
15. "Keep Searchin'"
Del Shannon
He's more famous for "Runaway," but this is almost as great.
Once again, it's about the feel, completely different from the work of the British acts.
And when Del sang about following the sun, we couldn't help but make the connection to "I'll Follow The Sun" on "Beatles '65."
And if you don't know this, stay at least through the organ solo!
16. "I'm Into Something Good"
Herman's Hermits
Their first hit, soon to be superseded in the public consciousness by "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter," "I'm Into Something Good" is a stone cold smash that pays dividends over the years, it's one of my favorite records ever. Sure, it's a cover, but there's the energy and the innocence, the way Peter Noone is singing more to be famous than to get laid, that is so infectious.
I was eleven when this came out. I remember singing the title to myself as I had my initial camp romances. Isn't that what we're all looking for, to be into something good?
The funny thing is some prepubescent act could cut this today and it would be a hit all over again, that's how timeless this Goffin-King composition is.
19. "The Jerk"
The Larks
I couldn't have told you who did it, but I know it.
Back in the era of dance crazes, when we watched TV to know what to do at parties, back when no one even knew the word "choreographer."
You can almost hear Prince in this one hit wonder.
23. "As Tears Go By"
Marianne Faithfull
The hit version of the Stones song. More sing-songy, but all over the radio.
I bought and enjoyed the "Broken English" Marianne Faithfull, but this is the one who will be remembered.
26. "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved You)"
Marvin Gaye
Like with "You Really Got Me" above, this is seen more as a James Taylor song now.
Marvin Gaye doesn't get enough respect.
He croons. How different from today where everybody oversells.
28. "The Leader of the Laundromat"
The Detergents
I may not have known who did "The Jerk," but I knew the Detergents did this answer song to the Shangri-Las' "Leader Of The Pack." You had to give the creators credit, they had a sense of humor.
61. "All Day and All of the Night"
The Kinks
There's that sneer once again!
Soon to follow "You Really Got Me" up the chart, this song had a riff that we all played on the guitars we got in the wake of seeing the Beatles on "Ed Sullivan."
And bubbling under, we had Petula Clark with "Downtown" and Reparata and the Delrons with "Whenever A Teenager Cries." And you wonder why the sixties are considered a golden era.
That's right, today most people have no idea what's number 1, never mind number 10! But back then the entire younger generation was addicted to the radio, we knew every cut, every lick. We bought the records, sang along to the radio, and every baby boomer will testify that this music is far from forgettable, not just representative of the era, but CLASSIC!
The musicians were figuring it out as they went along. They were following the Beatles and writing their own songs, it was a badge of honor to be able to play. And everyone at home was forming bands, singing these songs, the same way today's youth follows technology.
The entire modern music business is built upon this foundation.
Dig in.
P.S. Thanks to musicradio77.com for the WABC playlist: http://www.musicradio77.com/Surveys/1964/surveydec1564.html
P.P.S. My favorite jock was always Cousin Brucie, I smile when I hear him on Sirius XM today, but this was also the era when Scott Muni was a fast-talking jock on AM, before he slowed down and dominated on WNEW.
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1w1g6pq
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The Supremes
My favorite Supremes cut!
A Holland-Dozier-Holland composition, it's all about the groove.
I distinctly remember dancing to this at the following year's bar mitzvah parties. That's right, some tracks are so rhythmic they incite us to get up from our chairs and ask Nancy or Betty or Jennifer to dance. And it's not about them so much as us. We hold our heads high in the air as we sing along. At least I did!
2. "I Feel Fine"
The Beatles
The flip side was "She's A Woman," number 7 on this list, and the funny thing is I never dug it back then but it resonates with me now even more than "I Feel Fine"!
It was all about George's guitar, the distortion, the riff, we were banging our heads long before metal came into vogue.
This was off "Beatles '65," which everybody had and played until the grooves turned grey. But even though the album contained these hits, it was the one-two punch of the opening cuts that made us swoon. Come on, remember dropping the needle and hearing John singing "This happened once before..."? And then, when that was done, "I'm A Loser" with that jaunty beat and the lyric that no one would sing today. Today everybody's a winner, no one's three-dimensional, all we get is smiling idiots. No wonder people tune out.
Of course the Beatles are not on Spotify, but you know this song by heart, right?
3. "Mr. Lonely"
Bobby Vinton
That's right, the British Invasion didn't wipe the slate completely clean, not right away, some of the oldies held over, and as a result I know this by heart, we all do, back when we couldn't tune out for fear of missing the next Beatles/British Invasion hit.
4. "She's Not There"
The Zombies
Haunting!
That's the power of music, it sets a mood instantly, takes you away from the humdrum to a mystical, magical world where you're your best self and it's all right to be sensitive.
5. "Love Potion No. 9"
Searchers
Of course it was a cover of the Clovers hit, but that hit back in 1959, before most Beatlemaniacs were listening to the radio, before transistors became ubiquitous.
Composed by Leiber and Stoller, this track still sounded positively British. Listening you felt like you were experiencing a movie, you were right inside it. Back when music infected you and took you away. When the notes were more powerful than the flicks. Before both caved and faded and we all paid penance to television, the seemingly only honest medium left.
6. "Goin' Out Of My Head"
Little Anthony and the Imperials
Funny how something so dated sounds so modern.
I always liked this. But I prefer "Tears On My Pillow" and "Hurts So Bad," but they're all good.
7. "She's A Woman"
The Beatles
See number 2 above.
8. "Time Is On My Side"
The Rolling Stones
It's that screechy, whiny, thin guitar intro and then the way Mick Jagger seems to sing with his mouth wide open.
"You'll come runnin' back"
This sounded like it was about a neighborhood in London inhabited by no one else on the radio. We were intrigued.
Of course, this is a cover of the Jerry Ragavoy composition. Furthermore, there are two iterations. The famous one, the one you know, begins with guitar, but the one on "12 X 5" begins with an organ. I've included both iterations.
9. "My Love, Forgive Me"
Robert Goulet
I had to hear this to remember it.
Our parents' music was not completely done, the MOR artists were all over television, dominating variety shows and late night. Little did everyone know we were at the advent of a youthquake, about to turn the entire nation upside down.
10. "You Really Got Me"
The Kinks
Funny how time changes things, "You Really Got Me" is now seen as a Van Halen song, even though we thought it was a cheap shot when it appeared on the band's debut album.
Sure, the guitar is great, but it's Ray's sneer that endears you. What kind of people are these? Who don't care about authority, who don't know to respect their elders, who have such attitude.
Soon we all had attitude.
12. "Ringo"
Lorne Green
Our Jewish patriarch from the Great White North who headed up the Cartwright family which beamed into our homes every Sunday night this was the William Shatner hit before Bill became famous as a vocalist but this was no joke. And by this time we all knew Ringo Starr, we could not deny the connection to this song, even though there was none.
Once again, note the mood.
13. "Any Way You Want It"
The Dave Clark Five
Not on Spotify, of course, Dave Clark is waiting until Spotify is superseded before he deigns to license his group's material, but of course it's on YouTube, check it out here: http://bit.ly/1sHi6J0
This exploded out of the dashboard.
15. "Keep Searchin'"
Del Shannon
He's more famous for "Runaway," but this is almost as great.
Once again, it's about the feel, completely different from the work of the British acts.
And when Del sang about following the sun, we couldn't help but make the connection to "I'll Follow The Sun" on "Beatles '65."
And if you don't know this, stay at least through the organ solo!
16. "I'm Into Something Good"
Herman's Hermits
Their first hit, soon to be superseded in the public consciousness by "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter," "I'm Into Something Good" is a stone cold smash that pays dividends over the years, it's one of my favorite records ever. Sure, it's a cover, but there's the energy and the innocence, the way Peter Noone is singing more to be famous than to get laid, that is so infectious.
I was eleven when this came out. I remember singing the title to myself as I had my initial camp romances. Isn't that what we're all looking for, to be into something good?
The funny thing is some prepubescent act could cut this today and it would be a hit all over again, that's how timeless this Goffin-King composition is.
19. "The Jerk"
The Larks
I couldn't have told you who did it, but I know it.
Back in the era of dance crazes, when we watched TV to know what to do at parties, back when no one even knew the word "choreographer."
You can almost hear Prince in this one hit wonder.
23. "As Tears Go By"
Marianne Faithfull
The hit version of the Stones song. More sing-songy, but all over the radio.
I bought and enjoyed the "Broken English" Marianne Faithfull, but this is the one who will be remembered.
26. "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved You)"
Marvin Gaye
Like with "You Really Got Me" above, this is seen more as a James Taylor song now.
Marvin Gaye doesn't get enough respect.
He croons. How different from today where everybody oversells.
28. "The Leader of the Laundromat"
The Detergents
I may not have known who did "The Jerk," but I knew the Detergents did this answer song to the Shangri-Las' "Leader Of The Pack." You had to give the creators credit, they had a sense of humor.
61. "All Day and All of the Night"
The Kinks
There's that sneer once again!
Soon to follow "You Really Got Me" up the chart, this song had a riff that we all played on the guitars we got in the wake of seeing the Beatles on "Ed Sullivan."
And bubbling under, we had Petula Clark with "Downtown" and Reparata and the Delrons with "Whenever A Teenager Cries." And you wonder why the sixties are considered a golden era.
That's right, today most people have no idea what's number 1, never mind number 10! But back then the entire younger generation was addicted to the radio, we knew every cut, every lick. We bought the records, sang along to the radio, and every baby boomer will testify that this music is far from forgettable, not just representative of the era, but CLASSIC!
The musicians were figuring it out as they went along. They were following the Beatles and writing their own songs, it was a badge of honor to be able to play. And everyone at home was forming bands, singing these songs, the same way today's youth follows technology.
The entire modern music business is built upon this foundation.
Dig in.
P.S. Thanks to musicradio77.com for the WABC playlist: http://www.musicradio77.com/Surveys/1964/surveydec1564.html
P.P.S. My favorite jock was always Cousin Brucie, I smile when I hear him on Sirius XM today, but this was also the era when Scott Muni was a fast-talking jock on AM, before he slowed down and dominated on WNEW.
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1w1g6pq
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Saturday 13 December 2014
Aspen-What's Happened So Far
ANDY
Andy got hurt. Badly.
It was the last run, but it's always the last run when you get hurt, right?
We were skiing Spar Gulch, which once upon a time was literally a "V," but they flattened it out a few decades back and there was a bunch of sun and I'm skiing along and I start to hear yelling and I stop and turn around and see Andy face down in the snow. I thought he was dead. Truly.
Then he suddenly rolled over once, and then played dead again.
I was scared.
So I climbed up and Amy skied down and Andy's glasses were broken and he wasn't fully coherent, but he said he'd just had the wind knocked out of him and he'd be fine to ski down.
But then the ski patrol came along and Andy couldn't sit up straight and he started moaning and groaning and they gave him oxygen and took him down to the ambulance...
He has a partially collapsed lung. A fractured scapula. Five broken ribs. And some brain trauma, i.e. a concussion.
His spirits are good, he's cracking jokes, and they said he'd be back on snow in 8-10 weeks, but what freaked me out most, other than the injury itself, was how you can be completely normal one moment and in an instant disaster strikes and you're not.
It appears that he was fearful of colliding with Amy. So he either skied over the back of her skis or he didn't. Either he crossed his tips or he didn't. There's a huge gash in his K2, down to the core, but no one knows exactly what happened. A bystander said Andy fell on his head. Andy said he did not.
Life is risky. Live it to the fullest.
And I only hope when my time comes I can be as upbeat as Andy Somers.
PETER MENSCH
A tour-de-force. Put a dime in the jukebox and Peter Mensch tells mind-boggling stories, whether it be showing up in Paris with AC/DC's per diem not knowing that he'd already been fired or talking about A&R'ing the Stones' "Steel Wheels" album. And having Keith tell him to tell Mick...
The music business is comprised of iconoclasts. People who are passionate about tunes and couldn't make it anywhere else. Those who go to college and have more records than anyone else in the dorm. Who went to shows alone because no one else would.
That's Peter Mensch's story.
And that's mine too.
And there was so much more. I was riveted by the tales of his growing up. Having no friends. Being traumatized by switching schools at an impressionable age. Having his sister kidnapped. Getting out of the draft after sitting on the Group W bench.
You know "Alice's Restaurant," don't you?
Of course we talked the modern music business.
But even more interesting was how Peter got to where he is. Starting as a tour accountant. Sidling up to AC/DC, who were opening for Aerosmith, being told he couldn't manage the Scorpions because he had no experience and then having their U.S. lawyer relent. Signing Def Leppard. Mutt Lange coming to his flat in London every night with just one syllable of "Pho-to-graph."
Peter said too many one act managers don't know touring, and therefore make all-over deals with Live Nation or AEG, he thinks you can make more on your own.
Peter said that an album has to be great. Literally. Ten or twelve solid tracks. Good is not good enough. He's working with Matt Bellamy on the Muse album as we speak, Peter flew into Aspen from London.
And it's all about having enough good songs that when the consumer hears the ad on the radio and snippets are played, they're desirous of going. Put up 15-16 great tracks and you've truly made it and have the road business to show for it.
And radio is key, Q Prime has its own department. They oftentimes get stuff started on Sirius and then cross it over to terrestrial. It's about hard work and...
Once upon a time everybody knew Q Prime. But today the youngsters get all the press. Should you seek out Cliff and Peter and benefit from their experience?
Yes.
SETH GOLDSTEIN
Seth used to work for Fred Wilson. The dean of New York VCs.
Then he started turntable.fm.
Now he's got a deejay app, DJZ: http://www.djz.com/about/
And to hear Seth talk about Silicon Valley, the venture capital world, is to hear what got Peter Mensch and me excited about music all those decades back.
Tech is where it's at. But investors don't want to touch anything that requires music licenses. But if you can build it on the back of something without licenses, they're interested.
I was excited and riveted in a way that music rarely gets me anymore.
But there's a nexus.
TOURING
Where all the action and all the money is. The labels get the glory. The promoters get the money.
I could listen to Rick Mueller analyze the business all day long. Don Strasburg too.
Live is burgeoning. Everybody shows up at the promoter's door, that's where the money is.
And the show is where it's at. People may not want to pay much for music, but they'll overpay for a ticket to the show.
It's very exciting.
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Andy got hurt. Badly.
It was the last run, but it's always the last run when you get hurt, right?
We were skiing Spar Gulch, which once upon a time was literally a "V," but they flattened it out a few decades back and there was a bunch of sun and I'm skiing along and I start to hear yelling and I stop and turn around and see Andy face down in the snow. I thought he was dead. Truly.
Then he suddenly rolled over once, and then played dead again.
I was scared.
So I climbed up and Amy skied down and Andy's glasses were broken and he wasn't fully coherent, but he said he'd just had the wind knocked out of him and he'd be fine to ski down.
But then the ski patrol came along and Andy couldn't sit up straight and he started moaning and groaning and they gave him oxygen and took him down to the ambulance...
He has a partially collapsed lung. A fractured scapula. Five broken ribs. And some brain trauma, i.e. a concussion.
His spirits are good, he's cracking jokes, and they said he'd be back on snow in 8-10 weeks, but what freaked me out most, other than the injury itself, was how you can be completely normal one moment and in an instant disaster strikes and you're not.
It appears that he was fearful of colliding with Amy. So he either skied over the back of her skis or he didn't. Either he crossed his tips or he didn't. There's a huge gash in his K2, down to the core, but no one knows exactly what happened. A bystander said Andy fell on his head. Andy said he did not.
Life is risky. Live it to the fullest.
And I only hope when my time comes I can be as upbeat as Andy Somers.
PETER MENSCH
A tour-de-force. Put a dime in the jukebox and Peter Mensch tells mind-boggling stories, whether it be showing up in Paris with AC/DC's per diem not knowing that he'd already been fired or talking about A&R'ing the Stones' "Steel Wheels" album. And having Keith tell him to tell Mick...
The music business is comprised of iconoclasts. People who are passionate about tunes and couldn't make it anywhere else. Those who go to college and have more records than anyone else in the dorm. Who went to shows alone because no one else would.
That's Peter Mensch's story.
And that's mine too.
And there was so much more. I was riveted by the tales of his growing up. Having no friends. Being traumatized by switching schools at an impressionable age. Having his sister kidnapped. Getting out of the draft after sitting on the Group W bench.
You know "Alice's Restaurant," don't you?
Of course we talked the modern music business.
But even more interesting was how Peter got to where he is. Starting as a tour accountant. Sidling up to AC/DC, who were opening for Aerosmith, being told he couldn't manage the Scorpions because he had no experience and then having their U.S. lawyer relent. Signing Def Leppard. Mutt Lange coming to his flat in London every night with just one syllable of "Pho-to-graph."
Peter said too many one act managers don't know touring, and therefore make all-over deals with Live Nation or AEG, he thinks you can make more on your own.
Peter said that an album has to be great. Literally. Ten or twelve solid tracks. Good is not good enough. He's working with Matt Bellamy on the Muse album as we speak, Peter flew into Aspen from London.
And it's all about having enough good songs that when the consumer hears the ad on the radio and snippets are played, they're desirous of going. Put up 15-16 great tracks and you've truly made it and have the road business to show for it.
And radio is key, Q Prime has its own department. They oftentimes get stuff started on Sirius and then cross it over to terrestrial. It's about hard work and...
Once upon a time everybody knew Q Prime. But today the youngsters get all the press. Should you seek out Cliff and Peter and benefit from their experience?
Yes.
SETH GOLDSTEIN
Seth used to work for Fred Wilson. The dean of New York VCs.
Then he started turntable.fm.
Now he's got a deejay app, DJZ: http://www.djz.com/about/
And to hear Seth talk about Silicon Valley, the venture capital world, is to hear what got Peter Mensch and me excited about music all those decades back.
Tech is where it's at. But investors don't want to touch anything that requires music licenses. But if you can build it on the back of something without licenses, they're interested.
I was excited and riveted in a way that music rarely gets me anymore.
But there's a nexus.
TOURING
Where all the action and all the money is. The labels get the glory. The promoters get the money.
I could listen to Rick Mueller analyze the business all day long. Don Strasburg too.
Live is burgeoning. Everybody shows up at the promoter's door, that's where the money is.
And the show is where it's at. People may not want to pay much for music, but they'll overpay for a ticket to the show.
It's very exciting.
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Friday 12 December 2014
Rhinofy-Clapton Guest Appearances
"Dirty City"
Steve Winwood
Steve can shred quite nicely thank you, as anyone who's seen him tear apart "Dear Mr. Fantasy" recently is aware. But despite killing it live, despite putting out one of my favorite albums of the twenty first century, "About Time," independently, doing everything right, the man was fading in impact. So, he signed with Columbia and put out the mainstream album "Nine Lives" to almost no effect in 2008. That's right, rather than stretching out and testing limits Winwood did it their way and few cared. However, there are two killers on "Nine Lives," the opening cut "I'm Not Drowning" and this, where Clapton positively wails.
Get ready to have your mind blown.
I'm including the long version, all 7:46 of it, be sure to stay to the very end. This is music as you remember it, everything you're yearning for. You'll be stunned this isn't a well-known classic.
"They Dance Alone"
Sting
Sure, he's made some tone-deaf statements, about tantric sex and such, but the truth is Gordon Sumner is immensely talented and "They Dance Alone" is one of the best tracks on his best solo album, "...Nothing Like The Sun." It features not only Eric, but Mark Knopfler and Fareed Haque. You probably know it, but it sounds so good, enjoy it, you can never burn out on it.
"Go Back Home"
Stephen Stills
Of course, Jimi Hendrix was on Stills's solo debut too. Upon release the album was castigated for its unending guest contributions, but at this distance the album is astounding. "Love The One You're With" was the hit, but "Go Back Home" is one of the stellar moments. And Eric was on it!
"Alacatraz"
Leon Russell And The Shelter People
Leon's initial solo, with "Delta Lady" and "Roll Away The Stone," was his best, but this uneven LP was the one that cemented his legend, when he began his victory lap after "Mad Dogs & Englishmen." "Alcatraz" was one of the best cuts, it finished side one.
"Beware Of Darkness"
Leon Russell And The Shelter People
Yes, from the same album. And, stunningly, Clapton appears on the original, from "All Things Must Pass."
"Prince Of Peace"
Leon Russell
From that legendary initial solo LP referenced above. Almost completely forgotten, "Prince Of Peace" will put a smile on your face if you know it.
"Romance In Durango"
Bob Dylan
The album AFTER "Blood On The Tracks." It got very positive reviews and a lot of ink regarding controversial tracks "Hurricane" and "Joey." The cuts you remember are "Isis," "Mozambique" and "One More Cup Of Coffee." But this, with Eric, is on the album too.
"Save It For A Rainy Day"
Stephen Bishop
From before "Tootsie," before "Animal House." The hit was "On and On," but this got airplay, hell, it made it all the way to #22! How Eric ended up appearing on it I don't know! But I do know being able to sing and write used to be important. Bishop rode these skills to the top, however briefly. Technology has put them in the backseat, unfortunately.
"If Leaving Me Is Easy"
Phil Collins
From his blockbuster solo debut. Phil returned the favor by producing "Behind The Sun," a return to form by Clapton, with the stellar "She's Waiting" and "Forever Man."
"The Challenge"
Christine McVie
The connection is Russ Titelman, who produced both of these artists.
"Deep In Your Heart"
Paul Brady
Legendary songwriter who never broke through big on his own. This is from Brady's 1985 album "Back To The Centre." Start with the Gary Katz produced "Trick Or Treat" if you want to investigate further.
"Willpower"
Jack Bruce
With his old Cream-mate. A trifle, but the elements resonate.
"Early In The Morning"
Buddy Guy
Two guitar sensations working it out.
"Runaway Train"
Elton John
From Elton's 1992 album "The One." This is good, but if you're interested in comeback albums, check out Elton's 2001 LP "Songs From The West Coast," where he recaptured the magic and not enough people cared.
"It's Probably Me"
Sting
The big hit off the monstrous "Ten Summoners Tales" was "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You," when Sting seemed to be able to throw off radio-ready ditties at will. The album is near-perfect, and Eric plays on this track.
"Gonna Be Some Changes Made"
Bruce Hornsby
Not Hornsby's best work, but "Halcyon Days" is a return to form after "Big Swing Face" and Clapton plays on its two best tracks, this, the opening cut and...
"Candy Mountain Run"
Bruce Hornsby
Infectious, great groove, it's the best cut on "Halcyon Days" and Clapton is featured.
"Every Time I Sing The Blues"
Buddy Guy
From Guy's 2008 album "Skin Deep." This resonates. Check it out. You'll dig it.
"Roll On"
J.J. Cale
Where the maestro repays the debt he owes to the man who wrote so many of his famous tracks.
Of course Clapton played on the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," but he also played on the lost Jon Astley classic, "Jane's Getting Serious." The above is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Clapton's work, but it illustrates that not all of his playing was done on his own behalf.
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1yuGBdF
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Steve Winwood
Steve can shred quite nicely thank you, as anyone who's seen him tear apart "Dear Mr. Fantasy" recently is aware. But despite killing it live, despite putting out one of my favorite albums of the twenty first century, "About Time," independently, doing everything right, the man was fading in impact. So, he signed with Columbia and put out the mainstream album "Nine Lives" to almost no effect in 2008. That's right, rather than stretching out and testing limits Winwood did it their way and few cared. However, there are two killers on "Nine Lives," the opening cut "I'm Not Drowning" and this, where Clapton positively wails.
Get ready to have your mind blown.
I'm including the long version, all 7:46 of it, be sure to stay to the very end. This is music as you remember it, everything you're yearning for. You'll be stunned this isn't a well-known classic.
"They Dance Alone"
Sting
Sure, he's made some tone-deaf statements, about tantric sex and such, but the truth is Gordon Sumner is immensely talented and "They Dance Alone" is one of the best tracks on his best solo album, "...Nothing Like The Sun." It features not only Eric, but Mark Knopfler and Fareed Haque. You probably know it, but it sounds so good, enjoy it, you can never burn out on it.
"Go Back Home"
Stephen Stills
Of course, Jimi Hendrix was on Stills's solo debut too. Upon release the album was castigated for its unending guest contributions, but at this distance the album is astounding. "Love The One You're With" was the hit, but "Go Back Home" is one of the stellar moments. And Eric was on it!
"Alacatraz"
Leon Russell And The Shelter People
Leon's initial solo, with "Delta Lady" and "Roll Away The Stone," was his best, but this uneven LP was the one that cemented his legend, when he began his victory lap after "Mad Dogs & Englishmen." "Alcatraz" was one of the best cuts, it finished side one.
"Beware Of Darkness"
Leon Russell And The Shelter People
Yes, from the same album. And, stunningly, Clapton appears on the original, from "All Things Must Pass."
"Prince Of Peace"
Leon Russell
From that legendary initial solo LP referenced above. Almost completely forgotten, "Prince Of Peace" will put a smile on your face if you know it.
"Romance In Durango"
Bob Dylan
The album AFTER "Blood On The Tracks." It got very positive reviews and a lot of ink regarding controversial tracks "Hurricane" and "Joey." The cuts you remember are "Isis," "Mozambique" and "One More Cup Of Coffee." But this, with Eric, is on the album too.
"Save It For A Rainy Day"
Stephen Bishop
From before "Tootsie," before "Animal House." The hit was "On and On," but this got airplay, hell, it made it all the way to #22! How Eric ended up appearing on it I don't know! But I do know being able to sing and write used to be important. Bishop rode these skills to the top, however briefly. Technology has put them in the backseat, unfortunately.
"If Leaving Me Is Easy"
Phil Collins
From his blockbuster solo debut. Phil returned the favor by producing "Behind The Sun," a return to form by Clapton, with the stellar "She's Waiting" and "Forever Man."
"The Challenge"
Christine McVie
The connection is Russ Titelman, who produced both of these artists.
"Deep In Your Heart"
Paul Brady
Legendary songwriter who never broke through big on his own. This is from Brady's 1985 album "Back To The Centre." Start with the Gary Katz produced "Trick Or Treat" if you want to investigate further.
"Willpower"
Jack Bruce
With his old Cream-mate. A trifle, but the elements resonate.
"Early In The Morning"
Buddy Guy
Two guitar sensations working it out.
"Runaway Train"
Elton John
From Elton's 1992 album "The One." This is good, but if you're interested in comeback albums, check out Elton's 2001 LP "Songs From The West Coast," where he recaptured the magic and not enough people cared.
"It's Probably Me"
Sting
The big hit off the monstrous "Ten Summoners Tales" was "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You," when Sting seemed to be able to throw off radio-ready ditties at will. The album is near-perfect, and Eric plays on this track.
"Gonna Be Some Changes Made"
Bruce Hornsby
Not Hornsby's best work, but "Halcyon Days" is a return to form after "Big Swing Face" and Clapton plays on its two best tracks, this, the opening cut and...
"Candy Mountain Run"
Bruce Hornsby
Infectious, great groove, it's the best cut on "Halcyon Days" and Clapton is featured.
"Every Time I Sing The Blues"
Buddy Guy
From Guy's 2008 album "Skin Deep." This resonates. Check it out. You'll dig it.
"Roll On"
J.J. Cale
Where the maestro repays the debt he owes to the man who wrote so many of his famous tracks.
Of course Clapton played on the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," but he also played on the lost Jon Astley classic, "Jane's Getting Serious." The above is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Clapton's work, but it illustrates that not all of his playing was done on his own behalf.
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1yuGBdF
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Thursday 11 December 2014
What We Learned This Year
Steve Barnett is a hero. He took Capitol from zero to the top of the heap. Shows what an individual can do.
Sound may be lame on recordings, but it's living large at the Forum, where a dedicated music space has touring acts and SoCal fans smiling. Talk about virality.
Festivals are king. It's still shaking out how many we need, but there will be more.
Warner Music is an enigma.
Publicity is everything. Taylor Swift proved it.
Max Martin is the biggest star in music.
"The Voice" helps the career of the coaches, but does nothing for the acts competing.
You can't get a good ticket unless you know someone, have a credit card which is sponsoring the gig and has a presale or you pay a scalper. Income inequality lives large in the live space.
Electronic music still did not break through. The Electric Daisy Carnival in Vegas was the biggest festival in the U.S. but it got a fraction of the press of Coachella and Lollapalooza. Then again, the Sahara Tent at Coachella dominates.
All the money is in the ticketing.
Streaming won, you can tell by the debate. Just like with Napster, when everybody starts talking about it, the new era is here.
YouTube may not dominate. That's the story of the month. How competitors are trying to lock up talent. Once again, it's all about the acts, the acts have all the power. And he who pays most wins. Google's deals suck. Just check their ad shares. No, that's right, you'd rather bitch about Spotify, which pays so much more.
Pop, country and everything else. That's the landscape.
A great record transcends genres. Sam Smith sounds nothing like anything else on the radio, yet it triumphed. The public is hungry for new and different, if it's great.
Samsung was a fad, in phones. Tim Cook knew it was all about profitability, he gets props for that. Furthermore, the iPhone 6 is a gargantuan surprise/success.
Mark Zuckerberg is more than Facebook. He's a force to contend with. His purchase of WhatsApp and Instagram illustrate that he not busy born is busy dying.
Jeff Bezos has revolutionized the "Washington Post," it shows what money can do. It was the "Post" that broke the UVA/"Rolling Stone"/Jackie snafu. Proving once again that well-paid professionals with experience trump amateurs every day. You can have an opinion, but without facts you're irrelevant. Which is why TV news is dying and all the online only news outlets have high valuations but don't move the needle.
Data is everything. Nate Silver ushered in the era. But never forget, in art data is irrelevant, it's all about inspiration.
In an era with no credibility, the one hit wonder is king.
We live in an on demand culture. People want everything at their fingertips instantly. Which is why we're going to day and date in movies and the concept of windowing in music is fallacious. If you won't sell it to me right away, I'll steal it, never forget that. Your business model is not sacred, just ask television outlets.
We live in a mobile world. Everyone's wired and connected. Sell to the handset.
Price matters. Otherwise, everybody would not be leaving AT&T and Verizon for the inferior T-Mobile. I love John Legere, but anybody with T-Mobile is just cheap. Because you want a high speed connection everywhere, and T-Mobile does not deliver this.
Usability is everything. Instagram just trumped Twitter because it's comprehensible. We want instant news, but we want it in a format we can understand.
It's so hard to break through in music, that when you do you and your record last.
Art is just a pawn in the game. As illustrated by the Amazon/Hachette war. It's the writers who suffered. However, this was a corporate battle fought in secret. We never learned what the deal points were, it's hard to side with the old institutions that say they support the artist but really are out for themselves.
Money. Either you have it or you're envious of those who do.
Lucian Grainge is God.
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Sound may be lame on recordings, but it's living large at the Forum, where a dedicated music space has touring acts and SoCal fans smiling. Talk about virality.
Festivals are king. It's still shaking out how many we need, but there will be more.
Warner Music is an enigma.
Publicity is everything. Taylor Swift proved it.
Max Martin is the biggest star in music.
"The Voice" helps the career of the coaches, but does nothing for the acts competing.
You can't get a good ticket unless you know someone, have a credit card which is sponsoring the gig and has a presale or you pay a scalper. Income inequality lives large in the live space.
Electronic music still did not break through. The Electric Daisy Carnival in Vegas was the biggest festival in the U.S. but it got a fraction of the press of Coachella and Lollapalooza. Then again, the Sahara Tent at Coachella dominates.
All the money is in the ticketing.
Streaming won, you can tell by the debate. Just like with Napster, when everybody starts talking about it, the new era is here.
YouTube may not dominate. That's the story of the month. How competitors are trying to lock up talent. Once again, it's all about the acts, the acts have all the power. And he who pays most wins. Google's deals suck. Just check their ad shares. No, that's right, you'd rather bitch about Spotify, which pays so much more.
Pop, country and everything else. That's the landscape.
A great record transcends genres. Sam Smith sounds nothing like anything else on the radio, yet it triumphed. The public is hungry for new and different, if it's great.
Samsung was a fad, in phones. Tim Cook knew it was all about profitability, he gets props for that. Furthermore, the iPhone 6 is a gargantuan surprise/success.
Mark Zuckerberg is more than Facebook. He's a force to contend with. His purchase of WhatsApp and Instagram illustrate that he not busy born is busy dying.
Jeff Bezos has revolutionized the "Washington Post," it shows what money can do. It was the "Post" that broke the UVA/"Rolling Stone"/Jackie snafu. Proving once again that well-paid professionals with experience trump amateurs every day. You can have an opinion, but without facts you're irrelevant. Which is why TV news is dying and all the online only news outlets have high valuations but don't move the needle.
Data is everything. Nate Silver ushered in the era. But never forget, in art data is irrelevant, it's all about inspiration.
In an era with no credibility, the one hit wonder is king.
We live in an on demand culture. People want everything at their fingertips instantly. Which is why we're going to day and date in movies and the concept of windowing in music is fallacious. If you won't sell it to me right away, I'll steal it, never forget that. Your business model is not sacred, just ask television outlets.
We live in a mobile world. Everyone's wired and connected. Sell to the handset.
Price matters. Otherwise, everybody would not be leaving AT&T and Verizon for the inferior T-Mobile. I love John Legere, but anybody with T-Mobile is just cheap. Because you want a high speed connection everywhere, and T-Mobile does not deliver this.
Usability is everything. Instagram just trumped Twitter because it's comprehensible. We want instant news, but we want it in a format we can understand.
It's so hard to break through in music, that when you do you and your record last.
Art is just a pawn in the game. As illustrated by the Amazon/Hachette war. It's the writers who suffered. However, this was a corporate battle fought in secret. We never learned what the deal points were, it's hard to side with the old institutions that say they support the artist but really are out for themselves.
Money. Either you have it or you're envious of those who do.
Lucian Grainge is God.
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Wednesday 10 December 2014
Today's Viral Video
"Cody Townsend's Line Of The Year": http://bit.ly/1savRiR
Greetings from Aspen, Colorado, where we're in attendance for the 19th annual AspenLive conference, wherein old buddies reconnect and we discuss the music business on the slopes because we're incapable of talking about anything else and we cement bonds that last a lifetime.
Truly. Almost my entire social life is based upon AspenLive people.
And what do you do in Aspen?
SKI!
At least I'm hoping to. I've had a resurgence of ankle pain as I've tried to get in shape for the season. Who knew that twisting it on Labor Day weekend would continue to be a factor as the months have ensued. And I live to ski, it's the most important thing to me. (Other than Felice!) And as the years pass and I get older and it takes longer to heal I figure I'd better get my days in. I got 48 last year, 46 the year before. That's right, with a laptop and an iPhone I can be ANYWHERE!
And there is a nexus between being in Aspen and the subject of this missive. You see a ski video is going viral as we speak. You need to watch it, even if you don't ski, it'll thrill you.
I saw it yesterday. I haunt the ski sites. I was stunned that Cody Townsend could hold it together. That's right, it's not the speed that gets you, it's the anxiety.
I figured no one would care but me. But today the clip is blowing up. It's all over social media.
So, the perpetrators of this stunt won.
And you will never forget it.
And I wonder why we no longer have viral tracks in music.
Well, we have them, but they're so few in number. The last one I remember is Avicii's "Wake Me Up." You forwarded it to somebody and they couldn't help but send it on themselves after being infected by the music in one listen.
Then there was that CeeLo novelty track before that.
And Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" before that.
That's right, Taylor Swift may own the news cycle, but "Shake It Off" never went viral. You didn't have to tell anybody about it. It was decent, right up the middle, a hit. I expect nothing less from Max Martin, but that's the point, it was what I expected, not a surprise.
And PSY's track was not a surprise, the video was. It's easier to create great video than great music.
But the first time we heard the Beatles... Either you know what it was like hearing "I Want To Hold Your Hand" emanating from the tiny speaker or you were not alive and I pity you.
The labels try to manipulate virality. But it's all in the service of money. We don't have enough one listen tracks, stuff that makes our heads blow off, that we can't forget.
Need another example?
"Sexual Healing."
And it may have taken you a listen or two to embrace it, but you knew "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was different and important as soon as you heard it.
Today everybody puts money first and tells you to listen to their endless opus multiple times to get it.
I want you to hit me with your best shot. I want you to surprise me. I want you to illustrate that life is not boring, that music is not me-too, that testing limits pays dividends.
PLEASE!
P.S. Ignore the YouTube counter, this clip is on multiple sites.
P.P.S. Technology is good, without it we wouldn't have the POV video.
P.P.P.S. Stay until the very end to hear Cody whoop and exclaim. That's what being alive is all about. That's what going to the show should be all about. We've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
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Greetings from Aspen, Colorado, where we're in attendance for the 19th annual AspenLive conference, wherein old buddies reconnect and we discuss the music business on the slopes because we're incapable of talking about anything else and we cement bonds that last a lifetime.
Truly. Almost my entire social life is based upon AspenLive people.
And what do you do in Aspen?
SKI!
At least I'm hoping to. I've had a resurgence of ankle pain as I've tried to get in shape for the season. Who knew that twisting it on Labor Day weekend would continue to be a factor as the months have ensued. And I live to ski, it's the most important thing to me. (Other than Felice!) And as the years pass and I get older and it takes longer to heal I figure I'd better get my days in. I got 48 last year, 46 the year before. That's right, with a laptop and an iPhone I can be ANYWHERE!
And there is a nexus between being in Aspen and the subject of this missive. You see a ski video is going viral as we speak. You need to watch it, even if you don't ski, it'll thrill you.
I saw it yesterday. I haunt the ski sites. I was stunned that Cody Townsend could hold it together. That's right, it's not the speed that gets you, it's the anxiety.
I figured no one would care but me. But today the clip is blowing up. It's all over social media.
So, the perpetrators of this stunt won.
And you will never forget it.
And I wonder why we no longer have viral tracks in music.
Well, we have them, but they're so few in number. The last one I remember is Avicii's "Wake Me Up." You forwarded it to somebody and they couldn't help but send it on themselves after being infected by the music in one listen.
Then there was that CeeLo novelty track before that.
And Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" before that.
That's right, Taylor Swift may own the news cycle, but "Shake It Off" never went viral. You didn't have to tell anybody about it. It was decent, right up the middle, a hit. I expect nothing less from Max Martin, but that's the point, it was what I expected, not a surprise.
And PSY's track was not a surprise, the video was. It's easier to create great video than great music.
But the first time we heard the Beatles... Either you know what it was like hearing "I Want To Hold Your Hand" emanating from the tiny speaker or you were not alive and I pity you.
The labels try to manipulate virality. But it's all in the service of money. We don't have enough one listen tracks, stuff that makes our heads blow off, that we can't forget.
Need another example?
"Sexual Healing."
And it may have taken you a listen or two to embrace it, but you knew "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was different and important as soon as you heard it.
Today everybody puts money first and tells you to listen to their endless opus multiple times to get it.
I want you to hit me with your best shot. I want you to surprise me. I want you to illustrate that life is not boring, that music is not me-too, that testing limits pays dividends.
PLEASE!
P.S. Ignore the YouTube counter, this clip is on multiple sites.
P.P.S. Technology is good, without it we wouldn't have the POV video.
P.P.P.S. Stay until the very end to hear Cody whoop and exclaim. That's what being alive is all about. That's what going to the show should be all about. We've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
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