Mailbag

From: Irving Azoff
Subject: re: Buffett "sell a plane" quote and the digital space

"Vanity Fair" wrote:

"Moderator Irving Azoff, the owner of Azoff MSG entertainment responded with a zinger for Buffett, whom he told to 'sell one of the planes.'"

In classic fashion, the press twisted words about getting paid by selling planes rather than focusing on how hard it is to actually get paid online as an artist. There's no rewards program for frequent streamer-miles yet....

The point I was trying to make was that guys my age and Jimmy Buffett's age need to be looking at digital services as the future, not the present road for real money. We might need to sell some tangible assets if we want to keep playing in the streaming music space because it's hard for today's legacy artists to make a real buck in the digital space vs the touring business. I don't think that's going to change in the near term.

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From: Dan Navarro
Subject: Re: The Jimmy Buffett Dustup

What I never see mentioned in any account of the economics of the music business is that labels recoup off the artists' share, not off the top.

That simple fact alone means that it is mathematically possible...even likely...that a record can be in profit, based on sales numbers and wholesale prices, but the artist remains unrecouped, which is then spun to imply that the label is not paid back for its investment.

It has also meant that managers go for the quick kill on the advance, since they know that, hit or not, they may never see another dime in
royalties.

I can't help but factor that into any opinion I have of the economics of the record business, and how much artists are paid. We're not trying to get rich, we're trying to get paid, accurately, fairly, in a timely manner.

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Re: Paul Revere

Thank You Bob
I am not good at saying goodbye! You did it for me. Of course I loved Paul and all the Raiders records!
Yes. Even us Brits got a taste of that fun band although we didn't see the TV show! Thank you for saying good bye so beautifully!

Peter Noone

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Dear Bob
In response to your piece ''Napster would kill creation '' etc.

I have been a record producer since 1966, so i can speak with the experience of history. In spite of all the stories and myths about how unfair and horrible record companies were prior to the ''new'' world of the internet and streaming ,the old model ,as flawed as it might have appeared was responsible for facilitating the entire history of recorded music. From Louis Armstrong to Michael Jackson, it was the structure of discovery and development that defined the record business. The pecking order that was in place during these years made us all better at what we did. If you were going to make it, you had to have your s___ together. It drove the most talented, the hardest working, the best and the brightest to achieve the results that now comprise the catalogues of the streaming services. Somehow in spite of the snakes and hustlers that sometimes ran the business, what was created was a body of work of great value and beauty. What has the ''new '' model Created.

Stewart Levine
Record Producer

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From: Paul Rappaport
Re: Paul Revere

Yes, they were the coolest, and a big part of the music culture. And, yes, we wanted to be like them.

One day in 1967 I decided to wear my band clothes to Downey High (California). I had black on brown paisley pants, a black turtle neck, and a green suede jacket, but the best part was my Paul Revere And The Raiders boots that I wore outside my pants that came up to my knees.

I think it was those boots that really got to the Vice Principle at the time. He spotted me and went into complete shock—he could hardly speak. "You,..you,…you can't wear those clothes to school! What do you think this is HOLLYWOOD HIGH?!!! GIVE ME THOSE BOOTS!!!" And, he began pulling them off me dragging me down the hallway as he kept yelling. "You can pick these up in my office after school!"

Well, I went to first period in stocking feet and got a detention slip for coming to class with no shoes (teacher wasn't interested in my story). Then I ran across campus to the gym to get my tennis shoes (looked awfully dumb with with white tennis and those skin tight paisley pants). The gym was far away from my next class, and so I was late for it by a minute—got another detention slip for being late to class (again, my Vice Principle story didn't matter).

Finally, at the end of the day I went to pick up my boots at the Vice Principle's office. He wasn't there, just a paper bag with my boots and stapled to the bag—another detention slip!

I had to go home and explain to my mom why I had to stay after school the next week on three separate days!

Paul Revere And The Raiders? LOVED 'EM.

Rap

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Re: Paul Revere

Hi, It's Muddy Waters from the getting deeper and darker past at Middlebury. Love reading your thoughts in the Lefsetz Letter. Today's post really hit home. The first concert I ever went to was Paul Revere and the Raiders in Buffalo. My memory is that David Parker (another Midd classmate) and his dad took me. I was humiliated that his father wore white socks to the concert because fashion was so important to an early teen. It was an exciting evening filled with teenage energy and parents shaking their heads at this new music. Time sure does fly. Thanks for bringing back that memory.

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From: Val Garay
Re: Paul Revere

"THE GREAT RIPOFF OF THE 60'S"!

The song that broke their career as we all know was "Just Like Me"!

The demo of that song was done by myself and Rick Day in Rick's garage in San Bruno. (N.Cal where we both grew up)
Rick did that strange airy vocal (which at the time I advised him against) and we sent the demo to Roger Hart (Ex DJay and now manager of the Raiders) and waited for a reply.
About 4-5 weeks later Rick got a call from Roger Hart saying that they loved the song and they wanted to do it but Roger needed to re-write the lyrics.

Being 20 years old and seeing this as a big opportunity, Rick said yes!

When the song finally came out not only was the lyric EXACTLY THE SAME but Mark copied Rick's vocal down to the very last breath and accent.
It was identical to the demo we did in his garage. IDENTICAL!!

Our first lesson in the music business.

Rick day and I then moved to LA and lived in the same house for 2 years at 1600 N. Sierra Bonita in Hollywood.
We started a now famous Hollywood band and signed to Lou Adlers new label distributed by CBS Records and Clive. Ode Records.

The band was called "The Giant Sunflower" and caused B. Mitchel Reid of KFRC fame to coin the phrase, "Flower Power"!
Myself, Rick Day, Fast Eddie Hoh (Mama's & Papa's and MFQ) and Terry Clements (who went on to become Gordon Lightfoot's Guitarist for 40 years passing from a stroke last year.)

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Re: Paul Revere

Hi Bob,

Thanks for that very evocative tribute to Paul Revere. Ironically, the stories of those who keep on going after the media stops paying attention are often more interesting then those of mega-celebrities. I watched Where The Action Is when I came home from high school on Long Island sometime in the afternoon and James Brown was a regular on that show as well as Paul Revere and The Raiders. I think everyone performed playback but they were dancing on the beach under the California Sun and it looked very inviting. I must have played Just Like Me in every high school band I was in because it was a great song and the chords were easy. We kind of had our own version of Action on the East Coast with The Clay Cole Show but I've heard all the tapes were recorded over to economize on the production. Little did they know!

In 1985, I seriously thought about giving it up, going straight (whatever that means) and become a lawyer. I went back to school to get my BA with plans for law school and took a job as a legal secretary for two years at the New York law firm of Pryor, Cashman, Sherman & Flynn. Most of the attorneys I worked with at the firm were younger then me and loved music and couldn't figure out what I was doing there. There was a big entertainment section and sometimes music biz clients would recognize me and ask what I was doing behind that desk typing. I worked for Don Zakarin who was a talented litigator (the song "Feelings" was one of our more celebrated cases and Don won) and he put up with me showing up late if I had a gig the night before. I learned more during those two years about the mechanics of the music business then during my stays as an artist on Polydor, RCA & Columbia the 12 years before. To this day, I prepare my licensing contracts myself and understand the prohibitive
expense of bringing anybody to court no matter how much in the right you may be if the stakes aren't high enough. That's one area where the playing field is definitely not even.

And then I started getting more and more offers to tour in Europe until my stay at the law firm became untenable. But they let me use their Telex (remember that?) to contact overseas promoters and I had great health care and I wrote a novel after hours on their computer and got my BA too. i think I went back into my music with more focus and determination then before and it was that job that did it.

Sometimes its good to see how the other side lives - not better not worse not even more secure (until you make partner) - before you actually make a choice of what path you want to take.

Regards from Paris,
Elliott Murphy

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From: Barry Lyons
Subject: Re: Paul Revere

My daughter goes to Paul Revere Middle School here in the Palisades.
The guy the school was named for dies - and they said nothing to the students. Talk about forgotten....

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From: Marty Winsch
Subject: Re: Myths

"Free music" is the biggest myth on the list. I have enjoyed hundreds if not thousands of songs over my lifetime without ever buying a single album, a concert ticket or a t shirt from said artist(s). Is it stealing or "free" if I happen to be able to sing along with an REO Speedwagon song even though I've never seen them in concert, bought one of their albums, or supported them directly in a financial capacity in any way, shape, or form?

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From: Robin Millar
Subject: RE: Hysteria

Hysteria, Mutt etc

A lot of that record was recorded at my studio Power Plant in London. I got to know Mutt very well. I don't think I've ever known a more committed and painstaking producer.

The vocal booth to studio 1 was near the staircase up to my office. I remember walking in around 11am and hearing Joe's muffled voice screaming one word 'pho-da-graph' over and over. When I went to lunch he was still doing it. When I went to supper he was still doing it.

The following day he wasn't there. Mutt spent the whole day on a 16 bar hi-hat intro they ended up scrapping. The next morning Joe reappeared wearing a scarf around his neck. He'd been to the throat doctor. Later that afternoon as I passed the booth again I could hear 'pho-da-graph' coming over and over.

And those heavy chords and riffs? Can you believe, they were recorded one string at a time. Yep, power guitar chords built up one string at a time. And even then he would often double the chords with the strings detuned then double them again with a capo to make a higher inversion. All to thicken the chords. The only way this worked was because he was so painstaking, dropping in each note over and over until they were so dead on time that they sounded like one hit on the guitar.

I can definitely say that I copied this idea in the studio with the Sade Band on the track 'Smooth Operator.' We worked all day on a perfect piano take for the track. Then we hooked up the Fender Rhodes electric piano and Andy played exactly the same part on top but so exactly, chord by chord, that it sounded like one instrument - but not quite like any instrument you could find. This was before midi interfaces when you could get keyboards to track eachother automatically.

So much of what makes Mutt unique is sheer hard work and endless patience. He did a 16 hour day, 7 days a week. Assistants flaked out time and again and had to be replaced. But Mutt has his weights and his veggie sausages in the studio and he kept right on going. And one of the nicest guys I ever met in the studio.

One final but very important thing I'd like to say. Hysteria, Maroon 5, Nickelback, Shania Twain - all these Mutt classics were mixed by the wonderful Mike Shipley. Mike died tragically and too young a year ago. He was a genius in his own right and he adopted Mutt's painstaking attention to detail. If you listen to the near-perfect 'Paper Airplane' by Alison Krauss, you will hear Mike on his own, at his best. He won two Grammies for that record.

And this really long article shows you in detail just what is involved in making a record that good. It's one of the best detailed pieces on recording I ever read, and very poignant as it was so close to his unexpected death.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul11/articles/it-0711.htm

cheers
Robin

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From: Oliver Wheeler
Subject: Apple watch success is assured, due to a story from 1904

Hi Bob,

I was interested to read your piece on the new Apple watch. It made me think of an interesting comparison. In 1904, the infamous French pilot Alberto Santos-Dumont asked his friend Louis Cartier to make him a wrist watch, as he was having trouble removing his pocket watch while flying. No doubt the Apple watch's inevitable success will follow the same principle of solving a similar problem. I thought it interesting that this problem was also solved a hundred and ten years ago!

Oliver

Excerpt from an interview with the Cartier chairman:

Bamberger continues: "He didn't know how he could control his beautiful aeroplane, this crazy machine, the Demoiselle. So one day he asked his friend Louis Cartier to make something different, because in those days there were only pocket watches. That's how Louis Cartier created the first wristwatch, which was named the Santos-Dumont watch in his honour." It was 1904 when Santos-Dumont talked to his friend Louis Cartier about his problem of using a pocket watch when flying. He was celebrating the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize, for the first flight from Parc Saint Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back in less than thirty minutes, in a dirigible. His work on his pioneering aeroplane, the 14-bis (so-named because in tests, it was suspended under the dirigible number 14), came later, in 1906. But the Brazilian-born Santos-Dumont was a great personality in Paris, and he was nicknamed "le petit Santos." High society Parisians soon caught on to his eccentric dress style, including high-collared
shirts and a Panama hat. So he contributed a great deal to the popularity of the wristwatch, once Cartier had created a watch with a leather strap and a small buckle. Today, the Santos-Dumont watch is still part of the Cartier range, with many versions, including skeletonized and women's as well as the classic men's.

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Re: Rhinofy-American Beauty Primer

Bob,

Box of Rain was written and sung by Phil Lesh, not Bob Weir.

My company at the time, Alembic, was doing all the Dead's live recording, PA work, and a lot of innovative instrument modification and building for them. I was FOH mixer on quite a few tours in that era, and I helped design the Wall of Sound as well as building guitars and basses for them, CSN, the Airplane, etc.

My Best,

Rick Turner

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From: Devon
Re: Garth's Store

That video is posted by the last week tonight channel. Hbo hasn't issued a takedown notice because they put it there.



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