"Why Uber just might be worth it at $18 billion': http://bit.ly/1q6SiQh
It's all anybody talks about, other than Airbnb. This exalted status used to be occupied by music. How did this happen?
Interestingly, Travis Kalanick, Uber's majordomo, used to be in the file-trading business, with a company called Scour, you know how that turned out, the record companies killed file-trading dead and it took the better part of a decade for streaming services to put a dent in piracy, and now the artists who wouldn't say boo about Napster are all up in arms about Spotify and if you think this is a good thing, you probably hate change and wish that you could have your old Doc Martens back, you know, the ones with the eyelets ripped out.
Uber is kind of like the Beatles. It came from left field, completely unexpected, there were early adopters, and then critical mass, yes, Uber was around for years before it was fully embraced.
And then people couldn't stop talking about it, now even oldsters.
And what did Uber do best...STICK IT TO THE MAN!
Who's sticking it to the man in music?
I'd opine that music IS THE MAN!
Yup, look at the price of concert tickets, look at celebrity endorsements/sponsorships, if you get all warm and tingly about musical artists either they have little traction or you've barely hit puberty. The rest of the public...shrugs.
Uber utilized new technology to upend the existing taxi system. Yup, Uber used a smartphone app. Whereas, as stated above, artists HATE Spotify, which runs cleanly on an app. Because artists are so stupid they can't understand the concept of critical mass. That you build the infrastructure first, and then money comes raining down. They've got cable and wireless subscriptions, but to explain the financial investment is too much for them to understand, either because they're too old and don't believe in math, or they're too young and don't know it.
But just like Pro Tools, Uber understood the costs of production have gone down. Believe me, I'll get an e-mail from someone lamenting the death of studios, what next, string sections? Hell, something is lost in every venture into the future, but that does not mean the mass will stay locked in the past. Actually, it's always the mass which drives adoption of these new services, people catch on and can't stop talking about them. Yes, the customer is driving adoption, if you think the enemy is Shawn Fanning or Daniel Ek you don't know jack. The enemy is your own damn fans, assuming you've got them, they're the ones who love streaming your music on YouTube.
And, interestingly, people love paying more on Uber for convenience. We charge people for VIP at festivals, but music is all about INCONVENIENCE! Lines to get in, lines to buy food, which is oftentimes inadequate. And it's always someone else's problem in music, it's Ticketmaster's or the venue's or the lender's, no one takes responsibility. Who is the Travis Kalanick in music, who actually drove an Uber car one night? I haven't read about Michael Rapino going to a gig as a regular punter, nor Doug Morris writing a new song and trying to get signed. In music, everybody who's made it is above the populace, whereas Kalanick is reachable and has a personality, albeit abrasive. Everybody in music has shorn off his rough edges, especially in country, where the music/scene is so smooth, many have troubling holding on.
And you wonder why everybody goes into tech, why everybody talks about tech.
Because in tech they're pushing the envelope, in tech they're breaking rules, in tech they're making MONEY!
Where is the opportunity in music?
The label doesn't want to hire you and give you upward mobility and there are so many rights issues that venture capital money is hard to get.
I'm not saying the VCs haven't raped and pillaged along with those they've sponsored in music ventures, but I am saying this disruptive consciousness is the ethos of tech. There's no disruption in music, other than some band no one wants to listen to because the singer can't sing and the guitarist can't play.
It's always about hits, it's always about artists. When you tell me you love your niche act that hasn't made it, you're part of the problem, not part of the solution. What we need are new mass acts, ones so good that they can reach EVERYBODY! Ones willing to test limits, get people excited, talking about them and their music.
And nothing I write here will make that happen.
What needs to happen is someone out in the field who's really damn good and willing to do it differently.
But those people don't go into music anymore. We get the same people who imitate Snooki and Kim Kardashian, the former of whom has already been forgotten and the latter of whom has brought down one of the great black hopes of music, yes, Kanye was willing to do it differently, until he got so wrapped up in his ego no one could identify with him anymore.
We want to listen, we want to talk about music.
But it all depends on the musicians.
And a business that is willing to forgo short money for long, that stops complaining and starts breaking rules.
Even Kim Carnes sang about breaking all the rules tonight.
Today country artists sing about their trucks, wishing for an endorsement from Ford and rappers sing about a lifestyle no one lives and popsters are so two-dimensional you've got to be brain dead to think they're real.
But we once had the Who breaking rules. With a rock opera.
But what sold "Tommy"? A HIT! The indelible "Pinball Wizard."
The band only got traction when they recorded "I Can See For Miles," after "Happy Jack," "My Generation" was a start but despite its vaunted status today, it got very little airplay back in the day, and sales...forget about it.
So if you're off the radar, stay there. Or wake up and make music that's challenging that we can all relate to.
Lift us out of the doldrums. It's your responsibility.
And it depends on intelligence and skill and an ability to look at the status quo and change it up.
It's like we've lost the keys to the kingdom...
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Saturday 7 June 2014
Friday 6 June 2014
List
BEST CLIP OF THE WEEK
"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO): Climate Change Debate": http://bit.ly/1pjsjFJ
I watch no television other than Bill Maher. Oh, I pay for it, just call Time Warner and they'll remind you if you excise TV from your bill, your Internet price will soar. But I'm now going to tune into John Oliver's program, all because of this clip.
He substituted on the "Daily Show" when Jon Stewart went off to make a movie, what a mistake that was, TV reaches everybody, films reach nobody, but still, I wasn't paying attention.
Until this.
Ain't that the way it always is. You receive an e-mail, you click through and experience brilliant insight.
I used to say only animated characters could speak the truth, but today we rely on comedians too.
This is a better explanation of the climate change debate than any article I've ever read in the "New York Times," never mind the "Wall Street Journal," proving once again it's about conception and execution, anybody can have an idea, anybody can recite the facts, but can you reconstitute them in such a way that they have a dramatic effect?
John Oliver did here.
FACT OF THE WEEK
"Google Passes Microsoft in U.S. Browser Market Share": http://on.wsj.com/1j7Zozn
It's not quite like what it appears on the surface, Internet Explorer still wins on the desktop, but it's getting killed on mobile, and we live in a mobile world.
And this matters because he who controls the browser controls advertising.
But really, the desktop computer is now solely for work, we expect to have an encyclopedia at our fingertips, known as the mobile device, please optimize your website for mobile, because the truth is that's where all the traffic is.
APHORISM OF THE WEEK
"Perfection is substandard."
Uttered by my friend Shakil Khan, an investor in Spotify.
He makes the point that if you're taking our money, if you're providing a service, today the expectation is perfection, anything less and we move on. And we only now care about the exceptional.
HARI KONDABOLU
"My English Relationship": http://bit.ly/1p4n8vw
Watch the whole thing.
What do they say, "smart is sexy"?
And you wonder why Irving Azoff is in the comedy business. It's because these comics are testing limits in the ways musicians used to, in subversive ways those in power can't even contemplate.
I discovered Mr. Kondabolu on NPR, pushing the SiriusXM buttons on the way back from Palm Springs. I only listen to the satellite, and the longer the trip, the deeper I go.
The original NPR story: "Why Comedian Hari Kondabolu Is 'Waiting For 2042'": http://n.pr/1hY4AFW
THE BEST WRITING ON BERGDAHL
"Frank Rich on the National Circus: Bowe Bergdahl and the Messy End of America's Longest War": http://nym.ag/1pjvHR0
Now that Jill Abramson is gone, can Frank Rich come back to the "New York Times"? Now that the publication is a web first one, and he can write at the length and frequency he prefers? Because this brilliant thinker must not be left in the backwater known as "New York" magazine.
Many can write, few can think, Rich can do both.
The reviled theatre critic is now warmer and fuzzier and it's people like Rich, and the aforementioned comedians, who can truly impact America.
GILBERT GOTTFRIED ON SETH MEYERS
http://bit.ly/1hmZqYQ
Gilbert just launched a podcast, it's positively awful, because Gilbert's a guest, not a host, just because Marc Maron made inroads, that does not mean every comedian can create riveting "radio."
But Gilbert shines so brightly in this clip, on the Meyers show nobody watches and nobody talks about. If you desire to have a late night show, you desire to dive into the depths of despair, with all the pressure and none of the audience. As for Fallon... People watch the next day on YouTube if at all, otherwise he's so saccharine and sycophantic you go into sugar shock. But I'm not the only one who sees it this way, I'd tell you to read Emily Nussbaum's analysis in the "New Yorker," "The Host In The Machine": http://nyr.kr/1kGUUUN, but it's behind a paywall, that's the problem with the holier-than-thou publication, it's an echo chamber for the better than caste. Today it's all about mass and influence. Reach is first, economics are second. Because without reach, economics don't matter. So what we've got is every left wing/liberal publication/pundit hiding behind a paywall, scratching their chin wondering why they have no impact. It's the HITS stupid! Even Arianna Huffington with
her execrable linkbait site has figured this out. Unlike the "Times," never mind the "New Yorker," she's got hits.
Meanwhile, read David Pogue about linkbait here: http://yhoo.it/1sVJGMm
THE FLAME THROWERS
It didn't get good until page 200, when they went to Lake Como. Then it got so good, I didn't want to put it down, I couldn't stop thinking about it when I was done, I was dying to meet the author, Rachel Kushner, because you want to hang out with the scribe and discover how they came to write this stuff.
This was one of the best reviewed books of the year, that fact will make you decry the New York publishing intelligentsia, because the book is so overwritten and dense and vague that you want to stop reading it. But don't, because the reward will evidence itself. But I would not tackle "Flame Throwers" unless you've got a deep desire.
P.S. Yes, I found all the skiing references riveting.
ROBERT KRULWICH'S CALTECH COMMENCEMENT SPEECH
http://bit.ly/1jthyxy
Jad Abumrad drives the bus, gets all the press, but this "Radiolab" cohost knocks it out of the park in this 2008 commencement speech, it's a crime everybody hasn't listened to it.
Krulwich says it's all about story, and scientists have an obligation to tell theirs, to push the envelope and combat falsehoods.
If you're going to listen to a podcast, start with "Radiolab."
CHARLES GRODIN ON LOUIE
http://bit.ly/1tPw4ma
This is not the clip I wanted to show you, but I can't find that one posted online, wherein Mr. Grodin pontificates about relationships to Louie as they stroll in the snow.
Charles Grodin is in one of my favorite movies ever, the original "Heartbreak Kid." He was a comedic icon until he got a TV talk show and it buried him. It's shocking to see him so old on "Louie," but it's invigorating and inspirational at the same time. Because he's keepin' on keepin' on, after all, what can we do? Or as Woody Allen says, we need the eggs.
Louie is a conundrum. He's not ha-ha funny, but you're rooting for him because unlike the dross that carpets this great nation of ours, from the Kardashians to singing shows to linkbait to...he's trying to get at the underbelly, depict real life and the questions with regard thereto, and therefore, we root for him.
Few others do this, because there's not enough money in it. They play by the rules, suck up and we can't identify and oftentimes abandon them, because we're not stuck to them, there's nothing to stick to.
But these Charles Grodin moments on Louie's show... They're creepy and endearing all at the same time, fatalistic yet hopeful, life-affirming even though Mr. Grodin is 79.
The truth is we all die. The job is to hold on and go through all the passages.
You can't do this if you refuse to get old, if you get plastic surgery and wear skinny jeans.
It's tough, especially for baby boomers, who always believed they were going to rule until they died.
But the truth is they're not.
And if you can look forward instead of back, you'll be much better off.
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"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO): Climate Change Debate": http://bit.ly/1pjsjFJ
I watch no television other than Bill Maher. Oh, I pay for it, just call Time Warner and they'll remind you if you excise TV from your bill, your Internet price will soar. But I'm now going to tune into John Oliver's program, all because of this clip.
He substituted on the "Daily Show" when Jon Stewart went off to make a movie, what a mistake that was, TV reaches everybody, films reach nobody, but still, I wasn't paying attention.
Until this.
Ain't that the way it always is. You receive an e-mail, you click through and experience brilliant insight.
I used to say only animated characters could speak the truth, but today we rely on comedians too.
This is a better explanation of the climate change debate than any article I've ever read in the "New York Times," never mind the "Wall Street Journal," proving once again it's about conception and execution, anybody can have an idea, anybody can recite the facts, but can you reconstitute them in such a way that they have a dramatic effect?
John Oliver did here.
FACT OF THE WEEK
"Google Passes Microsoft in U.S. Browser Market Share": http://on.wsj.com/1j7Zozn
It's not quite like what it appears on the surface, Internet Explorer still wins on the desktop, but it's getting killed on mobile, and we live in a mobile world.
And this matters because he who controls the browser controls advertising.
But really, the desktop computer is now solely for work, we expect to have an encyclopedia at our fingertips, known as the mobile device, please optimize your website for mobile, because the truth is that's where all the traffic is.
APHORISM OF THE WEEK
"Perfection is substandard."
Uttered by my friend Shakil Khan, an investor in Spotify.
He makes the point that if you're taking our money, if you're providing a service, today the expectation is perfection, anything less and we move on. And we only now care about the exceptional.
HARI KONDABOLU
"My English Relationship": http://bit.ly/1p4n8vw
Watch the whole thing.
What do they say, "smart is sexy"?
And you wonder why Irving Azoff is in the comedy business. It's because these comics are testing limits in the ways musicians used to, in subversive ways those in power can't even contemplate.
I discovered Mr. Kondabolu on NPR, pushing the SiriusXM buttons on the way back from Palm Springs. I only listen to the satellite, and the longer the trip, the deeper I go.
The original NPR story: "Why Comedian Hari Kondabolu Is 'Waiting For 2042'": http://n.pr/1hY4AFW
THE BEST WRITING ON BERGDAHL
"Frank Rich on the National Circus: Bowe Bergdahl and the Messy End of America's Longest War": http://nym.ag/1pjvHR0
Now that Jill Abramson is gone, can Frank Rich come back to the "New York Times"? Now that the publication is a web first one, and he can write at the length and frequency he prefers? Because this brilliant thinker must not be left in the backwater known as "New York" magazine.
Many can write, few can think, Rich can do both.
The reviled theatre critic is now warmer and fuzzier and it's people like Rich, and the aforementioned comedians, who can truly impact America.
GILBERT GOTTFRIED ON SETH MEYERS
http://bit.ly/1hmZqYQ
Gilbert just launched a podcast, it's positively awful, because Gilbert's a guest, not a host, just because Marc Maron made inroads, that does not mean every comedian can create riveting "radio."
But Gilbert shines so brightly in this clip, on the Meyers show nobody watches and nobody talks about. If you desire to have a late night show, you desire to dive into the depths of despair, with all the pressure and none of the audience. As for Fallon... People watch the next day on YouTube if at all, otherwise he's so saccharine and sycophantic you go into sugar shock. But I'm not the only one who sees it this way, I'd tell you to read Emily Nussbaum's analysis in the "New Yorker," "The Host In The Machine": http://nyr.kr/1kGUUUN, but it's behind a paywall, that's the problem with the holier-than-thou publication, it's an echo chamber for the better than caste. Today it's all about mass and influence. Reach is first, economics are second. Because without reach, economics don't matter. So what we've got is every left wing/liberal publication/pundit hiding behind a paywall, scratching their chin wondering why they have no impact. It's the HITS stupid! Even Arianna Huffington with
her execrable linkbait site has figured this out. Unlike the "Times," never mind the "New Yorker," she's got hits.
Meanwhile, read David Pogue about linkbait here: http://yhoo.it/1sVJGMm
THE FLAME THROWERS
It didn't get good until page 200, when they went to Lake Como. Then it got so good, I didn't want to put it down, I couldn't stop thinking about it when I was done, I was dying to meet the author, Rachel Kushner, because you want to hang out with the scribe and discover how they came to write this stuff.
This was one of the best reviewed books of the year, that fact will make you decry the New York publishing intelligentsia, because the book is so overwritten and dense and vague that you want to stop reading it. But don't, because the reward will evidence itself. But I would not tackle "Flame Throwers" unless you've got a deep desire.
P.S. Yes, I found all the skiing references riveting.
ROBERT KRULWICH'S CALTECH COMMENCEMENT SPEECH
http://bit.ly/1jthyxy
Jad Abumrad drives the bus, gets all the press, but this "Radiolab" cohost knocks it out of the park in this 2008 commencement speech, it's a crime everybody hasn't listened to it.
Krulwich says it's all about story, and scientists have an obligation to tell theirs, to push the envelope and combat falsehoods.
If you're going to listen to a podcast, start with "Radiolab."
CHARLES GRODIN ON LOUIE
http://bit.ly/1tPw4ma
This is not the clip I wanted to show you, but I can't find that one posted online, wherein Mr. Grodin pontificates about relationships to Louie as they stroll in the snow.
Charles Grodin is in one of my favorite movies ever, the original "Heartbreak Kid." He was a comedic icon until he got a TV talk show and it buried him. It's shocking to see him so old on "Louie," but it's invigorating and inspirational at the same time. Because he's keepin' on keepin' on, after all, what can we do? Or as Woody Allen says, we need the eggs.
Louie is a conundrum. He's not ha-ha funny, but you're rooting for him because unlike the dross that carpets this great nation of ours, from the Kardashians to singing shows to linkbait to...he's trying to get at the underbelly, depict real life and the questions with regard thereto, and therefore, we root for him.
Few others do this, because there's not enough money in it. They play by the rules, suck up and we can't identify and oftentimes abandon them, because we're not stuck to them, there's nothing to stick to.
But these Charles Grodin moments on Louie's show... They're creepy and endearing all at the same time, fatalistic yet hopeful, life-affirming even though Mr. Grodin is 79.
The truth is we all die. The job is to hold on and go through all the passages.
You can't do this if you refuse to get old, if you get plastic surgery and wear skinny jeans.
It's tough, especially for baby boomers, who always believed they were going to rule until they died.
But the truth is they're not.
And if you can look forward instead of back, you'll be much better off.
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Rhinofy-Kraftwerk Primer
AUTOBAHN
Start here, because everybody else did.
Yes, it's hard to believe today, but once upon a time this sound was revolutionary, surprising, something everybody talked about.
Today, it's the basis for what's now known as EDM, Kraftwerk is the acknowledged progenitor.
It was so weird to hear this coming out of the radio, and we did, back when stations were not so calcified, when they did not give listeners what they wanted, but what they needed to hear.
And there was a radio edit, but if you want to go on a trip, check out the almost twenty three minute, full side original.
It was in German, we could understand not a word other than "autobahn," which we knew was Germany's superhighway.
You could play this for ten year olds and they'd believe it was cut yesterday!
TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS
Of all the songs about trains, this sounds most like the ride, the hypnotic roll of the wheels, the trance travel puts you in.
The word "hypnotic" was created for stuff like this.
It makes you want to go on the journey, not only in your mind, but the real train. Just like we wanted to visit all the Southern California locales in the Zappa songs.
It's 6:37, and it's almost not long enough.
EUROPE ENDLESS
This is the opener on the "Trans-Europe Express" album.
It's funny that so much of today's hit music has no melody, yet the work of these Germans utilizing computer instruments features it!
Well, I'm not saying you will want to sing along, but the twinkling will enrapture you and you'll feel joyful and if you put this on on a Sunday afternoon you won't want to take it off.
SHOWROOM DUMMIES
This was a featured number when I saw the band at the Santa Monica Civic, on the "Computer World" tour. The presentation included actual showroom dummies.
This is the music the SNL Dieter skit was derived from. But when originally done by Kraftwerk it was not spoofable, it was cutting edge.
COMPUTER WORLD
The apotheosis, the one Kraftwerk album you've got to know, the one that was a seamless adventure throughout, the one that hypnotized you and titillated and gratified you all at the same time. The tracks are short, and each one is a winner.
And why not start here, with the title/opening cut.
Now let me tell you, there were TWO versions of "Computer World," the one you're listening to and the original, "Computerwelt," in GERMAN! It's the same music, but with different language lyrics, a friend made me a cassette, back when stuff was rare and you reveled in uncovering and owning it.
"Business, numbers, money, people"
Could they be more PRESCIENT!
This was long before the Internet revolution, when only a few people had Apple IIs. The darkness of the music reflects a world where we're all known and Edward Snowden is in the headlines, this is the soundtrack of TODAY!
POCKET CALCULATOR
The single, back when KROQ meant something, when the station played a cut and it spread across this great nation of ours.
And if you only listen to this, you'll want to shoot yourself. Yes, there's something offensive at first, the repetition, the sounds, but in the context of the album you come to love it. The sounds of the calculator... Those were the revolution before PCs, by this time, in 1981, pocket calculators were cheap and everybody had one.
NUMBERS
They count off in German and I knew what they were saying because I had a camp counselor who taught me the numbers in that language.
This is less accessible than what came before on the album, but when they count in multiple languages...it's strangely affecting.
COMPUTER WORLD 2
The first side ends with a reprise of the title track, in a more upbeat take, as if to invite us all into this new age that was going to change our lives...AND IT DID!
COMPUTER LOVE
This is the one Coldplay ripped off, knowingly, they gave Kraftwerk credit, because some lyrical melodies are such hooks they're undeniable.
I don't think computers can fall in love, not yet, but we have utilized them to fall in love ourselves, and this is the soundtrack of all that hope when we tickle the keys.
Play this and you'll find the whole room nodding its collective head and asking...WHAT IS THIS?
HOME COMPUTER
The least accessible track on "Computer World," it's the one you come to after you burn the others out.
The people who programmed their own computers did beam themselves into the future!
IT'S MORE FUN TO COMPUTE
Such a dark song to illustrate fun. I'm including the entire "Computer World" album because not only is it so great, you should know it!
TOUR DE FRANCE
The 1983 song written for the famous bicycle race that begins with labored breathing so reminiscent of the two wheeled effort. Eventually the band put out a whole "Tour De France" album...
But really, this was the last memorable, original thing the band ever did. There was a final, long-delayed studio album "Electric Cafe" released in the waning days of 1986, but it was a disappointment.
Then Kraftwerk splintered, they remixed their music, their legend grew, but no new music was released.
Finally, they went on the road.
And now they're down to one.
And you can ask why you want to see something like this live, and I agree with you conceptually, but that July 30, 1981 Santa Monica Civic show was one of the best I've seen by ANY BAND!
It's all about conception, and then execution.
Rather than emote and try to reach out and grab us, the band was distant, which caused us to lean in and try to get closer.
This music is timeless.
It's the sound of our...FUTURE!
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1kuD606
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Start here, because everybody else did.
Yes, it's hard to believe today, but once upon a time this sound was revolutionary, surprising, something everybody talked about.
Today, it's the basis for what's now known as EDM, Kraftwerk is the acknowledged progenitor.
It was so weird to hear this coming out of the radio, and we did, back when stations were not so calcified, when they did not give listeners what they wanted, but what they needed to hear.
And there was a radio edit, but if you want to go on a trip, check out the almost twenty three minute, full side original.
It was in German, we could understand not a word other than "autobahn," which we knew was Germany's superhighway.
You could play this for ten year olds and they'd believe it was cut yesterday!
TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS
Of all the songs about trains, this sounds most like the ride, the hypnotic roll of the wheels, the trance travel puts you in.
The word "hypnotic" was created for stuff like this.
It makes you want to go on the journey, not only in your mind, but the real train. Just like we wanted to visit all the Southern California locales in the Zappa songs.
It's 6:37, and it's almost not long enough.
EUROPE ENDLESS
This is the opener on the "Trans-Europe Express" album.
It's funny that so much of today's hit music has no melody, yet the work of these Germans utilizing computer instruments features it!
Well, I'm not saying you will want to sing along, but the twinkling will enrapture you and you'll feel joyful and if you put this on on a Sunday afternoon you won't want to take it off.
SHOWROOM DUMMIES
This was a featured number when I saw the band at the Santa Monica Civic, on the "Computer World" tour. The presentation included actual showroom dummies.
This is the music the SNL Dieter skit was derived from. But when originally done by Kraftwerk it was not spoofable, it was cutting edge.
COMPUTER WORLD
The apotheosis, the one Kraftwerk album you've got to know, the one that was a seamless adventure throughout, the one that hypnotized you and titillated and gratified you all at the same time. The tracks are short, and each one is a winner.
And why not start here, with the title/opening cut.
Now let me tell you, there were TWO versions of "Computer World," the one you're listening to and the original, "Computerwelt," in GERMAN! It's the same music, but with different language lyrics, a friend made me a cassette, back when stuff was rare and you reveled in uncovering and owning it.
"Business, numbers, money, people"
Could they be more PRESCIENT!
This was long before the Internet revolution, when only a few people had Apple IIs. The darkness of the music reflects a world where we're all known and Edward Snowden is in the headlines, this is the soundtrack of TODAY!
POCKET CALCULATOR
The single, back when KROQ meant something, when the station played a cut and it spread across this great nation of ours.
And if you only listen to this, you'll want to shoot yourself. Yes, there's something offensive at first, the repetition, the sounds, but in the context of the album you come to love it. The sounds of the calculator... Those were the revolution before PCs, by this time, in 1981, pocket calculators were cheap and everybody had one.
NUMBERS
They count off in German and I knew what they were saying because I had a camp counselor who taught me the numbers in that language.
This is less accessible than what came before on the album, but when they count in multiple languages...it's strangely affecting.
COMPUTER WORLD 2
The first side ends with a reprise of the title track, in a more upbeat take, as if to invite us all into this new age that was going to change our lives...AND IT DID!
COMPUTER LOVE
This is the one Coldplay ripped off, knowingly, they gave Kraftwerk credit, because some lyrical melodies are such hooks they're undeniable.
I don't think computers can fall in love, not yet, but we have utilized them to fall in love ourselves, and this is the soundtrack of all that hope when we tickle the keys.
Play this and you'll find the whole room nodding its collective head and asking...WHAT IS THIS?
HOME COMPUTER
The least accessible track on "Computer World," it's the one you come to after you burn the others out.
The people who programmed their own computers did beam themselves into the future!
IT'S MORE FUN TO COMPUTE
Such a dark song to illustrate fun. I'm including the entire "Computer World" album because not only is it so great, you should know it!
TOUR DE FRANCE
The 1983 song written for the famous bicycle race that begins with labored breathing so reminiscent of the two wheeled effort. Eventually the band put out a whole "Tour De France" album...
But really, this was the last memorable, original thing the band ever did. There was a final, long-delayed studio album "Electric Cafe" released in the waning days of 1986, but it was a disappointment.
Then Kraftwerk splintered, they remixed their music, their legend grew, but no new music was released.
Finally, they went on the road.
And now they're down to one.
And you can ask why you want to see something like this live, and I agree with you conceptually, but that July 30, 1981 Santa Monica Civic show was one of the best I've seen by ANY BAND!
It's all about conception, and then execution.
Rather than emote and try to reach out and grab us, the band was distant, which caused us to lean in and try to get closer.
This music is timeless.
It's the sound of our...FUTURE!
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1kuD606
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Thursday 5 June 2014
Don+Dean
From: Larry Solters
Re-The Don Henley/Okkervil River Kerfuffle
Bob-
You missed the point. This has nothing to do with money. It's simply about these punks having the audacity to take original, copyrighted material and CHANGE it. It's not about them or Don making money. It's about them not respecting the original material, treating it like it was some kind of interactive plaything. It's about respecting the integrity of somebody else's material - Grammy-winning material.
What both Frank Ocean and Okkervil River did wasn't merely "sampling." In Ocean's case, it was wholesale theft. What Okkervil River did was take the original "The End of the Innocence" and add extra (lame) verses and musical sections. That amounts to musical vandalism. They seem to think that because they aren't "selling" their little piece of hackery, it's O.K. to do what they did, which is beyond comprehension.
Perhaps you missed the original News Corp Australia interview -
Don Henley of the Eagles accuses Frank Ocean of 'stealing' his song.
4 DAYS AGO JUNE 02, 2014 2:14PM
ROCK legend Don Henley has slapped down hipster singer Frank Ocean for 'stealing' the Eagles' Hotel California and has told him to get his own ideas.
Ocean sampled of the entire 1977 classic - minus the lyrics - for his song American Wedding. However Ocean sings his own brand new lyrics over the million-selling rock anthem.
Henley refused to allow Ocean to release the track, which has since leaked online.
I heard it," Henley said of American Wedding. "I was not impressed. He needs to come up with his own ideas and stop stealing stuff from already established works."
Ocean wrote on his Tumblr that Henley was "apparently intimidated by my rendition of Hotel California" and "threatened to sue if I perform it again."
Henley admitted his lawyers were involved.
"Mr. Ocean doesn't seem to understand US copyright law. Anyone who knows anything should know you cannot take a master track of a recording and write another song over the top of it. You just can't do that. You can call it a tribute or whatever you want to call it, but it's against the law. That's a problem with some of the younger generation, they don't understand the concept of intellectual property and copyright."
"(Mr. Ocean) was quite arrogant about it," Henley said. "We tried to approach him calmly to talk reason to him via his managers and his attorneys and he wouldn't listen. So finally we threatened to bring legal action against him. He was clearly in the wrong. I wouldn't dream of doing something like that. What kind of ego is that? I don't understand it."
Henley also nixed a remake of his solo hit "The End of the Innocence" by US band Okkervil River, who had planned to release it online for free.
Okkervil River singer Will Sheff told The Music they "sincerely" loved the song and said Henley was an "old-fashioned guy who doesn't understand...it's not like I was making money, I figure that's all he f---ing cares about.
"It's not like I was making money off it, but he still made me take it down."
Henley said he was more concerned by the fact they altered his original lyrics.
"They don't understand the law either," Henley said. "You can't re-write the lyrics to somebody else's songs and record it and put it on the internet. I'm sorry, but it wasn't an improvement. We were not impressed. So we simply had our legal team tell them to take it down and they got all huffy about it.
"It's a different mindset. I don't know how they'd react if I took one of their songs and re-wrote the lyrics and recorded it, I don't know if they'd like that. Maybe they wouldn't care but I care. We work really really hard on our material. We spend months writing it and years recording it. You don't go into a museum and paint a moustache on somebody else's painting. Nobody would think of doing that."
Henley said he did not see either remake as a tribute "If I were going to do something like that (as a tribute ) I'd get permission first. If you respect somebody you ask their permission to diddle around with their work. You don't just go and do it."
Henley has no problem with Eagles songs being covered by other artists, the most recent high profile cover was Michael Buble's remake of Heartache Tonight.
"You can record anyone's song you like," Henley said. "It's called a compulsory license. That's not what Mr. Ocean nor Okkervil River did. They took the song and they changed it. they put their own stuff on it. Michael Buble did a totally legal cover, that's standard procedure."
Frank Ocean has been contacted for comment via his Australian record company, Universal.
The Eagles tour Australia in February/March next year.
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/don-henley-of-the-eagles-accuses-frank-ocean-of-stealing-his-song/story-e6frfn09-1226941446957
-Solters
____________________________________________
From: Dean Torrence
Subject: HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Hey Bob,
Got an ex mayor of "Surf City" Huntington Beach and a bunch of movers and shakers who want to take on the task of shaking up The R&R Hall of Fame. I told them that they are wasting their time, tried to explain to them that music people aren't normal so a normal set of facts will not compute with these arrogant dimwits, but they want to give it ago anyway.
They asked me to come up with some talking points, so I did.
You are more than welcome to add some of your own if you want.
I keep telling these guys that I really don't care, I don't give a s___ about the R&RHOF
Now if Jan were still with us, then that's something totally different. He would have loved to have been recognized and he deserved it!
So if they couldn't give it to him when he was alive, then f___ them!
But I wrote the talking points anyway because ..... well it was kinda fun.
1. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
At 17 years old, wrote and then recorded a top 10 record (Jenny Lee) in his parents' garage, using two home tape recorders.
I would say none.
But Jan Berry did.
2. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
At 18 years old, recorded another top 10 record (Baby Talk) in his parents' garage, using the same two home tape recorders.
I would say none.
But Jan Berry did.
3. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
At 18 years old, had the wherewithal to hand pick their own management team.
I would say none.
But Jan Berry did, and he ended up picking two guys that had never managed before and never produced a record before. Jan Berry at 18 years old talked two 25 year olds, Herb Alpert and Lou Adler, into leaving their musical association with the super-talented Sam Cooke and joining the fledgling Jan & Dean Team. Just a few years later, Sam Cooke at the height of his career was shot and killed. Seems like Herb and Lou made the right decision.
Herb Alpert and Lou Adler went on to become legends in the music industry and they are in The R&R Hall of Fame.
Recently, Lou and Dean were having a great visit, reminiscing about how much fun they had making Rock & Roll records.
Dean used this opportunity to thank Lou for joining the team, even though it was probably a risky choice at the time for Lou and Herb, but in Dean's mind, if Lou and Herb had decided that it was indeed too risky and decided not to work with Jan & Dean, Dean was convinced that Jan & Dean would not have had a career. Lou answered right back by saying that he and Herb may not have had careers if it weren't for their successful association with Jan & Dean.
4. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Wrote most of their own songs.
Some did.
Jan & Dean did too.
5. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Produced their own records.
99% did not.
But Jan Berry did.
6. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Arranged their own records.
99% did not.
But Jan Berry did.
7. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Hand picked their own studio musicians and that group became such a force in the world of studio musicians that they became their own entity and were affectionately called "The Wrecking Crew."
Next to none.
But Jan Berry did.
8. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Suggested to Brian Wilson that he should use The Wrecking Crew to cut his basic tracks and not wait for his own band to get off the road to record.
I would say none.
But Jan Berry did.
And Brian's tracks got exponentially better from that point on.
9. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
That were recording in the early 60s experimented with using two drummers in the recording studio, giving the drummers written identical parts.
And these parts were written by the artist.
I would say none.
But Jan Berry did.
10. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Were directly involved with their own Branding, Packaging and Advertising Campaigns.
Next to none.
But Jan & Dean were.
11. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Were full time college students while making 30 chart records and 7 top 10 records.
I would say none.
Jan graduated Pre-Med from UCLA with a degree.
Dean graduated from The School of Architecture and Fine Arts at USC with a degree.
12. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Got 3 Grammy Nominations and a Grammy for record packaging.
I would say none.
But Dean Torrence did.
13. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Had a big budget film made about their careers that more than 45 million people viewed.
Next to none.
Jan & Dean did.
14. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Inspired Tom Hanks to write and produce a movie about early 60s rock & roll music.
I would say none.
Jan & Dean did.
15. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Have had Proclamations and Resolutions from major cities and a major state acknowledging their monumental impact on tourism to these major cities.
Next to none.
Jan & Dean have.
City of Los Angeles Proclamation, June 20, 1980
"Whereas, California beaches are a part of the State's particular lifestyle, both as in-state and international attractions; and Los Angeles is known throughout the world as "Surf City" and whereas Jan Berry and Dean Torrence wrote the song "Surf City" in the early sixties and it became an anthem that put the city on the rock & roll map and in the hearts of teenagers in London, Tokyo, Stuttgart, Paris and other world capitols and whereas, Jan & Dean's songs reflected the particular glories of the California Life, The Sun, The Beach and The Automobile; and no tourist board or chamber of commerce could have presented a style of living so attractive as Jan & Dean did during their best selling, chart topping songs."
California Assembly Resolution, August 24, 1994
"Whereas, Throughout their careers, Jan & Dean have made a lasting impression on millions of fans, and their immense and varied talents have earned for them the respect of their professional associates and the general community alike; now, therefore, be it Resolved that Jan & Dean be commended for their promoting California's indigenous music and lifestyle, and their exemplary musical talent and ability, applauded on the success they have deservedly achieved throughout their careers, and extended best wishes for continued success in the future."
16. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Have had a major city trademark the title of one of their hit records to use exclusively in their branding and marketing campaigns.
I would say none.
Jan & Dean have.
www.surfcityusa.com
17. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Toured in their original form for more than 45 years.
Other than single artists, next to none
Jan & Dean did, up until Jan Berry's passing in 2004.
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Re-The Don Henley/Okkervil River Kerfuffle
Bob-
You missed the point. This has nothing to do with money. It's simply about these punks having the audacity to take original, copyrighted material and CHANGE it. It's not about them or Don making money. It's about them not respecting the original material, treating it like it was some kind of interactive plaything. It's about respecting the integrity of somebody else's material - Grammy-winning material.
What both Frank Ocean and Okkervil River did wasn't merely "sampling." In Ocean's case, it was wholesale theft. What Okkervil River did was take the original "The End of the Innocence" and add extra (lame) verses and musical sections. That amounts to musical vandalism. They seem to think that because they aren't "selling" their little piece of hackery, it's O.K. to do what they did, which is beyond comprehension.
Perhaps you missed the original News Corp Australia interview -
Don Henley of the Eagles accuses Frank Ocean of 'stealing' his song.
4 DAYS AGO JUNE 02, 2014 2:14PM
ROCK legend Don Henley has slapped down hipster singer Frank Ocean for 'stealing' the Eagles' Hotel California and has told him to get his own ideas.
Ocean sampled of the entire 1977 classic - minus the lyrics - for his song American Wedding. However Ocean sings his own brand new lyrics over the million-selling rock anthem.
Henley refused to allow Ocean to release the track, which has since leaked online.
I heard it," Henley said of American Wedding. "I was not impressed. He needs to come up with his own ideas and stop stealing stuff from already established works."
Ocean wrote on his Tumblr that Henley was "apparently intimidated by my rendition of Hotel California" and "threatened to sue if I perform it again."
Henley admitted his lawyers were involved.
"Mr. Ocean doesn't seem to understand US copyright law. Anyone who knows anything should know you cannot take a master track of a recording and write another song over the top of it. You just can't do that. You can call it a tribute or whatever you want to call it, but it's against the law. That's a problem with some of the younger generation, they don't understand the concept of intellectual property and copyright."
"(Mr. Ocean) was quite arrogant about it," Henley said. "We tried to approach him calmly to talk reason to him via his managers and his attorneys and he wouldn't listen. So finally we threatened to bring legal action against him. He was clearly in the wrong. I wouldn't dream of doing something like that. What kind of ego is that? I don't understand it."
Henley also nixed a remake of his solo hit "The End of the Innocence" by US band Okkervil River, who had planned to release it online for free.
Okkervil River singer Will Sheff told The Music they "sincerely" loved the song and said Henley was an "old-fashioned guy who doesn't understand...it's not like I was making money, I figure that's all he f---ing cares about.
"It's not like I was making money off it, but he still made me take it down."
Henley said he was more concerned by the fact they altered his original lyrics.
"They don't understand the law either," Henley said. "You can't re-write the lyrics to somebody else's songs and record it and put it on the internet. I'm sorry, but it wasn't an improvement. We were not impressed. So we simply had our legal team tell them to take it down and they got all huffy about it.
"It's a different mindset. I don't know how they'd react if I took one of their songs and re-wrote the lyrics and recorded it, I don't know if they'd like that. Maybe they wouldn't care but I care. We work really really hard on our material. We spend months writing it and years recording it. You don't go into a museum and paint a moustache on somebody else's painting. Nobody would think of doing that."
Henley said he did not see either remake as a tribute "If I were going to do something like that (as a tribute ) I'd get permission first. If you respect somebody you ask their permission to diddle around with their work. You don't just go and do it."
Henley has no problem with Eagles songs being covered by other artists, the most recent high profile cover was Michael Buble's remake of Heartache Tonight.
"You can record anyone's song you like," Henley said. "It's called a compulsory license. That's not what Mr. Ocean nor Okkervil River did. They took the song and they changed it. they put their own stuff on it. Michael Buble did a totally legal cover, that's standard procedure."
Frank Ocean has been contacted for comment via his Australian record company, Universal.
The Eagles tour Australia in February/March next year.
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/don-henley-of-the-eagles-accuses-frank-ocean-of-stealing-his-song/story-e6frfn09-1226941446957
-Solters
____________________________________________
From: Dean Torrence
Subject: HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Hey Bob,
Got an ex mayor of "Surf City" Huntington Beach and a bunch of movers and shakers who want to take on the task of shaking up The R&R Hall of Fame. I told them that they are wasting their time, tried to explain to them that music people aren't normal so a normal set of facts will not compute with these arrogant dimwits, but they want to give it ago anyway.
They asked me to come up with some talking points, so I did.
You are more than welcome to add some of your own if you want.
I keep telling these guys that I really don't care, I don't give a s___ about the R&RHOF
Now if Jan were still with us, then that's something totally different. He would have loved to have been recognized and he deserved it!
So if they couldn't give it to him when he was alive, then f___ them!
But I wrote the talking points anyway because ..... well it was kinda fun.
1. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
At 17 years old, wrote and then recorded a top 10 record (Jenny Lee) in his parents' garage, using two home tape recorders.
I would say none.
But Jan Berry did.
2. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
At 18 years old, recorded another top 10 record (Baby Talk) in his parents' garage, using the same two home tape recorders.
I would say none.
But Jan Berry did.
3. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
At 18 years old, had the wherewithal to hand pick their own management team.
I would say none.
But Jan Berry did, and he ended up picking two guys that had never managed before and never produced a record before. Jan Berry at 18 years old talked two 25 year olds, Herb Alpert and Lou Adler, into leaving their musical association with the super-talented Sam Cooke and joining the fledgling Jan & Dean Team. Just a few years later, Sam Cooke at the height of his career was shot and killed. Seems like Herb and Lou made the right decision.
Herb Alpert and Lou Adler went on to become legends in the music industry and they are in The R&R Hall of Fame.
Recently, Lou and Dean were having a great visit, reminiscing about how much fun they had making Rock & Roll records.
Dean used this opportunity to thank Lou for joining the team, even though it was probably a risky choice at the time for Lou and Herb, but in Dean's mind, if Lou and Herb had decided that it was indeed too risky and decided not to work with Jan & Dean, Dean was convinced that Jan & Dean would not have had a career. Lou answered right back by saying that he and Herb may not have had careers if it weren't for their successful association with Jan & Dean.
4. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Wrote most of their own songs.
Some did.
Jan & Dean did too.
5. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Produced their own records.
99% did not.
But Jan Berry did.
6. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Arranged their own records.
99% did not.
But Jan Berry did.
7. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Hand picked their own studio musicians and that group became such a force in the world of studio musicians that they became their own entity and were affectionately called "The Wrecking Crew."
Next to none.
But Jan Berry did.
8. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Suggested to Brian Wilson that he should use The Wrecking Crew to cut his basic tracks and not wait for his own band to get off the road to record.
I would say none.
But Jan Berry did.
And Brian's tracks got exponentially better from that point on.
9. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
That were recording in the early 60s experimented with using two drummers in the recording studio, giving the drummers written identical parts.
And these parts were written by the artist.
I would say none.
But Jan Berry did.
10. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Were directly involved with their own Branding, Packaging and Advertising Campaigns.
Next to none.
But Jan & Dean were.
11. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Were full time college students while making 30 chart records and 7 top 10 records.
I would say none.
Jan graduated Pre-Med from UCLA with a degree.
Dean graduated from The School of Architecture and Fine Arts at USC with a degree.
12. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Got 3 Grammy Nominations and a Grammy for record packaging.
I would say none.
But Dean Torrence did.
13. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Had a big budget film made about their careers that more than 45 million people viewed.
Next to none.
Jan & Dean did.
14. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Inspired Tom Hanks to write and produce a movie about early 60s rock & roll music.
I would say none.
Jan & Dean did.
15. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Have had Proclamations and Resolutions from major cities and a major state acknowledging their monumental impact on tourism to these major cities.
Next to none.
Jan & Dean have.
City of Los Angeles Proclamation, June 20, 1980
"Whereas, California beaches are a part of the State's particular lifestyle, both as in-state and international attractions; and Los Angeles is known throughout the world as "Surf City" and whereas Jan Berry and Dean Torrence wrote the song "Surf City" in the early sixties and it became an anthem that put the city on the rock & roll map and in the hearts of teenagers in London, Tokyo, Stuttgart, Paris and other world capitols and whereas, Jan & Dean's songs reflected the particular glories of the California Life, The Sun, The Beach and The Automobile; and no tourist board or chamber of commerce could have presented a style of living so attractive as Jan & Dean did during their best selling, chart topping songs."
California Assembly Resolution, August 24, 1994
"Whereas, Throughout their careers, Jan & Dean have made a lasting impression on millions of fans, and their immense and varied talents have earned for them the respect of their professional associates and the general community alike; now, therefore, be it Resolved that Jan & Dean be commended for their promoting California's indigenous music and lifestyle, and their exemplary musical talent and ability, applauded on the success they have deservedly achieved throughout their careers, and extended best wishes for continued success in the future."
16. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Have had a major city trademark the title of one of their hit records to use exclusively in their branding and marketing campaigns.
I would say none.
Jan & Dean have.
www.surfcityusa.com
17. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Toured in their original form for more than 45 years.
Other than single artists, next to none
Jan & Dean did, up until Jan Berry's passing in 2004.
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The Don Henley/Okkervil River Kerfuffle
"Don Henley Claims 'Arrogant' Frank Ocean, Okkervil River Stole Songs": http://rol.st/1jVILqb
"Okkervil River Responds to Don Henley: Copyright Laws Kill Art": http://rol.st/1j34JIj
Which way do you want it? No copyright laws or Spotify bitching?
I'm not saying Don Henley's doesn't have his finger in the dike of progress, but...
What? What in god's name are you talking about?
You see the Eagles are on tour overseas. And when you go on tour, reporters ask you questions, and Henley was asked about that Frank Ocean song set to "Hotel California" and a "cover" of "End Of The Innocence," Henley had them taken down.
Oh, it's a bit more complicated than that. Ocean set a song to the entire track of "Hotel California," and the guy from Okkervil River changed the lyrics and more to "End Of The Innocence," and the truth is, under copyright law, Henley has the right to have these tracks taken down. And if you don't like copyright law, change it, as ASCAP and BMI are trying to do, but the funny thing is everybody bitching that they want to do it THEIR way suddenly goes ballistic when the public decides to do the same damn thing.
Forget the consumer end of it, what people see on YouTube and hear on Spotify. I'm on the receiving end of the wannabe musician fight, never mind the established musician fight, and the number one complaint you get from everybody in the music business today is...I CAN'T MAKE ANY MONEY!
They blame Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. And then Daniel Ek. As if being under thirty was a crime against humanity. They haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's screed wherein he states that inventions are in the air, that if Fanning and Parker hadn't invented Napster, someone else would have come out with a similar service around the same time.
So the ball was pushed forward. Metallica's career was dented in the process. But that's how change happens, someone pushes and someone reacts.
But at this late date, things have sort of become solidified.
I'll make it very clear, you can't sample without paying, which is why hip-hop is completely different these days, twenty-odd years ago seemingly every rap hit stole a lick.
But it turns out now you can't do that. And I for one will argue we're worse off for it. Because the beats we have today, which resulted from this enforcement of copyright law, are so much less interesting. Used to be there was some melody, a hook! Come on, wasn't Tone Loc's "Wild Thing," with Eddie Van Halen's guitar, much more interesting than most of the music today?
So Don Henley's a man of laws. At least in public. I'm sure he did his protesting of the drug laws back in his day. Then again, he didn't get on the runway, light up a joint, put out his middle finger and say to the feds COME GET ME!
Which is kind of what Frank Ocean and Okkervil River did here. These were not kids at home playing for their buddies, these were professionals trying to make it, in the case of Frank Ocean, he most certainly did, why should the rules not apply to him?
And then there's this guy from Okkervil River, mad that he can't continue the folk tradition of changing things to his liking. Does this guy even have a lawyer, has he read Don Passman's book? Has he never heard of lawsuits? How Ray Parker, Jr. paid Huey Lewis? And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Since you can barely stop these rearrangements/covers, maybe we need a change in copyright law. So the original composer can be compensated. Then again, it gets even more complicated when the covering artist gives his music away for free.
So, it looks like Don Henley is fighting a losing battle.
Only he's not. Or to put it in another way, where there's a writ, there's a hit. If you're making money off what I do, I'm gonna SUE!
And believe me, this guy in Okkervil River wants to make money, otherwise why would he be putting out this entire cover series for free?
It's kind of like Disney, which protects its intellectual property to the nth degree. Because it's all it has.
Don Henley may be rich, but his songs and recordings are all he has. And most of those recordings are owned by the man, who never pays what he should and doesn't pay on time. And suddenly he's the enemy?
Furthermore, by today's standards, Henley's not that rich. The guys you don't know the name of are.
But the truth is so many talk out of both sides of their mouth. They want to utilize the new tools yet complain that the new tools rip them off, they're not consistent.
You can't steal a live performance, which is why Henley and the Eagles are out on the road and haven't made new music in nearly a decade.
Frank Ocean and Okkervil River could do the same thing. But they'd rather use the Internet to embellish their images on the backs of Henley's work.
It's damn complicated. Henley's right, but it's easy to argue he's wrong. Then again, rap acts who fly above the radar no longer rip off willy-nilly, as stated above. Furthermore, give Henley credit for asking these questions, having a brain, employing his intellect, he comes from an era where there was a middle class, and it was reasonable for the intelligent to make music, to become recording stars. Today, what people who are left like that don't. Because music is the land of the underclass and the wannabe. Or, to put it simply, why doesn't the Okkervil River guy write a song as ubiquitous as "Take It Easy," never mind "End Of The Innocence." Ditto on Frank Ocean. For all the hype, he certainly hasn't written his "Hotel California," although he's used the original to further his career.
Accuse me all day long of being a Henley lover.
I'll say this is a guy who has always stood up for what he believed in, from Walden Woods to now. And too many of today's stars are afraid to take a stand on anything, they're just interested in how they look and...the money.
But how are they gonna make that money again?
P.S. I almost hate writing this, because it's gonna generate so many hits for "Rolling Stone," this is what the press loves, a ginned-up fight to sell papers, in this case clicks, but forgetting the vitriol, there's a serious issue underneath.
Okkervil River cover: http://bit.ly/1ogfg8t
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"Okkervil River Responds to Don Henley: Copyright Laws Kill Art": http://rol.st/1j34JIj
Which way do you want it? No copyright laws or Spotify bitching?
I'm not saying Don Henley's doesn't have his finger in the dike of progress, but...
What? What in god's name are you talking about?
You see the Eagles are on tour overseas. And when you go on tour, reporters ask you questions, and Henley was asked about that Frank Ocean song set to "Hotel California" and a "cover" of "End Of The Innocence," Henley had them taken down.
Oh, it's a bit more complicated than that. Ocean set a song to the entire track of "Hotel California," and the guy from Okkervil River changed the lyrics and more to "End Of The Innocence," and the truth is, under copyright law, Henley has the right to have these tracks taken down. And if you don't like copyright law, change it, as ASCAP and BMI are trying to do, but the funny thing is everybody bitching that they want to do it THEIR way suddenly goes ballistic when the public decides to do the same damn thing.
Forget the consumer end of it, what people see on YouTube and hear on Spotify. I'm on the receiving end of the wannabe musician fight, never mind the established musician fight, and the number one complaint you get from everybody in the music business today is...I CAN'T MAKE ANY MONEY!
They blame Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. And then Daniel Ek. As if being under thirty was a crime against humanity. They haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's screed wherein he states that inventions are in the air, that if Fanning and Parker hadn't invented Napster, someone else would have come out with a similar service around the same time.
So the ball was pushed forward. Metallica's career was dented in the process. But that's how change happens, someone pushes and someone reacts.
But at this late date, things have sort of become solidified.
I'll make it very clear, you can't sample without paying, which is why hip-hop is completely different these days, twenty-odd years ago seemingly every rap hit stole a lick.
But it turns out now you can't do that. And I for one will argue we're worse off for it. Because the beats we have today, which resulted from this enforcement of copyright law, are so much less interesting. Used to be there was some melody, a hook! Come on, wasn't Tone Loc's "Wild Thing," with Eddie Van Halen's guitar, much more interesting than most of the music today?
So Don Henley's a man of laws. At least in public. I'm sure he did his protesting of the drug laws back in his day. Then again, he didn't get on the runway, light up a joint, put out his middle finger and say to the feds COME GET ME!
Which is kind of what Frank Ocean and Okkervil River did here. These were not kids at home playing for their buddies, these were professionals trying to make it, in the case of Frank Ocean, he most certainly did, why should the rules not apply to him?
And then there's this guy from Okkervil River, mad that he can't continue the folk tradition of changing things to his liking. Does this guy even have a lawyer, has he read Don Passman's book? Has he never heard of lawsuits? How Ray Parker, Jr. paid Huey Lewis? And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Since you can barely stop these rearrangements/covers, maybe we need a change in copyright law. So the original composer can be compensated. Then again, it gets even more complicated when the covering artist gives his music away for free.
So, it looks like Don Henley is fighting a losing battle.
Only he's not. Or to put it in another way, where there's a writ, there's a hit. If you're making money off what I do, I'm gonna SUE!
And believe me, this guy in Okkervil River wants to make money, otherwise why would he be putting out this entire cover series for free?
It's kind of like Disney, which protects its intellectual property to the nth degree. Because it's all it has.
Don Henley may be rich, but his songs and recordings are all he has. And most of those recordings are owned by the man, who never pays what he should and doesn't pay on time. And suddenly he's the enemy?
Furthermore, by today's standards, Henley's not that rich. The guys you don't know the name of are.
But the truth is so many talk out of both sides of their mouth. They want to utilize the new tools yet complain that the new tools rip them off, they're not consistent.
You can't steal a live performance, which is why Henley and the Eagles are out on the road and haven't made new music in nearly a decade.
Frank Ocean and Okkervil River could do the same thing. But they'd rather use the Internet to embellish their images on the backs of Henley's work.
It's damn complicated. Henley's right, but it's easy to argue he's wrong. Then again, rap acts who fly above the radar no longer rip off willy-nilly, as stated above. Furthermore, give Henley credit for asking these questions, having a brain, employing his intellect, he comes from an era where there was a middle class, and it was reasonable for the intelligent to make music, to become recording stars. Today, what people who are left like that don't. Because music is the land of the underclass and the wannabe. Or, to put it simply, why doesn't the Okkervil River guy write a song as ubiquitous as "Take It Easy," never mind "End Of The Innocence." Ditto on Frank Ocean. For all the hype, he certainly hasn't written his "Hotel California," although he's used the original to further his career.
Accuse me all day long of being a Henley lover.
I'll say this is a guy who has always stood up for what he believed in, from Walden Woods to now. And too many of today's stars are afraid to take a stand on anything, they're just interested in how they look and...the money.
But how are they gonna make that money again?
P.S. I almost hate writing this, because it's gonna generate so many hits for "Rolling Stone," this is what the press loves, a ginned-up fight to sell papers, in this case clicks, but forgetting the vitriol, there's a serious issue underneath.
Okkervil River cover: http://bit.ly/1ogfg8t
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Wednesday 4 June 2014
Hip Is History
Used to be you wanted to be hip, today you want to be knowledgeable.
You remember hip, where I know about what you don't and it's so much better than what you've been exposed to and as a result I'm so much better than YOU!
We all know these people... Tell them about something you just bought and they'll tell you about something better. Forget about being impolite, trampling what you've just purchased, they've got a desperate need to demonstrate their status, which is embroidered by their accoutrements. Even better, or worse, is that in many cases the people belittling what you've purchased, what you've experienced, have never ever utilized/listened to your purchase/preference, they've just got an innate need to feel superior.
And then came the Internet.
First and foremost, all information was available for everyone to see.
In other words, if someone tells you about their cousin who knows this or that...you can check it out, instantly! Especially in an era of LTE. You'd think this would eliminate old wives' tales or heresy, but the truth is many don't like facts/absolutes, they'd rather make up their own reality.
Like in the music business, where everything popular sucks.
Really?
Yup!
Now it'd be one thing if you listened to their choice and discovered it was demonstrably better, but this never happens anymore, because the truth is everything worth liking/listening to by most people gets traction.
But that's less stuff than ever.
Huh?
In a world of many, most gravitate to the few.
It's like selling shoes... Show the patron two and he'll buy one, show the patron five and he'll buy none, he's confused, and the truth is in the last few years we've all become confused, we're overloaded with an onslaught of information.
You'd think the self-styled experts, the faux hip, would acknowledge this, but instead they keep digging deeper into the ditch, removing themselves from the mainstream, all in an effort to demonstrate their superiority.
But the truth is hip is passe, today nothing lies in wait for eons waiting to be discovered. If it's any good, it blows up instantly.
That's if it's great, actually.
If it's good, it'll find a niche.
If it's not good, forget about it.
So the hip trumpet edgy and good, forgetting that to maintain, to grow, to dominate, it's got to be edgy and GREAT! We're open to anything if it's great, but there's very little great out there, and the hip denigrate the great, because usually all they've got is their self-anointed hipster status, and they can't bring themselves to acknowledge what everybody else thinks is great is.
Used to be we lived in a limited universe. Five thousand albums a year. Now we're deep into six figures, everybody's playing in music. But we've developed no new ears, no one to listen to all these tracks.
There used to be a filter, that's why there were only five thousand LPs. You needed someone to believe in you, because recording was expensive and distribution was a huge hurdle. Prior to iTunes, et al, getting your album in the store was almost an impossibility.
So, when the hipsters trumpeted their preferences...they truly weren't that obscure. Their favorites got written about in magazines, they got some airplay, there was context for their choices.
But now there's no context, because what the hip are into almost nobody else is. There are no walls for their message to echo off of.
In other words, if someone is telling you the obscure music they're listening to is better than the big hit you are, ignore them, everyone else is.
And especially ignore the wannabe musician with no traction who tells you what he does is better than what is a hit. Because today everybody gets a chance, everybody can play, and if what you're doing is great, you'll blow up.
Yup, it's true, if you're great, people will be lining up to give you money, not only labels, but promoters, they need acts to fill out the festival bills.
So if you're great you'll get mainstream promotion and then you'll hit and the hipsters will hate you, because you're not obscure anymore.
And then there are the hipster favorites, who sort of break through, like the Alabama Shakes, who've got a good sound but no hits. Do we blame the radio formats? Why don't the Shakes hunker down and release a smash... BECAUSE IT'S NOT IN THEM!
Maybe it is, we'll see, but it's been so long since they've released new music.
But they got ink in magazines that have to feature something, hell, every week they're trumpeting something new that's forgotten almost instantly, which is the bane of the major recording artist - they put it out, everybody shrugs their shoulders and moves on.
Except occasionally.
We've all got so much input, we've all got so many choices, what makes you think yours demands time from me?
That's what I hate about Pandora, that's what I hate about Songza, do you really want me to sit through mediocre, unappealing stuff?
The halls are narrowing, what makes it through is less in quantity, and as a result we've got a whole bunch of people left out who are bitching.
Do you hear the concert promoters bitching? They only book what can sell tickets. They're equating great with demand. They're today's kings, if you have a fan base, people should show up and buy tickets. But the truth is, most of what's hip sells very few tickets if it can sell any at all.
It's the data culture we live in. Music is soft, subjective. And as a result, those passionate about it like to exclude the objective, the data that illustrates some are winners and some are losers.
And the biggest losers of all are those who keep telling us hits are crap, what they listen to is better, and that they're much hipper than we are.
Hip, WHO CARES?
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You remember hip, where I know about what you don't and it's so much better than what you've been exposed to and as a result I'm so much better than YOU!
We all know these people... Tell them about something you just bought and they'll tell you about something better. Forget about being impolite, trampling what you've just purchased, they've got a desperate need to demonstrate their status, which is embroidered by their accoutrements. Even better, or worse, is that in many cases the people belittling what you've purchased, what you've experienced, have never ever utilized/listened to your purchase/preference, they've just got an innate need to feel superior.
And then came the Internet.
First and foremost, all information was available for everyone to see.
In other words, if someone tells you about their cousin who knows this or that...you can check it out, instantly! Especially in an era of LTE. You'd think this would eliminate old wives' tales or heresy, but the truth is many don't like facts/absolutes, they'd rather make up their own reality.
Like in the music business, where everything popular sucks.
Really?
Yup!
Now it'd be one thing if you listened to their choice and discovered it was demonstrably better, but this never happens anymore, because the truth is everything worth liking/listening to by most people gets traction.
But that's less stuff than ever.
Huh?
In a world of many, most gravitate to the few.
It's like selling shoes... Show the patron two and he'll buy one, show the patron five and he'll buy none, he's confused, and the truth is in the last few years we've all become confused, we're overloaded with an onslaught of information.
You'd think the self-styled experts, the faux hip, would acknowledge this, but instead they keep digging deeper into the ditch, removing themselves from the mainstream, all in an effort to demonstrate their superiority.
But the truth is hip is passe, today nothing lies in wait for eons waiting to be discovered. If it's any good, it blows up instantly.
That's if it's great, actually.
If it's good, it'll find a niche.
If it's not good, forget about it.
So the hip trumpet edgy and good, forgetting that to maintain, to grow, to dominate, it's got to be edgy and GREAT! We're open to anything if it's great, but there's very little great out there, and the hip denigrate the great, because usually all they've got is their self-anointed hipster status, and they can't bring themselves to acknowledge what everybody else thinks is great is.
Used to be we lived in a limited universe. Five thousand albums a year. Now we're deep into six figures, everybody's playing in music. But we've developed no new ears, no one to listen to all these tracks.
There used to be a filter, that's why there were only five thousand LPs. You needed someone to believe in you, because recording was expensive and distribution was a huge hurdle. Prior to iTunes, et al, getting your album in the store was almost an impossibility.
So, when the hipsters trumpeted their preferences...they truly weren't that obscure. Their favorites got written about in magazines, they got some airplay, there was context for their choices.
But now there's no context, because what the hip are into almost nobody else is. There are no walls for their message to echo off of.
In other words, if someone is telling you the obscure music they're listening to is better than the big hit you are, ignore them, everyone else is.
And especially ignore the wannabe musician with no traction who tells you what he does is better than what is a hit. Because today everybody gets a chance, everybody can play, and if what you're doing is great, you'll blow up.
Yup, it's true, if you're great, people will be lining up to give you money, not only labels, but promoters, they need acts to fill out the festival bills.
So if you're great you'll get mainstream promotion and then you'll hit and the hipsters will hate you, because you're not obscure anymore.
And then there are the hipster favorites, who sort of break through, like the Alabama Shakes, who've got a good sound but no hits. Do we blame the radio formats? Why don't the Shakes hunker down and release a smash... BECAUSE IT'S NOT IN THEM!
Maybe it is, we'll see, but it's been so long since they've released new music.
But they got ink in magazines that have to feature something, hell, every week they're trumpeting something new that's forgotten almost instantly, which is the bane of the major recording artist - they put it out, everybody shrugs their shoulders and moves on.
Except occasionally.
We've all got so much input, we've all got so many choices, what makes you think yours demands time from me?
That's what I hate about Pandora, that's what I hate about Songza, do you really want me to sit through mediocre, unappealing stuff?
The halls are narrowing, what makes it through is less in quantity, and as a result we've got a whole bunch of people left out who are bitching.
Do you hear the concert promoters bitching? They only book what can sell tickets. They're equating great with demand. They're today's kings, if you have a fan base, people should show up and buy tickets. But the truth is, most of what's hip sells very few tickets if it can sell any at all.
It's the data culture we live in. Music is soft, subjective. And as a result, those passionate about it like to exclude the objective, the data that illustrates some are winners and some are losers.
And the biggest losers of all are those who keep telling us hits are crap, what they listen to is better, and that they're much hipper than we are.
Hip, WHO CARES?
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Good Lookin' Girl
"Rockin' me, rockin' me, when you roll with me
Ain't no stoppin' me, stoppin' me
Gotta go with it baby
You're so damn fine and you're on my mind
I swear I'm about to lose it"
And this is just an extra, deep into Luke Bryan's latest spring break EP. It's so damn catchy I woke up with it on my brain, and ain't that the indicator of a hit, the same way I had to come home from school and put on the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour," but now I can take my music with me everywhere and ever since Stagecoach I've been on an irrepressible Luke Bryan kick and everything they say is true, there's too many tailgates and cliches, but the music is so professional and so hooky that it feels so good listening to it and ain't that what we're all looking for, something to ride shotgun, make us feel good as we navigate this roller coaster known as life?
This year's Spring Break EP starts with "She Get Me High," with a bass drum Jimmy Buffett never featured, a locked-in groove that's accented by an acoustic guitar, and just a bit of twang and if you're not taken right to the beach you've never been.
What I like most is the line about the Yeti.
"On top of my Yeti
On an old boat dock
Standin' in the river on an old flint rock
Clouds roll by
She get me high"
Huh? What's a YETI?
I listened to "She Get Me High" for weeks before I was finally forced to look up the lyrics, was he talking about an ancient Bigfoot or... Turns out it's a COOLER! That's right, they're called YETI!
A song entitled "She Get Me High" should be boring, a throwaway. And that's the great thing about "She Get Me High," it IS a throwaway, the way so much of what was on the White Album was, but just like the Beatles' second-rate stuff was much better than everybody else's so is Luke Bryan's.
No, don't send me hate mail, Luke Bryan is not the Beatles, he's of the moment, he's forgettable...BUT WHAT A MOMENT!
You can wear your black jeans, you can go to the club at midnight, believe you're better than everybody else as you listen to music most people can't fathom or...
You can join the masses and exult in joy!
You might feel inadequate, as all those people you want to nestle close to groove all around you, but isn't this the stuff of your dreams? Girls in cowboy boots and daisy dukes, guys with smiles? There's this belief that great music must be dark and barely penetrable, but that's hogwash, if Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow listened to this Spring Break EP they'd still be together.
And Gwyneth Paltrow is a good lookin' girl, but this is not the TMZ of songs, making us feel both inadequate and contemptuous as the famous and beautiful cavort, because the truth is every girl is good lookin' to somebody, you've just got to FIND THEM!
Yup, you think your hair is frizzy, you wish you didn't have only one dimple, but I guarantee you there's a guy who's infatuated with you, if you just let your freak flag fly and open your mind to them, if you just left the house and parade.
Music is all about how it makes you FEEL!
The notes don't have to be perfect, the recording doesn't have to be pristine, you've just got to be able to drop the proverbial needle, push play and be moved.
There's the powerful opening riff, what you used to hear on rock radio before it became Active and eliminated most of its audience, being so hard and impenetrable that most people tuned out.
There's that bass you can hear, dancing around at the bottom, keeping you bonded to the song.
And sure there's a banjo, deep in the mix. Not standing out there saying I'm faking country, but adding flavor.
And then there's that ORGAN! It's like Felix Cavaliere is sitting on the keys. Remember groovin' on a Sunday afternoon, well give "Good Lookin' Girl" a couple of spins and you too will be groovin', because that's what the track is all about, the groove.
And you can sit there and nitpick. You can sit there and intellectualize. You can stand by the side of the pool forever debating whether to take the plunge or...
You can dive in and have this music wash over you and feel refreshed and alive.
If you're too good for trucks, if you're all about runway fashion, if you're self-conscious about your image, you're too good for life.
And that's a shame.
"Good morning good lookin' girl
I ain't never felt nothing quite like..."
"Good Lookin' Girl" YouTube: http://bit.ly/1pRuy2y
"She Get Me High" YouTube: http://bit.ly/1hasaE6
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1has2oa
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Ain't no stoppin' me, stoppin' me
Gotta go with it baby
You're so damn fine and you're on my mind
I swear I'm about to lose it"
And this is just an extra, deep into Luke Bryan's latest spring break EP. It's so damn catchy I woke up with it on my brain, and ain't that the indicator of a hit, the same way I had to come home from school and put on the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour," but now I can take my music with me everywhere and ever since Stagecoach I've been on an irrepressible Luke Bryan kick and everything they say is true, there's too many tailgates and cliches, but the music is so professional and so hooky that it feels so good listening to it and ain't that what we're all looking for, something to ride shotgun, make us feel good as we navigate this roller coaster known as life?
This year's Spring Break EP starts with "She Get Me High," with a bass drum Jimmy Buffett never featured, a locked-in groove that's accented by an acoustic guitar, and just a bit of twang and if you're not taken right to the beach you've never been.
What I like most is the line about the Yeti.
"On top of my Yeti
On an old boat dock
Standin' in the river on an old flint rock
Clouds roll by
She get me high"
Huh? What's a YETI?
I listened to "She Get Me High" for weeks before I was finally forced to look up the lyrics, was he talking about an ancient Bigfoot or... Turns out it's a COOLER! That's right, they're called YETI!
A song entitled "She Get Me High" should be boring, a throwaway. And that's the great thing about "She Get Me High," it IS a throwaway, the way so much of what was on the White Album was, but just like the Beatles' second-rate stuff was much better than everybody else's so is Luke Bryan's.
No, don't send me hate mail, Luke Bryan is not the Beatles, he's of the moment, he's forgettable...BUT WHAT A MOMENT!
You can wear your black jeans, you can go to the club at midnight, believe you're better than everybody else as you listen to music most people can't fathom or...
You can join the masses and exult in joy!
You might feel inadequate, as all those people you want to nestle close to groove all around you, but isn't this the stuff of your dreams? Girls in cowboy boots and daisy dukes, guys with smiles? There's this belief that great music must be dark and barely penetrable, but that's hogwash, if Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow listened to this Spring Break EP they'd still be together.
And Gwyneth Paltrow is a good lookin' girl, but this is not the TMZ of songs, making us feel both inadequate and contemptuous as the famous and beautiful cavort, because the truth is every girl is good lookin' to somebody, you've just got to FIND THEM!
Yup, you think your hair is frizzy, you wish you didn't have only one dimple, but I guarantee you there's a guy who's infatuated with you, if you just let your freak flag fly and open your mind to them, if you just left the house and parade.
Music is all about how it makes you FEEL!
The notes don't have to be perfect, the recording doesn't have to be pristine, you've just got to be able to drop the proverbial needle, push play and be moved.
There's the powerful opening riff, what you used to hear on rock radio before it became Active and eliminated most of its audience, being so hard and impenetrable that most people tuned out.
There's that bass you can hear, dancing around at the bottom, keeping you bonded to the song.
And sure there's a banjo, deep in the mix. Not standing out there saying I'm faking country, but adding flavor.
And then there's that ORGAN! It's like Felix Cavaliere is sitting on the keys. Remember groovin' on a Sunday afternoon, well give "Good Lookin' Girl" a couple of spins and you too will be groovin', because that's what the track is all about, the groove.
And you can sit there and nitpick. You can sit there and intellectualize. You can stand by the side of the pool forever debating whether to take the plunge or...
You can dive in and have this music wash over you and feel refreshed and alive.
If you're too good for trucks, if you're all about runway fashion, if you're self-conscious about your image, you're too good for life.
And that's a shame.
"Good morning good lookin' girl
I ain't never felt nothing quite like..."
"Good Lookin' Girl" YouTube: http://bit.ly/1pRuy2y
"She Get Me High" YouTube: http://bit.ly/1hasaE6
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1has2oa
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Tuesday 3 June 2014
Extrapolation
I've got a Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone I've customized to the nth degree therefore everyone who utilizes Android is neither cheap nor stupid.
I'm rich, everybody I know is rich, therefore EVERYBODY must be rich!
The problem with today's society is people can only see through their own eyes. I think this happened when the Fairness Doctrine evaporated, cable news came to dominate and Reagan legitimized greed.
THERE YOU GO AGAIN BOBBY! REAGAN WAS OUR GREATEST PRESIDENT EVER!
People are afraid to speak up or run for office because of the plethora of uninformed blowhards who can't see beyond their own little fiefdoms.
I use vinyl, I like vinyl, the press writes about vinyl, therefore vinyl must be making a huge comeback, it's here to stay, it's gonna be bigger than ever.
Only statistics state otherwise, vinyl is 1% of the market... Actually less if you factor in streaming and theft and many other ways people acquire and listen to music.
But you can't say anything negative about vinyl, because the LP lovers will rain down upon your parade. You're screwing with their identities.
Yup, that's America... A melting pot where we all want nothing to change. Where we all want cell access but no cell towers. Where we don't want to sacrifice even a teeny bit for the greater good. Or we pay lip service to inanities.
Like signing at concerts.
Huh?
More power to you if you're deaf and going to the show, but I've got an insight for you, even the HEARING people can't understand the lyrics!
I'm not saying that we shouldn't have wheelchair ramps, but I am saying that America is bending so far over to avoid offending anybody that we've got mental gridlock.
Forget the blowhards in the media. They know what they're doing. They've got talking points, they want to move the ball. Yup, Fox and MSNBC are playing football, it's not about the news. Hell, even the WSJ, the right wing paper of record, got it right yesterday, stating that the Amazon/Hachette fracas is a direct result of an ignorant government that blew up the agency model all under the guise of benefiting the public.
In other words, if you're not willing to see the other person's viewpoint, you're not gonna know much.
But you've also got to know that your personal experience cannot necessarily be extrapolated to the world at large. And by being so easily offended that you've been lumped into a group you don't identify with, you're now part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Statistics tell us most people are not on KitKat, hell, most people don't even know what KitKat is, they think it's a candy bar. But there are advantages to having everybody on the same OS. Just because you're on KitKat, that does not mean everybody else is!
And just because Apple is rich and smug that does not make them right, nor a repository for hatred. Hell, you might have had an iRiver or some other fakokta MP3 player but the truth is almost everybody had an iPod. And if we can't agree on facts, we can't move forward as a society.
Sure, some people are going to lose in a move to socialized medicine, but the benefits will outweigh the losses. You won't have to pay for the indigent who go to the emergency room.
But no one wants to sacrifice in America anymore. They just want to complain.
Everybody's a self-styled expert, basing their opinions on little more than what they can see at the end of their nose.
So you've got politicians contradicting themselves, saying there's no global warming for the ignorant, but stating there is for the residents of Miami.
Everybody's playing a game, where they're trying to win.
And the truth is, most people vocalizing don't even know what the game is. These self-styled experts are being screwed by the string-pullers as they try to get ahead.
Spotify payments aren't big enough!
Then stop stealing and get all your fans to buy albums, better yet, get everybody to subscribe to Spotify Premium. But you don't want to take any personal responsibility, you'd just rather complain about the way things are.
And the truth is our country is being cleaved as you ignorantly pontificate about the irrelevant. The rich and connected control the government, the elite schools, the jobs and the money.
But you're arguing about smartphones.
Apple is important because it's building an ecosystem of tools that will make our lives better. Will the company succeed?
All their competitors are not as effective, because of a multiplicity of products that don't seamlessly work together.
Oh, that's right, YOU'VE got a solution!
But we don't care about you, we care about EVERYBODY!
And the truth is most people are sheep. There's a handful of early adopters. And if a product is good enough, and lucky enough, there will be a tipping point where the masses will follow the early adopters into a new world.
But everybody in the old world hates this. We must keep buying CDs and physical books and pay as much as we did before otherwise...
Otherwise WHAT?
Your life might be a bit different.
And the truth is, when it comes to technology, your life is probably better.
But you're still poor and powerless so you yell and kvetch and those who truly have any power ignore you.
That's right.
Everybody's ignoring you because you're myopic and disorganized.
Educate people, wake them up, build a mass, then you've got a chance to effect your preferred solution.
Instead, those in power love the disarray. The poor and disaffected can't get their house in order. They'd rather stay home, watch reality television and drink. That's how vapid their little lives are.
When the truth is those people changing the world barely sleep, and make a lot of money, and move mountains.
And everybody else HATES them for it!
So which way do you want to have it, who do you want to be? Someone who effects change or someone who carps? Someone who can see the big picture or someone who can only see their own environment?
One person can change the world. Through insight and will.
But we have an educational system that decries insight. That's what they teach at those elite institutions, the ability to hold two contrasting opinions in your brain at the same time.
Like I love Android, but most people who use Android have cheap phones and don't utilize most of its power.
Like I love vinyl, but it's a niche product, like Civil War re-enactment, and it will never go mainstream, its heyday is done.
Like I have my own personal preferences and beliefs, but if I want to effect change, I've got to do something that affects everyone.
So we've got country artists bitching that the hits are all about tailgates, rims and booze.
THEY ARE!
But the truth is these hits are catchy and the Americana dreck has got great lyrics and not so catchy tunes. Write a catchy tune that says something and we'll all be interested.
But you won't. Because you think your music is good enough. And everybody YOU KNOW hates the hit music and loves Americana.
And there we've got the problem right there. Unless you're willing to wade into the mainstream and do what they do better, you're never gonna win.
But you don't really want to win, you really want to BITCH!
P.S. Just because the winners work hard and make money that makes them neither right nor admirable, but you must admit they're smart. Unfortunately, smart is oftentimes a product of education, and the rich and entitled have an ever tightening grip on that. It's hard to pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you're disadvantaged, I believe you should be given help, but at the end of the day you've got to take action as an individual.
P.P.S. Stop being proud to be poor. I'm not saying poor is admirable, I've lived on nothing, it's heartbreaking and you never really recover. But my point is don't keep telling everybody how you can't afford this, or it would be nice to have that. The truth is you've got some money, and your choices are different, or you're a saver. In other words, you're lying about being disadvantaged. But the rich don't do this. They're proud of what they achieve. In other words, if you went to a good school and pay your bills and drive a ten year old car that does not make you BETTER than those with more money, and conversely, those with more are not better than you. I'm not impressed by you turning your pockets inside out.
P.P.P.S. If you truly are poor, you're probably not reading this, you most likely don't have internet access. Poverty is a stigma and a hard hole to lift yourself out of. But if you dropped out of community college and do manual labor and dream of being a singer that's a choice, not a sentence, and you're sacrificing for your dream just like any entrepreneur. You choose this life, you choose the long odds, you could have played it safe and you didn't. If the end result is you live on nothing...THAT'S YOUR CHOICE!
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I'm rich, everybody I know is rich, therefore EVERYBODY must be rich!
The problem with today's society is people can only see through their own eyes. I think this happened when the Fairness Doctrine evaporated, cable news came to dominate and Reagan legitimized greed.
THERE YOU GO AGAIN BOBBY! REAGAN WAS OUR GREATEST PRESIDENT EVER!
People are afraid to speak up or run for office because of the plethora of uninformed blowhards who can't see beyond their own little fiefdoms.
I use vinyl, I like vinyl, the press writes about vinyl, therefore vinyl must be making a huge comeback, it's here to stay, it's gonna be bigger than ever.
Only statistics state otherwise, vinyl is 1% of the market... Actually less if you factor in streaming and theft and many other ways people acquire and listen to music.
But you can't say anything negative about vinyl, because the LP lovers will rain down upon your parade. You're screwing with their identities.
Yup, that's America... A melting pot where we all want nothing to change. Where we all want cell access but no cell towers. Where we don't want to sacrifice even a teeny bit for the greater good. Or we pay lip service to inanities.
Like signing at concerts.
Huh?
More power to you if you're deaf and going to the show, but I've got an insight for you, even the HEARING people can't understand the lyrics!
I'm not saying that we shouldn't have wheelchair ramps, but I am saying that America is bending so far over to avoid offending anybody that we've got mental gridlock.
Forget the blowhards in the media. They know what they're doing. They've got talking points, they want to move the ball. Yup, Fox and MSNBC are playing football, it's not about the news. Hell, even the WSJ, the right wing paper of record, got it right yesterday, stating that the Amazon/Hachette fracas is a direct result of an ignorant government that blew up the agency model all under the guise of benefiting the public.
In other words, if you're not willing to see the other person's viewpoint, you're not gonna know much.
But you've also got to know that your personal experience cannot necessarily be extrapolated to the world at large. And by being so easily offended that you've been lumped into a group you don't identify with, you're now part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Statistics tell us most people are not on KitKat, hell, most people don't even know what KitKat is, they think it's a candy bar. But there are advantages to having everybody on the same OS. Just because you're on KitKat, that does not mean everybody else is!
And just because Apple is rich and smug that does not make them right, nor a repository for hatred. Hell, you might have had an iRiver or some other fakokta MP3 player but the truth is almost everybody had an iPod. And if we can't agree on facts, we can't move forward as a society.
Sure, some people are going to lose in a move to socialized medicine, but the benefits will outweigh the losses. You won't have to pay for the indigent who go to the emergency room.
But no one wants to sacrifice in America anymore. They just want to complain.
Everybody's a self-styled expert, basing their opinions on little more than what they can see at the end of their nose.
So you've got politicians contradicting themselves, saying there's no global warming for the ignorant, but stating there is for the residents of Miami.
Everybody's playing a game, where they're trying to win.
And the truth is, most people vocalizing don't even know what the game is. These self-styled experts are being screwed by the string-pullers as they try to get ahead.
Spotify payments aren't big enough!
Then stop stealing and get all your fans to buy albums, better yet, get everybody to subscribe to Spotify Premium. But you don't want to take any personal responsibility, you'd just rather complain about the way things are.
And the truth is our country is being cleaved as you ignorantly pontificate about the irrelevant. The rich and connected control the government, the elite schools, the jobs and the money.
But you're arguing about smartphones.
Apple is important because it's building an ecosystem of tools that will make our lives better. Will the company succeed?
All their competitors are not as effective, because of a multiplicity of products that don't seamlessly work together.
Oh, that's right, YOU'VE got a solution!
But we don't care about you, we care about EVERYBODY!
And the truth is most people are sheep. There's a handful of early adopters. And if a product is good enough, and lucky enough, there will be a tipping point where the masses will follow the early adopters into a new world.
But everybody in the old world hates this. We must keep buying CDs and physical books and pay as much as we did before otherwise...
Otherwise WHAT?
Your life might be a bit different.
And the truth is, when it comes to technology, your life is probably better.
But you're still poor and powerless so you yell and kvetch and those who truly have any power ignore you.
That's right.
Everybody's ignoring you because you're myopic and disorganized.
Educate people, wake them up, build a mass, then you've got a chance to effect your preferred solution.
Instead, those in power love the disarray. The poor and disaffected can't get their house in order. They'd rather stay home, watch reality television and drink. That's how vapid their little lives are.
When the truth is those people changing the world barely sleep, and make a lot of money, and move mountains.
And everybody else HATES them for it!
So which way do you want to have it, who do you want to be? Someone who effects change or someone who carps? Someone who can see the big picture or someone who can only see their own environment?
One person can change the world. Through insight and will.
But we have an educational system that decries insight. That's what they teach at those elite institutions, the ability to hold two contrasting opinions in your brain at the same time.
Like I love Android, but most people who use Android have cheap phones and don't utilize most of its power.
Like I love vinyl, but it's a niche product, like Civil War re-enactment, and it will never go mainstream, its heyday is done.
Like I have my own personal preferences and beliefs, but if I want to effect change, I've got to do something that affects everyone.
So we've got country artists bitching that the hits are all about tailgates, rims and booze.
THEY ARE!
But the truth is these hits are catchy and the Americana dreck has got great lyrics and not so catchy tunes. Write a catchy tune that says something and we'll all be interested.
But you won't. Because you think your music is good enough. And everybody YOU KNOW hates the hit music and loves Americana.
And there we've got the problem right there. Unless you're willing to wade into the mainstream and do what they do better, you're never gonna win.
But you don't really want to win, you really want to BITCH!
P.S. Just because the winners work hard and make money that makes them neither right nor admirable, but you must admit they're smart. Unfortunately, smart is oftentimes a product of education, and the rich and entitled have an ever tightening grip on that. It's hard to pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you're disadvantaged, I believe you should be given help, but at the end of the day you've got to take action as an individual.
P.P.S. Stop being proud to be poor. I'm not saying poor is admirable, I've lived on nothing, it's heartbreaking and you never really recover. But my point is don't keep telling everybody how you can't afford this, or it would be nice to have that. The truth is you've got some money, and your choices are different, or you're a saver. In other words, you're lying about being disadvantaged. But the rich don't do this. They're proud of what they achieve. In other words, if you went to a good school and pay your bills and drive a ten year old car that does not make you BETTER than those with more money, and conversely, those with more are not better than you. I'm not impressed by you turning your pockets inside out.
P.P.P.S. If you truly are poor, you're probably not reading this, you most likely don't have internet access. Poverty is a stigma and a hard hole to lift yourself out of. But if you dropped out of community college and do manual labor and dream of being a singer that's a choice, not a sentence, and you're sacrificing for your dream just like any entrepreneur. You choose this life, you choose the long odds, you could have played it safe and you didn't. If the end result is you live on nothing...THAT'S YOUR CHOICE!
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WWDC
http://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2014/
People are cheap and stupid.
Apple is expensive and smart.
And the press and the analysts are not too smart either. The former looks for the hook, the latter only looks for the money.
And what Apple featured yesterday was software.
Huh?
A baby boomer covets a car.
A teen only needs transportation.
A baby boomer needs to own.
A teen only needs access.
And there you have today's society, a huge schism wherein the baby boomer and Gen-X controlled media says one thing, and the younger generation ignores them and does another.
In other words, are we smart enough to subjugate hardware to software?
If you read analysis of yesterday's Worldwide Developers presentation, what you will learn is that Apple did not introduce a new device. As if the iPhone 5s wasn't good enough, as if people were complaining their Macs and iPads were too slow. Have we reached the end of hardware breakthroughs?
What made Apple the company it is today is hardware.
First the iMac.
Then the iPod.
Then the iPhone and iPad.
Items so cool you had to buy them, but only learned after the fact their possibilities.
Yesterday, Apple stoked the fire of said possibilities, but you don't need new hardware to take advantage, unless you're not part of the Apple ecosystem to begin with.
Let's start with hand-sets, since they're what drives revenue today, they're what people all over the world are using to compute.
It's an Android world, because Apple is too expensive.
So, if you've got an Android device everything said at WWDC was meaningless to you, other than the fact that many of you are utilizing a four year old operating system whereas 87% of iOS users are on the latest iteration.
And therefore, you don't have functionality.
But you don't care!
How do you make people care?
This is Tim Cook's challenge, this is where he's failed so far. He keeps telling us how great Apple is, but he doesn't know how to convince the people who are not paying attention, the cheap ones, the dumb ones.
People became Apple lovers because of the seamless integration and functionality of the iPod. They had no idea of the functionality of the iPhone, they just wanted one. Who doesn't have Apple gear who needs it now?
Hmm...
Let's stay in America. Where the dumb believe the free hand-set is actually free, not realizing they're paying for it every month on their bill. They won't pay $200 for a new iPhone, never gonna do it. Makes no sense, but that's how they live.
Kind of like the cheap PC people with the horrible screens and the slow processors. They don't want to spend $500 more for a Mac...
IT'S TIM COOK'S JOB TO CONVINCE THEM TO DO SO!
And nothing in this exquisite presentation will accomplish that.
Cook has learned to stay in the background, it was Craig Federighi all the time, and Craig is quite good.
Steve Jobs is fading into the distance, new owners have taken over the company.
But they lack Steve's overall vision. Steve created a breakthrough product known as the NeXT computer which stiffed, he realized he needed to be with Apple to succeed. Everybody at Apple today has only known success, they don't know what failure looks like, they haven't been wizened, they're like the scions of the rich who blow their inheritance.
In other words, there's no guiding light.
Could Jimmy Iovine be this?
Possibly. Because Jimmy knows it's about excitement, about getting people to buy in. You've got to have something to sell, a record, some headphones, because software is a hard sell, especially when everybody else's device is cheaper, no matter how inferior.
You'll read b.s. how yesterday's presentation was a shot at Google. That's not true, but the point is it certainly wasn't an enticement to the public, which keeps these companies alive. It'd be like a record company talking about better recording techniques and better distribution, WHERE'S THE MUSIC?
At some point in the future, everyone will realize it's about software, not hardware. And at that point breakthrough software will be enough for a company to triumph, hell, what else are Facebook and Twitter but software?
But as good as Apple's health and home software is, it's not enough to titillate customers, not enough for them to pony up the extra $200 for an iPhone, the extra $500 for a Mac.
They need someone who can bridge that gap.
They need someone who knows that gap exists...
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People are cheap and stupid.
Apple is expensive and smart.
And the press and the analysts are not too smart either. The former looks for the hook, the latter only looks for the money.
And what Apple featured yesterday was software.
Huh?
A baby boomer covets a car.
A teen only needs transportation.
A baby boomer needs to own.
A teen only needs access.
And there you have today's society, a huge schism wherein the baby boomer and Gen-X controlled media says one thing, and the younger generation ignores them and does another.
In other words, are we smart enough to subjugate hardware to software?
If you read analysis of yesterday's Worldwide Developers presentation, what you will learn is that Apple did not introduce a new device. As if the iPhone 5s wasn't good enough, as if people were complaining their Macs and iPads were too slow. Have we reached the end of hardware breakthroughs?
What made Apple the company it is today is hardware.
First the iMac.
Then the iPod.
Then the iPhone and iPad.
Items so cool you had to buy them, but only learned after the fact their possibilities.
Yesterday, Apple stoked the fire of said possibilities, but you don't need new hardware to take advantage, unless you're not part of the Apple ecosystem to begin with.
Let's start with hand-sets, since they're what drives revenue today, they're what people all over the world are using to compute.
It's an Android world, because Apple is too expensive.
So, if you've got an Android device everything said at WWDC was meaningless to you, other than the fact that many of you are utilizing a four year old operating system whereas 87% of iOS users are on the latest iteration.
And therefore, you don't have functionality.
But you don't care!
How do you make people care?
This is Tim Cook's challenge, this is where he's failed so far. He keeps telling us how great Apple is, but he doesn't know how to convince the people who are not paying attention, the cheap ones, the dumb ones.
People became Apple lovers because of the seamless integration and functionality of the iPod. They had no idea of the functionality of the iPhone, they just wanted one. Who doesn't have Apple gear who needs it now?
Hmm...
Let's stay in America. Where the dumb believe the free hand-set is actually free, not realizing they're paying for it every month on their bill. They won't pay $200 for a new iPhone, never gonna do it. Makes no sense, but that's how they live.
Kind of like the cheap PC people with the horrible screens and the slow processors. They don't want to spend $500 more for a Mac...
IT'S TIM COOK'S JOB TO CONVINCE THEM TO DO SO!
And nothing in this exquisite presentation will accomplish that.
Cook has learned to stay in the background, it was Craig Federighi all the time, and Craig is quite good.
Steve Jobs is fading into the distance, new owners have taken over the company.
But they lack Steve's overall vision. Steve created a breakthrough product known as the NeXT computer which stiffed, he realized he needed to be with Apple to succeed. Everybody at Apple today has only known success, they don't know what failure looks like, they haven't been wizened, they're like the scions of the rich who blow their inheritance.
In other words, there's no guiding light.
Could Jimmy Iovine be this?
Possibly. Because Jimmy knows it's about excitement, about getting people to buy in. You've got to have something to sell, a record, some headphones, because software is a hard sell, especially when everybody else's device is cheaper, no matter how inferior.
You'll read b.s. how yesterday's presentation was a shot at Google. That's not true, but the point is it certainly wasn't an enticement to the public, which keeps these companies alive. It'd be like a record company talking about better recording techniques and better distribution, WHERE'S THE MUSIC?
At some point in the future, everyone will realize it's about software, not hardware. And at that point breakthrough software will be enough for a company to triumph, hell, what else are Facebook and Twitter but software?
But as good as Apple's health and home software is, it's not enough to titillate customers, not enough for them to pony up the extra $200 for an iPhone, the extra $500 for a Mac.
They need someone who can bridge that gap.
They need someone who knows that gap exists...
--
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--
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Monday 2 June 2014
E-Mail Of The Day+
From: Jim Steinman
Subject: Jimmy Iovine
I knew that Jimmy stole two big names for new bands from me, but I had forgotten one! Here it is! His first INTERSCOPE albums were a band called BAD FOR GOOD (my solo album) and NEVERLAND (my show from the 70's). He blatantly "ripped me off". But, revealingly, I was never bitter, even a bit "flattered". That's "Jimmy to a T"! He WAS Shelly Yakus' assistant, but was on the phone for 95% of all the sessions. Still remained that way for decades!
Favorite moments: "Steinman, you're obsessed with creating art! I'm obsessed with BUYING art!"
On Pat Benatar's LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD video, at 3 AM, when we'd talk almost daily: "Steinman, quick turn on MTV! Pat Benatar's trying to dance! She can't even stand still in time."
I gotta million of those! On You Tube, if you find my acceptance speech that I taped for winning the SONG OF THE YEAR for "IT'S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW". I told my favorite Iovine story, even imitating him a lot! It's the "kid in Wisconsin story" and it was "profound" to me, for different reasons than what Jimmy said.
He started turning a console dial quickly left to right and back over and over again! I asked him why, & Jimmy said "That's just a gimmick thing I do on every song, just to trip out that kid in Wisconsin listening on headphones." To me that gimmick became profound because I was thrilled that I was involved in something that could be heard by millions on TV and radio, but ALSO could be so intimate as to "envelop" a kid in Wisconsin, listening on headphones in bed, one of the most intimate situations possible! But theatre has always been my greatest love, because, beyond all else, it was the ONE ART FORM where the "files" couldn't be pirated or stolen! AND STILL CAN'T!
Jim Steinman
(BTW, two of my greatest thrills concern death: HEAVEN CAN WAIT from BAT OUT OF HELL played at Steve's funeral; and Stanley Snadowsky, founder of THE BOTTOM LINE, died listening to BAT. Tragic, of course, but thrilling too.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRt6hkRXoFw (my BMI speech)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf3fJCZg9w8 (the ASSASINS' SONG
from NEVERLAND 1977)
_________________________________________
From: Dean Torrence
Subject: Jan Berry
OMG, as usual you nailed it!
I was out of town last week so I didn't get to see any of this until this weekend
Reading your words gave me goose bumps and usually its a really really good record that does that
not the written word
I will send you something tomorrow that is all about Jan and a bunch of people that want the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to Honor Jan!
Anyway, got some catching up to do, so I need to sign off
Stuff coming your way tomorrow
_________________________________________
From: chris stein
Subject: Summer Means Fun
Jan & Dean's cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiuXDV6Jii8
Bruce and Terry╒s (Terry Melcher and Bruce Johnston) original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAl8hzl8GBI
this song was the direct inspiration for the old Blondie track ╥In The Sun╙
the minor chord in the verse being the odd hook, to me anyway╔
keep kicking
Chris
_________________________________________
From: jerry seltz
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Jan & Dean Primer
from the Jack Benny radio show, the running gag was the announcer at the train station: Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucaaaaamonga.
Jerry Seltzer
_________________________________________
From: Stillneed Dadayjob
Subject: grammy goof
Bob,
I know you have a low opinion of the grammys people, and as a grammys person, I couldn't agree more. ╩
Here's an anecdote that illustrates the creative bankruptcy:
You know they only give out 10 awards on the show, and that the other 70 something are giving out in a pre telecast ceremony, right? ╩Well the grammys people couldn't figure out a name for that pre telecast ceremony (after taking more than a year thinking), so the marketing geniuses spent a quarter million dollars on a naming company to come up with this clunker, which will be revealed at the big may trustees meeting:╩
"Grammy Premiere Ceremony."
Doesn't make sense, and the staff is mortified by it. ╩But it has "pre" in it and better yet, the decision makers can point to all the money they spent on the name, so it must be worthwhile.
If I could quit, I would, and would send this from a real address. ╩But at least I can bitch anonymously.╩
Peace,
J
_________________________________________
From: Wallace Collins
What if being talented & following your dream, your muse, leads to a life of near-poverty & reliance upon others - & never leads to success.
Went to see my old bandmate/songwriting partner, crazy pete doing his solo gig in a dive bar a/c the tappanzee last nite (there but for the grace of...).
Amazing music maker/singer/guitar player, & funny as hell patter between songs.. Such a waste of an amazing creative talent (now in his mid-50s, twice-divorced, & was living in his parents' basement until he ╩again found a woman w/ a job to support him)...
Just a lifestyle I foresaw, feared & avoided.
_________________________________________
Subject: Re: Music Problems
Please don't print my name.
If people are complaining, they're whiners, and lazy. ╩Especially in Nashville where it's fashionable to wait for something to happen, for someone else to bequeath you with riches and success. ╩
One of my acts will triple touring gross and triple album sales from zip code data extracted from Internet radio and digital track sales. ╩
If you're complaining, you're not hustling. ╩
- no name
_________________________________________
From: Kia Kamran, Esq
Subject: RE: Stop Breaking Rules
Please can I add to the list:
1) Don't have your "assistant" call me, and then GET YOU to get on the phone after I pick up ("hi let me get ____ for you") unless you have no arms and he/she needs to hold your phone to your f...ing ear, or your name is preceded by "Justice" or "Secretary of" (with a .Gov at the end of your email). ╩This especially applies to you "entertainment biz" douches whose assistants are not even on payroll but are unpaid interns that don╒t know any better than to work for you and your shi..y 'entertainment GROUP'. ╩Make your own goddam calls; you ain't that important or busy.
2) For f...╒s sake, have your goddam contact info at the bottom of all of your emails (even replies), especially if you write me some incoherent babble worded as if texted by a teenage schoolgirl (sh...y abbreviations, INexpliCabLe CaPS, no salutation, no sign off, etc. . . ), and you're requiring me to preface my response by correcting the wholly erroneous premise of your question that made us all slightly stupider. ╩Don't send me to look for your number elsewhere, GIVE IT TO MEEEEEEE.
3) If you╒re going to FAX me, first go knee yourself in the dick for still using a Fax machine in 2014, and please for the sake of Moses Ben Shoolkan Israel Shell Malkhoot Binbartam, don't motherf...ing call me to warn me first. ╩My faxes come to my EMAIL automatically; I don't need to drop everything and go turn some handle continuously on some wooden box to receive your sh...y fax in real time, or plug some wire into some hole and hold a speaker to my ear and go "klondike 542 come in" or some s... from a black-and-white movie. ╩Motherf...er just send the s.... DAMN.
4) Likewise, if you've ever called me just to CONFIRM I've received your aforementioned FAX (or email), please just punch yourself in the jugular repeatedly until you get trans-vaginal mesothelioma or some other horrid condition those sh..bag lawyers advertise on TV and s..t. ╩We're not playing badminton motherf...er, I don't need to stand there anticipating your shuttlecock. ╩That╒s right, I love using that word; f... you, Shuttlecock!
'nuff respect as always Lefsetz. ╩
Best,
Kia
_________________________________________
From: Wim Reijnen
Subject: RE: Stop Breaking Rules
Put all your questions in one mssg/mail. Don't continue to ask questions you can find by using Google.
To all reps of aspiring artists: stop sending out mssgs to play abroad if you don't even have let's say 1,000,000 plays on Youtube, 100,000 likes on Facebook or a few thousand followers on Twitter and play bars in your hometown.
How do you think we could sell tickets on the other side of the world when no one here knows you yet?
Just my 2 cents.
_________________________________________
From: Mitch Weissman
Subject: Re: Pat Monahan To Front Led Zeppelin
I hope Jimmy is listening, Bob. ╩I almost had he and Billy Squier unite for a record in the 80's. Jimmy and I were chatting in NY's China Club under the Beacon Theater in '89. ╩We had become friendly of late. ╩While discussing his next move, I commented on how "Wasting My Time" from Outrider reminded me of "Everybody Wants You," to which Jimmy said "That's what I based it on. ╩I love that song!"
So, I said "Let me call Billy." ╩We both lived in the area. We were very good friends and sometime collaborators. So I called him and said "Jimmy wants to talk to you." So over he comes, they sit and talk, and I leave them alone. ╩When I returned to the table an album project had been decided upon. ╩And we all enjoyed the rest of the evening together.
So what happens? ╩John Kalodner (Geffen) gets wind of the idea and promptly packages the 2 label mates together, resulting in a record that made Robert Plant bristle. ╩Coverdale/Page, a really great "Led Zeppelin" album.
Can only wonder what the Squier/Page that might have been.
Best,
Mitch
_________________________________________
From: Sheila Stuewe
Subject: RE: The Fat Girl Episode
"But utilize your wiles and you can get any man you want.
Just by being truthful, honest and open.
Those are the keys to our heart.
And after our heart comes our body."
What perfect world do you live in?
I am a funny, successful, honest to the core, overweight woman. I have many male friends who adore me. ╩But, going on a really date, well that's tough. My boss even reminded me the other day that statistically it is more likely that I will be a victim of a terrorist attack than I will be able to find a man that will marry me. What boss says that to a skinning girl?
It takes a lot of work as a fat woman to get a man to look at you...to look beyond the X that follows the dress size...to look farther than the one piece bathing suit...to look into your irrepressible sense of humor, your zest for riding roller coasters screaming and laughing as your drop a hundred feet traveling 120 miles per hour, your successful career, to see your home that is filled with photos of those that love you, to walk through your garden that is filled with imperfect flowers at various stages of blooming, to stand next to you and experience your love of music and going to concerts where you feel the edge of Tom Petty's spotlight on the rim of your wide smiling face.
Maybe that's why I go to concerts and sit up front. Old rockers -- those that are nice men -- like Tom and the Heartbreakers. They don't look at my dress size, instead they see that I know every word to almost every song they have ever written. ╩For two hours they see my smile, my bouncing on the balls of my feet. They hear me harmonize on the chorus of "Learning to Fly." They smile back at me. They reach down and hand me a pick, saying with that gesture that they appreciate you.
And for now I have so much else in my life (family, friends, career, published essays) that exudes love, that I don't need to be searching for more. This leads me to conclude that to avoid risking the averted eyes, the excuses from a pot-bellied middle age men with the vanishing remains of a full head of hair is the only ╩thing to do.
Sheila Grace Stuewe
A fat woman that is so much more than what meets the eye
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
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--
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Subject: Jimmy Iovine
I knew that Jimmy stole two big names for new bands from me, but I had forgotten one! Here it is! His first INTERSCOPE albums were a band called BAD FOR GOOD (my solo album) and NEVERLAND (my show from the 70's). He blatantly "ripped me off". But, revealingly, I was never bitter, even a bit "flattered". That's "Jimmy to a T"! He WAS Shelly Yakus' assistant, but was on the phone for 95% of all the sessions. Still remained that way for decades!
Favorite moments: "Steinman, you're obsessed with creating art! I'm obsessed with BUYING art!"
On Pat Benatar's LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD video, at 3 AM, when we'd talk almost daily: "Steinman, quick turn on MTV! Pat Benatar's trying to dance! She can't even stand still in time."
I gotta million of those! On You Tube, if you find my acceptance speech that I taped for winning the SONG OF THE YEAR for "IT'S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW". I told my favorite Iovine story, even imitating him a lot! It's the "kid in Wisconsin story" and it was "profound" to me, for different reasons than what Jimmy said.
He started turning a console dial quickly left to right and back over and over again! I asked him why, & Jimmy said "That's just a gimmick thing I do on every song, just to trip out that kid in Wisconsin listening on headphones." To me that gimmick became profound because I was thrilled that I was involved in something that could be heard by millions on TV and radio, but ALSO could be so intimate as to "envelop" a kid in Wisconsin, listening on headphones in bed, one of the most intimate situations possible! But theatre has always been my greatest love, because, beyond all else, it was the ONE ART FORM where the "files" couldn't be pirated or stolen! AND STILL CAN'T!
Jim Steinman
(BTW, two of my greatest thrills concern death: HEAVEN CAN WAIT from BAT OUT OF HELL played at Steve's funeral; and Stanley Snadowsky, founder of THE BOTTOM LINE, died listening to BAT. Tragic, of course, but thrilling too.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRt6hkRXoFw (my BMI speech)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf3fJCZg9w8 (the ASSASINS' SONG
from NEVERLAND 1977)
_________________________________________
From: Dean Torrence
Subject: Jan Berry
OMG, as usual you nailed it!
I was out of town last week so I didn't get to see any of this until this weekend
Reading your words gave me goose bumps and usually its a really really good record that does that
not the written word
I will send you something tomorrow that is all about Jan and a bunch of people that want the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to Honor Jan!
Anyway, got some catching up to do, so I need to sign off
Stuff coming your way tomorrow
_________________________________________
From: chris stein
Subject: Summer Means Fun
Jan & Dean's cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiuXDV6Jii8
Bruce and Terry╒s (Terry Melcher and Bruce Johnston) original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAl8hzl8GBI
this song was the direct inspiration for the old Blondie track ╥In The Sun╙
the minor chord in the verse being the odd hook, to me anyway╔
keep kicking
Chris
_________________________________________
From: jerry seltz
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Jan & Dean Primer
from the Jack Benny radio show, the running gag was the announcer at the train station: Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucaaaaamonga.
Jerry Seltzer
_________________________________________
From: Stillneed Dadayjob
Subject: grammy goof
Bob,
I know you have a low opinion of the grammys people, and as a grammys person, I couldn't agree more. ╩
Here's an anecdote that illustrates the creative bankruptcy:
You know they only give out 10 awards on the show, and that the other 70 something are giving out in a pre telecast ceremony, right? ╩Well the grammys people couldn't figure out a name for that pre telecast ceremony (after taking more than a year thinking), so the marketing geniuses spent a quarter million dollars on a naming company to come up with this clunker, which will be revealed at the big may trustees meeting:╩
"Grammy Premiere Ceremony."
Doesn't make sense, and the staff is mortified by it. ╩But it has "pre" in it and better yet, the decision makers can point to all the money they spent on the name, so it must be worthwhile.
If I could quit, I would, and would send this from a real address. ╩But at least I can bitch anonymously.╩
Peace,
J
_________________________________________
From: Wallace Collins
What if being talented & following your dream, your muse, leads to a life of near-poverty & reliance upon others - & never leads to success.
Went to see my old bandmate/songwriting partner, crazy pete doing his solo gig in a dive bar a/c the tappanzee last nite (there but for the grace of...).
Amazing music maker/singer/guitar player, & funny as hell patter between songs.. Such a waste of an amazing creative talent (now in his mid-50s, twice-divorced, & was living in his parents' basement until he ╩again found a woman w/ a job to support him)...
Just a lifestyle I foresaw, feared & avoided.
_________________________________________
Subject: Re: Music Problems
Please don't print my name.
If people are complaining, they're whiners, and lazy. ╩Especially in Nashville where it's fashionable to wait for something to happen, for someone else to bequeath you with riches and success. ╩
One of my acts will triple touring gross and triple album sales from zip code data extracted from Internet radio and digital track sales. ╩
If you're complaining, you're not hustling. ╩
- no name
_________________________________________
From: Kia Kamran, Esq
Subject: RE: Stop Breaking Rules
Please can I add to the list:
1) Don't have your "assistant" call me, and then GET YOU to get on the phone after I pick up ("hi let me get ____ for you") unless you have no arms and he/she needs to hold your phone to your f...ing ear, or your name is preceded by "Justice" or "Secretary of" (with a .Gov at the end of your email). ╩This especially applies to you "entertainment biz" douches whose assistants are not even on payroll but are unpaid interns that don╒t know any better than to work for you and your shi..y 'entertainment GROUP'. ╩Make your own goddam calls; you ain't that important or busy.
2) For f...╒s sake, have your goddam contact info at the bottom of all of your emails (even replies), especially if you write me some incoherent babble worded as if texted by a teenage schoolgirl (sh...y abbreviations, INexpliCabLe CaPS, no salutation, no sign off, etc. . . ), and you're requiring me to preface my response by correcting the wholly erroneous premise of your question that made us all slightly stupider. ╩Don't send me to look for your number elsewhere, GIVE IT TO MEEEEEEE.
3) If you╒re going to FAX me, first go knee yourself in the dick for still using a Fax machine in 2014, and please for the sake of Moses Ben Shoolkan Israel Shell Malkhoot Binbartam, don't motherf...ing call me to warn me first. ╩My faxes come to my EMAIL automatically; I don't need to drop everything and go turn some handle continuously on some wooden box to receive your sh...y fax in real time, or plug some wire into some hole and hold a speaker to my ear and go "klondike 542 come in" or some s... from a black-and-white movie. ╩Motherf...er just send the s.... DAMN.
4) Likewise, if you've ever called me just to CONFIRM I've received your aforementioned FAX (or email), please just punch yourself in the jugular repeatedly until you get trans-vaginal mesothelioma or some other horrid condition those sh..bag lawyers advertise on TV and s..t. ╩We're not playing badminton motherf...er, I don't need to stand there anticipating your shuttlecock. ╩That╒s right, I love using that word; f... you, Shuttlecock!
'nuff respect as always Lefsetz. ╩
Best,
Kia
_________________________________________
From: Wim Reijnen
Subject: RE: Stop Breaking Rules
Put all your questions in one mssg/mail. Don't continue to ask questions you can find by using Google.
To all reps of aspiring artists: stop sending out mssgs to play abroad if you don't even have let's say 1,000,000 plays on Youtube, 100,000 likes on Facebook or a few thousand followers on Twitter and play bars in your hometown.
How do you think we could sell tickets on the other side of the world when no one here knows you yet?
Just my 2 cents.
_________________________________________
From: Mitch Weissman
Subject: Re: Pat Monahan To Front Led Zeppelin
I hope Jimmy is listening, Bob. ╩I almost had he and Billy Squier unite for a record in the 80's. Jimmy and I were chatting in NY's China Club under the Beacon Theater in '89. ╩We had become friendly of late. ╩While discussing his next move, I commented on how "Wasting My Time" from Outrider reminded me of "Everybody Wants You," to which Jimmy said "That's what I based it on. ╩I love that song!"
So, I said "Let me call Billy." ╩We both lived in the area. We were very good friends and sometime collaborators. So I called him and said "Jimmy wants to talk to you." So over he comes, they sit and talk, and I leave them alone. ╩When I returned to the table an album project had been decided upon. ╩And we all enjoyed the rest of the evening together.
So what happens? ╩John Kalodner (Geffen) gets wind of the idea and promptly packages the 2 label mates together, resulting in a record that made Robert Plant bristle. ╩Coverdale/Page, a really great "Led Zeppelin" album.
Can only wonder what the Squier/Page that might have been.
Best,
Mitch
_________________________________________
From: Sheila Stuewe
Subject: RE: The Fat Girl Episode
"But utilize your wiles and you can get any man you want.
Just by being truthful, honest and open.
Those are the keys to our heart.
And after our heart comes our body."
What perfect world do you live in?
I am a funny, successful, honest to the core, overweight woman. I have many male friends who adore me. ╩But, going on a really date, well that's tough. My boss even reminded me the other day that statistically it is more likely that I will be a victim of a terrorist attack than I will be able to find a man that will marry me. What boss says that to a skinning girl?
It takes a lot of work as a fat woman to get a man to look at you...to look beyond the X that follows the dress size...to look farther than the one piece bathing suit...to look into your irrepressible sense of humor, your zest for riding roller coasters screaming and laughing as your drop a hundred feet traveling 120 miles per hour, your successful career, to see your home that is filled with photos of those that love you, to walk through your garden that is filled with imperfect flowers at various stages of blooming, to stand next to you and experience your love of music and going to concerts where you feel the edge of Tom Petty's spotlight on the rim of your wide smiling face.
Maybe that's why I go to concerts and sit up front. Old rockers -- those that are nice men -- like Tom and the Heartbreakers. They don't look at my dress size, instead they see that I know every word to almost every song they have ever written. ╩For two hours they see my smile, my bouncing on the balls of my feet. They hear me harmonize on the chorus of "Learning to Fly." They smile back at me. They reach down and hand me a pick, saying with that gesture that they appreciate you.
And for now I have so much else in my life (family, friends, career, published essays) that exudes love, that I don't need to be searching for more. This leads me to conclude that to avoid risking the averted eyes, the excuses from a pot-bellied middle age men with the vanishing remains of a full head of hair is the only ╩thing to do.
Sheila Grace Stuewe
A fat woman that is so much more than what meets the eye
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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