Mailbag

From: John Legere
Subject: Legere in Lefsetz Letter!

Hey Bob –

Thanks for mentioning me in your blog again! Obviously we agree on a number of things, and I was really struck by your comments on execs in the music industry who are so set in their ways that they won't even try to better connect or appeal to younger generations. It sounds just like the big carriers in the wireless industry!!

You're right, I am always reading whatever is out there about T-Mobile. I always want feedback from customers – directly! Seriously, how can anyone satisfy an audience (in any industry) if you don't listen or don't really care what they want or how they want it? Social media is my direct line to customers and it shapes my business every single day!

I do agree that the music industry is facing an uphill battle as social media, digital distribution and viral marketing continue to expand. It is so clear that younger generations expect a different level of engagement and transparency!

I hope you can shake things up over there & we'll keep doing our part with Music Freedom, letting our customers stream music without any data usage fees -- I think it helps artists of all levels reach more of their fans, and our customers just love it!

We'll have to agree to disagree on your "crappy product" comments. Our network isn't what it used to be, it is amazing now - and this isn't a rebellion just for sport! We have to deliver for our customers and we live up to our commitments every day. So trust me - if you have not tried T-Mobile's network recently, you haven't tried it at all!

Keep the conversation going Bob!

Best –

John Legere
CEO
T-Mobile USA
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From: Tim Grayson
Subject: Re: Rock Star CEOs

Hello Bob,

Just wanted to shoot you a quick note - I used to have the same perception of T-Mobile that it seems you currently have. I was a long time Verizon subscriber and was adamant that I wouldn't ever switch, until I did... My co-worker came in one day with his new phone and said he decided to try T-Mobile for $30 a month. We did a speed test on his phone and it completely blew away my Verizon 4G speeds, literally more than double the speed. They aren't joking when they say they have more data capacity and higher speeds. Our bill was in the hundreds of dollars before but is now just $60 total for my girlfriend and I, no hidden fees or taxes, just $60 out the door! It is seriously the best service I've ever had and I'm saving a ton of money. Oh also I'm an IT professional so data is very important to me, but really I am just as happy with T-Mobile as I was with Verizon, actually happier!

Thanks for always having interesting things to read,

Tim

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From: tourswag
Subject: T -mo

Twice the service- 1/2 the cost

Super responsive customer service from well trained people who answer 611 calls in minutes

I know you like your carrier and think them tops

I like mine too

I am on tour in Europe, no surcharges for texting ( unlimited) or 3G internet ( unlimited) calls are 20 cents

How's your bill after your recent trip to France?

My coverage in the USA is always good
Far and away a better experience in all facets over the other carriers

The public face of the CEO or the advertising doesn't affect my perception of greater value with this carrier

TS

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From: Bob Helm
Subject: RE: Eddy Cue Caves

I think you're right about people remembering Taylor Swift for standing up to Apple. I still remember Tom Petty standing up to MCA regarding their list price hike on his new LP, and that was what, 1979?

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From: Charles Kennedy
Subject: Re: Eddy Cue Caves

Just a nudge cos I'm not sure Americans are as aware of this, that Beggars was a hobby label run out of the back of a record shop in Richmond, a suburb of west London, until their act Gary Numan wedded electronics to new wave and art rock and had three British number one albums in the space of two years as a result (and two consecutive number one singles). Beggars is the house that Gary Numan built (and Mills' willingness to indulge GN's untested, unproven new musical formula is just one example of Mills' genius and vision).

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Subject: Re: Apple Music

I haven't heard much news mentioned anywhere about the $0.99 for three months Premium subscription that Spotify offered a few months ago. Like many fans, I was fine with the free version because I didn't know how bad it sucked on mobile compared to Spotify Premium. I paid $0.99 for iTunes downloads all the time, so I was happy (and trusted) Spotify was offering such a cheap trial of the Premium, so I gave them my credit card number knowing I had to cancel the service after the $0.99 trial period ended to avoid the regular monthly subscription fee. I've been Spotify loyal, and haven't downloaded a song on iTunes for $0.99 since. Once the music customer tries Spotify Premium, the $9.99 per month is a bargain! Apple whiffed by not adapting the same customer acquisition model.

Aaron Pitcock

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Subject: Re: Taylor Swift On Apple Music

Let's get real, Bob
When record companies started, the split at MOST was 10% to the artist and 90% to the label.
It really hasn't changed that much in almost a century. Sure the Springsteens & Stones make out but certainly not the rest of us.
And if your debut album does great, they wait to see how your next album does and cross collateralize the costs of both against the alleged profit. If you're a staff producer, your salary replaces any royalties at all. Think about that.
George Martin was a staff producer for Brit label Parlophone when he produced most of the Fab Four product.
He was exempt from royalties!!!I could go on & on. I am in an unearned position at the label I recorded for to the tune of approximately a quarter of a mil and it keeps rising each statement.
I've had a song I cowrote log in at least 5 million airplays and after the publishing company takes 50% off the top and the three of us split the rest we get 16 2/3 % each. I have been dealing with this math for 56 years.
iTunes pays all the money to the record companies and THEY decide how much to send the artist. Paltry is a good word to describe what they decided to send.

It's the worst continuing crime I know of and no one has been able to correct it much since the dawn of recording.

Al Kooper

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From: Richard Griffiths
Re: The Chunnel

Talent,work ethic, ambition,management,luck!

(Re-What is required for a an artist to be successful.)

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From: chris stein
Subject: Re: The Chunnel

My twelve year old daughter is fascinated by the dude getting blown up at the show, amazing you were there... Years ago we were touring in Europe. For whatever reason we had flash pots at stage front. Right before our show our lighting guy Eddie Gile was attending to one which proceeded to go off in his face in full view of the audience. He got fairly singed and had to be shipped back stateside. Needless to say this was a hard act to follow and the audience sat there open mouthed during our first several songs.

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From: Calvin Flegal
Subject: Re: The Code Issue

Bob,

I've emailed you a few times but you should know that I'm a young person who went to Berklee instead of Northwestern, Tufts, etc. I studied music production at Berklee but after moving to Brooklyn I realized that wasn't my path. I went back to BU for a program meant for career changers into engineering. I got a master's in computer engineering and now work for a startup in Boston as a software engineer.

I've got a small ear training app in the App Store, working on others...

I think you are right about so many who wanted to be in music "pivoting" into tech.

I would've loved to have stayed in music but this is just too much better. They used to tell me to mop studio floors. Now they ask for my opinion at work.

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Subject: Re: The Code Issue from Former drummer for Sponge

Great post Bob had to stop reading the Paul Ford article (It's long) to get back to my Java homework.

I am in a Java Bootcamp now in Detroit called Grand Circus (This is not a shameless plug for them btw but they have a great bootcamp.).

Also am a one time professional musician in the band Sponge ( drummer from 1994 to 2000). We were on Columbia records, have a gold record blah blah blah.

Have been a tech guy since those days when I got into Pro Tools back then.

Now I am learning to code as a way to stay relevant. This story couldn't have came at a better time!

Keep up the good work I always look forward to your posts.

Sincerely,

Charlie Grover

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Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Yer' Album

Re: Stop by The James Gang

The original is by Howard Tate produced by Jerry Ragavoy and is a stone cold R&B great. I was Michael Bloomfield's roadie and we loved the record. It was only available on a 45 for many years. It's a record loved by musicians but unknown by the public.
Listen to it sometime. It's wonderful.

Phil Brown

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From: Michael McDonald
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-White Ladder
cc: Chris Tetzeli

Thanks the reminder of an amazing time in my life. We were so naive we were fearless.....we didn't know who NOT to call so we called everyone and asked them to spin the song, play the video, come out and see the show, experience the music however possible.

David's manager said we should have named the label 'Two Guys And A Van' because Tetz & I were not only the label, we also tour managed, delivered merch, housed the band, stuffed gear in our carry ons, etc.

Failure simply wasn't an option so we did whatever it took. Kudos to David and his manager for believing in us. It was terrifying but totally exhilarating. We were all in it for the right reasons. It was a beautiful thing.

Best,
Michael

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From: Vito Iaia
Subject: RE: The Stones At The Fonda

btw that guy offering $4k to everyone walking by was the guy on Shark Tank who sold his company (Groovebook) to Shutterfly... took me a minute to place him... can't blame him at all for trying, but would be surprised if he found a taker in that industry-laden crowd... for his son's sake I hope I'm wrong.

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From: Trevor Risk
Subject: Re: Today At The Tower

I DJ three nights a week to under 30s and they all go bananas for "All She Want To Do Is Dance". Only Gen x'ers who worship the Dude think Henley sucks.

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Subject: Re: Playlist Of The Year!

cool...
Your email confirms what I was wondering.
That absolutely none of us knows what the is going on in the music business. You've got your ear to the ground and you're raving about a playlist with 72,000 followers. The ones I belong to have hundreds of thousands of followers.
I sit on the sideline and listen to folks condemn every aspect of every aspect of this crazy business - while I'm collecting money from Spotify every 5 weeks. No label, agent, or consultant ever gave me money. Ever. Spotify does. The people following these playlists dig it. I dig it. Spotify digs it.

If I duplicate this process (which I am feverishly working on), I could make 40 - 60 grand a year from playlists alone. Maybe more! That is not including playing out, selling shirts & merch, and any other opportunity to make money. (Notice I did not include album sales in that lot).
A very exciting time indeed....the new and improved gold rush if you will..

Thanks for your passion. Thanks for your emails.
Please do not print my name if you should post this email..... I like making money in the music business and don't want anything to potentially mess it up.
Cheers!

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Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Can't Buy A Thrill

Bob

One of my 2 favorite Steely Dan albums. Katy Lied also had that same mood for me.
Intelligent lyrics with a twist. The lyric quality was always something a listener could count on. I would always be excited when they released a new album - not only for their skilled musicianship, but for Fagen's incredible take on life. That band had a huge influence on seventies musicians in Toronto, including myself. I saw Steely Dan for the first time in Orange County in 1995 and I was blown away with their live performance. I told myself on the drive home that I had to free up as a writer because the music I heard in the show was bold and unrestricted.
the next day I composed "Birmingham"
(Amanda Marshall).

Cheers
Dave Tyson

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Re: Rhinofy-Can't Buy A Thrill

Bob,

Couldn't second the Steely Dan rave any louder. I played this for my band in David Geffen's office the week it came out. I told Gary Mallaber and Ned Doheny that this was the album of the year and something to aspire to. I still feel the same way.

Keep it comin
JD Souther

P.S. Loved the piece on Elliot Murphy in Paris. The more things change…..

My first encounter with the Mona Lisa was also in 72 (pre I. M. Pei) and though the cameras were slower (and the mysterious smile was muted under a truly hideous plastic shield), folks are folks and enjoy verification of events. I wonder if time will be as kind to the pyramid entrance as it has been to Leonardo who once wrote; "As far as possible avoid the costumes of your own day…". Hmmm. Too soon to tell.

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From: BERTON AVERRE
Subject: Re: Deflategate

Every time I hear someone trumpet the now-accepted truism "Americans believe in second chances" I get queasy. Firstly because it's become one of those cliches that people parrot rather than using their own words and thoughts ("heart and soul of the ball club"). Secondly because it's true relative to the situation, and dictated by self-interest.

Michael Vick did two years for running an illegal dog-fighting ring (contrary to popular belief he didn't serve a single day for torturing and killing dogs for fun and profit: the federal bust was for the non-regulated, tax-avoiding business, like bookmaking). Tony Dungy waved a magic Jesus wand over his head in his cell, and everyone started parroting one of those blasted cliches: "Paid his debt to society, deserves a second chance". As a bone-deep civil libertarian, I really do believe that an ex-con should be allowed the opportunity to make an honest life for him or herself. But I was rankled by the suspicion that the people who were standing up for Vick's right to rehabilitation wouldn't give two s___s for that of a guy who used to rob liquor stores: they just wanted to see Vick scramble out of the pocket again. It was relatively easy to keep oneself from thinking of the brutality of dog fighting if doing so meant you couldn't enjoy the Eagles-Cowboys game as much.

Americans believe in the right to a second chance when it suits them, when it serves their interest. Conservatives wouldn't believe in a second chance if a Democratic president screwed up. I wouldn't believe in a second chance for any Boston Celtic, or any Wall Street criminal. "Enlightened Self Interest": they got it right, except for the "enlightened" part.

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Subject: Re: willie perkins: gregg allman

i too saw gregg play last weekend. gary gersh and i walked over to see him on the secondary stage at stagecoach and were mesmerized by his voice and his band. the arrangements of the old songs were stunning and we both walked back after the show fairly blown away. the truth about gregg being at epic is michael caplan's passion for the allman brothers. besides being an amazing promotion man, he was first a lunatic for all music but really mad about tower of power and the allman bros. i was in los angeles on a road trip and saw the demo tapes with gregg's name on it sitting on an A&R desk in our west coast office and pocketed it for the flight back. when i shared it with michael he went ballistic. if my memory serves me it was michael's first signing and yes i did promise willie and alex and gregg we would lock the panel on the first track. that is what we did back then. weeks later harvey leeds, michael and i arrived in palm springs for a burkhart abrams convention with gregg,
ozzy and stevie ray in tow to play their music and say hello. i could write a book on that week alone.

Bill Bennett

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From: Jean-Pierre Weiller
Subject: Lou Maglia

Lou was my boss at the best record company of the time: Island Records Inc. Boss as in the movies: good to his people but I would not want to be on the other side.

Late 80's: Robert Palmer, U2, Steve Winwood (on Warner), Melissa, Marianne, Bob's Legend, Tone Loc & Delicious Vinyl …and so many more: I will not accept any contradiction: we were the best!

Roughly 50 employees, we were a team, Lou our guide and mentor. We had fun coming to work.

Lou had a big boat, everything about him was big: himself, his car, house, and his sense of humor.

Traditionally on Wednesday we had lunch all together: Pizzas were brought from one of these delicious pizzerias in Little Italy, nearby our offices on East 4th Street. Just above the landmark Tower Records, flagship of all record stores at the time.

And in our building, on higher floors, Keith Richards and other Rock royalties used to live.

Hence why we were happy at Island.

During the hot New York City summers Lou would take us on his boat, docked on the East River a few street away, and we would sail toward the Statue of Liberty; there the boat would quietly moor and we would eat our delicious pizzas, listening to all the brilliant new music coming from the Island artists.??I remember thinking, "I am sitting on top of the world" on Lou's big boat, nicely positioned in the shade of the historical statue. I was.

But it was not only fun, we were all hard working, obsessed to reach the top of the Billboard charts, and once there, stay!

Lou, but also all the other working there, Bill, Bob, Jim, Kathy...were my inspirations when I started Island Record France a few years later. I told everybody I was hiring: I want to pay you to have fun! For most of them, this was definitely a new concept

Island Records France was doing very well but (too) rapidly the company was sold to Polygram and shortly after its chairman Alain Levy closed a very young and successful company. In retrospect it makes sense: all about Alain Levy was small, so small

Good Bye Lou

JP

Paris

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Re: Lou Maglia and the expense account.

Before I spent 15 years at Warner Bros / Reprise (I just wrote you about how we had to take "Urge For Going" from a vinyl 45 because no master tape could be found) I spent a number of years at Elektra in the promotion department. Lou Maglia was head of sales. I had a very similar expense account experience with the head of promotion at the time - Jerry Sharell. I was never the "live by expense account" kind of guy, so unless I traveled it didn't get used much. In those days radio was king and at the top of the heap was KIIS-FM who had an unheard of (certainly now) ten share in ratings. The music director was a long time friend - Mike Schaefer - who I'd known long before he came to Los Angeles. When we went out together - our favorite hangout was The Apple Pan. One week - our $12.42 check was the only expense on my weekly report. After I finished filling it out - I walked it down the hall and dropped it on Jerry's assistant's desk. By the time I got back to my desk my phone was
ringing. It was Jerry and he said - and I remember it as clear as a bell all these years later - "Don't you ever turn in an expense report for $12.42 again - you make me look like f...ing J. Paul Getty."

And he hung up the phone.

It was a different world back then. Lou and Jerry were the best of the best. From there I spent 15 years at Warner Bros / Reprise with Mo Ostin, Lenny Waronker and Russ Thyret...and followed Mo and Lenny to DreamWorks for another 6 years.

After working with those wonderful people for all those years I couldn't seriously consider the other labels after DreamWorks was sold off to Interscope, (That's another great story for another time). I moved to Maine and have a wonderful small company working with artists I like and music I love. I'm not in it for the money and don't care that I'm not. Either did Lou, Jerry, Mo, Lenny or Russ.

Marc Ratner

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From: Ted Myers
Subject: RE: Rhinofy-Can't Buy A Thrill

Hey Bob,

Here's my Steely Dan story, ripped straight from the pages of my forthcoming memoir, Making It: Music, Sex and Drugs in the Golden Age of Rock...

One night in 1972 V and I were leaving the Mayfair Market on Santa Monica Blvd. As we walked though the darkened parking lot the door on an old VW bus slid open and an arm appeared holding a Gibson Melody Maker electric guitar. It was proffered majestically, like the Lady of the Lake bearing Excalibur, and it had about it the same portent of destiny. "Psst! Wanna buy a guitar?" a voice whispered from within the van. "Fifteen dollars." The whole thing reeked of "hot," but I didn't hesitate. I really needed an electric guitar, and this one fit nicely into my pathetic budget. I never even saw the face of the guy I bought it from. I thrust the money into the van, grabbed the guitar and off we went.

When I got it home, I saw that the neck had been broken and reset badly. This would throw off the intonation and make the guitar impossible to tune. I took it to Valley Sound on Sunset, the most prestigious instrument repair shop in Hollywood, and who should appear behind the counter to take my order? None other than my old friend and lead guitarist from Ultimate Spinach, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. He looked pretty much the same as he had in Spinach: shoulder-length brown hair, but his beard was gone and his mustache was bigger and fuller. He generally wore glasses, except when he was performing, and he was wearing them now. Jeff had always been good with fixing stuff and being up on all the latest gear, so it made sense to see him working here.
"Whazzhapnin'!" he slurred in his trademark hipster voice.
"Wow, fancy meetin' you here," I said. "I didn't know you were in L.A."
"Yeah, been here a few months. I've been doing some studio work with some guys over at ABC Dunhill on Beverly Blvd."
He looked at my guitar and deemed it fixable. He showed it to the guy who specialized in guitar building and they gave me an estimate I could afford, so I dropped off the guitar. Before leaving we exchanged numbers.

When my 1959 Gibson Melody Maker came back from Valley Sound it was perfect! Before I was through, I would buy two Humbucking pickups and have them installed, making it a Les Paul Jr. My guitar arsenal was once again complete.

It was maybe two or three weeks later that Baxter phoned and told me he had formed a band with these guys he had met at Dunhill Studios, Don Fagen and Walter Becker, plus a couple of other guys. They were going to call it Steely Dan after a strap-on dildo in William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch.
"Fagen and Becker are writing all the songs," he said, "but Fagen is very uptight about his voice, so we need a lead singer. Would you be interested in auditioning?"
Well, frankly, I wasn't sure. I was primarily a songwriter myself and a singer second. I'd have to really, really love these guys' songs to give up my songwriting at this point, especially right after my first flush of success.
"Can I hear some of their music?" I asked.
"Yeah, we've got one song on tape. You wanna come over and hear it?"
I agreed to come over to Baxter's apartment and listen to the tape.
Chez Skunk was a nondescript modern apartment in a nondescript apartment building near Valley Sound, which was located at Gardner and Sunset in Hollywood. It was devoid of furniture, except for a mattress on the floor, a dining table and a couple of chairs. And amps, keyboards, guitars and a pedal steel guitar. Jeff put the tape on for me. It was a song called "Bye Bye Dallas," which sounded distinctly country. Jeff played pedal steel on it, which was his latest passion.
"Well," I said, trying to be tactful, "the band sounds great - all the players are excellent - but it sounds very country to me. I don't wanna waste your time. I don't think I'd be the right guy for this band."
A month later, Jeff invited me to Steely Dan's debut performance at Under the Ice House in Pasadena. Their songs knocked me out. "Bye Bye Dallas" was not in the set, and never appeared on any of their albums. Two weeks later, their debut single, "Do It Again," hit the charts and wound up going to #6. The guy they hired as lead singer, David Palmer, sounded a lot like Donald Fagen, and once Fagen got his vocal chops up to speed, Palmer was gone. There but for fortune…

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From: John Paul Roney
Subject: The edge of Google

Bob-

I found myself in your shoes. A guy from the WI music scene hit me up, he's the guy that every scene has, a bunch of bands, always throwing shows, talking about upcoming tours, kick starters... all with violently mediocre music. He just couldn't figure out why nothing was sticking. He asked for my input and immediately tuned me out when I told him he needed to drop everything and work ten times harder on the craft.

I heard your voice in my head, "what the hell is with all these wannabes?"

So I decided to ponder. He grew up in the Google era, so when there's some art he loves he Googles everything he can to learn about it. In the 70's he might have used that energy to play his guitar until it sounded like Jimmy Page's and accidentally created his own sound, instead he's trying to recreate their videos with him in their place.

That's when I realized there's an end to what Google knows, it stops where the real artistry begins, the private hours of anguish. I watched a great documentary on the large hadron collider in France and a physicist who worked on it said "jumping from failure to failure with undiminished enthusiasm is the secret to success".

That's what Google can't tell you. It can tell you where Katy Perry is from and how her singles charted, but it can't tell you how she was when she was just my manager's girlfriend in LA in 2005. She was trying to be a hipster then, but she was always working. We asked if he could stop inviting her over because she never stopped talking about work.

When you finally arrive at greatness it ruins the myth to talk about all the hours of work you put in, it's more compelling to say nothing of it and allow other people to spin the myth for you. That's when a curtain comes down and your Googleable era begins - where you become known as the amalgamation of your video views, ticket sales, who you date, if you go to rehab.. whatever. The next generation is looking for answers in all of that information and that's precisely where the answers aren't.

//JP

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Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Paris Songs

Every Picture Tells A Story Indeed...
Rod never played that song live with his solo bands until the third night of a three night run of sold out shows we were playing at the LA Forum in 1988.
LA Radio giant KLOS had been requesting that we play the song all week talking about it on air but despite all their power over rock playlists Rod refused to play it saying he had never done it live ( I believe the Faces might have done it).
After the second night with no results KLOS turned up the heat and started to play Every Picture Tells A Story once every hour trying to persuade Rod to play the song live on our third and final night.
In the dressing room before the show we all talked about it but still didn't think to much about it. Towards the end of the show I remember this like it was yesterday, Rod looked at us and said Lets Do It then he sang me the guitar intro because I had heard the song a million times as a kid but I had never played it. Understand I had just been in the band about a month and the last band I had played live with was my high school band in San Diego. Needless to say I screwed up the intro but when Tony Brock counted it off 1-2-3 and cracked that snare drum we all dropped in on that big D chord and Rod with head cocked back sang out...
I've spent too much time feeling inferior
the crowd went nuts as if all Eighteen Thousand were in the band with us!
I will never forget that moment and this amazing song...a song with no chorus and endless verses but a song with a story....Unlike so many songs today

Stevie Salas

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From: Rupert Hine
Subject: Re: Today In Paris

Hi Bob

Finally, after all these years of keeping an eye on you and your thoughts - it takes me until today to respond passionately but without pause…

Of the 130+ albums I've recorded and produced, a good chunk of them in the 90s were made whilst living in France. That is this sudden connection. Immediately after my 10 years in France I relocated to Los Angeles where I lived until finally returning to the UK just 5 years ago (or Europe, as I think of it now).

The initially inspirational tech disruption of the turn of this century that promised so much, yet delivered so little of real lasting meaning, has vaporized and imploded leaving the world's global culture bankrupt and decimated.
Here in the 3rd millennium the cultural path so clearly documented over the last 10,000 years is coming to a close.

We, collectively, have allowed the magician's patter of the world's largest monopoly to seduce us with driverless cars, aerial views of our neighbours backyard, magic glasses and 'play-area' work-environments, whilst raping and pillaging our planet's culture. Taking it from those same museums you are visiting now in Paris, Bob, and pretty much everywhere else of cultural significance on our planet; allowing it to be displayed for all to see in some 'altruistic' display that, in fact, is just a means of collecting advertising revenue on content they do not own, whilst removing any potential livelihood for all those involved in finding, nurturing and commissioning works of art, culture and entertainment. Not least the artists themselves. And insulting throwing a few crumbs on the creators floor.

Nobody voted Eric Schmidt into the top seat on Planet Earth - in charge of Earth's culture. No one country, no one Nation. The monopoly that is Google is the work of pure evil cunningly disguised as a user-friendly 'convenience' for finding everything online. The everything is of course expertly collated to be 'The Everything' (as in N.E.Story's "The Nothing")… And all this from the monopoly whose strap-line is "Don't be Evil".

No government is more powerful. No monopoly's reach more ubiquitous. No marketing powerhouse more in tune with the culture of excess. No ideology more finely tuned to maximise the emphasis on the top top 2% of earth's inhabitants with absolutely no financially-rewarding trickle-down effect on the rest of humanity. None.

Our job, all of us on this not-to-be-given-up-on-just-yet planet, is to be truly aware of what is going on all around us, right under our noses... and say no to these mesmerizing, apparently holistic yet ultimately patter-ridden, panaceas. Google will be undone, not by the Americans - whose political system allows lobbying at a totally undemocratic level - but in Europe where the multi-cultural interests in a life-story many centuries older, ensures that a deeply vested interest is not going to be trampled under foot at the start of this millennium. The EC will pull Google apart as it did with Microsoft.
And the will of the people is finally beginning to homogenize in real support - realizing that they have been sold down the river with the tech community's 'Economy of Scale' illusion. The very same one that has already shown us how it leads to melt-downs in the financial world - each time the foundations are revealed to be built of air. Just another variant of the pyramid schemes and other hoodwinks that momentarily entrance the needy.

Having spent 10 difficult years in California trying to interest people in truly new ideas (with no obvious money-trail) that need some cud-chewing and wide-eyed ideological inspiration, in Europe there is a more readily available open-mind that just doesn't need to smell the filthy lucre - at least not before the nexus of the 'thing' has been discovered and birthed. Everything is about to change. There is always a fresh disruptor for the established disruptors.

In the meantime 'watch your backs' there's still a Google in the room… (and a Facebook). Be much more careful. Unattach from the juggernauts.
Just be aware and non-compliant.

Rupert Hine

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Subject: My Joe Cocker story....40 countries...half a dozen albums...and one great

Bob-

I had the extreme pleasure and honor of arranging and playing keyboards on half a dozen of Joe Cocker's records from 1994-2004, finally producing one, "Heart & Soul." In that time we did two world tours, hitting almost forty countries, and also three world promo tours, where it was mostly Joe and me doing radio shows LIVE, sometimes with guitarist Gene Black.
That gave us a hell of a lot of time to get close and discuss music, politics, the world and beyond. Joe was a brilliant man, extremely well read, and like me he loved non-fiction. We compared notes on Zulu history, and shared fascination with the Shackleton voyage, along with all other exploration and such. Joe was always up on the latest news, and I was too. Therefore from the moment we met in the morning to take a car to a radio station, to the hours in airplanes, we'd compare notes on what had happened in the world since we'd seen each other. We shared a love for growing tomatoes and especially for our dogs.

I wanted to share a story that happened when we were recording "Heart & Soul."

Heart & Soul was a record of cover songs, and we tried dozens of them at my studio, just the two of us, to see what fit. Joe's manager, Roger Davies was instrumental in picking some of the great songs that made the final album.
Anyway, I suggested to the label that we cover a James Taylor song...not too "range-ey," so Joe could be Joe. Chris Briggs at EMI told me "good luck with that, we've been trying to get him to do a James Taylor song for twenty years."

Joe came in that day, and the two of us sat at the piano, with his music stand to my left, him belting away in my ear (which would ring at night from having his enormous voice hitting me from little more than a foot away).
Anyway, we had some successes, and also some duds.
At the end I asked Joe "hey what about a James Taylor song, like "Don't Let me Be Lonely Tonight?"
Joe wore glasses sometimes when he was reading lyrics and I always made fun of them 'cause they'd slip down his nose when he sweat.
"Well I don't know about all that CJ...and besides I don't know the lyrics."

So I pulled out the lyrics I had secretly prepared, in the nice 24 point Helvetica that Joe preferred, and said "well now you don't have any excuses. Let's try this, it's just the two of us here."
I got up a nylon guitar sound on my keyboard, had already figured out Joe's key (I knew his voice like the back of my hand at this point).
We started up, he got as far as "do me wrong....do me right....," and I STOPPED.
"Get the hell out in the vocal booth NOW, MAN!" Joe sounded fucking amazing. Goosebumps were crawling up my spine.
I had the mic warmed up and his favorite setting all dialed in on my Universal 6176 with his favorite 'verb.

I hit record in Logic and did an intro, then counted him in...he always waited for me to count him in...and there he was with the goofy glasses drooping down his nose.
"Do me wrong...do me right....tell me lies....but hold me tight....."
There was magic in the room.
We kept playing together, as we had done hundreds and hundreds of times together.
Joe was absolutely TESTIFYING. Killing it. As only Joe could.
We got to the middle and I decided to throw in an instrumental part. I held up my left hand to him, saying "hang on" while I played a "scratch" solo on the nylon patch.
At the end of my "solo," I mouthed the word "B-R-I-D-G-E!" and counted three-four with my hand.
Joe came in again, we dove back into the song, until the end, when I stopped him again for a little interlude.
Then I nodded "go ahead," and he finished the song off.
No click, no band, no engineer, no big studio, no arrangement, just the two of us making music together.
I was now completely teared up. I knew something amazing had just happened.
I hit the talkback and said "c'mon in Joe..."

As I waited for him I hit COMMAND "S" to save the magic that had just occurred.
When I turned around, there was Joe, with the goofy glasses, covered in sweat.
"Well I don't quite know that one yet CJ...."
Fuck OFF Joe!!! That was MAGIC!
I grabbed him and hugged his sweaty body. Then I grabbed him by both shoulders and said "You don't even know what you just did my man."
We played it back and Joe agreed...we had captured a special take.

The problem was that now I had a track with no click and a keyboard guitar. I decided to figure out the logistics of this later.
I overdubbed a bass part, a steel string guitar on the left side, and then an organ part. It sounded like a finished record.

Everyone that heard this flipped. Such a brilliant, boiled down, distilled, in the moment performance by both of us. Two buddies making music alone.

Then we tried to go into the big studio and re-create it. I called THE cats to play on it. THE cats. Nobody better.

We dicked around for a few hours, and everyone sounded amazing, but it was obvious: we were re-making a record that was already DONE. Joe and I talked in the vocal booth and agreed.

It was a difficult choice to put this "DEMO" on the record for some people, but not for me, and not for Joe. This was a beautiful moment. Just Joe and me doing our thing. Nothing more, nothing less.

The entire process had taken less than an hour; from proposing the song to doing a rough mix (which is what ended up on the record).

I can't listen to this song now without breaking down inside. I knew we had a special moment together, but little did I know how special.

Here is a link to the song with a cheesy video that I have no connection to. If you don't get choked up at the end, you're not human.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTzAuEuC95k

Joe was a beautiful, humble giant and reluctant genius and I miss him dearly. Thankfully the music will live on.

CJ Vanston

____________________________________________

From: Paul Rappaport
Subject: Re: The Stones At The Fonda

The Rolling Stones have been my all time favorite band since I was 17 years old. I learned how to play electric guitar listening to Keith Richards on all the early records. I was going steady with Sharon in high school then, and "Every Body Needs Somebody To Love" was our song.

In 1966 we went to see The Stones at the Hollywood Bowl. We stood up, danced around, and generally went crazy like you see on the old black and white newsreels. Fast forward 20 years later, Sharon and I are married, have moved to New York, we have kids, and I'm sitting on a couch next to Mick Jagger at Columbia Records' headquarters telling him his promotion and marketing plans. The two most amazing things are, one, I actually know what I'm talking about, and two, he's actually listening to ME!! If you would have told me when I was 18 years old at the Hollywood Bowl that one day,….well, you get the idea.

So now, I'm in heaven—the Stones are on Columbia. I have stories for days, the kind that I will remember forever, but I want to share just one now, because it illustrates what you witnessed Bob.

The Rolling Stones are a real band that lives and breathes as one organism and can change its personality whenever it likes to suit the mood—no click tracks here babe. And, they ARE STILL the worlds' greatest rock and roll band—even at these ages. Think about that statement for a second.

Mick Jagger's work ethic is something to be admired and I've only seen a few artists driven like that—Bruce Springsteen and Tony Bennett come to mind. It's why the Stones are the last band from that era not only still standing but pouring it on.

I had met Keith and Woody during the "New Barbarians" tour. I'm lucky to have survived that—it was like better living through chemistry. Ha, ha—stayed awake for days on end, sleeping very odd hours, etc., etc.. Everyone was out of it on that tour so I didn't get to have a real conversation with my all time rock hero, Keef.

But when the Stones came to Columbia, it was different—not over the top partying and I could have those kinds of conversations, especially the music ones. Mick was blown away that I knew about the two versions of "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" and that the European album version was superior. I told him I ordered it before imports were even a thing—cost me $8.00 at the time (a lot of money for a blue collar kid to spend on just a record) and it came by boat and took 3 months to show up, all the from England to Downey California.

Fast forward to the "Steel Wheels" tour. Like all before the band opened at a small club—Toad's Place in New Haven. That's when I saw what you just saw—how great this band truly is. No big light show, no grand staging to hide behind—no larger than life sound where you can make a mistake but no one will hear it in an arena setting. It's all out there for everyone to see and hear. The stage was so small the band could barely fit, and there was no room for Mick to even show off all of his dance moves. It was the vocals and how he presented each word that just drew you in, like Frank Sinatra.

That band, in that room, set the record straight—pinned people's ears back, the incredible precision of the "weaving of guitars" all around Charlie Watts' back beat--yet played loosely like the Stones are meant to be. They don't need all the bells and whistles if they don't want—THEY ARE A GREAT FUCKING BAND, and in full flight can take you anywhere!

And, while they love being the Stones and all the stuff that goes with it, they are players first. It's the real thing.

During this time I got to have the talk I always wanted to have with the rock hero who inspired me to play the electric guitar. I tried not to gush and just told Keith the facts. He was so happy to hear that whatever he was doing as a guitar player he had "passed it on." He talked to me like a fellow player, not like a rock God to a record guy. He said, that he had it passed down to him from people like Chuck Berry and that his job, and all our jobs as musicians, was to pass it on—this wonderful way of expressing oneself on this intimate instrument, the guitar.

He went on to give me a bit of a guitar lesson. He insisted I try G tuning which is one of his secrets. He told me the reason why the exact sound of The Stones eluded my high school cover band was, that we were trying to play Stones' hits without being in G tuning. He got very excited about passing this on to me. He said, "Go home, take the top (E) string off the guitar, it just gets in the way. Then tune the A string to G and so on. Use a simple bar chord position with only two fingers and see what happens!--then report back."

So, I go home thinking, "take the top string off the guitar, it gets in the way??" But I do as the master suggests and low and behold—EVERY GREAT ROLLING STONES SIGNATURE RIFF AND SONGS ARE IN G TUNING!!! You name it, "Start Me Up," "Brown Sugar," "Honky Tonk" and on and on and on. And once you begin to play rhythm guitar like this, you even see how that signature Keith Richards arm movement evolved.

So, I report back and we have another great conversation. When the Stones left the label (for more money—quote Keith, "Don't take it personal, it's just business") I asked if he'd sign something for me as a memory. He said of course, and I sent him a photo I had of him back stage years ago warming up for the Barbarians. It's a great photo because it shows him as just a player with his eyes closed trying to grab a great chord—in G tuning!

The captioned photo is my prized possession, above every gold or platinum record, or plaque I've ever received. It hangs on the wall right across from my desk. It's Keith's description of the photo. It reads "To Paul, 5 strings, 3 notes, 2 fingers, 1 ass-hole, Love, Keith Richards"!

In this one photo, it says everything about Keith and The Rolling Stones. He and they are real players above and beyond anything else and that's why the music affects us so. And, while they are very proud of their achievements they know deep inside—It's only rock and roll.
But we like it. No, WE LOVE IT!

Paul Rappaport


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