It's like a roller coaster, really. Not a love roller coaster, like in a Luke Bryan song, but an old wooden amusement park one, back before safety rules were strictly enforced.
It's the organ that sets the mood. You know, when it's finally your turn and you walk onto the platform and sit down in the car, in eager anticipation, but also fear.
And then the old wizened man chewing on a cigar pulls back the arm and the train starts to move as Carlos's guitar starts to buzzsaw, it's too late now, you're off and running, it's all out of your control.
You reach the peak and your hair is flying, you're holding on tight, this is long before seat belt laws, and you're having the time of your life.
"Got no time for foolin' with you baby
Your stupid game is about to end"
The power of endings, when you make the decision and decide you're going to waste no more time, you're gonna risk, you're gonna ride by yourself, with no hand to hold.
Santana's initial LP only sold in the wake of Woodstock, the movie blew it up, "Evil Ways" was all over the radio, people had to hear "Soul Sacrifice." But we were unprepared for "Abraxas." The nude woman on the cover, the quietude of the instrumentals, the just rightness of "Oye Como Va," the hit of "Black Magic Woman," but my favorite cut was always "Mother's Daughter.
I woke up with a Luke Bryan song in my head, "Way Way Back," but it wasn't until thinking about the Fillmore book and pulling up "Abraxas" that I experienced the true power of music, to completely change your mood.
I listened to "Incident At Neshabur," and then I pushed the button on my headphones until I heard the mellifluous sound of "Mother's Daughter."
I was brought back to fall at Middlebury, when I was a freshman and the air was changing, the heat was leaving us, and this emanated from the dorm room of Muddy Waters, this is when I finally realized I liked Santana.
I'm not sure if I've ever heard "Mother's Daughter" on the radio. But that's how it was back then, the album tracks were just as important, when being a professional musician was a high bar few crossed, and when you did, when you got your major label deal, we checked you out and if you were worthy we devoured your music, played it ad infinitum, it was all we had.
It's all we've got.
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1fgOtI2
YouTube: http://bit.ly/1Lepvau
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Saturday 15 August 2015
Friday 14 August 2015
John Glatt's Fillmore Book
"Live at the Fillmore East and West: Getting Backstage and Personal with Rock's Greatest Legends": http://amzn.to/1DRlsi3
What people don't understand is classic rock was a revolution, populated by the disenfranchised, hungry to have fun and make a difference. To think that these degenerates could conquer the world and lead a nation was anathema to the powers-that-be, the same way they were confounded by the nerds who took over the world with tech in the twenty first century.
Janis Joplin was an outcast looking for acceptance who never got it until she demonstrated her greatness and made it. Then it killed her.
Carlos Santana was a street urchin from Tijuana who would still be an unknown if it weren't for Bill Graham.
Grace Wing was a rich girl's daughter, who thrived on the privilege and then deemed it necessary to test limits, whiplashing her band and the entire nation in the process.
And we ate it all up. We went to the Fillmore and then Woodstock. Money started to rain. And then cocaine flew up everybody's noses and the entire scene matured and has never been the same.
I don't expect anyone under thirty to read this book. Because they believe that they're in charge and the world is their oyster. But in the fifties and early sixties this was not the case. Kids were subservient. The old white men ruled. You were afraid of your mom and dad, they weren't your best friends. And then we heard the music.
It didn't start in the suburbs. There was no internet, never mind cable TV. If you didn't live in the metropolis, if you weren't within earshot of the city airwaves, you were out of the loop, a year or two behind. By time the band was on Ed Sullivan there was a whole new crop of acts the cognoscenti were into. But you didn't know them. There was no social media, the newspaper was everything, and even if the newspaper reported, young people did not read it, it was for the oldsters.
And then came the radio.
This book barely focuses on the recording side of the equation, which has been lauded ad infinitum. This is all about the gig, the live performance, where most of these acts made their bones. The Beatles started live, as did Joplin, Santana, the Jefferson Airplane and the Dead, all of whose careers are profiled herein. They were outsider musicians, back when you could survive on a few dollars a week, when life was about opportunities instead of closed doors.
There are so many inaccuracies and misspellings in this book you'll be horrified.
But you'll also learn inside details you never knew.
Bill Graham was making the lion's share of the dough, but he built the scene, there were no concomitant promoters to compete with him until the acts could sell themselves. Which is how they ended up with ninety percent of the gross. You can count the number of people in attendance, you cannot count how many records have been shipped, stolen or bought. The record company kept that info private, and still does. But the rubber meets the road at the gig. And that's where the fire is lit. All these acts made it based on their performances, most significantly at Woodstock.
You've got no idea how big the movie and attendant triple album were. Sure, the Beatles may have conquered America, but they were safe, Brian Epstein cleaned them up. No one cleaned up Janis Joplin or Grace Slick or Carlos Santana. And when you saw them perform you wanted so much more.
And they didn't give a fuck. Sure, they liked the money. But they could offend the audience, they were on their own trip. And it was so different from today.
I wasn't planning on reading this book. But going through a pile of what was sent to me I uncovered it and got hooked. Every night I couldn't put it down. I went down the rabbit hole to what once was and will never be again.
You see the scene was nascent, no one knew what was happening, and then the worm turned and it hasn't been the same since. Kinda like the web was for exploration, before pop-up ads and all kinds of shenanigans made it lucrative for the usual suspects. If you were surfing in 1995 you remember the naked women tracking their every move, the people detailing their lives, it wasn't about money so much as self-fulfillment and exhibitionism.
And there's a healthy dose of exhibitionism in rock and roll.
You can make music. You can make money.
But you cannot become one of the richest people in the world. To do that, you had to play music in the sixties and seventies. When fans gave the acts all their dough. Because without music life was empty. Hit singles counted, but where you were going was more important than staying still.
Albert Grossman tried to get Janis Joplin clean. Bill Graham did a great job of managing the Airplane. But the musicians didn't want to listen. They wanted to be free, to their detriment, Paul Kantner admits this.
But it was this specific middle finger to the powers-that-be, to the establishment, that made them so attractive.
Don Henley was right, we haven't had that spirit here since 1969.
But if you want to know what it was like, read this book.
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What people don't understand is classic rock was a revolution, populated by the disenfranchised, hungry to have fun and make a difference. To think that these degenerates could conquer the world and lead a nation was anathema to the powers-that-be, the same way they were confounded by the nerds who took over the world with tech in the twenty first century.
Janis Joplin was an outcast looking for acceptance who never got it until she demonstrated her greatness and made it. Then it killed her.
Carlos Santana was a street urchin from Tijuana who would still be an unknown if it weren't for Bill Graham.
Grace Wing was a rich girl's daughter, who thrived on the privilege and then deemed it necessary to test limits, whiplashing her band and the entire nation in the process.
And we ate it all up. We went to the Fillmore and then Woodstock. Money started to rain. And then cocaine flew up everybody's noses and the entire scene matured and has never been the same.
I don't expect anyone under thirty to read this book. Because they believe that they're in charge and the world is their oyster. But in the fifties and early sixties this was not the case. Kids were subservient. The old white men ruled. You were afraid of your mom and dad, they weren't your best friends. And then we heard the music.
It didn't start in the suburbs. There was no internet, never mind cable TV. If you didn't live in the metropolis, if you weren't within earshot of the city airwaves, you were out of the loop, a year or two behind. By time the band was on Ed Sullivan there was a whole new crop of acts the cognoscenti were into. But you didn't know them. There was no social media, the newspaper was everything, and even if the newspaper reported, young people did not read it, it was for the oldsters.
And then came the radio.
This book barely focuses on the recording side of the equation, which has been lauded ad infinitum. This is all about the gig, the live performance, where most of these acts made their bones. The Beatles started live, as did Joplin, Santana, the Jefferson Airplane and the Dead, all of whose careers are profiled herein. They were outsider musicians, back when you could survive on a few dollars a week, when life was about opportunities instead of closed doors.
There are so many inaccuracies and misspellings in this book you'll be horrified.
But you'll also learn inside details you never knew.
Bill Graham was making the lion's share of the dough, but he built the scene, there were no concomitant promoters to compete with him until the acts could sell themselves. Which is how they ended up with ninety percent of the gross. You can count the number of people in attendance, you cannot count how many records have been shipped, stolen or bought. The record company kept that info private, and still does. But the rubber meets the road at the gig. And that's where the fire is lit. All these acts made it based on their performances, most significantly at Woodstock.
You've got no idea how big the movie and attendant triple album were. Sure, the Beatles may have conquered America, but they were safe, Brian Epstein cleaned them up. No one cleaned up Janis Joplin or Grace Slick or Carlos Santana. And when you saw them perform you wanted so much more.
And they didn't give a fuck. Sure, they liked the money. But they could offend the audience, they were on their own trip. And it was so different from today.
I wasn't planning on reading this book. But going through a pile of what was sent to me I uncovered it and got hooked. Every night I couldn't put it down. I went down the rabbit hole to what once was and will never be again.
You see the scene was nascent, no one knew what was happening, and then the worm turned and it hasn't been the same since. Kinda like the web was for exploration, before pop-up ads and all kinds of shenanigans made it lucrative for the usual suspects. If you were surfing in 1995 you remember the naked women tracking their every move, the people detailing their lives, it wasn't about money so much as self-fulfillment and exhibitionism.
And there's a healthy dose of exhibitionism in rock and roll.
You can make music. You can make money.
But you cannot become one of the richest people in the world. To do that, you had to play music in the sixties and seventies. When fans gave the acts all their dough. Because without music life was empty. Hit singles counted, but where you were going was more important than staying still.
Albert Grossman tried to get Janis Joplin clean. Bill Graham did a great job of managing the Airplane. But the musicians didn't want to listen. They wanted to be free, to their detriment, Paul Kantner admits this.
But it was this specific middle finger to the powers-that-be, to the establishment, that made them so attractive.
Don Henley was right, we haven't had that spirit here since 1969.
But if you want to know what it was like, read this book.
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Rhinofy-Speed Trap Town
They say we should listen to "24 Frames," but if you do so you'll get an appreciation of Jason Isbell equivalent to the one of Ryan Adams if you listen to "New York, New York."
That's right, they were both in bands that didn't work out for them and went solo and suddenly got acclaim, Ryan Adams on an indie label with "Heartbreaker," with its masterpiece "My Winding Wheel." But if you listen to "Gold," the follow-up, you'll discover "New York, New York" was one of the weakest songs on the LP. an album-opening ditty made to appeal to the casual listener, and neither Adams nor Isbell is for those driving by, they're for the cognoscenti, the diehard fan. But labels are flummoxed and they point to the catchy tune when anyone who believes knows that the track on "Gold" is the slow burner "Nobody Girl," and the track on Jason Isbell's "Something More Than Free" is "Speed Trap Town," a song that no one writes about that stopped me in my tracks when I was listening to it way past midnight in the Santa Monica Mountains.
We're looking for something human, that touches us, that helps us make sense of this complicated world, that makes us feel not so alone. But the music business has given up on this paradigm, it's just too difficult, because if you take the non-pop road you've got to deliver on an "A" level, you can't fake it if you want to survive. But for those of us who live for the sound, who are waiting to be soothed and made to feel life is worth living, these are the tracks we're looking for, the ones that cannot be categorized that ooze truth and the whole ball of wax we call life.
"Well it's a Thursday night, but there's a high school game"
That's what you do when you live in nowheresville, go to high school sports, even though you've graduated and you no longer care, if you ever did. But there are so few options. Thank god for the internet, used to be the small town was literally death for those who stayed, emotional, if not physical. If only you could get up the gumption to leave...
"Sneak a bottle up the bleachers and forget my name"
The boonies will make you an alcoholic. I know, I lived there. There's nothing to do. First you drink for the excitement, then you drink to get away from your everyday life, and then you drink in the hope of having the greatest night of your life and when you wake up hung over the next morning having failed in your quest the depression is so overpowering all you can do is lie in bed with the phone turned off and wait for the darkness.
"And it never did occur to me to leave 'til tonight"
I always wanted to get out. From my hometown. From Middlebury, Vermont. I wanted to go where nobody knew my name and I could continue to be anonymous unless I happened to do something great. The smaller the town the more people you know, but the harder it is to escape from your branding, the preconception everybody formed of you on Day One, however inaccurate.
"And there's no one left to ask if I'm all right"
That's when the wind of loneliness blows hardest, when you're needy and you discover there's no one who cares. You go to school and everybody's down your throat, telling you what to do, and then you graduate and no one cares about you, you've aged out, you've become an adult, even though you still feel like a child.
"The doctor said Daddy wouldn't make it a year
But the holidays are over and he's still here"
He's conflicted. He loves his dad but he doesn't. He doesn't want to abandon him but he wants him to be gone. But it keeps dragging on. He's looking for the release of being an orphan, of being free, that's what they don't tell you about losing a parent, as sad as it is there's an incredible sense of freedom, you can finally grow up and do what you want, without judgment.
"He didn't care about us when he was walking around
Just pulling women over in a speed trap town"
How do you square the biology with the practicality? When your loved ones are not like those depicted on television. Life is chiaroscuro but too often it's portrayed as black and white. And until you gain the confidence to know that everybody is insecure, has more questions than answers, you feel inadequate.
"I'll sleep until I'm straight enough to drive, then decide
If there's anything that can't be left behind"
The truth is you can leave it all behind, but you're scared of being that naked and free, without anyone to bounce off of, to complain about. Too many stay because they're too scared to leave. But you've got to go, you've got to save yourself.
"The road got blurry when the sun came up
So I slept a couple hours in the pickup truck
Drank a cup of coffee by an Indian mound
A thousand miles away from that speed trap town
A thousand miles away from that speed trap town"
What did James Taylor sing, "There's nothing like a hundred miles between me and trouble in my mind"? But that was back in '76, when we looked to singers for answers, before the dash for cash made our country coarser, before the artists started telling us how much better they were than us, before we stopped looking to music for answers.
And I'm not sure there are any answers in "Speed Trap Town," on all of "Something More Than Free," but the truth is even Bob Dylan was confused, he could only sing what he saw and hope that we resonated.
We did.
And I resonate with "Speed Trap Town."
And truly, the words are secondary. It's more about the sound. The spareness. That loping acoustic guitar providing the rhythm, that electric guitar wailing in pain, "Speed Trap Town" sounds like the prairie, sounds like somewhere barren, which we know everything about even if we've never left the city, because we've all experienced emotional barrenness. And that's when we turn to music.
I don't know what happens to the music industry, hell, I don't know what happens to our country, with income inequality and global warming, but I do know I'm looking for a needle in a haystack.
And in this case I've found one.
Don't let the relentless hype turn you off.
Jason Isbell is not that good. Steve Earle's "Guitar Town" is a classic, "Something More Than Free" is not. But back when Steve cut that nailing the experience with an acoustic guitar and some words was a goal, like writing the Great American Novel in the fifties, now music is mostly about getting rich, which leaves Jason Isbell as a party of one. Sure, there are others doing his act, just nowhere near as well. But if we all listened to "Speed Trap Town" and saw Isbell's path as viable...
Maybe Jason had nothing more to lose. He wasn't on the fast track. He could take risks. Which is why our greatest art rarely comes from the educated and privileged, who usually play it safe. Jason Isbell is risking it all, he doesn't care what we think.
Which is why we care so much.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1TvMaOK
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That's right, they were both in bands that didn't work out for them and went solo and suddenly got acclaim, Ryan Adams on an indie label with "Heartbreaker," with its masterpiece "My Winding Wheel." But if you listen to "Gold," the follow-up, you'll discover "New York, New York" was one of the weakest songs on the LP. an album-opening ditty made to appeal to the casual listener, and neither Adams nor Isbell is for those driving by, they're for the cognoscenti, the diehard fan. But labels are flummoxed and they point to the catchy tune when anyone who believes knows that the track on "Gold" is the slow burner "Nobody Girl," and the track on Jason Isbell's "Something More Than Free" is "Speed Trap Town," a song that no one writes about that stopped me in my tracks when I was listening to it way past midnight in the Santa Monica Mountains.
We're looking for something human, that touches us, that helps us make sense of this complicated world, that makes us feel not so alone. But the music business has given up on this paradigm, it's just too difficult, because if you take the non-pop road you've got to deliver on an "A" level, you can't fake it if you want to survive. But for those of us who live for the sound, who are waiting to be soothed and made to feel life is worth living, these are the tracks we're looking for, the ones that cannot be categorized that ooze truth and the whole ball of wax we call life.
"Well it's a Thursday night, but there's a high school game"
That's what you do when you live in nowheresville, go to high school sports, even though you've graduated and you no longer care, if you ever did. But there are so few options. Thank god for the internet, used to be the small town was literally death for those who stayed, emotional, if not physical. If only you could get up the gumption to leave...
"Sneak a bottle up the bleachers and forget my name"
The boonies will make you an alcoholic. I know, I lived there. There's nothing to do. First you drink for the excitement, then you drink to get away from your everyday life, and then you drink in the hope of having the greatest night of your life and when you wake up hung over the next morning having failed in your quest the depression is so overpowering all you can do is lie in bed with the phone turned off and wait for the darkness.
"And it never did occur to me to leave 'til tonight"
I always wanted to get out. From my hometown. From Middlebury, Vermont. I wanted to go where nobody knew my name and I could continue to be anonymous unless I happened to do something great. The smaller the town the more people you know, but the harder it is to escape from your branding, the preconception everybody formed of you on Day One, however inaccurate.
"And there's no one left to ask if I'm all right"
That's when the wind of loneliness blows hardest, when you're needy and you discover there's no one who cares. You go to school and everybody's down your throat, telling you what to do, and then you graduate and no one cares about you, you've aged out, you've become an adult, even though you still feel like a child.
"The doctor said Daddy wouldn't make it a year
But the holidays are over and he's still here"
He's conflicted. He loves his dad but he doesn't. He doesn't want to abandon him but he wants him to be gone. But it keeps dragging on. He's looking for the release of being an orphan, of being free, that's what they don't tell you about losing a parent, as sad as it is there's an incredible sense of freedom, you can finally grow up and do what you want, without judgment.
"He didn't care about us when he was walking around
Just pulling women over in a speed trap town"
How do you square the biology with the practicality? When your loved ones are not like those depicted on television. Life is chiaroscuro but too often it's portrayed as black and white. And until you gain the confidence to know that everybody is insecure, has more questions than answers, you feel inadequate.
"I'll sleep until I'm straight enough to drive, then decide
If there's anything that can't be left behind"
The truth is you can leave it all behind, but you're scared of being that naked and free, without anyone to bounce off of, to complain about. Too many stay because they're too scared to leave. But you've got to go, you've got to save yourself.
"The road got blurry when the sun came up
So I slept a couple hours in the pickup truck
Drank a cup of coffee by an Indian mound
A thousand miles away from that speed trap town
A thousand miles away from that speed trap town"
What did James Taylor sing, "There's nothing like a hundred miles between me and trouble in my mind"? But that was back in '76, when we looked to singers for answers, before the dash for cash made our country coarser, before the artists started telling us how much better they were than us, before we stopped looking to music for answers.
And I'm not sure there are any answers in "Speed Trap Town," on all of "Something More Than Free," but the truth is even Bob Dylan was confused, he could only sing what he saw and hope that we resonated.
We did.
And I resonate with "Speed Trap Town."
And truly, the words are secondary. It's more about the sound. The spareness. That loping acoustic guitar providing the rhythm, that electric guitar wailing in pain, "Speed Trap Town" sounds like the prairie, sounds like somewhere barren, which we know everything about even if we've never left the city, because we've all experienced emotional barrenness. And that's when we turn to music.
I don't know what happens to the music industry, hell, I don't know what happens to our country, with income inequality and global warming, but I do know I'm looking for a needle in a haystack.
And in this case I've found one.
Don't let the relentless hype turn you off.
Jason Isbell is not that good. Steve Earle's "Guitar Town" is a classic, "Something More Than Free" is not. But back when Steve cut that nailing the experience with an acoustic guitar and some words was a goal, like writing the Great American Novel in the fifties, now music is mostly about getting rich, which leaves Jason Isbell as a party of one. Sure, there are others doing his act, just nowhere near as well. But if we all listened to "Speed Trap Town" and saw Isbell's path as viable...
Maybe Jason had nothing more to lose. He wasn't on the fast track. He could take risks. Which is why our greatest art rarely comes from the educated and privileged, who usually play it safe. Jason Isbell is risking it all, he doesn't care what we think.
Which is why we care so much.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1TvMaOK
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Thursday 13 August 2015
FanGram
I spoke at the METal meeting.
http://metalinternational.com
Don't worry, I hadn't heard of it either. But its majordomo implored me to come and my shrink was on vacation so I decided to get up early and appear.
It was the opposite of the music business.
The music business is populated by uneducated hustlers, people who do their best to triumph on bluster, employing smoke and mirrors. Their main goal is to get you to believe they're a winner, and to dedicate time to checking their effort out, whereas the METal attendees are the same, but different. Because it takes a lot more money and smarts to make an app, to play in the tech world.
It reminded me of nothing so much as the Homebrew Computer Club, where the two Steves made their debut, introducing the Apple computer.
Which got little reaction, by the way. Don't be put off by jealousy. Your compatriots don't want you to make it, to pull ahead, because that leaves them behind. Chances are if you succeed you're going to get a whole new set of friends, the same way Howard Stern was invited to Jennifer Aniston's wedding. You're nobody and then the door opens. But it opens for very few.
Now the entrance barrier to METal isn't nonexistent, unlike in music. You've got to pay $100 a month, and $35 every time you attend. Supposedly the latter fee is for breakfast, and they had everything from pastry to fruit, but the older we get the less we're interested in carbs and the truth is I tanked up before I left the house.
The first thing I noticed was no women. And I was about to get on my high horse and complain about this but then someone clued me in, they can't come. Well, once a month only. Because otherwise no work is done, everybody's peacocking around to impress the ladies. But the ladies have their own group, that meets every couple of weeks.
And the goal of the group is to make investments. This one guy was an MD who was funding a microscope and I thought it was all kind of fantastical until he laid out the numbers. A billion dollar marketplace and his product was going to cost a fraction of those now dominating. And he'd had one victory already. And I wondered if everybody was a winner. I'm not sure.
First speaker was Nolan Bushnell. That's right, Mr. Atari, Mr. Chuck E. Cheese. He talked about the future, virtual reality and augmented reality. He believed in the latter. He said the former made you sick, and you didn't get over the illness so fast.
And then there was this guy who worked with Oliver Stone who talked about advertising. And I hated and loved him at the same time. Because I hated the manipulation, but I could tell it was real. He had it down to a science.
And then there was the run-down on new products. Most exciting was a camera. Who needs a new standalone camera, right? But this cheap device has sensors that not only help it decide what to record, but can automatically edit together a clip of everything you did all day. It was fascinating, it's a winner.
And then there was the company that tells you what to eat based on your DNA.
But what I found most fascinating was FanGram.
What I love about Los Angeles is so much is happening right under are noses. Hell, I saw Bob Costas on Rodeo Drive earlier today, at least I think it was Bob... But while we're focusing on celebrities, in Santa Monica especially is a whole bunch of unheralded techies who are trying to change the world. This guy put 150k of his own money into trying to make sense of social media.
So this is how it works...
It's an app. Mobile is everything. It presently only works on iOS. All the apps start on iOS. You may love your Android, but not only are you susceptible to viruses, you're one step behind in the tech world, trash it for an iPhone, immediately.
So, FanGram has scraped the web. Found every personality (even me!) And when you search and find them, there are buttons, for news, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, everywhere the personality plays. You click on the icons and you get the info.
And below this part of the screen is every bit of news about the personality.
And below that is everybody who's related to the personality, who you might want to follow.
And that's right, you can follow people.
But what I find most amazing is FanGram makes social media comprehensible. Puts all the services in one place. Because the truth is we want to follow people, that's where it all starts. And on Twitter it's all mashed up and it keeps loading and you're overwhelmed. On FanGram it all suddenly makes sense.
This is the future. We've got enough services, how do we integrate them and make them comprehensible?
It's what we're looking for in music, but haven't found yet.
Now METal is run by Ken Rutkowski, who's got a radio show syndicated around the country that focuses on innovators. Ken gets cut into the deals, he provides his network and expertise.
And it's all happening here in L.A.
And I'd love to tell you you need to go, but the longer I sat there the more I saw the difference between tech and art. Everybody's trying to get rich in both, but when everything works the end result in art is so much more satisfying to me.
But art is a tsunami of product that no one can make sense of.
We need a FanGram for art.
I'm waiting...
http://www.fangram.com/getinvitation/
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http://metalinternational.com
Don't worry, I hadn't heard of it either. But its majordomo implored me to come and my shrink was on vacation so I decided to get up early and appear.
It was the opposite of the music business.
The music business is populated by uneducated hustlers, people who do their best to triumph on bluster, employing smoke and mirrors. Their main goal is to get you to believe they're a winner, and to dedicate time to checking their effort out, whereas the METal attendees are the same, but different. Because it takes a lot more money and smarts to make an app, to play in the tech world.
It reminded me of nothing so much as the Homebrew Computer Club, where the two Steves made their debut, introducing the Apple computer.
Which got little reaction, by the way. Don't be put off by jealousy. Your compatriots don't want you to make it, to pull ahead, because that leaves them behind. Chances are if you succeed you're going to get a whole new set of friends, the same way Howard Stern was invited to Jennifer Aniston's wedding. You're nobody and then the door opens. But it opens for very few.
Now the entrance barrier to METal isn't nonexistent, unlike in music. You've got to pay $100 a month, and $35 every time you attend. Supposedly the latter fee is for breakfast, and they had everything from pastry to fruit, but the older we get the less we're interested in carbs and the truth is I tanked up before I left the house.
The first thing I noticed was no women. And I was about to get on my high horse and complain about this but then someone clued me in, they can't come. Well, once a month only. Because otherwise no work is done, everybody's peacocking around to impress the ladies. But the ladies have their own group, that meets every couple of weeks.
And the goal of the group is to make investments. This one guy was an MD who was funding a microscope and I thought it was all kind of fantastical until he laid out the numbers. A billion dollar marketplace and his product was going to cost a fraction of those now dominating. And he'd had one victory already. And I wondered if everybody was a winner. I'm not sure.
First speaker was Nolan Bushnell. That's right, Mr. Atari, Mr. Chuck E. Cheese. He talked about the future, virtual reality and augmented reality. He believed in the latter. He said the former made you sick, and you didn't get over the illness so fast.
And then there was this guy who worked with Oliver Stone who talked about advertising. And I hated and loved him at the same time. Because I hated the manipulation, but I could tell it was real. He had it down to a science.
And then there was the run-down on new products. Most exciting was a camera. Who needs a new standalone camera, right? But this cheap device has sensors that not only help it decide what to record, but can automatically edit together a clip of everything you did all day. It was fascinating, it's a winner.
And then there was the company that tells you what to eat based on your DNA.
But what I found most fascinating was FanGram.
What I love about Los Angeles is so much is happening right under are noses. Hell, I saw Bob Costas on Rodeo Drive earlier today, at least I think it was Bob... But while we're focusing on celebrities, in Santa Monica especially is a whole bunch of unheralded techies who are trying to change the world. This guy put 150k of his own money into trying to make sense of social media.
So this is how it works...
It's an app. Mobile is everything. It presently only works on iOS. All the apps start on iOS. You may love your Android, but not only are you susceptible to viruses, you're one step behind in the tech world, trash it for an iPhone, immediately.
So, FanGram has scraped the web. Found every personality (even me!) And when you search and find them, there are buttons, for news, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, everywhere the personality plays. You click on the icons and you get the info.
And below this part of the screen is every bit of news about the personality.
And below that is everybody who's related to the personality, who you might want to follow.
And that's right, you can follow people.
But what I find most amazing is FanGram makes social media comprehensible. Puts all the services in one place. Because the truth is we want to follow people, that's where it all starts. And on Twitter it's all mashed up and it keeps loading and you're overwhelmed. On FanGram it all suddenly makes sense.
This is the future. We've got enough services, how do we integrate them and make them comprehensible?
It's what we're looking for in music, but haven't found yet.
Now METal is run by Ken Rutkowski, who's got a radio show syndicated around the country that focuses on innovators. Ken gets cut into the deals, he provides his network and expertise.
And it's all happening here in L.A.
And I'd love to tell you you need to go, but the longer I sat there the more I saw the difference between tech and art. Everybody's trying to get rich in both, but when everything works the end result in art is so much more satisfying to me.
But art is a tsunami of product that no one can make sense of.
We need a FanGram for art.
I'm waiting...
http://www.fangram.com/getinvitation/
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Wednesday 12 August 2015
Playing Up A Storm
Bob-
Jeff Stevens here, I thought I'd "part the curtain" and give you a look inside :) When you said "The advantage of being Nashville's biggest star is you get to play with the biggest and best players." I knew I had to reply. My son Jody Stevens and I worked in studios on this album for 7 months straight, pretty much 7 days a week. Some of the songs were recorded and played totally "in the box" by Jody in our little studio, like "Home Alone Tonight" and we brought in Jimmie Lee Sloas on bass and Adam Shoenfeld on electric guitar as overdubs on that one.
"Huntin', Fishin' and Lovin' Everyday" however was as old school Nashville recording as it gets. We tracked it at beautiful Ocean Way studio A through the Neve 8078 with Derek Bason at the helm. We did have the best players in the world available to us and they came when asked. That's Greg Morrow on drums, Mark Hill on bass guitar, JT Corenflos and Kenny Greenberg on electric guitar, Ilya Toshinsky on acoustic guitar and banjo and Mike Rojas on the Hammond B3. The album credits don't give specifics on who played what so I'm thrilled to shine a light on these gentlemen.
Upon taking his seat and picking up his famous among musicians, blueTele, JT Corenflos clicked on that wonderful throwback phaser tone and delivered the signature lick and subsequent direction of the track. Mark Hill's simple bass line punctuates the lyric wonderfully in the choruses, sounding more like the bass player that wrote the song instead of a world class musician. Ilya Toshinsky's banjo at the end of the track sounds like a four year old boy chasing a butterfly "through a field downwind". We only took a second pass at recording it because everyone was having so much fun on the first pass we couldn't remember if it was any good or not and besides that everybody wanted to play it again!
Luke sang his lead at "The Pond" studio at Starstruck (another beautiful facility) improvising many of the lyrics that you hear including "ya'll close them eyes, let's go there in our minds" and "Mercury". Perry Coleman stepped up to the microphone and after hearing Luke's vocal track delivered an incredibly inspired background vocal. You can hardly call it a background vocal, he gave it more of a group or duo feel. Again, like your brother was over there singing.
Derek Bason tore into it at his mix station which is also in "The Pond" using the SSL 9000J, tons of old school outboard gear and he rendered the world class mix that it deserved. Put on a good set of headphones and listen to Luke records, listen to Carrie Underwood records. Derek Bason is a genius who still knows how to make the big records.
I've loved recording with computers at my home ever since I did it first in the early 90's but even the most talented musical programmer/musician with the latest plug-ins cannot model the feel and heart these folks achieved on this track. You are correct, you don't get these sounds at home.
Have a great day!
Jeff Stevens
PS: I want to emphasize how fortunate we feel in todays market to have the budget to go in and record a track such as this.
______________________________________
From: Tom Gilbert
Subject: Re: Luke Bryan Live From Irving Plaza
Hey Bob,
Just wanted to share, that's my father in law playing pedal steel on "Play It Again" - although it doesn't really sound like your typical steel in that tune! You might enjoy this video: https://youtu.be/FdtvenGLWHw
Russ Pahl is an innovator on the instrument and can be heard on countless records.
Always enjoy your rants. Cheers.
Tom
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Jeff Stevens here, I thought I'd "part the curtain" and give you a look inside :) When you said "The advantage of being Nashville's biggest star is you get to play with the biggest and best players." I knew I had to reply. My son Jody Stevens and I worked in studios on this album for 7 months straight, pretty much 7 days a week. Some of the songs were recorded and played totally "in the box" by Jody in our little studio, like "Home Alone Tonight" and we brought in Jimmie Lee Sloas on bass and Adam Shoenfeld on electric guitar as overdubs on that one.
"Huntin', Fishin' and Lovin' Everyday" however was as old school Nashville recording as it gets. We tracked it at beautiful Ocean Way studio A through the Neve 8078 with Derek Bason at the helm. We did have the best players in the world available to us and they came when asked. That's Greg Morrow on drums, Mark Hill on bass guitar, JT Corenflos and Kenny Greenberg on electric guitar, Ilya Toshinsky on acoustic guitar and banjo and Mike Rojas on the Hammond B3. The album credits don't give specifics on who played what so I'm thrilled to shine a light on these gentlemen.
Upon taking his seat and picking up his famous among musicians, blueTele, JT Corenflos clicked on that wonderful throwback phaser tone and delivered the signature lick and subsequent direction of the track. Mark Hill's simple bass line punctuates the lyric wonderfully in the choruses, sounding more like the bass player that wrote the song instead of a world class musician. Ilya Toshinsky's banjo at the end of the track sounds like a four year old boy chasing a butterfly "through a field downwind". We only took a second pass at recording it because everyone was having so much fun on the first pass we couldn't remember if it was any good or not and besides that everybody wanted to play it again!
Luke sang his lead at "The Pond" studio at Starstruck (another beautiful facility) improvising many of the lyrics that you hear including "ya'll close them eyes, let's go there in our minds" and "Mercury". Perry Coleman stepped up to the microphone and after hearing Luke's vocal track delivered an incredibly inspired background vocal. You can hardly call it a background vocal, he gave it more of a group or duo feel. Again, like your brother was over there singing.
Derek Bason tore into it at his mix station which is also in "The Pond" using the SSL 9000J, tons of old school outboard gear and he rendered the world class mix that it deserved. Put on a good set of headphones and listen to Luke records, listen to Carrie Underwood records. Derek Bason is a genius who still knows how to make the big records.
I've loved recording with computers at my home ever since I did it first in the early 90's but even the most talented musical programmer/musician with the latest plug-ins cannot model the feel and heart these folks achieved on this track. You are correct, you don't get these sounds at home.
Have a great day!
Jeff Stevens
PS: I want to emphasize how fortunate we feel in todays market to have the budget to go in and record a track such as this.
______________________________________
From: Tom Gilbert
Subject: Re: Luke Bryan Live From Irving Plaza
Hey Bob,
Just wanted to share, that's my father in law playing pedal steel on "Play It Again" - although it doesn't really sound like your typical steel in that tune! You might enjoy this video: https://youtu.be/FdtvenGLWHw
Russ Pahl is an innovator on the instrument and can be heard on countless records.
Always enjoy your rants. Cheers.
Tom
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Tuesday 11 August 2015
What We Know
No one can know all the records, but god forbid you admit this, you're pilloried by the self-anointed cognoscenti who believe they're single-handedly carrying the torch of credibility and without them music would die.
Ubiquity died in 2013. Everybody knew "Get Lucky," "Blurred Lines" and "Royals." Today a star is someone who appeals to few who gets their name in all the media to the point they annoy us and we hate people we have never heard the music of.
Brands kill bands. But businessmen love to commission and players are so angry no one knows them they tie in with corporations to get ahead but they're being left behind. Your best hope is to align yourself with those who care, your fans, who will ensure longevity if you play it right. Best example, Wilco. The press loves them, their fans do too, and nobody who doesn't care already ever will. This is the modern paradigm. Just as long as you're willing to be Wilco. (And no amount of press about their free album in an era where everything is free and Jeff Tweedy's album with his son will make anybody listen to the music who hasn't been listening already. This is akin to Phish. It's the same damn 20k at every gig. We know who the band is, we don't want to go. But Phish is rich on the backs of these fans. And their business sustains without media attention. And both Wilco and Phish have never sold out and their careers have lasted decades when popsters can't draw an audience a year
after their last hit.)
Executives have longer careers than the bands they champion. But no one under thirty with a brain wants to be a record executive because it's a cutthroat business where you can't make as much money as you can in tech or Wall Street and the main criterion for success is street smarts. Which is why book smart people without relationship skills never succeed in the music industry. This will sustain. Music cannot be quantified, so those into data and scale are doomed to the sidelines, to being peripheral players.
Say yes on the way up and no once you arrive. That's the power of success. You're hungry for any opportunity, any thrown bone, when you've got no status, but once you do...you hide behind your advisors. If you want to succeed in the music business align yourself with those on the bottom, no one on top needs your help.
Everyone is time-challenged. Realize this and deliver something bite-sized and instantly consumable that people can digest and testify about. Of course, you could turn this paradigm on its head, releasing one long "Tubular Bells"-type album, but what you do had better be revolutionary.
Records are the starting point, not the end point. Records are a way you hook your audience. Do nothing to get in the way of having people experience your music, make it available everywhere. It's a privilege for people to listen.
No one cares about music but the players and the listeners. Be skeptical of the streaming services and the rest of the techies, never mind the brands.
If you want to be instantly famous you've got to get on the radio. If you don't make music that is played on the radio, if you make this music but you are not aligned with a major label, you're going to have a long, hard slog of a career. Don't shoot the messenger. In an era of chaos, people look to filters. Which is why radio goes on music last and plays so few records. You may hate this, but it makes what's played comprehensible to the audience, which finds there are other people listening to what they are. Only losers want to live in a Tower of Babel society.
The music business is more exciting than the music. It's got twists and turns and revolutions. Whereas the music is me-too pop or substandard mediocrities played by people who just don't understand that the way you succeed is to have all the skills yet do something different. Jackson Pollock didn't start out with abstract expressionism, he jumped off from the basics. The Beatles couldn't cut the White Album, never mind "Sgt. Pepper," back in '64.
No one wants to hear complaints. Life is tough for everybody. You chose your path, make the most of it.
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Ubiquity died in 2013. Everybody knew "Get Lucky," "Blurred Lines" and "Royals." Today a star is someone who appeals to few who gets their name in all the media to the point they annoy us and we hate people we have never heard the music of.
Brands kill bands. But businessmen love to commission and players are so angry no one knows them they tie in with corporations to get ahead but they're being left behind. Your best hope is to align yourself with those who care, your fans, who will ensure longevity if you play it right. Best example, Wilco. The press loves them, their fans do too, and nobody who doesn't care already ever will. This is the modern paradigm. Just as long as you're willing to be Wilco. (And no amount of press about their free album in an era where everything is free and Jeff Tweedy's album with his son will make anybody listen to the music who hasn't been listening already. This is akin to Phish. It's the same damn 20k at every gig. We know who the band is, we don't want to go. But Phish is rich on the backs of these fans. And their business sustains without media attention. And both Wilco and Phish have never sold out and their careers have lasted decades when popsters can't draw an audience a year
after their last hit.)
Executives have longer careers than the bands they champion. But no one under thirty with a brain wants to be a record executive because it's a cutthroat business where you can't make as much money as you can in tech or Wall Street and the main criterion for success is street smarts. Which is why book smart people without relationship skills never succeed in the music industry. This will sustain. Music cannot be quantified, so those into data and scale are doomed to the sidelines, to being peripheral players.
Say yes on the way up and no once you arrive. That's the power of success. You're hungry for any opportunity, any thrown bone, when you've got no status, but once you do...you hide behind your advisors. If you want to succeed in the music business align yourself with those on the bottom, no one on top needs your help.
Everyone is time-challenged. Realize this and deliver something bite-sized and instantly consumable that people can digest and testify about. Of course, you could turn this paradigm on its head, releasing one long "Tubular Bells"-type album, but what you do had better be revolutionary.
Records are the starting point, not the end point. Records are a way you hook your audience. Do nothing to get in the way of having people experience your music, make it available everywhere. It's a privilege for people to listen.
No one cares about music but the players and the listeners. Be skeptical of the streaming services and the rest of the techies, never mind the brands.
If you want to be instantly famous you've got to get on the radio. If you don't make music that is played on the radio, if you make this music but you are not aligned with a major label, you're going to have a long, hard slog of a career. Don't shoot the messenger. In an era of chaos, people look to filters. Which is why radio goes on music last and plays so few records. You may hate this, but it makes what's played comprehensible to the audience, which finds there are other people listening to what they are. Only losers want to live in a Tower of Babel society.
The music business is more exciting than the music. It's got twists and turns and revolutions. Whereas the music is me-too pop or substandard mediocrities played by people who just don't understand that the way you succeed is to have all the skills yet do something different. Jackson Pollock didn't start out with abstract expressionism, he jumped off from the basics. The Beatles couldn't cut the White Album, never mind "Sgt. Pepper," back in '64.
No one wants to hear complaints. Life is tough for everybody. You chose your path, make the most of it.
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Trump Rules
1. Money changes everything.
If Donald Trump were poor, he'd have no traction. He gets attention, and in many cases a pass, because he's a billionaire. That's the nation we live in, one in which the rich have the power and the poor believe the loaded are better than they are. Or, that they too can become a billionaire, if they just work hard enough, even though statistically odds of upgrading are better in Canada and Europe. The rich have been crapping on the downtrodden poor for so long they believe it. We watch the Kardashians, we believe Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are saints, is it any wonder people look up to Donald Trump?
2. Television is the most powerful medium in America.
It turned Howard Stern into a household name and it did the same for Donald Trump. If you're on television you're a star. What is the goal of the YouTube and Vine stars? To be on TV! It's a hurdle that's hard to jump. If Snooki and Kim Kardashian could be built by television, it's not hard to understand Trump's mindshare/traction.
3. Runaway media.
Insiders control the story, at least they believe they do. They said Trump was dead after his comments about McCain, ditto regarding his comments about Megyn Kelly. But what the internet era has taught us is that stories outside the usual narrative start online and traditional news media is the last to come on board. And that traditional news media is often wrong. And that what it likes best is ratings. Trump is irrelevant, soon to be forgotten, a footnote in history, even smaller than that of Ross Perot and Ralph Nader, but don't expect any perspective from the media.
4. Media lasts longer than those it covers.
Trump will long be forgotten whilst Megyn Kelly continues to testify. Keeping the story going is nearly impossible, which is why Kim Kardashian tweeted a naked pregnant photo today. She wants to stay in the public eye, and it's hard to do this if you're not outrageous. Want to get mindshare? Create a new story every day, the crazier the better. Drake drops mixtapes while old wave acts work the same album for years. That's a great way to be forgotten. What Taylor Swift does best is keep her name in the news. You should follow her example if you want a lasting career. Then again, getting started is so difficult, it's best to be on TV! (But don't think being on late night shows, certainly other than Fallon, makes a difference. And never forget that YouTube is narrowcasting, you may have a 100 million views, but it's to a self-selected group, TV allows you to reach beyond them.)
5. Fox News is not as powerful as you think.
It blinked. Trump brought the outlet to its knees. Fox only mentioned Trump's Megyn Kelly blood comments once, CNN more than 50 times. Read here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/11/why-donald-trump-got-the-best-of-fox-news/?tid=sm_tw
(Furthermore, ever since Jeff Bezos bought the "Washington Post" it has greatly improved. How did he do this? BY SPENDING MONEY! Our entire nation has a hedge fund mind-set. Reduce head count, strip the assets, take out your share and then pawn whatever's left on the next loser. You make money by spending money, and he who is cutting back is ultimately losing.)
6. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Sports is the best example, there they call it "working the ref." That's what Trump has done here, he's bitched loudly to get the media to blink, Fox certainly has (once again, read that WaPo article linked to above). Trump has belly-flopped like an NBA player, he's bitched and whined and has refused to go away, has refused to apologize, he's the perfect American, where no one makes a mistake and bluster is everything, and you wonder why our nation is in trouble...no one can learn anything, no one can adjust their opinion, no one can say they're wrong.
7. Don't blink.
It may be a suicide mission, but you can't give up, you can't question your desire and your goal, that's how you break through the noise. Once you've made it you may be revealed to be a buffoon, but few make it. Trump has been trying to run for President for decades, this is the first time it's worked.
8. Gimme some truth.
Actually, I don't believe Trump believes all of what he says. He's looking at endgame, and he knows people are frustrated by politicians and want to hear something that sounds passionate, from the inside. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat but when Hillary Clinton said her favorite book was the Bible my eyes rolled and I prayed someone else would run. Trump appears to be telling his truth. Clinton appears to be triangulating. If you want to succeed today you must have the appearance of authenticity, credibility is even better, but that's even harder to achieve. Trump resonates with a minor part of the public which is sick of being cast aside, which knows its reality and wants to believe someone else is talking about it.
9. We live in a star economy.
I watched the debate because Trump was on it, without him I'm passing. And even though he was belligerent, he had a patina of real, he didn't seem to be adjusting to placate a theoretical voter who might not even exist. His competitors were so phony and so FOS that I was rolling my eyes.
10. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Trump may have a bad hairstyle, but he looked more put together than so many of his compatriots, who were not wearing expensive suits and furthermore had worse hair, transplants and combovers and what exactly is that on the front of Rand Paul's head? If you want our respect, dress for success. Nixon lost to Kennedy because he looked like a schlump, and these guys don't even get a stylist. I don't want someone who doesn't understand the game they're playing. Schlumpiness is Bernie Sanders's shtick, but aren't the Republicans supposed to be the party of the rich? And put together?
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If Donald Trump were poor, he'd have no traction. He gets attention, and in many cases a pass, because he's a billionaire. That's the nation we live in, one in which the rich have the power and the poor believe the loaded are better than they are. Or, that they too can become a billionaire, if they just work hard enough, even though statistically odds of upgrading are better in Canada and Europe. The rich have been crapping on the downtrodden poor for so long they believe it. We watch the Kardashians, we believe Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are saints, is it any wonder people look up to Donald Trump?
2. Television is the most powerful medium in America.
It turned Howard Stern into a household name and it did the same for Donald Trump. If you're on television you're a star. What is the goal of the YouTube and Vine stars? To be on TV! It's a hurdle that's hard to jump. If Snooki and Kim Kardashian could be built by television, it's not hard to understand Trump's mindshare/traction.
3. Runaway media.
Insiders control the story, at least they believe they do. They said Trump was dead after his comments about McCain, ditto regarding his comments about Megyn Kelly. But what the internet era has taught us is that stories outside the usual narrative start online and traditional news media is the last to come on board. And that traditional news media is often wrong. And that what it likes best is ratings. Trump is irrelevant, soon to be forgotten, a footnote in history, even smaller than that of Ross Perot and Ralph Nader, but don't expect any perspective from the media.
4. Media lasts longer than those it covers.
Trump will long be forgotten whilst Megyn Kelly continues to testify. Keeping the story going is nearly impossible, which is why Kim Kardashian tweeted a naked pregnant photo today. She wants to stay in the public eye, and it's hard to do this if you're not outrageous. Want to get mindshare? Create a new story every day, the crazier the better. Drake drops mixtapes while old wave acts work the same album for years. That's a great way to be forgotten. What Taylor Swift does best is keep her name in the news. You should follow her example if you want a lasting career. Then again, getting started is so difficult, it's best to be on TV! (But don't think being on late night shows, certainly other than Fallon, makes a difference. And never forget that YouTube is narrowcasting, you may have a 100 million views, but it's to a self-selected group, TV allows you to reach beyond them.)
5. Fox News is not as powerful as you think.
It blinked. Trump brought the outlet to its knees. Fox only mentioned Trump's Megyn Kelly blood comments once, CNN more than 50 times. Read here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/11/why-donald-trump-got-the-best-of-fox-news/?tid=sm_tw
(Furthermore, ever since Jeff Bezos bought the "Washington Post" it has greatly improved. How did he do this? BY SPENDING MONEY! Our entire nation has a hedge fund mind-set. Reduce head count, strip the assets, take out your share and then pawn whatever's left on the next loser. You make money by spending money, and he who is cutting back is ultimately losing.)
6. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Sports is the best example, there they call it "working the ref." That's what Trump has done here, he's bitched loudly to get the media to blink, Fox certainly has (once again, read that WaPo article linked to above). Trump has belly-flopped like an NBA player, he's bitched and whined and has refused to go away, has refused to apologize, he's the perfect American, where no one makes a mistake and bluster is everything, and you wonder why our nation is in trouble...no one can learn anything, no one can adjust their opinion, no one can say they're wrong.
7. Don't blink.
It may be a suicide mission, but you can't give up, you can't question your desire and your goal, that's how you break through the noise. Once you've made it you may be revealed to be a buffoon, but few make it. Trump has been trying to run for President for decades, this is the first time it's worked.
8. Gimme some truth.
Actually, I don't believe Trump believes all of what he says. He's looking at endgame, and he knows people are frustrated by politicians and want to hear something that sounds passionate, from the inside. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat but when Hillary Clinton said her favorite book was the Bible my eyes rolled and I prayed someone else would run. Trump appears to be telling his truth. Clinton appears to be triangulating. If you want to succeed today you must have the appearance of authenticity, credibility is even better, but that's even harder to achieve. Trump resonates with a minor part of the public which is sick of being cast aside, which knows its reality and wants to believe someone else is talking about it.
9. We live in a star economy.
I watched the debate because Trump was on it, without him I'm passing. And even though he was belligerent, he had a patina of real, he didn't seem to be adjusting to placate a theoretical voter who might not even exist. His competitors were so phony and so FOS that I was rolling my eyes.
10. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Trump may have a bad hairstyle, but he looked more put together than so many of his compatriots, who were not wearing expensive suits and furthermore had worse hair, transplants and combovers and what exactly is that on the front of Rand Paul's head? If you want our respect, dress for success. Nixon lost to Kennedy because he looked like a schlump, and these guys don't even get a stylist. I don't want someone who doesn't understand the game they're playing. Schlumpiness is Bernie Sanders's shtick, but aren't the Republicans supposed to be the party of the rich? And put together?
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Monday 10 August 2015
Utterly Hysterical!
From: Kirk Turner
Re: Want To Want Me
Hey Bob! Just thought it was interesting that you wrote posts about Luke Bryan and Jason Derulo separately this weekend and now they are singing a duet together using a karaoke app.
IT'S LIKE YOU PREDICTED THE FUTURE.
Here's the duet on Smule's website: http://bit.ly/1htFc0O
Here it is on Luke's Facebook page with 7 million views already: http://on.fb.me/1MYMO8E
Press:
http://usat.ly/1L20ejL
http://bit.ly/1Nmnt5q
http://bit.ly/1TlsflI
(Note: Turner works at Smule, but he is not the only one I heard from regarding this.)
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Re: Want To Want Me
Hey Bob! Just thought it was interesting that you wrote posts about Luke Bryan and Jason Derulo separately this weekend and now they are singing a duet together using a karaoke app.
IT'S LIKE YOU PREDICTED THE FUTURE.
Here's the duet on Smule's website: http://bit.ly/1htFc0O
Here it is on Luke's Facebook page with 7 million views already: http://on.fb.me/1MYMO8E
Press:
http://usat.ly/1L20ejL
http://bit.ly/1Nmnt5q
http://bit.ly/1TlsflI
(Note: Turner works at Smule, but he is not the only one I heard from regarding this.)
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Huntin', Fishin' And Lovin' Every Day
I'm gonna get to Jason Isbell. The track is "Speed Trap Town." What I hate about the media is they focus on the work track, the one the label promotes that it believes will appeal to the most, mostly those who do not care, whereas "Speed Trap Town" is a quiet, intimate song you'll never hear on the radio that will draw you into your alienation and loneliness and make you believe in music as the most powerful artistic medium and make you wonder where Nashville went. But having said all that...
Luke Bryan's new album is loaded with hits, it's not a disappointment, but it's this one song that closed me immediately, that I liked from first listen, that too will probably not ever be played on the radio.
Not that "Speed Trap Town" and "Huntin', Fishin' And Lovin' Every Day" are the same song or mood, the latter is slower too, but what "Huntin', Fishin' And Lovin' Every Day" is about is the dream, what if we could do only what we wanted to do, 24/7...
I tried that. In Utah. Oh, I had to work a day job, but the truth is it's the people who got to me, they had no ambition, and only wanted to talk skiing all day, and after a month you've covered it all, but that does not mean I don't love the mountains, sliding down the hill. And now with the high speed lifts and modern communication techniques such that you can live and work anywhere/everywhere that is my dream, to get a few hours in every day, not to be a weekend warrior, but to be wedded to my desire, just like Luke Bryan wants to hunt, fish and love.
And the truth is if the lyrics were about something completely different, "Huntin', Fishin' And Lovin' Every Day" would still be a killer. It's kind of like those long tracks of yore, the slow burners you played in your dorm room, taped for play in your car, that set your mind free as you contemplated this great nation of ours. And the truth is the music rooted you, made it all make sense.
There's a lot of magic before Luke even starts to sing. The axes start to twang, set the mood, and then Luke starts singin' "Whoa-oh-oh" and you're suddenly in the church of rock and roll, and if you don't think today's country is the rock they said would never die, you haven't listened.
"If I could make a livin' from walkin' in the woods
You can bet I'd be sittin' pretty good
High on a hill, looking at a field downwind"
There's the conundrum. Do we follow our heart's desire or do what society tells us. Do we even get a choice? Used to be we did, back when there was a middle class and you could survive on minimum wage, I certainly did, in both Los Angeles and Sandy, Utah. But today you're either on the road to success or you're left behind. And no one wants to marry a loser. And soon you do what's practical and leave your heart's desire behind, just ask all those freshly minted MBAs working on Wall Street with no free time.
"I love it when my baby wants to roll with me
Throws her boots on, climbs in a tree
Tuckin' her hair in my hat and she's ready to go"
Want to endear yourself to your man? Be game, do what he does, nothing will put a smile on his face more. He'll suddenly deliver whatever you want, your heart's desire, all he's looking for is a friend, a companion, one who gets him instead of ribbing him, like his buddies.
But like I said, the magic in "Huntin', Fishin' And Lovin' Every Day" is not the lyrics, but the music. The advantage of being Nashville's biggest star is you get to play with the biggest and best players. It's Nashville keeping Guitar Center alive. When you hear these guys wail... And they don't get these sounds at home, they work in the big studio with pros and the sound is so rich you want nothing so much as to part the curtain and get inside, immerse yourself in the sound.
"So while y'all are up there
Breathin' in that old dirty air
I'll be down here, knee deep, in the Muckalee"
That's the truth, life is for the living, those on the accumulation path, of money and fame, are rarely as happy as those who know it's all about experience and feeling. You don't have to be Donald Trump, drive a Ferrari and date a model to be happy. Hell, chances are you won't be happy at all. Because those are markers established by society, whereas inside we all have feelings, a dream of who we want to be, and if you pursue that...you're on the road to happiness.
Assuming you can pay the bills.
Ah, there's that conundrum.
"Huntin' and fishin' and lovin' every day
I wanna see them tall pines sway
Y'all close them eyes
Let's go there in our minds"
The guitars are wailing, the banjo is twanging, and for just one moment you're free, you're where you want to be.
And that's the power of music. It can take the worst mood and put you in first. It can turn a frown into a smile. It can give you ambition and hope. It can help you take a step. It can make life worth living.
So, if you're looking for me, I'm on the gondola staring at the Gore Range, with my brain on an endless loop...
"Huntin' and fishin', lovin' every day
That's the prayer this country boy prays
Thank God he made me this way"
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1Uz6mli
YouTube: http://bit.ly/1Ek2pro
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Luke Bryan's new album is loaded with hits, it's not a disappointment, but it's this one song that closed me immediately, that I liked from first listen, that too will probably not ever be played on the radio.
Not that "Speed Trap Town" and "Huntin', Fishin' And Lovin' Every Day" are the same song or mood, the latter is slower too, but what "Huntin', Fishin' And Lovin' Every Day" is about is the dream, what if we could do only what we wanted to do, 24/7...
I tried that. In Utah. Oh, I had to work a day job, but the truth is it's the people who got to me, they had no ambition, and only wanted to talk skiing all day, and after a month you've covered it all, but that does not mean I don't love the mountains, sliding down the hill. And now with the high speed lifts and modern communication techniques such that you can live and work anywhere/everywhere that is my dream, to get a few hours in every day, not to be a weekend warrior, but to be wedded to my desire, just like Luke Bryan wants to hunt, fish and love.
And the truth is if the lyrics were about something completely different, "Huntin', Fishin' And Lovin' Every Day" would still be a killer. It's kind of like those long tracks of yore, the slow burners you played in your dorm room, taped for play in your car, that set your mind free as you contemplated this great nation of ours. And the truth is the music rooted you, made it all make sense.
There's a lot of magic before Luke even starts to sing. The axes start to twang, set the mood, and then Luke starts singin' "Whoa-oh-oh" and you're suddenly in the church of rock and roll, and if you don't think today's country is the rock they said would never die, you haven't listened.
"If I could make a livin' from walkin' in the woods
You can bet I'd be sittin' pretty good
High on a hill, looking at a field downwind"
There's the conundrum. Do we follow our heart's desire or do what society tells us. Do we even get a choice? Used to be we did, back when there was a middle class and you could survive on minimum wage, I certainly did, in both Los Angeles and Sandy, Utah. But today you're either on the road to success or you're left behind. And no one wants to marry a loser. And soon you do what's practical and leave your heart's desire behind, just ask all those freshly minted MBAs working on Wall Street with no free time.
"I love it when my baby wants to roll with me
Throws her boots on, climbs in a tree
Tuckin' her hair in my hat and she's ready to go"
Want to endear yourself to your man? Be game, do what he does, nothing will put a smile on his face more. He'll suddenly deliver whatever you want, your heart's desire, all he's looking for is a friend, a companion, one who gets him instead of ribbing him, like his buddies.
But like I said, the magic in "Huntin', Fishin' And Lovin' Every Day" is not the lyrics, but the music. The advantage of being Nashville's biggest star is you get to play with the biggest and best players. It's Nashville keeping Guitar Center alive. When you hear these guys wail... And they don't get these sounds at home, they work in the big studio with pros and the sound is so rich you want nothing so much as to part the curtain and get inside, immerse yourself in the sound.
"So while y'all are up there
Breathin' in that old dirty air
I'll be down here, knee deep, in the Muckalee"
That's the truth, life is for the living, those on the accumulation path, of money and fame, are rarely as happy as those who know it's all about experience and feeling. You don't have to be Donald Trump, drive a Ferrari and date a model to be happy. Hell, chances are you won't be happy at all. Because those are markers established by society, whereas inside we all have feelings, a dream of who we want to be, and if you pursue that...you're on the road to happiness.
Assuming you can pay the bills.
Ah, there's that conundrum.
"Huntin' and fishin' and lovin' every day
I wanna see them tall pines sway
Y'all close them eyes
Let's go there in our minds"
The guitars are wailing, the banjo is twanging, and for just one moment you're free, you're where you want to be.
And that's the power of music. It can take the worst mood and put you in first. It can turn a frown into a smile. It can give you ambition and hope. It can help you take a step. It can make life worth living.
So, if you're looking for me, I'm on the gondola staring at the Gore Range, with my brain on an endless loop...
"Huntin' and fishin', lovin' every day
That's the prayer this country boy prays
Thank God he made me this way"
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1Uz6mli
YouTube: http://bit.ly/1Ek2pro
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Sunday 9 August 2015
11 Million Subs
How come no one is calling Apple Music a disaster?
Forget the usability issues, all the industry hype about Beats 1. The truth is the public just doesn't care.
In case you missed the memo, Eddy Cue told "USA Today" that 11 million people signed up for an Apple Music subscription. Talk to Twitter, registered users is nearly irrelevant. Most people get caught up in the frenzy and abandon. How many will ultimately pay for Apple Music? A whole hell of a lot less than 11 million. And then where will that leave us?
In a broken recorded music world whose retardation rests squarely on the shoulders of Taylor Swift, David Byrne and the rest of the music-making agitators who believe they're just not getting a fair deal. These vocal players, many of them with anemic fanbases to begin with, have done an incredible job of turning off customers. If it were 1981, they'd be responsible for an I DON'T WANT MY MTV! campaign.
But in '81, artists could see that MTV was a boon. To get everyone paying attention would help them, as a class. Duran Duran was built by MTV, never mind Culture Club and the channel was responsible for the ascension of Michael Jackson's career into the stratosphere. Who's been built on Spotify and Apple Music?
Nobody.
At best we can argue stars are built on YouTube. Like PSY. Where Taylor Swift has her music and everybody gets paid less. Good work music industry. Whilst advocating against the future the public took the ball and ran it into a backwater from which you may never emerge, at least not while your career is in its ascendancy/salad days. We've got Neil Young promoting a poorly-designed player no one wants and removing his music from streaming services... What's endgame here? Everybody broke?
Turns out Apple couldn't turn the tide. It was not a leader, only a me-too product. And it turns out they're selling something most people don't want. Come on, 11 million people on this planet of billions??? Apple Music is FREE and most people don't want it. We've got a messaging issue so big, one almost prays for a Donald Trump to speak the truth. But in music we've had mistakes since Napster, with Metallica taking the wrong position which was right. What Metallica proved is that old adage, that the customer is always right, and when insiders argue they all lose. Napster goes out of business and Metallica's royalties go down.
How in hell are we gonna turn this around?
Certainly not by agitating for the end of the freemium model. Most people don't want to pay, most people don't even want to sign up for FREE! So, we've got to entice them at least to experiment. Build a wall where $120 a year is required and you're suddenly selling Apple Watches, something no one wants.
How did this story get so out out of control? How did the mercenary artists do their best to eviscerate the pool of money? If you think vinyl is gonna make up for the shortfall, you probably believe the cassette comeback is real, as opposed to a trumped-up press story with no real traction.
As for CDs... There's nowhere to buy them. Go into Wal-Mart and Best Buy and count the SKUs.
This streaming debacle is like artists complaining ticket prices are too high and promoters are shady and therefore concertgoers shouldn't come, proffering no alternative all the while. Furthermore, there is an alternative in recorded music, the dreaded YouTube, whereas you can't steal a concert, you can either go or stay home. And isn't it funny that the artists don't complain when their tickets are blown out on Groupon... Yet they're complaining about royalties when the truth is so many are in a negative position that they're never gonna make bank.
I'm not saying royalties should not be transparent. I'm not saying that artists should be screwed. But I am saying that by not being on the same page with streaming services and record companies the artists are screwing themselves. Fans love artists, not labels. Turns out they don't even love Apple that much. It's the artists who get people to change their minds. But too many artists are singing the wrong song on streaming.
As for the media...
This is the same media that keeps telling us Trump's campaign is history when the polls ultimately tell us otherwise. Turns out the media is out of touch, a fourth estate in love with its own power. Ain't it funny to watch the newspapers implode and Viacom's stock go down the drain with its viewers.
The truth is the public is in control. Your only hope of success is to get the public on your side, it's the essence of marketing.
Apple failed with its Music app.
And the artists are failing with their endless campaign against streaming.
Jay Z and his cabal had it half right, it's just that they didn't understand that their fans are overpaying for concert tickets and are nearly broke and don't want to listen to fat cat superstars complain.
Don't worry, music will never die. People will make it and the public will consume it. But the way things are going it's gonna be a long time before the recorded music revenue pool skyrockets. And you can blame Spotify, but you're better off blaming yourself.
What if they gave a party and no one came? What if the world's most valuable corporation gave away music and no one cared?
Then you'd have the Apple Music story.
Watch for the crater on 10/1, or at least 11/1, after everybody signs off after finding out they were charged without their knowledge.
Then what?
Your move Taylor Swift and David Byrne.
Never mind all you wannabes and formerly middle class artists who believe that what once was is forever. People like to listen to music, but they may not want to listen to yours, never mind pay for it.
"Apple Music signs on 11 million users, for free": http://lat.ms/1OZPz7g
"Apple Music hooks 11 million trial members...": http://usat.ly/1Ea7IcQ
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Forget the usability issues, all the industry hype about Beats 1. The truth is the public just doesn't care.
In case you missed the memo, Eddy Cue told "USA Today" that 11 million people signed up for an Apple Music subscription. Talk to Twitter, registered users is nearly irrelevant. Most people get caught up in the frenzy and abandon. How many will ultimately pay for Apple Music? A whole hell of a lot less than 11 million. And then where will that leave us?
In a broken recorded music world whose retardation rests squarely on the shoulders of Taylor Swift, David Byrne and the rest of the music-making agitators who believe they're just not getting a fair deal. These vocal players, many of them with anemic fanbases to begin with, have done an incredible job of turning off customers. If it were 1981, they'd be responsible for an I DON'T WANT MY MTV! campaign.
But in '81, artists could see that MTV was a boon. To get everyone paying attention would help them, as a class. Duran Duran was built by MTV, never mind Culture Club and the channel was responsible for the ascension of Michael Jackson's career into the stratosphere. Who's been built on Spotify and Apple Music?
Nobody.
At best we can argue stars are built on YouTube. Like PSY. Where Taylor Swift has her music and everybody gets paid less. Good work music industry. Whilst advocating against the future the public took the ball and ran it into a backwater from which you may never emerge, at least not while your career is in its ascendancy/salad days. We've got Neil Young promoting a poorly-designed player no one wants and removing his music from streaming services... What's endgame here? Everybody broke?
Turns out Apple couldn't turn the tide. It was not a leader, only a me-too product. And it turns out they're selling something most people don't want. Come on, 11 million people on this planet of billions??? Apple Music is FREE and most people don't want it. We've got a messaging issue so big, one almost prays for a Donald Trump to speak the truth. But in music we've had mistakes since Napster, with Metallica taking the wrong position which was right. What Metallica proved is that old adage, that the customer is always right, and when insiders argue they all lose. Napster goes out of business and Metallica's royalties go down.
How in hell are we gonna turn this around?
Certainly not by agitating for the end of the freemium model. Most people don't want to pay, most people don't even want to sign up for FREE! So, we've got to entice them at least to experiment. Build a wall where $120 a year is required and you're suddenly selling Apple Watches, something no one wants.
How did this story get so out out of control? How did the mercenary artists do their best to eviscerate the pool of money? If you think vinyl is gonna make up for the shortfall, you probably believe the cassette comeback is real, as opposed to a trumped-up press story with no real traction.
As for CDs... There's nowhere to buy them. Go into Wal-Mart and Best Buy and count the SKUs.
This streaming debacle is like artists complaining ticket prices are too high and promoters are shady and therefore concertgoers shouldn't come, proffering no alternative all the while. Furthermore, there is an alternative in recorded music, the dreaded YouTube, whereas you can't steal a concert, you can either go or stay home. And isn't it funny that the artists don't complain when their tickets are blown out on Groupon... Yet they're complaining about royalties when the truth is so many are in a negative position that they're never gonna make bank.
I'm not saying royalties should not be transparent. I'm not saying that artists should be screwed. But I am saying that by not being on the same page with streaming services and record companies the artists are screwing themselves. Fans love artists, not labels. Turns out they don't even love Apple that much. It's the artists who get people to change their minds. But too many artists are singing the wrong song on streaming.
As for the media...
This is the same media that keeps telling us Trump's campaign is history when the polls ultimately tell us otherwise. Turns out the media is out of touch, a fourth estate in love with its own power. Ain't it funny to watch the newspapers implode and Viacom's stock go down the drain with its viewers.
The truth is the public is in control. Your only hope of success is to get the public on your side, it's the essence of marketing.
Apple failed with its Music app.
And the artists are failing with their endless campaign against streaming.
Jay Z and his cabal had it half right, it's just that they didn't understand that their fans are overpaying for concert tickets and are nearly broke and don't want to listen to fat cat superstars complain.
Don't worry, music will never die. People will make it and the public will consume it. But the way things are going it's gonna be a long time before the recorded music revenue pool skyrockets. And you can blame Spotify, but you're better off blaming yourself.
What if they gave a party and no one came? What if the world's most valuable corporation gave away music and no one cared?
Then you'd have the Apple Music story.
Watch for the crater on 10/1, or at least 11/1, after everybody signs off after finding out they were charged without their knowledge.
Then what?
Your move Taylor Swift and David Byrne.
Never mind all you wannabes and formerly middle class artists who believe that what once was is forever. People like to listen to music, but they may not want to listen to yours, never mind pay for it.
"Apple Music signs on 11 million users, for free": http://lat.ms/1OZPz7g
"Apple Music hooks 11 million trial members...": http://usat.ly/1Ea7IcQ
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