Spotify playlist: https://goo.gl/YC6736
OLD TIME LOVE
Back in '73, when "Rolling Stone" was still the Bible, the magazine printed a review of Wendy Waldman's debut, "Love Has Got Me," that was so positive I immediately purchased it.
Through the magic of the internet you can read said review here:
http://www.wendywaldman.com/articles/article1.html
And although I love every single track on this LP, what hooked me was the second side opener, this.
It was so enthusiastic, so heartfelt, sung with such exuberance that I was immediately closed.
I hope you will be too.
VAUDEVILLE MAN
This follows "Old Time Love" on the LP. You may have never heard the original, only being conscious of the Maria Muldaur cover. But Wendy has nothing to prove, she doesn't have to take charge of the song, she already owns it, and she's completely comfortable here, it's like she's singing in the room next door, you hear her and cannot help but go inside and marvel.
"One ear glued to the radio
One hand practicing the piano"
That's how we lived. Addicted to what came over the airwaves. And then we bought the records, put them on the turntable and then sat there with our instruments trying to learn them.
LEE'S TRAVELING SONG
My favorite cut on the LP, I moved to California, I was wondering what my destiny would be. The entire track is laden with meaning. You know, that anticipation of what's to be.
This is the kind of stuff acts used to cut when they felt if someone actually bought their LP they'd play it and get to know it, when it wasn't about cutting for the radio so much as the living or bedroom.
NATURAL BORN FOOL
It swings!
Four killers in a row! This is a rarity in the CD era, it wasn't so prevalent back then, but the second side of "Love Has Got Me" achieves it.
LOVE HAS GOT ME
Play this late at night, alone, when you're a bit too optimistic for "Ladies Of The Canyon." You know that feeling when you've fallen in love and you tingle all over...this track encapsulates it.
TRAIN SONG
The opening cut.
There's a long history of railroad songs in music. And even though Adam Levine sang about a pay phone, most of which have disappeared, I think the days of train songs are done.
What I love about this cut is it chugs along like a train, that's the groove.
NORTHWOODS MAN
It's hard for me not to mention every track on "Love Has Got Me," especially "Pirate Ships," which Robert Smith of the Cure covered (https://goo.gl/dOihrf), but in the spring of '74, long before a year had passed, Wendy put out a second album, "Gypsy Symphony." Needless to say, I bought it. And went to NYC to see her perform at the Bitter End. And sometime during the performance Wendy stopped and said...THERE'S A GUY IN THE SECOND ROW WHO KNOWS EVERY WORD!
I was embarrassed, but proud.
This is the most accessible song on the LP.
THE ROAD SONG
Slow and meaningful, if you're the kind of person who reflects, gets into mental backwaters and can only be rescued from them via music, this is for you.
MAD MAD ME
The other famous Maria Muldaur cover. Only this iteration is more Laura Nyro, more just piano and vocal, an expression of personal truth.
SPRING IS HERE
The buzz was gone. "Gypsy Symphony" was not the success "Love Has Got Me" was and there were no hit singles so "Wendy Waldman," the third album, almost snuck out, there was little publicity, you stumbled on it at the record store, where our generation made regular pilgrimages. And on first listen the album didn't overwhelm. Production was simple, there was no obvious single, but as we played it that summer of '75, I came to love it.
And then I never heard it.
The album got lost in a divorce, it ended up in my sister's ex's possession and he was holding it hostage and I never heard the LP for decades, until Napster, when everything out of print resurfaced. that's right, you couldn't buy an album like this at any price, there were none available, the company didn't make any and there was no internet to find any.
This is the killer. The first song I put on my Rio MP3 player that had me dancing outside on a cold spring evening.
Spring is here right now. I'm not sure if God is smiling, but I know you will when you hear this.
CONSTANT COMPANION
This is so intimate that teenage girls would swoon and elevate Wendy to the heights if they ever heard it. Even today. This is not that different from Tori Amos, albeit with more coherent lyrics, and it's a better song, better produced than the girls singing today. This is the opposite of the "Voice" paradigm. Wendy is not mowing us down, not wowing us, but entrancing us.
WESTERN LULLABY
The opening cut is so simple you almost miss its magic. But after a few plays you become enamored. The sound of this whole LP is a revelation.
GREEN ROCKY ROAD
The album closer, you'd be hard-pressed to know it's not an original. It sounds like the seventies, when we returned to the land, when we lived so much in our own minds.
SECRETS
Where are people with this much talent today, who can write, play and produce?
This is simple, but entrancing.
EAGLE AND THE OWL
Produced by Peter Bernstein, Elmer's son, the fourth album, "The Main Refrain," is a sonic masterpiece. When you dropped the needle back when owning an expensive stereo was a goal you were wrapped in a rich sound that demanded attention. Play the album through and through, it'll relax you and get your mind flowing...
PRAYER FOR YOU
"The sun's sinking down behind the haze and the trees
Just another L.A. day"
I did not have an apartment. I was sleeping on the floor of a friend's house in Culver City. I'd steal off to my sister's abode in Brentwood to play records and be alone. She lived on the second floor. You could look over the roofs through the palm trees and see the ocean.
I listened to this so many late fall afternoons, while I was contemplating the alienation I was experiencing in law school.
"It's been a long hard year but now the good times are coming
And you should be feeling fine"
I had the world's worst case of mononucleosis, I was at odds with my parents. But in a few short months I had a girlfriend and the good times had definitely arrived.
If I could have you listen to only one Wendy Waldman track, this would be it.
LONG HOT SUMMER NIGHTS
But "The Main Refrain" was not commercially successful. So Wendy regrouped, formed a band and cut a record with Mike Flicker, who was coming off huge success with Heart.
And Mike did a good job, there was no scrim between the music and the listener, the presence was astounding, but "Strange Company" was not successful either.
But they tried, even cut this "single," which hit not a whit.
"Long Hot Summer Nights" is catchy, it lopes along, you can sing along, but in an era where corporate rock was taking hold on the FM and AM was as cheesy as ever, there was no place for "Long Hot Summer Nights." Furthermore, Wendy was seen as an album artist, this was just too obvious an effort. Still, it's good.
THE WIND IN NEW YORK CITY
The best cut on "Strange Company," it's really two tracks. An intro and then...
You hear the story of a woman alone in New York City lamenting what she has lost. It's intense, a wound opened, it's got a vibe you can only get in New York, where everybody lives on top of each other but no one wants to know your name.
HEARTBEAT
Yes, that "Heartbeat," the one Don Johnson rode up the chart. It opened Wendy's 1982 Epic album, "Which Way To Main Street," which was heavy in a way none of the Warner albums were. It was the height of the new wave, MTV had made inroads, Wendy tried to get on the train, it didn't work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdoOCb-1u5w
DOES ANYBODY WANT TO MARRY ME
Needless to say, "Which Way To Main Street" is out of print, but not only that, it's unavailable on streaming services. Napster resurfaced everything and now so much has disappeared. The best cut on this album is "Lovin' You Out Of My Life," which resonated so during breakups, it's a hit in waiting, but I can't find it anywhere online so you can hear it.
Meanwhile, the sentiment here has meaning to those who are no longer in their twenties and are wondering what life has in store.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8mSUJ4nEg0
WHAT IS THE PRICE OF LOVE
And then Wendy disappeared. Two major label deals and then she was done.
And back in the eighties when you were off a major we had no idea what happened to you, truly, it was not like today, when you can look up everybody you've ever heard of on the internet.
But in '87 there was a new LP, on the indie Cypress, and it was a complete return to form, certain tracks that were so good you wanted to stand on the mountaintop and testify.
Like "What Is The Price Of Love."
What is it?
I'm not sure, but it's high.
https://goo.gl/hDhN1K
LETTER HOME
The title track of the Cypress LP, this was a top ten country hit the following year for the Forester Sisters.
What happens when you're in your mid to late thirties and you're a single parent and you've learned too many of the life lessons your parents told you about but you didn't believe?
You write "Letter Home."
https://goo.gl/Mm9NIK
P.S. I'll include the Forester Sisters' rendition, since that is available on Spotify.
RENEGADE SIDE
"To every person out there tonight who feels like he don't belong
Who was born with dreams that seemed so right in a world that seemed so wrong
Yeah, there's a million more that felt like you until they finally realized
Sometimes the only chance you've got is out on the renegade side"
And there you have it, the story of a generation, with hopes and dreams that were carried along by the music. I'm still waiting for mine to come true.
Meanwhile, I'm walking the renegade side.
You?
https://goo.gl/VWvB4r
FISHIN' IN THE DARK
Wendy and Jim Photoglo wrote it, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band covered it, and not only did it go to number one on the country chart, it lives on today, on the radio, in the the Dirt Band's shows, in your mind.
We all like to fish in the dark!
SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST
I loved this track long before I knew Wendy cowrote it with Phil Galdston and Jon Lind.
I taped it from VH1 and used to play the video all the time. It made me feel good, it gave me hope.
"Sometimes the snow comes down in June
Sometimes the sun goes 'round the moon
Just when I thought our chance had passed
You go and save the best for last"
We're all praying they're saving the best for last, that it will all work out.
And only a song has the power to keep the dream alive.
TAKE ME IN
And in the mid-nineties Wendy re-formed her hoot house band Bryndle from before her solo career and cut two LPs. It was a veritable all star act, containing Karla Bonoff, Andrew Gold and Kenny Edwards, as well as Wendy.
But wrong time, wrong place. It was no longer the seventies. Music was slicker than ever, big pop and rap triumphed on MTV, rock radio was in the rearview mirror, but this song has magic.
https://goo.gl/G4Wgm3
UNBOUND
Then, Wendy formed another supergroup, with Deborah Holland and Cindy Bullens, for the joy of it, not to get rich, but because they love each other and the music.
CAST YOUR SOUL
From Wendy's odds and ends album "Seeds And Orphans," this sounds straight out of the seventies, not dated in sound, but overflowing with meaning. Remember when music wasn't just ditties you bumped hips to?
I certainly do.
This is the music I like to listen to most.
RESTLESS IN MIND
It plays and my whole life is laid out in front of me, from the suburbs of Connecticut to the hills of Vermont to the mountains of Utah to the valleys of Los Angeles.
My dreams keep me on the run, I'm certainly restless in mind. I'm still going, I'm still growing.
And so is Wendy Waldman.
She may not be a household name, but she's got a body of work. She's touched my soul. She's my absolute favorite.
She might be one of yours.
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Friday 6 May 2016
Wendy Waldman and Her Minions Weigh In
Bob
Oh man, I want to thank you for your very generous comments about How Do I, and really much more beyond that, for 'getting' what I have always tried to do with my music. Because of your blog, I have been reconnected with many old friends and artists, as well as making quite a few new ones. This is such a valuable gift, I will never be able to repay you in kind.
But if there's anything I can ever do, let me know!
You have referred, so sweetly, several times over the years about my 'disappearance' from your radar--and I always smile when you mention, with some small amazement, my continuing enthusiasm for music and work. I've been thinking about this quite a lot, and wanted to give you my perspective on it. Guess I'm a little long winded but I've wanted to say this for some time.
To me, it's all in how one defines the word ARTIST.
The definition often promoted in biographical commentary about artists from my generation goes something like this: an artist is someone who recorded for a major record label, who toured, competed in the world of radio, concerts, print, advertising, record and radio promotion, charts and record sales, backed by the mighty dollars of the company. Some of these artists became major or even moderate public figures, some fell by the wayside. However, all but the most public of these folks are considered 'among the disappeared,' if they failed to continue to swim in the waters of the major record company world or made enough impact to be played as an oldie. If you look at these standards as your measuring stick, indeed many artists (including me) from that era have disappeared.
HOWEVER if you recognize the major label experience as an interesting chapter in the history of popular music starting probably in the 40s, and petering out around the late 90s, and compare this particular chapter to the ongoing histories of far more working musicians than the labels ever signed, you find a very different story indeed. We only need to look at the profoundly brilliant jazz musicians like McCoy Tyner (the absolute greatest living jazz musician IM not so humble O) or the fine contemporary (and traditional) classical, Americana, world, jazz and studio musicians who have worked their entire lives without having that level of acclaim. They don't consider themselves disappeared, nor do their fans, nor will history.
Removing that yard stick, in my case, was one of the best things I ever did in my life. I have been an independent artist for far more years than I ever spent as a major label artist. My last 'major' deal was in 87, Cypress/Polygram, which album I toured extensively and expensively opening with my own band for Dan Fogelberg in all the sheds--great fun, a total blast, a great experience. After that, when Cypress folded, I couldn't find another label deal, and at the same time, I got into the old Jerry Brown-ism 'lower your expectations and broaden your horizons.'
I've had, and continue to have, a roller coaster journey as a working musician, songwriter (with the occasional 'hit' and a huge uncut catalog) performing artist, collaborator, band member, teacher, singer, musical traveler, student, film composer, who helped found one of the early and best writers' nights in LA when I came back from Nashville--and lots of other weird and wonderful things I can't even remember. I've been so lucky to work with many of the greatest studio musicians of my time from LA, Nashville, New York, and even in Europe--these guys taught me so much. I wrote hit songs for other folks, I broke barriers as a chick record producer :):):), I got the blessed opportunity to work with my 2 dream bands: Bryndle, (RIP) 3 albums and extensive touriing) and the Refugees, (2 albums and a new one ready to mix) with a shitload of touring. I worked in gospel music, rock, folk, film, Jewish music, Christian music (!) jazz, alternative--you name it. And have done a hell of a lot
of performing as well, surprise! Along the way, there was good money and there have also been some truly horrible financial years.
I released, beside the 25+ albums I produced for various other folks in the last 30 years, my own archival collections starting with Seeds and Orphans 1 and 2, where you and I met (!) and then the Back By Fall compilation which covered material that was not included on the Warner Brothers repackage. Plus I released my first studio cd in decades in 2007, with another one on the way this year. I've hosted filming at my studio, edited video, and played a buttload of house concerts. I learned in the years after Cypress, first Studio Vision as a recording platform, then Digital Performer, and finally Protools, with the incredibly generous help of several marvelous producer/engineers, notably Rob Hoffman, Mark Nubar, Mike Sawitzke, Andrzej Wazocha and others--these patient dudes have guided me and put up with my dumb questions, silly mistakes and madness for years now, to my great joy.
The other thing is that I've worked far more for free than I have for money, to the point that I've taken a lot of shit from friends and family. If I could tell you how many amazing contacts and friends I've made, wonderful musicians I've met because of my propensity to work free or offer my studio--it's too much to describe but it's quite an eye opener.
So, yeah, my life as a recording artist for major labels was extremely fortunate and wonderful - the fact that critics liked my work on balance a bit more than they hated it--this stood me in such stead that I've been able to work my ass off for the last 30 years literally around the world, and take on some really scary new challenges a few times. It's been a busy 30 years and I sure hope for more because I'm just getting the hang of some things.
The thing is that this is the most FUN SHIT I could ever imagine doing with my life. Part of that musical journey was being on a major, but it was by NO means the highlight of my life as an artist. I'm doing the best work of my life now, and have made a handful of albums that I would be proud to have on my epitaph--among them, New Grass Revival, Bryndle, Mietek Szczesniak, the Refugees, --and who knows what's coming. I'm in school to learn some skills I overlooked while I was busy being a musician (my father is having the last laugh in heaven for sure) and it's kicking my ass, by the way......and I write/record most days of the week. There are some interesting projects coming out of here in the next year and in fact, I'm about to embark on creating a bigger studio with space for filming.
I am by birth and by trade a working musician, and therefore, I define myself not by the first definition, but the second--an artist is someone who can't help but commit his or her life to making art, enduring whatever the hell is going to come, because that person knows there is no choice and no greater joy. In this life, many many failures and disappointments are bound to happen, especially to those of us upon whom the narrow crown of record company/radio stardom was not bestowed. What did the Eagles say--I don't know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free --or was it Henley... Anyhow, an artist is totally separate from the major label experience that we have had briefly in this period of time. Most of my heroes are still remembered and their music played, and they worked long before there was a major label with a record promoter and a guy deciding who got the button and who didn't
The possibility to keep learning new skills, and to find new ways to apply one's art, and the lifelong marvelous friends and fans one encounters just doing one's everyday job--this is gold, man. Hey, had I not done the little independent archival cd you stumbled across, we wouldn't be friends today!
thanks for listening. really wanted to say this stuff. Also very glad you took the chance to listen to one of the new songs, and I totally get why that would not be a lightly taken decision, having been there myself.
my love, best wishes to your family, Felice and you. and take care of yourself!!!!!!!!!!!!! did I say take care of yourself?
much love and thanks again.
XXWW
_______________________________________________
So I was producing Randy Meisner's solo record and I hired Wendy Waldman to sing on his hit single "Hearts on Fire" (Co-Authored by Eric Kaz) and then become part of his band in early 1980. She was my secret weapon.
Val Garay
_______________________________________________
Wendy Waldman is the real deal. Nice story about a pro.
thanks,
Mike Gormley
_______________________________________________
Saw her not that long ago live at Boulevard Music. Forthright, honest, resonant, as you said. Also strong and real.
Jeffrey Fiskin
_______________________________________________
Thanks for the alert, Bob. In my case you're preaching to the
long-converted and a lifelong fan of Wendy's.
When her WB lps were reissued a few years ago I ordered them all from her
website along with a few of the independents she released. She sent an
acknowledging email for the order thanking me for it, and when the goods
arrived they were personally signed and annotated. All in all a class act
from someone whose songs are fairly resident earworms in my head - Wind in
NY City, The One Who Loved, Pirate Ships, Western Lullaby, Mad Mad Me,
Back By Fall among many others.
The challenge for me, and I'm sure others, is to be kept up to date via
artists' mailing list updates. I subscribe to many in order to get info
about new material only to hear of their new work from others; such is the
case today.
Thanks again but I, like many others, never stopped paying attention to
WW.
Steven Ferguson
_______________________________________________
Bob-thanks for the heads-up on the new Wendy Waldman song, like a welcome note from an old friend. I have to disagree with you regarding her tenure at WarnerBros. It is unfortunate Wendy didn't find a wider audience but "Love Has Got Me" is as fine a collection of songs as anything to come out of SoCal in that time period and that includes Joni Mitchell's "Blue". The fact that she did her best work early in her career is missing the point; the important thing is that she had the opportunity to produce something so enduring and came through in spades.
Paul Kalenak
_______________________________________________
In my alternate reality, Wendy Waldman wins the Grammy in 1975 for Album Of the Year for "The Main Refrain." All the same country/Los Angeles characters stay the same so that there is no major future rip.
Thanks to the internet, I had a chance to share this vision with her once. Sweet.
Woody Firm
_______________________________________________
Good article. Hits to the bone. Good for Wendy Waldman. Good for all of us.
Steven Anders
Anders of Hollywood
_______________________________________________
Thanks, Bob
Sometimes it just doesn't happen…
I shared office space with two manager people:
Peter Asher had James and Linda.
Norman Epstein had Karla and Andrew…
There was (is) so much talent there, I suppose it's the luck
Nick Ben-Meir
_______________________________________________
"The Crossroads" on the Cypress release is Wendy's cut that's stayed with me all this time.
Alex Novielli
_______________________________________________
Thanx for mentioning Wendy Waldman's "Mad Mad Me" - I can hear that beautiful string arrangement in my head right now!
packman
_______________________________________________
I'm a fan as well.
Well said
Chip Franklin
_______________________________________________
As good as she was/is, it just wasn't music for them asses/the masses.
I saw her at the Shabo in Willimantic CT during the "Strange Company" tour.
Captivating.
PS: I was a Cretones fan too.
CB
_______________________________________________
I worked with Wendy back in the Norm Epstein,Chuck Plotkin days, when she was just starting to Bloom. I am happy to read in your letter what happened to Wendy. She was such a diamond in the rough.This is why I read every letter you send, I want to know. You always do your homework.
Thanks
Dennis Rubenstein
_______________________________________________
I'm my early days as a session player and producer in WV and Nashville I was hip to Wendy, Karla, Leah Kunkel Etc. The Main Refrain knocked me out selling high end audio gear in WV , MD and DC in the 80s.
I met Kenny Edwards and Waddy touring with Linda in 77 through Liv Taylor who I did some regional gigs with in those years.
In 2005 Wendy did an in store concert for Taylor Guitars with Happy Traum at the Guitar Center I managed here in Mpls. In those years I also was in touch with Karla and have all the Bryndle CDs from that era.
In recent years I have also produced Lee Sklar and Waddy on a few occasions including LA sessions with Russ Kunkel. What a legendary musical family of sorts! Like Wendy I have worked in the periphery for decades but long ago recognized her talent as a monster. Thanks for resurrecting interest in a truly amazing writer artist. On my shelf nearby I have a CD Wendy gave me around 11 years ago that has a handwritten jacket in black ink on a generic white cover ... About 20 songs ... I treasure it and her artistry for sure..
Cheers!
Chris "Zannman" Zann
_______________________________________________
Damn nice tune, Wendy all over. I discovered her in the 70s — loved Gypsy Symphony and then REALLY loved The Main Refrain — and then I went to see her at the Armadillo — and she came out with a Strat and tried to rock out. I hated it. That album with the black & white cover had just come out, and I didn't like it either. I mean, of course she is allowed to change however she pleases, but it felt to me pretty calculated.
But your email made me go back and listen to a slew of my faves…My Prayer For You, Mad Mad Me, The Main Refrain, Back By Fall. Such a great writer. That she and Karla were in the same band was a mindblower back when I found that out, because they are each SO good at what they do.
Ever onward!
Rob Meurer
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Oh man, I want to thank you for your very generous comments about How Do I, and really much more beyond that, for 'getting' what I have always tried to do with my music. Because of your blog, I have been reconnected with many old friends and artists, as well as making quite a few new ones. This is such a valuable gift, I will never be able to repay you in kind.
But if there's anything I can ever do, let me know!
You have referred, so sweetly, several times over the years about my 'disappearance' from your radar--and I always smile when you mention, with some small amazement, my continuing enthusiasm for music and work. I've been thinking about this quite a lot, and wanted to give you my perspective on it. Guess I'm a little long winded but I've wanted to say this for some time.
To me, it's all in how one defines the word ARTIST.
The definition often promoted in biographical commentary about artists from my generation goes something like this: an artist is someone who recorded for a major record label, who toured, competed in the world of radio, concerts, print, advertising, record and radio promotion, charts and record sales, backed by the mighty dollars of the company. Some of these artists became major or even moderate public figures, some fell by the wayside. However, all but the most public of these folks are considered 'among the disappeared,' if they failed to continue to swim in the waters of the major record company world or made enough impact to be played as an oldie. If you look at these standards as your measuring stick, indeed many artists (including me) from that era have disappeared.
HOWEVER if you recognize the major label experience as an interesting chapter in the history of popular music starting probably in the 40s, and petering out around the late 90s, and compare this particular chapter to the ongoing histories of far more working musicians than the labels ever signed, you find a very different story indeed. We only need to look at the profoundly brilliant jazz musicians like McCoy Tyner (the absolute greatest living jazz musician IM not so humble O) or the fine contemporary (and traditional) classical, Americana, world, jazz and studio musicians who have worked their entire lives without having that level of acclaim. They don't consider themselves disappeared, nor do their fans, nor will history.
Removing that yard stick, in my case, was one of the best things I ever did in my life. I have been an independent artist for far more years than I ever spent as a major label artist. My last 'major' deal was in 87, Cypress/Polygram, which album I toured extensively and expensively opening with my own band for Dan Fogelberg in all the sheds--great fun, a total blast, a great experience. After that, when Cypress folded, I couldn't find another label deal, and at the same time, I got into the old Jerry Brown-ism 'lower your expectations and broaden your horizons.'
I've had, and continue to have, a roller coaster journey as a working musician, songwriter (with the occasional 'hit' and a huge uncut catalog) performing artist, collaborator, band member, teacher, singer, musical traveler, student, film composer, who helped found one of the early and best writers' nights in LA when I came back from Nashville--and lots of other weird and wonderful things I can't even remember. I've been so lucky to work with many of the greatest studio musicians of my time from LA, Nashville, New York, and even in Europe--these guys taught me so much. I wrote hit songs for other folks, I broke barriers as a chick record producer :):):), I got the blessed opportunity to work with my 2 dream bands: Bryndle, (RIP) 3 albums and extensive touriing) and the Refugees, (2 albums and a new one ready to mix) with a shitload of touring. I worked in gospel music, rock, folk, film, Jewish music, Christian music (!) jazz, alternative--you name it. And have done a hell of a lot
of performing as well, surprise! Along the way, there was good money and there have also been some truly horrible financial years.
I released, beside the 25+ albums I produced for various other folks in the last 30 years, my own archival collections starting with Seeds and Orphans 1 and 2, where you and I met (!) and then the Back By Fall compilation which covered material that was not included on the Warner Brothers repackage. Plus I released my first studio cd in decades in 2007, with another one on the way this year. I've hosted filming at my studio, edited video, and played a buttload of house concerts. I learned in the years after Cypress, first Studio Vision as a recording platform, then Digital Performer, and finally Protools, with the incredibly generous help of several marvelous producer/engineers, notably Rob Hoffman, Mark Nubar, Mike Sawitzke, Andrzej Wazocha and others--these patient dudes have guided me and put up with my dumb questions, silly mistakes and madness for years now, to my great joy.
The other thing is that I've worked far more for free than I have for money, to the point that I've taken a lot of shit from friends and family. If I could tell you how many amazing contacts and friends I've made, wonderful musicians I've met because of my propensity to work free or offer my studio--it's too much to describe but it's quite an eye opener.
So, yeah, my life as a recording artist for major labels was extremely fortunate and wonderful - the fact that critics liked my work on balance a bit more than they hated it--this stood me in such stead that I've been able to work my ass off for the last 30 years literally around the world, and take on some really scary new challenges a few times. It's been a busy 30 years and I sure hope for more because I'm just getting the hang of some things.
The thing is that this is the most FUN SHIT I could ever imagine doing with my life. Part of that musical journey was being on a major, but it was by NO means the highlight of my life as an artist. I'm doing the best work of my life now, and have made a handful of albums that I would be proud to have on my epitaph--among them, New Grass Revival, Bryndle, Mietek Szczesniak, the Refugees, --and who knows what's coming. I'm in school to learn some skills I overlooked while I was busy being a musician (my father is having the last laugh in heaven for sure) and it's kicking my ass, by the way......and I write/record most days of the week. There are some interesting projects coming out of here in the next year and in fact, I'm about to embark on creating a bigger studio with space for filming.
I am by birth and by trade a working musician, and therefore, I define myself not by the first definition, but the second--an artist is someone who can't help but commit his or her life to making art, enduring whatever the hell is going to come, because that person knows there is no choice and no greater joy. In this life, many many failures and disappointments are bound to happen, especially to those of us upon whom the narrow crown of record company/radio stardom was not bestowed. What did the Eagles say--I don't know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free --or was it Henley... Anyhow, an artist is totally separate from the major label experience that we have had briefly in this period of time. Most of my heroes are still remembered and their music played, and they worked long before there was a major label with a record promoter and a guy deciding who got the button and who didn't
The possibility to keep learning new skills, and to find new ways to apply one's art, and the lifelong marvelous friends and fans one encounters just doing one's everyday job--this is gold, man. Hey, had I not done the little independent archival cd you stumbled across, we wouldn't be friends today!
thanks for listening. really wanted to say this stuff. Also very glad you took the chance to listen to one of the new songs, and I totally get why that would not be a lightly taken decision, having been there myself.
my love, best wishes to your family, Felice and you. and take care of yourself!!!!!!!!!!!!! did I say take care of yourself?
much love and thanks again.
XXWW
_______________________________________________
So I was producing Randy Meisner's solo record and I hired Wendy Waldman to sing on his hit single "Hearts on Fire" (Co-Authored by Eric Kaz) and then become part of his band in early 1980. She was my secret weapon.
Val Garay
_______________________________________________
Wendy Waldman is the real deal. Nice story about a pro.
thanks,
Mike Gormley
_______________________________________________
Saw her not that long ago live at Boulevard Music. Forthright, honest, resonant, as you said. Also strong and real.
Jeffrey Fiskin
_______________________________________________
Thanks for the alert, Bob. In my case you're preaching to the
long-converted and a lifelong fan of Wendy's.
When her WB lps were reissued a few years ago I ordered them all from her
website along with a few of the independents she released. She sent an
acknowledging email for the order thanking me for it, and when the goods
arrived they were personally signed and annotated. All in all a class act
from someone whose songs are fairly resident earworms in my head - Wind in
NY City, The One Who Loved, Pirate Ships, Western Lullaby, Mad Mad Me,
Back By Fall among many others.
The challenge for me, and I'm sure others, is to be kept up to date via
artists' mailing list updates. I subscribe to many in order to get info
about new material only to hear of their new work from others; such is the
case today.
Thanks again but I, like many others, never stopped paying attention to
WW.
Steven Ferguson
_______________________________________________
Bob-thanks for the heads-up on the new Wendy Waldman song, like a welcome note from an old friend. I have to disagree with you regarding her tenure at WarnerBros. It is unfortunate Wendy didn't find a wider audience but "Love Has Got Me" is as fine a collection of songs as anything to come out of SoCal in that time period and that includes Joni Mitchell's "Blue". The fact that she did her best work early in her career is missing the point; the important thing is that she had the opportunity to produce something so enduring and came through in spades.
Paul Kalenak
_______________________________________________
In my alternate reality, Wendy Waldman wins the Grammy in 1975 for Album Of the Year for "The Main Refrain." All the same country/Los Angeles characters stay the same so that there is no major future rip.
Thanks to the internet, I had a chance to share this vision with her once. Sweet.
Woody Firm
_______________________________________________
Good article. Hits to the bone. Good for Wendy Waldman. Good for all of us.
Steven Anders
Anders of Hollywood
_______________________________________________
Thanks, Bob
Sometimes it just doesn't happen…
I shared office space with two manager people:
Peter Asher had James and Linda.
Norman Epstein had Karla and Andrew…
There was (is) so much talent there, I suppose it's the luck
Nick Ben-Meir
_______________________________________________
"The Crossroads" on the Cypress release is Wendy's cut that's stayed with me all this time.
Alex Novielli
_______________________________________________
Thanx for mentioning Wendy Waldman's "Mad Mad Me" - I can hear that beautiful string arrangement in my head right now!
packman
_______________________________________________
I'm a fan as well.
Well said
Chip Franklin
_______________________________________________
As good as she was/is, it just wasn't music for them asses/the masses.
I saw her at the Shabo in Willimantic CT during the "Strange Company" tour.
Captivating.
PS: I was a Cretones fan too.
CB
_______________________________________________
I worked with Wendy back in the Norm Epstein,Chuck Plotkin days, when she was just starting to Bloom. I am happy to read in your letter what happened to Wendy. She was such a diamond in the rough.This is why I read every letter you send, I want to know. You always do your homework.
Thanks
Dennis Rubenstein
_______________________________________________
I'm my early days as a session player and producer in WV and Nashville I was hip to Wendy, Karla, Leah Kunkel Etc. The Main Refrain knocked me out selling high end audio gear in WV , MD and DC in the 80s.
I met Kenny Edwards and Waddy touring with Linda in 77 through Liv Taylor who I did some regional gigs with in those years.
In 2005 Wendy did an in store concert for Taylor Guitars with Happy Traum at the Guitar Center I managed here in Mpls. In those years I also was in touch with Karla and have all the Bryndle CDs from that era.
In recent years I have also produced Lee Sklar and Waddy on a few occasions including LA sessions with Russ Kunkel. What a legendary musical family of sorts! Like Wendy I have worked in the periphery for decades but long ago recognized her talent as a monster. Thanks for resurrecting interest in a truly amazing writer artist. On my shelf nearby I have a CD Wendy gave me around 11 years ago that has a handwritten jacket in black ink on a generic white cover ... About 20 songs ... I treasure it and her artistry for sure..
Cheers!
Chris "Zannman" Zann
_______________________________________________
Damn nice tune, Wendy all over. I discovered her in the 70s — loved Gypsy Symphony and then REALLY loved The Main Refrain — and then I went to see her at the Armadillo — and she came out with a Strat and tried to rock out. I hated it. That album with the black & white cover had just come out, and I didn't like it either. I mean, of course she is allowed to change however she pleases, but it felt to me pretty calculated.
But your email made me go back and listen to a slew of my faves…My Prayer For You, Mad Mad Me, The Main Refrain, Back By Fall. Such a great writer. That she and Karla were in the same band was a mindblower back when I found that out, because they are each SO good at what they do.
Ever onward!
Rob Meurer
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A Little More Trump
Stop making fun of him!
If that worked, somebody else would be the nominee, he wouldn't have increased his share of the electorate after the debacle in Wisconsin. The more the holier-than-thou say they know better, the more the downtrodden and alienated double-down.
And if you think continuing to label him a racist iconoclast works, you don't realize that most of those voting for him don't care what the man says, they just want to shake up the system, they believe in the man, not his outbursts.
Truly. There are only so many redneck yahoos out there. Trump wouldn't have won the nomination if they were the only ones who cared.
Hillary lost the nomination to Obama in 2008 and she's doing a good job of losing here. Because she's not playing to win, she's playing it safe. Utilizing the Clinton handbook of the nineties, where you triangulate, comb the research and tell people what they want to hear.
That don't work no more, in the twenty first century people don't want artifice, they want AUTHENTICITY!
Hillary is making the number one mistake of the popularity wars, she's letting her haters define her. It's hard to come out from under that. Furthermore, she's playing nice and being all milk and cookies when we know she's more cutthroat than the Donald and more experienced. It's time not only for Hillary to take off the gloves, but to be mean. To zing. This is a heavyweight fight and you cannot win if you're on the ropes and you don't punch back.
Furthermore, this is the tech election. And in tech there's a huge first mover advantage. He who gains traction first, even with a substandard product, oftentimes wins, especially if he improves the product along the way. And believe me, the soft, sensitive, reasonable side of Donald Trump is being groomed for the public as I write this. What's Hillary gonna do then, when Trump is alternately sensible and nice?
Talk about jujitsu.
Clinton plays by the old rules, the ground game. But today it's all about the online game. The right wing owned talk radio and the left wing owned the internet. But now Trump has leapfrogged the left to own social media. The days of blogs are through, now it's all about Twitter and Facebook and Snapchat...and Hillary better start now, because it's gonna be hard to garner a following in the fall.
What do we know about Hillary?
What the right wing wants us to know about her. The email server, Benghazi. Most people are clueless as to who she really is, and the truth is when you get her on stage, in front of people, she's quite remarkable. But Debbie Wasserman Schultz put the debates on Saturday night so no one would see them, so the frontrunner wouldn't be challenged, and today the media is all Trump all the time. The Donald eats a taco bowl and it's front page news. As if those voting for him can't see it's calculated and ultimately don't care. Will you stop making fun of those leaning to him, that's how the Republicans got into this pickle to begin with.
And all this b.s. about immigration and trade and...
It's not about the specifics, it's just that Trump's adherents believe someone's finally listening to them, that he's on their side. So far, Hillary has been defined by the LEFT as being on the fat cat Wall Street side. And that's just nuts, it's Trump who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, it's Trump who's inured to the private jet lifestyle. We haven't seen such a topsy-turvy delineation since Kerry was the traitor and Bush was the war hero... Huh?
So please Democrats, stop going negative and start going positive. Give people a reason to vote for Hillary as opposed to trying to scare them away from Trump. I mean how scary can the man be, he was in business with NBC, he was on television ad infinitum. No one thinks that prime time is peopled with criminals.
But there are legions of people who believe Hillary belongs behind bars.
Come out swinging Hillary. Make news every day. Don't play it safe. Don't worry about the dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, they're already on your team. Cater to those in between, who've lost their jobs and feel they're unheard. And the irony here is that it will bond the disaffected Bernieites to you along the way.
Stop playing to the moneyed interests. You think you need them but you don't. Bernie didn't and he raised a ton of cash. You can too, if you're just honest and forthright, if you're three-dimensional, if you let people know who you really are and convince them that you care about them.
And I know you do.
But no one else seems to think so.
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If that worked, somebody else would be the nominee, he wouldn't have increased his share of the electorate after the debacle in Wisconsin. The more the holier-than-thou say they know better, the more the downtrodden and alienated double-down.
And if you think continuing to label him a racist iconoclast works, you don't realize that most of those voting for him don't care what the man says, they just want to shake up the system, they believe in the man, not his outbursts.
Truly. There are only so many redneck yahoos out there. Trump wouldn't have won the nomination if they were the only ones who cared.
Hillary lost the nomination to Obama in 2008 and she's doing a good job of losing here. Because she's not playing to win, she's playing it safe. Utilizing the Clinton handbook of the nineties, where you triangulate, comb the research and tell people what they want to hear.
That don't work no more, in the twenty first century people don't want artifice, they want AUTHENTICITY!
Hillary is making the number one mistake of the popularity wars, she's letting her haters define her. It's hard to come out from under that. Furthermore, she's playing nice and being all milk and cookies when we know she's more cutthroat than the Donald and more experienced. It's time not only for Hillary to take off the gloves, but to be mean. To zing. This is a heavyweight fight and you cannot win if you're on the ropes and you don't punch back.
Furthermore, this is the tech election. And in tech there's a huge first mover advantage. He who gains traction first, even with a substandard product, oftentimes wins, especially if he improves the product along the way. And believe me, the soft, sensitive, reasonable side of Donald Trump is being groomed for the public as I write this. What's Hillary gonna do then, when Trump is alternately sensible and nice?
Talk about jujitsu.
Clinton plays by the old rules, the ground game. But today it's all about the online game. The right wing owned talk radio and the left wing owned the internet. But now Trump has leapfrogged the left to own social media. The days of blogs are through, now it's all about Twitter and Facebook and Snapchat...and Hillary better start now, because it's gonna be hard to garner a following in the fall.
What do we know about Hillary?
What the right wing wants us to know about her. The email server, Benghazi. Most people are clueless as to who she really is, and the truth is when you get her on stage, in front of people, she's quite remarkable. But Debbie Wasserman Schultz put the debates on Saturday night so no one would see them, so the frontrunner wouldn't be challenged, and today the media is all Trump all the time. The Donald eats a taco bowl and it's front page news. As if those voting for him can't see it's calculated and ultimately don't care. Will you stop making fun of those leaning to him, that's how the Republicans got into this pickle to begin with.
And all this b.s. about immigration and trade and...
It's not about the specifics, it's just that Trump's adherents believe someone's finally listening to them, that he's on their side. So far, Hillary has been defined by the LEFT as being on the fat cat Wall Street side. And that's just nuts, it's Trump who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, it's Trump who's inured to the private jet lifestyle. We haven't seen such a topsy-turvy delineation since Kerry was the traitor and Bush was the war hero... Huh?
So please Democrats, stop going negative and start going positive. Give people a reason to vote for Hillary as opposed to trying to scare them away from Trump. I mean how scary can the man be, he was in business with NBC, he was on television ad infinitum. No one thinks that prime time is peopled with criminals.
But there are legions of people who believe Hillary belongs behind bars.
Come out swinging Hillary. Make news every day. Don't play it safe. Don't worry about the dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, they're already on your team. Cater to those in between, who've lost their jobs and feel they're unheard. And the irony here is that it will bond the disaffected Bernieites to you along the way.
Stop playing to the moneyed interests. You think you need them but you don't. Bernie didn't and he raised a ton of cash. You can too, if you're just honest and forthright, if you're three-dimensional, if you let people know who you really are and convince them that you care about them.
And I know you do.
But no one else seems to think so.
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Thursday 5 May 2016
Oldchella
You don't go to Coachella for the bands, but the experience.
Which is why festivals take a while to get traction, it takes time for the audience to spread the word about...the layout, the food, the camping, the toilets... Sometimes the talent gets better over time, but today the lineup's pretty damn good on the first iteration.
And that's what Oldchella is, the first iteration.
Location doesn't seem to be important. It could be anywhere you could fit up to a hundred thousand people, with enough first class lodging surrounding it. Will people go?
I'm not sure I care.
I doubt the younger generation is interested. First and foremost, they're in school, even though it is a holiday weekend. There's just not enough experience there, just music. Played by legendary bands that might not ever play again.
That's the hook. Definitively. See them before they die.
And then brag about it to all your buddies.
That's a baby boomer, it's all about one-upmanship. Driving a better car, vacationing at a better resort and being at the exclusive event. That's what's driving ticket sales.
Unless you've never seen these bands before.
And are there really boomers who have not? It's not like these acts have been off the road, rather they've been on it constantly, raking in dough on their reps.
Certainly that's the case with Bob Dylan, arguably the most legendary act on the bill, assuming you see McCartney as a solo as opposed to the Beatles incarnate. Dylan was a cipher who changed the culture. And although his latest music has been lauded by aficionados, those who still believe their words and opinions define the culture, these records have had little impact, have sold few copies and have had little lasting power. Of course there are those who will argue with me. But are they willing to pay these prices to see the Bobster one more time? I for one will not go anymore. His voice is shot and he changes the arrangements and the songs are unrecognizable. I applaud his continued journey into the artistic wilderness, it's just that I don't want to go along for the ride.
So if you're going to see Bob Dylan, you're going to be sorely disappointed. Because he sucks. Good band, but you've got no idea what they're playing.
Which brings us to the Stones, the first night's headliner. Stunningly, the last time I saw them they were extraordinarily good. Not processed, but still rough, and that was their appeal. Keith was back on track but it's Mick who carries the show. But am I the only one who feels it's a bit creepy that they're part of this? Didn't the Stones always stand alone? Didn't they bill themselves as the World's Greatest Rock And Roll Band, making us wait forever for their appearances and then ultimately delivering a few classics that got our energy going as well as stirring up our memories? Now they're just one of six?
That's what bugs me about Paul McCartney. I'll argue he's bigger than any of these acts. Because he was a Beatle, and they started it all, the modern music business. If Dylan could still sing and still did his songs faithfully it'd be a toss-up, but the true star of the weekend is Paul. Only his voice is teetering. The band is incredible, the best of the lot. I hear he's singing better since his illness, but Paul's in his midseventies and skills fade. I've seen him multiple times. It's thrilling. Or at least it was until his voice started faltering.
But McCartney has not been hidden, he's been barnstorming for years, even playing Dodger Stadium. Is there any SoCal denizen who wants to see McCartney and the Stones who hasn't?
I don't think so.
Which brings us to Roger Waters. Who puts on quite a show, but performs without his nemesis, David Gilmour, who not only played the stellar guitar parts, but sang so much of the material. Sure, Roger wrote a lot of it, but...
That's intellectualizing it all. The show is quite fine, but it's also played enough for everybody to see it, both in its greatest hits iteration and its complete "Wall" rendition. I'm not saying you won't enjoy it, but I'm not sure you have to see it, certainly if you've seen it before.
Which brings us to Neil Young. Who's had multiple renaissances over the decades, he's refused to trade on the past, he's killed his career to reinvent it and has done this successfully. Hitting peaks along the way. As well as valleys... Can you name one track since "Greendale"? Do you own a Pono? Neil gets a pass in the press, boomers remember his music from college, but he's a wild card in concert. Business faltered and he started saying he would play acoustically, or deliver the hits, but there's no advance word here. Neil could Crazy Horse it to the point where everybody in attendance hits the bars. He's capable of that. Wailing extendedly on deep cuts. And if you think this audience wants hard-edged stuff, this would be a punk revival, not classic rock. Neil could deliver, but will he? There's a good chance he'll be the hit of the festival. But he could just as well be the downer.
Which leaves us with the Who. Who specialize in delivering. Remember that 9/11 concert at Madison Square Garden? They blew everybody else off the stage. Townshend complains endlessly, but he always brings it in the end. Roger's voice comes and goes, but it's supposedly in a good place. And who doesn't want to sing along with "Behind Blue Eyes"?
But do we want to get fooled again?
That's what this whole extravaganza is all about, fooling us into believing that our music still counts and so do we.
But we don't.
Make it a one act weekend, do it like Phish, but make it Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin only and that's an event. They've been gone and most people never saw them. Six shows, six different albums. Sign me up for that!
Or maybe next year, after I hear it was a good experience I'll go to see the bands I've never seen. But will people pay this much to see the Moody Blues? Certainly not Loggins & Messina, who I can't get enough of. And Leslie West can still shred but he could not fill the Sahara Tent, no way.
Boomers don't like to stand, but I tell you, I'd have been more interested if it was a cornucopia of old acts, a veritable plethora. Where I could sample and compare notes, tell my compatriots I'd seen them when and now...
But this isn't really a festival but a concert, with seats and...
I don't need to go.
Don't get me wrong, if I did go, I'm sure I'd have a good time. I think everybody who goes will have a good time.
But it's creepy. Everybody's doing it for the paycheck, there's no other reason, there is no gravitas. Sure, Woodstock was about money too, but it was also a lark, an innovation, who knew what would happen?
And what did happen was a generation was built. On music. And love. And freedom. Woodstock not only united the boomers, it served notice to the oldsters, that their power had been stolen, and this was the culture that now ruled.
So, to quote one of the latter-day Stones song I love, I've got mixed emotions about Oldchella. I'm not gonna predict its box office. Chances are it'll do quite well, Goldenvoice has a great rep and there's a history of concerts on the polo fields.
It's just that it's completely meaningless. Only a must-go if you do go.
The rest of us will sit at home and not care a whit.
Unless they stream it. Then we'll tune in.
Because we know this could be our last chance, this could be the last time, and we want to get a glimpse before it's gone.
Because, as the female with equal stature to these testosterone-fueled titans so eloquently put it...
You don't know what you've got till it's gone.
And I'll argue they paved paradise, they put up a parking lot. It may be filled with people as opposed to cars, but they're both soulless endeavors only about the money. Remember when the Beatles played for free on the rooftop? And the Stones and their brethren performed sans cash at Altamont?
Oh, what a long strange trip it's been.
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Which is why festivals take a while to get traction, it takes time for the audience to spread the word about...the layout, the food, the camping, the toilets... Sometimes the talent gets better over time, but today the lineup's pretty damn good on the first iteration.
And that's what Oldchella is, the first iteration.
Location doesn't seem to be important. It could be anywhere you could fit up to a hundred thousand people, with enough first class lodging surrounding it. Will people go?
I'm not sure I care.
I doubt the younger generation is interested. First and foremost, they're in school, even though it is a holiday weekend. There's just not enough experience there, just music. Played by legendary bands that might not ever play again.
That's the hook. Definitively. See them before they die.
And then brag about it to all your buddies.
That's a baby boomer, it's all about one-upmanship. Driving a better car, vacationing at a better resort and being at the exclusive event. That's what's driving ticket sales.
Unless you've never seen these bands before.
And are there really boomers who have not? It's not like these acts have been off the road, rather they've been on it constantly, raking in dough on their reps.
Certainly that's the case with Bob Dylan, arguably the most legendary act on the bill, assuming you see McCartney as a solo as opposed to the Beatles incarnate. Dylan was a cipher who changed the culture. And although his latest music has been lauded by aficionados, those who still believe their words and opinions define the culture, these records have had little impact, have sold few copies and have had little lasting power. Of course there are those who will argue with me. But are they willing to pay these prices to see the Bobster one more time? I for one will not go anymore. His voice is shot and he changes the arrangements and the songs are unrecognizable. I applaud his continued journey into the artistic wilderness, it's just that I don't want to go along for the ride.
So if you're going to see Bob Dylan, you're going to be sorely disappointed. Because he sucks. Good band, but you've got no idea what they're playing.
Which brings us to the Stones, the first night's headliner. Stunningly, the last time I saw them they were extraordinarily good. Not processed, but still rough, and that was their appeal. Keith was back on track but it's Mick who carries the show. But am I the only one who feels it's a bit creepy that they're part of this? Didn't the Stones always stand alone? Didn't they bill themselves as the World's Greatest Rock And Roll Band, making us wait forever for their appearances and then ultimately delivering a few classics that got our energy going as well as stirring up our memories? Now they're just one of six?
That's what bugs me about Paul McCartney. I'll argue he's bigger than any of these acts. Because he was a Beatle, and they started it all, the modern music business. If Dylan could still sing and still did his songs faithfully it'd be a toss-up, but the true star of the weekend is Paul. Only his voice is teetering. The band is incredible, the best of the lot. I hear he's singing better since his illness, but Paul's in his midseventies and skills fade. I've seen him multiple times. It's thrilling. Or at least it was until his voice started faltering.
But McCartney has not been hidden, he's been barnstorming for years, even playing Dodger Stadium. Is there any SoCal denizen who wants to see McCartney and the Stones who hasn't?
I don't think so.
Which brings us to Roger Waters. Who puts on quite a show, but performs without his nemesis, David Gilmour, who not only played the stellar guitar parts, but sang so much of the material. Sure, Roger wrote a lot of it, but...
That's intellectualizing it all. The show is quite fine, but it's also played enough for everybody to see it, both in its greatest hits iteration and its complete "Wall" rendition. I'm not saying you won't enjoy it, but I'm not sure you have to see it, certainly if you've seen it before.
Which brings us to Neil Young. Who's had multiple renaissances over the decades, he's refused to trade on the past, he's killed his career to reinvent it and has done this successfully. Hitting peaks along the way. As well as valleys... Can you name one track since "Greendale"? Do you own a Pono? Neil gets a pass in the press, boomers remember his music from college, but he's a wild card in concert. Business faltered and he started saying he would play acoustically, or deliver the hits, but there's no advance word here. Neil could Crazy Horse it to the point where everybody in attendance hits the bars. He's capable of that. Wailing extendedly on deep cuts. And if you think this audience wants hard-edged stuff, this would be a punk revival, not classic rock. Neil could deliver, but will he? There's a good chance he'll be the hit of the festival. But he could just as well be the downer.
Which leaves us with the Who. Who specialize in delivering. Remember that 9/11 concert at Madison Square Garden? They blew everybody else off the stage. Townshend complains endlessly, but he always brings it in the end. Roger's voice comes and goes, but it's supposedly in a good place. And who doesn't want to sing along with "Behind Blue Eyes"?
But do we want to get fooled again?
That's what this whole extravaganza is all about, fooling us into believing that our music still counts and so do we.
But we don't.
Make it a one act weekend, do it like Phish, but make it Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin only and that's an event. They've been gone and most people never saw them. Six shows, six different albums. Sign me up for that!
Or maybe next year, after I hear it was a good experience I'll go to see the bands I've never seen. But will people pay this much to see the Moody Blues? Certainly not Loggins & Messina, who I can't get enough of. And Leslie West can still shred but he could not fill the Sahara Tent, no way.
Boomers don't like to stand, but I tell you, I'd have been more interested if it was a cornucopia of old acts, a veritable plethora. Where I could sample and compare notes, tell my compatriots I'd seen them when and now...
But this isn't really a festival but a concert, with seats and...
I don't need to go.
Don't get me wrong, if I did go, I'm sure I'd have a good time. I think everybody who goes will have a good time.
But it's creepy. Everybody's doing it for the paycheck, there's no other reason, there is no gravitas. Sure, Woodstock was about money too, but it was also a lark, an innovation, who knew what would happen?
And what did happen was a generation was built. On music. And love. And freedom. Woodstock not only united the boomers, it served notice to the oldsters, that their power had been stolen, and this was the culture that now ruled.
So, to quote one of the latter-day Stones song I love, I've got mixed emotions about Oldchella. I'm not gonna predict its box office. Chances are it'll do quite well, Goldenvoice has a great rep and there's a history of concerts on the polo fields.
It's just that it's completely meaningless. Only a must-go if you do go.
The rest of us will sit at home and not care a whit.
Unless they stream it. Then we'll tune in.
Because we know this could be our last chance, this could be the last time, and we want to get a glimpse before it's gone.
Because, as the female with equal stature to these testosterone-fueled titans so eloquently put it...
You don't know what you've got till it's gone.
And I'll argue they paved paradise, they put up a parking lot. It may be filled with people as opposed to cars, but they're both soulless endeavors only about the money. Remember when the Beatles played for free on the rooftop? And the Stones and their brethren performed sans cash at Altamont?
Oh, what a long strange trip it's been.
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Wednesday 4 May 2016
Barbarian Days
http://goo.gl/V79pNT
I feel like life passed me by. That I squandered my chance and I'm a loser in the new economy. You know, the STEM world, run by entrepreneurs. Money is everything and I ain't got none. What did I do, where did I go wrong? Did I break the cardinal rule of the future by not having the five right friends who could help me through, did I not have enough confidence, or did I just waste too much time period...what exactly did I do in my twenties and early thirties?
I'm doing my best to read only fiction. Because it illuminates life better than truth. And I'm sick of people telling me how to live, what makes them such experts. But when I finished "The Story Of Ove," which is a juggernaut overseas, I dream of having such impact, I researched online for greatness, that's how I decide what to read, on the reviews, of both the cognoscenti and the hoi polloi. And I saw that William Finnegan's "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life," had won the Pulitzer Prize.
Hmm... I knew of this book. But was there too much surfing? Some of the user reviews said so. But I was gonna be wasting a lot of time waiting for doctors so after I found the free sample chapter intriguing, I purchased the whole book.
And I saw myself in it.
It was not like today. In the fifties and sixties no one had famous parents, we didn't have a leg up, we weren't worldly. My father owned a liquor store, as did one of the surfers from the Inland Empire who went to Yale. Our mothers and fathers didn't want us to be equal to them, they weren't buying insurance, making sure we could survive financially, rather they wanted us to be BETTER than they were, they wanted to provide opportunities, and they neither coddled nor hovered over us. We went unsupervised. We got hurt. We made it up as we went along. And one thing's for damn sure, our parents were not our best friends.
Finnegan, presently a staff writer for "The New Yorker," dropped out of college. As soon as they got a high draft number that's what so many baby boomers did. They were less worried about finances, state schools were relatively cheap, and certainly not worried about their financial futures, rather they were interested in themselves, finding out who they were as opposed to accumulating notches in their belts.
Don't confuse this with the tech dropouts. Zuckerberg and the rest were driven, we were lackadaisical. We might know the credits on every LP but we had no idea who we wanted to be. The pinnacle was an MD, and even if you could tolerate the sight of blood did you really want to see sick people all day? Sure, organic chemistry weeded out the wannabes, but the truth is most of us wanted nothing to do with science and math, art and literature, anthropology and sociology, people-focused subjects were king.
Assuming, once again, you stayed in school.
Finnegan dropped out to go surfing. He brought his girlfriend along with him to Hawaii. Even though in so many ways we're going backwards, with cuts to abortion, never mind welfare, much of what we accept as commonplace today was anything but in the sixties and seventies. Free love was permitted by the pill. And living together turned our parents' insides. They wouldn't let us stay in the same bed under their roof unless we were married, today I know kids who LIVE in their parents houses, together!
Finnegan eventually goes back to school, but it's not Harvard, it's UC Santa Cruz. Everybody wanted to go to the best school they could get into, but if you didn't go to an Ivy you didn't see your life as immediately ending, you didn't see your future chopped right off.
And then he worked for the railroad. That's right, after finishing his education Finnegan did blue collar work to accumulate enough cash to fuel his dreams. Does anybody even do that anymore? As far as starting a career out of school, not a single one of my compatriots, including myself, of course, met with a recruiter on campus, and I went to a highfalutin' college filled with strivers.
So why did I go to Middlebury?
THE SKIING!
That's true, absolutely. And looking back over the decades I can see that's the one thing I studied that I still do, assiduously, it appears I made the right choice. However, I could never relate to most of the people there, they thought life was all about what you learned in books, I wanted something more, which was not so easily accessible in the hinterlands of Vermont.
So with that railroad cash Finnegan went on an endless surf trip, around the world. Even Howard Stern believes you can't sacrifice that career time, but Finnegan did. He was in search of not only the perfect wave, but new experiences, in an era where when you were far from home you truly were, hopefully letters caught up with you weeks later. There were no cell phones, no safety net, you lived by your wits.
In this case at the bottom. Finnegan reported his travelers checks stolen and after getting reimbursement the originals were sold on the black market. Desperate people do desperate things. But today's upper classes don't know desperation, they know flying private, the world is their oyster!
As for the surfing... What is the most important thing in life? Everybody goes around just once, we all get the same amount of time, give or take. You can work at the bank, do 24/7 at the tech firm, make a lot of cash, but when you look back did you follow your dream, did you have great experiences, or did you just do what was expedient, afraid to break the mold and be poor.
And free.
You die and then you're forgotten. Just look at the deceased heroes of the year, no one was even mentioning David Bowie until Prince died, and the purple one is getting tons of adulation but then...time marches on.
So I feel better about myself. Especially the 54 days I spent on the hill this year. I hit some amazing powder in Telluride, especially on Electra off of Gold Hill. It was blowin' and snowin' and near closing time and there was an EX sign on top of the slope that designated extreme terrain and I'd never been there before but something inside said this was my chance. I was on 'em, I could do this.
So I pushed off.
Stuart said no mas, he went down. Joel and Schmitty decided to follow me, they went into the trees.
And when I reached a point where I could see no more, I stopped. And asked a local. Which way to go.
NOT THIS WAY!
The obvious way, over the ridge, was full of rocks and cliffs, we should go 'round the bend.
Where there was a railing. A series of poles and wire rope installed so you didn't fall off the cliff. There were a couple of feet to maneuver in. But you could only go straight.
I'm here telling you the story. Obviously nothing untoward happened. And sure, I might have survived just fine on the road not taken.
But the fact is I took a risk. Not a business one that would yield me money, but a personal one that meant something only to me.
And it won't pay dividends.
But it made me and still makes me feel fully alive.
I don't think youngsters fully understand their baby boomer progenitors. It's hard to imagine being so unencumbered and free.
But we were.
In an era when life was different. When musicians were kings, speaking their truth, beholden to no one, corporations were the enemy.
And the audience was all on a personal hejira. Groupthink was anathema. We wanted to be all we could be.
Sure, the Army ripped off our slogan but we were there first.
We were always there first.
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I feel like life passed me by. That I squandered my chance and I'm a loser in the new economy. You know, the STEM world, run by entrepreneurs. Money is everything and I ain't got none. What did I do, where did I go wrong? Did I break the cardinal rule of the future by not having the five right friends who could help me through, did I not have enough confidence, or did I just waste too much time period...what exactly did I do in my twenties and early thirties?
I'm doing my best to read only fiction. Because it illuminates life better than truth. And I'm sick of people telling me how to live, what makes them such experts. But when I finished "The Story Of Ove," which is a juggernaut overseas, I dream of having such impact, I researched online for greatness, that's how I decide what to read, on the reviews, of both the cognoscenti and the hoi polloi. And I saw that William Finnegan's "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life," had won the Pulitzer Prize.
Hmm... I knew of this book. But was there too much surfing? Some of the user reviews said so. But I was gonna be wasting a lot of time waiting for doctors so after I found the free sample chapter intriguing, I purchased the whole book.
And I saw myself in it.
It was not like today. In the fifties and sixties no one had famous parents, we didn't have a leg up, we weren't worldly. My father owned a liquor store, as did one of the surfers from the Inland Empire who went to Yale. Our mothers and fathers didn't want us to be equal to them, they weren't buying insurance, making sure we could survive financially, rather they wanted us to be BETTER than they were, they wanted to provide opportunities, and they neither coddled nor hovered over us. We went unsupervised. We got hurt. We made it up as we went along. And one thing's for damn sure, our parents were not our best friends.
Finnegan, presently a staff writer for "The New Yorker," dropped out of college. As soon as they got a high draft number that's what so many baby boomers did. They were less worried about finances, state schools were relatively cheap, and certainly not worried about their financial futures, rather they were interested in themselves, finding out who they were as opposed to accumulating notches in their belts.
Don't confuse this with the tech dropouts. Zuckerberg and the rest were driven, we were lackadaisical. We might know the credits on every LP but we had no idea who we wanted to be. The pinnacle was an MD, and even if you could tolerate the sight of blood did you really want to see sick people all day? Sure, organic chemistry weeded out the wannabes, but the truth is most of us wanted nothing to do with science and math, art and literature, anthropology and sociology, people-focused subjects were king.
Assuming, once again, you stayed in school.
Finnegan dropped out to go surfing. He brought his girlfriend along with him to Hawaii. Even though in so many ways we're going backwards, with cuts to abortion, never mind welfare, much of what we accept as commonplace today was anything but in the sixties and seventies. Free love was permitted by the pill. And living together turned our parents' insides. They wouldn't let us stay in the same bed under their roof unless we were married, today I know kids who LIVE in their parents houses, together!
Finnegan eventually goes back to school, but it's not Harvard, it's UC Santa Cruz. Everybody wanted to go to the best school they could get into, but if you didn't go to an Ivy you didn't see your life as immediately ending, you didn't see your future chopped right off.
And then he worked for the railroad. That's right, after finishing his education Finnegan did blue collar work to accumulate enough cash to fuel his dreams. Does anybody even do that anymore? As far as starting a career out of school, not a single one of my compatriots, including myself, of course, met with a recruiter on campus, and I went to a highfalutin' college filled with strivers.
So why did I go to Middlebury?
THE SKIING!
That's true, absolutely. And looking back over the decades I can see that's the one thing I studied that I still do, assiduously, it appears I made the right choice. However, I could never relate to most of the people there, they thought life was all about what you learned in books, I wanted something more, which was not so easily accessible in the hinterlands of Vermont.
So with that railroad cash Finnegan went on an endless surf trip, around the world. Even Howard Stern believes you can't sacrifice that career time, but Finnegan did. He was in search of not only the perfect wave, but new experiences, in an era where when you were far from home you truly were, hopefully letters caught up with you weeks later. There were no cell phones, no safety net, you lived by your wits.
In this case at the bottom. Finnegan reported his travelers checks stolen and after getting reimbursement the originals were sold on the black market. Desperate people do desperate things. But today's upper classes don't know desperation, they know flying private, the world is their oyster!
As for the surfing... What is the most important thing in life? Everybody goes around just once, we all get the same amount of time, give or take. You can work at the bank, do 24/7 at the tech firm, make a lot of cash, but when you look back did you follow your dream, did you have great experiences, or did you just do what was expedient, afraid to break the mold and be poor.
And free.
You die and then you're forgotten. Just look at the deceased heroes of the year, no one was even mentioning David Bowie until Prince died, and the purple one is getting tons of adulation but then...time marches on.
So I feel better about myself. Especially the 54 days I spent on the hill this year. I hit some amazing powder in Telluride, especially on Electra off of Gold Hill. It was blowin' and snowin' and near closing time and there was an EX sign on top of the slope that designated extreme terrain and I'd never been there before but something inside said this was my chance. I was on 'em, I could do this.
So I pushed off.
Stuart said no mas, he went down. Joel and Schmitty decided to follow me, they went into the trees.
And when I reached a point where I could see no more, I stopped. And asked a local. Which way to go.
NOT THIS WAY!
The obvious way, over the ridge, was full of rocks and cliffs, we should go 'round the bend.
Where there was a railing. A series of poles and wire rope installed so you didn't fall off the cliff. There were a couple of feet to maneuver in. But you could only go straight.
I'm here telling you the story. Obviously nothing untoward happened. And sure, I might have survived just fine on the road not taken.
But the fact is I took a risk. Not a business one that would yield me money, but a personal one that meant something only to me.
And it won't pay dividends.
But it made me and still makes me feel fully alive.
I don't think youngsters fully understand their baby boomer progenitors. It's hard to imagine being so unencumbered and free.
But we were.
In an era when life was different. When musicians were kings, speaking their truth, beholden to no one, corporations were the enemy.
And the audience was all on a personal hejira. Groupthink was anathema. We wanted to be all we could be.
Sure, the Army ripped off our slogan but we were there first.
We were always there first.
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Tuesday 3 May 2016
Trump
The more the intelligentsia tells me he's unelectable, the more I want to vote for him.
Nobody knows anything. Especially the smart and educated. We continually laud the graduates of Ivy League institutions, those with money and fame can do no wrong. But then they do.
Like Nate Silver.
Nate got it half right. Trump does have sky high unfavorables. But those became secondary to an electorate pissed that the Republican majordomos had paid lip service to them for decades, but ignored them on the street. And no one likes to be ignored, no one likes to be manipulated, revenge permeates all income brackets and social strata.
So how did this happen?
Trump started early. The "New York Times" said that was Bernie's flaw, his late start, as if he never believed he could really win. We'll never know if he could have, but we have learned that some rules are immutable. You have to be in it to win it, you have to lay the groundwork.
And Trump said the unsayable. The right wing may act prim and proper but it's the left wing that has taken political correctness too far. Sure, racism should not be tolerated, but truth knows no bounds, it resonates with all. And if you're so busy being hurt by literature that you need trigger warnings, good luck in business.
Which is where Trump triumphed.
But maybe he didn't, maybe he was born on third base, maybe he's just a mediocre licensor. But it's hard for the media to get traction with that story after building him up decade after decade, hyping his books and his TV show... It's the media who sold us on Trump's bona fides, now the media wants to say otherwise, in an era where the media establishment is pooh-poohed and seen as untrustworthy.
Which brings us to Fox News. We're supposed to have sympathy for Megyn Kelly, a beautiful anchor who's on TV. Roger Ailes plays hardball and then wants those on the other side to pitch softballs? Give Trump credit, he doesn't take that from anybody, he's willing to call b.s. And like a country song before Nashville morphed into seventies rock we're all looking to tell our boss to take this job and shove it.
We live in an attention economy. Where it's about being recognized and known as opposed to veracity. Too many eggheads are sitting at home talking to the TV not realizing nobody's listening. They're afraid to jump into the fire, endure the maelstrom, take the heat. Have you been on the internet? The Trump blowback is experienced by anybody with an opinion online. He took the jabs and carried on.
The Donald nailed Jeb's personality instantly. Bush was boring, sans charisma. Used to be artists triumphed by speaking the truth, in this case it was a politician.
As for Cruz and Kasich, the former didn't realize that followers were everything, that a megaphone is meaningless unless you have acolytes. And the latter is that doofus in high school who refuses to see the writing on the wall.
And Karl Rove is that principal who loses control of the high school.
And Peggy Noonan is that aunt always saying "I told you so.", who you're sick of listening to, the one who lives in an alternative universe where all her opinions are right, even though it does not resemble the real world.
And Bernie's fans are pissed off too.
But Bernie faced a viable candidate. Hillary has experience. Although even the most dyed-in-the-wool Democrat would refuse to fall asleep around her. You see Hillary does what's expedient, tells you what you want to hear as opposed to what's true. That's so last century. Today light shines everywhere, and those who refuse to acknowledge what is seen have a hard time garnering belief.
So now Trump runs to the center, makes light of his wacky positions just like he just patted his enemy Cruz on the back. And when he attacks Hillary...
She's vulnerable.
But the news media says he can't win. That women and Latinos want nothing to do with him. The same media that said he had no chance. The same media controlled by the holier-than-thou who believe we should fall in line.
It's every man for himself in America today. It's a coarse country where you work 'round the clock for meager rewards. Sure, there's a carrot out in front, but it can only be bitten by the same people who tell us to get in line, the one percenters who control corporations and education and are keeping us down. And it's not only Republicans, but Democrats too.
So Bernie is done. The alternative is gone. Who are you gonna vote for if you're mad as hell?
Certainly not Hillary. She's the kind who will invite you to a party and leave you stranded when she gets a better invitation.
So everybody saying Trump can't win...
He's not as dumb as he looks. And he performed jujitsu, he knows half of what he says is b.s., but he's the one in the driver's seat, he's the one with the nomination, and the people put him there. Because they're sick and tired of being lied to, manipulated by those with money. And Trump may be rich, but he acted like a rich person as opposed to adopting the humble shtick most politicians shroud themselves in. Rich people feel entitled, to be heard, to get more. They have contempt for the little guy. They believe what they say is the law. Who doesn't want someone who's a wolf in wolf's clothing to do their dirty work?
The rank and file did not screw up this great country of ours. No, the Larry Summers and the Timothy Geithners and the George Bushes and Dick Cheneys did. Those who knew better than us, who saw the country as their plaything. Do you really think people are eager to place their faith in another one of a long line of these people?
Maybe.
P.S. No, I'm not gonna vote for Donald Trump. I'm far to the left of Hillary. But I love seeing the establishment shaken up. I'm sick of hearing that these people know more than me, as they pull shenanigans behind closed doors that screw me.
P.P.S. People want jobs. Manufacturing ain't never coming back to the U.S., that's a left wing canard. So what is Hillary gonna do to help us? Sure, the Donald may have insane ideas about reducing taxes on the rich to drive up the economy, but he's got more new ideas than Hillary and he's more believable.
P.P.P.S. If this weren't a popularity contest Arnold Schwarzenegger wouldn't have defeated Gray Davis. And Arnold didn't do much in office, and I don't think the Donald would do much either. But he might appoint a right wing Supreme Court justice and that would be tragic. But he also might not play nice with the nitwit right wingers, the Tea Partiers and the establishment who have held this country hostage.
P.P.P.P.S. The Presidential campaign is more intriguing, more honest than any art this year. It's out-Kanye'd Kanye. It shows the fallacy in "Batman v. Superman." It truly is a jungle out there, and if you want to know what's going on you watch politics, not some lame Disney production which puts money first and truth nowhere.
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Nobody knows anything. Especially the smart and educated. We continually laud the graduates of Ivy League institutions, those with money and fame can do no wrong. But then they do.
Like Nate Silver.
Nate got it half right. Trump does have sky high unfavorables. But those became secondary to an electorate pissed that the Republican majordomos had paid lip service to them for decades, but ignored them on the street. And no one likes to be ignored, no one likes to be manipulated, revenge permeates all income brackets and social strata.
So how did this happen?
Trump started early. The "New York Times" said that was Bernie's flaw, his late start, as if he never believed he could really win. We'll never know if he could have, but we have learned that some rules are immutable. You have to be in it to win it, you have to lay the groundwork.
And Trump said the unsayable. The right wing may act prim and proper but it's the left wing that has taken political correctness too far. Sure, racism should not be tolerated, but truth knows no bounds, it resonates with all. And if you're so busy being hurt by literature that you need trigger warnings, good luck in business.
Which is where Trump triumphed.
But maybe he didn't, maybe he was born on third base, maybe he's just a mediocre licensor. But it's hard for the media to get traction with that story after building him up decade after decade, hyping his books and his TV show... It's the media who sold us on Trump's bona fides, now the media wants to say otherwise, in an era where the media establishment is pooh-poohed and seen as untrustworthy.
Which brings us to Fox News. We're supposed to have sympathy for Megyn Kelly, a beautiful anchor who's on TV. Roger Ailes plays hardball and then wants those on the other side to pitch softballs? Give Trump credit, he doesn't take that from anybody, he's willing to call b.s. And like a country song before Nashville morphed into seventies rock we're all looking to tell our boss to take this job and shove it.
We live in an attention economy. Where it's about being recognized and known as opposed to veracity. Too many eggheads are sitting at home talking to the TV not realizing nobody's listening. They're afraid to jump into the fire, endure the maelstrom, take the heat. Have you been on the internet? The Trump blowback is experienced by anybody with an opinion online. He took the jabs and carried on.
The Donald nailed Jeb's personality instantly. Bush was boring, sans charisma. Used to be artists triumphed by speaking the truth, in this case it was a politician.
As for Cruz and Kasich, the former didn't realize that followers were everything, that a megaphone is meaningless unless you have acolytes. And the latter is that doofus in high school who refuses to see the writing on the wall.
And Karl Rove is that principal who loses control of the high school.
And Peggy Noonan is that aunt always saying "I told you so.", who you're sick of listening to, the one who lives in an alternative universe where all her opinions are right, even though it does not resemble the real world.
And Bernie's fans are pissed off too.
But Bernie faced a viable candidate. Hillary has experience. Although even the most dyed-in-the-wool Democrat would refuse to fall asleep around her. You see Hillary does what's expedient, tells you what you want to hear as opposed to what's true. That's so last century. Today light shines everywhere, and those who refuse to acknowledge what is seen have a hard time garnering belief.
So now Trump runs to the center, makes light of his wacky positions just like he just patted his enemy Cruz on the back. And when he attacks Hillary...
She's vulnerable.
But the news media says he can't win. That women and Latinos want nothing to do with him. The same media that said he had no chance. The same media controlled by the holier-than-thou who believe we should fall in line.
It's every man for himself in America today. It's a coarse country where you work 'round the clock for meager rewards. Sure, there's a carrot out in front, but it can only be bitten by the same people who tell us to get in line, the one percenters who control corporations and education and are keeping us down. And it's not only Republicans, but Democrats too.
So Bernie is done. The alternative is gone. Who are you gonna vote for if you're mad as hell?
Certainly not Hillary. She's the kind who will invite you to a party and leave you stranded when she gets a better invitation.
So everybody saying Trump can't win...
He's not as dumb as he looks. And he performed jujitsu, he knows half of what he says is b.s., but he's the one in the driver's seat, he's the one with the nomination, and the people put him there. Because they're sick and tired of being lied to, manipulated by those with money. And Trump may be rich, but he acted like a rich person as opposed to adopting the humble shtick most politicians shroud themselves in. Rich people feel entitled, to be heard, to get more. They have contempt for the little guy. They believe what they say is the law. Who doesn't want someone who's a wolf in wolf's clothing to do their dirty work?
The rank and file did not screw up this great country of ours. No, the Larry Summers and the Timothy Geithners and the George Bushes and Dick Cheneys did. Those who knew better than us, who saw the country as their plaything. Do you really think people are eager to place their faith in another one of a long line of these people?
Maybe.
P.S. No, I'm not gonna vote for Donald Trump. I'm far to the left of Hillary. But I love seeing the establishment shaken up. I'm sick of hearing that these people know more than me, as they pull shenanigans behind closed doors that screw me.
P.P.S. People want jobs. Manufacturing ain't never coming back to the U.S., that's a left wing canard. So what is Hillary gonna do to help us? Sure, the Donald may have insane ideas about reducing taxes on the rich to drive up the economy, but he's got more new ideas than Hillary and he's more believable.
P.P.P.S. If this weren't a popularity contest Arnold Schwarzenegger wouldn't have defeated Gray Davis. And Arnold didn't do much in office, and I don't think the Donald would do much either. But he might appoint a right wing Supreme Court justice and that would be tragic. But he also might not play nice with the nitwit right wingers, the Tea Partiers and the establishment who have held this country hostage.
P.P.P.P.S. The Presidential campaign is more intriguing, more honest than any art this year. It's out-Kanye'd Kanye. It shows the fallacy in "Batman v. Superman." It truly is a jungle out there, and if you want to know what's going on you watch politics, not some lame Disney production which puts money first and truth nowhere.
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Dust
YouTube: https://goo.gl/rbC2Ke
Spotify: https://goo.gl/7fKXoX
"It comes through the window
It comes through the floor
It comes through the roof
And it comes through the door"
Dust, that is. But that's not what you'll be focusing on first time through, the Dada-esque lyrics take a back seat to the pure sound of this record, its aural hooks.
On paper I hate Parquet Courts. Overhyped by the Brooklyn establishment today we despise bands we've never heard because of their hipper-than-thou acolytes hyping them.
But "Dust" is a revelation. A hit in all its minimalist glory. If this were 1981 and Rick Carroll still programmed KROQ, the Roq of the 80's, he'd spin this and it would become a giant hit. You see back then being outre, being different, was a badge of honor, whereas today everybody's music sounds the same and you only differentiate yourself via your social media statements.
Not that "Dust" is completely original. It it resembles in conception nothing so much as Kraftwerk's "Pocket Calculator," which was a progenitor. And the vocal is reminiscent of Jonathan Richman, when he sang with the Modern Lovers.
Still, "Dust" is a breath of fresh air.
HA!
Singing about dust?
Today it's all platitudes, or endless statements on how much better you and your life are than those of the listener. But this minimalist statement is about the dirt and grime that piles up. Rust may never sleep, but dust ACCUMULATES!
"Dust is everywhere
Sweep
It sneaks in ignored
It stacks up around"
Devo-esque, with a hint of Frank Zappa thrown in. It's when you don't play to our preconceptions that you have a chance of hooking us, wowing us.
Still, "Dust" succeeds primarily on its hooks, which are broad and heavy, simple, like those of the Ramones.
You may not like it at first, with its cheesy, flimsy, trebly guitar intro.
But then the track settles into a groove that's familiar but unremarkable and then...at 25 seconds in, there's a guitar lick that catches your lip and drags you in.
And then at :35, there's a change that grabs your heart.
And then at :45 the whole thing devolves into an instrumental with cheesy sounds playing lyrical changes and you don't want to turn it off!
It doesn't have to be about dust, it could be about anything, you're completely enamored.
Just because you can fiddle endlessly to get it right, employ a zillion writers, buy beats from others, that does not mean you should. By breaking it down to the elements, by leaving so much air, Parquet Courts wins us over.
And the instrumental section that starts at 2:20 is an aural adventure akin to a guitar solo of yore, only this time the musician isn't shredding, but adding digital sounds that are basic, but take you on an ethereal trip that is so enjoyable. You're enraptured by music not on the hit parade, played by people who are almost committing a prank.
But we're all in on the joke.
This was the genius of the Ramones, their music was the antidote to what was popular. While prog-rockers demonstrated their training in side-long opuses the Ramones purveyed a sound that was basic and compact, that lasted only a couple of minutes.
You can still get rich playing music.
But most people will not.
Thus, the early sixties have returned. The Beatles and the Stones never thought it would last forever. Today music is a lark, something you do for a few years before you get a straight job.
But since it's not a career, you can take chances, you can turn the system on its head.
Which Parquet Courts has done here.
"Dust" should suck. Should be easily dismissed. Marginal talents selling indie rock.
But despite all that being true, the end result requires endless plays. "Dust" gets under your skin, it follows you everywhere, you're in your own space, you don't care a whit whether anybody else is listening, you just want to feel good.
Life is complicated, life is difficult to comprehend. As a result we fall for the work of those who sneak up on us, with work that is startlingly human in the way it affects us.
"It follows, now swallow
You're biting it now
Suffocate, suffocate"
Is this the Silicon Valley titans talking to everyone? Imploring us to get on the gravy train without thinking, coughing up our personal data, because the future is so bright?
No, this is artists, questioning the precepts. Which is what they used to do before they all dashed for cash.
"Dust is everywhere
SWEEP!"
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Spotify: https://goo.gl/7fKXoX
"It comes through the window
It comes through the floor
It comes through the roof
And it comes through the door"
Dust, that is. But that's not what you'll be focusing on first time through, the Dada-esque lyrics take a back seat to the pure sound of this record, its aural hooks.
On paper I hate Parquet Courts. Overhyped by the Brooklyn establishment today we despise bands we've never heard because of their hipper-than-thou acolytes hyping them.
But "Dust" is a revelation. A hit in all its minimalist glory. If this were 1981 and Rick Carroll still programmed KROQ, the Roq of the 80's, he'd spin this and it would become a giant hit. You see back then being outre, being different, was a badge of honor, whereas today everybody's music sounds the same and you only differentiate yourself via your social media statements.
Not that "Dust" is completely original. It it resembles in conception nothing so much as Kraftwerk's "Pocket Calculator," which was a progenitor. And the vocal is reminiscent of Jonathan Richman, when he sang with the Modern Lovers.
Still, "Dust" is a breath of fresh air.
HA!
Singing about dust?
Today it's all platitudes, or endless statements on how much better you and your life are than those of the listener. But this minimalist statement is about the dirt and grime that piles up. Rust may never sleep, but dust ACCUMULATES!
"Dust is everywhere
Sweep
It sneaks in ignored
It stacks up around"
Devo-esque, with a hint of Frank Zappa thrown in. It's when you don't play to our preconceptions that you have a chance of hooking us, wowing us.
Still, "Dust" succeeds primarily on its hooks, which are broad and heavy, simple, like those of the Ramones.
You may not like it at first, with its cheesy, flimsy, trebly guitar intro.
But then the track settles into a groove that's familiar but unremarkable and then...at 25 seconds in, there's a guitar lick that catches your lip and drags you in.
And then at :35, there's a change that grabs your heart.
And then at :45 the whole thing devolves into an instrumental with cheesy sounds playing lyrical changes and you don't want to turn it off!
It doesn't have to be about dust, it could be about anything, you're completely enamored.
Just because you can fiddle endlessly to get it right, employ a zillion writers, buy beats from others, that does not mean you should. By breaking it down to the elements, by leaving so much air, Parquet Courts wins us over.
And the instrumental section that starts at 2:20 is an aural adventure akin to a guitar solo of yore, only this time the musician isn't shredding, but adding digital sounds that are basic, but take you on an ethereal trip that is so enjoyable. You're enraptured by music not on the hit parade, played by people who are almost committing a prank.
But we're all in on the joke.
This was the genius of the Ramones, their music was the antidote to what was popular. While prog-rockers demonstrated their training in side-long opuses the Ramones purveyed a sound that was basic and compact, that lasted only a couple of minutes.
You can still get rich playing music.
But most people will not.
Thus, the early sixties have returned. The Beatles and the Stones never thought it would last forever. Today music is a lark, something you do for a few years before you get a straight job.
But since it's not a career, you can take chances, you can turn the system on its head.
Which Parquet Courts has done here.
"Dust" should suck. Should be easily dismissed. Marginal talents selling indie rock.
But despite all that being true, the end result requires endless plays. "Dust" gets under your skin, it follows you everywhere, you're in your own space, you don't care a whit whether anybody else is listening, you just want to feel good.
Life is complicated, life is difficult to comprehend. As a result we fall for the work of those who sneak up on us, with work that is startlingly human in the way it affects us.
"It follows, now swallow
You're biting it now
Suffocate, suffocate"
Is this the Silicon Valley titans talking to everyone? Imploring us to get on the gravy train without thinking, coughing up our personal data, because the future is so bright?
No, this is artists, questioning the precepts. Which is what they used to do before they all dashed for cash.
"Dust is everywhere
SWEEP!"
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Radiohead Disappears
Has it really been nine years since "In Rainbows"?
Then the issue was getting paid.
Now the issue is getting attention.
That's what the greedy bigwigs don't understand. If you lock it up behind a paywall you could end up broke, or hobbled. Think of how much money Prince would have made if his music was on YouTube, Spotify, et al.
But how do you get noticed on those services? How do you get heard?
By being already famous or getting on a playlist. We want to hear the work of acts we already know and although we also want to hear new music we are overwhelmed by the amount of product, we don't know where to start.
Which is why the big get bigger, they've already got a name.
And that Radiohead does. Like Beyonce, it was built under the last gasp of the old system. When MTV still had power, when everybody could know who you were, and almost everybody heard your music.
Radiohead's publicity campaign will far outstrip the number of people who ultimately listen to the music. Still, the U.K. band has played the modern era like a fiddle, kudos.
In an era where everybody is vying for attention, where all is revealed, Radiohead decided to pull back, not only not post but delete its presence, however slowly. They said scarcity was dead, but this is a new spin on the concept, if you're there but then not we're interested, for a while anyway.
And this campaign was very brief. A matter of days. Any longer and the project would get stale, people would lose interest. Once again, the long buildup is history, you announce and then you sell. You pounce when everybody is paying attention. Hell, Beyonce got it right. She did HBO and put out "Lemonade" and went on the road nearly simultaneously. And it's worked, she's got the whole world talking about her efforts, if not listening. She's owned the music news cycle, for ten days anyway, and today that's a very long time. Will the hysteria continue? Only if radio plays "Lemonade," but still, we can see that Beyonce outdid Adele. Adele's campaign was positively old school. Wherein you carpet bomb the media with the same damn stories again and again and then release the record for a first week sales burst that will also be news, in the fourth quarter to boot. But it's not quite six months later and Adele's name is rarely heard, and her music has no purchase on the public mind,
because she's absent from radio and streaming services. Remove yourself from the arena at your peril.
But Adele is a party of one, the world's biggest superstar. She gets to do it her way, the usual rules don't apply. And in a business where people only care about the money, rash decisions are made that are fan unfriendly, and you never want to be fan unfriendly. But this has been the paradigm for eons. Remember when Tom Petty protested about being the poster boy for sky high album prices? That's what windowing is today, that's what refusing to be on streaming services is today, a way for the man to grab cash. The acts come and go, the companies remain. Performers who bitch about not making enough money have lost their stripes in the artistic wars, they've become denizens of our coarse modern society, believing that mazuma is everything when the truth is art rules.
And Radiohead is ruling today.
You see it's all about conception. The idea. And there's no revolution, no revelation in holding your music back, doing the aforementioned windowing. But this disappearing act is a revelation. It's more than publicity. It's a comment on our society. Furthermore, this is all you get. Old players would now give interviews, spread the word, explain, double-down on what they've done. Modern superstars hold back, what the hell is going on? How the hell should I know!
But Radiohead did use modern tools to get the word out. Not only did the band recede from social media services, it employed them when it reappeared, Instagram and YouTube. He who denies the modern world is left out. And never forget these tools are free. Bitch about that when you're worried about getting paid.
So the whole world is watching. But then they won't be. But this stunt will be remembered. As was the "In Rainbows" pay what you want one. The band has triumphed twice, demonstrating innovation and thought in a world where most pop acts just do what they're told, which is an imitation of what came before.
But just like bands tried to imitate the "In Rainbows" formula unsuccessfully, if you're sitting at home dreaming of replicating Radiohead's vanishing formula, forget it. You can only do it once, successfully. And it can only be pulled off by an act with an extremely high profile.
But the paradigm remains, in today's economy attention is everything. It's what we all vie for, especially on social media, it's fleeting, but it precedes monetization. In the old days distribution was king, if you couldn't buy it, it didn't exist. Now everything exists, how do you make people aware, how do you get them to sample?
That's the question.
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Then the issue was getting paid.
Now the issue is getting attention.
That's what the greedy bigwigs don't understand. If you lock it up behind a paywall you could end up broke, or hobbled. Think of how much money Prince would have made if his music was on YouTube, Spotify, et al.
But how do you get noticed on those services? How do you get heard?
By being already famous or getting on a playlist. We want to hear the work of acts we already know and although we also want to hear new music we are overwhelmed by the amount of product, we don't know where to start.
Which is why the big get bigger, they've already got a name.
And that Radiohead does. Like Beyonce, it was built under the last gasp of the old system. When MTV still had power, when everybody could know who you were, and almost everybody heard your music.
Radiohead's publicity campaign will far outstrip the number of people who ultimately listen to the music. Still, the U.K. band has played the modern era like a fiddle, kudos.
In an era where everybody is vying for attention, where all is revealed, Radiohead decided to pull back, not only not post but delete its presence, however slowly. They said scarcity was dead, but this is a new spin on the concept, if you're there but then not we're interested, for a while anyway.
And this campaign was very brief. A matter of days. Any longer and the project would get stale, people would lose interest. Once again, the long buildup is history, you announce and then you sell. You pounce when everybody is paying attention. Hell, Beyonce got it right. She did HBO and put out "Lemonade" and went on the road nearly simultaneously. And it's worked, she's got the whole world talking about her efforts, if not listening. She's owned the music news cycle, for ten days anyway, and today that's a very long time. Will the hysteria continue? Only if radio plays "Lemonade," but still, we can see that Beyonce outdid Adele. Adele's campaign was positively old school. Wherein you carpet bomb the media with the same damn stories again and again and then release the record for a first week sales burst that will also be news, in the fourth quarter to boot. But it's not quite six months later and Adele's name is rarely heard, and her music has no purchase on the public mind,
because she's absent from radio and streaming services. Remove yourself from the arena at your peril.
But Adele is a party of one, the world's biggest superstar. She gets to do it her way, the usual rules don't apply. And in a business where people only care about the money, rash decisions are made that are fan unfriendly, and you never want to be fan unfriendly. But this has been the paradigm for eons. Remember when Tom Petty protested about being the poster boy for sky high album prices? That's what windowing is today, that's what refusing to be on streaming services is today, a way for the man to grab cash. The acts come and go, the companies remain. Performers who bitch about not making enough money have lost their stripes in the artistic wars, they've become denizens of our coarse modern society, believing that mazuma is everything when the truth is art rules.
And Radiohead is ruling today.
You see it's all about conception. The idea. And there's no revolution, no revelation in holding your music back, doing the aforementioned windowing. But this disappearing act is a revelation. It's more than publicity. It's a comment on our society. Furthermore, this is all you get. Old players would now give interviews, spread the word, explain, double-down on what they've done. Modern superstars hold back, what the hell is going on? How the hell should I know!
But Radiohead did use modern tools to get the word out. Not only did the band recede from social media services, it employed them when it reappeared, Instagram and YouTube. He who denies the modern world is left out. And never forget these tools are free. Bitch about that when you're worried about getting paid.
So the whole world is watching. But then they won't be. But this stunt will be remembered. As was the "In Rainbows" pay what you want one. The band has triumphed twice, demonstrating innovation and thought in a world where most pop acts just do what they're told, which is an imitation of what came before.
But just like bands tried to imitate the "In Rainbows" formula unsuccessfully, if you're sitting at home dreaming of replicating Radiohead's vanishing formula, forget it. You can only do it once, successfully. And it can only be pulled off by an act with an extremely high profile.
But the paradigm remains, in today's economy attention is everything. It's what we all vie for, especially on social media, it's fleeting, but it precedes monetization. In the old days distribution was king, if you couldn't buy it, it didn't exist. Now everything exists, how do you make people aware, how do you get them to sample?
That's the question.
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Monday 2 May 2016
How Do I
https://soundcloud.com/wendywaldman/how-do-i
What do you do when nobody's paying attention? When you're too old to be new and you got your big chance and missed the target?
Faithful readers know I'm a big Wendy Waldman fan, the great singer/songwriter hope of 1973, she wrote "Vaudeville Man" and "Mad Mad Me" on Maria Muldaur's solo debut.
But then she didn't live up to her promise. She took a detour to Muscle Shoals, confounding her audience, and despite getting five whacks of the bat at Warner Brothers she never connected, her moment expired.
Same thing happened to Bonnie Raitt, who then resurrected her career by speaking her truth on "Nick Of Time."
Wendy Waldman speaks her truth on "How Do I."
"They make it look easy
To stand your ground
To let those bridges burn"
We're overwhelmed with stories about entrepreneurs doing it their way, celebrities talk trash in public, but we're too afraid of loss to let go and speak our truth, and when we do and don't get the result we desire we're wounded. That's the story of the baby boomers, they're wounded, by loss, by unfulfilled expectations, by failed dreams. It was supposed to work out, then it didn't, and what do you do with that?
"If I had known how fast it goes
I would have shown you every day"
That's the cliche. Along with high school and college are the best days of your life.
I don't agree with the latter, but the former...it's true. Soon we're as old as our parents, then we're in the rearview mirror, then we're done. How did this happen?
Wendy Waldman took a left turn, moved to Nashville, became a producer. Never seeking accolades for being a woman in a man's field, she was a ground-breaker. And also a hit songwriter, most famously for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with "Fishin' In The Dark" and Vanessa Williams with "Save The Best For Last."
She made an LP for Epic.
Another, an independent for Cypress.
But few paid attention.
Then it was the nineties.
But Wendy soldiered on. She reformed her group Bryndle with Karla Bonoff, Kenny Edwards and Andrew Gold. But they were independent before that was cool and old to boot, MTV was only interested in fresh faces.
And suddenly you find that nobody cares.
Do you feel that nobody cares?
I often do. The world is made for someone else. Someone who believes his or her best days are in front of them, who can take the world by storm, preferably an entrepreneur who can run herd over this great nation of ours.
But that wasn't me, I grew up in an era of personal development. I can tell you what I read, what I listened to, where I went, but that doesn't fill your bank account, and that seems to be the only thing that matters these days, especially as you get old and bills pile up and the workforce no longer needs you.
I was lying on my bed, depressed. I felt a song would make me feel better. I pulled up Wendy's "Restless In Mind" on the Sonos app...and I saw a new track.
How could this be? I had no idea. I thought Wendy'd returned to college, finally pursuing her degree, pointed her arrow in a new direction, honing her composer chops.
I was almost afraid to listen to "How Do I," because I was fearful it would be bad. It's sad when your heroes disappoint you, when you realize they're washed up, when they keep swinging for the fences in a stadium that's empty.
But the sound was authentic, it cut me to the bone, I felt like Wendy was only singing for herself, that I was peeking in on the process.
She's got the skills, she can write and play, produce too. So the end result is anything but amateurish. But it's not what's on the hit parade, more like an album track from 1973.
"Late last night
I heard a tune
That only you could write"
Girls and their fathers. Their deaths devastate them.
Wendy's father was Fred Steiner, famous for writing the "Perry Mason" theme, never mind the childhood favorite "The Bullwinkle Show." Fred's gone now, as well as his wife, Shirley. The next generation carries the torch, but cannot forget those who came before.
"How Do I" nails this. Would fit perfectly in some TV show, you know that moment of loss and reflection. But the supervisors are young and want those wet behind the ears to fill out their schedules. When you're aged you're discarded, even if you're a superstar, you just haven't gotten the memo yet.
How do you go on?
"There's just one question in my mind tonight
How do I go on
How do I go on"
Wendy maintains her optimism. I'm wobbly, I can't always keep mine.
Not that she puts out new music on a regular basis. She's been releasing intermittent singles, with an eye on an eventual album. But it's not like "How Do I" got a ton of accolades, it barely made a ripple in the water when it was released last month.
But it's out there, on Spotify, CD Baby, the aforementioned Soundcloud.
Because that's how an artist goes on, by creating. Doing it whether anybody pays attention or not.
"How Do I" resonates because it's not calculated, rather it's a burst of sheer inspiration. That's what an artist does, channel that revelation, create something out of it, capture that moment.
"How Do I" is not au courant.
But it's forthright and honest and it resonates.
And that's what I'm looking for.
Spotify: https://goo.gl/GyyQ2g
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What do you do when nobody's paying attention? When you're too old to be new and you got your big chance and missed the target?
Faithful readers know I'm a big Wendy Waldman fan, the great singer/songwriter hope of 1973, she wrote "Vaudeville Man" and "Mad Mad Me" on Maria Muldaur's solo debut.
But then she didn't live up to her promise. She took a detour to Muscle Shoals, confounding her audience, and despite getting five whacks of the bat at Warner Brothers she never connected, her moment expired.
Same thing happened to Bonnie Raitt, who then resurrected her career by speaking her truth on "Nick Of Time."
Wendy Waldman speaks her truth on "How Do I."
"They make it look easy
To stand your ground
To let those bridges burn"
We're overwhelmed with stories about entrepreneurs doing it their way, celebrities talk trash in public, but we're too afraid of loss to let go and speak our truth, and when we do and don't get the result we desire we're wounded. That's the story of the baby boomers, they're wounded, by loss, by unfulfilled expectations, by failed dreams. It was supposed to work out, then it didn't, and what do you do with that?
"If I had known how fast it goes
I would have shown you every day"
That's the cliche. Along with high school and college are the best days of your life.
I don't agree with the latter, but the former...it's true. Soon we're as old as our parents, then we're in the rearview mirror, then we're done. How did this happen?
Wendy Waldman took a left turn, moved to Nashville, became a producer. Never seeking accolades for being a woman in a man's field, she was a ground-breaker. And also a hit songwriter, most famously for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with "Fishin' In The Dark" and Vanessa Williams with "Save The Best For Last."
She made an LP for Epic.
Another, an independent for Cypress.
But few paid attention.
Then it was the nineties.
But Wendy soldiered on. She reformed her group Bryndle with Karla Bonoff, Kenny Edwards and Andrew Gold. But they were independent before that was cool and old to boot, MTV was only interested in fresh faces.
And suddenly you find that nobody cares.
Do you feel that nobody cares?
I often do. The world is made for someone else. Someone who believes his or her best days are in front of them, who can take the world by storm, preferably an entrepreneur who can run herd over this great nation of ours.
But that wasn't me, I grew up in an era of personal development. I can tell you what I read, what I listened to, where I went, but that doesn't fill your bank account, and that seems to be the only thing that matters these days, especially as you get old and bills pile up and the workforce no longer needs you.
I was lying on my bed, depressed. I felt a song would make me feel better. I pulled up Wendy's "Restless In Mind" on the Sonos app...and I saw a new track.
How could this be? I had no idea. I thought Wendy'd returned to college, finally pursuing her degree, pointed her arrow in a new direction, honing her composer chops.
I was almost afraid to listen to "How Do I," because I was fearful it would be bad. It's sad when your heroes disappoint you, when you realize they're washed up, when they keep swinging for the fences in a stadium that's empty.
But the sound was authentic, it cut me to the bone, I felt like Wendy was only singing for herself, that I was peeking in on the process.
She's got the skills, she can write and play, produce too. So the end result is anything but amateurish. But it's not what's on the hit parade, more like an album track from 1973.
"Late last night
I heard a tune
That only you could write"
Girls and their fathers. Their deaths devastate them.
Wendy's father was Fred Steiner, famous for writing the "Perry Mason" theme, never mind the childhood favorite "The Bullwinkle Show." Fred's gone now, as well as his wife, Shirley. The next generation carries the torch, but cannot forget those who came before.
"How Do I" nails this. Would fit perfectly in some TV show, you know that moment of loss and reflection. But the supervisors are young and want those wet behind the ears to fill out their schedules. When you're aged you're discarded, even if you're a superstar, you just haven't gotten the memo yet.
How do you go on?
"There's just one question in my mind tonight
How do I go on
How do I go on"
Wendy maintains her optimism. I'm wobbly, I can't always keep mine.
Not that she puts out new music on a regular basis. She's been releasing intermittent singles, with an eye on an eventual album. But it's not like "How Do I" got a ton of accolades, it barely made a ripple in the water when it was released last month.
But it's out there, on Spotify, CD Baby, the aforementioned Soundcloud.
Because that's how an artist goes on, by creating. Doing it whether anybody pays attention or not.
"How Do I" resonates because it's not calculated, rather it's a burst of sheer inspiration. That's what an artist does, channel that revelation, create something out of it, capture that moment.
"How Do I" is not au courant.
But it's forthright and honest and it resonates.
And that's what I'm looking for.
Spotify: https://goo.gl/GyyQ2g
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Music Is The Future
The film business is fighting Sean Parker's Screening Room.
The book business is fighting Amazon's Kindle.
And the music business is sitting in the present, the most up-to-date media vertical extant.
And yet people still complain.
Do you want to pay $150 for a device that would allow you to stream first run films for $50, day and date?
That's what Sean Parker is advocating, that's what most of the film business is fighting. Because they hate the future, they believe they can stick their finger in the dike and hold back what's to come, screwing the public in the process. Day and date is inevitable, it's just a matter of when. And until it arrives, piracy will reign.
The book business was so worried about the Kindle stealing its profits that Amazon was neutered. Once upon a time, all digital books were $9.99. Now they're more like fifteen bucks and sales have stalled. Because price matters, and so does volume.
Meanwhile, you can get all you want in the music business, an unlimited amount of EVERYTHING, for ten bucks a month.
Sound like a good deal?
It is!
Sure, the old paradigm has been plowed under the process. But that's got nothing to do with Spotify and everything to do with the internet and new digital tools. Today everybody can make a record, and distribute it. And those inured to the old ways don't like this. As for YouTube and free... Well, the rights holders do get paid and Prince was seemingly the only person who kept his music off Google's video service. Everybody else wants the exposure. Oh, what a world, where people can sample your wares for free and decide whether to double down, to become a fan, to go to the show, to buy merchandise.
You can't even get all the films in one place online. And flicks and TV shows come and go on Netflix. As for the vaunted victories at Amazon, "Transparent" and "Mozart In The Jungle," they may have accolades, but few people have seen them, because they're behind a paywall most are not paying to get through and with so much noise in the channel, people who are paying don't know they have this access. Whereas in music you can just go on Spotify, see the chart and find out what's happening, everything can be clicked on. Well, not absolutely everything, but windowing will never take hold in music, it's anti-fan, and everything anti-fan ultimately bites the artist in the ass. Beyonce spread "Lemonade" from Tidal. As for Drake and Apple... That service is peopled with alta kachers, that's right, Apple Music is for old people and Spotify skews young... Guess where Drake's audience is?
The book business ensured that it would have a greater percentage of less. Raise the price and books are no longer an impulse item. And sure, a lot of hard core oldsters and insiders like physical books, there's nothing wrong with that, but to grow a business you need youngsters and looky-loos, and when they see the digital version costs as much as the physical version, with no printing, no shipping, no nothing, they pass.
Not to mention you read the review and can't buy the book.
That's another thing the music business has eviscerated, advance publicity. It just doesn't make sense in the modern era, you leave too much money on the table. It's all about the sneak attack, turns out that generates tons more publicity and people can access instantly. Meanwhile, we've got to hear about films years in advance, and I can't tell you how many times I read about a book and find out it's not available for weeks. Do I then remember to buy it? Usually not. As that old record business axiom says, if it's not in the store when the customer wants it, they're never going to buy it.
But today in music everything is available all the time. Someone dies and we don't have to produce more inventory, never mind ship it. It's just constant ka-ching!
The film and book businesses are so worried about losing today's profits, they're forgoing tomorrows. Did you notice that recorded music revenues went up? Streaming is growing. It's been a wrenching transition, but the heavy lifting has been done, the music business is in the twenty first century, now it's all about the art.
Sure, the rules are different. The game is different. But art is about innovation, and business is about disruption, throwing out the old and replacing it with the new. And do you know who likes this best? THE AUDIENCE! And when the audience is leading the enterprise you're in trouble, the enterprise needs to get out ahead, the public is still learning about Spotify and other streaming music services, the future's so bright you gotta wear shades!
But there's all this doom and gloom...
There are winners and losers in every revolution. Artists who were lucky enough to have major label deals last century, have companies invest in their careers, are now angry that they've got zillions of competitors, not only nipping at their heels, but stealing their money.
But all the newcomers like being able to play. Just tell today's generation that they have to record in studios for a grand a day, depend upon a major label for distribution and have the audience unable to check them out for free and there'd truly be a revolution, and the irony is the biggest acts would be on the front lines. That's right, Drake and Beyonce and the rest of the superstars utilize the new tools like crazy. Drake keeps putting out new music, they all utilize social media, and most of it's FREE!
So music is in the best place. It's a hotbed of creativity and its artists are revered more than actors or authors. Music is seen as authentic. And if you lament today's scene that just means you're stuck in the past. Sure, there might be ten writers on a track, sure there might be inane lyrics and boring beats, but the truth is you only get to the future by marching through the present. Rock replaced jazz and hip-hop replaced rock. We have no idea what's next. But we do know the tools are at the fingertips of the creators and if you create something listen-worthy millions of people can check you out instantly.
That's a good thing.
The techies pushed the arts into the future.
But it's the artists who hold sway now.
Music's on the launch pad.
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The book business is fighting Amazon's Kindle.
And the music business is sitting in the present, the most up-to-date media vertical extant.
And yet people still complain.
Do you want to pay $150 for a device that would allow you to stream first run films for $50, day and date?
That's what Sean Parker is advocating, that's what most of the film business is fighting. Because they hate the future, they believe they can stick their finger in the dike and hold back what's to come, screwing the public in the process. Day and date is inevitable, it's just a matter of when. And until it arrives, piracy will reign.
The book business was so worried about the Kindle stealing its profits that Amazon was neutered. Once upon a time, all digital books were $9.99. Now they're more like fifteen bucks and sales have stalled. Because price matters, and so does volume.
Meanwhile, you can get all you want in the music business, an unlimited amount of EVERYTHING, for ten bucks a month.
Sound like a good deal?
It is!
Sure, the old paradigm has been plowed under the process. But that's got nothing to do with Spotify and everything to do with the internet and new digital tools. Today everybody can make a record, and distribute it. And those inured to the old ways don't like this. As for YouTube and free... Well, the rights holders do get paid and Prince was seemingly the only person who kept his music off Google's video service. Everybody else wants the exposure. Oh, what a world, where people can sample your wares for free and decide whether to double down, to become a fan, to go to the show, to buy merchandise.
You can't even get all the films in one place online. And flicks and TV shows come and go on Netflix. As for the vaunted victories at Amazon, "Transparent" and "Mozart In The Jungle," they may have accolades, but few people have seen them, because they're behind a paywall most are not paying to get through and with so much noise in the channel, people who are paying don't know they have this access. Whereas in music you can just go on Spotify, see the chart and find out what's happening, everything can be clicked on. Well, not absolutely everything, but windowing will never take hold in music, it's anti-fan, and everything anti-fan ultimately bites the artist in the ass. Beyonce spread "Lemonade" from Tidal. As for Drake and Apple... That service is peopled with alta kachers, that's right, Apple Music is for old people and Spotify skews young... Guess where Drake's audience is?
The book business ensured that it would have a greater percentage of less. Raise the price and books are no longer an impulse item. And sure, a lot of hard core oldsters and insiders like physical books, there's nothing wrong with that, but to grow a business you need youngsters and looky-loos, and when they see the digital version costs as much as the physical version, with no printing, no shipping, no nothing, they pass.
Not to mention you read the review and can't buy the book.
That's another thing the music business has eviscerated, advance publicity. It just doesn't make sense in the modern era, you leave too much money on the table. It's all about the sneak attack, turns out that generates tons more publicity and people can access instantly. Meanwhile, we've got to hear about films years in advance, and I can't tell you how many times I read about a book and find out it's not available for weeks. Do I then remember to buy it? Usually not. As that old record business axiom says, if it's not in the store when the customer wants it, they're never going to buy it.
But today in music everything is available all the time. Someone dies and we don't have to produce more inventory, never mind ship it. It's just constant ka-ching!
The film and book businesses are so worried about losing today's profits, they're forgoing tomorrows. Did you notice that recorded music revenues went up? Streaming is growing. It's been a wrenching transition, but the heavy lifting has been done, the music business is in the twenty first century, now it's all about the art.
Sure, the rules are different. The game is different. But art is about innovation, and business is about disruption, throwing out the old and replacing it with the new. And do you know who likes this best? THE AUDIENCE! And when the audience is leading the enterprise you're in trouble, the enterprise needs to get out ahead, the public is still learning about Spotify and other streaming music services, the future's so bright you gotta wear shades!
But there's all this doom and gloom...
There are winners and losers in every revolution. Artists who were lucky enough to have major label deals last century, have companies invest in their careers, are now angry that they've got zillions of competitors, not only nipping at their heels, but stealing their money.
But all the newcomers like being able to play. Just tell today's generation that they have to record in studios for a grand a day, depend upon a major label for distribution and have the audience unable to check them out for free and there'd truly be a revolution, and the irony is the biggest acts would be on the front lines. That's right, Drake and Beyonce and the rest of the superstars utilize the new tools like crazy. Drake keeps putting out new music, they all utilize social media, and most of it's FREE!
So music is in the best place. It's a hotbed of creativity and its artists are revered more than actors or authors. Music is seen as authentic. And if you lament today's scene that just means you're stuck in the past. Sure, there might be ten writers on a track, sure there might be inane lyrics and boring beats, but the truth is you only get to the future by marching through the present. Rock replaced jazz and hip-hop replaced rock. We have no idea what's next. But we do know the tools are at the fingertips of the creators and if you create something listen-worthy millions of people can check you out instantly.
That's a good thing.
The techies pushed the arts into the future.
But it's the artists who hold sway now.
Music's on the launch pad.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
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