A feel good circle jerk promulgated by those out of touch with economic realities. And tech ones too.
Remember when Congress held hearings over Napster? What killed illegal P2P was technological solutions, i.e. Spotify, with its free tier. Want to kill ticket scalping? Charge what the tickets are worth or tie them to the buyer, neither of which the sellers are willing to do.
Let's start with the musicians, so worried about their image that they will not charge what their tickets are worth. They parade their lifestyles in social media, the private jets and the island vacations, and then we're supposed to believe they truly care about the little people, that ticket buyers see them as other than the mercenary tools they most certainly are.
Or you could go paperless. But then you might find out demand is de minimis. Miley Cyrus taught us this lesson. Attorneys general were up in arms that their constituents could not get tickets for her tour. So, she went paperless the next time out and found...the overwhelming demand was artificial, created by scalpers, the same people employing these bots.
Come on, when you leave eight billion dollars on the table do you really expect hackers overseas to be afraid of some silly U.S. law? Especially when the government can't even keep its own house in order, when its servers are infiltrated by foreign governments?
This is not a legal issue, this is an economic issue, one which the purveyors would prefer to go unsolved. Because the truth is sellers don't care about customers, they just care that someone else is reaping the revenue. The upside on StubHub does not go to them. But can you blame someone for shopping on StubHub when the ticket game is so opaque? You've got to get every credit card known to man, from Citi to AmEx and beyond, you've got to join the fan club, and for those waking up at ten a.m. on Saturday, they haven't gotten the memo that by time the public onsale takes place oftentimes fewer than ten percent of the tickets remain.
So they bitch.
But nobody cares.
As for being unable to buy a ticket to "Hamilton"... Try buying the hot new Christmas toy. Or the hot new car. You overpay, it's simple supply and demand. Which is why the "Hamilton" producers now have multiple productions in other locations. Come on, you can't get a Tesla Model X on launch date but everyone should be able to go to "Hamilton" whenever they want at face value? Give me a break.
"Hamilton" could go paperless. But then how would those fat cats who traipse through New York get in at the last minute? The producers always talk about the little guy, but the person they protect is always the big guy. There's always a ticket for the big guy, who might overpay for it, but it's available.
What's our goal here? To get the public in at a fair price or...
And it's only getting worse. Acts are scalping their own tickets, talent agencies too, they skim the best and sell them as VIP packages, everybody's in the ticketing game yet they're pointing fingers at the anonymous bots as the problem... Give me a break.
And the truth is the employers of those bots, the scalpers, are often in cahoots with the purveyors themselves, the promoters, the acts, the buildings... They want to make sure they meet their nut, they want some of that upside.
If you want transparency, the BOTS Act won't get you there.
But enough people pissed that they weren't getting the upside leaned on the government to the point this inane act was passed. Makes you lose all faith in our system.
Some things can't be regulated, they're solved by the marketplace. One thing's for sure, by time the government gets involved the train has already left the station. To ask the government to understand ticketing is like asking your tot to understand quantum mechanics, it's impossible.
Everyone wants to jet back to the past, when you lined up and every ticket went on sale at one time.
But that was back when the money was in records, not tours. When tickets were three, four or five dollars, maybe ten, certainly not a hundred. Before convenience ruled. Before everybody in America believed they were entitled to whatever they wanted at list price immediately.
But that can't happen. Drake can't play enough dates to satisfy demand. Beyonce either. You're lucky if you can go.
Which is why most people love scalping. The bots make it so they can buy tickets from third parties. Of course they overpay, but it's not only the rich doing this, but the rank and file, it's worth it to them to pay five hundred bucks to sit up close, they scrimp and save and in an era where experiences are everything, it's worth it.
Otherwise StubHub wouldn't exist. There aren't enough fat cats to fill every seat.
So what I'm saying here is there's a gap. Between what we're charging and what the tickets are worth. And those most unhappy about it are the sellers, they want that gap, that upside, for themselves. Which is why they're not attacking the underlying problem, just those keeping them from this extra revenue.
Pass a law making senate seat holders unable to resell tickets.
Pass a law putting every seat in the building on the manifest.
Pass a law eliminating holdbacks.
Address the real problem.
But the government won't. Because it doesn't even understand what's going on.
And believing the bot makers and users will be afraid of this law is believing dope laws will eliminate drug use. Ain't ever gonna happen. There's too much money on the table and the public wants to use drugs. Legalize it and sell it at a fair price and you eliminate crime. The same paradigm works in ticketing... Put all the tickets on sale for what the traffic will bear and bots will disappear overnight. This is what the Stones do, they flex price, depending upon demand, no one scalps their tickets, and they have the biggest gross.
This act is just evidence of how wrongheaded the industry has become.
We're going in the wrong direction. We're driving buyers to the secondary market. Because the primary market is incomprehensible, it's a full time job knowing when tickets go on sale and how to buy them.
Charge what the damn things are worth. Tie the buyer to the ticket.
But no one will do this.
The BOTS Act is much ado about nothing.
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Saturday 17 December 2016
The Cold
Comes after the storm.
Did I ever tell you about the time I left part of my tongue on the T-bar at Stratton?
That was back in December '65, when they finally had snow, when Skylight Lodge was full and Christmas was not a bust.
I started skiing in Bobby Hickey's backyard. He lived down the street. His dad had bought him boards at that hardware store we did not go to. They were nine dollars. They had bear trap bindings, as in they didn't release, and one day up at the school, after a storm, Bobby let me try 'em.
To say I was instantly hooked would be wrong. But I liked all manner of snow sports. I had a Flexible Flyer, my dad bought us flying saucers, back when they were made out of aluminum instead of plastic, when you went over a bump and they dented. And then he purchased two toboggans. We'd go up to Fairchild Wheeler, the public golf course, and everybody would get on board and by time we got to the bottom, most people would be strewn on the slope above us.
But that was before Bobby and I became friends. And after we did, I implored my dad to buy me skis. Which he did at Mooney's, the local sporting goods shop. I don't remember the brand, but I do know they came with bamboo poles, and the toes would pivot and release, assuming my galoshes could generate enough torque. But when you're young you're stupid, you believe you're invulnerable, I never thought I'd get hurt, and I didn't, until years later, when my rental skis released in mid-air, but that's another story.
So after getting my own boards, they were red, I'd spend afternoons and evenings at Bobby's, down the street. There was a floodlight. We'd descend the fifteen vertical feet and make it almost to the house. We built jumps. We made the equivalent of a bobsled run, and then Mr. Conley showed our sixth grade class a movie about Mt. Snow.
I convinced my parents to go.
That was right after the Beatles were on "Ed Sullivan" the third time. That was right after Cassius Clay knocked out Sonny Liston. We all stayed in one room at the Novice Inn, took lessons at Carinthia, a small spot down the road from Mt. Snow which was incorporated into the big area in the eighties, and then we spent the next three days riding the chairs at Walt Schoenknecht's playground. My family was hooked. So we booked the following Christmas at the Skylight Lodge in Manchester...
But it rained.
This was before snowmaking. We drove up to Vermont hoping the temperature would drop, that what was rain in Connecticut would be snow up north, but this was not to be. It was nearly sixty degrees. The snow was washed away. We were one of only two families at the Lodge. The other being from New York City, not Manhattan, but an outer borough. We made friends with a fourteen year old, who pooh-poohed the Beatles, we were infected by "Beatles '65," but he liked the Stones, and the only 45 around was "Charlie Brown," which we played over and over and over again.
And I'll never forget that trip back to Connecticut. It was so foggy my father opened the front door of our Oldsmobile to find the center line. Funny how you feel so safe in the back seat, like your parents are oh-so-powerful and can do no wrong. But it was only later that I realized my dad could not relinquish the steering wheel, that he had to plow on no matter what the circumstances, until one day in '88 when he told my mother to take over, the multiple myeloma was causing too much pain, he had cancer, but this was before he was diagnosed.
So, after being blown out at Christmas my parents refused to go to Vermont during February vacation. We went to the Concord, which had its own ski area. Two T-bars and two flat slopes, but that did not hold me back, except for the final day, when it rained, you never know what the sky will bring on the east coast.
But feeling guilty for dashing my dreams, that March we went to Stratton.
Well, not really. We went to Sargent Camp, in New Hampshire, it was owned by mother's alma mater, Boston University, and once again, my parents were planning for a bust.
But this time there was snow. We drove across the state line to Stratton. I convinced my mother and sisters to descend from the top via the Wanderer, almost every ski area in Vermont has a novice run from the top. My mother fell and scraped her nose, no one would forgive me, this is one of the last times I led the rest of my family on an adventure.
But the trip was a success. So the following Christmas, we tried the Skylight Lodge once again.
Now essentially it was a dormitory, with bathrooms down the hall. Usually my parents drew the line at detached loos, but for some reason this time they were amenable.
And the following morning...
Our boots were frozen.
Life is a learning experience. As is skiing. We did not know not to keep our boots in the back of the station wagon with our skis. You need them warm. But we put them under the car heater and we drove up to the mountain and there we separated. I was on my own adventure, they went to the bunny hill.
Now at that time there were two ways to make it to the middle of the mountain. One was the Suntanner chairlift, the other was two T-bars.
T-bars. They're rare these days. No one wants to work. Except in Europe, where they were devised and still survive. For the uninitiated, they look like upside down "T"'s, and they pull you up the hill. Two people at a time. Do not sit down, that's anathema, you immediately fall. The key is to put the wood under your butt, hold the center pole and...
There are two kinds of T-bars. One on a rope and one that's an aluminum pole, with a spring inside. The former was invented first, the latter was supposedly an improvement, but the latter is so much harder to ride. Especially alone. You end up gripping the bar arms crossed, holding on for dear life as it pulls you uphill.
This is what happened to me that day at Stratton back in '65.
Now going back to the Concord, in February of that same year, being bored with the two runs I noticed...that if I put my face on the T-bar it would stick ever so slightly. It was a cool sensation. I enjoyed it. So when I was riding the T-bar at Stratton I decided....
Now there was a temperature difference. At the Concord, it was near freezing, about thirty two degrees. At Stratton, it was in the single digits.
I licked the T-bar. There it is. I'll make it that simple. I could not ride it alone with the bar behind my butt, I was gripping the pole with my arms and I remembered my experience at the Concord and I stuck out my tongue and...
It immediately froze to the aluminum.
I tried to pull it away.
No-go.
Now I'm eleven years old, alone on the lift, far from mommy and daddy, in an era long before cellphones, what was I supposed to do?
The longer it stuck there, the worse it would be, right?
And if I got to the top and was still attached...what would the operator do, assuming he noticed and comprehended my problem?
There was only one solution, I had to take action, I had to pull my tongue off the T-bar.
Which I did.
RIPPPPPPPP!!!!
The worst things happen fast. I jerked my head away and I immediately noticed, stuck to the aluminum T-bar, a piece of skin about the size of a quarter.
Holy moly! Had I permanently disfigured myself? Would I still be able to speak, never mind eat? Was this a turning point in my life?
And I'm starting to freak, and lord knows what causes me to spit, but I do, and there's blood all over the snow.
Then I spit again and get the same result.
So I figured I'd better save my plasma, and I got to the top of the lift and skidded down the off-ramp and immediately hightailed it for the lodge, eager to investigate the damage, to discover if I would survive.
And when I got in front of the bathroom mirror I found...
A big red spot in the middle of my tongue. The bleeding had almost been stanched, but I was absent part of my being, I wasn't quite sure how to feel about the whole damn thing, I was alive, but was I forever damaged?
I didn't see my parents until lunch. I don't think I told the exact same story. I think I said the T-bar had stopped and jerked and my tongue had become attached inadvertently. Never underestimate the power of a person to obfuscate, no one tells the truth, they always place themselves in the best light.
My father laughed. My mother did not display compassion. I'd just had a life-altering moment and all I got was...
A shrug.
But I never heard the end of it. My father would make jokes about it for years. He cut out a cartoon from the paper, of a little kid stuck to a lamppost. That's one thing about families, the way they put each other down, the way they jockey for position, the way they never forget anything.
And I never forgot that December day back in '65. It comes to mind on days like today, when the snow has stopped blowing and the temperature drops and it's close to zero and if you don't watch out...
You'll be stuck to a pole in the middle of nowhere with no means of escape.
Old man winter is a harsh master.
But his briskness makes you feel so alive.
When you're not afraid you're gonna die.
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Did I ever tell you about the time I left part of my tongue on the T-bar at Stratton?
That was back in December '65, when they finally had snow, when Skylight Lodge was full and Christmas was not a bust.
I started skiing in Bobby Hickey's backyard. He lived down the street. His dad had bought him boards at that hardware store we did not go to. They were nine dollars. They had bear trap bindings, as in they didn't release, and one day up at the school, after a storm, Bobby let me try 'em.
To say I was instantly hooked would be wrong. But I liked all manner of snow sports. I had a Flexible Flyer, my dad bought us flying saucers, back when they were made out of aluminum instead of plastic, when you went over a bump and they dented. And then he purchased two toboggans. We'd go up to Fairchild Wheeler, the public golf course, and everybody would get on board and by time we got to the bottom, most people would be strewn on the slope above us.
But that was before Bobby and I became friends. And after we did, I implored my dad to buy me skis. Which he did at Mooney's, the local sporting goods shop. I don't remember the brand, but I do know they came with bamboo poles, and the toes would pivot and release, assuming my galoshes could generate enough torque. But when you're young you're stupid, you believe you're invulnerable, I never thought I'd get hurt, and I didn't, until years later, when my rental skis released in mid-air, but that's another story.
So after getting my own boards, they were red, I'd spend afternoons and evenings at Bobby's, down the street. There was a floodlight. We'd descend the fifteen vertical feet and make it almost to the house. We built jumps. We made the equivalent of a bobsled run, and then Mr. Conley showed our sixth grade class a movie about Mt. Snow.
I convinced my parents to go.
That was right after the Beatles were on "Ed Sullivan" the third time. That was right after Cassius Clay knocked out Sonny Liston. We all stayed in one room at the Novice Inn, took lessons at Carinthia, a small spot down the road from Mt. Snow which was incorporated into the big area in the eighties, and then we spent the next three days riding the chairs at Walt Schoenknecht's playground. My family was hooked. So we booked the following Christmas at the Skylight Lodge in Manchester...
But it rained.
This was before snowmaking. We drove up to Vermont hoping the temperature would drop, that what was rain in Connecticut would be snow up north, but this was not to be. It was nearly sixty degrees. The snow was washed away. We were one of only two families at the Lodge. The other being from New York City, not Manhattan, but an outer borough. We made friends with a fourteen year old, who pooh-poohed the Beatles, we were infected by "Beatles '65," but he liked the Stones, and the only 45 around was "Charlie Brown," which we played over and over and over again.
And I'll never forget that trip back to Connecticut. It was so foggy my father opened the front door of our Oldsmobile to find the center line. Funny how you feel so safe in the back seat, like your parents are oh-so-powerful and can do no wrong. But it was only later that I realized my dad could not relinquish the steering wheel, that he had to plow on no matter what the circumstances, until one day in '88 when he told my mother to take over, the multiple myeloma was causing too much pain, he had cancer, but this was before he was diagnosed.
So, after being blown out at Christmas my parents refused to go to Vermont during February vacation. We went to the Concord, which had its own ski area. Two T-bars and two flat slopes, but that did not hold me back, except for the final day, when it rained, you never know what the sky will bring on the east coast.
But feeling guilty for dashing my dreams, that March we went to Stratton.
Well, not really. We went to Sargent Camp, in New Hampshire, it was owned by mother's alma mater, Boston University, and once again, my parents were planning for a bust.
But this time there was snow. We drove across the state line to Stratton. I convinced my mother and sisters to descend from the top via the Wanderer, almost every ski area in Vermont has a novice run from the top. My mother fell and scraped her nose, no one would forgive me, this is one of the last times I led the rest of my family on an adventure.
But the trip was a success. So the following Christmas, we tried the Skylight Lodge once again.
Now essentially it was a dormitory, with bathrooms down the hall. Usually my parents drew the line at detached loos, but for some reason this time they were amenable.
And the following morning...
Our boots were frozen.
Life is a learning experience. As is skiing. We did not know not to keep our boots in the back of the station wagon with our skis. You need them warm. But we put them under the car heater and we drove up to the mountain and there we separated. I was on my own adventure, they went to the bunny hill.
Now at that time there were two ways to make it to the middle of the mountain. One was the Suntanner chairlift, the other was two T-bars.
T-bars. They're rare these days. No one wants to work. Except in Europe, where they were devised and still survive. For the uninitiated, they look like upside down "T"'s, and they pull you up the hill. Two people at a time. Do not sit down, that's anathema, you immediately fall. The key is to put the wood under your butt, hold the center pole and...
There are two kinds of T-bars. One on a rope and one that's an aluminum pole, with a spring inside. The former was invented first, the latter was supposedly an improvement, but the latter is so much harder to ride. Especially alone. You end up gripping the bar arms crossed, holding on for dear life as it pulls you uphill.
This is what happened to me that day at Stratton back in '65.
Now going back to the Concord, in February of that same year, being bored with the two runs I noticed...that if I put my face on the T-bar it would stick ever so slightly. It was a cool sensation. I enjoyed it. So when I was riding the T-bar at Stratton I decided....
Now there was a temperature difference. At the Concord, it was near freezing, about thirty two degrees. At Stratton, it was in the single digits.
I licked the T-bar. There it is. I'll make it that simple. I could not ride it alone with the bar behind my butt, I was gripping the pole with my arms and I remembered my experience at the Concord and I stuck out my tongue and...
It immediately froze to the aluminum.
I tried to pull it away.
No-go.
Now I'm eleven years old, alone on the lift, far from mommy and daddy, in an era long before cellphones, what was I supposed to do?
The longer it stuck there, the worse it would be, right?
And if I got to the top and was still attached...what would the operator do, assuming he noticed and comprehended my problem?
There was only one solution, I had to take action, I had to pull my tongue off the T-bar.
Which I did.
RIPPPPPPPP!!!!
The worst things happen fast. I jerked my head away and I immediately noticed, stuck to the aluminum T-bar, a piece of skin about the size of a quarter.
Holy moly! Had I permanently disfigured myself? Would I still be able to speak, never mind eat? Was this a turning point in my life?
And I'm starting to freak, and lord knows what causes me to spit, but I do, and there's blood all over the snow.
Then I spit again and get the same result.
So I figured I'd better save my plasma, and I got to the top of the lift and skidded down the off-ramp and immediately hightailed it for the lodge, eager to investigate the damage, to discover if I would survive.
And when I got in front of the bathroom mirror I found...
A big red spot in the middle of my tongue. The bleeding had almost been stanched, but I was absent part of my being, I wasn't quite sure how to feel about the whole damn thing, I was alive, but was I forever damaged?
I didn't see my parents until lunch. I don't think I told the exact same story. I think I said the T-bar had stopped and jerked and my tongue had become attached inadvertently. Never underestimate the power of a person to obfuscate, no one tells the truth, they always place themselves in the best light.
My father laughed. My mother did not display compassion. I'd just had a life-altering moment and all I got was...
A shrug.
But I never heard the end of it. My father would make jokes about it for years. He cut out a cartoon from the paper, of a little kid stuck to a lamppost. That's one thing about families, the way they put each other down, the way they jockey for position, the way they never forget anything.
And I never forgot that December day back in '65. It comes to mind on days like today, when the snow has stopped blowing and the temperature drops and it's close to zero and if you don't watch out...
You'll be stuck to a pole in the middle of nowhere with no means of escape.
Old man winter is a harsh master.
But his briskness makes you feel so alive.
When you're not afraid you're gonna die.
--
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Friday 16 December 2016
The Snowstorm
Sometimes you have to be reminded where you came from.
I grew up in Connecticut, when it used to snow, when every November you put on snow tires, before all season radials, before anyone had four wheel drive. You'd walk to school, the thought of being kidnapped never crossed one's mind, if anything you planned to run away. I did that once, packed a suitcase, got as far as the front lawn, down the slope, hidden from the house, my mother didn't come after me, she knew I would be back.
I was.
I remember the snowdrifts topping the trees on the side of the house. I always wondered thereafter, was there that much snow or was that before the trees matured?
I'll never know.
We had galoshes. The big breakthrough was clodhoppers. Boots that went above the ankle. We had a veritable cornucopia of outdoor gear and we'd go out and roll in the snow and come back in an hour and strip ourselves down, take a bath, and if we were lucky our mother would make us hot chocolate, long before it came in a mix.
And then I went to college in Vermont, during the dark ages. There was one snowy television channel, no radio other than the college station, one movie theatre in town and if you were lucky the films they played on campus every Friday and Saturday night appealed to you. Usually they didn't. This was long before the cinema was taken over by high concept drivel, Marvel stars, if a film was in English it was a surprise. But they were minting snobs at Middlebury College. Not that they did such a good job, because after we graduated money became more important that education and my classmates were not so good at making it.
But we were hearty, we survived.
Nights far below zero, when we wore the same jeans we partied in during the spring.
There was no food in the dorms. You had to hike out to the SDUs, aka the "Social Dining Units." Today, people would Uber over. But we walked. Before the age of hoverboards, back before skateboarding was revolutionized by polyurethane wheels.
Hey, did I ever tell you that story, about skateboarding after the revolution? You see I was part of the first wave, when Jan & Dean implored us to grab our boards and go sidewalk surfin' with them. Then the boards had steel wheels, and it was nearly impossible to go around a corner. But in '75 I was in California and an acquaintance showed me the new equipment and I went for a ride down the Mammoth Mountain parking lot and a few hundred yards down I realized I'd have to walk back so I stepped off the board and...
That's right, I stepped off. And I immediately hit the pavement. Took the skin right off my palm, ripped right through a turtleneck and long underwear, Duofold to be exact, and my ski pants too.
I don't think I've been on a skateboard since.
Oh yes, this was long before synthetics. Most people bought long underwear at Sears. It had a waffle pattern. But if you were a skier you went for the state of the art, the aforementioned Duofold, which featured two layers of cotton, one perforated to trap heat. But we were still damn cold, it was years before anybody invented fleece.
But what I remember most about those cold winter nights was the isolation.
No one's isolated anymore. You just pick up your device and dial in, text a friend, surf the web. You might be alienated, but you're connected.
We were completely alone.
I was just reminded of this walking through a snowstorm.
You forget how the flakes sting your eyes. How you have to put your head down and focus on the destination. And make sure not to slip. There are all these skills that are second nature when you live in the hinterlands, but are completely forgotten when you reside where it rarely precipitates, never mind snows.
And then there's the quiet. The snow absorbs all the sound. It's just you and the elements.
Except for the occasional car. Reminded me of my mother driving me to school one night, for some activity I do not remember. Her Ford Falcon did a 360 a block from home. What did she do? Keep driving. She took me there.
My mother will be ninety on Sunday. She's seen so much.
And I've seen so much too.
They call us old farts, they tell us to get with the program, they don't want to hear how it once was.
But we remember. When life was different.
I won't say it was better, but it was harder, and difficulty yields character.
There was no foam on the playground. If you hadn't been dumped on the seesaw you never went on one.
And sledding oftentimes ended with bloody lips or noses. You were constantly cracking into something. But that didn't stop you. Because life was about the thrill. Make everything safe and you end up with dullness. I don't know what's caused the obesity epidemic, could be fructose corn syrup, but one thing's for sure, we were constantly moving back then. My mother wouldn't pick us up from school on a rainy day, never mind a snowstorm. I'd be trudging along, getting soaked, thinking of that warm abode at the end of my trek.
So I found myself out walking tonight. Everybody else waited for a ride. I was the only one. I was alone.
And I regretted my decision instantly. I could not see where I was going.
But I pulled up my hood and it blocked the wind. And I watched out for automobiles because I was breaking the cardinal rule, I was not wearing white at night, mostly black, could a driver see me?
I doubt it.
And then I got cold. And I was reminded of walking back to campus from the Alibi. The bar where beer was a quarter and drinks were a buck and you could not get a DUI because no one had a car, you took the shoe leather express back home, to an overheated room, back before the energy crisis, back before Jimmy Carter implored us all to put on a sweater.
And sometimes you were with a buddy. And sometimes you talked, but most of the time you were just too damn cold, you focused on the destination.
So I focused on where I was going.
But then I noticed the roads were covered, but the sidewalks were nearly clear. I remembered how snow stuck variably, depending upon the surface. That was always a question way back when, was the snow gonna stick, was the ground frozen?
We'd only been playing football on it weeks before.
And during a storm most people stay inside. So despite being in civilization, almost no one was on the sidewalk. And that's when I remembered, all those nights in Vermont, walking, walking...
When I went to college it was a sentence. You weren't trolling for a job, you were just doing your duty, fulfilling your parents' expectations. And one thing we did for sure was to live up to our parents' expectations, they were serious people, not our friends, and they could and would rage and exact penalties...
Then again, most faux pas were not visible. Little was trackable. You were on your own.
Except for your grades.
But you grow up and realize grades are irrelevant. That school does not square with the game of life. You're set free and you try to figure it out. If you play for safety you never really live.
Because living is dangerous. You can slip in the snow. Break a bone.
But those with character get up and keep going. Not because anybody is watching, but because if you're not moving forward, if you're not eating up life every day...
You're already dead.
--
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I grew up in Connecticut, when it used to snow, when every November you put on snow tires, before all season radials, before anyone had four wheel drive. You'd walk to school, the thought of being kidnapped never crossed one's mind, if anything you planned to run away. I did that once, packed a suitcase, got as far as the front lawn, down the slope, hidden from the house, my mother didn't come after me, she knew I would be back.
I was.
I remember the snowdrifts topping the trees on the side of the house. I always wondered thereafter, was there that much snow or was that before the trees matured?
I'll never know.
We had galoshes. The big breakthrough was clodhoppers. Boots that went above the ankle. We had a veritable cornucopia of outdoor gear and we'd go out and roll in the snow and come back in an hour and strip ourselves down, take a bath, and if we were lucky our mother would make us hot chocolate, long before it came in a mix.
And then I went to college in Vermont, during the dark ages. There was one snowy television channel, no radio other than the college station, one movie theatre in town and if you were lucky the films they played on campus every Friday and Saturday night appealed to you. Usually they didn't. This was long before the cinema was taken over by high concept drivel, Marvel stars, if a film was in English it was a surprise. But they were minting snobs at Middlebury College. Not that they did such a good job, because after we graduated money became more important that education and my classmates were not so good at making it.
But we were hearty, we survived.
Nights far below zero, when we wore the same jeans we partied in during the spring.
There was no food in the dorms. You had to hike out to the SDUs, aka the "Social Dining Units." Today, people would Uber over. But we walked. Before the age of hoverboards, back before skateboarding was revolutionized by polyurethane wheels.
Hey, did I ever tell you that story, about skateboarding after the revolution? You see I was part of the first wave, when Jan & Dean implored us to grab our boards and go sidewalk surfin' with them. Then the boards had steel wheels, and it was nearly impossible to go around a corner. But in '75 I was in California and an acquaintance showed me the new equipment and I went for a ride down the Mammoth Mountain parking lot and a few hundred yards down I realized I'd have to walk back so I stepped off the board and...
That's right, I stepped off. And I immediately hit the pavement. Took the skin right off my palm, ripped right through a turtleneck and long underwear, Duofold to be exact, and my ski pants too.
I don't think I've been on a skateboard since.
Oh yes, this was long before synthetics. Most people bought long underwear at Sears. It had a waffle pattern. But if you were a skier you went for the state of the art, the aforementioned Duofold, which featured two layers of cotton, one perforated to trap heat. But we were still damn cold, it was years before anybody invented fleece.
But what I remember most about those cold winter nights was the isolation.
No one's isolated anymore. You just pick up your device and dial in, text a friend, surf the web. You might be alienated, but you're connected.
We were completely alone.
I was just reminded of this walking through a snowstorm.
You forget how the flakes sting your eyes. How you have to put your head down and focus on the destination. And make sure not to slip. There are all these skills that are second nature when you live in the hinterlands, but are completely forgotten when you reside where it rarely precipitates, never mind snows.
And then there's the quiet. The snow absorbs all the sound. It's just you and the elements.
Except for the occasional car. Reminded me of my mother driving me to school one night, for some activity I do not remember. Her Ford Falcon did a 360 a block from home. What did she do? Keep driving. She took me there.
My mother will be ninety on Sunday. She's seen so much.
And I've seen so much too.
They call us old farts, they tell us to get with the program, they don't want to hear how it once was.
But we remember. When life was different.
I won't say it was better, but it was harder, and difficulty yields character.
There was no foam on the playground. If you hadn't been dumped on the seesaw you never went on one.
And sledding oftentimes ended with bloody lips or noses. You were constantly cracking into something. But that didn't stop you. Because life was about the thrill. Make everything safe and you end up with dullness. I don't know what's caused the obesity epidemic, could be fructose corn syrup, but one thing's for sure, we were constantly moving back then. My mother wouldn't pick us up from school on a rainy day, never mind a snowstorm. I'd be trudging along, getting soaked, thinking of that warm abode at the end of my trek.
So I found myself out walking tonight. Everybody else waited for a ride. I was the only one. I was alone.
And I regretted my decision instantly. I could not see where I was going.
But I pulled up my hood and it blocked the wind. And I watched out for automobiles because I was breaking the cardinal rule, I was not wearing white at night, mostly black, could a driver see me?
I doubt it.
And then I got cold. And I was reminded of walking back to campus from the Alibi. The bar where beer was a quarter and drinks were a buck and you could not get a DUI because no one had a car, you took the shoe leather express back home, to an overheated room, back before the energy crisis, back before Jimmy Carter implored us all to put on a sweater.
And sometimes you were with a buddy. And sometimes you talked, but most of the time you were just too damn cold, you focused on the destination.
So I focused on where I was going.
But then I noticed the roads were covered, but the sidewalks were nearly clear. I remembered how snow stuck variably, depending upon the surface. That was always a question way back when, was the snow gonna stick, was the ground frozen?
We'd only been playing football on it weeks before.
And during a storm most people stay inside. So despite being in civilization, almost no one was on the sidewalk. And that's when I remembered, all those nights in Vermont, walking, walking...
When I went to college it was a sentence. You weren't trolling for a job, you were just doing your duty, fulfilling your parents' expectations. And one thing we did for sure was to live up to our parents' expectations, they were serious people, not our friends, and they could and would rage and exact penalties...
Then again, most faux pas were not visible. Little was trackable. You were on your own.
Except for your grades.
But you grow up and realize grades are irrelevant. That school does not square with the game of life. You're set free and you try to figure it out. If you play for safety you never really live.
Because living is dangerous. You can slip in the snow. Break a bone.
But those with character get up and keep going. Not because anybody is watching, but because if you're not moving forward, if you're not eating up life every day...
You're already dead.
--
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This Year's Lessons
Stuff happens to interrupt your plans.
The more you look into the future, the more you'll be interrupted by the present. Screw be here now, screw mindfulness, just know that life is about unexpected interruptions, and the older you get the more they relate to health. While you're thinking about achievement, nature is throwing a wrench into the works. You can try to stay on track, but recovery is a more useful skill than the ability to plan.
The older you get the less possessions mean to you.
When you're a kid you need the latest toy, the newest cereal, you're all about accumulation. Get older and not only is your stuff an impediment, suddenly it doesn't get you high like it used to. You treasure experiences, if you can remember them. And now this is impacting the younger generation, with so much of our lives being virtual. Kids are the first to give up cars, they don't need their license. They're willing to live in shoeboxes in cities, in order to have community, maybe child is truly father to the man.
People believe the news they want to.
The right wing has turned the "New York Times" into a joke. The establishment is up for grabs. Bedrock is a fictitious place for Fred and Barney, we live in a Tower of Babel world, not only do we listen to different music, watch different TV shows and pray in different houses of worship, we don't even agree on the same facts. This is not about fake news, this is about a schism in society, which no one is willing to address as they're busy pointing fingers at each other.
_______________________
History is prologue.
Why did the Democrats believe they could defeat Donald Trump when no Republican could come close to doing so?
_______________________
The divide is not between the ethnic groups and the whites, but between those who live in the metropolis and those who live in the country. Read this story by Eduardo Porter:
"Where Were Trump's Votes? Where the Jobs Weren't": http://nyti.ms/2haiCL4?utm_source=phplist5670&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=This+Year%27s+Lessons
Oh, that's right, it's in the "Times," so it must be untrue.
The truth is the "New York Times" runs this country. It sets the agenda for the Republicans. It's the only news outlet with boots on the ground everywhere. The "Wall Street Journal," the right wing paper of record, cut so many reporters that its paper resembles a pamphlet, it's not quite as irrelevant as the "Los Angeles Times," but it's moving in that direction. Remember Tech 101, the outlet that doubles down, despite being excoriated all the while, wins in the end. The "Times" just has to stay the course. I have not forgiven it for missing the election. It's too rooted in old school journalism. But like Amazon, it dominates. Come on, what would they have to talk about on Fox News if it weren't for the "New York Times"?
_______________________
Music is niche. And movies too. There's nothing we've all got to see. The purveyors have been so busy chasing bucks that they've given up on appealing to everyone. But the truth is society is dependent upon universality. The last time we had that in music was with Adele's "21." But "25" just wasn't good enough. As for refusing to be on Spotify... Ain't that a modern musician, bucks are primary, cultural impact is secondary. How did we get here, where who you are and what you have to say is secondary to how much money you make?
_______________________
Incentive is being squashed by the billionaires.
The best and the brightest don't want to work in fields with a ceiling, they all go into finance and tech, to our society's detriment. You work sixty hours a week and you make a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Your compatriot works as hard and makes ten to twenty million. You feel like a chump.
As for those pooh-poohing the wealthy, that's fine, but stop poor-mouthing. If you're wearing your downtrodden economic status as a badge of honor, you've missed the memo. Everyone's on their own in America. It's a greased pole, it's hard to get ahead, and that needs to be fixed, but just because you're poor you're not better than the rich. Why does everybody need to feel superior to everybody else? The truth is we're all in it together, we're all dependent upon each other. It's just that you can't go anywhere or buy anything without someone saying "it must be nice." Hell, I got an e-mail from someone who said they couldn't afford $200 for a phone upgrade. To quote Bob Dylan, they want to drag me down into the hole they're in. But I'd rather try to climb the ladder, however difficult that might be. Put me down, think you're better than me, but the joke is on you. He not moving forward is being left behind.
_______________________
The educated abhor the rich and the poor abhor the elite and no one's got any idea what the other thinks.
_______________________
Protocol is everything. How dare Bob Dylan not acknowledge his Nobel. Remember when it was a badge of honor to question institutions? What happened to that precept?
_______________________
There's always a vocal minority that can't accept progress.
If I write about streaming services my inbox fills up with missives saying Spotify is gonna kill music. Last I checked, the internet allowed everybody to play, supposedly Napster was gonna kill music, but now the problem is there's too much of it!
_______________________
Ticketing is becoming even more opaque.
Even talent agencies are in the ticketing business. No one respects the customer, art is secondary to commerce, the artists have been neutered and the businessmen have won. Remember when you signed a deal and delivered your LP and the label had to release it, no matter what it sounded like? Those days are done, because the investment in marketing is just too large, and the suits know better. Why do we live in a society where the suits always know better?
_______________________
Nobody in power sees the cliff ahead.
The NFL could not see ratings tanking and Hillary Clinton could not see the public embracing Trump (never mind Bernie). As the seer once said, "Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters."
_______________________
You don't admit fault, you double-down.
This is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it's a badge of honor to admit your mistakes, to say you were wrong. But the truth is the naysayers are so busy playing GOTCHA! that you must fight back and repel them at every turn, something the Democrats have not learned. The Republicans define the debate, the Democrats play catch-up. Is this any way to run a country?
_______________________
Looks rule.
If Ivanka Trump were ugly would everybody be singing her praises?
_______________________
Your biggest enemy is you. Just ask Roger Ailes and Kanye West. You may think everybody's out to get you, but the truth is you'll be brought down by your own doings.
_______________________
The big get bigger and no one does anything about it.
Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google run tech. The goal is sell your company to one of the four. But since the companies are so venerated, since techies are the new rock stars and can do no wrong, no one is raising their finger and saying "Wait a minute here..."
--
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The more you look into the future, the more you'll be interrupted by the present. Screw be here now, screw mindfulness, just know that life is about unexpected interruptions, and the older you get the more they relate to health. While you're thinking about achievement, nature is throwing a wrench into the works. You can try to stay on track, but recovery is a more useful skill than the ability to plan.
The older you get the less possessions mean to you.
When you're a kid you need the latest toy, the newest cereal, you're all about accumulation. Get older and not only is your stuff an impediment, suddenly it doesn't get you high like it used to. You treasure experiences, if you can remember them. And now this is impacting the younger generation, with so much of our lives being virtual. Kids are the first to give up cars, they don't need their license. They're willing to live in shoeboxes in cities, in order to have community, maybe child is truly father to the man.
People believe the news they want to.
The right wing has turned the "New York Times" into a joke. The establishment is up for grabs. Bedrock is a fictitious place for Fred and Barney, we live in a Tower of Babel world, not only do we listen to different music, watch different TV shows and pray in different houses of worship, we don't even agree on the same facts. This is not about fake news, this is about a schism in society, which no one is willing to address as they're busy pointing fingers at each other.
_______________________
History is prologue.
Why did the Democrats believe they could defeat Donald Trump when no Republican could come close to doing so?
_______________________
The divide is not between the ethnic groups and the whites, but between those who live in the metropolis and those who live in the country. Read this story by Eduardo Porter:
"Where Were Trump's Votes? Where the Jobs Weren't": http://nyti.ms/2haiCL4?utm_source=phplist5670&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=This+Year%27s+Lessons
Oh, that's right, it's in the "Times," so it must be untrue.
The truth is the "New York Times" runs this country. It sets the agenda for the Republicans. It's the only news outlet with boots on the ground everywhere. The "Wall Street Journal," the right wing paper of record, cut so many reporters that its paper resembles a pamphlet, it's not quite as irrelevant as the "Los Angeles Times," but it's moving in that direction. Remember Tech 101, the outlet that doubles down, despite being excoriated all the while, wins in the end. The "Times" just has to stay the course. I have not forgiven it for missing the election. It's too rooted in old school journalism. But like Amazon, it dominates. Come on, what would they have to talk about on Fox News if it weren't for the "New York Times"?
_______________________
Music is niche. And movies too. There's nothing we've all got to see. The purveyors have been so busy chasing bucks that they've given up on appealing to everyone. But the truth is society is dependent upon universality. The last time we had that in music was with Adele's "21." But "25" just wasn't good enough. As for refusing to be on Spotify... Ain't that a modern musician, bucks are primary, cultural impact is secondary. How did we get here, where who you are and what you have to say is secondary to how much money you make?
_______________________
Incentive is being squashed by the billionaires.
The best and the brightest don't want to work in fields with a ceiling, they all go into finance and tech, to our society's detriment. You work sixty hours a week and you make a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Your compatriot works as hard and makes ten to twenty million. You feel like a chump.
As for those pooh-poohing the wealthy, that's fine, but stop poor-mouthing. If you're wearing your downtrodden economic status as a badge of honor, you've missed the memo. Everyone's on their own in America. It's a greased pole, it's hard to get ahead, and that needs to be fixed, but just because you're poor you're not better than the rich. Why does everybody need to feel superior to everybody else? The truth is we're all in it together, we're all dependent upon each other. It's just that you can't go anywhere or buy anything without someone saying "it must be nice." Hell, I got an e-mail from someone who said they couldn't afford $200 for a phone upgrade. To quote Bob Dylan, they want to drag me down into the hole they're in. But I'd rather try to climb the ladder, however difficult that might be. Put me down, think you're better than me, but the joke is on you. He not moving forward is being left behind.
_______________________
The educated abhor the rich and the poor abhor the elite and no one's got any idea what the other thinks.
_______________________
Protocol is everything. How dare Bob Dylan not acknowledge his Nobel. Remember when it was a badge of honor to question institutions? What happened to that precept?
_______________________
There's always a vocal minority that can't accept progress.
If I write about streaming services my inbox fills up with missives saying Spotify is gonna kill music. Last I checked, the internet allowed everybody to play, supposedly Napster was gonna kill music, but now the problem is there's too much of it!
_______________________
Ticketing is becoming even more opaque.
Even talent agencies are in the ticketing business. No one respects the customer, art is secondary to commerce, the artists have been neutered and the businessmen have won. Remember when you signed a deal and delivered your LP and the label had to release it, no matter what it sounded like? Those days are done, because the investment in marketing is just too large, and the suits know better. Why do we live in a society where the suits always know better?
_______________________
Nobody in power sees the cliff ahead.
The NFL could not see ratings tanking and Hillary Clinton could not see the public embracing Trump (never mind Bernie). As the seer once said, "Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters."
_______________________
You don't admit fault, you double-down.
This is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it's a badge of honor to admit your mistakes, to say you were wrong. But the truth is the naysayers are so busy playing GOTCHA! that you must fight back and repel them at every turn, something the Democrats have not learned. The Republicans define the debate, the Democrats play catch-up. Is this any way to run a country?
_______________________
Looks rule.
If Ivanka Trump were ugly would everybody be singing her praises?
_______________________
Your biggest enemy is you. Just ask Roger Ailes and Kanye West. You may think everybody's out to get you, but the truth is you'll be brought down by your own doings.
_______________________
The big get bigger and no one does anything about it.
Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google run tech. The goal is sell your company to one of the four. But since the companies are so venerated, since techies are the new rock stars and can do no wrong, no one is raising their finger and saying "Wait a minute here..."
--
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Thursday 15 December 2016
Your Top Songs 2016
https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1CyNchQqCLNBB9?utm_source=phplist5669&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Your+Top+Songs+2016
Actually, it's MY top songs.
I just opened the Spotify app on my iPhone (a 7, you did see the $650 rebate for the 6, right? Verizon had it, AT&T too, I got a brand new device for essentially nothing...well, I upgraded to a Plus, and accounting for the bigger size and the upgrade fee and the tax I was out two hundred bucks, no big deal, and the best thing about the 7 is the BATTERY, you do know that the iPhone battery fades after about 18 months, which is one more reason to get a new device, and if you have AppleCare you get a new battery if your device starts to fade, just saying...)
So one thing I loved about iTunes, which I never use anymore, is the play count. I find it fascinating to know what I play most. But Spotify lacks this feature. But it turns out the Swedish streaming company has been keeping track in the background, and now I'm confronted with the tracks I listened to most.
And here's where you judge me. What is it about music fans that they love to put down what others listen to?
But I'm gonna take a risk.
In order...
1. "Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah"
Andy Grammer
Some tracks just make you feel good!
And when I find one I play it over and over again, could be ninety minutes straight, the length of a hike in Will Rogers Park in the Santa Monica Mountains. We live in a pop era, and sometimes it's fun to just join in!
"I think I finally found my hallelujah
I've been waiting for this moment all my life
Now all my dreams are coming true, yeah
I've been waiting for this moment
Feels good to be alive right about now (woo-hoo)"
Woo-hoo, yeah! I'm not the most optimistic person, but when the right track is playing I believe life is beyond worth living, I want to eat it up, take advantage, surf the zeitgeist, share my stories, I love this track!
2. "It's About Time"
The Beach Boys
This was a complete surprise.
"Sunflower" was the comeback album that wasn't. The follow-up gained traction, but "Surf's Up" is nowhere near as good. "Sunflower" is the last truly great Beach Boys album, and it's not dependent upon Brian for its high quality.
"It's About Time" is a tour-de-force, listenable throughout.
The lead is sung by Carl Wilson, who had one of the sweetest, most mellifluous voices of all time.
And the lyrics...
"I used to be a famous artist
Proud as I could be
Struggling to express myself
For the whole world to see
I used to blow my mind sky high
Searching for the lost elation
Little did I know the joy I was to find
In knowing I am only me"
They do it for the adulation, but it doesn't solve their problems, we're all equal, and when you're in touch with your own greatness, when you finally feel secure, the world makes sense.
3. "Mountain" Tonic
This is another hiking song. It just makes me feel good. I'm alone with the song, but I feel part of something bigger, like standing on a mountaintop and experiencing nature.
4. "Wasted Time" Keith Urban
I prefer the earlier stuff, "Stupid Boy," "Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me," but this, another hiking song, is full of twists and turns, different instruments, it's a blend of country and Top Forty and it too makes you feel good.
5. "Sorry" Justin Bieber
The comeback story of the year. Which makes Scooter Braun the manager of the year. How they dug deep and came up with this, I don't know. Bieber makes music just a cut above everybody else. I know, I can't believe I just said that, but I did! He chooses the best collaborators, and I'd rather listen to this than anything on Adele's "25," an album that sounds good but just doesn't grab you.
6. "Rainbow Ends" Emitt Rhodes
From my absolute favorite album of the year, this is the title track.
I hate the era we live in, where there's so much noise that greatness doesn't penetrate without a huge push.
But if you're a boomer, if music used to rule your life, listen to this album, it all works, the sound, the story, an unexpected gem.
7. "Helpless" Phillipa Soo, "Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton"
"Hamilton" is a sleeper. Like a book. It's been hiding in plain sight, but you've got no idea how big it is. I realized this when I read that Melinda Gates listens to it in her car, then I kept reading in interviews that people were listening to the recording.
The "Hamilton" mania has just begun. The "Mixtape" will help spread the word, but really it's all about the original recording, where the lyrics shine, you can hear them, and there's melody and...
"I would like to change your life..."
Isn't this what we all want to hear?
"Hamilton" will change your life, it will enrich it, make you happy you're alive.
8. "God, Your Mama, And Me" Florida Georgia Line with the Backstreet Boys
Never underestimate the power of vocal ability, the Backstreet Boys put this over the top, it makes you feel so good to listen to, just try not singing along.
9. "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" - SeeB Remix Mike Posner
My musical highlight of the year was the Glenn Frey memorial at the Forum.
But number two is seeing Mike Posner at the Grammy Museum. I went to hear this, because when you love a song\ you must go to the show, but the stories put it over the top, Mike is intelligent, he'd thought about the issues...how refreshing!
10. "Play It Again" Luke Bryan
Probably my favorite song of the second decade of the twenty first century.
Criticize me all you want, I don't care. A song with gravitas and elation all wrapped up in one? SIGN ME UP!
11. "Dog On A Chain" Emitt Rhodes
The album's opening cut.
Seemingly every baby boomer is divorced, you'll resonate with the lyrics.
12. "Dust" Parquet Courts
I didn't realize I listened to this this much!
13. "Let Me Love You" DJ Snake, Justin Bieber
Another Bieber gem, incredible!
14. "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" Mike Posner
The original acoustic iteration. It's just as good as the sped-up remix, maybe better.
15. "My Shot" Lin-Manuel Miranda, et al "Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton"
This is dense, there's a lot of story and wisdom dropped.
But the essence is...
"I am not throwing away my shot"
We all have dreams, I hope yours still burn bright, you've got to need it, some people get it.
16. "Statue (The Pills Song)" - Didrick Remix Smith & Thell
An instant classic, you'll get this immediately.
17. "We Don't Know" The Strumbellas
Sometimes you've got to see an act to get it. That was the case with the Strumbellas. After seeing them live, acoustic, at the Grammy HQ, I couldn't stop listening to this.
18. "Alexander Hamilton" Leslie Odom, Jr., et al "Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton"
The opening number.
It tells the story, sets up the play, and them comes the key line, the one that stops the show, the one that makes the audience erupt.
"My name is Alexander Hamilton."
I get chills while I write this.
Lin-Manuel Miranda delivers it almost sotto voce, it has so much meaning, whew!!
19. "Oh Canada" Missy Higgins
Zero traction, I don't get it.
20. "Helpless" Ashanti & Ja Rule "The Hamilton Mixtape"
When you love something you just can't get enough of it.
21. "Lively Up Yourself" Bob Marley & The Wailers
This is a surprise too, but even though I don't smoke dope a reggae track can infect your brain and make you unable to switch the channel.
22. "The Water Lets You In" ("Bloodline" Main Title Theme) Book of Fears
The second season of "Bloodline" was better than the first, every time I cued up the Netflix show and heard this...it set the mood, just like Alabama 3 did with "Woke Up This Morning" on "The Sopranos."
23. "Stranger In A Strange Land" Leon Russell
Probably my favorite cut by him.
2016 has been a year of loss.
But the music lives on.
24. "My Own Worst Enemy" Steven Tyler
Better than anything Aerosmith has done in decades.
But that didn't seem to matter.
25. "Love Yourself" Justin Bieber
What a year he had!
26. "How Do I" Wendy Waldman
She keeps chugging on, despite the spotlight being on the younger generation. Wendy's gone back to college, to get her degree, her dad would be proud, but he's gone, this song is about him.
27. "Isn't It So" Emitt Rhodes
The first track off of "Rainbow Ends" that hooked me.
28. "Simple Man" Bad Company
Sorry Mike Posner, you've just been bumped to number three, now I remember how great that Bad Company show was, truly incredible, made me realize who I am, the guy who got hooked by the sound to the point it steered my life.
"Freedom is the only thing means a damn to me"
The ability to think what I want and do what I want as long as it doesn't negatively affect another.
I don't want to be in your business and I don't want you to be in mine.
I just want to live for the music.
29. "Mountain" (Acoustic 2016) Tonic
From this year's acoustic "Lemon Parade Revisited."
Not quite as good as the original, but almost, which is why I played it so much!
30. "Pure" Hey Violet
I thought this would go somewhere, it didn't.
Proving you can work with the best people, have the best team and still not break through.
Yet.
31. "Somebody Else" -Alt Edit The 1975
Better than the original.
You keep reading about the band but don't know where to start.
Start here.
32. "Hand In My Pocket" Alanis Morissette
The hope from the Great White North, can't anybody come down and save us once again?
"And what it all comes down to"...
She could never follow it up.
But when I hear this my mind jets back to 1995 when she went from nowhere to everywhere and putting her disc in the deck boosted my spirits when they needed it.
33. "Tomorrow Never Knows" The Beatles
Since launching on streaming services, Beatles songs have been played over two billion times!
This is the John Lennon spectacular from the album that just had its fiftieth anniversary, it sounds as experimental and fresh as today, even more so!
34. "Stay Downtown" Cole Swindell"
It's so hard to say no.
You remember being together, it would be so easy to get together one more time.
But then you'd end up exactly where you were before, the place that made you so unhappy, you've got to move on.
35. "I Want To Tell You" The Beatles
Did George Harrison invent riff rock?
36. "Cold Water" Major Lazer, MO, Justin Bieber
The artist of the year, hands down.
37. "Gone Tomorrow (Here Today)" Keith Urban
The second best cut on "Ripcord." It's so damn POWERFUL!
38. "Faithless Love" live J.D. Souther
From the expanded edition of "Black Rose," J.D.'s best album.
There's nothing like a song sung by the original writer...
39. "Renegade" Styx
Huh?
Now you're completely flummoxed. As was I. Until I remember it was in the trailer for the second season of "Narcos," I watched it over and over again and then had to play the cut over and over again.
40. "Stupid Boy" Keith Urban
To this day most boomers don't know country is the new rock and roll.
This is the cut that started it all for me a decade back.
Stay through the guitar solo, you'll be closed.
41. "Fragile" Prince Fox, Hailee Steinfeld
Actresses are not supposed to make good records.
But Hailee Steinfeld did.
42. "Huntin', Fishin' And Lovin' Every Day" Luke Bryan
The best cut from "Kill The Lights."
I can listen to this every day. Really.
43. "Karn Evil 9 1st Impression, Pt. 2" Emerson, Lake & Palmer
And now Greg Lake is gone too.
He was not a lucky man.
And never forget he sang with King Crimson.
I can't compute this past year, with all my heroes passing, it's so strange.
44. "True Devotion" live BoDeans
Better than the studio take, from one of the best double live albums ever, "Joe Dirt Car," finally on Spotify.
45. "Time Out" Joe Walsh
From "So What," the follow-up to "The Smoker You Drink..."
I usually play "County Fair," I'm surprised this is so high on my list, but it's great.
46. "Fix" Chris Lane
Another country song I discovered on Spotify.
This is infectious, really.
47. "Habit Of You" Keith Urban
The third best song on "Ripcord."
48. "Here's To The Farmer" Luke Bryan
The title cut from his surprise EP, this is the best cut on it.
49. "What It Means" Drive-By Truckers
Which is why a protest song must be made by one of the Spotify Top 50, this is great, but it ended up inside the hermetically sealed Americana echo chamber.
50. "Part Two - In My Own Way" Ray LaMontagne
The Pink Floyd song you've been waiting for.
51. "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" Bob Dylan
My favorite Dylan cut, with wisdom dropping from every phrase.
If you want to know why he won the Nobel...
This is the track with "He not busy being born is busy dying."
"And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life and life only"
Ain't that the truth.
I've revealed my inner truth, you should see the hatred in my inbox, but you cannot be afraid, because...
It's life and life only.
52. "Restless In Mind" Wendy Waldman
Just listen to those chords!
My favorite late period Wendy Waldman track, it's genius!
53. "The King Must Die" Elton John
"Tumbleweed Connection" is his best LP.
But I always find myself playing its predecessor.
And it contains "Your Song," but the ones I play most are "Sixty Years On" and "The King Must Die."
Every once in a while I hear from Elton, he's so conversational, so personable, so regular, but...
He's probably the biggest rock star of the seventies. And he's soldiered on.
If he'd died way back when he'd be Elvis.
Or close.
54. "Drink A Beer" Luke Bryan
The cut that closed me on Luke.
55. "Sugar" (feat. Francesco Yates) Robin Schulz, Francesco Yates
Another Spotify discovery.
56. "Hot Summer Nights" Walter Egan
"Magnet And Steel" is the one that gets airplay, but this is my favorite cut by him. I play it on...THOSE HOT SUMMER NIGHTS!
57. "Dear Prudence" The Beatles
Now my favorite cut on the White Album, and I used to slide right by it, still high on "Back In The U.S.S.R."
58. "Prayer For You" Wendy Waldman
"The sun's sinkin' down behind the haze and the trees
Just another L.A. day"
Play this as the sun is setting. If you're in L.A. or if you've been there, you'll get it.
59. "Where Are U Now" Jack U, Skrillex, Diplo, Justin Bieber
This began the Bieber comeback.
60. "Back Where I Come From" Mac McAnally
Kenny Chesney had the hit, but the original is better.
Mac's never broken through, but that's not because he's not talented enough.
61. "Adore" Jasmine Thompson
Hypnotic.
62. "Cant Get Enough" Winger
Yes, Kip, who was just nominated for a Grammy, in some classical category!
This slid right by me, but I went to a friend's bachelor party at the Hollywood Tropicana and the women wrestled to this and...
Well, I'VE LIKED IT EVER SINCE!
63. "Moonage Daydream" David Bowie
The first of his cuts that closed me. I'd been in London, he was triumphing, he meant nothing in the U.S. but I bought "Ziggy Stardust" and played it over and over again and saw the tour at the Boston Music Hall and...
Memories are made of this.
64. "Noise" Kenny Chesney
His new album is a disappointment after "The Big Revival."
This sounds good, but is ultimately meaningless.
A "B."
Kenny usually does better than this.
65. "How About That" Bad Company
From the wrong version of the group, featuring Brian Howe on vocals.
Still, this always makes me feel GOOD!
66. "Dust" Lucinda Williams
Lucinda's like Bruce, what I hate most about them is their fans! It obscures their greatness, these people endlessly testifying.
But I certainly do like this.
67. "Back Where I Come From" Kenny Chesney
The hit take.
68. "Dark Necessities" Red Hot Chili Peppers
Stop making albums. Just drop a track like this every couple of months.
69. "Spirits" The Strumbellas
Another song you can't get out of your head.
70. "I Want It That Way" Backstreet Boys
My second favorite cut by them, from the smash album "Millennium."
Another Max Martin, Swedish triumph.
71. "Paradise City" Guns N' Roses
Once upon a time Axl and his band of merry drug addicts meant something.
Ignore the reunion tour, that's a dash for cash.
This was the cut that put "Appetite" over the top, how many times did you watch the video on MTV?
72. "Fly To The Angels" (acoustic version) Slaughter
A completely forgotten band.
But that first LP is a pop metal classic.
This is the best cut.
73. "Meadows" Joe Walsh
The opening cut on side two of "The Smoker You Drink..."
I thought I'd never hear it live and then a couple of months back at the All For The Hall benefit Joe's sitting on a stool strumming an acoustic guitar and I realize...HE'S PLAYING MEADOWS!
This is what we live for. These moments. Hearing our favorite songs live.
74. "True Devotion" BoDeans
The studio take.
75. "I and I" Bob Dylan
A wise man testifying, with one of the world's greatest bands, one of his many peaks.
76. "When The Stars Come Out" Chris Stapleton
Country boy comes to L.A., love the references.
77. "Before She Does" Eric Church
The opening cut of "Caught In The Act: Live."
If you doubt the power of country music, LISTEN TO THIS!
78. "Come On Get Higher" Matt Nathanson
I'd never heard it! And then I discovered it on Sirius and came right home and played it over and over again on Spotify, oh, what a great world we live in!
79. "Back Where I Come From" Kenny Chesney
From his live album, one of the truly great country ones, this track'll reach in and grab you.
80. "Spring Is Here" Wendy Waldman
The LP disappeared in a divorce, I stole it on Napster, I put it on my Rio went out on a cold spring evening and danced around elated.
Reaches me each and every time.
81. "What Do You Mean?" Justin Bieber
More Bieber! The one Howard Stern kept making fun of. That's your goal, to become part of the cultural conversation, then you know you've really made it.
82. "I Remember You" Skid Row
They opened for GNR at the Forum during the "Use Your Illusion" tour.
I was there.
83. "Surf City" Jan & Dean
The live version from "Command Performance," a vinyl album I played so much it turned grey.
If this doesn't make you want to move to California...
You'd rather live in a place two years behind where you have no fun.
84. "Back Where I Come From" (live) Mac McAnally
When I like a song I just can't get enough of it!
85. "Suga Suga" Baby Bash, Frankie J
Songs no longer disappear, they're waiting online for you to discover them.
86. "Adore" acoustic Jasmine Thompson
I want to hear all versions.
87. "Liar Liar" Aubrie Sellers
New country with the soul of the old, featuring great instrumentation to boot!
88. "Brace For Impact (Live A Little)" Sturgill Simpson
The Grammy nomination made him famous. Will people grab hold?
Doubtful. Because it's just that hard to penetrate these days.
This is real music made by someone who needs to make it and we haven't had that spirit here since...
89. "Baby Seat" Barenaked Ladies
You can't live your life in the baby seat, you've got to grow up, this is the song that closed me on BNL.
90. "Nobody To Blame" Chris Stapleton
Honesty. Humbleness. The ingredients of classic country. All embodied in this cut.
91. "A Little Is Enough" Pete Townshend
Forget the Who tours, I'd like to see Pete solo.
This is the best cut on "Empty Glass," I sing it in my head ALL THE TIME!
92. "Stop Where You Are" Corinne Bailey Rae
Her new album did not have a hit single, but this song resonates.
93. "California Girls" The Beach Boys
Testify all you want about "Good Vibrations," THIS IS IT!
Do you have any idea what it was like to hear this emanating from your transistor back in '65?
94. "The Way It Is" Tesla
Another forgotten band, this song resonates so... I could do twenty minutes on it if we were face to face.
95. "Old Time Love" Wendy Waldman
The opening cut on side two of her debut "Love Has Got Me," this song made me a fan.
96. "A Hard Day's Night" The Beatles
I'm telling Alexa to play this for me ALL THE TIME!
97. "How Many Friends" The Who
From the disappointing "Who By Numbers."
I distinctly remember listening to the cassette as I drove to the Salt Lake City Post Office to drop off my law school applications before the deadline.
How many friends have you really got?
That love you.
That want you.
That'll take you as you are?
Very few.
98. "Love Song" Tesla
The hit from "The Great Radio Controversy," but I like "The Way It Is" better, but I like this too, remember the video?
99. "The Real Me" Pete Townshend, et al "Pete Townshend's Classic Quadrophenia"
What a revelation to hear real strings!
100. "Just Your Fool" The Rolling Stones
It's hard to complain when the Stones make their best album since the seventies, a truly authentic gem.
101. "Brand New Day" Sting
He executed a publicity tour-de-force, he came across as so intelligent on the Stern Show, there were stories in all the old fart media, but...
No one cared about his new album.
But I still care about "Brand New Day." If only he could cut one track as good this. That's all we ask for, one track.
And I'm sure your Top Songs are completely different from mine. But if I turned you on to anything, I'm happy, you turn me on to great stuff, when you're not telling me what a clueless idiot I am, but...
When I hear the above songs in my headphones...
I don't care.
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Actually, it's MY top songs.
I just opened the Spotify app on my iPhone (a 7, you did see the $650 rebate for the 6, right? Verizon had it, AT&T too, I got a brand new device for essentially nothing...well, I upgraded to a Plus, and accounting for the bigger size and the upgrade fee and the tax I was out two hundred bucks, no big deal, and the best thing about the 7 is the BATTERY, you do know that the iPhone battery fades after about 18 months, which is one more reason to get a new device, and if you have AppleCare you get a new battery if your device starts to fade, just saying...)
So one thing I loved about iTunes, which I never use anymore, is the play count. I find it fascinating to know what I play most. But Spotify lacks this feature. But it turns out the Swedish streaming company has been keeping track in the background, and now I'm confronted with the tracks I listened to most.
And here's where you judge me. What is it about music fans that they love to put down what others listen to?
But I'm gonna take a risk.
In order...
1. "Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah"
Andy Grammer
Some tracks just make you feel good!
And when I find one I play it over and over again, could be ninety minutes straight, the length of a hike in Will Rogers Park in the Santa Monica Mountains. We live in a pop era, and sometimes it's fun to just join in!
"I think I finally found my hallelujah
I've been waiting for this moment all my life
Now all my dreams are coming true, yeah
I've been waiting for this moment
Feels good to be alive right about now (woo-hoo)"
Woo-hoo, yeah! I'm not the most optimistic person, but when the right track is playing I believe life is beyond worth living, I want to eat it up, take advantage, surf the zeitgeist, share my stories, I love this track!
2. "It's About Time"
The Beach Boys
This was a complete surprise.
"Sunflower" was the comeback album that wasn't. The follow-up gained traction, but "Surf's Up" is nowhere near as good. "Sunflower" is the last truly great Beach Boys album, and it's not dependent upon Brian for its high quality.
"It's About Time" is a tour-de-force, listenable throughout.
The lead is sung by Carl Wilson, who had one of the sweetest, most mellifluous voices of all time.
And the lyrics...
"I used to be a famous artist
Proud as I could be
Struggling to express myself
For the whole world to see
I used to blow my mind sky high
Searching for the lost elation
Little did I know the joy I was to find
In knowing I am only me"
They do it for the adulation, but it doesn't solve their problems, we're all equal, and when you're in touch with your own greatness, when you finally feel secure, the world makes sense.
3. "Mountain" Tonic
This is another hiking song. It just makes me feel good. I'm alone with the song, but I feel part of something bigger, like standing on a mountaintop and experiencing nature.
4. "Wasted Time" Keith Urban
I prefer the earlier stuff, "Stupid Boy," "Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me," but this, another hiking song, is full of twists and turns, different instruments, it's a blend of country and Top Forty and it too makes you feel good.
5. "Sorry" Justin Bieber
The comeback story of the year. Which makes Scooter Braun the manager of the year. How they dug deep and came up with this, I don't know. Bieber makes music just a cut above everybody else. I know, I can't believe I just said that, but I did! He chooses the best collaborators, and I'd rather listen to this than anything on Adele's "25," an album that sounds good but just doesn't grab you.
6. "Rainbow Ends" Emitt Rhodes
From my absolute favorite album of the year, this is the title track.
I hate the era we live in, where there's so much noise that greatness doesn't penetrate without a huge push.
But if you're a boomer, if music used to rule your life, listen to this album, it all works, the sound, the story, an unexpected gem.
7. "Helpless" Phillipa Soo, "Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton"
"Hamilton" is a sleeper. Like a book. It's been hiding in plain sight, but you've got no idea how big it is. I realized this when I read that Melinda Gates listens to it in her car, then I kept reading in interviews that people were listening to the recording.
The "Hamilton" mania has just begun. The "Mixtape" will help spread the word, but really it's all about the original recording, where the lyrics shine, you can hear them, and there's melody and...
"I would like to change your life..."
Isn't this what we all want to hear?
"Hamilton" will change your life, it will enrich it, make you happy you're alive.
8. "God, Your Mama, And Me" Florida Georgia Line with the Backstreet Boys
Never underestimate the power of vocal ability, the Backstreet Boys put this over the top, it makes you feel so good to listen to, just try not singing along.
9. "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" - SeeB Remix Mike Posner
My musical highlight of the year was the Glenn Frey memorial at the Forum.
But number two is seeing Mike Posner at the Grammy Museum. I went to hear this, because when you love a song\ you must go to the show, but the stories put it over the top, Mike is intelligent, he'd thought about the issues...how refreshing!
10. "Play It Again" Luke Bryan
Probably my favorite song of the second decade of the twenty first century.
Criticize me all you want, I don't care. A song with gravitas and elation all wrapped up in one? SIGN ME UP!
11. "Dog On A Chain" Emitt Rhodes
The album's opening cut.
Seemingly every baby boomer is divorced, you'll resonate with the lyrics.
12. "Dust" Parquet Courts
I didn't realize I listened to this this much!
13. "Let Me Love You" DJ Snake, Justin Bieber
Another Bieber gem, incredible!
14. "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" Mike Posner
The original acoustic iteration. It's just as good as the sped-up remix, maybe better.
15. "My Shot" Lin-Manuel Miranda, et al "Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton"
This is dense, there's a lot of story and wisdom dropped.
But the essence is...
"I am not throwing away my shot"
We all have dreams, I hope yours still burn bright, you've got to need it, some people get it.
16. "Statue (The Pills Song)" - Didrick Remix Smith & Thell
An instant classic, you'll get this immediately.
17. "We Don't Know" The Strumbellas
Sometimes you've got to see an act to get it. That was the case with the Strumbellas. After seeing them live, acoustic, at the Grammy HQ, I couldn't stop listening to this.
18. "Alexander Hamilton" Leslie Odom, Jr., et al "Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton"
The opening number.
It tells the story, sets up the play, and them comes the key line, the one that stops the show, the one that makes the audience erupt.
"My name is Alexander Hamilton."
I get chills while I write this.
Lin-Manuel Miranda delivers it almost sotto voce, it has so much meaning, whew!!
19. "Oh Canada" Missy Higgins
Zero traction, I don't get it.
20. "Helpless" Ashanti & Ja Rule "The Hamilton Mixtape"
When you love something you just can't get enough of it.
21. "Lively Up Yourself" Bob Marley & The Wailers
This is a surprise too, but even though I don't smoke dope a reggae track can infect your brain and make you unable to switch the channel.
22. "The Water Lets You In" ("Bloodline" Main Title Theme) Book of Fears
The second season of "Bloodline" was better than the first, every time I cued up the Netflix show and heard this...it set the mood, just like Alabama 3 did with "Woke Up This Morning" on "The Sopranos."
23. "Stranger In A Strange Land" Leon Russell
Probably my favorite cut by him.
2016 has been a year of loss.
But the music lives on.
24. "My Own Worst Enemy" Steven Tyler
Better than anything Aerosmith has done in decades.
But that didn't seem to matter.
25. "Love Yourself" Justin Bieber
What a year he had!
26. "How Do I" Wendy Waldman
She keeps chugging on, despite the spotlight being on the younger generation. Wendy's gone back to college, to get her degree, her dad would be proud, but he's gone, this song is about him.
27. "Isn't It So" Emitt Rhodes
The first track off of "Rainbow Ends" that hooked me.
28. "Simple Man" Bad Company
Sorry Mike Posner, you've just been bumped to number three, now I remember how great that Bad Company show was, truly incredible, made me realize who I am, the guy who got hooked by the sound to the point it steered my life.
"Freedom is the only thing means a damn to me"
The ability to think what I want and do what I want as long as it doesn't negatively affect another.
I don't want to be in your business and I don't want you to be in mine.
I just want to live for the music.
29. "Mountain" (Acoustic 2016) Tonic
From this year's acoustic "Lemon Parade Revisited."
Not quite as good as the original, but almost, which is why I played it so much!
30. "Pure" Hey Violet
I thought this would go somewhere, it didn't.
Proving you can work with the best people, have the best team and still not break through.
Yet.
31. "Somebody Else" -Alt Edit The 1975
Better than the original.
You keep reading about the band but don't know where to start.
Start here.
32. "Hand In My Pocket" Alanis Morissette
The hope from the Great White North, can't anybody come down and save us once again?
"And what it all comes down to"...
She could never follow it up.
But when I hear this my mind jets back to 1995 when she went from nowhere to everywhere and putting her disc in the deck boosted my spirits when they needed it.
33. "Tomorrow Never Knows" The Beatles
Since launching on streaming services, Beatles songs have been played over two billion times!
This is the John Lennon spectacular from the album that just had its fiftieth anniversary, it sounds as experimental and fresh as today, even more so!
34. "Stay Downtown" Cole Swindell"
It's so hard to say no.
You remember being together, it would be so easy to get together one more time.
But then you'd end up exactly where you were before, the place that made you so unhappy, you've got to move on.
35. "I Want To Tell You" The Beatles
Did George Harrison invent riff rock?
36. "Cold Water" Major Lazer, MO, Justin Bieber
The artist of the year, hands down.
37. "Gone Tomorrow (Here Today)" Keith Urban
The second best cut on "Ripcord." It's so damn POWERFUL!
38. "Faithless Love" live J.D. Souther
From the expanded edition of "Black Rose," J.D.'s best album.
There's nothing like a song sung by the original writer...
39. "Renegade" Styx
Huh?
Now you're completely flummoxed. As was I. Until I remember it was in the trailer for the second season of "Narcos," I watched it over and over again and then had to play the cut over and over again.
40. "Stupid Boy" Keith Urban
To this day most boomers don't know country is the new rock and roll.
This is the cut that started it all for me a decade back.
Stay through the guitar solo, you'll be closed.
41. "Fragile" Prince Fox, Hailee Steinfeld
Actresses are not supposed to make good records.
But Hailee Steinfeld did.
42. "Huntin', Fishin' And Lovin' Every Day" Luke Bryan
The best cut from "Kill The Lights."
I can listen to this every day. Really.
43. "Karn Evil 9 1st Impression, Pt. 2" Emerson, Lake & Palmer
And now Greg Lake is gone too.
He was not a lucky man.
And never forget he sang with King Crimson.
I can't compute this past year, with all my heroes passing, it's so strange.
44. "True Devotion" live BoDeans
Better than the studio take, from one of the best double live albums ever, "Joe Dirt Car," finally on Spotify.
45. "Time Out" Joe Walsh
From "So What," the follow-up to "The Smoker You Drink..."
I usually play "County Fair," I'm surprised this is so high on my list, but it's great.
46. "Fix" Chris Lane
Another country song I discovered on Spotify.
This is infectious, really.
47. "Habit Of You" Keith Urban
The third best song on "Ripcord."
48. "Here's To The Farmer" Luke Bryan
The title cut from his surprise EP, this is the best cut on it.
49. "What It Means" Drive-By Truckers
Which is why a protest song must be made by one of the Spotify Top 50, this is great, but it ended up inside the hermetically sealed Americana echo chamber.
50. "Part Two - In My Own Way" Ray LaMontagne
The Pink Floyd song you've been waiting for.
51. "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" Bob Dylan
My favorite Dylan cut, with wisdom dropping from every phrase.
If you want to know why he won the Nobel...
This is the track with "He not busy being born is busy dying."
"And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life and life only"
Ain't that the truth.
I've revealed my inner truth, you should see the hatred in my inbox, but you cannot be afraid, because...
It's life and life only.
52. "Restless In Mind" Wendy Waldman
Just listen to those chords!
My favorite late period Wendy Waldman track, it's genius!
53. "The King Must Die" Elton John
"Tumbleweed Connection" is his best LP.
But I always find myself playing its predecessor.
And it contains "Your Song," but the ones I play most are "Sixty Years On" and "The King Must Die."
Every once in a while I hear from Elton, he's so conversational, so personable, so regular, but...
He's probably the biggest rock star of the seventies. And he's soldiered on.
If he'd died way back when he'd be Elvis.
Or close.
54. "Drink A Beer" Luke Bryan
The cut that closed me on Luke.
55. "Sugar" (feat. Francesco Yates) Robin Schulz, Francesco Yates
Another Spotify discovery.
56. "Hot Summer Nights" Walter Egan
"Magnet And Steel" is the one that gets airplay, but this is my favorite cut by him. I play it on...THOSE HOT SUMMER NIGHTS!
57. "Dear Prudence" The Beatles
Now my favorite cut on the White Album, and I used to slide right by it, still high on "Back In The U.S.S.R."
58. "Prayer For You" Wendy Waldman
"The sun's sinkin' down behind the haze and the trees
Just another L.A. day"
Play this as the sun is setting. If you're in L.A. or if you've been there, you'll get it.
59. "Where Are U Now" Jack U, Skrillex, Diplo, Justin Bieber
This began the Bieber comeback.
60. "Back Where I Come From" Mac McAnally
Kenny Chesney had the hit, but the original is better.
Mac's never broken through, but that's not because he's not talented enough.
61. "Adore" Jasmine Thompson
Hypnotic.
62. "Cant Get Enough" Winger
Yes, Kip, who was just nominated for a Grammy, in some classical category!
This slid right by me, but I went to a friend's bachelor party at the Hollywood Tropicana and the women wrestled to this and...
Well, I'VE LIKED IT EVER SINCE!
63. "Moonage Daydream" David Bowie
The first of his cuts that closed me. I'd been in London, he was triumphing, he meant nothing in the U.S. but I bought "Ziggy Stardust" and played it over and over again and saw the tour at the Boston Music Hall and...
Memories are made of this.
64. "Noise" Kenny Chesney
His new album is a disappointment after "The Big Revival."
This sounds good, but is ultimately meaningless.
A "B."
Kenny usually does better than this.
65. "How About That" Bad Company
From the wrong version of the group, featuring Brian Howe on vocals.
Still, this always makes me feel GOOD!
66. "Dust" Lucinda Williams
Lucinda's like Bruce, what I hate most about them is their fans! It obscures their greatness, these people endlessly testifying.
But I certainly do like this.
67. "Back Where I Come From" Kenny Chesney
The hit take.
68. "Dark Necessities" Red Hot Chili Peppers
Stop making albums. Just drop a track like this every couple of months.
69. "Spirits" The Strumbellas
Another song you can't get out of your head.
70. "I Want It That Way" Backstreet Boys
My second favorite cut by them, from the smash album "Millennium."
Another Max Martin, Swedish triumph.
71. "Paradise City" Guns N' Roses
Once upon a time Axl and his band of merry drug addicts meant something.
Ignore the reunion tour, that's a dash for cash.
This was the cut that put "Appetite" over the top, how many times did you watch the video on MTV?
72. "Fly To The Angels" (acoustic version) Slaughter
A completely forgotten band.
But that first LP is a pop metal classic.
This is the best cut.
73. "Meadows" Joe Walsh
The opening cut on side two of "The Smoker You Drink..."
I thought I'd never hear it live and then a couple of months back at the All For The Hall benefit Joe's sitting on a stool strumming an acoustic guitar and I realize...HE'S PLAYING MEADOWS!
This is what we live for. These moments. Hearing our favorite songs live.
74. "True Devotion" BoDeans
The studio take.
75. "I and I" Bob Dylan
A wise man testifying, with one of the world's greatest bands, one of his many peaks.
76. "When The Stars Come Out" Chris Stapleton
Country boy comes to L.A., love the references.
77. "Before She Does" Eric Church
The opening cut of "Caught In The Act: Live."
If you doubt the power of country music, LISTEN TO THIS!
78. "Come On Get Higher" Matt Nathanson
I'd never heard it! And then I discovered it on Sirius and came right home and played it over and over again on Spotify, oh, what a great world we live in!
79. "Back Where I Come From" Kenny Chesney
From his live album, one of the truly great country ones, this track'll reach in and grab you.
80. "Spring Is Here" Wendy Waldman
The LP disappeared in a divorce, I stole it on Napster, I put it on my Rio went out on a cold spring evening and danced around elated.
Reaches me each and every time.
81. "What Do You Mean?" Justin Bieber
More Bieber! The one Howard Stern kept making fun of. That's your goal, to become part of the cultural conversation, then you know you've really made it.
82. "I Remember You" Skid Row
They opened for GNR at the Forum during the "Use Your Illusion" tour.
I was there.
83. "Surf City" Jan & Dean
The live version from "Command Performance," a vinyl album I played so much it turned grey.
If this doesn't make you want to move to California...
You'd rather live in a place two years behind where you have no fun.
84. "Back Where I Come From" (live) Mac McAnally
When I like a song I just can't get enough of it!
85. "Suga Suga" Baby Bash, Frankie J
Songs no longer disappear, they're waiting online for you to discover them.
86. "Adore" acoustic Jasmine Thompson
I want to hear all versions.
87. "Liar Liar" Aubrie Sellers
New country with the soul of the old, featuring great instrumentation to boot!
88. "Brace For Impact (Live A Little)" Sturgill Simpson
The Grammy nomination made him famous. Will people grab hold?
Doubtful. Because it's just that hard to penetrate these days.
This is real music made by someone who needs to make it and we haven't had that spirit here since...
89. "Baby Seat" Barenaked Ladies
You can't live your life in the baby seat, you've got to grow up, this is the song that closed me on BNL.
90. "Nobody To Blame" Chris Stapleton
Honesty. Humbleness. The ingredients of classic country. All embodied in this cut.
91. "A Little Is Enough" Pete Townshend
Forget the Who tours, I'd like to see Pete solo.
This is the best cut on "Empty Glass," I sing it in my head ALL THE TIME!
92. "Stop Where You Are" Corinne Bailey Rae
Her new album did not have a hit single, but this song resonates.
93. "California Girls" The Beach Boys
Testify all you want about "Good Vibrations," THIS IS IT!
Do you have any idea what it was like to hear this emanating from your transistor back in '65?
94. "The Way It Is" Tesla
Another forgotten band, this song resonates so... I could do twenty minutes on it if we were face to face.
95. "Old Time Love" Wendy Waldman
The opening cut on side two of her debut "Love Has Got Me," this song made me a fan.
96. "A Hard Day's Night" The Beatles
I'm telling Alexa to play this for me ALL THE TIME!
97. "How Many Friends" The Who
From the disappointing "Who By Numbers."
I distinctly remember listening to the cassette as I drove to the Salt Lake City Post Office to drop off my law school applications before the deadline.
How many friends have you really got?
That love you.
That want you.
That'll take you as you are?
Very few.
98. "Love Song" Tesla
The hit from "The Great Radio Controversy," but I like "The Way It Is" better, but I like this too, remember the video?
99. "The Real Me" Pete Townshend, et al "Pete Townshend's Classic Quadrophenia"
What a revelation to hear real strings!
100. "Just Your Fool" The Rolling Stones
It's hard to complain when the Stones make their best album since the seventies, a truly authentic gem.
101. "Brand New Day" Sting
He executed a publicity tour-de-force, he came across as so intelligent on the Stern Show, there were stories in all the old fart media, but...
No one cared about his new album.
But I still care about "Brand New Day." If only he could cut one track as good this. That's all we ask for, one track.
And I'm sure your Top Songs are completely different from mine. But if I turned you on to anything, I'm happy, you turn me on to great stuff, when you're not telling me what a clueless idiot I am, but...
When I hear the above songs in my headphones...
I don't care.
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More Russian Hacking
They got access via phishing scams.
Dopes are no match for nerds. And guns are no match for computers.
That's right, 1's and 0's, computer networks revolutionized the music business and the wankers are still screaming... As for the politicians, they had no idea what happened to them.
Every day we get spam. Every day we get e-mails from our banks, our service providers, all kinds of entities that touch our lives...BUT WE KNOW NOT TO CLICK ON THEM!
Scary to think that those who want to run the world are clueless.
There's a great divide in our culture akin to the one in the sixties. A generation gap. But this is one between those who know how to use computers, mobile phones, the internet, and those who don't. Eventually we'll get to the point where computers are secure, but we're far from that point today. But baby boomers and Gen-X'ers think since they can touch the screen of their mobile phone they're tech-savvy.
They're not.
Want evidence?
Ask an oldster how to use Snapchat. Even better, ask them if they have a Snapchat account. Or you can even ask them if they use Twitter, the world's breaking news service. They don't because they think it's too complicated, they're too busy trying to impress each other on Facebook, being left behind all the while online.
Shawn Fanning was public enemy number one. Until he was replaced by a bunch of forgotten personages and now musicians blame Daniel Ek, as if he single-handedly stole their lunch. No, that is not true, by trying to live in the past they got left behind. When you hear someone wax rhapsodic about physical formats, when they talk about record company advances and sales, you know they're clueless. Kind of like the mainstream media trumpeting first week sales. It's all about constant streams, everybody under thirty knows that, but the old farts need that number one for their bio, not knowing that identities are fluid in the twenty first century and it's not what you've done in the past but what you are continuing to do now, keep playing, keep evolving. You bought that sports car and your friends bought Priuses, then Teslas, and soon they won't own any cars at all.
But at least you can see automobiles. You can't see what's going on behind the screen. Not unless you want to, not unless you're savvy. Not unless you know how to do your own tech support. Isn't it amazing, there's no help left. Unless you want to overpay Apple, but even they can't answer every question. But frequently the answer is as simple as PLUG IT IN!
Or reboot.
And I'm not saying a gun won't kill you, but I am saying it won't help you stand up to the government, the rationalization of these right wing blowhards. You'd be better off enlisting the fifteen year old with glasses. He or she can bring a corporation to its knees, turn off the power grid, all with the stroke of a few keys.
How could these politicians be so CLUELESS!
So busy puffing themselves up, they don't live in the real world, they've got no idea what's going on, they need to see themselves in the papers no one reads, it's a club I tell you, meanwhile they're missing out on real life all together.
I'd like to tell you the Russians were geniuses, educated sleuths who make your jaw drop. But the truth is they employed rudimentary techniques to crack the DNC and the rest of our government. Because the people manning those networks, using those networks, were so dumb and inexperienced they not only did not see what was happening, they essentially fed the enemy the information.
So, if you don't know how to sync music for offline listening on Spotify...
You're two steps behind.
Educate yourself. It's your only hope to stay relevant.
Or you can bitch to your contemporaries as you're wiped off the map.
Will this happen to the USA?
I certainly hope not.
But it could.
Because despite different parties, despite different viewpoints, the government is run by people who think they know but don't.
Because something is happening here
And you don't know what it is.
Do you, Mister Jones?
P.S. This is all laid out in this "New York Times" article "The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S." It's long, and in truth you don't have to read all of it, but give it a start, to see how rudimentary the Russians' techniques were. Someone's got to speak the truth, someone's got to do the investigation, and I applaud the "Times" here, but that does not mean anyone will read it. Want to know what's going on? Then turn off your TV and read. The problem isn't fake news, but the fact that people aren't reading any news at all. (If you're still getting your news from television, you're old, you're out of the loop. News happens online, where even the papers live. The "Times" may be boosting bookstores, but the people reading paper are the same people who are coughing up passwords via phishing scams. Stop holding on to the past, being holier-than-thou, shoot me for my position, but I'm right. At least I'm telling you, the younger generation is just ignoring you.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-election-dnc.html?_r=0&utm_source=phplist5668&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=More+Russian+Hacking
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Dopes are no match for nerds. And guns are no match for computers.
That's right, 1's and 0's, computer networks revolutionized the music business and the wankers are still screaming... As for the politicians, they had no idea what happened to them.
Every day we get spam. Every day we get e-mails from our banks, our service providers, all kinds of entities that touch our lives...BUT WE KNOW NOT TO CLICK ON THEM!
Scary to think that those who want to run the world are clueless.
There's a great divide in our culture akin to the one in the sixties. A generation gap. But this is one between those who know how to use computers, mobile phones, the internet, and those who don't. Eventually we'll get to the point where computers are secure, but we're far from that point today. But baby boomers and Gen-X'ers think since they can touch the screen of their mobile phone they're tech-savvy.
They're not.
Want evidence?
Ask an oldster how to use Snapchat. Even better, ask them if they have a Snapchat account. Or you can even ask them if they use Twitter, the world's breaking news service. They don't because they think it's too complicated, they're too busy trying to impress each other on Facebook, being left behind all the while online.
Shawn Fanning was public enemy number one. Until he was replaced by a bunch of forgotten personages and now musicians blame Daniel Ek, as if he single-handedly stole their lunch. No, that is not true, by trying to live in the past they got left behind. When you hear someone wax rhapsodic about physical formats, when they talk about record company advances and sales, you know they're clueless. Kind of like the mainstream media trumpeting first week sales. It's all about constant streams, everybody under thirty knows that, but the old farts need that number one for their bio, not knowing that identities are fluid in the twenty first century and it's not what you've done in the past but what you are continuing to do now, keep playing, keep evolving. You bought that sports car and your friends bought Priuses, then Teslas, and soon they won't own any cars at all.
But at least you can see automobiles. You can't see what's going on behind the screen. Not unless you want to, not unless you're savvy. Not unless you know how to do your own tech support. Isn't it amazing, there's no help left. Unless you want to overpay Apple, but even they can't answer every question. But frequently the answer is as simple as PLUG IT IN!
Or reboot.
And I'm not saying a gun won't kill you, but I am saying it won't help you stand up to the government, the rationalization of these right wing blowhards. You'd be better off enlisting the fifteen year old with glasses. He or she can bring a corporation to its knees, turn off the power grid, all with the stroke of a few keys.
How could these politicians be so CLUELESS!
So busy puffing themselves up, they don't live in the real world, they've got no idea what's going on, they need to see themselves in the papers no one reads, it's a club I tell you, meanwhile they're missing out on real life all together.
I'd like to tell you the Russians were geniuses, educated sleuths who make your jaw drop. But the truth is they employed rudimentary techniques to crack the DNC and the rest of our government. Because the people manning those networks, using those networks, were so dumb and inexperienced they not only did not see what was happening, they essentially fed the enemy the information.
So, if you don't know how to sync music for offline listening on Spotify...
You're two steps behind.
Educate yourself. It's your only hope to stay relevant.
Or you can bitch to your contemporaries as you're wiped off the map.
Will this happen to the USA?
I certainly hope not.
But it could.
Because despite different parties, despite different viewpoints, the government is run by people who think they know but don't.
Because something is happening here
And you don't know what it is.
Do you, Mister Jones?
P.S. This is all laid out in this "New York Times" article "The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S." It's long, and in truth you don't have to read all of it, but give it a start, to see how rudimentary the Russians' techniques were. Someone's got to speak the truth, someone's got to do the investigation, and I applaud the "Times" here, but that does not mean anyone will read it. Want to know what's going on? Then turn off your TV and read. The problem isn't fake news, but the fact that people aren't reading any news at all. (If you're still getting your news from television, you're old, you're out of the loop. News happens online, where even the papers live. The "Times" may be boosting bookstores, but the people reading paper are the same people who are coughing up passwords via phishing scams. Stop holding on to the past, being holier-than-thou, shoot me for my position, but I'm right. At least I'm telling you, the younger generation is just ignoring you.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-election-dnc.html?_r=0&utm_source=phplist5668&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=More+Russian+Hacking
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Tuesday 13 December 2016
Whipping Post
https://vimeo.com/188680983?utm_source=phplist5667&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Whipping+Post
"I've been run down
I've been lied to"
I know this guy Kenny Greenberg. He's married to Ashley Cleveland. We met when he was flown to L.A. for a session twenty years ago. He's gone on to further success with the likes of Luke Bryan. And a month ago he told me about this new series he's involved with called "Skyville Live." No one's ever heard of it. Because it's paid for by Hearst and distributed on Verizon's go90 and something called Rated Red and it might as well have been made on Mars. But Kenny just e-mailed me some links and my mind is BLOWN!
Who's the hottest guy in country music?
CHIS STAPLETON!
He's fronting this band. All the rockers have now gone country, and Chris has got more credibility than any act on Active Rock and is much more listenable to boot, because instead of keeping the roots at arm's length, he's EMBRACING THEM!
Now, covers have become de rigueur. Something we see on YouTube, almost a cheap shot, somewhere you go when you've got nothing left to give.
But this version of "Whipping Post"...
The modern Allmans laid down in the groove and stayed there, they chugged along, whereas this is closer to the Atlanta Rhythm Section, in that the band is powering down the track like a freight train, building energy all the while, carrying you along whether you like it or not.
That's the power of talent, that's the power of MUSIC!
"Sometimes I feel
Sometimes I feel"
Like I can't be reached, like I've seen it all, and then I hear this guy picking out the bass intro to "Whipping Post" and it's like he's channeling Berry Oakley, he may be sitting in a chair, but he's got the music in him.
And then that guitar starts boomeranging and another one comes in and the horns start to blow and then...
Chris starts to sing like he means it. This is not the "Voice," he's not overblowing, trying to impress a phantom audience, rather he's digging down deep and revealing his pain...and we can RELATE!
And the magic of the original Allmans was the twin guitars, and that's what'll get you going here, the way they lock in together and then separately solo and wail. When Kenny is working out all you can do is HOLD ON!
"My friends tell me
That I've been such a fool
And I have to stand down and take it babe
All for lovin' you"
For loving classic rock. A format built on playing. You paid your dues, Duane Allman wouldn't have known how to social network if Facebook existed, all he knew was when he strapped on his axe, you were closed.
The original version of "Whipping Post" is a marvel, on a Capricorn LP that was almost a complete stiff. But it's still my favorite. With "Trouble No More" and "Dreams" too.
But I didn't start there.
I became a fan listening to "Idlewild South" in Dave McCormick's room on floor two of Hepburn Hall at Middlebury College during the far below freezing days of January. Who wasn't infected by "Midnight Rider"?
The band was under control on that album, but they let loose on "Fillmore East."
Overnight the Allman Brothers became the biggest in the land, that's the power of playing.
And it was all about the side-long "Whipping Post." They took the original and extended it, added the passion of a live performance, they blew everybody away with the music!
And at this point in time the band is no more. Duane and Berry have been gone for nearly half a century. You'd think you missed it.
But not when you see this "Skyville Live" amalgamation wail.
This is better than any Grammy performance, better than almost all of the Kennedy Center Honors. You get the feeling you're at a rehearsal of people who did not get the memo, who did not hear that all the money is in banking and tech, who think pushing limits based on their talents is everything in life.
Screw those Grammy moments, faux greatness that leaves us with the blahs. Rather on "Skyville Live" it's all about focusing on playing as opposed to image, after all music is something you HEAR first and foremost. It's about a great tune, with great musicians locking on to it, all in service to the song.
If you're not jumping up and thrusting your arm in the air when this track climaxes, you've never been to the rock show, you've never known how to let go, you've never known the power of music.
But you do now.
P.S. Meanwhile, if you let the Vimeo video play, and why does Vimeo even exist, everything should be on YouTube, especially these cuts, you'll be exposed to a better take of "Copperhead Road" than the Steve Earle original. He's now skinny, his hair is thinning, his beard is long, but his voice has deepened and if this makes you go back and listen to "Guitar Town" you'll be exposed to one of the best country rock albums of all time!
https://vimeo.com/186054243?utm_source=phplist5667&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Whipping+Post
P.P.S. And Robert Hazard may be six feet under, but his anthem "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" lives on. Somehow the assembled multitude makes this overplayed classic live and breathe. And Cyndi Lauper gets help from the younger generation in this clip, but instead of doing it for the exposure, everybody seems to be having so much FUN!
And fun is the one thing that money can't buy, remember that. It's something you have to manufacture yourself, and we used to do it by picking up our instruments and strumming and singing and this is a direct link to what once was, but it doesn't feel dated at ALL!
https://vimeo.com/182125770?utm_source=phplist5667&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Whipping+Post
P.P.P.S. Distribution is king, never forget that. Content is what flows through the pipes, and if the pipes are clogged what you've made is never gonna reach its destination. The original era of the internet is toast, instant virality is history, everything needs a campaign, everything needs to be worked. And you cannot break immutable laws, you've got to go where the people are, you can't be exclusive to Tidal and you can't only be on Vimeo. You've got to play with the winners, you've got to go where the people are!
P.P.P.P.S. And everybody says you've got to go to England to see stuff like this. That everybody in America is in it for the cash, and what ultimately is revealed is too slick, too corporate, made for machines, not humans. But then you watch these "Skyville" clips and you think if this just got a push, if people were exposed not only would they be wowed, they'd want to join in and play too!
P.P.P.P.P.S. Listen to Orianthi wail on ZZ Top's "La Grange." Music is a big tent, short ones, small ones, big ones, tall ones, girls, boys, we all can play, all you've got to do is practice, get off the internet and pay your dues. As for the rest of us, we're looking for your music to complete us, to turn this life of drudgery into one of excitement, as the assembled multitude does in these clips.
https://vimeo.com/178221512?utm_source=phplist5667&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Whipping+Post
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"I've been run down
I've been lied to"
I know this guy Kenny Greenberg. He's married to Ashley Cleveland. We met when he was flown to L.A. for a session twenty years ago. He's gone on to further success with the likes of Luke Bryan. And a month ago he told me about this new series he's involved with called "Skyville Live." No one's ever heard of it. Because it's paid for by Hearst and distributed on Verizon's go90 and something called Rated Red and it might as well have been made on Mars. But Kenny just e-mailed me some links and my mind is BLOWN!
Who's the hottest guy in country music?
CHIS STAPLETON!
He's fronting this band. All the rockers have now gone country, and Chris has got more credibility than any act on Active Rock and is much more listenable to boot, because instead of keeping the roots at arm's length, he's EMBRACING THEM!
Now, covers have become de rigueur. Something we see on YouTube, almost a cheap shot, somewhere you go when you've got nothing left to give.
But this version of "Whipping Post"...
The modern Allmans laid down in the groove and stayed there, they chugged along, whereas this is closer to the Atlanta Rhythm Section, in that the band is powering down the track like a freight train, building energy all the while, carrying you along whether you like it or not.
That's the power of talent, that's the power of MUSIC!
"Sometimes I feel
Sometimes I feel"
Like I can't be reached, like I've seen it all, and then I hear this guy picking out the bass intro to "Whipping Post" and it's like he's channeling Berry Oakley, he may be sitting in a chair, but he's got the music in him.
And then that guitar starts boomeranging and another one comes in and the horns start to blow and then...
Chris starts to sing like he means it. This is not the "Voice," he's not overblowing, trying to impress a phantom audience, rather he's digging down deep and revealing his pain...and we can RELATE!
And the magic of the original Allmans was the twin guitars, and that's what'll get you going here, the way they lock in together and then separately solo and wail. When Kenny is working out all you can do is HOLD ON!
"My friends tell me
That I've been such a fool
And I have to stand down and take it babe
All for lovin' you"
For loving classic rock. A format built on playing. You paid your dues, Duane Allman wouldn't have known how to social network if Facebook existed, all he knew was when he strapped on his axe, you were closed.
The original version of "Whipping Post" is a marvel, on a Capricorn LP that was almost a complete stiff. But it's still my favorite. With "Trouble No More" and "Dreams" too.
But I didn't start there.
I became a fan listening to "Idlewild South" in Dave McCormick's room on floor two of Hepburn Hall at Middlebury College during the far below freezing days of January. Who wasn't infected by "Midnight Rider"?
The band was under control on that album, but they let loose on "Fillmore East."
Overnight the Allman Brothers became the biggest in the land, that's the power of playing.
And it was all about the side-long "Whipping Post." They took the original and extended it, added the passion of a live performance, they blew everybody away with the music!
And at this point in time the band is no more. Duane and Berry have been gone for nearly half a century. You'd think you missed it.
But not when you see this "Skyville Live" amalgamation wail.
This is better than any Grammy performance, better than almost all of the Kennedy Center Honors. You get the feeling you're at a rehearsal of people who did not get the memo, who did not hear that all the money is in banking and tech, who think pushing limits based on their talents is everything in life.
Screw those Grammy moments, faux greatness that leaves us with the blahs. Rather on "Skyville Live" it's all about focusing on playing as opposed to image, after all music is something you HEAR first and foremost. It's about a great tune, with great musicians locking on to it, all in service to the song.
If you're not jumping up and thrusting your arm in the air when this track climaxes, you've never been to the rock show, you've never known how to let go, you've never known the power of music.
But you do now.
P.S. Meanwhile, if you let the Vimeo video play, and why does Vimeo even exist, everything should be on YouTube, especially these cuts, you'll be exposed to a better take of "Copperhead Road" than the Steve Earle original. He's now skinny, his hair is thinning, his beard is long, but his voice has deepened and if this makes you go back and listen to "Guitar Town" you'll be exposed to one of the best country rock albums of all time!
https://vimeo.com/186054243?utm_source=phplist5667&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Whipping+Post
P.P.S. And Robert Hazard may be six feet under, but his anthem "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" lives on. Somehow the assembled multitude makes this overplayed classic live and breathe. And Cyndi Lauper gets help from the younger generation in this clip, but instead of doing it for the exposure, everybody seems to be having so much FUN!
And fun is the one thing that money can't buy, remember that. It's something you have to manufacture yourself, and we used to do it by picking up our instruments and strumming and singing and this is a direct link to what once was, but it doesn't feel dated at ALL!
https://vimeo.com/182125770?utm_source=phplist5667&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Whipping+Post
P.P.P.S. Distribution is king, never forget that. Content is what flows through the pipes, and if the pipes are clogged what you've made is never gonna reach its destination. The original era of the internet is toast, instant virality is history, everything needs a campaign, everything needs to be worked. And you cannot break immutable laws, you've got to go where the people are, you can't be exclusive to Tidal and you can't only be on Vimeo. You've got to play with the winners, you've got to go where the people are!
P.P.P.P.S. And everybody says you've got to go to England to see stuff like this. That everybody in America is in it for the cash, and what ultimately is revealed is too slick, too corporate, made for machines, not humans. But then you watch these "Skyville" clips and you think if this just got a push, if people were exposed not only would they be wowed, they'd want to join in and play too!
P.P.P.P.P.S. Listen to Orianthi wail on ZZ Top's "La Grange." Music is a big tent, short ones, small ones, big ones, tall ones, girls, boys, we all can play, all you've got to do is practice, get off the internet and pay your dues. As for the rest of us, we're looking for your music to complete us, to turn this life of drudgery into one of excitement, as the assembled multitude does in these clips.
https://vimeo.com/178221512?utm_source=phplist5667&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Whipping+Post
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Monday 12 December 2016
Peter, Paul and Jamie (and more!)
From: Jamie Hartman
Subject: Human
Dear Mr Lefsetz,
How do you do.
I drove for 12 hours today. Doesn't matter where - details would knock the gloss off the statistic fairly quickly. Anyway at 5.45pm, in the last 15 minutes of my somewhat insane journey and in my personal blizzard of tiredness, my phone started buzzing. People in the business of music were contacting me from all sides. My wife picked up my phone for me and explained why. She then proceeded to read me your piece.
Rag N Bone Man and I wrote Human together. I was lucky enough to record and produce his vocals and even sing the parts which make up the choir behind his lead. One day hopefully I'll meet you and then you can decide whether you want the full story of the songs birth or not. But regardless of that, a huge, humble and as it turns out, tearful, thank you.
I welled up and started openly sobbing in the car and my wife thought I'd lost it. Because I had, temporarily. No one has ever written such a powerful or positive review of a song of mine - maybe because I've never written one that good, but either way, it was a huge huge moment for me. That you got it. You get it. And that you cared enough to review it.
From me and I'm sure from Rory (RnB Man) when he reads it, a very personal and sincere thank you.
And I hope that you're right! Bring on US radio..
Fingers all crossed.
Respectfully.
Jamie
_____________________________________________
From: Noel Paul Stookey
Subject: hey bob...thanks for the pp&m referrals, ...
just to clear up a few items:
"Dejected, Albert went over to the Bitter End on Bleecker Street to pick owner Fred Weintraub's brain. It was late at night, and it was comedy night. A lanky young kid, Noel Stookey was one of the acts that night, who did monologues with a guitar slung over his shoulder onstage. Albert asked him if he wanted to be in a group and told him what he'd make, and Noel agreed.
"Oh, and kid, one last thing, your stage name is Paul...""
truth is i actually never worked the bitter end as a solo. albert came to the gaslight where i was performing and asked if i wanted to be in a group. i said no as my solo career was just beginning to open up with jobs at club 47 - the baez/rush venue - in boston. according to peter albert related the story to him of my declining but followed it up with 'but, i think he will'. within a week or so peter had connected with mary travers (for whom i had done some backing guitar work on her occasional open mike visits to the gaslight) and a phone call from her went something like this: "...there's this guy visiting me here at the apartment (she lived on macdougal) and we're singing and we thought it would be fun to come over and sing with you". i said sure and about an hour later we were singing MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB because it was the only folk song upon which we could agree on lyric and melody. seriously. we each knew quite different versions, chords, words for standards like GOLDEN VANITY. it was then i learned that albert managed peter and that it was his idea to put a group together but the introduction to the concept by mary and peter made it ever so much more appealing. about six weeks later, after rehearsals at mary's, we had an 'audition' of sorts to present albert with the half dozen songs we had worked up. it was at that time upon listening that john court (albert's long time associate from chicago) delivered his prescient estimation of the trio: "...if nothing happens, you're gonna happen". albert had asked us to come up with a name for the trio and the only one close to pleasing us was THE WILLOWS (we were after all kind of lanky) but there was never any mention made to me of changing my name until albert suggested at the audtion that "...noel could change his name to paul and we could call the group PETER, PAUL and MARY". the name seemed to us so perfect that i said "well, i'm not about to change my first name but i WILL take it on as a middle name" not realizing that the middle name would take ME on and from the first interview where i was referred to as 'paul' it became so obviously unimportant to explain the subtlety of the first name / second name choice that for the first 10 years of the trio's career, 'noel' took a back seat to the famous 'paul'.
so. there you are. aside from disliking the cheesy and false implication that i would join a group because albert told noel "what he'd make", the references to the group's music were enjoyable and i thank you for including me in your nostalgia...
nps
_____________________________________________
From: Peter Yarrow
Subject: Sending you thanks
Dear brother Bob,
Thank you so much for your most generous and complimentary notes and thoughts about the trio. Very insightful comments and observations and the heart you put into framing them was wonderful. The acknowledgment is very much appreciated.
If you are interested, I could send you a couple of historical notes that might be of interest to you that present a slightly different take on events, such as Bob Dylan and the lyric to Too Much of Nothing etc and a couple of notes on some of the posts that tell our history. These stories, such as what happended at Newport when Bob went electric, are a Rashamon on vantabe points, of course.
Bottom line, in a world in which "charted music" and the music "business" has to a large degree side-barred folk music and its derivative/contemporary forms, it's wonderful for you to raise the flag of awarness of what that music was and what it can convey. Being now engaged in many Seeger-legacy-inspired efforts such as my going with my daughter to Standing Rock and singing with her in September, participating in anti-fracking gatherings, in Madison Wisconsin at an oppostion gathering to Scott Walker's draconian mesasures to gut uniion and collective bargaining, at Occupy in a nimber of cities, at a Unity Concert in the Black Hills and many many more, I have the suspicion that folk music and contemporary forms that hark back to it, will become more and more important in the days, months, and years ahead with Trumpism staring right at us and threatening us in ways never before imagined.
I'm sending you an MP3 of a song that I wrote written, obviously, during the Republican debates called "The Children Are Listening". No further explanation needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brbNHlAAN0E&utm_source=phplist5666&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Peter%2C+Paul+and+Jamie+%28and+more%21%29
Also, I'm sending you, below, a link to a variety of videos of a song I wrote with my daughter, Bethany, "Lift Us Up", that affirms who we are, what we believe in, and celebrates our progressive traditions and our legacy of the pursuit of justice, equity and peace. When sung in concerts, "Lift Us Up" is a rallying call for Americans to come together, embrace each other, (all of us, however we voted) and not focus on, reacatively, responding to Trump's daily dangerous absurdities. It's a call to. proactively, reach out to one another and confirm that we are, very much, still who we are and who America is. (We must not continue to let Donald Trump set the terms of discourse).
A thought: Not only is folk music and the legacy of Pete Seeger, Woody, Bob Clairborne, Earl Robinson and many others not "dead" and, much more than a reminiscence of inspiration and being the sound track for activist of the birth of their involvement in civic actions and awareness of social political efforts, that legacy is alive and well right now, and urgently so, actively taking part in the crucial efforts of our times, still standing up for our better angels and answering today's versions of the powerful questions that Bob posed in "Blowing In the Wind".
With thanks and much appreciation, my friend,
Peter
http://operationrespect.org/2016/10/20/lift-us-up/?utm_source=phplist5666&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Peter%2C+Paul+and+Jamie+%28and+more%21%29 Lift Us Up performed at Symphony Space Sept 29th, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUdjpfjoVsc&feature=youtu.be&utm_source=phplist5666&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Peter%2C+Paul+and+Jamie+%28and+more%21%29 - recording session with chorus, lift us up.
https://youtu.be/lAiwUmz0aWA?utm_source=phplist5666&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Peter%2C+Paul+and+Jamie+%28and+more%21%29 same song, Black and White - version for a younger audience.
https://youtu.be/6I5tNeKalq8?utm_source=phplist5666&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Peter%2C+Paul+and+Jamie+%28and+more%21%29 Bethany singing Lift Us Up to a video for Standing Rock.
One more of Bethany as part of a vidio, singing at Standing - not a music video. (Bethany has become a dynamic, amazing organizer).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeUIyI83b7g&utm_source=phplist5666&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Peter%2C+Paul+and+Jamie+%28and+more%21%29
_____________________________________________
RE: PP&M
So I had my brand new 427 Stingray stolen while I was at class one day at USC.
A few days later it was found in Compton totally stripped. And of course they took my brand new 8 track sound system and all my 8 track tapes.
Well ok, not all of my 8 track tapes, just most of them. They left all my Peter, Paul and Mary and Jan&Dean tapes scattered on the floorboard.
I drove my stripped 427 Stingray Straight Outta Compton while sitting on a cardboard box
Dean Torrence
Surf City, USA
PS I was influenced big time by PPMs Stylized Font that was consistently showing up on their album covers and promotional materials
They were very much ahead of their time
_____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Pandora Premium
I know this isn't really your point, but Spotify won my loyalty by having the best algorithm. For example, I'm listening to the Marshall Tucker Band radio stream includes Boz Scaggs, the Doobies, Jackson Browne, the Allman Brothers, the Band, Eagles, Steely Dan, CSN(Y), Steve Miller, BTO, even ELP - and a host of others - but no David Alan Coe, Bob Wills, Hank Jr. and others Pandora tried to cram down my throat. Spotify's algorithm gets it. Spotify doesn't get "genre lock" like Pandora, where Pandora keeps queuing up almost the same exact song you reject (like 11 dub reggae songs in a row on a Bob Marley station). And when you ask Pandora why it played a song, it gives you some BS answer like "Lilting melodic keyboards with an emphasis on technical post-production techniques in minor-key half-octave structures, exotic chordal voicings, tonalities, and sequences," etc.
Spotify just works.
Best,
Keith Baker
Commander, United States Navy (Retired)
_____________________________________________
From: Gregory Dennis
Subject: Re: Pandora Premium
I was alongtime defender of Pandora because it helped me find new music and was the lazy man's way to add variety. But since Spotify added so many playlists and made them easier to access, well -- I gotta say you're right. The train has left the station, Spotify is in the engineer's seat, and Pandora isn't even in the caboose anymore.
_____________________________________________
From: Edo Van Duijn
Subject: Re: Pandora Premium
Hi Bob
Another wonderful insightful piece on the World of Spotify. And I agree. So much so that your insights have influenced our Management company to focus heavily on a strategy aimed at Spotify + Radio for new artists we're launching. Of course the music needs to be good to stand a chance, but if you get it right, it's incredible how fast it goes. Check out our young talents, Bruno Martini and Alok, as an example:
The single 'Hear Me Now' is now the #1 track on Spotify Brasil, charting in markets as far as Sweden and Norway and getting licensed all over the world. (Tomorrow Bruno performs in Norway…. A booking based entirely on Spotify popularity… for a kid that comes from Sao Paulo, Brazil. It's only just started and this is his first single. It's astounding to see how fast it goes when the digital dots connect.... Quite literally.
So thank you for arguing the case so fervently and clearly for Spotify. It most certainly is where the music business currently resides. And for us that work in the electronic music sphere I must add that complimenting Spotify + Radio Play, strong support from DJs is also essential to grab the 'early adopters'.
It goes something like this:
1. Hear the record at a show (unless your friend has already shared the Spotify link)
2. Shazam the track.
(2a. If you're under 20 you might look for a version on YT)
3. Add it to your Spotify playlist and play it too death once it's released.
4. Hear it on Radio on the way to work…
Live + Shazam + Spotify + Radio.
Crack that eco-system and you're on fire. And when you do it's addictive. Watching your numbers go up... probably more exciting then watching your Stock rise or the NJ Jets actually win a game !
Spotify is democratic, and that's why I love it. Sure there's some lobbying involved to get better visibility, but ultimately the FANS DECIDE BY LISTENING. If your music is good, you have a chance. And it if sucks, well then no traditional press or marketing campaign can fake it anymore. Nobody cares.
Spotify is going to separate the real Talent from the rest. And numbers don't lie.
_____________________________________________
From: Diarmuid Quinn
Subject: Re: Steve Backer Dies
Steve was my first boss in the Record Business.
I was doing college radio and Steve gave me a shot and pulled me into the College rep program.
He was a true mentor for a green college kid, who had no idea about the biz.
Two years later he pulled me into NYC to be his #2 in the College Dept nationally. He took the intimidation out of my arrival in the big city almost instantly.
We had an amazingly talented crew of college reps…..
Craig Kallman, Jerry Blair, Marc Reiter, Al Carolonza, Fred Ehrlich, Lisa Wolfe, Michelle Block, Dave Watson, Dale Connone, Bruno DelGranado, Dave Millman, Kevin Gore, and others....all in a two year span.
Many of them are STILL in the biz, and certainly they each owe a debt of gratitude to Steve's crazy sense of humor and leadership.
There was no "alternative radio" to speak of then, and all the labels would send the acts that didn't get "CHR" or "AOR" play to us.
(Kind of like Chevy Chase to Bill Murray....we were the "pond"). We were the last hope for many managers and artists.
We would regularly wage internal war at the labels we worked with and Steve went to the mat for acts like the Bangles, Midnight Oil, Psychedelic Furs, Translator, Romeo Void and others, most of whom would never have broken out of college radio without Steve's relentless drive....
We then both went up to Epic, Where we were aligned again and broke bands like Living Colour and Europe. Steve became the video promo guy and lived the MTV and VH-1 heyday better than anyone I knew.
Marc then also joined us at Epic, and Marc, Ed and Steve and I used to run together….
All over NYC....we'd go to the Warwick or Imperial Dragon for lunch, or Steve's favorite, "the umbrella club"!
Danceteria, The Cat Club as late as 3am...Maxwell's, and numerous other haunts....
Steve was always on. A veritable promo machine when he wanted to be, but as loyal a friend as you could ever wish for. While constantly making fun of you he ALWAYS had your back.
Last January, Marc, Steve, and I had a great lunch together, the first in a long time. It was as if we had been apart only a few weeks.
We left after two hours of laughing, promising to follow up again soon! Sadly, we didn't.
Somewhere up above Steve is waiting with his famous line he used to say to us, and all of his ex college reps that I think he looked at as his children.
"I made you...I can break you!"
RIP Steve.
_____________________________________________
From: Michele Rhoades
Subject: Re: Steve Backer Dies
Mud - this says it all. My feelings exactly. I was so fortunate in January 1983 to become Steve's intern and be able to move up in the college dept. He gave my start and I will never forget him for that. It was the greatest group to be a part of.
Michele
_____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Steve Backer Dies
Very sad day. Steve was a man who brought joy to so many ...especially all of us who came up with him in the 80's. I first met Steve as our WCDB college rep. With his huge smile, hounds tooth sports jacket, and a michevious twinkle in his eyes he was our champion for breaking the underdog artists and having as much fun as possible along the way. That passion for music and mischief and camaraderie carried Steve far, and made him special. He will be greatly missed. - Jack Isquith
_____________________________________________
From: Michele Rhoades
Subject: Re: Steve Backer Dies
Mud - this says it all. My feelings exactly. I was so fortunate in January 1983 to become Steve's intern and be able to move up in the college dept. He gave my start and I will never forget him for that. It was the greatest group to be a part of.
Michele
_____________________________________________
Re Steve Backer
Great great music guy! Loved our client Jules Shear everytime we met he had something to say about his past- loved great songs! We met at epic then on and on—big heart- always shot for the fences !we'll all miss him and have stories – many more then mine- rip- see ya later my friend!
Michael J. Lembo, Jr.
_____________________________________________
From: Mike Gormley
Subject: Backer
A late and short note re: Steve Backer. The success we had with The Bangles wouldn't have happened without him. He was so supportive and wouldn't let the executives in New York ignore this "girl band from the west coast". The Bangles became known as "the band that wouldn't go away" because we kept selling a couple of thousand a week on that first album, due to touring and our hard work before signing with Columbia.
So thankful I bumped into him about a year ago at Herb's Vibrato Grill. Hadn't seen him at that point for probably 25 years, but the warmth in the greeting he gave me that night will stay with me forever.
He made an impact on the music of the world.
Gormley
_____________________________________________
From: George Dassinger
Subject: The Passing of Bob Krasnow
I was so fortunate to have run the PR Dept. at Elektra Records during the '83-'86 period when the label went from last to first. It was one of the best times I had working in PR or as my Elektra title stated, "Information Services". Working with people like Hale Milgrim, Kenny Hamlin, Bill Berger. Larry Braverman, Aaron Levy, Sandy Sawotka, Michael Lago, Gary Casson, Tom Cording, Joe Bosso to name a few, it was the label to be at because of them and Bob Krasnow. When you are the lowest record label and then you are #1, nothing better. Today it doesn't exist but then, the best of the best.
Bob let me run the department "my way" and after I left, we passed on the street. He wanted to apologize for letting me go. "George, you were one of the best PR guys I've known. I should have had you stay on". I told Bob, it was OK since it pushed me to start my own company which allowed me family time I relish to this day. Hell, my office overlooked St. Patrick's and the view was outstanding.
Bob was a wild man - a guy who loved as he put it "debauchery". He was also an outlandish art lover and heralded gourmet chefs saying they would be the "next rock stars".
I still have my Elektra sweater with my name on it draped around my office chair. I found it recently in the attic stowed away for safe keeping. I will leave it on my chair in Bob's memory for awhile. I feel it is a fitting tribute to the music man he was and will forever be.
George Dassinger
Dassinger Creative
Subject: Human
Dear Mr Lefsetz,
How do you do.
I drove for 12 hours today. Doesn't matter where - details would knock the gloss off the statistic fairly quickly. Anyway at 5.45pm, in the last 15 minutes of my somewhat insane journey and in my personal blizzard of tiredness, my phone started buzzing. People in the business of music were contacting me from all sides. My wife picked up my phone for me and explained why. She then proceeded to read me your piece.
Rag N Bone Man and I wrote Human together. I was lucky enough to record and produce his vocals and even sing the parts which make up the choir behind his lead. One day hopefully I'll meet you and then you can decide whether you want the full story of the songs birth or not. But regardless of that, a huge, humble and as it turns out, tearful, thank you.
I welled up and started openly sobbing in the car and my wife thought I'd lost it. Because I had, temporarily. No one has ever written such a powerful or positive review of a song of mine - maybe because I've never written one that good, but either way, it was a huge huge moment for me. That you got it. You get it. And that you cared enough to review it.
From me and I'm sure from Rory (RnB Man) when he reads it, a very personal and sincere thank you.
And I hope that you're right! Bring on US radio..
Fingers all crossed.
Respectfully.
Jamie
_____________________________________________
From: Noel Paul Stookey
Subject: hey bob...thanks for the pp&m referrals, ...
just to clear up a few items:
"Dejected, Albert went over to the Bitter End on Bleecker Street to pick owner Fred Weintraub's brain. It was late at night, and it was comedy night. A lanky young kid, Noel Stookey was one of the acts that night, who did monologues with a guitar slung over his shoulder onstage. Albert asked him if he wanted to be in a group and told him what he'd make, and Noel agreed.
"Oh, and kid, one last thing, your stage name is Paul...""
truth is i actually never worked the bitter end as a solo. albert came to the gaslight where i was performing and asked if i wanted to be in a group. i said no as my solo career was just beginning to open up with jobs at club 47 - the baez/rush venue - in boston. according to peter albert related the story to him of my declining but followed it up with 'but, i think he will'. within a week or so peter had connected with mary travers (for whom i had done some backing guitar work on her occasional open mike visits to the gaslight) and a phone call from her went something like this: "...there's this guy visiting me here at the apartment (she lived on macdougal) and we're singing and we thought it would be fun to come over and sing with you". i said sure and about an hour later we were singing MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB because it was the only folk song upon which we could agree on lyric and melody. seriously. we each knew quite different versions, chords, words for standards like GOLDEN VANITY. it was then i learned that albert managed peter and that it was his idea to put a group together but the introduction to the concept by mary and peter made it ever so much more appealing. about six weeks later, after rehearsals at mary's, we had an 'audition' of sorts to present albert with the half dozen songs we had worked up. it was at that time upon listening that john court (albert's long time associate from chicago) delivered his prescient estimation of the trio: "...if nothing happens, you're gonna happen". albert had asked us to come up with a name for the trio and the only one close to pleasing us was THE WILLOWS (we were after all kind of lanky) but there was never any mention made to me of changing my name until albert suggested at the audtion that "...noel could change his name to paul and we could call the group PETER, PAUL and MARY". the name seemed to us so perfect that i said "well, i'm not about to change my first name but i WILL take it on as a middle name" not realizing that the middle name would take ME on and from the first interview where i was referred to as 'paul' it became so obviously unimportant to explain the subtlety of the first name / second name choice that for the first 10 years of the trio's career, 'noel' took a back seat to the famous 'paul'.
so. there you are. aside from disliking the cheesy and false implication that i would join a group because albert told noel "what he'd make", the references to the group's music were enjoyable and i thank you for including me in your nostalgia...
nps
_____________________________________________
From: Peter Yarrow
Subject: Sending you thanks
Dear brother Bob,
Thank you so much for your most generous and complimentary notes and thoughts about the trio. Very insightful comments and observations and the heart you put into framing them was wonderful. The acknowledgment is very much appreciated.
If you are interested, I could send you a couple of historical notes that might be of interest to you that present a slightly different take on events, such as Bob Dylan and the lyric to Too Much of Nothing etc and a couple of notes on some of the posts that tell our history. These stories, such as what happended at Newport when Bob went electric, are a Rashamon on vantabe points, of course.
Bottom line, in a world in which "charted music" and the music "business" has to a large degree side-barred folk music and its derivative/contemporary forms, it's wonderful for you to raise the flag of awarness of what that music was and what it can convey. Being now engaged in many Seeger-legacy-inspired efforts such as my going with my daughter to Standing Rock and singing with her in September, participating in anti-fracking gatherings, in Madison Wisconsin at an oppostion gathering to Scott Walker's draconian mesasures to gut uniion and collective bargaining, at Occupy in a nimber of cities, at a Unity Concert in the Black Hills and many many more, I have the suspicion that folk music and contemporary forms that hark back to it, will become more and more important in the days, months, and years ahead with Trumpism staring right at us and threatening us in ways never before imagined.
I'm sending you an MP3 of a song that I wrote written, obviously, during the Republican debates called "The Children Are Listening". No further explanation needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brbNHlAAN0E&utm_source=phplist5666&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Peter%2C+Paul+and+Jamie+%28and+more%21%29
Also, I'm sending you, below, a link to a variety of videos of a song I wrote with my daughter, Bethany, "Lift Us Up", that affirms who we are, what we believe in, and celebrates our progressive traditions and our legacy of the pursuit of justice, equity and peace. When sung in concerts, "Lift Us Up" is a rallying call for Americans to come together, embrace each other, (all of us, however we voted) and not focus on, reacatively, responding to Trump's daily dangerous absurdities. It's a call to. proactively, reach out to one another and confirm that we are, very much, still who we are and who America is. (We must not continue to let Donald Trump set the terms of discourse).
A thought: Not only is folk music and the legacy of Pete Seeger, Woody, Bob Clairborne, Earl Robinson and many others not "dead" and, much more than a reminiscence of inspiration and being the sound track for activist of the birth of their involvement in civic actions and awareness of social political efforts, that legacy is alive and well right now, and urgently so, actively taking part in the crucial efforts of our times, still standing up for our better angels and answering today's versions of the powerful questions that Bob posed in "Blowing In the Wind".
With thanks and much appreciation, my friend,
Peter
http://operationrespect.org/2016/10/20/lift-us-up/?utm_source=phplist5666&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Peter%2C+Paul+and+Jamie+%28and+more%21%29 Lift Us Up performed at Symphony Space Sept 29th, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUdjpfjoVsc&feature=youtu.be&utm_source=phplist5666&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Peter%2C+Paul+and+Jamie+%28and+more%21%29 - recording session with chorus, lift us up.
https://youtu.be/lAiwUmz0aWA?utm_source=phplist5666&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Peter%2C+Paul+and+Jamie+%28and+more%21%29 same song, Black and White - version for a younger audience.
https://youtu.be/6I5tNeKalq8?utm_source=phplist5666&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Peter%2C+Paul+and+Jamie+%28and+more%21%29 Bethany singing Lift Us Up to a video for Standing Rock.
One more of Bethany as part of a vidio, singing at Standing - not a music video. (Bethany has become a dynamic, amazing organizer).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeUIyI83b7g&utm_source=phplist5666&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Peter%2C+Paul+and+Jamie+%28and+more%21%29
_____________________________________________
RE: PP&M
So I had my brand new 427 Stingray stolen while I was at class one day at USC.
A few days later it was found in Compton totally stripped. And of course they took my brand new 8 track sound system and all my 8 track tapes.
Well ok, not all of my 8 track tapes, just most of them. They left all my Peter, Paul and Mary and Jan&Dean tapes scattered on the floorboard.
I drove my stripped 427 Stingray Straight Outta Compton while sitting on a cardboard box
Dean Torrence
Surf City, USA
PS I was influenced big time by PPMs Stylized Font that was consistently showing up on their album covers and promotional materials
They were very much ahead of their time
_____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Pandora Premium
I know this isn't really your point, but Spotify won my loyalty by having the best algorithm. For example, I'm listening to the Marshall Tucker Band radio stream includes Boz Scaggs, the Doobies, Jackson Browne, the Allman Brothers, the Band, Eagles, Steely Dan, CSN(Y), Steve Miller, BTO, even ELP - and a host of others - but no David Alan Coe, Bob Wills, Hank Jr. and others Pandora tried to cram down my throat. Spotify's algorithm gets it. Spotify doesn't get "genre lock" like Pandora, where Pandora keeps queuing up almost the same exact song you reject (like 11 dub reggae songs in a row on a Bob Marley station). And when you ask Pandora why it played a song, it gives you some BS answer like "Lilting melodic keyboards with an emphasis on technical post-production techniques in minor-key half-octave structures, exotic chordal voicings, tonalities, and sequences," etc.
Spotify just works.
Best,
Keith Baker
Commander, United States Navy (Retired)
_____________________________________________
From: Gregory Dennis
Subject: Re: Pandora Premium
I was alongtime defender of Pandora because it helped me find new music and was the lazy man's way to add variety. But since Spotify added so many playlists and made them easier to access, well -- I gotta say you're right. The train has left the station, Spotify is in the engineer's seat, and Pandora isn't even in the caboose anymore.
_____________________________________________
From: Edo Van Duijn
Subject: Re: Pandora Premium
Hi Bob
Another wonderful insightful piece on the World of Spotify. And I agree. So much so that your insights have influenced our Management company to focus heavily on a strategy aimed at Spotify + Radio for new artists we're launching. Of course the music needs to be good to stand a chance, but if you get it right, it's incredible how fast it goes. Check out our young talents, Bruno Martini and Alok, as an example:
The single 'Hear Me Now' is now the #1 track on Spotify Brasil, charting in markets as far as Sweden and Norway and getting licensed all over the world. (Tomorrow Bruno performs in Norway…. A booking based entirely on Spotify popularity… for a kid that comes from Sao Paulo, Brazil. It's only just started and this is his first single. It's astounding to see how fast it goes when the digital dots connect.... Quite literally.
So thank you for arguing the case so fervently and clearly for Spotify. It most certainly is where the music business currently resides. And for us that work in the electronic music sphere I must add that complimenting Spotify + Radio Play, strong support from DJs is also essential to grab the 'early adopters'.
It goes something like this:
1. Hear the record at a show (unless your friend has already shared the Spotify link)
2. Shazam the track.
(2a. If you're under 20 you might look for a version on YT)
3. Add it to your Spotify playlist and play it too death once it's released.
4. Hear it on Radio on the way to work…
Live + Shazam + Spotify + Radio.
Crack that eco-system and you're on fire. And when you do it's addictive. Watching your numbers go up... probably more exciting then watching your Stock rise or the NJ Jets actually win a game !
Spotify is democratic, and that's why I love it. Sure there's some lobbying involved to get better visibility, but ultimately the FANS DECIDE BY LISTENING. If your music is good, you have a chance. And it if sucks, well then no traditional press or marketing campaign can fake it anymore. Nobody cares.
Spotify is going to separate the real Talent from the rest. And numbers don't lie.
_____________________________________________
From: Diarmuid Quinn
Subject: Re: Steve Backer Dies
Steve was my first boss in the Record Business.
I was doing college radio and Steve gave me a shot and pulled me into the College rep program.
He was a true mentor for a green college kid, who had no idea about the biz.
Two years later he pulled me into NYC to be his #2 in the College Dept nationally. He took the intimidation out of my arrival in the big city almost instantly.
We had an amazingly talented crew of college reps…..
Craig Kallman, Jerry Blair, Marc Reiter, Al Carolonza, Fred Ehrlich, Lisa Wolfe, Michelle Block, Dave Watson, Dale Connone, Bruno DelGranado, Dave Millman, Kevin Gore, and others....all in a two year span.
Many of them are STILL in the biz, and certainly they each owe a debt of gratitude to Steve's crazy sense of humor and leadership.
There was no "alternative radio" to speak of then, and all the labels would send the acts that didn't get "CHR" or "AOR" play to us.
(Kind of like Chevy Chase to Bill Murray....we were the "pond"). We were the last hope for many managers and artists.
We would regularly wage internal war at the labels we worked with and Steve went to the mat for acts like the Bangles, Midnight Oil, Psychedelic Furs, Translator, Romeo Void and others, most of whom would never have broken out of college radio without Steve's relentless drive....
We then both went up to Epic, Where we were aligned again and broke bands like Living Colour and Europe. Steve became the video promo guy and lived the MTV and VH-1 heyday better than anyone I knew.
Marc then also joined us at Epic, and Marc, Ed and Steve and I used to run together….
All over NYC....we'd go to the Warwick or Imperial Dragon for lunch, or Steve's favorite, "the umbrella club"!
Danceteria, The Cat Club as late as 3am...Maxwell's, and numerous other haunts....
Steve was always on. A veritable promo machine when he wanted to be, but as loyal a friend as you could ever wish for. While constantly making fun of you he ALWAYS had your back.
Last January, Marc, Steve, and I had a great lunch together, the first in a long time. It was as if we had been apart only a few weeks.
We left after two hours of laughing, promising to follow up again soon! Sadly, we didn't.
Somewhere up above Steve is waiting with his famous line he used to say to us, and all of his ex college reps that I think he looked at as his children.
"I made you...I can break you!"
RIP Steve.
_____________________________________________
From: Michele Rhoades
Subject: Re: Steve Backer Dies
Mud - this says it all. My feelings exactly. I was so fortunate in January 1983 to become Steve's intern and be able to move up in the college dept. He gave my start and I will never forget him for that. It was the greatest group to be a part of.
Michele
_____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Steve Backer Dies
Very sad day. Steve was a man who brought joy to so many ...especially all of us who came up with him in the 80's. I first met Steve as our WCDB college rep. With his huge smile, hounds tooth sports jacket, and a michevious twinkle in his eyes he was our champion for breaking the underdog artists and having as much fun as possible along the way. That passion for music and mischief and camaraderie carried Steve far, and made him special. He will be greatly missed. - Jack Isquith
_____________________________________________
From: Michele Rhoades
Subject: Re: Steve Backer Dies
Mud - this says it all. My feelings exactly. I was so fortunate in January 1983 to become Steve's intern and be able to move up in the college dept. He gave my start and I will never forget him for that. It was the greatest group to be a part of.
Michele
_____________________________________________
Re Steve Backer
Great great music guy! Loved our client Jules Shear everytime we met he had something to say about his past- loved great songs! We met at epic then on and on—big heart- always shot for the fences !we'll all miss him and have stories – many more then mine- rip- see ya later my friend!
Michael J. Lembo, Jr.
_____________________________________________
From: Mike Gormley
Subject: Backer
A late and short note re: Steve Backer. The success we had with The Bangles wouldn't have happened without him. He was so supportive and wouldn't let the executives in New York ignore this "girl band from the west coast". The Bangles became known as "the band that wouldn't go away" because we kept selling a couple of thousand a week on that first album, due to touring and our hard work before signing with Columbia.
So thankful I bumped into him about a year ago at Herb's Vibrato Grill. Hadn't seen him at that point for probably 25 years, but the warmth in the greeting he gave me that night will stay with me forever.
He made an impact on the music of the world.
Gormley
_____________________________________________
From: George Dassinger
Subject: The Passing of Bob Krasnow
I was so fortunate to have run the PR Dept. at Elektra Records during the '83-'86 period when the label went from last to first. It was one of the best times I had working in PR or as my Elektra title stated, "Information Services". Working with people like Hale Milgrim, Kenny Hamlin, Bill Berger. Larry Braverman, Aaron Levy, Sandy Sawotka, Michael Lago, Gary Casson, Tom Cording, Joe Bosso to name a few, it was the label to be at because of them and Bob Krasnow. When you are the lowest record label and then you are #1, nothing better. Today it doesn't exist but then, the best of the best.
Bob let me run the department "my way" and after I left, we passed on the street. He wanted to apologize for letting me go. "George, you were one of the best PR guys I've known. I should have had you stay on". I told Bob, it was OK since it pushed me to start my own company which allowed me family time I relish to this day. Hell, my office overlooked St. Patrick's and the view was outstanding.
Bob was a wild man - a guy who loved as he put it "debauchery". He was also an outlandish art lover and heralded gourmet chefs saying they would be the "next rock stars".
I still have my Elektra sweater with my name on it draped around my office chair. I found it recently in the attic stowed away for safe keeping. I will leave it on my chair in Bob's memory for awhile. I feel it is a fitting tribute to the music man he was and will forever be.
George Dassinger
Dassinger Creative
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