I thought it was a joke.
At this point the most famous rock writer was Jon Landau, before he saw God and went off to manage Bruce Springsteen. Lester Bangs was just another scribe, before his death and deification by Cameron Crowe, but his words in "Rolling Stone" were undeniable, he was testifying about a new Alice Cooper album called "Killer."
Hmm... The guy who made two unlistenable albums with Frank Zappa, who was about threads and theatrics as opposed to music?
This was not long after the Masked Marauders. It's hard to explain pranks to the younger generation. That's something from the sixties, maybe started by Kesey's Merry Pranksters themselves. The greatest goal was not to score bread, but to put one over on those so busy running the gauntlet of life that they'd left their sensibilities behind, they were not only unable to take a joke, they couldn't see it.
The Masked Marauders was a hoax. A review of an album featuring every superstar of the day that was supposed to be released imminently but never was. Now it was two years later, and we were once bitten, twice shy, even though Ian Hunter had not yet written that song, never mind Great White covering it, and Bangs's review was so over the top it couldn't be true.
Or was it?
I decided to buy the album and find out.
Now at the time I was in college. In upstate Vermont. That's another thing that's difficult for the younger generation to comprehend, being out of touch. No only were there no mobile phones and no internet, but no television and no radio but the college station and no movies except for one theatre playing mainstream product downtown. We lived by our wits. Our ability to converse was paramount. And when I went to the metropolis I'd stock up on LPs, because it might be months before I could buy any again.
And this was over Christmas. I was a sophomore. I had my stereo on a table I'd built in seventh grade shop, with plastic tiles on top, and I placed the record on the Dual turntable and dropped the needle and...
Today everyone just bitches, says the odds are stacked against them. The problem is radio, or Spotify, or pirates, everybody but themselves. But you could not drop the needle on "Killer" without being immediately wowed.
"The telephone is ringing
You got me on the run
I'm driving in my car now
Anticipating fun"
The guitars are jerking back and forth, your head is in a pinball machine, and the lead singer is going on about having her under his wheels and you can't stop cracking up at the metaphor, in car-crazy America, when everybody got their license at age 16, when music was serious, but this was not, yet it was.
And just when that finished, the music slowed down and an equally appealing number emanated from the speakers, "Be My Lover," with the lyric:
"She asked me why the singer's name was Alice"
Why was that? Were they trying to shock us, like Marilyn Manson decades later, or was it...
A joke?
No one has a sense of humor anymore. Come on, the vaunted techies? The bankers? And musicians are busy dissing each other. And the greatest sitcom is from someone of the same vintage, that's right, Larry David and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," but Alice Cooper is singing that dead babies could take care of themselves and instantly "Killer" was my favorite album.
Me and nobody else.
I went to college with nerds. Conservative people who thought life was all about following in the footsteps. Whereas I wanted to go off on my own path.
I put Cooper's poster on my wall.
I went to see the band at Boston's Music Hall.
And when my creative writing teacher told me my story on the show was good, unlike my previous crap, but it needed a twist, I gave up, didn't write another thing for fourteen years. I asked him if he'd heard of Tom Wolfe, the New Journalism, which was already old at that point, there was no twist, THIS WAS THE ALICE COOPER SHOW!
Where the joke was on the audience. Where he threw money at his minions. Where he taunted and the band delivered and it was WONDERFUL!
We all need things to believe in, and I believed in music, it got me through. They didn't print the top ten in the newspaper, it was a movement, outside of the mainstream, that infected us all.
Alice Cooper went on to write hits, the joke got even bigger. Then he was in the first issue of "People" playing golf and you couldn't tell exactly who he was anymore.
But if you listen to Maron's podcast you will.
Marc Maron's shtick is he knows nothing. He interviews celebrities with no preparation. And this drives you crazy if you're familiar with the act. It'd be like talking to Babe Ruth and asking him...so you play baseball? How does that work? Are you any good? Are you paid well? It's excruciating.
But it didn't bother Vince Furnier, aka Alice Cooper. Cooper gives it his all.
And tells you things you've never heard before.
About coming up in Phoenix. Miming a hit at pep rally, changing the chorus to fit the moment. Playing clubs. Starving in Los Angeles. Living in the basement of the Chambers Brothers' house. Getting girlfriends to pay the rent.
Oh, that's right, it's politically incorrect. But this was almost FIFTY YEARS AGO! When music drove the culture and performers were gods.
Alice lives up to the image.
That was a game we used to play, which musician we'd like to have dinner with. Rock stars were inaccessible. If only you got the chance to hang.
Now everybody's accessible.
But Cooper lived the life.
Hanging with John Lennon, who came to the office every day to hear the acetate of "Elected."
Headlining over Led Zeppelin at the Whisky.
Headlining over Pink Floyd at the Cheetah.
Getting called by Groucho Marx at 2 AM to come over to watch movies, listening to Groucho riff on the actors.
This is what a rock star was. Not some money-grubbing asshole in an expensive suit who's all about lifestyle. Hell, Cooper invested all his cash in his stage show for "Welcome To My Nightmare," it had to work!
And then he studied records and realized all of the hits were written by Desmond Child so he called Child who ultimately concocted "Poison" which became Cooper's biggest worldwide hit.
And yes, it was a band, but then Cooper went solo. And now, decades later, the band has gotten back together.
And sure, the tours today are a victory lap.
But if you were there back then...
I moved to Los Angeles. I drove to the Troubadour, because that's where the magazines told me the action was.
Sitting in the corner of the bar were Alice Cooper and Keith Moon.
I told Coop, whose nickname was created by Frank Sinatra, I loved his new teeth. That I'd read about, maybe in "Creem," which I bought a back issue of for his "Alcohol Cookbook," that's why I started drinking Golden Cadillacs.
And Coop smiled.
And Moon's teeth were imperfect.
And I've been trying to get up close and personal ever since.
P.S. Through the magic of the internet, you can read Lester Bangs's "Killer" review here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/killer-19720106
P.S. If you're not a fan of Maron's, you can fast-forward to 13:45, when Cooper comes in
http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-840-alice-cooper
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast/id329875043?mt=2
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Saturday 2 September 2017
Friday 1 September 2017
Ago (Sgt. Pepper)
IT'S RUBBISH!
Jack Douglas holds these dinners at Ago every month, it's like a Mafia movie, there's a private room and the maitre d' picks appetizers and you choose your main and you b.s., like it was still the fifties, like you were a member of the Rat Pack.
I went last night.
Actually, I thought it was just gonna be the three of us, Jack, me and Geoff Emerick, but that was back before I found out this was a regular affair, I'd been invited previously, but was out of town, last night I was there.
Along with my frenemy Richard Lewis.
You see we had this altercation at McCabe's, when we went to see Terry Reid. I was saving seats for us all, me, Jack and Richard and their wives, I got in early, knowing Lincoln, the majordomo at the joint. And then Richard took the seat I was sitting in when I stood up to find Jack in the crowd and therein ensued a moment. I'll tell you when I see you, but it was straight out of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." And Richard apologized in the green room after the show, he said at the time he didn't realize who I was, but I was not looking forward to my next encounter, but I'm not gonna hold a grudge and when Jack e-mailed me yesterday to say Richard was coming too and he hoped that was okay, I said fine, all I could think of was BYGONES, from "Ally McBeal," and when I arrived at the restaurant Richard bent over backwards to accept blame and make peace, which was cool with me. Then we talked music. You see Lewis knows all the rockers, he quizzed me on the band Robin Trower was in before Procol Harum, I had no idea, but that's how deep Richard's knowledge goes. Also, he told me not to be afraid to ask Geoff Beatles questions. Because you know, the first rule of famous people is not to acknowledge they're famous, so that was good to know.
As for the others in attendance, there was movie producer extraordinaire David Permut as well as playwright/filmmaker Mick Davis and actor Steven Bauer, it was a motley crew, but all had a pedigree.
And then DeNiro's buddy came in to give everybody a personal hello and I wondered if I could live up to this room. Richard started cracking jokes and everybody was doubled-over in laughter and I was afraid to say a single word. But then we all engaged in private conversation and...
The hit of the night was Steven Bauer. He entranced Jack and me with the story of his emigration from Cuba to Miami. TWICE! Yup, his father took the family to Florida and then went back to get a gig as a pilot and I'll leave the rest for Bauer's book, which he says he's gonna write.
Although I did quiz him on his three marriages. I forgot he was married to Melanie Griffith. That was back when she was in "Night Moves" and looked completely different. Everybody in Hollywood has a path. And although we hear chapter and verse about the superstars, we're in the dark on so many others. And Bauer did not assume I knew everything about him and after admitting I did not watch "Ray Donovan" he proceeded to break into character, to do Avi, the Israeli, and the funny thing is Steven has a Jewish grandparent and he got the role in "Scarface" because he spoke Spanish and we just about closed the restaurant but much earlier, I asked Geoff Emerick what he thought about the "Sgt. Pepper" remix...
He didn't want to talk about it. He scowled. I could tell he had negative feelings, which are inexpressible, since the hoi polloi uttered hosannas, but this was the guy who recorded and mixed the original!
And after telling him that this was the way I felt, that it was sacrilegious to remix the album, Geoff lit up and uttered the words at the top of this post.
He said the stereo mix was not an afterthought. That it took four days, three days a song. After all, it was all on four track. They discussed it with the band and then were left to do the work, this was not uncommon. And the mono mix did not take much longer.
And then Geoff got specific. He asked me if I knew "A Day In The Life." He said in the remaster the maracas were as loud as the vocal. He started going deeper. You could tell he was really offended. As he should be! As Geoff told me, they spent a lot of time getting it just right and then people who weren't even born yet were changing it?
Then Geoff told me he got a call from Paul saying the master tapes for "Tug Of War" were lost and they were gonna remix it. And Geoff said on the original they had three consoles when they mixed, the complete opposite of the "Sgt. Pepper" experience, he said there was a backward echo at the end of...and how in the hell could it be reproduced?
Hell, it pisses me off every time I hear "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" on Sirius, they always use the alternative take from the boxed set, that's the one they played today, and if you don't think the original can get lost in the shuffle, you don't know the history of rock and roll. It would be a crime if this dash for cash remix of "Sgt. Pepper" became the standard.
And Geoff told me he likes to use the equipment he originally worked on. API board, tape when he can, and he talked about this Neumann cutting head for vinyl...
You see Geoff is still working, and still cares.
As does Richard Lewis. He's going on the road imminently for five gigs. I asked Richard if "Curb" made a difference. ABSOLUTELY! Everywhere he goes people notice him now, business went up, and...
What I love about Richard is it's all improvised. He told me he goes out with nothing these days. If the audience is hot, so is he, just like when he started riffing when we all sat down last night.
And Steven Bauer just did a cameo on "Queen of the South" during his "Ray Donovan" break.
And Jack has a cornucopia of projects. He's the connector, he's the straw that stirs the drink.
And I was gulping it all up last night.
Jack Douglas holds these dinners at Ago every month, it's like a Mafia movie, there's a private room and the maitre d' picks appetizers and you choose your main and you b.s., like it was still the fifties, like you were a member of the Rat Pack.
I went last night.
Actually, I thought it was just gonna be the three of us, Jack, me and Geoff Emerick, but that was back before I found out this was a regular affair, I'd been invited previously, but was out of town, last night I was there.
Along with my frenemy Richard Lewis.
You see we had this altercation at McCabe's, when we went to see Terry Reid. I was saving seats for us all, me, Jack and Richard and their wives, I got in early, knowing Lincoln, the majordomo at the joint. And then Richard took the seat I was sitting in when I stood up to find Jack in the crowd and therein ensued a moment. I'll tell you when I see you, but it was straight out of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." And Richard apologized in the green room after the show, he said at the time he didn't realize who I was, but I was not looking forward to my next encounter, but I'm not gonna hold a grudge and when Jack e-mailed me yesterday to say Richard was coming too and he hoped that was okay, I said fine, all I could think of was BYGONES, from "Ally McBeal," and when I arrived at the restaurant Richard bent over backwards to accept blame and make peace, which was cool with me. Then we talked music. You see Lewis knows all the rockers, he quizzed me on the band Robin Trower was in before Procol Harum, I had no idea, but that's how deep Richard's knowledge goes. Also, he told me not to be afraid to ask Geoff Beatles questions. Because you know, the first rule of famous people is not to acknowledge they're famous, so that was good to know.
As for the others in attendance, there was movie producer extraordinaire David Permut as well as playwright/filmmaker Mick Davis and actor Steven Bauer, it was a motley crew, but all had a pedigree.
And then DeNiro's buddy came in to give everybody a personal hello and I wondered if I could live up to this room. Richard started cracking jokes and everybody was doubled-over in laughter and I was afraid to say a single word. But then we all engaged in private conversation and...
The hit of the night was Steven Bauer. He entranced Jack and me with the story of his emigration from Cuba to Miami. TWICE! Yup, his father took the family to Florida and then went back to get a gig as a pilot and I'll leave the rest for Bauer's book, which he says he's gonna write.
Although I did quiz him on his three marriages. I forgot he was married to Melanie Griffith. That was back when she was in "Night Moves" and looked completely different. Everybody in Hollywood has a path. And although we hear chapter and verse about the superstars, we're in the dark on so many others. And Bauer did not assume I knew everything about him and after admitting I did not watch "Ray Donovan" he proceeded to break into character, to do Avi, the Israeli, and the funny thing is Steven has a Jewish grandparent and he got the role in "Scarface" because he spoke Spanish and we just about closed the restaurant but much earlier, I asked Geoff Emerick what he thought about the "Sgt. Pepper" remix...
He didn't want to talk about it. He scowled. I could tell he had negative feelings, which are inexpressible, since the hoi polloi uttered hosannas, but this was the guy who recorded and mixed the original!
And after telling him that this was the way I felt, that it was sacrilegious to remix the album, Geoff lit up and uttered the words at the top of this post.
He said the stereo mix was not an afterthought. That it took four days, three days a song. After all, it was all on four track. They discussed it with the band and then were left to do the work, this was not uncommon. And the mono mix did not take much longer.
And then Geoff got specific. He asked me if I knew "A Day In The Life." He said in the remaster the maracas were as loud as the vocal. He started going deeper. You could tell he was really offended. As he should be! As Geoff told me, they spent a lot of time getting it just right and then people who weren't even born yet were changing it?
Then Geoff told me he got a call from Paul saying the master tapes for "Tug Of War" were lost and they were gonna remix it. And Geoff said on the original they had three consoles when they mixed, the complete opposite of the "Sgt. Pepper" experience, he said there was a backward echo at the end of...and how in the hell could it be reproduced?
Hell, it pisses me off every time I hear "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" on Sirius, they always use the alternative take from the boxed set, that's the one they played today, and if you don't think the original can get lost in the shuffle, you don't know the history of rock and roll. It would be a crime if this dash for cash remix of "Sgt. Pepper" became the standard.
And Geoff told me he likes to use the equipment he originally worked on. API board, tape when he can, and he talked about this Neumann cutting head for vinyl...
You see Geoff is still working, and still cares.
As does Richard Lewis. He's going on the road imminently for five gigs. I asked Richard if "Curb" made a difference. ABSOLUTELY! Everywhere he goes people notice him now, business went up, and...
What I love about Richard is it's all improvised. He told me he goes out with nothing these days. If the audience is hot, so is he, just like when he started riffing when we all sat down last night.
And Steven Bauer just did a cameo on "Queen of the South" during his "Ray Donovan" break.
And Jack has a cornucopia of projects. He's the connector, he's the straw that stirs the drink.
And I was gulping it all up last night.
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Hot Summer Nights
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2wZapFb
YouTube: http://bit.ly/2iOmmXX
Same as it ever was.
In case you're focused on Harvey, and we all should be, you might be unaware we're experiencing a record-setting heat wave in Southern California, and unlike in the rest of the country, so many of us don't have air conditioning, we look forward to driving in our automobiles, none of which come without A/C, except for high-end racing models, and we used to go to the movies or the mall, when those were still a thing, but instead I've spent the last two days in front of the fan, schvitzing.
Until I went to dinner last night at Ago.
But that's another story.
And what astounded me as I was driving down the 10, onto La Cienega, was it got dark, this is the first time this summer this has happened. Even last weekend, when I drove downtown to see Tony Hawk and his film, it was still light out, but the seasons are changing, fall is imminent.
But not yet in SoCal.
In SoCal it's blistering. And it's different from the east coast. It's not humid, it's more akin to the desert. It's a dry heat with a soft wind and it's almost exotic, if it weren't so damn hot. But late at night, around midnight, the temp drops a bit and it's quiet, L.A.'s an early town, and this song started going through my head. And I immediately went inside and fired up my phone to hear Walter Egan's "Hot Summer Nights."
The hit was "Magnet and Steel," but my favorite was always the closing cut, "Hot Summer Nights."
"There was a time not too far gone
When I was changed by just a song"
Like driving down the avenue today and hearing classics on Sixties on 6. We were all addicted to the radio, we were all in it together, and the irony is that paradigm continued into the seventies, only it switched to the FM dial. Ignore the "Billboard" charts, they don't reflect reality, the culture. An extended number one today is not like one from yesteryear, when the records moved faster and everybody knew them.
So in 1978, AOR ruled, disco was a sideshow, it wasn't until a year later that both crashed, that the record business tanked. The Stones were playing stadiums and the biggest American bands were the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac.
And isn't it funny that those are the two biggest bands of the seventies still. And you see Lindsey Buckingham produced Walter Egan's album "Not Shy," from which the two songs above emanate.
"On the radio, in the car
The pounding electric guitars"
I miss that era. When gatekeepers exposed us to what was worthy and we knew it. Now there are no gatekeepers and no ads but utter chaos. I love hearing great new music, but oftentimes when I do I wonder if I'm the only one listening. But back then, we all were.
Now today all the rappers work together and the old farts excoriate them, saying that's not music. But it wasn't much different way back when. Hell, Lindsey and Stevie performed the same trick for John Stewart the next year when "Gold" became Stewart's only solo hit.
Now "Hot Summer Nights" is positively Egan. But it's the subtle Fleetwood Mac overtones that put it over the top.
First and foremost, there's the mood, it's dark. Kinda like being at the lake skinny-dipping in the dark, something we used to do way back when, before there were cameras everywhere, when if you were nekkid only you and your friends knew. And the night has a different vibe. Your body turns off and your brain turns on and you feel strangely alive.
"Return with me to when times were best
We were friends who could pass any test
We shared our hopes, our dreams and our goals
And the Fundamental Roll"
That's a reference. To Egan's prior album, entitled "Fundamental Roll." But the past is full of these moments, that only mean something to those who were there, you reflect back and smile, wonder if those times will ever come again, and your brain is turned on by the record.
"As we sang in the hot, dark rooms
Happy just to play our tunes"
Club music. Before deejays. When you had to get out of the house, when there was no action at home. You went to the bar to get loose, to get lucky, and there was always music in the background, sometimes records, oftentimes a band, and you envied them, because they were doing what they loved and making money at it.
"It felt good when we did it right
It felt good on a hot summer night"
Listen for Stevie Nicks's backup vocals.
But you're enraptured by Lindsey Buckingham's guitar-playing right away. Hell, I looked for my vinyl, I can't find it, but it's somewhere, so I'm not absolutely sure without credits that Lindsey is playing the intro, but it's his style, and then there are the accents that could only be him, it's a Fleetwood Mac track today's generation has never heard.
And then comes the solo.
"Hot Summer Nights" is infectious.
"And so it lives and it always will
The songs we've sung are in us still
Ringing out with all their might
In the heart of a hot summer night"
So it's thirty years later. But I've never forgotten the song. And when I fired it up on my phone I felt this warmth spread through my body, reminding me of the power of music, what it means to me, a whole era started to spool through my brain, what I was doing, who I was with...
On a hot summer night.
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YouTube: http://bit.ly/2iOmmXX
Same as it ever was.
In case you're focused on Harvey, and we all should be, you might be unaware we're experiencing a record-setting heat wave in Southern California, and unlike in the rest of the country, so many of us don't have air conditioning, we look forward to driving in our automobiles, none of which come without A/C, except for high-end racing models, and we used to go to the movies or the mall, when those were still a thing, but instead I've spent the last two days in front of the fan, schvitzing.
Until I went to dinner last night at Ago.
But that's another story.
And what astounded me as I was driving down the 10, onto La Cienega, was it got dark, this is the first time this summer this has happened. Even last weekend, when I drove downtown to see Tony Hawk and his film, it was still light out, but the seasons are changing, fall is imminent.
But not yet in SoCal.
In SoCal it's blistering. And it's different from the east coast. It's not humid, it's more akin to the desert. It's a dry heat with a soft wind and it's almost exotic, if it weren't so damn hot. But late at night, around midnight, the temp drops a bit and it's quiet, L.A.'s an early town, and this song started going through my head. And I immediately went inside and fired up my phone to hear Walter Egan's "Hot Summer Nights."
The hit was "Magnet and Steel," but my favorite was always the closing cut, "Hot Summer Nights."
"There was a time not too far gone
When I was changed by just a song"
Like driving down the avenue today and hearing classics on Sixties on 6. We were all addicted to the radio, we were all in it together, and the irony is that paradigm continued into the seventies, only it switched to the FM dial. Ignore the "Billboard" charts, they don't reflect reality, the culture. An extended number one today is not like one from yesteryear, when the records moved faster and everybody knew them.
So in 1978, AOR ruled, disco was a sideshow, it wasn't until a year later that both crashed, that the record business tanked. The Stones were playing stadiums and the biggest American bands were the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac.
And isn't it funny that those are the two biggest bands of the seventies still. And you see Lindsey Buckingham produced Walter Egan's album "Not Shy," from which the two songs above emanate.
"On the radio, in the car
The pounding electric guitars"
I miss that era. When gatekeepers exposed us to what was worthy and we knew it. Now there are no gatekeepers and no ads but utter chaos. I love hearing great new music, but oftentimes when I do I wonder if I'm the only one listening. But back then, we all were.
Now today all the rappers work together and the old farts excoriate them, saying that's not music. But it wasn't much different way back when. Hell, Lindsey and Stevie performed the same trick for John Stewart the next year when "Gold" became Stewart's only solo hit.
Now "Hot Summer Nights" is positively Egan. But it's the subtle Fleetwood Mac overtones that put it over the top.
First and foremost, there's the mood, it's dark. Kinda like being at the lake skinny-dipping in the dark, something we used to do way back when, before there were cameras everywhere, when if you were nekkid only you and your friends knew. And the night has a different vibe. Your body turns off and your brain turns on and you feel strangely alive.
"Return with me to when times were best
We were friends who could pass any test
We shared our hopes, our dreams and our goals
And the Fundamental Roll"
That's a reference. To Egan's prior album, entitled "Fundamental Roll." But the past is full of these moments, that only mean something to those who were there, you reflect back and smile, wonder if those times will ever come again, and your brain is turned on by the record.
"As we sang in the hot, dark rooms
Happy just to play our tunes"
Club music. Before deejays. When you had to get out of the house, when there was no action at home. You went to the bar to get loose, to get lucky, and there was always music in the background, sometimes records, oftentimes a band, and you envied them, because they were doing what they loved and making money at it.
"It felt good when we did it right
It felt good on a hot summer night"
Listen for Stevie Nicks's backup vocals.
But you're enraptured by Lindsey Buckingham's guitar-playing right away. Hell, I looked for my vinyl, I can't find it, but it's somewhere, so I'm not absolutely sure without credits that Lindsey is playing the intro, but it's his style, and then there are the accents that could only be him, it's a Fleetwood Mac track today's generation has never heard.
And then comes the solo.
"Hot Summer Nights" is infectious.
"And so it lives and it always will
The songs we've sung are in us still
Ringing out with all their might
In the heart of a hot summer night"
So it's thirty years later. But I've never forgotten the song. And when I fired it up on my phone I felt this warmth spread through my body, reminding me of the power of music, what it means to me, a whole era started to spool through my brain, what I was doing, who I was with...
On a hot summer night.
--
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Thursday 31 August 2017
Top Ten Artists
1. DRAKE
Not only does he dominate upon release, he's constantly stretching the form. His late winter mixtape was a revelation. Forget the Meek Mill beef, that's just a sideshow, where there's a hit there's a writ, and when you're on top others try to take you down. But Drake keeps lifting others up! He's the quintessential artist of today, leading, testing limits, but still part of a scene, helping others. Furthermore, Drake knows it's not about the album, but a steady stream of material, to satiate the audience. Monetization comes last. There's enough money if people are listening, via streaming, sponsorship and live gigs.
2. KENDRICK LAMAR
Because he's got hearts and minds. It's music first, business second. People believe in Kendrick, and he's not batting us over the head to pay attention, he's just doing the work. You read about him plenty, but it doesn't look like hype, you don't get the idea he's behind the promotion.
3. JUSTIN BIEBER
That's what's great about life, it surprises you. Bieber should have been done, like every other teenybopper act before him, but now he's bigger than ever. It's Bieber who takes artistic chances, and no one in the marketplace this often hits home runs so frequently. One smash after another. Bieber made the hit "Despacito" ubiquitous. In an era where that's nearly impossible. People will remember "Despacito" long after "Look What You Made Me Do" is gone. "Despacito" will be played at weddings and bar mitzvahs... And before that was the collaboration with DJ Snake, "Let Me Love You," and before that "Cold Water" with Major Lazer and before that his hits "What Do You Mean?," "Sorry" and "Love Yourself." You only think you hate Bieber, but listen to these songs and if they don't appeal to you, you're just a contrarian with no friends, believe me, the little girls are right on this, they understand.
4.. ADELE
She makes records, and live is an afterthought, so the 150 gigs she did were a mistake, the manager and agent should be shot, just because the most money is on the road that does not mean you should gig ad infinitum. Furthermore, her third album was nowhere near as good as the second. She's wiped out from touring but she should be back in the studio. She's got enough money, she should stop thinking about cash. Rather she should put out ONE song right now, a top caliber item that will gain press and attendant streams. She's been too rearguard, she now needs to be up-to-date, like other twentysomethings. It would be great to see her atop the Spotify Top 50, the only chart that means anything today. Just one song. About anything. But if it was about the world situation, she'd have a victory lap heretofore unseen, eclipsing that of Michael Jackson, because she lets the music do the talking, and when she does talk, it's not phony I love everybody crap, but patently real.
5. TAYLOR SWIFT
It's all about her. She's positively Trumpian. Blowing back with falsehood when attacked. Hell, the ticket boosting scam is about neutralizing scalpers? Come on. She's too old to do "Aw, shucks" and I don't see any of those purported "friends" coming out of the woodwork to defend her now. She's got an audience. But Taylor doesn't stop telling us how successful she is. Her UPS stunt is almost as offensive as U2's deal with Apple. But that's hit artists, they think they're singing about real life but they're completely disconnected.
6. ED SHEERAN
They turn on you. Too much success and the public revolts. But Sheeran knows it's about melody and creates singable songs in an era of beats. He paid his dues and collaborates/gives away songs to others, your hatred is misplaced.
7. CHANCE THE RAPPER
Because he illustrated you don't have to do it their way. For the entire century labels and artists have been bitching about the internet and cash. But Chance makes no deal, gives his music away for free, and then sells out stadiums. Never forget, infrastructure is secondary to the customer. Think about the customer first and then you'll be all right.
8. MAX MARTIN
Oh, he's an artist, and the consumer knows his name, despite Max doing almost no press. His work speaks for itself. Max is first and foremost a musician. Second, he changes with the times, he cannot only do one thing. And he knows a song is worthless unless it's a hit. That's right, a track has to grab you immediately and stay in your head, you cannot help but play it again, like eating potato chips. Too many people confuse themselves by denying the rules of hits, they satisfy themselves and a few acolytes and then bitch that they're not bigger. Now, with radio so limited and behind the times, anything will work on streaming services, nothing is holding you back if you make irresistible music. You should beg your fans to subscribe. So if you do something great, the listens will accumulate.
9. KENNY CHESNEY
There are nearly as many happening country artists as rappers. It's positively astounding. But Chesney sustains, sells out stadiums and has hits. But never forget Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Thomas Rhett and Florida Georgia Line. You may think they're irrelevant, but they can sell tickets up the wazoo. Zac Brown Band too! Right now there are no female artists at this level, which has something to do with radio exclusion (radio still counts in country) and women unsure whether to play the boys' game or their own. You can rock hard, like Miranda Lambert did a few years back with "Gunpowder & Lead," or you can be sensitive, but in between is death, chart-wise anyway. Then again, Miranda's pretty big and so is Carrie Underwood, even though Ms. Underwood is a two-dimensional voice. In country, whether you wrote the music or not, we want to believe you did.
10. CALVIN HARRIS
Because he transcended his relationship with Taylor, because he came back with more hits, unlike Avicii, who stumbled. Electronic music is not quite at the peak it was a few years ago, but to deny its influence is to be wrongheaded. DJs have morphed into producers. And if you don't think computers are the future of music, you haven't checked Gibson's sales.
BUBBLING UNDER
Pharrell
You're supposed to be done quick in pop, but Pharrell sustains. He seems to have a handle on what is a hit. Sure, it's a youth business, but by pop standards Pharrell is OLD! You can never count him out.
Sia
Built her career in the internet era, without the benefit of video play on MTV or VH1. Her secret sauce is the ability to write songs, never count anybody out who can. She does minimal publicity, but the audience knows who she is, this is a triumph.
Phish
Because of impact. No, the Vermont band is nowhere near as big as anybody on this list, but their audience is more rabid than any other act's. You'd think Madison Square Garden held two million people, based on the buzz their Baker's Dozen shows created. They're a niche. Which is not gonna get much bigger. But the band has impact, since it keeps changing it up and taking risks when everybody else seems to pray at the altar of the producer, overthinking their work as if world peace was involved.
Coldplay
They should have been done. Who'da thunk Chris Martin would have outlasted Gwyneth Paltrow? Can nice guys finish first? Got to give Martin credit, he makes it all about the music.
Metallica
Metal isn't as big as it was, but to those who live for the sound, James, et al, are their Beatles. They put out a double album themselves, which did quite well on Spotify, they sold out stadiums, Metallica may be off YOUR radar, but not the target audience's.
John Mayer
How can he sell so many tickets without a hit? To tell you the truth, I don't know. He blew up his career, but then went to work with the Dead and stopped boasting and somehow it all works, I guess we do need a guitar hero.
Eric Church
Between projects, but no one embodies the rock and roll ethos in country more than Church, and he seems to be able to write one hit after another and can sell a ton of tickets to boot.
A Ton Of Rappers
There are too many to mention. And it's unclear who will last. Is Khaled just for today? And maybe it was a mistake to leave Jay Z off the above list, but he messed up by going Tidal only and his songs don't dominate the chart but hip-hop does, so Jay Z won, as did his compatriots. You see they know they've got to reinvent the wheel each day, can't rest on their laurels, and music is a team sport where you need support and collaboration can pay dividends and you must embrace new technology to succeed not only today, but in the future. You can make music on your laptop and distribute it yourself. And in between there are a ton of choices, but it's undeniable that music is an on demand item which is portable. If you don't think streaming won, you haven't seen the usage and the paychecks.
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Not only does he dominate upon release, he's constantly stretching the form. His late winter mixtape was a revelation. Forget the Meek Mill beef, that's just a sideshow, where there's a hit there's a writ, and when you're on top others try to take you down. But Drake keeps lifting others up! He's the quintessential artist of today, leading, testing limits, but still part of a scene, helping others. Furthermore, Drake knows it's not about the album, but a steady stream of material, to satiate the audience. Monetization comes last. There's enough money if people are listening, via streaming, sponsorship and live gigs.
2. KENDRICK LAMAR
Because he's got hearts and minds. It's music first, business second. People believe in Kendrick, and he's not batting us over the head to pay attention, he's just doing the work. You read about him plenty, but it doesn't look like hype, you don't get the idea he's behind the promotion.
3. JUSTIN BIEBER
That's what's great about life, it surprises you. Bieber should have been done, like every other teenybopper act before him, but now he's bigger than ever. It's Bieber who takes artistic chances, and no one in the marketplace this often hits home runs so frequently. One smash after another. Bieber made the hit "Despacito" ubiquitous. In an era where that's nearly impossible. People will remember "Despacito" long after "Look What You Made Me Do" is gone. "Despacito" will be played at weddings and bar mitzvahs... And before that was the collaboration with DJ Snake, "Let Me Love You," and before that "Cold Water" with Major Lazer and before that his hits "What Do You Mean?," "Sorry" and "Love Yourself." You only think you hate Bieber, but listen to these songs and if they don't appeal to you, you're just a contrarian with no friends, believe me, the little girls are right on this, they understand.
4.. ADELE
She makes records, and live is an afterthought, so the 150 gigs she did were a mistake, the manager and agent should be shot, just because the most money is on the road that does not mean you should gig ad infinitum. Furthermore, her third album was nowhere near as good as the second. She's wiped out from touring but she should be back in the studio. She's got enough money, she should stop thinking about cash. Rather she should put out ONE song right now, a top caliber item that will gain press and attendant streams. She's been too rearguard, she now needs to be up-to-date, like other twentysomethings. It would be great to see her atop the Spotify Top 50, the only chart that means anything today. Just one song. About anything. But if it was about the world situation, she'd have a victory lap heretofore unseen, eclipsing that of Michael Jackson, because she lets the music do the talking, and when she does talk, it's not phony I love everybody crap, but patently real.
5. TAYLOR SWIFT
It's all about her. She's positively Trumpian. Blowing back with falsehood when attacked. Hell, the ticket boosting scam is about neutralizing scalpers? Come on. She's too old to do "Aw, shucks" and I don't see any of those purported "friends" coming out of the woodwork to defend her now. She's got an audience. But Taylor doesn't stop telling us how successful she is. Her UPS stunt is almost as offensive as U2's deal with Apple. But that's hit artists, they think they're singing about real life but they're completely disconnected.
6. ED SHEERAN
They turn on you. Too much success and the public revolts. But Sheeran knows it's about melody and creates singable songs in an era of beats. He paid his dues and collaborates/gives away songs to others, your hatred is misplaced.
7. CHANCE THE RAPPER
Because he illustrated you don't have to do it their way. For the entire century labels and artists have been bitching about the internet and cash. But Chance makes no deal, gives his music away for free, and then sells out stadiums. Never forget, infrastructure is secondary to the customer. Think about the customer first and then you'll be all right.
8. MAX MARTIN
Oh, he's an artist, and the consumer knows his name, despite Max doing almost no press. His work speaks for itself. Max is first and foremost a musician. Second, he changes with the times, he cannot only do one thing. And he knows a song is worthless unless it's a hit. That's right, a track has to grab you immediately and stay in your head, you cannot help but play it again, like eating potato chips. Too many people confuse themselves by denying the rules of hits, they satisfy themselves and a few acolytes and then bitch that they're not bigger. Now, with radio so limited and behind the times, anything will work on streaming services, nothing is holding you back if you make irresistible music. You should beg your fans to subscribe. So if you do something great, the listens will accumulate.
9. KENNY CHESNEY
There are nearly as many happening country artists as rappers. It's positively astounding. But Chesney sustains, sells out stadiums and has hits. But never forget Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Thomas Rhett and Florida Georgia Line. You may think they're irrelevant, but they can sell tickets up the wazoo. Zac Brown Band too! Right now there are no female artists at this level, which has something to do with radio exclusion (radio still counts in country) and women unsure whether to play the boys' game or their own. You can rock hard, like Miranda Lambert did a few years back with "Gunpowder & Lead," or you can be sensitive, but in between is death, chart-wise anyway. Then again, Miranda's pretty big and so is Carrie Underwood, even though Ms. Underwood is a two-dimensional voice. In country, whether you wrote the music or not, we want to believe you did.
10. CALVIN HARRIS
Because he transcended his relationship with Taylor, because he came back with more hits, unlike Avicii, who stumbled. Electronic music is not quite at the peak it was a few years ago, but to deny its influence is to be wrongheaded. DJs have morphed into producers. And if you don't think computers are the future of music, you haven't checked Gibson's sales.
BUBBLING UNDER
Pharrell
You're supposed to be done quick in pop, but Pharrell sustains. He seems to have a handle on what is a hit. Sure, it's a youth business, but by pop standards Pharrell is OLD! You can never count him out.
Sia
Built her career in the internet era, without the benefit of video play on MTV or VH1. Her secret sauce is the ability to write songs, never count anybody out who can. She does minimal publicity, but the audience knows who she is, this is a triumph.
Phish
Because of impact. No, the Vermont band is nowhere near as big as anybody on this list, but their audience is more rabid than any other act's. You'd think Madison Square Garden held two million people, based on the buzz their Baker's Dozen shows created. They're a niche. Which is not gonna get much bigger. But the band has impact, since it keeps changing it up and taking risks when everybody else seems to pray at the altar of the producer, overthinking their work as if world peace was involved.
Coldplay
They should have been done. Who'da thunk Chris Martin would have outlasted Gwyneth Paltrow? Can nice guys finish first? Got to give Martin credit, he makes it all about the music.
Metallica
Metal isn't as big as it was, but to those who live for the sound, James, et al, are their Beatles. They put out a double album themselves, which did quite well on Spotify, they sold out stadiums, Metallica may be off YOUR radar, but not the target audience's.
John Mayer
How can he sell so many tickets without a hit? To tell you the truth, I don't know. He blew up his career, but then went to work with the Dead and stopped boasting and somehow it all works, I guess we do need a guitar hero.
Eric Church
Between projects, but no one embodies the rock and roll ethos in country more than Church, and he seems to be able to write one hit after another and can sell a ton of tickets to boot.
A Ton Of Rappers
There are too many to mention. And it's unclear who will last. Is Khaled just for today? And maybe it was a mistake to leave Jay Z off the above list, but he messed up by going Tidal only and his songs don't dominate the chart but hip-hop does, so Jay Z won, as did his compatriots. You see they know they've got to reinvent the wheel each day, can't rest on their laurels, and music is a team sport where you need support and collaboration can pay dividends and you must embrace new technology to succeed not only today, but in the future. You can make music on your laptop and distribute it yourself. And in between there are a ton of choices, but it's undeniable that music is an on demand item which is portable. If you don't think streaming won, you haven't seen the usage and the paychecks.
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Me On The RuPaul Podcast
Since so many say they learned new stuff about me in the L.A. "Times" article, I hereby present the RuPaul podcast, which was recorded a month ago, in a little cafe south of the border, no, in a house turned into a studio just off of Sunset Boulevard. It was early in the morning for me, so there are some loose ends, but I'm sure you'll get the gist.
You'll certainly understand who I am.
And it is easy listening.
So...HERE IT IS!
P.S. Listen to the end wherein I get the real story regarding Ru's contretemps with Milton Berle at the VMAs, and...you get my thoughts on being the subject of a Taylor Swift song.
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/rupaul/episode-113-bob-lefsetz-david-russell
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rupaul-whats-the-tee-with-michelle-visage/id855749951?mt=2
RuPaul's site: http://www.rupaulpodcast.com/episodes/2017/8/30/episode-113-bob-lefsetz-david-russell
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You'll certainly understand who I am.
And it is easy listening.
So...HERE IT IS!
P.S. Listen to the end wherein I get the real story regarding Ru's contretemps with Milton Berle at the VMAs, and...you get my thoughts on being the subject of a Taylor Swift song.
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/rupaul/episode-113-bob-lefsetz-david-russell
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rupaul-whats-the-tee-with-michelle-visage/id855749951?mt=2
RuPaul's site: http://www.rupaulpodcast.com/episodes/2017/8/30/episode-113-bob-lefsetz-david-russell
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Wednesday 30 August 2017
Adam Sandler On Netflix
First one in or last one out? Who do you want to be? It's your choice. The rewards are at the front end, but so are the risks. And the last to arrive gets safety, if they get in at all, but bupkes bucks.
Howard Stern went to satellite. Since then, twelve years, not a single national radio personality has emerged. NOT ONE! Whereas Stern is ubiquitous (helped, of course, by his tenure on "America's Got Talent") and moves the needle more than any late night television appearance, never mind radio.
You see you can't get the word out.
So you go on Stern. His audience can make your project a hit.
Which is why Adam Sandler was on today. He's promoting his latest Netflix film. And it turns out his films are the most watched shows on Netflix EVER!
I thought he was over, that he peaked, his grosses were down, but he got into the new world early and is triumphing.
That's the modern paradigm, views, attention, money comes last.
But Netflix is paying Sandler tons.
The movie companies made talent the enemy. Reducing costs, saying the actors and actresses just weren't big enough, couldn't carry a film, and Netflix said just the opposite.
Look who's winning.
Netflix is overspending on a new paradigm that appeals to talent. We'll pay you to do what you want and let everybody watch it on demand. As for publicity, it's all on the home screen, that's where we'll give you real estate, where the consumer is. Kinda like an endcap in the old days of physical retail.
The studio buys ads that no one sees. Spots. Billboards. They spend double digit millions and most of their efforts are ignored.
But there's another way to do it. To go where the people are. Where they want to see you. Where they embrace you.
Used to be the mainstream media anointed you a star. You were nobody until the "New York Times" did a feature on you. Now print plays to oldsters who can't be influenced anyway.
Kinda like music. Unless you're on the playlist, you're nowhere. Kinda like Mick Jagger, with "Gotta Get A Grip" and "England Lost," both of which have under a million plays on Spotify. He got tons of ink, but no impact.
You play by the new rules. Like hip-hop, which embraced streaming and now dominates it.
If you want a future, you're an early adopter. You jump off the cliff.
BUT NOT TOO EARLY!
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Howard Stern went to satellite. Since then, twelve years, not a single national radio personality has emerged. NOT ONE! Whereas Stern is ubiquitous (helped, of course, by his tenure on "America's Got Talent") and moves the needle more than any late night television appearance, never mind radio.
You see you can't get the word out.
So you go on Stern. His audience can make your project a hit.
Which is why Adam Sandler was on today. He's promoting his latest Netflix film. And it turns out his films are the most watched shows on Netflix EVER!
I thought he was over, that he peaked, his grosses were down, but he got into the new world early and is triumphing.
That's the modern paradigm, views, attention, money comes last.
But Netflix is paying Sandler tons.
The movie companies made talent the enemy. Reducing costs, saying the actors and actresses just weren't big enough, couldn't carry a film, and Netflix said just the opposite.
Look who's winning.
Netflix is overspending on a new paradigm that appeals to talent. We'll pay you to do what you want and let everybody watch it on demand. As for publicity, it's all on the home screen, that's where we'll give you real estate, where the consumer is. Kinda like an endcap in the old days of physical retail.
The studio buys ads that no one sees. Spots. Billboards. They spend double digit millions and most of their efforts are ignored.
But there's another way to do it. To go where the people are. Where they want to see you. Where they embrace you.
Used to be the mainstream media anointed you a star. You were nobody until the "New York Times" did a feature on you. Now print plays to oldsters who can't be influenced anyway.
Kinda like music. Unless you're on the playlist, you're nowhere. Kinda like Mick Jagger, with "Gotta Get A Grip" and "England Lost," both of which have under a million plays on Spotify. He got tons of ink, but no impact.
You play by the new rules. Like hip-hop, which embraced streaming and now dominates it.
If you want a future, you're an early adopter. You jump off the cliff.
BUT NOT TOO EARLY!
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The Power Of One
"ESPN Analyst Walks Away, Disturbed by Brain Trauma on Field": http://nyti.ms/2wit6Sy
A movement starts with an individual.
I don't know when our nation moved to groupthink. But maybe it was the anti-disco fervor of the late seventies that was its first visible exponent. When white males got together at Comiskey Park and blew up disco records, they thought they'd won, but beat-driven music survives, more powerful than ever, disco does not suck, it's the foundation of our nation.
And then came the anti-Iran sentiment of the same era. Our entire nation riled up against a Mideast state, nationalism was evident in a way it was not in the...
Sixties.
I lived through them. Hell, when I was alive they had this program "You Asked For It" and I remember a feature on the oldest living Civil War veteran. Now Holocaust survivors are fading away and it won't be long before all those who lived through America's most tumultuous decade of the twentieth century are gone too.
So we woke up one day and we all had crew cuts and our mothers worked in the home and everybody was happy.
And not too long thereafter guys sported long hair, families were torn apart and you went from thinking America was invincible to wanting a war halfway around the world in a nation you'd never heard of stopped. How did this happen?
Through the power of individuals.
People forgotten now. Some remembered, like Martin Luther King. Musicians came last. But everybody who stood up eventually caused more to stand up and suddenly there was a generation gap that could not be breached. This schism led to not only the stopping of the war, but changes in music, style, lifestyle...you see life used to be about questioning precepts.
It's not anymore.
Except by the techies. Some want to change the world. Most are just in it for the money.
In the former camp we have Elon Musk. GM killed the electric car, they even made a movie about it, and then one guy brought it back. First wealthy experimenters purchased Tesla's roadster, and then when the Model S was introduced, broad swaths of people bit the bullet.
While the establishment did not stop bitching. You cannot open the "Wall Street Journal" without seeing complaints about government subsidies. But the government pays oil companies and farmers and there's a long history of inducements to further societal good.
And most people do not understand that electric cars are much more efficient, therefore needing less energy. The same way people keep e-mailing me they buy instead of stream because they're worried about being out of cell range, about data costs. These doofuses don't know you can synch thousands of tracks to your handset, as long as it has juice, you've got tunes.
And you can credit Daniel Ek. The oldsters keep bitching he's a billionaire. But he didn't used to be, he was a guy flying across the ocean in the back of the plane to bring his vision to life. And if you don't think this vision is beneficial you didn't read the recent Goldman Sachs report about the skyrocketing recorded music revenues. Spotify didn't kill music, it saved it!
You'll realize this.
So, we need leaders, those who will fight the mainstream only because it's right.
But groupthink pervades. Especially amongst millennials, where fitting in is a way of life. In the sixties you let your freak flag fly, today you wanna be just like everybody else.
So what does it take to go down the other path, to make a stand?
First and foremost a willingness to evaluate issues and make your own educated decision. A skill that's been lost as America teaches to the test. No, what people need are analytical powers. Unfortunately, these are possessed by the ruling class, learned at institutions only they can attend, and they like the status quo just the way it is.
Second, it's a decision to do what's right, damn the consequences. To worry about your heart more than your pocketbook.
Third, a willingness to endure the hate, the blowback. To sacrifice yourself for the greater good.
So Colin Kaepernick kneels for the national anthem and becomes a pariah. It's only a song! And sitting during the anthem was de rigueur in the sixties. But really Kaepernick was standing up against the cartel. Called the NFL. Old white men who treat their players like slaves. Oh, don't tell me about their salaries, most are not guaranteed. You get injured and they throw you on the scrapheap.
There's so much wrong in our country it's overwhelming.
Oh, don't load me up with that nationalistic fervor telling me how great the U.S.A. is and if I don't like it to leave it, I've already heard it, from the yahoos saying we had to fight communism in Vietnam. Sure, the U.S.A. is great, but our ethos used to be to make it BETTER! To reduce income inequality, to raise the poor up, but now the best and the brightest want to just leave these people behind. The left is a cadre of overeducated folks who think they know everything when they know so little and the right is all about selling freedom while you lose everything and rich corporations triumph. There's no one to believe in. Which is how a charlatan like Trump gained power.
But just you wait. Just like Ed Cunningham walked away from six figures a year, did what was right as opposed to expedient, more people will stand up. Just ones and twos, but then many more.
We'll all be driving electric cars.
We'll all be streaming.
And if you do your part there will be a roof over everybody's head and food on the table and peace in the valley.
We just need individuals to take us there.
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A movement starts with an individual.
I don't know when our nation moved to groupthink. But maybe it was the anti-disco fervor of the late seventies that was its first visible exponent. When white males got together at Comiskey Park and blew up disco records, they thought they'd won, but beat-driven music survives, more powerful than ever, disco does not suck, it's the foundation of our nation.
And then came the anti-Iran sentiment of the same era. Our entire nation riled up against a Mideast state, nationalism was evident in a way it was not in the...
Sixties.
I lived through them. Hell, when I was alive they had this program "You Asked For It" and I remember a feature on the oldest living Civil War veteran. Now Holocaust survivors are fading away and it won't be long before all those who lived through America's most tumultuous decade of the twentieth century are gone too.
So we woke up one day and we all had crew cuts and our mothers worked in the home and everybody was happy.
And not too long thereafter guys sported long hair, families were torn apart and you went from thinking America was invincible to wanting a war halfway around the world in a nation you'd never heard of stopped. How did this happen?
Through the power of individuals.
People forgotten now. Some remembered, like Martin Luther King. Musicians came last. But everybody who stood up eventually caused more to stand up and suddenly there was a generation gap that could not be breached. This schism led to not only the stopping of the war, but changes in music, style, lifestyle...you see life used to be about questioning precepts.
It's not anymore.
Except by the techies. Some want to change the world. Most are just in it for the money.
In the former camp we have Elon Musk. GM killed the electric car, they even made a movie about it, and then one guy brought it back. First wealthy experimenters purchased Tesla's roadster, and then when the Model S was introduced, broad swaths of people bit the bullet.
While the establishment did not stop bitching. You cannot open the "Wall Street Journal" without seeing complaints about government subsidies. But the government pays oil companies and farmers and there's a long history of inducements to further societal good.
And most people do not understand that electric cars are much more efficient, therefore needing less energy. The same way people keep e-mailing me they buy instead of stream because they're worried about being out of cell range, about data costs. These doofuses don't know you can synch thousands of tracks to your handset, as long as it has juice, you've got tunes.
And you can credit Daniel Ek. The oldsters keep bitching he's a billionaire. But he didn't used to be, he was a guy flying across the ocean in the back of the plane to bring his vision to life. And if you don't think this vision is beneficial you didn't read the recent Goldman Sachs report about the skyrocketing recorded music revenues. Spotify didn't kill music, it saved it!
You'll realize this.
So, we need leaders, those who will fight the mainstream only because it's right.
But groupthink pervades. Especially amongst millennials, where fitting in is a way of life. In the sixties you let your freak flag fly, today you wanna be just like everybody else.
So what does it take to go down the other path, to make a stand?
First and foremost a willingness to evaluate issues and make your own educated decision. A skill that's been lost as America teaches to the test. No, what people need are analytical powers. Unfortunately, these are possessed by the ruling class, learned at institutions only they can attend, and they like the status quo just the way it is.
Second, it's a decision to do what's right, damn the consequences. To worry about your heart more than your pocketbook.
Third, a willingness to endure the hate, the blowback. To sacrifice yourself for the greater good.
So Colin Kaepernick kneels for the national anthem and becomes a pariah. It's only a song! And sitting during the anthem was de rigueur in the sixties. But really Kaepernick was standing up against the cartel. Called the NFL. Old white men who treat their players like slaves. Oh, don't tell me about their salaries, most are not guaranteed. You get injured and they throw you on the scrapheap.
There's so much wrong in our country it's overwhelming.
Oh, don't load me up with that nationalistic fervor telling me how great the U.S.A. is and if I don't like it to leave it, I've already heard it, from the yahoos saying we had to fight communism in Vietnam. Sure, the U.S.A. is great, but our ethos used to be to make it BETTER! To reduce income inequality, to raise the poor up, but now the best and the brightest want to just leave these people behind. The left is a cadre of overeducated folks who think they know everything when they know so little and the right is all about selling freedom while you lose everything and rich corporations triumph. There's no one to believe in. Which is how a charlatan like Trump gained power.
But just you wait. Just like Ed Cunningham walked away from six figures a year, did what was right as opposed to expedient, more people will stand up. Just ones and twos, but then many more.
We'll all be driving electric cars.
We'll all be streaming.
And if you do your part there will be a roof over everybody's head and food on the table and peace in the valley.
We just need individuals to take us there.
--
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Tuesday 29 August 2017
The Paul Simon Exhibit
"Paul Simon: Words & Music": http://bit.ly/2vHGM6b
You've got to hook 'em with the very first line.
Some things never change. Just like hip-hop is the sound of the streets and rock and roll is overbaked. That's when Paul Simon turned away from rock to folk, when the former was repetitive and the latter was saying something, important.
And it was sung by the beautiful Baez.
Paul's words, not mine. Yes, there are some politically incorrect statements in this exhibit, but it was fifty years ago, times were different, but people were just the same.
Waiting for the Yankees to come on the radio, Paul was infected by this record "Gee." You'd get it if you heard it, and you do in this exhibit. That's the power of music, when done right it grabs you, when done wrong, it's ignored, especially today.
So Paul's father gives him a guitar. This is the early fifties. But in '64, the same thing happened with the baby boomers, they saw the Beatles on "Ed Sullivan" and all picked up axes and formed bands, the same way every kid on the street corner is now a rapper. You imitate what stimulates.
So Paul meets the vaunted Artie in school, where Garfunkel is famous for his vocalizing, and they parade up and down the New York streets until they cut a demo and a label overhears them and gives them a deal.
The renamed "Tom and Jerry" have a hit. The label even gets Alan Freed to play it. It's on "American Bandstand." With the proceeds Paul buys a convertible. Which catches fire with him inside of it, and after his car is destroyed he never scores another smash, and moves to England after dropping out of law school, where no one is paying attention and he can write songs and get paid fifteen pounds for a gig in 1965.
And the truth is, every baby boomer knows the history. But what makes this exhibit so stimulating is the artifacts and the insights.
Stuff like Simon's summer camp letter to Garfunkel. Talking about being a waiter, and the girls.
The original label contract.
And all the interludes about life and inspiration.
Being an artist... That's something that's fallen by the wayside. Today we have commercial musicians and holier-than-thou performers who call themselves artists but live in an alternative universe where they get no traction.
But in the sixties and seventies, artists ruled. Musical artists. And the way you won was by following your muse and experimenting. Constantly changing it up, not repeating yourself. We were oftentimes flummoxed when hearing the new work of our favorites, but we respected them and gave their tunes time. Funnily enough, the greatest exponent of this today is Justin Bieber, who's constantly working with new collaborators with different sounds, from DJ Snake to Luis Fonsi. The old farts pooh-pooh, but the little girls understand.
But Paul Simon turned into an adult. And explored adult themes. He grew.
And he's still here.
Oftentimes we venerate people only when they're gone. But Paul's still creating. His song "Wristband" is more timely than most of the stuff on the hit parade. The fact that there's no place for it on today's Top Forty is not his fault.
And so many of his songs were political, standing up to the dreaded Nixon.
And Clive Davis, who told him he'd never be as famous without Garfunkel. That's a great label head, disincentivizing his charges to create. If you're not willing to follow the artist, you should not be in this business, the artist always knows best, never forget it.
And you see the guitars and the handwritten lyrics and you're brought back to when.
And when you read about the inspiration, the writing of "Graceland"... Today we think being an artist is promoting, getting your name out there, being in the flow. But the truth is you cannot be creative unless you live your life. Which is why so many of the songs are written by old men and women off the scenes. But since they don't live a life either, the lyrics are vapid. It's when lightning strikes that greatness emanates.
Like at Elvis Presley's estate. Simon couldn't write lyrics so he went to Graceland, and thought it was uninspiring. But when he saw the lines carved into Presley's gravestone at the end... The song came together.
Just like "Bridge Over Troubled Water"... He was strumming his guitar and the song fell into place, just that fast. You're a conduit. Not that Simon didn't rework his lyrics till he was satisfied.
And it's this edginess, this belief in his own path, that causes him to have a less than likable image. We want our artists to be warm and fuzzy, just like us, but they're not, certainly not the greats, if you've met any you know this, they're different, oftentimes tortured, always staring into the distance at a destination only they can see.
If you want to know the history, this Skirball exhibit is pretty good.
But if you want to be inspired, put into a space where you too can create, it's EXCEPTIONAL!
A museum is where we go to get away from society to reconnect with it. When done right an exhibit requires all of our attention, and rewards us for it.
This presentation might look like a victory lap, but in truth it's a beacon, if you're desirous of going some place, if you live on creativity, if you're looking for your inner tuning fork to vibrate, if you can respect someone who did it his way and won.
And is still doing it.
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You've got to hook 'em with the very first line.
Some things never change. Just like hip-hop is the sound of the streets and rock and roll is overbaked. That's when Paul Simon turned away from rock to folk, when the former was repetitive and the latter was saying something, important.
And it was sung by the beautiful Baez.
Paul's words, not mine. Yes, there are some politically incorrect statements in this exhibit, but it was fifty years ago, times were different, but people were just the same.
Waiting for the Yankees to come on the radio, Paul was infected by this record "Gee." You'd get it if you heard it, and you do in this exhibit. That's the power of music, when done right it grabs you, when done wrong, it's ignored, especially today.
So Paul's father gives him a guitar. This is the early fifties. But in '64, the same thing happened with the baby boomers, they saw the Beatles on "Ed Sullivan" and all picked up axes and formed bands, the same way every kid on the street corner is now a rapper. You imitate what stimulates.
So Paul meets the vaunted Artie in school, where Garfunkel is famous for his vocalizing, and they parade up and down the New York streets until they cut a demo and a label overhears them and gives them a deal.
The renamed "Tom and Jerry" have a hit. The label even gets Alan Freed to play it. It's on "American Bandstand." With the proceeds Paul buys a convertible. Which catches fire with him inside of it, and after his car is destroyed he never scores another smash, and moves to England after dropping out of law school, where no one is paying attention and he can write songs and get paid fifteen pounds for a gig in 1965.
And the truth is, every baby boomer knows the history. But what makes this exhibit so stimulating is the artifacts and the insights.
Stuff like Simon's summer camp letter to Garfunkel. Talking about being a waiter, and the girls.
The original label contract.
And all the interludes about life and inspiration.
Being an artist... That's something that's fallen by the wayside. Today we have commercial musicians and holier-than-thou performers who call themselves artists but live in an alternative universe where they get no traction.
But in the sixties and seventies, artists ruled. Musical artists. And the way you won was by following your muse and experimenting. Constantly changing it up, not repeating yourself. We were oftentimes flummoxed when hearing the new work of our favorites, but we respected them and gave their tunes time. Funnily enough, the greatest exponent of this today is Justin Bieber, who's constantly working with new collaborators with different sounds, from DJ Snake to Luis Fonsi. The old farts pooh-pooh, but the little girls understand.
But Paul Simon turned into an adult. And explored adult themes. He grew.
And he's still here.
Oftentimes we venerate people only when they're gone. But Paul's still creating. His song "Wristband" is more timely than most of the stuff on the hit parade. The fact that there's no place for it on today's Top Forty is not his fault.
And so many of his songs were political, standing up to the dreaded Nixon.
And Clive Davis, who told him he'd never be as famous without Garfunkel. That's a great label head, disincentivizing his charges to create. If you're not willing to follow the artist, you should not be in this business, the artist always knows best, never forget it.
And you see the guitars and the handwritten lyrics and you're brought back to when.
And when you read about the inspiration, the writing of "Graceland"... Today we think being an artist is promoting, getting your name out there, being in the flow. But the truth is you cannot be creative unless you live your life. Which is why so many of the songs are written by old men and women off the scenes. But since they don't live a life either, the lyrics are vapid. It's when lightning strikes that greatness emanates.
Like at Elvis Presley's estate. Simon couldn't write lyrics so he went to Graceland, and thought it was uninspiring. But when he saw the lines carved into Presley's gravestone at the end... The song came together.
Just like "Bridge Over Troubled Water"... He was strumming his guitar and the song fell into place, just that fast. You're a conduit. Not that Simon didn't rework his lyrics till he was satisfied.
And it's this edginess, this belief in his own path, that causes him to have a less than likable image. We want our artists to be warm and fuzzy, just like us, but they're not, certainly not the greats, if you've met any you know this, they're different, oftentimes tortured, always staring into the distance at a destination only they can see.
If you want to know the history, this Skirball exhibit is pretty good.
But if you want to be inspired, put into a space where you too can create, it's EXCEPTIONAL!
A museum is where we go to get away from society to reconnect with it. When done right an exhibit requires all of our attention, and rewards us for it.
This presentation might look like a victory lap, but in truth it's a beacon, if you're desirous of going some place, if you live on creativity, if you're looking for your inner tuning fork to vibrate, if you can respect someone who did it his way and won.
And is still doing it.
--
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A Startup
Is like a band.
You need a leader with a vision, and a group of players who come together in furtherance of the sound.
Assuming you want to have a hit.
Most bands never succeed.
And neither do most startups.
Yesterday I went to a WeWork space in Playa Vista. That's right, there's a tech scene in L.A. Nowhere near as big as the one in the Bay Area, and that's a problem, you can staff up easily up north, but down here, you have to convince people to move and give them ownership. That's right, at the start, everybody's an owner, all 23 people in attendance. Sure, they're getting paid, but their future is involved. Imagine if this was the case at a record company. Could you imagine the vibe, how successful it would be? But labels are archaic constructions in a mature business, there hasn't been any new thinking since the sixties, when they all hired house hippies, although they have gotten the memo on data.
So you're at the WeWork space. Where the other entrepreneurs reside. Three floors of this building are WeWork spaces. You've got your cubicle or more. There are telephone booth-sized spaces for privacy, for phone calls, but on your own phone, and there is collaboration, an exchange of ideas. You see tech is fluid. With constant expansions and contractions, sales. It's all about the pivot, if you hit a wall and have no success you take a different direction, whereas in music we've been taking the same direction all century. Pop and hip-hop. Used to be there was a new sound that wiped out the old every few years. And now you know why music no longer drives the culture, why it's a second class citizen, either you innovate or you die.
But unlike a label, the startup office is quiet. There are no stereos blaring. But there are parties, relaxation, because when you're called to do an all-nighter, to meet a deadline, you have to know you can blow off steam.
That's right, it's like college. Do you remember college? They didn't change the date of the test just for you. Life is about showing up and delivering, meeting deadlines, and if you can't do this there's no place for you in life, never mind tech.
So the visionary had an idea. Pondered it for more than a minute. The inspiration is important, but so is the execution. The idea is the kernel, if it's wrong, you're wasting your time, so you'd better get it right. How many bands were started with a vision? Just ask Glenn Frey. Oops, that's right, you can't. But Don Henley will tell you, how on that very first Ronstadt date, in D.C., the night before, Frey laid out his complete vision for the Eagles. They were backup musicians! But before long, they would own one of the two biggest selling albums of all time.
Then comes the money.
In music, it comes from the labels. In startups, it comes from the VCs. And just like in music, you're giving up action for cash. But just like music, if you win, there's enough money for everybody.
But unlike music, you don't have to prove your idea first. But you do have to prove yourself. They only give money to those with experience, with a track record. It's millions, double-digit in many cases, the VCs are not just throwing the money around, away, this is an investment, this is a bet, they've got to get it right.
So then the visionary finds a CTO, Chief Technology Officer. Who can actually build what the visionary sees in his head.
And then the hiring begins.
Everybody gets a brand new laptop, and a big screen to plug it into when they're in the office. No corners are cut, that would be wrong, since the goal is so big and the money spent is accordingly large.
BUT IT'S NOT DRUDGERY!
The assembled multitude loves to code, they love to build things.
That's what they told me when I asked. You're just not performing a rote role. You're depended upon.
But you've got to deliver.
Yes, the nerds rule. These same nerds who used to be musicians, who gave up when society got too coarse, when there was more money in tech, and more freedom. Used to be the label was a conduit, today it tells you what to do, no one likes to be told what to do, there's more freedom in tech.
So it's exciting, if you've got the chops. If you drop out, say school's stupid, think you can live by your wits as opposed to your education, there's no place for you.
So the band rehearses for a year or two and then launches.
Does it succeed?
Unlike a band, the startup has to get it right on the very first try. They launch slowly, adjust along the way, but there's no artist development. Either the visionary had it right or they didn't.
But if they did...
They kill all comers in their wake.
This is what the establishment doesn't understand, with its marketing teams and layers of management, guided by consultants with me-too advice. That if someone takes a run at their business by building a better mousetrap, they're history. It's like selling landlines in the era of mobiles, your death warrant has been signed.
Now I don't know how to code. And I'm too old to start over. But if I was young, I'd hitch my wagon to an enterprise and see where it takes me. And the great thing is you don't only get one ride, failure equals experience, you can get another gig. Youth is not revered. You're not playing to tweens. And if you get it right, YOU CHANGE THE WORLD!
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You need a leader with a vision, and a group of players who come together in furtherance of the sound.
Assuming you want to have a hit.
Most bands never succeed.
And neither do most startups.
Yesterday I went to a WeWork space in Playa Vista. That's right, there's a tech scene in L.A. Nowhere near as big as the one in the Bay Area, and that's a problem, you can staff up easily up north, but down here, you have to convince people to move and give them ownership. That's right, at the start, everybody's an owner, all 23 people in attendance. Sure, they're getting paid, but their future is involved. Imagine if this was the case at a record company. Could you imagine the vibe, how successful it would be? But labels are archaic constructions in a mature business, there hasn't been any new thinking since the sixties, when they all hired house hippies, although they have gotten the memo on data.
So you're at the WeWork space. Where the other entrepreneurs reside. Three floors of this building are WeWork spaces. You've got your cubicle or more. There are telephone booth-sized spaces for privacy, for phone calls, but on your own phone, and there is collaboration, an exchange of ideas. You see tech is fluid. With constant expansions and contractions, sales. It's all about the pivot, if you hit a wall and have no success you take a different direction, whereas in music we've been taking the same direction all century. Pop and hip-hop. Used to be there was a new sound that wiped out the old every few years. And now you know why music no longer drives the culture, why it's a second class citizen, either you innovate or you die.
But unlike a label, the startup office is quiet. There are no stereos blaring. But there are parties, relaxation, because when you're called to do an all-nighter, to meet a deadline, you have to know you can blow off steam.
That's right, it's like college. Do you remember college? They didn't change the date of the test just for you. Life is about showing up and delivering, meeting deadlines, and if you can't do this there's no place for you in life, never mind tech.
So the visionary had an idea. Pondered it for more than a minute. The inspiration is important, but so is the execution. The idea is the kernel, if it's wrong, you're wasting your time, so you'd better get it right. How many bands were started with a vision? Just ask Glenn Frey. Oops, that's right, you can't. But Don Henley will tell you, how on that very first Ronstadt date, in D.C., the night before, Frey laid out his complete vision for the Eagles. They were backup musicians! But before long, they would own one of the two biggest selling albums of all time.
Then comes the money.
In music, it comes from the labels. In startups, it comes from the VCs. And just like in music, you're giving up action for cash. But just like music, if you win, there's enough money for everybody.
But unlike music, you don't have to prove your idea first. But you do have to prove yourself. They only give money to those with experience, with a track record. It's millions, double-digit in many cases, the VCs are not just throwing the money around, away, this is an investment, this is a bet, they've got to get it right.
So then the visionary finds a CTO, Chief Technology Officer. Who can actually build what the visionary sees in his head.
And then the hiring begins.
Everybody gets a brand new laptop, and a big screen to plug it into when they're in the office. No corners are cut, that would be wrong, since the goal is so big and the money spent is accordingly large.
BUT IT'S NOT DRUDGERY!
The assembled multitude loves to code, they love to build things.
That's what they told me when I asked. You're just not performing a rote role. You're depended upon.
But you've got to deliver.
Yes, the nerds rule. These same nerds who used to be musicians, who gave up when society got too coarse, when there was more money in tech, and more freedom. Used to be the label was a conduit, today it tells you what to do, no one likes to be told what to do, there's more freedom in tech.
So it's exciting, if you've got the chops. If you drop out, say school's stupid, think you can live by your wits as opposed to your education, there's no place for you.
So the band rehearses for a year or two and then launches.
Does it succeed?
Unlike a band, the startup has to get it right on the very first try. They launch slowly, adjust along the way, but there's no artist development. Either the visionary had it right or they didn't.
But if they did...
They kill all comers in their wake.
This is what the establishment doesn't understand, with its marketing teams and layers of management, guided by consultants with me-too advice. That if someone takes a run at their business by building a better mousetrap, they're history. It's like selling landlines in the era of mobiles, your death warrant has been signed.
Now I don't know how to code. And I'm too old to start over. But if I was young, I'd hitch my wagon to an enterprise and see where it takes me. And the great thing is you don't only get one ride, failure equals experience, you can get another gig. Youth is not revered. You're not playing to tweens. And if you get it right, YOU CHANGE THE WORLD!
--
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Monday 28 August 2017
Re-Bryan Ferry
Bob,
I went to see Bryan Ferry on his Mamouna tour in Washington, DC. As the well dressed and coiffed couple in front of me were sitting down, she turned to him and said, "You know I've never listened to him with my clothes on."
Gotta love Bryan Ferry.
Scott Pendleton
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Should add Brian had one of the best bass players in the business with him in Neil Jason
Peace,Jason
Jason Miles
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Come on! You have to mention Neil Jason on bass and the one and only Fonzi Thornton on vocals!! A great band. My only complaint is that on this tour the version of Remake Remodel was really the Roxy arrangement and not the arrangement from the Ferry solo LP "Let's STick Together which is much funkier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSL7JTRqpRM
Tag Gross
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The Hollywood Bowl Show sounds fantastic.
We got Bryan at the Masonic in San Francisco last year and it was a tremendous show.
I remember buying the first Roxy album at Aron's right after it came out and the cover of the album seemed to be seriously disturbing to Manny's
assistant manning the counter.
I saw Roxy with Eno at the Whisky shortly after that.
It is amazing that this music still has it's power 45 years on.
Thanks for sharing your experience with Bryan.
Best
Jim McElwee
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Great and inspiring review of one of my top 2 singers of all time….Paul Rodgers being the other one. Talking to friends some time back we talked about if you could be any singer who would it be….for me it was no choice….Bryan.
I've been a big fan of Bryan and Roxy Music since first seeing them on some UK glam music show back in the 70's. I was knocked out by Bryan and his style and I still am to this day…having seen him on his last few tours. And he always has an amazing band with him.
When I met my now wife in 2009 we shared similar tastes in music. I turned her onto the Roxy Music live disc from their last reunion tour and she was instantly smitten…but it may have been his debonair look on stage that really won her over.
Can't wait to hear what he has up his sleeve next….
Brian Helgesen
PS…at our wedding reception we had the DJ play "Avalon" a the last song of the night
Brian Helgesen
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AVALON was maybe one of the best records to have SEX to. I wonder how many babies were created on that one.
Jeffrey Naumann
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Thank you for capturing his show and art. His bands continue to be fantastic and thanks for taking us there through your writing.
Thank you,
Jim Mulhern
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Bryan Ferry is the most difficult artist I've ever worked with.
His Avalon Tour in 1983 was the first and only tour I've ever walked off of (in ten years & over nearly one hundred and fifty artists) & was my sole reason for resigning from my job in Artist Development at Warner Records.
His arrogance is unparalleled.
Still, Avalon remains one of my top ten albums.
A true example of the agony and the ecstasy.
Ted Cohen
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Yes, it was a magnificent show.
I wished I had seen you there.
His rendition of the track Avalon was one of the highlights.
His background singer nailed it.
Ritch Esra
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I saw the Avalon Tour.
I'm a drummer- it changed my musical life.
Ya gotta acknowledge Andy Newmark on drums ( not on this tour ) and the recently departed Alan Spenner on bass.
I was lucky enough to meet AN a few yrs ago and we communicate occasionally. He's a deep cat and wonderful human.
Google his discography- Sly - John Lennon etc. now theres something to delve into as a music afficianado....
best, Dale Flanigan / Cleveland
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Another great review Bob. Bryan's solo album of covers is one of the best, second only to Pin Ups. Love his cover of Don't Worry Baby. Thanks for reminding your readers of his awesomeness and relevance. Do the strand!
Jeff Sacks
PS True story: About twenty years ago, I walked into a bar around 5pm on the island of Barbados. No one was there except one guy at the bar: Bryan Ferry. We spoke for a few minutes. He was cool, unassuming and had that unmistakable look. No cell phones back then so no picture.
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Beautiful post, Bob.
My pal a Judith Owen has been opening select dates for him and said it's been amazing.
Jon Regen
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The Frank Sinatra of our era and so much more than this.
Michael Des Barres.
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Nice! Ferry blew me away nearly 30 years ago at a show I attended not because I wanted to go but because I was assigned to review it. It's still a Top 10 thrill. I avoided this tour because I didn't want to spoil that memory and some old friends were also playing that night.
Now I'm the jealous guy.
John Kendle
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Terrific Bob, pleased for you! Oh, and the song 'Avalon' was a massive hit single in Australia back in the day, very much due to the beautiful video which really complemented the song! TonyB
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Avalon is in my top albums list. Yet I rarely listen to it. Thats because it was the go to bedtime album for me and my ultimate fiancee'. Four yrs I tumbled in the hay with her with that album as background. To quote another romantic album "it was just that the time was wrong" (Dire Straits)
We ultimately established a loving friendship so there's no bitterness but that album belongs to her and that special time.
However I did revive the title track on a mix tape when I went to England in 1999 to follow the King Arthur trail from Tintagel to Glastonbury.
Cheers!
Joe Mock in PDR
P.S. oh yeah I am one of the few who saw Roxy Music with BRIAN ENO when they played the Whisky in the early 70s.
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Right on! So glad you met Bryan! Love his music!
Owen Dearing, potter
Bend, Oregon
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Avalon. One of the ten best albums ever. Thanks Bob
James Lee Stanley
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Great piece.
There's a reason Europe was always so ahead of the US on music, it's presenters were professional curators who knew the music and shared its greatness with their audience.
As a former Top 40 radio personality, I can tell you that I was never allowed to really speak to my audience, only to perform the Drake-Chenault format of Boss Radio. And even though 50 years has passed us by, radio personalities remain more stifled than ever in any attempt to properly educate their audiences about the music they play. Even more appalling is that voice tracking and computer automation has just about replaced the personality in radio; and they wonder why it's a failing industry. And who cares? Millennials do not listen to radio. Their ears and eyes are online and streaming.
If only there was one hit this year as powerful and as creative as Love Is The Drug!
Frank A. Gagliano
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And that's how I feel about you when I read these columns
Saw the show in Vancouver and fell in love once again
Magical.
Shirley Norton
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Chom Fm in Montréal played a huge amount of Ferry. My co-music director, Bobby Gale, had a thing for Brian. Ferry's bass player, Busta Cherry Jones moved here and became one of the stalwarts of a very cool night club called Nuit Magique in Old Montréal. I'd go there after finishing my 10:00 to 2:00 on air shift. Pagliaro, Nanette Workman (who backed up The Stones vocally) and many musical visitors to town would be there all night. Bowie, Murray Head, Chris de Burgh, Stones, Genesis, Floyd, etc...
We were all New Romantics and Brian's music informed the sound of a post disco Montréal vibe which was watched by the planet.
Rob Braide
P.S. By the way, greatest Ferry Playlist in the History of the world. Thanks. Listen to Busta's bass playing on Stronger Through the years. No one else was doing that back then.
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I saw him at The Beacon a couple of years ago and had the same sensation you did.
Transcendent experience. He blew me away.
And, I think I had played Avalon at least a thousand times over the years.
Thanks for bringing it all back.
John Parikhal
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Bravo Bob, saw Bryan Ferry here at the Ryman in Nashville a year ago.
Your review and analysis so spot on.
Years ago when I was growing up and living in LA saw Roxy Music at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, April 1979. Most of the original band in tact less Eno. Was blown away by Roxy, music and show was just so cool and different. 38 years between seeing Bryan Ferry but just as great as ever!
Bill Kennedy
Nashville
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Thank you for this moving account of BF's show last night.
I was fortunate enough to have seen him this past April in Montreal.
It must have been out of this world with the Hollywood Bowl orchestra!
I always look forward to his new material.
His cover of Robert Palmer's "Johnny and Mary" is one of the most moving interpretations I've ever heard:
https://youtu.be/Din_eWjJWe0
Cheers,
Pablo
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Wow, read this entire thing completely enthralled. My introduction to Roxy Music was via a dubbed Maxell cassette that belonged to my older sister... I can still see it so clearly in my mind's eye... "AVALON" clearly written, all caps, on the spine of the cardboard insert... we were the brace-faced teenaged daughters of Korean convenience store owners, listening to Andy Mackay's slinky saxophone lines and Bryan Ferry's tuxedo-clad croon, safely ensconced in the comfort of our shared bedroom... we lived in a bungalow deep in the suburbs of Toronto... Scarborough, to be exact... wall-to-wall carpeting, flocked wall paper, bunk beds... latch-key kids left to our own devices... fantasizing... transported... to an impossibly glamorous land called Avalon... I hope he is touring this show and coming to Toronto... if so, I should totally surprise my sister with tix! Especially loved this post, thank you, Bob.
Sally Lee
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I've seen Bryan Ferry many times and a Roxy reunion once. The last time I saw Bryan was at the Civic Opera House in Chicago using his sound system. A supposedly superior acoustic venue and everyone heard the sound was muffled. My guess is he did not want to reveal how weak his voice is. He lost me at the show (though it was so great and everything was top tier).
His best show in Chicago was at the Riviera, "As Time Goes By" tour.
My intro was a cut-out of "Country Life".
A friend says she saw Roxy Music perform in St. Louis to 15 people. — Ric Graham
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One of your best....Roxy rules. But why do you go with the current streaming flow without warning when that will deny generations these kinds of special memories? Will any future Bob recollect "I remember where I was when I first streamed....."? No. The physical representation is the glue that cemented the memories.
Michael Fremer
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He is so fab.
What a great review- and so great that you and he connected!
Love his music ? love that you do too!
Regards
Amy Krakow
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Surprised they didn't hit it big in the USA they were well known and loved here in Canada. A real avant garde band back then.
Chris Chapin
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Great review, I can hear your burning. Ferry, around the time I got married, crisp white shirt and perfect black slacks hunched in like a secret fighter, willowy and winning cajoling his mike and
tearing the velvet inside Radio City Music Hall, just the perfectly-sized and sold-out venue, and yes, his music had a way of charming your life.
Ferry fans and those who'd never heard of him. Two camps, you couldn't explain it.
I was so pleased to read he is performing and so strong.
Of course you are correct, the UK has always been ahead, the ideas, the creativity, individuality, the bravery, the necessity in making fresh music
art fashion comes out of London and other worn and narrow roads of the UK..
Will watch for Ferry in New York.
Howard Stein
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You and Bryan just made me cry, Bob. Thank you.
More than this... you know, there's nothing.
sean michael dargan
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Thank you for that delicious piece of writing, Bob. It brought me back to my own meeting with Bryan Ferry, in Quebec City in 1988.
I was barely a man, living with my father and stepmother. That August night, Ferry was in town. He had been scheduled to play Le Coilsée (a large hockey arena), and in the end the show was moved to a 1348-seat theatre. Needless to say, the smaller venue was sold out, but I was determined to go. I was sitting having dinner with my dad and his lady, and she said:
- Aren't you going to a show tonight?
- Yes.
- Shouldn't you be leaving?
- Soon.
- Do you have a ticket?
- No.
- But… how do you plan to get in?
- Don't know yet.
So I went, and at the door of the venue, I ran into a friend who had already been inside. I think he worked with the label, I don't remember. Anyway, he gave me his readmission ticket. I passed the gate and I was in, smiling broadly. I then saw a wonderful show in a fantastic seat in a great sounding hall, with many of the feelings you describe, but in a young man's body on a warm summer night. Then, my friend invited me backstage, and I got to chat with the man. It was a truly enchanting evening, and I re-lived it through your writing. So thank you!
By the way, speaking of "Love Is The Drug", I've always thought that Duran Duran's DNA was based on that track.
Nicolas Maranda
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You nailed it. There is no-one like Bryan Ferry.
I missed the whole Roxy Music and early solo work of Ferry. I came
upon him in the late eighties with his Boys and Girls and Bete Noire
recordings. They were mesmerizing. You knew he had the shit hottest
musicians on those recordings.... He was always coy with the credits,
but he had the goods. Guys who rolled with Miles, Sly, Steely
Dan,guitar gods, and the crazy fusion players. Marcus Miller,
Knopfler, Gilmore, Niles, Levin, Sandborn, Newmark. The production
was pure silk. I was into the whole package.
After college I had the fortune of running across Mr. Ferry on the
streets of Minneapolis on a sunny Fall day. I am not one to approach
celebrity, I don't want to be "that guy". But, it was Bryan Ferry.
I approached him and told him I would be seeing him in concert that
evening. He couldn't have been more gracious and engaging. Standing
on the sidewalk. Bryan Ferry, his PA, and me. He looked me in the
eye, we casually talked his recordings, his setlist, his band, and his
tour. I had a ton of questions and he happily filled-in the blanks. After a few minutes, Bryan turned to his PA and said "Nigel, how about
a glossy for this young man?". Nigel pulled it from a satchel. Ferry
personalized it, handed it to me, and thanked me for the chat.
Smooth, just as I would have expected. Class A guy and one of those
moments you are so glad you had a chance to meet your hero.
Great write up Bob. I was right there with you.
Curt Olson
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Bob if you haven't seen Roxy's Live at the Apollo DVD, treat yourself, one of the best live DVD's any genre any era….maybe because it covers all of them, era's and genres!
Jimmy Steal
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Awesome night and story about Bryan Ferry!
We used to cover "virginia plain" here in Southern California and the 2 or 3 times we did it it just went over like a fart. Nobody knows that song around here. It would end and folks would just stare at us!
This summer I was on a solo 65 date tour of Europe and having a bit of an odd night in the U.K. I spontaneously started playing it and it went over huge. The next night I was asked "Are you going to do Virginia plain again?" It feels so good when you find your audience - even if my audience is found and gained by playing obscure songs from '72.
I've been forcing my band to listen to "remake/remodel" just because, well, I love it but also because of how weird it is/was. That song is 40 something years old and it's still fucking bizarre. If that was released tomorrow people would be just as freaked out by it as they were in '73!! (?)
Thanks for sharing the Roxy love.
~Bobbo
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Saw him at the Santa Barbara Bowl and it was great. Can u believe he played In Every Dream Home a Heartache? Almost mail ordered a blow up doll. I wished he played Like a Hurricane but what are you going to do?
Alan Fenton
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Avalon was amazing. Not overlooked by me. And yes, the number one album to put on with a woman you were bedding for the first time.
Mike Jasper
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Bob...I thoroughly enjoyed your thoughts on Bryan Ferry and his performance. I just returned from the Chateau and I'm reading this as if I'm still in the lounge by the turntable. Plus, I just saw Bryan Ferry in Portland, OR. Yes, he was fantastic. The Portland audience devoured him. He assembled a tight band...I was beyond impressed with his Australian sax player. Which ignited the conversation at the show, that a lot of good groups from Australia incorporated the sax in their songs (INXS, Icehouse, Men at Work). I was hoping for him to perform his single "Is Your Love Strong Enough" that I discovered during the credits of Tom Cruise film Legend. I dig that song, and I don't care what anyone thinks. I also enjoyed Judith Owen with Leland Sklar as the opener. I spent some time the day before on their tour bus, finally getting to meet Leland.
Having breakfast at 10a at Good Neighbor on Cahuenga with musician Keith Allison before I fly back to Portland. Come by!
Best,
Alex Hart
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Wow, wow, wow! Incredible.
In 1982 I was working at The Record Factory in South Sacramento. There was New Wave, there was Prince, there was early hip hop… every Tuesday the new releases came in, we couldn't wait! All of us weirdo kids working in that record store were junkies for our records. AVALON shows up, the store manager unwraps the LP, puts it on the turntable and BLAM!!!! Instant MAGIC. Stopped all of us dead in our tracks. Sure The Clash were great, with all their rough edges, style, message and attitude, BUT THIS? Refined, masterful, detailed hard work, creativity coupled with hi fidelity artistic perfection. WHAT AN AMAZING RECORD! I mean there's catching lightning in a bottle, capturing an inspired moment and things like that are great, when they are. But this AVALON record, it's a testament to laboring over the details, a testament to older artists who have learned their craft and are putting all the extra effort to go the extra mile for sound quality, for the perfect tone and feel in that perfect moment, Phil Manzara and the great, great, great Andy Newmark. Bob Clearmountain, and that genius sophisto vocal. Man those guys PUSHED TO THE LIMIT on this one! Caught lightning in a bottle one perfect, labored careful overdub at a time. The best of all worlds, like Wish You Were Here or Acting Baby. anyway, Avalon, when a record like that happens, it's a marker in time. Such a great, great record!
And you got to see the show and meet that guy. WOW! Good for you Bob Lefsetz! So cool because you obviously love his work so much. So great when the stars align like that.
Nice one!
Michael Urbano
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'Avalon' is, to me, everything you say it is. A sensational time-travelling soundtrack to so many moments.
Iconic guitar-playing by Phil Manzanera… as easily identifiable as Andy Summers.
Thanks, Bob. I love reading your newsletters.
James Stewart
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Radio City Music Hall. Spring if 1983. Roxy opened with "The Main Thing". It was friggin' transcendent.
To my eternal dismay, they didn't play "More Than This".
From the very first day I listened to it, Avalon has been a top 5 desert island disk. Always will be.
-RMQ
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Beautiful Bob.
Absolutely love your writing. And when you write so passionately about music, well, it brightens up my day.
Keep on keeping on sir
Steve Balsamo x
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What a great piece about our hero (Amsterdam loved/s Bryan Ferry). Most sexy man in my memory (born '55). The man shivered our timbers. In reading this every song mentioned plays in my head and brings me back.
Thank you!
Beppie
(Elisabeth Bakker)
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If you haven't seen it before one of the greatest interviews with anyone in recent years was this one with Bryan Ferry
http://thequietus.com/articles/16665-bryan-ferry-interview
as much about being a fan as it is an interview, I'd say you'd enjoy.
keep it up Bob!
cheers
John L.
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Bob - Bryan Ferry has been one of the more unique touring artists from the mid - '80's onwards. He never stops working, always releasing albums and touring, and (almost) always it is well worth one's attention. And what makes it unique is that he treats his early Roxy Music output with as much enthusiasm as any current material he's promoting. Imagine Bowie honouring Hunky Dory and Man Who Sold the World every time he went out. Or, U2 focusing a major part of their show on the first 3 albums etc. And not only does he do this well, he does it constantly, without fanfare, in perfect form and without a whiff of Vegas style nostalgia. A classic example of an artist devoted to working his craft.
Iain Taylor
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I can still remember the day I heard "Virginia Plain". I was working for the WEA branch in Chicago and the mailroom guy brought in a new batch of Warner promos we had just received. I'm not sure why it was the first album I put on (I thought it was "cheesy"; Warners said it was "glamorous"), but I remember playing "Virginia Plain" over and over and over. I have listened to a lot of music in my life, and there are certain artists that make an undeniable impression the very first time you hear them: Jethro Tull, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Yes, etc. As for "Avalon", well, let's just say that if I had to pick 10 albums to take to a desert island......."Avalon" would be part of the package. Thanks for the reminder.
David Hersrud
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Hi Bob...Your thoughts on the Bryan Ferry concert were absolutely spot on! I saw him last Monday at the Mountain Winery in the SF area, and it was truly amazing. Song after song I was saying "I can't believe he's playing this!" Having seen Roxy Music and Bryan many times over the years, I was totally expecting a Roxy greatest hits list, but instead Bryan took us life-long fans on a journey that reminded us why we fell in love with Roxy Music in first place. And the audience ate it up. To hear the audience shout "Virginia Plain" in unison was to know that this was a crowd of true fans, all well aware that they were witnessing musical greatness.
Thanks for capturing the essence of what Bryan and Roxy Music have brought to music over the years, and keep reminding us of the importance of "real' music.
Bob Trygg
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Just an FYI - Bryan Ferry's main guitarist, Jacob Quist, recently released a solo, instrumental album called "Trigger." I mastered it and I have to say, it's really great. He eschews the normal "guitar hero" stuff and takes the guitar in different directions.
I met Quist after a Bryan Ferry content in Nashville and the band was wonderful. Ferry was a bit under the weather, but he put on a great show...classy and compact. Nice to know the old guys still have it...reminded me of how George Miller had to show the kids how it's done with Mad Max Fury Road.
Craig Anderton
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Great write Bob, I go to bed every night listening to one of three albums to comfortably put me to sleep
1.) Anita Baker-"Rapture"
2.) Sade-"Diamond Life"
3.) Roxy Music-"Avalon"
David Wolnik
Three Oaks, MI
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Bob- What a great read about a truly transformational singer and band! I experienced so many of those same feelings/emotions about the same songs... and more. Wish I'd seen this show but felt like I kinda did after your blog. Nearly always love your writings, but ones like these hit so close to home. Please keep up the great work... It's one of this near 60-year old guy's continued guilty pleasures!
Terence Connolly
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That is awesome.
Stuart Gunter
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I saw Bryan Ferry at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Damn. I'd only been following him for 40 years, and now was the chance.
The catalogue is so deep that he didn't even begin to skim the upper 10%. Selfishly, I was hoping for "I Thought", "Eight Miles High", Midnight Hour", "Over You" , for starters. He performed the setlist you described, and threw in "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" which is still as edgy, fresh and dangerous as Day One.
His voice has changed over the years, and the wonderful backup singers effortlessly filled the outlines of his voice.
Ferry makes the current crop of crooners look and sound homeless. Yeah, he's that good.
Larry Gassan
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"Avalon" is one of rock's high-water marks. A desert island disc to be sure...
Ricky Schultz
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We all live different timelines. See, my memories of AVALON are different. For me, up until then, Roxy Music had been an interesting curio. They were like the T-Rex prior to "Bang A Gong" (and after, for that matter) - I'd heard all about them, a few of my friends were into it, they had a sax player, which nobody had in those days - but they never made my 'essential listening list'. Until AVALON. Which was so much more accessible. And I thought it was a hit - probably because I was managing a record store in those days, and it was the only Roxy Music album I ever had to re-order more than once.
Barry Lyons / Rent A Label
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nice
Jeffrey Ainis
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I loved your enthusiasm for Bryan Ferry at the Hollywood Bowl.
I had the honor of booking Roxy Music's first concert performance in America. December 7, 1972--in Athens, Ohio. This preceded their next date--which was a far cry from Athens-- December 9th at MSG.
You can find this factoid at : Roxy Music - Tours - on VivaRoxyMusic.com
Sky Daniels
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Bob, thank you for yet another wonderful piece on Bryan Ferry. I actually subscribed to you a good many years ago over something you'd written about him and I always look forward to seeing his name in your blogs. It's difficult to convey to most of my friends in the USA how incredible he is, how important he is, but when I go overseas, it's a different story. His music has woven its way through my life and, while it's sometimes "cool" to have this seemingly exclusive connection to an artist, it's just as rewarding to know how much he affects others.
I've seen him a few times over the years, most recently here in Orlando with a much different set list (HEAVY on Roxy tunes) that included one of your all timers, "Oh Yeah"....but he still opened with "The Main Thing"....and I cannot agree with you more on how infectious that number is. Reading your encounter with him after the show reminded me of a tale I read years ago from a fan who sat next to him on a flight and ended up as Bryan's guest at the show he performed later, I can only ever hope to have such an audience with him. Thank you for sharing yours. Please keep up the great work!
Kevin Andrusia
Orlando
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Loved that blog! As I've said before, your passion for music is inspiring.
Best,
John Presnell
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Thanks for a great review Bob. It never occurred to me that Avalon never had the impact here in the US as it did in Europe. Avalon was released when I was 15 and at my most impressionable age. The album hit #1 on the Norwegian charts, and the lead single "More Than This" made it to #2. Needless to say, it is an album that had significant impact on me. Thanks again.
Even Brande
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Thanks for your Bryan Ferry note. Yes , Avalon was one the finest LPs to emerge in the early 80s.
FYI, coincidentally, last weekend, Jon Dennis wrote an interesting piece in the London Financial Times "Life of a Song" column which you may be familiar with. re. Lennon's Jealous Guy cover by Roxy Music.
Best...Diego Guirleo
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Saw this show in Pittsburgh earlier this year. Amazing! They blew the sound system with about 4 songs to go but it was still a great show and it was obvious that this guy is the real deal.
Harold Love
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A great read Bob! Not the world's greatest Ferry fan (although I have a couple of his albums) but you really managed to convey your feelings & made them relatable.
Your last two lines as well.... yes....
Stuart James Gray
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Roxy Music for many are a guilty pleasure, but man what a guilty pleaure they are!
Michael Richardson
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I forwarded this to my boss. He turned me on to Roxy Music back in uh I dunno 1976? We saw Ferry's solo "Catch a Rising Star" show in Seattle ($2 I think!) and when we heard that Roxy Music were touring together again with Eno in the band, we had to go. Unfortunately, it was in Oakland - and we had to drive all night to get there after seeing the Tom Robinson Band & the Art Ensemble of Chicago the day before (not together!) in Seattle. Long story short, I fell asleep after the opening act. But I still love that band. - John Foster, KXXO
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:)
Scott Borchetta
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I happen to be with Bryan as this came in and just showed it to him! Very happy. So sorry I missed the show. Peter Asher
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Dad really enjoyed meeting you
Glad you came
Isaac Ferry
I went to see Bryan Ferry on his Mamouna tour in Washington, DC. As the well dressed and coiffed couple in front of me were sitting down, she turned to him and said, "You know I've never listened to him with my clothes on."
Gotta love Bryan Ferry.
Scott Pendleton
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Should add Brian had one of the best bass players in the business with him in Neil Jason
Peace,Jason
Jason Miles
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Come on! You have to mention Neil Jason on bass and the one and only Fonzi Thornton on vocals!! A great band. My only complaint is that on this tour the version of Remake Remodel was really the Roxy arrangement and not the arrangement from the Ferry solo LP "Let's STick Together which is much funkier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSL7JTRqpRM
Tag Gross
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The Hollywood Bowl Show sounds fantastic.
We got Bryan at the Masonic in San Francisco last year and it was a tremendous show.
I remember buying the first Roxy album at Aron's right after it came out and the cover of the album seemed to be seriously disturbing to Manny's
assistant manning the counter.
I saw Roxy with Eno at the Whisky shortly after that.
It is amazing that this music still has it's power 45 years on.
Thanks for sharing your experience with Bryan.
Best
Jim McElwee
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Great and inspiring review of one of my top 2 singers of all time….Paul Rodgers being the other one. Talking to friends some time back we talked about if you could be any singer who would it be….for me it was no choice….Bryan.
I've been a big fan of Bryan and Roxy Music since first seeing them on some UK glam music show back in the 70's. I was knocked out by Bryan and his style and I still am to this day…having seen him on his last few tours. And he always has an amazing band with him.
When I met my now wife in 2009 we shared similar tastes in music. I turned her onto the Roxy Music live disc from their last reunion tour and she was instantly smitten…but it may have been his debonair look on stage that really won her over.
Can't wait to hear what he has up his sleeve next….
Brian Helgesen
PS…at our wedding reception we had the DJ play "Avalon" a the last song of the night
Brian Helgesen
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AVALON was maybe one of the best records to have SEX to. I wonder how many babies were created on that one.
Jeffrey Naumann
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Thank you for capturing his show and art. His bands continue to be fantastic and thanks for taking us there through your writing.
Thank you,
Jim Mulhern
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Bryan Ferry is the most difficult artist I've ever worked with.
His Avalon Tour in 1983 was the first and only tour I've ever walked off of (in ten years & over nearly one hundred and fifty artists) & was my sole reason for resigning from my job in Artist Development at Warner Records.
His arrogance is unparalleled.
Still, Avalon remains one of my top ten albums.
A true example of the agony and the ecstasy.
Ted Cohen
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Yes, it was a magnificent show.
I wished I had seen you there.
His rendition of the track Avalon was one of the highlights.
His background singer nailed it.
Ritch Esra
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I saw the Avalon Tour.
I'm a drummer- it changed my musical life.
Ya gotta acknowledge Andy Newmark on drums ( not on this tour ) and the recently departed Alan Spenner on bass.
I was lucky enough to meet AN a few yrs ago and we communicate occasionally. He's a deep cat and wonderful human.
Google his discography- Sly - John Lennon etc. now theres something to delve into as a music afficianado....
best, Dale Flanigan / Cleveland
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Another great review Bob. Bryan's solo album of covers is one of the best, second only to Pin Ups. Love his cover of Don't Worry Baby. Thanks for reminding your readers of his awesomeness and relevance. Do the strand!
Jeff Sacks
PS True story: About twenty years ago, I walked into a bar around 5pm on the island of Barbados. No one was there except one guy at the bar: Bryan Ferry. We spoke for a few minutes. He was cool, unassuming and had that unmistakable look. No cell phones back then so no picture.
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Beautiful post, Bob.
My pal a Judith Owen has been opening select dates for him and said it's been amazing.
Jon Regen
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The Frank Sinatra of our era and so much more than this.
Michael Des Barres.
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Nice! Ferry blew me away nearly 30 years ago at a show I attended not because I wanted to go but because I was assigned to review it. It's still a Top 10 thrill. I avoided this tour because I didn't want to spoil that memory and some old friends were also playing that night.
Now I'm the jealous guy.
John Kendle
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Terrific Bob, pleased for you! Oh, and the song 'Avalon' was a massive hit single in Australia back in the day, very much due to the beautiful video which really complemented the song! TonyB
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Avalon is in my top albums list. Yet I rarely listen to it. Thats because it was the go to bedtime album for me and my ultimate fiancee'. Four yrs I tumbled in the hay with her with that album as background. To quote another romantic album "it was just that the time was wrong" (Dire Straits)
We ultimately established a loving friendship so there's no bitterness but that album belongs to her and that special time.
However I did revive the title track on a mix tape when I went to England in 1999 to follow the King Arthur trail from Tintagel to Glastonbury.
Cheers!
Joe Mock in PDR
P.S. oh yeah I am one of the few who saw Roxy Music with BRIAN ENO when they played the Whisky in the early 70s.
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Right on! So glad you met Bryan! Love his music!
Owen Dearing, potter
Bend, Oregon
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Avalon. One of the ten best albums ever. Thanks Bob
James Lee Stanley
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Great piece.
There's a reason Europe was always so ahead of the US on music, it's presenters were professional curators who knew the music and shared its greatness with their audience.
As a former Top 40 radio personality, I can tell you that I was never allowed to really speak to my audience, only to perform the Drake-Chenault format of Boss Radio. And even though 50 years has passed us by, radio personalities remain more stifled than ever in any attempt to properly educate their audiences about the music they play. Even more appalling is that voice tracking and computer automation has just about replaced the personality in radio; and they wonder why it's a failing industry. And who cares? Millennials do not listen to radio. Their ears and eyes are online and streaming.
If only there was one hit this year as powerful and as creative as Love Is The Drug!
Frank A. Gagliano
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And that's how I feel about you when I read these columns
Saw the show in Vancouver and fell in love once again
Magical.
Shirley Norton
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Chom Fm in Montréal played a huge amount of Ferry. My co-music director, Bobby Gale, had a thing for Brian. Ferry's bass player, Busta Cherry Jones moved here and became one of the stalwarts of a very cool night club called Nuit Magique in Old Montréal. I'd go there after finishing my 10:00 to 2:00 on air shift. Pagliaro, Nanette Workman (who backed up The Stones vocally) and many musical visitors to town would be there all night. Bowie, Murray Head, Chris de Burgh, Stones, Genesis, Floyd, etc...
We were all New Romantics and Brian's music informed the sound of a post disco Montréal vibe which was watched by the planet.
Rob Braide
P.S. By the way, greatest Ferry Playlist in the History of the world. Thanks. Listen to Busta's bass playing on Stronger Through the years. No one else was doing that back then.
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I saw him at The Beacon a couple of years ago and had the same sensation you did.
Transcendent experience. He blew me away.
And, I think I had played Avalon at least a thousand times over the years.
Thanks for bringing it all back.
John Parikhal
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Bravo Bob, saw Bryan Ferry here at the Ryman in Nashville a year ago.
Your review and analysis so spot on.
Years ago when I was growing up and living in LA saw Roxy Music at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, April 1979. Most of the original band in tact less Eno. Was blown away by Roxy, music and show was just so cool and different. 38 years between seeing Bryan Ferry but just as great as ever!
Bill Kennedy
Nashville
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Thank you for this moving account of BF's show last night.
I was fortunate enough to have seen him this past April in Montreal.
It must have been out of this world with the Hollywood Bowl orchestra!
I always look forward to his new material.
His cover of Robert Palmer's "Johnny and Mary" is one of the most moving interpretations I've ever heard:
https://youtu.be/Din_eWjJWe0
Cheers,
Pablo
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Wow, read this entire thing completely enthralled. My introduction to Roxy Music was via a dubbed Maxell cassette that belonged to my older sister... I can still see it so clearly in my mind's eye... "AVALON" clearly written, all caps, on the spine of the cardboard insert... we were the brace-faced teenaged daughters of Korean convenience store owners, listening to Andy Mackay's slinky saxophone lines and Bryan Ferry's tuxedo-clad croon, safely ensconced in the comfort of our shared bedroom... we lived in a bungalow deep in the suburbs of Toronto... Scarborough, to be exact... wall-to-wall carpeting, flocked wall paper, bunk beds... latch-key kids left to our own devices... fantasizing... transported... to an impossibly glamorous land called Avalon... I hope he is touring this show and coming to Toronto... if so, I should totally surprise my sister with tix! Especially loved this post, thank you, Bob.
Sally Lee
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I've seen Bryan Ferry many times and a Roxy reunion once. The last time I saw Bryan was at the Civic Opera House in Chicago using his sound system. A supposedly superior acoustic venue and everyone heard the sound was muffled. My guess is he did not want to reveal how weak his voice is. He lost me at the show (though it was so great and everything was top tier).
His best show in Chicago was at the Riviera, "As Time Goes By" tour.
My intro was a cut-out of "Country Life".
A friend says she saw Roxy Music perform in St. Louis to 15 people. — Ric Graham
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One of your best....Roxy rules. But why do you go with the current streaming flow without warning when that will deny generations these kinds of special memories? Will any future Bob recollect "I remember where I was when I first streamed....."? No. The physical representation is the glue that cemented the memories.
Michael Fremer
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He is so fab.
What a great review- and so great that you and he connected!
Love his music ? love that you do too!
Regards
Amy Krakow
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Surprised they didn't hit it big in the USA they were well known and loved here in Canada. A real avant garde band back then.
Chris Chapin
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Great review, I can hear your burning. Ferry, around the time I got married, crisp white shirt and perfect black slacks hunched in like a secret fighter, willowy and winning cajoling his mike and
tearing the velvet inside Radio City Music Hall, just the perfectly-sized and sold-out venue, and yes, his music had a way of charming your life.
Ferry fans and those who'd never heard of him. Two camps, you couldn't explain it.
I was so pleased to read he is performing and so strong.
Of course you are correct, the UK has always been ahead, the ideas, the creativity, individuality, the bravery, the necessity in making fresh music
art fashion comes out of London and other worn and narrow roads of the UK..
Will watch for Ferry in New York.
Howard Stein
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You and Bryan just made me cry, Bob. Thank you.
More than this... you know, there's nothing.
sean michael dargan
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Thank you for that delicious piece of writing, Bob. It brought me back to my own meeting with Bryan Ferry, in Quebec City in 1988.
I was barely a man, living with my father and stepmother. That August night, Ferry was in town. He had been scheduled to play Le Coilsée (a large hockey arena), and in the end the show was moved to a 1348-seat theatre. Needless to say, the smaller venue was sold out, but I was determined to go. I was sitting having dinner with my dad and his lady, and she said:
- Aren't you going to a show tonight?
- Yes.
- Shouldn't you be leaving?
- Soon.
- Do you have a ticket?
- No.
- But… how do you plan to get in?
- Don't know yet.
So I went, and at the door of the venue, I ran into a friend who had already been inside. I think he worked with the label, I don't remember. Anyway, he gave me his readmission ticket. I passed the gate and I was in, smiling broadly. I then saw a wonderful show in a fantastic seat in a great sounding hall, with many of the feelings you describe, but in a young man's body on a warm summer night. Then, my friend invited me backstage, and I got to chat with the man. It was a truly enchanting evening, and I re-lived it through your writing. So thank you!
By the way, speaking of "Love Is The Drug", I've always thought that Duran Duran's DNA was based on that track.
Nicolas Maranda
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You nailed it. There is no-one like Bryan Ferry.
I missed the whole Roxy Music and early solo work of Ferry. I came
upon him in the late eighties with his Boys and Girls and Bete Noire
recordings. They were mesmerizing. You knew he had the shit hottest
musicians on those recordings.... He was always coy with the credits,
but he had the goods. Guys who rolled with Miles, Sly, Steely
Dan,guitar gods, and the crazy fusion players. Marcus Miller,
Knopfler, Gilmore, Niles, Levin, Sandborn, Newmark. The production
was pure silk. I was into the whole package.
After college I had the fortune of running across Mr. Ferry on the
streets of Minneapolis on a sunny Fall day. I am not one to approach
celebrity, I don't want to be "that guy". But, it was Bryan Ferry.
I approached him and told him I would be seeing him in concert that
evening. He couldn't have been more gracious and engaging. Standing
on the sidewalk. Bryan Ferry, his PA, and me. He looked me in the
eye, we casually talked his recordings, his setlist, his band, and his
tour. I had a ton of questions and he happily filled-in the blanks. After a few minutes, Bryan turned to his PA and said "Nigel, how about
a glossy for this young man?". Nigel pulled it from a satchel. Ferry
personalized it, handed it to me, and thanked me for the chat.
Smooth, just as I would have expected. Class A guy and one of those
moments you are so glad you had a chance to meet your hero.
Great write up Bob. I was right there with you.
Curt Olson
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Bob if you haven't seen Roxy's Live at the Apollo DVD, treat yourself, one of the best live DVD's any genre any era….maybe because it covers all of them, era's and genres!
Jimmy Steal
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Awesome night and story about Bryan Ferry!
We used to cover "virginia plain" here in Southern California and the 2 or 3 times we did it it just went over like a fart. Nobody knows that song around here. It would end and folks would just stare at us!
This summer I was on a solo 65 date tour of Europe and having a bit of an odd night in the U.K. I spontaneously started playing it and it went over huge. The next night I was asked "Are you going to do Virginia plain again?" It feels so good when you find your audience - even if my audience is found and gained by playing obscure songs from '72.
I've been forcing my band to listen to "remake/remodel" just because, well, I love it but also because of how weird it is/was. That song is 40 something years old and it's still fucking bizarre. If that was released tomorrow people would be just as freaked out by it as they were in '73!! (?)
Thanks for sharing the Roxy love.
~Bobbo
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Saw him at the Santa Barbara Bowl and it was great. Can u believe he played In Every Dream Home a Heartache? Almost mail ordered a blow up doll. I wished he played Like a Hurricane but what are you going to do?
Alan Fenton
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Avalon was amazing. Not overlooked by me. And yes, the number one album to put on with a woman you were bedding for the first time.
Mike Jasper
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Bob...I thoroughly enjoyed your thoughts on Bryan Ferry and his performance. I just returned from the Chateau and I'm reading this as if I'm still in the lounge by the turntable. Plus, I just saw Bryan Ferry in Portland, OR. Yes, he was fantastic. The Portland audience devoured him. He assembled a tight band...I was beyond impressed with his Australian sax player. Which ignited the conversation at the show, that a lot of good groups from Australia incorporated the sax in their songs (INXS, Icehouse, Men at Work). I was hoping for him to perform his single "Is Your Love Strong Enough" that I discovered during the credits of Tom Cruise film Legend. I dig that song, and I don't care what anyone thinks. I also enjoyed Judith Owen with Leland Sklar as the opener. I spent some time the day before on their tour bus, finally getting to meet Leland.
Having breakfast at 10a at Good Neighbor on Cahuenga with musician Keith Allison before I fly back to Portland. Come by!
Best,
Alex Hart
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Wow, wow, wow! Incredible.
In 1982 I was working at The Record Factory in South Sacramento. There was New Wave, there was Prince, there was early hip hop… every Tuesday the new releases came in, we couldn't wait! All of us weirdo kids working in that record store were junkies for our records. AVALON shows up, the store manager unwraps the LP, puts it on the turntable and BLAM!!!! Instant MAGIC. Stopped all of us dead in our tracks. Sure The Clash were great, with all their rough edges, style, message and attitude, BUT THIS? Refined, masterful, detailed hard work, creativity coupled with hi fidelity artistic perfection. WHAT AN AMAZING RECORD! I mean there's catching lightning in a bottle, capturing an inspired moment and things like that are great, when they are. But this AVALON record, it's a testament to laboring over the details, a testament to older artists who have learned their craft and are putting all the extra effort to go the extra mile for sound quality, for the perfect tone and feel in that perfect moment, Phil Manzara and the great, great, great Andy Newmark. Bob Clearmountain, and that genius sophisto vocal. Man those guys PUSHED TO THE LIMIT on this one! Caught lightning in a bottle one perfect, labored careful overdub at a time. The best of all worlds, like Wish You Were Here or Acting Baby. anyway, Avalon, when a record like that happens, it's a marker in time. Such a great, great record!
And you got to see the show and meet that guy. WOW! Good for you Bob Lefsetz! So cool because you obviously love his work so much. So great when the stars align like that.
Nice one!
Michael Urbano
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'Avalon' is, to me, everything you say it is. A sensational time-travelling soundtrack to so many moments.
Iconic guitar-playing by Phil Manzanera… as easily identifiable as Andy Summers.
Thanks, Bob. I love reading your newsletters.
James Stewart
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Radio City Music Hall. Spring if 1983. Roxy opened with "The Main Thing". It was friggin' transcendent.
To my eternal dismay, they didn't play "More Than This".
From the very first day I listened to it, Avalon has been a top 5 desert island disk. Always will be.
-RMQ
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Beautiful Bob.
Absolutely love your writing. And when you write so passionately about music, well, it brightens up my day.
Keep on keeping on sir
Steve Balsamo x
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What a great piece about our hero (Amsterdam loved/s Bryan Ferry). Most sexy man in my memory (born '55). The man shivered our timbers. In reading this every song mentioned plays in my head and brings me back.
Thank you!
Beppie
(Elisabeth Bakker)
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If you haven't seen it before one of the greatest interviews with anyone in recent years was this one with Bryan Ferry
http://thequietus.com/articles/16665-bryan-ferry-interview
as much about being a fan as it is an interview, I'd say you'd enjoy.
keep it up Bob!
cheers
John L.
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Bob - Bryan Ferry has been one of the more unique touring artists from the mid - '80's onwards. He never stops working, always releasing albums and touring, and (almost) always it is well worth one's attention. And what makes it unique is that he treats his early Roxy Music output with as much enthusiasm as any current material he's promoting. Imagine Bowie honouring Hunky Dory and Man Who Sold the World every time he went out. Or, U2 focusing a major part of their show on the first 3 albums etc. And not only does he do this well, he does it constantly, without fanfare, in perfect form and without a whiff of Vegas style nostalgia. A classic example of an artist devoted to working his craft.
Iain Taylor
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I can still remember the day I heard "Virginia Plain". I was working for the WEA branch in Chicago and the mailroom guy brought in a new batch of Warner promos we had just received. I'm not sure why it was the first album I put on (I thought it was "cheesy"; Warners said it was "glamorous"), but I remember playing "Virginia Plain" over and over and over. I have listened to a lot of music in my life, and there are certain artists that make an undeniable impression the very first time you hear them: Jethro Tull, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Yes, etc. As for "Avalon", well, let's just say that if I had to pick 10 albums to take to a desert island......."Avalon" would be part of the package. Thanks for the reminder.
David Hersrud
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Hi Bob...Your thoughts on the Bryan Ferry concert were absolutely spot on! I saw him last Monday at the Mountain Winery in the SF area, and it was truly amazing. Song after song I was saying "I can't believe he's playing this!" Having seen Roxy Music and Bryan many times over the years, I was totally expecting a Roxy greatest hits list, but instead Bryan took us life-long fans on a journey that reminded us why we fell in love with Roxy Music in first place. And the audience ate it up. To hear the audience shout "Virginia Plain" in unison was to know that this was a crowd of true fans, all well aware that they were witnessing musical greatness.
Thanks for capturing the essence of what Bryan and Roxy Music have brought to music over the years, and keep reminding us of the importance of "real' music.
Bob Trygg
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Just an FYI - Bryan Ferry's main guitarist, Jacob Quist, recently released a solo, instrumental album called "Trigger." I mastered it and I have to say, it's really great. He eschews the normal "guitar hero" stuff and takes the guitar in different directions.
I met Quist after a Bryan Ferry content in Nashville and the band was wonderful. Ferry was a bit under the weather, but he put on a great show...classy and compact. Nice to know the old guys still have it...reminded me of how George Miller had to show the kids how it's done with Mad Max Fury Road.
Craig Anderton
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Great write Bob, I go to bed every night listening to one of three albums to comfortably put me to sleep
1.) Anita Baker-"Rapture"
2.) Sade-"Diamond Life"
3.) Roxy Music-"Avalon"
David Wolnik
Three Oaks, MI
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Bob- What a great read about a truly transformational singer and band! I experienced so many of those same feelings/emotions about the same songs... and more. Wish I'd seen this show but felt like I kinda did after your blog. Nearly always love your writings, but ones like these hit so close to home. Please keep up the great work... It's one of this near 60-year old guy's continued guilty pleasures!
Terence Connolly
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That is awesome.
Stuart Gunter
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I saw Bryan Ferry at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Damn. I'd only been following him for 40 years, and now was the chance.
The catalogue is so deep that he didn't even begin to skim the upper 10%. Selfishly, I was hoping for "I Thought", "Eight Miles High", Midnight Hour", "Over You" , for starters. He performed the setlist you described, and threw in "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" which is still as edgy, fresh and dangerous as Day One.
His voice has changed over the years, and the wonderful backup singers effortlessly filled the outlines of his voice.
Ferry makes the current crop of crooners look and sound homeless. Yeah, he's that good.
Larry Gassan
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"Avalon" is one of rock's high-water marks. A desert island disc to be sure...
Ricky Schultz
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We all live different timelines. See, my memories of AVALON are different. For me, up until then, Roxy Music had been an interesting curio. They were like the T-Rex prior to "Bang A Gong" (and after, for that matter) - I'd heard all about them, a few of my friends were into it, they had a sax player, which nobody had in those days - but they never made my 'essential listening list'. Until AVALON. Which was so much more accessible. And I thought it was a hit - probably because I was managing a record store in those days, and it was the only Roxy Music album I ever had to re-order more than once.
Barry Lyons / Rent A Label
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nice
Jeffrey Ainis
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I loved your enthusiasm for Bryan Ferry at the Hollywood Bowl.
I had the honor of booking Roxy Music's first concert performance in America. December 7, 1972--in Athens, Ohio. This preceded their next date--which was a far cry from Athens-- December 9th at MSG.
You can find this factoid at : Roxy Music - Tours - on VivaRoxyMusic.com
Sky Daniels
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Bob, thank you for yet another wonderful piece on Bryan Ferry. I actually subscribed to you a good many years ago over something you'd written about him and I always look forward to seeing his name in your blogs. It's difficult to convey to most of my friends in the USA how incredible he is, how important he is, but when I go overseas, it's a different story. His music has woven its way through my life and, while it's sometimes "cool" to have this seemingly exclusive connection to an artist, it's just as rewarding to know how much he affects others.
I've seen him a few times over the years, most recently here in Orlando with a much different set list (HEAVY on Roxy tunes) that included one of your all timers, "Oh Yeah"....but he still opened with "The Main Thing"....and I cannot agree with you more on how infectious that number is. Reading your encounter with him after the show reminded me of a tale I read years ago from a fan who sat next to him on a flight and ended up as Bryan's guest at the show he performed later, I can only ever hope to have such an audience with him. Thank you for sharing yours. Please keep up the great work!
Kevin Andrusia
Orlando
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Loved that blog! As I've said before, your passion for music is inspiring.
Best,
John Presnell
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Thanks for a great review Bob. It never occurred to me that Avalon never had the impact here in the US as it did in Europe. Avalon was released when I was 15 and at my most impressionable age. The album hit #1 on the Norwegian charts, and the lead single "More Than This" made it to #2. Needless to say, it is an album that had significant impact on me. Thanks again.
Even Brande
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Thanks for your Bryan Ferry note. Yes , Avalon was one the finest LPs to emerge in the early 80s.
FYI, coincidentally, last weekend, Jon Dennis wrote an interesting piece in the London Financial Times "Life of a Song" column which you may be familiar with. re. Lennon's Jealous Guy cover by Roxy Music.
Best...Diego Guirleo
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Saw this show in Pittsburgh earlier this year. Amazing! They blew the sound system with about 4 songs to go but it was still a great show and it was obvious that this guy is the real deal.
Harold Love
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A great read Bob! Not the world's greatest Ferry fan (although I have a couple of his albums) but you really managed to convey your feelings & made them relatable.
Your last two lines as well.... yes....
Stuart James Gray
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Roxy Music for many are a guilty pleasure, but man what a guilty pleaure they are!
Michael Richardson
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I forwarded this to my boss. He turned me on to Roxy Music back in uh I dunno 1976? We saw Ferry's solo "Catch a Rising Star" show in Seattle ($2 I think!) and when we heard that Roxy Music were touring together again with Eno in the band, we had to go. Unfortunately, it was in Oakland - and we had to drive all night to get there after seeing the Tom Robinson Band & the Art Ensemble of Chicago the day before (not together!) in Seattle. Long story short, I fell asleep after the opening act. But I still love that band. - John Foster, KXXO
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:)
Scott Borchetta
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I happen to be with Bryan as this came in and just showed it to him! Very happy. So sorry I missed the show. Peter Asher
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Dad really enjoyed meeting you
Glad you came
Isaac Ferry
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Sunday 27 August 2017
Bryan Ferry At The Hollywood Bowl
http://spoti.fi/2xp0oxX
With the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
It was WONDERFUL!
You go to a show and know they're never going to play your favorite song, the one you need to hear, the album track from decades before, especially a driving, electronic number sans strings, at least the real thing.
But after the conductor's introduction, Bryan Ferry entered from stage left and the assembled multitude lit into THE MAIN THING!
I couldn't believe it. It's like my brain left my body and hovered above in amazement, purely stunned that a track I thought I'd NEVER hear live was emanating from the bandstand with a glory heretofore unknown, it took the original and added power and levitated not only the song, but the audience.
Roxy Music were never superstars over here. They were a cult item with some songs on FM radio when that level of achievement still existed. Then they broke up and got back together and just before they called it a day once again they dropped an LP so out of time, so different from what was being played on the burgeoning MTV, it was completely overlooked.
That album was entitled "Avalon." A record with no hits that eventually became the soundtrack to more trysts than the work of any of today's crooners, John Legend, R. Kelly, they're not even in the same LEAGUE!
You see Roxy Music had a big enough audience that "Avalon" wasn't completely stiff upon release, fans bought it and spun it, because that's what you did, played the album of your favorites a few times before discarding it, since you'd paid for it, but in this case, around play two or three, the sound penetrated, a door opened and you were let into a world so exquisite you couldn't stop telling everybody about it. It became a secret code, a sound you heard in living rooms, in bedrooms, despite no hosannas from the press or buttons pushed at radio. Back before CDs, I'd put the Technics on endless repeat, you can do that with turntables, as I cavorted on the couch, in the bedroom nearby, as I engaged in a world of sensuality with my partner. "Avalon" is the preferred romantic soundtrack of the baby boomers. And they were in attendance last night.
Now you always started with the first side, but it's the second that contained the track that grabbed me first, "To Turn You On," and since I needed to hear that I'd drop the needle on side two and the first song to emanate from the JBLs was...
"The Main Thing."
Some songs take a while to get, they're not your immediate favorites, but over time they become so, sometimes over years, the song I needed to hear again and again from "Avalon" as the decades plowed on was "The Main Thing."
"Look at my hand
There's a soul on fire
You can lead me even higher"
I hadn't seen Bryan Ferry since the "In Your Mind" tour, back at the Santa Monica Civic. He's exotic, off the radar screen, but if you're a fan to see him is to go someplace just as important as that of the purveyors of hits, and just as worthy.
So he's got his ten piece band, with Chris Spedding shredding and two women blowing and backup singers wailing and the orchestra is adding emphasis and you're listening and you're telling yourself...THERE'S NO PLACE I'D RATHER BE!
And then came "Slave To Love."
That's right, Bryan was playing songs we knew by heart that eluded others, all the album cuts, all the covers we spent time listening to when that was still a thing, when music was not plentiful and you made your choices and stayed with them, dove deep.
And then came another hurrah.
I got turned on to Roxy Music in London. Back in the summer of '72. The country was ahead musically, it's still ahead musically. The biggest acts, on victory laps, were T. Rex and David Bowie, they were all over the weekly papers, but there was this nascent act whose record was being played over the in-house sound system at Virgin Records, Roxy Music, I bought it, with its shiny cover and no shrinkwrap. My two favorite songs were on the first side, "If There Was Something," which hooked me in the store, and "Ladytron."
"Lady if you want to find a lover
Then you look no further
For I'm gonna be your only"
But as much as the lyrics hook you, it's the instrumentation that puts the song over the top, and there was this lithe, slinky woman Jorja Chalmers blowing like she was possessed and you felt like you were on a spaceship to MARS! How could this be happening? How could Bryan be going back to his very first album, how could he be playing what I so needed to hear but didn't expect to?
And Ferry has made a side career of covers. I remember buying "These Foolish Things" after graduating from college and my father opening the door to my room to sing along to the title track, AND HE NEVER DID THAT, never to one of my records.
So we were granted a twisted take on Bob Dylan's "Simple Twist Of Fate," which was better than anything the bard has done in years.
But my personal piece-de-resistance was "Can't Let Go," from Bryan's 1978 LP "The Bride Stripped Bare."
"It's a winding road from Cuesta Way
Down Sunset to the beach"
As in SUNSET BOULEVARD! I was in law school, the only thing that got me through was my records. I was a transplant from the east coast, Ferry was in from the U.K., the reference resonated, and it did last night, here I was in SoCal at the Hollywood Bowl with my hero, how much better could it be?
And then back to where we started, with "Avalon."
"I could feel at the time
There was no way of knowing"
That thirty five years would pass, music would become a second-class citizen dominated by disposable pop, yet the stars of yesteryear would still be plying the boards, wowing those who were there the first time through, as well as those who weren't, the twentysomethings who jumped up and just had to dance.
It was truly more than this.
And then the title track of that vaunted LP and a killer rendition of "Love Is The Drug," which finally led to airplay in the U.S., it was Roxy Music's breakthrough, with the car starting in the beginning.
And then the band's first hit in the U.K., "Virginia Plain."
Which was followed by the opening track of the second LP, "Do The Strand."
And then the finale, "Jealous Guy."
It went nowhere when John Lennon released it, but when Bryan Ferry and his band recorded it, it went straight to number one in the U.K., as well as Australia and on Radio Luxembourg, as well as going Top Ten in eight other countries, but nada in the U.S.
Because the U.S. is bright and shiny, but oftentimes misses the plot, the subtlety of magic music.
"I was dreaming of the past"
Going to Burlington to buy "Stranded." Seeing the women on the cover of the English version of "Country Life." Listening to my own personal secret, "Oh Yeah."
"And my heart was beating fast"
Just when you think you're dead, that nothing can elevate your heartbeat anymore, you enter a space so comfortable and well known but foreign in your later years and it feels so good to be back home.
"I began to lose control"
But that really didn't happen until afterward, at the Chateau Marmont, Bryan's son Isaac implored me to come, he said he and his dad would be leaving the Bowl in five minutes.
That proved to be untrue. I ended up in the hotel lobby talking to an art dealer who told me that Bryan was a man of few words.
And then he arrived. The guy who'd just whistled on stage.
And we shook hands and...
He didn't move on, he didn't leave.
We talked about the show, we talked about his career, we talked about Broadway, and then Bryan Ferry told me he couldn't wait to move on to something new.
I asked him what it was.
He laughed and said if he told me he couldn't do it.
I exploded inside, told him that I understood, this was exactly how I felt, if I told someone what I was going to write, I couldn't, write that is.
And then, after ten minutes had passed, I said I'd let him go, I knew he had to press other flesh.
But I felt like I'd been to the mountaintop, that I'd finally become an insider.
You see it's about people. You wander through life feeling alone, that no one gets you. And then you have a conversation with someone and find out they're just like you.
But I didn't expect it to be Bryan Ferry.
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With the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
It was WONDERFUL!
You go to a show and know they're never going to play your favorite song, the one you need to hear, the album track from decades before, especially a driving, electronic number sans strings, at least the real thing.
But after the conductor's introduction, Bryan Ferry entered from stage left and the assembled multitude lit into THE MAIN THING!
I couldn't believe it. It's like my brain left my body and hovered above in amazement, purely stunned that a track I thought I'd NEVER hear live was emanating from the bandstand with a glory heretofore unknown, it took the original and added power and levitated not only the song, but the audience.
Roxy Music were never superstars over here. They were a cult item with some songs on FM radio when that level of achievement still existed. Then they broke up and got back together and just before they called it a day once again they dropped an LP so out of time, so different from what was being played on the burgeoning MTV, it was completely overlooked.
That album was entitled "Avalon." A record with no hits that eventually became the soundtrack to more trysts than the work of any of today's crooners, John Legend, R. Kelly, they're not even in the same LEAGUE!
You see Roxy Music had a big enough audience that "Avalon" wasn't completely stiff upon release, fans bought it and spun it, because that's what you did, played the album of your favorites a few times before discarding it, since you'd paid for it, but in this case, around play two or three, the sound penetrated, a door opened and you were let into a world so exquisite you couldn't stop telling everybody about it. It became a secret code, a sound you heard in living rooms, in bedrooms, despite no hosannas from the press or buttons pushed at radio. Back before CDs, I'd put the Technics on endless repeat, you can do that with turntables, as I cavorted on the couch, in the bedroom nearby, as I engaged in a world of sensuality with my partner. "Avalon" is the preferred romantic soundtrack of the baby boomers. And they were in attendance last night.
Now you always started with the first side, but it's the second that contained the track that grabbed me first, "To Turn You On," and since I needed to hear that I'd drop the needle on side two and the first song to emanate from the JBLs was...
"The Main Thing."
Some songs take a while to get, they're not your immediate favorites, but over time they become so, sometimes over years, the song I needed to hear again and again from "Avalon" as the decades plowed on was "The Main Thing."
"Look at my hand
There's a soul on fire
You can lead me even higher"
I hadn't seen Bryan Ferry since the "In Your Mind" tour, back at the Santa Monica Civic. He's exotic, off the radar screen, but if you're a fan to see him is to go someplace just as important as that of the purveyors of hits, and just as worthy.
So he's got his ten piece band, with Chris Spedding shredding and two women blowing and backup singers wailing and the orchestra is adding emphasis and you're listening and you're telling yourself...THERE'S NO PLACE I'D RATHER BE!
And then came "Slave To Love."
That's right, Bryan was playing songs we knew by heart that eluded others, all the album cuts, all the covers we spent time listening to when that was still a thing, when music was not plentiful and you made your choices and stayed with them, dove deep.
And then came another hurrah.
I got turned on to Roxy Music in London. Back in the summer of '72. The country was ahead musically, it's still ahead musically. The biggest acts, on victory laps, were T. Rex and David Bowie, they were all over the weekly papers, but there was this nascent act whose record was being played over the in-house sound system at Virgin Records, Roxy Music, I bought it, with its shiny cover and no shrinkwrap. My two favorite songs were on the first side, "If There Was Something," which hooked me in the store, and "Ladytron."
"Lady if you want to find a lover
Then you look no further
For I'm gonna be your only"
But as much as the lyrics hook you, it's the instrumentation that puts the song over the top, and there was this lithe, slinky woman Jorja Chalmers blowing like she was possessed and you felt like you were on a spaceship to MARS! How could this be happening? How could Bryan be going back to his very first album, how could he be playing what I so needed to hear but didn't expect to?
And Ferry has made a side career of covers. I remember buying "These Foolish Things" after graduating from college and my father opening the door to my room to sing along to the title track, AND HE NEVER DID THAT, never to one of my records.
So we were granted a twisted take on Bob Dylan's "Simple Twist Of Fate," which was better than anything the bard has done in years.
But my personal piece-de-resistance was "Can't Let Go," from Bryan's 1978 LP "The Bride Stripped Bare."
"It's a winding road from Cuesta Way
Down Sunset to the beach"
As in SUNSET BOULEVARD! I was in law school, the only thing that got me through was my records. I was a transplant from the east coast, Ferry was in from the U.K., the reference resonated, and it did last night, here I was in SoCal at the Hollywood Bowl with my hero, how much better could it be?
And then back to where we started, with "Avalon."
"I could feel at the time
There was no way of knowing"
That thirty five years would pass, music would become a second-class citizen dominated by disposable pop, yet the stars of yesteryear would still be plying the boards, wowing those who were there the first time through, as well as those who weren't, the twentysomethings who jumped up and just had to dance.
It was truly more than this.
And then the title track of that vaunted LP and a killer rendition of "Love Is The Drug," which finally led to airplay in the U.S., it was Roxy Music's breakthrough, with the car starting in the beginning.
And then the band's first hit in the U.K., "Virginia Plain."
Which was followed by the opening track of the second LP, "Do The Strand."
And then the finale, "Jealous Guy."
It went nowhere when John Lennon released it, but when Bryan Ferry and his band recorded it, it went straight to number one in the U.K., as well as Australia and on Radio Luxembourg, as well as going Top Ten in eight other countries, but nada in the U.S.
Because the U.S. is bright and shiny, but oftentimes misses the plot, the subtlety of magic music.
"I was dreaming of the past"
Going to Burlington to buy "Stranded." Seeing the women on the cover of the English version of "Country Life." Listening to my own personal secret, "Oh Yeah."
"And my heart was beating fast"
Just when you think you're dead, that nothing can elevate your heartbeat anymore, you enter a space so comfortable and well known but foreign in your later years and it feels so good to be back home.
"I began to lose control"
But that really didn't happen until afterward, at the Chateau Marmont, Bryan's son Isaac implored me to come, he said he and his dad would be leaving the Bowl in five minutes.
That proved to be untrue. I ended up in the hotel lobby talking to an art dealer who told me that Bryan was a man of few words.
And then he arrived. The guy who'd just whistled on stage.
And we shook hands and...
He didn't move on, he didn't leave.
We talked about the show, we talked about his career, we talked about Broadway, and then Bryan Ferry told me he couldn't wait to move on to something new.
I asked him what it was.
He laughed and said if he told me he couldn't do it.
I exploded inside, told him that I understood, this was exactly how I felt, if I told someone what I was going to write, I couldn't, write that is.
And then, after ten minutes had passed, I said I'd let him go, I knew he had to press other flesh.
But I felt like I'd been to the mountaintop, that I'd finally become an insider.
You see it's about people. You wander through life feeling alone, that no one gets you. And then you have a conversation with someone and find out they're just like you.
But I didn't expect it to be Bryan Ferry.
--
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--
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