In the era of cacophony.
It was not supposed to be this way. The internet was supposed to level the playing field. The future was to be a vast meritocracy. But we did not realize the internet would allow everyone to have a voice, and with this megaphone hypesters yelled for attention, so we gravitated to trusted sources, and those sources are manipulated by publicists.
I'm not saying you cannot get a foothold alone, using social media tools, I'm just saying the odds of breaking through big are de minimis unless you're part of the system. Ignore the stories of the lone upstart breaking through, instead focus on the products promoted by the goliaths, the movie studios, major record labels, HBO and Netflix.
Used to be only a few could play. Now that everybody can play, there's a new tier of success that sits above the broader landscape. Forget those who are already famous, look at those on the way up. When you hear about a new band, a new financier, a new star, the truth is media was not on the hunt for them, but they were promoted by the usual suspects, the PR infrastructure.
Not that good products must not be at the core of the endeavor. For once people pay attention, they want to be satiated, but how do you get yourself in front of everybody's eyeballs?
Forget spamming. People ignore it. That's right, e-mail every famous person you can find the address of, tweet them, but the gatekeepers, and believe me they still exist, will ignore you. You need relationships. And you need money, someone to invest in you and push the button.
And you especially need these tools if you want to graduate from the low ranks to the rarefied air. Just like graduating from the lower class to the upper class in an era where the middle class has been decimated, the journey is nearly impossible without help. Help is usually a college degree from a top university and working the relationships. Same in entertainment. You've got to pay your dues when no one is looking and then attach yourself to the equivalent of a mentor at P&G or Amazon.
Furthermore, we ignore those without portfolio. You believe you can make it without doing the work, without paying your dues. Which is why most teen phenoms expire, there's no there there. And the fact that some enterprises boost these no-talents does not undercut the fact that those who last have something at their core.
So we're ruled by publicity.
Sometimes you can buy it. That's what Facebook ads are all about. Talk to a concert promoter, they buy them all the time. With data telling them exactly who to target and how frequently.
But that's after the talent has been made a star.
It's not about untold appearances, it's not about carpet-bombing outlets so that every consumer will be touched. Rather it's about a few placements that influencers take notice of and spread the word on.
Forget being on a late night talk show. But never underestimate the power of an appearance on SNL. Not because anybody will see you, but because everybody will read you were on! And that's a hard gig to get, the hardest on television, so you must be worth paying attention to.
And a feature in the "Times" or the WaPo, you can decry these outlets as left wing echo chambers but the truth is all influencers pay attention to them. If something is anointed, they know it's for real, that there's money behind it, that it's worth paying attention to. No one wants to invest in an amateur product. It's like the stock market, it's like IPOs, it's like Wall Street. You see who else is involved. Sequoia? I'm in! Because too many ventures run out of cash, are undercapitalized, have good vision but don't make it.
You want to make it.
And you can't without the push of publicity. Which is paid for by the gatekeeper known as the major. Having money is not enough, you can hire your own PR person and gain no headway. Once again, outlets deal with the majors every damn day, there are relationships.
PR used to be a backwater. Now it's the essence of success.
No one makes it alone. Even if they tell you they did. That's another thing to be wary of, when you read these stories and someone says "it just happened," ignore that. The truth is success is hard and people are striving for it all day long and they don't want to appear the workaholic networker they truly are so they soft-pedal it.
You can read the stories, can follow them like sports, or you can make them.
But if you want to make them, you need powerful publicity people. Now, more than ever. If you truly want to be a star.
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Saturday 7 October 2017
Friday 6 October 2017
Almost Like Praying
https://open.spotify.com/track/3dskm5fAe8OkBtM9E0VVWx
What kind of crazy fucked-up world do we live in where the only artist of stature standing up to President Trump is an ethnic college graduate who made his bones on Broadway?
One in which the "Hamilton" cast album is the 13th most consumed album of the first half of 2017, and #13 in sales too!
That's right, "Hamilton" eclipses Harry Styles's solo debut and Rihanna's "Anti" and DJ Khaled's "Grateful" and Khalid's "American Teen" and Chris Stapleton's "From A Room; Volume 1," but it's almost like it doesn't exist in the musical discussion. And this is fascinating in a world where "Despacito" came from left field and triumphed. That's right, the music press and radio are out of touch. "Hamilton" had 472,606,041 audio streams in the first half of the year, eclipsing those of numerous "stars," but you can't hear the songs on the radio...
But you will hear them in bedrooms.
"Hair" was a Broadway success in the sixties and cover versions dominated the Top Forty. But that paradigm isn't happening today, despite Atlantic's best efforts, because everybody in radio is too cool for school, but the public understands.
"Hamilton" is a phenomenon. I've heard more talk about it than any act. And it's been going on in excess of two years. The artist development story of the past few years is "Hamilton," not some boy band or rapper.
But "Hamilton" is rap. But since it's on Broadway the educated whites against Trump who normally pooh-pooh the urban sound can embrace it. And you would too, if you just saw the show.
But you can't get a ticket.
Katy Perry doesn't sell out, U2 tickets are far below face value on StubHub, but good luck getting a "Hamilton" ticket at a discount, it doesn't exist!
So Lin-Manuel Miranda has Puerto Rican roots. And he's no pussy, he tweeted that Trump Is "going straight to hell," quite amazing when scores of country music fans are shot in Vegas and the Nashville denizens are all hiding under the couch, silent.
But Lin-Manuel Miranda is educated, unlike most of today's chart-toppers. He can actually think and analyze issues, and knows he who refuses to stand up for what is right is trampled in the witch-hunt to follow. That's right, it's only a matter of time before they come for you.
And Miranda got instant press. That's the power of a musician. They stand up and people take notice, but most are silent, concerned first and foremost about their pocketbook, unaware that when you lay down your personal truth people can relate most to you. That's what's wrong with most of today's music, it's spectacle, it's hollow, it's the equivalent of junk food.
And here's where you protest, say that description doesn't fit you!
But Miranda knows the first rule of music, if you want an audience your music must be palatable. You're whining in your bad voice sans catchy chorus and you expect people to pay attention? NO WAY!
Now the amazing thing about the technology revolution is you can write and record and distribute nearly instantly, but we haven't had an instant protest record since Neil Young's "Ohio" back in the spring of 1970. That's art, not calculating what will be successful on the chart, but reacting, bouncing off input and laying down your thoughts, creating art without thinking about it. That's what separates music from movies, the latter are contemplated, the former, when done right, is INSTANT! UNFILTERED!
Now "Almost Like Praying" is catchy and close. It's not quite "Despacito," but more people would like this than most of the stuff that dominates the Spotify chart, the only one that matters. Apple's behind a paywall and YouTube is for kids and fading while we're at it, ignore "Billboard," go straight to Spotify, it illustrates what people are really listening to. And will they listen to "Almost Like Praying"?
I don't know.
But it almost doesn't matter. A major star, one of the biggest if not THE biggest, believe me, "Hamilton" outgrosses every act on the road with multiple companies working six nights a week, takes a risk but the rest of the industry is too scared to stand up?
Make me puke.
But I'm thrilled Miranda took a stand, he's a beacon, word passes, that's how it works, someone leads the way and the rest follow. Kind of like Fallon was anointed king and was unbeatable until Colbert switched up the formula, took a stand, ignored the haters and spoke the truth.
That's the eternal elixir. What we're drawn to.
Hell, watch the clip on YouTube, which I just denigrated as a music service but is good for video, "Almost Like Praying" is #3 On Trending, deservedly so, I dare you to watch it without having your heart pitter-patter, without getting excited. You think we have no options. Wrong! Artists can lead the way. Lin-Manuel Miranda just did!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1IBXE2G6zw
(Note: statistics courtesy of BuzzAngle, view them here: http://www.buzzanglemusic.com/wp-content/uploads/BuzzAngle-Music-2017-Mid-Year-U.S.-Report.pdf)
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What kind of crazy fucked-up world do we live in where the only artist of stature standing up to President Trump is an ethnic college graduate who made his bones on Broadway?
One in which the "Hamilton" cast album is the 13th most consumed album of the first half of 2017, and #13 in sales too!
That's right, "Hamilton" eclipses Harry Styles's solo debut and Rihanna's "Anti" and DJ Khaled's "Grateful" and Khalid's "American Teen" and Chris Stapleton's "From A Room; Volume 1," but it's almost like it doesn't exist in the musical discussion. And this is fascinating in a world where "Despacito" came from left field and triumphed. That's right, the music press and radio are out of touch. "Hamilton" had 472,606,041 audio streams in the first half of the year, eclipsing those of numerous "stars," but you can't hear the songs on the radio...
But you will hear them in bedrooms.
"Hair" was a Broadway success in the sixties and cover versions dominated the Top Forty. But that paradigm isn't happening today, despite Atlantic's best efforts, because everybody in radio is too cool for school, but the public understands.
"Hamilton" is a phenomenon. I've heard more talk about it than any act. And it's been going on in excess of two years. The artist development story of the past few years is "Hamilton," not some boy band or rapper.
But "Hamilton" is rap. But since it's on Broadway the educated whites against Trump who normally pooh-pooh the urban sound can embrace it. And you would too, if you just saw the show.
But you can't get a ticket.
Katy Perry doesn't sell out, U2 tickets are far below face value on StubHub, but good luck getting a "Hamilton" ticket at a discount, it doesn't exist!
So Lin-Manuel Miranda has Puerto Rican roots. And he's no pussy, he tweeted that Trump Is "going straight to hell," quite amazing when scores of country music fans are shot in Vegas and the Nashville denizens are all hiding under the couch, silent.
But Lin-Manuel Miranda is educated, unlike most of today's chart-toppers. He can actually think and analyze issues, and knows he who refuses to stand up for what is right is trampled in the witch-hunt to follow. That's right, it's only a matter of time before they come for you.
And Miranda got instant press. That's the power of a musician. They stand up and people take notice, but most are silent, concerned first and foremost about their pocketbook, unaware that when you lay down your personal truth people can relate most to you. That's what's wrong with most of today's music, it's spectacle, it's hollow, it's the equivalent of junk food.
And here's where you protest, say that description doesn't fit you!
But Miranda knows the first rule of music, if you want an audience your music must be palatable. You're whining in your bad voice sans catchy chorus and you expect people to pay attention? NO WAY!
Now the amazing thing about the technology revolution is you can write and record and distribute nearly instantly, but we haven't had an instant protest record since Neil Young's "Ohio" back in the spring of 1970. That's art, not calculating what will be successful on the chart, but reacting, bouncing off input and laying down your thoughts, creating art without thinking about it. That's what separates music from movies, the latter are contemplated, the former, when done right, is INSTANT! UNFILTERED!
Now "Almost Like Praying" is catchy and close. It's not quite "Despacito," but more people would like this than most of the stuff that dominates the Spotify chart, the only one that matters. Apple's behind a paywall and YouTube is for kids and fading while we're at it, ignore "Billboard," go straight to Spotify, it illustrates what people are really listening to. And will they listen to "Almost Like Praying"?
I don't know.
But it almost doesn't matter. A major star, one of the biggest if not THE biggest, believe me, "Hamilton" outgrosses every act on the road with multiple companies working six nights a week, takes a risk but the rest of the industry is too scared to stand up?
Make me puke.
But I'm thrilled Miranda took a stand, he's a beacon, word passes, that's how it works, someone leads the way and the rest follow. Kind of like Fallon was anointed king and was unbeatable until Colbert switched up the formula, took a stand, ignored the haters and spoke the truth.
That's the eternal elixir. What we're drawn to.
Hell, watch the clip on YouTube, which I just denigrated as a music service but is good for video, "Almost Like Praying" is #3 On Trending, deservedly so, I dare you to watch it without having your heart pitter-patter, without getting excited. You think we have no options. Wrong! Artists can lead the way. Lin-Manuel Miranda just did!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1IBXE2G6zw
(Note: statistics courtesy of BuzzAngle, view them here: http://www.buzzanglemusic.com/wp-content/uploads/BuzzAngle-Music-2017-Mid-Year-U.S.-Report.pdf)
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Re-E-Mail Of The Day/Laura DiMichele/Sexual Harassment
Try working as a Corrections officer I've had more dicks shaken at me than I could count. Not to mention the leering and name calling. I have been stalked by ex inmates, to have my phone number changed many times and the answer I received upon complaining was what do you expect working in a prison. But the kicker is all of this treatment didn't come from just the inmates. Lisa G
Lisa Gregory
______________________________________________
E-Mail of the day?? Should be at least the E-Mail of the month, if not the year. Well said, Laura.
There are a few things I've done in my career that I'm very proud of, none more so than putting together the music industry's first all-female (except for me) promotion staff. IRS Records circa 1989, built with great people like Lori Blumenthal, Karen Lee, Meredyth Hayes, Mare Jeffries, Felicia Swewrling - and they ran rings around the boys at the big labels.
Barry Lyons
______________________________________________
There are 2 sides to everything. She obviously has an axe to grind.
I worked for very powerful men; Mo Ostin, Lenny Waronker, Russ Thyret, Eddie Rosenblatt, Bob Regher, etc…
I never saw one ounce of that Bullshit.
She paints with a very broad brush.
Stu Cohen
______________________________________________
I was on board with her all the way until the last sentence. Unfortunate close.
Marty Winsch
______________________________________________
REALLY!
Val Garay
______________________________________________
Good Pick Bob! Heavy Message!
Best
Bobby Tulipan
______________________________________________
Laura DiMichele is my hero. I have so many similar stories.
Susan Scotti
______________________________________________
Amen, Laura! Titty-twisters in an open office on Sunset Blvd. don't fly in 2017, but in the music industry circa 1986...that was another story. Take that, _____ _____.
Much Peace,
Deb Sparks
______________________________________________
PREACH, MY SISTER!!!
Same shit, different day, different town, but always the same fucking pathetic go ad-driven story.
Tina Withrow Graves
______________________________________________
G*d Bless America and Laura DiMichele .. uh-huh!!! Shit.. why can't she be president????
Beki Brindle-Scala
______________________________________________
wow. Truth.
Deborah Albericci
______________________________________________
Yup! Email of the day for sure. Wins the night.
Jeanne Buckley Peloso
______________________________________________
This could be the best email ever in the history of the world!
ANTHONY RHODES
______________________________________________
Well said!
Vanessa Burt
______________________________________________
YES!
Justin Bolognino
______________________________________________
Truth. I was in the shoe biz, they called themselves shoe dogs. They laughed at the ones who got sexual harassment lawsuits...said they just didnÅft know how to pick the right girl, misread her fro the get go.
Vicki Whicker
______________________________________________
I believe her 100%
Robert Gold
______________________________________________
The last line is the kicker.
Conversely its also called P.O.P.
Power of Pussy. It runs the world.
Frank Lewis
______________________________________________
I'd like to hug her! After working in advertising, investment banking and entertainment industries since the age of 17, I can so relate. Women like us are a force to be reckoned with!
Thank you for sharing!
- Diane Cassara
______________________________________________
You poor sorts...
Mitchell Fox
______________________________________________
FACTS:
MEN
ARE
AT
A
DIS
AD
VAN
TAGE
CAUSE
THEIR
DICKS
RULE
THEM
One day men might even realize they're a prisoner of their own pants. It's ironic to me that men technically subvert their masculinity by treating women so poorly and as unequals (and other men, for the sake of their precious heterosexuality), because lusting over conquering women's words and bodies is exactly the kind of thing that enables their external obsession, and stifles their ability to focus on bettering themselves, in the first place.
If men could make conscious decisions to be of service to the world, rather than desiring the world to be of service to them...
And start young. It's bad enough we're going to spend the next generation dealing with the children of outed Trump supporters, whose shit values are being bolstered by their parents each day that cheese-toned bitch sits on the throne... The acting president is a known sexual aggressor, and somehow that's passable as presidential.
This woman and the billions of other women around the world have arguably experienced as much if not more pain & trauma than any war veteran, only it's taboo for them to talk about it, and they don't get financial aid for it, cause "it'd be better if they laid low".
That's how fucked this is.
- PM
______________________________________________
We attract what we think
Michael K. Clifford
______________________________________________
There you go, liberals are either victims or offended,, life is tough
Steven Burr
______________________________________________
Agreed!
Scott Palazzo
______________________________________________
Great email by Ms. DiMichele. And her point about good men refusing to call out bad behavior goes a lot deeper than office sexual harrasment. It's the driving problem within our politics, military, and police forces. Its not just the bad actors, but the good men who say nothing.
Edmund Burke was right.
Bob Langlie
______________________________________________
You want men to stand up for women being harassed by other men? Sure. As soon as women quit standing by when sisters are turning tricks.
Goose, gander.
Peter Duray-Bito
______________________________________________
shesaid.so
Andreea Magdalina
______________________________________________
Please tell Laura DiMichele thank you from me.
Celeste Chada
______________________________________________
Too bad she wasn't pulled over by a caring, nurturing English professor with a penchant for grammatically correct sentences.
Jody Kirk
______________________________________________
Laura sounds like a crude bimbo that would only complain when the blonde hair and questionably attractive looks did not get her what she wanted. She obviously knew the benifits of participation by her last line of her pathetic email. Everybody knows this is sleeze town. You cannot play the game without getting any on you. When she can come clean about how she got over by getting under she can complain. Then again she would be a hypocrite just like HW.
GTFOH...
marco robinson
______________________________________________
Her best sentence is the last one!
So funny and so true.
Fred Dewey
______________________________________________
Amazing
Chris Pearson
______________________________________________
Excellent!
From a 67 year old former department manager.
Burke Long
______________________________________________
This a great response. Classic! Good for her!
Jstone
______________________________________________
A-(wo)men!
We have all been through it.
Just saying to a friend of mine tonight at dinner - thank goodness for speaking up/speaking out.
Thank you for sending this one email missive-it means a lot to many of us.
Martha West
______________________________________________
What a dreary a little bore. Women have ruled the world from time immemorial and they always will.
Dave Dalzell
______________________________________________
Laura and Bob;
It will come as no surprise that many women - and men - chose to turn their light down and work, if not off the grid, certainly under their potential, because they did not want to/could not deal with the level of vile behavior that is the 'norm.
Laura, thank you for sharing part of your saga.
FYI, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Check in http://www.joyfulheartfoundation.org
Keep on pushin'…. a little louder….
Jan Mancuso
______________________________________________
Thank you, Laura, and thank you, Bob, for sharing her email. Yes, It will work out just not in my lifetime.
Joanne Miller
______________________________________________
Brilliant! Chapeau
Vijay Thakur
______________________________________________
Not sure why this qualifies as E-Mail of the Day. I'm sure there are thousands of similar stories. Many men are pigs.
Mark Towns
______________________________________________
I don't get all the anger. I just don't. Angry because a cop is attracted to you? Come on.
Suzanne Bianqui
______________________________________________
thank you Laura!
Jamila Scott
______________________________________________
These are the words of a bitter, middle-aged, man hater. No educated woman writes so poorly. The authenticity of this email is highly questionable, I don't believe a word of it.
I have spent decades in the entertainment business and women are very aggressive in letting men know of their willingness to engage in indiscretions. No one in a position of wealth and power needs to beg for companionship, or sex.
Frank A. Gagliano
______________________________________________
This email is everything I needed and more.
Talked about how "shit happens" in the biz when it comes to stuff like this in class today.....Yeah this shit happens, BUT IT SHOULDN'T, and that's what my teacher left out of the lesson. We're not asking the good guys to be our hero, but we need them to help us change the narrative and you're not doing so by remaining silent. When a large group of people chose to be silent on a dark subject, normalization ensures to cripple society.
Thank you for sharing Laura DiMichele's experience. Feeling fucking empowered so I'm off to bench a car, discover Atlantis, save the whales, and be a leader in the new wave of females entering the music business.
Looking forward to the next email.
Best,
Kathryn O'Leary
______________________________________________
Bravo
Jim North
______________________________________________
AMEN.
Nadja Chatti
______________________________________________
Chiming in here Bob..
Yes it runs deep and dark. This is quite incredible. A trans scientist
who calculated the cost of male privelege:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-41502661/100-women-i-transitioned-and-lost-my-male-privilege
A unique perspective.
Women are SICK if this shit. And should be.
Thanks x
Sarah Piantadosi
______________________________________________
Bob - you HAVE to be aware of this:
http://theredpillmovie.com/
It's right on this discussion!
Sylvie Lewis
______________________________________________
A-fucking-men.
Angela Roeder
______________________________________________
Nothing but truth in this email. Wish it could be shouted from the rooftops but here's the thing: women all know it and men can't believe it so do nothing and on it goes.
Mary Ann Hisel
______________________________________________
HaHa! Love this and Laura! Thx!
Darlene Gorzela
______________________________________________
it's a strange world.
I was fired for 'thinking with my dick' in the 90's. I 'sided' with the manager of one of the bands we promoted and distributed instead of the label they were on...that we distributed. The band was managed by a very smart person who was also a lady. She happened to have an iron-clad contract and was 100% in the right and the band was about to be our big break-through band...but..I was fired for thinking with my dick, the manger owned the band and all potential solo projects from the band....and the band/4 members fell off the face of the Earth. (They were led by dollar signs.)
very heavy sigh.
Louis Heidelmeier
a used to be...
______________________________________________
OMG. Incredible! Say it, sister.
Lynn Crosswaite
______________________________________________
I'd like to offer that not all men are ruled by their dicks... some of us learned how to say no, too.
mrk fnchr
______________________________________________
Sometimes I think that the testosterone in our blood keeps us men from thinking clearly.
Or perhaps testosterone creates a sort-of mental detour blocking men from using our intelligence and best judgment efficiently. That would certainly aid the increase early man's population. Food and sex still rules the senses, yes? We are still primal at times, unfortunately, or fortunately?
Victor Krag
______________________________________________
I feel for her
Dennis Rubenstein
______________________________________________
Nailed it
Deirdre Hill
______________________________________________
Wow can we say jaded? Rightfully so I guess.
Chris Chapin
______________________________________________
And that's why you're the smart and powerful one Laura DiMichele. You learned how to deal with men in the age old game of co-existing. You may have seen women during your career who didn't, wouldn't or couldn't deal and in the aftermath of not standing up for them, you may feel slightly guilty and project this on the "great" men in your life, who also didn't, for their own reasons.
Life is but a game, nothing more, and if you're a cute blonde in a red sports car, you become part of that game real quick. (I know, my wife is the cute blond in a blue sports car. She knows the game of life as the wonderful person she is). I had several companies in the field of publishing and marketing in my corporate life with many women filling the ranks. Some of them knew the game when they first walked in the door, some of them learned quickly and some of them never learned. The last ones deserved some form of protection, but then again they always got caught up in the soap opera of it all and mostly used the harassment card out of jealousy or revenge. You're absolutely right Laura, in the bigger picture of our era, men are at a disadvantage, because their dicks often rule them (for the most part). Knowing that fact alone should give women the power they need to offset the physicality difference in the game of life.
Johan
______________________________________________
Bravo, Laura DiMichele!
At the place I worked in a position of conventional employment, the one fellow staffer that I truly liked and respected was a woman who said her days were numbered because she had resisted her boss's advances on an out-of-town trip. She was right. She was gone within a week, with feeble explanations proffered by management.
A month later, an attractive young black woman was being interviewed for a position comparable to the one held by the aforementioned employee. The owner/president and his second-in-charge stepped out of the room for a moment, door still ajar, high-fived one another and started making giddy comments about the potential sexual benefits to come, referencing not only the interviewee's gender, but race as well.
I snapped. I scolded them and told them if they hired this woman and I witnessed or heard of her being subjected to any of their horseshit, I would be the most compelling witness against them in any proceedings of grievance on her part.
Not surprisingly, I was terminated two days later on grounds of substandard performance, paradoxically, just a week after receiving a $2k bonus check for just the opposite.
We've all witnessed the behavior of the Weinsteins and O'Reillys and Aileses. It's always been rife, and never right. It's just a little more surreptitious now. I was fortunate to be raised by an honorable man and a woman who was the equal or superior of any man. I grew up believing that using the advantage of physical strength, position of power or the effects of alcohol to get into a woman's pants was not only dishonorable, but antithetical to being a real man. Sadly, I've had to end a few friendships over the years based on these precepts.
A postscript to the Weinstein news today was that, evidently, Ashley Judd, was one of the actresses with whom he repeatedly made inappropriate sexual advances. When her sister and mother --Wynonna & Naomi-- were first hitting it big on the country charts in the mid-'80s, I would occasionally talk to the cute, pimple-faced, junior high schooler Ashley while Mom and Sis were being interviewed after the latest awards show. It was evident that she was brilliant, even at that age, and she grew to be as fierce as her fellow Judds. Like the others who has the misfortune to endure his boorish, predatory behavior, Ashley was not someone with whom Harvey Weinstein should have trifled.
Scott Paton
______________________________________________
Bravo, and many thanks Laura for succinctly telling it like it is, was, and how it still persists. Hopefully with more light shed and more men and women standing up to speak the truth this repugnant delusion some men entertain will die off like a bad flu.
Can't remember how many times as a young lady, sans the red sports car, I was pulled over, detained, followed or stalked by officers of the law for no good reason. They just wanted a connection. I was even held by a customs agent returning to the US from Bali because he wanted to flirt and ask for my phone number.
Not even mentioning the power struggles of working with men who felt they had every right to control, coerce, condescend, embarrass, impose, compromise, proposition, run wild with their imagination and blame me, as well as harass me because they thought they could and hey, why not?
And yes, a shout out to those "good" guys who look the other way or empathize about this bad behavior yet never stand up to the jerks and a-holes because that would be stepping on some invisible male code.
I'm so glad I'm now in my 60s and thus pretty much invisible to men in this town, and can finally enjoy the freedom of just being whoever I want to be, and knowing full well that any man who might attempt such nonsense with me or anyone near me will quickly learn he wished he hadn't.
Melissa Ward
______________________________________________
Oh wow am I getting emails. Ha they're hoping they ain't that coward. I know that stung some of my boys but no one who knows me is surprised by my email. I've played with the big boys and give as good as I get. So happy I'm not on facebook nor twitter. Nothing against it and not a Luddite. Just busy and thought that one day I could regret it. Felt privacy important in an abundance of caution way. Never know what the future holds. I realized later that there's power in anonymity in the digital age. I like to keep it stealth and no one can find me. I'd be on the receiving end of misogynist attacks. You have some wingnut readers. Whew Thanks for reading.
Laura DiMichele
P.S. Why the Weinstein Sexual-Harassment Allegations Came Out Now: https://www.thecut.com/2017/10/why-the-weinstein-sexual-harassment-allegations-came-out-now.html?utm_campaign=thecut&utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1
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Lisa Gregory
______________________________________________
E-Mail of the day?? Should be at least the E-Mail of the month, if not the year. Well said, Laura.
There are a few things I've done in my career that I'm very proud of, none more so than putting together the music industry's first all-female (except for me) promotion staff. IRS Records circa 1989, built with great people like Lori Blumenthal, Karen Lee, Meredyth Hayes, Mare Jeffries, Felicia Swewrling - and they ran rings around the boys at the big labels.
Barry Lyons
______________________________________________
There are 2 sides to everything. She obviously has an axe to grind.
I worked for very powerful men; Mo Ostin, Lenny Waronker, Russ Thyret, Eddie Rosenblatt, Bob Regher, etc…
I never saw one ounce of that Bullshit.
She paints with a very broad brush.
Stu Cohen
______________________________________________
I was on board with her all the way until the last sentence. Unfortunate close.
Marty Winsch
______________________________________________
REALLY!
Val Garay
______________________________________________
Good Pick Bob! Heavy Message!
Best
Bobby Tulipan
______________________________________________
Laura DiMichele is my hero. I have so many similar stories.
Susan Scotti
______________________________________________
Amen, Laura! Titty-twisters in an open office on Sunset Blvd. don't fly in 2017, but in the music industry circa 1986...that was another story. Take that, _____ _____.
Much Peace,
Deb Sparks
______________________________________________
PREACH, MY SISTER!!!
Same shit, different day, different town, but always the same fucking pathetic go ad-driven story.
Tina Withrow Graves
______________________________________________
G*d Bless America and Laura DiMichele .. uh-huh!!! Shit.. why can't she be president????
Beki Brindle-Scala
______________________________________________
wow. Truth.
Deborah Albericci
______________________________________________
Yup! Email of the day for sure. Wins the night.
Jeanne Buckley Peloso
______________________________________________
This could be the best email ever in the history of the world!
ANTHONY RHODES
______________________________________________
Well said!
Vanessa Burt
______________________________________________
YES!
Justin Bolognino
______________________________________________
Truth. I was in the shoe biz, they called themselves shoe dogs. They laughed at the ones who got sexual harassment lawsuits...said they just didnÅft know how to pick the right girl, misread her fro the get go.
Vicki Whicker
______________________________________________
I believe her 100%
Robert Gold
______________________________________________
The last line is the kicker.
Conversely its also called P.O.P.
Power of Pussy. It runs the world.
Frank Lewis
______________________________________________
I'd like to hug her! After working in advertising, investment banking and entertainment industries since the age of 17, I can so relate. Women like us are a force to be reckoned with!
Thank you for sharing!
- Diane Cassara
______________________________________________
You poor sorts...
Mitchell Fox
______________________________________________
FACTS:
MEN
ARE
AT
A
DIS
AD
VAN
TAGE
CAUSE
THEIR
DICKS
RULE
THEM
One day men might even realize they're a prisoner of their own pants. It's ironic to me that men technically subvert their masculinity by treating women so poorly and as unequals (and other men, for the sake of their precious heterosexuality), because lusting over conquering women's words and bodies is exactly the kind of thing that enables their external obsession, and stifles their ability to focus on bettering themselves, in the first place.
If men could make conscious decisions to be of service to the world, rather than desiring the world to be of service to them...
And start young. It's bad enough we're going to spend the next generation dealing with the children of outed Trump supporters, whose shit values are being bolstered by their parents each day that cheese-toned bitch sits on the throne... The acting president is a known sexual aggressor, and somehow that's passable as presidential.
This woman and the billions of other women around the world have arguably experienced as much if not more pain & trauma than any war veteran, only it's taboo for them to talk about it, and they don't get financial aid for it, cause "it'd be better if they laid low".
That's how fucked this is.
- PM
______________________________________________
We attract what we think
Michael K. Clifford
______________________________________________
There you go, liberals are either victims or offended,, life is tough
Steven Burr
______________________________________________
Agreed!
Scott Palazzo
______________________________________________
Great email by Ms. DiMichele. And her point about good men refusing to call out bad behavior goes a lot deeper than office sexual harrasment. It's the driving problem within our politics, military, and police forces. Its not just the bad actors, but the good men who say nothing.
Edmund Burke was right.
Bob Langlie
______________________________________________
You want men to stand up for women being harassed by other men? Sure. As soon as women quit standing by when sisters are turning tricks.
Goose, gander.
Peter Duray-Bito
______________________________________________
shesaid.so
Andreea Magdalina
______________________________________________
Please tell Laura DiMichele thank you from me.
Celeste Chada
______________________________________________
Too bad she wasn't pulled over by a caring, nurturing English professor with a penchant for grammatically correct sentences.
Jody Kirk
______________________________________________
Laura sounds like a crude bimbo that would only complain when the blonde hair and questionably attractive looks did not get her what she wanted. She obviously knew the benifits of participation by her last line of her pathetic email. Everybody knows this is sleeze town. You cannot play the game without getting any on you. When she can come clean about how she got over by getting under she can complain. Then again she would be a hypocrite just like HW.
GTFOH...
marco robinson
______________________________________________
Her best sentence is the last one!
So funny and so true.
Fred Dewey
______________________________________________
Amazing
Chris Pearson
______________________________________________
Excellent!
From a 67 year old former department manager.
Burke Long
______________________________________________
This a great response. Classic! Good for her!
Jstone
______________________________________________
A-(wo)men!
We have all been through it.
Just saying to a friend of mine tonight at dinner - thank goodness for speaking up/speaking out.
Thank you for sending this one email missive-it means a lot to many of us.
Martha West
______________________________________________
What a dreary a little bore. Women have ruled the world from time immemorial and they always will.
Dave Dalzell
______________________________________________
Laura and Bob;
It will come as no surprise that many women - and men - chose to turn their light down and work, if not off the grid, certainly under their potential, because they did not want to/could not deal with the level of vile behavior that is the 'norm.
Laura, thank you for sharing part of your saga.
FYI, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Check in http://www.joyfulheartfoundation.org
Keep on pushin'…. a little louder….
Jan Mancuso
______________________________________________
Thank you, Laura, and thank you, Bob, for sharing her email. Yes, It will work out just not in my lifetime.
Joanne Miller
______________________________________________
Brilliant! Chapeau
Vijay Thakur
______________________________________________
Not sure why this qualifies as E-Mail of the Day. I'm sure there are thousands of similar stories. Many men are pigs.
Mark Towns
______________________________________________
I don't get all the anger. I just don't. Angry because a cop is attracted to you? Come on.
Suzanne Bianqui
______________________________________________
thank you Laura!
Jamila Scott
______________________________________________
These are the words of a bitter, middle-aged, man hater. No educated woman writes so poorly. The authenticity of this email is highly questionable, I don't believe a word of it.
I have spent decades in the entertainment business and women are very aggressive in letting men know of their willingness to engage in indiscretions. No one in a position of wealth and power needs to beg for companionship, or sex.
Frank A. Gagliano
______________________________________________
This email is everything I needed and more.
Talked about how "shit happens" in the biz when it comes to stuff like this in class today.....Yeah this shit happens, BUT IT SHOULDN'T, and that's what my teacher left out of the lesson. We're not asking the good guys to be our hero, but we need them to help us change the narrative and you're not doing so by remaining silent. When a large group of people chose to be silent on a dark subject, normalization ensures to cripple society.
Thank you for sharing Laura DiMichele's experience. Feeling fucking empowered so I'm off to bench a car, discover Atlantis, save the whales, and be a leader in the new wave of females entering the music business.
Looking forward to the next email.
Best,
Kathryn O'Leary
______________________________________________
Bravo
Jim North
______________________________________________
AMEN.
Nadja Chatti
______________________________________________
Chiming in here Bob..
Yes it runs deep and dark. This is quite incredible. A trans scientist
who calculated the cost of male privelege:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-41502661/100-women-i-transitioned-and-lost-my-male-privilege
A unique perspective.
Women are SICK if this shit. And should be.
Thanks x
Sarah Piantadosi
______________________________________________
Bob - you HAVE to be aware of this:
http://theredpillmovie.com/
It's right on this discussion!
Sylvie Lewis
______________________________________________
A-fucking-men.
Angela Roeder
______________________________________________
Nothing but truth in this email. Wish it could be shouted from the rooftops but here's the thing: women all know it and men can't believe it so do nothing and on it goes.
Mary Ann Hisel
______________________________________________
HaHa! Love this and Laura! Thx!
Darlene Gorzela
______________________________________________
it's a strange world.
I was fired for 'thinking with my dick' in the 90's. I 'sided' with the manager of one of the bands we promoted and distributed instead of the label they were on...that we distributed. The band was managed by a very smart person who was also a lady. She happened to have an iron-clad contract and was 100% in the right and the band was about to be our big break-through band...but..I was fired for thinking with my dick, the manger owned the band and all potential solo projects from the band....and the band/4 members fell off the face of the Earth. (They were led by dollar signs.)
very heavy sigh.
Louis Heidelmeier
a used to be...
______________________________________________
OMG. Incredible! Say it, sister.
Lynn Crosswaite
______________________________________________
I'd like to offer that not all men are ruled by their dicks... some of us learned how to say no, too.
mrk fnchr
______________________________________________
Sometimes I think that the testosterone in our blood keeps us men from thinking clearly.
Or perhaps testosterone creates a sort-of mental detour blocking men from using our intelligence and best judgment efficiently. That would certainly aid the increase early man's population. Food and sex still rules the senses, yes? We are still primal at times, unfortunately, or fortunately?
Victor Krag
______________________________________________
I feel for her
Dennis Rubenstein
______________________________________________
Nailed it
Deirdre Hill
______________________________________________
Wow can we say jaded? Rightfully so I guess.
Chris Chapin
______________________________________________
And that's why you're the smart and powerful one Laura DiMichele. You learned how to deal with men in the age old game of co-existing. You may have seen women during your career who didn't, wouldn't or couldn't deal and in the aftermath of not standing up for them, you may feel slightly guilty and project this on the "great" men in your life, who also didn't, for their own reasons.
Life is but a game, nothing more, and if you're a cute blonde in a red sports car, you become part of that game real quick. (I know, my wife is the cute blond in a blue sports car. She knows the game of life as the wonderful person she is). I had several companies in the field of publishing and marketing in my corporate life with many women filling the ranks. Some of them knew the game when they first walked in the door, some of them learned quickly and some of them never learned. The last ones deserved some form of protection, but then again they always got caught up in the soap opera of it all and mostly used the harassment card out of jealousy or revenge. You're absolutely right Laura, in the bigger picture of our era, men are at a disadvantage, because their dicks often rule them (for the most part). Knowing that fact alone should give women the power they need to offset the physicality difference in the game of life.
Johan
______________________________________________
Bravo, Laura DiMichele!
At the place I worked in a position of conventional employment, the one fellow staffer that I truly liked and respected was a woman who said her days were numbered because she had resisted her boss's advances on an out-of-town trip. She was right. She was gone within a week, with feeble explanations proffered by management.
A month later, an attractive young black woman was being interviewed for a position comparable to the one held by the aforementioned employee. The owner/president and his second-in-charge stepped out of the room for a moment, door still ajar, high-fived one another and started making giddy comments about the potential sexual benefits to come, referencing not only the interviewee's gender, but race as well.
I snapped. I scolded them and told them if they hired this woman and I witnessed or heard of her being subjected to any of their horseshit, I would be the most compelling witness against them in any proceedings of grievance on her part.
Not surprisingly, I was terminated two days later on grounds of substandard performance, paradoxically, just a week after receiving a $2k bonus check for just the opposite.
We've all witnessed the behavior of the Weinsteins and O'Reillys and Aileses. It's always been rife, and never right. It's just a little more surreptitious now. I was fortunate to be raised by an honorable man and a woman who was the equal or superior of any man. I grew up believing that using the advantage of physical strength, position of power or the effects of alcohol to get into a woman's pants was not only dishonorable, but antithetical to being a real man. Sadly, I've had to end a few friendships over the years based on these precepts.
A postscript to the Weinstein news today was that, evidently, Ashley Judd, was one of the actresses with whom he repeatedly made inappropriate sexual advances. When her sister and mother --Wynonna & Naomi-- were first hitting it big on the country charts in the mid-'80s, I would occasionally talk to the cute, pimple-faced, junior high schooler Ashley while Mom and Sis were being interviewed after the latest awards show. It was evident that she was brilliant, even at that age, and she grew to be as fierce as her fellow Judds. Like the others who has the misfortune to endure his boorish, predatory behavior, Ashley was not someone with whom Harvey Weinstein should have trifled.
Scott Paton
______________________________________________
Bravo, and many thanks Laura for succinctly telling it like it is, was, and how it still persists. Hopefully with more light shed and more men and women standing up to speak the truth this repugnant delusion some men entertain will die off like a bad flu.
Can't remember how many times as a young lady, sans the red sports car, I was pulled over, detained, followed or stalked by officers of the law for no good reason. They just wanted a connection. I was even held by a customs agent returning to the US from Bali because he wanted to flirt and ask for my phone number.
Not even mentioning the power struggles of working with men who felt they had every right to control, coerce, condescend, embarrass, impose, compromise, proposition, run wild with their imagination and blame me, as well as harass me because they thought they could and hey, why not?
And yes, a shout out to those "good" guys who look the other way or empathize about this bad behavior yet never stand up to the jerks and a-holes because that would be stepping on some invisible male code.
I'm so glad I'm now in my 60s and thus pretty much invisible to men in this town, and can finally enjoy the freedom of just being whoever I want to be, and knowing full well that any man who might attempt such nonsense with me or anyone near me will quickly learn he wished he hadn't.
Melissa Ward
______________________________________________
Oh wow am I getting emails. Ha they're hoping they ain't that coward. I know that stung some of my boys but no one who knows me is surprised by my email. I've played with the big boys and give as good as I get. So happy I'm not on facebook nor twitter. Nothing against it and not a Luddite. Just busy and thought that one day I could regret it. Felt privacy important in an abundance of caution way. Never know what the future holds. I realized later that there's power in anonymity in the digital age. I like to keep it stealth and no one can find me. I'd be on the receiving end of misogynist attacks. You have some wingnut readers. Whew Thanks for reading.
Laura DiMichele
P.S. Why the Weinstein Sexual-Harassment Allegations Came Out Now: https://www.thecut.com/2017/10/why-the-weinstein-sexual-harassment-allegations-came-out-now.html?utm_campaign=thecut&utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1
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Thursday 5 October 2017
E-Mail Of The Day
From: Laura DiMichele
Subject: Re: Harvey Weinstein
Date: October 5, 2017 at 4:15:09 PM PDT
To: Bob Lefsetz
Not sure "taking liberties" is the proper description of sexual harassment. Of course I'm not surprised. I'm a 51 year old woman who has worked in legal profession since age 16; and 15 years in entertainment business and legal. I've been working with men. Powerful rich men too. All my mentors are men. I've seen it all. Sure things are better than 1984 but not too much different than when I was a 22 year old legal secretary in a small firm dealing with inappropriate old men. The powerful men may get away with it but the problem of sexism is much deeper. Like office mail room dude sending Dick pics. Or opposing counsel stalking me after meeting me in deposition. Or the highway patrolman pulling me over on the way to work 4 times for no reason but to tell me of his boat, motorcycle and try to get in my pants. When I went to my boss to ask for help, I was told that I stuck out like a sore thumb; cute blonde in a red sports car, so just don't drive on that freeway in the morning. Nice!' Going to take a few more generations to work it out. I have no sympathy for the good guys who are now uncomfortable because women are standing up to this shit. Booo hoo because what hurt me the most was when the good guys stood by and permitted their business partners to get away with it. The cowards who acknowledged what asshole pig did was wrong to my face but proposed solutions like maybe it's better if I lay low and not talk during dept meetings. They felt like that was protecting me. I'd point out that essentially telling me to shut up was sexist and demeaning as well. Some of the greatest men I worked for and with treated me with respect but rarely did I bear witness to one of those men standing up against the serial abuser in the office. Cowards. I'm not complaining because I learned from the best attorneys and by age 25, I was rolling the old horny assholes. Men are at a disadvantage because their dicks rule them.
Sent from my iPhone
Subject: Re: Harvey Weinstein
Date: October 5, 2017 at 4:15:09 PM PDT
To: Bob Lefsetz
Not sure "taking liberties" is the proper description of sexual harassment. Of course I'm not surprised. I'm a 51 year old woman who has worked in legal profession since age 16; and 15 years in entertainment business and legal. I've been working with men. Powerful rich men too. All my mentors are men. I've seen it all. Sure things are better than 1984 but not too much different than when I was a 22 year old legal secretary in a small firm dealing with inappropriate old men. The powerful men may get away with it but the problem of sexism is much deeper. Like office mail room dude sending Dick pics. Or opposing counsel stalking me after meeting me in deposition. Or the highway patrolman pulling me over on the way to work 4 times for no reason but to tell me of his boat, motorcycle and try to get in my pants. When I went to my boss to ask for help, I was told that I stuck out like a sore thumb; cute blonde in a red sports car, so just don't drive on that freeway in the morning. Nice!' Going to take a few more generations to work it out. I have no sympathy for the good guys who are now uncomfortable because women are standing up to this shit. Booo hoo because what hurt me the most was when the good guys stood by and permitted their business partners to get away with it. The cowards who acknowledged what asshole pig did was wrong to my face but proposed solutions like maybe it's better if I lay low and not talk during dept meetings. They felt like that was protecting me. I'd point out that essentially telling me to shut up was sexist and demeaning as well. Some of the greatest men I worked for and with treated me with respect but rarely did I bear witness to one of those men standing up against the serial abuser in the office. Cowards. I'm not complaining because I learned from the best attorneys and by age 25, I was rolling the old horny assholes. Men are at a disadvantage because their dicks rule them.
Sent from my iPhone
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Spotify Radio
It's far better than Pandora, and most people don't even know it exists!
And the point of this article is machines are better than humans, for all of Apple's human curation I far prefer Spotify's algorithms, as for Pandora, the tuneouts are excruciating, why in hell do they think I like x if I like y? Furthermore, Pandora is limited in scope, not every track is included, so you can't build a station on an obscure act, never mind an obscure song.
That's right, you can build a station on Spotify with a song. And what is played...
Will warm your heart.
New music discovery is complicated, especially if you're already old. The truth is you'd rather hear what's familiar than what's unknown, unless it's an instant get, which it rarely is, but I did hear a pretty good David Crosby cut from his last album on Spotify radio, as a matter of fact, it's playing right now, it's called "Sell Me A Diamond," I'm not sure it bears twenty repeats, but it sounds like Crosby, and it's not dated, it's new, at least it's new to me!
But it's the old cuts that are revelatory. I just heard Jimmy Buffett's "Son Of A Son Of A Sailor," which is not his best cut, that's "A Pirate Looks At Forty," but it followed up his breakthrough "Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes," with "Margaritaville," but my Tallahassee lassie turned me on to Jimmy and "Son Of A Son Of A Sailor" was the first album I bought and I immediately became enraptured with the title cut, the opening cut on side one, and there's this one part that closes me:
"Haul the sheet in as we ride on the wind that our
Forefathers harnessed before us
Hear the bells ring as the tight rigging sings
It's a son of a gun of a chorus"
And on the subsequent live album, 1978's "You Had To Be There," which also opens with this same song, Jimmy references his broken leg and it's these strayings from the norm that stay in your head.
And I've got a bit of sailing under my belt, nothing like Jimmy's, I've never even been overnight, but what I love about being out on the ocean is you're out of cell range. Last night I went to see Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings and while they were playing their acoustic music it reminded me of the seventies, when this was the only place you could get this experience, live in concert, when the whole world wasn't networked, when you never really miss anything, since it's on YouTube, when you're never really lonely since you can connect with your friends instantly on your mobile device, and I don't want to give up the future but something is always lost in advancement, in this case that solitary existence away from the fray, when it was just you and the experience, undocumented, you bask in it and I miss it.
And last night on Spotify radio I heard Traffic's "Rainmaker," which brought me back to when I bought the album, when Traffic was cruising the hit parade.
And I heard my favorite Lyle Lovett song "Bears," and this is how you do it:
Fire up the Spotify app on your mobile.
Click the "Radio" button on the bottom, it's the second from the right.
And when you do this you'll find "Your Daily Mix" and previous stations and "Recommended Stations," but skip all those. Click on that + icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen/app, and in the search box that comes up type in a band or a song and when the results come up click on the + button to the right of one and voila, you've built a station, which then starts to play, and what's marvelous, if you're a Premium customer you can skip as much as you want, even go back, and there's a list of what's going to be played next but I try not to look at that so I can be surprised.
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And the point of this article is machines are better than humans, for all of Apple's human curation I far prefer Spotify's algorithms, as for Pandora, the tuneouts are excruciating, why in hell do they think I like x if I like y? Furthermore, Pandora is limited in scope, not every track is included, so you can't build a station on an obscure act, never mind an obscure song.
That's right, you can build a station on Spotify with a song. And what is played...
Will warm your heart.
New music discovery is complicated, especially if you're already old. The truth is you'd rather hear what's familiar than what's unknown, unless it's an instant get, which it rarely is, but I did hear a pretty good David Crosby cut from his last album on Spotify radio, as a matter of fact, it's playing right now, it's called "Sell Me A Diamond," I'm not sure it bears twenty repeats, but it sounds like Crosby, and it's not dated, it's new, at least it's new to me!
But it's the old cuts that are revelatory. I just heard Jimmy Buffett's "Son Of A Son Of A Sailor," which is not his best cut, that's "A Pirate Looks At Forty," but it followed up his breakthrough "Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes," with "Margaritaville," but my Tallahassee lassie turned me on to Jimmy and "Son Of A Son Of A Sailor" was the first album I bought and I immediately became enraptured with the title cut, the opening cut on side one, and there's this one part that closes me:
"Haul the sheet in as we ride on the wind that our
Forefathers harnessed before us
Hear the bells ring as the tight rigging sings
It's a son of a gun of a chorus"
And on the subsequent live album, 1978's "You Had To Be There," which also opens with this same song, Jimmy references his broken leg and it's these strayings from the norm that stay in your head.
And I've got a bit of sailing under my belt, nothing like Jimmy's, I've never even been overnight, but what I love about being out on the ocean is you're out of cell range. Last night I went to see Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings and while they were playing their acoustic music it reminded me of the seventies, when this was the only place you could get this experience, live in concert, when the whole world wasn't networked, when you never really miss anything, since it's on YouTube, when you're never really lonely since you can connect with your friends instantly on your mobile device, and I don't want to give up the future but something is always lost in advancement, in this case that solitary existence away from the fray, when it was just you and the experience, undocumented, you bask in it and I miss it.
And last night on Spotify radio I heard Traffic's "Rainmaker," which brought me back to when I bought the album, when Traffic was cruising the hit parade.
And I heard my favorite Lyle Lovett song "Bears," and this is how you do it:
Fire up the Spotify app on your mobile.
Click the "Radio" button on the bottom, it's the second from the right.
And when you do this you'll find "Your Daily Mix" and previous stations and "Recommended Stations," but skip all those. Click on that + icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen/app, and in the search box that comes up type in a band or a song and when the results come up click on the + button to the right of one and voila, you've built a station, which then starts to play, and what's marvelous, if you're a Premium customer you can skip as much as you want, even go back, and there's a list of what's going to be played next but I try not to look at that so I can be surprised.
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Harvey Weinstein
Don't you get it, he wanted to be a rock star!
They suck up to the high school football star, all the untouchable cheerleaders, you tread the halls feeling like a nobody, scoring well in math and science, absolutely invisible on the social scene.
Then you go to college. You smoke a little dope, you drink a bit of alcohol, maybe you even get laid, not that you reveal your insecurities to anyone, college is all about image, you want to look like a big swinging dick, even if you're not.
And then you find someone who loves you, who cares for you, and you get married, while you play your role at the corporation, while you're a cog in the system.
Or, you've got bigger dreams, you want to triumph. You gain money, and power...
And then you want to get laid. You want all the perks you missed out on for decades.
I'm not talking about serial abusers. They exist. According to statistics they commit the lion's share of rapes. They need to be dealt with. But they're a different species.
No, I'm talking about nerds. Who flew straight forever and then wanted the payoff.
And the thing is if you're a rock star, the women throw themselves at you. Not necessarily the ones you want, but the parade is endless. That's not exactly why musicians enter the field, but they're socially awkward, certainly the greats, and they believe if they get this music thing right their whole lives will work. And when they find out it doesn't, that they achieve success and still have the same problems, they can't write another hit tune, they're done, they're lucky if they've got enough hits to ply the boards until they die. But even late in their days, they can get laid. You see a rock star speaks through his music, and when done right music is life itself. And we're all drawn to it, men and women, we want to feel the buzz. And I'm not apologizing for the sometimes crude and over the line behavior of rock stars, hell, just Google "Led Zeppelin mud shark," but the truth is the women come to you.
They don't come to businessmen.
Oh, some do. But some are transparent, and the businessmen are sophisticated, they're wary of getting involved with a gold digger. And they believe they've earned the best and the brightest. A rock star is satisfied with getting his dick sucked by any woman, a businessman needs a supermodel, someone elite and beautiful, because this is the currency in their world, all the trappings of wealth and success, a fancy car, a fancy house, if you're truly rich a private jet, and a beautiful woman on your arm. True, rock stars marry gorgeous women too, but they're compromised, whereas the businessmen are fully-formed, they know what they're getting into, they need it even more, to show off.
So there you have the culture of the executive suite. I'm not condoning it, just detailing it.
What did Harvey Weinstein possess, other than power? He was far from beautiful, he didn't create art, he was just a powerbroker, and never underestimate power, it's more important than money, although oftentimes they go hand in hand.
Money will pay your bills. But power will get you noticed, will allow you to pull levers and get respect, be feared, and will deliver the trappings.
Come on, Harvey Weinstein invented the modern day Oscar campaign, before him it was civilized, you didn't want to lobby too hard.
And Harvey didn't only do his business, he socialized, he wanted the accolades, he had a need deep inside, as most successful businessmen have, one that usually cannot be filled. But businessmen are at their peak longer than rock stars, and they've got more money.
And the conundrum is women are attracted to power. They say they want a soft, sensitive guy, but this is untrue, they prefer someone rough around the edges, someone different from them, evidencing testosterone. And you can argue with me all you want, but the relationship expert Esther Perel agrees with me, it's hard to say the politically incorrect thing.
But now the businessmen complain there's been an overcorrection. You cannot read the "New York Times" without finding a woman complaining the system has kept her down. And I don't doubt the veracity of these claims, it's just that men feel beaten down by this, and impotent. I'm referring to the rank and file. The ones doing good. And the right wing wingnuts, who have contempt for females and successful people.
But the elite... They cannot be contained, just like rock stars. Rock stars don't stop trashing hotel rooms, their road manager just continues to whip off hundreds. As Harvey Weinstein just continued to whip off settlements. They believe they're untouchable, and to a certain degree they are, they've got PR teams to spin the truth and high-priced lawyers to aid them in escaping liability. They don't read the news, THEY MAKE THE NEWS! That's their perspective.
And the weird thing is we oftentimes like their work. We love Miramax films, we swear by Uber. That's the culture we live in, we venerate the successes until the truth is revealed, that personally these people are scumbags making immoral choices. Kinda like that politician who is pro-life but urged his mistress to get an abortion. When it comes to them, the rules don't apply. Politics is show business for ugly people. But still, Judith Miller helped get us into a war, being dazzled with access to the Bush team.
We all want access, we wall want to get backstage, we wall want more.
We're just not prepared for the cost.
I'm not saying those women abused by Harvey were asking for it, I'm just saying there's a dichotomy between the powerful and the powerless. And if you sit on the sidelines, hewing to your morality, you get nowhere, and if you take a risk, you may get bit.
But this is America. A contradiction. We love our guns and look the other way when they're used in crimes. And there's a code, you protect your family and the elite powerbrokers protect each other, until the gotcha event occurs, but the weirdest thing is Donald Trump was caught again and again and won anyway, and then turned on his accusers, calling them fake news.
Rehab ain't gonna fix Harvey Weinstein. This is why he's competing, it's baked into his DNA, he wants the rich and famous perks, otherwise why do it? Like all the wanker financiers who trade in their first spouse for a trophy wife, they feel they're entitled to it!
What are we entitled to in America? A job, a roof over our head, food on the table?
Actually, none of that. More and more it's every man for himself.
So you're surprised when Harvey Weinstein climbs the ladder and takes liberties?
I'm not.
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They suck up to the high school football star, all the untouchable cheerleaders, you tread the halls feeling like a nobody, scoring well in math and science, absolutely invisible on the social scene.
Then you go to college. You smoke a little dope, you drink a bit of alcohol, maybe you even get laid, not that you reveal your insecurities to anyone, college is all about image, you want to look like a big swinging dick, even if you're not.
And then you find someone who loves you, who cares for you, and you get married, while you play your role at the corporation, while you're a cog in the system.
Or, you've got bigger dreams, you want to triumph. You gain money, and power...
And then you want to get laid. You want all the perks you missed out on for decades.
I'm not talking about serial abusers. They exist. According to statistics they commit the lion's share of rapes. They need to be dealt with. But they're a different species.
No, I'm talking about nerds. Who flew straight forever and then wanted the payoff.
And the thing is if you're a rock star, the women throw themselves at you. Not necessarily the ones you want, but the parade is endless. That's not exactly why musicians enter the field, but they're socially awkward, certainly the greats, and they believe if they get this music thing right their whole lives will work. And when they find out it doesn't, that they achieve success and still have the same problems, they can't write another hit tune, they're done, they're lucky if they've got enough hits to ply the boards until they die. But even late in their days, they can get laid. You see a rock star speaks through his music, and when done right music is life itself. And we're all drawn to it, men and women, we want to feel the buzz. And I'm not apologizing for the sometimes crude and over the line behavior of rock stars, hell, just Google "Led Zeppelin mud shark," but the truth is the women come to you.
They don't come to businessmen.
Oh, some do. But some are transparent, and the businessmen are sophisticated, they're wary of getting involved with a gold digger. And they believe they've earned the best and the brightest. A rock star is satisfied with getting his dick sucked by any woman, a businessman needs a supermodel, someone elite and beautiful, because this is the currency in their world, all the trappings of wealth and success, a fancy car, a fancy house, if you're truly rich a private jet, and a beautiful woman on your arm. True, rock stars marry gorgeous women too, but they're compromised, whereas the businessmen are fully-formed, they know what they're getting into, they need it even more, to show off.
So there you have the culture of the executive suite. I'm not condoning it, just detailing it.
What did Harvey Weinstein possess, other than power? He was far from beautiful, he didn't create art, he was just a powerbroker, and never underestimate power, it's more important than money, although oftentimes they go hand in hand.
Money will pay your bills. But power will get you noticed, will allow you to pull levers and get respect, be feared, and will deliver the trappings.
Come on, Harvey Weinstein invented the modern day Oscar campaign, before him it was civilized, you didn't want to lobby too hard.
And Harvey didn't only do his business, he socialized, he wanted the accolades, he had a need deep inside, as most successful businessmen have, one that usually cannot be filled. But businessmen are at their peak longer than rock stars, and they've got more money.
And the conundrum is women are attracted to power. They say they want a soft, sensitive guy, but this is untrue, they prefer someone rough around the edges, someone different from them, evidencing testosterone. And you can argue with me all you want, but the relationship expert Esther Perel agrees with me, it's hard to say the politically incorrect thing.
But now the businessmen complain there's been an overcorrection. You cannot read the "New York Times" without finding a woman complaining the system has kept her down. And I don't doubt the veracity of these claims, it's just that men feel beaten down by this, and impotent. I'm referring to the rank and file. The ones doing good. And the right wing wingnuts, who have contempt for females and successful people.
But the elite... They cannot be contained, just like rock stars. Rock stars don't stop trashing hotel rooms, their road manager just continues to whip off hundreds. As Harvey Weinstein just continued to whip off settlements. They believe they're untouchable, and to a certain degree they are, they've got PR teams to spin the truth and high-priced lawyers to aid them in escaping liability. They don't read the news, THEY MAKE THE NEWS! That's their perspective.
And the weird thing is we oftentimes like their work. We love Miramax films, we swear by Uber. That's the culture we live in, we venerate the successes until the truth is revealed, that personally these people are scumbags making immoral choices. Kinda like that politician who is pro-life but urged his mistress to get an abortion. When it comes to them, the rules don't apply. Politics is show business for ugly people. But still, Judith Miller helped get us into a war, being dazzled with access to the Bush team.
We all want access, we wall want to get backstage, we wall want more.
We're just not prepared for the cost.
I'm not saying those women abused by Harvey were asking for it, I'm just saying there's a dichotomy between the powerful and the powerless. And if you sit on the sidelines, hewing to your morality, you get nowhere, and if you take a risk, you may get bit.
But this is America. A contradiction. We love our guns and look the other way when they're used in crimes. And there's a code, you protect your family and the elite powerbrokers protect each other, until the gotcha event occurs, but the weirdest thing is Donald Trump was caught again and again and won anyway, and then turned on his accusers, calling them fake news.
Rehab ain't gonna fix Harvey Weinstein. This is why he's competing, it's baked into his DNA, he wants the rich and famous perks, otherwise why do it? Like all the wanker financiers who trade in their first spouse for a trophy wife, they feel they're entitled to it!
What are we entitled to in America? A job, a roof over our head, food on the table?
Actually, none of that. More and more it's every man for himself.
So you're surprised when Harvey Weinstein climbs the ladder and takes liberties?
I'm not.
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Endless Petty
He wasn't running on fumes.
Most aged, classic bands have been beaten down, believing their audience still cared they released new music to little acclaim and then gave up, gussied up their look and went on endless victory parades where they played their hits to an aged audience and it isn't adulation so much as money, they need it, to pay their bills, there was never that much money in the beginning, when royalty rates were low and tickets were four, five and six dollars, and then they got divorced, after spending everything, believing it was gonna come in forever, and now you can see them, but it's not them, not the hungry people who needed it way back when, who created the soundtrack to our lives.
You can't make that much money in music. So now people dream of being techies, and bankers, and we need both, but their efforts are transitory at best. Whereas when we hear Tom Petty's songs on the radio they still have impact, meaning, he lives on, even though he's dead.
And that's hard to compute, that someone's gone. But the truth is we know our rock musicians, even if we don't. We listened to the albums, we read about them, they're far from faceless, and we never forget their work, it is never superseded. You might have a computer in the closet that runs MS-DOS, even OS9, but you never break it out, it's ancient history, but you still play those old records, even if it's mostly in your head, they're ingrained in your brain.
But the difference with Petty is he never retired. Never gave up. Never stopped recording new music. Never stopped taking chances. Doing his radio show. While everybody else gave up and took the money, like Dylan, doing adverts, and Townshend, approving big league synchs, Petty sat on the sidelines, while Neil Young promoted the specious Pono, while everybody in Hollywood was making tech investments, Tom was just a musician, that was enough for him.
And it was enough for us.
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Most aged, classic bands have been beaten down, believing their audience still cared they released new music to little acclaim and then gave up, gussied up their look and went on endless victory parades where they played their hits to an aged audience and it isn't adulation so much as money, they need it, to pay their bills, there was never that much money in the beginning, when royalty rates were low and tickets were four, five and six dollars, and then they got divorced, after spending everything, believing it was gonna come in forever, and now you can see them, but it's not them, not the hungry people who needed it way back when, who created the soundtrack to our lives.
You can't make that much money in music. So now people dream of being techies, and bankers, and we need both, but their efforts are transitory at best. Whereas when we hear Tom Petty's songs on the radio they still have impact, meaning, he lives on, even though he's dead.
And that's hard to compute, that someone's gone. But the truth is we know our rock musicians, even if we don't. We listened to the albums, we read about them, they're far from faceless, and we never forget their work, it is never superseded. You might have a computer in the closet that runs MS-DOS, even OS9, but you never break it out, it's ancient history, but you still play those old records, even if it's mostly in your head, they're ingrained in your brain.
But the difference with Petty is he never retired. Never gave up. Never stopped recording new music. Never stopped taking chances. Doing his radio show. While everybody else gave up and took the money, like Dylan, doing adverts, and Townshend, approving big league synchs, Petty sat on the sidelines, while Neil Young promoted the specious Pono, while everybody in Hollywood was making tech investments, Tom was just a musician, that was enough for him.
And it was enough for us.
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Tuesday 3 October 2017
Petty Playlist
http://spoti.fi/2fNCBUm
1
"God it's so painful
Something that's so close
And still so far out of reach"
I got a phone call, my best friend said he needed to go to lunch. His father had died two weeks before, and he was down.
I'm a good friend. You realize to never say no. I sat there listening to him at the restaurant at LACMA, he told the story, but I didn't get it, I didn't fully understand...
Until my father died.
He had multiple myeloma. Used to be a death sentence. People can live a long time with it now, ergo Tom Brokaw. When my dad was diagnosed they said 3 years. But he doctor-shopped, you must do this when you've got cancer, and found a doctor in Arizona who kept him alive for four...
But then he passed.
I thought I was prepared. He'd had pneumonia. But I wasn't.
I was in shock for a month. For a year thereafter I was reeling.
And I'm reeling now.
2
Now that friend whose dad passed ultimately committed suicide. Which meant I thought about him every damn day for the next ten years. I could see his casket being lowered into the ground. I refused to see him lying in it, figuring I could never get that image out of my head, but when everybody else went to his mother's house, I went to the graveyard, I had to accompany him, like in that Bob Seger song. And I think of how much he's missed, in the ensuing fifteen years. Because the truth is death is final, and you never know what the future will bring. My dad would have loved portable phones, he loved to talk on the phone, he was like Tony Roberts in "Play It Again, Sam," leaving his number wherever he went, so he could be reached, he never wanted to be out of touch, and then he was gone forever.
3
Tom Petty is now gone forever. And I've never felt this way since my dad died. Empty. Off-kilter. Unable to sleep.
Now if you ask me, and you didn't, I'm thinking it's drug-related. And I know the inner circle will be pissed at me for speculating, and maybe I'm wrong, Richard Jewell didn't do it when I thought he did, but cardiac arrest comes along with O.D.'s but the weird thing is, even if Tom's another drug casualty it won't undercut the loss by much. Yes, we'll think he was stupid. And that's so weird, a country that thinks drugs are cool until they bite you in the ass... But the truth is Tom impacted us, was always there, and now he's not.
Whenever my parents went on a plane trip I worried something would happen.
My college roommate's brother was killed in a car accident, I was there when the call came in. To have three children grow up and prosper is rare, but it happened in my family. But my dad was gone at 70, which seems so young these days, but Tom Petty was...
66.
BREAKDOWN
Because it was the first, because it was a KROQ staple, when listening to the Pasadena station was a badge of honor, when it was free-format, before it became the ROQ of the 80s.
I'd lie in bed with my girlfriend listening to the live version, trying to get up and go to law school, but we'd wait for it to end first.
"Baby, breakdown, go ahead and give it to me"
The directness, the urgency of rock and roll, what more could you ask for?
THE WILD ONE, FOREVER
Probably my favorite Petty song. So majestic, it'd be a winner without the lyrics, about someone who's so wrong but to you so right.
FOOLED AGAIN (I DON'T LIKE IT)
There should be an exclamation point at the end of the title, because when Tom sings this line he emotes and when I listen right now it brings tears to my eyes, because he sounds so vibrant and alive...
But he's not!
LUNA
It's the dark ones that reach us, that penetrate our souls, the ones that could never be on the radio, but are our personal favorites, the ones that make us feel so not alone in this world.
It's haunting, listening now it's like Tom's speaking from the grave.
RESTLESS
"You're Gonna Get It" was a success, artistically, but not financially, it was the kind of album fans bought and nobody else purchased, but if you laid down your cash, you LOVED IT!
The vocal in this track evidences the Petty to come, the sneer, the attitude, laden with confidence, the one who knew with his axe and his voice and his band he was as powerful as anybody in the world.
YOU'RE GONNA GET IT
Once again, it's the urgent, passionate vocal, with a chorus that was less emphatic than the verse, as if Tom had learned the canon of the British Invasion and knew you could mess with the formula and it could impact the listener.
MAGNOLIA
Also a harbinger of what was to come, maybe it needed Jimmy I's production, but the band has got that sound and Petty is dancing on top, and when the chorus plays you get the darkness of the bands from Birmingham, all those British burgs with rain, where you sat inside and lived for your records, the antithesis of your vision of Florida.
DON'T DO ME LIKE THAT
Was this a hit? Certainly not immediately, we bought the album as soon as it came out, and played it incessantly, this cut deep on the second side resonated, in an era when a man could still protest, complain about being on the losing end, before the woke males apologized for their existence and the out of it men continued to rape and pillage and truth went out the window and we ended up where we are now.
EVEN THE LOSERS
Get lucky sometimes.
This is one of those cuts you know, and then years later, after you've got more time under your belt, shines with its truth. That's most lives, we put in our time and we never reach the destination, our optimism wavers, but then we hear this song and we realize most of us are losers, but still...
There's a chance.
HERE COMES MY GIRL
Didn't sound quite like anything else at the time. Like Mitch Ryder filtered through the British Invasion, a modern song with roots in the sixties. Still, there's that moment when Tom sings "Watch her walk" when all you can do is swoon...
REFUGEE
It's the sound, the lyrics could be about anything, it's an anthem, something we always need but so rarely get, in this case with an intimate verse and then an explosive chorus, with Benmont Tench's keyboard holding the whole thing together.
A WOMAN IN LOVE (IT'S NOT ME)
We broke up. We'd lived together for years. She continued to go to the movies, I continued to listen to my records. And after staying up all night listening on headphones I decided we should still be together, so I waited until a reasonable hour, 7, and I dialed her...
And she was in bed with someone else.
And I couldn't fall asleep, all I did was play this cut over and over again.
SOMETHING BIG
That's what I said to the guy who committed suicide, maybe we were just a couple of clowns working on something big. There's no rulebook in Hollywood, no established path, you've got to find your own, and if you pay fealty to the company it's just a matter of time before you get screwed, left out. "Hard Promises" was just too dark, it didn't connect like "Damn The Torpedoes," but listening now this is exquisite, the sound, the feel, it's magic.
THE WAITING
The funny thing is it was supposed to be the hit track, but it wasn't. It was on the radio and then it wasn't. So, as time passed the masses didn't own it, I did, other listeners too.
But to tell you the truth I didn't LOVE IT, ADORE IT, until Linda Ronstadt covered it a decade and a half later on her LP "Feels Like Home." It's different, the instrumentation is acoustic and background and her vocal is up front and center, it's the power, you sit there and listen and say RIGHT! I've included it.
STOP DRAGGIN' MY HEART AROUND
I've got this boxed set, from when that was still a thing, that's unavailable now, with a Petty version of this smash, but it's not on Spotify.
But it is available on YouTube, and you should click through and hear it, because all these years later it's the definitive take, the one that will make you smile with Tom's sneer, it's the same song, but it's more rock, it's definitive:
http://bit.ly/2hMqnvS
YOU GOT LUCKY
WHEN YOU FOUND ME!
We hear this all the time from women, especially when it's over, but to hear it from a man, a regular guy, is so heartening. Yup, we're giving it our all, we're not the bad boys you read about, we're considerate, you got lucky when we found you.
STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS
It's the dark intro, this is a sleeper, it's another one of those cuts that grow on you, that you liked back when, but came to love NOW!
A WASTED LIFE
It's forty years later. Did you become who you wanted to be? Did you miss your chance? Did you reach for the brass ring or punt? Have you lived a wasted life? The funny thing is Petty only became bigger, but too many others burned out, sacrificed their lives for an unachievable dream, lived for the music and then got passed by and now are nowhere.
DON'T COME AROUND HERE NO MORE
He was a faded rock star. He wasn't able to follow up his genius, the moment passed him by, "Hard Promises" was a disappointment and then "Long After Dark" did worse and no one expected him to bounce back all the way with this, which was all over MTV with its surrealistic video, it sounded like nothing else, not even Petty, when that was still a badge of honor.
REBELS
Another track that's ingratiated itself, that I've warmed up to over time, it's the screaming guitars.
JAMMIN' ME
So simple, yet so right, this was a highlight in concert, and the sentiment, speaking the truth, being burned out and overwhelmed on the popular culture jammed down our throat presaged our overwhelming culture today, when we're jammed up and jelly tight 24/7.
END OF THE LINE
Who could forget Tom riding in the train and singing in the video?
Here it is: http://bit.ly/1nqY9Nz
I WON'T BACK DOWN
So simple, yet so right. With the Beach Boys/ELO chorus...HEY BABY!
This was before sports appropriated it, when it was still a rock and roll anthem.
Hell, there ain't no easy way out, there never is.
LOVE IS A LONG ROAD
At this late date, I'd rather hear this. It's the darkness aligned with the energy, and the truth is love truly is a long, long road, and unless you're dedicated, unless you're willing to hang in there, you'll never get the rewards. And you've got to adore anybody who can use the word "desperate" in a song, because that's so often the human condition, yet no one admits it. That's what we want artists to do, speak the unspeakable, so we don't feel so alone.
RUNNIN' DOWN A DREAM
I used to love it for the Del Shannon reference, but as time has gone by I've come to love it for its energy, for not being an obvious hit, for being minor yet so right, and now I've got tears in my eyes once again.
FREE FALLIN'
Remember that girl on the ramp? Under the Southern California sky?
Tom Petty was just like me, the rest of us transplants, we dreamed of a better life and we came to California to live it, and when you saw Tom and the Heartbreakers perform this in SoCal everybody would stand and point their heads to the sky like crooning canines and sing at the top of their lungs, YEAH I'M FREE, FREE FALLIN'! It just made you wanna feel good, you wanna feel good, right?
INTO THE GREAT WIDE OPEN
MTV was going grunge and pop, but Tom soldiered on, telling the SoCal story of the seventies when no one cared anymore, that's the problem, the scene moved on, the music too, but we did not, and we loved Tom because he didn't either, he stayed true to his roots, he didn't sell out.
LEARNING TO FLY
The twinkly guitar, it's the kind of song you get the first time through, that makes you feel joyous, happy.
SOMETHING IN THE AIR
A one hit wonder, but that initial Thunderclap Newman album was a classic. Jimmy McCulloch went on to play with Paul McCartney and then he put his hand too deep into the medicine jar and left this mortal coil, and shortly thereafter so did Speedy Keen, even though I bought the solos. The song was only available at first on "The Strawberry Statement" soundtrack, as well as a single, I think, people knew it but no one ever talked about it and you've got to love Tom for resuscitating it.
MARY JANE'S LAST DANCE
His contemporaries were finished. It was a greatest hits album, a throwaway, solely about the bucks, but Tom and his band of merrymakers came up with this track that fires on all cylinders, the riff, the sound, THE LYRICS! "Mary Jane's Last Dance" is the kind of song you can never burn out on, and I never have, it's always fresh, I never turn it off.
YOU WRECK ME
A rave-up in concert, so basic but when everybody's giving their all it grabs you and levitates you.
WILDFLOWERS
By this point, 1994, Tom's solo records were bigger than those with the Heartbreakers. But the funny thing about the title cut of "Wildflowers" is it was a quiet, acoustic number, akin to work from the sixties as opposed to the nineties, which is why it felt so right, we're still yearning for this sound.
IT'S GOOD TO BE KING
I've got to believe Tom was inspired by that Mel Brooks movie, and probably I can verify this online, but this album came out before the internet revolution.
ROOM AT THE TOP
"She's The One" was a disaster. Never tie your new album to a movie, it lives and dies on the box office, and even though I saw it, "She's The One" tanked, and so did the LP. But this, the opening cut from 1999's "Echo," is so world-weary and experienced it resonates.
THE LAST DJ
And now it was the twenty first century and radio meant less and files were everything and this album was a bit out of time but that didn't stop Tom, he always marched to the beat of his own drummer.
LOVER OF THE BAYOU
And now Tom's covering Roger McGuinn, and making one of Roger's latter-day tracks come alive, with an intense vocal and stinging guitar.
CRYSTAL RIVER
But this is the Mudcrutch piece-de-resistance, arguably the best thing Tom did in the twenty first century, an almost ten minute journey that will have you toking up and contemplating the trip your life has been. If you want to know what the late sixties were like, listen to this.
I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT
Could have been cut in the sixties. Dependent upon Mike Campbell's guitar. Tom was always true to his roots, he never tried to be anything other than what he was, which is revelatory in this chameleon-like world.
FORGOTTEN MAN
From 2014's forgotten album "Hypnotic Eye," Tom played this at the Hollywood Bowl and no one got up and went to the bathroom, started talking, this fit in perfectly, it was great.
Now I left out some big tracks, and certainly some of your favorites, but these are the cuts that I'm thinking about, that speak to me today, they've been playing in my mind.
But I can't listen to them, because then it would remind me that Tom's dead, and I'm not ready for that, no way.
Death comes to us all, it's guaranteed. But we never think it's gonna be soon. We think everything will remain the same, our touchstones will be here, but when they start to go, then we know we're next. As long as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are plying the boards, we know in our hearts we're young, we're alive and kicking, whether we go to the gig or not. But once it's impossible, once it's lost, and it has been forever, unreclaimable, then we're empty, life is about loss, and it becomes overburdening, until you pass too.
Tom Petty was the last rock star. Who hadn't sold out, who didn't do what was expedient, who did what he wanted to, and only what he wanted to.
But now he's gone too.
They say rock and roll is here to stay.
But it certainly doesn't feel that way.
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1
"God it's so painful
Something that's so close
And still so far out of reach"
I got a phone call, my best friend said he needed to go to lunch. His father had died two weeks before, and he was down.
I'm a good friend. You realize to never say no. I sat there listening to him at the restaurant at LACMA, he told the story, but I didn't get it, I didn't fully understand...
Until my father died.
He had multiple myeloma. Used to be a death sentence. People can live a long time with it now, ergo Tom Brokaw. When my dad was diagnosed they said 3 years. But he doctor-shopped, you must do this when you've got cancer, and found a doctor in Arizona who kept him alive for four...
But then he passed.
I thought I was prepared. He'd had pneumonia. But I wasn't.
I was in shock for a month. For a year thereafter I was reeling.
And I'm reeling now.
2
Now that friend whose dad passed ultimately committed suicide. Which meant I thought about him every damn day for the next ten years. I could see his casket being lowered into the ground. I refused to see him lying in it, figuring I could never get that image out of my head, but when everybody else went to his mother's house, I went to the graveyard, I had to accompany him, like in that Bob Seger song. And I think of how much he's missed, in the ensuing fifteen years. Because the truth is death is final, and you never know what the future will bring. My dad would have loved portable phones, he loved to talk on the phone, he was like Tony Roberts in "Play It Again, Sam," leaving his number wherever he went, so he could be reached, he never wanted to be out of touch, and then he was gone forever.
3
Tom Petty is now gone forever. And I've never felt this way since my dad died. Empty. Off-kilter. Unable to sleep.
Now if you ask me, and you didn't, I'm thinking it's drug-related. And I know the inner circle will be pissed at me for speculating, and maybe I'm wrong, Richard Jewell didn't do it when I thought he did, but cardiac arrest comes along with O.D.'s but the weird thing is, even if Tom's another drug casualty it won't undercut the loss by much. Yes, we'll think he was stupid. And that's so weird, a country that thinks drugs are cool until they bite you in the ass... But the truth is Tom impacted us, was always there, and now he's not.
Whenever my parents went on a plane trip I worried something would happen.
My college roommate's brother was killed in a car accident, I was there when the call came in. To have three children grow up and prosper is rare, but it happened in my family. But my dad was gone at 70, which seems so young these days, but Tom Petty was...
66.
BREAKDOWN
Because it was the first, because it was a KROQ staple, when listening to the Pasadena station was a badge of honor, when it was free-format, before it became the ROQ of the 80s.
I'd lie in bed with my girlfriend listening to the live version, trying to get up and go to law school, but we'd wait for it to end first.
"Baby, breakdown, go ahead and give it to me"
The directness, the urgency of rock and roll, what more could you ask for?
THE WILD ONE, FOREVER
Probably my favorite Petty song. So majestic, it'd be a winner without the lyrics, about someone who's so wrong but to you so right.
FOOLED AGAIN (I DON'T LIKE IT)
There should be an exclamation point at the end of the title, because when Tom sings this line he emotes and when I listen right now it brings tears to my eyes, because he sounds so vibrant and alive...
But he's not!
LUNA
It's the dark ones that reach us, that penetrate our souls, the ones that could never be on the radio, but are our personal favorites, the ones that make us feel so not alone in this world.
It's haunting, listening now it's like Tom's speaking from the grave.
RESTLESS
"You're Gonna Get It" was a success, artistically, but not financially, it was the kind of album fans bought and nobody else purchased, but if you laid down your cash, you LOVED IT!
The vocal in this track evidences the Petty to come, the sneer, the attitude, laden with confidence, the one who knew with his axe and his voice and his band he was as powerful as anybody in the world.
YOU'RE GONNA GET IT
Once again, it's the urgent, passionate vocal, with a chorus that was less emphatic than the verse, as if Tom had learned the canon of the British Invasion and knew you could mess with the formula and it could impact the listener.
MAGNOLIA
Also a harbinger of what was to come, maybe it needed Jimmy I's production, but the band has got that sound and Petty is dancing on top, and when the chorus plays you get the darkness of the bands from Birmingham, all those British burgs with rain, where you sat inside and lived for your records, the antithesis of your vision of Florida.
DON'T DO ME LIKE THAT
Was this a hit? Certainly not immediately, we bought the album as soon as it came out, and played it incessantly, this cut deep on the second side resonated, in an era when a man could still protest, complain about being on the losing end, before the woke males apologized for their existence and the out of it men continued to rape and pillage and truth went out the window and we ended up where we are now.
EVEN THE LOSERS
Get lucky sometimes.
This is one of those cuts you know, and then years later, after you've got more time under your belt, shines with its truth. That's most lives, we put in our time and we never reach the destination, our optimism wavers, but then we hear this song and we realize most of us are losers, but still...
There's a chance.
HERE COMES MY GIRL
Didn't sound quite like anything else at the time. Like Mitch Ryder filtered through the British Invasion, a modern song with roots in the sixties. Still, there's that moment when Tom sings "Watch her walk" when all you can do is swoon...
REFUGEE
It's the sound, the lyrics could be about anything, it's an anthem, something we always need but so rarely get, in this case with an intimate verse and then an explosive chorus, with Benmont Tench's keyboard holding the whole thing together.
A WOMAN IN LOVE (IT'S NOT ME)
We broke up. We'd lived together for years. She continued to go to the movies, I continued to listen to my records. And after staying up all night listening on headphones I decided we should still be together, so I waited until a reasonable hour, 7, and I dialed her...
And she was in bed with someone else.
And I couldn't fall asleep, all I did was play this cut over and over again.
SOMETHING BIG
That's what I said to the guy who committed suicide, maybe we were just a couple of clowns working on something big. There's no rulebook in Hollywood, no established path, you've got to find your own, and if you pay fealty to the company it's just a matter of time before you get screwed, left out. "Hard Promises" was just too dark, it didn't connect like "Damn The Torpedoes," but listening now this is exquisite, the sound, the feel, it's magic.
THE WAITING
The funny thing is it was supposed to be the hit track, but it wasn't. It was on the radio and then it wasn't. So, as time passed the masses didn't own it, I did, other listeners too.
But to tell you the truth I didn't LOVE IT, ADORE IT, until Linda Ronstadt covered it a decade and a half later on her LP "Feels Like Home." It's different, the instrumentation is acoustic and background and her vocal is up front and center, it's the power, you sit there and listen and say RIGHT! I've included it.
STOP DRAGGIN' MY HEART AROUND
I've got this boxed set, from when that was still a thing, that's unavailable now, with a Petty version of this smash, but it's not on Spotify.
But it is available on YouTube, and you should click through and hear it, because all these years later it's the definitive take, the one that will make you smile with Tom's sneer, it's the same song, but it's more rock, it's definitive:
http://bit.ly/2hMqnvS
YOU GOT LUCKY
WHEN YOU FOUND ME!
We hear this all the time from women, especially when it's over, but to hear it from a man, a regular guy, is so heartening. Yup, we're giving it our all, we're not the bad boys you read about, we're considerate, you got lucky when we found you.
STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS
It's the dark intro, this is a sleeper, it's another one of those cuts that grow on you, that you liked back when, but came to love NOW!
A WASTED LIFE
It's forty years later. Did you become who you wanted to be? Did you miss your chance? Did you reach for the brass ring or punt? Have you lived a wasted life? The funny thing is Petty only became bigger, but too many others burned out, sacrificed their lives for an unachievable dream, lived for the music and then got passed by and now are nowhere.
DON'T COME AROUND HERE NO MORE
He was a faded rock star. He wasn't able to follow up his genius, the moment passed him by, "Hard Promises" was a disappointment and then "Long After Dark" did worse and no one expected him to bounce back all the way with this, which was all over MTV with its surrealistic video, it sounded like nothing else, not even Petty, when that was still a badge of honor.
REBELS
Another track that's ingratiated itself, that I've warmed up to over time, it's the screaming guitars.
JAMMIN' ME
So simple, yet so right, this was a highlight in concert, and the sentiment, speaking the truth, being burned out and overwhelmed on the popular culture jammed down our throat presaged our overwhelming culture today, when we're jammed up and jelly tight 24/7.
END OF THE LINE
Who could forget Tom riding in the train and singing in the video?
Here it is: http://bit.ly/1nqY9Nz
I WON'T BACK DOWN
So simple, yet so right. With the Beach Boys/ELO chorus...HEY BABY!
This was before sports appropriated it, when it was still a rock and roll anthem.
Hell, there ain't no easy way out, there never is.
LOVE IS A LONG ROAD
At this late date, I'd rather hear this. It's the darkness aligned with the energy, and the truth is love truly is a long, long road, and unless you're dedicated, unless you're willing to hang in there, you'll never get the rewards. And you've got to adore anybody who can use the word "desperate" in a song, because that's so often the human condition, yet no one admits it. That's what we want artists to do, speak the unspeakable, so we don't feel so alone.
RUNNIN' DOWN A DREAM
I used to love it for the Del Shannon reference, but as time has gone by I've come to love it for its energy, for not being an obvious hit, for being minor yet so right, and now I've got tears in my eyes once again.
FREE FALLIN'
Remember that girl on the ramp? Under the Southern California sky?
Tom Petty was just like me, the rest of us transplants, we dreamed of a better life and we came to California to live it, and when you saw Tom and the Heartbreakers perform this in SoCal everybody would stand and point their heads to the sky like crooning canines and sing at the top of their lungs, YEAH I'M FREE, FREE FALLIN'! It just made you wanna feel good, you wanna feel good, right?
INTO THE GREAT WIDE OPEN
MTV was going grunge and pop, but Tom soldiered on, telling the SoCal story of the seventies when no one cared anymore, that's the problem, the scene moved on, the music too, but we did not, and we loved Tom because he didn't either, he stayed true to his roots, he didn't sell out.
LEARNING TO FLY
The twinkly guitar, it's the kind of song you get the first time through, that makes you feel joyous, happy.
SOMETHING IN THE AIR
A one hit wonder, but that initial Thunderclap Newman album was a classic. Jimmy McCulloch went on to play with Paul McCartney and then he put his hand too deep into the medicine jar and left this mortal coil, and shortly thereafter so did Speedy Keen, even though I bought the solos. The song was only available at first on "The Strawberry Statement" soundtrack, as well as a single, I think, people knew it but no one ever talked about it and you've got to love Tom for resuscitating it.
MARY JANE'S LAST DANCE
His contemporaries were finished. It was a greatest hits album, a throwaway, solely about the bucks, but Tom and his band of merrymakers came up with this track that fires on all cylinders, the riff, the sound, THE LYRICS! "Mary Jane's Last Dance" is the kind of song you can never burn out on, and I never have, it's always fresh, I never turn it off.
YOU WRECK ME
A rave-up in concert, so basic but when everybody's giving their all it grabs you and levitates you.
WILDFLOWERS
By this point, 1994, Tom's solo records were bigger than those with the Heartbreakers. But the funny thing about the title cut of "Wildflowers" is it was a quiet, acoustic number, akin to work from the sixties as opposed to the nineties, which is why it felt so right, we're still yearning for this sound.
IT'S GOOD TO BE KING
I've got to believe Tom was inspired by that Mel Brooks movie, and probably I can verify this online, but this album came out before the internet revolution.
ROOM AT THE TOP
"She's The One" was a disaster. Never tie your new album to a movie, it lives and dies on the box office, and even though I saw it, "She's The One" tanked, and so did the LP. But this, the opening cut from 1999's "Echo," is so world-weary and experienced it resonates.
THE LAST DJ
And now it was the twenty first century and radio meant less and files were everything and this album was a bit out of time but that didn't stop Tom, he always marched to the beat of his own drummer.
LOVER OF THE BAYOU
And now Tom's covering Roger McGuinn, and making one of Roger's latter-day tracks come alive, with an intense vocal and stinging guitar.
CRYSTAL RIVER
But this is the Mudcrutch piece-de-resistance, arguably the best thing Tom did in the twenty first century, an almost ten minute journey that will have you toking up and contemplating the trip your life has been. If you want to know what the late sixties were like, listen to this.
I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT
Could have been cut in the sixties. Dependent upon Mike Campbell's guitar. Tom was always true to his roots, he never tried to be anything other than what he was, which is revelatory in this chameleon-like world.
FORGOTTEN MAN
From 2014's forgotten album "Hypnotic Eye," Tom played this at the Hollywood Bowl and no one got up and went to the bathroom, started talking, this fit in perfectly, it was great.
Now I left out some big tracks, and certainly some of your favorites, but these are the cuts that I'm thinking about, that speak to me today, they've been playing in my mind.
But I can't listen to them, because then it would remind me that Tom's dead, and I'm not ready for that, no way.
Death comes to us all, it's guaranteed. But we never think it's gonna be soon. We think everything will remain the same, our touchstones will be here, but when they start to go, then we know we're next. As long as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are plying the boards, we know in our hearts we're young, we're alive and kicking, whether we go to the gig or not. But once it's impossible, once it's lost, and it has been forever, unreclaimable, then we're empty, life is about loss, and it becomes overburdening, until you pass too.
Tom Petty was the last rock star. Who hadn't sold out, who didn't do what was expedient, who did what he wanted to, and only what he wanted to.
But now he's gone too.
They say rock and roll is here to stay.
But it certainly doesn't feel that way.
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Tom Petty
"Oh, baby don't it feel like heaven right now
Don't it feel like something from a dream"
He's in heaven, and we're dreaming, but it's a nightmare.
I woke up to the Las Vegas tragedy. And what's so weird is I was with one of the touring honchos last night discussing this possibility and he said it was just a matter of when.
And I saw Tom Petty, live, in the flesh, JUST TEN DAYS AGO!
So I'm at lunch with my mother, at Brent's Deli in Northridge. She came out for Yom Kippur. I'm hoping she's written in the book of the living. With her marbles intact. And my phone, which I'd turned to vibrate, since I wanted my mom to know I was paying total attention, started to go berserk. And ultimately I told her to hold on a second, I slipped my plus-sized device from my pocket and was confronted with a text on the home screen, "Is Tom Petty now dead?"
Huh? There are people who are ill, people who are aged, but like I said, I just saw Tom last week, it did not compute!
I didn't believe it. The internet is laden with rumors. I told my mother to give me a minute. I searched for news.
And then I found the TMZ story.
And TMZ never gets it wrong. They'd be sued out of existence. Tom had cardiac arrest, he was brain dead, and...
I still did not believe it.
I don't know what your life is based upon. I don't know what it's about. The sixties were about sports, my transistor told the stories of Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and Tony Kubek. I dreamed of playing in the big leagues.
And then the Beatles hit.
There's been nothing like it since. I wasn't the only one. It happened to Petty too.
Just like the nineties, when everybody bought a computer to play on AOL, everybody bought a guitar, formed a band, we were infatuated with the music.
And our heroes were British.
But in the seventies...
The Americans penetrated.
Petty wasn't there first, but by time he broke through...
He had history, he had gravitas, he had insight, he was the antithesis of a prepubescent rocker, all poses and no substance. He'd lived, played bars, gone to shows, and when he finally put out a record...
It was the one he wanted to make.
Those are the ones that last. Not the ones made for a market, chasing a hit, but personal statements, of truth.
Have you ever heard "Luna"? It sounds like a steamy night on a rooftop, that's what music does best, not tell a story, but instigate your own, set your mind free to remember, to think, to envelop yourself in this thing we call life.
But now Tom Petty is dead. How can this be?
We don't know exactly why, but one thing's for sure, most rockers don't last into old age. John Lennon was killed. The Big C got George. And history is littered with O.D.'s and casualties of the lifestyle. They thought they were gonna live forever, but they really didn't live that long.
And by time Tom's second LP was released it was the heyday of AOR, with tracks codified to formula. Corporate rock killed the record business. But Petty was never corporate rock.
And then he stood up for low prices, he didn't want to be the poster boy for ripping off the customer, and after declaring bankruptcy, taking too much time off, he exploded on the radio with "Refugee" and everybody had to own "Damn The Torpedoes" and suddenly he was the biggest star in the land. He didn't come from nowhere, he just needed the timing to be right, to get his story across right, kinda like the Boss with "Born To Run," but that single was never as big as "Refugee," there was not another hit on Springsteen's album, whereas Petty dominated the radio and sold tonnage and got little respect for it, because when you dominate, when you score, it looks easy.
Yet it's anything but.
And how do you follow this up?
Frampton gave the public what it wanted and it killed his career.
Petty kept searching, kept mixing it up. And then came the solo album and the Wilburys.
Tom Petty? He wasn't old enough to be in that concoction. He was a junior member, the JV, but Jeff Lynne, et al, knew something we did not, that Tom Petty was a superstar, just because he started in the seventies as opposed to the sixties didn't mean he wasn't worthy.
He was the worthiest, the only one who continued to have hits. The only one who continued to dominate. The only one who continued to reach the masses.
Sure, Roy Orbison died. As did George. And I don't want to take anything away from Dylan, but if you think his work of the last twenty five years is equal to the twenty five years before it, you're lying to yourself.
And Tom Petty never lied to himself, he was all about honesty.
And his shows were not nostalgia. He did that stand at the Fonda where he played deep cuts. And I'll always remember him plucking a golden oldie from the country world and labeling today's country music "the rock of the seventies." And in most cases it is. I've been quoting him ever since.
But Tom won't be uttering any more gems. He won't be utilizing his drawl on Sirius XM. He's gone.
But that can't be! This is not Elvis, past his prime and decrepit. I don't even want to play the records, I don't want to remember what once was, I still believe it can be.
BUT IT CAN'T!
How do I explain an era that was cottage industry, when the music business was built. When all the action was outside the home and you went to gigs with terrible PA's to hear bands that oftentimes couldn't replicate the records. Does anybody even remember Frank Barsalona? He deserves a hell of a lot more credit for building the modern concert business than Bill Graham, and my goal is not to piss you off, and I don't believe art, never mind business, should be ranked, but Petty was the last person doing it the way they used to, sans attitude, with a smile on his face, with the band intact. He didn't whore himself out to corporations. He didn't take the easy, expedient money. You could believe in him! In an era where everybody's doing it for themselves and the audience is the odd man out. You want to feel included, you want to believe the artist is doing it for YOU!
Not that Tom didn't take risks, didn't stretch, don't you remember him dropping in on "It's Garry Shandling's Show," on Showtime, when the classiest thing on HBO was "Dream On"? Tom didn't play a song, he just lived in the neighborhood, it was so bizarre.
But now Shandling is gone and Bowie is gone and Frey is gone and Prince is gone but Petty?
HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HERE FOREVER!
You don't want to outlive your children. Going on without Tom Petty is too painful, it wasn't his time, he still had a lot of living to do. He wasn't calcified, he was still pushing the envelope.
And he'd already surprised us so much. Solo albums bigger than band albums? The aforementioned Wilburys? When done right, music is a journey, you're not a prisoner of your hits, Tom was on an endless hejira, all the way from Gainesville to the promised land, and if you don't think Hollywood is that, the L.A. basin, you're too scared to come out here and compete where who your parents are and where you went to school are irrelevant, where it's all about the hustle and the talent, and some make it, very few, but almost nobody sustains.
Tom Petty sustained.
So it feels like a family member died. I'm numb. In shock. And eventually it will pass, and I'll march on, it's the nature of humanity.
And that's what Tom Petty's music had, humanity.
My girlfriend slept with another guy and I played "A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)," over and over again.
And when I heard the drop in "Here Comes My Girl," I felt powerful, like I had game, like I could impress the opposite sex, that's what music does, ride shotgun, turn you into your best self, help you get through.
And I don't want this piece to end. I want to keep on writing. Because as long as I do, Tom is still alive, I'm distracted, I don't have to confront that giant hole inside me that can only be filled with music, too often not the music made today, pabulum, researched stuff for a market. Once upon a time music was art.
Tom Petty made art.
Today I was in Reseda.
Tonight I drove down Mulholland.
But one thing's for sure, I'm free fallin'. Out into nothin'.
But tonight Tom Petty didn't leave this world for a while, but for all time.
And I just don't want to accept that.
But I have to.
Now it's down to us. We must carry on his vision. March into the future. Knowing that the music counts and not everything is right but when you build a catalog of hits you're not only part of the firmament, you live forever.
In people's minds.
Where rock music resides.
Where Tom Petty forever shall be.
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Don't it feel like something from a dream"
He's in heaven, and we're dreaming, but it's a nightmare.
I woke up to the Las Vegas tragedy. And what's so weird is I was with one of the touring honchos last night discussing this possibility and he said it was just a matter of when.
And I saw Tom Petty, live, in the flesh, JUST TEN DAYS AGO!
So I'm at lunch with my mother, at Brent's Deli in Northridge. She came out for Yom Kippur. I'm hoping she's written in the book of the living. With her marbles intact. And my phone, which I'd turned to vibrate, since I wanted my mom to know I was paying total attention, started to go berserk. And ultimately I told her to hold on a second, I slipped my plus-sized device from my pocket and was confronted with a text on the home screen, "Is Tom Petty now dead?"
Huh? There are people who are ill, people who are aged, but like I said, I just saw Tom last week, it did not compute!
I didn't believe it. The internet is laden with rumors. I told my mother to give me a minute. I searched for news.
And then I found the TMZ story.
And TMZ never gets it wrong. They'd be sued out of existence. Tom had cardiac arrest, he was brain dead, and...
I still did not believe it.
I don't know what your life is based upon. I don't know what it's about. The sixties were about sports, my transistor told the stories of Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and Tony Kubek. I dreamed of playing in the big leagues.
And then the Beatles hit.
There's been nothing like it since. I wasn't the only one. It happened to Petty too.
Just like the nineties, when everybody bought a computer to play on AOL, everybody bought a guitar, formed a band, we were infatuated with the music.
And our heroes were British.
But in the seventies...
The Americans penetrated.
Petty wasn't there first, but by time he broke through...
He had history, he had gravitas, he had insight, he was the antithesis of a prepubescent rocker, all poses and no substance. He'd lived, played bars, gone to shows, and when he finally put out a record...
It was the one he wanted to make.
Those are the ones that last. Not the ones made for a market, chasing a hit, but personal statements, of truth.
Have you ever heard "Luna"? It sounds like a steamy night on a rooftop, that's what music does best, not tell a story, but instigate your own, set your mind free to remember, to think, to envelop yourself in this thing we call life.
But now Tom Petty is dead. How can this be?
We don't know exactly why, but one thing's for sure, most rockers don't last into old age. John Lennon was killed. The Big C got George. And history is littered with O.D.'s and casualties of the lifestyle. They thought they were gonna live forever, but they really didn't live that long.
And by time Tom's second LP was released it was the heyday of AOR, with tracks codified to formula. Corporate rock killed the record business. But Petty was never corporate rock.
And then he stood up for low prices, he didn't want to be the poster boy for ripping off the customer, and after declaring bankruptcy, taking too much time off, he exploded on the radio with "Refugee" and everybody had to own "Damn The Torpedoes" and suddenly he was the biggest star in the land. He didn't come from nowhere, he just needed the timing to be right, to get his story across right, kinda like the Boss with "Born To Run," but that single was never as big as "Refugee," there was not another hit on Springsteen's album, whereas Petty dominated the radio and sold tonnage and got little respect for it, because when you dominate, when you score, it looks easy.
Yet it's anything but.
And how do you follow this up?
Frampton gave the public what it wanted and it killed his career.
Petty kept searching, kept mixing it up. And then came the solo album and the Wilburys.
Tom Petty? He wasn't old enough to be in that concoction. He was a junior member, the JV, but Jeff Lynne, et al, knew something we did not, that Tom Petty was a superstar, just because he started in the seventies as opposed to the sixties didn't mean he wasn't worthy.
He was the worthiest, the only one who continued to have hits. The only one who continued to dominate. The only one who continued to reach the masses.
Sure, Roy Orbison died. As did George. And I don't want to take anything away from Dylan, but if you think his work of the last twenty five years is equal to the twenty five years before it, you're lying to yourself.
And Tom Petty never lied to himself, he was all about honesty.
And his shows were not nostalgia. He did that stand at the Fonda where he played deep cuts. And I'll always remember him plucking a golden oldie from the country world and labeling today's country music "the rock of the seventies." And in most cases it is. I've been quoting him ever since.
But Tom won't be uttering any more gems. He won't be utilizing his drawl on Sirius XM. He's gone.
But that can't be! This is not Elvis, past his prime and decrepit. I don't even want to play the records, I don't want to remember what once was, I still believe it can be.
BUT IT CAN'T!
How do I explain an era that was cottage industry, when the music business was built. When all the action was outside the home and you went to gigs with terrible PA's to hear bands that oftentimes couldn't replicate the records. Does anybody even remember Frank Barsalona? He deserves a hell of a lot more credit for building the modern concert business than Bill Graham, and my goal is not to piss you off, and I don't believe art, never mind business, should be ranked, but Petty was the last person doing it the way they used to, sans attitude, with a smile on his face, with the band intact. He didn't whore himself out to corporations. He didn't take the easy, expedient money. You could believe in him! In an era where everybody's doing it for themselves and the audience is the odd man out. You want to feel included, you want to believe the artist is doing it for YOU!
Not that Tom didn't take risks, didn't stretch, don't you remember him dropping in on "It's Garry Shandling's Show," on Showtime, when the classiest thing on HBO was "Dream On"? Tom didn't play a song, he just lived in the neighborhood, it was so bizarre.
But now Shandling is gone and Bowie is gone and Frey is gone and Prince is gone but Petty?
HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HERE FOREVER!
You don't want to outlive your children. Going on without Tom Petty is too painful, it wasn't his time, he still had a lot of living to do. He wasn't calcified, he was still pushing the envelope.
And he'd already surprised us so much. Solo albums bigger than band albums? The aforementioned Wilburys? When done right, music is a journey, you're not a prisoner of your hits, Tom was on an endless hejira, all the way from Gainesville to the promised land, and if you don't think Hollywood is that, the L.A. basin, you're too scared to come out here and compete where who your parents are and where you went to school are irrelevant, where it's all about the hustle and the talent, and some make it, very few, but almost nobody sustains.
Tom Petty sustained.
So it feels like a family member died. I'm numb. In shock. And eventually it will pass, and I'll march on, it's the nature of humanity.
And that's what Tom Petty's music had, humanity.
My girlfriend slept with another guy and I played "A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)," over and over again.
And when I heard the drop in "Here Comes My Girl," I felt powerful, like I had game, like I could impress the opposite sex, that's what music does, ride shotgun, turn you into your best self, help you get through.
And I don't want this piece to end. I want to keep on writing. Because as long as I do, Tom is still alive, I'm distracted, I don't have to confront that giant hole inside me that can only be filled with music, too often not the music made today, pabulum, researched stuff for a market. Once upon a time music was art.
Tom Petty made art.
Today I was in Reseda.
Tonight I drove down Mulholland.
But one thing's for sure, I'm free fallin'. Out into nothin'.
But tonight Tom Petty didn't leave this world for a while, but for all time.
And I just don't want to accept that.
But I have to.
Now it's down to us. We must carry on his vision. March into the future. Knowing that the music counts and not everything is right but when you build a catalog of hits you're not only part of the firmament, you live forever.
In people's minds.
Where rock music resides.
Where Tom Petty forever shall be.
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