It was like the Fillmore.
Only it happened at a hellhole in the middle of nowhere.
Actually, not a hellhole, that's the amphitheatre in Glen Helen, which I last went to when it sported the moniker "Blockbuster," it would be best if they both disappeared. The shed began with Tanglewood, but a few decades back every local promoter built one on the cheap and although they afford a night under the stars, almost all have no soul, unlike my beloved Fillmore East, which began as a Yiddish live spot, then became a movie theatre and had its heyday with rock until Bill Graham shut it down in 1971 citing economics.
And this tour is based on economics. Everybody needs money. Did you read that Johnny Depp article in "Rolling Stone"? No matter how rich you are you can blow all your cash, and so many who made it back then did not reap the rewards of those plying the boards today.
So the FivePoint is in Irvine on land that used to be the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station base. That's right, a vast field of nothingness, but you've got to applaud the free parking.
But there's no hill, no lawn for picnicking. I wouldn't be surprised if I went back today and the whole amphitheatre was gone. It all looked so temporary. From the honeywagons to the foldup seating to the bleachers... The only thing professional was the stage, and its accoutrements. The sound was impeccable, and the big screens were both large and dense. So you could get into the music.
And I did.
The opener was Ann Wilson. Who's still got her pipes, but should get back together with Heart. Sure, we want to hear her do covers, but mostly we want to hear Heart songs.
And then came Paul Rodgers.
Now this was an Orange County crowd, not the one you see on TV, not the one that lives on the beach, but the true denizens. Used to be L.A. and Orange County merged, but those days are kaput, traffic is just too bad, it literally took us two and a half hours to get there from Santa Monica, which is longer than it takes from Stockbridge to Boston, although we zipped right home in an hour. And these were not young 'uns...
These were fifty and sixtysomethings. Some of whom dressed up for the evening, but most of whom partook back in the seventies, of drugs, alcohol and music. This was before the era of haves and have-nots. Before the era when you were relaxing you were falling behind. When we sat in front of the stereo, zoned out, and went to bars and lived for the music.
So Paul is taking a risk, with his new band Free Spirit, comprised of Deborah Bonham's backing band, he's playing a plethora of Free tunes, many of which the audience did not know, but he needs to grow, he just can't do the same old thing.
And then he played "Feel Like Makin' Love"...
"Baby, when I think about you"
And that's when women popped up all over the amphitheatre, grooving to the music, thrusting their arms in the air...
FEEL LIKE MAKIN' LOVE
FEEL LIKE MAKIN' LOVE TO YOU!
These were not the social x-rays you see in the society pages. They had some miles on them, just like their now-seated male companions. There was no plastic surgery, maybe a few more pounds, but you could see straight back to that era, these were the girls you wanted to hang out with, who winked, who were up for anything, who wanted to have a good time, who were not afraid of the music...the ones we wallflowers were infatuated with. And with the music infecting their souls last night one was infatuated with them again.
And for someone who never saw Free, which is just about all of us, but is besotted with their material, Paul played a spectrum of legendary songs, beginning with "Little Bit Of Love," going on to "Wishing Well," "My Brother Jake" and even the STEALER, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I missed Paul Kossoff's guitar, whom Rodgers believes is the greatest axeman of all time, and he's worked with Page, May...
But the audience embraced "Mr. Big." And to hear "Fire And Water" was to jet back to the past, when I first bought that album, back in my first year of college.
But the scene-stealer, the one that truly resonated, was "Ready For Love," sung by its writer Mick Ralphs on the Mott The Hoople album "All The Young Dudes" and remade on Bad Company's first.
This rock and roll music, it makes you feel good, it squeezes out all the bad feelings, it has you thrusting your arm in the air, it has you singing along. When done right, nothing else matters.
And nothing else mattered last night.
And now everybody was into it, and then Paul played his legendary hit.
ALL RIGHT NOW!
And it was and still is. That's how I felt last night, all right NOW!
And backstage, which looks like it was carried intact from the old Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, I asked Paul why he didn't play "Bad Company," the eponymous track, I thought it had to do with mood, but Paul wanted to separate the acts, the perception of the audience, and then I told him I was gonna go out front, to see Jeff Beck, and Paul said there was no problem, I'd be able to HEAR HIM!
And boy could you.
This is the greatest rock guitarist of all time, still playing live, looking worse for wear in his seventies, but his playing... He made it look so easy, yet it's so hard.
And it was a master class, because of the aforementioned big screens, which focused on him. You could see his fingers pluck the strings, you could see him move the whammy bar, you were positively stunned.
And if the girls loved Paul...
The boys were there for Beck. It was kind of like a Rush show, guitar geeks there to pray at the altar.
And Jeff did not disappoint.
Let's start with the band. Jeff Beck is single-handedly doing more for women in music than seemingly any other man. He has a long history of employing women, from Jennifer Batten to Tal Winkenfeld. Last night, his bassist was Rhonda Smith, the Canadian who spent ten years with Prince. I know, I know, women are famous for playing bass, but Rhonda levitated the instrument to a new height, when she soloed early in the set, your jaw dropped. This was a trained musician, who was exhibiting chops without showing off, it was a revelation.
And on cello (and sometimes twelve-string guitar!) was Sonus Quartet member Vanessa Freebairn-Smith. And for a good part of the show, her playing was lost in the mix, but there were other moments where her bowing shone through.
And then on drums...
Straight from "Catholic Girls" (and BOYS), was the man himself, veteran of Zappa and more sessions than one can count, VINNIE COLAIUTA!
Now if you're counting the best drummers of all time, Vinnie's on the list, even if you didn't know who he was, you were wowed. He wasn't showing off, just keeping the beat and adding flourishes and you realized that Jeff had surrounded himself with SUPERSTARS!
And it was not a greatest hits show, it was almost as if he said to himself if he's bothering to go on the road, he might as well make it interesting to himself, which is probably why these players signed on.
And you'd have to be a muso nonpareil to know the initial songs, a Billy Cobham cover, "Stratus," and a Mahavishnu Orchestra cover, "You Know You Know," but it didn't matter, it was like you were jetted into outer space, to experience the work of an alien, knowing soon it would end and you'd be left in silence, you had to pinch yourself.
And then the unmistakable "Morning Dew," with a vocalist...
JIMMY HALL??
Whom you might remember from Wet Willie, "Keep On Smiling," sure, he sang on Beck's "Flash," but what's he been doing all these years, is this what happens, you become infatuated with music and can't give up?
And speaking of giving up, the couple next to me departed, but everybody else stayed, this was mostly unfamiliar guitar god material, I thought people would leave, but they did not.
And then a cover of "Little Wing"??? Which Derek and Sting made famous as covers of Jimi Hendrix's original?
And then there were the traditional numbers...
"Cause We've Ended As Lovers," exquisite as ever.
"A Day In The Life."
And my personal favorite, "Brush With The Blues."
And then a rollicking cover of "Superstition," which Stevie Wonder gave to Beck and then took back. And it was...
Over.
Whew!
It was only 10:50, did this venue have a curfew? Unions? I mean who would you be disturbing out here in the middle of nowhere?
But Jeff came back to applause, and just he and Vanessa, the cellist, did a cover of Jeff Buckley's cover of Benjamin Britten's "Corpus Christi Carol." It couldn't have been more quiet, it couldn't have been more at odds with the mood, which is what made it so spectacular, like being at a chamber music concert.
And then...
Jimmy came out and blew harmonica into the microphone, displaying heretofore unknown excellence, on the old rock/soul nugget "Going Down."
DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN
We all know this, the band was firing on all cylinders.
And then the lights came up and it was truly done.
I was expecting an oldies show, rooted in the past, another night on the endless road in the middle of nowhere.
And although we were in the middle of nowhere, that's not what happened.
Ann Wilson was hampered by appearing in daylight. But where else are you gonna get such a stellar opener, not even at the Fillmore!
And fifteen minutes later you got one of the greatest rock voices of all time, still intact, still powerful, playing songs true fans knew by heart, some of which you never thought you'd hear again.
And then a guitar god putting on a master class, a hall of fame performance, for seemingly nobody but himself and his bandmates. It'd be like running into McCartney in a bar, or Jagger at a house concert. HOW COULD THIS BE?
So I didn't want to listen to the radio on the way home, I just wanted to bask in the sound and the experience.
There were seemingly no youngsters in attendance, this was not Steve Miller playing his hits for a generation that still hears them on the radio, the audience was not being replenished, rather this show was for people who'd been there, who'd lived through it.
And they were not disappointed.
And for one night, in the middle of 2018, it was like it was the seventies all over again. When giants walked the earth, when musicians were the pinnacle of society, when we all were addicted to the radio, when we all built our collections to exhibit on stereos we scrimped and saved for, when we all LIVED FOR THE MUSIC!
You shoulda been there!
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Saturday, 21 July 2018
Thursday, 19 July 2018
Stereo Systems
My Sansui AU11000: https://bit.ly/2mtWP5l List was $750, I paid $520, which in 1976 dollars, was quite a lot. I sacrificed a tuner just to have this integrated amplifier, the following year I bought...
A Yamaha CT1010: https://bit.ly/2uyx1JY This was the best tuner Yamaha made, other than its top-of-the-line four figure CT7000. There were three tuners in this class, I needed to have the best, I believe list was $400+ and I paid just under $300, which is kind of amazing, just for FM, now an irrelevant band.
A year after that I bought my crown jewel, my Nakamichi 582 (https://bit.ly/2zVvwuj) the top-of-the-line, fully adjustable (and I'm sure you have no idea what that means, you even adjusted the bias with a tiny screwdriver!) cassette deck. I paid almost $680, list was nearly $900, I bought it after passing the bar exam, it was a gift to myself, my girlfriend resented what I spent on it, but all that time working at the law firm, I wanted to blow my cash on it.
Technics SL-1300: https://bit.ly/2O26YTn Replaced my Dual 1218. The SL-1300 was the top of the line, it was a direct drive, fully-automatic turntable, the legendary SL-1200 was manual, the SL-1400 was semi-automatic (you dropped the needle, but the tonearm returned by itself).
Stanton 681EEE: https://bit.ly/2LbJsWn I wanted a Shure, but the salesman convinced me this would work better with the JBL L100s, it was smoother, the JBLs were bright and so was the Shure.
JBL L100s...WITH ORANGE GRILLES! (https://bit.ly/2uJrCii)
My Sansui burned up after 23 years and I replaced it with an NAD integrated amp with enough power to blow up the neighborhood.
Sans the Sansui, I still have all the above equipment, along with a Sony single CD player wherein the disc moves, not the laser.
But to tell you the truth, most of the time I listen to my 3-way Genelec computer speakers...THEY'RE ASTOUNDING!
__________________________________________
My most amazing stereo experience was the KLH MODEL ELEVEN SUITCASE STEREO.
It was an actual little suitcase with a handle. It included a Garrard turntable and two speakers which were clipped to the package. Once you opened it up the speakers could be moved away from the turntable to get real stereo.
The shocking part was that the tiny speakers delivered huge sound. I first saw it at an audio convention. You walked into the room and tremendous sound was playing and when you looked around there were no speakers. It was all coming from the tiny little KLH speakers.
My roommate bought this stereo and a few albums and brought then home. That day we unpacked it and listened to the two brand new albums he had just bought. One was CREAM's first album. The other was ARE YOU EXPERIENCED by Jimmy Hendrix.
That was a memorable day in my life in music!!
Thanks
Jack Tempchin
__________________________________________
Speakers! I remember a phone call from my boyfriend of three years: I just spent $700! Guess what I bought? (Oh, finally! A diamond ring!) JBL speakers... Nope, never married him, but we are still friends nearly 50 years later.
Victoria Lenihan
__________________________________________
Bob, this brings back such keen memories of "learning to play the stereo." Growing up was lots of similar rigs as you and needing parental approval to touch.
I recall my first Big Boy speakers, a bad-ass pair of KLH 28s that took up almost as much room in my apartment as the couch. A family friend was a banker and let me take out my first loan, $400 to buy these speakers. Thought I was listening to God when Born to Run was played loudly through them.
Wish I still had those babies. . .
Sean Brickell
Virginia Beach, VA
__________________________________________
Bob, this brings back such keen memories of "learning to play the stereo." Growing up was lots of similar rigs as you and needing parental approval to touch.
I recall my first Big Boy speakers, a bad-ass pair of KLH 28s that took up almost as much room in my apartment as the couch. A family friend was a banker and let me take out my first loan, $400 to buy these speakers. Thought I was listening to God when Born to Run was played loudly through them.
Wish I still had those babies. . .
Sean Brickell
Virginia Beach, VA
__________________________________________
L26 JBL Decade speakers were the beast of choice in my basement with a Marantz 1030 amp and a BIC turntable. All for less than $500 Canadian with money earned from my paper route (Dad paid half). Thanks again, Bob.
BTW, that solo on When the Curtain Falls is terrific.
Michael Craig
__________________________________________
Still using the Pioneer HPM40's I bought in the late 70's.... And my Akai tuner....
Don Bartenstein
__________________________________________
In high school, I lusted after component stereo systems. I read Spiegel's catalog—putting my system together countless times in theory. Before I had the money to buy one, in 1965, the Army called and I found myself flying helicopters in Vietnam. After 7 weeks, shot-down and wounded, I ended up in the land of the big PX—Japan, in an Army hospital. Ensconced in a ward with over 100 beds, I decorated the area around my hospital bed with a giant California flag and my first stereo. A Kenwood Receiver with 140 watts (70 per channel), a Garrard Lab-80 turntable, Sony reel to reel, and Coral speakers, I think a Japanese brand. Headphones kept the Army nurses from chastising me and shutting down the volume. I kept that system for 10 years. It still sounded better than any of the micro bluetooth speakers that dominate today.
Steve Greene
__________________________________________
Kenwood receiver, Technics (panasonic) turntable, TEAC cassette deck, and (godhelpme) Lafayette speakers. How else could I afford 12" woofers? It roared.
Michael Alex
__________________________________________
Yama NS-10's, baby! as found on every mixing console in the world, for 30 years or so. Cost me 4 boxes of cleans, but that's a whole other story.
Barry Lyons / Rent A Label
__________________________________________
Re: the Big Rig - at least here in the city, many folks' big rig is now a killer set of headphones along with a good DAC-amp. Brings the thunder but does not annoy the neighbors! You have the Sennheiser HD800, right? With the right headphone amp, they are spectacular (although many would argue
-Dave Lackey
-Inner Sanctum Audo
__________________________________________
My first stereo that wasn't my parents or my two older brothers, purchased in the fall of '75:
- Pioneer PL-10 Manual Turntable with Shure Cartridge
- Pioneer SX-535 Receiver with 20 watts RMS per channel
- A pair of Acoustic Research (AR) 7 Speakers
Rock on bro'.
All good things,
Paul Barriscale
Vancouver, BC, Canada
__________________________________________
I'll have to check it out through my Polk Audio SDA SRS 2.3s (about 5 ft tall, with six drivers, three tweeters and a subwoofer in each cabinet). My friends think I'm nuts, them with their tiny in-ceiling and in-wall speakers. I ask them if they've ever been to a concert and seen tiny in-wall speakers there. No, you want big sound, you get big speakers.
Plus, they look damn good.
https://polksda.com/srsreview.shtml
Cheers,
Chris Beytes
South Elgin, IL
__________________________________________
Great piece! I remember having to decide, also based on money, JBL 100, 200 etc. We picked our roommates in college (SUNY at Buffalo) based on their stereo they had.
David E. Parker
__________________________________________
I'm 47 and grew up in Cleveland with the cheap all-in-one audio gear you describe here. I never owned the good hifi and my records were scratched up hand me downs from family members. What a great time that was exploring the album covers and songs. About ten years ago when vinyl was starting to make a come back I started buying restored vintage audio gear and the music sounds so great on these units. My main set up is a Marantz 2285B with JBL L-100 speakers with a Denon turntable. I now have all my records in mint condition and they are all from the actual era they were released as they sound better than the newer pressings. Thanks for writing about these amazing speakers. I paid $600 for them last year and that was considered a good deal! I also bought replica grill covers like the ones from the 70's with the orange foam. This gear holds its value, I highly recommend getting a pair. My family could not afford these brands growing up, so it's even more fantastic being able to buy them now, I appreciate it so much. Pics attached including original ad.
Mark Dubec
__________________________________________
JBL 4311B's - which was the studio version of the L100. I still have them. They're the speakers I still listen to every day. And you're right - earbuds don't compare.
hyperbolium
__________________________________________
I'm 47, from the lower class Midwest, and feel like I just missed on the stereo wars of the 70's.
But, I am reaping the rewards of those days, having collected 5 late 70's and very early 80's silver face examples!
Can't wait to get home and listen to your suggestions on one of my rigs...at my work desk I have a small Technics SA-203(30wpc) powering some small shelf speakers that I can only listen to on "1", not "11", but at home the Pioneer SX 780(45wpc) awaits. I know, even the Pioneer isn't a big rig, but I have some Advent Prodigy and KLH Model 6 that sound just fine and will bring plenty of Thunder:)
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/technics/sa-203.shtml
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/pioneer/sx-780.shtml
Thanks for pulling us into your past as you weave the present and possible future!
Jamie Rogerson
__________________________________________
You brought me way back to the days of Tech Hifi in Westport. Their slogan was "Come Play". They sold a T-shirt with that phrase and I think I wore it a few times a week until my mother tossed it.
Infinity Q series speakers. The big ones (don't remember if they were 3s or 5s) Spent a summers working so I could buy them. I think I had a Marantz receiver and a Panasonic turntable that I eventually replaced with a Denon. Glory days arrived when I got my first Nakamichi cassette deck and I spent my days making mix tapes. I would list every musician, recording dates, producers, and more on the cassette liner
But nothing was better than listening to music in the car. Driving down the road alone with the music at a deafening volume. I think I stated with a Jenson and then moved to Alpine, a late comer to the stereo market.
Yes - (loved blasting Yours is no a Disgrace). Zep - 1 & 2, Kansas - Left Overture. Springsteen - Born to run.
Those times were the best. The best.
Thanks for making me smile.
Hope you are well.
Peter Denholtz
__________________________________________
Hi Bob,
Memories; thanks for waking them up!
My dad was an early audiophile and built his own hi-fi stereo in the fifties. He had a Weathers turntable (with a featherlight balsa wood arm,) a Harman Kardon FM tuner and a pair of 12" Altec Lansing coaxial speakers mounted in mismatched cabinets, both powered by a pair of Heathkit amplifiers that would shake every pain of glass in our neighborhood on Sunday afternoons when he'd conduct them playing Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korsakov, or some such. The sound of those Audio Fidelity direct-to-disk mastered Westminster Classics, to these ears, have never been equaled. It was so clear, you could hear each individual bangle on the tambourines played in Capriccio Espagnol!
When he was at work, my mom would play show music, Harry Belafonte, The Ink Spots and Perry Como, not to mention Allen Sherman and the Chipmunks, just for us kids. Of course it helped that her sister was married to the head of the local record plant (soon to become the VP of Manufacturing at Columbia;) we'd get hand me downs, rejects and duplicates when their kids were done with them. Garnered quite a few treasures this way.
Because my brother, sister and I were not allowed to use the old man's creation, and the portable Motorola HiFi system I had in my bedroom was not stereo (no matter how many speakers I attached to it,) I had to go out and buy my own system just as the music was getting loud and sophisticated. Though my first gig was working at the bookstore in Lafayette Plaza, I finally made my way over to Karl Graf's Record Center five days a week during my junior year at AWHS and managed to save up enough to buy a Realistic Rhapsodie System and turntable from Radio Shack.
I couldn't vibrate the windows in the neighborhood, but I could sure drown out the noises from the rest of the house. That little unit lasted nearly 8 years until I upgraded to a Pioneer amp and turntable and Bose speakers. Still, The Beatles, Mothers, Hendrix, Dylan and the like on vinyl never sounded so good, even on those puny bookshelf speakers.
Years later I went with Denon, Polk and a Micro Seiki direct drive turntable, and the like. Sound got louder but little else. Then the age of polycarbonates/polymethylmethacrylates arrived and everything changed. Our ears were dumbed down by the stairsteps but in the excitement of the new media, we either didn't notice or care, or at least made excuses, noises about "triple beam" or "sampling rates." None of it mattered. No wonder vinyl is making a comeback; the ears have it!
Nowadays, after downsizing, my vinyl is now in storage (including my 3 Westminster Classics) and due to space constraints, I make do with a system cobbled together from Philips and Samsung components. These days, having heard it all many times over, hearing the individual bangles on the tambourines isn't nearly as important to me as it once was. The sound is fine but nothing, NOTHING ever compared to those early days of direct to disk mastered vinyl.
Happy listening, Bob. And thanks for the chance to share!
Your friend and fellow classmate,
Ken Shain
__________________________________________
Summed up by the instruction on Ziggy Stardust - and many other records. "To be played at maximum volume".
James Sadler
A Yamaha CT1010: https://bit.ly/2uyx1JY This was the best tuner Yamaha made, other than its top-of-the-line four figure CT7000. There were three tuners in this class, I needed to have the best, I believe list was $400+ and I paid just under $300, which is kind of amazing, just for FM, now an irrelevant band.
A year after that I bought my crown jewel, my Nakamichi 582 (https://bit.ly/2zVvwuj) the top-of-the-line, fully adjustable (and I'm sure you have no idea what that means, you even adjusted the bias with a tiny screwdriver!) cassette deck. I paid almost $680, list was nearly $900, I bought it after passing the bar exam, it was a gift to myself, my girlfriend resented what I spent on it, but all that time working at the law firm, I wanted to blow my cash on it.
Technics SL-1300: https://bit.ly/2O26YTn Replaced my Dual 1218. The SL-1300 was the top of the line, it was a direct drive, fully-automatic turntable, the legendary SL-1200 was manual, the SL-1400 was semi-automatic (you dropped the needle, but the tonearm returned by itself).
Stanton 681EEE: https://bit.ly/2LbJsWn I wanted a Shure, but the salesman convinced me this would work better with the JBL L100s, it was smoother, the JBLs were bright and so was the Shure.
JBL L100s...WITH ORANGE GRILLES! (https://bit.ly/2uJrCii)
My Sansui burned up after 23 years and I replaced it with an NAD integrated amp with enough power to blow up the neighborhood.
Sans the Sansui, I still have all the above equipment, along with a Sony single CD player wherein the disc moves, not the laser.
But to tell you the truth, most of the time I listen to my 3-way Genelec computer speakers...THEY'RE ASTOUNDING!
__________________________________________
My most amazing stereo experience was the KLH MODEL ELEVEN SUITCASE STEREO.
It was an actual little suitcase with a handle. It included a Garrard turntable and two speakers which were clipped to the package. Once you opened it up the speakers could be moved away from the turntable to get real stereo.
The shocking part was that the tiny speakers delivered huge sound. I first saw it at an audio convention. You walked into the room and tremendous sound was playing and when you looked around there were no speakers. It was all coming from the tiny little KLH speakers.
My roommate bought this stereo and a few albums and brought then home. That day we unpacked it and listened to the two brand new albums he had just bought. One was CREAM's first album. The other was ARE YOU EXPERIENCED by Jimmy Hendrix.
That was a memorable day in my life in music!!
Thanks
Jack Tempchin
__________________________________________
Speakers! I remember a phone call from my boyfriend of three years: I just spent $700! Guess what I bought? (Oh, finally! A diamond ring!) JBL speakers... Nope, never married him, but we are still friends nearly 50 years later.
Victoria Lenihan
__________________________________________
Bob, this brings back such keen memories of "learning to play the stereo." Growing up was lots of similar rigs as you and needing parental approval to touch.
I recall my first Big Boy speakers, a bad-ass pair of KLH 28s that took up almost as much room in my apartment as the couch. A family friend was a banker and let me take out my first loan, $400 to buy these speakers. Thought I was listening to God when Born to Run was played loudly through them.
Wish I still had those babies. . .
Sean Brickell
Virginia Beach, VA
__________________________________________
Bob, this brings back such keen memories of "learning to play the stereo." Growing up was lots of similar rigs as you and needing parental approval to touch.
I recall my first Big Boy speakers, a bad-ass pair of KLH 28s that took up almost as much room in my apartment as the couch. A family friend was a banker and let me take out my first loan, $400 to buy these speakers. Thought I was listening to God when Born to Run was played loudly through them.
Wish I still had those babies. . .
Sean Brickell
Virginia Beach, VA
__________________________________________
L26 JBL Decade speakers were the beast of choice in my basement with a Marantz 1030 amp and a BIC turntable. All for less than $500 Canadian with money earned from my paper route (Dad paid half). Thanks again, Bob.
BTW, that solo on When the Curtain Falls is terrific.
Michael Craig
__________________________________________
Still using the Pioneer HPM40's I bought in the late 70's.... And my Akai tuner....
Don Bartenstein
__________________________________________
In high school, I lusted after component stereo systems. I read Spiegel's catalog—putting my system together countless times in theory. Before I had the money to buy one, in 1965, the Army called and I found myself flying helicopters in Vietnam. After 7 weeks, shot-down and wounded, I ended up in the land of the big PX—Japan, in an Army hospital. Ensconced in a ward with over 100 beds, I decorated the area around my hospital bed with a giant California flag and my first stereo. A Kenwood Receiver with 140 watts (70 per channel), a Garrard Lab-80 turntable, Sony reel to reel, and Coral speakers, I think a Japanese brand. Headphones kept the Army nurses from chastising me and shutting down the volume. I kept that system for 10 years. It still sounded better than any of the micro bluetooth speakers that dominate today.
Steve Greene
__________________________________________
Kenwood receiver, Technics (panasonic) turntable, TEAC cassette deck, and (godhelpme) Lafayette speakers. How else could I afford 12" woofers? It roared.
Michael Alex
__________________________________________
Yama NS-10's, baby! as found on every mixing console in the world, for 30 years or so. Cost me 4 boxes of cleans, but that's a whole other story.
Barry Lyons / Rent A Label
__________________________________________
Re: the Big Rig - at least here in the city, many folks' big rig is now a killer set of headphones along with a good DAC-amp. Brings the thunder but does not annoy the neighbors! You have the Sennheiser HD800, right? With the right headphone amp, they are spectacular (although many would argue
-Dave Lackey
-Inner Sanctum Audo
__________________________________________
My first stereo that wasn't my parents or my two older brothers, purchased in the fall of '75:
- Pioneer PL-10 Manual Turntable with Shure Cartridge
- Pioneer SX-535 Receiver with 20 watts RMS per channel
- A pair of Acoustic Research (AR) 7 Speakers
Rock on bro'.
All good things,
Paul Barriscale
Vancouver, BC, Canada
__________________________________________
I'll have to check it out through my Polk Audio SDA SRS 2.3s (about 5 ft tall, with six drivers, three tweeters and a subwoofer in each cabinet). My friends think I'm nuts, them with their tiny in-ceiling and in-wall speakers. I ask them if they've ever been to a concert and seen tiny in-wall speakers there. No, you want big sound, you get big speakers.
Plus, they look damn good.
https://polksda.com/srsreview.shtml
Cheers,
Chris Beytes
South Elgin, IL
__________________________________________
Great piece! I remember having to decide, also based on money, JBL 100, 200 etc. We picked our roommates in college (SUNY at Buffalo) based on their stereo they had.
David E. Parker
__________________________________________
I'm 47 and grew up in Cleveland with the cheap all-in-one audio gear you describe here. I never owned the good hifi and my records were scratched up hand me downs from family members. What a great time that was exploring the album covers and songs. About ten years ago when vinyl was starting to make a come back I started buying restored vintage audio gear and the music sounds so great on these units. My main set up is a Marantz 2285B with JBL L-100 speakers with a Denon turntable. I now have all my records in mint condition and they are all from the actual era they were released as they sound better than the newer pressings. Thanks for writing about these amazing speakers. I paid $600 for them last year and that was considered a good deal! I also bought replica grill covers like the ones from the 70's with the orange foam. This gear holds its value, I highly recommend getting a pair. My family could not afford these brands growing up, so it's even more fantastic being able to buy them now, I appreciate it so much. Pics attached including original ad.
Mark Dubec
__________________________________________
JBL 4311B's - which was the studio version of the L100. I still have them. They're the speakers I still listen to every day. And you're right - earbuds don't compare.
hyperbolium
__________________________________________
I'm 47, from the lower class Midwest, and feel like I just missed on the stereo wars of the 70's.
But, I am reaping the rewards of those days, having collected 5 late 70's and very early 80's silver face examples!
Can't wait to get home and listen to your suggestions on one of my rigs...at my work desk I have a small Technics SA-203(30wpc) powering some small shelf speakers that I can only listen to on "1", not "11", but at home the Pioneer SX 780(45wpc) awaits. I know, even the Pioneer isn't a big rig, but I have some Advent Prodigy and KLH Model 6 that sound just fine and will bring plenty of Thunder:)
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/technics/sa-203.shtml
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/pioneer/sx-780.shtml
Thanks for pulling us into your past as you weave the present and possible future!
Jamie Rogerson
__________________________________________
You brought me way back to the days of Tech Hifi in Westport. Their slogan was "Come Play". They sold a T-shirt with that phrase and I think I wore it a few times a week until my mother tossed it.
Infinity Q series speakers. The big ones (don't remember if they were 3s or 5s) Spent a summers working so I could buy them. I think I had a Marantz receiver and a Panasonic turntable that I eventually replaced with a Denon. Glory days arrived when I got my first Nakamichi cassette deck and I spent my days making mix tapes. I would list every musician, recording dates, producers, and more on the cassette liner
But nothing was better than listening to music in the car. Driving down the road alone with the music at a deafening volume. I think I stated with a Jenson and then moved to Alpine, a late comer to the stereo market.
Yes - (loved blasting Yours is no a Disgrace). Zep - 1 & 2, Kansas - Left Overture. Springsteen - Born to run.
Those times were the best. The best.
Thanks for making me smile.
Hope you are well.
Peter Denholtz
__________________________________________
Hi Bob,
Memories; thanks for waking them up!
My dad was an early audiophile and built his own hi-fi stereo in the fifties. He had a Weathers turntable (with a featherlight balsa wood arm,) a Harman Kardon FM tuner and a pair of 12" Altec Lansing coaxial speakers mounted in mismatched cabinets, both powered by a pair of Heathkit amplifiers that would shake every pain of glass in our neighborhood on Sunday afternoons when he'd conduct them playing Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korsakov, or some such. The sound of those Audio Fidelity direct-to-disk mastered Westminster Classics, to these ears, have never been equaled. It was so clear, you could hear each individual bangle on the tambourines played in Capriccio Espagnol!
When he was at work, my mom would play show music, Harry Belafonte, The Ink Spots and Perry Como, not to mention Allen Sherman and the Chipmunks, just for us kids. Of course it helped that her sister was married to the head of the local record plant (soon to become the VP of Manufacturing at Columbia;) we'd get hand me downs, rejects and duplicates when their kids were done with them. Garnered quite a few treasures this way.
Because my brother, sister and I were not allowed to use the old man's creation, and the portable Motorola HiFi system I had in my bedroom was not stereo (no matter how many speakers I attached to it,) I had to go out and buy my own system just as the music was getting loud and sophisticated. Though my first gig was working at the bookstore in Lafayette Plaza, I finally made my way over to Karl Graf's Record Center five days a week during my junior year at AWHS and managed to save up enough to buy a Realistic Rhapsodie System and turntable from Radio Shack.
I couldn't vibrate the windows in the neighborhood, but I could sure drown out the noises from the rest of the house. That little unit lasted nearly 8 years until I upgraded to a Pioneer amp and turntable and Bose speakers. Still, The Beatles, Mothers, Hendrix, Dylan and the like on vinyl never sounded so good, even on those puny bookshelf speakers.
Years later I went with Denon, Polk and a Micro Seiki direct drive turntable, and the like. Sound got louder but little else. Then the age of polycarbonates/polymethylmethacrylates arrived and everything changed. Our ears were dumbed down by the stairsteps but in the excitement of the new media, we either didn't notice or care, or at least made excuses, noises about "triple beam" or "sampling rates." None of it mattered. No wonder vinyl is making a comeback; the ears have it!
Nowadays, after downsizing, my vinyl is now in storage (including my 3 Westminster Classics) and due to space constraints, I make do with a system cobbled together from Philips and Samsung components. These days, having heard it all many times over, hearing the individual bangles on the tambourines isn't nearly as important to me as it once was. The sound is fine but nothing, NOTHING ever compared to those early days of direct to disk mastered vinyl.
Happy listening, Bob. And thanks for the chance to share!
Your friend and fellow classmate,
Ken Shain
__________________________________________
Summed up by the instruction on Ziggy Stardust - and many other records. "To be played at maximum volume".
James Sadler
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Wednesday, 18 July 2018
When The Curtain Falls
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2L9HB4c
YouTube: https://bit.ly/2uGchiF
He doesn't always sound like this. That's right, you've got to hear Greta Van Fleet's rendition of "Rolling In The Deep" on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2O1yQHq It's quite remarkable, you'd almost think they wrote it, kinda like Zeppelin being "influenced" by all those blues numbers way back when.
But on "When The Curtain Falls," Josh Kiszka is channeling Robert Plant from the early seventies and if you were there for the original, you might be offended, but today's audience was not, and they want something new.
What kind of stereo did you have growing up? My dad supplied us with an endless stream of "record players," the first one gray, two of them pink, truly, my dad was into deals, with heavy tonearms and built-in speakers that we played our records on. My parents had a Columbia console in the living room, where we never went, with an external speaker that I once connected directly to my electric guitar and blew out the lights in my house, not realizing an amplifier was necessary. And then in the sixties an addition was built behind our split-level and my parents invested in a separates system, with components by ADC, other than the turntable, which was a Garrard, which I had to ask permission to use. By this time my albums were treasured, I never touched the vinyl, I took care of my records, preserving them for posterity, believing they evidenced my identity, and the irony is that vinyl, all of which I still have, is now back, then again the stuff I've got was cut analog for analog reproduction, and it makes a difference.
Anyway, my parents had a friend who worked at CBS, who ran their audio division, and when I was a senior in high school my sister and I were blessed by Columbia components, but don't be too wowed, the speakers were small, the sound was not impressive, but it was certainly better than the all-in-ones.
And I never got a great stereo in college, because my parents wanted me to pay for it, and I had no ready source of income, and they were convinced it would get stolen, that was rampant back then, theft of components, along with bicycles, my white Peugeot was ripped-off the last day of freshman year, but eventually, I found myself ensconced in an apartment in Los Angeles and I bought the stereo of my dreams.
With JBL L100s.
What did you have? Off-brand stuff? That was how Cal Stereo made money, by manufacturing its own no-name speakers. And then there was Rogersound Labs in the Valley, with its own speakers, and if you wanted to spend less, there was the Advent, which superseded KLH and AR, and was pretty damn good for the price, which was $125 at first, and then $149 apiece. But the JBLs, which they used in studios, they retailed for $349 per speaker, and it was hard to get a discount.
And the salesman said the JBLs were bright, and the only amp that would sound good was the Sansui, or the Luxman, which was way out of my price range, so I ended up with an AU11000, sans tuner, but with 110 watts a channel, and that rig brought the THUNDER!
That's what it was all about.
There's some thunder today, but really it's just bass, emanating from jacked-up car stereos playing hip-hop. I'm convinced we get the music our systems can reproduce, and acoustic music sounds bad on MP3s/streams through earbuds, but rock sounds even worse, for that thin-band stuff hip-hop is best, didn't Beats advertise they came with bottom?
But the thunder was not only bottom, it permeated the entire range. Like that Maxell ad, featuring those JBL L100s, which made the listener's hair blow back, no one under fifty remembers, but those older than that, we're all familiar with the image.
So the goal was to get the best stereo your money could buy, drop the needle, and make not only yourself shake, but your whole damn HOUSE! You turned it up loud enough to shut out all surrounding noise, the music soaked up the atmosphere, that was the essence of rock. But when you listen to Greta Van Fleet's "When The Curtain Falls" on earbuds, computer speakers...
You're missing the essence, the thunder. It sounds thin, when it's supposed to sound MASSIVE!
And the funny thing is you'll dismiss "When The Curtain Falls" at first, assuming you were around way back when, but then you realize it's more about the riff than the vocal, that the guitar-playing is not that far away from "Houses Of The Holy" and "Physical Graffiti." Don't cry heresy, there's truly similarity, but can the audience be converted without the big rigs, without the stereos of yore?
You remember how it was. Back before iPhones, back before selfies, back when it was about them, not you, when the stars were on stage and you stood in the audience nodding your head, the sound so loud that you couldn't speak to the person next to you anyway.
That's how "When The Curtain Falls" should be heard.
And it's not burning up the streaming services, and the rock radio format is a ghetto. Then again, Charli XCX said radio no longer mattered in "Rolling Stone," and Five Seconds Of Summer shifted singles midstream, to great success. Meaning...
The old rules are kaput. Now is the time to take chances, like the above cover of "Rolling In The Deep." You put stuff out and see what resonates. Satiate the core. Let them spread the word. If you're playing the old game of one track, pushing it for a year, you're missing out. That's how you build a track, but not FANS! Fans don't care if anybody else likes the act, they're invested, they're paying fealty, they'll show up at the gig, where rock is built.
That's right, today it's all about the live show, the opposite of the pop ethos, where it's built on radio and television and you go to hear a perfect rendition live, oftentimes on hard drive, no, with rock you want it to be a bit different, oftentimes a bit faster, with more power, with more energy.
And Greta Van Fleet is succeeding there.
And the key is they're young. In an era where Vine stars have already gone on to their day jobs. The generations keep changing, and those prognosticating have often seen too much, they can't see the show through the eyes of the audience.
But if you're open-minded...
At first you want to turn "When The Curtain Falls" off, it seems ersatz. Then you get to the change, the chorus, and you want to let the track play through, and then that riff infects you and you find yourself playing the track over and over again, forgetting all about Robert Plant.
It's not "Whole Lotta Love." But it's not me-too, at least not when compared to the other rock acts on the scene today.
Greta Van Fleet is just one monster away from breaking through.
Don't forget, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were long on experience. These guys are brand new, at least to the masses, they're figuring it out, maybe they're spearheading a new movement.
Then again, shenanigans on the road are passe, because of camera phones.
But never underestimate the power of music. When done right, it's not a trifle, it's not something to be played in the background, rather it's positively foreground, you need it to stay alive, it makes you feel you're not alone in this world, it amps up your energy, eliminates your depression, makes you think not being in the mainstream is cool, that you can survive without Instagram followers, as long as this music is channeled into your soul.
But it's best on a big rig.
YouTube: https://bit.ly/2uGchiF
He doesn't always sound like this. That's right, you've got to hear Greta Van Fleet's rendition of "Rolling In The Deep" on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2O1yQHq It's quite remarkable, you'd almost think they wrote it, kinda like Zeppelin being "influenced" by all those blues numbers way back when.
But on "When The Curtain Falls," Josh Kiszka is channeling Robert Plant from the early seventies and if you were there for the original, you might be offended, but today's audience was not, and they want something new.
What kind of stereo did you have growing up? My dad supplied us with an endless stream of "record players," the first one gray, two of them pink, truly, my dad was into deals, with heavy tonearms and built-in speakers that we played our records on. My parents had a Columbia console in the living room, where we never went, with an external speaker that I once connected directly to my electric guitar and blew out the lights in my house, not realizing an amplifier was necessary. And then in the sixties an addition was built behind our split-level and my parents invested in a separates system, with components by ADC, other than the turntable, which was a Garrard, which I had to ask permission to use. By this time my albums were treasured, I never touched the vinyl, I took care of my records, preserving them for posterity, believing they evidenced my identity, and the irony is that vinyl, all of which I still have, is now back, then again the stuff I've got was cut analog for analog reproduction, and it makes a difference.
Anyway, my parents had a friend who worked at CBS, who ran their audio division, and when I was a senior in high school my sister and I were blessed by Columbia components, but don't be too wowed, the speakers were small, the sound was not impressive, but it was certainly better than the all-in-ones.
And I never got a great stereo in college, because my parents wanted me to pay for it, and I had no ready source of income, and they were convinced it would get stolen, that was rampant back then, theft of components, along with bicycles, my white Peugeot was ripped-off the last day of freshman year, but eventually, I found myself ensconced in an apartment in Los Angeles and I bought the stereo of my dreams.
With JBL L100s.
What did you have? Off-brand stuff? That was how Cal Stereo made money, by manufacturing its own no-name speakers. And then there was Rogersound Labs in the Valley, with its own speakers, and if you wanted to spend less, there was the Advent, which superseded KLH and AR, and was pretty damn good for the price, which was $125 at first, and then $149 apiece. But the JBLs, which they used in studios, they retailed for $349 per speaker, and it was hard to get a discount.
And the salesman said the JBLs were bright, and the only amp that would sound good was the Sansui, or the Luxman, which was way out of my price range, so I ended up with an AU11000, sans tuner, but with 110 watts a channel, and that rig brought the THUNDER!
That's what it was all about.
There's some thunder today, but really it's just bass, emanating from jacked-up car stereos playing hip-hop. I'm convinced we get the music our systems can reproduce, and acoustic music sounds bad on MP3s/streams through earbuds, but rock sounds even worse, for that thin-band stuff hip-hop is best, didn't Beats advertise they came with bottom?
But the thunder was not only bottom, it permeated the entire range. Like that Maxell ad, featuring those JBL L100s, which made the listener's hair blow back, no one under fifty remembers, but those older than that, we're all familiar with the image.
So the goal was to get the best stereo your money could buy, drop the needle, and make not only yourself shake, but your whole damn HOUSE! You turned it up loud enough to shut out all surrounding noise, the music soaked up the atmosphere, that was the essence of rock. But when you listen to Greta Van Fleet's "When The Curtain Falls" on earbuds, computer speakers...
You're missing the essence, the thunder. It sounds thin, when it's supposed to sound MASSIVE!
And the funny thing is you'll dismiss "When The Curtain Falls" at first, assuming you were around way back when, but then you realize it's more about the riff than the vocal, that the guitar-playing is not that far away from "Houses Of The Holy" and "Physical Graffiti." Don't cry heresy, there's truly similarity, but can the audience be converted without the big rigs, without the stereos of yore?
You remember how it was. Back before iPhones, back before selfies, back when it was about them, not you, when the stars were on stage and you stood in the audience nodding your head, the sound so loud that you couldn't speak to the person next to you anyway.
That's how "When The Curtain Falls" should be heard.
And it's not burning up the streaming services, and the rock radio format is a ghetto. Then again, Charli XCX said radio no longer mattered in "Rolling Stone," and Five Seconds Of Summer shifted singles midstream, to great success. Meaning...
The old rules are kaput. Now is the time to take chances, like the above cover of "Rolling In The Deep." You put stuff out and see what resonates. Satiate the core. Let them spread the word. If you're playing the old game of one track, pushing it for a year, you're missing out. That's how you build a track, but not FANS! Fans don't care if anybody else likes the act, they're invested, they're paying fealty, they'll show up at the gig, where rock is built.
That's right, today it's all about the live show, the opposite of the pop ethos, where it's built on radio and television and you go to hear a perfect rendition live, oftentimes on hard drive, no, with rock you want it to be a bit different, oftentimes a bit faster, with more power, with more energy.
And Greta Van Fleet is succeeding there.
And the key is they're young. In an era where Vine stars have already gone on to their day jobs. The generations keep changing, and those prognosticating have often seen too much, they can't see the show through the eyes of the audience.
But if you're open-minded...
At first you want to turn "When The Curtain Falls" off, it seems ersatz. Then you get to the change, the chorus, and you want to let the track play through, and then that riff infects you and you find yourself playing the track over and over again, forgetting all about Robert Plant.
It's not "Whole Lotta Love." But it's not me-too, at least not when compared to the other rock acts on the scene today.
Greta Van Fleet is just one monster away from breaking through.
Don't forget, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were long on experience. These guys are brand new, at least to the masses, they're figuring it out, maybe they're spearheading a new movement.
Then again, shenanigans on the road are passe, because of camera phones.
But never underestimate the power of music. When done right, it's not a trifle, it's not something to be played in the background, rather it's positively foreground, you need it to stay alive, it makes you feel you're not alone in this world, it amps up your energy, eliminates your depression, makes you think not being in the mainstream is cool, that you can survive without Instagram followers, as long as this music is channeled into your soul.
But it's best on a big rig.
--
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--
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Tuesday, 17 July 2018
Jake Gold/Bob Lefsetz-This Week's Podcast
That's right, Jake Gold returns for a wrap-up on this year's Music Media Summit in Santa Barbara. This is the last podcast in this series, hopefully you enjoyed peeking inside the conference and are motivated to come next year!
Listen on...
TuneIn: https://listen.tunein.com/jakegoldletter
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jake-gold/id1316200737?i=1000416003846&mt=2
Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Dbi2auru2gyfqp5s7j2axobuksq?t=Jake_Gold-The_Bob_Lefsetz_Podcast
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bob-lefsetz/jakegold-32
Overcast: https://overcast.fm/+LBr-o_aac
Acast: https://www.acast.com/theboblefsetzpodcast/jake-gold
Castbox: https://castbox.fm/episode/Jake-Gold-id1099656-id85153681?country=us
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Listen on...
TuneIn: https://listen.tunein.com/jakegoldletter
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jake-gold/id1316200737?i=1000416003846&mt=2
Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Dbi2auru2gyfqp5s7j2axobuksq?t=Jake_Gold-The_Bob_Lefsetz_Podcast
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bob-lefsetz/jakegold-32
Overcast: https://overcast.fm/+LBr-o_aac
Acast: https://www.acast.com/theboblefsetzpodcast/jake-gold
Castbox: https://castbox.fm/episode/Jake-Gold-id1099656-id85153681?country=us
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Listen to the podcast:
-TuneIn: http://tunein.com/lefsetz
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Monday, 16 July 2018
Getting The Story
ASK QUESTIONS
People will tell you anything, but you've got to ask them.
This was my father's mantra, YOU GOTTA ASK!, to the point where I developed social anxiety, I was embarrassed every time he'd engage, but he was right. He also taught me to be nice and make friends. People react positively to niceness. And the game changes, used to be if you said you were a lawyer, you got respect, now people become defensive and give you worse service. Furthermore, my father taught me how to prove a point, by making analogies, by telling stories himself. He'd always call for the president of the company, the person who could make a decision. If the person on the line said the president was out of town, or unavailable all day, my father would ask for the person who would run the company if god forbid the president died, there was always someone in charge. This taught me not to waste time with the person who cannot make a decision. I know, I know, they're nice, they're part of the hierarchy, you're building a relationship, you're gonna hug the company to death. But if the person in charge says no, you're screwed, so it's best to go to the top right away, no matter what anybody says. And the stunning thing is you can reach the top, especially today, with the internet, via Twitter. But don't be a jerk. If you call the person an a-hole, they're not going to respond, but if you lay out your problem they oftentimes will, Michael Rapino responds to e-mail and tweets, he wants his customers to be satisfied. But if you're the squeaky wheel, always complaining, always looking for an edge, you're gonna win and then ultimately lose, because people can detect this behavior, you don't want to be a schnorrer. So if you've got a problem, if you think there's an injustice, make contact with the person who can make a decision, who can solve your problem. Tell a story, length is no issue, unless you're on Twitter, you want to demonstrate that you're reasonable, but in this case things didn't work out. Remind me when we're together to tell you the story of the K2 skis, and my Apple Powerbook...
GAIN BACKGROUND
Today's story was all about Bill Browder. Who? If you were paying attention, playing the home game, you read my article about his book "Red Notice": https://bit.ly/2uGDDVF Putin is pissed about the Magnitsky Act, which Browder made happen. I could explain the news, but if you're not reading it... But my point is Browder illustrated what is really happening in Russia, the Magnitsky Act is in the news multiple times a month. Furthermore, if you trust Putin today, you didn't see "Icarus," wherein Putin lies straight to our faces, that's right, Bryan Fogel lays out the facts and Putin denies them. Being a citizen of the world is being informed. You can't know everything, but you want to know a lot, if for no other reason than when you run into someone you know what they're talking about. Happens to me all the time, someone starts telling me a story and I'm familiar with what they're talking about because I read the news in the WSJ or the NYT or Bloomberg. The news itself may not help me in my life, but the fact I'm up to speed in conversation pays incredible dividends, people bond to those who know their story.
BE PERSONAL
This relates to the first paragraph above. It's about people, not facts. I had a two hour lunch with a record company CEO today and we only talked business for five minutes. It's about the bond, if you keep pitching without a relationship, you're not gonna get what you want. You have to KNOW these people! That's how you get a job, no one wants to hire someone they don't know. They want someone to vouch for you, someone who is intimately familiar with you. That's right, you cannot get a gig without a connection, and that's a GOOD thing! Because the world runs on trust and you need people you can trust, you can't supervise people 24/7, you need to know they're not only not criminals, but they can do the job, which is all about finishing, which most people cannot, they've got so many excuses. If someone blows deadlines, get rid of them/ignore them. There's rarely a good excuse. They're just waiting to feel right so they can do the best job, better to find someone who can get the job done, even if it's not perfect.
ANALYZE
Information is nothing without context. Figure out how to put the pieces together. This is what an elite school will teach you, one with essay exams as opposed to objective tests. I know, I know, there's this Ivy League backlash, and I'm not saying you cannot make it if you're from another school, or cannot make it without schooling at all, but that's a very thin layer of people. What elite institutions do is teach you how to think. It's not about covering what's in the book, if you can't read, you've got bigger problems, but how you put the pieces together. Sure, this act grossed a lot last time around, but does that mean they'll do well this time? Or the gross number is big, but the dates didn't go clean, does this mean the fanbase is moving on?
ASK MULTIPLE PEOPLE
Don't trust one person for the answer, even if he or she is an expert. The more people you talk to, the more perspective you get, the more things become clear. This happens to me all the time. I'll go to one store and hear one story and then to another and that salesperson will contradict the first and then I go to a third establishment and the pieces start to come together. And all information is not created equal, this is the 10,000 hours rule. It's not about 10,000 hours of practice, it's about 10,000 hours of HARD practice! If you spend 10,000 hours on the bunny hill, you'll never be a World Cup skier. So find people who've tested themselves.
MOST PEOPLE ARE FULL OF CRAP
Intentionally or not. There was a great story in the NYT a decade ago that independent auto repair shops are not intentionally ripping you off, they're just incompetent, they think they're doing a good job. Just because the person telling you the story is confident, that does not make it true. And as a matter of fact, the best sources are frequently less than confident, because they know what they don't know, they're always re-evaluating their position. And it's a rare male who will tell you he does not know something. And males are about ego. They want to look good. So, on many issues, you're better off asking a woman, if they have expertise in the area.
CONCLUSION/TELLING A STORY
It must be logical, laid out, told in a linear fashion, from beginning to end. I don't want to go all middle school on you, but too many people don't know how to tell a story. It's not important to tell the premise or conclusion first, just that the audience be able to follow it. You're taking them on a trip, building an edifice, just because it's clear in your mind that does not mean it's clear in theirs. Although you will find some people cannot follow a story, no matter how clearly you tell it. But when you tell a story coherently, with confidence, people respect that, you'll move up the food chain, because no boss can do all the work, they depend upon subordinates, who report to them. They want you to do the work and report. They don't want to hear your dog ate your homework, what you ate last night, unless it's relevant. Length is fine, as long as the listener has time.
DON'T HOG THE FLOOR
Don't talk unless you have something to say, when it comes to business anyway. Some people abhor silence and feel a need to fill it. Train yourself to hold back. He who speaks first rarely triumphs in the end.
LIFE IS MADE UP OF STORIES
Which is why television and movies are so triumphant. It's all about the narrative, that's how we communicate. Listen and tell. And if you listen, once again, people will tell you ANYTHING! Because in this alienated, narcissistic world, no one cares how another person feels. There are too many show-offs. You want to make the teller of the story feel comfortable, feel attended to, feel loved. If you hit a roadblock, back off, but this is rarely the case. People not only want to talk, they want to help, as long as you're not obviously using them. If you're lucky, you'll never have to get to the ask, the person will offer what you want. If you do get to the ask, don't see the person as a vehicle, someone to be used and discarded. It's great if the ask benefits the person asked, but if not, if it's to your benefit, it's best if it's about a problem you have as opposed to jetting you to the top of the class.
COMMUNICATION
Voice, phone calls, text, tweets, that's what they're all about, communicating and connecting. And the irony is so much of what is done online is about bragging...I did this or that. Think about entering someone's heart, that's where the dividends lie.
People will tell you anything, but you've got to ask them.
This was my father's mantra, YOU GOTTA ASK!, to the point where I developed social anxiety, I was embarrassed every time he'd engage, but he was right. He also taught me to be nice and make friends. People react positively to niceness. And the game changes, used to be if you said you were a lawyer, you got respect, now people become defensive and give you worse service. Furthermore, my father taught me how to prove a point, by making analogies, by telling stories himself. He'd always call for the president of the company, the person who could make a decision. If the person on the line said the president was out of town, or unavailable all day, my father would ask for the person who would run the company if god forbid the president died, there was always someone in charge. This taught me not to waste time with the person who cannot make a decision. I know, I know, they're nice, they're part of the hierarchy, you're building a relationship, you're gonna hug the company to death. But if the person in charge says no, you're screwed, so it's best to go to the top right away, no matter what anybody says. And the stunning thing is you can reach the top, especially today, with the internet, via Twitter. But don't be a jerk. If you call the person an a-hole, they're not going to respond, but if you lay out your problem they oftentimes will, Michael Rapino responds to e-mail and tweets, he wants his customers to be satisfied. But if you're the squeaky wheel, always complaining, always looking for an edge, you're gonna win and then ultimately lose, because people can detect this behavior, you don't want to be a schnorrer. So if you've got a problem, if you think there's an injustice, make contact with the person who can make a decision, who can solve your problem. Tell a story, length is no issue, unless you're on Twitter, you want to demonstrate that you're reasonable, but in this case things didn't work out. Remind me when we're together to tell you the story of the K2 skis, and my Apple Powerbook...
GAIN BACKGROUND
Today's story was all about Bill Browder. Who? If you were paying attention, playing the home game, you read my article about his book "Red Notice": https://bit.ly/2uGDDVF Putin is pissed about the Magnitsky Act, which Browder made happen. I could explain the news, but if you're not reading it... But my point is Browder illustrated what is really happening in Russia, the Magnitsky Act is in the news multiple times a month. Furthermore, if you trust Putin today, you didn't see "Icarus," wherein Putin lies straight to our faces, that's right, Bryan Fogel lays out the facts and Putin denies them. Being a citizen of the world is being informed. You can't know everything, but you want to know a lot, if for no other reason than when you run into someone you know what they're talking about. Happens to me all the time, someone starts telling me a story and I'm familiar with what they're talking about because I read the news in the WSJ or the NYT or Bloomberg. The news itself may not help me in my life, but the fact I'm up to speed in conversation pays incredible dividends, people bond to those who know their story.
BE PERSONAL
This relates to the first paragraph above. It's about people, not facts. I had a two hour lunch with a record company CEO today and we only talked business for five minutes. It's about the bond, if you keep pitching without a relationship, you're not gonna get what you want. You have to KNOW these people! That's how you get a job, no one wants to hire someone they don't know. They want someone to vouch for you, someone who is intimately familiar with you. That's right, you cannot get a gig without a connection, and that's a GOOD thing! Because the world runs on trust and you need people you can trust, you can't supervise people 24/7, you need to know they're not only not criminals, but they can do the job, which is all about finishing, which most people cannot, they've got so many excuses. If someone blows deadlines, get rid of them/ignore them. There's rarely a good excuse. They're just waiting to feel right so they can do the best job, better to find someone who can get the job done, even if it's not perfect.
ANALYZE
Information is nothing without context. Figure out how to put the pieces together. This is what an elite school will teach you, one with essay exams as opposed to objective tests. I know, I know, there's this Ivy League backlash, and I'm not saying you cannot make it if you're from another school, or cannot make it without schooling at all, but that's a very thin layer of people. What elite institutions do is teach you how to think. It's not about covering what's in the book, if you can't read, you've got bigger problems, but how you put the pieces together. Sure, this act grossed a lot last time around, but does that mean they'll do well this time? Or the gross number is big, but the dates didn't go clean, does this mean the fanbase is moving on?
ASK MULTIPLE PEOPLE
Don't trust one person for the answer, even if he or she is an expert. The more people you talk to, the more perspective you get, the more things become clear. This happens to me all the time. I'll go to one store and hear one story and then to another and that salesperson will contradict the first and then I go to a third establishment and the pieces start to come together. And all information is not created equal, this is the 10,000 hours rule. It's not about 10,000 hours of practice, it's about 10,000 hours of HARD practice! If you spend 10,000 hours on the bunny hill, you'll never be a World Cup skier. So find people who've tested themselves.
MOST PEOPLE ARE FULL OF CRAP
Intentionally or not. There was a great story in the NYT a decade ago that independent auto repair shops are not intentionally ripping you off, they're just incompetent, they think they're doing a good job. Just because the person telling you the story is confident, that does not make it true. And as a matter of fact, the best sources are frequently less than confident, because they know what they don't know, they're always re-evaluating their position. And it's a rare male who will tell you he does not know something. And males are about ego. They want to look good. So, on many issues, you're better off asking a woman, if they have expertise in the area.
CONCLUSION/TELLING A STORY
It must be logical, laid out, told in a linear fashion, from beginning to end. I don't want to go all middle school on you, but too many people don't know how to tell a story. It's not important to tell the premise or conclusion first, just that the audience be able to follow it. You're taking them on a trip, building an edifice, just because it's clear in your mind that does not mean it's clear in theirs. Although you will find some people cannot follow a story, no matter how clearly you tell it. But when you tell a story coherently, with confidence, people respect that, you'll move up the food chain, because no boss can do all the work, they depend upon subordinates, who report to them. They want you to do the work and report. They don't want to hear your dog ate your homework, what you ate last night, unless it's relevant. Length is fine, as long as the listener has time.
DON'T HOG THE FLOOR
Don't talk unless you have something to say, when it comes to business anyway. Some people abhor silence and feel a need to fill it. Train yourself to hold back. He who speaks first rarely triumphs in the end.
LIFE IS MADE UP OF STORIES
Which is why television and movies are so triumphant. It's all about the narrative, that's how we communicate. Listen and tell. And if you listen, once again, people will tell you ANYTHING! Because in this alienated, narcissistic world, no one cares how another person feels. There are too many show-offs. You want to make the teller of the story feel comfortable, feel attended to, feel loved. If you hit a roadblock, back off, but this is rarely the case. People not only want to talk, they want to help, as long as you're not obviously using them. If you're lucky, you'll never have to get to the ask, the person will offer what you want. If you do get to the ask, don't see the person as a vehicle, someone to be used and discarded. It's great if the ask benefits the person asked, but if not, if it's to your benefit, it's best if it's about a problem you have as opposed to jetting you to the top of the class.
COMMUNICATION
Voice, phone calls, text, tweets, that's what they're all about, communicating and connecting. And the irony is so much of what is done online is about bragging...I did this or that. Think about entering someone's heart, that's where the dividends lie.
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Sunday, 15 July 2018
Re-Harry Styles
I saw Harry in St. Paul Mn recently. I am a 59 year old male music head and I fell in love with Harry's album last year. It was so 70s rock. He booked the show a year ago. I refused to bite. But this spring my wife and I had fomo so we bought some stub hub tickets for 50% of face. As we drove over we figured it would be half full. My wife asked me to guess the demo. We knew it would be female. I guessed 25 years old. I was over by 5 years. And it was a celebration of teenage lesbianism-who knew Harry was a lesbian icon? It was so cool. And then he played. He is a rock star. A real rock star. Enough said, the youth are the future and we are in good shape. Amen.
James Welby
____________________________________
Love harry and always thought 1D were underrated. Making not bad 70's rock.
(Niall's album is more listenable).
But tell us, how was Kasey Musgraves?? Sad I couldn't go to the forum to see her open.
Rob Giles
____________________________________
Absofuckinglutely.
Saw him in March in Austin on the theatre tour with my daughter and her GBF. (We flew down under guise of a college visit). He and his band rock and they have great songs. The album is reeeeally good.
But then I'm probably the only 62-year old who saw 1D three times. (Not completely under protest!) I said from jump that Harry would be the break through - Mickey Dolenz-meets-Jagger.
Yes - Rod Stewart. I thought that, too.
He's the bollocks, for damn sure.
Hugo Burnham
____________________________________
His first solo turn on SNL
was like "so there still can be rock stars!"
Michael Fremer
____________________________________
I really like Harry Styles and his album was one of my favorites from last year. Did not know how popular he really was.
Alan Oreman
____________________________________
I worked with Harry, as an actor, on Dunkirk, in LA (I do sound). He could not have been more gracious and helpful. It's not fun having a microphone taped to your body, but in this process he was very accommodating.
But there's more than that, and there's a story about him that I tell people when they ask about Dunkirk. After work one night, my wife and I had to take my son to the ER, and he was admitted to the hospital. So I had to miss the next day of work (everything worked out and he's fine). When I returned to work the day after that, and Harry arrived on set and he saw me, he bee lined straight to me, by-passing several others, and wanted to know immediately how my son was doing. I was blown away.
It's a testament to who he is: a human before a star. Even though when it comes to the latter, he IS gigantic.
(When we finished I asked him what was next (knowing he had just signed a massive recording contract). He was off to Jamaica immediately to write the album.)
Zachary Wrobel
____________________________________
My niece was a minor 1D fan. I liked them for their energy - that was about it. But I was curious when Harry's album first came out. I heard it had an old school vibe - melodies, hooks, real instruments. I had to listen. I wanted to hear some music I could relate to and got tired of listening to crappy pop stuff and/or stuff that was popular 30 years ago. So I pulled up his album on Spotify and and must have listened to a few dozen times before I moved on to something else. I'm a fan. Watching him do a week with James Cordon and his cheeky humor and dashing good looks as well as amazing talent hooked me. "Two Ghosts" is an amazing song. I hope he keeps on this path and find something old that is now new.
#olschoolrules
David George
____________________________________
Great one, Bob. You are tuned in, man. Thanks for the report from the field.
Michael Barker
____________________________________
the kid can rock and i give him all the credit in the world.
great show
not to mention taking kacey musgraves out as support. love his choices all around
Ryan Kravontka
____________________________________
My Daughter was at Harry's show in Sacramento, and when I asked her how it was she said "no words." But of course you found the perfect way to describe it.
Kristin M
____________________________________
Bob, first time I've been compelled to reply... you captured a lot here, somehow made me feel like I missed out on a Harry Styles concert - not a snide comment.
I look forward to reading your email about Young Thug, the Harry Styles of rap.
Andrew Tolman
NYC
____________________________________
I love the big rock show, wish I'd been there to see the lad doing the deal. I kinda thought he might be the real deal, but who would know? My daughter maybe??
Young Hutchinson
____________________________________
I just want to say. When Harry played the troubadour last year, he brought Stevie Nicks. She is a queen and she told stories and all the girls and their mothers lost their shit when she walked out. It was incredible.
Thanks!
Oscar J. Narro
Production Manager
www.troubadour.com
____________________________________
He is such a superstar for all of the right reasons! He's talented as hell, passionate, genuine and cool! I love him, my 30 year old daughter loves him, my 20 year old niece loves him, my 12 year old niece loves him...yes women LOVE Harry! And what a showman he is!
jc richardson
____________________________________
Harry Rocks
Reminds me of Jagger.
catherinemary44
____________________________________
Does it not worry you that today the best way to achieve your dream is to enter a reality tv show/talent contest?
Should you be celebrating this?
Is it just about ticket sales?
You wanna be a rock star?
Enter a talent contest.
You wanna be president of America?
It's taken a while but it looks like somebody have finally cracked it and come up with a way to fool all of the people all of the time.
I didn't need to be there.
This is not a good thing.
Alan Pell
Matters Of Vinyl Importance
____________________________________
Hi Bob
I've seen a Harry concert and it is spectacular. He was the star of 1D and brilliant off the stage too in interviews and press. He's the real deal. There are other concerts like his that generate the same relationship with the all female audience—Hanson. Oh, did Mercury blow that. These concerts have one very important common factor…the talent is drug free and so is the audience. There is no celebration of failure. The next day everyone goes to work. Do not minimize the not-cool-at all factor. No, I never thought Drake was the biggest star on the planet, only Rolling Stone and TMZ thinks that. But I have an important guidance system: 12 and 15 year old daughters who don't care who Drake is but know every 1D, Macklemore and Justin Bieber lyric. They love Elvis Duran.
"Welcome to 2018, where we're inundated with news but no one has their finger on the pulse." great sentence. But I believe 15 year old girls have always known exactly where the pulse is and what makes it race. Glad you got out:)))) Walter Sabo
____________________________________
Hi Bob,
Just watched Some HARRY STYLES night 2 at The Forum, on Youtube.
It's a ROCK CONCERT / Harry is a ROCK STAR.
He even used a Microphone Cable!!!!
Richie Zito
____________________________________
Would've loved to been a part of the team for this one...
What is really impressive is the approach "they" took with Harry to differentiate yet maintain his established fan base. I'm overthinking this I'm sure but the moment 1D was no longer, the $64K question is; "where do we begin?"
How to not recreate the wheel here...
Steve Anderko
____________________________________
Hi Bob,
Just watched Some HARRY STYLES night 2 at The Forum, on Youtube.
It's a ROCK CONCERT / Harry is a ROCK STAR.
He even used a Microphone Cable!!!!
Richie Zito
____________________________________
Hi Bob,
such a good read, happy to see your perspective matches what I have seen online over the course of this tour. These girls!!
Not only do they know how to have fun, they know how to utilize the internet - to share with their peers all over the world. Last night alone, there where tens of thousands watching via livestreams provided by the girls inside. They managed to stream and film every show of this tour - so much content, pictures, gifs with subtitles, memes. This is not only fun to follow if you, like me, missed out on going to an actual show. It also makes everything super accessible for everyone who wants to join the party. You are part of the inner circle no matter where you are.
Also, they educate each other and Harry. The rainbow flags, the "I'm gay" signs, the Black Lives Matter Flags where there for every show. Did you know there is a bi flag, a lesbian flag? I didn't, but I do now.
They have each others back. They cheer when fellow fans come out. They make sure Harry sees important signs in the crowd. They gift downloads to fans who can't afford it. They organise for fan projects.
Me, I am way too old to fangirl over a boybander. But hell, this is way too much fun to miss out on because of some misguided sense of musical superiority. And this is as much about the music as it is about the community.
All the best,
Alexandra Muehlbacher
____________________________________
Bob,
Really, you defined what the secret to Harry Styes is with one word in your piece: JOY. I'm glad you get that and I'm more than a little bit relieved that you said it. I think it's fantastic that you went to see his show, felt the joy and wrote about it. Thank you for that. See, I'm a fan of his, but I'm a woman in her 50s and I have no kids. I gotta tell you though, it's not just "the little girls" or even just "the girls" - my husband is a fan as well. Hell, even my parents who are in their 70s love Harry! It might seem obvious why his younger fans adore him, but why would fans my age (and older) think he's so great? I mean sure, he has a unique and terrific voice, a great band, the look (those suits!)...these things alone could be enough, absolutely.
It's more than that, though. A lot more.
As you witnessed, Harry Styles is about being inclusive, not exclusive, telling everyone to feel free to be whatever they want to be while they are at his shows, with no judgment. He spreads a message by his actions, being an example of a decent and kind human. It brings hope to me for this up and coming generation, that someone with his reach is spreading such a positive message to their fans. It's inspiring to us older ones that are paying attention, too, but these young people at his shows are going to run the world soon. I'm excited about that now, not afraid of it, because of Harry. His message is one needed desperately right now - a kind, inclusive reality we can all create for each other, when there is so much hatred and negativity seemingly everywhere we look. He has "Treat People With Kindness" all over his merch, for a reason - he actually does it and wants everyone else to do it, too. You've seen. Sadly, as much as I wanted to, I couldn't make any of his shows, due to travel distance from the venues he played. Maybe next time. But, I've seen, in footage (of which there is an abundance on YouTube) of his shows, fan stories of how kind he was when they met him, interviews he does... He connects with his fans in a way that matters, makes people feel like they matter to him, because it's obvious that they do. He always looks people in the eye, actually remembers numerous individual fans from previous shows and tells them so, has conversations with the audience, knows that he wouldn't be able to do what he does without them and says so to them. I'm writing all of this because I find what he's doing to be truly important as well as being very entertaining. I haven't seen any artist do what he does with that level of connectivity, ever. A movement of kindness in these times? From a rockstar? Wow! And he most certainly is that. I grew up on Fleetwood Mac and many of the classic rock greats ... Went to many, many shows, bought hundreds upon hundreds of records and, frankly, I didn't expect to be inspired this much by a musician anymore. Then came Harry Styles. I hope he keeps touring, making records, and spreading joy for years to come.
Valerie Wyant
____________________________________
This is so completely bang on Bob, thank you, you nailed it.
My husband and I took our 14 year old to the concert in Vancouver and we were overwhelmed by the entire event. First, before the show the arena was blasting songs from bands like Queen and the Beatles and we were impressed by this, also that all the kids knew the words, the arena was buzzing with sing alongs. We had to laugh as the lights dimmed and before Harry even took the stage the entire arena stood up in a flash and screamed, loud, and they did not sit down throughout the entire show. It was fascinating, all Harry had to do was smile and twinkle his eye a little and it would send them all into fits of squeals all over again. These girls were indeed, deeply connected.
I already knew that my daughter was obsessed, her Instagram feed has been filled with Harry videos and pictures after every concert throughout his tour and she pours over each post endlessly. Through social media platforms and by piecing random videos together she has even learned all the words to his newest song; "Medicine" which hasn't even been released yet. I was gobsmacked as I watched her and thousands of other girls all singing along word for word. Did I mention the song hasn't even been released yet? It's a cracking good song, as were so many of them. I'm a fan of the 60's and 70's music mostly, and my hubs and I kept finding flashbacks and nods to this music from earlier days. So we enjoyed it, alot.
We would have preferred to sit down mind you, but you couldn't if you wanted to see anything....... We did walk away in absolute awe and full of respect for his music, talent and mastery of the stage and audience.
Anyhow, our daughter came home last night from a sleepover because she was too depressed that Harry's tour is over.
I barely even know what to make of it.
Rachael Chatoor
Dreams- Canada's Ultimate Tribute to Fleetwood Mac.
____________________________________
So... rock isn't dead after all, Bob?
Adam Watts
James Welby
____________________________________
Love harry and always thought 1D were underrated. Making not bad 70's rock.
(Niall's album is more listenable).
But tell us, how was Kasey Musgraves?? Sad I couldn't go to the forum to see her open.
Rob Giles
____________________________________
Absofuckinglutely.
Saw him in March in Austin on the theatre tour with my daughter and her GBF. (We flew down under guise of a college visit). He and his band rock and they have great songs. The album is reeeeally good.
But then I'm probably the only 62-year old who saw 1D three times. (Not completely under protest!) I said from jump that Harry would be the break through - Mickey Dolenz-meets-Jagger.
Yes - Rod Stewart. I thought that, too.
He's the bollocks, for damn sure.
Hugo Burnham
____________________________________
His first solo turn on SNL
was like "so there still can be rock stars!"
Michael Fremer
____________________________________
I really like Harry Styles and his album was one of my favorites from last year. Did not know how popular he really was.
Alan Oreman
____________________________________
I worked with Harry, as an actor, on Dunkirk, in LA (I do sound). He could not have been more gracious and helpful. It's not fun having a microphone taped to your body, but in this process he was very accommodating.
But there's more than that, and there's a story about him that I tell people when they ask about Dunkirk. After work one night, my wife and I had to take my son to the ER, and he was admitted to the hospital. So I had to miss the next day of work (everything worked out and he's fine). When I returned to work the day after that, and Harry arrived on set and he saw me, he bee lined straight to me, by-passing several others, and wanted to know immediately how my son was doing. I was blown away.
It's a testament to who he is: a human before a star. Even though when it comes to the latter, he IS gigantic.
(When we finished I asked him what was next (knowing he had just signed a massive recording contract). He was off to Jamaica immediately to write the album.)
Zachary Wrobel
____________________________________
My niece was a minor 1D fan. I liked them for their energy - that was about it. But I was curious when Harry's album first came out. I heard it had an old school vibe - melodies, hooks, real instruments. I had to listen. I wanted to hear some music I could relate to and got tired of listening to crappy pop stuff and/or stuff that was popular 30 years ago. So I pulled up his album on Spotify and and must have listened to a few dozen times before I moved on to something else. I'm a fan. Watching him do a week with James Cordon and his cheeky humor and dashing good looks as well as amazing talent hooked me. "Two Ghosts" is an amazing song. I hope he keeps on this path and find something old that is now new.
#olschoolrules
David George
____________________________________
Great one, Bob. You are tuned in, man. Thanks for the report from the field.
Michael Barker
____________________________________
the kid can rock and i give him all the credit in the world.
great show
not to mention taking kacey musgraves out as support. love his choices all around
Ryan Kravontka
____________________________________
My Daughter was at Harry's show in Sacramento, and when I asked her how it was she said "no words." But of course you found the perfect way to describe it.
Kristin M
____________________________________
Bob, first time I've been compelled to reply... you captured a lot here, somehow made me feel like I missed out on a Harry Styles concert - not a snide comment.
I look forward to reading your email about Young Thug, the Harry Styles of rap.
Andrew Tolman
NYC
____________________________________
I love the big rock show, wish I'd been there to see the lad doing the deal. I kinda thought he might be the real deal, but who would know? My daughter maybe??
Young Hutchinson
____________________________________
I just want to say. When Harry played the troubadour last year, he brought Stevie Nicks. She is a queen and she told stories and all the girls and their mothers lost their shit when she walked out. It was incredible.
Thanks!
Oscar J. Narro
Production Manager
www.troubadour.com
____________________________________
He is such a superstar for all of the right reasons! He's talented as hell, passionate, genuine and cool! I love him, my 30 year old daughter loves him, my 20 year old niece loves him, my 12 year old niece loves him...yes women LOVE Harry! And what a showman he is!
jc richardson
____________________________________
Harry Rocks
Reminds me of Jagger.
catherinemary44
____________________________________
Does it not worry you that today the best way to achieve your dream is to enter a reality tv show/talent contest?
Should you be celebrating this?
Is it just about ticket sales?
You wanna be a rock star?
Enter a talent contest.
You wanna be president of America?
It's taken a while but it looks like somebody have finally cracked it and come up with a way to fool all of the people all of the time.
I didn't need to be there.
This is not a good thing.
Alan Pell
Matters Of Vinyl Importance
____________________________________
Hi Bob
I've seen a Harry concert and it is spectacular. He was the star of 1D and brilliant off the stage too in interviews and press. He's the real deal. There are other concerts like his that generate the same relationship with the all female audience—Hanson. Oh, did Mercury blow that. These concerts have one very important common factor…the talent is drug free and so is the audience. There is no celebration of failure. The next day everyone goes to work. Do not minimize the not-cool-at all factor. No, I never thought Drake was the biggest star on the planet, only Rolling Stone and TMZ thinks that. But I have an important guidance system: 12 and 15 year old daughters who don't care who Drake is but know every 1D, Macklemore and Justin Bieber lyric. They love Elvis Duran.
"Welcome to 2018, where we're inundated with news but no one has their finger on the pulse." great sentence. But I believe 15 year old girls have always known exactly where the pulse is and what makes it race. Glad you got out:)))) Walter Sabo
____________________________________
Hi Bob,
Just watched Some HARRY STYLES night 2 at The Forum, on Youtube.
It's a ROCK CONCERT / Harry is a ROCK STAR.
He even used a Microphone Cable!!!!
Richie Zito
____________________________________
Would've loved to been a part of the team for this one...
What is really impressive is the approach "they" took with Harry to differentiate yet maintain his established fan base. I'm overthinking this I'm sure but the moment 1D was no longer, the $64K question is; "where do we begin?"
How to not recreate the wheel here...
Steve Anderko
____________________________________
Hi Bob,
Just watched Some HARRY STYLES night 2 at The Forum, on Youtube.
It's a ROCK CONCERT / Harry is a ROCK STAR.
He even used a Microphone Cable!!!!
Richie Zito
____________________________________
Hi Bob,
such a good read, happy to see your perspective matches what I have seen online over the course of this tour. These girls!!
Not only do they know how to have fun, they know how to utilize the internet - to share with their peers all over the world. Last night alone, there where tens of thousands watching via livestreams provided by the girls inside. They managed to stream and film every show of this tour - so much content, pictures, gifs with subtitles, memes. This is not only fun to follow if you, like me, missed out on going to an actual show. It also makes everything super accessible for everyone who wants to join the party. You are part of the inner circle no matter where you are.
Also, they educate each other and Harry. The rainbow flags, the "I'm gay" signs, the Black Lives Matter Flags where there for every show. Did you know there is a bi flag, a lesbian flag? I didn't, but I do now.
They have each others back. They cheer when fellow fans come out. They make sure Harry sees important signs in the crowd. They gift downloads to fans who can't afford it. They organise for fan projects.
Me, I am way too old to fangirl over a boybander. But hell, this is way too much fun to miss out on because of some misguided sense of musical superiority. And this is as much about the music as it is about the community.
All the best,
Alexandra Muehlbacher
____________________________________
Bob,
Really, you defined what the secret to Harry Styes is with one word in your piece: JOY. I'm glad you get that and I'm more than a little bit relieved that you said it. I think it's fantastic that you went to see his show, felt the joy and wrote about it. Thank you for that. See, I'm a fan of his, but I'm a woman in her 50s and I have no kids. I gotta tell you though, it's not just "the little girls" or even just "the girls" - my husband is a fan as well. Hell, even my parents who are in their 70s love Harry! It might seem obvious why his younger fans adore him, but why would fans my age (and older) think he's so great? I mean sure, he has a unique and terrific voice, a great band, the look (those suits!)...these things alone could be enough, absolutely.
It's more than that, though. A lot more.
As you witnessed, Harry Styles is about being inclusive, not exclusive, telling everyone to feel free to be whatever they want to be while they are at his shows, with no judgment. He spreads a message by his actions, being an example of a decent and kind human. It brings hope to me for this up and coming generation, that someone with his reach is spreading such a positive message to their fans. It's inspiring to us older ones that are paying attention, too, but these young people at his shows are going to run the world soon. I'm excited about that now, not afraid of it, because of Harry. His message is one needed desperately right now - a kind, inclusive reality we can all create for each other, when there is so much hatred and negativity seemingly everywhere we look. He has "Treat People With Kindness" all over his merch, for a reason - he actually does it and wants everyone else to do it, too. You've seen. Sadly, as much as I wanted to, I couldn't make any of his shows, due to travel distance from the venues he played. Maybe next time. But, I've seen, in footage (of which there is an abundance on YouTube) of his shows, fan stories of how kind he was when they met him, interviews he does... He connects with his fans in a way that matters, makes people feel like they matter to him, because it's obvious that they do. He always looks people in the eye, actually remembers numerous individual fans from previous shows and tells them so, has conversations with the audience, knows that he wouldn't be able to do what he does without them and says so to them. I'm writing all of this because I find what he's doing to be truly important as well as being very entertaining. I haven't seen any artist do what he does with that level of connectivity, ever. A movement of kindness in these times? From a rockstar? Wow! And he most certainly is that. I grew up on Fleetwood Mac and many of the classic rock greats ... Went to many, many shows, bought hundreds upon hundreds of records and, frankly, I didn't expect to be inspired this much by a musician anymore. Then came Harry Styles. I hope he keeps touring, making records, and spreading joy for years to come.
Valerie Wyant
____________________________________
This is so completely bang on Bob, thank you, you nailed it.
My husband and I took our 14 year old to the concert in Vancouver and we were overwhelmed by the entire event. First, before the show the arena was blasting songs from bands like Queen and the Beatles and we were impressed by this, also that all the kids knew the words, the arena was buzzing with sing alongs. We had to laugh as the lights dimmed and before Harry even took the stage the entire arena stood up in a flash and screamed, loud, and they did not sit down throughout the entire show. It was fascinating, all Harry had to do was smile and twinkle his eye a little and it would send them all into fits of squeals all over again. These girls were indeed, deeply connected.
I already knew that my daughter was obsessed, her Instagram feed has been filled with Harry videos and pictures after every concert throughout his tour and she pours over each post endlessly. Through social media platforms and by piecing random videos together she has even learned all the words to his newest song; "Medicine" which hasn't even been released yet. I was gobsmacked as I watched her and thousands of other girls all singing along word for word. Did I mention the song hasn't even been released yet? It's a cracking good song, as were so many of them. I'm a fan of the 60's and 70's music mostly, and my hubs and I kept finding flashbacks and nods to this music from earlier days. So we enjoyed it, alot.
We would have preferred to sit down mind you, but you couldn't if you wanted to see anything....... We did walk away in absolute awe and full of respect for his music, talent and mastery of the stage and audience.
Anyhow, our daughter came home last night from a sleepover because she was too depressed that Harry's tour is over.
I barely even know what to make of it.
Rachael Chatoor
Dreams- Canada's Ultimate Tribute to Fleetwood Mac.
____________________________________
So... rock isn't dead after all, Bob?
Adam Watts
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Happy Together Tour
There wasn't one song everybody didn't know.
That's the difference between yesterday and today, the ubiquity of the hits. If you were alive, you heard them, they penetrated not only the airwaves, but society, and these acts had a bunch of them.
The surprise was the Cowsills. They were so tight, the harmonies so perfect, it was amazing, you noticed, as you did the band that backed up all the acts, they were superb, proving once again that real music can triumph.
In the sixties.
The other jaw-dropper was Chuck Negron, who sang with oxygen, I kid you not. I even sang along a bit with "Joy To The World," which I absolutely HATED back when, but with the passage of time...
But this was not a nostalgia show, they were not tugging on our heartstrings, and that was so weird. I expected to sit back in my seat and have the sixties flash before my eyes, but really it was all about the songs, it was a celebration of the songs, you sang along to all of them.
There was a video screen that showed hair products during the Cowsills, did you know Dippity-do had sunscreen? But other than that...
This is a low budget production, even the screen is small. And those in attendance are not hip. The upstairs was filled with the nearly-dead, purchasing their seats on Goldstar. And speaking of upstairs, where we sat, the sound system was inadequate, couldn't they afford some sound reinforcement for the upper deck at the Saban?
The show began with the Malibooz, who played some surf rock and Walter Egan's hits, "Magnet and Steel" and "Hot Summer Nights." It was the latter, and that's my favorite Egan number, so that was good.
The Cowsills... They were ersatz back then, a slightly hipper Osmonds, but now...
They've been knocking around L.A. forever, gigging, waiting for another chance. But the system doesn't give you one, that's what players don't realize, it's not only how good you are, but whether the label, management and radio want to afford you an opportunity. At least back then you could play in bars, sustain yourself, it's even harder today. And I found their rendition of "Hair" cringeworthy back in '69, but here it was good, but not as good as "The Rain, The Park & Other Things."
Mark Lindsay wanted to convince us that no time had passed. He too had video, of the Paul Revere and the Raider days. And he performed the hits, I liked hearing "Just Like Me" and "Good Thing," but when he kicked his leg up with "Kicks" I winced... You're over seventy, so much of the audience is addicted to Grecian Formula, can you act your age, get rid of the sunglasses and shiny suit? But once a teen idol, too many are locked in amber, even though the audience ages, it's a bit creepy.
But the Association acted its age. In matching white jackets and shoes. And I don't know why this act doesn't get more love, their songs were SUPERLATIVE! Not only the not-cheesy "Cherish" and the upbeat "Windy," but the exquisite "Along Comes Mary" and "Never My Love," it was their songs that made me feel best.
As for Gary Puckett...
I'd seen him live back then, just as "Young Girl" was rising on the chart, they played it twice. But last night the sound was amped up, it all became a wash. And could you sing "Young Girl" today, I doubt it!
As for Chuck Negron, he's a survivor, send him to schools to scare students straight. But his voice is mostly intact, powerful, and he's so happy to be there...
But Howard Kaylan was not.
Huh?
He was never that thin.
Have we hit that era, where acts are trying to fake out the audience?
But the Phlorescent Leech, aka Flo, aka Mark Volman, told us that Howard was in the hospital, they'd thought of canceling the tour, but the show must go on! And his replacement was Ron Dante, of Archies fame, Dante's a legend, it was good to see him live.
But the stunning highlight of the "Turtles'" performance was...
PEACHES EN REGALIA! That's right, the opening cut on Zappa's "Hot Rats," I was astounded. Yes, it's played live on "Fillmore East," two tracks after the Mothers with Flo and Eddie go into "Happy Together" and...
That's last night, the performance ended with "Happy Together."
Now that I have memories of. It brings back Stratton and Steph, but really it's about the sound of the introduction, it's heavy, pregnant with meaning, we think about them day and night, we do, imagine how the world could be so very right, and then...
IT IS!
Bah bah bah...
You couldn't help but stand and sing along. Actually, one of the shocks of the evening was the standing ovations, but in this case you weren't standing for the performance, but your own life, remembering the optimism, the hope.
And now it's all these years later, you are who you are, you made your choices and you have to accept them, it's too late to turn back now.
And to a degree the joke is on the acts, they're prisoners of their success. Have a hit or two and you can't give up. Then again, these people did it for the applause to begin with. And at this point, a lot of the audience members are richer than the performers, they might not be famous, but get older and fame becomes a joke, why would you want it, it's meaningless. But the songs...
This evening was a celebration of the songs. Which are blue chip. They don't sound anything like today's "hits," they've got melody and changes and were from an era where everybody had a transistor and was listening incessantly. Music drove the culture, we followed it like the World Cup, heroes were larger than life. And there was a dearth of information, you had to go to the show to see them.
And some acts have survived with their reputations intact. Paul McCartney, of course. And Paul Simon. Certainly Bob Dylan.
But most...
Are in the rearview mirror, no matter how big they were at the time.
But so are we.
These songs are the story of our lives.
Sing along.
I CERTAINLY DID!
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That's the difference between yesterday and today, the ubiquity of the hits. If you were alive, you heard them, they penetrated not only the airwaves, but society, and these acts had a bunch of them.
The surprise was the Cowsills. They were so tight, the harmonies so perfect, it was amazing, you noticed, as you did the band that backed up all the acts, they were superb, proving once again that real music can triumph.
In the sixties.
The other jaw-dropper was Chuck Negron, who sang with oxygen, I kid you not. I even sang along a bit with "Joy To The World," which I absolutely HATED back when, but with the passage of time...
But this was not a nostalgia show, they were not tugging on our heartstrings, and that was so weird. I expected to sit back in my seat and have the sixties flash before my eyes, but really it was all about the songs, it was a celebration of the songs, you sang along to all of them.
There was a video screen that showed hair products during the Cowsills, did you know Dippity-do had sunscreen? But other than that...
This is a low budget production, even the screen is small. And those in attendance are not hip. The upstairs was filled with the nearly-dead, purchasing their seats on Goldstar. And speaking of upstairs, where we sat, the sound system was inadequate, couldn't they afford some sound reinforcement for the upper deck at the Saban?
The show began with the Malibooz, who played some surf rock and Walter Egan's hits, "Magnet and Steel" and "Hot Summer Nights." It was the latter, and that's my favorite Egan number, so that was good.
The Cowsills... They were ersatz back then, a slightly hipper Osmonds, but now...
They've been knocking around L.A. forever, gigging, waiting for another chance. But the system doesn't give you one, that's what players don't realize, it's not only how good you are, but whether the label, management and radio want to afford you an opportunity. At least back then you could play in bars, sustain yourself, it's even harder today. And I found their rendition of "Hair" cringeworthy back in '69, but here it was good, but not as good as "The Rain, The Park & Other Things."
Mark Lindsay wanted to convince us that no time had passed. He too had video, of the Paul Revere and the Raider days. And he performed the hits, I liked hearing "Just Like Me" and "Good Thing," but when he kicked his leg up with "Kicks" I winced... You're over seventy, so much of the audience is addicted to Grecian Formula, can you act your age, get rid of the sunglasses and shiny suit? But once a teen idol, too many are locked in amber, even though the audience ages, it's a bit creepy.
But the Association acted its age. In matching white jackets and shoes. And I don't know why this act doesn't get more love, their songs were SUPERLATIVE! Not only the not-cheesy "Cherish" and the upbeat "Windy," but the exquisite "Along Comes Mary" and "Never My Love," it was their songs that made me feel best.
As for Gary Puckett...
I'd seen him live back then, just as "Young Girl" was rising on the chart, they played it twice. But last night the sound was amped up, it all became a wash. And could you sing "Young Girl" today, I doubt it!
As for Chuck Negron, he's a survivor, send him to schools to scare students straight. But his voice is mostly intact, powerful, and he's so happy to be there...
But Howard Kaylan was not.
Huh?
He was never that thin.
Have we hit that era, where acts are trying to fake out the audience?
But the Phlorescent Leech, aka Flo, aka Mark Volman, told us that Howard was in the hospital, they'd thought of canceling the tour, but the show must go on! And his replacement was Ron Dante, of Archies fame, Dante's a legend, it was good to see him live.
But the stunning highlight of the "Turtles'" performance was...
PEACHES EN REGALIA! That's right, the opening cut on Zappa's "Hot Rats," I was astounded. Yes, it's played live on "Fillmore East," two tracks after the Mothers with Flo and Eddie go into "Happy Together" and...
That's last night, the performance ended with "Happy Together."
Now that I have memories of. It brings back Stratton and Steph, but really it's about the sound of the introduction, it's heavy, pregnant with meaning, we think about them day and night, we do, imagine how the world could be so very right, and then...
IT IS!
Bah bah bah...
You couldn't help but stand and sing along. Actually, one of the shocks of the evening was the standing ovations, but in this case you weren't standing for the performance, but your own life, remembering the optimism, the hope.
And now it's all these years later, you are who you are, you made your choices and you have to accept them, it's too late to turn back now.
And to a degree the joke is on the acts, they're prisoners of their success. Have a hit or two and you can't give up. Then again, these people did it for the applause to begin with. And at this point, a lot of the audience members are richer than the performers, they might not be famous, but get older and fame becomes a joke, why would you want it, it's meaningless. But the songs...
This evening was a celebration of the songs. Which are blue chip. They don't sound anything like today's "hits," they've got melody and changes and were from an era where everybody had a transistor and was listening incessantly. Music drove the culture, we followed it like the World Cup, heroes were larger than life. And there was a dearth of information, you had to go to the show to see them.
And some acts have survived with their reputations intact. Paul McCartney, of course. And Paul Simon. Certainly Bob Dylan.
But most...
Are in the rearview mirror, no matter how big they were at the time.
But so are we.
These songs are the story of our lives.
Sing along.
I CERTAINLY DID!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-TuneIn: http://tunein.com/lefsetz
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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