The David Foster Documentary

I'm a student of the game. I'm less interested in the achievements of the stars than how they got there.

David Foster is an opportunist, in this movie he says so.

Funny, I didn't see any hype for this documentary, but my inbox started to fill up with people asking if I'd seen it, what my opinion on it was, so I decided to dive in.

One thing you've got to know about David Foster, he's insane.

I don't mean certifiable. But those on the bleeding edge are not regular people, there's something different about them, and when you interact with them you can tell. Foster's brain moves a mile a minute, and he's confident in his opinions. He's always a mile or two or ten down the road, you're discussing the present, and he's already living in the future.

Fosters don't work for the Fortune 500. They would never fit in. If you want to work for the man, the number one criterion is the ability to get along, to be a member of the group, to be part of the team, whereas with creative people it's all about the "I." Sure, other people aid in your success, in the field, in the studio, but then there are people like Todd Rundgren, fully capable of creating the tracks all by himself - writing, singing, playing, producing and engineering, and ending up with hits. And Todd isn't the easiest going guy either. You see to make it as a musician, to be a star, you've got to be an egomaniac. You've got to think you can push people out of the way on your rise to the top. And in Foster's era, in the big studio era, when there were hired gun musicians, the inner circle was made up of only a handful of players. Well, maybe two handfuls. But all those records you heard on the radio, by all those different acts? Oftentimes it was the same damn players. Meaning it was very hard to break into that circle. It took chops, perseverance and relationships. The music business is all about relationships. Doesn't matter how good you are, if you don't know anybody, you won't get ahead.

So...

Foster is a prodigy. Most of these people are. With perfect pitch. With skills far beyond those in their neighborhood, even in their state. But that doesn't mean they succeed in the music business. Anybody can get on the radio, anybody can get on TV, you enjoy it the first time but you soon set your sights higher, you want to be on EVERYBODY'S radio, EVERYBODY'S TV, you want to be part of the firmament, you want to SUSTAIN!

And you can come from nowhere.

But you've got to go somewhere.

Foster leaves British Columbia to go to London with his band. They don't succeed. Everyone leaves but him. That's a hard job, keeping the band together. Read the "Washington Post" article on Midland: https://wapo.st/2CpYx3j Scott Borchetta is reluctant to sign bands, BECAUSE THEY BREAK UP! And if you sift through the leaves you'll find that almost everyone in Hollywood started off in a band that broke up, there are just a few survivors, who need it.

And Foster doesn't like New York. Greatest city in the world, but not for him. He feels claustrophobic. When Foster came up, the music business was centered in L.A., it's centered in L.A. once again, if you want to make it you should come here, you don't absolutely need to come here, but you want to make it easy on yourself. Living in L.A. is easy. It's a giant suburb, if you can't afford the rent you just move further out, you battle traffic, but that's the only element that's not on your side, there's no issue of weather, it's easier to survive.

So, Foster hangs out in London for a year, the loneliest one of his life, and then comes back to Canada. I know, I know, today you've got all these instant successes. But the truth is those who last paid tons of dues before you knew their names, with more failures than successes, until things finally clicked.

So Foster leads the "Rocky Horror Show" band, the musical played at the Roxy forever, and he works the relationships.

He's at a session with Barbra Streisand and she's not feeling it and calls for a break, but he sits at the piano, playing, knowing she's listening in the control room, leading to one of his big breaks.

You've got to see the holes and take advantage of them. You've got to be pushy without appearing pushy, at least until you've succeeded, and then you can alternately be pushy or the friendliest person in the room, after all, you've got nothing left to prove.

But Foster always has something left to prove. So, he's in the studio 24/7, year after year.

The star of this movie is Katharine McPhee, the "American Idol" runner-up who has sustained a career. She and David are now married, and she won't let him skate. Foster says he's a runner, he admits it. Foster delineates so many of his flaws in this pic, which undercuts the hagiography, especially when they cut to Celine Dion and Michael Buble. This was a guy who wanted it and once he got there believed in himself and wouldn't let go, he didn't compromise, the making of the Chicago records is the highlight of the musical interludes. Band separates from Columbia, they're down on their luck, and then Irving hooks them up with Foster who promptly says their material sucks, gets them to write new stuff, along with himself, he also plays on the record, and the end result...GIGANTIC HITS! Peter Cetera sides with Foster and leaves the band and the guys in Chicago have never recovered from the whole experience. Foster changed their sound, there were not horns, they can't get over it. Foster understands, but also says he rejuvenated their career and they've been touring on those hits he produced for decades since. A producer can be a chameleon, the act is loath to change its identity, it's all they've got, if they fail, it's toodles, whereas the producer can always get a new gig.

So, he's married five times. When it gets bad, he moves on. Leaving carnage in his wake. Some of this trauma kids never get over, even if they claim otherwise down the line, I'm always stunned when constantly touring musicians have a passel of kids, they hardly see them, and oftentimes they break up with their mother and...

McPhee has Foster's number. She talks about flying all over the world, to hang with Foster's rich and famous friends, but then says they've got no clue who he really is. BINGO!

You get in this rarefied air and... There's just no reality. Everybody's being so fabulous, with a mask on, being fake, that you can't connect. But you've worked so hard to earn this, to be part of the inner circle, and you don't want to admit it's phony, because then you must question your entire journey.

McPhee insists David discuss, argue, at length, reveal his feelings, she wants to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Something no prior woman has been able to do, never mind a man. Yes, you can have all the success in the world, but that does not make you happy, not on a sustained basis. It's good to be #1, but that never lasts.

And we've got blowhards like Clive Davis polishing their resume, trying to ensure he lasts when he never will, all these acts saying the tracks they've done with Foster will last forever when they won't either. Because the kind of stuff Foster does lacks an edge. The greatest stuff comes from explorers, willing to do something different. Oh, of course we need journeymen, fix-it people, but to become a legend...

Foster wants to be a legend. He can't avoid the spotlight. He admits that his reality show appearances were bad decisions, jokes, but when you work behind the board all those years, you hunger for the spotlight, you've got the money and the credits, but not the fame, the acts have all the fame, even if they are now broke.

But Foster can't give up. He says he's retired yet he works all the time. Because he needs to be in the game, trying to ascend the ladder, which brings us to Broadway.

Why the Great White Way bookends this documentary I've got no idea. Since Foster has not had any success there, just a desire to triumph. But he does admit Broadway is a collaborative effort, when Foster is a dictator. Foster knows what's right, he's trying to achieve it, you don't want to get in his way, you just want to say yes.

But is he George Martin, the Beatles, Quincy Jones? No. Because his big hit with Whitney Houston was not written by her and her identity was so all over the place that it's hard to square the singer with the song.

Not that I'm trying to tear down hits. But Whitney Houston is a creature of publicity. She's only lasted this long because she died. She had a big hit movie, some hits in the MTV era, so what? We're looking for something a bit more titillating, with a bit more of the aforementioned edge. Same deal with Celine Dion. Yes, Foster recognized a star, but all she is is a voice. Who appeals to Middle America. But the British Invasion happened, the Beatles released "Sgt. Pepper" and what came before became irrelevant. The Great American Songbook? Rod Stewart sang it, and it almost killed his career, his true fans had no interest.

So, there are two music businesses. One feeding the hoi polloi, casual fans, and another feeding the diehards, whose lives were saved by rock and roll and hip-hop, who see the singer not as an entertainer, but a vessel of God, someone who can channel truth, whose every word they hang on. The Beatles fostered the latter. Clive Davis fostered the former. The Beatles need no publicity, Clive cannot keep tooting his horn, you don't need to do this when you've truly got it.

And Foster has it.

You see when you have big success, people notice, and they call, and want to use you. And as long as you continue to succeed, you can write your own ticket. It's a hard business to get into, and a hard business to stay in, so you try to surf the wave as long as you can. And Foster's had a very long ride, almost longer than anybody from his era. It's just that...he's making pop music, and pop music is inherently disposable. Which is maybe why he wants to go to Broadway, where he can prove he's more than a studio rat, convince the naysayers in New York, when the truth is who cares what those arbiters of culture have to say anyway, isn't that why we live in Southern California?

I'm judging Foster on an absolute scale. Because the documentary portrays him as a titan and that's the world Foster considers himself a player in.

David Foster took a band on life support, on a new label, the Tubes, and gave them success...and broke up the band in the process, they didn't see themselves as that act.

He made two stiff albums with Hall & Oates before that, and once the duo jettisoned Foster and produced themselves they instantly emerged with gigantic hits, like "You Make My Dreams" and "Kiss on My List."

If you know who you are, you don't want Foster.

But if you don't... Foster can come along and deliver.

So who is the real David Foster?

Despite all the self-denigration evidenced in this documentary, I'm still not sure. What does he need? Hits, acclaim, money?

Well, if I think about it, what David Foster truly wants is love. He got it from his supportive mother, and he's been looking for it from everybody else forever since. So he's a weird amalgamation of compromise and a complete desire to not compromise, knowing that compromise never leads to success, you've got to follow your heart, only you know what will work. Talk to any creative person with great success, they'll tell you they know when they achieve greatness, and they know when they don't. It's hard, but they have to rely on themselves. And Foster, as a producer, is inherently compromising when in truth he wants to be singular, and can't hold himself back.

Foster's not the only one. There's the case of Mutt Lange, who essentially makes the albums himself. Without him? AC/DC never had a gargantuan hit, and neither did Def Leppard, all their legendary work was done with Mutt.

Foster's a man out of time. He would have been a giant in Gordon Jenkins's era. Where the song was everything, and it was a matter of bringing that song to life and getting it down on wax.

But that's not the era we live in today. Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, they're all people out of time. Their vocal talents carry them through, but once again, what we want is something more singular, true artists, who speak from the heart, more John Lennon than Olivia Newton-John.

Not that I think Foster will be happy I said all this, he'd rather get adulation, but the truth is he needs to be pushed. He's got the desire, but all the acolytes are sycophants. Foster's still got it in him, he loves a challenge, he'll dedicate all his time and effort into it.

Maybe it's Broadway.

Or maybe it's a concept album.

Or maybe it's even a partnership with someone on his level, who will challenge him. Someone like Van Morrison, even though that'll never happen. Could Foster push Van to create chart-topping, everlasting material? I think so, Van just needs that little push himself, but Morrison has been so abused he doesn't want to invite anyone into his party.

Kind of like Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson. They both brought different things to the table. And butting heads they came up with something transcendent.

Today's Foster is Max Martin. Although the Swede is fine living in the background. But like Foster, Martin has sustained success, when everybody else has not, usually producers have their era and then they're over, can you say "Roy Thomas Baker"?

All this came to mind watching the Foster documentary. The first half is very interesting, how he got from there to here and what he left in his wake. And at the end there's more of this too. And Foster is wide open, he's himself, and you cannot help but watch and admire his success, which he earned, nearly completely by himself. Sure, there were business people aligned, but they're a dime a dozen, Foster was responsible for the creative elements, the most elusive, they're a challenge.

So, I don't think the final chapter of David Foster's life has been written yet, he just needs a bigger challenge. Molding singers into hitmakers? He's been there and done that, which is why he's reluctant to do it again. But if Bob Dylan can still carry on...

Foster is no Dylan, but Foster knows what Dylan does not, and vice versa.

Now there's a pairing.

Most of these superstars just want yes-men or women. But they are the ones who can truly use Foster's skills. Foster needs to play with people of his caliber. He's found Katharine McPhee, but now he needs someone in the studio, any takers?

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Criminal

This was recommended to me.

It's a police procedural, on Netflix, and the gimmick is there are four editions, one for England, one for Germany, one for France and one for Spain. I was worried about seeing them in order, but the truth is they were all launched, or as the kids say, "dropped" (what is the derivation of that word, now anything can be dropped, not just records) on the same day, September 20, 2019, not that there's been any buzz, at least none that has crossed my threshold.

So Felice wanted to start with the U.K. To tell you the truth, I prefer a foreign language, it's more exotic, it titillates me in a way, I love going to countries where I do not speak the language, I love that barrier, that difference, it makes me feel alive. Oh sure, the U.K. is great, but when you're someplace where you have to live by your wits, that thrills me.

I check how many episodes there are. Three, that's strange, usually there's ten, sometimes six or eight. Three is digestible, enough to get the complete story across, but the show doesn't unfold like I think it will, in that each one is self-contained, other than the investigators, one does not connect with another, so you can watch just one and get it, have a completely satisfying experience, and that's what I'm recommending you do, watch just one episode of "Criminal: UK," the second one, featuring Hayley Atwell.

The first stars David Tennant, who was so great in "Broadchurch." He's not quite that great in this, he's good, but he doesn't open up until three quarters through the inquiry, that's the role unfortunately, I wanted more of him.

But Hayley Atwell...

I've never heard of her. But as I look at her Wikipedia page I see she's in the "Avenger" movies, not that I've seen one, life is too short for comic books, I want real life, the truth, and that's what Ms. Atwell evidences in this episode.

David Tennant is a doctor, dignified, whereas Hayley Atwell plays someone much further down the social stratum, in a country where class matters, where it's hard to climb up the ladder but people are cool with it. We're reaching a similar situation in the U.S., it's just that people are not cool with it.

So, they're trying to get the story out of Hayley. She's sassy, voluble, unlike David Tennant in his episode. She's not scared of the investigators, she'll tell her story.

Now the nature of this show is the accused says one thing and then another story unfolds. I'm really not giving anything away, once you reach the Atwell episode you know the formula, from the Tennant one that precedes it.

But it's the story of her life that is so riveting.

Everybody's got a life, everybody has sex, or wants to, doesn't matter if you're rich or poor. And everybody is tempted, and everybody gets caught up in the moment. That's' one thing about crime, your life is chugging along, if not quite swimmingly, at least adequately, and then one false move later, the whole picture changes, and it's never the same thereafter, and you get no do-overs, no matter how well you did in school, no matter how much you love your mother it's irrelevant, you did it.

So when Hayley tells the story of her sister... Whew! Sibling relationships, they're primary, they're fraught with issues, these are the people closest to you but oftentimes you wish they were far away.

So Hayley Atwell's performance is so spectacular I had to remark upon it to Felice during the episode. I never used to talk watching TV, but when you watch these series and get to know the characters...

You're looking at the flat screen and you truly believe Atwell is this person. She goes from confrontational, to acceptance, and then vulnerability, and then pleading...just like a real person would.

I don't want to tell you more. But the truth is despite the plethora of product, excellence still stands out. I'm not sure we're going to watch any more of "Criminal," but it was far from a waste because of this second U.K. episode, because of Hayley Atwell's performance.

In America a movie star is something different. They're always beautiful, with no imperfections, they're always people you'd want to have sex with, oftentimes with little acting ability.

And then there are those who are lauded for their technique, but the truth is their technique supersedes their performance, you just cannot believe they're somebody other than the star. Of course there are exceptions, even Jack Nicholson, but maybe because he grew up in pulp, B-movies, with Roger Corman.

The movie business used to be exciting, it was the talk of not only the town, but the world. Studio heads were gods. Going to the movies was a ritual, especially in the late sixties into the seventies. The flicks were fodder for conversation. And a good deal were made by the major studios, and then there were those that were not.

Today anybody can make a movie, and oftentimes it seems like anybody does. Your iPhone is 4k, Soderbergh and others have shot features on them. But this technology didn't exist half a century ago. Films were expensive, and the independent ones, the cheap ones, were made completely differently from the studio pictures. They were done fast, with experimentation, people filled multiple roles, in front and behind the camera. Production had the vibe of "let's put on a show," and oftentimes the result was dreck, or close to it, but there were plenty of gems too.

That's the world Jack Nicholson came up in. So he evidences a weird credibility, believability, in every role. Sure, he's Jack, but oftentimes you don't see him as Jack, whereas those classically trained, in universities, frequently don't resonate as well on film, or can't hide their identity, like Meryl Streep. Oh, she's great, and sometimes she blends into the role, but frequently she does not, but in Hollywood once you're built-up, once you're accepted, you stay on your perch unless you screw up, you see the system needs heroes, people to believe in. And the strange thing about internet culture is the ones we believe in are frequently the hoi polloi. Bari Weiss may bitch about social media hate and bullying, but the truth is regular participants in the social media world, unlike those in the establishment, puffed up with their degrees, hiding behind the masthead, know this goes with the territory, it's de rigueur, you're not supposed to complain, that does you no good, you need to just jump into the fire and stay there, and in the world of so many distractions what you think is so important is a case of myopia, the truth is other than those in your little circle, most people don't know and don't care, and events are soon forgotten. You never want to take yourself out of the game, you never want to whine and moan, because that means you don't understand the game whatsoever.

But the truth is Hayley Atwell was classically trained. But in the U.K., where actors move fluidly from stage to film to TV, they are performers, the emphasis is not on stardom, but the role.

So... I think I've spewed enough. But I was touched by Hayley Atwell's performance. That's what I like about these series, getting into the world portrayed, forgetting about regular life, believing these people are the characters, and when I clicked the flat screen off the mood sustained and I thought...

I've got to tell people about this.

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Johnny

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2DUG6UT
YouTube: https://bit.ly/30oYGMr

I heard this on the Spotify Americana playlist.

I'm getting sick of the news podcasts. The big outlets are neutral when more emotion is necessary. And the ball never really moves.

So I decided to listen to music. I pulled up my Discover Weekly, and surprisingly, every track was up my alley, but only two resonated, David Bromberg's "Sharon" and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Swingin'."

"She called her mother-in-law
And said 'I need a little money
I know I can count on you
After that night in Vegas
And the hell we went through"

This stuck out. Funny how you can hear a track a zillion times yet still learn new things, how it can hit you in new ways. She didn't call her mother, but her MOTHER-IN-LAW! My ex asked for money from my father just before she moved out. Funny, aren't the parents of your spouse supposed to be the enemy, especially your mother-in-law? But when you're down and out who can you count on? Only those related to you by blood and law.

I never thought of "Swingin'" as a major track. It was not laden with changes, more of a riff and a sound if nothing else, a workout, noise when you're angry, but judged against the rest of the stuff in the playlist this Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cut loomed large, illustrating that you can know how to play, can know how to write, can know how to sing, but still not be transcendent, there's an alchemy of those skills that makes musicians and their work memorable, Petty sings like he means it, as if he's got an important story to tell, albeit with attitude, and the rest of the band plays exquisitely, but this was already in the era when MTV had gone pop/hip-hop and now if you're an ancient rock band and you release new material the tree has definitely fallen in the forest, but almost no one hears it. Many people make music today, but few deserve attention, we need focus on those who do, but then there are poseurs not quite up to snuff, have you been hit by the Phoebe Bridgers hype, have you listened to the album, when you've got a story in the "New Yorker" in advance of release I'm suspicious, when something is jammed down my throat, I'm suspicious, it's only when I hear about something from friends that I pay attention, it's not that Ms. Bridgers's work is bad, it's just that based on the endless hype you'd expect it to be spectacular, and it's far from it.

"She went down swingin'
Like Glenn Miller
Yeah, she went down swingin'
Like Tommy Dorsey
Yeah, she went down swingin'
Like Sammy Davis
She went down swingin'
Like Sonny Liston"

Humor. Irony. Petty sings these lyrics straight, but the deeper meaning cracks you up. The image portrayed earlier in the song is of someone who is struggling, not someone who is dancing, but music is a long continuum, and if you know your history you know that the mentioned musicians did, swing that is, but so did Sonny Liston, so the song ends with that pugilistic legend. "Swingin'" never hit me this hard before, it was rewarding, but once again it was so much better than everything else in the playlist, but it was minor Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, then again in the sixties and the seventies the best and the brightest went into music, whether they were educated or not, and the music was enough, we never did get Tom Petty jewelry, never mind cologne.

I found my Release Radar playlist much less rewarding, too much that was not actually new, and the final cut was "Mother of Muses" by Bob Dylan and once again, I respect the new album on paper, it's just that it's not that listenable.

So what next?

The Discover Weekly playlist had been so rewarding. And so many of the genre playlists are not. There was a lot of country in my Discover Weekly, but there are too many skips on the country playlists.

So I went to the Americana one. Which was not extremely rewarding until I got to Sarah Jarosz's "Johnny."

Sarah gets credit right out of the box, for not changing her name, compromising her authenticity. John Legend? His real last name is "Stephens," what's so wrong with that? Even worse, "Legend" is too self-important, and the truth is this guy is reasonable, especially in attitude/statements, but his moniker undercuts his image, same deal with Alicia Keys, whose real last name is "Cook," but that was not good enough for Clive Davis, calling yourself "Keys," would Arthur Rubenstein call himself "Artur Keys"? Once again, it's self-congratulatory and undercuts any gravitas she might evidence.

"Johnny's on the back porch drinking red wine"

THE PRODUCTION!

Now that the barrier to entry is so low, not only do people with substandard voices make music, they surround themselves with amateurs across the board, even though these players and producers believe they're superstars when the truth is there are journeyman professionals who are superior and available, but it does take some cash.

"How could a boy from a little bay town
Grow up to be a man, fly the whole world round
Then end back up on the same damn ground he started"

The sound, the playing, and the GROOVE! I immediately locked on to it, was nodding my head, felt good. In other words, to paraphrase Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, you know it when you hear it.

But the chorus was not up to the standard of the verse.

Nor was the bridge, but at least there was a bridge!

But I had to play "Johnny" again, and again, to sustain the mood, that's what music delivers that is absent from not only the news, but movies, television, even books, that's music's magic.

"Lately he's been thinking 'bout the meaning of time
The small amount we're given must be sort of crime
Yet the little we have feels like too much most of the time"

Well put. Especially in this Covid-19 era, where we've got so much time but so much we don't want to do, we could hoover up the classics, movies, books, but somehow nothing feels right as the clock keeps ticking, and the older you get the more it bothers you, you can see the end, but then there are so many of my generation who've surrendered, retired, in thrall to the Grim Reaper long before their time.

"He takes another sip of that blood red wine
Just waiting on the stars that will never align
A little luck, a little love, a little light and he'll be doing just fine"

We're not looking for that much, but it's amazing how elusive it is.

Sarah Jarosz has been around forever, she first released music at 19 and now she's only 29. But it took her this long to get seasoned, to have some perspective, despite being nominated and winning a few Grammys, showing how irrelevant those awards are, how come in film and TV there are so few categories and in music there are nearly a hundred, cheapening the already worthless awards, not to mention the imprimatur of victory killing careers, let's see how Billie Eilish follows up "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?," I'll tell you where there is to go, down, that's the only direction from the pinnacle, Michael Jackson spent the rest of his life trying to equal "Thriller," and he never did, despite labeling himself the "King of Pop," he became a caricature of himself, the music has to make you feel good, not the statuette.

Unfortunately, "Johnny" is not good enough to cross over. It won't go from the swamp of Americana to the country playlist, never mind Top Forty, but if it were just a tad better, if the chorus and bridge were as good as the verses it would be undeniable, the kind of thing you'd play for everybody you knew, unable to get out of your head, but too many settle for good enough, don't push themselves to excellence, because it's hard, it's easier to stay in the backwater as opposed to going for the brass ring, which you might not even reach. But that's art, it's a competition with yourself and the closer you get to the goal the more anxious you become, the harder it is to get to the peak, and as soon as you're self-conscious, you're screwed, which is why it's so hard to do to begin with, those who blaze trails are to be respected, to follow in footsteps is relatively simple.

Yes, I'm employing absolute scale. In an era where the history of recorded music is at everybody's fingertips and you can only listen to one thing at one time, I like "Johnny" more than all the rest of the new stuff I've heard recently, but that just makes me want more, I don't want Sarah Jarosz to rest on her laurels, I want her to PUSH IT, like Tom Petty, who continued to reach peaks long after his initial heights, who was never satisfied.

"Swingin'"

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Marc Geiger-This Week's Podcast

Former worldwide head of music at WME, Marc Geiger has history as an agent, a record company executive and a tech founder. Known as a seer, here Marc dives into the inner workings of the agency business and assesses the concert landscape. Listen for insights into the music industry as well as Geiger's history, from UCSD to Hollywood.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marc-geiger/id1316200737?i=1000485178110

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3YBjSuhk9yJKd5FYuOFdKG

https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=76222567


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Covid-19

Maybe you have to know someone who died.

Hope. It's an elusive concept, but you need it to survive. Not blind hope, but a belief based on facts, on odds, on the notion that if you do the right thing events will work out in your favor.

But not only your favor, but everybody's favor.

But that's not the way the world is going.

You grow up studying history, all the turf wars, you think it can't happen now, but then it does. Why? Well, it's got a lot to do with income inequality. When things are going badly, many abdicate their power to a strongman, who promises they'll make everything right, and maybe they do for a while, make the trains run on time, but then you wake up with fewer rights as you're lorded over by an omnipotent power. It's happening in Eastern Europe. And Russia.

But we didn't think it could happen here.

Timing is everything. There's only so much you can control in life, luck plays a big part. And I was lucky enough to be born in the fifties. The fifties weren't so great, but the sixties were. They started off with the election of JFK.

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."

We live in bizarroland today. George Costanza rules, people do the opposite of this.

"My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

Together. An interesting concept. The U.K. breaks away from the EU. The U.S. pulls out of the Paris climate accord, the Iran nuclear deal and the W.H.O., as if we, and the world, can go it alone, when everybody knows you need a team to triumph.

So JFK said we were going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. We were torn, whether to put faith in the president's proclamation or deem it a pipe dream. But then Americans rocketed into space, and despite setbacks like the Apollo 1 fire, in the summer of '69 men walked on the moon, and we watched it all on television.

You might say we can Zoom around the world these days, but there's no colony on Mars, we stopped exploring, because it was seen as too costly, but the truth is the space program paid dividends. Not only Tang, but computer development.

So JFK gets assassinated, but LBJ gets civil rights laws passed. The younger generation questions everybody and everything, and protests the war to the point that LBJ decides not to run in '68. Sure, there was opposition, but both sides agreed on the facts, it was only a matter of spin, of opinion, what to do next.

But the sixties were thrilling. Kinda like seeing Prince. Or Freddie Mercury. You were either there or you weren't. And you might be able to listen to recordings, watch videos, but they're just facsimiles, you can't feel it, you can't live it, you're at a distance, your heroes are dead.

And the truth is in 1970 a bunch of heroes died. Most notably Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison and Duane Allman in '71. Suddenly, we were licking our wounds, we were living in a can't do culture, and we've been living that way ever since, except for a brief period of internet excitement at the end of the nineties and the beginning of the twenty first century, before the techies became billionaires and we ended up with a Tower of Babel society, with no one taking responsibility.

Responsibility. Credibility. Morality. Honor. Important concepts in the sixties, irrelevant today. You're just a person, equal to the billionaires and no better than those of color. But that is not the message you're sent. You're told you're inadequate and if you don't get in line, crawl for cash, you'll fall through the cracks and no one will rescue you. We went from help your brother to put down your brother, and that had consequences.

So despite smartphones and flat screens, life is hard in today's U.S.A. Both parents have to work and you can't make it on minimum wage. Sure, you can save up for the front row for Drake, but then you can't afford another show all year. Meanwhile, the banks and the corporations drink from the public trough and you're parched, just waiting for a drop of water. Even worse, it's deemed your fault. It's your fault if you're poor, if you get cancer, if you get Covid-19. Because the winners won't succumb.

But they do.

I just got word a friend is in hospice for Covid-19.

It's not like a car accident, it doesn't happen suddenly. You get sick, then maybe you get a little better, and then maybe you get sicker and then, weeks after it all began, you pass.

How did he get it?

His granddaughter flew to a distant state to hang with a friend. If the states had been closed, if there wasn't a quick reopening, he never would have gotten Covid-19, he would have lived.

This is not rocket science, you don't need a genius to explain it. But somehow even if they can understand it, many won't accept it. Why?

Because they believe it won't happen to them.

But it always does, it's just a matter of when.

Your kid gets cancer. You lose your job. Your wife leaves you. Life isn't smooth sailing, the goal is to hang in there and survive.

"Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now"

Now you piss on your brother. Raise your head and you will be attacked. Even worse, those who truly commit faux pas, even when they're caught, they skate. They just ignore it. Or wait for the afternoon, when another story will replace it.

There are no consequences.

The worst thing that could happen when I grew up was to come home with a note that your parent had to see the principal.

Today, if a kid comes home with said note, the parent goes to the school and tears the principal a new one, after all, their progeny can't be at fault.

No one can be at fault in America today, it's always someone else's problem.

And then the music stops, and there's no chair left for you.

Even worse, no one cares, except for your family and friends.

That's America today, no one cares and there's not enough money to go around. You can't get ahold of the unemployment office in California, if you're poor, it's your fault, find your own damn health insurance, borrow money from friends, assuming they've got any, sleep on a couch, or on the sidewalk, after all, you're responsible.

But what if your birth circumstances were not privileged? What if you got the short end of the stick through no fault of your own?

Tough nuggies.

Recent news says if we all wore masks, Covid-19 would be harnessed in three weeks. Is this true? Maybe, maybe not, but we could at least try it.

But that would mean you'd be responsible, you'd have a duty, you'd have to care about others, and that's just not today's ethos.

It's a free-for-all, and no one is in power.

They fine people for breaking the rules in foreign countries, in America even when there is a law, the governor might choose not to enforce it.

So who should you listen to, who should you believe?

And then there are the optimists, who believe a regime change will solve all our problems, when the truth is you can never catch up to the computer age if you're using fax machines, you've to tear down and start over, rebuild the infrastructure. But that costs money, and the government is the enemy, and therefore you should not pay taxes and the rich shouldn't either because they are the job creators, wrong, and they know where the money should go, not those in power, so screw 'em.

But it's all irrelevant until it hits home.

If it hasn't already, it's gonna. It's just a matter of time. No one wins forever. And when things don't go your way, good luck. Chances are the government won't be there for you, and in a country of 300+ million people, a few can be lost. But what if it's you?

None of the above can be debated, it's written in stone. How you choose to live your life is up to you, but actions have consequences, and in the old days it was incumbent upon bad actors to take responsibility, today they deny and that's all she wrote.

Black Lives Matter was an illustration that America doesn't work for everybody, whether you stand for the "Star-Spangled Banner" or not, that's all show, it won't put money in your bank account.

We've got a vacuum of leadership. We revere corporate titans, are beholden to their wares, but when it comes to what is between the ears, we get no food, no direction.

There are a lot of false prophets. Most especially religious ones. But if you believe prayer is the answer to all your issues, I hope you don't get Covid-19.

We need someone to take control. Someone akin to JFK, or MLK, or even Mario Savio. Someone who's driven by what's right as opposed to what pays out.

While we're waiting, there will be casualties.

Like my friend today.


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Mailbag

Subject: Re: The Chase Rice Concert

So this is hard to type - I lost my dad to COVID, and I work in the music industry in Nashville.

I work with people from the management companies & booking agencies of Chase Rice & Chris Janson occasionally, but a huge portion of the people who I interact with daily also work with them regularly.

Please keep writing about this.
We've had a few artists speak out, but it's driving me crazy knowing that the folks who green-lit these shows aren't going to get called out by the industry here. And I have to work with all of them and pretend that that's ok.

_____________________________________

Subject: Benny Mardones

Bob,

I felt kicked in the stomach when I woke up to the Billboard Daily alert that Benny Mardones had died.

As an A&R guy, I signed Benny to his second deal (his first was "Thank God for Girls" at Private Stock), at Polygram, and then A&R-ed "Never Run, Never Hide" with "Into the Night."

Bill McGathy had just moved from Houston, where he had done local or regional promo for us, to take a National gig as head of Album Radio promotion in NYC. A great department that included Jerry Jaffee, Jim Del Balzo and Neil Lasher. Literally the day Bill arrived he walked into my office raving about Benny and arranged an audition for a few of us to come hear him at SIR. The audition was one of the times that an A&R guy always dreams of experiencing……an artist, a singer, pouring every drop of himself, pushing his less then stellar band to the absolute max of their talent. He stalked the stage, encouraged his band to give him more, he'd occasionally sit down at the piano….a few times he brought me to tears, and chills. On the spot I had to sign him to our label.

Making the record was not easy. We recorded in Miami with a gifted somewhat untested but meticulous producer-engineer Barry Mraz,(he had been mentored by Bruce Swedien, Quincy Jones' long time go-to engineer and had some early hits with Styx) tho not known for staying within budget or deadline. It took a long time.

I'd go to Miami every two weeks for six months of pre-production and recording…..I felt like Martin Sheen finding Brando in "Apocalypse" - reporting back to the home office on Mondays……assuring the financial guys that what we knew what we were doing, that this will pay off, just keep this going, we were almost there.

We knew we had a hit with "Into the Night" and a few other album radio tracks…..including an hilarious homage to Dick Clark.

I thought Benny would be as big a star as MeatLoaf, whose "Bat Out of Hell" had just been released. Obviously not quite the case (except in Syracuse). Very sad that he's gone.

Stu Fine

_____________________________________

Subject: Masks and Leadership

Hello Bob,

We have been stranded in Bangkok since March 1st. It has now been over 30 days with no locally transmitted infections (all current cases are Thais returning from abroad and they are in strict quarantine). Only 58 total deaths! As the virus developed the government turned to the medical experts. Yes, 3 months of lockdown and curfew were difficult but my home state of Massachusetts has close to 8000 deaths and over 100,000 cases. The population of Thailand is 10 times the size of Mass and Bangkok alone is larger than New York City.

When you enter any establishment you are thermo-scanned for fever and recently we phone scan a QR code for tracing. Sanitizer is abundant and social distancing markers are prevalent. Most importantly masks are required. The country will fully reopen on July 1st but we will still wear masks in public in spite of 0 infections. Thailand knows that the virus has been contained but not defeated. The operable phrase here: "We Care Together".

When we do return to Boston we plan to quarantine into the new year.

Survive well

Oedipus

_____________________________________

From: Daniel Roher
Subject: Thanks for your piece on my film about Robbie/The Band

Bob,

Daniel Roher here, director of Robbie Robertson's doc, Once Were Brothers. I really appreciated your thoughtful and nuanced take on my film. There was one particular sentiment, near the end, that really resonated: "...you're forced to ask yourself who you want to be. A friend of Robbie's wanted to own a bowling alley. You can't do everything in life, you're lucky if you can do one thing. What do you want to dedicate your time to?" The ability to envision life's potential is the great genius of Robbie Robertson, and it was the most significant lesson I learned while studying his life.

I was only 23 when I started working on this film, the same age Robbie was when he and the guys were in Woodstock working on their first album. I think that's part of the reason he chose me to direct his film. His perspicacity and forethought at the age of 15 allowed him to manifest a big extraordinary life for himself, and throughout the process of making the film, I found myself thinking about what I wanted to be, how I want to spend my time… I'm still trying to figure it out, but Robbie Robertson helped me ask the question.

Daniel

_____________________________________

From: tourswag
Subject: Re: Mailbag-Agents (and more!)

Guitar tech here

not all agents are even close the same

top: seen agents putting skirt on drum riser as the trucks were late

bottom: booked 1st 3 shows of tour 500 miles apart...in catering with crew asks, "so you guys fly to the next city? what do you do all day before the show"

not all tour mangers are the same- some don't know where the stage is
some control every aspect and are ready to jump in the truck when it goes bad ( Chris Littleton, Richard Glasgow) and still do all the staffing, budgeting and routing

same with record company, managers and...guitar techs

top tip: work with the good guys, the crap ones will out themselves

TS

_____________________________________

From: Matthew Walt
Subject: Re: No Two Agents Are Alike

Hello Bob. I love so many of the perspectives outlined in response to yours and Rod MacSween's missives, and none more so than Amanda Palmer's - love her! I think all are insightful, yet many of them are equal parts accurate (however conflicting) and short sighted.

From my view, it comes down to this: in an industry that refuses to draw lines let alone color between them, avoids establishing best practices, and favors the entrepreneurial/renegade spirit, roles and responsibilities are really all situational. It's about the combination of people, with complementary skill sets, working together in common cause, hustling their asses off (Hustle like you broke is my mentality), communicating effectively to approximate efficiency.

No two agents are alike. No two managers are the same. Neither are the TMs, PMs, RMs... Every team is different, just like every family. Is what it is.

My 1.5 cents. Best wishes!

MW

_____________________________________

From: Zach Falkow
Subject: Re: Agents

Hey Bob,

Been watching the whole back and forth on the necessity of agents, and I felt the need to throw one little observation into the mix.

I started as the dude in the band booking our shows and tours, and over the years I wound up being hired as an agent at a few middle agencies and just on my own for contract work. I've been able to land gigs at small clubs up to major US festivals, I've worked with Live Nation, AEG, Bowery, C3, countless indies, etc, and I can point to one truth I've discovered -

The only difference between the booking savvy guy in the band and an agent is an email domain.

I booked my indie pop act on the mainstage of the Preakness InFieldFest opening for Wiz Khalifa and Maroon 5 from this very gmail account. What matters is the tools, skills and connections. Tools like PollstarPro and CelebAccess and the weekly avails sheets can be passed down, skills for calculating optimal deal points/geographically sensible routing with minimal drive times/advancing/production knowledge can all be taught and learned by trial and error. And connections can absolutely be made and grown without an agent. Upon whom that responsibility falls is debatable - a manager who knows his shit, a TM who has been with the band and can easily step in, one of the guys in the band maybe. Once you learn the ins and outs of who the players are and how to get to them, it becomes a level playing field.

HOWEVER, the biggest caveat is that the agencies historically have and use the leverage of enormous acts to hold over the heads of promoters in order to sneak baby bands onto tours or festivals. The tried and true "we'll agree to x headliner for your festival or festivals and deal with your wildly aggressive radius clauses IF you put [insert unknown act here] on your 3rd stage at 2pm against a legacy hip hop act on the mainstage" move. Even if a 100% independent act were able to grow themselves to be worth 1000 tickets in every market, when they email Goldenvoice from a band account for a Coachella slot, it's them vs the heads of music at Paradigm, CAA and WME and their roster of 1000's of artists. There's no way in hell.

At the end of the day it's a game of leverage and nepotism more than it is skills in my opinion. In theory, yes, artists, TM's, managers could all learn how to route and book tours and do it completely independent of major agencies. But you're talking about dismantling a long-standing network of protocols and standard practices that, for better or worse, have dictated the live landscape for decades. Those other entities may eventually lack the bandwidth to take on live bookings, so the necessity for a dedicated party to do so is inevitable (though it could be a management company's touring dept instead of agents). Until we democratize all the information and necessary skills for all parties involved, and people other than agents step up and start taking the reins back, I don't see the status quo changing.

Zach Falkow

_____________________________________

From: George Gilbert
Subject: Re: Mailbag-Agents (and more!)

Bob:

Until someone creates an app that can effectively book an artist and help in career development, Agents are a necessary part of the equation who, when they are great, bring total value for the expense.

Agents used to be ahead of everyone except the most plugged in A&R in talent discovery and development but since the onset of the "metric era" most, if not all, like most of the business, are looking for a constantly moving goal-post indicator of self-development before making the commitment.

So unlike an earlier time when an agent might be involved before the label, the now inability to establish the deep ties and loyalties between the act and agent at an early stage of the artist's career is compromised by the fiscal realities of today's music industry.

As my good friend Steve Martin says "If every show made a profit I'd be a promoter"!!!

Understanding that harsh reality and having long-developed relationships with promoters is another key value component that a good agent brings to an artist (that and also not routing the tour so the drives between shows are not 800 miles a night)!!!!!

So until Artists are so self-empowered and confident enough to book themselves (no agent should lose any sleep of that happening anytime soon) the agent-artist dance continues - that is when the music starts playing live again and only the agent with the working crystal ball knows for sure when that will exactly happen (and if he had one, he'd just pick the next few powerballs and retire).

George Gilbert

_____________________________________

From: Alex Skolnick
Subject: Re: Country Masks

Hi Bob, Great post. Not sure if this retweet by Mr Frampton (who has reached out about my jazz guitar side - such an honor) may have helped inspire the "Wear a f**cking mask" riffing. Either way, you're right. The band I'm most known for may not be an arena/shed headliner but a consistent support act for many (including LOG, whom you mentioned) with fans who pay attention to what we say. That fact that not wearing a mask has become some bizarre badge of right wing honor is the height of idiocy, on par with "Freedom Fries." I can't keep quiet and I hope folks with much larger platforms will do likewise. If we can get just one person out there to listen to reason, not infect others around them and potentially save lives, then it's more than worth any blowback, unfollows or hate mail.

Best,
Alex Skolnick
Brooklyn

_____________________________________

From: Steve Palfreyman
Subject: Re: Stop With The Optimism!

Thanks for writing this. Where I live, in Melbourne Australia, my state is experiencing a second wave.

We went from a few daily confirmed cases to now over 100 a day for the last few days. The authorities and people and are panicking, and we're going back into lockdown in parts.

I read today that people are saying the USA is experiencing a second wave, with Dr Anthony Fauci dismissing this saying clearly it's still a first wave because cases never dropped enough.

It's fascinating to me to consider the only difference is perception, and as you say, how much of a risk people perceive the threat to be.

No different to perceiving the threat of cancer or climate change, our perspectives are always biased based on what we see and hear, and what we want to see and here.

In my state, these 100 cases a day is seen as a giant political failure.

No matter where any country is today, leaders are sworn in to protect the community and if deaths are occuring, it's on their hands.

Every death, is a death, regardless of the relative numbers that bias our perception of how bad things really are.

All countries need to stop playing a percentage games just because it suits them politically, and work towards a target of zero.

Somewhere along the way so many people seem to have forgotten that what's good for humanity, is also good for the economy.

Thanks, as always, for your words Bob.

_____________________________________

From: Joseph Weinstein
Subject: Re: Stop With The Optimism!

Yep, the colleges sure do need the cash! I was doing clinical hours at a university down in Reno for the past ten months... guess who closed before UNR? The casinos!!

_____________________________________

From: Elizabeth Dean
Subject: Chaos


Hey Bob -I'm about your age and graduated from Duke when you went to college to learn how to think. You couldn't major in computer science then, it was, and still is, a tool. Like majoring in the alphabet.
When they started graduating computer science majors I remember thinking, "God help us." And here we are.
Also, there isn't much science in computer science, just so you know, that's really a misnomer.
I worry that it's going to be like Oppenheimer over and over now, where these nerds are racing to build the next bomb and THEN realize what they have done.
Liz Dean

_____________________________________

From: David Mendel
Subject: Re: Lesbian TikTok

Hey Bob,
I work over at AWAL and last summer went over to Norway to shoot an episode of our series spaces on 'girl in red'.
Figured I'd share it with you. Feel like it really captures a lot of what you're referring to in your email.

https://youtu.be/tpxsn-90Fi8

Thanks,

David Mendel

_____________________________________

From: Laurence Zankowski
Subject: Re: Lesbian TikTok

You need to see "Girl in Red" and So grid on the Norwegian music theater . Open stage front and back/ use of scrims to hide and show performance to each side.
Sigrid's "Sucker Punch" is just as wild to the young fans as is Girl.
It is on YouTube. But you are late to the party. Found out about both thru a polish remix channel on YouTube.

Sigrid
https://youtu.be/3NMCz-svbn8

Girl in red/ nearly 2 years ago

https://youtu.be/R6JTyM7ZhG4

Be well
Laurence

_____________________________________

From: Art Fein
Subject: Re: Once Were Brothers

I caught on to R&R in Jan 1957. seeing Elvis on Ed Sullivan, his final appearance I later learned.
That die was cast very firmly.
Mom took me to a R&R show June 1957. Everlys, E Cochran, Chuck Berry others. Never looked back.
Six months later another show, but I skipped it. Not nearly as good, Bandstand had come, killing rock & roll.
(Just look at the January 1958 charts. Wait - the entirety of 1958.)
Hoping beyond reason (r&r was dead) I went to the December 1958 show.
Poni-tails, Anka, I don't fully recall, but alongside the dross was Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks.
Oh. My. Gosh. Hawks set up, Levon at the flame-decorated drums, Ronnie slinks in from the back.
Slowly, his arms rotating. Band is playing, he ducks over and gives Levon a kiss.
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS???
He sang "Ahmmm", the intro to his hit "Mary Lou."
Audience members like myself (disappointed, delirious rockers) leapt up.
He did the riff five times, then got into "Mary Lou."
He also, later, did "Red Hot."

So rock & roll did not die entirely with American Bandstand.
A few outsiders kept it going.

_____________________________________

Subject: Re: Stop With The Optimism!

Please keep me anonymous: but people are having concerts they are just low key about it enough to not get big press. I work in the music industry. I see it. Just this past weekend a nightclub had a large ticketed show in Cleveland. FWD Nightclub. The place was packed and no one had on a mask. Laidback Luke performed (a large national touring DJ)!

They have another national DJ act booked for this weekend too which I am told is sold out!

It's all on their Instagram page. Public knowledge.

Several other clubs in Ohio and other states continue to book and have shows. It's funny, the DJs have no posts about it besides obligatory promo posts pre-show. No videos or recaps because they know they will face heat. Same with the club. However they can't stop all the idiots in the crowd that still take videos. But make no mistake the shows are going down. I have videos from just a few days ago.

The club also had a daytime event which was as packed as their events last year, no difference, no masks, no separation, right in Cleveland Ohio.

Please keep me anonymous but I just feel like more people should know.

_____________________________________

Subject: Re: Workingman's Dead 50th

Bob,

A Dead Story:

After Keith Godchaux left the band in the 80's, I got a call from a friend in Boston who told me to rush on in, he was sitting around with Keith Godcheau.

Judy and I drove to South Boston where a guy with a gun answered the door and let us in. We sat up for the next 8 hours and heard Dead stories from Keith. Paradise!

Keith kept popping in and out of a bedroom. I knew nothing about heroin at the time.

In the morning we convinced Keith to come out to our studio in the country, 90 minutes from Boston, we had talked about forming a band with him and Donna and he wanted to see our grand piano. He was hesitant to leave the city for any length of time but we finally convinced him.

He came out, called Donna (I was crazy wild about the whole thing, me a young Deadhead, Donna...), stayed in the studio for part of the day and settled down when we went to sleep to stay up most of the night reading a book he found in the house, " The American Book of the Dead", a rough American version of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a guide for the afterlife.

Keith insisted on getting back to Boston first thing in the morning but he left that book half open on the pillow after he left. It was still like that when he died in a car accident 2 weeks later.

Best,

Jeffrey Bauman
Wendell, MA

_____________________________________

From: Stephen Cohen
Subject: Re: Workingman's Dead 50th

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the terrific post. I think you're right on target about the Dead and about the scene. I was 14 in 1969 when my older brother turned me on to the Dead. At that time their newest record was Anthem of the Sun. One day that June, just when Aoxomoxoa was released, my friends and I took the subway down to the Fillmore from the Bronx, where we lived, to see their early show. You could do that at 14 in those days; our parents had no idea what we were up to. The Dead were headlining, with Savoy Brown and Buddy Miles opening the show. The theater was so empty, the ushers asked us to move down to the front so it wouldn't look bad. There might have been 500 people there. They played a lot of material from Live Dead, which would be released a few months later. During the show, Jerry Garcia announced "Hey, we're giving a free concert in Central Park tomorrow," so of course I went and stood with 1000 or so hippies and Deadheads while they played in the bandshell. I saw my first hash pipe!

I followed them intently for a couple of years, as I developed into a musician myself, seeing them something like 25 times at the Fillmore, the Academy of Music, The Capitol in Port Chester (probably that show you're referencing), and other NY regional venues. I saw Pigpen countless times, and loved what he brought to the band. I saw them with Tom Constanten playing "prepared piano". They were sonic experimenters and they were wide-ranging music lovers. They covered songs like "The Green, Green Grass of Home" and "Dancing In the Streets". I was one of the kids who convinced our lefty, Jewish, hippie, summer camp to bring us to the Woodstock Festival. Yes, 100 or so of us went to Woodstock in yellow school buses, but they dragged us back after the first day, when the parents started flipping out and calling the camp. I didn't get to see the Dead at Woodstock, but I heard they were terrible. They could be terrible at times.

I loved Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, saw the New Riders open for them several times, saw the Allman Brothers open for them (third on the bill) at the Fillmore, and at 15 and 16 got turned on by them to country music and soul and blues and everything they covered. I am eternally grateful for that. I saw the Dead with the Allman Brothers and The Band at Watkins Glen - one of the best shows I've ever seen. But I started to get sick of the scene and stopped seeing them around 1974. It was music that interested me, not the antics of the audience and not hero worship of anyone, no matter how brilliantly Jerry and Phil could play. And I felt their playing and whole presentation had lost a lot of its verve. I was developing as a musician, playing lots of different material in lots of bands, and couldn't help but notice that almost none of the good musicians I played with had any interest in the Dead. That changed somewhat over the decades, but it was telling.

The Grateful Dead were important to me and helped me develop as a musician, but although I listen to them a bit now and then, I moved on a long, long time ago.

- Steve Cohen

_____________________________________

From: Jason Miles
Subject: Re: Workingman's Dead 50th

Hey Bob
I am not a big Grateful Dead fan however if we go back 53 years and the release of the first album I was definitely into the band in the early days. A little anecdote. I had been playing that first WB album in my house And my father actually kind of liked it. I was getting ready to leave with my band to do a summer at the Jewish hotels in the Catskills..It was Sunday afternoon in late June 1967 and my father came in my room and said do you want to go hear some music tonight. I was 16 years old and of course very enthusiastic when he said I'll take you to the Cafe Au Go Go Because the Grateful Dead are playing and I know you like them..My birthday was just a couple of days away so he was feeling this will be a good present. So my father took me down to the village and we had done that before as we used to always go see Paul Butterfield play there.

The original band was on stage With Pig Pen on Organ..They sounded better than their album and Jerry Garcia was really playing great that night. In the middle of the set my father gave me a little nudge and pointed with his head to look behind us. Sitting right behind me with Frank Zappa who was next-door at the Garrick theater with the Mothers. There were probably about 50 people there for that show but they were very enthusiastic and my father was really enjoying them. After the show we went out and walked upstairs to the street and there are in front of us was Jerry Garcia..He was wearing these crazy paisley pants.,I also was wearing a very cool kind of shirt that was the outfit of the times especially because I was playing in a band. We stopped for a second and my father looked at him and said "those are some crazy looking pants"

Jerry smiled and said " If you come to San Francisco I can show you the place I got them so you can get a pair for yourself" I can just never forget that moment or that night..

I saw them a number of times over the next few years including when Jeff Beck was on the show at the Fillmore East and it was Rod Stewart first performance in the US a year later.. I now appreciate how very organic and very cool that band was back then. I Thought I would share a story that had a real effect on my life with one of the bands that I was really Into..
Stay safe and wear a mask
Peace, Jason

Jason Miles

_____________________________________

From: Don Strasburg
Subject: RE: Workingman's Dead 50th

Great read, I think the one of many gifts I and other people learn from the Grateful Dead is how to listen to music. I am not sure I could appreciate and follow something like Cecil Taylor without the Grateful Dead. It is a musical journey with highs, lows and bumps in the road as well. The greatest peaks come from lowest lows, one can only hope we see the same for our current state of affairs. I want and hope for more people to enjoy and understand the music . I encourage everyone to check out The free app Relisten or the web version https://relisten.net/ This is for anyone who wants to explore the Live Grateful Dead and many other artists live shows. Most if not all are not available on any streaming service besides youtube. (There are over 100 live Warren Zevon shows, 700 + Smashing Pumpkins all free ). FYI if multiple versions of the show you search exist, they are all hosted under the specific show and date. The recording qualities differ so look at ratings and test to get best experience.

Enjoy

Don

_____________________________________

From: Steve Benjamins
Subject: I Earn $800 From Spotify

Hey Bob,

Sorry for the click-bait subject line! I wrote a post Earning $800 / Month On Spotify: https://bit.ly/38UMGGa that I wanted to send to you. Here are the major insights from the post:
• Spotify is Google and Apple Music is Bing. At least, that's what I see in my stats. I get about 177,000 plays / month— Spotify is 96% of those plays.
• Algorithmic playlists (like Discover Weekly) are enormously important. I get a consistent spike every Monday from Discover Weekly— and so do major artists like Rihanna and Coldplay.
• Songs matter, not albums. At least for algorithmic playlists! It's just like in SEO: Google indexes pages, not websites. That's why you're seeing more small artists like me releasing 12 singles throughout the year rather than an album. (This is probably not news to you though.)
• Algorithms make for looser connections. It's like that Bowie quote: "Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity." I find most people just add a song to their library and don't really explore any further. I think this is just the nature of algorithmic playlists— they lead to a high volume of listeners with a very loose connection to you as an artist.
• Being a small and obscure artist is… wonderful. No one cares enough to be a hater. Instead I get 3 or 4 DMs and emails every week saying how much they enjoy the music. It's really nice. That's all I need.

I always appreciate the newsletter and your thoughts. For people like me (indie artists, not really attached to the music industry in a formal way) your voice is always a source of confidence that things can CHANGE and that artists don't have to follow the way it's supposed to be done.

Thanks,

- Steve Benjamins
stevebenjamins.com

_____________________________________

From: Jeff Solima
Subject: Re: Billboard's New Chart Rules

Bob,

You are on the right track, I just don't believe you understand HOW the major record labels are manipulating the charts.

It's egregious and shocking..... and legal. The reason they want to stick with streaming is the dark underbelly of the world.

There is no way Spotify, Apple, and the rest of the streaming services don't know what's happening. They are stuck, because you aren't going to say anything to the three big companies that hold the rights to your music, and profitability.

There is not a major company that doesn't have over 26 million streamers under playlists that they own and control. 99% of them are exclusive to that company, and that's before you buy the ones you don't have, and bots.

If you are shocked about hip hop..... they are still paying off the local stations, or threatening to kill them...... imagine what they will do if it's legal.... same goes for pop, many of my record friends still laugh and brag over the things they have done.

If you tell someone what you need to see in order to support the songs, they will find a way to get them.

Our business has gone to who's the biggest cheater with the most amount of money.

If you stream 100 Million, you should be able to sell out a 18k venue....... most couldn't sell out a broom closet.

Algorithms are killing music

We have taken the gut away, and did many years ago. Research is a tool to see if what you have done is working, but if it's what you have done, it's a rear view mirror.

A car can only go so fast in reverse.

_____________________________________

From: Michael Patterson
Subject: Hamilton

I live in the Hollywood Hills. Most weekend nights in the summer the hills are filled with the sound of music coming from stereos and TVs. Tonight all I hear around me is Hamilton. At least five of the houses near me are watching it at full volume and they are clapping after each song.

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Billboard's New Chart Rules

https://bit.ly/38WWe3J

Who woulda thunk streaming would break the charts?

The charts are for the industry. "Billboard" has to play nice or companies will find someone else to provide this information.

It wasn't until 1991 that the charts reflected any modicum of reality. That's when SoundScan appeared, tallying what actually sold, via computer information, as opposed to conversations with retailers that were then manipulated by the head of charts with input from the record companies themselves. Prior to SoundScan, a record started at the bottom and then moved its way up the chart. SoundScan flipped the script, albums started out at number one and then fell, because most sales for known acts come right after release.

But, going to a non-human compiled chart not only demonstrated that albums sold prodigiously and then less (except for developing acts, of course), but that more genres other than those featured on MTV were represented in the sales world, i.e. country flourished. Seen as a backward genre prior to this time, it turned out country sold incredibly well, and started to appear in the Top Ten, one can argue that it's this chart change that turbocharged modern country.

But today, it's all hip-hop and pop all the time. That's what's consumed most on streaming services, therefore, in order to get to number one on the "Billboard" chart in another genre, you had to manipulate it, i.e. bundle the album with merch or tickets or who knows what.

You see the labels want bragging rights. The execs may get little press outside the industry, but they can tell anybody they encounter they went to number one, it makes them feel good, it burnishes their image, irrelevant of how much money was made.

And the money is in streaming.

But once we went to a consumption model, we found out hip-hop was bigger than any other genre, and unlike with SoundScan, every other genre other than pop was completely squeezed out. With physical, you bought it, it didn't matter how many times you listened to it. But now it's all about how many times something is listened to, so... It's the opposite of today's television world. The truth is that network shows still tend to have the largest audiences. Even worse, in an on demand world, not everybody watches a show right away. Add on top of that the fact that Netflix does not report comprehensive data, so no one knows how many people watched a show, and the overall television ratings have become irrelevant. Newspapers still print the "Billboard" Top Ten, but even the "Los Angeles Times" no longer prints television ratings, never mind radio ratings.

But the truth is the average person does not read the physical newspaper. And the "Billboard" chart is buried so deep in the online iteration that unless you're looking for it, you don't see it. Most people get their news online, it's a grazing activity, and you only go deep if the world exploded or it's a personal interest, so no one knows your record went number one unless you tell them. As for all the non-hip-hop and pop acts that go number one based on chart manipulation, since they instantly fall down the chart, the story has no sticking power, although the PR industry hypes this achievement wherever and whenever it can.

But few talk about network television shows anymore. All the discussion is about Netflix, Amazon and pay cable, whose flagships have also entered the on demand streaming sphere. Television drives the culture today, after politics of course, and sex supersedes everything, but what excites people in television is that which often is seen by few. In other words, TV resembles the free-form FM radio stations of the late sixties, whereas music resembles the old days of three TV networks.

But the reality is more people are listening to more genres of music, and in quantity, than ever before. Concomitantly, what is number one is listened to less than ever before. You can have a number one track on Spotify and most of the nation is completely unaware of it. Its fans are streaming it prodigiously, but others don't know it, even more, they're not interested.

But what they are interested in is excluded from the chart.

Oh, "Billboard" has a zillion genre charts, as does Spotify, but those are seen as backwaters. And the old paradigm of crossing over from one genre to another is almost completely dead.

And the end result of this is music discovery is negatively impacted, and it hurts the industry at large.

Ed Sheeran was so successful, the Brits changed the chart rules so he couldn't dominate, so other records could get a chance.

We need the same adjustment in the U.S., so other genres can get traction.

But it's really not "Billboard"'s fault as much as it is the streaming services' fault.

In other words, just like Facebook, Spotify, et al, are not just pipes, passive conduits, they influence what people consume. So how do we get streaming services to reflect actual music listening/fans of bands and genres, and how do we get streaming services to boost bands outside hip-hop and pop?

This is not about denigrating or marginalizing hip-hop and pop, it's about broadening the spectrum, to reflect what else is consumed, what else is worthy of attention, which would benefit the business and the consumer, would lead to a healthier marketplace.

Look at the concert numbers. They are not all hip-hop and pop, actually, their numbers are not even dominant, never mind that many streaming chart toppers cannot even sell a ticket.

So how do we come up with a chart that reflects reality and helps music as opposed to the three manipulative major labels who get rewarded based on the quantity of streams and therefore only sign and promote hip-hop and pop?

Once again, you've got to create a chart that the industry adopts. "Pollstar"'s weighted chart means nearly nothing. "Rolling Stone" came out with a good chart, but the industry wasn't interested. The labels want control, they don't want to learn that what they're purveying is not consumed.

Forever, this business has been one of hit material. Appealing to youngsters. But so much has changed! There are no constrictions on marketing and distribution, anybody can play, and not everybody wins, but many more than those on the "Billboard" chart do, some of them don't even have a label, at least not one aligned with the three majors.

So, we need a new chart.

But the industry must buy into it.

But the industry just wants the chart to reflect what is already streaming.

And the touring industry goes completely by ticket and merch sales, and isn't very interested in the "Billboard" chart.

The two are at cross-purposes.

Turns out raw consumption is not accurately reflective of the public's interest. Like SoundScan, it's a revolution, even though the interesting thing here is "Billboard" refuses to go to a straight streaming chart, because that would make its "special sauce" unnecessary. Streaming service consumption charts are the cutting edge, the most accurate representation of music listening, the "Billboard" chart is a joke, once again, only useful for industry bragging rights.

So, to repeat, we need a new kind of chart.

But we also need streaming services to accept responsibility for the fact that they have a huge impact regarding the breaking and acceptance of acts. If the services featured other genres on their homepage, promoted tracks by these other acts like it does the Weeknd, they'd break. But, once again, the labels don't want this, they want control, they want a symbiotic relationship, and the streaming services, just like Facebook and Zuckerberg and the Administration, want to keep the labels happy and buy into their construct, which hurts the public, because it is aware of fewer genres and acts.

As for kids...

Few of them have credit cards, their parents are paying for streaming services. And many have family plans, and the adults stream too, but whenever they pull up the streaming service, all they see are tracks appealing to their kids, and if they dig down into the genres, it's nearly impossible to separate the wheat from the chaff, the great from the dreck.

Yes, the streaming services must accept responsibility. Consumption is important, but it's not the only factor driving success today. Furthermore, what is not streamed prodigiously oftentimes has great inroads into public consciousness and would grow even bigger if amplified by streaming services.

Do I expect change?

No, but ultimately there is revolution. When you accede to an old game, eventually that game is disrupted. There's the assumption that new players will ultimately agree to be purchased by old players, but I don't know why. If you're not in hip-hop or pop the majors don't really want you, and if for some reason they do, they want a piece of your touring pie, where you make your nut, and if you self-distribute, you make most of the streaming money.

So expect more manipulation of the "Billboard" chart. Read the memo, they didn't totally exclude it, they just moved the goalposts.

There is nothing wrong with music, but there's a lot wrong with what gets attention and the resulting charts. It all seems transparent, but the truth is it's manipulated by the players. But the interesting thing, once again, is if you look at what sells tickets, the scene is wide open, and a lot of these fans care about the system not a whit.

The industry is trying to replicate the twentieth century, but we live in the twenty first, hallelujah!


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Bonus Family

https://www.netflix.com/title/80141270

I loved this show.

We do not watch movies, I want something I can sink my teeth into, that I can enjoy for a stretch, something that is here and not soon gone.

But having said that, we did watch "Palm Springs." Don't. We only viewed it because "Bonus Family" finished and I was marinating in the feeling and it felt like if we started a new show it would be sacrilegious.

Before "Bonus Family" we watched "False Flag." And "The Woods." I prefer foreign series to American ones, they shoot for a higher target, there's little chewing of the scenery, too often U.S. shows are a good-looking star surrounded by money, story is secondary, or unbelievable, or not thought out.

Also, we watch all of our foreign shows with subtitles, not dubbed. Just go into the settings on the streaming app, it's not so hard to change. And if you can't get used to subtitles, you can't get used to wearing a face mask. In other words, it's easy. The only strange thing is after watching for a while you expect the actors to speak perfect English, so when you see them on a Brit show and they don't... Did you see Audrey Fleurot in "Safe"? That's another Harlan Coben show, just like "The Woods." Fleurot is magnetic, she is phenomenal in "A French Village," and also "Spiral." She's red-haired and freckled and is a femme-fatale except when she's not and when she had a heavy French accent in "Safe," I was surprised.

And speaking of Harlan, he told me to watch "When Heroes Fly," which we're into now. WHEW! "False Flag" suffers from unbelievability. The twists and turns, especially at the end, they take away from the gravitas, but the first season of "False Flag" is definitely worth it. As for "When Heroes Fly"... The heroes are Israeli soldiers who are no longer in the army, but go on a personal mission to Bogota. If you like action movies with substance, you'll dig this. The first fifteen minutes are war shots, but it's all just set-up, so if you have an aversion to violence, just hang in there. Bums me out that streaming platforms don't feature these foreign shows. As for Netflix's vaunted "algorithm," I've got no interest, it's never helped me out. I just do research, my time is too valuable to waste, life is not getting longer. And I research all recommendations, but if the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes are lousy, I don't bother. Recommendation is a skill, just because you like it doesn't mean I will.

Which brings me to "Bonus Family," I don't think most of you will like it. Because there is no action, no guns, it's just about people, and in an era where everybody is into cartoon characters, superheroes, where men deny their feelings on a regular basis, I don't think many will want to see their foibles on screen, but that's what I'm interested in most, people, their motivations, where they're coming from, what they're doing. I'd much rather hear about your personal life than comments about the external world. Your personal truth is only your own, but in fact, so many of us share the same experiences.

So, in Sweden, a "bonus" family is a "blended" family in America. Patrik meets Lisa on a school trip and she leaves her husband for the already divorced Patrik and...Martin, Lisa's old spouse, just cannot get over it. And Patrik's father asks what kind of person leaves a spouse for another person, he feels there's a defect in character, but Patrik and Lisa soldier on.

And Patrik's ex, Petra, is high strung and always right, you can't tell her anything, Patrik sits down for a discussion and he comes back to Lisa saying he knows why he got divorced. Ever have that happen? You pine for someone in your past, and then you reconnect and your insides rebel, you know you can't go back to the well.

So, Lisa and Patrik go to couples counseling. There's no taboo in Sweden, they start not long after they get together, even though it's expensive, they persevere. And the shrinks are a husband and wife team, and the absolute best part of the show is when they interact after the patients have left. The wife is cold, but she knows the husband doesn't have the balls to leave her.

And the truth is most of our lives revolve around the small issues, not the big ones. Who is gonna take the kid to pre-school, who is gonna get the car, did you hurt your mother's feelings, what are people's expectations.

Katja is totally together, Lisa is not. Lisa is a very good artist, but she screws up on a regular basis, can you be involved with someone like that, I can't. But Lisa says she just takes things as they come, she sees no reason to belabor the point, to prepare. And one of the big issues between Patrik and Lisa is the withholding of information. Do you share everything? Oftentimes in a relationship, one person does and thinks they know everything about the other when they do not. The only way Patrik and Lisa get past the "lying" is by going to the shrink, too often people never get to the bottom of an issue, they just divorce, or by time they address it, it's too late.

I discovered "Bonus Family" in the comments of the "New York Times" article listing the best foreign TV shows of the last decade. I never used to read the comments, but now I do, to get the feel of the public. We gave it a shot and got hooked.

Will you?

All I know is I want you to watch "Bonus Family" so we can talk about it. So we cannot only discuss the foibles of the characters, but our own. Would I put "Bonus Family" at the top of your list? No, there are better shows on streaming services, but there's a good chance you are not watching them, or have already seen them. You're watching what is served up by the service or what has been hyped while the gems are buried deep, even though they're totally searchable.

Meanwhile, I'm reading that poker book, "The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win." I don't even know how to play poker, but the book has me analyzing my own behavior and that of those surrounding me and has me wondering how much of my outlook can change. I don't believe in taking a book's word as gospel, just as Maria Konnikova, the psychologist author, doesn't believe in the 10,000 hour rule, but she brings up so many issues about behavior.

Welcome to the pandemic, where we're all looking for entertainment, where we've all caught up with our desires and are now scrounging for what's next. All of the above will intrigue you, but "Bonus Family" is the most true to life, just search for it on Netflix.

P.S. View the videos at the link above, they'll give you the feel of the show, if it's up your alley...WATCH IT!

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