That Song About The Midway

https://spoti.fi/3w2gg6y

1

Bonnie Raitt couldn't break through.

Her initial album was cut live to four track at a summer camp in Minnesota with Spider John Koerner and Willie Murphy. This was before record labels clamored for hits, they let you find your way, especially Warner Brothers. Also, people pooh-poohed AM radio. If you were authentic, you saw it as anathema. And Bonnie was nothing if not authentic, she hewed to her blues roots, she didn't want to sell out, and she didn't, but her debut barely sold.

But then came "Give It Up." Suddenly Raitt was writing her own songs, and "Nothing Seems to Matter" and "You Told Me Baby" are stellar. But so are the covers. Most notably the second side opener, Joel Zoss's "Too Long at the Fair."

"Won't you come and take me home
I've been too long at the fair
And lord I just can't stand it anymore"

Until 1991's "Luck of the Draw," "Too Long at the Fair" was my favorite Bonnie Raitt track and "Give it Up" my favorite Bonnie Raitt album. And in those days you made it via word of mouth and the road, radio oftentimes came last, Bonnie developed an audience, she could tour, but the average person still had no idea who she was. Raitt was anything but slick, you believed every word she sang, she touched your soul.

But not so much on the follow-up, 1973's "Takin My Time." "Takin My Time" had a much slicker sound, it was anything but rough. There were a number of excellent tracks, most notably "I Feel the Same" with its chicken pickin', but it moved the needle on Bonnie's career just a wee bit. Now she'd made three albums and she had an audience, but she was far from a star, she may have been enamored of Little Feat, but even that band was rarely played on FM radio at the time, and Bonnie was heard only on college and adventurous stations. So Bonnie took a hard turn to a soft sound with producer Jerry Ragavoy and ended up nowhere, neither fish nor fowl, she didn't satiate her hard core audience and made no inroads with others. However "Streetlights" did contain a track that eventually became a classic, her cover of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery," but it was anything but AM radio fodder, even AOR fodder, "Streetlights" was a detour that cost Bonnie's career momentum. Yet if you were a fan you bought it without hearing it first and the opening track was the best, breezy yet meaningful, a cover of Joni Mitchell's "That Song About the Midway."

"I met you on a midway at a fair last year"

With no prior knowledge it seemed like a carny story. Yes, a tale of traveling gypsies. This was before we knew that almost every song has a backstory, and I learned that backstory Thursday night.

2

David Crosby is very intelligent, yet self-satisfied and not always informed on the issues. He's been wrong on digital music from the get-go. He says streaming does not pay, could it be that no one is listening?

Let's take "If I Could Only Remember My Name," his 1971 solo LP, the worst of the initial four band members'. I bought it when it came out, it's interesting, but does not deserve the accolades it has recently gotten. I mean if you're really stoned... But the truth is "Music is Love" has ten million streams on Spotify and three other tracks are in seven figures but the rest are in six figures, shy of a million, considerably. Now I know that a million SOUNDS like a lot, but it isn't. Forget that a lot of songs on Spotify have a billion streams, even two billion, the truth is if it weren't for Spotify, digital music, no one at all would be listening to "If I Could Only Remember My Name," because it would be out of print, completely unavailable, there's not enough physical space to stock the entire history of rock and roll in a store, never mind the fact that you get paid ad infinitum on streaming, it's an endless annuity, unlike a sale, whose money you probably blew.

Also, there's a good chance "If I Could Only Remember My Name" is in the red, it cost so much to make, and with the anemic royalty rates of yore...

As for the hits, with Stills, Nash & Young... Let's see, there are four members splitting a low royalty rate, I can see why you're not making much, but the problem lies with the label, not Spotify. As for the publishing...it's so valuable that Crosby could sell it to Irving Azoff for seven figures, so...

But Crosby has a new album out. He's made five records in the past seven years, a track record no other classic rocker can equal. He's embraced the new market wholeheartedly, that's the new paradigm, you record new music, go on the road to promote it, and then you repeat the process. But it gets better, CROSBY CAN STILL SING! And the dirty little secret is so many stars of yore cannot, at least not very well, even though they're on the road and people are paying to see them. I pulled up "River Rise" and was stunned, I didn't want to turn it off immediately, I wanted to continue to listen to it. And that's the reason David Crosby was on Howard Stern last week, promoting his new work, and I was listening Thursday night on the SiriusXM app as I was hiking, and the truth is Crosby is always fascinating to listen to.

Now if you want to be particular about it, and why not, as good as Crosby's new music is, it could benefit from some money, to afford a first class studio with a first class engineer, the tracks sound just a little too homemade, the choruses with harmonies are great, but a pro would do just a bit better with his voice, use studio tricks so it sounded a bit less naked and alone.

And the new album, ironically entitled "For Free," won't make any money, but it's a calling card, for the fans who still want to see Crosby on the road.

So Howard's wants to get Crosby, Stills & Nash back together again. But the truth is they were back together and I saw them and I'd like to tell you the vocals were up to par, but they were not. Stills can play, but... And Stills is the star, David owns up to this, endorses it, seems like we're gonna have to wait until Stephen Stills dies before he gets the accolades he deserves, before he gets into the pantheon.

And despite all this talk about the new album, Howard continued to ask questions about the past, and the most interesting dialogue was about Joni Mitchell, Crosby said they weren't close, and that she'd written a breakup song about him. HUH? Which song was it?

3

Crosby set the scene. There were twenty people together in a house, probably in the canyon. And Joni showed up and said she had a new song, and everybody wanted to hear it, so she sat down with her guitar and played the song. Twice.

You see Crosby is sitting there, getting embarrassed, because everybody knows it's about him, she's breaking up with him via this song. Crosby and Stern go on about this, and finally it's revealed, the song is "That Song About the Midway."

Hmm...

I bought a new copy of "Clouds" in the early eighties, at a swap meet, it was still covered in shrinkwrap. I didn't own it previously, one only has so much money. And the best track is "I Don't Know Where I Stand," which in retrospect is probably about Crosby too. And the opener, "Tin Angel," is superb, the opposite of a Stones album intro, quiet and introspective as opposed to in-your-face. And the album ends with Joni's take on "Both Sides Now," which Judy Collins had already turned into a monster hit, and track four was the original "That Song About the Midway."

I'm a big believer that the writer does the song best, but not in this case, then again Raitt and Mitchell's versions are very different, same chord changes, same lyrics, but completely dissimilar feel. Raitt's is an ensemble, slick, the sound supersedes the lyrics, the story seems to be told in retrospect, it doesn't feel like it just happened yesterday. But Joni's original is essentially just her and her guitar, and it's her pure voice, it's not treated like Bonnie's is, like I'd like Crosby's to be on his new work, it's not a woman on stage in a theatre, it's a singer in a coffee house, playing to forty people, it's made to be heard, but it's personal, it cuts right to the gut, but I still thought it was fiction, I couldn't figure it out, until Crosby and Stern started talking about it.

So it took me the entire hike to finish the interview, the longer the better, don't cut it short if you've got an interesting guest, you want to cover the ground, and when I got into my car I pulled up "That Song About the Midway" and listened with new ears.

"I met you on a midway at a fair last year
And you stood out like a ruby in a black man's ear"

On the road, they met on the road, as part of the traveling circus of music performance, at least that's how I remember it. And Crosby was a star, wearing his capes and...

"You were playing on the horses, you were playing on the guitar strings
You were playing like a devil wearing wings
Wearing wings you looked so grand, wearing wings"

Yes, Crosby was playing the field, his music his calling card, he was an angel, at least on the outside, but the inside?

"Do you tape them to your shoulders just to sing
Can you fly
I heard you can, can you fly
Like an eagle doin' your hunting from the sky"

Well, these are fake wings, taped on, easily removed. Meanwhile, he's flying like a bird of prey, circling in on...women.

"I followed with the sideshows to another town
And I found you in a trailer on the camping grounds"

Yes, every act has their own schedule, they rarely meet up on the road, but sometimes, missing their significant other, one will change their route, fly in for a little of that human touch.

"You were betting on some lover, you were shaking up the dice
And I thought I saw you cheating once or twice, once or twice"

I literally thought it was about gambling, but now, rounding the Sunset curve by Mandeville Canyon, I finally knew the truth, yes Crosby was cheating on Joni Mitchell!

"You were betting on some lover, you were shaking up the dice
And I thought I saw you cheating once or twice, once or twice"

Whew!!! Now it was perfectly clear, I could see the scene, Joni was the faithful one, we always hear about her leaving relationships, but in this case... It was a dagger straight to Crosby's heart, it's very clear.

"I heard your bid once or twice
Were you wondering was the gamble worth the price
Pack it in
I heard you did, pack it in
Was it hard to fold a hand you knew could win"

She was committed, was it really worth it to screw around and lose her? Did he not foresee the consequences?

"So lately you've been hiding, it was somewhere in the news"

Cheaters always hide, you can't get a hold of them, they're embarrassed! They hate confrontations. However they say adultery is not about the person you do it with, but the person you're involved with, and if you only told your significant other your issues, progress could be made, instead you pull away in this sneaky way, like a weasel.

"And I'm still at these races with my ticket stubs and my blues"

When you're deceived, when you're abused like this, you feel so bad, you were ignorant, out of the loop, you're still here, but they're long gone.

She's tired, she feels like she worked overtime on the relationship and it was all a waste of time. And then she pushes the dagger in further:

"And I envy you the valley that you've found"

I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY!

And they never are, because you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

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Fresh, Fried & Crispy

https://bit.ly/35Xwe7o

People hate Padma Lakshmi. I learned this researching her after watching her Hulu food show, "Taste the Nation." I highly recommend it. Padma travels across the nation to focus on specific cultures and the food they eat. Sure, she goes to El Paso for Mexican, in an episode entitled "Burritos at the Border," but she gives context to the location and...did you really know about the Gullah Geechee in South Carolina? Or that Paterson, New Jersey is a hotbed of Peruvian cuisine? There are ten episodes, you can see the locations and cuisines here: https://bit.ly/3xUqes6

Now I don't remember the last time I watched cable, whether it be network, basic or pay cable. I only watch streaming shows. Therefore, I had no idea who Padma Lakshmi was. But I found out she was the star of another cooking show and she'd been married to Salman Rushdie, who'd gone on record that she was a narcissistic self-promoter who needed to be in the public eye, who needed to be famous. So if I wrote about Lakshmi, I'd probably hear from the haters, and they're everywhere, complaining she's posting cooking photos to Instagram sans bra and the rest of my readers, like myself previously, would have no idea who she was.

Then again, I didn't write when I was hot, when I was excited, before I did all my research. You see there's a moment when you feel it, and then it passes. You're watching something, into it, and you want to tell everybody, and then you're over it and on to the next thing.

Which in my case was cooking shows on Netflix.

I watched a bit of "The Chef Show," because who doesn't like Jon Favreau? But the stories were too belabored, I couldn't get into them.

And then there was all this hype about "High on the Hog," so I checked it out and it was utterly fascinating going to Africa, not only seeing the roots of the food, but that the nations are not as backward as we perceive. But venerated writer Stephen Satterfield had absolutely no on screen charisma, I mean this is television, Satterfield seemed nice, but he was boring and not dynamic, I couldn't continue.

And then I found "Fresh, Fried & Crispy."

Fried food. Does anything taste better? My friend Jeff e-mailed me about Dave's Hot Chicken, told me I had to go, and if you look at the picture, you'll get an impression: https://www.daveshotchicken.com Golden brown chicken, fries, artery cloggers. I lived on this stuff growing up. But now? Now I know better, I know I'm not gonna live forever, and I might as well give myself good odds, so I eat fried food very rarely, but I still love it, my mouth still waters, ah, for some nice fried oysters or clams.

So I'm watching "Fresh, Fried & Crispy" and I've never heard of the host, Daym. I figured his name was like "Damn, that's good," but in truth it's short for "Daymon." In the middle of the first episode, he tells his story. Daym started out as a YouTube food blogger. He'd review fast food while eating it in his car. He said he had one clip with ten million views, I decided to look it up. And then I realized Daym's secret to success, his reactions! Daym wasn't analyzing the food as much as ENJOYING IT! His reactions were infectious. And he ended up with a TV show on the Travel Channel and now he's got a Netflix show. Once again, I'd never heard of this guy. But I know how long a road it is to TV stardom, to getting a Netflix series. Hell, Seth Rogen's a bona fide movie star and he says it takes six to seven years for him to put up a movie.

So Daym's in St. Louis. Why? I don't know. And he's eating fried ravioli. Now that sounds good, doesn't it? Turns out it's a St. Louis specialty.

And then Daym goes to a vegan restaurant, he's anything but a vegan, he's a beefy Black guy, but the chef/owner of the establishment, also a person of color, tells how she makes this food and damn if it didn't look good, especially the fake chicken.

But then Daym drove out to the hinterlands. It seemed like a farm. But I couldn't understand the connection. You had a family, two generations, the parents and the son and his wife, and...was this just gonna be a home-cooked meal?

But it turned out the son had a restaurant in town. And he also had a very good-looking wife. Live in L.A. long enough and you think everybody outside the metropolis is backward and obese, but this is not true.

Anyway, the son, Rick Lewis, has this restaurant Grace Meat + Three, which is a southern thing, if you've ever been to Nashville, and his specialty is fried bologna.

Does anybody even admit to eating bologna?

Certainly not that Oscar Mayer prepackaged dreck. You'll eat that when you're in your single digits, when they think you'll eat anything, but you reach a certain age and you say NO MORE! As far as Spam...we never had it in our house, but I heard the bad words.

But bologna was not a bad word in our house growing up. Funny, it was supplanted by salami by time I hit my teens. Why is that, is bologna for kids and salami for adults? And I've eaten plenty of salami over the past decades, but bologna?

But when I was five, fried bologna was a treat.

We lived in a split-level, with the tiniest of kitchens. Eventually, in 1962, we added an addition, a large room which included a dining table, couch, piano and TV set, but as for the kitchen? It was till tiny. But when I was growing up, it was even worse, because included in this kitchen was a dining area! Kind of like a booth at a diner.

Anyway, when I was a kid I would eat sunny side up eggs. Now I won't touch eggs at all, in any form, forget it. I mean if you use it as an ingredient in something else, that's fine, but if it tastes like egg? No way! And I remember my mother making said eggs, and I also remember her making fried bologna.

I don't remember there being a cutting board, those seemed to arrive in the sixties, back in the fifties I think you just sliced on the kitchen counter, as if the linoleum or plastic or whatever it was was impenetrable, a breakthrough. Funny how we've gone backward. In the sixties the great leap forward was frozen vegetables in a ready to cook plastic bag, better than cans! You had this pouch of frozen vegetables you boiled in water and voila, you cut the bag and served it! This was when time-saving was of the essence, long before the cooking revolution, when the goal was still to do less work. Then again, I don't know how my mother put a meal on the table every night. Well, not every night. Saturday my parents went out and we got hot dogs and hamburgers from the stand, and Sunday we oftentimes went out, usually for Chinese or pizza, occasionally to the Pepper Mill in Westport, a steak place. And my mother never ever made breakfast. And certainly didn't make us lunch, we were forced to eat the food in the cafeteria, we begged her to make us sandwiches, but she never would, so the truth is she had to cook five nights a week. Then again, I still don't know how to cook!

And my most treasured food memory from those early years was sitting at the kids' table in the playroom watching "The Mickey Mouse Club" while eating noodles with butter, something that disappeared from the menu shortly thereafter, I think they only let little kids eat that.

And the fried bologna.

Now the truth is when I got my first apartment, in 1976, my mother sent me some kitchen stuff. And included was the pan she fried the bologna in. I got so nostalgic, I never ever used it, but I only threw it out two years ago, it was a connection to my youth. It was small, it could fit about four pieces of Hebrew National bologna at a time, and it certainly wasn't cast iron, we never had a cast iron frying pan at home, never ever!

So first Daym watches Rick make the bologna. It's kinda like those TV shows about the making of hot dogs, once you've seen it, you can't eat them. Unless they're skinless and all meat. Nothing worse than a bad hot dog. The Dodger Dog? Nearly inedible! But there's no accounting for the tastes of the hoi polloi. Then again, Daym is lifting people up from the bottom, he's meeting them where they live, in the fried food zone.

So Rick makes this giant bologna and then ages it and ultimately cuts off a giant slice to fry.

And as it sits in the pan starting to sizzle I can smell it, all the way sixty plus years back. My mother frying up that bologna. It would start to curl... Hell, we're Jewish, we overcook EVERYTHING! Then again, I like things just shy of burned, I mean a medium-rare ribeye with char on the outside? Then again, the char'll give you cancer. Then again, we did so much back then that we subsequently learned gave us cancer. WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING SUNTAN LOTION!

And I'm watching the TV screen mesmerized. And I almost jump up to write about it, but this was only the first episode of the series, did I really want to draw people's attention to it?

And then I did more research. Reviews were not that fantastic. Then again, it was the highbrows weighing in, and highbrows won't even eat fried food, they're the people who say they've never ever eaten at McDonald's, whereas I have so many times that I don't even have to buy the burger, I can just think about it and taste it.

And I'm wondering exactly what skill, what expertise Daym is bringing to the table. I mean Guy Fieri started out in restaurants, he can go on about the ingredients, the construction, whereas Daym worked at Wal-Mart and CarMax, not known for their culinary offerings. So why exactly was I hooked by this show?

Well, Daym is likable, but it's not like he's a gabber, he's not talking endlessly, it's not like he demonstrates endless personality. I ultimately realized...IT'S THE FOOD!

The truth is America is the land of fast food. It was invented here. And now, more than ever, people here eat it. Sure, there are fast casual outfits, but they're not fast enough! We want to get it, eat it, and be done!

And in the second episode Daym is eating freshly caught fried shrimp in a Po-Boy at Hudson's Seafood House, on the water in Hilton Head and...

The breakout feature in "Fresh, Fried & Crispy," the piece-de-resistance, is the immersive frying camera. Yes, instead of an underwater camera, they've got an under oil camera, so you can see the food cook, as they delineate the composition of the oil, the heat and the time cooked.

And then Daym goes to Treylor Park in Savannah. Unlike salt of the earth Katherine cooking at Hudson's, the proprietor of Treylor Park cooked in New York, and then came back home to create his specialty...the Treylor Park Pot Pie. Which is actually a chicken pot pie chimichanga! They fry that sucker up and... Well, first I'd like a Dark Shark fried peach for...a peach cobbler on a stick, sometimes dessert needs to come first. Or maybe I'll just settle for the grilled apple pie with chicken sandwich at Treylor's.

These are normal people taking pride in their efforts to reach the culinary limits of...fried food. You worry about the lifespan of all these people, not only Daym, but the rest of the beings who eat this food. Maybe this is a contributing factor to the ever-lowering age of death in the U.S. of A. Then again, what is life about?

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Mr. Inbetween

https://bit.ly/3daZRq6

Now this was a good rec. A number of people e-mailed me about it and then I checked RottenTomatoes and the critics score was 95 and the audience score was 98 so we decided to check it out. Glad we did, there's not another show quite like it.

"Mr. Inbetween" is Australian. So there's a slightly different sensibility. Australians take themselves a bit less seriously, and they've got a sense of humor, and they drink. But still, it's relatable.

So the bottom line is Ray is a hitman with a regular life. A thug who's little different from your next door neighbor other than his line of work, and a severe anger problem. You see Ray comes from the school where you've got to stand up for yourself, where you don't tolerate bullies, you hit back, in some cases you even hit first, damn the consequences. And occasionally this gets him in trouble, because normal people default to the law, the rules of society, and Ray doesn't always do this, he's got his own sense of justice. Which is moral in its own way.

So, when he's not the doorman at a strip joint, when he's not off beating people up, Ray shares custody of his daughter, he gets into a relationship, he hangs with his friends, and these situations are depicted more accurately than in a year's worth of American TV.

Ray's daughter starts off young and loving, never mind uber-cute, but as the seasons wear on, she gets older and doesn't want to be seen with him and has a boyfriend and starts getting into trouble and Ray has to manage all this. One of the funniest and most squeamish situations is when Ray has to tell Britt the facts of life long before she reaches puberty, when she catches Ray in bed with Ally and he's...

As for Ally... If only relationships could be depicted this well in all series. You can love each other but the relationship still can't work. And you don't get over each other right away. And the speech Ally gives at her house, about trying to fix people and standing up for herself...it's so hard to face reality and do what is good for you when it feels so bad.

So Ray's got a father he won't speak to. And a brother with a bad illness. Families, siblings, they're complicated. And if you've been through the war with your brother or sister, you're bonded forever, you always look out for each other.

And Ray is a good friend. Especially to Gary, his best friend.

Gary is an average guy who is constantly making bad choices, like marrying that Russian woman, but Ray shows up for him time and again, takes the heat, defuses the situation. And Gary does the same for Ray. They're buddies. But it's not a buddy comedy, they're just friends. Remember when you had friends like this? Get older and they disappear.

And Gary is always looking for a way to make a buck.

And Ray takes Britt to playdates and...tries to help the parents of her friends. Life comes with so many obligations. Assuming you're up to them, and Ray is.

This is a hard show to explain. First and foremost, the episodes are very short. Just over twenty minutes if you watch on Hulu without commercials. Half an hour on FX. And the seasons aren't super-long, the first only has six episodes, the second eleven and the third nine. In other words, it's not a deep commitment, you can watch an episode before bed, you don't need to commit an hour of time. Then again, in an hour you can blast through three episodes!

And these episodes breathe. They're not chock full of action, nor are the images dense, the writing is spare but so right on. You can tell Scott Ryan took time with them. And the banter between Ray and Gary is oftentimes priceless. When they're waiting, need to kill time, they'll play these little games, like what is the best this or that, and they do it just like you do with a buddy, it resonates.

But what truly resonates is the depiction of life. Few of us are going anywhere fast, we're just trying to make a living, get by, prepare the next generation. And we're constantly pissed at the small intrusions, the injustices. And there are power struggles, and issues of trust and...these all come up in "Mr. Inbetween," but you're not being hit over the head.

There's violence and sometimes blood, but at other times it's patently sweet. I do not know why this isn't one of the most talked about shows out there. Maybe if it was on HBO. If it got the publicity it deserves.

"Mr. Inbetween" is a gem, I wholeheartedly recommend it.


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Billy F. Gibbons-This Week's Podcast

Legendary ZZ Top guitarist Billy F. Gibbons has a new solo album, "Hardware." We discuss its making in the desert as well as Mexican food, hot sauce, automobiles, travel, "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide" and so much more. Billy is quite the raconteur and you'll want to hear him opine on multiple topics, it's like hanging with a good friend!

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

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/billy-f-gibbons/id1316200737?i=1000526718605

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3UAjN8QxZ2LkfNUni7hOZY?si=UMuGTs8WQNyPA4Rg-xEOQA&dl_branch=1

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/The-Bob-Lefsetz-Podcast

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast



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Blue

It wasn't a hit.

I'm not saying it was a stiff, but most people never heard it. Furthermore, radio didn't play it. By 1971, FM radio stations were leaning harder, there was no room for singer-songwriters and their quiet music. This even haunted James Taylor, the biggest of the lot. Suddenly, he was an AM act. Same deal with Carole King. "It's Too Late" on AM radio is what broke "Tapestry," the album was moribund before that action, it was not being pushed on FM, most people never heard it until it came out of the radio speakers.

We can play this out with James Taylor. He released albums with less and less commercial acceptance. To the point where he ultimately jumped labels to Columbia from Warner Brothers, looking to reignite his career. And how did he do this? Via a cover of "Handy Man." James Taylor became a cover artist, even before this. "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" was an original from "One Man Parade," but it was soft and so far from FM rock as to go totally unplayed on that band. Its follow-ups? DIDN'T EVEN CHART! "Hymn," "Walking Man," you may know them, but those who are not Taylor fans do not.

Then, at the end of his Warner tenure, James worked with Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman and returned to form. Still, he didn't have any original hits. "Mexico"...made it all the way to #49, "Shower the People" to #22, but "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)"? That was a #5 hit. In other words, James was struggling for radio acceptance, and the only way he could get it was via either upbeat ditties or dirgey love songs, he was at the mercy of a world that was stacked against him.

Same thing with Carole King. One of the biggest selling albums of all time, and then...almost nothing. "Sweet Seasons," from "Music," the follow-up to "Tapestry," made it to #9, but hits dried up, and her albums had less and less success until 1974, when Carole changed sound and had a #1 AM radio hit with "Jazzman" and its iconic Tom Scott solo. This was not the personal statement from deep in her gut, this was nearly fodder, a track that FM would make the sign of the cross at. And after "Wrap Around Joy," which contained "Jazzman," Carole's career went in the wrong direction, she never had another hit, other than a cover of her own hit song "One Fine Day," in 1980

So...

Joni Mitchell releases "Song to a Seagull" in 1968... Most people were unaware it came out, many are still unaware.

On her second album, "Clouds," Joni decided to buy a bit of insurance, it contained her versions of two songs Judy Collins had already made hits, "Chelsea Morning" and "Both Sides Now, both of which were written prior to Joni's debut. Did that help Joni make inroads? Not by much. I didn't know a single person who owned that album simultaneous with its release.

The breakthrough was 1970's "Ladies of the Canyon." First and foremost it was an artistic leap forward. Secondly, it contained "The Circle Game," a standard in the folk world that Joni was reluctant to include. People now knew who Joni Mitchell was. But it's not like you saw "Ladies of the Canyon" everywhere, only if you were in the know.

But a year later, in 1971, Joni puts out the iconic "Blue" with no insurance, no past hits and...not a whole lot happens. It was an insiders thing. And whereas you might have heard tracks from "Ladies of the Canyon" on FM radio in 1970, "Blue" was absent from those airwaves in 1971.

So, Joni Mitchell was stuck in neutral. Someone who'd written hit songs for others, but had even less purchase on the public than her David Geffen management cohort Laura Nyro.

What Joni Mitchell needed was a hit. And by this point she's on Asylum Records, run by the aforementioned Geffen, and he pushes her to write a radio-friendly song and she does, "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio," which was definitely heard on the radio, but only made it to #25 in "Billboard" and #20 in Cashbox and...the truth is the album it emanated from, "For the Roses," was darker than "Blue" and "Ladies of the Canyon" so Joni Mitchell was a known quantity, but her LP was not flying out the door.

And then, in January of 1974, came "Court and Spark." There were no plays for hits, nothing looking for commercial success, however the orchestration was more lush and the album had more of a sheen...there's no way it could be cut with a dulcimer in a Greek cave, suddenly you had a sophisticate relating her story of being in Paris and...Joni had hits doing it totally her way, most significantly with "Help Me," and of course "Free Man in Paris." And with these insightful songs on AM radio, the young female demo that did not listen to FM rock became aware of Ms. Mitchell and found they could identify with her message and Joni became the most revered, the most exalted female artist extant. She even went on a victory lap tour where she recorded the double live album "Miles of Aisles" and then...

Waited nearly two years and released the jazz-influenced, right turn "The Hissing of Summer Lawns." These same people, the AM ladies, were eager, they bought it and...THEY REJECTED IT! From superstar to has-been in two years. It was over for Joni, she never graced the AM airwaves again. And having destroyed her commercial career, a la Neil Young, Joni no longer had chains, people were no longer paying attention, and she recorded and released "Hejira" to almost no acceptance. It's one of Joni's two best works, and in some ways it's better than "Blue," listen to the truth in "Song for Sharon" and "Refuge of the Roads." But the tracks didn't comport with anybody's idea of popular hit music. There were only two tracks shorter than five minutes long, and "Song for Sharon" clocks in at 8:40 and "Refuge of the Roads" 6:42. These tracks wouldn't even get playlisted today. "Hejira" wasn't background music, you had to sit in front of the speakers, listen on headphones to get it, it was a deep dive into Joni's identity, but because it wasn't upbeat, because it didn't conform to anybody's idea of radio commerciality, it barely made a dent.

And from there, Joni marched further into the wilderness. At first she seemed not to care about commercial success, and when she tried later, on her Geffen records, she seemed to have lost the key. Furthermore, these songs were less personal.

So...

"Blue" is one of the greatest albums ever made. And it's all her, we can't say its success was really a collaborator's. But the accolades it is receiving on its 50th anniversary are coming to a great degree from people who weren't even alive when it was released. Or people who were friends with Joni at the time. Context has been lost.

Forget revealing her truth. Believe me, that was not so extraordinary back in 1971, THAT'S WHAT IT WAS ALL ABOUT! It's hard to believe that today, with the mindless ditties clogging up the chart, but personal expression was the game, the zenith, you wanted to open yourself up and get it all down. So it took decades for people to realize "Blue"'s greatness, all the detritus, the imitative, the wannabe dreck had to fade away so it could shine. Kind of like the Mona Lisa. It's got its own gallery at the Louvre. It stands alone. Exhibit it with other works and it loses its luster. Even more significantly, no one, NO ONE, has been able to replicate the formula. Looks easy, but it's not. First and foremost, Joni was writing and playing for years before she had her success. Today people don't put in the time and they want instant validation. Also, today people are gun-shy about revealing their truth, unless they go to the other extreme, as they do in memoirs, detailing the most heinous of activities to shock you. Joni Mitchell was just another person on the planet back in 1971, you could relate to her, she might be richer, but...

Now the truth is after all these hosannas, "Blue" is going to fade back into the woodwork. This is not the Beatles with all those radio-friendly ditties. As for people discovering "Blue" today as a result of the hype? I don't think many will, oldsters are aware of it, have either accepted it or rejected it, and youngsters don't see the words in the newspapers touting its value.

It was a different era. There were so many great acts and great albums that Joni Mitchell could release a masterpiece and many could shrug. Today if you cut something half as good, like Adele's "21," the whole world is flabbergasted. And believe me, "Blue" has legs that "21" does not.

And then there are the women without Joni's voice. Men too. People believe lyrics are enough, they are not. As for learning to play your instrument...that takes too much time, you can buy the damn beats, why take all that time practicing off the radar screen when you can start promoting on social media today, be on your way to becoming a brand.

And then there's Mo Ostin and Warner Brothers. He supported you if you didn't have a hit. He signed you to a five album deal and it was assumed you'd make a record every year and get better and find yourself and at some point maybe your music and the public would align. Today Joni Mitchell wouldn't even get signed, she wouldn't have the data, and on top of that she doesn't make radio-friendly music, today's radio that is. Sure, people covered her songs, nice. But those live numbers...you play coffee shops, great, call us back when you've moved up to theatres.

In other words it's a whole different environment, a whole different game. Never mind there not even being a folk scene, never mind a coffee house to play in. And it's all about loud, that's how they EQ the records, if it's not in your face, it can't break through the clutter. Oh, we'll give a chance to quirky, but the truth is Joni Mitchell was not quirky, she was part of the mainstream, which was broad if you were a fan, after all Jethro Tull, Randy Newman, the Mothers, the Beach Boys, and Alice Cooper were all on Warner/Reprise at the time. You can't find this diversity today, even if you look at all the acts on all the labels of Universal Music!

Then again, you have no idea of the power of music back in 1971. If you wanted to know which way the wind blew, you turned on the radio, you played a record. Making money? It was secondary to finding yourself. It was about laying down your statement. In a way nobody does today. But it's not only music, it's films too. The top ten grossing flicks of 1971 included "The French Connection," "Summer of '42," "Carnal Knowledge," "A Clockwork Orange" and "The Last Picture Show"...and only "French Connection" might be green-lit today.

So "Blue" was of a time. But how great is it that we have a perfect document of that era!

And the great thing about a record is you bring your own identity to it, you form your own story, in truth Joni Mitchell does not represent your fantasy, ask anybody who knows her, then again this is almost always the case with great artists, who can oftentimes do only this one great thing, they are unique, with rough edges, narcissistic, strong-willed, they need to do it their way, and we respect this because most of us don't have the cojones, we aren't willing to hang it all out there, to risk it. Sure, you might think you do, but no one's paying attention to you, you don't have a record deal, no one's spending money on you, you have no pressure, and when you do to stay the course, hew to your values...that ain't easy.

Then again, back then labels didn't have the right to reject albums. They didn't tell you to remix them. Most contracts said you just had to deliver it and they put it out. And back then no one could truly predict a hit. And hits were different. FM radio was less about generating album sales than ticket sales. And if you were lucky, you crossed over to AM radio and physical sales took off and then so did ticket sales and then...you were cursed with the blessing of having to follow it all up.

You think it's easy? You sacrifice your life to feed the starmaking machinery and at some point, if you don't O.D., you want to get off the wheel. Silicon Valley talks about the "flywheel," that's the goal, but people can't work 24/7 ad infinitum, they break down, then again, no machine can write "Blue."

Now I don't think you can get "Blue" unless you're open to it, in the right headspace. Actually, I'd tell you to start off with "Ladies of the Canyon," then go to "For the Roses" and "Court and Spark" and then back to "Blue," then you might get it, you might be open to it. It'd be like going on a first date with someone who opened all their wounds but also said they liked you and...if you do this, most people run away, you've got to dribble out your details. Unless it's the perfect one. Who gets you, who understands you. Listening to "Blue" you thought Joni Mitchell was the perfect one, the fact that she was an artist signed to a record label didn't enter the equation, this was a person, this was her story, and it was a snapshot in time, she'd be somewhere different next time around, as she was. Joni was not locked into a rut, she didn't keep repeating herself. "Blue" is part of a continuum. Really, it should be seen as part of the body of work.

And no one's got a better one in rock and roll. Except maybe the Beatles. And Bob Dylan. Then again, "Blue" is the White album with more coherence, it's got the upbeat elements of "Abbey Road" yet it is not solely sunny and just like "Sgt. Pepper" there were no hit singles, it stands on its own. As for Zimmy...musically, Joni trumps him hands down. And Joni has never been accused of plagiarism. Joni Mitchell is an original, and in a me-too conformist world that is everything, that is what we are looking for, that's why we're even talking about "Blue" fifty years later. The greats break the mold. The lame are restricted by it. Fifty years ago, music was a great leap forward, and Joni Mitchell outjumped the boys, she set a record that still holds. And we can only marvel at the result.

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More Saxophone Songs-SiriusXM This Week

Tune in today, June 22nd, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863 

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive  

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive 


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It's Not A Hit

The music business has changed dramatically and no one will admit it.

I was stretching last night, one of the world's most boring activities, so while I was doing so I was reading the Apple News on my phone and came across this article:

"Why hit songs suddenly matter more than the stars that sing them - The pop star versus the playlist - Streaming services' playlists make it easier for listeners to find music worth playing. But experts say they're also breaking fans' relationships with artists."

Unfortunately, this article is part of Vox's "The Highlight," an entry in the magazine's new "Gate Keepers" issue on Apple News+, and unless you're on a Mac paying $9.99 for the service, you can't read it, which means it might as well not exist. That's the power of paywalls, they stop you before you get started.

Anyway, the article clearly states that TikTok hits...can almost never be repeated. You can have a track hiding in plain sight, that's a relative stiff, and then it can be picked up by TikTok creators and you make bank and think you're a star but the truth is you're a one hit wonder. Bottom line, people are fans of the track, not its creator. Extended bottom line...it's nearly impossible to build a career these days.

Now one phenomenon of the MTV era was that if the video service shot you to the moon, you fell back to earth almost as fast. Or maybe you had a few hits and then you fell back to earth. This was the opposite of the seventies ethos, where it was all about the slow build. Today's paradigm, where someone comes out of the gate and triumphs, even plays arenas on their first tour, that did not exist back in the seventies. Of course there were exceptions, but the exceptions were of such quality that they were undeniable. Like Elton John, who'd paid umpteen dues before his breakthrough, and Tom Scholz's Boston. The debut Boston LP was so good, people started to hate it in principle, called it corporate rock, but the album is as fresh today as it was back then, and just as playable and still played.

Today, if you have a hit at all, it's probably luck. And you won't have one again.

Today's "Washington Post" has this article:

"The TV hit isn't just dying — it may already be dead - Astute observers of television say that the idea of a unifying show on even a modest scale is gone. In its wake are a hundred Twitter niches — and a dangerous lack of common culture": https://wapo.st/3xNCeM5

Bottom line...the vaunted "Mare of Easttown," which felt like it was talked about everywhere? Only four million people watched the finale.

And there's been an evolution, or a devolution, in viewers in just the past few years. Five years ago an episode of the "Walking Dead" had 17 million viewers. Two years ago the "Game of Thrones" finale had 20 million viewers. But that was before streaming truly took hold, before the launch of Disney+ and AppleTV+, never mind the continued inroads of Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.

So there are no water cooler moments. NONE! Not enough people are watching! If you read the press, these shows are phenomena, but in truth they are not!

Just like today's so-called hit acts.

Why tune into the Grammys if you're unaware of the music? Sure, we live in an on demand world, no one wants to watch commercials, but who in hell would want to watch a show where they don't know most of the music?

But the music industry trots out concert grosses to demonstrate stardom. Well, let's say you go on a nationwide tour and sell out forty arenas. Assuming there are 20,000 seats, and very few arenas are this big, that means 800,000 people saw you, IN A COUNTRY OF 332 MILLION!

Now it used to be that radio brought us together, you may not have owned the record, you may not have gone to the show, but you knew the music. But today's youngsters don't listen to radio, despite the hogwash pushed down our throats by the terrestrial radio industry. And oldsters? They don't want to listen to music, certainly not new music.

Music breaks and lives online today. But there are many more records than TV shows, what makes you think people are focused on any one act?

I hate to bring up Taylor Swift, whose record label is constantly telling us she's breaking sales records, despite manipulating said figures through vinyl sales, et al, but she went on a stadium tour a few years back AND DIDN'T GO CLEAN! Back in the days of the Stones stadium tours, in the world of today's Stones stadium tours, every ticket is sold, at exorbitant prices. But not Taylor Swift. Because this is heresy, I point you to the BBC, a more trusted outlet than music websites:

"Does it matter if tours don't sell out?": https://bbc.in/3gP0LuE

I don't necessarily agree with all the reasoning postulated, but the fact is there, not only Taylor Swift, but Beyonce couldn't sell out her stadium dates. If you click through to the article, you'll see these tweets:

"I was walking down the street earlier and I literally tripped as I waded through free Taylor Swift tickets" Darren Geraghty

"I am now the last person in the greater Dublin area that has not been offered a free Taylor Swift ticket" Fiona Hyde

This information was hiding in plain sight, but conventional wisdom is Swift's stadium tour was a raging success. And she's supposedly the biggest act out there and she can't go clean?

There's a fascinating diatribe waiting to be written about disinformation, about how the truth does not out, and we can start with politics, but that's not my point here. Turns out most people don't want to see Taylor Swift, EVEN IF IT'S FREE!

So those songs in the Spotify Top 50, today's number one consumption chart, forget the manipulated "Billboard," they have a fraction of the reach of the hits of the past, of even a few years back. It's the same damn people listening to the same damn songs over and over and over again.

As for playlists... The platform is more powerful than the music. It's about what Spotify chooses to playlist more than the quality and lasting power of any of the tracks. People want music, but not necessarily your music. And if it feels like no one is listening to you, THAT'S PROBABLY TRUE! As for being unable to make a living making music... Well, it turns out there's too much choice and you're not that big, not everyone can make a living. Furthermore, there's only a hundred cents in the dollar, Spotify literally can't pay you more. It FEELS like you're getting ripped-off, but you're not!

So, the music industry is throwing songs against the wall to see what sticks. But the tastemakers are not traditional gatekeepers, but regular folk on social media platforms. You can playlist a song all day long on Spotify but it won't turn it into a hit, you need external forces to do that.

So, we are not minting new superstars, and those stars we are creating are smaller than ever, and if the whole scene doesn't make sense to you, if you think people are creating lowest common denominator stuff to try to go viral on social media platforms, YOU'RE RIGHT!

What we've got is utter chaos. There are charts, all kinds of traditional metrics that fit the old but are completely out of date and don't fit the new. It'd be like reading Tesla sold 1,000 cars. Then again, Tesla gets more ink than sales.

And it's not only adults, kids don't know most of these acts either. They might know more than the adults, but no one can know them all.

And this is all working against the music industry, music has sacrificed its power in pursuit of an old paradigm, world domination, that is no longer possible. You can make it appear possible, it can FEEL possible, but it's impossible.

So you might as well create and promote more lasting, more valuable music, to build careers, but that does not square with the short term mentality of the record labels, never mind the other players in the food chain. Those who work at the labels don't own them, they're contracted employees, they want those hits now, so they can get paid NOW!

So maybe you've never heard Phoebe Bridgers. But then you keep reading about her and check her out and you say to yourself...THIS IS IT?

Or maybe Olivia Rodrigo, whose lyrics are speaking truth but whose tracks are far from cutting edge.

And then you tune out completely.

But the young and brain dead keep playing a track over and over and a number is totaled and held up as representative of a worldwide smash WHEN IT'S NOT!

As for Phoebe Bridgers, she does not have a single track in nine digits on Spotify...and twenty or forty million might seem like a lot to you, but Clairo, an act I'd never heard of until I read the paid-for hype in HitsDailyDouble, has six tracks in nine figures. One with 277 million streams, another with 237 million. Jody Gerson said listening to Clairo was like listening to Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell, check Clairo out, if you agree, you must be on UMPG's payroll.

And it's not like I need to pick on any of the acts above, BUT THEY'RE THE BIGGEST ONES OUT THERE, AND THEY'RE NOT THAT BIG!

But you won't read about this in rah-rah ignorant "Billboard." Generally speaking you won't read about this at all. But it's true, a hit just ain't what it used to be.


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Book Report

1

I just finished reading Seth Rogen's "Yearbook." He told Howard Stern he wrote every word of it and I believe it, the organization could be vastly improved, and unfortunately Seth is more of a live thing, the written word is not the best format for his stories. However, if you're a subscriber to Sirius XM, you definitely need to pull up Howard's interview with Seth, the stories are amazing. Unfortunately the same stories are told in the book, but not as well.

Yet there is more.

Seth was a teen phenom who broke through in "Freaks and Geeks" but then he was broke, he had a huge lull in his career, others would have given up, never underestimate persistence.

Also, during this period Seth woke up and realized he wasn't quite good enough at standup and should retire, he saw Sarah Silverman, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk and Zach Galifianakis and realized he could never be that good, he was a middling comic at best. Too often people believe if they just double-down, believe in themselves, everything will work out, but this is patently untrue. Also, please quit when you get that feeling, and you know it, when you're thinking of giving up after all that hard work because it all just doesn't resonate like it used to, you're allowed to change, you're often better off if you change. Funny enough, it's oftentimes the delusional wankers who never have self-doubt, who keep on pushing on. And these self-promoting tools ruin it for the rest of us. You wonder why the famous person won't listen to your music? Blame the delusional wankers, not the overburdened professionals.

Also, Seth does not walk away from his religion. He talks about Jewish summer camp, and he also delineates his war with Jack Dorsey over anti-Semites on Twitter. Not only are they spewing their B.S., they're VERIFIED! Dorsey keeps telling Seth there will be change, but it's never forthcoming, until Trump is banned after the January 6th riot, but all those anti-Semites? They're still on the service.

Unfortunately, this is at the end of the book, and therefore has not been emphasized in the hype, but kudos to Seth for standing up for his truth, which too many celebrities will not do, afraid of pissing off a potential customer.

And the book is littered with Seth's engagements with the rich and famous where he ends up scratching his head and walking away. Seth can say no. He can stand up to studio executives. Maybe it's because he's Canadian. Seth doesn't see himself as being on the same level as the household names, and then he describes experiences with the household names that are so whacked, you'll find yourself questioning them. When you gain a lot of fame, people let you get away with...sometimes even murder, Hollywood is a yes-person's paradise.

But unfortunately, Seth nailed the difference between rock stars and movie stars better on Stern than he does in the book and the end result is most people will never hear his words. Rock stars can't share a dressing room. Rock stars hew to their own schedule... Listen to Stern.

And also read that it takes 6-7 years for one of Seth's projects to come to fruition.

Also, on both Stern and in the book, Seth reveals that his father has Tourette's and he has a mild case too. This explains his delivery, the laugh, and it also explains the self-medication with weed.

Musicians use dope to ease the pain, Seth sees dope as an amusement park. He'll single-handedly influence more people to take mushrooms than anybody in the Spotify Top 50.

So, the more I write about the book, the more it seems I recommend it, but if you listen to Seth verbalize these stories... He's a normal person encountering bizarreness, just like you and me, he's our man in Hollywood. The tone of the book is a bit different, he's not quite as likable as he was on Stern, nor does he truly delineate the reasons for his success, but...

You don't have to go to Harvard to make it, Seth dropped out of high school.

And making it in your teens doesn't mean you've made it for all time.

But reading/listening to Seth you feel like one of the good guys made it. Sure, he ends up bending over backward not to offend people after he's offended them, written negative stuff about them, but he actually lays down the truth, where most people don't.

But if you want to hear the Eddie Griffin anti-Semitism story properly told...

Listen to Howard.

https://amzn.to/35GQwlt

2

Maybe I read Jennifer Weiner's "That Summer" because it was so hard to get. There was a months-long wait at the library for this book. But then I got a chance to skip the line, downloaded it and dug in and...

I was disappointed, it was too formulaic, a beach read.

But just when I was about to give up, suddenly it got good again, it wasn't so clear-cut, the emotions were well-delineated.

So the issue is, can trauma ruin your life?

We're constantly told to get over it, but can we?

It appears that Diana can't.

And the book also raises issues of privilege, education, uniqueness, personal path... Does everybody need to go to college? Can you make it without a college degree? Do people marry for financial security more than love? Do they beat your creativity out of you as you get older, is school just about making you conform?

And at the end of the day is it about the big career or happiness, and are they mutually exclusive?

I don't want to reveal the plot points, but let's just say the book devolves into a revenge fantasy, and you start to wince, but then it veers from typical Hollywood fare.

Ultimately "That Summer" is a more sophisticated beach read. You know if you want to read it, you're a Weiner fan or you're not.

And if you're not and you're male, you probably won't enjoy it, then again it's males who need to read "That Summer" the most. You see too many males have been brought up in a bro culture and are as blind to their behavior and the truth as the ever growing white nationalist population in our country. Furthermore, it's the bros who egg you on, get you to engage in bad behavior. After all, being a member of the group is the most important thing. And you get a better education at a first tier prep school but does it cripple you for life?

Yes, when you finish "That Summer" you'll still be thinking about the issues it raises, which means it is not typical beach fare.

Still, it's not Jonathan Franzen.

Then again, Jonathan Franzen takes himself so seriously that he can't see context, and oftentimes misses the target.

It's hard to write a great book. But the number one criterion is that a book be readable, and "That Summer" is. You'll get to the point where you want to keep on reading it, it will close the blinds on real life, taking you into a whole 'nother world. And that's what great fiction does, create a new world that illuminates the old world. If you're overwhelmed by reality, "That Summer" will take you away. Then again, "That Summer" deals with real issues, but unlike the news, they don't revolve around politics.

https://amzn.to/35GQytB


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Snapshot

File trading is history. 10% of the public will never pay for music, ignore them.

Files are history. Music, like television and so much more, is on demand. As time goes by we will own less and less. As for those worried about a blackout, a breakdown of the internet, if you've got no power it makes no difference if you own files, and those in the know know you can sync files from streaming services like Spotify and Netflix to your device for those out of internet range excursions.

Streaming won. If you're anti-streaming, you're no different from the buggy whip manufacturers. Streaming is where you get paid, encourage your fans to sign up and partake.

Recorded music revenues are higher than ever for a hit, but recorded music revenue is just a sliver of your income. Of course there's the road, but there are so many more avenues of remuneration. Instead of bitching, you should be smiling, the future continues to be so bright that you should never remove your shades.

Albums are for oldsters. Today it's about a constant flow of product.

If you don't know who your audience is, you're dead in the water. Bottom up, not top down. Mainstream media publicity means less than ever before, don't count on the label or the press to build, inform and sustain your audience, that's your job.

There's no such thing as too much music. Your own long tail satisfies the hard core that will not shut up about you.

Major labels have never had less power.

The goal is to get on a streaming playlist as opposed to a radio playlist. Spotify, et al, are looking for reaction. It's not how many people listen to the playlist, but how many people listen through your entire song and save it to their library. Those which are listened to and saved are put on other playlists and can be on the road to success.

Managers are more important than ever, they're the new record companies.

You don't shop for a deal, agents, managers and labels find you, based on the data. Executives are combing the internet, looking at the data, 24/7, your goal is to post numbers, that is the game. And sure, the numbers can be manipulated, but it's hard to do so across the board, in every vertical. If you've got high YouTube numbers but low Spotify numbers, if you've got streaming numbers but can't draw a fan to a gig...then insiders know you're a fraud.

Labels and other investors only want to know if you've got fans. That's what they build from.

Hip-hop dominates and rock is dead. Rock shot itself in the foot, it didn't embrace streaming, it focused on albums, it was based on impressing the small coterie that make up the rock infrastructure, it became an echo chamber.

Used to be the undercard at a festival was irrelevant, now it's the way to get exposed.

The market is still manipulated, can you say "Billie Eilish"?

Play the game or don't, decide which side you are on.

In the movie business no one knows who runs the studios, and in the music business no one knows who runs the labels. All the power is in the platforms, i.e. Netflix and Spotify.

Ignore the valuation of labels and publishing catalogs. They're all based on the past. And investors are ignorant, can you say "Guy Hands"? It's about monetization of past assets more than monetization of the present. Then again, money needs to be parked somewhere, and if media tells the Street that music is burgeoning, that's where the money goes. Live Nation stock went through the roof during the pandemic when there were no shows!

Bitching gets you nowhere, now more than ever, there's just too much news in the channel, best to hunker down and work or get out of the lane.

Repeatability is everything, when was the last time you listened to Bob Dylan's "Murder Most Foul"?

Don't believe the press, it's manipulated. If someone is constantly in the news, it means that someone with relationships is spending dollars. That does not mean the hoi polloi cares, and it's only about the hoi polloi.

No act will ever be as big as the pre-internet acts. There are just too many options, too many desires, and there's too much clutter to cut through to make a big noise.

Innovation is hard, but innovation is where the rewards are. We live in the era of me-too, everybody copies what someone else has done, and true creativity is ignored. Everything new starts off slowly, remember that. And it's the music that starts the scene, not the media, you can be featured everywhere and still be dead in the water.

Never has the public had more power. The public makes the hits, not the labels or the media. And the public spreads the word. And more than ever, it's nearly impossible to manipulate. True success is more organic than ever before. Do what you do and make it better. Chart reaction. You're building yourself. Step by step. It's not about one big break, but many little breaks that hopefully add up to more.

Your hardest core fans are crazy, so be wary of feeding them. There are too many Rupert Pupkins out there, and most people have no idea who Rupert Pupkin was. If it happened in the twentieth century, it's deep history, most of it unknown.

Awards won't keep you warm at night and they won't increase your bank account. People don't watch the shows and they don't care.

It's a sexist business. But it's a conundrum, because so much successful music is based on sex.

Black culture rules. This is a touchy subject, but Black music has traditionally represented the underclass, which is less invested in traditional tropes and is willing to innovate and test limits because there is less to lose. Now everybody is poor, everybody is frustrated, everybody is looking for a way up, and Black culture leads the way. Unfortunately, these same Black people leading the culture are not rewarded with executive positions because the white people on Wall Street, which own these companies, are racist and scared of losing control of the store. They want to hire on criteria that no longer apply. They care more about where you went to school than whether you can get the job done. Are there exceptions, you bet! But never forget a huge percentage of Americans are threatened by the increasing population of people of color, and they are doing their best to keep their fingers in the dike. Meanwhile, their children are all rapping. How to make sense of it? You can't!

The basics never change, it's about the song.

If you want to have a hit write a song with melody, changes and have it sung by a great voice. Sounds simple, but very few can do this.

Voice competitions are TV shows, not music industry markets. We want to hear what you have to say more than we care about how you can sing. Write your own songs and the quality of your voice is less important, but if you've also got a great voice you're closer to success.

It doesn't have to be loud to be successful.

Spamming people doesn't work, it only pisses them off, the road to success is an organic journey that can rarely be pumped.

Streaming and the road are oftentimes separate avenues. The road is about catalog, streaming is about of the moment. Then again, if you string together a few of the moment cuts you can sell out arenas, but don't plan on playing the big rooms shortly thereafter.

Some of the biggest acts have no hits. Can you say Lady Gaga? Prior to "A Star is Born" she was on a long cold streak. She's back there again. But because there are so few hit acts with her level of mindshare today, she continues to be focused on. The machine needs fodder, and there's less A-level fodder than ever before.

Producers are creators, oftentimes more important than the act itself, can you say "Max Martin"? Proving if you've got the chops, if you can write a hit song, you can work forever. It's more about the song than the sound.

Recordings service the youth. Oldster word of mouth moves much more slowly and it oftentimes focuses on live. And now millennials are oldsters.

Don't complain concert attendees are using their phones. You're selling an experience more than music, the music is just the enticement for a public gathering.

Documentation is everything, not only for concertgoers, but acts. Complete set lists and more documentation of each and every show, all activities of the act, are crucial to an act's success. Don't hire a PR person, hire a documentarian!

TikTok is about the audience, not the act. Remember this. Service the creators, not yourself. And if you don't make youth music, you can successfully ignore TikTok all together. But don't ignore Instagram!

Don't make hip-hop? Go to Nashville, that's where all the players are. Radio is losing control of country music, and therefore the country music landscape is widening. Today, country means guitars and trucks and families. You can start with the guitars and ignore the rest and still make inroads. It's an open highway.

It's a long way to the top if you want to make it. Bo Burnham had been doing it for fifteen years before his big Netflix breakthrough. You've got to pay your dues, and along the way you'll be singing a lot of blues. If you're fourteen and envision success...maybe you can have a hit, but you almost definitely won't have a career.

There's no adult version of Disney. So, Miley Cyrus and Olivia Rodrigo came up through the Disney system...Warren Haynes did not. If you're a player, you've got to practice, you've got to find your way, it's going to be a long journey.

Music is not an automatic road to riches, you're lucky if you can give up your day job. The power in music is the attention, the ability to change people's minds/viewpoints, if you want to make bank finish college and work for the Fortune 500.


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Paul Ricard

They were racing in France.

In 1962 I went to SAAC Camp in Westport, Connecticut. It was based at a school that no longer exists, I've searched for it a number of times, both in real life and online, and finally its destruction has been documented in Google Maps, I was never sure if it was a trick of the mind. Used to be, back in the nineties, the internet was new, actually, at first the hoi polloi were all on AOL, which was a walled garden. The opportunity to go on the World Wide Web...that was a thrill, the entire planet opened up to you at your fingertips. But now that's de rigueur.

But space was the hot topic of the sixties. We were in a cold war with the Soviets, and after Yuri Gagarin blasted into the atmosphere, even orbited the earth, it was clear we were behind. President Kennedy said we were going to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade, and we did. Today we can't even reach Biden's goal of vaccinating 70% of adults by July 4th, talk about a can't do nation.

And if you were alive back then, you know there was an emphasis on science and math. Hell, there was the new math! All this rewriting of history that America has gone soft, as if STEM studies were a revolution... No, college changed. It used to be a well-rounded education, of liberal arts, preparing you for life, which is both short and very long. Today college is a glorified finishing school, a respite of drinking, drugging and partying in A level accommodations before you're released into the real world where you fight to have the same level of accoutrements, and frequently fail.

Boomers were striving for excellence. The goal was to be atop the pyramid. For the Millennials it's about fitting in, being a member of the group, and the end result is America has become tribal, and those still focused on the top have become billionaires and lorded their power over the rest of us. And it's as hard as going from the back of the grid to the front, from P20 to P1, you can't do it in the Haas car, and you can't do it if you don't have a college degree, know the right people and...don't tell me about the exceptions, they're like wining the lottery, they say someone emerges victorious, but I've never known a winner.

So on July 23, 1962 I remember sitting in front of the television, to see pictures transmitted from Europe via Telstar, starting with the Eiffel Tower, sent in real time earlier in the day. Yes, news outlets had the ability to time shift, to record and play back later, but this wasn't even conceivable at home, we had to wait fifteen years for VCRs, and most people couldn't afford them until the eighties.

Now back in 1962, it had been fewer than twenty years since most of our parents had come back from overseas. Europe and Asia were closer then they are today, despite Apple and its competitors constructing all their devices in China, despite the influence of Ibiza and dance music on our national culture. You could fly to London in six hours from New York and...you can still fly there in six hours, for a minute there was an SST, the Concorde, but that was ultimately sidelined and the planes got bigger, but not any faster. And if you made it to Europe you could live like a king for very little, that was the power of the dollar.

As for "Made in Japan"? That was a label for dreck. It wasn't until Sony convinced us that their electronics were superior, and Toyota did the same thing with automobiles thereafter, that Japan was seen as a powerhouse. I still won't buy an American car, never ever, except for maybe a Tesla, then again build quality is notoriously poor. Old habits are hard to break, especially when your Asian automobile breaks down so little.

Europe was far away. If you happened to go there, you never called home, never ever. You employed Aerograms, thin pre-stamped letters that you could fill up with writing that would reach home within the week. And there certainly were no cell phones.

So back in 1962, the concept of watching something in real time from Europe was a novelty, a breakthrough, an accomplishment that helped lead us to where we are today. Yes, the military industrial complex gave us not only Tang, but the internet. If only they'd stop building the army of yore and focus on today's digital world, our power would be maintained. Russia is a nearly bankrupt autocracy, financially it's a disaster, but when it comes to technology, it's a free for all pushing the envelope. In America, dumb celebrities blame Apple for hacks when the truth is they used passwords no better than "1234" and expected privacy. Then again, most of the younger generation has sacrificed privacy, and Apple enables it and Mark Zuckerberg blows a gasket. Not only can no American ever lose their job, impeding progress, but corporate sovereignty must be preserved, even though Facebook triumphed by pushing aside MySpace.

And I've been thinking about the years going by. Because a lot of the signposts in my life were seen fifty years ago. And to younger generations that's not only history, they don't know it. Has the average Gen-Z'er, never mind Millennial, even heard of Telstar? Never mind the song with the same name?!

So I'm sitting there in front of the flat screen pissed some jerk e-mailed me the result of today's Formula 1 race before I watched it. This isn't the old days where you wake up in the middle of the night to watch TV shows in real time, there's not even a Thursday or Friday or Sunday night lineup that's must see TV, it's all on your DVR, if it isn't on demand nearly instantly thereafter. HBO Max may dribble out their series, but at least they put the TV shows on the service right after they've aired.

So I set the DVR for the French Grand Prix...and now it was ruined. I guess I can't check my e-mail on Sunday mornings anymore, even though we all live to check our feeds.

So I pulled up the recording and they showed a bunch of buildings on a hill and it was clear, they were in France. And that titillated me. Like my old buddy Billy Gibbons says, it's all about traveling, it inspires you. Want to be creative, want to have ideas pop into your head? Go somewhere! The more foreign the better, especially where you don't know the language, you'll no longer be passive, but fully alive.

And there's a nine hour time difference. It's already evening by time I pull up the race. There's a whole 'nother world over there, but now I've got a peek into it. Made me want to go.

As for the race...

People had told me Paul Ricard would be boring. And there were no crashes. And the truth is I didn't watch absolutely every minute, I fast-forwarded with an eye on the leaderboard, to see if it changed.

But I knew who was gonna win.

And this was a race based on strategy. The number of pit stops.

And the quality of the cars. Lewis Hamilton said he couldn't pit again because he had no chance against the Red Bulls, they were faster in the straights.

So, you had the cars, the tires and ultimately sportsmanship.

And like today in America, there were people in the stands. But everybody in the pits, everybody associated with Formula 1, was wearing a mask. There's got to be a regulation. As for vaccination.... You're not going to be able to participate, as a crew member, never mind a driver, in the Dutch Grand Prix unless you've gotten the jab. As for fulfillment of this requirement... In Bahrain vaccinations were available for everybody, but the Formula 1 teams were fearful of getting negative PR for jumping the line. And some of the U.K. crew members are so young, it wasn't their time yet in their home country. Optics matter. Choices matter. But not in the U.S., where you can be of a tribe and never encounter the truth, never mind a conflicting opinion.

So did you miss a lot if you missed today's race? No, not unless you're truly a fan of racing. This was not a hellzapoppin' affair.

But if you tuned in, you got a peek into how the rest of the world lives.

And it looks pretty good.


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