If I say anything negative I'll instantly become a pariah, I'll be inundated with hate on social media and...
"How can there be 24 writers on a song?
Diane Warren tweeted this about a Beyoncé track four days ago.
And was instantly labeled a racist. It was said she didn't understand African-American culture, one of collaboration, and then she APOLOGIZED! (And disappeared from Twitter for a few days.)
Is Diane Warren a racist? I've never seen evidence of this. Diane will work with anybody who can make one of her songs a hit. FURTHERMORE, Diane has previously worked with Beyoncé!
Now let's say you make your living as a songwriter. Things are tough enough already, unless you have a hit you're struggling. Used to be even an album track paid serious dividends, assuming it was on a hit LP in the physical era. But today, even though music is released as albums, they're cherry-picked by the audience. And if you're super-lucky, more than one track will break out. The rest of them have far fewer streams. And if you're the writer of one of those...you might need to keep your day job.
Also, how do you write a song with 24 people?
Oh, we know, you sample this and you sample that, everybody in the room where it happens wants a piece and...the truth is Beyoncé has so many income streams that she's willing to sacrifice some publishing money. But really... 24 writers?
I believe it's reasonable to question that number, which appears laughable on the surface. I won't go any further, talk about the craft of writing songs, in both the Black and White worlds...
But...
There are white acts that have a plethora of writers on their songs.
And there are black acts that only have one or two.
RACE IS NOT A FACTOR!
But you can't say that.
I've been tracking the success of Beyoncé's new album "Renaissance" since its release last Friday. To see if streams were commensurate with hype. And although initially the album peppered the upper echelons of the U.S. Spotify Top 50...
And then yesterday afternoon I saw a tweet by Om Malik, presently a VC. Linking to a piece on his blog:
"In Beyoncé we trust?": https://bit.ly/3bCek0z
Om said:
"I have been listening to the album — on Spotify. Unlike the critics and reviewers, I am not having an eargasm. Except for two songs, Church Girl and Move, the album left me underwhelmed. She has done better work and will do better work in the future."
This is the first negative word I've read about "Renaissance." The hosannas in mainstream media have been overwhelming. It's as if the Beatles got back together and released a record every bit as good as "Sgt. Pepper," even better!
Now I'm a student of the game. One thing I keep noticing and hammering is most people don't care. About Beyoncé, about ANYTHING! We no longer live in a monoculture, we live in a niche culture. You can promote it, but that does not mean people will consume it. And the rollout of "Renaissance" is the best ever in the streaming era, it was everywhere. Is it successful?
Om goes on:
"Still, I appreciate Beyoncé bringing attention to house music and its legends. As someone who has been a house music fan since the earliest days, this made me happy. But that doesn't mean I will go ga-ga over the album, which is a bit ho-hum, at least to my ears. My reaction is very different from that of critics and reviewers. According to Metacritic, it scored 93, and 19 out of 19 reviews are positive. Fans gave it 9.4. I understand that taste is subjective, and not everyone likes the same thing."
And then quotes "The Economist":
"Many superstars enjoy unquestioning critical veneration. This is driven by a number of factors—chief among them journalists' fear of a social-media backlash. There is also the fact that the biggest stars rarely let their records go to reviewers before release, resulting in articles written on the fly, in which no one wants to be the person out of step."
Now there's the truth. This is not the sixties or seventies, where music criticism is an art form. Now it's all positive all the time. I get "Relix," the reviews are worthless, THEY'RE ALL POSITIVE!
And seemingly everything in "Rolling Stone" gets three stars. How do you tell the difference? Assuming you even see "Rolling Stone," since it's behind a paywall.
But if you go against trend, against the grain, be prepared, you're going to be criticized, ostracized... One thing I like about Diane Warren is she has edges, she has an opinion, and sometimes it's negative about herself. She's 3-D. But if you're 3-D in today's world you're gonna ultimately cross somebody whose goal is to have the world conform to their perception. Other opinions? NO!
So music criticism at large is passé. Because what "The Economist" says is true. Reviewers no longer get free product, there are no press junkets, being flown to a gig like in the old days, today the only thing you get is access, and if you say something negative, anything at all, you're shut out.
So let's go to where the rubber meets the road, Beyoncé's streaming performance. And let me make this clear, Spotify is the only platform that matters. Apple and Amazon have many fewer subscribers who stream less and they both skew older. They don't represent the cutting edge. And if you quote sales numbers, at iTunes, that's absolutely ridiculous. If you're buying tracks today... You get poor quality and if you like ownership...do you really believe the format is forevermore? You'll be able to play vinyl. MP3s, AACs? How about WMA? The standard in the Windows world twenty years ago, history today.
So on Spotify, the highest charting Beyoncé track is "Break My Soul," at #8. But this was the advance single, released six weeks ago.
Then you get "Alien Superstar," on the way down, at #13.
"Cuff It" at #23 on the way down.
"Energy" on the way down at #27.
"Summer Renaissance" at #31 on the way down.
"Church Girl" at #34 on the way down.
"I'm That Girl" at #44 on the way down.
And finally "Cozy" at #45 on the way down.
Eight tracks in the Spotify Top 50, that's PHENOMENAL! But other than "Break My Soul" they all have that red triangle, representing downward movement. As in people are checking out the album because it's new, but the newness is wearing off and most people are really just only interested in the hit. There could be another hit down the line, but right now no track is jumping out.
But like I said, Beyoncé's highest charting track, "Break My Soul," is at #8 with 772,806 streams a day.
HOWEVER, #1 is Steve Lacy's "Bad Habit," with over twice that number, 1,657,720.
And next comes Harry Styles's "As It Was," with 1,070,951. Harry's a superstar. Not that he gets anywhere near the ink that Beyoncé does. Then again, does he have the same cultural impact?
#3 is Bad Bunny's "Me Porton Bonito," with 1,045,427 streams a day.
And this is where it becomes interesting. Not only is Bad Bunny #3, he's also #5, #11, #19, #25, #29, #36 and #48. That's also eight tracks in the Top 50. But Bad Bunny's album came out May 6th. And six of Bad Bunny's tracks, all except #5 and #48, have green triangles, showing they're on the way up.
So I ask you, who is bigger, Bad Bunny or Beyoncé?
Not that it's a competition. Yet it is, because streams are where all the money is. As for cultural impact, ultimately that's unquantifiable, and they're both not on the road and... Shouldn't there be a lot of ink about Bad Bunny? Sure, there's been a good amount, but are we going to say the media is racist by underrepresenting the Latin market?
Interesting question.
#4 is Kate Bush's "Stranger Things" phenomenon. It's going down with a red triangle but it still has 1,019,995 streams a day.
And then comes a Drake track. And then a Joji track. And then finally you hit Beyoncé.
If Beyoncé is so big, shouldn't she have the #1 record, or close?
But it turns out the media is out of touch with the listeners. For all the over the top ink, turns out people would rather listen to something else.
But Bob, you say. Bad Bunny is an international act. It's unfair to compare his success to that of Beyoncé's, it's a different market. But is it really? Those Bad Bunny numbers above are U.S. ONLY!
So let's look at the Global numbers.
"Break My Soul" is at #16 with a downward red triangle.
"Alien Superstar" is #42 with a red triangle.
And "Cuff It" is #50 with a red triangle.
As for Bad Bunny, he's at #3, #5, #8, #9, #11, #20, #25, #35 and #47.
And I won't even bother to recount the fifteen tracks ahead of "Break My Soul" on the Global chart.
Is it racist for me to print the above numbers?
Is it racist for me to question the public's acceptance of Beyoncé's new work?
This is business. Have we gotten to the point where we can't analyze the numbers for fear of offending someone? Not only the act's superfans, but those in the media, in the business, in the...
It'll be interesting to see what happens with "Renaissance" in the future. Will the label be able to break another hit? One thing is for sure, with almost all albums, after the hysteria of the initial release, after the multitude of tracks disappear from the Spotify Top 50, they don't reappear en masse, usually only one at a time, or two. So what about the rest of the tracks on the album? Were they even necessary? Check the Spotify numbers, as you go down the track listing you see ever fewer plays, unless a deeper track was a single. Which is exactly what is happening with "Renaissance." The first five tracks have between twelve and fifteen million streams. Tracks 9-15 all have single digit millions. In some cases, less than half of numbers 1-5.
Has Beyoncé aged out? Has it been too long between records? Is it better to constantly release new music to keep yourself in the public eye, to keep your hand in the game? Is the media trustworthy?
These are all viable questions. And really, they've got very little to do with Beyoncé herself. This is not character assassination, this is business evaluation. What is going on in the market?
One thing I'll tell you is happening is nobody's a guaranteed success. Even Drake's new album put up less than stellar streaming numbers. The new and different is what appeals to people most. And their judgment of what is good may be completely different from the media's and the gatekeepers'.
And really, on streaming services, there are no gatekeepers.
It's not about being discovered on playlists when it comes to superstars. It's about raw acceptance. Is everybody starting from scratch every time they release music? Or in a much less advantageous position than perceived? Does the public actually want an entire album? Is there a quality issue, I mean look at the Kate Bush numbers. Or is it just simply the song was in "Stranger Things" and that cuts across exposure lines better than anything else in media, print, social or playlists.
The world changes. To keep up with it you have to keep asking questions.
I'm asking questions about "Renaissance."
That's taboo.
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Friday 5 August 2022
Thursday 4 August 2022
More Mo Ostin
Mo, Lenny, and Russ, along with the WB staff were truly responsible for the early success of Prince. But Mo was at the helm. When I told them that we wanted three albums firm when we signed him, Mo gave the green light - no other label would have done that. When I told them that an 18 yr old kid from Minneapolis, who had never recorded an album, was going to also produce his first album and play all the instruments - he was given the green light. No label at the time would have done that. When Prince told WB not to pigeon-hole him as an R&B artist because he wanted to make music for all people - they believed in his vision. No other label at the time would have done that. But Mo was at the helm at WB, and he created that environment. After Prince and I parted ways Mo always made a point of coming up to me to say hello at various events - he didn't have to do that. And I know for a fact that after Prince and WB parted ways (Prince changed his name to a glyph to get out of the deal among other salty actions) that if he would have called Mo to come back, Mo would have welcomed him with open arms. No hurt feelings. That was Mo Ostin. And I am sure that there will never be anyone like him again in the music business.
Owen Husney
___________________________________
Tony is so right on. There never was a more menchy guy in the business.
I represented Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham when they joined Fleetwood Mac. I told Mo that I didn't want them to be exclusive to Warner's for any solo work they would do outside of Fleetwood Mac. Unlike other record companies at the time who insisted on complete exclusivity, Mo understood and gave me the point.
As they say, the rest is history.
Owen Sloane
___________________________________
I knew Mo but not well. He was always easy to be around and down to earth, friendly. Bring you in his office and just hang for a few minutes. How ya doin, how's the new album? Like that.
To a young kid at the beginning of a career (for however long) that mattered.
A great man In a business that that was kinda jive. He turned Warner Brothers into an artist friendly environment. That's how I remember Mo.
RIP
Tom Johnston
___________________________________
We met Mo Ostin back in 1987 or 88, right after my group Take 6 was signed to Warner Nashville. I remember how music centric and wonderful a person he was to us. This coming from the head of WB in Burbank in regards to an A Cappella, Gospel, Jazz vocal group, signed to the country music division of WB!
That should tell you a lot about him, as well as how the music business at that time was about MUSIC.
He was from a bygone era and will be truly missed!
Claude Mcknight
___________________________________
I remember when Phil Walden moved Capricorn distribution from Atlantic to Warner because Mo and Joe gave him a joint venture partnership as opposed to a straight distribution deal. As close as Phil was to Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler he just couldn't refuse the deal and Capricorn had their greatest sales and profits at Warner. The entire Warner team was top of the line at that time.
Willie Perkins
___________________________________
Loved reading Tony's story. Remember it well. I met Mo when I was very young man. My father was friendly with him, had worked with Sinatra and they played golf at El Cabellero CC in Tarzana occasionally. I remember him telling me about Jimi Hendrix and Alice Cooper and I almost fainted. I didn't know people signed people. He was so humble even then. Later on when we were managing Devo I got to work with Mo, Lenny, and the whole team. It was a dream come true. We were in the studio once and Lenny came to hear some tracks and he told them they were being too conservative. Can you imagine that? He said it sounds like you're trying to have a hit. Don't do that. Just do what you love. That's how Warner Bros. was in those days. Frankly when I worked at the film studio it was a similar vibe. When I signed Scritti Politti with Elliott Roberts we had huge offers for their American deal. But Mo wanted them and frankly I don't even remember negotiating. We just made a deal. I had lunch with him and Eric Eisner one day and we were talking about my then very young kids and Mo said as far as school is concerned there's Harvard Westlake and then there's everybody else and believe me all three of my kids graduated from Harvard Westlake. He was the final word on so many things. And such a great dad and man. Michael is a testament to what great values the Ostins represented. And you could write books about Evelyn. She was the gold standard.
Bill Gerber
___________________________________
In early 1999 I was a "wet behind the ears" Toronto-based music lawyer doing one of my first major deals with Mo Ostin at Dreamworks. After the signing ceremony Mo and the team had reservations for lunch at a restaurant in Beverly Hills. Mo and Robbie Robertson invited me to drive back to the office in Robbie's new BMW. Robbie wanted to show me how the audio worked in his new car. I was freaking out!! What would I ask them? How would I keep up in a conversation with these 2 legends? What could I possibly add to the discussion? Would they just ignore more me and talk amongst themselves?
No. Both Robbie and Mo were genuinely curious about my music history. My music history??? What band was I in? What was the music like? How many people were in the band? Where did we tour? WTF??
They spent the whole drive drilling me about my old group and putting me at ease. It's a method I've employed ever since when I meet a nervous young artist or manager.
Over time I was able to ask Mo a bunch of questions.
A mensch, a guiding light, a true gentleman that impacted so many.
Chris Taylor
___________________________________
Hi Bob, Thanks for the great write-up on Mo. I was lucky enough to be on Warner Bros Records Nashville staff during some of that magic. I met Mo a few times. You could tell in the first two sentences: 1. He was very very smart. 2. He was a good, honorable person. In all the time I was there, I don't think I ever heard one bad thing said about Mo from anyone..
You're so right. If only we had more Mo Ostins.
Reprise is pronounced like "leeds" BTW
Danny Kee
___________________________________
Hi Bob,
Greetings from the other side of the Big Pond. I worked as Head of A&R for Warner Reprise (alongside brother labels Elektra/Asylum and Atlantic) in South Africa for close to 21 years. Every year I would fly to the US to visit the labels and catch up on new music, news etc. My favourite was Warner Reprise at 3300 Warner Boulevard. It was there that I met Mo, and many other legendary record men like Russ, Lenny, Stan and my boss, the late Tom Ruffino. Every time I met Mo he would remember that I was from South Africa and would say something like "Hey you`re doing a great job for us down there" and I, this country bumpkin from Africa, would beam with pride because I truly felt like family. He even congratulated me for releasing an obscure album by Jerry Williams, we were probably the only territory to do so. And the same is true of all the WBR people who worked there in the Seventies thru Nineties. I was taken to gigs, introduced to loads of new and exciting music. Mo made all of this possible because of who he was and how he related to staff & artists. There will never be another Mo, they broke the mould, I`m proud to have worked for him and WBR.
Benjy Mudie
Warner Reprise, South Africa
1976-1997
___________________________________
Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker.
I remember meeting Mo and Lenny in 1988 in Burbank.
My label Rhythm King had just had the first computerised hit records in the UK with Bomb the Bass and S express at No 1 and Seymour Stein bought me in to meet them.
We spent two hours taking music, Mo was interested in this new computer music form and Lenny wanted to talk about song structures.
Seymour was pacing around outside, worried as usual!
The next day Mo took me to the lakers game. He had a permanent seat right next to the goal on the court.
He was famous on TV as the guy who threw the ball back into play.
Neither of these men were corporate.
They were people persons. Music people.
Curious and open.
They took an interest and bet on people.
And built one of the greatest labels on earth.
Martin Heath.
___________________________________
I absolutely love this! Thank you for writing it!
I was blessed to know Mo. I moved to LA in the 80's and was close to his son Randy. I spent many weekends at their Malibu beach home and Mo would be in the TV room glued to the basketball game.
One day the door bell rang and in walked George Harrison and Ringo.
George ended up staying the weekend and couldn't have been more genuine and kind. There was never a shortage of people popping in and it was always interesting.
I remember telling him early on, how lucky he was to have been born when he was. He truly was the kindest man and you were spot on when you said, "Maybe because he worried about careers more than sales." That was Mo!
Today he is in heaven with his loved ones and Michael is the last one standing. It must be hard for him.
Thank you again for writing this
Melissa
___________________________________
I was working for a not to be named major record label and was in New York for the post Grammy party ( you know the big extravaganzas labels used to throw)
The party was divided by the artists and the few top brass executives - while everybody else stood behind the velvet ropes. An artist friend called me and told me to bail and come to the Warner Bros party- and when I did there was Mo Ostin - the label President who was just hanging with all the artists and the regular folks- no velvet rope in sight. When I introduced myself to Mo he gave me a huge warm hug and talked to me about my dad - who he knew and loved because they were frat brothers in college. I remember several superstars waiting to talk to him but he was fully connected to me and didn't do the typical brush off. This is why Mo was so loved. He was kind and he was real.
Tracy Gershon
___________________________________
The Chairman has left the building….
Jed Weitzman
Owen Husney
___________________________________
Tony is so right on. There never was a more menchy guy in the business.
I represented Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham when they joined Fleetwood Mac. I told Mo that I didn't want them to be exclusive to Warner's for any solo work they would do outside of Fleetwood Mac. Unlike other record companies at the time who insisted on complete exclusivity, Mo understood and gave me the point.
As they say, the rest is history.
Owen Sloane
___________________________________
I knew Mo but not well. He was always easy to be around and down to earth, friendly. Bring you in his office and just hang for a few minutes. How ya doin, how's the new album? Like that.
To a young kid at the beginning of a career (for however long) that mattered.
A great man In a business that that was kinda jive. He turned Warner Brothers into an artist friendly environment. That's how I remember Mo.
RIP
Tom Johnston
___________________________________
We met Mo Ostin back in 1987 or 88, right after my group Take 6 was signed to Warner Nashville. I remember how music centric and wonderful a person he was to us. This coming from the head of WB in Burbank in regards to an A Cappella, Gospel, Jazz vocal group, signed to the country music division of WB!
That should tell you a lot about him, as well as how the music business at that time was about MUSIC.
He was from a bygone era and will be truly missed!
Claude Mcknight
___________________________________
I remember when Phil Walden moved Capricorn distribution from Atlantic to Warner because Mo and Joe gave him a joint venture partnership as opposed to a straight distribution deal. As close as Phil was to Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler he just couldn't refuse the deal and Capricorn had their greatest sales and profits at Warner. The entire Warner team was top of the line at that time.
Willie Perkins
___________________________________
Loved reading Tony's story. Remember it well. I met Mo when I was very young man. My father was friendly with him, had worked with Sinatra and they played golf at El Cabellero CC in Tarzana occasionally. I remember him telling me about Jimi Hendrix and Alice Cooper and I almost fainted. I didn't know people signed people. He was so humble even then. Later on when we were managing Devo I got to work with Mo, Lenny, and the whole team. It was a dream come true. We were in the studio once and Lenny came to hear some tracks and he told them they were being too conservative. Can you imagine that? He said it sounds like you're trying to have a hit. Don't do that. Just do what you love. That's how Warner Bros. was in those days. Frankly when I worked at the film studio it was a similar vibe. When I signed Scritti Politti with Elliott Roberts we had huge offers for their American deal. But Mo wanted them and frankly I don't even remember negotiating. We just made a deal. I had lunch with him and Eric Eisner one day and we were talking about my then very young kids and Mo said as far as school is concerned there's Harvard Westlake and then there's everybody else and believe me all three of my kids graduated from Harvard Westlake. He was the final word on so many things. And such a great dad and man. Michael is a testament to what great values the Ostins represented. And you could write books about Evelyn. She was the gold standard.
Bill Gerber
___________________________________
In early 1999 I was a "wet behind the ears" Toronto-based music lawyer doing one of my first major deals with Mo Ostin at Dreamworks. After the signing ceremony Mo and the team had reservations for lunch at a restaurant in Beverly Hills. Mo and Robbie Robertson invited me to drive back to the office in Robbie's new BMW. Robbie wanted to show me how the audio worked in his new car. I was freaking out!! What would I ask them? How would I keep up in a conversation with these 2 legends? What could I possibly add to the discussion? Would they just ignore more me and talk amongst themselves?
No. Both Robbie and Mo were genuinely curious about my music history. My music history??? What band was I in? What was the music like? How many people were in the band? Where did we tour? WTF??
They spent the whole drive drilling me about my old group and putting me at ease. It's a method I've employed ever since when I meet a nervous young artist or manager.
Over time I was able to ask Mo a bunch of questions.
A mensch, a guiding light, a true gentleman that impacted so many.
Chris Taylor
___________________________________
Hi Bob, Thanks for the great write-up on Mo. I was lucky enough to be on Warner Bros Records Nashville staff during some of that magic. I met Mo a few times. You could tell in the first two sentences: 1. He was very very smart. 2. He was a good, honorable person. In all the time I was there, I don't think I ever heard one bad thing said about Mo from anyone..
You're so right. If only we had more Mo Ostins.
Reprise is pronounced like "leeds" BTW
Danny Kee
___________________________________
Hi Bob,
Greetings from the other side of the Big Pond. I worked as Head of A&R for Warner Reprise (alongside brother labels Elektra/Asylum and Atlantic) in South Africa for close to 21 years. Every year I would fly to the US to visit the labels and catch up on new music, news etc. My favourite was Warner Reprise at 3300 Warner Boulevard. It was there that I met Mo, and many other legendary record men like Russ, Lenny, Stan and my boss, the late Tom Ruffino. Every time I met Mo he would remember that I was from South Africa and would say something like "Hey you`re doing a great job for us down there" and I, this country bumpkin from Africa, would beam with pride because I truly felt like family. He even congratulated me for releasing an obscure album by Jerry Williams, we were probably the only territory to do so. And the same is true of all the WBR people who worked there in the Seventies thru Nineties. I was taken to gigs, introduced to loads of new and exciting music. Mo made all of this possible because of who he was and how he related to staff & artists. There will never be another Mo, they broke the mould, I`m proud to have worked for him and WBR.
Benjy Mudie
Warner Reprise, South Africa
1976-1997
___________________________________
Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker.
I remember meeting Mo and Lenny in 1988 in Burbank.
My label Rhythm King had just had the first computerised hit records in the UK with Bomb the Bass and S express at No 1 and Seymour Stein bought me in to meet them.
We spent two hours taking music, Mo was interested in this new computer music form and Lenny wanted to talk about song structures.
Seymour was pacing around outside, worried as usual!
The next day Mo took me to the lakers game. He had a permanent seat right next to the goal on the court.
He was famous on TV as the guy who threw the ball back into play.
Neither of these men were corporate.
They were people persons. Music people.
Curious and open.
They took an interest and bet on people.
And built one of the greatest labels on earth.
Martin Heath.
___________________________________
I absolutely love this! Thank you for writing it!
I was blessed to know Mo. I moved to LA in the 80's and was close to his son Randy. I spent many weekends at their Malibu beach home and Mo would be in the TV room glued to the basketball game.
One day the door bell rang and in walked George Harrison and Ringo.
George ended up staying the weekend and couldn't have been more genuine and kind. There was never a shortage of people popping in and it was always interesting.
I remember telling him early on, how lucky he was to have been born when he was. He truly was the kindest man and you were spot on when you said, "Maybe because he worried about careers more than sales." That was Mo!
Today he is in heaven with his loved ones and Michael is the last one standing. It must be hard for him.
Thank you again for writing this
Melissa
___________________________________
I was working for a not to be named major record label and was in New York for the post Grammy party ( you know the big extravaganzas labels used to throw)
The party was divided by the artists and the few top brass executives - while everybody else stood behind the velvet ropes. An artist friend called me and told me to bail and come to the Warner Bros party- and when I did there was Mo Ostin - the label President who was just hanging with all the artists and the regular folks- no velvet rope in sight. When I introduced myself to Mo he gave me a huge warm hug and talked to me about my dad - who he knew and loved because they were frat brothers in college. I remember several superstars waiting to talk to him but he was fully connected to me and didn't do the typical brush off. This is why Mo was so loved. He was kind and he was real.
Tracy Gershon
___________________________________
The Chairman has left the building….
Jed Weitzman
--
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Melissa Etheridge-This Week's Podcast
Melissa Etheridge is open, honest and forthcoming, nothing is off limits. We discuss her music, her relationships, her upbringing, her sexuality, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, the Oscars... It's like talking with a friend!
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/melissa-etheridge-100487742/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/melissa-etheridge/id1316200737?i=1000574984329
https://open.spotify.com/episode/22jRC2AzMULmUwIjK7P21m?si=f6I8IuSmTiWO6XRXvH7oVg
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/b2391d50-7211-4bb4-ab3e-ed4ca08ae617/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-melissa-etheridge
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/melissa-etheridge-205503143
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/melissa-etheridge-100487742/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/melissa-etheridge/id1316200737?i=1000574984329
https://open.spotify.com/episode/22jRC2AzMULmUwIjK7P21m?si=f6I8IuSmTiWO6XRXvH7oVg
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/b2391d50-7211-4bb4-ab3e-ed4ca08ae617/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-melissa-etheridge
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/melissa-etheridge-205503143
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Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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Wednesday 3 August 2022
Suite For 20 G
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3PZXBTF
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3SonL4g
1
But I'm listening on Qobuz.
That's what I've been doing since Monday, all day, just listening, scouring the virtual stacks to see what is in Hi-Res. There's no rhyme or reason what oldies are in Hi-Res or not. Some catalogues have been completely upgraded, others have not. And in truth, the regular CD quality stuff sounds pretty good, but the Hi-Res stuff...there's not an adjective in the dictionary!
You see this is what we used to do. Sit in front of the stereo and do nothing else but listen. That was more than enough. We parted the scrim of the speakers and got inside the music where we could not be reached. And if it was too loud for others, we put on the headphones. You see if you paid attention, there were certain things in the record that you could not catch on a casual listen, but if you knew the cut and had a good enough stereo, there would be so much to be found. Like "I'm very cold" at the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever" on "Magical Mystery Tour." It wasn't until nearly two years later that it was claimed that Paul McCartney was dead and this buried snippet confirmed it, saying "I buried Paul."
Not that we told everybody about these discoveries. They were private, just for us, not casual fans. We were the ones who blew up the concert industry, because we had to see these acts. It was the next step, it was a communal experience. There were seats, the music was respected, if you stood at all it was only for the encores. And it wasn't about who you went with, but just you and the act and the music, a transcendent connection. The record was preparation for the ultimate live experience. All this comes back as I listen to Hi-Res on Qobuz.
The first James Taylor album was gifted to me by my sister for my 17th birthday, she said it was big at B.U. That same week I bought "Sweet Baby James," which had only come out in February, but I always preferred the Apple debut, whose production hasn't aged well, but was magic back then.
It all started with "Carolina in My Mind." At least on the second side. The original version is different from the now famous slowed-down take which has replaced it in the public consciousness, the one that's included in the first "Greatest Hits" album. It's sunny and upbeat. Like James is remembering a sunny day and good times. Whereas the slowed-down version is reflective. Like he's looking back, over years and distance, it's a memory, but the original is palpably now.
"Carolina In My Mind" was my favorite at first, I played it every day when I woke up, that's what I used to do in high school, it was a ritual, it demonstrated that there was a world for me, even if the one I was actually living in didn't understand me.
My second favorite was the original "Something in the Way She Moves," which is also much faster, as if he's in the throes of the feelings as opposed to thinking back. From when James was a nobody as opposed to an international star when he recut it.
My third favorite was the traditional "Circle Round the Sun," I'm a fool for the slow majesty of cuts like this, I'm conducting a virtual orchestra in my brain, totally in the moment, believing there's a world, girls, who understand me, can see inside to who I really am.
"Sweet Baby James" has a completely different feel.
2
There was a time when almost nobody knew of James Taylor. When he was in the marketplace but only the cognoscenti were aware of him. Ubiquity came in the fall of 1970, when "Fire and Rain" dominated the airwaves. Whereas before this the song stuck out for me because of the mention of "Jesus," when this was very rare.
The first song on "Sweet Baby James" that I loved so much was on the first side, "Country Road."
Funny how I live in the city today, actually a giant suburb, that's what L.A. is, but my heart is still in the country. Then again, the country is no longer so removed, what with Amazon and the internet. You used to be off the grid. Where people went in the seventies, licking their wounds from the sixties.
There's a rhythm in "Country Road," an emphasis, and then it amps up. It's got more edge than "Fire and Rain." James is exhorting, he's not restrained whatsoever, he can feel it on a country road. Which he keeps traveling down..."walk on down, walk on down, walk on down, walk on down, walk on down a country road." I learned to play this on the guitar, back when that was something we all did, before everybody used online tools to make beats. And we'd get together and trade songs and sing, it was part of experience, like singing around the piano before the age of recorded music, back in 1970 music was not portable.
And in truth I love "Sweet Baby James" because of this verse:
"Now the first of December was covered with snow
So was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston
Though the Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frostin'
With ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go"
I know all of it. The first of December, when winter really starts to begin. And the Mass Pike, which had a unique toll system, you got a card when you got on and paid at a man in a booth when you got off, whereas on the Connecticut Turnpike they had toll booths along the way. And if you had exact change, you threw it in the bucket.
As for the Berkshires... They're hills, except for Mt. Greylock, but they're higher than those in northwest Connecticut. The Berkshires are far from New York City, you can't commute from there, it's its own state of mind, even though cultured New Yorkers park there in the summer.
As for the slog of the highway, it's a metaphor for life. Then sometimes you reach the distant destination and are flummoxed as to where to go next.
Beyond these three tracks I've got to single out "Anywhere Like Heaven" in the middle of the second side.
And I went to see James Taylor twice in a matter of weeks, just days after my birthday in Boston and then in Port Chester. But one song James never played was "Suite for 20 G." What was that about?
3
It was actually two songs. A suite. But why these two? And why was it 20 G?
I didn't learn the story until I became friends with Peter Asher, who produced the album. Truth is they wanted to finish the album to get the twenty grand due on delivery, but they were a song short, so they combined these two and thus, "Suite for 20 G."
Not that anybody talks about it.
The track starts to gain power after the initial "chorus" about "Mary Jane."
"I've been trying hard to find a way to let you know
That we can make it shine most all the time
This time 'round I'm searching down to where I used to go
And it's been on my mind to make it shine"
This is just a bit more intimate, to the heart. The lyrics are relatively unencumbered by the instrumentation. In the lingo of the era, this is when the song starts to get "heavy." And I'm listening to the cut on Qobuz today and suddenly I hear Carole King. Subtly, but clearly!
I mean I've always heard the female backup vocal. And if you'd asked me who I thought it was, I'd have said Carole, but in Hi-Res her vocal sound, the timbre, stands out. And she's not belting, she's just dipping her toe in the background, it's so magical.
But the standout part of the track, which features Carole too, is the link, the segue between the two songs.
"You can say I wanna be free
I can say some day I will be"
And then there's an instrumental interlude employing the melody of what came before and then...
There's a repeat.
"You can say I wanna be free
I can say some day I will be"
And then the track changes completely, it's a different song with horns, and it's good, but not as good as that segue, that's the key to the track. It resonates with sweetness in a way nobody does today.
There is meaning. That's what we wanted to be, free. Back before the right co-opted that word. But we were talking about a different kind of free, we mostly wanted to be free in the mind. To explore, to be our best selves. We were reaching for something, we weren't quite sure what it was, but that didn't mean we stopped our yearning, our journey.
But wait, there's more!
4
Now actually I heard this first on Amazon Music Ultra HD.
I didn't realize James was doubling his vocal. But it's clear as day when you do critical listening in Hi-Res. You can't miss it, there's a James in each channel. On the car speaker, on a mediocre music reproduction system, it sounds like just one James. But with critical listening in Hi-Res, which I can do with Qobuz, my DragonFly Cobalt and Genelec speakers, not only can I hear it, I gain insight into the recording process, I can see the studio. That's what we wanted to know, how the acts recorded this music, the thought process, the tricks.
The truth is tracks are built in the studio. It sounds like one big amalgamated unit on the radio, but you start from scratch, with the songs, production ideas. You experiment, you risk, you keep some things and lose others. Sometimes a detour will deliver a full blown change.
And in truth there are tricks. And people are constantly coming up with new ones. Doubling is new, then it's de rigueur. The envelope was constantly being pushed back in this era, tape machines had more tracks, there was outboard gear, you got new sounds, and they enhanced the records.
I've been trying to find a way to let you know that we can make it shine most all the time. That the magic is still there. Listening to these cuts this way makes me realize many more of them will survive than I thought. It's because of not only the talent, but the effort. Nobody was just going through the motions, everybody was on their own hejira, searching for excellence. The acts didn't sound the same, and that's one of the things we liked about the scene.
And the music was enough, the penumbra was just that. There weren't even t-shirts for a long time. The acts were artists. They didn't want to do anything to compromise their artistry, their vision. They hewed to their own tuning fork. They were unconstrained. And to be a fan and to be able to go on the ride...it was better than anything at Disneyland, or social media. Because these tracks contained the essence of humanity, and truth and direction, if you paid attention there was so much there!
But the business stopped respecting the music. And then the audience did the same. Music is the accompaniment, not the essence. Musicians became brands. And I'm not saying that you can't do it just as well employing the new tools, but the players don't. Money comes first, everybody complains, when in truth only a select few every made big bucks in the music business, and most people couldn't record at all.
And there have been all these shows documenting the process. But they never illustrate it accurately. It starts with a beginning off the radar, years of woodshedding, working with different players, honing your material. And then if you're lucky you gain notice. The industry is just the patina, laid atop what the artist comes into the studio with.
But you need engineers and producers to put it all together and levitate it. But old school producers are rare, those who didn't work the board, but produced with their minds, on what they heard. Because the artists fear being told what to do, and an engineer can do both for less money.
But something is lost in the process.
Listen to all the James Taylor records, different producers created different records. Just when it looked like JT was lost, Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman resuscitated him, to the point where he was as big as ever, if not bigger.
But this is all to say when I hear Carole King singing in "Suite for 20 G" I not only feel connected to what once was, I connect to myself.
And when "Suite for 20 G" is opened up I can join in, mentally, I may not be able to impact the process, but I'm definitely a fly on the wall, exposed to the inner workings. I'm free! WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3SonL4g
1
But I'm listening on Qobuz.
That's what I've been doing since Monday, all day, just listening, scouring the virtual stacks to see what is in Hi-Res. There's no rhyme or reason what oldies are in Hi-Res or not. Some catalogues have been completely upgraded, others have not. And in truth, the regular CD quality stuff sounds pretty good, but the Hi-Res stuff...there's not an adjective in the dictionary!
You see this is what we used to do. Sit in front of the stereo and do nothing else but listen. That was more than enough. We parted the scrim of the speakers and got inside the music where we could not be reached. And if it was too loud for others, we put on the headphones. You see if you paid attention, there were certain things in the record that you could not catch on a casual listen, but if you knew the cut and had a good enough stereo, there would be so much to be found. Like "I'm very cold" at the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever" on "Magical Mystery Tour." It wasn't until nearly two years later that it was claimed that Paul McCartney was dead and this buried snippet confirmed it, saying "I buried Paul."
Not that we told everybody about these discoveries. They were private, just for us, not casual fans. We were the ones who blew up the concert industry, because we had to see these acts. It was the next step, it was a communal experience. There were seats, the music was respected, if you stood at all it was only for the encores. And it wasn't about who you went with, but just you and the act and the music, a transcendent connection. The record was preparation for the ultimate live experience. All this comes back as I listen to Hi-Res on Qobuz.
The first James Taylor album was gifted to me by my sister for my 17th birthday, she said it was big at B.U. That same week I bought "Sweet Baby James," which had only come out in February, but I always preferred the Apple debut, whose production hasn't aged well, but was magic back then.
It all started with "Carolina in My Mind." At least on the second side. The original version is different from the now famous slowed-down take which has replaced it in the public consciousness, the one that's included in the first "Greatest Hits" album. It's sunny and upbeat. Like James is remembering a sunny day and good times. Whereas the slowed-down version is reflective. Like he's looking back, over years and distance, it's a memory, but the original is palpably now.
"Carolina In My Mind" was my favorite at first, I played it every day when I woke up, that's what I used to do in high school, it was a ritual, it demonstrated that there was a world for me, even if the one I was actually living in didn't understand me.
My second favorite was the original "Something in the Way She Moves," which is also much faster, as if he's in the throes of the feelings as opposed to thinking back. From when James was a nobody as opposed to an international star when he recut it.
My third favorite was the traditional "Circle Round the Sun," I'm a fool for the slow majesty of cuts like this, I'm conducting a virtual orchestra in my brain, totally in the moment, believing there's a world, girls, who understand me, can see inside to who I really am.
"Sweet Baby James" has a completely different feel.
2
There was a time when almost nobody knew of James Taylor. When he was in the marketplace but only the cognoscenti were aware of him. Ubiquity came in the fall of 1970, when "Fire and Rain" dominated the airwaves. Whereas before this the song stuck out for me because of the mention of "Jesus," when this was very rare.
The first song on "Sweet Baby James" that I loved so much was on the first side, "Country Road."
Funny how I live in the city today, actually a giant suburb, that's what L.A. is, but my heart is still in the country. Then again, the country is no longer so removed, what with Amazon and the internet. You used to be off the grid. Where people went in the seventies, licking their wounds from the sixties.
There's a rhythm in "Country Road," an emphasis, and then it amps up. It's got more edge than "Fire and Rain." James is exhorting, he's not restrained whatsoever, he can feel it on a country road. Which he keeps traveling down..."walk on down, walk on down, walk on down, walk on down, walk on down a country road." I learned to play this on the guitar, back when that was something we all did, before everybody used online tools to make beats. And we'd get together and trade songs and sing, it was part of experience, like singing around the piano before the age of recorded music, back in 1970 music was not portable.
And in truth I love "Sweet Baby James" because of this verse:
"Now the first of December was covered with snow
So was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston
Though the Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frostin'
With ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go"
I know all of it. The first of December, when winter really starts to begin. And the Mass Pike, which had a unique toll system, you got a card when you got on and paid at a man in a booth when you got off, whereas on the Connecticut Turnpike they had toll booths along the way. And if you had exact change, you threw it in the bucket.
As for the Berkshires... They're hills, except for Mt. Greylock, but they're higher than those in northwest Connecticut. The Berkshires are far from New York City, you can't commute from there, it's its own state of mind, even though cultured New Yorkers park there in the summer.
As for the slog of the highway, it's a metaphor for life. Then sometimes you reach the distant destination and are flummoxed as to where to go next.
Beyond these three tracks I've got to single out "Anywhere Like Heaven" in the middle of the second side.
And I went to see James Taylor twice in a matter of weeks, just days after my birthday in Boston and then in Port Chester. But one song James never played was "Suite for 20 G." What was that about?
3
It was actually two songs. A suite. But why these two? And why was it 20 G?
I didn't learn the story until I became friends with Peter Asher, who produced the album. Truth is they wanted to finish the album to get the twenty grand due on delivery, but they were a song short, so they combined these two and thus, "Suite for 20 G."
Not that anybody talks about it.
The track starts to gain power after the initial "chorus" about "Mary Jane."
"I've been trying hard to find a way to let you know
That we can make it shine most all the time
This time 'round I'm searching down to where I used to go
And it's been on my mind to make it shine"
This is just a bit more intimate, to the heart. The lyrics are relatively unencumbered by the instrumentation. In the lingo of the era, this is when the song starts to get "heavy." And I'm listening to the cut on Qobuz today and suddenly I hear Carole King. Subtly, but clearly!
I mean I've always heard the female backup vocal. And if you'd asked me who I thought it was, I'd have said Carole, but in Hi-Res her vocal sound, the timbre, stands out. And she's not belting, she's just dipping her toe in the background, it's so magical.
But the standout part of the track, which features Carole too, is the link, the segue between the two songs.
"You can say I wanna be free
I can say some day I will be"
And then there's an instrumental interlude employing the melody of what came before and then...
There's a repeat.
"You can say I wanna be free
I can say some day I will be"
And then the track changes completely, it's a different song with horns, and it's good, but not as good as that segue, that's the key to the track. It resonates with sweetness in a way nobody does today.
There is meaning. That's what we wanted to be, free. Back before the right co-opted that word. But we were talking about a different kind of free, we mostly wanted to be free in the mind. To explore, to be our best selves. We were reaching for something, we weren't quite sure what it was, but that didn't mean we stopped our yearning, our journey.
But wait, there's more!
4
Now actually I heard this first on Amazon Music Ultra HD.
I didn't realize James was doubling his vocal. But it's clear as day when you do critical listening in Hi-Res. You can't miss it, there's a James in each channel. On the car speaker, on a mediocre music reproduction system, it sounds like just one James. But with critical listening in Hi-Res, which I can do with Qobuz, my DragonFly Cobalt and Genelec speakers, not only can I hear it, I gain insight into the recording process, I can see the studio. That's what we wanted to know, how the acts recorded this music, the thought process, the tricks.
The truth is tracks are built in the studio. It sounds like one big amalgamated unit on the radio, but you start from scratch, with the songs, production ideas. You experiment, you risk, you keep some things and lose others. Sometimes a detour will deliver a full blown change.
And in truth there are tricks. And people are constantly coming up with new ones. Doubling is new, then it's de rigueur. The envelope was constantly being pushed back in this era, tape machines had more tracks, there was outboard gear, you got new sounds, and they enhanced the records.
I've been trying to find a way to let you know that we can make it shine most all the time. That the magic is still there. Listening to these cuts this way makes me realize many more of them will survive than I thought. It's because of not only the talent, but the effort. Nobody was just going through the motions, everybody was on their own hejira, searching for excellence. The acts didn't sound the same, and that's one of the things we liked about the scene.
And the music was enough, the penumbra was just that. There weren't even t-shirts for a long time. The acts were artists. They didn't want to do anything to compromise their artistry, their vision. They hewed to their own tuning fork. They were unconstrained. And to be a fan and to be able to go on the ride...it was better than anything at Disneyland, or social media. Because these tracks contained the essence of humanity, and truth and direction, if you paid attention there was so much there!
But the business stopped respecting the music. And then the audience did the same. Music is the accompaniment, not the essence. Musicians became brands. And I'm not saying that you can't do it just as well employing the new tools, but the players don't. Money comes first, everybody complains, when in truth only a select few every made big bucks in the music business, and most people couldn't record at all.
And there have been all these shows documenting the process. But they never illustrate it accurately. It starts with a beginning off the radar, years of woodshedding, working with different players, honing your material. And then if you're lucky you gain notice. The industry is just the patina, laid atop what the artist comes into the studio with.
But you need engineers and producers to put it all together and levitate it. But old school producers are rare, those who didn't work the board, but produced with their minds, on what they heard. Because the artists fear being told what to do, and an engineer can do both for less money.
But something is lost in the process.
Listen to all the James Taylor records, different producers created different records. Just when it looked like JT was lost, Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman resuscitated him, to the point where he was as big as ever, if not bigger.
But this is all to say when I hear Carole King singing in "Suite for 20 G" I not only feel connected to what once was, I connect to myself.
And when "Suite for 20 G" is opened up I can join in, mentally, I may not be able to impact the process, but I'm definitely a fly on the wall, exposed to the inner workings. I'm free! WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
Mo Ostin
I didn't know Mo well, but I was intimately involved with his work.
That was the difference between Mo and his competitors, he was not self-aggrandizing. He was a family man, akin to your father, but he ran the best label operation on the planet, FOR DECADES!
You've got to understand, it all began with the Beatles. In 1964. They were on Capitol, as were the Beach Boys. And we noted that the soundtrack to "A Hard Day's Night" came out on United Artists. Yes, we were intimately involved with label monikers, the days of the indie manufacturer of 45s was history, it was now all about albums on majors.
Especially after 1967's "Sgt. Pepper." That's when the rest of the world caught the shift. That not only did rock and roll rule, it was more than music, it was a statement, it was not only an exponent of the youth movement, it was its spiritual guide, its leader!
And starting in '68, underground FM started to permeate the country. And some of its biggest hits crossed over to AM, like "Sunshine of Your Love," but not "Purple Haze," some tracks were just too dangerous for the mainstream population, you had to seek them out, but when you found them you were a member of the tribe, hipper than the rest of the land.
And most of those records were on Warner/Reprise.
I first noticed the Reprise label on Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant." Sure, other acts featured it, like the Kinks, but "Alice's Restaurant" was a breakthrough. A guy who didn't look like a rock star cutting a song unsuitable for AM radio in both content and length who broke through anyway. This was a revolution. It was believed that radio was king, the only way to truly break a record, but this was now history. As for the label, did you pronounce "Reprise" like in "Leeds" or "Pie"? Who knows!
But as left field as "Alice's Restaurant" was, Peter, Paul & Mary with their late sixties youth group staple that ultimately crossed over to radio, "Leaving on a Jet Plane," were on the label too. And the Association as well. But by the end of the sixties the transition was complete. It was all rock, except for Frank Sinatra, who we ultimately learned started Reprise, with Mo Ostin as its head.
Just like we ultimately learned that John Denver wrote "Leaving on a Jet Plane." There was a dearth of information in the sixties, and we hoovered up every scrap. We memorized the album covers without realizing it, we just looked at them so many times. We needed to get closer to the music. It was unlike today. Television was moribund, the boob tube. Movies were expensive and always a bit behind the times. But music? Music was up to date, and Warner/Reprise was the operation pushing the envelope. The Mo and Joe show.
Yes Joe Smith was different from Mo Ostin. A Jewish Yalie with a background in radio Joe was the toastmaster at the conventions that no longer exist in the internet era, he signed the Grateful Dead, and he wanted you to know it. Joe had a personality larger than life, he was glad-handing and insulting you simultaneously, but it was all in good fun. But as the years wore on Joe was upset that all the credit went to Mo, and he'd tell you so.
But in reality it was a team effort. A family. It was a vortex. You moved your way up the label food chain, back when execs used to switch labels faster than today's sports stars, and if you were good and lucky you ended up at Warner Brothers, and never left.
And the whole operation was run by this relative cipher, Mo Ostin.
You'd see his picture in the trades, "Billboard" was godhead back then, and there were "Cash Box" and "Record World" too, the business was flourishing to the point where it could support three trades, and you'd see Mo in trade photos sporting his Vandyke beard. Smiling. But to the public he was two dimensional, all you could see was his visage, and the label empire he created.
And once everybody's initial recording contract ran out, they'd end up on Warner Brothers. They would be presented as superstars even though they had little cultural penetration. Like Van Morrison. Hell, the Shadows of Knight had the hit with "Gloria" in the U.S., Them were barely known. But when Van started releasing records on Warner Brothers...it was presented like the arrival of the second coming.
And by this time there was too much music to all be featured on FM radio. These records were spread by word of mouth, blurbs in the nascent rock press and...
The Warner/Reprise inner sleeves.
The Beatles gained control of the inner sleeve with "Sgt. Pepper." That was a huge step. Before that the label owned that real estate, it used it to promote the other records on the label. You were truly powerful if you could create the artwork on the inner sleeve, which too often featured tiny photos of albums you weren't interested in, from the pre-Beatle era, stuff that never hit, but the Warner/Reprise inner sleeve?
It listed all the acts. You compared them, to see which acts had been added, which ones had been dropped.
And then there were the Loss Leaders, two record sampler albums sold mail order for two bucks. And they were always worth it. They contained a few hits, a bunch never to make it, and undiscovered gems that turned you on to the act.
Like Beaver & Krause. An electronic duo whose album I had to buy after hearing a track on a Loss Leader. And Little Feat. And Tower of Power. And...
It was a club. And if you bought the albums, you were a member.
And the team, they became famous too. Stan Cornyn, the head of creative services, a job that didn't even exist at other labels. There was an irreverence, a feature of the sixties that's been forgotten, and wasn't employed by the other label operations. CBS said "The man can't bust our music." and we laughed, how could they be this out of touch?
This was when credibility was key. We needed to believe in you.
And we believed in Warner/Reprise.
If it was on Warner/Reprise...
It was worth checking out.
Until the nineties when Mo and Lenny exited the building, the box from Warner Brothers got the most attention. Every album contained inside may not be great, but you knew there was a reason the act was signed and the album was made. Nothing was done on a whim. Nothing was thrown against the wall.
And then Bob Morgado, today completely forgotten, blew a hole in the Warner Music Group after Doug Morris got in his ear and undercut the west coast operation, three hours behind the time.
The dream was to get to Los Angeles. New Yorkers thought they were superior, still do, but it was all happening in laid back L.A., where there were billboards for records on Sunset, numerous local record chains, it was palpable, you could feel it! And the main driver was Warner/Reprise in Burbank.
Now that's all gone.
After Mo left the building, the company started throwing records against the wall. They'd sign an act, put out one album and then drop them. There was no investment, no commitment.
And the nineties brought hip-hop and indie rock, and the twenty first century brought Napster and the iPod and then Spotify.
And now it's 2022.
Most youngsters have no idea who Mo Ostin was or what he built, even though the work produced during his tenure still survives. Maybe because he worried about careers more than sales. That was the rap, Warner Brothers would stop selling singles, let your album go fallow, allow you to follow up with a new album, whereas at CBS they wrung every last sale out of your LP, to the point where people were sick and tired of you at the end and you were starting behind the 8-ball on the next album.
Today major labels release fewer albums. Marketing is king. If it won't sell, they aren't interested. As for corporate image? There is none.
Universal is a great operation, but Lucian Grainge's greatest achievement is taking the operation public and making triple digit millions for himself.
Not that Mo didn't make bank. This was as a result of the hands-off, coddling philosophy of Steve Ross. There were corporate jets, corporate houses in far-off locations like Aspen and Acapulco and Steve didn't meddle with you and handsomely compensated you, why would you leave?
But the dirty little secret was the record operation was the most profitable. It built the Warner Cable system. One can argue that Mo deserved every penny. And unlike other labels, acts weren't constantly bitching they were screwed.
And then there was Prince.
Mo and Lenny discussed it with me at lunch at Peppone. It was a business issue. They just couldn't make any money with an endless stream of albums with huge advances.
In retrospect, Prince was ahead of the game.
Because the old game died.
Mo and Lenny started over at DreamWorks, but it could never work, the paradigm had shifted. You couldn't invest tons of money in relatively niche acts and expect them to sustain and earn back. But even worse, DreamWorks had no catalog, which sustains the major labels to this day.
So it was over. Not only for Mo, but for the entire business.
Twenty years ago, people used to talk about artist development, my inbox is no longer inundated with that term. Today, artist development is considered taking an act from zero to one hundred, from nowhere to arenas, on one album. Whereas you got five LPs to make it on Warner/Reprise, and some still did not connect.
One of my favorite acts ever, Wendy Waldman, did five albums on Reprise.
Bonnie Raitt was ultimately dropped after more than a decade of investment, with little in return. But when Joe Smith moved over to Capitol he struck gold.
As for Ry Cooder and Randy Newman... If they'd been on other labels...they never would have been signed to begin with! Cooder's "Into the Purple Valley" is one of my favorite albums, who else would allow an act to cut decades-old Dust Bowl songs that sounded nothing like the music of today?
I could go through the catalog, cite chapter and verse, but ultimately, I don't have to, because all of those acts survive in the public consciousness, that's how great their work was.
And Mo Ostin's spearheading, championing of that work, meant everything, without it the landscape would look completely different, a great number of these bedrock acts would be unknown.
But it's a different business today. No one leaves any money on the table. Selling out is a feature. Credibility is not even considered. The execs are unknown, and nobody other than insiders care who they are, after all what are they doing? Putting out records. Whereas Mo was impacting and changing the culture!
Music was the Silicon Valley of its day.
But unlike Elon Musk, Mo Ostin was not a buffoon.
But you've got to be over fifty to even know any of this. Sure, there have been some good albums released in the past three decades, but music no longer attracts the best and the brightest, it no longer has the same cultural impact, it's no longer as innovative, it's akin to what it was before the Beatles broke.
That's right, we've come full circle.
If you're a baby boomer, you lived through the Renaissance. The original one, back in Italy centuries ago...they've painted and sculpted since, but visual art doesn't dominate the way it did back then. Same thing with music. And Mo may not have been Raphael or Michelangelo, but he was Neil Young and the rest of Warner/Reprise's Medici. He controlled the purse strings. And sure, he wanted to make money, but that was not the sole concern. He wanted to facilitate the artists, he didn't want to meddle with their work. He wanted to make their lives easier so they could create.
He was not a prince. After all, he was a businessman.
But in a street business, where a college degree arguably was a detriment, Mo was honest and forthright, a mensch, when they were hard to come by. And this amalgam of traits and behaviors, the warmth, the trust, the investment, the family atmosphere, sustained the greatest label operation in the history of recorded music.
And that's why we're talking about Mo now.
And he would have liked this.
But even more he liked his recorded legacy, the work of the Warner/Reprise artists.
And hanging with his grandkids. During that break between Warner/Reprise and DreamWorks he got to spend more time with them. He told me how rewarding it was.
But either you already know all of the above or you don't.
History may forget Mo Ostin, but we never will.
He was our North Star, our guiding light. As long as Mo was in charge things were going to be all right. You could go to sleep knowing things were handled.
Those days are through.
If only we had more Mo Ostins...
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That was the difference between Mo and his competitors, he was not self-aggrandizing. He was a family man, akin to your father, but he ran the best label operation on the planet, FOR DECADES!
You've got to understand, it all began with the Beatles. In 1964. They were on Capitol, as were the Beach Boys. And we noted that the soundtrack to "A Hard Day's Night" came out on United Artists. Yes, we were intimately involved with label monikers, the days of the indie manufacturer of 45s was history, it was now all about albums on majors.
Especially after 1967's "Sgt. Pepper." That's when the rest of the world caught the shift. That not only did rock and roll rule, it was more than music, it was a statement, it was not only an exponent of the youth movement, it was its spiritual guide, its leader!
And starting in '68, underground FM started to permeate the country. And some of its biggest hits crossed over to AM, like "Sunshine of Your Love," but not "Purple Haze," some tracks were just too dangerous for the mainstream population, you had to seek them out, but when you found them you were a member of the tribe, hipper than the rest of the land.
And most of those records were on Warner/Reprise.
I first noticed the Reprise label on Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant." Sure, other acts featured it, like the Kinks, but "Alice's Restaurant" was a breakthrough. A guy who didn't look like a rock star cutting a song unsuitable for AM radio in both content and length who broke through anyway. This was a revolution. It was believed that radio was king, the only way to truly break a record, but this was now history. As for the label, did you pronounce "Reprise" like in "Leeds" or "Pie"? Who knows!
But as left field as "Alice's Restaurant" was, Peter, Paul & Mary with their late sixties youth group staple that ultimately crossed over to radio, "Leaving on a Jet Plane," were on the label too. And the Association as well. But by the end of the sixties the transition was complete. It was all rock, except for Frank Sinatra, who we ultimately learned started Reprise, with Mo Ostin as its head.
Just like we ultimately learned that John Denver wrote "Leaving on a Jet Plane." There was a dearth of information in the sixties, and we hoovered up every scrap. We memorized the album covers without realizing it, we just looked at them so many times. We needed to get closer to the music. It was unlike today. Television was moribund, the boob tube. Movies were expensive and always a bit behind the times. But music? Music was up to date, and Warner/Reprise was the operation pushing the envelope. The Mo and Joe show.
Yes Joe Smith was different from Mo Ostin. A Jewish Yalie with a background in radio Joe was the toastmaster at the conventions that no longer exist in the internet era, he signed the Grateful Dead, and he wanted you to know it. Joe had a personality larger than life, he was glad-handing and insulting you simultaneously, but it was all in good fun. But as the years wore on Joe was upset that all the credit went to Mo, and he'd tell you so.
But in reality it was a team effort. A family. It was a vortex. You moved your way up the label food chain, back when execs used to switch labels faster than today's sports stars, and if you were good and lucky you ended up at Warner Brothers, and never left.
And the whole operation was run by this relative cipher, Mo Ostin.
You'd see his picture in the trades, "Billboard" was godhead back then, and there were "Cash Box" and "Record World" too, the business was flourishing to the point where it could support three trades, and you'd see Mo in trade photos sporting his Vandyke beard. Smiling. But to the public he was two dimensional, all you could see was his visage, and the label empire he created.
And once everybody's initial recording contract ran out, they'd end up on Warner Brothers. They would be presented as superstars even though they had little cultural penetration. Like Van Morrison. Hell, the Shadows of Knight had the hit with "Gloria" in the U.S., Them were barely known. But when Van started releasing records on Warner Brothers...it was presented like the arrival of the second coming.
And by this time there was too much music to all be featured on FM radio. These records were spread by word of mouth, blurbs in the nascent rock press and...
The Warner/Reprise inner sleeves.
The Beatles gained control of the inner sleeve with "Sgt. Pepper." That was a huge step. Before that the label owned that real estate, it used it to promote the other records on the label. You were truly powerful if you could create the artwork on the inner sleeve, which too often featured tiny photos of albums you weren't interested in, from the pre-Beatle era, stuff that never hit, but the Warner/Reprise inner sleeve?
It listed all the acts. You compared them, to see which acts had been added, which ones had been dropped.
And then there were the Loss Leaders, two record sampler albums sold mail order for two bucks. And they were always worth it. They contained a few hits, a bunch never to make it, and undiscovered gems that turned you on to the act.
Like Beaver & Krause. An electronic duo whose album I had to buy after hearing a track on a Loss Leader. And Little Feat. And Tower of Power. And...
It was a club. And if you bought the albums, you were a member.
And the team, they became famous too. Stan Cornyn, the head of creative services, a job that didn't even exist at other labels. There was an irreverence, a feature of the sixties that's been forgotten, and wasn't employed by the other label operations. CBS said "The man can't bust our music." and we laughed, how could they be this out of touch?
This was when credibility was key. We needed to believe in you.
And we believed in Warner/Reprise.
If it was on Warner/Reprise...
It was worth checking out.
Until the nineties when Mo and Lenny exited the building, the box from Warner Brothers got the most attention. Every album contained inside may not be great, but you knew there was a reason the act was signed and the album was made. Nothing was done on a whim. Nothing was thrown against the wall.
And then Bob Morgado, today completely forgotten, blew a hole in the Warner Music Group after Doug Morris got in his ear and undercut the west coast operation, three hours behind the time.
The dream was to get to Los Angeles. New Yorkers thought they were superior, still do, but it was all happening in laid back L.A., where there were billboards for records on Sunset, numerous local record chains, it was palpable, you could feel it! And the main driver was Warner/Reprise in Burbank.
Now that's all gone.
After Mo left the building, the company started throwing records against the wall. They'd sign an act, put out one album and then drop them. There was no investment, no commitment.
And the nineties brought hip-hop and indie rock, and the twenty first century brought Napster and the iPod and then Spotify.
And now it's 2022.
Most youngsters have no idea who Mo Ostin was or what he built, even though the work produced during his tenure still survives. Maybe because he worried about careers more than sales. That was the rap, Warner Brothers would stop selling singles, let your album go fallow, allow you to follow up with a new album, whereas at CBS they wrung every last sale out of your LP, to the point where people were sick and tired of you at the end and you were starting behind the 8-ball on the next album.
Today major labels release fewer albums. Marketing is king. If it won't sell, they aren't interested. As for corporate image? There is none.
Universal is a great operation, but Lucian Grainge's greatest achievement is taking the operation public and making triple digit millions for himself.
Not that Mo didn't make bank. This was as a result of the hands-off, coddling philosophy of Steve Ross. There were corporate jets, corporate houses in far-off locations like Aspen and Acapulco and Steve didn't meddle with you and handsomely compensated you, why would you leave?
But the dirty little secret was the record operation was the most profitable. It built the Warner Cable system. One can argue that Mo deserved every penny. And unlike other labels, acts weren't constantly bitching they were screwed.
And then there was Prince.
Mo and Lenny discussed it with me at lunch at Peppone. It was a business issue. They just couldn't make any money with an endless stream of albums with huge advances.
In retrospect, Prince was ahead of the game.
Because the old game died.
Mo and Lenny started over at DreamWorks, but it could never work, the paradigm had shifted. You couldn't invest tons of money in relatively niche acts and expect them to sustain and earn back. But even worse, DreamWorks had no catalog, which sustains the major labels to this day.
So it was over. Not only for Mo, but for the entire business.
Twenty years ago, people used to talk about artist development, my inbox is no longer inundated with that term. Today, artist development is considered taking an act from zero to one hundred, from nowhere to arenas, on one album. Whereas you got five LPs to make it on Warner/Reprise, and some still did not connect.
One of my favorite acts ever, Wendy Waldman, did five albums on Reprise.
Bonnie Raitt was ultimately dropped after more than a decade of investment, with little in return. But when Joe Smith moved over to Capitol he struck gold.
As for Ry Cooder and Randy Newman... If they'd been on other labels...they never would have been signed to begin with! Cooder's "Into the Purple Valley" is one of my favorite albums, who else would allow an act to cut decades-old Dust Bowl songs that sounded nothing like the music of today?
I could go through the catalog, cite chapter and verse, but ultimately, I don't have to, because all of those acts survive in the public consciousness, that's how great their work was.
And Mo Ostin's spearheading, championing of that work, meant everything, without it the landscape would look completely different, a great number of these bedrock acts would be unknown.
But it's a different business today. No one leaves any money on the table. Selling out is a feature. Credibility is not even considered. The execs are unknown, and nobody other than insiders care who they are, after all what are they doing? Putting out records. Whereas Mo was impacting and changing the culture!
Music was the Silicon Valley of its day.
But unlike Elon Musk, Mo Ostin was not a buffoon.
But you've got to be over fifty to even know any of this. Sure, there have been some good albums released in the past three decades, but music no longer attracts the best and the brightest, it no longer has the same cultural impact, it's no longer as innovative, it's akin to what it was before the Beatles broke.
That's right, we've come full circle.
If you're a baby boomer, you lived through the Renaissance. The original one, back in Italy centuries ago...they've painted and sculpted since, but visual art doesn't dominate the way it did back then. Same thing with music. And Mo may not have been Raphael or Michelangelo, but he was Neil Young and the rest of Warner/Reprise's Medici. He controlled the purse strings. And sure, he wanted to make money, but that was not the sole concern. He wanted to facilitate the artists, he didn't want to meddle with their work. He wanted to make their lives easier so they could create.
He was not a prince. After all, he was a businessman.
But in a street business, where a college degree arguably was a detriment, Mo was honest and forthright, a mensch, when they were hard to come by. And this amalgam of traits and behaviors, the warmth, the trust, the investment, the family atmosphere, sustained the greatest label operation in the history of recorded music.
And that's why we're talking about Mo now.
And he would have liked this.
But even more he liked his recorded legacy, the work of the Warner/Reprise artists.
And hanging with his grandkids. During that break between Warner/Reprise and DreamWorks he got to spend more time with them. He told me how rewarding it was.
But either you already know all of the above or you don't.
History may forget Mo Ostin, but we never will.
He was our North Star, our guiding light. As long as Mo was in charge things were going to be all right. You could go to sleep knowing things were handled.
Those days are through.
If only we had more Mo Ostins...
--
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--
Listen to the podcast:
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-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Tuesday 2 August 2022
Re-Mo Ostin
Mo Ostin was a giant amongst giants! When I played Tom Petty's solo album, Full Moon Fever, to upper management at Tom's then label MCA they, "didn't hear a single!" Tom and I were devastated. When Tom's fellow Travelling Wilbury, George Harrison, played it to Mo Ostin he offered to make a deal there and then for Tom for whenever his deal with MCA was up. Tom wanted to do this even though he had two more albums to deliver under his deal with MCA. Mo said, "I will sign Tom for whenever his deal with MCA is up!" We made a deal, and no one knew anything about it as Tom still had a commitment to MCA. Then the Wilburys and Full Moon Fever albums were released, and both were huge! The deal with Warner Brothers didn't look so great anymore. I went to see Mo and started to explain my conundrum. He stopped me in mid-speech and said, "Tony, just tell me what you want?" I was taken aback but suggested I go check out what he is worth. I went to several other companies and told them Tom was available and taking offers. I got the offers and Mo matched the highest one. Tom was determined to give Mo a great album and that turned out to be Wildflowers! Everybody won! That was Mo!
Tony Dimitriades
Tony Dimitriades
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Vinyl-This Week On SiriusXM
Tune in today, August 2nd, to Volume 106, 6 PM East, 3 PM West.
(Reminder: Starting today Lefsetz Live will be broadcast an hour earlier.)
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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(Reminder: Starting today Lefsetz Live will be broadcast an hour earlier.)
Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive
Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive
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Monday 1 August 2022
Qobuz
1
It is better. But it is subtle. But wasn't the goal to get closer to the music in the seventies? If you want to get closer to the music you want Qobuz. But you've got to have the equipment to reproduce the sound.
Audio split back in the nineties. The main market became all-in-ones, not much better than boom boxes. And there was a small market that went upscale, way upscale. Suddenly a stereo system didn't cost a few thousand dollars, but tens of thousands of dollars. And if you wanted to replicate the experience of the seventies and you actually found a retailer with equipment in this price range they were reluctant to sell it to you, because most audio had become multi-channel, as in home theatre systems, did you really want stereo?
This is what the salesman asked me when my Sansui burned up and I went to replace it with an NAD. He kept reinforcing that it was only two channel. Which is exactly what I wanted. And it was far from cheap, $795 sans a turntable amp, which was $150, which I ultimately laid down for a week later.
That Sansui, the AU11000, is worth a fortune now. It served me well, now I wonder if I should have tried to fix it. I bought it because of its fat sound smoothing out the bright JBL L100s and it worked quite well. It too was an integrated amplifier, with 110 watts a channel when most people were only buying ten or twenty, maybe thirty, and I never heard distortion, but this NAD had better specs, could play much louder, but today it's worth a fraction of the Sansui.
Actually, I purchased my stereo in stages. Because I didn't want to sacrifice. After I heard the JBLs and my friend Tony had gotten a discount they were suddenly in my price range. I got them for $470, when list was $666, at Pacific Stereo, when discounts were near impossible. And I wanted this Sony receiver that had a hundred watts a channel, but I was convinced that it wouldn't sound good with the JBLs, and everybody tried to sell me Luxman, but to get as much power as I wanted...it was way out of my price range. And I refused to spend less to get a system that sounded clean at low volume but distorted when I cranked it, ergo the Sansui.
And I continued to use my Dual 1218 turntable for about a week before I realized it was substandard and went to buy a Technics SL1300, the top of the direct drive line, it was fully automatic, as in the tonearm would drop and retract itself, whereas the vaunted SL1200 was the same turntable, but fully manual.
As for the cartridge?
This was just when exotic was breaking. But I didn't have the bucks for a $1000 cartridge. I figured I'd get the top of the line Shure, the V15 Type III I think it was, which you could get for just shy of two hundred bucks, but the same people who told me not to buy the Sony told me the Shure would be too bright, so I bought a Stanton 681EEE. And that system...SOUNDED FANTASTIC! I didn't know anybody who had one as good. And it was my respite during the inanity, i.e. the boredom and less than Middlebury quality students, of law school. I could hear certain things that made me feel all warm inside, like Mick Fleetwood's bass drum when "Gold Dust Woman" goes from the vocal section to the instrumental. As for dropping the needle on "Hotel California" and "Hejira"? That was a religious experience.
But that experience died.
After the stereo reduction of the nineties, the cheap systems, came the MP3. Which inherently didn't sound that good, albeit much better than the naysayers claimed. And portability was key, first with the Rio and then the iPod. Pushing the limits of sound was not a feature, portability was.
And concomitantly the music itself changed. We had the loudness wars, with mastering engineers making the tracks as hot as possible to sound loud on radio and then the overemphasis on bass, ergo the Beats headphones, and we got so far from the garden that no one could see the flowers.
And now we've got hi-res audio.
2
Vinyl is a fetish. You may be following the MoFi story. What everybody believed was an all analog chain turned out to have a digital step. You could only produce so many records via a stamper created from the master tape, and not only was it expensive to go back to the master, the master experienced wear, so...
Digital.
It got a bad name in the eighties, when labels just put LP EQ'ed music on CDs. It was too bright. Over time more quality was extracted from the system, but the die was cast, perception was digital sucked.
But the dirty little secret was that tape was disappearing, all albums were cut digitally. And to produce a vinyl album from a digital master... Why? Isn't the digital original the best source? Of course! But vinyl has been cut from these digitally-recorded albums and kids all over the world are buying them, utterly ridiculous, especially when you consider that vinyl has inherent flaws of distortion. Note, I'm not talking about vinyl cut from analog tapes, vinyl records of the pre-digital era, the sixties and seventies. That's a different story. But acts haven't been cutting analog for decades, at least most of them.
Meanwhile, most fans are completely happy with MP3s or their relative equivalents, like AAC. But the musicians kept bitching that the sound wasn't good enough, it wasn't what they heard in the studio, but in truth they rarely went to the big studios anymore, it was too expensive, records were cut at home, in the box, and the big budgets disappeared with the advent of Napster and one can argue how good today's records actually sound. But one thing is for sure, most people listen to them at a lower quality level. Via their computers, their portable devices via earbuds. And even if you have a good pair of cans, most people don't have the amplifier in the chain to extract quality sound.
And then Apple and Amazon went hi-res. Big news, not much effect. Because most people just don't care. If they did, they'd already gotten Deezer or the Norwegian WiMP, which eventually became Tidal. Turned out most people just didn't care about sound quality, still don't.
And in truth you still need to pay for the ultimate sound, not as much as the tweaks, but you still have to invest, in an era when $100 is too much for computer speakers.
But something was lost in the messaging in the transition to higher resolutions at Apple and Amazon, they were proffering BETTER THAN CD audio. Not on all tracks, but a significant number. So if you were willing to invest, you heard music better than previously available, there was now more headroom, more clarity, but most people don't even understand this, never mind care.
3
"Blood on the Tracks" was Dylan's big comeback.
Actually, it started the year before, with "Planet Waves," which got huge buzz as a result of the involvement of David Geffen. People bought it on the hype, on the rep, and then it stopped selling completely. And even though in later years "Forever Young" became a classic, helped by Howard Cosell's quotation of it regarding Muhammad Ali, "Planet Waves" was not an auspicious comeback.
But the 1974 tour with the Band was. Which yielded the double live album "Before the Flood," which most people probably haven't listened to in decades, but certainly put the focus back on Bob. Still, no one was expecting "Blood on the Tracks."
And history would be completely different if Bob didn't discard the original tapes and recut the LP with his old Minnesota buddies, relative nobodies. It's about catching lightning in a bottle, and Dylan did. And has never reached this peak since. Then again, Dylan has had multiple peaks.
After "Blood on the Tracks" came "Desire," which was, desired that is, after the ubiquity of "Blood on the Tracks," and it was good, but it couldn't top "Blood on the Tracks," nothing could.
And then came "Street-Legal," a disappointment, and Dylan went Christian and released "Slow Train Coming."
The track everybody heard was "Gotta Serve Somebody," and it was good, but many were turned off by this religious turn, to their detriment, "Slow Train Coming" is one of the absolute best Bob Dylan albums. It's very simple, Barry Beckett and Mark Knopfler.
Beckett was one of the Swampers. Insiders knew his genius, most outsiders did not. Becket didn't overplay, his work was subtle, but so in the pocket, so right, it's the apotheosis, listening to Beckett play will make you a believer in music, there's religion in what he extracts from the keys.
As for Knopfler... Dire Straits was big, but this was before 1985's "Brother in Arms." Actually, it was before "Making Movies." This was after the second Dire Straits album, "Communiqué," which was nowhere near as commercially successful as the debut with "Sultans of Swing," but the musical community knew. Knopfler was special, something different from the bluesmeisters of the sixties.
Start with "When You Gonna Wake Up" and "Man Gave Names to All the Animals," but play all of "Slow Train Coming," it's got a warmth absent from other Dylan albums, but it's still edgy.
But the follow-up, "Saved," was barely listenable, and then it's follow-up, "Shot of Love," was even worse. How did Dylan lose the formula?
Dylan wanted to get back to where he once belonged, so he recruited Knopfler, absent from "Saved" and "Shot of Love," and recorded "Infidels," which not only was a return to form, it even got MTV play. The two tracks that everybody knows are "Jokerman" and "Neighborhood Bully," but my favorite, the absolute killer, is "I and I."
4
"Been so long since a strange woman has slept in my bed
Look how sweet she sleeps, how free must be her dreams"
Dylan is not in your face, he's telling a story. And the story is integral to the track, but what brings it together, what injects magic, is the guitars of Mark Knopfler and Mick Taylor. Then again, let's not forget Sly and Robbie, on drums and bass, adding that island feel, as well as the unheralded Alan Clark on keyboards. "I and I" sounds like a jam in the studio, as in cut for those in attendance, not the audience. It sounds personal. And listening you go on a journey, a trip, to the Middle East, you're removed from today's world but ultimately placed right in the center of it.
"Think I'll go out and go for a walk
Not much happenin' here, nothin' ever does
Besides, if she wakes up now, she'll just want me to talk
I got nothin' to say, 'specially about whatever was"
He doesn't want to talk! Dylan never does, even though he's got so much to say, i.e. the Musicares speech of a few years back. Bob's observing, and he's letting us into his vision.
And the wisdom of Dylan's sixties words is still extant:
"Took an untrodden path once, where the swift don't win the race
It goes to the worthy, who can divide the word of truth.
So what we've got with "I and I" is a minor masterpiece, one in which the music and the song, the melody and the lyrics, all fuse together to create a feeling you cannot get anywhere else but music. "I and I" penetrates you, you may be cooking dinner, you may be driving, but it's not background music, you're nodding your head involuntarily, the groove is just that precious.
5
Now the great thing about Qobuz is the app tells you exactly what resolution you're hearing the audio in, something which Apple and Amazon do not.
And in truth, not every cut is hi-res, a good bunch are CD quality. And I'm surfing through the tracks, comparing quality, and then my brain says..."I and I." It's one of my test tracks.
Like Supertramp's "Bloody Well Right," from "Crime of the Century." If only today's kids listened to "Crime of the Century" instead of trying to build apps or trading crypto our culture would be much improved. "Crime of the Century" is about alienation, the negatives of school and society, back when artists were the other, and that was enough before money became paramount. And even though "Breakfast in America" with its slew of radio hits is the most famous Supertramp album, "Crime of the Century" is the best, by far.
And the reason I mention it is because "Bloody Well Right" is the cut I used to demo audio equipment. I'd bought an FM tuner a year after my other stereo components. A top of the line Yamaha. What is that worth in today's digital age? Well, it's got a nice wooden cabinet. And in 1979, I wanted to buy a tape deck. Everybody said cassettes made on Nakamichis sounded great on Nakamichis, but not so good on other tape decks. This ultimately turned out to be true. It was between a thousand dollar Aiwa or the top of the line Nakamichi, the 582, at $795. I wanted to buy the Aiwa, but when we made tapes of "Bloody Well Right" on both devices at Federated, it was clear, the Nakamichi was superior, it rendered the sound just a bit cleaner, anybody could hear it.
Like with "I and I" on Qobuz as opposed to Apple and Amazon.
Really, I was starting to wonder if there was a difference, and if said difference was really a matter of volume, which will play tricks with your ears. I had no intention of writing, but then...
I pulled up "I and I" on Qobuz.
And that initial Mark Knopfler guitar, it was richer, it was warmer, it was a listening experience I knew but had been long gone.
And Qobuz says "I and I" is playing in "Hi-Res 24-Bit 96kHz." And for the uninformed, CD quality is 16 bit 44.1 kHz.
Are you getting this, I'm listening to "I and I" in better audio quality than ever previously available. Better than all the CDs ever produced, never mind MP3s.
But was this sound really better than what was available on Amazon and Apple.
I went to Amazon. Where the track was listed as being in Ultra HD.
And to be honest, it sounded damn good, close, but...
I kept going back and forth, it was clear, on Qobuz I was just a little closer to the music, I couldn't only hear the sounds, I could see the players.
And it wasn't only Knopfler.
I kept comparing his guitar intro on the three platforms.
But then I let the track play on Qobuz. WHEW! Dylan was no longer a sound, he was a person, you could hear the air around him, he was positively human, listening to him on Qobuz was more insightful than reading a slew of reviews. Because Bob Dylan is an actual person, a human being, flesh and blood, just like you and me, and if the audio quality is good enough, you can hear this, he's not above us, but amongst us.
That's the power of music. That's the power of high quality audio. It's the same as it ever was, as you get closer the rewards increase. But we've been moving away for decades! Hell, people don't even make records the same way anymore. They're not full spectrum, they're made for impact, and that doesn't always square with quality listening.
Now let's be clear, to hear this quality you need an external DAC. Otherwise it's literally impossible, the platforms can tell, call it the magic of computers. But you can get a reasonable external DAC for a hundred bucks.
And, once again, I'm listening via the Dragonfly Cobalt, which is a much bigger difference than any streaming platform, the Dragonfly turbocharges the sound, cleans and broadens it, it's a revelation.
Assuming you have the system that allows you to hear it.
That could be great headphones via your smartphone, but in truth most people don't have headphones of this quality, then again, even hundred dollar headphones can oftentimes illustrate the difference, show you the potential.
Or a great system at home. Whether it be a big rig stereo, which few still possess, if they ever did, or expensive computer speakers, which almost no one has.
But it's not out of reach. Sure, Qobuz is a few dollars more than Apple and Amazon, but not by much. And you're in a walled garden away from your friends, but...
In truth listening is not a social experience, but a personal one. You may be able to share a meal, but you can't share your ears.
"Took a stranger to teach me, to look into justice's beautiful face"
This stranger is telling you I can hear Dylan reach, I can hear his guttural vocalizations, I am closer to the music than ever before.
And that's exactly where I want to be.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
It is better. But it is subtle. But wasn't the goal to get closer to the music in the seventies? If you want to get closer to the music you want Qobuz. But you've got to have the equipment to reproduce the sound.
Audio split back in the nineties. The main market became all-in-ones, not much better than boom boxes. And there was a small market that went upscale, way upscale. Suddenly a stereo system didn't cost a few thousand dollars, but tens of thousands of dollars. And if you wanted to replicate the experience of the seventies and you actually found a retailer with equipment in this price range they were reluctant to sell it to you, because most audio had become multi-channel, as in home theatre systems, did you really want stereo?
This is what the salesman asked me when my Sansui burned up and I went to replace it with an NAD. He kept reinforcing that it was only two channel. Which is exactly what I wanted. And it was far from cheap, $795 sans a turntable amp, which was $150, which I ultimately laid down for a week later.
That Sansui, the AU11000, is worth a fortune now. It served me well, now I wonder if I should have tried to fix it. I bought it because of its fat sound smoothing out the bright JBL L100s and it worked quite well. It too was an integrated amplifier, with 110 watts a channel when most people were only buying ten or twenty, maybe thirty, and I never heard distortion, but this NAD had better specs, could play much louder, but today it's worth a fraction of the Sansui.
Actually, I purchased my stereo in stages. Because I didn't want to sacrifice. After I heard the JBLs and my friend Tony had gotten a discount they were suddenly in my price range. I got them for $470, when list was $666, at Pacific Stereo, when discounts were near impossible. And I wanted this Sony receiver that had a hundred watts a channel, but I was convinced that it wouldn't sound good with the JBLs, and everybody tried to sell me Luxman, but to get as much power as I wanted...it was way out of my price range. And I refused to spend less to get a system that sounded clean at low volume but distorted when I cranked it, ergo the Sansui.
And I continued to use my Dual 1218 turntable for about a week before I realized it was substandard and went to buy a Technics SL1300, the top of the direct drive line, it was fully automatic, as in the tonearm would drop and retract itself, whereas the vaunted SL1200 was the same turntable, but fully manual.
As for the cartridge?
This was just when exotic was breaking. But I didn't have the bucks for a $1000 cartridge. I figured I'd get the top of the line Shure, the V15 Type III I think it was, which you could get for just shy of two hundred bucks, but the same people who told me not to buy the Sony told me the Shure would be too bright, so I bought a Stanton 681EEE. And that system...SOUNDED FANTASTIC! I didn't know anybody who had one as good. And it was my respite during the inanity, i.e. the boredom and less than Middlebury quality students, of law school. I could hear certain things that made me feel all warm inside, like Mick Fleetwood's bass drum when "Gold Dust Woman" goes from the vocal section to the instrumental. As for dropping the needle on "Hotel California" and "Hejira"? That was a religious experience.
But that experience died.
After the stereo reduction of the nineties, the cheap systems, came the MP3. Which inherently didn't sound that good, albeit much better than the naysayers claimed. And portability was key, first with the Rio and then the iPod. Pushing the limits of sound was not a feature, portability was.
And concomitantly the music itself changed. We had the loudness wars, with mastering engineers making the tracks as hot as possible to sound loud on radio and then the overemphasis on bass, ergo the Beats headphones, and we got so far from the garden that no one could see the flowers.
And now we've got hi-res audio.
2
Vinyl is a fetish. You may be following the MoFi story. What everybody believed was an all analog chain turned out to have a digital step. You could only produce so many records via a stamper created from the master tape, and not only was it expensive to go back to the master, the master experienced wear, so...
Digital.
It got a bad name in the eighties, when labels just put LP EQ'ed music on CDs. It was too bright. Over time more quality was extracted from the system, but the die was cast, perception was digital sucked.
But the dirty little secret was that tape was disappearing, all albums were cut digitally. And to produce a vinyl album from a digital master... Why? Isn't the digital original the best source? Of course! But vinyl has been cut from these digitally-recorded albums and kids all over the world are buying them, utterly ridiculous, especially when you consider that vinyl has inherent flaws of distortion. Note, I'm not talking about vinyl cut from analog tapes, vinyl records of the pre-digital era, the sixties and seventies. That's a different story. But acts haven't been cutting analog for decades, at least most of them.
Meanwhile, most fans are completely happy with MP3s or their relative equivalents, like AAC. But the musicians kept bitching that the sound wasn't good enough, it wasn't what they heard in the studio, but in truth they rarely went to the big studios anymore, it was too expensive, records were cut at home, in the box, and the big budgets disappeared with the advent of Napster and one can argue how good today's records actually sound. But one thing is for sure, most people listen to them at a lower quality level. Via their computers, their portable devices via earbuds. And even if you have a good pair of cans, most people don't have the amplifier in the chain to extract quality sound.
And then Apple and Amazon went hi-res. Big news, not much effect. Because most people just don't care. If they did, they'd already gotten Deezer or the Norwegian WiMP, which eventually became Tidal. Turned out most people just didn't care about sound quality, still don't.
And in truth you still need to pay for the ultimate sound, not as much as the tweaks, but you still have to invest, in an era when $100 is too much for computer speakers.
But something was lost in the messaging in the transition to higher resolutions at Apple and Amazon, they were proffering BETTER THAN CD audio. Not on all tracks, but a significant number. So if you were willing to invest, you heard music better than previously available, there was now more headroom, more clarity, but most people don't even understand this, never mind care.
3
"Blood on the Tracks" was Dylan's big comeback.
Actually, it started the year before, with "Planet Waves," which got huge buzz as a result of the involvement of David Geffen. People bought it on the hype, on the rep, and then it stopped selling completely. And even though in later years "Forever Young" became a classic, helped by Howard Cosell's quotation of it regarding Muhammad Ali, "Planet Waves" was not an auspicious comeback.
But the 1974 tour with the Band was. Which yielded the double live album "Before the Flood," which most people probably haven't listened to in decades, but certainly put the focus back on Bob. Still, no one was expecting "Blood on the Tracks."
And history would be completely different if Bob didn't discard the original tapes and recut the LP with his old Minnesota buddies, relative nobodies. It's about catching lightning in a bottle, and Dylan did. And has never reached this peak since. Then again, Dylan has had multiple peaks.
After "Blood on the Tracks" came "Desire," which was, desired that is, after the ubiquity of "Blood on the Tracks," and it was good, but it couldn't top "Blood on the Tracks," nothing could.
And then came "Street-Legal," a disappointment, and Dylan went Christian and released "Slow Train Coming."
The track everybody heard was "Gotta Serve Somebody," and it was good, but many were turned off by this religious turn, to their detriment, "Slow Train Coming" is one of the absolute best Bob Dylan albums. It's very simple, Barry Beckett and Mark Knopfler.
Beckett was one of the Swampers. Insiders knew his genius, most outsiders did not. Becket didn't overplay, his work was subtle, but so in the pocket, so right, it's the apotheosis, listening to Beckett play will make you a believer in music, there's religion in what he extracts from the keys.
As for Knopfler... Dire Straits was big, but this was before 1985's "Brother in Arms." Actually, it was before "Making Movies." This was after the second Dire Straits album, "Communiqué," which was nowhere near as commercially successful as the debut with "Sultans of Swing," but the musical community knew. Knopfler was special, something different from the bluesmeisters of the sixties.
Start with "When You Gonna Wake Up" and "Man Gave Names to All the Animals," but play all of "Slow Train Coming," it's got a warmth absent from other Dylan albums, but it's still edgy.
But the follow-up, "Saved," was barely listenable, and then it's follow-up, "Shot of Love," was even worse. How did Dylan lose the formula?
Dylan wanted to get back to where he once belonged, so he recruited Knopfler, absent from "Saved" and "Shot of Love," and recorded "Infidels," which not only was a return to form, it even got MTV play. The two tracks that everybody knows are "Jokerman" and "Neighborhood Bully," but my favorite, the absolute killer, is "I and I."
4
"Been so long since a strange woman has slept in my bed
Look how sweet she sleeps, how free must be her dreams"
Dylan is not in your face, he's telling a story. And the story is integral to the track, but what brings it together, what injects magic, is the guitars of Mark Knopfler and Mick Taylor. Then again, let's not forget Sly and Robbie, on drums and bass, adding that island feel, as well as the unheralded Alan Clark on keyboards. "I and I" sounds like a jam in the studio, as in cut for those in attendance, not the audience. It sounds personal. And listening you go on a journey, a trip, to the Middle East, you're removed from today's world but ultimately placed right in the center of it.
"Think I'll go out and go for a walk
Not much happenin' here, nothin' ever does
Besides, if she wakes up now, she'll just want me to talk
I got nothin' to say, 'specially about whatever was"
He doesn't want to talk! Dylan never does, even though he's got so much to say, i.e. the Musicares speech of a few years back. Bob's observing, and he's letting us into his vision.
And the wisdom of Dylan's sixties words is still extant:
"Took an untrodden path once, where the swift don't win the race
It goes to the worthy, who can divide the word of truth.
So what we've got with "I and I" is a minor masterpiece, one in which the music and the song, the melody and the lyrics, all fuse together to create a feeling you cannot get anywhere else but music. "I and I" penetrates you, you may be cooking dinner, you may be driving, but it's not background music, you're nodding your head involuntarily, the groove is just that precious.
5
Now the great thing about Qobuz is the app tells you exactly what resolution you're hearing the audio in, something which Apple and Amazon do not.
And in truth, not every cut is hi-res, a good bunch are CD quality. And I'm surfing through the tracks, comparing quality, and then my brain says..."I and I." It's one of my test tracks.
Like Supertramp's "Bloody Well Right," from "Crime of the Century." If only today's kids listened to "Crime of the Century" instead of trying to build apps or trading crypto our culture would be much improved. "Crime of the Century" is about alienation, the negatives of school and society, back when artists were the other, and that was enough before money became paramount. And even though "Breakfast in America" with its slew of radio hits is the most famous Supertramp album, "Crime of the Century" is the best, by far.
And the reason I mention it is because "Bloody Well Right" is the cut I used to demo audio equipment. I'd bought an FM tuner a year after my other stereo components. A top of the line Yamaha. What is that worth in today's digital age? Well, it's got a nice wooden cabinet. And in 1979, I wanted to buy a tape deck. Everybody said cassettes made on Nakamichis sounded great on Nakamichis, but not so good on other tape decks. This ultimately turned out to be true. It was between a thousand dollar Aiwa or the top of the line Nakamichi, the 582, at $795. I wanted to buy the Aiwa, but when we made tapes of "Bloody Well Right" on both devices at Federated, it was clear, the Nakamichi was superior, it rendered the sound just a bit cleaner, anybody could hear it.
Like with "I and I" on Qobuz as opposed to Apple and Amazon.
Really, I was starting to wonder if there was a difference, and if said difference was really a matter of volume, which will play tricks with your ears. I had no intention of writing, but then...
I pulled up "I and I" on Qobuz.
And that initial Mark Knopfler guitar, it was richer, it was warmer, it was a listening experience I knew but had been long gone.
And Qobuz says "I and I" is playing in "Hi-Res 24-Bit 96kHz." And for the uninformed, CD quality is 16 bit 44.1 kHz.
Are you getting this, I'm listening to "I and I" in better audio quality than ever previously available. Better than all the CDs ever produced, never mind MP3s.
But was this sound really better than what was available on Amazon and Apple.
I went to Amazon. Where the track was listed as being in Ultra HD.
And to be honest, it sounded damn good, close, but...
I kept going back and forth, it was clear, on Qobuz I was just a little closer to the music, I couldn't only hear the sounds, I could see the players.
And it wasn't only Knopfler.
I kept comparing his guitar intro on the three platforms.
But then I let the track play on Qobuz. WHEW! Dylan was no longer a sound, he was a person, you could hear the air around him, he was positively human, listening to him on Qobuz was more insightful than reading a slew of reviews. Because Bob Dylan is an actual person, a human being, flesh and blood, just like you and me, and if the audio quality is good enough, you can hear this, he's not above us, but amongst us.
That's the power of music. That's the power of high quality audio. It's the same as it ever was, as you get closer the rewards increase. But we've been moving away for decades! Hell, people don't even make records the same way anymore. They're not full spectrum, they're made for impact, and that doesn't always square with quality listening.
Now let's be clear, to hear this quality you need an external DAC. Otherwise it's literally impossible, the platforms can tell, call it the magic of computers. But you can get a reasonable external DAC for a hundred bucks.
And, once again, I'm listening via the Dragonfly Cobalt, which is a much bigger difference than any streaming platform, the Dragonfly turbocharges the sound, cleans and broadens it, it's a revelation.
Assuming you have the system that allows you to hear it.
That could be great headphones via your smartphone, but in truth most people don't have headphones of this quality, then again, even hundred dollar headphones can oftentimes illustrate the difference, show you the potential.
Or a great system at home. Whether it be a big rig stereo, which few still possess, if they ever did, or expensive computer speakers, which almost no one has.
But it's not out of reach. Sure, Qobuz is a few dollars more than Apple and Amazon, but not by much. And you're in a walled garden away from your friends, but...
In truth listening is not a social experience, but a personal one. You may be able to share a meal, but you can't share your ears.
"Took a stranger to teach me, to look into justice's beautiful face"
This stranger is telling you I can hear Dylan reach, I can hear his guttural vocalizations, I am closer to the music than ever before.
And that's exactly where I want to be.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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