The goals have changed, and you need to change accordingly.
Used to be Johnny Carson was a god. Forget that he's already been forgotten, at best a distant memory in the minds of boomers and Gen-X'ers, but David Letterman is fading too. Don't expect Netflix to continue to lay out the big bucks for his services, that paradigm is dead. The streaming outlets made gargantuan deals to draw attention, to give them status, they no longer need it, the companies are mature, they now live or die based on original hits. "Stranger Things" means much more to Netflix than David Letterman, just like "Ted Lasso" means much more to Apple TV+ than Oprah Winfrey, whom the Cupertino service just parted ways with.
Used to be hosting a late night TV show was the dream. Didn't work so well for Conan O'Brien. He's trying to reinvent himself as a podcaster, but in truth he's been hobbled by late night TV, his talents could have been better employed elsewhere, he would have been better off pushing the envelope all by his lonesome than under the constriction of sitting behind a late night desk.
As for Jay Leno... He was on Bill Maher's new podcast, where Bill frequently doesn't let the guest speak, and Jay said he was at a friend's house and this buddy told his fourteen year old son that Jay used to host "The Tonight Show" before Jimmy Fallon and the kid didn't believe it.
So, if you're a late night host, you get to be the face of the network. But that network is bleeding viewers. The only thing that's no longer on demand is sports, and natural disasters. Otherwise, you watch it when you want to, and usually you don't.
Then there's the power of TikTok. It's killing Facebook. Prognosticators are saying the social media giant is going to circle the drain. You can't find one person who believes in their metaverse play other than Mark Zuckerberg, who didn't come up with the idea for Facebook anyway, originality is not his forte. He just buys or competes. But now Instagram is cratering. There's not enough there there, you keep seeing the same stuff over and over again. All the creators have gone to TikTok.
The appeal of TikTok is humanity. We are social people. We always want to know what other people are up to, we dream of interacting with them. And TikTok is far different from Instagram, what came before. Not being static, it's hard to fake. It's the most real social medium. And it's the new haven of comedy.
For a while there it was Twitter, before everyone realized most people are not even on Twitter, they can't comprehend it, how to use it, the service has a stink upon it, even though it's vital for those addicted to the news, which is just about everybody these days.
Comedy didn't work on Instagram, it moves, unlike the pictures of celebrities and other boasters.
But on TikTok... Like comedy, and the algorithm will serve up more. While Facebook was focusing on serving advertisers, TikTok was focused on users, delivering what they wanted. And they do! Sure, there's a China problem, which needs to be addressed, but as a user, TikTok is the heartbeat of America, even though everyone is watching something different.
This is the problem that the mainstream continues to fail to acknowledge. We no longer live in a monoculture. Mass is a fantasy. Everything is niche. You can get the story everywhere online and still people are unaware of it. Come on, admit it, shows played in your hometown that you were unaware of, that you might have gone to, this never happened before.
So the old verticals, the old desires, just don't mean that much anymore.
Sitcoms. Forget that they don't make many. "Seinfeld" made every standup salivate for a show. But even if you get a show now, almost no one will see it. And today it's not about casual fans, but dedicated fans. Casual fans may have the money, but they don't have the time. There's so much stuff I'm interested in, but there's a limited amount I'll do a deep dive on, that I'll pay for.
So you don't want to have a sitcom.
And now Trevor Noah says he doesn't want a late night television show. It's hindering his progress. Not only is it limiting his lifestyle, he'd like to travel more, see more, not be tied down with so much work, and he'd also like to explore his standup more. You may do a monologue on TV, but others write those jokes. But if you go on the road, interact with a live audience, you can hone a new act, you can feel more alive.
And it's not only TV personalities, it's music ones too.
Used to be the goal was to have a hit. There's nothing wrong with achieving one today, even though it reaches many fewer people, but it's not the anchor of a career it once was. That's road work. You cement the relationship on the road. And as far as getting new fans, it's the old fans who bring them. You just feed the diehards, not only live, but online. They can't get enough of you. Don't bother casting a wide net trying to entice newbies, it can't be done, not at a significant level.
You can have a track in the Spotify Top 50, the Spotify Top 10, and you'll get hosannas from the label, even a bit of mainstream ink, but that does not mean you can sell any tickets, that you'll have a continuing stream of income. Because you've got no diehard fans! You've got to be around longer than that, you need a body of work.
As for being on the road... You can't do it alone. First, you need a good team, a good manager and agent, and then you have to work with other acts, trade favors. That's where hip-hop has it right, but now even that genre is fading:
"Hip-Hop Is the Hottest Music of the Streaming Era. Is It Now Cooling Down? - A dearth of new breakout rap stars and innovation in the genre has some music executives concerned about a slowdown": https://on.wsj.com/3Rtq1p2
It's so easy to play these days, but harder than ever to win. Not only are you competing with every other act, you're competing with streaming music, video games AND the history of recorded music. Good luck! If you're in it to get rich quick, stay out, go into tech.
We're going through a wrenching transition. And it's really about the death of the baby boomer paradigms. Who cares what the top ten is in any genre? Music, movies, TV... It's all about what you want to see, and there are very few people whose recommendations you trust.
Just like Firesign Theatre said, everything you know is wrong. And if you're not willing to re-evaluate... Being stuck in the past is a recipe for a quick death. It's fine if you want to silo yourself off, take yourself out of the discussion, but if you want to play, comment intelligently, not only do you have to read the mainstream publications, you've got to surf the news all over, informing your own opinions. Be wary of blind spots. And if you're watching TV news, you're already behind.
Just like there are people who keep saying that electric cars aren't the future. In June 2021, Mercedes-Benz said it was going all electric by 2039. Now it's by 2030: https://on.wsj.com/3rn1TtL And Toyota is being castigated for being behind. Every other traditional manufacturer is on a sprint to electric, not only because of Tesla, but because of the Chinese! Used to be innovation came from the States, but that's before we decided to go to war with ourselves and stop progress. God, the influx of immigrant technologists? Whose jobs were they taking? Now they've gone to Canada, stayed home in India... People in Silicon Valley know all this, but D.C. is behind the game, and the public is grossly misinformed.
So ask yourself if the target you're shooting for still applies, or whether it's an anachronism. Talk to people who are true digital natives, the ones born after the internet took hold, like the college students who are now born in the twenty first century. Sure, they might have a vinyl fetish, but not at the cost of a streaming music subscription. And they don't have TV sets, never mind cable subscriptions.
It's astounding to observe. For ten or twelve years the boomers loudly protested about the arrival of the future, all the changes it begat. You don't even hear the oldsters bitching about streaming royalties, which they still don't understand, anymore. The younger generations have accepted the new paradigms. Oldsters yelling is akin to Grandpa Simpson howling about how it was in his day, and the boomers think they're so young that they won't get the hearing aids they need. And if you can't hear what's going on, good luck knowing what's going on.
So Trevor Noah has it right. And no amount of Carpool Karaoke can convince James Corden it's worth sacrificing his stage and screen career. And it was a fad anyway, heard people talk about it recently?
Laying pipe to stick around... Very few people have the patience and commitment. But it's what it's all about today. And you forge your own path. Momentary success is just that. Might be a peak, but in isolation, a monadnock. You're better off climbing every hill in New England than one 14k mountain in the Rockies. The initial glory may be less, but...
It takes a lot of effort to build a career. Expend it wisely.
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Saturday 1 October 2022
Friday 30 September 2022
Acts You Want To See Before You Die-SiriusXM This Week
Or they do...
Tune in tomorrow, Saturday October 1st, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
Phone #: 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz
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-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
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Tune in tomorrow, Saturday October 1st, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
Phone #: 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
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Dirty Business (Live)
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3UU1jkQ
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3MbIsxP
1
"Dirty business down in coal creek"
COAL CREEK? Where was THAT?
The past is starting to blur, but I'm here to tell you the seventies were different from the sixties. The sixties were about testing the limits, pushing the envelope, the seventies were about licking our wounds, there was the back to the land movement. Yes, everybody lost faith in their ability to move the needle when it came to the government and the war and they retreated to the country. It was the opposite of today, where you go to the city for the action, fifty years ago people had had enough, they moved to Vermont, Oregon, upstate New York, long before the era of the internet and smartphones, even before cable, you were out in the boonies not only physically, but emotionally. And life was slower...
The soundtrack to this movement? The Grateful Dead.
The Gen-X'ers who came on board during the eighties, who are convinced they know the history because they've listened to all the tapes, don't. You had to be there.
The Grateful Dead were not a hit band. And really, the only impact they had was in the San Francisco area. They got no radio play. Most people had no idea what their music sounded like, most believed it was heavy, a la Black Sabbath, Consider the moniker!
But then there was a concerted effort to push them on the east coast. Credit Bill Graham and the Fillmore East. They started with a full page photo on the back of the program, with a caption about 2,600 people being happy during the Dead's show. All to promote the shows that began at midnight. They'd play...until they could play no more, until the sun came up, this was something new.
And then came "Workingman's Dead" and everything changed. You'd hear "Uncle John's Band" on FM radio, when you were hankering for more of those Crosby, Stills & Nash harmonies, we didn't yet know the Dead's vocals were never close to pristine in real life. Word started to spread. And then "American Beauty" was released fewer than four months later, in November, of 1970.
I feel the same way about "Ripple" as I do "Your Mama Don't Dance," if I hear it I'll have an uncontrollable urge to hit someone. "American Beauty" was softer, even more accessible than "Workingman's Dead." But "Truckin'" was very radio-friendly, and it got played, and was continued to be played. Unfortunately, as it sustained we had to hear "Sugar Magnolia" and "Friend of the Devil" too.
"Workingman's Dead" had its own "Truckin,'" also closing the LP, "Casey Jones." But it also had "New Speedway Boogie," the band's story of Altamont, and "High Time" sounded like country, the real thing, not the stuff from Southern California. "Cumberland Blues" wasn't sappy. "Black Peter" was the flip side of "High Time," there was no bow to commerciality, it was this authenticity that allowed the Dead to swerve from an experimental electronic sound to something more understandable by the hoi polloi, and Pigpen's "Easy Wind" was the connection to the first "Live/Dead," where he was still primary instead of secondary, never mind gone.
So there started to be a groundswell. In cities, but really the word was spread on college campuses. It's not like you could not get a ticket, but the venues were bigger, and people talked about them, the religion was beginning, and it was ultimately cemented by the three-disc "Europe '72," now if you were out of the loop...you were gonna stay out of the loop.
But while the band was ascending, they had an opening act, it was de rigueur, the show started with the New Riders of the Purple Sage. There was little info about its members, the main story was that Jerry Garcia had learned pedal steel and sat in with them. The New Riders were seen as an adjunct of the Dead, the fact that they ultimately recorded their own album and went their separate way was a surprise. They were part of a cohesive scene, now what?
2
It was all about the first album. Word was the fourth record, "The Adventures of Panama Red," was a return to form, the title song ultimately became an FM standard, anything about dope ultimately did. But by that time I was gone. Many of us were gone. Because of what came in between.
"Powerglide." I bought it. I didn't need another version of "Hello Mary Lou," never mind an almost seven minute version of "Willie and the Hand Jive." Where was that originality of the first album? Back then every album was a statement, and if you failed, if you bunted, didn't give it your all, it hurt your career.
The follow-up, "Gypsy Cowboy," didn't penetrate the radio sphere whatsoever. It was for those still hanging on, and there weren't that many of those.
But that first album...
It started with "I Don't Know You," a perfect opener, a jaunty number that got you moving, it appealed to your emotions as opposed to your brain, it was not intellectual. And it made John "Marmaduke" Dawson a star. We thought he was just that blonde guy on stage playing with Jerry Garcia opening for the Dead. It was a lark. But "I Don't Know You" demonstrated it was no lark, one could argue quite strongly that what the New Riders dropped was even more commercial, more radio and audience friendly, than what the Dead had released by this point.
"Glendale Train" was "American Beauty" adjacent, but somehow more credible. You didn't feel like the New Riders were trying for a hit, they were just doing what they did. "Last Lonely Eagle" was closer to the Dead's output, but it fit perfectly in that oeuvre, and in truth Marmaduke had a better, more consistent voice than Garcia or Weir.
"Henry" was another dope runner song. You heard it all the time. Dope has always been cool, even though it ultimately killed so many. You'd be surprised who never survived the sixties and seventies, even if they didn't die, they missed the mainstream and never caught up.
Then there's my favorite from the debut, one that I sing to myself all the time to this day, "Portland Woman."
"I wanna get me a Portland woman
Portland women treat you right
Portland's gonna be mine tonight"
This was back before cheap air travel. You might drive cross-country, looking for America, but Oregon was not at the top of the list, it wasn't until Microsoft that people saw Seattle as a legitimate outpost, never mind hip.
So "Portland Woman" is wistful. It's what he hasn't got. And when I went to college, no one had. With only 1,800 students on campus it was like going to school with your brothers and sisters. That paradigm of leaving home and sowing your wild oats, having relationships, didn't exist at Middlebury. You saw the same people every day, it was unavoidable, make a mistake and it would confront you until the end of your tenure.
Not that we realized this immediately. But by time the first New Riders album came out, we did, and the goal was to get out of town at every opportunity, looking for action we never found. And we'd drive south on Route 7 in John's Catalina and when we got to Pittsford, we'd sing:
"Gonna meet me a Pittsford woman"
That was a joke. I don't think I've ever even stopped in that one gas station town, but the memories are still vivid.
3
But there was one more track on that initial New Riders album, it finished the first side, at length, 8:19 in fact, and it was entitled "Dirty Business."
"Dirty business, dirty business
Dirty business down in coal creek
Dirty business down in coal creek"
There was nothing fast about the song. It was a slow, lumbering number. Just like living in the country, which so many of us were now doing, or were talking about doing. It was about the working class, when they were still admired, before they were put down, seen as ignorant.
"Well I make two bucks a day
And that ain't a healthy pay
My kids are just beginning to get sick..."
Life was hard.
They don't make tracks like this in the streaming era. "Dirty Business" was an album cut, for those who bought the album, they weren't going to cherry-pick tunes, it was too much of an effort to get up off the couch and move the needle, and you came to like the slow pace of "Dirty Business" anyway. "Dirty Business" is in my DNA, I don't have to hear it to know it, I can never forget it. And today I heard it on Deep Tracks and...
It didn't end.
I'd been pushing the buttons. I didn't catch it from the top. And then I started to wonder...was this a live version? But it was too perfect. Immediate in sound and accurate singing and playing, no one sounds this perfect on a live recording. I'm studying the cut, listening for differences, and it was still playing when I got home. And then I fired up Amazon Music and found out...
There's a brand new New Riders live album, entitled "Lyceum '72," that just came out last Friday. I fired it up to compare and...
It had that same immediate sound. Sure, it was just the tiniest bit different from the studio take, but it was just as satisfying, I'm still not absolutely sure which one I heard on SiriusXM.
But I'm listening to this new live version of "Dirty Business" and it's stunning how it seems so alive, but Marmaduke is dead, has been for quite a while. There are still New Riders, but it was the Old Riders who truly comprised the band. And they were still alive on this recording.
4
You can't write about the Grateful Dead. Because you don't know enough for the aficionados. You might get a minor point wrong, and in any event you're not entitled to an opinion. Yes, Dead superfans are akin to Trumpers. It's anything but a big tent. If you weren't there before, you can't get in now. But I talk to these people and they weren't even alive when "Workingman's Dead" came out, never mind seeing the band. They'll criticize my view of the New Riders. With some cockamamie story. Telling me how it really was.
But I was there. The New Riders weren't even also-rans. They were a concoction of players who opened Grateful Dead shows. And then they put out an album every bit as successful as those of the Dead, if not even more so. And if you were around back then, you know the New Riders' debut, you couldn't escape it. It was perfect stoner music, and a bit less serious, a bit lighter than the Dead, with even catchier numbers, a mellow act that fit the ethos perfectly, this was the soundtrack of the back to the land movement. When you didn't move fast and break things, you moved slow and there weren't many things to break.
"There's talk been goin' 'round
How they're gonna shut it down
If the man don't come and fix things
Pretty quick"
It ain't much different today. But back then the anger was more cerebral. It was not a one note life. We played our records and talked. Analyzed the issues. The music was not superfluous, it rode shotgun, there were no video games, TV was anathema, it was the musicians who were the leaders, on our side, not that of the corporations, the goal was not to be a brand, rather to speak your truth and make enough money to continue doing so.
Most people didn't even own cassette players back then, 8-tracks were what was in cars, and they were bleeding edge. The home recording scene was years off. The Dead may have been recording their performances on Nagras, but it was years before tape trading became a big thing. All we had was the records. Which we played over and over again. The show was a pilgrimage, to commune with the seers. The Dead didn't perform, they got on stage and played, and there's a difference. Same deal with the New Riders of the Purple Sage.
It was dirty business. Everybody was getting ripped off. But they soldiered on, because it was about more than money.
It was the culture.
"Dirty Business" was part of the culture.
And if you listen to this live take you'll get a glimpse of the way it used to be...
And never will be again.
--
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--
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-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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YouTube: https://bit.ly/3MbIsxP
1
"Dirty business down in coal creek"
COAL CREEK? Where was THAT?
The past is starting to blur, but I'm here to tell you the seventies were different from the sixties. The sixties were about testing the limits, pushing the envelope, the seventies were about licking our wounds, there was the back to the land movement. Yes, everybody lost faith in their ability to move the needle when it came to the government and the war and they retreated to the country. It was the opposite of today, where you go to the city for the action, fifty years ago people had had enough, they moved to Vermont, Oregon, upstate New York, long before the era of the internet and smartphones, even before cable, you were out in the boonies not only physically, but emotionally. And life was slower...
The soundtrack to this movement? The Grateful Dead.
The Gen-X'ers who came on board during the eighties, who are convinced they know the history because they've listened to all the tapes, don't. You had to be there.
The Grateful Dead were not a hit band. And really, the only impact they had was in the San Francisco area. They got no radio play. Most people had no idea what their music sounded like, most believed it was heavy, a la Black Sabbath, Consider the moniker!
But then there was a concerted effort to push them on the east coast. Credit Bill Graham and the Fillmore East. They started with a full page photo on the back of the program, with a caption about 2,600 people being happy during the Dead's show. All to promote the shows that began at midnight. They'd play...until they could play no more, until the sun came up, this was something new.
And then came "Workingman's Dead" and everything changed. You'd hear "Uncle John's Band" on FM radio, when you were hankering for more of those Crosby, Stills & Nash harmonies, we didn't yet know the Dead's vocals were never close to pristine in real life. Word started to spread. And then "American Beauty" was released fewer than four months later, in November, of 1970.
I feel the same way about "Ripple" as I do "Your Mama Don't Dance," if I hear it I'll have an uncontrollable urge to hit someone. "American Beauty" was softer, even more accessible than "Workingman's Dead." But "Truckin'" was very radio-friendly, and it got played, and was continued to be played. Unfortunately, as it sustained we had to hear "Sugar Magnolia" and "Friend of the Devil" too.
"Workingman's Dead" had its own "Truckin,'" also closing the LP, "Casey Jones." But it also had "New Speedway Boogie," the band's story of Altamont, and "High Time" sounded like country, the real thing, not the stuff from Southern California. "Cumberland Blues" wasn't sappy. "Black Peter" was the flip side of "High Time," there was no bow to commerciality, it was this authenticity that allowed the Dead to swerve from an experimental electronic sound to something more understandable by the hoi polloi, and Pigpen's "Easy Wind" was the connection to the first "Live/Dead," where he was still primary instead of secondary, never mind gone.
So there started to be a groundswell. In cities, but really the word was spread on college campuses. It's not like you could not get a ticket, but the venues were bigger, and people talked about them, the religion was beginning, and it was ultimately cemented by the three-disc "Europe '72," now if you were out of the loop...you were gonna stay out of the loop.
But while the band was ascending, they had an opening act, it was de rigueur, the show started with the New Riders of the Purple Sage. There was little info about its members, the main story was that Jerry Garcia had learned pedal steel and sat in with them. The New Riders were seen as an adjunct of the Dead, the fact that they ultimately recorded their own album and went their separate way was a surprise. They were part of a cohesive scene, now what?
2
It was all about the first album. Word was the fourth record, "The Adventures of Panama Red," was a return to form, the title song ultimately became an FM standard, anything about dope ultimately did. But by that time I was gone. Many of us were gone. Because of what came in between.
"Powerglide." I bought it. I didn't need another version of "Hello Mary Lou," never mind an almost seven minute version of "Willie and the Hand Jive." Where was that originality of the first album? Back then every album was a statement, and if you failed, if you bunted, didn't give it your all, it hurt your career.
The follow-up, "Gypsy Cowboy," didn't penetrate the radio sphere whatsoever. It was for those still hanging on, and there weren't that many of those.
But that first album...
It started with "I Don't Know You," a perfect opener, a jaunty number that got you moving, it appealed to your emotions as opposed to your brain, it was not intellectual. And it made John "Marmaduke" Dawson a star. We thought he was just that blonde guy on stage playing with Jerry Garcia opening for the Dead. It was a lark. But "I Don't Know You" demonstrated it was no lark, one could argue quite strongly that what the New Riders dropped was even more commercial, more radio and audience friendly, than what the Dead had released by this point.
"Glendale Train" was "American Beauty" adjacent, but somehow more credible. You didn't feel like the New Riders were trying for a hit, they were just doing what they did. "Last Lonely Eagle" was closer to the Dead's output, but it fit perfectly in that oeuvre, and in truth Marmaduke had a better, more consistent voice than Garcia or Weir.
"Henry" was another dope runner song. You heard it all the time. Dope has always been cool, even though it ultimately killed so many. You'd be surprised who never survived the sixties and seventies, even if they didn't die, they missed the mainstream and never caught up.
Then there's my favorite from the debut, one that I sing to myself all the time to this day, "Portland Woman."
"I wanna get me a Portland woman
Portland women treat you right
Portland's gonna be mine tonight"
This was back before cheap air travel. You might drive cross-country, looking for America, but Oregon was not at the top of the list, it wasn't until Microsoft that people saw Seattle as a legitimate outpost, never mind hip.
So "Portland Woman" is wistful. It's what he hasn't got. And when I went to college, no one had. With only 1,800 students on campus it was like going to school with your brothers and sisters. That paradigm of leaving home and sowing your wild oats, having relationships, didn't exist at Middlebury. You saw the same people every day, it was unavoidable, make a mistake and it would confront you until the end of your tenure.
Not that we realized this immediately. But by time the first New Riders album came out, we did, and the goal was to get out of town at every opportunity, looking for action we never found. And we'd drive south on Route 7 in John's Catalina and when we got to Pittsford, we'd sing:
"Gonna meet me a Pittsford woman"
That was a joke. I don't think I've ever even stopped in that one gas station town, but the memories are still vivid.
3
But there was one more track on that initial New Riders album, it finished the first side, at length, 8:19 in fact, and it was entitled "Dirty Business."
"Dirty business, dirty business
Dirty business down in coal creek
Dirty business down in coal creek"
There was nothing fast about the song. It was a slow, lumbering number. Just like living in the country, which so many of us were now doing, or were talking about doing. It was about the working class, when they were still admired, before they were put down, seen as ignorant.
"Well I make two bucks a day
And that ain't a healthy pay
My kids are just beginning to get sick..."
Life was hard.
They don't make tracks like this in the streaming era. "Dirty Business" was an album cut, for those who bought the album, they weren't going to cherry-pick tunes, it was too much of an effort to get up off the couch and move the needle, and you came to like the slow pace of "Dirty Business" anyway. "Dirty Business" is in my DNA, I don't have to hear it to know it, I can never forget it. And today I heard it on Deep Tracks and...
It didn't end.
I'd been pushing the buttons. I didn't catch it from the top. And then I started to wonder...was this a live version? But it was too perfect. Immediate in sound and accurate singing and playing, no one sounds this perfect on a live recording. I'm studying the cut, listening for differences, and it was still playing when I got home. And then I fired up Amazon Music and found out...
There's a brand new New Riders live album, entitled "Lyceum '72," that just came out last Friday. I fired it up to compare and...
It had that same immediate sound. Sure, it was just the tiniest bit different from the studio take, but it was just as satisfying, I'm still not absolutely sure which one I heard on SiriusXM.
But I'm listening to this new live version of "Dirty Business" and it's stunning how it seems so alive, but Marmaduke is dead, has been for quite a while. There are still New Riders, but it was the Old Riders who truly comprised the band. And they were still alive on this recording.
4
You can't write about the Grateful Dead. Because you don't know enough for the aficionados. You might get a minor point wrong, and in any event you're not entitled to an opinion. Yes, Dead superfans are akin to Trumpers. It's anything but a big tent. If you weren't there before, you can't get in now. But I talk to these people and they weren't even alive when "Workingman's Dead" came out, never mind seeing the band. They'll criticize my view of the New Riders. With some cockamamie story. Telling me how it really was.
But I was there. The New Riders weren't even also-rans. They were a concoction of players who opened Grateful Dead shows. And then they put out an album every bit as successful as those of the Dead, if not even more so. And if you were around back then, you know the New Riders' debut, you couldn't escape it. It was perfect stoner music, and a bit less serious, a bit lighter than the Dead, with even catchier numbers, a mellow act that fit the ethos perfectly, this was the soundtrack of the back to the land movement. When you didn't move fast and break things, you moved slow and there weren't many things to break.
"There's talk been goin' 'round
How they're gonna shut it down
If the man don't come and fix things
Pretty quick"
It ain't much different today. But back then the anger was more cerebral. It was not a one note life. We played our records and talked. Analyzed the issues. The music was not superfluous, it rode shotgun, there were no video games, TV was anathema, it was the musicians who were the leaders, on our side, not that of the corporations, the goal was not to be a brand, rather to speak your truth and make enough money to continue doing so.
Most people didn't even own cassette players back then, 8-tracks were what was in cars, and they were bleeding edge. The home recording scene was years off. The Dead may have been recording their performances on Nagras, but it was years before tape trading became a big thing. All we had was the records. Which we played over and over again. The show was a pilgrimage, to commune with the seers. The Dead didn't perform, they got on stage and played, and there's a difference. Same deal with the New Riders of the Purple Sage.
It was dirty business. Everybody was getting ripped off. But they soldiered on, because it was about more than money.
It was the culture.
"Dirty Business" was part of the culture.
And if you listen to this live take you'll get a glimpse of the way it used to be...
And never will be again.
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Thursday 29 September 2022
Roxy Music At The Forum
Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3RpIjb1
1
This was the last time.
Most people don't understand touring is a business. A band just doesn't decide to go on the road and then see what happens... They evaluate the offers from promoters, is it enough to cover expenses and make a profit?
You might have seen the Santigold story the other day, she just can't make the numbers work:
"Santigold Cancels North America Tour Due to 'Devastating' Costs and 'Flood' of Artists on the Road": https://bit.ly/3So3XNT
The headline says it all. Give Santigold props for being honest, almost nobody else is. They lie, and people believe it. Someone in the crew got Covid... Some other health or personal problem when the truth is they can't sell enough tickets to make it work.
The 50th Anniversary Roxy Music tour has been notoriously soft. Forget insider gossip, it was even in the "Washington Post." It's hard to evaluate profit and loss, because promoter Live Nation has multiple streams of revenue, but one thing is for sure, the company won't pay the band this much to go out again.
Furthermore, it's unclear the band even wants to go out again. It's not like they're Styx, doing so every year. It's once in a blue moon. The last time in America was 2003. The members of the band won't even live long enough to tour again based on that interval!
Yes, everybody's getting old.
But in truth, Bryan Ferry tours on a much more frequent basis. But if he adds in the other Roxy members, and they cite the 50th anniversary of the first album, will that be enough to entice people to come?
2
We're old. The last time I encountered this at a show was almost twenty years ago, the aforementioned year of 2003, when I went to see Simon & Garfunkel at what then was called "Staples Center." This was a different audience. This was the people who remembered the music from before the Beatles. Not only were they in their sixties, some were in their seventies, there was white hair!
Now the same thing applies to us, we're those in our sixties and seventies, we're the ones with white hair.
But what Roxy Music is selling is different from Simon & Garfunkel. Simon & Garfunkel sold songs. Relatively acoustic. Stuff you can play at home. Whereas Roxy Music is selling a sound that is impossible to replicate at home, and no one tries. It's a series of textures, and the end result is sui generis, there's nothing like them.
Furthermore, Roxy Music is out of tune with today's concert world. Today, a show is a party. You go to hang with your brethren. You shoot selfies. Who cares if the music is on hard drive, there are sets to wow you and it's about the whole experience. Whereas Roxy Music last night was a concert. You remember concerts, don't you?
Well, unless you're a boomer you probably don't. Your parents took you first. To classical ones. You sat in your seat. The music was respected, it set your mind free. There was no talking. It was a religious experience.
That's rare today.
So I'm standing out by the trailer where they're dispensing the tickets and I start to see people I know, who I haven't seen in a few years. Everybody looks older, myself included, I'm sure. That's what three years does. Life may have stopped, but not aging. And you can tell yourself sixty is the new forty all day long, but your body does not know that. And at my yearly physical the other day, my doctor told me once you hit 50 it's open season, your susceptible to EVERYTHING! Yes, it's a war of attrition.
And inside the Forum Club...
Let's just say it's the same as it ever was. For DECADES! The only difference is since Irving got involved, there's a buffet of free food, and always a dessert table with a huge cake depicting the act du jour. This is not conventional rock and roll, where no one sacrifices a dollar. It lifts the experience.
But it's the same damn room and it's the same damn people, who were there in the eighties, nineties, the twenty first century...
And so many of them can't work in the music business anymore. Touring people can be lifers, not record label people, unless you run the damn company. But this is all the people who used to be movers and shakers, used to feel good about themselves, that they could move the needle, make a difference. Now there's little time left. And it's not the same business anyway. Everything is a sideshow today, all the acts in the Spotify Top 50... Nothing reaches everybody like it did in the pre-internet era. Never mind sixties Top Forty, but MTV in the eighties? You were literally a household name. Music pushed the envelope. It was the bleeding edge art form. Not anymore.
And standing in the corner was Joe Elliott. If this had been the eighties, if this had even been the first decade of this century, there would have been hysteria. A bona fide rock star, in our presence! But now... He's just another aged guy there to see a band that meant so much to him in his youth. This is not a criticism of Joe, it's just pointing out our perspective has changed, the stars are not as big as they used to be, they're not icons, they're just people. If anything, it's about the music.
And that's what drew the audience last night.
3
Now if you review Roxy Music's history in America, there were two peaks. "Love is the Drug" was all over FM rock radio back in the mid-seventies. And then "Avalon"...stiffed upon its release in 1982, but subsequently permeated the culture to become a classic. One of the true legendary albums of the era. If you haven't made love to "Avalon"...
But all this is to point out that if you were in the building, if you paid for a ticket, you were a fan. You knew almost all the cuts. Because the only way you could hear them was if you owned the albums. This was hipster music. I.e. the fans were hipsters, on the bleeding edge, needing to be aware of and consume all the trends.
Roxy Music appeared in 1972. Ultimately, the single "Virginia Plain" was stripped into the American album, but in truth Roxy was a British thing. If you were paying attention, if you were a hipster, you knew how big they were in the U.K. They might have broken at the same time as Bowie, but they were radically different.
And the albums seemed to be made without the audience in mind. There were no compromises. You were either on the trip or you were not.
"For Your Pleasure" was even darker and less comprehensible than the debut. But the sound came completely together on the third LP, "Stranded." It had the obligatory babe on the cover, but it was very consistent, you didn't have to be a fan to like it, not that it made a commercial dent over here.
The big story about "Country Life" was the cover. Only the English version showed the women nearly naked.
And then came "Siren," the album that contained "Love is the Drug," and just when the act got some traction in the U.S., it broke up. Bryan Ferry had been making solo albums, but now he was fully solo.
And then the band got back together!
"Manifesto" had the delicious "Dance Away," which was played on FM in Los Angeles. It was followed up by "Flesh + Blood," which did not get as good reviews, even though it had more and higher peaks, like "Oh Yeah!" and "Over You," but then two years later came "Avalon" and the band went its separate ways.
You either know all this or you don't, you were a fan or you weren't. And believe me, most people in the U.S. were not. You couldn't afford every album, it's not like today with all of the music on streaming services. You had to pick and choose. But if you picked, you knew.
And the people in attendance last night knew.
4
That was a significant difference. Starting in the mid-seventies and certainly the eighties, when bands had enough hits, casual fans would go to the show, to hear the monster tracks. They might own one album, but not all of them. Of course there were diehards in attendance, but last night everybody was a diehard.
And they were enraptured by the music.
You saw very few cell phones alive. And people were not constantly traipsing to the bathroom or the concession stand. They were there for the music and they weren't going to miss a thing. They were standing on the floor, because once one person does everybody has to. But in the bowl, they were seated, as this music is best consumed.
So they opened with "Re-Make/Re-Model," the opening track on the opening album. If you know the album... Otherwise you wouldn't know it at all.
This being the Forum, the sound was excellent. Because the building has no sports teams, it's only live performance.
And it being an art school troupe, there was video, but it was... Well, you'd have to see it to get it. Not all the pieces were aligned. It was an effect. Illustrating that this was not your regular show. The band was playing by its own rules.
But it all didn't gel. I mean the band was together, but it was not transcendent, there was no liftoff.
"Out of the Blue" was better. But I was still observing, I was not integrated.
"Bogus Man" was a step back. Then again, it's not even something you'd expect to be performed live. Talk about art rock... Inherently the audience is excluded.
But then came "The Main Thing."
Now the funny thing about your favorite albums is your favorite track changes. It took years for me to become obsessed with "The Main Thing." It wasn't until over a decade later that I had to play it over and over. Which was now easy to do in the era of CDs. When "Avalon" came out we were still buying vinyl.
"The Main Thing" is not about the lyrics. It's about the hypnotic groove, the sounds. It's an aural trip. And it's not like Bryan Ferry does not play it in his solo shows, but...
Bryan employs Chris Spedding, the legendary leather-clad lead guitarist, an icon himself. To tell you the truth, the fact that Roxy Music was reuniting was less important to me than the songs. But then...
PHIL MANZANERA WAILED!
The riff in the song was amplified, it became something new. A buzzsaw. Straight to the heart and brain. It could not be denied. I mean I'm a Manzanera fan, but he truly took the sound to another level. As did Andy Mackay, on oboe and saxophone. The two, along with original drummer Paul Thompson, took the whole performance to another level. They were not fungible, ultimately they're irreplaceable, together they make up the Roxy Music sound. The individual parts are interesting, but the sum of them is something completely different.
And it wasn't only them. There were thirteen people on stage. Talk about costs! They didn't want one sound from the albums to be left out. This was a show made for millions. But millions of fans did not show up in the U.S.
5
"Ladytron" is the second song on the first album, the one with the smallest dent in the U.S. I purchased it at the Virgin store in London back in '72 because I wanted what was hip, and I heard a song on the in-store system that confirmed my desire.
All to the point that this was a track a good portion of the audience did not know. But, if like me, you did... This was a transcendent moment. I'm nodding my head listening now. They don't make this kind of music anymore, other than Roxy, they didn't make this music then either! Rhythms, solos, exploration. This is what I went for, to marinate in what once was.
But before that I'd been wrestling, it was a mental crisis. I kept thinking if I'd paid for my ticket would it have been different. But was this just another show? Could I get myself back into that spirit from long ago, when the music was everything, when I went to the show to commune one on one with the band, when the rest of the people in attendance didn't matter, whatsoever?
With "Ladytron" I started to return to that old time feeling, that old time love. But that was fifty years ago. Most of my life has now been lived. Back then it was all about possibility, now it's about grabbing a hold of my life personally. I mean I've changed, but the music has not. I grew up, but the music did not. It's a conundrum. What was once everything...is not as much anymore. It might have been bleeding edge once, but now...
It's weird. It's not a put-down, it's just that I've risen in status, now they're musicians not stars. They've dedicated their lives to that, and I've dedicated mine to...
Then came the first "Avalon" number, "While My Heart is Still Beating," with an extended, ethereal intro. This was new, this was alive, it built on what was on the record, there was new magic to add to the old magic, I was surfing the astral plain.
Unfortunately, the song that made me realize I couldn't miss the show, "Oh Yeah!," missed a bit. Intimate, whimsical, yet serious...just didn't work with this much production.
But it was followed by "If There is Something," my favorite song from the debut, the one they were playing on the system in that Virgin store...
It's 6:34, and it starts off almost carnivalesque, but then...it completely changes, and becomes something different, a little over a minute and a half in. This is where Andy Mackay starts to shine. It's like someone was telling you a lighthearted story and then they leaned in, looked you in the eye and started spewing the greatest truths. You're on a journey, solo, to god knows where, and when the number ends, it's like you've been dropped off on an alien planet.
"In Every Dream Home a Heartache" is a tour-de-force, it is in Ferry's solo shows, and it was last night. Once again, you have to be a hard core fan to know it. But if you are... This sensibility is what drew you to Roxy in the first place. Something singular, representing inner thought, anything but pablum, an exploration, a feature of what once was and is now gone. Inner thought, remember that?
Then back to "Avalon," with "Tara," the album's closing track, an instrumental coda, something you'd never expect to hear live. This is the essence of "Avalon," sensuous... Another Andy Mackay extravaganza.
6
But it was with "My Only Love," from "Flesh + Blood," that the show truly took off, when you had to close your eyes and revel in the sound, one you cannot get anywhere else.
It's like suddenly the soundman got the mix exactly right, everybody on stage was firing on all cylinders and the balance was exactly right, it was magical, it both bonded you and set you free. WHEW!
And then came "To Turn You On," the first song that emerged from "Avalon," the one they played on the radio in L.A...
This was suddenly too much, an electric jolt went through my body. All my doubts, all my distance, disappeared. Who cared how many tickets the band sold, who cared if everybody knew the material or not, I certainly did, and how many times have I had sex to this? And how many hundreds of times have I listened to this in addition, it never gets old.
"Is it raining in New York
On Fifth Avenue"
The screens were no longer cut in a cubist fashion. There was one big image. Of the city. Yes, Roxy Music is city music. It's for a fast-paced world, not a slow one. For thinking people, not mindless drifters. It's for those who have jumped off the cliff and into the fast-flowing maelstrom of life.
"To Turn You On" is an apartment song. Somewhere behind the walls, maybe in a high-rise. It's all taking place behind closed doors, but through this music you're getting a glimpse.
Unfortunately it ended, I wanted to live in that space forever. The rest of the world melted away, it was just me and the music.
Now it's clear the band is building, it's that time in a show when the players are ascending to the peak. The songs you know by heart, that many people know by heart, the energy coming from the stage was palpable.
"Dance away the heartache
Dance away the tears
Dance away..."
But then the piece-de-resistance, MORE THAN THIS!
Yes, the opening track of "Avalon," the one with the most streams, the one that is most well known.
"It was fun for a while..."
This was reflective back in '82, even more so today! Life is constantly moving, constantly changing. What you think will continue will not. But you've still got your memories...
"More than this
You know there's nothing'
Ain't that the truth. It doesn't get any better this. This is more than Bryan Ferry solo. It's better than the rock acts of the past pounding the boards to make you move your feet, more than today's dance extravaganzas, it hearkens back to an era where your favorite record took you on a journey and you didn't care a whit what anybody else thought about it.
And then the title track, "Avalon."
This is a hard sound to replicate live, something relatively quiet and intimate, this was what the act struggled with earlier in the set, but not now...
"Now the party's over, I'm so tired
Then I see you coming, out of nowhere"
Bryan has loosened the tie of his tuxedo, the evening is nearly history, and then he sees her.
You understand, you know... Because the best things always happen when you least expect them. When you're not paying attention, you're caught off guard.
"Avalon...ooh"
Yes, those "oohs" were delivered so exquisitely by one of the backup singers that when she was done the audience couldn't help but applaud in exaltation.
But there's that dreamy sound, once again Andy Mackay adding more than you think he ever could.
7
So if you've got the album...
You can hear steps on the driveway, the opening and closing of the car door, the motor revving, and then...
"Late that night I parked my car
Staked my place in the singles bar"
That was a thing, before the apps, before millennials went out in groups.
"Boy meets girl where the beat goes on"
Bryan Ferry anyway, but he was our model, he gave us hope, with the music in our heads we were empowered.
"I say go, she says yes
Dim the lights, you can guess the rest"
Oh, we certainly can. We were old enough to know, we were old enough to be experienced. Roxy Music was not for teenagers, it was for those who were no longer wet behind the ears, who were navigating the world by themselves, trying to find their way, who were learning that love was the drug, in fact it was everything.
That was the peak, the apotheosis. Next were two numbers from "For Your Pleasure," "Editions of You" and "Do the Strand."
"There's a new sensation
A fabulous creation"
That's what Roxy Music was. That was its appeal, it was exotic. Either you were the type to go on an adventure, or you were a prisoner of the radio.
And then it was...
Done.
Now at some shows there's one more number, one more encore.
Yes, you learn this when you check the set lists. I was waiting for it, hoping for it, but...
No matter how much they paid for a ticket, certain people need to leave to beat the traffic. Which I never understood. I know someone who missed Kirk Gibson's home run that way. Why not have the complete experience?
But the other problem with an old audience is it's not rabid, it won't stand and clap forever, maybe if they'd done so a little longer the band would have come out and performed the cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy," which Bryan Ferry has made his own.
But it was not to be. The band had worked the audience into a frenzy and then...
That was it.
8
Waiting for the Manzaneras in the Forum Club...
It was the usual suspects. Most people leave after the show. But there are the others, mostly faceless, who will stay until they close the doors. As if they're hanging on to be part of rock and roll, still believing in the dream, even though at this point they're crying in their beer, many of them alkies.
Yes, bars are for young people. And you don't want to be the last one there. And you certainly don't want to drive home after that, which you have to in L.A., there is no public transportation and good luck getting an Uber, I was canceled on three times last week before I finally got a ride, wasted nearly forty five minutes, and rides are no longer cheap. And yes, I use Uber generically, in fact it was Lyft, but I've had the same cancellation problem with Uber too. They say they're going to pick you up and then they...don't, it's a driver's market.
It was a bit creepy. These denizens of the night are no longer twenty or thirtysomething. You wished they had somewhere to go. But all they had left was this music. But that scene, with its leather and skinny jeans, is over and dead. History. And who knows, when we're gone there could be a Roxy Music revival, but about the only thing we know is going to survive us is the Beatles, the rest is leaving with us.
We're like our parents. Going to see people that would draw blank faces amongst today's younger generation.
But this is not just music of our generation, it was much more than that. People say it's the same as it ever was, but nothing could be further from the truth. Acts didn't sell out to politicians and corporations, they begged and the performers said no, after all they were making so much dough, as much as anybody else in America, there were no billionaires, and billionaires are famous for their money, what they do is usually irrelevant, but with the musical acts of yore...it was just the opposite.
Ultimately Roxy Music is cerebral. Like I said, the music came alive on stage. Who knew the brilliance of Phil Manzanera and what he'd add, ditto Andy Mackay. It's really about the records, when records were king, today it's live performance, everything is about the show. For years Steely Dan didn't tour at all, today they'd be broke. You make your bones, build your career, bond yourself to your fans and make your bread at the gig.
But Roxy Music needs no gig. The music transcends the gig. When you listen to "Avalon" you don't even think a band is involved. It's just a seamless creation that you take at face value. You don't envision a studio, putting the pieces together, rather there's just the finished product.
That was enough, we didn't need more of that.
But we'd love more of this.
But we're not going to get it, not going to happen. Either you were there last night or you were not. You can check New Music Friday but you will not find this sound, this magic. You'll have to go back to the decades-old originals, from a bygone era. They've painted since the Renaissance, but we've never had another da Vinci, nor a Raphael or Michelangelo, never mind all at the same time. We lived through something special, that has never been repeated and may never be repeated, when your desire was to be a musician, so you could express yourself, and the audience had its ears open, attuned to the new and different.
Many of those acts can't even perform, the members are dead. Others are a poor facsimile of what they once were. Others have members who hate each other too much, usually because of money. The rest? They've been on endless victory tours, final shows that were not, you could see them if you wanted to.
But not Roxy Music. Which are more akin to Halley's Comet. They were here, but then they're gone, not to return for a significant number of years. But Halley's Comet burns on, humans do not. They have a finite life span. And if you miss them, it's too late. If you missed Roxy Music live, you probably missed your last chance. And most people don't care, but there are others...
We had fun for a while...
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1
This was the last time.
Most people don't understand touring is a business. A band just doesn't decide to go on the road and then see what happens... They evaluate the offers from promoters, is it enough to cover expenses and make a profit?
You might have seen the Santigold story the other day, she just can't make the numbers work:
"Santigold Cancels North America Tour Due to 'Devastating' Costs and 'Flood' of Artists on the Road": https://bit.ly/3So3XNT
The headline says it all. Give Santigold props for being honest, almost nobody else is. They lie, and people believe it. Someone in the crew got Covid... Some other health or personal problem when the truth is they can't sell enough tickets to make it work.
The 50th Anniversary Roxy Music tour has been notoriously soft. Forget insider gossip, it was even in the "Washington Post." It's hard to evaluate profit and loss, because promoter Live Nation has multiple streams of revenue, but one thing is for sure, the company won't pay the band this much to go out again.
Furthermore, it's unclear the band even wants to go out again. It's not like they're Styx, doing so every year. It's once in a blue moon. The last time in America was 2003. The members of the band won't even live long enough to tour again based on that interval!
Yes, everybody's getting old.
But in truth, Bryan Ferry tours on a much more frequent basis. But if he adds in the other Roxy members, and they cite the 50th anniversary of the first album, will that be enough to entice people to come?
2
We're old. The last time I encountered this at a show was almost twenty years ago, the aforementioned year of 2003, when I went to see Simon & Garfunkel at what then was called "Staples Center." This was a different audience. This was the people who remembered the music from before the Beatles. Not only were they in their sixties, some were in their seventies, there was white hair!
Now the same thing applies to us, we're those in our sixties and seventies, we're the ones with white hair.
But what Roxy Music is selling is different from Simon & Garfunkel. Simon & Garfunkel sold songs. Relatively acoustic. Stuff you can play at home. Whereas Roxy Music is selling a sound that is impossible to replicate at home, and no one tries. It's a series of textures, and the end result is sui generis, there's nothing like them.
Furthermore, Roxy Music is out of tune with today's concert world. Today, a show is a party. You go to hang with your brethren. You shoot selfies. Who cares if the music is on hard drive, there are sets to wow you and it's about the whole experience. Whereas Roxy Music last night was a concert. You remember concerts, don't you?
Well, unless you're a boomer you probably don't. Your parents took you first. To classical ones. You sat in your seat. The music was respected, it set your mind free. There was no talking. It was a religious experience.
That's rare today.
So I'm standing out by the trailer where they're dispensing the tickets and I start to see people I know, who I haven't seen in a few years. Everybody looks older, myself included, I'm sure. That's what three years does. Life may have stopped, but not aging. And you can tell yourself sixty is the new forty all day long, but your body does not know that. And at my yearly physical the other day, my doctor told me once you hit 50 it's open season, your susceptible to EVERYTHING! Yes, it's a war of attrition.
And inside the Forum Club...
Let's just say it's the same as it ever was. For DECADES! The only difference is since Irving got involved, there's a buffet of free food, and always a dessert table with a huge cake depicting the act du jour. This is not conventional rock and roll, where no one sacrifices a dollar. It lifts the experience.
But it's the same damn room and it's the same damn people, who were there in the eighties, nineties, the twenty first century...
And so many of them can't work in the music business anymore. Touring people can be lifers, not record label people, unless you run the damn company. But this is all the people who used to be movers and shakers, used to feel good about themselves, that they could move the needle, make a difference. Now there's little time left. And it's not the same business anyway. Everything is a sideshow today, all the acts in the Spotify Top 50... Nothing reaches everybody like it did in the pre-internet era. Never mind sixties Top Forty, but MTV in the eighties? You were literally a household name. Music pushed the envelope. It was the bleeding edge art form. Not anymore.
And standing in the corner was Joe Elliott. If this had been the eighties, if this had even been the first decade of this century, there would have been hysteria. A bona fide rock star, in our presence! But now... He's just another aged guy there to see a band that meant so much to him in his youth. This is not a criticism of Joe, it's just pointing out our perspective has changed, the stars are not as big as they used to be, they're not icons, they're just people. If anything, it's about the music.
And that's what drew the audience last night.
3
Now if you review Roxy Music's history in America, there were two peaks. "Love is the Drug" was all over FM rock radio back in the mid-seventies. And then "Avalon"...stiffed upon its release in 1982, but subsequently permeated the culture to become a classic. One of the true legendary albums of the era. If you haven't made love to "Avalon"...
But all this is to point out that if you were in the building, if you paid for a ticket, you were a fan. You knew almost all the cuts. Because the only way you could hear them was if you owned the albums. This was hipster music. I.e. the fans were hipsters, on the bleeding edge, needing to be aware of and consume all the trends.
Roxy Music appeared in 1972. Ultimately, the single "Virginia Plain" was stripped into the American album, but in truth Roxy was a British thing. If you were paying attention, if you were a hipster, you knew how big they were in the U.K. They might have broken at the same time as Bowie, but they were radically different.
And the albums seemed to be made without the audience in mind. There were no compromises. You were either on the trip or you were not.
"For Your Pleasure" was even darker and less comprehensible than the debut. But the sound came completely together on the third LP, "Stranded." It had the obligatory babe on the cover, but it was very consistent, you didn't have to be a fan to like it, not that it made a commercial dent over here.
The big story about "Country Life" was the cover. Only the English version showed the women nearly naked.
And then came "Siren," the album that contained "Love is the Drug," and just when the act got some traction in the U.S., it broke up. Bryan Ferry had been making solo albums, but now he was fully solo.
And then the band got back together!
"Manifesto" had the delicious "Dance Away," which was played on FM in Los Angeles. It was followed up by "Flesh + Blood," which did not get as good reviews, even though it had more and higher peaks, like "Oh Yeah!" and "Over You," but then two years later came "Avalon" and the band went its separate ways.
You either know all this or you don't, you were a fan or you weren't. And believe me, most people in the U.S. were not. You couldn't afford every album, it's not like today with all of the music on streaming services. You had to pick and choose. But if you picked, you knew.
And the people in attendance last night knew.
4
That was a significant difference. Starting in the mid-seventies and certainly the eighties, when bands had enough hits, casual fans would go to the show, to hear the monster tracks. They might own one album, but not all of them. Of course there were diehards in attendance, but last night everybody was a diehard.
And they were enraptured by the music.
You saw very few cell phones alive. And people were not constantly traipsing to the bathroom or the concession stand. They were there for the music and they weren't going to miss a thing. They were standing on the floor, because once one person does everybody has to. But in the bowl, they were seated, as this music is best consumed.
So they opened with "Re-Make/Re-Model," the opening track on the opening album. If you know the album... Otherwise you wouldn't know it at all.
This being the Forum, the sound was excellent. Because the building has no sports teams, it's only live performance.
And it being an art school troupe, there was video, but it was... Well, you'd have to see it to get it. Not all the pieces were aligned. It was an effect. Illustrating that this was not your regular show. The band was playing by its own rules.
But it all didn't gel. I mean the band was together, but it was not transcendent, there was no liftoff.
"Out of the Blue" was better. But I was still observing, I was not integrated.
"Bogus Man" was a step back. Then again, it's not even something you'd expect to be performed live. Talk about art rock... Inherently the audience is excluded.
But then came "The Main Thing."
Now the funny thing about your favorite albums is your favorite track changes. It took years for me to become obsessed with "The Main Thing." It wasn't until over a decade later that I had to play it over and over. Which was now easy to do in the era of CDs. When "Avalon" came out we were still buying vinyl.
"The Main Thing" is not about the lyrics. It's about the hypnotic groove, the sounds. It's an aural trip. And it's not like Bryan Ferry does not play it in his solo shows, but...
Bryan employs Chris Spedding, the legendary leather-clad lead guitarist, an icon himself. To tell you the truth, the fact that Roxy Music was reuniting was less important to me than the songs. But then...
PHIL MANZANERA WAILED!
The riff in the song was amplified, it became something new. A buzzsaw. Straight to the heart and brain. It could not be denied. I mean I'm a Manzanera fan, but he truly took the sound to another level. As did Andy Mackay, on oboe and saxophone. The two, along with original drummer Paul Thompson, took the whole performance to another level. They were not fungible, ultimately they're irreplaceable, together they make up the Roxy Music sound. The individual parts are interesting, but the sum of them is something completely different.
And it wasn't only them. There were thirteen people on stage. Talk about costs! They didn't want one sound from the albums to be left out. This was a show made for millions. But millions of fans did not show up in the U.S.
5
"Ladytron" is the second song on the first album, the one with the smallest dent in the U.S. I purchased it at the Virgin store in London back in '72 because I wanted what was hip, and I heard a song on the in-store system that confirmed my desire.
All to the point that this was a track a good portion of the audience did not know. But, if like me, you did... This was a transcendent moment. I'm nodding my head listening now. They don't make this kind of music anymore, other than Roxy, they didn't make this music then either! Rhythms, solos, exploration. This is what I went for, to marinate in what once was.
But before that I'd been wrestling, it was a mental crisis. I kept thinking if I'd paid for my ticket would it have been different. But was this just another show? Could I get myself back into that spirit from long ago, when the music was everything, when I went to the show to commune one on one with the band, when the rest of the people in attendance didn't matter, whatsoever?
With "Ladytron" I started to return to that old time feeling, that old time love. But that was fifty years ago. Most of my life has now been lived. Back then it was all about possibility, now it's about grabbing a hold of my life personally. I mean I've changed, but the music has not. I grew up, but the music did not. It's a conundrum. What was once everything...is not as much anymore. It might have been bleeding edge once, but now...
It's weird. It's not a put-down, it's just that I've risen in status, now they're musicians not stars. They've dedicated their lives to that, and I've dedicated mine to...
Then came the first "Avalon" number, "While My Heart is Still Beating," with an extended, ethereal intro. This was new, this was alive, it built on what was on the record, there was new magic to add to the old magic, I was surfing the astral plain.
Unfortunately, the song that made me realize I couldn't miss the show, "Oh Yeah!," missed a bit. Intimate, whimsical, yet serious...just didn't work with this much production.
But it was followed by "If There is Something," my favorite song from the debut, the one they were playing on the system in that Virgin store...
It's 6:34, and it starts off almost carnivalesque, but then...it completely changes, and becomes something different, a little over a minute and a half in. This is where Andy Mackay starts to shine. It's like someone was telling you a lighthearted story and then they leaned in, looked you in the eye and started spewing the greatest truths. You're on a journey, solo, to god knows where, and when the number ends, it's like you've been dropped off on an alien planet.
"In Every Dream Home a Heartache" is a tour-de-force, it is in Ferry's solo shows, and it was last night. Once again, you have to be a hard core fan to know it. But if you are... This sensibility is what drew you to Roxy in the first place. Something singular, representing inner thought, anything but pablum, an exploration, a feature of what once was and is now gone. Inner thought, remember that?
Then back to "Avalon," with "Tara," the album's closing track, an instrumental coda, something you'd never expect to hear live. This is the essence of "Avalon," sensuous... Another Andy Mackay extravaganza.
6
But it was with "My Only Love," from "Flesh + Blood," that the show truly took off, when you had to close your eyes and revel in the sound, one you cannot get anywhere else.
It's like suddenly the soundman got the mix exactly right, everybody on stage was firing on all cylinders and the balance was exactly right, it was magical, it both bonded you and set you free. WHEW!
And then came "To Turn You On," the first song that emerged from "Avalon," the one they played on the radio in L.A...
This was suddenly too much, an electric jolt went through my body. All my doubts, all my distance, disappeared. Who cared how many tickets the band sold, who cared if everybody knew the material or not, I certainly did, and how many times have I had sex to this? And how many hundreds of times have I listened to this in addition, it never gets old.
"Is it raining in New York
On Fifth Avenue"
The screens were no longer cut in a cubist fashion. There was one big image. Of the city. Yes, Roxy Music is city music. It's for a fast-paced world, not a slow one. For thinking people, not mindless drifters. It's for those who have jumped off the cliff and into the fast-flowing maelstrom of life.
"To Turn You On" is an apartment song. Somewhere behind the walls, maybe in a high-rise. It's all taking place behind closed doors, but through this music you're getting a glimpse.
Unfortunately it ended, I wanted to live in that space forever. The rest of the world melted away, it was just me and the music.
Now it's clear the band is building, it's that time in a show when the players are ascending to the peak. The songs you know by heart, that many people know by heart, the energy coming from the stage was palpable.
"Dance away the heartache
Dance away the tears
Dance away..."
But then the piece-de-resistance, MORE THAN THIS!
Yes, the opening track of "Avalon," the one with the most streams, the one that is most well known.
"It was fun for a while..."
This was reflective back in '82, even more so today! Life is constantly moving, constantly changing. What you think will continue will not. But you've still got your memories...
"More than this
You know there's nothing'
Ain't that the truth. It doesn't get any better this. This is more than Bryan Ferry solo. It's better than the rock acts of the past pounding the boards to make you move your feet, more than today's dance extravaganzas, it hearkens back to an era where your favorite record took you on a journey and you didn't care a whit what anybody else thought about it.
And then the title track, "Avalon."
This is a hard sound to replicate live, something relatively quiet and intimate, this was what the act struggled with earlier in the set, but not now...
"Now the party's over, I'm so tired
Then I see you coming, out of nowhere"
Bryan has loosened the tie of his tuxedo, the evening is nearly history, and then he sees her.
You understand, you know... Because the best things always happen when you least expect them. When you're not paying attention, you're caught off guard.
"Avalon...ooh"
Yes, those "oohs" were delivered so exquisitely by one of the backup singers that when she was done the audience couldn't help but applaud in exaltation.
But there's that dreamy sound, once again Andy Mackay adding more than you think he ever could.
7
So if you've got the album...
You can hear steps on the driveway, the opening and closing of the car door, the motor revving, and then...
"Late that night I parked my car
Staked my place in the singles bar"
That was a thing, before the apps, before millennials went out in groups.
"Boy meets girl where the beat goes on"
Bryan Ferry anyway, but he was our model, he gave us hope, with the music in our heads we were empowered.
"I say go, she says yes
Dim the lights, you can guess the rest"
Oh, we certainly can. We were old enough to know, we were old enough to be experienced. Roxy Music was not for teenagers, it was for those who were no longer wet behind the ears, who were navigating the world by themselves, trying to find their way, who were learning that love was the drug, in fact it was everything.
That was the peak, the apotheosis. Next were two numbers from "For Your Pleasure," "Editions of You" and "Do the Strand."
"There's a new sensation
A fabulous creation"
That's what Roxy Music was. That was its appeal, it was exotic. Either you were the type to go on an adventure, or you were a prisoner of the radio.
And then it was...
Done.
Now at some shows there's one more number, one more encore.
Yes, you learn this when you check the set lists. I was waiting for it, hoping for it, but...
No matter how much they paid for a ticket, certain people need to leave to beat the traffic. Which I never understood. I know someone who missed Kirk Gibson's home run that way. Why not have the complete experience?
But the other problem with an old audience is it's not rabid, it won't stand and clap forever, maybe if they'd done so a little longer the band would have come out and performed the cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy," which Bryan Ferry has made his own.
But it was not to be. The band had worked the audience into a frenzy and then...
That was it.
8
Waiting for the Manzaneras in the Forum Club...
It was the usual suspects. Most people leave after the show. But there are the others, mostly faceless, who will stay until they close the doors. As if they're hanging on to be part of rock and roll, still believing in the dream, even though at this point they're crying in their beer, many of them alkies.
Yes, bars are for young people. And you don't want to be the last one there. And you certainly don't want to drive home after that, which you have to in L.A., there is no public transportation and good luck getting an Uber, I was canceled on three times last week before I finally got a ride, wasted nearly forty five minutes, and rides are no longer cheap. And yes, I use Uber generically, in fact it was Lyft, but I've had the same cancellation problem with Uber too. They say they're going to pick you up and then they...don't, it's a driver's market.
It was a bit creepy. These denizens of the night are no longer twenty or thirtysomething. You wished they had somewhere to go. But all they had left was this music. But that scene, with its leather and skinny jeans, is over and dead. History. And who knows, when we're gone there could be a Roxy Music revival, but about the only thing we know is going to survive us is the Beatles, the rest is leaving with us.
We're like our parents. Going to see people that would draw blank faces amongst today's younger generation.
But this is not just music of our generation, it was much more than that. People say it's the same as it ever was, but nothing could be further from the truth. Acts didn't sell out to politicians and corporations, they begged and the performers said no, after all they were making so much dough, as much as anybody else in America, there were no billionaires, and billionaires are famous for their money, what they do is usually irrelevant, but with the musical acts of yore...it was just the opposite.
Ultimately Roxy Music is cerebral. Like I said, the music came alive on stage. Who knew the brilliance of Phil Manzanera and what he'd add, ditto Andy Mackay. It's really about the records, when records were king, today it's live performance, everything is about the show. For years Steely Dan didn't tour at all, today they'd be broke. You make your bones, build your career, bond yourself to your fans and make your bread at the gig.
But Roxy Music needs no gig. The music transcends the gig. When you listen to "Avalon" you don't even think a band is involved. It's just a seamless creation that you take at face value. You don't envision a studio, putting the pieces together, rather there's just the finished product.
That was enough, we didn't need more of that.
But we'd love more of this.
But we're not going to get it, not going to happen. Either you were there last night or you were not. You can check New Music Friday but you will not find this sound, this magic. You'll have to go back to the decades-old originals, from a bygone era. They've painted since the Renaissance, but we've never had another da Vinci, nor a Raphael or Michelangelo, never mind all at the same time. We lived through something special, that has never been repeated and may never be repeated, when your desire was to be a musician, so you could express yourself, and the audience had its ears open, attuned to the new and different.
Many of those acts can't even perform, the members are dead. Others are a poor facsimile of what they once were. Others have members who hate each other too much, usually because of money. The rest? They've been on endless victory tours, final shows that were not, you could see them if you wanted to.
But not Roxy Music. Which are more akin to Halley's Comet. They were here, but then they're gone, not to return for a significant number of years. But Halley's Comet burns on, humans do not. They have a finite life span. And if you miss them, it's too late. If you missed Roxy Music live, you probably missed your last chance. And most people don't care, but there are others...
We had fun for a while...
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Thom Hartmann-This Week's Podcast
Radio talk show host Thom Hartmann reaches 7 million people a week. We discuss the status of both the Republicans and the Democrats and investigate the state of talk radio today. Thom is erudite and insightful, prepare to be stimulated!
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/thom-hartmann-102616577/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thom-hartmann/id1316200737?i=1000581063697
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Oiq6ZGbrqn62uoiWzID97?si=ngwsZGGLTFGCoD_8p2Xj3Q
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/66e20b5a-5bfc-4b62-9864-e1688aff86ac/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-thom-hartmann
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/thom-hartmann-207165279
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Tuesday 27 September 2022
Mailbag
From: Merel Bregante
Subject: Re: Fwd: Trilogy-Lovin' Me/To Make A Woman Feel Wanted/Peace Of Mind
Hey Bob,
Thank you for your words regarding Loggins and Messina. Makes me happy to know that you enjoyed the music we made so damn long ago.
A couple quick notes.
Messina put the band together early 1971. We rehearsed daily for months, finally recording in November of that year. This was Jimmy's way. Know the song well enough that improvisation could happen inside of TIGHT arrangements. As with all our recordings, when we cut Sittin' In it was recorded basically live. Some solos. Some bg vocs. That was it. All our albums were cut with intense rehearsals prior to the studio.
Contrary to what some might say, this was purely/simply Jimmy's band. We worked hard for basically nothing that first year. What we had was music that we KNEW was special - and - we had Jimmy's promises that WHEN the band was successful, that we would ALL participate in the payoff for the work given. 50 years later, I still realize the truth of his promise.
In 2003 Jimmy brought the original band back together to rehearse and do two shows. This was done without Loggins. It was the last time my dear brother, Jon Clarke, would ever be on stage. It was the 'best' we'd ever sounded. We played. It was done.
BTW: though I enjoyed all the music, the specific songs you mention were my favorites as well. Your Mama Don't Dance? Meh!!!
Be well,
Merel
____________________________________
Subject: Re: Rod Stewart-1 Playlist
Bob
The first band I ever joined after leaving my high school band in San Diego was The Rod Stewart Band.
Playing any of the early solo songs as well as The Faces songs was an unimaginable treat for a kid in 1988. You Wear It Well and Maggie were two of my favorites so imagine my surprise when this surfing skateboarding lover of P- funk, Aerosmith and Iggy who thought country music was lame found out that Rod was attempting to make a country records when he wrote and Produced those songs….(Thats why they had a fiddle in there).
Weird to think that listeners of popular music back then could love those songs along with so many others that didn't all sound like the same song. In grade school I would hear Maggie May on the same AM station and Up Side Down by Diana Ross
People often praise me for my work with Was (Not Was), Mick Jagger, Bill Laswell, Bootsy and George etc etc BUT give me tons of shit about Rod Stewart as if he was not credible.
I tell them all they are nuts cuz Rod Stewart made sports arenas feel like someone's living room every night and those old songs broke the place down like a church. I owe him so much and love him like a big brother SO I'm so happy to see you rocking his catalog. Young artists need to study that music for real.
Stevie Salas
____________________________________
Subject: Re: The Virtual Rapper
Bob,
The real story is where were the black executives at the table to check out the deal before it was made. As a former Capitol SVP R&B Promotions & Marketing who is black, I know I would have said it's offensive or not a good look for the company. I know other black former SVPs at Capitol or any other label who would have raised a flag, thus saving the company the embarrassment, if there is such a thing.
For me that's the real story.
Always enjoy reading your material.
Best
David
David C Linton
Program Director
91.9FM WCLK
"Atlanta's Jazz Station"
Atlanta , Ga. 30314
____________________________________
From: Ralph Covert
Subject: Re: The Virtual Rapper
The labels specializing in "blowing things up from big to bigger" was my experience when I was signed to Universal/Disney. I had been with an indie that specialized in growth and marketing, and after experiencing major label love I would tell folks Disney specialized in "harvesting not developing." In a way, it's worse than you put it — they weren't even really blowing anything up, they were just along for the ride if it happened to occur. (They were lovely people, and treated me well; I'm merely sharing their marketing in action.)
This story captures it perfectly for me. Shortly before they signed me the "High School Musical" phenomenon happened. You may remember that at the time that album shattered all the digital release records. Strategy? Hardly. Someone from Disney TV stopped by the floor where the label lived (complete with a giant painting of Mickey Mouse as the Mod with motorcycle from The Who's "Quadraphenia" album cover by the elevator) and dropped off the master tape for the HSM album along with the release date. And there it lived, on his desk, under other papers. The TV show aired, HSM blew up, and all the teen girls wanted the music. (The only copy of which was still untouched on his desk.) The urgent phone call came in, he whipped out the artwork as fast as he could, and they released it digitally because it was the only thing they could do after the fact. And that, my friend, was their brilliant marketing plan, to turn on the spigots of money once the cash started flowing.
I made my "Rhyming Circus" album for them, which I consider my finest Ralph's World album (my Sgt. Peppers, you will), and it was released in 08 as the economy tanked. They had a 90 show big tent family tour booked, and it shut down after a half dozen shows, reconvening for the last weekend. They paid me (and I paid my band) for the full summer, but that was the start and end of that record. Ah, the rock n roll dream!
Keep doing what you do, it matters.
Ralph
____________________________________
From: Jim Griffin
Subject: Re: The Virtual Rapper
And this, Bob: No copyrights for AI or robots or non-human "creativity" – in the US, cannot survive the registration process at the USCO, but the UK says it's OK as does China. Hell, the UK addresses the issue of "life plus" by assigning it 50 years of term. By treaty we extend reciprocity to other countries, so we have questions ahead of us, profound questions of law and policy.
I agree. Copyright is about incentives and machines cannot be incentivized by copyright or money … the US Constitution doesn't support non-human copyright (remember the macaque selfie denied a US copyright). Will this change or is our course set?
Jim
____________________________________
From: Dan Millen
Subject: Re: The Virtual Rapper
2 things here to respond to:
1. Most pop music is all harmonized and quantized and created by formula anyway. This we know and you've covered extensively so ho hum.
2. Regarding cashless - one of my venues is now fully cashless including at the door.
The bar is easy, but I always resisted the door because in the past credit card sales have always slowed entry to a crawl.
Now it's tap to pay and it's actually faster than making change, and keeps door staff from being tempted to skim.
I don't as a promoter, ever hide cash sales at settlements, life is just too short for that and frankly, I didn't come up in that era, the system was long in place by the time I got in the game.
But now with cashless, and ticketing technology everything runs through the ticketing system, settlements are a breeze.
Generate a sales audit, plug the numbers into a spreadsheet, receipts if applicable are all digital, and payouts are all digital. Venmo, PayPal, zelle or if it's a really large number, bank wire.
I resisted for a long time but the tech is caught up and reliable, and COVID made everyone ready for cashless.
Oh one more thing, if you got any juice at the major agencies tell them to start accepting PayPal or Venmo or even credit cards for deposits.
1975 called and wants its checks and bank wires back
____________________________________
From: TS Bitterman
Subject: Re: Harry Styles At MSG
Security;
Like other workers at many US venues it's a P/T occasional job without much training & no future.
I worked with an Artist doing a residency at London's O2 and spent time with some of the security people ( we had a "B stage" and I always met with individuals working security to let them know that at a determined point in the show someone would be moving quickly by them from the stage to the house in the dark).
The question I ask in the US what do you do for a real job?
In the UK, that is the real job, it is a profession and they are trained in many aspects of crowd control including CPR and first aid
( over here no, but many touring crews are)
I went to the concourse and watched the security welcome guests into the arena and direct them towards there seats, taking time for a quick chat and to present a positive experience.
I saw them working within the audience quelling issues and presenting a face to help, or discourage bad behavior.
…and at the end of night assist ( not yell) guests out and direct them towards the trains.
It's a much different experience by design.
Cheers, TS
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From: Bob Davis
Subject: Re: Harry Styles At MSG
Can't tell you how many times I waltzed past $10/hour Rent-a-cops at gigs without my laminate on. It is a substantial number.
My favorite thing to do was leave my backstage office to go hang out with the FOH gang (sound engineer, LD, etc.) and go back to my office. Was never stopped a single time.
I also refused to let security search my bag upon entry when I arrived in the morning. That led to some funny standoffs.
Venue security is notoriously lame.
BD
Retired Tour Accountant
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Subject: RE: Dynamic Pricing
You're right about acts scalping their own tickets. And it's as old as the world's oldest profession.
In my Pace days, working for the legendary Louie Messina, we opened the big indoor/outdoor venue in Camden NJ in 1995. We were advised by the late Steve Greenberg, our consultant, to use local ticket brokers because "doctors and lawyers and stuff" weren't standing in line at Blockbuster stores to buy tickets. And they didn't care what they paid. It was more important for them to be seen than it was for the artist to be heard.
Pennsylvania law (it was essentially a Philly venue) restricted the resale of tickets for more than 10% of their face values in those days. The brokers could get around this by getting "tipped" on top of each transaction and the extra 10 points.
A major act who will go nameless...although there many of them.... went on sale sold out in a heartbeat. Philly, pound for pound, is the best live concert market in the country. Credit Larry Magid and WMMR Radio for that at least in a big part of that anyway. We gave the brokers allotments but they were not returnable the way old LPs were by the record stores. So they had some risk and they got hurt on shows that bombed.
One well known broker called me a week after the on sale of one sellout and said the Washington Post had tickets for our show on sale in little classified ads.
"You're holdin' out on me," he said.
I told him to buy the tickets from that Post ad and when he got them I'd pay him for them and we could track the locations from the holds once they were in his hands.
Yep, artist holds.
The main beef by artists in those days was not that their fans were getting jobbed by the scalpers. It was because they weren't in on it.
Now they can be with a legitimate claim that the market sets the price and why shouldn't they reap the benefit.
I'm with the acts on this one.
Tom Rooney
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Subject: A new ticket selling model...
Bob,
I'm a tour manager… a road dog. Lately, I've been working with Tommy James & The Shondells. We mainly do one-off's and weekend warrior stuff. On Tuesday, we played the Oklahoma State Fair. That same night, Pearl Jam was at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.
On our return flight to New York on Wednesday morning, there were at least a dozen people wearing Pearl Jam T-shirts on board; including the person seated next to me.
No doubt most of your readers, myself included, have traveled long distances to see a favorite band at some point in our lives, but those were road trips with (or to visit) friends and share an experience. This was not that.
My seat mate explained that she had flown out to see the band because she couldn't afford a ticket to see them at Madison Square Garden; at least not from good seats. It was cheaper by a couple of thousand dollars, total two days off of work, fly to OKC, book a hotel, bring her dog Maury along, take taxis, eat out and buy a great seat in OKC than to pay for a single ticket to MSG! What was most startling is that she was clearly not alone. As I said, there were at least a dozen others who had likely done the same thing.
The implications of this are enormous. For one thing, it is an obvious indictment (albeit on a minuscule scale) of the current ticket selling model. On the other hand, it opens up new ways to sell tickets in secondary markets. The same promoter who brought us to the Fair, brought Pearl Jam to the Paycom Center. I can see potential partnerships with airlines and hotels to package great seats and a good hotel room; maybe even dining perks… effectively taking money from one major economy and relocating it to a tertiary market.
Well, I trust you can see why I thought of sharing this observation with you. I won't take up any more of your time. Stay well and keep writing!
Rich Nesin
P.S. I should mention that this person had never been to Oklahoma before and picked it because she was able to get good seats for the show.
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Subject: Re: China
Absolutely love my new Kia EV6. I got the lowest model, the EV6 Light, without AWD and the larger range. The EV6 was built from the ground up as an EV, and is targeted squarely at the Tesla 3 market. I test drove both the EV6 and the Tesla and my decision was easy. The Kia feels like a luxury auto, while the Tesla felt like a cheaper version of their real car. I've got solar panels on my garage that feed my level 2 charger, so the only time I pay for fuel is when I'm on the road, and Kia gave me 1000 free hours of charging at Electrify America chargers. Since I can go from 20% to 80% in about 20 minutes, those 1000 hours will likely last me for as long as I own the car.
So I'm driving a very nice car and not paying for fuel. Why the hell are people so afraid to move away from fossil fuels?
Chris White
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Subject: Re: China
Correct. We Americans are small minded.
I live in Shenzhen. Clean. Very little graffiti. I know of 3 Bentley dealerships. All the buses are Electric. The subway is electric. The train is electric.
The AQI is always excellent, better than LA.
Oh, that's because they are oppressed commies! This is not the USSR.
Every neighborhood has a high end mall.
Oh, the Covid Zero policy is wack, but no one is sick.
You should see the BYD cars here. Stunning.
By the way, what does BYD stand for?
Build Your Dreams! No joke
William
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Subject: RE: Mailbag-Cash/Pickleball/More
Our local Greek restaurant in Santa Clarita, which has takeout, had so many overnight break ins to grab cash out of the register that they did away with cash. They only take credit cards and of course, Apple Pay. No break ins after that because there is no cash to steal, the only "bread" they have is pita.
Philip A. Wasserman
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From: Jonathan Peirce
Subject: Re: Mailbag-Cash/Pickleball/More
Around 2015 my son (who attended a private school for kids with Autism) was learning how to count money. We had piles of change around, that he would pretend to use. I hadn't carried cash for years and thought it was ridiculous, but whatever… about a month later I was at a meeting at this school, where a well known director of another big school for special needs was speaking, and one of the things he said was 'how many teachers here are teaching their kids how to count change?' After all the teachers raised their hands, he said "YOU'RE WASTING THEIR TIME. By the time they get out of this school, there will be no cash." They all stopped teaching it the next day.
-I spend a good portion of the year living in Mexico: Cash is still used every day, it drives me crazy.
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Subject: Re: Mailbag-Cash/Pickleball/More
More re: cash.
Saw a "just married" car driving through my town the other day. Note underneath nuptial announcement had a "Buy them a drink on their honeymoon" with Venmo handle. I laughed and sent them $10.
No idea who these people are and never will. Nice novelty though.
Yannick Peary
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From: jemail
Subject: Re: LIV Golf
Phil Michelson is a prat. At the Yellowstone Club, which was created in Big Sky, Montana for families who loved to ski powder and morphed into another placeholder for rich jerks and Hollywood posers, Michelson was the first sign of the rot. Bill Gates was a member for a long time before and was pretty much ignored, which I think was fine with him. When Timberlake and Michelson joined they couldn't resist showing off in Twenty Below, the kids club and diner under the main lodge. One occasion of many: Michelson was the only adult playing dodgeball with kids aged about 7 -13 yet gleefully whipped the balls as hard as he could (he's a large powerful man) even at close range When they naturally ganged up on him, and got him out quicker and quicker, each time he'd announce 'jailbreak' immediately and resume his position on the court to their boos and disdain. He didn't care. He wanted to keep playing, despite plenty of bruises on the kids. Giant wanker and bad sport.
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Subject: Re: LIV Golf
Hi Bob, thanks for highlighting the LIV tour. Most of your readers don't know the difference between the PGA Tour and the PGA of America. The PGA Tour is comprised of the guys you see on TV playing golf for money. The PGA of America is comprised of the men and women who conduct the business of golf on a community level, i.e. your local golf course. Most people don't know the difference between the two organizations and even more don't care. But for us PGA of America members, it does matter. I don't play golf for a living - I teach golf and operate a golf course - but if I did play for a living I wouldn't go near that Saudi money. Those guys that took that blood money are forever beholden to the Saudi's and for more than just playing in a LIV event.
You didn't mention Greg Norman, who's running point for the LIV tour. Among his many holdings, he also heads an apparel company. You won't see his label in my golf shop anymore. Not that he needs the money.
Sean McGowan
Head PGA Professional
Quail Valley Golf Course
Banks, OR
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From: JH Tompkins
Subject: Re: The USC/L.A. Times Book
Bob, another great column, but of course not only am I your age and grew up on newspapers (my old man was a journalist and we got NYT, Herald Tribune, Newsday, and World Telegram everyday), I was a journalist before the fall of the alt-weeklies, the circuit where I worked. I teach journalism at the JC level and often have students who have never read a paper - it's all social media of one sort or another - but there is a place for all of them out there. Still, there's no way what NYT means to me translates to my students. A quick note on the Ivies' secret society: I went to Princeton, and for reasons that have little to do with any qualifications other than have been accepted to the place, its opened all kinds of doors over the years. It's kind of embarrassing, actually, even thought it's been personally useful from time to time. I read Bad LA - and you're right, it's two stories, but even if part 2 is "inside baseball," the struggle to discover and spread facts that undercut the lies and bullshit that pass for truth is absolutely essential. I don't think that big city newspapers will have a resurgence - in print or online - but if we don't find an avenue to educate - in schools, in neighborhoods and communities, on social media, and all the other pipelines for information - we are fucked. Period. People actually believe QAnon. Lastly, Lindsay Graham's call to riot (that's what it was, a page right out of the Trump playbook) shows how perilous the times are - not because Trump's thievery is so godawful (we expect this from him after all), but because there are fascist shock troops - real live fascists, not just wanna-be soldiers wanting to look cool in redneck boroughs - itching for a chance to shoot people.
Duck.
JH Tompkins
LA
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From: Jon Clancy Webster
Subject: 24 writers
Dear Bob
From afar I would like to stick my oar in.
The USA (like Iraq, Iran and Burundi and a couple of others) don't pay Public performance royalties (radio play/bars at least) to master rights owners (record companies). The rest of the world does.
As such the dispute about 24 writers on a Beyonce track may seem a little mad.
There are rules that work out the distribution of master rights income on radio play in the rest of the world. It mostly goes labels, signed artists (featured artists) and session guys. This money can be substantial. The rules are arcane but in the UK mean that Rhianna being a Commonwealth citizen (Barbadian) gets paid as a performer every time one of her records gets played on UK radio and throughout the world (but not the USA). Over the years that's a load of money - 7 or 8 figures in pounds. But American artists do not - that money goes straight to the UK labels concerned.
The original session player of say a drum beat in 1964 does gets paid. (see below)
So presumably the rules/conventions have also worked out that when a sample from a track is used on another track then ALL the writers on the original track get a publishing share depending on the original splits in the song whether they wrote the piece sampled or not. Hence 24 writers.
I was once told by a friend in Publishing that on the day or release of a worldwide smash back in the day there were two writers credited. Six months later that was fifteen as the artist couldn't afford to pay the wardrobe person etc so gave them a piece of their publishing. More fool that artist.
The last piece of the jigsaw is that of much sampled drum beats etc. If a sixties drum fill gets used on a track then they should get paid performance income when a master is played on the radio with that sample in it. But what happens when a sample is of a sample which is of a sample? How can the splits be worked out? And who knows whether the sample was of the original track or of the track that sampled the original and was a copy?
Of these subjects lawsuits and lawyers get rich!
Best Regards in retirement and glad of it..
webbo
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Subject: Marcus King
Heard of him… have always meant to check him out… listened to the pod…instant fan! When he brought up the Tucker and Company thing… I literally let out a whoop in my car! His 2 albums he picked blew me away… I loved it…can't recommend this enough!
Tom Clark
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Subject: Re: Jean-Luc Godard
Hi Bob,
Thanks for putting the phenomenal 60's in context (once again) when pop culture moved at the speed of light (like a film projector) and to which global reactionary forces have been pushing back against ever since, desperately trying to maintain a status quo that is no longer relevant. I never met Godard but back in the 90's my wife and I were getting on the Geneve - Paris train and as we settled into our seats my wife Françoise (who is a French actress) was visibly excited. "Don't turn around," she said. "But Jean-Luc Godard is on the train." I casually walked back down the aisle and there he was, sitting by himself, reading a paperback policier (cheap French crime novels). He had on semi-dark glasses and a rumpled tweed jacket. I told my wife she should go up to him and introduce herself as she's an actress. "I would never do that," she said. "Why?" I asked. She looked at me like I was a moron. "Because he's Godard!" she said. And it made perfect sense.
From Paris,
Elliott Murphy
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From: stephanie zill
Subject: dumb question
Bob, you probably won't have time to answer this and I'm sure it's a dumb question, but why is Morgan Wallen 'toxic'? What did he do? I never heard of him till I heard 'Wasted on You' on the radio, I think it's a really good song, it's so weird and minor chord-ish. But what's wrong with him to make the intelligentsia hate him?
It's fine if you can't answer, just thought I'd give it a shot, I figure it's some inside-baseball type stuff cause I didn't see anything online when I googled for him.
Thanks & I love reading your column as always!
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Subject: Re: Lykkeland
Bob,
This Likkeland is Fantastic!
I've read you regularly since I first saw you more than a decade ago as Keynote Speaker at Folk Alliance in 2012 administering a dose of what I'd euphemistically refer to as "tough love" to the thousands of assembled folk artists all aspiring to "make it" in the music world. I was accompanying my then 13 year old daughter who'd recently uncovered her artistic gifts and was showcasing them for the first time. (I accompanied her on another 200K miles/400 gigs before she could fly on her own as the artist she is and will always be).
How could I ever have predicted that more than a decade later I'd be so excited to respond to your head's up missive about a non-music related TV series which I clearly would have missed otherwise (largely due to the hoaky translation of the title).
You see I was a freshly minted Naval Architect employed by Mobil Research and Development Corp stateside who was "seconded" (assigned) to Mobil Exploration Norway Inc. in early March of 1984 to support our marine field operations in the Statfjord Field out of the Stavager office. I spent the most memorable three years of the 64 years I've so far logged to date living in Stavanger, (the first two as a mid twenties single guy and the third with my future wife to be).
While my wife and I are only half way through enjoying the first season (still set in 1970) of the unfolding story, I can share with you and your readers that this NRK production is 100% authentic in it's representation of Stavanger (none of this Hollywood practice of filming New England scenes in British Columbia to capitalize on some tax incentive!). My office in the Crossed Fish Building on the key side, my apartment overlooking Breiavatnet, the pond in the center of town, all look the same as the day I left in December 1986! And the municipal representatives and industry captains of shipping and fishing referenced were all still players in the scene during the mid eighties.
I can't thank you enough for highlighting this production as I would have missed it for the reason you so often point out....too much content to sift through!
This one head's up is worth all the Lefsetz Letter subscription fees I've paid this past decade. (LOL!).
Keep doing what you're doing "till you just can't do it anymore. There are many of us who absolutely look forward to your next post, to new thoughts you have to share, no matter where it veers from the current state of the music industry!
Pete Reardon
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From: Peter Burnside
Subject: Re: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Checked with my kids and yea, Tik Tok is the new search engine. As one said, if you google "wedding dresses" you get ads from dress stores showing size zero models. If you do on Tik Tok, you get a bunch of people who look like us in dresses talking about where they got them and what sort of deal they go.
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From: Martin Media
Subject: Rushdie attack
Until now, it's all been fun and games, not much more than talk show fodder. Nobody really got seriously hurt. Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle... but this is going to be a game-changer. The guy may lose and eye and his liver was stabbed with a knife any metal detector would have caught.
I've already been getting riders from comics (and bands) requiring metal detectors at the entrances and bodyguards all day and within feet of the stage or else they won't agree to do the date. Another extra expense the promoter will have to bear, but unfortunately, the time has come. Look forward to hearing your comments on this one.
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Subject: RE: Summer Songs Playlist
Hi Bob,
An addendum to the list of Songs of Summer: The last song on the list is "Piece of My Heart" by Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring Janis Joplin. That song was co-written by one of my early mentors, Jerry Ragovoy, a great record producer and songwriter.
The original version of the song was recorded by Erma Franklin, Aretha's sister, and produced by Jerry and Bert Berns. It was released in 1967 on the Shout label and did fairly well in the R and B market. I urge everyone to listen to this original, which to my ear is much, much better than Janis's version.
Jerry told me the story of the session. He had assembled what was then one of the great studio bands in New York: Herb Lovelle on drums, Paul Griffin on piano, Eric Gale on guitar and Chuck Rainey on bass. However, for some reason, Rainey was late to the session, so they cut the tune with no bass. After they got the take, Rainey had still not arrived, so Eric Gale overdubbed the bass. I asked him about it later and he said that he played a borrowed bass using a thumb pick. That is the version you hear if you play it now.
Right from the outset, the band sets a slow, spidery groove, steady as a metronome and sitting back on the beat. The musicians are so together, so in the pocket, it seems they must have been rehearsing for weeks. This cool groove provides a sparse, open bed for Erma to tell her tale. Eric Gale does very little on guitar, providing rhythmic chunks on the back beat, while Paul Griffin takes the lead. The pianist combines a gospel feel, with unmistakable countryish, Floyd Cramer-style chordings. After the intro, Erma starts off sounding wounded and hurt, but by the pre-chorus, she gains in strength, showing us that indeed, a woman can be tough. Gale's overdubbed bass part starts simple, but builds with the track, becoming very active in the chorus and adding to the excitement. A simple, effective horn arrangement and some great background vocals added in make this a true classic, sadly under-appreciated.
Best,
John Boylan
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Subject: Re: Summer Songs Playlist
Hey Bob:
Wow great list. Almost every track has a memory. In particular Tommy Roe and "Sweet Pea." Mom and dad borrowed a camper, the kind that sits atop a pickup, and we made our way to Colorado. My brother and I would ride in the back (not even legal these days…seat belts, what seat belts?) and listen to the radio as we laid in that bunk bed with the window above the cab. What a perch to see the Rockies. It was an old camper but it had an intercom so cab and camper top could communicate in case of emergencies. Bad move. It somehow got stuck on "talk" during the ascent of the Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway and mom and dad heard endless choruses of "Sweet Pea" (different accents and laughter non-stop) and there was no way to tell us to stop until dad got to the the pass of some mountain. They were frazzled but I can still remember the laughter. It was our last family trip together.
Jon Erdahl
3D MediaVentures
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Subject: Liona Boyd...ONJ
Hi Bob,
Not sure if you plan any newsletter re Olivia, but in case you do here goes.
Olivia and I became close friends after finding ourselves neighbours when we lived in Paradise Cove, Malibu thirty years ago.
I talked to her quite recently and have been in touch with her husband, John Easterling who was caring for her around the clock in the hospital and at home in Santa Ynez. They had adored each other since the day they first met and they shared the deepest spiritual and romantic love I had ever witnessed. Yesterday I was devastated, but not really surprised, to receive a text from John saying she had finally passed. Part of me felt relieved for them both, but the tears would not stop.
Olivia had always been so generous and protective of me like an older sister…. inviting me to stay in her Jupiter house, playing folksongs together, sending me samples of John's healing Amazon herbs, introducing me to some of her music business contacts, inviting me on Palm Beach shopping trips and offering to sing with me on my song, "Canadian Summer Dreams". For my producer and I that was such an amazing and unforgettable experience.
I shall always miss her making me a "cuppa" tea, her lovely smile and gentle, loving spirit. The world has lost a treasured human being. Condolences to her daughter Chloe and to her husband John.
RIP dearest, brave Olivia.
Liona Boyd
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From: Eric Frankhouser
Subject: Re: HP Envy 6455e
Ok… So all Apple/Mac all the time… It's just the way it is if you live your life on the road. PC's are useless to me out here.
As a TM I rely heavily on iMessage… I don't want to hear about Whatsapp… I don't have the time or band with out here to deal with a third party app.
Sure - I get forced into using Whatsapp in Europe, but only for chats with the locals. I still want our internal tour threads to be on iMessage.
iMessage works, and it works flawlessly across my iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac Book pro. I can send files/pics to massive text chains and keep everyone moving in the same direction in a seamless fashion.
Truth? If all things are dead equal between a new hire… And one has an iPhone and one has an Android… I am going to hire the iPhone user…
Concerning printers: I rely heavily on Epson WorkForce series printers. They do the heavy lifting for me on the road. They have proven to be able to take beating. Printers in production boxes get loaded in and out of a truck everyday, get rattled around, and get flown around the world… I can't risk a printer dying on me… My Epson's have risen to the challenge.
Like every TM on the planet I also have a Canon TR-150 as my fly date/emergency printer, and it is perfect for the smaller stuff… But when I need to knock out a massive amount of set lists in a short time, the bigger Epson in my work box is the unquestioned go to…
I think printers for TM's are like guitars for a musician… Whatever your main axe is, you don't want to leave home without it. Of course printers don't improve and become "Vintage," But they are a vital tool… Even with all of the digital communication tools we have at our disposal like Master Tour.
But… I am an old road dog. When I started in the biz we were using pagers, and MCI calling cards. We printed physical tour books for people!
It was a different world then… Not better or worse, just a different reality.
Cheers,
Eric
Eric Frankhouser - Tour Manager
Strict Angel Tour Management
"Tour Management, Logistics and Production since 1993"
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From: Tom Clark
Subject: Re: Trilogy-Lovin' Me/To Make A Woman Feel Wanted/Peace Of Mind
I remember one of my first concerts… Loggins & Messina at Frost Amphitheater on the Stanford campus…early 70's.
They open with Same Old Wine…very quiet… just a flute and Jim singing…after the first chorus it's still quiet and the tune hits a spot where boom it goes electric… I'm not explaining this very well but when they hit the gas like that the song took off…
I'll be 68 next Thursday… I've been to a ton of shows…and I can honestly say nothing for me has topped that moment…I get chills just thinking about it again…Mahalo for bringing this memory back Bob…
Tom Clark
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From: Damon Buxton
Subject: Re: Trilogy-Lovin' Me/To Make A Woman Feel Wanted/Peace Of Mind
In 1973 a 15 year old me sang "Danny's Song" to a girl and she fell in love with me. I taught myself to play the guitar by fingerpicking chord charts for Loggins & Messina's music.
Jim is one of the best guitarists on the planet.
No other band has comforted or inspired me the way Loggins & Messina has. I credit them with making me a musician.
I agree that "Same Old Wine" is still relevant and among their best work.
Thanks Bob.
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From: Eric Altman
Subject: Re: Trilogy-Lovin' Me/To Make A Woman Feel Wanted/Peace Of Mind
Hey Bob-
"Same Old Wine" helped me look brilliant to a high school english teacher. The A she gave me for encapsulating that season's political circus was totally inspired by playing the #37th or 38th spinning of Sittin' in its entirety. The snap of the idea came while standing at the sink doing after-dinner dishes. Two 25' coiled headphone cables (resistance, what resistance?) and a pair of Koss headphones turned drudgery into my very own universe as always.
Drove home to Denver from the Boston area a couple of weeks ago, my full metal jacket badass wife doing her thing on her phone, computer, and MiFi beside me. Headphones on yet again I heard the call to revisit Sittin' In. You sum up the album perfectly. Went on to scan through Loggins & Messina and Full Sail for a while too. Go back and listen to Pathway to Glory, it ain't Same Old Wine but the musicianship and production…ahhhhhh. As is now too frequent, I heard through a friend who was buddies with Larry Sims that that fine contributor passed not long ago.
Listened to you and Marcus yesterday. Within minutes I thought "Holy shit Bob, you think he's going to answer that? In testimony to himself he did, in testimony to you I knew he would. Superb work Bob.
Thank You-
Eric
PS - Moonage Daydream…we're seeing Jackson Browne thirteenth row at Red Rocks tomorrow night setting a new personal best for fucking ridiculous ticket expenditure. I went the singer/songwriter route, Ziggy not so much back then. Came to love bits and pieces of his work over the years and in curiosity and to pay homage we went last night. Fantastic piece of work and I learned about an artist like I've never learned before…and it was hard work viewing. I'm no fan of "experimental film" but what a pay-off. I'm sure Mr. Bowie is smiling.
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From: wolfereeno
Subject: Re: Indian Matchmaking-Season 2
Re Indian Matchmaking. I've been in Tech for 30 years and in the middle of the outsourcing revolution. I've had many dozens of people on my teams based in India or in the US on VISA's and the stories about their marriages are incredible.
Usually it starts with a young guy (sometimes a woman but not as often) in the US on a consulting project and has some chance of being hired full time by his client. This in itself is an accomplishment as there is much competition to work for the right company, for the right client, and then to be the one chosen to work on-site in the west. But once he's grabbed a rung on the ladder, the parents back home get to work. Various details for how matchmaking work seems to vary by location - India is a huge place with many ethnicities and regional customs. But the biggest lure on the hook after religious and cultural compatibility, is who he works for and what's his title. I've been asked more than once when hiring someone to bump up not their starting salary or bonus, but their title. One HR person told me they were contacted by a prospective hire's parents for this very reason.
I can recall the first time one of my star programmers asked for a month off to go home to get married. I said "Congratulations! Who's the lucky girl?" to which he replied "I don't know yet!" -- which of course blew my clueless zero perspective mind. Then he told me the process: The parents get together, sometimes with matchmakers, and put together a one page resume with a picture of the woman, sending maybe 2-3 finalists to the young man, and then plan for his visit where he'd have a date with each and be expected to make a choice.
Then there'd be an incredibly elaborate wedding, sometimes lasting days, involving Elephants, Transvestites (for good luck), and the couple spending a night together to make sure things "Work" with the inlaws next door. Then the young man would return married and begin the paperwork of bringing his bride to her new country. That would take a few months and frequently coincided with her coming to the East Coast in time to experience snow for the first time.
I have to admit I often had a hard time suppressing judgement and would gently ask, "What about marrying for love?" The response was always "Love will Come" - a strange bromide coming from a 25 year old. But hey, I married my HS crush and it was a total disaster so who am I to question thousands of years of tradition.
Also knowing many of these families through several jobs and seeing them grow, I can't recall a single marriage that failed. I'm sure it's not that simple and there are many risks for the spouse coming to a strange land. But from my experience the inlaws usually visit often, sometimes to stay once kids arrive, and large Indian communities have evolved for more familiarity and support systems.
Anyway, I have to admit in my more recent dating experience I decided that lust at first sight was not the most reliable way to find a compatible match, so I went online and went on a date with the first woman who contacted me that seemed interesting. The end result? I married a brilliant woman with an MD/PhD who's funny, talented, and attractive. If you get out of your own way, love comes...
B in NYC
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From: Richard Griffiths
Subject: Re: Mo Ostin
When I was running Epic backin the early/mid 90s I always knew that if we were competing against Mo to sign an act, we would lose! He was always a complete charmer as well as brilliant music man.
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Subject: From Scott Borchetta: More Mo Ostin
Hey there,
I've been tied up with our Big Machine Music City Grand Prix or I would've replied sooner.
One of the biggest treasures of my career was working for Mo at DreamWorks... so many great memories...
In the spring of 1997, after being 'relieved of my services' from MCA Nashville, I was being hired by Mo to help launch DreamWorks Nashville. My first meeting in the 3rd Ave building was very clearly laid out in advance - "Mo's only got 30 minutes." I walk into his office and sat down and it was on... He wanted to know about everything going on in Nashville. But, somehow, he knew a lot of inside baseball gossip about Nashville, which I found fascinating. Two and a half hours later after telling me about signing Hendrix, Van Halen, etc, his assistant buzzed in and said, "Mo, Lenny's been waiting..." Before I got up to leave I asked Mo if, by chance, he had a copy of "Mo's Songs"... He buzzed his assistant and said, "please bring in a copy of Mo's Songs for Scott..." He handed it to me... and I handed it back and asked if he'd sign and date it... which he gladly did...
At the time of that first meeting I was still bound by my former MCA/Universal contract... and in the fall of 1997 there was a huge industry lunch welcoming DreamWorks to Nashville... and everyone came in for it. Mo, Lenny, Michael, all the Universal Distribution people (DreamWorks was distributed by UMG), press, other Nashville label heads, etc. I was there but they couldn't announce me because UMG was still being difficult with my contract release.
After lunch I saw Mo get up and walk directly over to UMG's Zach Horowitz, who was the one holding up my deal, and said, "Zach, we need to get Scott's deal done... immediately..."
About an hour after the lunch my phone rings and it's Zach...
He said, "what's the number?" I said, "Same as it's always been"... of which Zach responded, "you'll have a check tomorrow."
Mo was beloved... but you also didn't mess with him!
Long before I was in the biz, he was my idol... once in the biz, he was my hero... what I learned from him will always be with me.
Hope you're well and hope to connect sooner than later.
Best,
Scott
Subject: Re: Fwd: Trilogy-Lovin' Me/To Make A Woman Feel Wanted/Peace Of Mind
Hey Bob,
Thank you for your words regarding Loggins and Messina. Makes me happy to know that you enjoyed the music we made so damn long ago.
A couple quick notes.
Messina put the band together early 1971. We rehearsed daily for months, finally recording in November of that year. This was Jimmy's way. Know the song well enough that improvisation could happen inside of TIGHT arrangements. As with all our recordings, when we cut Sittin' In it was recorded basically live. Some solos. Some bg vocs. That was it. All our albums were cut with intense rehearsals prior to the studio.
Contrary to what some might say, this was purely/simply Jimmy's band. We worked hard for basically nothing that first year. What we had was music that we KNEW was special - and - we had Jimmy's promises that WHEN the band was successful, that we would ALL participate in the payoff for the work given. 50 years later, I still realize the truth of his promise.
In 2003 Jimmy brought the original band back together to rehearse and do two shows. This was done without Loggins. It was the last time my dear brother, Jon Clarke, would ever be on stage. It was the 'best' we'd ever sounded. We played. It was done.
BTW: though I enjoyed all the music, the specific songs you mention were my favorites as well. Your Mama Don't Dance? Meh!!!
Be well,
Merel
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Subject: Re: Rod Stewart-1 Playlist
Bob
The first band I ever joined after leaving my high school band in San Diego was The Rod Stewart Band.
Playing any of the early solo songs as well as The Faces songs was an unimaginable treat for a kid in 1988. You Wear It Well and Maggie were two of my favorites so imagine my surprise when this surfing skateboarding lover of P- funk, Aerosmith and Iggy who thought country music was lame found out that Rod was attempting to make a country records when he wrote and Produced those songs….(Thats why they had a fiddle in there).
Weird to think that listeners of popular music back then could love those songs along with so many others that didn't all sound like the same song. In grade school I would hear Maggie May on the same AM station and Up Side Down by Diana Ross
People often praise me for my work with Was (Not Was), Mick Jagger, Bill Laswell, Bootsy and George etc etc BUT give me tons of shit about Rod Stewart as if he was not credible.
I tell them all they are nuts cuz Rod Stewart made sports arenas feel like someone's living room every night and those old songs broke the place down like a church. I owe him so much and love him like a big brother SO I'm so happy to see you rocking his catalog. Young artists need to study that music for real.
Stevie Salas
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Subject: Re: The Virtual Rapper
Bob,
The real story is where were the black executives at the table to check out the deal before it was made. As a former Capitol SVP R&B Promotions & Marketing who is black, I know I would have said it's offensive or not a good look for the company. I know other black former SVPs at Capitol or any other label who would have raised a flag, thus saving the company the embarrassment, if there is such a thing.
For me that's the real story.
Always enjoy reading your material.
Best
David
David C Linton
Program Director
91.9FM WCLK
"Atlanta's Jazz Station"
Atlanta , Ga. 30314
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From: Ralph Covert
Subject: Re: The Virtual Rapper
The labels specializing in "blowing things up from big to bigger" was my experience when I was signed to Universal/Disney. I had been with an indie that specialized in growth and marketing, and after experiencing major label love I would tell folks Disney specialized in "harvesting not developing." In a way, it's worse than you put it — they weren't even really blowing anything up, they were just along for the ride if it happened to occur. (They were lovely people, and treated me well; I'm merely sharing their marketing in action.)
This story captures it perfectly for me. Shortly before they signed me the "High School Musical" phenomenon happened. You may remember that at the time that album shattered all the digital release records. Strategy? Hardly. Someone from Disney TV stopped by the floor where the label lived (complete with a giant painting of Mickey Mouse as the Mod with motorcycle from The Who's "Quadraphenia" album cover by the elevator) and dropped off the master tape for the HSM album along with the release date. And there it lived, on his desk, under other papers. The TV show aired, HSM blew up, and all the teen girls wanted the music. (The only copy of which was still untouched on his desk.) The urgent phone call came in, he whipped out the artwork as fast as he could, and they released it digitally because it was the only thing they could do after the fact. And that, my friend, was their brilliant marketing plan, to turn on the spigots of money once the cash started flowing.
I made my "Rhyming Circus" album for them, which I consider my finest Ralph's World album (my Sgt. Peppers, you will), and it was released in 08 as the economy tanked. They had a 90 show big tent family tour booked, and it shut down after a half dozen shows, reconvening for the last weekend. They paid me (and I paid my band) for the full summer, but that was the start and end of that record. Ah, the rock n roll dream!
Keep doing what you do, it matters.
Ralph
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From: Jim Griffin
Subject: Re: The Virtual Rapper
And this, Bob: No copyrights for AI or robots or non-human "creativity" – in the US, cannot survive the registration process at the USCO, but the UK says it's OK as does China. Hell, the UK addresses the issue of "life plus" by assigning it 50 years of term. By treaty we extend reciprocity to other countries, so we have questions ahead of us, profound questions of law and policy.
I agree. Copyright is about incentives and machines cannot be incentivized by copyright or money … the US Constitution doesn't support non-human copyright (remember the macaque selfie denied a US copyright). Will this change or is our course set?
Jim
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From: Dan Millen
Subject: Re: The Virtual Rapper
2 things here to respond to:
1. Most pop music is all harmonized and quantized and created by formula anyway. This we know and you've covered extensively so ho hum.
2. Regarding cashless - one of my venues is now fully cashless including at the door.
The bar is easy, but I always resisted the door because in the past credit card sales have always slowed entry to a crawl.
Now it's tap to pay and it's actually faster than making change, and keeps door staff from being tempted to skim.
I don't as a promoter, ever hide cash sales at settlements, life is just too short for that and frankly, I didn't come up in that era, the system was long in place by the time I got in the game.
But now with cashless, and ticketing technology everything runs through the ticketing system, settlements are a breeze.
Generate a sales audit, plug the numbers into a spreadsheet, receipts if applicable are all digital, and payouts are all digital. Venmo, PayPal, zelle or if it's a really large number, bank wire.
I resisted for a long time but the tech is caught up and reliable, and COVID made everyone ready for cashless.
Oh one more thing, if you got any juice at the major agencies tell them to start accepting PayPal or Venmo or even credit cards for deposits.
1975 called and wants its checks and bank wires back
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From: TS Bitterman
Subject: Re: Harry Styles At MSG
Security;
Like other workers at many US venues it's a P/T occasional job without much training & no future.
I worked with an Artist doing a residency at London's O2 and spent time with some of the security people ( we had a "B stage" and I always met with individuals working security to let them know that at a determined point in the show someone would be moving quickly by them from the stage to the house in the dark).
The question I ask in the US what do you do for a real job?
In the UK, that is the real job, it is a profession and they are trained in many aspects of crowd control including CPR and first aid
( over here no, but many touring crews are)
I went to the concourse and watched the security welcome guests into the arena and direct them towards there seats, taking time for a quick chat and to present a positive experience.
I saw them working within the audience quelling issues and presenting a face to help, or discourage bad behavior.
…and at the end of night assist ( not yell) guests out and direct them towards the trains.
It's a much different experience by design.
Cheers, TS
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From: Bob Davis
Subject: Re: Harry Styles At MSG
Can't tell you how many times I waltzed past $10/hour Rent-a-cops at gigs without my laminate on. It is a substantial number.
My favorite thing to do was leave my backstage office to go hang out with the FOH gang (sound engineer, LD, etc.) and go back to my office. Was never stopped a single time.
I also refused to let security search my bag upon entry when I arrived in the morning. That led to some funny standoffs.
Venue security is notoriously lame.
BD
Retired Tour Accountant
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Subject: RE: Dynamic Pricing
You're right about acts scalping their own tickets. And it's as old as the world's oldest profession.
In my Pace days, working for the legendary Louie Messina, we opened the big indoor/outdoor venue in Camden NJ in 1995. We were advised by the late Steve Greenberg, our consultant, to use local ticket brokers because "doctors and lawyers and stuff" weren't standing in line at Blockbuster stores to buy tickets. And they didn't care what they paid. It was more important for them to be seen than it was for the artist to be heard.
Pennsylvania law (it was essentially a Philly venue) restricted the resale of tickets for more than 10% of their face values in those days. The brokers could get around this by getting "tipped" on top of each transaction and the extra 10 points.
A major act who will go nameless...although there many of them.... went on sale sold out in a heartbeat. Philly, pound for pound, is the best live concert market in the country. Credit Larry Magid and WMMR Radio for that at least in a big part of that anyway. We gave the brokers allotments but they were not returnable the way old LPs were by the record stores. So they had some risk and they got hurt on shows that bombed.
One well known broker called me a week after the on sale of one sellout and said the Washington Post had tickets for our show on sale in little classified ads.
"You're holdin' out on me," he said.
I told him to buy the tickets from that Post ad and when he got them I'd pay him for them and we could track the locations from the holds once they were in his hands.
Yep, artist holds.
The main beef by artists in those days was not that their fans were getting jobbed by the scalpers. It was because they weren't in on it.
Now they can be with a legitimate claim that the market sets the price and why shouldn't they reap the benefit.
I'm with the acts on this one.
Tom Rooney
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Subject: A new ticket selling model...
Bob,
I'm a tour manager… a road dog. Lately, I've been working with Tommy James & The Shondells. We mainly do one-off's and weekend warrior stuff. On Tuesday, we played the Oklahoma State Fair. That same night, Pearl Jam was at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.
On our return flight to New York on Wednesday morning, there were at least a dozen people wearing Pearl Jam T-shirts on board; including the person seated next to me.
No doubt most of your readers, myself included, have traveled long distances to see a favorite band at some point in our lives, but those were road trips with (or to visit) friends and share an experience. This was not that.
My seat mate explained that she had flown out to see the band because she couldn't afford a ticket to see them at Madison Square Garden; at least not from good seats. It was cheaper by a couple of thousand dollars, total two days off of work, fly to OKC, book a hotel, bring her dog Maury along, take taxis, eat out and buy a great seat in OKC than to pay for a single ticket to MSG! What was most startling is that she was clearly not alone. As I said, there were at least a dozen others who had likely done the same thing.
The implications of this are enormous. For one thing, it is an obvious indictment (albeit on a minuscule scale) of the current ticket selling model. On the other hand, it opens up new ways to sell tickets in secondary markets. The same promoter who brought us to the Fair, brought Pearl Jam to the Paycom Center. I can see potential partnerships with airlines and hotels to package great seats and a good hotel room; maybe even dining perks… effectively taking money from one major economy and relocating it to a tertiary market.
Well, I trust you can see why I thought of sharing this observation with you. I won't take up any more of your time. Stay well and keep writing!
Rich Nesin
P.S. I should mention that this person had never been to Oklahoma before and picked it because she was able to get good seats for the show.
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Subject: Re: China
Absolutely love my new Kia EV6. I got the lowest model, the EV6 Light, without AWD and the larger range. The EV6 was built from the ground up as an EV, and is targeted squarely at the Tesla 3 market. I test drove both the EV6 and the Tesla and my decision was easy. The Kia feels like a luxury auto, while the Tesla felt like a cheaper version of their real car. I've got solar panels on my garage that feed my level 2 charger, so the only time I pay for fuel is when I'm on the road, and Kia gave me 1000 free hours of charging at Electrify America chargers. Since I can go from 20% to 80% in about 20 minutes, those 1000 hours will likely last me for as long as I own the car.
So I'm driving a very nice car and not paying for fuel. Why the hell are people so afraid to move away from fossil fuels?
Chris White
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Subject: Re: China
Correct. We Americans are small minded.
I live in Shenzhen. Clean. Very little graffiti. I know of 3 Bentley dealerships. All the buses are Electric. The subway is electric. The train is electric.
The AQI is always excellent, better than LA.
Oh, that's because they are oppressed commies! This is not the USSR.
Every neighborhood has a high end mall.
Oh, the Covid Zero policy is wack, but no one is sick.
You should see the BYD cars here. Stunning.
By the way, what does BYD stand for?
Build Your Dreams! No joke
William
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Subject: RE: Mailbag-Cash/Pickleball/More
Our local Greek restaurant in Santa Clarita, which has takeout, had so many overnight break ins to grab cash out of the register that they did away with cash. They only take credit cards and of course, Apple Pay. No break ins after that because there is no cash to steal, the only "bread" they have is pita.
Philip A. Wasserman
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From: Jonathan Peirce
Subject: Re: Mailbag-Cash/Pickleball/More
Around 2015 my son (who attended a private school for kids with Autism) was learning how to count money. We had piles of change around, that he would pretend to use. I hadn't carried cash for years and thought it was ridiculous, but whatever… about a month later I was at a meeting at this school, where a well known director of another big school for special needs was speaking, and one of the things he said was 'how many teachers here are teaching their kids how to count change?' After all the teachers raised their hands, he said "YOU'RE WASTING THEIR TIME. By the time they get out of this school, there will be no cash." They all stopped teaching it the next day.
-I spend a good portion of the year living in Mexico: Cash is still used every day, it drives me crazy.
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Subject: Re: Mailbag-Cash/Pickleball/More
More re: cash.
Saw a "just married" car driving through my town the other day. Note underneath nuptial announcement had a "Buy them a drink on their honeymoon" with Venmo handle. I laughed and sent them $10.
No idea who these people are and never will. Nice novelty though.
Yannick Peary
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From: jemail
Subject: Re: LIV Golf
Phil Michelson is a prat. At the Yellowstone Club, which was created in Big Sky, Montana for families who loved to ski powder and morphed into another placeholder for rich jerks and Hollywood posers, Michelson was the first sign of the rot. Bill Gates was a member for a long time before and was pretty much ignored, which I think was fine with him. When Timberlake and Michelson joined they couldn't resist showing off in Twenty Below, the kids club and diner under the main lodge. One occasion of many: Michelson was the only adult playing dodgeball with kids aged about 7 -13 yet gleefully whipped the balls as hard as he could (he's a large powerful man) even at close range When they naturally ganged up on him, and got him out quicker and quicker, each time he'd announce 'jailbreak' immediately and resume his position on the court to their boos and disdain. He didn't care. He wanted to keep playing, despite plenty of bruises on the kids. Giant wanker and bad sport.
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Subject: Re: LIV Golf
Hi Bob, thanks for highlighting the LIV tour. Most of your readers don't know the difference between the PGA Tour and the PGA of America. The PGA Tour is comprised of the guys you see on TV playing golf for money. The PGA of America is comprised of the men and women who conduct the business of golf on a community level, i.e. your local golf course. Most people don't know the difference between the two organizations and even more don't care. But for us PGA of America members, it does matter. I don't play golf for a living - I teach golf and operate a golf course - but if I did play for a living I wouldn't go near that Saudi money. Those guys that took that blood money are forever beholden to the Saudi's and for more than just playing in a LIV event.
You didn't mention Greg Norman, who's running point for the LIV tour. Among his many holdings, he also heads an apparel company. You won't see his label in my golf shop anymore. Not that he needs the money.
Sean McGowan
Head PGA Professional
Quail Valley Golf Course
Banks, OR
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From: JH Tompkins
Subject: Re: The USC/L.A. Times Book
Bob, another great column, but of course not only am I your age and grew up on newspapers (my old man was a journalist and we got NYT, Herald Tribune, Newsday, and World Telegram everyday), I was a journalist before the fall of the alt-weeklies, the circuit where I worked. I teach journalism at the JC level and often have students who have never read a paper - it's all social media of one sort or another - but there is a place for all of them out there. Still, there's no way what NYT means to me translates to my students. A quick note on the Ivies' secret society: I went to Princeton, and for reasons that have little to do with any qualifications other than have been accepted to the place, its opened all kinds of doors over the years. It's kind of embarrassing, actually, even thought it's been personally useful from time to time. I read Bad LA - and you're right, it's two stories, but even if part 2 is "inside baseball," the struggle to discover and spread facts that undercut the lies and bullshit that pass for truth is absolutely essential. I don't think that big city newspapers will have a resurgence - in print or online - but if we don't find an avenue to educate - in schools, in neighborhoods and communities, on social media, and all the other pipelines for information - we are fucked. Period. People actually believe QAnon. Lastly, Lindsay Graham's call to riot (that's what it was, a page right out of the Trump playbook) shows how perilous the times are - not because Trump's thievery is so godawful (we expect this from him after all), but because there are fascist shock troops - real live fascists, not just wanna-be soldiers wanting to look cool in redneck boroughs - itching for a chance to shoot people.
Duck.
JH Tompkins
LA
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From: Jon Clancy Webster
Subject: 24 writers
Dear Bob
From afar I would like to stick my oar in.
The USA (like Iraq, Iran and Burundi and a couple of others) don't pay Public performance royalties (radio play/bars at least) to master rights owners (record companies). The rest of the world does.
As such the dispute about 24 writers on a Beyonce track may seem a little mad.
There are rules that work out the distribution of master rights income on radio play in the rest of the world. It mostly goes labels, signed artists (featured artists) and session guys. This money can be substantial. The rules are arcane but in the UK mean that Rhianna being a Commonwealth citizen (Barbadian) gets paid as a performer every time one of her records gets played on UK radio and throughout the world (but not the USA). Over the years that's a load of money - 7 or 8 figures in pounds. But American artists do not - that money goes straight to the UK labels concerned.
The original session player of say a drum beat in 1964 does gets paid. (see below)
So presumably the rules/conventions have also worked out that when a sample from a track is used on another track then ALL the writers on the original track get a publishing share depending on the original splits in the song whether they wrote the piece sampled or not. Hence 24 writers.
I was once told by a friend in Publishing that on the day or release of a worldwide smash back in the day there were two writers credited. Six months later that was fifteen as the artist couldn't afford to pay the wardrobe person etc so gave them a piece of their publishing. More fool that artist.
The last piece of the jigsaw is that of much sampled drum beats etc. If a sixties drum fill gets used on a track then they should get paid performance income when a master is played on the radio with that sample in it. But what happens when a sample is of a sample which is of a sample? How can the splits be worked out? And who knows whether the sample was of the original track or of the track that sampled the original and was a copy?
Of these subjects lawsuits and lawyers get rich!
Best Regards in retirement and glad of it..
webbo
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Subject: Marcus King
Heard of him… have always meant to check him out… listened to the pod…instant fan! When he brought up the Tucker and Company thing… I literally let out a whoop in my car! His 2 albums he picked blew me away… I loved it…can't recommend this enough!
Tom Clark
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Subject: Re: Jean-Luc Godard
Hi Bob,
Thanks for putting the phenomenal 60's in context (once again) when pop culture moved at the speed of light (like a film projector) and to which global reactionary forces have been pushing back against ever since, desperately trying to maintain a status quo that is no longer relevant. I never met Godard but back in the 90's my wife and I were getting on the Geneve - Paris train and as we settled into our seats my wife Françoise (who is a French actress) was visibly excited. "Don't turn around," she said. "But Jean-Luc Godard is on the train." I casually walked back down the aisle and there he was, sitting by himself, reading a paperback policier (cheap French crime novels). He had on semi-dark glasses and a rumpled tweed jacket. I told my wife she should go up to him and introduce herself as she's an actress. "I would never do that," she said. "Why?" I asked. She looked at me like I was a moron. "Because he's Godard!" she said. And it made perfect sense.
From Paris,
Elliott Murphy
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From: stephanie zill
Subject: dumb question
Bob, you probably won't have time to answer this and I'm sure it's a dumb question, but why is Morgan Wallen 'toxic'? What did he do? I never heard of him till I heard 'Wasted on You' on the radio, I think it's a really good song, it's so weird and minor chord-ish. But what's wrong with him to make the intelligentsia hate him?
It's fine if you can't answer, just thought I'd give it a shot, I figure it's some inside-baseball type stuff cause I didn't see anything online when I googled for him.
Thanks & I love reading your column as always!
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Subject: Re: Lykkeland
Bob,
This Likkeland is Fantastic!
I've read you regularly since I first saw you more than a decade ago as Keynote Speaker at Folk Alliance in 2012 administering a dose of what I'd euphemistically refer to as "tough love" to the thousands of assembled folk artists all aspiring to "make it" in the music world. I was accompanying my then 13 year old daughter who'd recently uncovered her artistic gifts and was showcasing them for the first time. (I accompanied her on another 200K miles/400 gigs before she could fly on her own as the artist she is and will always be).
How could I ever have predicted that more than a decade later I'd be so excited to respond to your head's up missive about a non-music related TV series which I clearly would have missed otherwise (largely due to the hoaky translation of the title).
You see I was a freshly minted Naval Architect employed by Mobil Research and Development Corp stateside who was "seconded" (assigned) to Mobil Exploration Norway Inc. in early March of 1984 to support our marine field operations in the Statfjord Field out of the Stavager office. I spent the most memorable three years of the 64 years I've so far logged to date living in Stavanger, (the first two as a mid twenties single guy and the third with my future wife to be).
While my wife and I are only half way through enjoying the first season (still set in 1970) of the unfolding story, I can share with you and your readers that this NRK production is 100% authentic in it's representation of Stavanger (none of this Hollywood practice of filming New England scenes in British Columbia to capitalize on some tax incentive!). My office in the Crossed Fish Building on the key side, my apartment overlooking Breiavatnet, the pond in the center of town, all look the same as the day I left in December 1986! And the municipal representatives and industry captains of shipping and fishing referenced were all still players in the scene during the mid eighties.
I can't thank you enough for highlighting this production as I would have missed it for the reason you so often point out....too much content to sift through!
This one head's up is worth all the Lefsetz Letter subscription fees I've paid this past decade. (LOL!).
Keep doing what you're doing "till you just can't do it anymore. There are many of us who absolutely look forward to your next post, to new thoughts you have to share, no matter where it veers from the current state of the music industry!
Pete Reardon
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From: Peter Burnside
Subject: Re: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Checked with my kids and yea, Tik Tok is the new search engine. As one said, if you google "wedding dresses" you get ads from dress stores showing size zero models. If you do on Tik Tok, you get a bunch of people who look like us in dresses talking about where they got them and what sort of deal they go.
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From: Martin Media
Subject: Rushdie attack
Until now, it's all been fun and games, not much more than talk show fodder. Nobody really got seriously hurt. Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle... but this is going to be a game-changer. The guy may lose and eye and his liver was stabbed with a knife any metal detector would have caught.
I've already been getting riders from comics (and bands) requiring metal detectors at the entrances and bodyguards all day and within feet of the stage or else they won't agree to do the date. Another extra expense the promoter will have to bear, but unfortunately, the time has come. Look forward to hearing your comments on this one.
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Subject: RE: Summer Songs Playlist
Hi Bob,
An addendum to the list of Songs of Summer: The last song on the list is "Piece of My Heart" by Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring Janis Joplin. That song was co-written by one of my early mentors, Jerry Ragovoy, a great record producer and songwriter.
The original version of the song was recorded by Erma Franklin, Aretha's sister, and produced by Jerry and Bert Berns. It was released in 1967 on the Shout label and did fairly well in the R and B market. I urge everyone to listen to this original, which to my ear is much, much better than Janis's version.
Jerry told me the story of the session. He had assembled what was then one of the great studio bands in New York: Herb Lovelle on drums, Paul Griffin on piano, Eric Gale on guitar and Chuck Rainey on bass. However, for some reason, Rainey was late to the session, so they cut the tune with no bass. After they got the take, Rainey had still not arrived, so Eric Gale overdubbed the bass. I asked him about it later and he said that he played a borrowed bass using a thumb pick. That is the version you hear if you play it now.
Right from the outset, the band sets a slow, spidery groove, steady as a metronome and sitting back on the beat. The musicians are so together, so in the pocket, it seems they must have been rehearsing for weeks. This cool groove provides a sparse, open bed for Erma to tell her tale. Eric Gale does very little on guitar, providing rhythmic chunks on the back beat, while Paul Griffin takes the lead. The pianist combines a gospel feel, with unmistakable countryish, Floyd Cramer-style chordings. After the intro, Erma starts off sounding wounded and hurt, but by the pre-chorus, she gains in strength, showing us that indeed, a woman can be tough. Gale's overdubbed bass part starts simple, but builds with the track, becoming very active in the chorus and adding to the excitement. A simple, effective horn arrangement and some great background vocals added in make this a true classic, sadly under-appreciated.
Best,
John Boylan
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Subject: Re: Summer Songs Playlist
Hey Bob:
Wow great list. Almost every track has a memory. In particular Tommy Roe and "Sweet Pea." Mom and dad borrowed a camper, the kind that sits atop a pickup, and we made our way to Colorado. My brother and I would ride in the back (not even legal these days…seat belts, what seat belts?) and listen to the radio as we laid in that bunk bed with the window above the cab. What a perch to see the Rockies. It was an old camper but it had an intercom so cab and camper top could communicate in case of emergencies. Bad move. It somehow got stuck on "talk" during the ascent of the Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway and mom and dad heard endless choruses of "Sweet Pea" (different accents and laughter non-stop) and there was no way to tell us to stop until dad got to the the pass of some mountain. They were frazzled but I can still remember the laughter. It was our last family trip together.
Jon Erdahl
3D MediaVentures
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Subject: Liona Boyd...ONJ
Hi Bob,
Not sure if you plan any newsletter re Olivia, but in case you do here goes.
Olivia and I became close friends after finding ourselves neighbours when we lived in Paradise Cove, Malibu thirty years ago.
I talked to her quite recently and have been in touch with her husband, John Easterling who was caring for her around the clock in the hospital and at home in Santa Ynez. They had adored each other since the day they first met and they shared the deepest spiritual and romantic love I had ever witnessed. Yesterday I was devastated, but not really surprised, to receive a text from John saying she had finally passed. Part of me felt relieved for them both, but the tears would not stop.
Olivia had always been so generous and protective of me like an older sister…. inviting me to stay in her Jupiter house, playing folksongs together, sending me samples of John's healing Amazon herbs, introducing me to some of her music business contacts, inviting me on Palm Beach shopping trips and offering to sing with me on my song, "Canadian Summer Dreams". For my producer and I that was such an amazing and unforgettable experience.
I shall always miss her making me a "cuppa" tea, her lovely smile and gentle, loving spirit. The world has lost a treasured human being. Condolences to her daughter Chloe and to her husband John.
RIP dearest, brave Olivia.
Liona Boyd
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From: Eric Frankhouser
Subject: Re: HP Envy 6455e
Ok… So all Apple/Mac all the time… It's just the way it is if you live your life on the road. PC's are useless to me out here.
As a TM I rely heavily on iMessage… I don't want to hear about Whatsapp… I don't have the time or band with out here to deal with a third party app.
Sure - I get forced into using Whatsapp in Europe, but only for chats with the locals. I still want our internal tour threads to be on iMessage.
iMessage works, and it works flawlessly across my iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac Book pro. I can send files/pics to massive text chains and keep everyone moving in the same direction in a seamless fashion.
Truth? If all things are dead equal between a new hire… And one has an iPhone and one has an Android… I am going to hire the iPhone user…
Concerning printers: I rely heavily on Epson WorkForce series printers. They do the heavy lifting for me on the road. They have proven to be able to take beating. Printers in production boxes get loaded in and out of a truck everyday, get rattled around, and get flown around the world… I can't risk a printer dying on me… My Epson's have risen to the challenge.
Like every TM on the planet I also have a Canon TR-150 as my fly date/emergency printer, and it is perfect for the smaller stuff… But when I need to knock out a massive amount of set lists in a short time, the bigger Epson in my work box is the unquestioned go to…
I think printers for TM's are like guitars for a musician… Whatever your main axe is, you don't want to leave home without it. Of course printers don't improve and become "Vintage," But they are a vital tool… Even with all of the digital communication tools we have at our disposal like Master Tour.
But… I am an old road dog. When I started in the biz we were using pagers, and MCI calling cards. We printed physical tour books for people!
It was a different world then… Not better or worse, just a different reality.
Cheers,
Eric
Eric Frankhouser - Tour Manager
Strict Angel Tour Management
"Tour Management, Logistics and Production since 1993"
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From: Tom Clark
Subject: Re: Trilogy-Lovin' Me/To Make A Woman Feel Wanted/Peace Of Mind
I remember one of my first concerts… Loggins & Messina at Frost Amphitheater on the Stanford campus…early 70's.
They open with Same Old Wine…very quiet… just a flute and Jim singing…after the first chorus it's still quiet and the tune hits a spot where boom it goes electric… I'm not explaining this very well but when they hit the gas like that the song took off…
I'll be 68 next Thursday… I've been to a ton of shows…and I can honestly say nothing for me has topped that moment…I get chills just thinking about it again…Mahalo for bringing this memory back Bob…
Tom Clark
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From: Damon Buxton
Subject: Re: Trilogy-Lovin' Me/To Make A Woman Feel Wanted/Peace Of Mind
In 1973 a 15 year old me sang "Danny's Song" to a girl and she fell in love with me. I taught myself to play the guitar by fingerpicking chord charts for Loggins & Messina's music.
Jim is one of the best guitarists on the planet.
No other band has comforted or inspired me the way Loggins & Messina has. I credit them with making me a musician.
I agree that "Same Old Wine" is still relevant and among their best work.
Thanks Bob.
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From: Eric Altman
Subject: Re: Trilogy-Lovin' Me/To Make A Woman Feel Wanted/Peace Of Mind
Hey Bob-
"Same Old Wine" helped me look brilliant to a high school english teacher. The A she gave me for encapsulating that season's political circus was totally inspired by playing the #37th or 38th spinning of Sittin' in its entirety. The snap of the idea came while standing at the sink doing after-dinner dishes. Two 25' coiled headphone cables (resistance, what resistance?) and a pair of Koss headphones turned drudgery into my very own universe as always.
Drove home to Denver from the Boston area a couple of weeks ago, my full metal jacket badass wife doing her thing on her phone, computer, and MiFi beside me. Headphones on yet again I heard the call to revisit Sittin' In. You sum up the album perfectly. Went on to scan through Loggins & Messina and Full Sail for a while too. Go back and listen to Pathway to Glory, it ain't Same Old Wine but the musicianship and production…ahhhhhh. As is now too frequent, I heard through a friend who was buddies with Larry Sims that that fine contributor passed not long ago.
Listened to you and Marcus yesterday. Within minutes I thought "Holy shit Bob, you think he's going to answer that? In testimony to himself he did, in testimony to you I knew he would. Superb work Bob.
Thank You-
Eric
PS - Moonage Daydream…we're seeing Jackson Browne thirteenth row at Red Rocks tomorrow night setting a new personal best for fucking ridiculous ticket expenditure. I went the singer/songwriter route, Ziggy not so much back then. Came to love bits and pieces of his work over the years and in curiosity and to pay homage we went last night. Fantastic piece of work and I learned about an artist like I've never learned before…and it was hard work viewing. I'm no fan of "experimental film" but what a pay-off. I'm sure Mr. Bowie is smiling.
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From: wolfereeno
Subject: Re: Indian Matchmaking-Season 2
Re Indian Matchmaking. I've been in Tech for 30 years and in the middle of the outsourcing revolution. I've had many dozens of people on my teams based in India or in the US on VISA's and the stories about their marriages are incredible.
Usually it starts with a young guy (sometimes a woman but not as often) in the US on a consulting project and has some chance of being hired full time by his client. This in itself is an accomplishment as there is much competition to work for the right company, for the right client, and then to be the one chosen to work on-site in the west. But once he's grabbed a rung on the ladder, the parents back home get to work. Various details for how matchmaking work seems to vary by location - India is a huge place with many ethnicities and regional customs. But the biggest lure on the hook after religious and cultural compatibility, is who he works for and what's his title. I've been asked more than once when hiring someone to bump up not their starting salary or bonus, but their title. One HR person told me they were contacted by a prospective hire's parents for this very reason.
I can recall the first time one of my star programmers asked for a month off to go home to get married. I said "Congratulations! Who's the lucky girl?" to which he replied "I don't know yet!" -- which of course blew my clueless zero perspective mind. Then he told me the process: The parents get together, sometimes with matchmakers, and put together a one page resume with a picture of the woman, sending maybe 2-3 finalists to the young man, and then plan for his visit where he'd have a date with each and be expected to make a choice.
Then there'd be an incredibly elaborate wedding, sometimes lasting days, involving Elephants, Transvestites (for good luck), and the couple spending a night together to make sure things "Work" with the inlaws next door. Then the young man would return married and begin the paperwork of bringing his bride to her new country. That would take a few months and frequently coincided with her coming to the East Coast in time to experience snow for the first time.
I have to admit I often had a hard time suppressing judgement and would gently ask, "What about marrying for love?" The response was always "Love will Come" - a strange bromide coming from a 25 year old. But hey, I married my HS crush and it was a total disaster so who am I to question thousands of years of tradition.
Also knowing many of these families through several jobs and seeing them grow, I can't recall a single marriage that failed. I'm sure it's not that simple and there are many risks for the spouse coming to a strange land. But from my experience the inlaws usually visit often, sometimes to stay once kids arrive, and large Indian communities have evolved for more familiarity and support systems.
Anyway, I have to admit in my more recent dating experience I decided that lust at first sight was not the most reliable way to find a compatible match, so I went online and went on a date with the first woman who contacted me that seemed interesting. The end result? I married a brilliant woman with an MD/PhD who's funny, talented, and attractive. If you get out of your own way, love comes...
B in NYC
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From: Richard Griffiths
Subject: Re: Mo Ostin
When I was running Epic backin the early/mid 90s I always knew that if we were competing against Mo to sign an act, we would lose! He was always a complete charmer as well as brilliant music man.
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Subject: From Scott Borchetta: More Mo Ostin
Hey there,
I've been tied up with our Big Machine Music City Grand Prix or I would've replied sooner.
One of the biggest treasures of my career was working for Mo at DreamWorks... so many great memories...
In the spring of 1997, after being 'relieved of my services' from MCA Nashville, I was being hired by Mo to help launch DreamWorks Nashville. My first meeting in the 3rd Ave building was very clearly laid out in advance - "Mo's only got 30 minutes." I walk into his office and sat down and it was on... He wanted to know about everything going on in Nashville. But, somehow, he knew a lot of inside baseball gossip about Nashville, which I found fascinating. Two and a half hours later after telling me about signing Hendrix, Van Halen, etc, his assistant buzzed in and said, "Mo, Lenny's been waiting..." Before I got up to leave I asked Mo if, by chance, he had a copy of "Mo's Songs"... He buzzed his assistant and said, "please bring in a copy of Mo's Songs for Scott..." He handed it to me... and I handed it back and asked if he'd sign and date it... which he gladly did...
At the time of that first meeting I was still bound by my former MCA/Universal contract... and in the fall of 1997 there was a huge industry lunch welcoming DreamWorks to Nashville... and everyone came in for it. Mo, Lenny, Michael, all the Universal Distribution people (DreamWorks was distributed by UMG), press, other Nashville label heads, etc. I was there but they couldn't announce me because UMG was still being difficult with my contract release.
After lunch I saw Mo get up and walk directly over to UMG's Zach Horowitz, who was the one holding up my deal, and said, "Zach, we need to get Scott's deal done... immediately..."
About an hour after the lunch my phone rings and it's Zach...
He said, "what's the number?" I said, "Same as it's always been"... of which Zach responded, "you'll have a check tomorrow."
Mo was beloved... but you also didn't mess with him!
Long before I was in the biz, he was my idol... once in the biz, he was my hero... what I learned from him will always be with me.
Hope you're well and hope to connect sooner than later.
Best,
Scott
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