I don't trust people.
I could have ordered my iPhone 5 on September 21st. I'm awake at that hour. But knowing I was going out of town I waited... That was a mistake.
Then they said you could order online and pick it up in the store the next day. Turns out too many people got the memo. That turned out to be undoable.
Then I was going to be out of the country. I couldn't order it because the change in my cell plan was pending, the switch to the overseas iteration, but today with my trip canceled and my regular plan intact, I decided to drill down and get it taken care of.
What an ordeal.
I could order from Apple. Like most people. But in my conversations with Verizon regarding my overseas plan, I found out that I qualified for a thirty dollar discount, so I bit the bullet and ordered from them.
Or at least I tried to.
To say Verizon's website is confusing is to be charitable. You have to select the phone twice. But when it came to selecting the plan, it choked. Said it couldn't be done.
So I switched browsers. From Safari to Firefox. But in Firefox, the ability to decline insurance was so far off the screen...it was unclickable.
So I decided to start all over and pay extra on the Apple site. Especially since I could get a better case and purchase AppleCare direct. Yup, if you buy via Verizon, you've got to go to the Apple Store with your new iPhone, sans any deterioration/scratches, to pay them ninety nine dollars for this warranty.
But Apple said I'd get the phone in the middle of December. And Verizon said I could get it in under two weeks.
So I went back to Verizon. I fired up speedy Chrome. And just when I was finalizing my order I realized... My billing and shipping addresses were different. I was unable to go backwards, it was literally impossible. So I had to start all over to find out you can't ship to a different address.
It was then that I took the plunge. I picked up my receiver. I dialed Verizon.
My nephew made hundreds of thousands of dollars per year selling automobiles. Impossible you say! Car salesmen are the worst! That's exactly the case. Which is why Andrew triumphed. Unlike everybody else selling luxury automobiles, he knew the product. I mean if you're laying down for a Lexus or BMW, shouldn't your salesman be more knowledgeable about the car than you are?
One great thing about Verizon. If you're on hold, it doesn't last long. I got April on the line. I explained my dilemma. She said she could take care of it.
Only one problem, I knew more about the iPhone 5 and the accompanying plans than she did. I knew I had to switch from an unlimited data plan to a tier. I told her I wanted five gigabytes a month. You can change it thereafter, but I figured I'd start large, and avoid penalties. Hell, maybe it'd turn out I needed ten gigabytes!
And I'm going through all the details again and again with April. Because that's the kind of guy I am, I need to get it right. And she's getting hot under the collar. And it's all taking too long, being put on hold over and over. But then finally it's done.
And two hours later I get an e-mail with the wrong shipping address and the wrong-sized data plan.
So I call and I get Mike. Who wastes ten minutes telling me the shipping address can't be changed. That we can cancel the order and start all over. How can this be? I can buy the phone at apple.com in a matter of minutes, I'm blowing all afternoon with Verizon?
I ask to speak to his supervisor. Calmly.
He puts me on hold.
Says it's impossible. He'll help me.
I say I want the supervisor.
He says she's out to lunch.
I hang up.
I call Global Support. Because they're of a higher caliber. Nick is nice, but he can't figure out how to do it. So I ask for a supervisor. Mike is even nicer, he says the best way to do it is to cancel the order, although I'll lose my place in line, but I say fine.
But then the phone can't be reordered. The system needs to clear. Mike says he's gonna have to call me back in an hour or two.
And he does. And I ordered the phone. But I haven't gotten the confirmation e-mail yet. I'm praying it will have no mistakes, because I'm beyond frustrated trying to give Verizon my money.
P.S. When Steve Jobs came back to Apple, he immediately streamlined the product line. This had all kinds of benefits. Both supply side and consumer side. You knew what you were buying. And when you go to the Apple Store, they know what they're selling. Whereas so many fakokta phones are being sold by Verizon that no one's got a clue. But I guess that's o.k. They'll just sell an Android phone whose software can't be upgraded to someone too dumb to be a power user anyway. Power users, that's what we've all become. We expect our devices to have features and to be able to use them intuitively, without consulting the manual.
P.P.S. If your website sucks, you're gonna have a hard time making sales. Verizon could have just copied Apple's site. Amazon gets it right. How could Verizon get it so wrong? This is where the rubber meets the road, why did they have to hire amateurs?
P.P.P.S. Simplicity. This is what kills ticket sales. People have to jump through hoops on Ticketmaster only to find out there are hidden fees. You wonder why they get pissed off? You could sell them all-in, paperless, utilizing Apple's Passbook, which made a huge dent in the baseball playoffs, but music is balkanized, with competing fiefdoms heeding progress. The players think they're winning, but they're losing, the consumer checks out.
P.P.P.P.S You hate Apple, I get it. But when you've got a problem with your Samsung phone, who you gonna call? And you may want to hack your device, but very few do. Change your own oil recently? Install your own muffler? People just want their cars to work. Mercedes-Benz made its cars so complicated that its J.D. Power ratings sank and so did its sales. Cutting edge only works if your customers can catch up with you.
P.P.P.P.P.S. It's the little things. More than being nice. If this is your job, can you do it? It'd be like showing up at the thruway tollbooth and finding out the attendant can't make change. Huh? If you work as an usher, you'd better know where the seats are. But too often people don't. There's no pride in the job. Then again, the pay sucks. But I'm telling you if you can show up on time and do your job you're gonna go to the head of the class, because most people can do neither, and your boss will notice you and promote you.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. You know how many times my computer has crashed? Exactly none. I've had a hard drive go down, but my point is with technology, it either works or it doesn't. Isn't that Apple's slogan, "It just works!"? That's what we're all looking for. I mean I have to get in my car, drive to the Santa Monica Apple Store, park, go inside, wait in line just so I can pay for an extended warranty, i.e. AppleCare? Everybody's got a lot more money than time. And if you're selling a premium product, and that's what an iPhone 5 is, you've got to respect the customer, you've got to make it easy, you've got to save them time.
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Saturday, 3 November 2012
Mailbag
From: Robin Millar
Subject: RE: Taylor Swift
It's not just the songs...this is all about processing Bob. This is about pop processing as opposed to recording. Cliche...keep it real. Once you start straightening out the beats and the dynamics on the drums, vocalining and autotuning all the backup vocals so they are a blend like a synth not a bunch of people singing in the background, once you hyper-compress the guitars so they sound like they are coming out of a ipod already, once you autotune and time correct the lead vocal so there are no flaws, once you create impossible one second dead silences in the middle of songs, once you go for 15 different mixes to take care of fragmented radio niches....then you are into pop processing.
The music no longer sounds like a bunch of people could possibly have turned up to a studio, set up, plugged in, played and sang and an engineer set up a bunch of mics and recorded them...then you are into plastic, temporary, a bubble that bursts ten seconds after it is exposed to the air.
Who are the biggest selling acts this year? Answer mumfords, adele. Who's still going to be around in ten years time? Answer....Mumfords and Adele. No processing.
Make your records impossible to be taken as real and you are as permanent as a seltzer.
______________________________________
From: peter frampton
Subject: Re: Taylor Swift
But I believed in life after death. And I was right!
______________________________________
From: peter noone
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-The Move
Blackberry way. Roy Wood Genius!
______________________________________
From: Bob Ezrin
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-The Move
Keith Elshaw who was the evening DJ on CKFH in Toronto (an AM station with an FM format) played me Brontosaurus in 1970 and it literally changed my life. Until that moment I was really a long-haired hippy folkie dabbling in rock music that all sounded like sons of The Band.
I had just met the Alice Cooper group in NY a few days before and was pitching Jack Richardson to consider producing them when I went to the radio station to visit with Keith, a slight man with a booming, melifluous voice, trippy patter and amazing taste in music. Back then, the DJ's programmed their own shows.
Keith was my friend outside of work. At the time, he was renting Scott Young's coach house on Lyndhurst Ave, the street I grew up on (that's Neil's dad in case you're wondering). We would hang out there, listen to records and smoke dope and I would hide there from my responsibilities as a premature husband and father at 20 years of age. But that's another story.
That evening in the studio, Keith said "I've got something you HAVE to hear. I'm going to put it on the air now" and he did. Because he wanted to, and he was in charge of his own show. What a concept! Anyway, he dropped the needle, turned it up and this lumbering beast of a song charged through the mono Altec 604 studio monitor and took my face off. I had never heard anything like it…though the Beatles and Jimi and a few others had come close to true heaviosity a few times. And maybe there were other antecedents to the heavy metal sound of the 70s that I was unaware of the, but I'd never heard anything THAT massive and sludge-laden before. The minute I heard it, I was cellularly converted and nothing but Truly Big and Heavy would ever really satisfy me again (I'm talking about music here…so get your mind out of your pants). Remember Shana Boom Boom? Heavy makes you happy! So right.
The next thing I knew Jack had cleared the way for me to go to work with Alice Cooper in Pontiac Michigan. And when I got there, the first song I worked on with them was I'm 18 which I needed to sound as massive and bigfooted as Brontosaurus, so I started to experiment with guitars and bass doubling riffs and things like tuning down and all the stuff that became SOP in heavy rock. I didn't know anything about heavy rock then except that I had been infected by it and I wanted THAT sound! And that desire informed my early career - and might be the reason I had some success. Heavy made me happy. And the Brontosaurus was my indoctrination into true heaviosity.
So…I owe it all to Keith and The Move. Really.
Bob
______________________________________
From: wendy waldman
Subject: Not breaking through
My dear, generous friend
Your letter was such a blessing cause I know you get it...and in this business, you want two things, and it's up to you to decide which is more important if you don't get both-you want to make a living of course, hopefully a great one--and you also want someone to GET what you do, really deeply. The former comes and goes for artists except for the 1/20th of 1 percent now--but the latter, now, THAT is the grail, man. And beyond a shadow of a doubt, I know that you get what I do, what I'm trying to do, and what I hope to continue to do until they cart me outta here.... For that I thank you beyond measure because that's what's priceless and that's actually what carries you through the darkest hardest times, knowing that there are some folks out there who really hear you. That is actually the real measure of success.
I know that somewhere on the net it was written that I've been "disappointed" that I never "broke through." I've said a lot of dumb stuff in the press over 40 years, but that is ONE thing I have never said. In fact, not breaking through was probably the greatest gift of my life. It has forced me to keep pushing my boundaries, to keep studying, to make a buttload of mistakes and a few exciting successes, to search, experiment, to "ride the rails" as I said in the show the other night, to learn to produce, be a session player, a singer, a performer, a teacher, a songwriter in different disciplines, to range all over the globe in incredible musical experiences and with the greatest musicians of my time, to learn new styles of music and work in every possible configuration and discipline except for classical music, (Alas, how I wish I could have.) These boundless, wider ranging opportunities only came to me because I had no choice--I had to stay restless and to keep learning, and it made me grow. I would never have survived being a star in my 20s and 30s.
And by the way, along the way, I've had years where I made a lot of money, and also some horrible times of near poverty.
And I kept being so damned excited about all these great places I got to visit (and get to visit even now) and learn from. With such opportunities, who could be disappointed? Truth is, I always suspected in my heart it would be like that: my dream was to be a musical thinker, and I guess my dream has come true. I have always been deeply grateful for the chances I've had, especially the chances to learn to do it better, even though some of those were the ...most painful ones. Such is the road, and so it goes on and on, if I am lucky.
Please tell our friends who wrote such kind letters to you, worrying that I never broke through, that I am so happy to be the musician I am, and that I wouldn't change it for the world, and that like my heroes, I intend to make music until the day I die, literally. And that THEY and you are the light that sustains me, gives me reason, hope, and optimism. Out of our hands who will be remembered and who forgotten.
W
______________________________________
From: James Hutchinson
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Paul Brady
Hi Bob.
Thank you for the piece on Brady.
He's an old friend who's deserved more recognition for his work throughout his long career. Nothing's much changed as far as that goes. A great solo performer, he's been making great records, solo and otherwise (w/ Andy Irvine especially) since his traditional stuff of the mid-1970s. All of these are well worth seeking out. (Check out "The Liberty Tapes" and "Welcome Here Kind Stranger") Dylan later co-opted his arrangement of Arthur McBride.
I was introduced to his contemporary material by a couple of friends in Ireland (guitarist/songwriter Bobby Dunlap and Jim O'Neill of the RTE) in the early 1980s shortly after the release of "Hard Station", still one of my favorite records, and would listen to it almost constantly during that time and shortly thereafter while on the road on our bus with Bonnie. She got him immediately. Not everyone that I'd played him for did at the time. And although he was legendary in Ireland at the time due to songs like "Nothing But The Same Old Story" (about the Irish Diaspora) and later "The Island" (how one man dealt with the "Troubles"), which were almost anthems, I was surprised how few people here really got his stuff. His records needed to be searched out. I'd have friends send them from Ireland. Or maybe find them in Boston.
One Monday afternoon around 1989 (while taking a nap before a late China Club jam gig) and a few days before a benefit at the Santa Monica Civic, which Jane Fonda had helped organize and which we were doing with Bon, Richard Thompson (who along with Jeff Porcaro and myself performed on the "Luck Of The Draw" track on Bon's record), Jackson Browne and Springsteen, I got a call in the afternoon from Paul, who had been given my number by Irish singer Maura O'Connell (of De Dannan). Couldn't quite believe that it was he at first and thought it might have been another Irish friend "winding me up". After I'd realized that it actually was him and not my friend Bobby, and after a few minutes of chat we decided to hook up later that evening and we headed down to the China Club for a grand night all around.
Later that week at the benefit, I had the pleasure of introducing he and Bonnie and Paul was surprised by the fact that universally, the musicians performing there were fans of his work. That's still the case with him today. A truly genuine soul who writes his songs from the heart.
We later hooked up some gigs for him at the old Largo on Fairfax which were a great success. The first night being an almost entirely Irish crowd, who knew all the words. The second night was attended primarily by the LA singer songwriter crowd and featured a memorable entrance by David Crosby. (Another story, ask Flannie).
We've had the pleasure of working, playing and hanging together many times now of the years and it's never enough. Great Craic.
Thanks again. HH
______________________________________
From: Brad Parker
Subject: Re: Your Catalog
I was a guest teacher at MI last week in a songwriting class. I used a technique to start off that I learned from my old boss Bill Graham:
"How many of you believe that you will be as successful as I am, with a career that spans decades? (everyone raised their hand) All of you? OK… Well, not one of you will ever make it in my business. Not any one of you. You need to go home, get a good job, do your music on the side and have a wonderful life without being a part of my world of artists, songwriters, musicians and producers… (long pause) Now, how many of you believe that you will succeed? (a couple of hands go up) These are the people in this room today who have a chance because nothing I said changed their mind. I am a fairly nice guy but you will meet some really mean people in the music business who get their kicks out of stompin' on a dream. You must believe. You must be tough. It's the only way…"
I first saw Bill do this in Berkeley in 1970 to an auditorium full of aspiring rock stars like me and my brother. We were among the handful who raised their hands the second time. Bill said no one there would ever play on his stage. He told us to go back to our garages, forget about making it and have a good life. A few years later I became a stage hand for BGP, while I played in my band on the off nights. Eventually Peter Barsotti, my boss, offered me the chance to move up at BGP. I had to say no. When Bill asked why I told him that I was determined to play on his stage and not just work on it. He was totally cool even though he and Peter thought I was crazy. A few years later I did play on the stages I had worked on, the Concord Pavilion, the Shoreline Amphitheater and many others. My wife at the time, Wendy Waldman, was the opening act on the Dan Fogleberg national tour and I was the band leader and lead guitarist. It was a promise I had made to myself that was pretty sweet when it came true. Many other dreams have come true since then.
Many are called and few are chosen. I guess in the end we choose ourselves? Who knows. I am happy to be here still crazy after all these years. Your words are an elixir for those of us "On The Road." Bob…
Thanks for keeping it real…
______________________________________
Subject: Re: Jimmy Calls
Hi Bob,
Proud to say Jimmy Iovine was the tape operator on my first album AQUASHOW recorded at The Record Plant in NYC in 1973. He did a flawless job as I remember and was always into the music. To say his career moved on nicely from that point on is an understatement to be sure. It was my first time in a real studio and the superb quality of the sound I listened back to was a revelation and inspired me to make my performance somehow commensurate with the level of my surroundings. I think there is something poetic and just and even intimate about how artists work in studios wearing high quality headphones to record music that is then mixed and mastered and listened to by kids wearing ... high quality headphones. Those of us who remember when the advent of stereo was a mind-blowing experience, when the format of an LP changed the art form itself and who listened long and hard to those amazing sounds of yesterday to the point that our ears are ringing today can only have hope that the level of sound technology and musical artistry will again create that perform storm and give forth irresistible life-changing records. Me, I'm an optimist.
All the best,
Elliott Murphy
______________________________________
From: Lennart Krarup
Subject: Re: Jimmy Calls
Beats are NOT studio sound, the curve is TOTALLY wrong for studio work.
Stick a test mic in the cans and run some test, and you'll see the bass is tilted over 20db! (every 3db feels twice as loud)
If you mixed on those cans, it would sound SHIT on any and every system.
Studio sound has NOTHING to do with cans, nor speakers.
You see, studio sound it all about the room, (and how few reflective
surfaces you can reduce it to).
YOU CANNOT BREAK THE LAWS OF PHYSICS!!!
Studio sound is for the elite, everything else is mass marketing...
Love and grooves
Lenny Ibizarre
______________________________________
From: peter frampton
Subject: Re: Beats At Half Price
All the noise canceling headphones I have tried for flying do cancel some good frequencies. Not what one should listen with whilst checking a master mix from the road. The trick of removing the lead vocal from a stereo track by putting the speakers/headphones out of phase is similar to noise canceling (but it's much more involved than that). While canceling the frequencies of the plane or traffic that are making it hard for you to hear your music, the process unfortunately removes part of what you are listening to as well. I learned this the hard way. The mix was great when I finally listened through regular cans and then speakers. Just saying .....
______________________________________
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Mott The Hoople
You might be interested to know that I am the author of the novel, Mott The Hoople from which the band took its. name, back in the early 50's. The book, by the way, is now available in print and e-book versions. Let me know if you'd like further information.
All good wishes,
Will Manus
______________________________________
From: Bob Lefsetz
Subject: re-Zuckerberg saying it was a mistake to use HTML5 for Facebook app
To: Roger McNamee
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8133bd96-0d3d-11e2-99a1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Av4aCGVU
What do you think this means? A turning point, or will HTML5 dominate eventually?
You're the guru!
_______
From: Roger McNamee
Subject: Re: re-Zuckerberg saying it was a mistake to use HTML5 for Facebook app
Dear Bob,
What Mark said about native vs HTML5 is axiomatically true for the Facebook application. Facebook had created a one size fits all mobile app in HTML5 that worked on all the platforms with only minor tweaking ... getting FB into mobile faster than would otherwise have been the case. It turns out that substantial processing horsepower is required to configure each (personalized) FB page, so consumers had to accept really pokey performance. To perform satisfactorily, the Facebook app needs to take advantage of every opportunity offered by Apple's tool set. The only way to do that is to write native apps. (This is why action video games must always be optimized for each platform.)
The FB example is really important, but it's not the whole story. Many valuable products do not benefit from native apps.
The most important use case for tablets is content consumption; on smartphones, content consumption is probably use case #3 after phone/text and camera. For linear, time-based content such as video or audio, however, processing power is irrelevant. Once the stream starts, the only things that matter are bandwidth and the quality of the playback device.
For content publishers (as opposed to app app creators like FB) there are two potential negatives to native apps:
- App Store: content publishers give up tons of control to Apple. They also give up rights to demographic data about their customers. In a word of mouth era, the App Store is a poor discovery tool.
- 30% tariff: Apple's fees are really high for word of mouth products. If your fans want your product wouldn't they rather buy it directly from you?
The question about HTML5 is this: will there be a next generation web optimized for mobile? In terms of profit, iOS is gradually sucking the life out of the HTML4 web that revolves Google, Facebook and Microsoft. HTML4 can't compete on mobile because of Flash, so HTML5 comes to the rescue.
If everyone interprets Mark's quote as the end of HTML5, then iOS is the new Windows. It's possible, but the smart money will bet on a slow but steady adoption of HTML5 by owners of branded content (who offer app versions, as well, to hedge the bet). But they will work harder on HTML5 because margins will be higher. In time, open source HTML5 will evolve more rapidly than iOS. This is why Apple is so smart to enable great HTML5 experiences across all iOS devices ... it's a great hedge.
One more observation: about the time of Mark's HTML5 quote, Apple discontinued its social tools and integrated FB into iOS6 to replace and enhance the social functionality. Probably just a coincidence.
Take care,
Roger
Sent from my incredible Palm Pre
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Subject: RE: Taylor Swift
It's not just the songs...this is all about processing Bob. This is about pop processing as opposed to recording. Cliche...keep it real. Once you start straightening out the beats and the dynamics on the drums, vocalining and autotuning all the backup vocals so they are a blend like a synth not a bunch of people singing in the background, once you hyper-compress the guitars so they sound like they are coming out of a ipod already, once you autotune and time correct the lead vocal so there are no flaws, once you create impossible one second dead silences in the middle of songs, once you go for 15 different mixes to take care of fragmented radio niches....then you are into pop processing.
The music no longer sounds like a bunch of people could possibly have turned up to a studio, set up, plugged in, played and sang and an engineer set up a bunch of mics and recorded them...then you are into plastic, temporary, a bubble that bursts ten seconds after it is exposed to the air.
Who are the biggest selling acts this year? Answer mumfords, adele. Who's still going to be around in ten years time? Answer....Mumfords and Adele. No processing.
Make your records impossible to be taken as real and you are as permanent as a seltzer.
______________________________________
From: peter frampton
Subject: Re: Taylor Swift
But I believed in life after death. And I was right!
______________________________________
From: peter noone
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-The Move
Blackberry way. Roy Wood Genius!
______________________________________
From: Bob Ezrin
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-The Move
Keith Elshaw who was the evening DJ on CKFH in Toronto (an AM station with an FM format) played me Brontosaurus in 1970 and it literally changed my life. Until that moment I was really a long-haired hippy folkie dabbling in rock music that all sounded like sons of The Band.
I had just met the Alice Cooper group in NY a few days before and was pitching Jack Richardson to consider producing them when I went to the radio station to visit with Keith, a slight man with a booming, melifluous voice, trippy patter and amazing taste in music. Back then, the DJ's programmed their own shows.
Keith was my friend outside of work. At the time, he was renting Scott Young's coach house on Lyndhurst Ave, the street I grew up on (that's Neil's dad in case you're wondering). We would hang out there, listen to records and smoke dope and I would hide there from my responsibilities as a premature husband and father at 20 years of age. But that's another story.
That evening in the studio, Keith said "I've got something you HAVE to hear. I'm going to put it on the air now" and he did. Because he wanted to, and he was in charge of his own show. What a concept! Anyway, he dropped the needle, turned it up and this lumbering beast of a song charged through the mono Altec 604 studio monitor and took my face off. I had never heard anything like it…though the Beatles and Jimi and a few others had come close to true heaviosity a few times. And maybe there were other antecedents to the heavy metal sound of the 70s that I was unaware of the, but I'd never heard anything THAT massive and sludge-laden before. The minute I heard it, I was cellularly converted and nothing but Truly Big and Heavy would ever really satisfy me again (I'm talking about music here…so get your mind out of your pants). Remember Shana Boom Boom? Heavy makes you happy! So right.
The next thing I knew Jack had cleared the way for me to go to work with Alice Cooper in Pontiac Michigan. And when I got there, the first song I worked on with them was I'm 18 which I needed to sound as massive and bigfooted as Brontosaurus, so I started to experiment with guitars and bass doubling riffs and things like tuning down and all the stuff that became SOP in heavy rock. I didn't know anything about heavy rock then except that I had been infected by it and I wanted THAT sound! And that desire informed my early career - and might be the reason I had some success. Heavy made me happy. And the Brontosaurus was my indoctrination into true heaviosity.
So…I owe it all to Keith and The Move. Really.
Bob
______________________________________
From: wendy waldman
Subject: Not breaking through
My dear, generous friend
Your letter was such a blessing cause I know you get it...and in this business, you want two things, and it's up to you to decide which is more important if you don't get both-you want to make a living of course, hopefully a great one--and you also want someone to GET what you do, really deeply. The former comes and goes for artists except for the 1/20th of 1 percent now--but the latter, now, THAT is the grail, man. And beyond a shadow of a doubt, I know that you get what I do, what I'm trying to do, and what I hope to continue to do until they cart me outta here.... For that I thank you beyond measure because that's what's priceless and that's actually what carries you through the darkest hardest times, knowing that there are some folks out there who really hear you. That is actually the real measure of success.
I know that somewhere on the net it was written that I've been "disappointed" that I never "broke through." I've said a lot of dumb stuff in the press over 40 years, but that is ONE thing I have never said. In fact, not breaking through was probably the greatest gift of my life. It has forced me to keep pushing my boundaries, to keep studying, to make a buttload of mistakes and a few exciting successes, to search, experiment, to "ride the rails" as I said in the show the other night, to learn to produce, be a session player, a singer, a performer, a teacher, a songwriter in different disciplines, to range all over the globe in incredible musical experiences and with the greatest musicians of my time, to learn new styles of music and work in every possible configuration and discipline except for classical music, (Alas, how I wish I could have.) These boundless, wider ranging opportunities only came to me because I had no choice--I had to stay restless and to keep learning, and it made me grow. I would never have survived being a star in my 20s and 30s.
And by the way, along the way, I've had years where I made a lot of money, and also some horrible times of near poverty.
And I kept being so damned excited about all these great places I got to visit (and get to visit even now) and learn from. With such opportunities, who could be disappointed? Truth is, I always suspected in my heart it would be like that: my dream was to be a musical thinker, and I guess my dream has come true. I have always been deeply grateful for the chances I've had, especially the chances to learn to do it better, even though some of those were the ...most painful ones. Such is the road, and so it goes on and on, if I am lucky.
Please tell our friends who wrote such kind letters to you, worrying that I never broke through, that I am so happy to be the musician I am, and that I wouldn't change it for the world, and that like my heroes, I intend to make music until the day I die, literally. And that THEY and you are the light that sustains me, gives me reason, hope, and optimism. Out of our hands who will be remembered and who forgotten.
W
______________________________________
From: James Hutchinson
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Paul Brady
Hi Bob.
Thank you for the piece on Brady.
He's an old friend who's deserved more recognition for his work throughout his long career. Nothing's much changed as far as that goes. A great solo performer, he's been making great records, solo and otherwise (w/ Andy Irvine especially) since his traditional stuff of the mid-1970s. All of these are well worth seeking out. (Check out "The Liberty Tapes" and "Welcome Here Kind Stranger") Dylan later co-opted his arrangement of Arthur McBride.
I was introduced to his contemporary material by a couple of friends in Ireland (guitarist/songwriter Bobby Dunlap and Jim O'Neill of the RTE) in the early 1980s shortly after the release of "Hard Station", still one of my favorite records, and would listen to it almost constantly during that time and shortly thereafter while on the road on our bus with Bonnie. She got him immediately. Not everyone that I'd played him for did at the time. And although he was legendary in Ireland at the time due to songs like "Nothing But The Same Old Story" (about the Irish Diaspora) and later "The Island" (how one man dealt with the "Troubles"), which were almost anthems, I was surprised how few people here really got his stuff. His records needed to be searched out. I'd have friends send them from Ireland. Or maybe find them in Boston.
One Monday afternoon around 1989 (while taking a nap before a late China Club jam gig) and a few days before a benefit at the Santa Monica Civic, which Jane Fonda had helped organize and which we were doing with Bon, Richard Thompson (who along with Jeff Porcaro and myself performed on the "Luck Of The Draw" track on Bon's record), Jackson Browne and Springsteen, I got a call in the afternoon from Paul, who had been given my number by Irish singer Maura O'Connell (of De Dannan). Couldn't quite believe that it was he at first and thought it might have been another Irish friend "winding me up". After I'd realized that it actually was him and not my friend Bobby, and after a few minutes of chat we decided to hook up later that evening and we headed down to the China Club for a grand night all around.
Later that week at the benefit, I had the pleasure of introducing he and Bonnie and Paul was surprised by the fact that universally, the musicians performing there were fans of his work. That's still the case with him today. A truly genuine soul who writes his songs from the heart.
We later hooked up some gigs for him at the old Largo on Fairfax which were a great success. The first night being an almost entirely Irish crowd, who knew all the words. The second night was attended primarily by the LA singer songwriter crowd and featured a memorable entrance by David Crosby. (Another story, ask Flannie).
We've had the pleasure of working, playing and hanging together many times now of the years and it's never enough. Great Craic.
Thanks again. HH
______________________________________
From: Brad Parker
Subject: Re: Your Catalog
I was a guest teacher at MI last week in a songwriting class. I used a technique to start off that I learned from my old boss Bill Graham:
"How many of you believe that you will be as successful as I am, with a career that spans decades? (everyone raised their hand) All of you? OK… Well, not one of you will ever make it in my business. Not any one of you. You need to go home, get a good job, do your music on the side and have a wonderful life without being a part of my world of artists, songwriters, musicians and producers… (long pause) Now, how many of you believe that you will succeed? (a couple of hands go up) These are the people in this room today who have a chance because nothing I said changed their mind. I am a fairly nice guy but you will meet some really mean people in the music business who get their kicks out of stompin' on a dream. You must believe. You must be tough. It's the only way…"
I first saw Bill do this in Berkeley in 1970 to an auditorium full of aspiring rock stars like me and my brother. We were among the handful who raised their hands the second time. Bill said no one there would ever play on his stage. He told us to go back to our garages, forget about making it and have a good life. A few years later I became a stage hand for BGP, while I played in my band on the off nights. Eventually Peter Barsotti, my boss, offered me the chance to move up at BGP. I had to say no. When Bill asked why I told him that I was determined to play on his stage and not just work on it. He was totally cool even though he and Peter thought I was crazy. A few years later I did play on the stages I had worked on, the Concord Pavilion, the Shoreline Amphitheater and many others. My wife at the time, Wendy Waldman, was the opening act on the Dan Fogleberg national tour and I was the band leader and lead guitarist. It was a promise I had made to myself that was pretty sweet when it came true. Many other dreams have come true since then.
Many are called and few are chosen. I guess in the end we choose ourselves? Who knows. I am happy to be here still crazy after all these years. Your words are an elixir for those of us "On The Road." Bob…
Thanks for keeping it real…
______________________________________
Subject: Re: Jimmy Calls
Hi Bob,
Proud to say Jimmy Iovine was the tape operator on my first album AQUASHOW recorded at The Record Plant in NYC in 1973. He did a flawless job as I remember and was always into the music. To say his career moved on nicely from that point on is an understatement to be sure. It was my first time in a real studio and the superb quality of the sound I listened back to was a revelation and inspired me to make my performance somehow commensurate with the level of my surroundings. I think there is something poetic and just and even intimate about how artists work in studios wearing high quality headphones to record music that is then mixed and mastered and listened to by kids wearing ... high quality headphones. Those of us who remember when the advent of stereo was a mind-blowing experience, when the format of an LP changed the art form itself and who listened long and hard to those amazing sounds of yesterday to the point that our ears are ringing today can only have hope that the level of sound technology and musical artistry will again create that perform storm and give forth irresistible life-changing records. Me, I'm an optimist.
All the best,
Elliott Murphy
______________________________________
From: Lennart Krarup
Subject: Re: Jimmy Calls
Beats are NOT studio sound, the curve is TOTALLY wrong for studio work.
Stick a test mic in the cans and run some test, and you'll see the bass is tilted over 20db! (every 3db feels twice as loud)
If you mixed on those cans, it would sound SHIT on any and every system.
Studio sound has NOTHING to do with cans, nor speakers.
You see, studio sound it all about the room, (and how few reflective
surfaces you can reduce it to).
YOU CANNOT BREAK THE LAWS OF PHYSICS!!!
Studio sound is for the elite, everything else is mass marketing...
Love and grooves
Lenny Ibizarre
______________________________________
From: peter frampton
Subject: Re: Beats At Half Price
All the noise canceling headphones I have tried for flying do cancel some good frequencies. Not what one should listen with whilst checking a master mix from the road. The trick of removing the lead vocal from a stereo track by putting the speakers/headphones out of phase is similar to noise canceling (but it's much more involved than that). While canceling the frequencies of the plane or traffic that are making it hard for you to hear your music, the process unfortunately removes part of what you are listening to as well. I learned this the hard way. The mix was great when I finally listened through regular cans and then speakers. Just saying .....
______________________________________
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Mott The Hoople
You might be interested to know that I am the author of the novel, Mott The Hoople from which the band took its. name, back in the early 50's. The book, by the way, is now available in print and e-book versions. Let me know if you'd like further information.
All good wishes,
Will Manus
______________________________________
From: Bob Lefsetz
Subject: re-Zuckerberg saying it was a mistake to use HTML5 for Facebook app
To: Roger McNamee
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8133bd96-0d3d-11e2-99a1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Av4aCGVU
What do you think this means? A turning point, or will HTML5 dominate eventually?
You're the guru!
_______
From: Roger McNamee
Subject: Re: re-Zuckerberg saying it was a mistake to use HTML5 for Facebook app
Dear Bob,
What Mark said about native vs HTML5 is axiomatically true for the Facebook application. Facebook had created a one size fits all mobile app in HTML5 that worked on all the platforms with only minor tweaking ... getting FB into mobile faster than would otherwise have been the case. It turns out that substantial processing horsepower is required to configure each (personalized) FB page, so consumers had to accept really pokey performance. To perform satisfactorily, the Facebook app needs to take advantage of every opportunity offered by Apple's tool set. The only way to do that is to write native apps. (This is why action video games must always be optimized for each platform.)
The FB example is really important, but it's not the whole story. Many valuable products do not benefit from native apps.
The most important use case for tablets is content consumption; on smartphones, content consumption is probably use case #3 after phone/text and camera. For linear, time-based content such as video or audio, however, processing power is irrelevant. Once the stream starts, the only things that matter are bandwidth and the quality of the playback device.
For content publishers (as opposed to app app creators like FB) there are two potential negatives to native apps:
- App Store: content publishers give up tons of control to Apple. They also give up rights to demographic data about their customers. In a word of mouth era, the App Store is a poor discovery tool.
- 30% tariff: Apple's fees are really high for word of mouth products. If your fans want your product wouldn't they rather buy it directly from you?
The question about HTML5 is this: will there be a next generation web optimized for mobile? In terms of profit, iOS is gradually sucking the life out of the HTML4 web that revolves Google, Facebook and Microsoft. HTML4 can't compete on mobile because of Flash, so HTML5 comes to the rescue.
If everyone interprets Mark's quote as the end of HTML5, then iOS is the new Windows. It's possible, but the smart money will bet on a slow but steady adoption of HTML5 by owners of branded content (who offer app versions, as well, to hedge the bet). But they will work harder on HTML5 because margins will be higher. In time, open source HTML5 will evolve more rapidly than iOS. This is why Apple is so smart to enable great HTML5 experiences across all iOS devices ... it's a great hedge.
One more observation: about the time of Mark's HTML5 quote, Apple discontinued its social tools and integrated FB into iOS6 to replace and enhance the social functionality. Probably just a coincidence.
Take care,
Roger
Sent from my incredible Palm Pre
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Friday, 2 November 2012
Taylor Swift
Has she jumped the shark?
By playing to everybody has she undermined her core country audience?
Don't trust the media. The media is there to be manipulated, it likes a story. Ergo, the election. If there's no horse race, there's no ratings. If everybody else is doing a story on Taylor Swift, then you should too, even if you're the "New York Times."
So the media crowns you superstar of the month, but does it last?
It's not like we haven't seen this movie before. With Peter Frampton. Credible rock artist triumphs amongst mainstream and promptly plays to his newfound fans and is abandoned by his core and is ultimately kicked to the curb by everybody. Of course it was not that simple, but "I'm In You" sold prodigiously upon release. And then went straight into the dumper. Is this what's gonna happen with Taylor Swift?
First there's the single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," one of Max Martin and Shellback's best. They want to get paid, they're saving their A material for superstars. The only problem is country radio wouldn't play it, not for long. It wasn't made for them but Top Forty radio. But Top Forty radio is fickle, loyalty does not exist, if callout research is less than stellar, they drop your track, no matter who you are. "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" may have set sales records, but it seems to have the shelf life of a cup of yogurt. Well, not that short, but in a world where some tracks fester in the public consciousness for the better part of a year, like Cee Lo's "Forget You," "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" seems more like a flare than a lasting light.
Then there's the Papa John's tie-in. It sold few copies of the album, but those on Taylor's team would talk about the publicity factor. As if the target audience, as if those who don't even care, were unaware. But it became an internet meme. People kept forwarding it to others, essentially saying "Can you believe this? Does the woman have no shame?" Of course it wasn't Taylor herself, but when you're the star, you bear the brunt of all criticism. Your handlers can find another act, you're saddled with being you.
And then there was last night's CMAs. Where not only did Taylor get shut out, going 0 for 3, they made jokes about her love life from the stage.
You can't manage affairs of the heart. If she fell in love with Conor Kennedy, so be it. But suddenly Taylor looked bad, robbing the cradle for a high school student after abusing John Mayer for taking advantage of her when she was young.
And suddenly Taylor Swift is no longer so young. And there's a distinct backlash going on. Now people are pointing at her, saying she's the problem as opposed to those she's writing songs about, attacking.
In other words, Taylor Swift was not satisfied with being the queen of country. She needed to be the queen of EVERYTHING! As if anyone's gonna remember she sold a million copies of "Red" last week. It's ultimately a meaningless statistic, only the music matters.
And too much of the music is not country. And now, more than ever since before the Beatles, pop music is seen as disposable. It's country music that lasts. It's country acts that last. Taylor Swift could have been the new coal miner's daughter, er, financial advisor's daughter, you get my point, she could have been Loretta Lynn. Dolly Parton even. Who never forgot her country fans but did sacrifice country airplay when she went mainstream, became a movie star. Then again, to equate Taylor Swift's talents with those of Dolly Parton is to believe Snooki can play outfield for the Mets. Then again, with the season they had!
The harder the sell, the bigger the turn-off. Remember when Jewel was the biggest star of the land, with new singles seemingly every week and incessant appearances on TV? Today Jewel can't get arrested, she's a trivia question, people have a bad taste in their mouth. Furthermore, once upon a time, Jewel was a folkie, before the label remixed her tracks to be hits. The label made its money, it's Jewel who's left holding the bag.
Just because someone says they'll promote you that does not mean you should tie in with them. Pearl Jam won't tie in with anybody, but they do great live business to this day, despite having almost no radio hits since "Ten." Pearl Jam knows if you don't stand for something, you stand for nothing. And saying you owe it all to your fans is not lip service, you have to make decisions with them in mind, not only put them first, but make sure they can get the good concert tickets, because when the mania's done, they're the only ones who'll remain.
I'm not saying Taylor Swift is going to fade into oblivion by Christmas. Hell, she might survive this overhype and continue to triumph. Then again, today albums of pop and country stars are single dependent. If Top Forty abandons her and country gives her the cold shoulder, "Red" could have a very short shelf life. Better slow and steady than to be a rocket ship that burns out. Better to be Mumford & Sons and sell for a year than be number one and then fall off the chart, or languish at the bottom.
It's tough being number one. Everybody's gunning for you. Instead of going on this premature victory lap, Taylor Swift should have employed the soft sell. Will the hard sell come back and bite her?
Expect ticket sales to be good.
Then again, the Dixie Chicks sold out arenas and today can barely get arrested. They pissed off their country audience.
Those Max Martin/Dr. Luke singles are trifles, usually with short shelf lives. Taylor Swift built her career by revealing her inner truth, by relating to the outcasts, the thinkers, everybody but the cheerleaders and football captains. But now she's playing the role of winner herself. She's subtly gone from the sidelines to homecoming queen. And that comes with a price. It's kind of like that old teen movie "Can't Buy Me Love," abandon your friends for a better crowd and when they dump you, your old buddies can't be found, you're nowhere.
Taylor Swift can work until she dies. She's had that many hits.
But somehow, with the overhype and move to the middle, she's torn away some of her underpinnings, she's become unmoored, we're no longer exactly sure who she is.
And if we don't know who you are, it's hard to stay in love with you.
The little girls may scream, ticket sales may be rampant. But if you don't see it my way, if you don't think her career now has more questions than answers, you're not thinking at all.
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By playing to everybody has she undermined her core country audience?
Don't trust the media. The media is there to be manipulated, it likes a story. Ergo, the election. If there's no horse race, there's no ratings. If everybody else is doing a story on Taylor Swift, then you should too, even if you're the "New York Times."
So the media crowns you superstar of the month, but does it last?
It's not like we haven't seen this movie before. With Peter Frampton. Credible rock artist triumphs amongst mainstream and promptly plays to his newfound fans and is abandoned by his core and is ultimately kicked to the curb by everybody. Of course it was not that simple, but "I'm In You" sold prodigiously upon release. And then went straight into the dumper. Is this what's gonna happen with Taylor Swift?
First there's the single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," one of Max Martin and Shellback's best. They want to get paid, they're saving their A material for superstars. The only problem is country radio wouldn't play it, not for long. It wasn't made for them but Top Forty radio. But Top Forty radio is fickle, loyalty does not exist, if callout research is less than stellar, they drop your track, no matter who you are. "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" may have set sales records, but it seems to have the shelf life of a cup of yogurt. Well, not that short, but in a world where some tracks fester in the public consciousness for the better part of a year, like Cee Lo's "Forget You," "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" seems more like a flare than a lasting light.
Then there's the Papa John's tie-in. It sold few copies of the album, but those on Taylor's team would talk about the publicity factor. As if the target audience, as if those who don't even care, were unaware. But it became an internet meme. People kept forwarding it to others, essentially saying "Can you believe this? Does the woman have no shame?" Of course it wasn't Taylor herself, but when you're the star, you bear the brunt of all criticism. Your handlers can find another act, you're saddled with being you.
And then there was last night's CMAs. Where not only did Taylor get shut out, going 0 for 3, they made jokes about her love life from the stage.
You can't manage affairs of the heart. If she fell in love with Conor Kennedy, so be it. But suddenly Taylor looked bad, robbing the cradle for a high school student after abusing John Mayer for taking advantage of her when she was young.
And suddenly Taylor Swift is no longer so young. And there's a distinct backlash going on. Now people are pointing at her, saying she's the problem as opposed to those she's writing songs about, attacking.
In other words, Taylor Swift was not satisfied with being the queen of country. She needed to be the queen of EVERYTHING! As if anyone's gonna remember she sold a million copies of "Red" last week. It's ultimately a meaningless statistic, only the music matters.
And too much of the music is not country. And now, more than ever since before the Beatles, pop music is seen as disposable. It's country music that lasts. It's country acts that last. Taylor Swift could have been the new coal miner's daughter, er, financial advisor's daughter, you get my point, she could have been Loretta Lynn. Dolly Parton even. Who never forgot her country fans but did sacrifice country airplay when she went mainstream, became a movie star. Then again, to equate Taylor Swift's talents with those of Dolly Parton is to believe Snooki can play outfield for the Mets. Then again, with the season they had!
The harder the sell, the bigger the turn-off. Remember when Jewel was the biggest star of the land, with new singles seemingly every week and incessant appearances on TV? Today Jewel can't get arrested, she's a trivia question, people have a bad taste in their mouth. Furthermore, once upon a time, Jewel was a folkie, before the label remixed her tracks to be hits. The label made its money, it's Jewel who's left holding the bag.
Just because someone says they'll promote you that does not mean you should tie in with them. Pearl Jam won't tie in with anybody, but they do great live business to this day, despite having almost no radio hits since "Ten." Pearl Jam knows if you don't stand for something, you stand for nothing. And saying you owe it all to your fans is not lip service, you have to make decisions with them in mind, not only put them first, but make sure they can get the good concert tickets, because when the mania's done, they're the only ones who'll remain.
I'm not saying Taylor Swift is going to fade into oblivion by Christmas. Hell, she might survive this overhype and continue to triumph. Then again, today albums of pop and country stars are single dependent. If Top Forty abandons her and country gives her the cold shoulder, "Red" could have a very short shelf life. Better slow and steady than to be a rocket ship that burns out. Better to be Mumford & Sons and sell for a year than be number one and then fall off the chart, or languish at the bottom.
It's tough being number one. Everybody's gunning for you. Instead of going on this premature victory lap, Taylor Swift should have employed the soft sell. Will the hard sell come back and bite her?
Expect ticket sales to be good.
Then again, the Dixie Chicks sold out arenas and today can barely get arrested. They pissed off their country audience.
Those Max Martin/Dr. Luke singles are trifles, usually with short shelf lives. Taylor Swift built her career by revealing her inner truth, by relating to the outcasts, the thinkers, everybody but the cheerleaders and football captains. But now she's playing the role of winner herself. She's subtly gone from the sidelines to homecoming queen. And that comes with a price. It's kind of like that old teen movie "Can't Buy Me Love," abandon your friends for a better crowd and when they dump you, your old buddies can't be found, you're nowhere.
Taylor Swift can work until she dies. She's had that many hits.
But somehow, with the overhype and move to the middle, she's torn away some of her underpinnings, she's become unmoored, we're no longer exactly sure who she is.
And if we don't know who you are, it's hard to stay in love with you.
The little girls may scream, ticket sales may be rampant. But if you don't see it my way, if you don't think her career now has more questions than answers, you're not thinking at all.
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Rhinofy-The Move
It was all about "Shazam." This was the album that was gonna break the Move through in the U.S. But the record came out, the tour was canceled, and not another thing was heard until...
ELO. The Electric Light Orchestra. A splinter group that became the main thing.
The first album yielded a track that got more press than airplay, but "10538 Overture" had more impact in the U.S. than the Move ever did. And "Roll Over Beethoven," from the second LP, was even stickier. Then came "Showdown." It was a radio staple. Setting up Jeff Lynne's masterpiece, "Eldorado," a winner from beginning to end, far superior to the double album "Out Of The Blue" that ended up killing the band. Yup, put your finger to the wind and test your own momentum before overreaching. It was the four-sided "Tales From Topographic Oceans" that put the stake in the heart of Yes, without Trevor Rabin almost a decade later, the band never would have come back. And then there's Leon Russell, with his triple live album, a victory lap no one was waiting for. Yup, just when you think you're cementing your legacy, you're already done. It took the soundtrack to "Xanadu" and a playing to tape controversy to truly kill ELO, but it was done in '77, with the double album.
But I purchased a Move's greatest hits album back in '74, a few months before "Eldorado." And then I purchased another one two years later, with almost completely different material, you couldn't buy the original studio albums, everything was rare...but I discovered a few tracks so spectacular...
That I'm gonna tell you about 'em now.
"Message From The Country"
Kind of like "Pictures Of Matchstick Men," this is so hypnotic you can't stop playing it, because you don't want to leave the space it puts you in.
It's got a typically weak Jeff Lynne vocal buried in the mix, but the harmonies are so delicious they make you want to buy a three thousand dollar stereo just to hear them.
But it's more than that.
It's the lyrical intro.
The bridge.
The anthemic repetition of the title.
The guitar solo.
But mostly it's those harmonies.
That's something you don't get in hip-hop. Something so sweet we're all lemmings following in its wake. It was the secret sauce of Crosby, Stills & Nash and studio wizard Lynne knows how to get that sound.
You'll never hear "Message From The Country" on the radio. But if you run into someone who knows it you'll share a bond akin to spending a summer together at camp.
You can't help but nod your head in time, it's an involuntary movement, you'll love it!
And if you've never heard it, be sure to play it all the way through, to when the rhythm changes and all the instruments drop out and you're truly in the church of rock and roll.
"California Man"
Yes, from "Heaven Tonight"!
That's right. The follow-up to "In Color," Cheap Trick's best.
And "Heaven Tonight" contains "Surrender," but my favorite was and still is the second side opener, "Takin' Me Back"...what a powerful riff!
But on side one, smack dab in the middle is a cover of "California Man."
That's right "California Man" was written and recorded by the Move! And the original is just zany and free enough to reference California, but at this late date I have to admit Cheap Trick's cover is better. They lose some of the dynamics, but they add a rocking element, a power the original does not possess. But if you only know Cheap Trick's version, you'll be fascinated by the Move's original. It stands on its own. But unlike Cheap Trick's remake, it would never get airplay in ANY era!
"Do Ya"
The apotheosis. The ELO remake is not as good. It's too slick. It's got that added sliding guitar part. I credit Jeff Lynne for reaching back and lifting "Do Ya" out of obscurity, but the original is just a bit more rough, a garage band take whose energy immediately infects you.
It's the break that's so magical.
"In the country where the sky
Touches down on the field
He lay her down to rest
In the morning sun
They come 'a running just to get a look
Just to feel, to touch her long black veil
They don't give a damn"
This is the essence of rock and roll. The unexpected sweetness, the "Lady Jane" effect. But in this case the magic is encapsulated right in the center of this tearing rocker, it's better than nougat, you're drawn to the music, the words paint the desire of every horny boy listening to rock music ever!
The ELO remake is absent the dynamics. It's too rote. Lynne knows he's gonna get airplay. He's perfecting it. Whereas the original has no blueprint, you get the feeling the band just learned the song fifteen minutes before.
Except for that break...
Where did that come from? How'd they channel that?
In my rock and roll museum, the original replaces the remake. See if you don't agree.
And you can explore beyond this. There's more Move on Spotify. Especially the lauded "Hello Susie."
But start with these three tracks.
If you don't get it you never lived through the sixties, you never knew the joy of playing music, of believing that the right sound could change the world, or at least make you not care about what's outside your front door.
When we were listening to our music, we just didn't give a damn.
About anything but the sound.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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ELO. The Electric Light Orchestra. A splinter group that became the main thing.
The first album yielded a track that got more press than airplay, but "10538 Overture" had more impact in the U.S. than the Move ever did. And "Roll Over Beethoven," from the second LP, was even stickier. Then came "Showdown." It was a radio staple. Setting up Jeff Lynne's masterpiece, "Eldorado," a winner from beginning to end, far superior to the double album "Out Of The Blue" that ended up killing the band. Yup, put your finger to the wind and test your own momentum before overreaching. It was the four-sided "Tales From Topographic Oceans" that put the stake in the heart of Yes, without Trevor Rabin almost a decade later, the band never would have come back. And then there's Leon Russell, with his triple live album, a victory lap no one was waiting for. Yup, just when you think you're cementing your legacy, you're already done. It took the soundtrack to "Xanadu" and a playing to tape controversy to truly kill ELO, but it was done in '77, with the double album.
But I purchased a Move's greatest hits album back in '74, a few months before "Eldorado." And then I purchased another one two years later, with almost completely different material, you couldn't buy the original studio albums, everything was rare...but I discovered a few tracks so spectacular...
That I'm gonna tell you about 'em now.
"Message From The Country"
Kind of like "Pictures Of Matchstick Men," this is so hypnotic you can't stop playing it, because you don't want to leave the space it puts you in.
It's got a typically weak Jeff Lynne vocal buried in the mix, but the harmonies are so delicious they make you want to buy a three thousand dollar stereo just to hear them.
But it's more than that.
It's the lyrical intro.
The bridge.
The anthemic repetition of the title.
The guitar solo.
But mostly it's those harmonies.
That's something you don't get in hip-hop. Something so sweet we're all lemmings following in its wake. It was the secret sauce of Crosby, Stills & Nash and studio wizard Lynne knows how to get that sound.
You'll never hear "Message From The Country" on the radio. But if you run into someone who knows it you'll share a bond akin to spending a summer together at camp.
You can't help but nod your head in time, it's an involuntary movement, you'll love it!
And if you've never heard it, be sure to play it all the way through, to when the rhythm changes and all the instruments drop out and you're truly in the church of rock and roll.
"California Man"
Yes, from "Heaven Tonight"!
That's right. The follow-up to "In Color," Cheap Trick's best.
And "Heaven Tonight" contains "Surrender," but my favorite was and still is the second side opener, "Takin' Me Back"...what a powerful riff!
But on side one, smack dab in the middle is a cover of "California Man."
That's right "California Man" was written and recorded by the Move! And the original is just zany and free enough to reference California, but at this late date I have to admit Cheap Trick's cover is better. They lose some of the dynamics, but they add a rocking element, a power the original does not possess. But if you only know Cheap Trick's version, you'll be fascinated by the Move's original. It stands on its own. But unlike Cheap Trick's remake, it would never get airplay in ANY era!
"Do Ya"
The apotheosis. The ELO remake is not as good. It's too slick. It's got that added sliding guitar part. I credit Jeff Lynne for reaching back and lifting "Do Ya" out of obscurity, but the original is just a bit more rough, a garage band take whose energy immediately infects you.
It's the break that's so magical.
"In the country where the sky
Touches down on the field
He lay her down to rest
In the morning sun
They come 'a running just to get a look
Just to feel, to touch her long black veil
They don't give a damn"
This is the essence of rock and roll. The unexpected sweetness, the "Lady Jane" effect. But in this case the magic is encapsulated right in the center of this tearing rocker, it's better than nougat, you're drawn to the music, the words paint the desire of every horny boy listening to rock music ever!
The ELO remake is absent the dynamics. It's too rote. Lynne knows he's gonna get airplay. He's perfecting it. Whereas the original has no blueprint, you get the feeling the band just learned the song fifteen minutes before.
Except for that break...
Where did that come from? How'd they channel that?
In my rock and roll museum, the original replaces the remake. See if you don't agree.
And you can explore beyond this. There's more Move on Spotify. Especially the lauded "Hello Susie."
But start with these three tracks.
If you don't get it you never lived through the sixties, you never knew the joy of playing music, of believing that the right sound could change the world, or at least make you not care about what's outside your front door.
When we were listening to our music, we just didn't give a damn.
About anything but the sound.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Making It In Music
1. THE INFECTION
It's either a song or a video, you hear it or see it and say to yourself I WANNA DO THAT! That's what created classic rock in the U.S., everybody seeing the Beatles on "Ed Sullivan" and picking up instruments and playing in bands.
The trappings always count. But they can never be the essence. When you're young you want to be famous, everybody wants to be rich. But if these are more important than the music itself, you'll probably have a very short career.
2. PLAYING
You ask your parents to buy you a Strat.
In the old days, you could learn how to play in school. Before people believed taxes were bad and not only were school music programs excised, teachers had to bring in their own paper, kids had to bring in all their supplies.
So the pool of musicians is smaller than ever before. I'm talking about people who have experience playing an instrument. Yes, you can create music using a computer program, but it's not the same thing. One can argue strongly that those who use the computer tools best are those with the greatest underpinning in music education.
3. LESSONS
There are a few self-starters who can do without, but they're the very small minority. Furthermore, you build upon fundamentals, get them wrong and you're just reinforcing bad habits.
You can take classes in person, you can take them online, but it's best to learn from a teacher.
4. PRACTICE
May not make perfect, but it makes you a whole hell of a lot better than everybody else. You should be able to switch keys on the fly. You should feel as comfortable playing as talking.
5. PLAYING 2
At first you play in your bedroom, then you play with others. You learn from others. Sure, there are the exceptions who create great tracks in their bedrooms, alone, but they are rare. Playing with others you learn so much.
Like how good or bad you are.
Good players want to play with better players. If you're bad, you're gonna be with the other losers.
6. THE TROUGH
You've put in all this time.
First, you have to evaluate if you've got it. If your friends have so much more skill than you, if you'd rather watch ESPN than practice, you're a hobbyist. That's fine, the sooner you own it the better.
7. PLAYING LIVE
Gigs are hard to get and you're gonna suck.
Friends give you gigs. If the venue owner is not your friend, if you have no relationship, unless you can show a track record, and as a beginner, you've got none, your efforts will be fruitless. Who does your father know? Does someone in the band know... Play school events for free. You know you're worth getting paid when if you say you'll pass, you won't do it for free, suddenly an offer of cash comes through. It's raw capitalism, supply and demand.
8. THE ARC
If it's getting harder to get gigs, get better or give up.
9. RECORDINGS
No one wants to hear your recordings except your fans. You've got none. Your mother and friends might be interested, but they're not honest reflectors. Until someone not related demands tracks, you're not good enough yet.
Your first recordings will suck. Just like playing your instrument, recording is a skill, that you learn.
10. DEMAND
There will be next to none even if your recordings are good. If you haven't done the work, there will be no demand at all. If you're depressed and want to give up, do so.
11. VIDEO
If you're getting positive response, if you're getting better, post your music online, in both MP3 format and YouTube videos. These are land mines waiting to be discovered. You hope you become so successful everybody wants to check out everything you've already done. Promotion is worthless. Everybody's overloaded with too much information. Presence online gives you the possibility of traction.
12. AFTER TRACTION
Then you play bigger and better venues, mobilize your fanbase by giving them perks, which will motivate them to spread the word, and continue to make live performances and recordings available online.
But still most people won't care. You're an amateur.
13. GETTING LUCKY
If you're working the connections to break through, you probably won't. You'll get the opportunity, but you'll fail. Today there's a plethora of people looking for talent. If you're good, they'll find you. First it might only be venue owners, gigs will become less rare and better. Then it will be agents and recording companies. Development will be slow, but you can feel it. If years go by without this development, get better, give up, or change musical direction.
14. GIVING UP YOUR DAY JOB
This is more important than getting a deal. Record companies don't support bands anymore, only Top Forty phenoms. If you can't make it alone, you're never gonna survive. Don't complain, keep working, or give up.
15. BUZZ
You will continue to grow if you've got it.
16. SUCCESS
Will come much later than you think, long after you've become comfortable being a journeyman. It takes just that long to reach everybody and convince them today.
SHORTCUTS
1. TV TALENT SHOWS
It's about television, not music.
Odds of success are low even if you win.
As for the exposure, you just become a trivia question.
Furthermore, they're looking for pretty people with good voices. You need neither to make it in music, only on TV.
2. GARAGEBAND
Just because you can make it, that does not mean anybody wants to hear it.
3. POSTING & iTUNES
Just because it's available to view and buy, that doesn't mean anybody wants to see it or purchase it.
4. CDs
A souvenir to be sold at gigs, nothing more. Anybody who will get you ahead does not want a CD.
5. YOUTH
You've got nothing to say. And like a date with a beautiful person with no personality, it doesn't last.
6. TV SHOWS & ENDORSEMENTS
Tying in with a corporation or getting your music in the background of a TV show may yield some cash, but it will never yield a career, not unless you've got one to begin with.
THE HIDDEN SECRET
WRITE
Because that's where all the money is, in publishing.
It takes years to be able to write good material. Start now. Right after you learn how to play your instrument.
IF YOU'VE GIVEN UP AND STILL WANT TO BE IN MUSIC
Go into the business.
You do this by working for free. Not even as an intern at an established entity. But by being on the college concert committee, helping manage a friend's band... None of this is for money, it's all for experience.
The easiest way to make it in the business is by attaching yourself to a great act. But great acts tend to want experienced people. They leave you for those with more seasoning, with connections. Furthermore, there are few great acts out there.
Many are clamoring to work in the business. Even if you get a gig, it's gonna be hard to keep it. Enjoy the ride, don't be in it for the money. Those in it for the money, who make it, could have made it doing anything, it's their personality.
Furthermore, there just ain't that much money in music anymore.
FINALLY
Nobody needs your music. They need air, food and water. And personal, physical comfort. If you want a career in music you must do your best to be necessary. And that's got nothing to do with marketing and everything to do with the music itself, which is all based on the bedrock outlined above.
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It's either a song or a video, you hear it or see it and say to yourself I WANNA DO THAT! That's what created classic rock in the U.S., everybody seeing the Beatles on "Ed Sullivan" and picking up instruments and playing in bands.
The trappings always count. But they can never be the essence. When you're young you want to be famous, everybody wants to be rich. But if these are more important than the music itself, you'll probably have a very short career.
2. PLAYING
You ask your parents to buy you a Strat.
In the old days, you could learn how to play in school. Before people believed taxes were bad and not only were school music programs excised, teachers had to bring in their own paper, kids had to bring in all their supplies.
So the pool of musicians is smaller than ever before. I'm talking about people who have experience playing an instrument. Yes, you can create music using a computer program, but it's not the same thing. One can argue strongly that those who use the computer tools best are those with the greatest underpinning in music education.
3. LESSONS
There are a few self-starters who can do without, but they're the very small minority. Furthermore, you build upon fundamentals, get them wrong and you're just reinforcing bad habits.
You can take classes in person, you can take them online, but it's best to learn from a teacher.
4. PRACTICE
May not make perfect, but it makes you a whole hell of a lot better than everybody else. You should be able to switch keys on the fly. You should feel as comfortable playing as talking.
5. PLAYING 2
At first you play in your bedroom, then you play with others. You learn from others. Sure, there are the exceptions who create great tracks in their bedrooms, alone, but they are rare. Playing with others you learn so much.
Like how good or bad you are.
Good players want to play with better players. If you're bad, you're gonna be with the other losers.
6. THE TROUGH
You've put in all this time.
First, you have to evaluate if you've got it. If your friends have so much more skill than you, if you'd rather watch ESPN than practice, you're a hobbyist. That's fine, the sooner you own it the better.
7. PLAYING LIVE
Gigs are hard to get and you're gonna suck.
Friends give you gigs. If the venue owner is not your friend, if you have no relationship, unless you can show a track record, and as a beginner, you've got none, your efforts will be fruitless. Who does your father know? Does someone in the band know... Play school events for free. You know you're worth getting paid when if you say you'll pass, you won't do it for free, suddenly an offer of cash comes through. It's raw capitalism, supply and demand.
8. THE ARC
If it's getting harder to get gigs, get better or give up.
9. RECORDINGS
No one wants to hear your recordings except your fans. You've got none. Your mother and friends might be interested, but they're not honest reflectors. Until someone not related demands tracks, you're not good enough yet.
Your first recordings will suck. Just like playing your instrument, recording is a skill, that you learn.
10. DEMAND
There will be next to none even if your recordings are good. If you haven't done the work, there will be no demand at all. If you're depressed and want to give up, do so.
11. VIDEO
If you're getting positive response, if you're getting better, post your music online, in both MP3 format and YouTube videos. These are land mines waiting to be discovered. You hope you become so successful everybody wants to check out everything you've already done. Promotion is worthless. Everybody's overloaded with too much information. Presence online gives you the possibility of traction.
12. AFTER TRACTION
Then you play bigger and better venues, mobilize your fanbase by giving them perks, which will motivate them to spread the word, and continue to make live performances and recordings available online.
But still most people won't care. You're an amateur.
13. GETTING LUCKY
If you're working the connections to break through, you probably won't. You'll get the opportunity, but you'll fail. Today there's a plethora of people looking for talent. If you're good, they'll find you. First it might only be venue owners, gigs will become less rare and better. Then it will be agents and recording companies. Development will be slow, but you can feel it. If years go by without this development, get better, give up, or change musical direction.
14. GIVING UP YOUR DAY JOB
This is more important than getting a deal. Record companies don't support bands anymore, only Top Forty phenoms. If you can't make it alone, you're never gonna survive. Don't complain, keep working, or give up.
15. BUZZ
You will continue to grow if you've got it.
16. SUCCESS
Will come much later than you think, long after you've become comfortable being a journeyman. It takes just that long to reach everybody and convince them today.
SHORTCUTS
1. TV TALENT SHOWS
It's about television, not music.
Odds of success are low even if you win.
As for the exposure, you just become a trivia question.
Furthermore, they're looking for pretty people with good voices. You need neither to make it in music, only on TV.
2. GARAGEBAND
Just because you can make it, that does not mean anybody wants to hear it.
3. POSTING & iTUNES
Just because it's available to view and buy, that doesn't mean anybody wants to see it or purchase it.
4. CDs
A souvenir to be sold at gigs, nothing more. Anybody who will get you ahead does not want a CD.
5. YOUTH
You've got nothing to say. And like a date with a beautiful person with no personality, it doesn't last.
6. TV SHOWS & ENDORSEMENTS
Tying in with a corporation or getting your music in the background of a TV show may yield some cash, but it will never yield a career, not unless you've got one to begin with.
THE HIDDEN SECRET
WRITE
Because that's where all the money is, in publishing.
It takes years to be able to write good material. Start now. Right after you learn how to play your instrument.
IF YOU'VE GIVEN UP AND STILL WANT TO BE IN MUSIC
Go into the business.
You do this by working for free. Not even as an intern at an established entity. But by being on the college concert committee, helping manage a friend's band... None of this is for money, it's all for experience.
The easiest way to make it in the business is by attaching yourself to a great act. But great acts tend to want experienced people. They leave you for those with more seasoning, with connections. Furthermore, there are few great acts out there.
Many are clamoring to work in the business. Even if you get a gig, it's gonna be hard to keep it. Enjoy the ride, don't be in it for the money. Those in it for the money, who make it, could have made it doing anything, it's their personality.
Furthermore, there just ain't that much money in music anymore.
FINALLY
Nobody needs your music. They need air, food and water. And personal, physical comfort. If you want a career in music you must do your best to be necessary. And that's got nothing to do with marketing and everything to do with the music itself, which is all based on the bedrock outlined above.
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The Fire Inside
My mother can barely walk. One of her great disappointments in life is her inability to play golf. A surgeon who operated on her for her stenosis guaranteed she'd be back on the course, over a decade ago, but that never came to be. And since then, she's had knee replacement and broken her femur. She's now forced to use a walker.
But that doesn't mean she doesn't get around. She's the life of the party. She's the straw that stirs the drink. She lives in a building with everybody from the old neighborhood who's still alive. They play bridge, they go to movies, my mother is more active than most twenty year olds. Most of the time when I call her she throws me off the phone, she's got plans, she's got to go.
So I wasn't worried about her during the storm, but of course I checked in.
Her power went out.
But Phyllis, her aide, had charged up her Kindle and iPad, she was ready. I tried to explain that Netflix wouldn't work, because there was no wi-fi, the router needed power, but that didn't seem to penetrate. When I spoke to her the following day she was pissed. She'd wanted to watch a movie!
We connected on her iPhone, which she just purchased when she lost her old Nokia, my mother needs to be up to date. As to what level of skill she'll achieve on the mobile, that's another story. I know an even more worldly octogenarian who's got one but only uses it for incoming calls, she never dials out, that would be too daunting.
So there's still no power. And Phyllis told my mother to beware of running out the battery on the iPhone, but my mother had to tell me a story.
She lives off a strip center. In Branford, Connecticut. A blue collar town east of New Haven that's come up a bit in the last forty years. And one of the tenants not only stiffed her on the rent, he neglected to pay the tax, and now there's a penalty almost equal in amount and not having paid the water bill, the new tenant can't get it turned on.
And the new tenant is a pain in the ass. An i-dotter and t-crosser of the worst type. But the space has been vacant and a deal was reached, which wasn't easy, but now this new guy keeps bugging my mother, wanting to get the water turned on.
So my mother calls the DWP. And they put her on hold for half an hour and then say there's nothing they can do. She's got to call back. Which she does. Says she'll pay the bill. And you know what it's like dealing with bureaucrats, they take their time and promise little. So my mother says "The water better be on by Monday, or I'm gonna blow up the building."
Then the police called. The sergeant from Branford. He needed to know. Was she Muriel Lefsetz, was she the person who threatened to blow up the building?
And my mother calls back. Leaves a message. Saying she's 86 years old and handicapped. She'll call the DWP and apologize, she'll send a letter.
But that's not good enough. The sergeant leaves another message, he's gonna have to talk to her.
Then the power went out. And since all these oldsters have switched to Internet landlines, she's been unreachable. They don't work in disasters.
Still...
Fire's something that's inside. You might look the picture of health, but be as meek as a mouse. My mother may use a walker, but she's still blazing brightly.
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But that doesn't mean she doesn't get around. She's the life of the party. She's the straw that stirs the drink. She lives in a building with everybody from the old neighborhood who's still alive. They play bridge, they go to movies, my mother is more active than most twenty year olds. Most of the time when I call her she throws me off the phone, she's got plans, she's got to go.
So I wasn't worried about her during the storm, but of course I checked in.
Her power went out.
But Phyllis, her aide, had charged up her Kindle and iPad, she was ready. I tried to explain that Netflix wouldn't work, because there was no wi-fi, the router needed power, but that didn't seem to penetrate. When I spoke to her the following day she was pissed. She'd wanted to watch a movie!
We connected on her iPhone, which she just purchased when she lost her old Nokia, my mother needs to be up to date. As to what level of skill she'll achieve on the mobile, that's another story. I know an even more worldly octogenarian who's got one but only uses it for incoming calls, she never dials out, that would be too daunting.
So there's still no power. And Phyllis told my mother to beware of running out the battery on the iPhone, but my mother had to tell me a story.
She lives off a strip center. In Branford, Connecticut. A blue collar town east of New Haven that's come up a bit in the last forty years. And one of the tenants not only stiffed her on the rent, he neglected to pay the tax, and now there's a penalty almost equal in amount and not having paid the water bill, the new tenant can't get it turned on.
And the new tenant is a pain in the ass. An i-dotter and t-crosser of the worst type. But the space has been vacant and a deal was reached, which wasn't easy, but now this new guy keeps bugging my mother, wanting to get the water turned on.
So my mother calls the DWP. And they put her on hold for half an hour and then say there's nothing they can do. She's got to call back. Which she does. Says she'll pay the bill. And you know what it's like dealing with bureaucrats, they take their time and promise little. So my mother says "The water better be on by Monday, or I'm gonna blow up the building."
Then the police called. The sergeant from Branford. He needed to know. Was she Muriel Lefsetz, was she the person who threatened to blow up the building?
And my mother calls back. Leaves a message. Saying she's 86 years old and handicapped. She'll call the DWP and apologize, she'll send a letter.
But that's not good enough. The sergeant leaves another message, he's gonna have to talk to her.
Then the power went out. And since all these oldsters have switched to Internet landlines, she's been unreachable. They don't work in disasters.
Still...
Fire's something that's inside. You might look the picture of health, but be as meek as a mouse. My mother may use a walker, but she's still blazing brightly.
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Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Rhinofy-Paul Brady
"Luck Of The Draw"
"These things we do to keep the flame burning
And write our fire in the sky"
As you get older, your dreams dissipate. What seemed within your reach keeps getting further and further away. In high school everybody's in your business, graduate and suddenly nobody cares. You're on your own. The only thing keeping you going is your gumption. You can go to work for the man, enter a hierarchy barely different from school, but there's no club for artists, no game... You're creating your own.
And it seems almost no one is paying attention.
This Paul Brady composition first appeared on the Bonnie Raitt album of the same name. It's so haunting you're both drawn in and repelled. It's like an episode of "thirtysomething," a drama not made for Lifetime. Where you just work hard and maybe...nothing happens.
"Tomorrow's letter by the hall doorway
Could be the answer to your prayer"
Ain't that the truth. It's the carrot that keeps us going. Without it, we wither and die.
"Trick Or Treat"
And then Paul Brady got his shot. Oh, he had a whole career in the U.K., he was a staple in Ireland, but in the U.S. he was unknown.
Gary Katz, the legendary Steely Dan producer, was hired to helm the project. And the more you listen to the album, also called "Trick Or Treat," the more you love it. It becomes your favorite. It sticks in your brain.
But the entrance point is "Trick Or Treat." The best Bonnie Raitt track you've never heard.
Alas, it's a duet, but Bonnie sounds so three-dimensional, so sexy, you'll fall in love with her, even if you know nothing about her, even if you've never seen a photograph, never mind seen her in concert.
"Sometimes the things that you say
Can hurt me so bad
You know that it's true
Sometimes your love lifts me up
So high I could cry
Can't live without you"
EUREKA! THAT'S IT!
You might call it volatility, I call it life. Yin-yang, push-pull, attraction-repulsion. One day you hate 'em, the next day you love 'em.
And the track has got this breezy feel, like the train is hurtling at sixty miles per hour and the engineer is unclear where they're going or if they're gonna run out of track, but you don't care!
"Sometimes I fill up your cup
So your river flows
You know that it's true
Sometimes my love makes you pay
Though baby, I swear, I'm not wanting to"
Self-knowledge! Instead of saying, "It's you, not me." she admits she's complicit. Wise. Alive, but not weary. That's what the miles of life give you, wisdom and insight.
"Like a knock on the door
Open it up
What do you see?
Could be a trick or treat
Bitter or sweet
Which one you gonna be?"
Whew! We're not talking about manic-depression, we're not talking about Sybil, we're talking about life. You never know what you're going to encounter when you walk through the front door.
"You no compass, baby, me no map
No one to show us where they laid the trap"
Everybody's looking for answers. But they're usually going to the wrong place. Books, movies, friends, relatives. Whereas some things you can only learn by yourself.
There's no compass or map in life. You make it up as you go.
"Trick or Treat, baby, that's the game
One day passion, one day pain
You can try to change the rules, but...
Trick or Treat make you the fool"
It's relentless. It constantly flows forward. It's a rushing river that could swallow you or give you a ride that will thrill your pants off. They call it life.
Throw off your armor, jump in and enjoy!
"Can't Stop Wanting You"
"Hot words on a summer night
You 'n' me having a fight
One drink and it all come out
Before I knew what we were fightin' about"
This relationship has faded in the rearview mirror. But I'll never forget it. That's what we had in common, alcohol. It started off so much fun, and sometimes it would lead to the night of our lives, with drunken sex and laughs in bed.
And other times it would devolve into something out of a bad movie. Where not only past hurts were dredged up, but our entire histories, down not only to our birth, but our ancestors.
But breaking up was nigh near impossible.
Because one part of me couldn't stop wanting her.
"Paradise Is Here"
"You say you wanna live some
Move out into the fast lane
You say you need excitement
To make you come alive
Some place a million miles from
The shadows that surround you"
The fact that my wife left defines me.
Before I was different. Trusting. Believing people were good.
But now I've got more questions than answers.
You think you're in the groove, doing o.k., and then your betrothed rolls over in bed and asks "Can this marriage be saved?" You think it's a joke, but it's deadly real.
What is she looking for? What entices her about the vast world out there without you?
You fight for her to stay, but she goes anyway.
And when she wants to come back, you can't return to where you once were. What you once overlooked is now a dividing line.
"I look for your attention
You're lost out in the future
Where lovers ask no questions
And shadows never fall
Some pilgrim bound for paradise
No compromise"
Relationships are hard. And I'm never going to go on autopilot. I'm gonna fight it out. Not to prove I'm right, but to establish and maintain connection. A marriage ring is no guarantee your partner will wanna hear what you have to say.
"But paradise is here
It's time to stop your crying
The future is this moment
And not some place out there"
But it didn't matter what I had to say. She was gone. Pleading just makes it worse. When they've turned against you, nothing you can do or say can make them come back, if they do, it must be at their own insistence, based on their own revelation.
"You talk about your new plans
To move on up the stairway
You dream about the high life
That's waiting for you there
A world of fame and fortune
That's just around the corner"
The irony is that's my life, not hers. But it took me a decade and a ton of psychotherapy to believe in myself, to not believe I was inferior and lived in her absent shadow.
"But I don't need no high life
To make me feel like a real man
And I don't need to reach for
No castles in the sky
Just put your arms around me
Devour me"
That's what we really want. Not fame or fortune, just a significant other who wants to ride shotgun on the endless highway of life.
"The Long Goodbye"
"I know they say if you love somebody
You should set them free (so they say)
But it sure is hard to do
Yeah, it sure is hard to do"
Easy for Sting. Easy to say.
But so hard to do.
"And I know they say if they don't come back again
Then it's meant to be (so they say)
But those words don't pull me through
Cos I'm still in love with you"
That's what they don't tell you in books. That's what's not represented in the media. The stars jump from bed to bed, but the truth is we're just animals, desirous of bonding and categorically unable to forget. What do they say, sleep with someone once and it creates an indelible bond, it changes everything forever?
I believe that.
But when you go on to have a relationship...
After it ends, you don't forget them, unlike a mediocre meal they stay in your brain, you can't eradicate them from your memory.
"Sometimes I ask my heart did we really
Give our love a chance (just one more chance)
But I know without a doubt
That we turned it inside out"
Sometimes you've got to call it quits.
But that's easier said than done.
"And if we walked away
It would make more sense (only self defense)
But it tears me up inside
Just to think we still could try
How long must we keep riding on a carousel
Goin round and round and never getting anywhere?"
Our eyes roll at our friends who can't give it up.
But even worse is those who don't even try.
Here's my one piece of relationship advice. If you want to become entangled, find someone who understands commitment. Whether you stand in front of clergy or not. You want someone who'll hang in there through the good and bad, who'll stay connected through the rough times as well as the easy ones. Because being apart is usually so much worse than being together.
"This is the long goodbye
Somebody tell me why
Two lovers in love can't make it
Just what kind of love keeps breaking a heart
No matter how hard we try
You're gonna make me cry
Come on, baby, it's over... Let's face it
All that's happening here is a long goodbye"
Yes, sometimes it truly is over. The pain exceeds the pleasure. You just can't go through it again. All the drunken adventures are eclipsed by the hangover. But that doesn't make it any less painful.
And I've included two takes of "The Long Goodbye," the more produced one and the more naked one. And isn't it funny the less you've got on a track the more honest it becomes.
And Brooks & Dunn had a hit with "The Long Goodbye," no one could miss with such a great song, and that's been Paul Brady's bread and butter for decades.
But you should know the source.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
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"These things we do to keep the flame burning
And write our fire in the sky"
As you get older, your dreams dissipate. What seemed within your reach keeps getting further and further away. In high school everybody's in your business, graduate and suddenly nobody cares. You're on your own. The only thing keeping you going is your gumption. You can go to work for the man, enter a hierarchy barely different from school, but there's no club for artists, no game... You're creating your own.
And it seems almost no one is paying attention.
This Paul Brady composition first appeared on the Bonnie Raitt album of the same name. It's so haunting you're both drawn in and repelled. It's like an episode of "thirtysomething," a drama not made for Lifetime. Where you just work hard and maybe...nothing happens.
"Tomorrow's letter by the hall doorway
Could be the answer to your prayer"
Ain't that the truth. It's the carrot that keeps us going. Without it, we wither and die.
"Trick Or Treat"
And then Paul Brady got his shot. Oh, he had a whole career in the U.K., he was a staple in Ireland, but in the U.S. he was unknown.
Gary Katz, the legendary Steely Dan producer, was hired to helm the project. And the more you listen to the album, also called "Trick Or Treat," the more you love it. It becomes your favorite. It sticks in your brain.
But the entrance point is "Trick Or Treat." The best Bonnie Raitt track you've never heard.
Alas, it's a duet, but Bonnie sounds so three-dimensional, so sexy, you'll fall in love with her, even if you know nothing about her, even if you've never seen a photograph, never mind seen her in concert.
"Sometimes the things that you say
Can hurt me so bad
You know that it's true
Sometimes your love lifts me up
So high I could cry
Can't live without you"
EUREKA! THAT'S IT!
You might call it volatility, I call it life. Yin-yang, push-pull, attraction-repulsion. One day you hate 'em, the next day you love 'em.
And the track has got this breezy feel, like the train is hurtling at sixty miles per hour and the engineer is unclear where they're going or if they're gonna run out of track, but you don't care!
"Sometimes I fill up your cup
So your river flows
You know that it's true
Sometimes my love makes you pay
Though baby, I swear, I'm not wanting to"
Self-knowledge! Instead of saying, "It's you, not me." she admits she's complicit. Wise. Alive, but not weary. That's what the miles of life give you, wisdom and insight.
"Like a knock on the door
Open it up
What do you see?
Could be a trick or treat
Bitter or sweet
Which one you gonna be?"
Whew! We're not talking about manic-depression, we're not talking about Sybil, we're talking about life. You never know what you're going to encounter when you walk through the front door.
"You no compass, baby, me no map
No one to show us where they laid the trap"
Everybody's looking for answers. But they're usually going to the wrong place. Books, movies, friends, relatives. Whereas some things you can only learn by yourself.
There's no compass or map in life. You make it up as you go.
"Trick or Treat, baby, that's the game
One day passion, one day pain
You can try to change the rules, but...
Trick or Treat make you the fool"
It's relentless. It constantly flows forward. It's a rushing river that could swallow you or give you a ride that will thrill your pants off. They call it life.
Throw off your armor, jump in and enjoy!
"Can't Stop Wanting You"
"Hot words on a summer night
You 'n' me having a fight
One drink and it all come out
Before I knew what we were fightin' about"
This relationship has faded in the rearview mirror. But I'll never forget it. That's what we had in common, alcohol. It started off so much fun, and sometimes it would lead to the night of our lives, with drunken sex and laughs in bed.
And other times it would devolve into something out of a bad movie. Where not only past hurts were dredged up, but our entire histories, down not only to our birth, but our ancestors.
But breaking up was nigh near impossible.
Because one part of me couldn't stop wanting her.
"Paradise Is Here"
"You say you wanna live some
Move out into the fast lane
You say you need excitement
To make you come alive
Some place a million miles from
The shadows that surround you"
The fact that my wife left defines me.
Before I was different. Trusting. Believing people were good.
But now I've got more questions than answers.
You think you're in the groove, doing o.k., and then your betrothed rolls over in bed and asks "Can this marriage be saved?" You think it's a joke, but it's deadly real.
What is she looking for? What entices her about the vast world out there without you?
You fight for her to stay, but she goes anyway.
And when she wants to come back, you can't return to where you once were. What you once overlooked is now a dividing line.
"I look for your attention
You're lost out in the future
Where lovers ask no questions
And shadows never fall
Some pilgrim bound for paradise
No compromise"
Relationships are hard. And I'm never going to go on autopilot. I'm gonna fight it out. Not to prove I'm right, but to establish and maintain connection. A marriage ring is no guarantee your partner will wanna hear what you have to say.
"But paradise is here
It's time to stop your crying
The future is this moment
And not some place out there"
But it didn't matter what I had to say. She was gone. Pleading just makes it worse. When they've turned against you, nothing you can do or say can make them come back, if they do, it must be at their own insistence, based on their own revelation.
"You talk about your new plans
To move on up the stairway
You dream about the high life
That's waiting for you there
A world of fame and fortune
That's just around the corner"
The irony is that's my life, not hers. But it took me a decade and a ton of psychotherapy to believe in myself, to not believe I was inferior and lived in her absent shadow.
"But I don't need no high life
To make me feel like a real man
And I don't need to reach for
No castles in the sky
Just put your arms around me
Devour me"
That's what we really want. Not fame or fortune, just a significant other who wants to ride shotgun on the endless highway of life.
"The Long Goodbye"
"I know they say if you love somebody
You should set them free (so they say)
But it sure is hard to do
Yeah, it sure is hard to do"
Easy for Sting. Easy to say.
But so hard to do.
"And I know they say if they don't come back again
Then it's meant to be (so they say)
But those words don't pull me through
Cos I'm still in love with you"
That's what they don't tell you in books. That's what's not represented in the media. The stars jump from bed to bed, but the truth is we're just animals, desirous of bonding and categorically unable to forget. What do they say, sleep with someone once and it creates an indelible bond, it changes everything forever?
I believe that.
But when you go on to have a relationship...
After it ends, you don't forget them, unlike a mediocre meal they stay in your brain, you can't eradicate them from your memory.
"Sometimes I ask my heart did we really
Give our love a chance (just one more chance)
But I know without a doubt
That we turned it inside out"
Sometimes you've got to call it quits.
But that's easier said than done.
"And if we walked away
It would make more sense (only self defense)
But it tears me up inside
Just to think we still could try
How long must we keep riding on a carousel
Goin round and round and never getting anywhere?"
Our eyes roll at our friends who can't give it up.
But even worse is those who don't even try.
Here's my one piece of relationship advice. If you want to become entangled, find someone who understands commitment. Whether you stand in front of clergy or not. You want someone who'll hang in there through the good and bad, who'll stay connected through the rough times as well as the easy ones. Because being apart is usually so much worse than being together.
"This is the long goodbye
Somebody tell me why
Two lovers in love can't make it
Just what kind of love keeps breaking a heart
No matter how hard we try
You're gonna make me cry
Come on, baby, it's over... Let's face it
All that's happening here is a long goodbye"
Yes, sometimes it truly is over. The pain exceeds the pleasure. You just can't go through it again. All the drunken adventures are eclipsed by the hangover. But that doesn't make it any less painful.
And I've included two takes of "The Long Goodbye," the more produced one and the more naked one. And isn't it funny the less you've got on a track the more honest it becomes.
And Brooks & Dunn had a hit with "The Long Goodbye," no one could miss with such a great song, and that's been Paul Brady's bread and butter for decades.
But you should know the source.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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Monday, 29 October 2012
Obsolescence
Movies and MTV, they're both in the dumper. Statistically and emotionally.
We heard for a decade that digital photography was going to kill film, that Kodak was not prepared. But it never seemed to happen. Then, seemingly overnight, everyone had a digital camera and Kodak filed for bankruptcy. Just because the future isn't here yet doesn't mean it's not coming. And what's most fascinating is how the whole paradigm shifts. Photographs used to be for professionals and hobbyists. With the former earning a good living and the latter shooting little, because of the cost, and displaying few. Now pros and hobbyists have merged, the old pros don't stop bitching, and people shoot thousands of photos a year, posting them online, e-mailing them to friends. Only the most spectacular professional photographers earn a handsome living today. It's just like music. Now it's easy to make, but only the supremely talented get rich while everybody else bitches the paradigm shift has killed them.
But the paradigm shift comes anyway.
"Audiences Falling Sharply For MTV, Comedy Central"
http://bitly.com/QOWdk7
MTV's ratings dropped 32% in the four weeks ending October 21st.
Now they're never going to show videos during prime time on MTV ever again. Videos are on demand items, for the Web. But MTV got so far from its mission statement, clouded its identity to such a point, that now it's just another TV outlet. Competing for viewers. Hell, it's not even the young person's clubhouse, that's the Web. Or the smart phone. MTV removed "Music" from its name and didn't even celebrate its thirtieth anniversary. By chasing dollars today, it cratered tomorrow. It ran from music to the point even the VMA ratings tanked. And MTV never had a good Web strategy. And finally, just like with digital photography, youngsters are finally spending hours online, with Web video, as opposed to traditional TV. MTV is in trouble. It may never recover.
"Movies Try To Escape Cultural Irrelevance"
http://nyti.ms/Yf6AAY
Once upon a time you went to the movies because they were good, they drove the culture. Then you went for commonality, so you could have something to talk about at parties. Then you realized they all sucked and stopped going and everybody said the problem was you, look at the grosses...
Finally the newspaper is reporting what we all know. The movies are toast. Made for adolescents or foreign markets, they don't speak to us, they don't drive the culture, if you want story, watch TV.
Furthermore, movie studios aren't what they used to be. They're part of giant conglomerates, barely moving the needle of profits and losses. Sure, everybody knows what was number one at the box office, but very few know who runs these studios. And few care.
In order to survive, movies have to shoot lower financially, but straight at the hearts of the audience. Studios have to retool. Instead, they're probably gonna chase the instant success dream just like MTV and descend into obsolescence.
It's kind of like that old Leonard Cohen song, "Everybody Knows." Everybody knew that the movies were toast before they finally cratered financially and the "New York Times" wrote this story.
Everybody knows if you chase trends, your musical career is over.
You've got to stay the course, you've got to stand for something, or else you stand for nothing. That's what killed MTV and the movies, they're meaningless, just profit centers without a cultural mission statement.
Things change. Technology accelerates the pace.
You can't hold back the future.
Instead, you must keep your eyes open and adjust.
And this might mean you lose in the short run.
But you're playing for the long haul, right?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
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We heard for a decade that digital photography was going to kill film, that Kodak was not prepared. But it never seemed to happen. Then, seemingly overnight, everyone had a digital camera and Kodak filed for bankruptcy. Just because the future isn't here yet doesn't mean it's not coming. And what's most fascinating is how the whole paradigm shifts. Photographs used to be for professionals and hobbyists. With the former earning a good living and the latter shooting little, because of the cost, and displaying few. Now pros and hobbyists have merged, the old pros don't stop bitching, and people shoot thousands of photos a year, posting them online, e-mailing them to friends. Only the most spectacular professional photographers earn a handsome living today. It's just like music. Now it's easy to make, but only the supremely talented get rich while everybody else bitches the paradigm shift has killed them.
But the paradigm shift comes anyway.
"Audiences Falling Sharply For MTV, Comedy Central"
http://bitly.com/QOWdk7
MTV's ratings dropped 32% in the four weeks ending October 21st.
Now they're never going to show videos during prime time on MTV ever again. Videos are on demand items, for the Web. But MTV got so far from its mission statement, clouded its identity to such a point, that now it's just another TV outlet. Competing for viewers. Hell, it's not even the young person's clubhouse, that's the Web. Or the smart phone. MTV removed "Music" from its name and didn't even celebrate its thirtieth anniversary. By chasing dollars today, it cratered tomorrow. It ran from music to the point even the VMA ratings tanked. And MTV never had a good Web strategy. And finally, just like with digital photography, youngsters are finally spending hours online, with Web video, as opposed to traditional TV. MTV is in trouble. It may never recover.
"Movies Try To Escape Cultural Irrelevance"
http://nyti.ms/Yf6AAY
Once upon a time you went to the movies because they were good, they drove the culture. Then you went for commonality, so you could have something to talk about at parties. Then you realized they all sucked and stopped going and everybody said the problem was you, look at the grosses...
Finally the newspaper is reporting what we all know. The movies are toast. Made for adolescents or foreign markets, they don't speak to us, they don't drive the culture, if you want story, watch TV.
Furthermore, movie studios aren't what they used to be. They're part of giant conglomerates, barely moving the needle of profits and losses. Sure, everybody knows what was number one at the box office, but very few know who runs these studios. And few care.
In order to survive, movies have to shoot lower financially, but straight at the hearts of the audience. Studios have to retool. Instead, they're probably gonna chase the instant success dream just like MTV and descend into obsolescence.
It's kind of like that old Leonard Cohen song, "Everybody Knows." Everybody knew that the movies were toast before they finally cratered financially and the "New York Times" wrote this story.
Everybody knows if you chase trends, your musical career is over.
You've got to stay the course, you've got to stand for something, or else you stand for nothing. That's what killed MTV and the movies, they're meaningless, just profit centers without a cultural mission statement.
Things change. Technology accelerates the pace.
You can't hold back the future.
Instead, you must keep your eyes open and adjust.
And this might mean you lose in the short run.
But you're playing for the long haul, right?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
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Sunday, 28 October 2012
Restless In Mind
I'd like to tell you I'm the kind of guy who fits in. Who's been on an endless winning streak. Well-adjusted and happy.
But that would be untrue. My life is about spectacular peaks and long stretches of valley. And what's got me through, what's carried me to the next peak, has been music.
And I like some of the big hits. Who doesn't smile when they hear "Sweet Home Alabama"? Who doesn't crank it and sing along?
Then there are other songs, less famous, that mean even more to me, because they're mine. Never played on the radio, never discussed in the paper, but part of my own personal pantheon.
Like "Restless In Mind."
I love Wendy Waldman's music. I bought her initial album upon the recommendation of "Rolling Stone" and I was not disappointed. I still play it forty years on.
But Wendy never broke through. She had a few hits, sung by others, but stop people on the street and they're clueless.
But a few years back, not that many, in this century, Wendy released an album of loose ends entitled "Seeds and Orphans" and there's this cut on there entitled "Restless In Mind." I play it at least twice a week. When nothing is going right, when I need to feel in the pocket, I pull it up on my iPod. It never disappoints.
So I'm sitting in an art gallery in Thousand Oaks, literally a whole 'nother area code, and Wendy sits down at the piano and her fingers start to move while she's still talking and my heart starts to palpitate, SHE'S PLAYING RESTLESS IN MIND!
It's obscure. It wasn't on one of her Warner Brothers albums. I truly believed I'd die without ever hearing it performed live. But now she's whipping it off, effortlessly, and my heart starts to soar, tears come to my eyes, I feel like my whole life is complete.
You can go to Staples Center, Madison Square Garden, you can sit with twenty thousand other people hearing the flavor of the moment, the has-been legend, but that's a completely different experience from seeing your favorite only feet away. This is the moment you've been waiting for, not to tell other people, but to feel fully alive.
I'm not even sure how I got here. Escaping Middlebury College and moving to L.A. It's hard to leave the past for the unknown. But I was never ever comfortable there. L.A. is truly home. And the fact that I convinced my sister to move here first, for graduate school, paved the way for me.
And thereafter came so many blind alleys, so many losses, that if I didn't have an iron constitution, not only would I not be writing this, I wouldn't be here at all.
And I'm one of those guys who's never satisfied with good enough. All I care about is excellence. I get satisfaction from those reaching for the stars and grabbing a few.
And that's what Wendy Waldman has done.
And to hear her perform my songs not only allows me to look back without anger, but to see everything in proper perspective, it gives me the power to march forward, it convinces me my life was worth living.
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But that would be untrue. My life is about spectacular peaks and long stretches of valley. And what's got me through, what's carried me to the next peak, has been music.
And I like some of the big hits. Who doesn't smile when they hear "Sweet Home Alabama"? Who doesn't crank it and sing along?
Then there are other songs, less famous, that mean even more to me, because they're mine. Never played on the radio, never discussed in the paper, but part of my own personal pantheon.
Like "Restless In Mind."
I love Wendy Waldman's music. I bought her initial album upon the recommendation of "Rolling Stone" and I was not disappointed. I still play it forty years on.
But Wendy never broke through. She had a few hits, sung by others, but stop people on the street and they're clueless.
But a few years back, not that many, in this century, Wendy released an album of loose ends entitled "Seeds and Orphans" and there's this cut on there entitled "Restless In Mind." I play it at least twice a week. When nothing is going right, when I need to feel in the pocket, I pull it up on my iPod. It never disappoints.
So I'm sitting in an art gallery in Thousand Oaks, literally a whole 'nother area code, and Wendy sits down at the piano and her fingers start to move while she's still talking and my heart starts to palpitate, SHE'S PLAYING RESTLESS IN MIND!
It's obscure. It wasn't on one of her Warner Brothers albums. I truly believed I'd die without ever hearing it performed live. But now she's whipping it off, effortlessly, and my heart starts to soar, tears come to my eyes, I feel like my whole life is complete.
You can go to Staples Center, Madison Square Garden, you can sit with twenty thousand other people hearing the flavor of the moment, the has-been legend, but that's a completely different experience from seeing your favorite only feet away. This is the moment you've been waiting for, not to tell other people, but to feel fully alive.
I'm not even sure how I got here. Escaping Middlebury College and moving to L.A. It's hard to leave the past for the unknown. But I was never ever comfortable there. L.A. is truly home. And the fact that I convinced my sister to move here first, for graduate school, paved the way for me.
And thereafter came so many blind alleys, so many losses, that if I didn't have an iron constitution, not only would I not be writing this, I wouldn't be here at all.
And I'm one of those guys who's never satisfied with good enough. All I care about is excellence. I get satisfaction from those reaching for the stars and grabbing a few.
And that's what Wendy Waldman has done.
And to hear her perform my songs not only allows me to look back without anger, but to see everything in proper perspective, it gives me the power to march forward, it convinces me my life was worth living.
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