She reminds me of my father.
I never watched her CNBC show, I really had no idea who she was, but Felice kept turning her on at 6 every Saturday and I've become hooked. Because she's the voice of reason in an unreasonable world.
I like to think I know everything. But I was stunned last week when Suze came down on variable annuities. I have no children, I've got no debt, I'm not in the market for one of these financial products, but I thought they were a reasonable thing, turns out they're not. And that's what keeps me watching Suze, the way she counters conventional wisdom.
My father used to have a rap. Actually, we'd call it the "Morris Lefsetz Philosophy." We'd hear it on long car drives, after a good meal, my dad would kick back and smile and tell us how we didn't have a fancy house, we didn't drive the latest cars, but our house was paid for, we could go on vacation, we could eat out, we had each other.
That's right, when I was in junior high, everybody decamped for a better neighborhood. The split level we lived in shook when someone shut the front door. But to get my dad to sell that house and take on debt would be akin to asking him to cut off his left arm. He told us he could sleep at night. Now I understand.
My relationships have been riddled with financial issues. Not only how the money is spent, but how much of it there is. We all have different values, and I'll admit it's hard to accept those of others, but when it comes to blowing money I'm intolerant, and when you've got two people struggling it adds tension and it breaks you up, I know from experience.
I also know that the fantasy of loading up credit cards to pursue your dreams is just that, a fantasy. Sure, some people break through and get rich and pay the debt off, but most don't. My experience has turned me into a depression baby just like my dad, I live on a cash only basis, I don't believe in borrowing, because belief that life will get better is oftentimes just that, a belief, and beliefs are often wrong.
But my dad was not fake like Suze. Actually, I don't think Suze's like the show at all. She makes nice, talks about her life, when the truth is she's probably tough as nails, like my dad. Who loved bestowing gifts and picking up the tab, but would tolerate no dishonesty, no b.s.
He also didn't care what people thought of him. He kept on telling everybody he was a poor immigrant boy, when the truth is he was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, but when his dad died the family was broke, he had to take care of his mom.
But my dad fought his way out. And insisted we do so too. Come home with bad grades and not only would you be grounded, your life was in jeopardy. It was all about education, preparing yourself for the future.
As a result, I'm prepared pretty well.
But most people are not.
The biggest crime you see in Los Angeles is "Keeping up with the Joneses." Leasing a fancy car and moving into a desirable neighborhood because everybody else is. Suze says you have no idea what goes on behind closed doors, that those who smile outside might be fighting and unable to sleep inside.
And not only must you live within your means, you must have an emergency fund, of eight months. And with so many of my baby boomer brethren out of work with their unemployment benefits having run out, eight months is not much. But people call Suze every week eager to spend.
Which America wants you to do.
And once you open your eyes to this it's frightening. There was a story in last week's "New York Times" delineating the different responsibilities of those selling products at the bank as opposed to certified financial planners. The latter have a fiduciary duty, the former do not. And I know the difference in responsibility, having gone to law school, but I did not know the difference between a bank's investment brokers and licensed certified financial planners.
If only Suze were taught in school. If only everybody in America was forced to listen to her words. Sure, America runs on consumer spending, but if you want to get ahead you've got to manage your money wisely, you've got to plan, you've got to be realistic.
And the show is good television because it's absent the tropes of the networks. The people call in weeping about bad decisions and after describing their problems a sponsor does not swoop in and make them whole. No, Suze dispenses truth and then they're left to their own devices. Suze just told a cashless couple to sell their house after the husband ran up credit card debt the wife was unaware of. They balked, they cannot do it, their image can't take the hit. But is image what it's really about?
And then there are the people who want to buy frivolous items when they've still got credit card debt, at inflated interest rates. The government is never gonna crack down hard enough, the financial industry keeps legislators alive, you've got to help yourself.
But what makes Suze's show so riveting is the no b.s. truthful advice that we all want to hear that we never get. It's kind of like Simon Cowell on "American Idol." The acts all want to be successful, their hearts are in it, the other judges are encouraging, but Simon says no way.
Ain't that America, where it's illegal to piss on your hopes and dreams. But the truth is life is tough. And the way you succeed is through knowledge, that you gain from authorized, approved sources, which are often pooh-poohed by the hoi polloi the same way the ignorant educated refuse to get their kids vaccinated because it makes them feel less powerful, less in control if someone else has the answers, if someone else knows more.
But someone else always knows more than you. And someone else is always looking to take advantage of you. Yup, go try to buy a car, the salesman will have you leasing something you can't afford that you're unsure of the price of because you don't want to be seen driving a Toyota that's paid for.
Kind of like the auto I drive. It gets terrible gas mileage, certainly for its size. But it's paid for. It makes no sense to trade it in. Just like it makes no sense to lease a hybrid that doesn't return its premium for six years.
But you want it.
But we all cannot have what we want.
My father told me this.
"Before the Advice, Check out the Adviser": http://nyti.ms/1xJjGYv
http://www.suzeorman.com/the-suze-orman-show
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Saturday, 18 October 2014
You're On Your Own
You either know how to research or you don't, you either know how to find the answers or you don't.
My iPhone arrived. And despite a seamless backup from the cloud, in this case iCloud, I've got questions and the only place to find answers is online.
That's why I stay with a Mac, never mind an iPhone. Because if I've got a problem, someone else does too, and I can go online and delve into what they're saying.
Once upon a time computers were like cars, in their infancy that is. At the turn of the last century, car owners were hobbyists, who could lift the hood and fix their automobiles themselves. As were those utilizing computers in the eighties. This is how many learned how to think, how to analyze, how to solve problems. You'd be sitting there flummoxed, trying this or that, working towards a solution. Oftentimes having to go for a walk or to sleep to uncover an answer.
But that does not mean I give up, that I can tear myself away from my devices when I hit a roadblock.
Like last night. Yearning to get on the stationary bike, I went to hook up my Bluetooth headphones to my new iPhone 6 and they were not discoverable. In the sixties, you'd bring your problem to the shop, where some old guy with wisdom or some young guy who was brusque, but competent, would take your device from you and when you returned a week later it would work, it would be fixed. Today not only do these people not exist, almost no one exists, you're on your own, baby.
Which is why the baby boomers missed out on the Napster revolution.
You mean I've got to download a program and...
That's why the iPod and the iTunes Store burgeoned, because it solved the problem of the oldsters, who suddenly testified to the greatness of digital music when the truth is their progeny got there four years before and were excited about iPods, but had no intention of paying for music. Which the oldsters couldn't understand! The CD was so easy! As were the iPod and iTunes Store!
But digital music was easy to the youngster from the get-go. The generation that grew up on videogames without manuals knew that you had to walk into the wilderness alone and figure it out. Baby boomers are still loath to figure it out.
Which is why youngsters always embrace new social media platforms first. Because not only do they hear about them, they figure out how to use them. Oldsters need to be shown. And in today's world if you need to be shown, you're one step behind.
Now cars have improved dramatically in my lifetime. I cannot remember the last time someone canceled because of car trouble.
And OS X eliminated the crash.
But every time you get a new iPhone you have to re-enter your passwords, something doesn't work, you have to hit Google, you have to enter the netherworld of Apple Communities.
And, once again, this is why you should buy an iPhone, because everyone else does. Sure, Android dominates, but in a million different flavors, to the point when you have a problem you're screwed. And if you disagree with this, you're probably a power user who can figure it all out for yourself anyway, so this does not apply.
And the truth is I hate wasting time setting up new devices. The glitches and the roadblocks.
But it keeps my mind sharp. And ready for this new world and its coming changes.
So denigrate the younger generation all you want. Tell them they're coddled and need to be respected as individuals. But the truth is they've earned this status! They've been individuals in the digital sphere nearly from birth. They've had to figure things out for themselves. They know that no one is going to help you in this world, and if you don't help yourself you're going to be left behind.
Devices will get smarter, the transition process will become smoother. But the truth is we've got a double digital divide. Those without devices and those who have them but don't know how to use them.
Sure, a new handset is a status item. But it also gains you membership into modern society. They keep upgrading and adding features, ones the kids will start using right away and the oldsters will grudgingly accept and ultimately testify about a few years later.
The Democrats beat the Republicans in 2012 because they understood the internet, they realized data was king.
In what ways are you being beaten because you too are behind the curve?
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My iPhone arrived. And despite a seamless backup from the cloud, in this case iCloud, I've got questions and the only place to find answers is online.
That's why I stay with a Mac, never mind an iPhone. Because if I've got a problem, someone else does too, and I can go online and delve into what they're saying.
Once upon a time computers were like cars, in their infancy that is. At the turn of the last century, car owners were hobbyists, who could lift the hood and fix their automobiles themselves. As were those utilizing computers in the eighties. This is how many learned how to think, how to analyze, how to solve problems. You'd be sitting there flummoxed, trying this or that, working towards a solution. Oftentimes having to go for a walk or to sleep to uncover an answer.
But that does not mean I give up, that I can tear myself away from my devices when I hit a roadblock.
Like last night. Yearning to get on the stationary bike, I went to hook up my Bluetooth headphones to my new iPhone 6 and they were not discoverable. In the sixties, you'd bring your problem to the shop, where some old guy with wisdom or some young guy who was brusque, but competent, would take your device from you and when you returned a week later it would work, it would be fixed. Today not only do these people not exist, almost no one exists, you're on your own, baby.
Which is why the baby boomers missed out on the Napster revolution.
You mean I've got to download a program and...
That's why the iPod and the iTunes Store burgeoned, because it solved the problem of the oldsters, who suddenly testified to the greatness of digital music when the truth is their progeny got there four years before and were excited about iPods, but had no intention of paying for music. Which the oldsters couldn't understand! The CD was so easy! As were the iPod and iTunes Store!
But digital music was easy to the youngster from the get-go. The generation that grew up on videogames without manuals knew that you had to walk into the wilderness alone and figure it out. Baby boomers are still loath to figure it out.
Which is why youngsters always embrace new social media platforms first. Because not only do they hear about them, they figure out how to use them. Oldsters need to be shown. And in today's world if you need to be shown, you're one step behind.
Now cars have improved dramatically in my lifetime. I cannot remember the last time someone canceled because of car trouble.
And OS X eliminated the crash.
But every time you get a new iPhone you have to re-enter your passwords, something doesn't work, you have to hit Google, you have to enter the netherworld of Apple Communities.
And, once again, this is why you should buy an iPhone, because everyone else does. Sure, Android dominates, but in a million different flavors, to the point when you have a problem you're screwed. And if you disagree with this, you're probably a power user who can figure it all out for yourself anyway, so this does not apply.
And the truth is I hate wasting time setting up new devices. The glitches and the roadblocks.
But it keeps my mind sharp. And ready for this new world and its coming changes.
So denigrate the younger generation all you want. Tell them they're coddled and need to be respected as individuals. But the truth is they've earned this status! They've been individuals in the digital sphere nearly from birth. They've had to figure things out for themselves. They know that no one is going to help you in this world, and if you don't help yourself you're going to be left behind.
Devices will get smarter, the transition process will become smoother. But the truth is we've got a double digital divide. Those without devices and those who have them but don't know how to use them.
Sure, a new handset is a status item. But it also gains you membership into modern society. They keep upgrading and adding features, ones the kids will start using right away and the oldsters will grudgingly accept and ultimately testify about a few years later.
The Democrats beat the Republicans in 2012 because they understood the internet, they realized data was king.
In what ways are you being beaten because you too are behind the curve?
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Friday, 17 October 2014
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
An eight year old girl in war-torn Chechnya? Really?
It's a girl's book. I've never heard any guy talk about it. When it comes to the domestic sagas of overseas personages the females eat them up and the males don't even start. Which is why I had no intention of reading Anthony Marra's "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena."
It started with Marc's wife, he put her on the phone in a bar near midnight on the east coast and we started talking books. I told Abbie to read "We Are Not Ourselves" and she couldn't stop raving about "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena," did I know it?
It rang a distant bell. Didn't Daniel Glass send me a copy? Gift-giver extraordinaire, Mr. Glass frequently sends hardcovers from the local store in his Washington, Connecticut weekend homeplace, the Hickory Stick Bookshop. And when I went back to my kitchen table, there it was, ready for my consumption.
But I had to finish Hampton Sides's "In The Kingdom of Ice" first.
Mr. Sides's book got a great write-up in the "Wall Street Journal," and I bought it on my Kindle before my plane took off and wireless access ended and I started it and it was bone dry, but sometimes exciting. It's akin to "The Devil in the White City," have you read that? I won't spoil the story, but let's just say it's centered around the Chicago's World Fair of 1893. You marvel while you read, how advanced it was back then.
And the same thing in "Kingdom of Ice." It's a true story, so when you read about the shenanigans of the owner of the New York "Herald" you can't help but Google the details, to see if they're really true.
And "Kingdom of Ice" is about a search for a Northwest Passage, nearly a hundred and fifty years ago, but I had to get through a third of the book just to have the voyage begin, and it wasn't that the book was boring, but it didn't call out to me, I needed fiction.
That's right, the guys read non-fiction. Mostly business books. Sometimes biographies. They want information they can use. Whereas I've learned story is king, and fiction takes you away and illuminates life in a way that non-fiction never can.
Like "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena."
It's not the easiest read. It's the kind of book you have to read a few sentences past where you are to understand what's going on, and I hate that. I read super-comprehensively, I want to know what everything means, I want to miss no details, and therefore I was frustrated at first.
And the story...
Turns out the girl is not the focus, but the war is. A war most Americans, including myself, know nearly nothing about.
What happens when you're caught in the crossfire, victimized by circumstances, when everything you believe in no longer matters. Never mind your possessions, but how about electricity, and morality, and...
Everything is up for grabs.
But we all remain human and we all soldier on in the face of adversity.
Sonja basks in her self-satisfaction.
Akhmed lives for art but medicine is his profession. This is the conundrum facing so many in today's society, do you do what's expected of you or what you feel inside. And forget getting rich following your heart's desire, no one's getting rich in Chechnya, and the young girl has never seen a fat person, they don't exist.
And I'm not going to recite the plot, not that "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" can be ruined. I'm just saying you're going to go down the rabbit hole, and halfway through the book will start calling out to you, you will want to sacrifice your everyday life to read it. And when it ends, you'll be at loose ends.
That's what I hate most, when a good book ends. Then what? Sure, there are a zillion tomes, but few pull at the heartstrings, few excite you, few are of the same quality.
Not that "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" is the best book I've ever read. Once again, that's "Anna Karenina" (depends on the translation!), and Tolstoy is referenced throughout, but "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" is not in Leo's league, but it's not that far off. On an absolute scale, if "Anna Karenina" is an A, "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" is a B. And that's pretty damn good, because on an absolute scale "Unbroken" is a C- and so much of what's popular today fails completely.
Not that "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" is unpopular. But to get me to read it a constellation of factors had to align. I had to have a gifted copy lying around the house, it had to be referenced by someone as passionate about a great read as I am. And one of the reasons I gave "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" a chance is because Abbie hates so much. I hate those who love everything, they grant no perspective, their opinion is worthless, but when someone critical says they love something, I check it out.
And you should check "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" out. Because if you're alive, if you can pull yourself away from your smartphone, if you know the vagaries of love, the hardship of struggle, if you question the meaning of life, if you wrestle with your sense of duty, your eyes will bug out as the rest of the world fades away and you end up with a new understanding of those who are not privileged to live in the United States and a desire to journey to their homeland to feel alive.
"A Constellation of Vital Phenomena": http://amzn.to/1gmCjfn
http://www.randomhouse.com/book/220153/a-constellation-of-vital-phenomena-by-anthony-marra
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It's a girl's book. I've never heard any guy talk about it. When it comes to the domestic sagas of overseas personages the females eat them up and the males don't even start. Which is why I had no intention of reading Anthony Marra's "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena."
It started with Marc's wife, he put her on the phone in a bar near midnight on the east coast and we started talking books. I told Abbie to read "We Are Not Ourselves" and she couldn't stop raving about "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena," did I know it?
It rang a distant bell. Didn't Daniel Glass send me a copy? Gift-giver extraordinaire, Mr. Glass frequently sends hardcovers from the local store in his Washington, Connecticut weekend homeplace, the Hickory Stick Bookshop. And when I went back to my kitchen table, there it was, ready for my consumption.
But I had to finish Hampton Sides's "In The Kingdom of Ice" first.
Mr. Sides's book got a great write-up in the "Wall Street Journal," and I bought it on my Kindle before my plane took off and wireless access ended and I started it and it was bone dry, but sometimes exciting. It's akin to "The Devil in the White City," have you read that? I won't spoil the story, but let's just say it's centered around the Chicago's World Fair of 1893. You marvel while you read, how advanced it was back then.
And the same thing in "Kingdom of Ice." It's a true story, so when you read about the shenanigans of the owner of the New York "Herald" you can't help but Google the details, to see if they're really true.
And "Kingdom of Ice" is about a search for a Northwest Passage, nearly a hundred and fifty years ago, but I had to get through a third of the book just to have the voyage begin, and it wasn't that the book was boring, but it didn't call out to me, I needed fiction.
That's right, the guys read non-fiction. Mostly business books. Sometimes biographies. They want information they can use. Whereas I've learned story is king, and fiction takes you away and illuminates life in a way that non-fiction never can.
Like "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena."
It's not the easiest read. It's the kind of book you have to read a few sentences past where you are to understand what's going on, and I hate that. I read super-comprehensively, I want to know what everything means, I want to miss no details, and therefore I was frustrated at first.
And the story...
Turns out the girl is not the focus, but the war is. A war most Americans, including myself, know nearly nothing about.
What happens when you're caught in the crossfire, victimized by circumstances, when everything you believe in no longer matters. Never mind your possessions, but how about electricity, and morality, and...
Everything is up for grabs.
But we all remain human and we all soldier on in the face of adversity.
Sonja basks in her self-satisfaction.
Akhmed lives for art but medicine is his profession. This is the conundrum facing so many in today's society, do you do what's expected of you or what you feel inside. And forget getting rich following your heart's desire, no one's getting rich in Chechnya, and the young girl has never seen a fat person, they don't exist.
And I'm not going to recite the plot, not that "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" can be ruined. I'm just saying you're going to go down the rabbit hole, and halfway through the book will start calling out to you, you will want to sacrifice your everyday life to read it. And when it ends, you'll be at loose ends.
That's what I hate most, when a good book ends. Then what? Sure, there are a zillion tomes, but few pull at the heartstrings, few excite you, few are of the same quality.
Not that "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" is the best book I've ever read. Once again, that's "Anna Karenina" (depends on the translation!), and Tolstoy is referenced throughout, but "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" is not in Leo's league, but it's not that far off. On an absolute scale, if "Anna Karenina" is an A, "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" is a B. And that's pretty damn good, because on an absolute scale "Unbroken" is a C- and so much of what's popular today fails completely.
Not that "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" is unpopular. But to get me to read it a constellation of factors had to align. I had to have a gifted copy lying around the house, it had to be referenced by someone as passionate about a great read as I am. And one of the reasons I gave "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" a chance is because Abbie hates so much. I hate those who love everything, they grant no perspective, their opinion is worthless, but when someone critical says they love something, I check it out.
And you should check "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" out. Because if you're alive, if you can pull yourself away from your smartphone, if you know the vagaries of love, the hardship of struggle, if you question the meaning of life, if you wrestle with your sense of duty, your eyes will bug out as the rest of the world fades away and you end up with a new understanding of those who are not privileged to live in the United States and a desire to journey to their homeland to feel alive.
"A Constellation of Vital Phenomena": http://amzn.to/1gmCjfn
http://www.randomhouse.com/book/220153/a-constellation-of-vital-phenomena-by-anthony-marra
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Rhinofy-Peter, Paul and Mary Primer
500 MILES
Could be the first Peter, Paul and Mary track I ever heard. A staple at summer camp, it was emblematic of the folk boom, hell, we even had a folk TV show, "Hootenanny."
Everybody knew the lyrics and longhaired girls strummed the tune on acoustic guitars and this could have been the first moment I realized the power of music to get the hormones flowing.
I probably heard this sung before I heard the recording. That was the power of songs back then, when they could be sung. And we did.
IF I HAD A HAMMER
A Pete Seeger/Lee Hays composition, it's hard to overestimate the ubiquity and impact of this track. It went to number 10 and my mother bought the single and at this distance it stands out as a protest song, its lyrics are most meaningful, and even though this was only 1962, the youthquake had already begun, questioning authority and standing up for the rights of the underprivileged...we saw that on the news every day, the South was roiling, it was part of the conversation, no one ignored the issues of the day the way they do today, feeling helpless against the system. The system was just one more enemy to be confronted and defeated.
WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE
This was another summer camp staple, a song I knew by heart that I had no idea was on Peter, Paul and Mary's debut. It was written by Pete Seeger, there were numerous iterations, this was the era of songs being passed around and covers.
EARLY IN THE MORNING
If you'd asked me before I started writing this I would have had a hard time attaching this track to Peter, Paul and Mary, but the truth is it's the opening cut on their 1962 debut LP and its haunting sound always made an impression upon me. Not all of Peter, Paul and Mary's famous cuts were covers!
THIS TRAIN
Was written by Peter and Paul and it's my favorite on the debut LP. It sounds like a western, like people had decided to separate from the status quo and journey off on a train, were we gonna come along? That's how it was back then, you had to decide which side you were on.
Nothing like this could be a hit today. But this will probably outlast all the hits of today.
PUFF, THE MAGIC DRAGON
Forget whether it was a drug song, we didn't even contemplate that until the latter half of the decade, but this cut was such a monster it's hard to understand its omnipresence from the vantage point of today. It made it to number 2 on the chart, but that was when if it was on the radio, everybody was aware of it. And yes, children's entertainers glommed on to it, but the truth is, once again, it was something sung at summer camp, and probably still is! Written by Peter and the heretofore unknown and promptly forgotten Leonard Lipton.
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
This Woody Guthrie song was also on Peter, Paul and Mary's second 1962 album, "Moving."
At this late date, Woody Guthrie is a cultural hero whose work is attached to him. But back then, he was the known writer only to those older than us.
BLOWIN' IN THE WIND
From 1963's "In The Wind," this was the monster, both the track and the LP.
You've got to know, most people had no idea who Bob Dylan was. He and Peter, Paul and Mary shared a manager, Albert Grossman, and it was this cover that ended up shining light upon the Minnesota bard, never mind lining his pockets.
One can truly track the ignition of the mainstream protest movement back to Peter, Paul and Mary's cover of "Blowin' In The Wind." We had our own anthem written by a denizen of the younger generation and this song gained its power over the wind, it was in the air, everybody knew it even though to this day I don't think I've ever heard it on the radio.
That's the power of a singable song, the public kept this alive, by performing it.
TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN
Let me try to explain this. If you were Jewish you went to summer camp. There was always a counselor with a guitar. And he or she would sit by the campfire and strum and we'd all sing along.
But it wasn't only Jewish summer camp, the same ritual occurred at Boy Scout camp too. We knew a cornucopia of songs without realizing we'd learned them. Broadway infected me, but folk music sealed the deal, made me a music fan. It was the way the songs made me feel, especially when singing along. Alive. With possibilities.
STEWBALL
"Oh, Stewball was a racehorse..."
Some folk songs were fast, others were slow. But we knew them all.
It was about a horse, but really it was about holding hands and singing in unison.
DON'T THINK TWICE, IT'S ALL RIGHT
Neil Young still cannot get over this composition, that's what he said on Howard Stern this week, actually, none of us ever could.
This is how we learned it, via Peter, Paul and Mary's third album, 1963's "In The Wind."
Don't think twice, it's all right, while I sit here licking my wounds, trying to get the gumption to pick myself up and march forward, forgetting you while I still hope and pray that you come back.
THE TIMES THEY ARE A' CHANGIN'
From 1964's live album "In Concert," the one that everybody bought, before music was free and you waited until an act's popularity and influence were cemented and you could get all the hits in one place.
This collection was ubiquitous in a way their music had been previously, but no long player had been before. After all, it was still the singles era, the Beatles were just breaking, "Rubber Soul," "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper" were nonexistent, never mind unfathomable.
FOR LOVIN' ME
Written by Gordon Lightfoot long before we had any idea who he was.
This is from Peter, Paul and Mary's 1965 collection "A Song Will Rise," and even though it popularized this composition, the album had none of the impact of its predecessors, the British Invasion was in full swing, folk music was on the decline, and never forget acts have an arc, their popularity comes and goes, no matter how talented they might be. Sometimes it's got nothing to do with the quality of their music, rather the scene just changes.
EARLY MORNIN' RAIN
Another Lightfoot composition from an even more stiff follow-up LP, 1965's "See What Tomorrow Brings."
The band was fading fast, they no longer seemed relevant, we saw the LPs in the bin, but only diehards purchased them, they had very little cultural impact, both "See What Tomorrow Brings" and its follow-up, 1966's "Album."
I DIG ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC
And then came "Album 1700," owning that designation because that was its Warner Brothers catalog number, it was literally album 1700.
This was a hit on the radio when that meant everything. It was no longer about impacting the campfire, even though the old folk hits were still sung there, but creating something indelible for Top Forty radio.
And "I Dig Rock and Roll Music" delivered.
It seemed like a cheap shot, with the Beatles reference and the modernized sound, almost akin to the classic rockers going disco at the end of the seventies, but it didn't cross over into kitsch, "I Dig Rock and Roll Music" just sounded too good. You may not have sung it at camp, but you certainly wailed along in the car!
LEAVING ON A JET PLANE
That's right, the album came out in 1967, but the track didn't go to number one until 1969!
Peter, Paul and Mary were back. Everybody who paid attention before anointed "Album 1700" a return. In the album era, it was one you owned and played and knew. But Top Forty didn't pick up on it. Back in the era when it didn't have to be on the radio to be a hit. All those Hendrix cuts you know by heart, Cream ones too, they got so little airplay. And yes, "Sunshine Of Your Love" eventually crossed over to Top Forty, and so did "Leaving On A Jet Plane," cementing its status as probably the most famous Peter, Paul and Mary song ever.
Written by John Denver, of course.
Everybody could relate. We'd experienced love and the disconnection therefrom.
A song that has outlived its era, and that's hard to do!
TOO MUCH OF NOTHING
Off "Album 1700"'s follow-up, "Late Again," which had no impact other than this, nor did its follow-up, "Peter, Paul and Mommy." We let you come back once, we love the pull of nostalgia, after that, you stand or fall based on the quality of your work.
Yet, there were really two comeback tracks, ironically the first one cut after the second, but released before it.
Well, "Too Much Of Nothing" was not the smash of "Leaving On A Jet Plane," but back before we knew chart numbers, when we gauged success based on a track's impact upon us, I was infected by "Too Much Of Nothing," it's the one Peter, Paul and Mary cut I still yearn to hear and therefore play, never mind spin in my mind and quote.
"Say hello to Valerie
Say hello to Marion
Send them all my salary
On the waters of oblivion"
Actually, in the original, it's "Vivian," not "Marion."
But at this point, no one had heard the original, it was part of the infamous "Basement Tapes" which did not see the light of day until 1975. Furthermore, although Dylan wrote it, Peter, Paul and Mary nailed the performance of it, their rendition was much more ear-pleasing, as was Al Kooper and Stephen Stills's rendition of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," on "Super Session."
Heresy, I know. But although the lyrics are exquisite on both iterations of "Too Much Of Nothing," the arrangement and sound on Peter, Paul and Mary's shine so brightly you cannot help but wrap your brain around it.
And the hook is those lyrics above.
Too much of nothing... We thought about that back in 1968, when it was not about getting rich so much as contemplating one's place in society. There was no internet, no Netflix, all we had was our music. Which we spun incessantly, which we knew by heart. And even though they seem to have been forgotten to the sands of time, even though no one seems to mention them anymore, Peter, Paul and Mary's songs live on.
They're the ones we know by heart.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1w86vA5
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Could be the first Peter, Paul and Mary track I ever heard. A staple at summer camp, it was emblematic of the folk boom, hell, we even had a folk TV show, "Hootenanny."
Everybody knew the lyrics and longhaired girls strummed the tune on acoustic guitars and this could have been the first moment I realized the power of music to get the hormones flowing.
I probably heard this sung before I heard the recording. That was the power of songs back then, when they could be sung. And we did.
IF I HAD A HAMMER
A Pete Seeger/Lee Hays composition, it's hard to overestimate the ubiquity and impact of this track. It went to number 10 and my mother bought the single and at this distance it stands out as a protest song, its lyrics are most meaningful, and even though this was only 1962, the youthquake had already begun, questioning authority and standing up for the rights of the underprivileged...we saw that on the news every day, the South was roiling, it was part of the conversation, no one ignored the issues of the day the way they do today, feeling helpless against the system. The system was just one more enemy to be confronted and defeated.
WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE
This was another summer camp staple, a song I knew by heart that I had no idea was on Peter, Paul and Mary's debut. It was written by Pete Seeger, there were numerous iterations, this was the era of songs being passed around and covers.
EARLY IN THE MORNING
If you'd asked me before I started writing this I would have had a hard time attaching this track to Peter, Paul and Mary, but the truth is it's the opening cut on their 1962 debut LP and its haunting sound always made an impression upon me. Not all of Peter, Paul and Mary's famous cuts were covers!
THIS TRAIN
Was written by Peter and Paul and it's my favorite on the debut LP. It sounds like a western, like people had decided to separate from the status quo and journey off on a train, were we gonna come along? That's how it was back then, you had to decide which side you were on.
Nothing like this could be a hit today. But this will probably outlast all the hits of today.
PUFF, THE MAGIC DRAGON
Forget whether it was a drug song, we didn't even contemplate that until the latter half of the decade, but this cut was such a monster it's hard to understand its omnipresence from the vantage point of today. It made it to number 2 on the chart, but that was when if it was on the radio, everybody was aware of it. And yes, children's entertainers glommed on to it, but the truth is, once again, it was something sung at summer camp, and probably still is! Written by Peter and the heretofore unknown and promptly forgotten Leonard Lipton.
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
This Woody Guthrie song was also on Peter, Paul and Mary's second 1962 album, "Moving."
At this late date, Woody Guthrie is a cultural hero whose work is attached to him. But back then, he was the known writer only to those older than us.
BLOWIN' IN THE WIND
From 1963's "In The Wind," this was the monster, both the track and the LP.
You've got to know, most people had no idea who Bob Dylan was. He and Peter, Paul and Mary shared a manager, Albert Grossman, and it was this cover that ended up shining light upon the Minnesota bard, never mind lining his pockets.
One can truly track the ignition of the mainstream protest movement back to Peter, Paul and Mary's cover of "Blowin' In The Wind." We had our own anthem written by a denizen of the younger generation and this song gained its power over the wind, it was in the air, everybody knew it even though to this day I don't think I've ever heard it on the radio.
That's the power of a singable song, the public kept this alive, by performing it.
TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN
Let me try to explain this. If you were Jewish you went to summer camp. There was always a counselor with a guitar. And he or she would sit by the campfire and strum and we'd all sing along.
But it wasn't only Jewish summer camp, the same ritual occurred at Boy Scout camp too. We knew a cornucopia of songs without realizing we'd learned them. Broadway infected me, but folk music sealed the deal, made me a music fan. It was the way the songs made me feel, especially when singing along. Alive. With possibilities.
STEWBALL
"Oh, Stewball was a racehorse..."
Some folk songs were fast, others were slow. But we knew them all.
It was about a horse, but really it was about holding hands and singing in unison.
DON'T THINK TWICE, IT'S ALL RIGHT
Neil Young still cannot get over this composition, that's what he said on Howard Stern this week, actually, none of us ever could.
This is how we learned it, via Peter, Paul and Mary's third album, 1963's "In The Wind."
Don't think twice, it's all right, while I sit here licking my wounds, trying to get the gumption to pick myself up and march forward, forgetting you while I still hope and pray that you come back.
THE TIMES THEY ARE A' CHANGIN'
From 1964's live album "In Concert," the one that everybody bought, before music was free and you waited until an act's popularity and influence were cemented and you could get all the hits in one place.
This collection was ubiquitous in a way their music had been previously, but no long player had been before. After all, it was still the singles era, the Beatles were just breaking, "Rubber Soul," "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper" were nonexistent, never mind unfathomable.
FOR LOVIN' ME
Written by Gordon Lightfoot long before we had any idea who he was.
This is from Peter, Paul and Mary's 1965 collection "A Song Will Rise," and even though it popularized this composition, the album had none of the impact of its predecessors, the British Invasion was in full swing, folk music was on the decline, and never forget acts have an arc, their popularity comes and goes, no matter how talented they might be. Sometimes it's got nothing to do with the quality of their music, rather the scene just changes.
EARLY MORNIN' RAIN
Another Lightfoot composition from an even more stiff follow-up LP, 1965's "See What Tomorrow Brings."
The band was fading fast, they no longer seemed relevant, we saw the LPs in the bin, but only diehards purchased them, they had very little cultural impact, both "See What Tomorrow Brings" and its follow-up, 1966's "Album."
I DIG ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC
And then came "Album 1700," owning that designation because that was its Warner Brothers catalog number, it was literally album 1700.
This was a hit on the radio when that meant everything. It was no longer about impacting the campfire, even though the old folk hits were still sung there, but creating something indelible for Top Forty radio.
And "I Dig Rock and Roll Music" delivered.
It seemed like a cheap shot, with the Beatles reference and the modernized sound, almost akin to the classic rockers going disco at the end of the seventies, but it didn't cross over into kitsch, "I Dig Rock and Roll Music" just sounded too good. You may not have sung it at camp, but you certainly wailed along in the car!
LEAVING ON A JET PLANE
That's right, the album came out in 1967, but the track didn't go to number one until 1969!
Peter, Paul and Mary were back. Everybody who paid attention before anointed "Album 1700" a return. In the album era, it was one you owned and played and knew. But Top Forty didn't pick up on it. Back in the era when it didn't have to be on the radio to be a hit. All those Hendrix cuts you know by heart, Cream ones too, they got so little airplay. And yes, "Sunshine Of Your Love" eventually crossed over to Top Forty, and so did "Leaving On A Jet Plane," cementing its status as probably the most famous Peter, Paul and Mary song ever.
Written by John Denver, of course.
Everybody could relate. We'd experienced love and the disconnection therefrom.
A song that has outlived its era, and that's hard to do!
TOO MUCH OF NOTHING
Off "Album 1700"'s follow-up, "Late Again," which had no impact other than this, nor did its follow-up, "Peter, Paul and Mommy." We let you come back once, we love the pull of nostalgia, after that, you stand or fall based on the quality of your work.
Yet, there were really two comeback tracks, ironically the first one cut after the second, but released before it.
Well, "Too Much Of Nothing" was not the smash of "Leaving On A Jet Plane," but back before we knew chart numbers, when we gauged success based on a track's impact upon us, I was infected by "Too Much Of Nothing," it's the one Peter, Paul and Mary cut I still yearn to hear and therefore play, never mind spin in my mind and quote.
"Say hello to Valerie
Say hello to Marion
Send them all my salary
On the waters of oblivion"
Actually, in the original, it's "Vivian," not "Marion."
But at this point, no one had heard the original, it was part of the infamous "Basement Tapes" which did not see the light of day until 1975. Furthermore, although Dylan wrote it, Peter, Paul and Mary nailed the performance of it, their rendition was much more ear-pleasing, as was Al Kooper and Stephen Stills's rendition of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," on "Super Session."
Heresy, I know. But although the lyrics are exquisite on both iterations of "Too Much Of Nothing," the arrangement and sound on Peter, Paul and Mary's shine so brightly you cannot help but wrap your brain around it.
And the hook is those lyrics above.
Too much of nothing... We thought about that back in 1968, when it was not about getting rich so much as contemplating one's place in society. There was no internet, no Netflix, all we had was our music. Which we spun incessantly, which we knew by heart. And even though they seem to have been forgotten to the sands of time, even though no one seems to mention them anymore, Peter, Paul and Mary's songs live on.
They're the ones we know by heart.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1w86vA5
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Thursday, 16 October 2014
Sticking Power
The hardest challenge facing musicians today is getting people to listen to their new music. Awareness campaigns are a thing of the past. They make people know you've got new music, but it doesn't make them listen to it, at most it gets them to sample a few seconds of a track. Which is fine if you're not about the new music, if you've got enough old hits to power a show people want to see, but not if you're starting out or truly want people to know what you're up to.
1. YOU'RE A FULL TIME MUSICIAN
You practice every day, right? So why do you only drop new product every couple of years? Open the doors to the public, show your warts, reveal your personality. The key is to keep people engaged on a regular basis. This is a huge sea change, but the most notable one in the business today. YouTube is the medium of choice. Put up a video of you practicing, doing covers, works in progress. The key is to speak to your hard core fans, who will continue to talk about you to their buddies and will spread the word on anything truly great. And don't worry if it's not great, it just gets plowed under beneath the endless tsunami of clips posted every single day.
2. KNOW WHO YOUR FANS ARE
Selling/promoting to those who don't care is completely worthless, it's so 1980s. Everybody's so busy that if they don't have an interest in you, you won't be able to convert them via endless publicity, which is either namby-pamby whitewash or shock value quotes. Never forget you're selling your music, your only goal is to get people to check out and keep listening to your tunes, everything else is irrelevant. Fame won't put asses in the seats.
3. REACH OUT TO YOUR FANS
This is what the youngsters do so well with social media, primarily Twitter and Instagram. If you're an oldster and you want people to check out your new tunes be on social media a year in advance, a minimum of six months, revealing truth, bonding your fans to you. This is much more important and dividend paying than a story in any newspaper. The paper is one day only, tomorrow they're flogging something else, social media when done right is an ongoing conversation.
4. HONESTY
Credit to Bono for admitting U2's Apple mistake, but not only did Mr. Hewson apologize, he gave an explanation, he humanized himself, which made me feel warm about him and his band. Don't let your handlers speak for you, Guy Oseary never should have taken that victory lap. You have to stand up for yourself.
"Bono apologizes for putting U2's new album in everyone's iCloud library": http://bit.ly/1w81QPF
5. HITS
This is the most important element. You have to create a track that those who know you, that those who are interested in checking you out, will hear once and need to hear again, it's just that simple.
It's not about what radio thinks, it's not about what you think, it's about what the consumer thinks, and the consumer pays your bills.
We're all listeners, we all know what grabs us. Stop asking your friends whether they liked your new music, but how many times they listened to it. If it's once, you're toast, sorry.
Forget about radio, forget about filters. You know who your fans are. Do they want to hear the new track again and again?
Taylor Swift has embraced this paradigm, realizing how tough today's landscape has become, unfortunately she has gone lowest common denominator with "Shake If Off." You too can do this, if you know Max Martin and the usual suspects, but that does not mean you cannot do it yourself, that you cannot shoot higher. But we can only listen to one song at one time so what you cut has to have the catchiness of "Shake It Off."
No bitching. This is the story of all media today. Check out the movie business, it's either a blockbuster or it's a stiff. If you're happy with a stiff, be my guest, but you're not allowed to complain you've got no audience, that no one cares.
6. ALBUMS
Stop thinking about them and stop making them. You start with the hit, if you haven't got one, keep trying to make one. Without one, you're sunk. If you have a hit, people will want to hear more of your music, so then you can build around the hit. You can release four other tracks that are ear-pleasing but might only be listened to by fans. Then you need another hit. And know in the streaming universe, the album makes no sense. The CD allowed shuffling, the ability to play only the songs you wanted to hear from the collection, streaming doesn't even force you to buy the LP to begin with! Don't overload your audience on Spotify and its ilk, it's too confusing when someone goes to check you out. In other words, put a plethora of material on YouTube, but only the limited, authorized stuff on Spotify. You're not making albums, you're creating a body of work. Listeners don't care if you cut it yesterday or a year ago, or even five years ago. And to force people to wait for years to
overwhelm them with product is a mistake.
7. TELEVISION/EVENTS
I'm not a big Foo Fighters fan but their HBO show is a masterstroke, going with the true Tiffany network to showcase excellence without commercialism. The same show is a stiff on another network, the Foo Fighters are piggybacking on HBO's cred. And with no ads, HBO is the antithesis of the modern world. People hate the endless selling and commercialism. It burnishes your image to avoid it. But, once again, you must have hits. And, once again, a hit is something that many people want to hear over and over again, it doesn't matter if it's played on the radio or not.
8. GENRE-HOPPING
The rappers have been doing it forever, dropping in on pop songs. Today's country is yesterday's rock and roll. Want to expand your audience? Play with today's country stars, who can play, and likely are fans of your material. We're all in it together, and only the biggest of stars can go it alone.
9. NO SHORTCUTS
They leave the audience with a bad taste in their mouth. If your face is everywhere, if you force your music upon them, backlash will begin. Money and connections will get you press, but the truth is in today's music world it might be working against you. Used to be the press was tied in with radio and MTV, which everybody listened to and watched. Today, your music can be completely ignored. When your face appears in a non-genre-specific publication, trolling for fans, the readers laugh and make fun of you.
10. TAKE A JOKE
We live in hater culture. If you're going to respond at all, have not only a sense of humility, but a sense of humor. There's no need to immediately apologize, then you look like one of the TV drug addict nitwits. Stand your ground, but be three-dimensional, wink your eye.
Everywhere I go I quiz people on the new releases. Consensus is the Thom Yorke album is already over. The inane press release wherein they said there were a million downloads, was laughable, they had very few PAID downloads. This is the worst case example, where the press trumps the music.
At least U2 got to perform their song at Apple's shindig. If only it had been a hit. It was very good, but you never needed to hear it again.
As for Tom Petty, I'm a huge fan, but when he appeared in every publication known to man and exuded grumpiness in the process and came out with an album without one repeatable track, it was just sad.
That's right, your A&R man said he couldn't hear a single.
But today your A&R man is your audience. And it's not their job to listen to your new music. And chances are there is no radio single...radio, radio that counts, doesn't play your music, your single is for your fans. And your single is a repeatable track. Because no one's got time for less than great.
And we're constantly in search of great, which is how Lorde can come out of nowhere, but now, more than ever, it doesn't matter what you've done in the past, but what you've done for us lately.
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1. YOU'RE A FULL TIME MUSICIAN
You practice every day, right? So why do you only drop new product every couple of years? Open the doors to the public, show your warts, reveal your personality. The key is to keep people engaged on a regular basis. This is a huge sea change, but the most notable one in the business today. YouTube is the medium of choice. Put up a video of you practicing, doing covers, works in progress. The key is to speak to your hard core fans, who will continue to talk about you to their buddies and will spread the word on anything truly great. And don't worry if it's not great, it just gets plowed under beneath the endless tsunami of clips posted every single day.
2. KNOW WHO YOUR FANS ARE
Selling/promoting to those who don't care is completely worthless, it's so 1980s. Everybody's so busy that if they don't have an interest in you, you won't be able to convert them via endless publicity, which is either namby-pamby whitewash or shock value quotes. Never forget you're selling your music, your only goal is to get people to check out and keep listening to your tunes, everything else is irrelevant. Fame won't put asses in the seats.
3. REACH OUT TO YOUR FANS
This is what the youngsters do so well with social media, primarily Twitter and Instagram. If you're an oldster and you want people to check out your new tunes be on social media a year in advance, a minimum of six months, revealing truth, bonding your fans to you. This is much more important and dividend paying than a story in any newspaper. The paper is one day only, tomorrow they're flogging something else, social media when done right is an ongoing conversation.
4. HONESTY
Credit to Bono for admitting U2's Apple mistake, but not only did Mr. Hewson apologize, he gave an explanation, he humanized himself, which made me feel warm about him and his band. Don't let your handlers speak for you, Guy Oseary never should have taken that victory lap. You have to stand up for yourself.
"Bono apologizes for putting U2's new album in everyone's iCloud library": http://bit.ly/1w81QPF
5. HITS
This is the most important element. You have to create a track that those who know you, that those who are interested in checking you out, will hear once and need to hear again, it's just that simple.
It's not about what radio thinks, it's not about what you think, it's about what the consumer thinks, and the consumer pays your bills.
We're all listeners, we all know what grabs us. Stop asking your friends whether they liked your new music, but how many times they listened to it. If it's once, you're toast, sorry.
Forget about radio, forget about filters. You know who your fans are. Do they want to hear the new track again and again?
Taylor Swift has embraced this paradigm, realizing how tough today's landscape has become, unfortunately she has gone lowest common denominator with "Shake If Off." You too can do this, if you know Max Martin and the usual suspects, but that does not mean you cannot do it yourself, that you cannot shoot higher. But we can only listen to one song at one time so what you cut has to have the catchiness of "Shake It Off."
No bitching. This is the story of all media today. Check out the movie business, it's either a blockbuster or it's a stiff. If you're happy with a stiff, be my guest, but you're not allowed to complain you've got no audience, that no one cares.
6. ALBUMS
Stop thinking about them and stop making them. You start with the hit, if you haven't got one, keep trying to make one. Without one, you're sunk. If you have a hit, people will want to hear more of your music, so then you can build around the hit. You can release four other tracks that are ear-pleasing but might only be listened to by fans. Then you need another hit. And know in the streaming universe, the album makes no sense. The CD allowed shuffling, the ability to play only the songs you wanted to hear from the collection, streaming doesn't even force you to buy the LP to begin with! Don't overload your audience on Spotify and its ilk, it's too confusing when someone goes to check you out. In other words, put a plethora of material on YouTube, but only the limited, authorized stuff on Spotify. You're not making albums, you're creating a body of work. Listeners don't care if you cut it yesterday or a year ago, or even five years ago. And to force people to wait for years to
overwhelm them with product is a mistake.
7. TELEVISION/EVENTS
I'm not a big Foo Fighters fan but their HBO show is a masterstroke, going with the true Tiffany network to showcase excellence without commercialism. The same show is a stiff on another network, the Foo Fighters are piggybacking on HBO's cred. And with no ads, HBO is the antithesis of the modern world. People hate the endless selling and commercialism. It burnishes your image to avoid it. But, once again, you must have hits. And, once again, a hit is something that many people want to hear over and over again, it doesn't matter if it's played on the radio or not.
8. GENRE-HOPPING
The rappers have been doing it forever, dropping in on pop songs. Today's country is yesterday's rock and roll. Want to expand your audience? Play with today's country stars, who can play, and likely are fans of your material. We're all in it together, and only the biggest of stars can go it alone.
9. NO SHORTCUTS
They leave the audience with a bad taste in their mouth. If your face is everywhere, if you force your music upon them, backlash will begin. Money and connections will get you press, but the truth is in today's music world it might be working against you. Used to be the press was tied in with radio and MTV, which everybody listened to and watched. Today, your music can be completely ignored. When your face appears in a non-genre-specific publication, trolling for fans, the readers laugh and make fun of you.
10. TAKE A JOKE
We live in hater culture. If you're going to respond at all, have not only a sense of humility, but a sense of humor. There's no need to immediately apologize, then you look like one of the TV drug addict nitwits. Stand your ground, but be three-dimensional, wink your eye.
Everywhere I go I quiz people on the new releases. Consensus is the Thom Yorke album is already over. The inane press release wherein they said there were a million downloads, was laughable, they had very few PAID downloads. This is the worst case example, where the press trumps the music.
At least U2 got to perform their song at Apple's shindig. If only it had been a hit. It was very good, but you never needed to hear it again.
As for Tom Petty, I'm a huge fan, but when he appeared in every publication known to man and exuded grumpiness in the process and came out with an album without one repeatable track, it was just sad.
That's right, your A&R man said he couldn't hear a single.
But today your A&R man is your audience. And it's not their job to listen to your new music. And chances are there is no radio single...radio, radio that counts, doesn't play your music, your single is for your fans. And your single is a repeatable track. Because no one's got time for less than great.
And we're constantly in search of great, which is how Lorde can come out of nowhere, but now, more than ever, it doesn't matter what you've done in the past, but what you've done for us lately.
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Wednesday, 15 October 2014
Netflix vs. Spotify
Once upon a time television was like radio, something you received over the air for free via an antenna. But in the eighties, TV moved to a subscription model, people paid for cable, for a better picture and more and better programming. So, customers became inured to paying a subscription fee, every month, in perpetuity. And they still do, despite all the hoopla about cord-cutting, the truth is you're paying for access, whether it be with the cable company of yore or via FiOS or LTE wireless, all of which you pay for each and every month.
And then came home video. Initially an ownership market, it didn't burgeon until it was turned into a rental market, which flourished until it became a dirt cheap ownership market which threw off tons of cash, then Netflix brought back rental and then went streaming and the cash cow ownership model crashed.
Music was always about an ownership model. And this was resented by consumers when DVD prices dove down to nothing and included all the music on the CD for a lower price than the music only disc.
And then the internet hit. All media were unprepared. And music was affected first, because of the small size of the files. But TV learned and created Hulu and Netflix flipped its model to streaming, which, if you remember, customers hated, but have now embraced. Furthermore, streaming is cheaper than all its predecessors, and it's all you can eat.
In music, we stayed with the sales model deep into the twenty first century, way too late, with the iTunes Store. We broke out the single from the album, Steve Jobs tried to keep the prices low, but the labels lobbied for an increase, which they finally got, driving their enterprise right towards the cliff when YouTube emerged.
There was no viable alternative. Yes, Rhapsody existed, but most people had no idea what it was, and unlike in TV/movies, people were not in the habit of paying a subscription fee, which they'd already been doing in visual media for decades. So with no viable alternative, the youngsters, who are cheap and have loads of time, flocked to YouTube, which the rights holders eventually monetized.
Now visual creators and actors get paid in the new streaming era, just not much. The rights holders bundle their products and license them to distributors. Actors and writers agitate, even go on strike, but it's seen as a battle between them and the studios, not them and the distributors.
But it's different in music. Because despite hefty advances, artists got royalties, which were frequently a laugh in visual entertainment, owed, but not paid.
Now visual entertainment is screwed because it believes it's ahead of the game, believes it's got it all figured out, when the truth is you need multiple subscriptions to get everything you want and as a result piracy is rampant. In music, one subscription will get you everything, so piracy has tanked. But in both worlds, streaming rules. It's just that ownership fell by the wayside eons ago in visual entertainment.
Also, visual entertainment is still holding on to windows, it's still trying to figure out how to replace DVD sales revenue, never mind make its nut via streaming income, whereas windows are passe in music, but the reduction in income...creators are still bitching about that.
But consumers don't care. They're in heaven. And they're never going back to the old ways.
So where does this leave musicians?
Believing that the barrier to entry is so low, the ability to get your stuff streamed so easy, that they should all be millionaires, not realizing consumers have very little time and infinite choice and they probably won't choose you but the hits.
Whereas in visual entertainment, the hobbyist doesn't believe his productions should be offered on Hulu or Netflix. And doesn't believe he should make bank on YouTube unless he's got millions of plays.
The song remains the same. If you're popular, if you've got leverage, you'll make money. Actually, popularity now rules because of the suddenly seen metrics, no one with 1,000 plays is bitching they're not getting rich off of YouTube, but somehow people with the same number of streams on Spotify believe they should.
So what we've learned is that access has won. And in this case, TV preceded music by nearly two decades, it trained people to pay, every month. Furthermore, the public was weaned from ownership by insanely low rentals, like Redbox, and nearly as cheap streaming. This is the future of music too.
So music has to train its audience to pay. It was blindsided by YouTube, which has become the music destination of choice. Blame the labels, who didn't license Spotify, et al, earlier, forcing Spotify and its clones to offer free subscriptions just to get people to try them out, because YouTube is free.
But movies were never free. There did not need to be a free Netflix. The only thing the visual purveyors are fighting is piracy, which is incredibly significant, but convenience is helping them, because you can watch so much instantly, at your fingertips, on all your devices.
Yet in music, the makers abhor convenience. They trumpet CDs and vinyl. They insist people listen to the album when they don't want to. They're pushing the ball uphill, they're fighting their own best interests.
So get with the program. Know that streaming has won and the goal is to get everybody to pay for a subscription and that winners will be paid handsomely and losers should just thank their lucky stars that they're able to play.
And, now that visual entertainment is everywhere, along with video games, it's incumbent upon musicians to make art that trumps its competitors, that is better than "Homeland" and the rest of the cable shows.
That's quite a challenge, but I know you're up to it.
Some of you.
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And then came home video. Initially an ownership market, it didn't burgeon until it was turned into a rental market, which flourished until it became a dirt cheap ownership market which threw off tons of cash, then Netflix brought back rental and then went streaming and the cash cow ownership model crashed.
Music was always about an ownership model. And this was resented by consumers when DVD prices dove down to nothing and included all the music on the CD for a lower price than the music only disc.
And then the internet hit. All media were unprepared. And music was affected first, because of the small size of the files. But TV learned and created Hulu and Netflix flipped its model to streaming, which, if you remember, customers hated, but have now embraced. Furthermore, streaming is cheaper than all its predecessors, and it's all you can eat.
In music, we stayed with the sales model deep into the twenty first century, way too late, with the iTunes Store. We broke out the single from the album, Steve Jobs tried to keep the prices low, but the labels lobbied for an increase, which they finally got, driving their enterprise right towards the cliff when YouTube emerged.
There was no viable alternative. Yes, Rhapsody existed, but most people had no idea what it was, and unlike in TV/movies, people were not in the habit of paying a subscription fee, which they'd already been doing in visual media for decades. So with no viable alternative, the youngsters, who are cheap and have loads of time, flocked to YouTube, which the rights holders eventually monetized.
Now visual creators and actors get paid in the new streaming era, just not much. The rights holders bundle their products and license them to distributors. Actors and writers agitate, even go on strike, but it's seen as a battle between them and the studios, not them and the distributors.
But it's different in music. Because despite hefty advances, artists got royalties, which were frequently a laugh in visual entertainment, owed, but not paid.
Now visual entertainment is screwed because it believes it's ahead of the game, believes it's got it all figured out, when the truth is you need multiple subscriptions to get everything you want and as a result piracy is rampant. In music, one subscription will get you everything, so piracy has tanked. But in both worlds, streaming rules. It's just that ownership fell by the wayside eons ago in visual entertainment.
Also, visual entertainment is still holding on to windows, it's still trying to figure out how to replace DVD sales revenue, never mind make its nut via streaming income, whereas windows are passe in music, but the reduction in income...creators are still bitching about that.
But consumers don't care. They're in heaven. And they're never going back to the old ways.
So where does this leave musicians?
Believing that the barrier to entry is so low, the ability to get your stuff streamed so easy, that they should all be millionaires, not realizing consumers have very little time and infinite choice and they probably won't choose you but the hits.
Whereas in visual entertainment, the hobbyist doesn't believe his productions should be offered on Hulu or Netflix. And doesn't believe he should make bank on YouTube unless he's got millions of plays.
The song remains the same. If you're popular, if you've got leverage, you'll make money. Actually, popularity now rules because of the suddenly seen metrics, no one with 1,000 plays is bitching they're not getting rich off of YouTube, but somehow people with the same number of streams on Spotify believe they should.
So what we've learned is that access has won. And in this case, TV preceded music by nearly two decades, it trained people to pay, every month. Furthermore, the public was weaned from ownership by insanely low rentals, like Redbox, and nearly as cheap streaming. This is the future of music too.
So music has to train its audience to pay. It was blindsided by YouTube, which has become the music destination of choice. Blame the labels, who didn't license Spotify, et al, earlier, forcing Spotify and its clones to offer free subscriptions just to get people to try them out, because YouTube is free.
But movies were never free. There did not need to be a free Netflix. The only thing the visual purveyors are fighting is piracy, which is incredibly significant, but convenience is helping them, because you can watch so much instantly, at your fingertips, on all your devices.
Yet in music, the makers abhor convenience. They trumpet CDs and vinyl. They insist people listen to the album when they don't want to. They're pushing the ball uphill, they're fighting their own best interests.
So get with the program. Know that streaming has won and the goal is to get everybody to pay for a subscription and that winners will be paid handsomely and losers should just thank their lucky stars that they're able to play.
And, now that visual entertainment is everywhere, along with video games, it's incumbent upon musicians to make art that trumps its competitors, that is better than "Homeland" and the rest of the cable shows.
That's quite a challenge, but I know you're up to it.
Some of you.
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Cast Your Soul
"When you think you know where the road will go
There's another mystery around the bend"
Every night I lie on the floor and listen to Deezer Elite and my old favorites come alive.
It's funny, it doesn't work during the day, I'm nocturnal anyway, I'd prefer to live in darkness, when the world slows down and no one contacts me and I can let my mind drift.
I used to wake up at noon. That window from 10 PM until 4 AM was my own. It made it very hard to book appointments, with half the day scraped away, but I now realize it made sense, that it was me, because I'm happiest in my own cocoon.
I do thrive in crowds, when I don't sink. Used to be I talked prodigiously, now I usually listen. I'm fearful of alienating others, I marvel at their ability to speak uninhibited, demonstrating their flaws without realizing it. I used to be one of them, but years of psychotherapy changed me. Every encounter is a puzzle, one I enjoy most when others involve me, when I feel inspired and unleash a torrent of words that cannot be stopped. But that rarely happens. I get worn out engaging, I look forward to retreating. But happiness comes from being a member of the group, so there's the conundrum.
"Look into the western sky"
Hope. That was what leaving the east coast was all about. Shedding skin for big sky country. But the truth is you do take your problems everywhere, along with your music.
But people are different as you move through the time zones, they speak the same language, but they emphasize different mores. On the east coast education is important, everybody's checking their spot in the pecking order. Further west it's more about personal fulfillment, and I like that.
So I'm on the floor in darkness, with e-mail slowed to a crawl, before Europe wakes up, and I push through all my old favorites to see how they sound in high quality, what will be revealed.
And what was revealed Monday night was the above lyric. To the point where it haunted me all day Tuesday.
You get to the point where you think you have the answers, that you think you've got it figured out, and then you're surprised.
It does require engagement. You must leave your house, however daunting that might be, but when you get on the road, despite maps being on your smartphone, you might have an idea of where you're going, but that's not necessarily where you'll end up.
Just like listening to a track. I've heard Wendy Waldman's "Cast Your Soul" oodles of times. It's always been the sound that got to me. And then this lyric jumped out.
Ain't that how it always is. When you think you know everything, it turns out you don't.
And that's what we like about life.
So, cast your soul upon the wind. Be human. Take chances. Know fame is an illusion. And despite being so connected electronically we're really all alone. Own this, and know the job of art is to reach out and make us feel part of humanity, the link between music maker and listener is the one that keeps on giving, inciting us while being insightful, riding shotgun as we encounter the vagaries of life, which thrill us but scare us all at the same time.
"Cast Your Soul": http://spoti.fi/1DcteOG
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There's another mystery around the bend"
Every night I lie on the floor and listen to Deezer Elite and my old favorites come alive.
It's funny, it doesn't work during the day, I'm nocturnal anyway, I'd prefer to live in darkness, when the world slows down and no one contacts me and I can let my mind drift.
I used to wake up at noon. That window from 10 PM until 4 AM was my own. It made it very hard to book appointments, with half the day scraped away, but I now realize it made sense, that it was me, because I'm happiest in my own cocoon.
I do thrive in crowds, when I don't sink. Used to be I talked prodigiously, now I usually listen. I'm fearful of alienating others, I marvel at their ability to speak uninhibited, demonstrating their flaws without realizing it. I used to be one of them, but years of psychotherapy changed me. Every encounter is a puzzle, one I enjoy most when others involve me, when I feel inspired and unleash a torrent of words that cannot be stopped. But that rarely happens. I get worn out engaging, I look forward to retreating. But happiness comes from being a member of the group, so there's the conundrum.
"Look into the western sky"
Hope. That was what leaving the east coast was all about. Shedding skin for big sky country. But the truth is you do take your problems everywhere, along with your music.
But people are different as you move through the time zones, they speak the same language, but they emphasize different mores. On the east coast education is important, everybody's checking their spot in the pecking order. Further west it's more about personal fulfillment, and I like that.
So I'm on the floor in darkness, with e-mail slowed to a crawl, before Europe wakes up, and I push through all my old favorites to see how they sound in high quality, what will be revealed.
And what was revealed Monday night was the above lyric. To the point where it haunted me all day Tuesday.
You get to the point where you think you have the answers, that you think you've got it figured out, and then you're surprised.
It does require engagement. You must leave your house, however daunting that might be, but when you get on the road, despite maps being on your smartphone, you might have an idea of where you're going, but that's not necessarily where you'll end up.
Just like listening to a track. I've heard Wendy Waldman's "Cast Your Soul" oodles of times. It's always been the sound that got to me. And then this lyric jumped out.
Ain't that how it always is. When you think you know everything, it turns out you don't.
And that's what we like about life.
So, cast your soul upon the wind. Be human. Take chances. Know fame is an illusion. And despite being so connected electronically we're really all alone. Own this, and know the job of art is to reach out and make us feel part of humanity, the link between music maker and listener is the one that keeps on giving, inciting us while being insightful, riding shotgun as we encounter the vagaries of life, which thrill us but scare us all at the same time.
"Cast Your Soul": http://spoti.fi/1DcteOG
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Tuesday, 14 October 2014
The Spotify Payments Fracas
The artists are ignorant and Spotify is clueless.
I feel like I have to be the lone voice in the wilderness, the correction factor, to all the b.s. strewn by the artist community, because Spotify has no cojones and sent in the B team as opposed to Daniel Ek.
That's right, kids who are thrilled to have a job, who've got no idea of Spotify's generation and its road map to success. Drones thrilled to have a job in the music business who don't understand they're caretakers for a revolution as opposed to worker bees at the label.
The truth is you have to know how to think. That's the goal of an education. That's where America has let us down. Because you don't want to pay taxes, you want everything to be quantifiable, so you're tearing down the old edifice not realizing there's no new.
Which cracks me up completely. Has everybody lost their memories? Only a decade ago this same artist community was decrying the iTunes Music Store which is now suddenly their savior. And I'll note that iTunes decimated the CD model just like streaming is killing downloads, but what bugs me is how art, which is supposed to be cutting edge and challenging, is now populated by wusses who abhor change and want everything to remain the same even though the world is moving faster than ever before as a result of new communication techniques fostered by technological breakthroughs.
Daniel Ek is a rock star. You remember them, don't you? People who broke all the rules and did it their way? This nobody from nowhere had a vision and camped out and convinced labels to give him the rights when piracy was devastating the business. Have you noticed that artists have stopped bitching about P2P and have now made Spotify the bogeyman? It's like someone has to be the enemy, and it can't be them.
And then Daniel Ek hires a team, positively awful in most cases, refugees from the music biz who can't get a job anywhere else who believe their gig is to schmooze as opposed to lay it on straight, and on top of this he layers a patina of niceness akin to the execrable seventies campaign "Have A Nice Day." Makes me squeamish, the way Spotify wants to be my friend. Steve Jobs never wanted to be my friend, he was providing tools, so good people clamored for them, and Spotify is doing the same thing.
Spotify has eviscerated piracy. But the artists don't like this. They'd rather keep the old declining model and bitch about the unknown and the uncontrollable as opposed to vie for a solution.
So what's their solution?
HAVE CONSUMERS PAY MORE!
Ain't that a laugh, ignorant of the fact that Apple is lobbying labels to bring a music subscription down to $5 a month, they think if they can just convince the public which used to steal to overpay, like they did for one good track on a CD in the nineties, everything would be hunky-dory. While you're at it, why don't you make the public use rotary telephones, give up texting, bring back ringtones!
Can we all look forward people?
The truth is successful artists make more money than ever before. It's just that not that many artists are successful and none of them make what techies and bankers do.
Welcome to the world economy, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, where the excellent stand out and the good get no traction.
Used to be you overpaid for records because you were captive to your local store. Just like rarities used to be such and commanded top dollar before eBay. The world has shrunk, and it's not Spotify's fault but it is reality. Everybody's competing against everybody else. You cannot carve out a small territory for yourself.
So middle class artists are anathema. People would rather overpay to see stars, and since you can only listen to one song at one time they want to hear the music of the stars too. Artists tell consumers to play their godforsaken album ten times to get it. Why don't these same artists sit in a club listening to a bad band play originals for ten hours straight! No one's got the time for anything but excellence, and that's nobody's fault but it is reality.
So what we've got here is Luddite artists who've declared the enemy to be Spotify the same way writers have declared Amazon to be taboo. You don't want what you wish for. What you wish for had an ignorant government fining publishers and Apple for colluding on price under antitrust law, only increasing Amazon's power. Get the government involved and you know you're screwed.
I'm not saying publishing royalties shouldn't be higher on Pandora, a horrible service if there ever was one, but I am saying don't screw with the flow of progress, it just might come back to haunt you.
Those agitating loudest about Spotify payments are the never gonna make it and those who have who say they're doing it for the little guy who comes thereafter, what a load of crap. Are we gonna let fans run baseball? Do we really believe today's players care about tomorrow's?
And if they did, wouldn't they be holding out against their labels for better terms? At least the labels have room to pay. To try to squeeze more cash out of Spotify is to kill the golden goose, to drive the service bankrupt. Credit card and hosting/streaming costs and you want them to work on less than 30%? Or to put it in a language you can understand, do you want Apple to work on less than 30%?
But who cares about the details. It'll all work out.
But what I have to do here is take the unpopular stand, the one against the crowd, which has worked itself up into such a frenzy that truth can never out.
Streaming won. Hell, it won in movies/TV first. We're never going back to ownership. We're never going back to windows. Can't we all at least start on the same page?
As for labels getting an ownership interest in streaming services, that does not mean Spotify, et al, pay out any less in royalties. And I could explain economics to you but the truth is you signed that deal and whoever told you nothing changes is an idiot you should never pay attention to again.
Your enemy is obscurity. Any way to reach people is to be applauded. Nowhere is it written that recorded music should generate as much revenue as it did in the past, nowhere is it written that you should be able to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars making an album, nowhere is it written that you're entitled to make music at all!
So throw your sticks and stones. I don't care, I'm on the winning side. I'm aware of progress. I can see where I'm going. I'm not an ostrich with my head in the ground. Agitate against label payouts if you're complaining at all. Otherwise, just do me a favor and write a hit song. And if you can't, please get out of the way. Because we only have time for hits. And yes, once upon a time we had time for marginal, but now we've got almost no time at all! And that we do possess we want to spend listening to what everybody else does. And yes, there are exceptions, but marginal artists are not entitled to put food on the plate. Maybe they have to get a day job. Maybe they have to give up.
And that's just fine with me.
"Spotify's Artist Outreach Mission Leaves Some Wanting More": http://bit.ly/1wDb6tb
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I feel like I have to be the lone voice in the wilderness, the correction factor, to all the b.s. strewn by the artist community, because Spotify has no cojones and sent in the B team as opposed to Daniel Ek.
That's right, kids who are thrilled to have a job, who've got no idea of Spotify's generation and its road map to success. Drones thrilled to have a job in the music business who don't understand they're caretakers for a revolution as opposed to worker bees at the label.
The truth is you have to know how to think. That's the goal of an education. That's where America has let us down. Because you don't want to pay taxes, you want everything to be quantifiable, so you're tearing down the old edifice not realizing there's no new.
Which cracks me up completely. Has everybody lost their memories? Only a decade ago this same artist community was decrying the iTunes Music Store which is now suddenly their savior. And I'll note that iTunes decimated the CD model just like streaming is killing downloads, but what bugs me is how art, which is supposed to be cutting edge and challenging, is now populated by wusses who abhor change and want everything to remain the same even though the world is moving faster than ever before as a result of new communication techniques fostered by technological breakthroughs.
Daniel Ek is a rock star. You remember them, don't you? People who broke all the rules and did it their way? This nobody from nowhere had a vision and camped out and convinced labels to give him the rights when piracy was devastating the business. Have you noticed that artists have stopped bitching about P2P and have now made Spotify the bogeyman? It's like someone has to be the enemy, and it can't be them.
And then Daniel Ek hires a team, positively awful in most cases, refugees from the music biz who can't get a job anywhere else who believe their gig is to schmooze as opposed to lay it on straight, and on top of this he layers a patina of niceness akin to the execrable seventies campaign "Have A Nice Day." Makes me squeamish, the way Spotify wants to be my friend. Steve Jobs never wanted to be my friend, he was providing tools, so good people clamored for them, and Spotify is doing the same thing.
Spotify has eviscerated piracy. But the artists don't like this. They'd rather keep the old declining model and bitch about the unknown and the uncontrollable as opposed to vie for a solution.
So what's their solution?
HAVE CONSUMERS PAY MORE!
Ain't that a laugh, ignorant of the fact that Apple is lobbying labels to bring a music subscription down to $5 a month, they think if they can just convince the public which used to steal to overpay, like they did for one good track on a CD in the nineties, everything would be hunky-dory. While you're at it, why don't you make the public use rotary telephones, give up texting, bring back ringtones!
Can we all look forward people?
The truth is successful artists make more money than ever before. It's just that not that many artists are successful and none of them make what techies and bankers do.
Welcome to the world economy, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, where the excellent stand out and the good get no traction.
Used to be you overpaid for records because you were captive to your local store. Just like rarities used to be such and commanded top dollar before eBay. The world has shrunk, and it's not Spotify's fault but it is reality. Everybody's competing against everybody else. You cannot carve out a small territory for yourself.
So middle class artists are anathema. People would rather overpay to see stars, and since you can only listen to one song at one time they want to hear the music of the stars too. Artists tell consumers to play their godforsaken album ten times to get it. Why don't these same artists sit in a club listening to a bad band play originals for ten hours straight! No one's got the time for anything but excellence, and that's nobody's fault but it is reality.
So what we've got here is Luddite artists who've declared the enemy to be Spotify the same way writers have declared Amazon to be taboo. You don't want what you wish for. What you wish for had an ignorant government fining publishers and Apple for colluding on price under antitrust law, only increasing Amazon's power. Get the government involved and you know you're screwed.
I'm not saying publishing royalties shouldn't be higher on Pandora, a horrible service if there ever was one, but I am saying don't screw with the flow of progress, it just might come back to haunt you.
Those agitating loudest about Spotify payments are the never gonna make it and those who have who say they're doing it for the little guy who comes thereafter, what a load of crap. Are we gonna let fans run baseball? Do we really believe today's players care about tomorrow's?
And if they did, wouldn't they be holding out against their labels for better terms? At least the labels have room to pay. To try to squeeze more cash out of Spotify is to kill the golden goose, to drive the service bankrupt. Credit card and hosting/streaming costs and you want them to work on less than 30%? Or to put it in a language you can understand, do you want Apple to work on less than 30%?
But who cares about the details. It'll all work out.
But what I have to do here is take the unpopular stand, the one against the crowd, which has worked itself up into such a frenzy that truth can never out.
Streaming won. Hell, it won in movies/TV first. We're never going back to ownership. We're never going back to windows. Can't we all at least start on the same page?
As for labels getting an ownership interest in streaming services, that does not mean Spotify, et al, pay out any less in royalties. And I could explain economics to you but the truth is you signed that deal and whoever told you nothing changes is an idiot you should never pay attention to again.
Your enemy is obscurity. Any way to reach people is to be applauded. Nowhere is it written that recorded music should generate as much revenue as it did in the past, nowhere is it written that you should be able to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars making an album, nowhere is it written that you're entitled to make music at all!
So throw your sticks and stones. I don't care, I'm on the winning side. I'm aware of progress. I can see where I'm going. I'm not an ostrich with my head in the ground. Agitate against label payouts if you're complaining at all. Otherwise, just do me a favor and write a hit song. And if you can't, please get out of the way. Because we only have time for hits. And yes, once upon a time we had time for marginal, but now we've got almost no time at all! And that we do possess we want to spend listening to what everybody else does. And yes, there are exceptions, but marginal artists are not entitled to put food on the plate. Maybe they have to get a day job. Maybe they have to give up.
And that's just fine with me.
"Spotify's Artist Outreach Mission Leaves Some Wanting More": http://bit.ly/1wDb6tb
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Neil Young On Howard Stern
What an original!
We've been told that selling out is a choice. But the truth is Neil Young is just wired different. You can't emulate him, because you're not him.
This interview was very slow to get going. Because Neil was reluctant. And he was mimicking his hero Bob Dylan, refusing to explain his songs and obfuscating in interviews. But then Neil started revealing his choices and they were so different from everybody else's that you couldn't help but marvel.
Like being pissed at the cameramen at Woodstock, to the point of yelling for him to get off the stage, the result being Neil's absence from the movie. But he didn't care.
And this is fascinating, because dedicated Stern listeners know that Leslie West believes his career cratered as a result of not being in the flick, that his manager's decision for Mountain not to be in the movie hurt him forevermore.
But then there was the refusal to be on the "Tonight Show" with Buffalo Springfield because it wasn't their audience. Can you imagine that today? Someone refusing to do press because the audience might not be right? Ever since the Police the goal is world domination, and if you're not interested, I'm gonna beat you over the head and convince you.
And then the refusal to get back together with CS&N. Sure, he's got a feud with Crosby, but even more interesting was the lack of motivation. Howard talked about the fans, Neil didn't care about the fans, he cared about the music, to go play the greatest hits so people could hear them and everybody could make money held no interest.
And then Neil unloaded on AGT. He repeated it a few times, wondered why Howard Stern did the show.
And that's when the gap was fully evident. Neil Young was refusing to play the game. He wasn't gonna come on and reveal all his warts and make like they're all friends just to sell his latest forgettable product.
And let's be clear, that is why he was on, to flog Pono and his book and his album, which is kind of sad, I'd be more impressed if Neil dropped by with nothing to sell, but in these moments the divide between broadcaster and talent, between talker and singer, between performer and artist, could not have been more evident. Neil Young was gonna be himself, he could only be himself, and it made Howard and his show look small.
That's how it used to be, when musicians were giants who walked the earth towering over all other media. Before the best and the brightest went into tech and all we got was an endless parade of yes people willing to bend over to get reamed by not only the industry but the corporations. Who can believe in people like that?
And sure, there was some detailing of how the songs came together, but to say this interview was great would be to overestimate it. At the end it finally flew, Neil relaxed, didn't deny he was dating Daryl Hannah, said he loved to paddle board, but this was not a morning in the clubhouse so much as a glimpse into the mind of an artist.
Who lives in his own head and doesn't follow the charts and has no idea of this popular culture of which you speak because he's doing his own thing.
And I don't agree with all of Neil's choices, nor do I think much of his recent material is genius. Then again, even he thinks he's repeating himself.
But you don't often get a chance to peek into the brain of an original artist who impacted the culture and is still here, with his faculties intact, not retired, but continuing to push the envelope.
I implore everybody making music to listen to this interview. Not because it's great, because, as I stated above, it's not, but because it illustrates you've got choices.
You don't have to write hits.
You don't have to listen to your label.
Your manager's job is to free you up, to respect your wishes, to allow you time to create.
We're so far from the garden I doubt we can ever get back.
There will always be music.
But that does not mean it will be art.
Art requires artists. Who question. Who take chances. Who hew to the vibrations of their own inner tuning fork, who we pay attention to because of their strength in following their vision, in continuing to search without compromise.
Whew. It was definitely Neil.
But he was definitely not like anybody else.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIwWAX6bHwI
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We've been told that selling out is a choice. But the truth is Neil Young is just wired different. You can't emulate him, because you're not him.
This interview was very slow to get going. Because Neil was reluctant. And he was mimicking his hero Bob Dylan, refusing to explain his songs and obfuscating in interviews. But then Neil started revealing his choices and they were so different from everybody else's that you couldn't help but marvel.
Like being pissed at the cameramen at Woodstock, to the point of yelling for him to get off the stage, the result being Neil's absence from the movie. But he didn't care.
And this is fascinating, because dedicated Stern listeners know that Leslie West believes his career cratered as a result of not being in the flick, that his manager's decision for Mountain not to be in the movie hurt him forevermore.
But then there was the refusal to be on the "Tonight Show" with Buffalo Springfield because it wasn't their audience. Can you imagine that today? Someone refusing to do press because the audience might not be right? Ever since the Police the goal is world domination, and if you're not interested, I'm gonna beat you over the head and convince you.
And then the refusal to get back together with CS&N. Sure, he's got a feud with Crosby, but even more interesting was the lack of motivation. Howard talked about the fans, Neil didn't care about the fans, he cared about the music, to go play the greatest hits so people could hear them and everybody could make money held no interest.
And then Neil unloaded on AGT. He repeated it a few times, wondered why Howard Stern did the show.
And that's when the gap was fully evident. Neil Young was refusing to play the game. He wasn't gonna come on and reveal all his warts and make like they're all friends just to sell his latest forgettable product.
And let's be clear, that is why he was on, to flog Pono and his book and his album, which is kind of sad, I'd be more impressed if Neil dropped by with nothing to sell, but in these moments the divide between broadcaster and talent, between talker and singer, between performer and artist, could not have been more evident. Neil Young was gonna be himself, he could only be himself, and it made Howard and his show look small.
That's how it used to be, when musicians were giants who walked the earth towering over all other media. Before the best and the brightest went into tech and all we got was an endless parade of yes people willing to bend over to get reamed by not only the industry but the corporations. Who can believe in people like that?
And sure, there was some detailing of how the songs came together, but to say this interview was great would be to overestimate it. At the end it finally flew, Neil relaxed, didn't deny he was dating Daryl Hannah, said he loved to paddle board, but this was not a morning in the clubhouse so much as a glimpse into the mind of an artist.
Who lives in his own head and doesn't follow the charts and has no idea of this popular culture of which you speak because he's doing his own thing.
And I don't agree with all of Neil's choices, nor do I think much of his recent material is genius. Then again, even he thinks he's repeating himself.
But you don't often get a chance to peek into the brain of an original artist who impacted the culture and is still here, with his faculties intact, not retired, but continuing to push the envelope.
I implore everybody making music to listen to this interview. Not because it's great, because, as I stated above, it's not, but because it illustrates you've got choices.
You don't have to write hits.
You don't have to listen to your label.
Your manager's job is to free you up, to respect your wishes, to allow you time to create.
We're so far from the garden I doubt we can ever get back.
There will always be music.
But that does not mean it will be art.
Art requires artists. Who question. Who take chances. Who hew to the vibrations of their own inner tuning fork, who we pay attention to because of their strength in following their vision, in continuing to search without compromise.
Whew. It was definitely Neil.
But he was definitely not like anybody else.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIwWAX6bHwI
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Monday, 13 October 2014
Changes
LISTENS NOT DOWNLOADS
Who cares how many people downloaded the new U2 album, the only important thing is how many people LISTENED to it!
This is a huge sea change that is getting little publicity and has been overlooked in the outcry about streaming payments. In the future, you will get paid for every play of your track for all time. Talk to oldsters, the money's in the publishing, and now the money's in the play. The more people subscribe, the more each stream is worth. The more streams you get, the more you get paid. So you might have even retired, yet if your music is still popular, if you still have fans, you'll continue to get paid.
STREAMS NOT SALES
SoundScan is nearly irrelevant. Furthermore, Spotify lists plays, information that used to be hidden from the hoi polloi. The fact that old media trumpets an old metric is indicative of their failing and flailing status. They do it because they're brain dead and everybody else is doing it. It's good to be number one, but much more important to be number one on Spotify or YouTube than SoundScan. Ask yourself, who IS buying music these days? Only the ancient Luddites, the rest have moved on to access.
HIGH QUALITY STREAMING
Deezer Elite is SO good you'll gladly pay. I want to listen to all my old music all over again, to hear what I might have missed, especially on tracks where I never owned the CD. Tidal is coming and expect Spotify to follow. Sure, it's double the price, but worth it if you're a music fan. This is gonna change the face of both listening and the kind of music we are listening to. Rich acoustic sounds sound better in FLAC, it'll pay to get it right in the studio, because once again people will be able to hear it!
RESALE/SCALPERS/SECONDARY MARKET
What kind of bizarre world do we live in where the only person standing up for paperless is Cat Stevens, who canceled at the Beacon because of high resale prices?
It's sad that the NY legislature is so ignorant and so swayed by the wrong powers to the degree they ban paperless.
This is an artist issue. The only people who can prevent tickets from being sold at a multiple of face value are artists. But most don't want to move on this. For fear they won't sell out, or because they're participating in the secondary market themselves.
It's sad, income inequality has infected the music business. But, once again, it all comes down to the artists. They can solve this problem. You don't have to make every ticket paperless, you can still do platinum, but you can either be part of the problem or part of the solution.
But the sad thing is the public has become inured to scalping. They know the only way to get a good ticket is to comb StubHub, and now even Ticketmaster lists secondary tickets. The enemy has won.
CONCERTS
The only thing that can't be stolen, that cannot be replicated online. This is the music business's advantage, one that everybody else is trying to copy. Events are rampant, publications have conferences, but music was there first. This is the silver lining of the internet era.
PHOTOS
The new autograph, the new souvenir.
Acts can charge for meet and greets, just as long as they let their fans post the resulting pictures to social media.
YOUTUBE
Was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion in 2006.
WhatsApp was purchased for $19 billion by Facebook in 2014.
Who got the better deal?
Yes, there are huge infrastructure costs, but one has to laud Google for picking up YouTube at what now appears to be a bargain basement price.
As for Facebook, I assume you saw the article that teen use had declined, "Teens are officially over Facebook": wapo.st/Zzg1kk
It appears that Facebook paid quite a premium for WhatsApp, but the truth is you can't be victimized by not invented here syndrome. Acquisitions can help you, the same way Apple purchased SoundJam to build iTunes.
SAMSUNG
What did Gretzy say, skate to where the puck is going?
Samsung is screwed in mobile because it doesn't have unique software. The Korean company is being undercut by cheap Chinese Android phones. The big money goes to those who can predict the future and plan for it. If you're focusing on today, you're soon to be behind the times.
SHARING ECONOMY
It doesn't matter how many people downloaded U2's album, or Thom Yorke's, but how many people shared them. Your goal is to get people talking about your production, it's the only way to both keep it alive and make it grow. The old mold of mainstream media promotion is purely one on one, it engenders little virality, which is why new albums and movies are hyped to high heaven and are instantly forgotten. Your music should be a disease. Which can spread through the whole world via one person. If someone is not eager to share your work, you're dead in the water.
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Who cares how many people downloaded the new U2 album, the only important thing is how many people LISTENED to it!
This is a huge sea change that is getting little publicity and has been overlooked in the outcry about streaming payments. In the future, you will get paid for every play of your track for all time. Talk to oldsters, the money's in the publishing, and now the money's in the play. The more people subscribe, the more each stream is worth. The more streams you get, the more you get paid. So you might have even retired, yet if your music is still popular, if you still have fans, you'll continue to get paid.
STREAMS NOT SALES
SoundScan is nearly irrelevant. Furthermore, Spotify lists plays, information that used to be hidden from the hoi polloi. The fact that old media trumpets an old metric is indicative of their failing and flailing status. They do it because they're brain dead and everybody else is doing it. It's good to be number one, but much more important to be number one on Spotify or YouTube than SoundScan. Ask yourself, who IS buying music these days? Only the ancient Luddites, the rest have moved on to access.
HIGH QUALITY STREAMING
Deezer Elite is SO good you'll gladly pay. I want to listen to all my old music all over again, to hear what I might have missed, especially on tracks where I never owned the CD. Tidal is coming and expect Spotify to follow. Sure, it's double the price, but worth it if you're a music fan. This is gonna change the face of both listening and the kind of music we are listening to. Rich acoustic sounds sound better in FLAC, it'll pay to get it right in the studio, because once again people will be able to hear it!
RESALE/SCALPERS/SECONDARY MARKET
What kind of bizarre world do we live in where the only person standing up for paperless is Cat Stevens, who canceled at the Beacon because of high resale prices?
It's sad that the NY legislature is so ignorant and so swayed by the wrong powers to the degree they ban paperless.
This is an artist issue. The only people who can prevent tickets from being sold at a multiple of face value are artists. But most don't want to move on this. For fear they won't sell out, or because they're participating in the secondary market themselves.
It's sad, income inequality has infected the music business. But, once again, it all comes down to the artists. They can solve this problem. You don't have to make every ticket paperless, you can still do platinum, but you can either be part of the problem or part of the solution.
But the sad thing is the public has become inured to scalping. They know the only way to get a good ticket is to comb StubHub, and now even Ticketmaster lists secondary tickets. The enemy has won.
CONCERTS
The only thing that can't be stolen, that cannot be replicated online. This is the music business's advantage, one that everybody else is trying to copy. Events are rampant, publications have conferences, but music was there first. This is the silver lining of the internet era.
PHOTOS
The new autograph, the new souvenir.
Acts can charge for meet and greets, just as long as they let their fans post the resulting pictures to social media.
YOUTUBE
Was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion in 2006.
WhatsApp was purchased for $19 billion by Facebook in 2014.
Who got the better deal?
Yes, there are huge infrastructure costs, but one has to laud Google for picking up YouTube at what now appears to be a bargain basement price.
As for Facebook, I assume you saw the article that teen use had declined, "Teens are officially over Facebook": wapo.st/Zzg1kk
It appears that Facebook paid quite a premium for WhatsApp, but the truth is you can't be victimized by not invented here syndrome. Acquisitions can help you, the same way Apple purchased SoundJam to build iTunes.
SAMSUNG
What did Gretzy say, skate to where the puck is going?
Samsung is screwed in mobile because it doesn't have unique software. The Korean company is being undercut by cheap Chinese Android phones. The big money goes to those who can predict the future and plan for it. If you're focusing on today, you're soon to be behind the times.
SHARING ECONOMY
It doesn't matter how many people downloaded U2's album, or Thom Yorke's, but how many people shared them. Your goal is to get people talking about your production, it's the only way to both keep it alive and make it grow. The old mold of mainstream media promotion is purely one on one, it engenders little virality, which is why new albums and movies are hyped to high heaven and are instantly forgotten. Your music should be a disease. Which can spread through the whole world via one person. If someone is not eager to share your work, you're dead in the water.
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Pitbull At Staples
It was a party.
The classic rock era was passive. Today's music scene is participatory!
People have become stars in their own lives, utilizing their mobiles to post to Instagram, everybody believes he's famous, is it any wonder today's music reflects this?
We used to adulate the acts, now we adulate ourselves.
And this is very hard for the oldsters to understand.
Pitbull came from nothing. And so many of today's concertgoers don't have much. What else to do but dance? While you're plotting your ascension up the economic ladder.
You would have cracked up. The show began with a scroll of text akin to "Star Wars," detailing Pitbull's rise from the depths. And then the man elevated from the floor and from there on the energy sustained, the audience was happy, it was everything yesterday was not.
Pitbull flashed pictures of a private jet on the big screen. As if your goal in life was to have a NetJet account. He was the ringmaster, and you can sit at home and judge it, but it was so much fun!
Usually it takes five or seven minutes and then I'm bored. I've seen it. They're playing music I'm barely familiar with with lyrics I can't comprehend and I stand there wondering how long it's gonna be to the end. But in this case the show was a pleasure. I enjoyed it.
As did those in attendance.
It also didn't look like a classic rock crowd. Everyone said it was 60% female, but when I went out for a pee, in between acts, when the deejay kept most people entertained, I encountered nothing but women, dressed in their finery. You didn't come to this show in your duds, you put on your look. Was it a Latino thing? Christy Haubegger, my firsthand expert, told me that's what her people did. But not to snare a man, but to show how fine they were. Yes, there were endless lines of women with no guys in sight, prancing as if they were in one of those MTV videos.
And Pitbull had six dancers, constantly changing outfits, akin to those girls you hire at your wedding or bar mitzvah, but it did resemble a rap video of the nineties. Only in this case Pitbull wasn't being exclusive, but inclusive. It wasn't about drawing a line between performer and audience but keeping them connected.
And sure, he played his hits. Duetting with Kesha on "Timber," who appeared on the big screen, as did other famous personages.
And interspersed were famous rock songs, like "Sweet Child O' Mine," it cracked me up, this wasn't a concert as much as an event.
But Ne-Yo did show up in the flesh, to sing "Give Me Everything" with Pit. The worldwide hit produced by Afrojack.
And there you have it.
While you've been home practicing your guitar, writing dreary songs about love lost, the genres have merged. They rap in country, and this huge hit would play just great at Electric Daisy.
And in the Sahara Tent.
Yup, instead of a deejay, there could be a live performer at these shows, and then everything you thought you know would be history.
It's a brand new world out there. One the young people have only known.
Sitting in the audience passively watching longhairs strum their tales is now passe. Sure, it still exists, who knows, it could come back, but our entire scene has flipped upside down, it's about having fun in our brutal culture that venerates winners and excludes losers and today's young people know this and have decided they're going to climb the ladder, because being at the bottom is anathema.
Pitbull's just the cheerleader.
With worldwide hits with worldwide sounds.
Wake up to the new world, it's not going anywhere, it's not a fad. Everybody knows these hits and sings and dances along to them, whether they be white, Latino or black. Society has moved on. Warner Brothers might have been the icon of the seventies, but today it's not about your soul but your bank account, and to deny this is to exclude yourself.
So join the festivities, have fun, dance while you're plotting your ascension, to get your mind off reality, to escape the punishing life fostered by baby boomers who claimed to love one another, but turned out to be the greediest souls on the planet.
Their children know this. And have decided to party like it's 1999.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
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The classic rock era was passive. Today's music scene is participatory!
People have become stars in their own lives, utilizing their mobiles to post to Instagram, everybody believes he's famous, is it any wonder today's music reflects this?
We used to adulate the acts, now we adulate ourselves.
And this is very hard for the oldsters to understand.
Pitbull came from nothing. And so many of today's concertgoers don't have much. What else to do but dance? While you're plotting your ascension up the economic ladder.
You would have cracked up. The show began with a scroll of text akin to "Star Wars," detailing Pitbull's rise from the depths. And then the man elevated from the floor and from there on the energy sustained, the audience was happy, it was everything yesterday was not.
Pitbull flashed pictures of a private jet on the big screen. As if your goal in life was to have a NetJet account. He was the ringmaster, and you can sit at home and judge it, but it was so much fun!
Usually it takes five or seven minutes and then I'm bored. I've seen it. They're playing music I'm barely familiar with with lyrics I can't comprehend and I stand there wondering how long it's gonna be to the end. But in this case the show was a pleasure. I enjoyed it.
As did those in attendance.
It also didn't look like a classic rock crowd. Everyone said it was 60% female, but when I went out for a pee, in between acts, when the deejay kept most people entertained, I encountered nothing but women, dressed in their finery. You didn't come to this show in your duds, you put on your look. Was it a Latino thing? Christy Haubegger, my firsthand expert, told me that's what her people did. But not to snare a man, but to show how fine they were. Yes, there were endless lines of women with no guys in sight, prancing as if they were in one of those MTV videos.
And Pitbull had six dancers, constantly changing outfits, akin to those girls you hire at your wedding or bar mitzvah, but it did resemble a rap video of the nineties. Only in this case Pitbull wasn't being exclusive, but inclusive. It wasn't about drawing a line between performer and audience but keeping them connected.
And sure, he played his hits. Duetting with Kesha on "Timber," who appeared on the big screen, as did other famous personages.
And interspersed were famous rock songs, like "Sweet Child O' Mine," it cracked me up, this wasn't a concert as much as an event.
But Ne-Yo did show up in the flesh, to sing "Give Me Everything" with Pit. The worldwide hit produced by Afrojack.
And there you have it.
While you've been home practicing your guitar, writing dreary songs about love lost, the genres have merged. They rap in country, and this huge hit would play just great at Electric Daisy.
And in the Sahara Tent.
Yup, instead of a deejay, there could be a live performer at these shows, and then everything you thought you know would be history.
It's a brand new world out there. One the young people have only known.
Sitting in the audience passively watching longhairs strum their tales is now passe. Sure, it still exists, who knows, it could come back, but our entire scene has flipped upside down, it's about having fun in our brutal culture that venerates winners and excludes losers and today's young people know this and have decided they're going to climb the ladder, because being at the bottom is anathema.
Pitbull's just the cheerleader.
With worldwide hits with worldwide sounds.
Wake up to the new world, it's not going anywhere, it's not a fad. Everybody knows these hits and sings and dances along to them, whether they be white, Latino or black. Society has moved on. Warner Brothers might have been the icon of the seventies, but today it's not about your soul but your bank account, and to deny this is to exclude yourself.
So join the festivities, have fun, dance while you're plotting your ascension, to get your mind off reality, to escape the punishing life fostered by baby boomers who claimed to love one another, but turned out to be the greediest souls on the planet.
Their children know this. And have decided to party like it's 1999.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
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Sunday, 12 October 2014
Sweet Emotion
They couldn't be anything else.
The first time I heard "Dream On" was just about now, only forty one years ago, crossing the great state of Massachusetts from Amherst to the 91.
There were no iPods, never mind Walkmen, and unless you had a modern car, you were limited to AM. And my automobile was a '63 Chevy, which I inherited from my older sister and eventually passed down to my younger sister who threatened to leave it on Nantucket until my father insisted she fix it and drive it back to its homeland of Connecticut.
And that car required full-time attention, it had a wandering front end. But it was a convertible, when those were almost extinct, and if you drove on the east coast the goal was to keep the top down until it snowed. And I did. And rambling down this two lane highway I heard this magic elixir emanating from the one speaker in the dash that had me riveted and exhilarated to the point where I purchased the band's debut album just to hear it.
And although uneven, I took the plunge on the second, "Get Your Wings," which may not be their best but is certainly my favorite. Sans any hits, tracks like "Lord Of The Thighs" and "Seasons Of Wither" had you playing them over and over again and for others to the point where Hooker borrowed my cassette without asking so they could flip to it.
A little explanation... When you drove cross-country back then you prepared, you spent two days making cassettes, because before satellite radio there were vast stretches of highway where your antenna pulled in absolutely nothing, and you needed your tunes, they truly drove the culture back then. And I made a cassette of "Get Your Wings" and I played it that magic month in Mammoth Lakes in the spring of '75 and I got everybody hooked on it, even Hooker, who blasted it while he and Dave and the rest were practicing their flips on Mammoth Mountain.
And when you were in the boonies back then you were on a virtual news blackout, I was unaware that Aerosmith had released a new album that was suddenly dominating the airwaves, that there was one song that might not have crossed over but had made the band stars. That track was "Sweet Emotion."
Joe Perry is flogging a book. I haven't read it, I usually don't, they're all the same. How drink and drugs and fighting drove the performer to oblivion and then they returned, intact, for a victory lap. But Howard Stern elicited the nuggets we were interested last week and when they were talking about "Sweet Emotion" I had to pull it up in Deezer, to hear it stream in CD quality.
And it is all about the sound. It's about Tom Hamilton's bass, the percussion, and then the way the band settles into the groove and absolutely wallops it. You stood in the audience nodding your head like a zombie, if you were privileged to see the band live, if not, you replicated this behavior in front of the giant speakers you worked minimum wage to buy.
"Talk about things that nobody cares"
Welcome to my world. Somewhere along the line I lost the plot, or the world forked off and I wasn't even aware there was a choice. Suddenly it became all about the money and our heroes were people who could make things, the perpetrators of ideas took a back seat, if they were in the car at all.
"Wearin' out things that nobody wears"
I'm stuck in the seventies, I wear the same clothes I did in college, and I know I stick out, but I'm afraid of inauthenticity, feeling fake in the attire of the day which is gonna fade and be laughed at in far less than a decade. That's right, I'm proud I never wore a leisure suit.
"Ya callin' my name but I gotta make clear
I can't say baby where I'll be in a year"
That's the difference. Once upon a time I was itinerant, sleeping on floors all across the west, and now I've lived in the same place for decades, waiting for the one big break that seems to constantly elude my grasp.
"Some sweathog mama with a face like a gent
Said my get up and go musta got up and went"
You can't even say that today, the politically correct police will denounce you. That's the society we live in, one of gotcha, where the goal is to find the mistakes of those who raise their head above and pull them down into the hole you're in.
"Standin' in the front just a shakin' your ass
I'll take you backstage you can drink from my glass"
We were envious, the girls had something to give our heroes. They sacrificed themselves at the altar of rock and roll, and we just wished we could have been there at the ceremony. And this behavior is deplored today, but sex makes the world go 'round, and when you speak from your heart and your words and music resonate the world spreads its legs and lets you inside. And no amount of naysaying will deny this. The only difference was back then the money was not the primary attraction, you just wanted to get closer to the people singing and playing these songs.
"Sweet emotion
Sweet emotion"
There's something that goes on in your ears, and it's perfectly sweet, and it's definitely emotion. And the older generation couldn't get it, never mind understand it, and those listening to AM radio were out of the loop but by this time nearly the entire younger generation had slid over to the FM dial and rock star was the apotheosis, the peak of living on this mortal coil.
The rock stars got politicians elected. Just ask Jimmy Carter, who was helped by the Allman Brothers. Or Jerry Brown, who was helped by his paramour Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles and so many other SoCal performers.
The rock stars defined society, we hung on every word.
And yet, still, the scene was not embraced by the mainstream.
Until MTV. Which rained down coin previously unfathomable.
And then came the Internet, which made the rest of the nerds rich and famous to a degree the musicians could never foresee.
And now everybody wants to say nothing has changed. When the truth is everything has. Music does not only not make as much money, it doesn't even glorify the same people. Used to be outsiders ruled, who insisted on doing it their way, who gave the middle finger to social mores, whereas today's doofuses do it for the label and the corporate cash and the ability to show up at the Met Ball and the rest of the affairs that used to exclude them.
"No more no more"
Actually, "Sweet Emotion" was not my favorite track on "Toys In The Attic," that role was filled by its follow-up, "No More No More."
No more rock stars dominating our culture, respecting the past but focused on making the music and the world their own.
No more rock stars recording their albums without label input.
No more cheap tickets.
No more practicing in isolation, honing your chops so your nonverbal self could get laid.
No more buying the latest release and playing it for weeks until you knew every lick.
No more satisfaction with your success and your station, today the musicians are as greedy as the rest of our society, bitching about being ripped off and unable to be...
Aerosmith.
"Joe Perry On The Howard Stern Show": http://bit.ly/1D5YnDC
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The first time I heard "Dream On" was just about now, only forty one years ago, crossing the great state of Massachusetts from Amherst to the 91.
There were no iPods, never mind Walkmen, and unless you had a modern car, you were limited to AM. And my automobile was a '63 Chevy, which I inherited from my older sister and eventually passed down to my younger sister who threatened to leave it on Nantucket until my father insisted she fix it and drive it back to its homeland of Connecticut.
And that car required full-time attention, it had a wandering front end. But it was a convertible, when those were almost extinct, and if you drove on the east coast the goal was to keep the top down until it snowed. And I did. And rambling down this two lane highway I heard this magic elixir emanating from the one speaker in the dash that had me riveted and exhilarated to the point where I purchased the band's debut album just to hear it.
And although uneven, I took the plunge on the second, "Get Your Wings," which may not be their best but is certainly my favorite. Sans any hits, tracks like "Lord Of The Thighs" and "Seasons Of Wither" had you playing them over and over again and for others to the point where Hooker borrowed my cassette without asking so they could flip to it.
A little explanation... When you drove cross-country back then you prepared, you spent two days making cassettes, because before satellite radio there were vast stretches of highway where your antenna pulled in absolutely nothing, and you needed your tunes, they truly drove the culture back then. And I made a cassette of "Get Your Wings" and I played it that magic month in Mammoth Lakes in the spring of '75 and I got everybody hooked on it, even Hooker, who blasted it while he and Dave and the rest were practicing their flips on Mammoth Mountain.
And when you were in the boonies back then you were on a virtual news blackout, I was unaware that Aerosmith had released a new album that was suddenly dominating the airwaves, that there was one song that might not have crossed over but had made the band stars. That track was "Sweet Emotion."
Joe Perry is flogging a book. I haven't read it, I usually don't, they're all the same. How drink and drugs and fighting drove the performer to oblivion and then they returned, intact, for a victory lap. But Howard Stern elicited the nuggets we were interested last week and when they were talking about "Sweet Emotion" I had to pull it up in Deezer, to hear it stream in CD quality.
And it is all about the sound. It's about Tom Hamilton's bass, the percussion, and then the way the band settles into the groove and absolutely wallops it. You stood in the audience nodding your head like a zombie, if you were privileged to see the band live, if not, you replicated this behavior in front of the giant speakers you worked minimum wage to buy.
"Talk about things that nobody cares"
Welcome to my world. Somewhere along the line I lost the plot, or the world forked off and I wasn't even aware there was a choice. Suddenly it became all about the money and our heroes were people who could make things, the perpetrators of ideas took a back seat, if they were in the car at all.
"Wearin' out things that nobody wears"
I'm stuck in the seventies, I wear the same clothes I did in college, and I know I stick out, but I'm afraid of inauthenticity, feeling fake in the attire of the day which is gonna fade and be laughed at in far less than a decade. That's right, I'm proud I never wore a leisure suit.
"Ya callin' my name but I gotta make clear
I can't say baby where I'll be in a year"
That's the difference. Once upon a time I was itinerant, sleeping on floors all across the west, and now I've lived in the same place for decades, waiting for the one big break that seems to constantly elude my grasp.
"Some sweathog mama with a face like a gent
Said my get up and go musta got up and went"
You can't even say that today, the politically correct police will denounce you. That's the society we live in, one of gotcha, where the goal is to find the mistakes of those who raise their head above and pull them down into the hole you're in.
"Standin' in the front just a shakin' your ass
I'll take you backstage you can drink from my glass"
We were envious, the girls had something to give our heroes. They sacrificed themselves at the altar of rock and roll, and we just wished we could have been there at the ceremony. And this behavior is deplored today, but sex makes the world go 'round, and when you speak from your heart and your words and music resonate the world spreads its legs and lets you inside. And no amount of naysaying will deny this. The only difference was back then the money was not the primary attraction, you just wanted to get closer to the people singing and playing these songs.
"Sweet emotion
Sweet emotion"
There's something that goes on in your ears, and it's perfectly sweet, and it's definitely emotion. And the older generation couldn't get it, never mind understand it, and those listening to AM radio were out of the loop but by this time nearly the entire younger generation had slid over to the FM dial and rock star was the apotheosis, the peak of living on this mortal coil.
The rock stars got politicians elected. Just ask Jimmy Carter, who was helped by the Allman Brothers. Or Jerry Brown, who was helped by his paramour Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles and so many other SoCal performers.
The rock stars defined society, we hung on every word.
And yet, still, the scene was not embraced by the mainstream.
Until MTV. Which rained down coin previously unfathomable.
And then came the Internet, which made the rest of the nerds rich and famous to a degree the musicians could never foresee.
And now everybody wants to say nothing has changed. When the truth is everything has. Music does not only not make as much money, it doesn't even glorify the same people. Used to be outsiders ruled, who insisted on doing it their way, who gave the middle finger to social mores, whereas today's doofuses do it for the label and the corporate cash and the ability to show up at the Met Ball and the rest of the affairs that used to exclude them.
"No more no more"
Actually, "Sweet Emotion" was not my favorite track on "Toys In The Attic," that role was filled by its follow-up, "No More No More."
No more rock stars dominating our culture, respecting the past but focused on making the music and the world their own.
No more rock stars recording their albums without label input.
No more cheap tickets.
No more practicing in isolation, honing your chops so your nonverbal self could get laid.
No more buying the latest release and playing it for weeks until you knew every lick.
No more satisfaction with your success and your station, today the musicians are as greedy as the rest of our society, bitching about being ripped off and unable to be...
Aerosmith.
"Joe Perry On The Howard Stern Show": http://bit.ly/1D5YnDC
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
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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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