R&RHOF Playlist

Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1Rsmoyn

YOUR SAVING GRACE
Steve Miller Band

From the fourth album, of the same title.

I didn't buy it, although I did go to the Fillmore East to see the band headline. I got turned on to this track by XM, before the merger, on Deep Tracks. Funny how these gems are sitting there waiting for discovery. It's the Steve Miller Band track that goes through my head most these days.

BRAVE NEW WORLD
Steve Miller Band

The opening cut on the third album, which is still my favorite, that inspired me to go see the band at the Fillmore.

"We're driving fast
From a dream of the past
To the brave new world"

Aficionados were disappointed by the third LP, which featured a simple yellow gatefold cover and little information. Maybe they were mad at the departure of Boz Scaggs, but the album's a gem that will reward upon listening. I discovered it in the basement of a fraternity house on the University of Chicago campus, wherein I made friends with Paul Volberding, ultimately a famous AIDS doctor in San Francisco, who spun it constantly.

KOW KOW CALQULATOR
Steve Miller Band

The best track on "Brave New World," labeled just "Kow Kow" upon initial release, this is magical, illustrating the importance of arrangement and the attraction of Steve Miller's voice. Hang in there until the end when it becomes much more intense. This is the essence of classic rock, when it was about testing limits more than having a hit, and there wasn't one on "Brave New World," not one that would play on AM radio.

SPACE COWBOY
Steve Miller Band

The most famous track on "Brave New World," an instant classic you got upon the first listen, it was all over FM radio for years, is the younger generation even aware of it?

MY DARK HOUR
Steve Miller Band

The closing track on "Brave New World," listen for Paul McCartney's unmistakable backup vocal, never mind drums and bass.

SEASONS
Steve Miller Band

The cut that made me a satellite radio fan, I'd never heard it on the radio ever, when it came pouring out of the speakers on XM in January of 2004 I was transported back to that summer in Chicago. If you think you know Steve Miller, when you listen to this, you will find out you don't. It sounds nothing like the radio hits from years later. This is dreamy and fantastic. If you listen to one cut on this playlist, let this be it.

BABY'S CALLIN' ME HOME
Steve Miller Band

From the 1968 debut LP, "Children Of The Future," this is arguably Boz Scaggs's finest moment. Ethereal...from back when music set your mind free, adrift, so it could get into nooks and crannies and you could discover who you truly were, when being an individual was important.

QUICKSILVER GIRL
Steve Miller Band

From the second album, the second in 1968. You may not know this is Steve Miller, you may not have even heard it. But when you listen to it not only will you instantly get it, you'll regret that you were not around to experience it and the lifestyle that inspired it, back in 1968, when you had to leave your house to communicate and we were not competing for likes on social media, when everything was truly about the momentary experience, and your friends.

LIVING IN THE U.S.A.
Steve Miller Band

"Somebody give me a cheeseburger!"

It's about career-defining tracks more than hits. Cut one that's indelible and eventually the audience will catch up with you.

Also from "Sailor," the second album.

TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN
Steve Miller Band

Because it was such a surprise, emanating from the car speakers, Steve Miller was already in the rearview mirror and then he dropped this less than three minute magical moment and suddenly he was back.

FLY LIKE AN EAGLE
Steve Miller Band

"Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' into the future"

Ain't that the truth.

Once upon a time this was just an album track, part of Steve Miller's oeuvre, now it's a cultural institution. Sure it was a hit single, but no one ever thought it would be REMEMBERED!

ROCK'N ME
Steve Miller Band

Why they still come out to see Steve, why his audience always regenerates. It's the power of rock and roll. We need a return to roots.

JET AIRLINER
Steve Miller Band

Written by Paul Pena, this is my favorite latter-day Steve Miller Band track, it's the riff, the changes, the vocal...and the way that guitar stings.

Come on, this goes through your head every time you go to the airport, right? Or maybe you never fly.

"I might get rich, you know I might get busted"

Back from when life was a lark, when you weren't buying insurance, from when you had no idea what an investment bank was, before tech, when everything good was going on in your head.

And now, here's a special treat, the original Paul Pena recording of "Jet Airliner," due to the magic of YouTube, it's not on Spotify.

http://bit.ly/1mbpjOJ

He's dead now, but before he passed I saw him at the Wiltern, in the early part of this century, he demonstrated the Tuvan throat-singing he was famous for and sang this.

THE STAKE
Steve Miller Band

Who came up with the riff first, Joe Walsh or David Denny who wrote this? It may not matter, both tracks kill. And notice that Joe Walsh, who recorded "Rocky Mountain Way" first, did not sue. Oh, how times have changed.

MAELSTROM
Steve Miller Band

From 1986's "Livin' In The 20th Century," you might have heard this instrumental leading up to the news, back when they used to do that.

It's incredible.

I WANT YOU TO WANT ME
Cheap Trick

It's all about the second album, "In Color," word spread, it was the talk of Rhino Records, when that was still a shop on Westwood Boulevard. There was never a new Beatles, but Cheap Trick digested the essence and built upon it. Sure, the hit was ultimately the one on the "Budokan" album, but despite its energy, I still prefer the studio iteration.

OH CAROLINE
Cheap Trick

"I Want You To Want Me" is on the first side, but the second side is "In Color"'s masterpiece. There's a Beatlesque change in the middle of this, despite rocking harder than so much of the Beatles' catalog.

CLOCK STRIKES TEN
Cheap Trick

This comes next. It's a tear. With a rockin' Robin Zander vocal akin to that of Paul McCartney's when he's doing his best Little Richard.

SOUTHERN GIRLS
Cheap Trick

Reminiscent of "California Girls," but not. It's got a great, hooky chorus that puts a smile on your face.

COME ON, COME ON
Cheap Trick

Zander is imploring you. And we were receptive, we went along.

SO GOOD TO SEE YOU
Cheap Trick

The second side closer, it's my favorite cut on the LP, even though I'd never say it's the best.

If the band had never done anything more, I'd have said they deserve to be in the R&RHOF. But they wandered and were never quite this consistently great again, even though people love "Dream Police," but...if Rush is inside, Cheap Trick should be too!

MANDOCELLO
Cheap Trick

Jack Douglas did the first LP, and despite the band opening shows with "ELO Kiddies," this is the best cut on the record. You may not know it, but you should.

TAKIN' ME BACK
Cheap Trick

Tom Werman did "In Color" and he did "Heaven Tonight" too, although the latter rocked harder, and ultimately so did Werman, with Ted Nugent and Molly Hatchet and more. This second side opener is my favorite on "Heaven Tonight," it's the one I sing in my head, it's made by Rick Nielsen's thunderous riff.

SURRENDER
Cheap Trick

A classic, kinda like the "hits" of the Ramones, those in the know loved it but it didn't penetrate the public consciousness upon release, that took decades. The best lines...

"Then I woke up
Mom and dad are rollin' on the couch
Rollin' numbers, rock and rollin'
Got my KISS records out"

Too many tracks live in their own rarefied air, but the KISS reference always cracked me up, Cheap Trick were definitely living in the mid-seventies.

This is Cheap Trick at its greatest, and when I think of all the wankers who never achieve this height these days I reconsider my earlier statement and must declare...CHEAP TRICK ABSOLUTELY BELONG IN THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME!

CALIFORNIA MAN
Cheap Trick

Written by Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne's long forgotten compatriot in the Move. Just think of an Englishman writing this...

GONNA RAISE HELL
Cheap Trick

What "Dream Police"'s reputation is built upon. It's nine minutes and twenty seconds long and entrances you, especially if you've got zits and have never been laid.

NEED YOUR LOVE
Cheap Trick

Almost as long, this closes side two of "Dream Police," just like "Gonna Raise Hell" ended side two. This sounds as good to me as it did back then.

IF YOU WANT MY LOVE
Cheap Trick

And then the band went into the wilderness. Lost the plot. Stopped having hits. It's almost as if "Budokan" sapped the band's energy, stopped them in their tracks, delayed their career course, and they could never get back on track. One of their experiments, while at loose ends, was to work with Queen's majordomo, Roy Thomas Baker, and this magical track appears on 1982's "One On One." It holds up extremely well.

TONIGHT IT'S YOU
Cheap Trick

And after working with Todd Rundgren, the band returned to its initial producer, Jack Douglas, and came up with this gem that got little traction but is as great as anything the band has ever done. It's got all the elements, an enticing Robin Zander vocal and walls of Rick Nielsen's guitars.

Not to mention the power and the changes, it channels all the teen angst in the world and its only equivalent is the Tubes' "White Punks On Dope," that's the only track I know that also channels teen frustration and climbs to the mountaintop. Yes, listen to "Tonight It's You," it starts at sea level and goes all the way to the top of Mt. Everest. All the Active Rock posers should check this out and realize they're not shooting high enough.

THE FLAME
Cheap Trick

I know, they didn't write it, they hate it, but whomever is responsible for the underlying material, they positively made it their own. A gigantic hit, a return to form, this is everything Cheap Trick represents, emotion and feeling, changes and rock and roll religion, all encapsulated on wax. Can you ask for more?

I can't.

SMOKE ON THE WATER
Deep Purple

I know, they had a hit back in '68 with "Hush," on Bill Cosby's Tetragrammaton Records, their "In Rock" was a hard rock classic, but it was this, in its live iteration on the "Made In Japan" double live album that earned the band its place in rock history. Shame on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for not inducting Deep Purple before this.

I know, Michael Jackson is a cultural icon who's sold 30 million records, but I'd argue more people have heard "Smoke On The Water," it was certainly more influential. It cemented riff rock, it inspired legions of young men to pick up the guitar, turn it up and it eliminates all other thoughts and sounds in the universe. It got me through the summer of '73, when I was doing a minimum wage job and wondering how I was gonna survive. Come on, with a Frank Zappa reference to boot!

The highway stars with multiple lead singers and players should crank the Marshalls to the point where the effete Manhattan industrialists who believe music is about the head and not the heart, the eyes and not the genitals, put their fingers in their ears and run streaming from the induction hall.

If you don't think "Smoke On The Water" is the essence of rock and roll, pure bedrock, you're sentenced to listening to Patti Page on endless repeat, you're just damn LAZY, HA!

DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?
Chicago Transit Authority

I certainly do. It's way past the time I was due for dinner, and I feel guilty, a friend I rarely see is leaving town tomorrow and I want to connect, so...

Let me just say it's all about the first double LP. CTA built upon the horn section ethos pioneered by Electric Flag and Blood, Sweat & Tears and took it into the stratosphere!

A double album debut at a discount price, it's one of the great musical experiences, from this to "Beginnings" to their cover of "I'm A Man" to "Questions 67 And 68" to "Listen" the debut is a forgotten masterpiece of musicality that is a calling card for a deserved induction.

Sure, they ultimately had hits, they got ballady and syrupy, but when Terry Kath was alive and in the band they rocked harder than so many wimps already in the Hall.

Why is it a crime to know how to play?

And while we're at it, who's going to bring horns back?

FUCK THA POLICE
N.W.A.

We didn't know. They were right. They were speaking the truth of the street.

Hip-hop still rules, Dr. Dre is a legend who cannot get enough respect.

Furthermore, the message applies just as much today as it did back then.

Sure, we've got to be safe, but before that and first and foremost we need RESPECT!


About time these deserving, overlooked acts from the past were included in the canon installed in Cleveland.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

And now we can say the same thing about the committee.

And although I'm laughing, I'M HAPPY ABOUT IT!


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Aspen Live

"I close for a living."

Scott Borchetta

Yes, he was there, and I could have listened to him all night, the journey from 19 year old bass player on the road with a country band to the majordomo of today's most successful label(s). That's right, Scott's got a few, because each can only work a few acts and Scott's got so many hits, Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett, Maddie & Tae and...Taylor Swift.

We got the story. He was playing out his contract at MCA and she came to his office, broke out her guitar and Scott heard a hit. That's what separates the stars from the wannabes on the recorded music side, those who know what will fly up the chart and those who do not. You've got to have something to work with. Then you can employ all your skills of persuasion, which Borchetta honed as a promo honcho at multiple labels.

Scott talked about records "spilling over," not "crossing over." About getting radio stations to test records in order to convince them, especially if the track does not look like a good fit. And Scott got Taylor's dad to invest in Big Machine by asking him.

Reminded me of my dad. Who said if "You don't ask, you don't get." And made me feel inferior, because all this stuff skips a generation, I was embarrassed by my dad's gregarious personality, by his asking, and therefore I'm shy and hold it close to my vest and if I could only ask would my bank account be bigger?

And Borchetta was not the only speaker. Mark Williamson from Spotify showed the hockey sticks. That's right, the amount of airplay hit tracks get just a year later, now a few months later, Spotify is burgeoning, and if acts only saw the statistics they'd be convinced. And no, Borchetta did not tell us about Taylor Swift's Apple Music deal, the one for the concert, but it was interesting that the rest of his acts are on the freemium tier of Spotify, not that he does not believe change is necessary.

Just like Marc Geiger.

Geiger thought there should be multiple tiers, numerous add-ons, he thought Spotify was an opportunity to build a bigger platform. He owned his failure at ArtistDirect, said he was wet behind the ears, ignorant of so much, did not know how to massage Wall Street, like Michael Rapino does so well. And over at WME Geiger's got a twelve person festival team, and is writing festival bylaws, trying to eradicate old practices and smooth the process and Marc is a go-getter who believes the future's so bright you've gotta wear shades and his optimism is infectious and it's astounding how everybody talking was so positive and yet the scuttlebutt in the media about music is so negative.

Yet we own the experience. A college professor came with data illustrating experiences trump material goods all the time, unless you're broke. And that's what a concert is, an experience.

And that's what Aspen Live is, an experience.

It was the twentieth year, we all got jackets, we were recognizable on the hill. And that's where the most informative discussions take place, in the gondola, on the chair, on the hill. Rick Mueller was supervising the Springsteen on sale in L.A. It was fascinating to hear how they adjust on the fly, the vision for the future. Don Strasburg's vision for the future is a ticket lottery, so every fan has a chance of getting in, he says it works already. And to be present made you feel like an insider, like this was where it was happening, which is so exciting.

Credit Jim Lewi, whose brainchild Aspen Live is. The conference has mutated from an emphasis on labels to touring, younger players have replaced so many of the greybeards. But the pulse remains the same. The classic era may be behind us, but the music train keeps rolling down the track.

And there were too many friends and too many stories. We were regaled at Matsuhisa about star choices and demands. Do you know the difference between a G5 and a G6? Turns out the latter can fly from the west coast to Europe without refueling, and there's room for all your luggage. One person whose name I will not mention paid an extra eighty grand to fly on a G6 from London, alone, to Los Angeles, just so he didn't have to stop in Canada to refuel on a G5. And there's a deep five digit budget for a nail person. And a budget to appear on Fallon can near a hundred grand, and if the label doesn't cough it all up, the act will just appear at a nightclub or two to make up the difference.

Actually, the conference was too short. It'd be like going to summer camp for a weekend instead of a month. I didn't have time to get deep with everybody, some friends I barely said more than hello to.

So I express my deepest gratitude to Mr. Lewi for enabling me to have such a fantastic time.

I can't wait until next year!

P.S. One more thing. I heard Peter Shapiro tell the story of Soldier Field, the 50th Anniversary of the Grateful Dead, Fare Thee Well. He'd been trying to put it together for ten years, and as Andrew Dreskin of Ticketfly remarked, when Peter says he's gonna do something, it happens. And I was struck by the power of the individual, to make things happen. We think corporations rule the world, but one person, with a vision and desire, who is willing to stay in the trenches and execute, can achieve the impossible. Remember that.


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The Bel-Air Starship

http://nyti.ms/1RPFTA8

And Gigi Hadid and her father Mohamed are media superstars.

Not surprising in a nation where image is key, money trumps everything and the government needs to be drowned in the bathtub.

Is this like FDR, the public was unaware he couldn't walk, has America been hampered and hamstrung forever and we just did not know about it, or have things changed dramatically?

Or to put it another way, do all those non-traveling, xenophobic yahoos worried about immigrants taking their jobs realize that the foreign billionaires who can buy entry are sucking up our property and we truly live in an international economy and we can't stick our heads in the sand any longer?

I don't expect you to read the above "New York Times" article, but if you skim it you'll get the gist. It focuses on shell companies but the essence is the government just can't stop illegal construction. That's the world we live in, the wealthy believe the rules don't apply to them, and since they're revered by the underclass, which is anybody from the eviscerated middle class on down, they get away with their shenanigans.

Meanwhile, the press follows the Trump non-story to sell advertising and we can't even get transparency in the music business, because, as they say...it's not about the money, it's about the money. And even though you can't take it with you, a certain segment of the population wants to acquire their fortune, whether legally or illegally, and not pay tax on it all under the rubric of helping the little guy out. Huh?

Dude, I don't recognize my country. And that includes Manhattan and now Los Angeles, where the ultra-rich are hollowing out entire neighborhoods, making it so those who create the soul of our nation are driven out. Artists living in Manhattan? They can't even afford Brooklyn! As for downtown Los Angeles...that land is for the rich, who have oodles of money.

You rail against the Kardashians who are famous for nothing. What you don't understand is in a country where the buck is everything, he who focuses on money first wins the game. Artists aren't about challenging the status quo, just bitching that they cannot get a piece of the pie. The power of the pen trumps everything in our world, but the artists have laid their sabers down, all in pursuit of sponsorships, constructing hokum with a team of experienced players feeding the corporate greed of the record companies who want to take no risk as they continue to line their coffers. The only ones speaking truth are the aged, who came up in a different time, like Neil Young and David Crosby, the young just pursue the flash and the cash, and the populace is too ignorant to know what's going on. Fight free streaming? How about creating something so insightful that people clamor for it and it changes the fabric of this great country of ours! Seems like the only ones who will stand up for
what's right are those in Silicon Valley, who not only agitate for an unhindered internet, but for gay rights and parental leave, Apple is standing up for the little guy, making it so your iPhone bread crumbs cannot be traced, but you want the government to sacrifice your privacy in the pursuit of a safety it cannot engender. So while you want the government to keep you safe, you refuse to let it improve the quality of your life and protect you from the business people who hamstring your future, never mind your present.

We are the last line of defense. The artists.

Because we are the ones who reach the people.

Credit the "New York Times" for researching and printing this story. Instead of cutting all reporting to protect margins the "Times" has continued to spend bucks to hold evildoers accountable. Something your local news outlet is no longer capable of doing. Your TV station will send a truck to a shooting, but it won't uncover wrongdoing in the corporate suite and Fox News IS the corporate suite!

While the Edge levels hillsides in Malibu for personal gain, scarring the land in a fashion that will long outlive him, and his band avoids taxes as Bono does his best to save the world, the younger generation doesn't even have a social conscience.

You should watch that Vice special on AIDS, Bono did some good there, he deserves credit, but he's over fifty and just a finger in the dike and like I said he and his compatriots are not lily-white but what bugs me most is we lionize the ignorant and refuse to hold them accountable. All art is political, never forget that.

So as you wind down your year and relax in the warmth of your fake fire know that the rich are not pausing, they're continuing to creep in, because rust never sleeps.

What are you gonna do about it?


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