YouTube: https://goo.gl/Iwq5Ao
I listened to the Spotify U.S. Top Fifty and this was the best song on it.
Second best was Robin Schulz's "Sugar," which stalled on the U.S. chart, but has an amazing hook, sampled from the 2004 Baby Bash smash "Suga Suga." Huh?
That was over a decade ago, I'd never heard of Baby Bash, but when I went back and listened to the original, goddamn, it was a hit. How is anybody supposed to keep up with this stuff?
The two "Sugas" are the same record but they're not, both have this guitar part that might not be "Sunshine Of Your Love" or "Layla" but Eric Clapton hasn't whipped off something so captivating in decades.
Not that the rest of the chart was as compelling. Too much canned percussion, too much stuff that sounded like everything else, and then there was "Love Yourself." It was quiet where the other tracks were loud, intimate were the others were playing to the bleachers, and featured instrumentation completely different from everything else too.
It's everything Justin Timberlake built his reputation upon, but purveyed by someone with a much worse image, that is Justin Bieber.
"For all the times that you rain on my parade
And all the clubs you get in using my name"
And there's the cultural difference right there. Boomers and Gen-X'ers went to bars, where they drank, swayed to the jukebox, maybe danced to a live band, but the Millennials... It's a completely different experience, the club is upscale, it resembles an amusement park, there's always a deejay, it's where you go to jockey for position as well as find love and hang with your friends. That's right, the kids are all about the group, which may explain why there are so many writers on all their tracks. We think they need help, but maybe collaboration is inbred.
"You think you broke my heart, oh, girl, for goodness' sake
You think I'm crying on my own, well I ain't"
The boy doth protesteth too much. It'd be one thing if the track was a bombastic number full of over the top anger, but it's not, it's quiet, and therefore you can tell...he still cares. Whew! It's all over the track, he's kissing her off but only because he needs to separate himself, pull himself up to higher ground, survive.
"And I didn't wanna write a song
'Cause I didn't want anyone thinking I still care, I don't"
The anti-Taylor Swift. He's reluctant, at least that's the posture, he's not loading ammo, pulling back the string of the bow, but he's got to say his piece. He doesn't want to draw attention, but she's gone too far.
"But you still hit my phone up"
This sticks out, locates the song in the present, but it works, because this is how the younger generation behaves, the phone is the center of communication, only unlike in the past everybody's got their own and they never talk on it, unless it's to their parents. The communication is endless, all day, as opposed to waiting to get home to your parents' house to dial your crush to ask her about the homework.
"My mama don't like you and she likes everyone"
This is the true hook, this is what puts "Love Yourself" over the top. Sure, it hearkens back to a previous era, when you asked permission to go on a date, never mind get married, when everybody lived in the same neighborhood, but we all know mothers like this, who are invested in their children, who want to know their friends and give them the benefit of the doubt. The mamas we like to hang with, go to their houses to talk to them. And when they give everybody thumbs up but not her, you know she's bad news.
"'Cause if you like the way you look that much
Oh, baby, you should go and love yourself"
He'd really rather use the f-word, but he didn't. And has added a whole new meaning to boot. We know the type, who is so busy putting on her look, being perfect, being stuck up, that no one can really penetrate them, they really don't want to be known, only exalted, and it's our flaws that make us lovable anyway.
"And when you told me that you hated my friends
The only problem was with you and not them
And every time you told me my opinion was wrong
And tried to make me forget where I came from"
It's men who switch teams, not in the "Seinfeld" way, but as in giving up their old life to switch to a new one, that of their beloved. For all men's swagger, women are the social directors. Men can be manipulated, they want to make you happy, you've just got to own your power.
Justin is trying to extract himself from her web.
But this track is really not about the words, well, other than that bit about his mama, but the sound. In an era where we're constantly beat over the head there's almost nothing on it. Just a guitar that could have come out of a jazz club and ultimately an otherworldly sax solo that seals the deal.
Credit Ed Sheeran, the song's cowriter. Once you know Sheeran was involved you can hear him in the song, the way the verses descend.
And it's easy to criticize Bieber, say he's just a frontman, not responsible.
And who knows, that may be true.
But what is also true is "Love Yourself" is a stone cold smash, far superior to the vaunted tracks in other genres played by those inured to the old system, before Napster, when the internet blew up everything we knew.
I know, I know, an album should be a statement straight from the heart written only by those involved, in the band, preferably one or two people. And the perpetrators should have dignity, should not say they're the greatest and overhype themselves.
It's hard to separate the image from the music. Bieber not only grew up in public, he demonstrated his ignorance and bad judgment. He pinballed from one mistake to another, the stories were everywhere. Funny I know he got stopped in a Lamborghini and egged a house but hadn't heard "Love Yourself."
Of course I'd heard "Where Are U Now," but I gave credit to Diplo and Skrillex, the former the king of Spotify, admirable for testing limits and coming up with a sound that is instantly ear-pleasing but one step beyond, and the latter notorious for the sounds that permeate this hit track.
And Howard Stern's posse cannot stop making fun of "What Do You Mean?" and its infectious bounciness, but that's just the point, it's contagious.
And I knew "Sorry" too. Its breeziness allowed me to dismiss it as pure pop in a long tradition thereof, sure, it was a hit, and I liked it, but was it really that great?
It is. With much more on the track than is on "Love Yourself," it's got that incredible hook and great chorus. It's one of those cuts you like more the more you hear it. I dismissed it as an apology, which Bieber has done too much of, but the song transcends that element.
And then comes "Love Yourself."
And now I'm reevaluating. I'm wishing I'd seen the Biebs at Staples Center. Because he's equaling Madonna, coming up with indelible cuts on a regular basis even though both are inches from the precipice.
This is not the Beatles, this is not Joni Mitchell, this is not Stevie Wonder.
But like the Beatles, the tracks have twists and turns that are immediately endearing.
And like Joni, Bieber is testifying, speaking from the heart.
And like Stevie, innovative sounds are all over the records.
The cuts aren't even derivative, which is more than you can say about the work of the aforementioned Mr. Timberlake.
It's confounding, everybody aged rejects him but the youngsters consider him part of the firmament, they've grown up with him, and unlike most teen popsters he didn't have an instant expiration date.
And one can wonder how responsible he truly is.
But one cannot argue with the result.
So maybe things are not as bleak as they seem. Maybe rock is dying for a reason, a dearth of memorable cuts that are so repetitive they don't endear a younger audience which has Led Zeppelin at its fingertips anyway. And the rest of the aged wannabes and barely-theres, you've got to be a diehard fan, listen ad infinitum to get hooked by their music, whereas this Bieber stuff reaches you right away.
But the media assault has been overwhelming and overbearing. We don't want to hear anything more about him, but we do want to hear more of his music, if it can fight through the scrim of his public persona and the unending story.
He's got a better voice than Twizzle Stick and he's less vindictive and even though he's growing up in public too, he's not ping-ponging from obsessed to lovable, begging us to care. Hell, Biebs just canceled his meets and greets.
Maybe we're going to go deeper in this direction, even more collaboration, even more social media onslaught, as long as the music is this hooky and the lyrics have insight and meaning...it's hard to argue we're going the wrong way.
If you listen to these tracks and reject them, don't understand why they're successful even though not in your chosen genre...
You're full of sour grapes.
And you're probably tapping your foot as you're tapping your online screed saying Justin sucks.
We need more stuff like "Love Yourself."
The men don't know...
BUT THE LITTLE GIRLS UNDERSTAND!
Spotify playlist: https://goo.gl/WaO0O2
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Saturday, 2 April 2016
Friday, 1 April 2016
Scary Old Sex
http://goo.gl/Yo4xI6
I read with my phone.
Not on my phone, although I do a ton of poking and scrolling during the day.
But when I read a newspaper or a magazine or a book I'm constantly looking things up, I want a richer experience, I want to know who these people are.
Like the folk who write the Sunday "New York Times" Modern Love column. Are you addicted to that? I surely am. Truth is always stranger than fiction and life is about relationships and to view the world through another's eyes, is both thrilling and informative.
The L.A "Times" is now imitating it. Truly, you can get along with the "New York Times" alone, I'm thinking about canceling the "Wall Street Journal," forget the right wing politics, it used to be the definitive business paper, but since Murdoch bought it and turned it into a mainstream outlet it's neither fish nor fowl, you can't rely on the WSJ alone for hard news and it's just not definitive and in-depth enough in business.
And the L.A. "Times," which has come back from the brink a bit, it's a bit longer than a pamphlet now, still struggles with second city disease. The paper is parochial, it called back the international and Washington, D.C. correspondents, and when you read Saturday's L.A. Affairs column it sounds like people who didn't go to college telling stories with no ending.
Oh, you didn't go to college?
You don't have to, there are numerous alternative ways to learn, especially in modern society, but most people don't, they just park their ass in front of the television and soothe their brain cells, because life is complicated and overwhelming and we're all looking for a little relaxation.
But who do we tell our hopes and dreams to, who do we ask about the meaning of life?
The baby boomers' parents were especially tight-lipped. I got no sex education. Then again, studies show that most kids learn about sex via the internet today, at least in America, we're a puritanical country, focused on the young, and when it comes to sagging skin and lumpy bodies everybody says "ewww" and moves right along.
Which means every baby boomer is on their own.
And, if you're lucky, one day you too will be as old as the baby boomers, and it will probably be no different, you'll be in the rearview mirror, noticing not only that your cheese has been stolen but you just don't care that much about it.
So I'm reading the "New York Times" and I see a review of "Scary Old Sex."
Here, you can play the home game, you can read what I read:
http://goo.gl/FP2RH4
Maybe the title intrigued me. But the review kept the flame alive, I wanted to check this book out, so I downloaded the sample chapter to my Kindle.
Oh, you're still reading physical books, maybe listening to vinyl records too, I pity you. You really don't want the history of literature at your fingertips? You'd really rather lug around a slew of heavy books on vacation? I know, it roots you to the past, it makes you feel better. Why is everybody in America so worried about their image? And why does everybody believe if they march forward they're going to leave an irretrievable piece of their past behind.
The future is happening, they're making new minutes every day.
And eventually time runs out.
And today no one's got any time.
So, it's easy to check out a book at home. I certainly wasn't going to pay for "Scary Old Sex" sight unseen. That paradigm is history. People are afraid of disappointment, bait and switch, they want to be able to touch and experience before they lay their money down.
And the truth is I did not want to read the sample chapter of "Scary Old Sex" at that time, I wanted to watch "House of Cards." But Felice was taking a nap and I'd just finished Ethan Canin's "A Doubter's Almanac"...
I don't recommend it. Canin is so busy including words you don't know, that aren't even in the dictionary, there are multiple instances on every page, that it gets in the way of the plot, which is about an award-winning mathematician and his mathematician son. I loved that part, but there was so much math it's a nonstarter for most people. But reading it I felt... Separate. You know how you surf the web and come to believe we're all swimming in the same pool, circling the same drain, that everybody knows everything about everybody else?
Well, in truth it's not like that. We're all private people doing things most people don't care about, unless we break the law. It was refreshing to read "A Doubter's Almanac," about an academic, living a life far different from my own, having life experiences equivalent to mine, that no one is interested in.
That's life, a continuum of small moments.
But back to "Scary Old Sex."
That's what the first chapter, in fact a story, it's a book of short stories, was all about. Not scary as in unwanted or untoward, but as in how do you meld your youthful desires with your aged body and persona? What happens when you've had enough life experiences that you don't dream it gets better than this, but that this is all you've got.
And the truth is old people still want oral sex. And they're still concerned with who's on top and who comes first. And I'll admit I got a bit squeamish reading, but I also couldn't stop, I felt the writer was tapping into a reality I knew but could find nowhere in art.
And that's when I went to my phone. I was intrigued by the author, Arlene Heyman. She'd trained as a writer, went to Bennington and gotten her MFA at Syracuse, but she'd chucked it and gone to medical school, she became a psychiatrist.
What kind of person does this?
A Jewish one.
I know, because I'm a member of the tribe. Our parents want us to achieve, our parents want us to be able to not only pay our own bills but provide for others. They don't want us to wander into the wilderness on a whim, following our muse.
So I was intrigued, I wanted to know more about Ms. Feynman. Now in her sixties, she'd deprived us of her insightful work, had forgone an artistic career, in search of safety and comfort. Not that the world doesn't need psychiatrists, I'm sure her patients benefited, but you can't get this kind of insight and identification elsewhere. She's one of a kind in the art world.
So I'm telling you to buy this book. Especially if you're over sixty. Because you've got the wisdom and experience to understand it. The first spouse is never like the second, Feynman nails this. It's not that you dislike the second, or are settling, it's just DIFFERENT! You're more understanding, more accepting and forgiving, and you don't have the fantasy that your life will work out, that you're entitled to be with Mr. or Ms. Right, you know it's not a perfect match.
But you soldier on.
The people in "Scary Old Sex" soldier on. Even when their spouses die, even when they hit career roadblocks, even when they just can't make it right. That's what life's about, perseverance, hanging in there long enough for not only good times, but wisdom.
So download a sample chapter to the device of your choice. I actually know people who read books on their phones, especially the new giant ones. It's FREE! You'll know soon enough whether "Scary Old Sex" is your cup of tea or not.
And if it is...
You can go to Barnes & Noble or the indie store of your choice and hope it's in stock, how antiquated. Or you can even order a physical copy from Amazon, and if you're a Prime member get it in two days.
Or you can have the book downloaded to your reading device of choice instantly.
That's one of the benefits of the new economy.
So on one hand I'm telling you to get with it.
On the other I'm burdened by everything that happened to me in the past, the broken relationships, my upbringing, my losses and victories. I thought it would all make sense, I now know that it won't. Everything so important to me will become meaningless soon, I told a twentysomething that our mutual friend Peter Benedek's wife Barbara had written the "Big Chill"...
He'd never heard of the movie.
An iconic boomer flick if there ever was one, who can forget the intro with the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
Nobody who saw it.
And that's the essence of life, you don't forget.
Then again, one of the characters in "Scary Old Sex" can't get over the fact her husband cannot remember sex with his second wife, which he said was so good. As for his first... That was a disaster, which lasted twenty years, why did he match up with someone so inappropriate, was it because he was afraid of women?
I'm afraid of women.
I'll leave it there.
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I read with my phone.
Not on my phone, although I do a ton of poking and scrolling during the day.
But when I read a newspaper or a magazine or a book I'm constantly looking things up, I want a richer experience, I want to know who these people are.
Like the folk who write the Sunday "New York Times" Modern Love column. Are you addicted to that? I surely am. Truth is always stranger than fiction and life is about relationships and to view the world through another's eyes, is both thrilling and informative.
The L.A "Times" is now imitating it. Truly, you can get along with the "New York Times" alone, I'm thinking about canceling the "Wall Street Journal," forget the right wing politics, it used to be the definitive business paper, but since Murdoch bought it and turned it into a mainstream outlet it's neither fish nor fowl, you can't rely on the WSJ alone for hard news and it's just not definitive and in-depth enough in business.
And the L.A. "Times," which has come back from the brink a bit, it's a bit longer than a pamphlet now, still struggles with second city disease. The paper is parochial, it called back the international and Washington, D.C. correspondents, and when you read Saturday's L.A. Affairs column it sounds like people who didn't go to college telling stories with no ending.
Oh, you didn't go to college?
You don't have to, there are numerous alternative ways to learn, especially in modern society, but most people don't, they just park their ass in front of the television and soothe their brain cells, because life is complicated and overwhelming and we're all looking for a little relaxation.
But who do we tell our hopes and dreams to, who do we ask about the meaning of life?
The baby boomers' parents were especially tight-lipped. I got no sex education. Then again, studies show that most kids learn about sex via the internet today, at least in America, we're a puritanical country, focused on the young, and when it comes to sagging skin and lumpy bodies everybody says "ewww" and moves right along.
Which means every baby boomer is on their own.
And, if you're lucky, one day you too will be as old as the baby boomers, and it will probably be no different, you'll be in the rearview mirror, noticing not only that your cheese has been stolen but you just don't care that much about it.
So I'm reading the "New York Times" and I see a review of "Scary Old Sex."
Here, you can play the home game, you can read what I read:
http://goo.gl/FP2RH4
Maybe the title intrigued me. But the review kept the flame alive, I wanted to check this book out, so I downloaded the sample chapter to my Kindle.
Oh, you're still reading physical books, maybe listening to vinyl records too, I pity you. You really don't want the history of literature at your fingertips? You'd really rather lug around a slew of heavy books on vacation? I know, it roots you to the past, it makes you feel better. Why is everybody in America so worried about their image? And why does everybody believe if they march forward they're going to leave an irretrievable piece of their past behind.
The future is happening, they're making new minutes every day.
And eventually time runs out.
And today no one's got any time.
So, it's easy to check out a book at home. I certainly wasn't going to pay for "Scary Old Sex" sight unseen. That paradigm is history. People are afraid of disappointment, bait and switch, they want to be able to touch and experience before they lay their money down.
And the truth is I did not want to read the sample chapter of "Scary Old Sex" at that time, I wanted to watch "House of Cards." But Felice was taking a nap and I'd just finished Ethan Canin's "A Doubter's Almanac"...
I don't recommend it. Canin is so busy including words you don't know, that aren't even in the dictionary, there are multiple instances on every page, that it gets in the way of the plot, which is about an award-winning mathematician and his mathematician son. I loved that part, but there was so much math it's a nonstarter for most people. But reading it I felt... Separate. You know how you surf the web and come to believe we're all swimming in the same pool, circling the same drain, that everybody knows everything about everybody else?
Well, in truth it's not like that. We're all private people doing things most people don't care about, unless we break the law. It was refreshing to read "A Doubter's Almanac," about an academic, living a life far different from my own, having life experiences equivalent to mine, that no one is interested in.
That's life, a continuum of small moments.
But back to "Scary Old Sex."
That's what the first chapter, in fact a story, it's a book of short stories, was all about. Not scary as in unwanted or untoward, but as in how do you meld your youthful desires with your aged body and persona? What happens when you've had enough life experiences that you don't dream it gets better than this, but that this is all you've got.
And the truth is old people still want oral sex. And they're still concerned with who's on top and who comes first. And I'll admit I got a bit squeamish reading, but I also couldn't stop, I felt the writer was tapping into a reality I knew but could find nowhere in art.
And that's when I went to my phone. I was intrigued by the author, Arlene Heyman. She'd trained as a writer, went to Bennington and gotten her MFA at Syracuse, but she'd chucked it and gone to medical school, she became a psychiatrist.
What kind of person does this?
A Jewish one.
I know, because I'm a member of the tribe. Our parents want us to achieve, our parents want us to be able to not only pay our own bills but provide for others. They don't want us to wander into the wilderness on a whim, following our muse.
So I was intrigued, I wanted to know more about Ms. Feynman. Now in her sixties, she'd deprived us of her insightful work, had forgone an artistic career, in search of safety and comfort. Not that the world doesn't need psychiatrists, I'm sure her patients benefited, but you can't get this kind of insight and identification elsewhere. She's one of a kind in the art world.
So I'm telling you to buy this book. Especially if you're over sixty. Because you've got the wisdom and experience to understand it. The first spouse is never like the second, Feynman nails this. It's not that you dislike the second, or are settling, it's just DIFFERENT! You're more understanding, more accepting and forgiving, and you don't have the fantasy that your life will work out, that you're entitled to be with Mr. or Ms. Right, you know it's not a perfect match.
But you soldier on.
The people in "Scary Old Sex" soldier on. Even when their spouses die, even when they hit career roadblocks, even when they just can't make it right. That's what life's about, perseverance, hanging in there long enough for not only good times, but wisdom.
So download a sample chapter to the device of your choice. I actually know people who read books on their phones, especially the new giant ones. It's FREE! You'll know soon enough whether "Scary Old Sex" is your cup of tea or not.
And if it is...
You can go to Barnes & Noble or the indie store of your choice and hope it's in stock, how antiquated. Or you can even order a physical copy from Amazon, and if you're a Prime member get it in two days.
Or you can have the book downloaded to your reading device of choice instantly.
That's one of the benefits of the new economy.
So on one hand I'm telling you to get with it.
On the other I'm burdened by everything that happened to me in the past, the broken relationships, my upbringing, my losses and victories. I thought it would all make sense, I now know that it won't. Everything so important to me will become meaningless soon, I told a twentysomething that our mutual friend Peter Benedek's wife Barbara had written the "Big Chill"...
He'd never heard of the movie.
An iconic boomer flick if there ever was one, who can forget the intro with the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
Nobody who saw it.
And that's the essence of life, you don't forget.
Then again, one of the characters in "Scary Old Sex" can't get over the fact her husband cannot remember sex with his second wife, which he said was so good. As for his first... That was a disaster, which lasted twenty years, why did he match up with someone so inappropriate, was it because he was afraid of women?
I'm afraid of women.
I'll leave it there.
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Lucian Leaves Universal
That's right, starting July 14th Lucian Grainge will be working at Amazon.
Screw the French, Lucian's sick of carrying the company, growing Universal's market share yet still having little to show for it. He wants to make the big bucks, he wants some real power, so he's moving to Seattle.
Well, not really, he'll still be based in L.A., relationships are king, and Jeff Bezos is counting on Lucian to make Amazon Music a powerhouse.
That's right, you'll get everything Spotify offers for free. Well, not really, it's just that it will FEEL free, which has been the goal since Napster. It'll be baked into Amazon Prime, which gives you short shipping and video and so many perks. Furthermore, Amazon is on the cutting edge with its Echo, you can call up a song right now, they just need someone with music business expertise to show them the path forward.
Lucian never bought the canard that there would be competitors on the retail side, Lucian knows that online one player ends up with 70% market share. And during this run-up to subscription, now that Spotify's got 30 million paying, and Apple 11, it's time to double-down and go for the big money.
There will be a sunset on free. Even YouTube is going that way, did you notice that Peter Chernin's Fullscreen is gonna charge $5 a month for ad-free content? That's the future, you're gonna pay, you just don't know it yet. It's just a matter of when. And rather than be hampered by the shortsighted artists and the small margins and low cash reserves of Universal, Lucian believes he can have a larger impact and get it right with Amazon.
Amazon is not buying Tidal. And certainly not Pandora. Tidal was bought to be sold, but just like Pandora, no one wants it. That's why Tim Westergren is back in power, they couldn't sell the damn company, which operates in few territories providing a product that the industry hates to passive consumers. A recipe for death. Just like Rdio, the company they bought. Lucian's a pro, unlike Tim, he's got experience and gravitas, he's who the artists will rally around.
Unlike Jimmy Iovine, who's got a reputation for winning for himself. Sure, Jimmy can be fun, but you've got to sleep with one eye open, and if you can find a studio employing Beats headphones you probably have never heard of Sennheiser, Sony or AKG. Jimmy's lost credibility, Lucian still has his.
The rumor that Amazon will buy Spotify is untrue. It's not Bezos's style, he likes to grow products in-house, and after the failure of the Fire phone not only has quality control improved, but Jeff is now hands-on, sure, he cares about rockets and the "Washington Post," but not as much as his baby. Amazon Web Services drives the bottom line, but on the consumer side, it's free shipping and entertainment that bring people in. Bezos, unlike so many techies, understands the power of music. After all, he single-handedly tried to bring Layne Staley back from the brink.
You didn't know that, but that's how Bezos operates. One day you're clueless, the next day you're addicted to whatever Jeff is selling you.
So Lucian went for the power and the stock. He who has cash is king, he has leverage. And although Apple has deep pockets, Tim Cook is so busy with financial shenanigans Steve Jobs abhorred, selling bonds and granting dividends, that insiders joke that Apple is toast, there's no cutting edge there, just endless variations on previous products.
And the abomination known as Apple Music. Which is so counterintuitive as to be nearly unusable. Amazon's got 1-Click, Steve Jobs licensed it for the Apple Store, Bezos knows that usability is king, he won't make Apple's mistake. Furthermore, it appears that voice control will drive listening in the future and Echo is on the bleeding edge, it's the market leader, it made Sonos blink, Lucian got a demo two years back and has been secretly meeting with Bezos ever since. Stunning what you can do when your boss is in France.
So, there's the usual package, salary and not only bonuses, but stock options, which make Hollywood pay look laughable. And don't forget, Lucian started Universal's tech incubator, he may have worked in the trenches, started out on the streets finding bands, but unlike so many of the old acts on his labels he's not married to the past, he knows that change happens.
Launch date of the service was planned for Labor Day, to beat the new iPhones to market, but it looks like it'll be more like Thanksgiving. Although Universal licenses are a no-brainer and Warner is already on board, Doug Morris still has a hard-on for Lucian, for being squeezed out of Universal, Doug's dragging his feet. But there's nothing that money can't buy, and the advance will be so big that Sony corporate's bottom line will be affected. There's no truth to the rumor that Amazon will provide security for Sony, eliminating the possibility of hacking, but there is truth that Sony offered to sell its entire music unit to the Seattle behemoth. But Bezos only wants it if he can have the movie studio too and leave the electronics out and it all became too complicated so expect a straight licensing deal.
My sources say the introduction will feature Amy Winehouse. Don't laugh, holograms are the next big thing, they're going on tour, you read the internet, don't you? Just like Jeff went on "60 Minutes" and stole the holiday season with talk of drones, the Winehouse hologram will be the talk of the holiday season.
As for the drones... They will be named after musical acts. Just like Richard Branson had cheeky names for his Virgin planes. Imagine getting your soap delivered by the Jefferson Airplane drone! You know Paul Kantner was always into spaceships and the future, he came up with the idea, but he'll never get the credit, since he passed away prematurely.
So it comes down to Amazon, Apple and Spotify. Spotify's the most nimble player, but it has no deep pockets, read Brad Stone's "Everything Store" book, what Bezos does is enter your sphere, underprice you and then force you to sell. So, Spotify might end up with Amazon yet. And this could be attractive to Bezos, since it's well-known that Daniel Ek and his company are on the cutting edge of algorithms, providing what people want to hear via machine learning. This is what Amazon specializes in, that's how it got rid of human beings and sold more books, via algorithms. But Bezos doesn't want to pay today's price, he wants a more realistic valuation.
But watch out. Not only did Bezos squeeze Diapers.com, he squeezed Zappos too. And he neutered Best Buy. And don't forget that Wal-Mart has been hurt by the Amazon revolution, it's Jeff's world and we just live in it.
And it's gonna get bigger.
You don't think that Lucian would jump for a music service only, do you?
Don't forget, Amazon is building its own delivery system. Lucian plans to sell this to the touring industry, it'll be Amazon that trucks your equipment and stage to its next location, the deal with Tait Towers is just waiting for ink.
And no one can do sponsorship and marketing like Amazon. Just imagine, your next box from the retailer will feature a picture of Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber. But not Taylor Swift, the country doyenne turned pop princess has gone deep with Apple. The truth is she's about reached her limit with Max Martin, she's convinced Jimmy to come out of retirement for her next LP, she wants to go for more of a rock feel, it's being called her "Bella Donna" moment, she wants to assuage her guilt for messing up her duet with Stevie Nicks on the Grammys. But you know Taytay never uses only one producer, so Dre himself is gonna give her that inner city vibe she so desires, you know she loves hip-hop.
It's all internet all the time baby. And if you've got status, power and relationships, even at this late date you can jump ship, you can play with the techies, if you've got the gift of gab and the success to back it up, which Lucian does.
But the deal is not exclusive! Lucian can work in the event space, which Amazon does not inhabit and has no plans to. Turns out Lucian will be the third leg in Irving Azoff and Tim Leiweke's Oak View Group. You could never understand what that company did? That's because they were waiting for Lucian to come on board! They're gonna give Phil Anschutz a run for his money, the goal is to drive down the price of AEG and then steal it.
We'll see.
We'll also see who ends up running Universal. I hear there's been talk of taking Craig Kallman from Atlantic, since they poached John Janick for Interscope, to replace Jimmy, but everyone believes Monty will get the gig.
But the power is no longer with the labels. Music is just a pawn in the techies' game. Where transparency reigns and fairness has a toehold. Since Amazon has such deep pockets, 80% of streaming revenue will go back to rights holders, and Lucian's squeezing the labels to pay the acts 50% of net. See, wait long enough and it all works out.
For Lucian anyway.
But for you and me too! We have to pay $120 a year to stream via Spotify, for that same dough with Amazon we not only get music, but movies/TV and fast shipping! It's a no-brainer, Amazon wins. Don't they always?
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Screw the French, Lucian's sick of carrying the company, growing Universal's market share yet still having little to show for it. He wants to make the big bucks, he wants some real power, so he's moving to Seattle.
Well, not really, he'll still be based in L.A., relationships are king, and Jeff Bezos is counting on Lucian to make Amazon Music a powerhouse.
That's right, you'll get everything Spotify offers for free. Well, not really, it's just that it will FEEL free, which has been the goal since Napster. It'll be baked into Amazon Prime, which gives you short shipping and video and so many perks. Furthermore, Amazon is on the cutting edge with its Echo, you can call up a song right now, they just need someone with music business expertise to show them the path forward.
Lucian never bought the canard that there would be competitors on the retail side, Lucian knows that online one player ends up with 70% market share. And during this run-up to subscription, now that Spotify's got 30 million paying, and Apple 11, it's time to double-down and go for the big money.
There will be a sunset on free. Even YouTube is going that way, did you notice that Peter Chernin's Fullscreen is gonna charge $5 a month for ad-free content? That's the future, you're gonna pay, you just don't know it yet. It's just a matter of when. And rather than be hampered by the shortsighted artists and the small margins and low cash reserves of Universal, Lucian believes he can have a larger impact and get it right with Amazon.
Amazon is not buying Tidal. And certainly not Pandora. Tidal was bought to be sold, but just like Pandora, no one wants it. That's why Tim Westergren is back in power, they couldn't sell the damn company, which operates in few territories providing a product that the industry hates to passive consumers. A recipe for death. Just like Rdio, the company they bought. Lucian's a pro, unlike Tim, he's got experience and gravitas, he's who the artists will rally around.
Unlike Jimmy Iovine, who's got a reputation for winning for himself. Sure, Jimmy can be fun, but you've got to sleep with one eye open, and if you can find a studio employing Beats headphones you probably have never heard of Sennheiser, Sony or AKG. Jimmy's lost credibility, Lucian still has his.
The rumor that Amazon will buy Spotify is untrue. It's not Bezos's style, he likes to grow products in-house, and after the failure of the Fire phone not only has quality control improved, but Jeff is now hands-on, sure, he cares about rockets and the "Washington Post," but not as much as his baby. Amazon Web Services drives the bottom line, but on the consumer side, it's free shipping and entertainment that bring people in. Bezos, unlike so many techies, understands the power of music. After all, he single-handedly tried to bring Layne Staley back from the brink.
You didn't know that, but that's how Bezos operates. One day you're clueless, the next day you're addicted to whatever Jeff is selling you.
So Lucian went for the power and the stock. He who has cash is king, he has leverage. And although Apple has deep pockets, Tim Cook is so busy with financial shenanigans Steve Jobs abhorred, selling bonds and granting dividends, that insiders joke that Apple is toast, there's no cutting edge there, just endless variations on previous products.
And the abomination known as Apple Music. Which is so counterintuitive as to be nearly unusable. Amazon's got 1-Click, Steve Jobs licensed it for the Apple Store, Bezos knows that usability is king, he won't make Apple's mistake. Furthermore, it appears that voice control will drive listening in the future and Echo is on the bleeding edge, it's the market leader, it made Sonos blink, Lucian got a demo two years back and has been secretly meeting with Bezos ever since. Stunning what you can do when your boss is in France.
So, there's the usual package, salary and not only bonuses, but stock options, which make Hollywood pay look laughable. And don't forget, Lucian started Universal's tech incubator, he may have worked in the trenches, started out on the streets finding bands, but unlike so many of the old acts on his labels he's not married to the past, he knows that change happens.
Launch date of the service was planned for Labor Day, to beat the new iPhones to market, but it looks like it'll be more like Thanksgiving. Although Universal licenses are a no-brainer and Warner is already on board, Doug Morris still has a hard-on for Lucian, for being squeezed out of Universal, Doug's dragging his feet. But there's nothing that money can't buy, and the advance will be so big that Sony corporate's bottom line will be affected. There's no truth to the rumor that Amazon will provide security for Sony, eliminating the possibility of hacking, but there is truth that Sony offered to sell its entire music unit to the Seattle behemoth. But Bezos only wants it if he can have the movie studio too and leave the electronics out and it all became too complicated so expect a straight licensing deal.
My sources say the introduction will feature Amy Winehouse. Don't laugh, holograms are the next big thing, they're going on tour, you read the internet, don't you? Just like Jeff went on "60 Minutes" and stole the holiday season with talk of drones, the Winehouse hologram will be the talk of the holiday season.
As for the drones... They will be named after musical acts. Just like Richard Branson had cheeky names for his Virgin planes. Imagine getting your soap delivered by the Jefferson Airplane drone! You know Paul Kantner was always into spaceships and the future, he came up with the idea, but he'll never get the credit, since he passed away prematurely.
So it comes down to Amazon, Apple and Spotify. Spotify's the most nimble player, but it has no deep pockets, read Brad Stone's "Everything Store" book, what Bezos does is enter your sphere, underprice you and then force you to sell. So, Spotify might end up with Amazon yet. And this could be attractive to Bezos, since it's well-known that Daniel Ek and his company are on the cutting edge of algorithms, providing what people want to hear via machine learning. This is what Amazon specializes in, that's how it got rid of human beings and sold more books, via algorithms. But Bezos doesn't want to pay today's price, he wants a more realistic valuation.
But watch out. Not only did Bezos squeeze Diapers.com, he squeezed Zappos too. And he neutered Best Buy. And don't forget that Wal-Mart has been hurt by the Amazon revolution, it's Jeff's world and we just live in it.
And it's gonna get bigger.
You don't think that Lucian would jump for a music service only, do you?
Don't forget, Amazon is building its own delivery system. Lucian plans to sell this to the touring industry, it'll be Amazon that trucks your equipment and stage to its next location, the deal with Tait Towers is just waiting for ink.
And no one can do sponsorship and marketing like Amazon. Just imagine, your next box from the retailer will feature a picture of Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber. But not Taylor Swift, the country doyenne turned pop princess has gone deep with Apple. The truth is she's about reached her limit with Max Martin, she's convinced Jimmy to come out of retirement for her next LP, she wants to go for more of a rock feel, it's being called her "Bella Donna" moment, she wants to assuage her guilt for messing up her duet with Stevie Nicks on the Grammys. But you know Taytay never uses only one producer, so Dre himself is gonna give her that inner city vibe she so desires, you know she loves hip-hop.
It's all internet all the time baby. And if you've got status, power and relationships, even at this late date you can jump ship, you can play with the techies, if you've got the gift of gab and the success to back it up, which Lucian does.
But the deal is not exclusive! Lucian can work in the event space, which Amazon does not inhabit and has no plans to. Turns out Lucian will be the third leg in Irving Azoff and Tim Leiweke's Oak View Group. You could never understand what that company did? That's because they were waiting for Lucian to come on board! They're gonna give Phil Anschutz a run for his money, the goal is to drive down the price of AEG and then steal it.
We'll see.
We'll also see who ends up running Universal. I hear there's been talk of taking Craig Kallman from Atlantic, since they poached John Janick for Interscope, to replace Jimmy, but everyone believes Monty will get the gig.
But the power is no longer with the labels. Music is just a pawn in the techies' game. Where transparency reigns and fairness has a toehold. Since Amazon has such deep pockets, 80% of streaming revenue will go back to rights holders, and Lucian's squeezing the labels to pay the acts 50% of net. See, wait long enough and it all works out.
For Lucian anyway.
But for you and me too! We have to pay $120 a year to stream via Spotify, for that same dough with Amazon we not only get music, but movies/TV and fast shipping! It's a no-brainer, Amazon wins. Don't they always?
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Thursday, 31 March 2016
What Happened To The Spine Of Rolling Stone?
Yes, I still subscribe, I have since 1969. And I still haven't gotten over the lack of a fold, never mind moving to New York and ultimately going slick.
But this binding issue is the last straw.
What killed "Rolling Stone"?
The refusal to regenerate, it got old with its audience, as opposed to MTV, which jettisoned the VJs and continued to play to the same 12-24 demo. You could still pay attention after aging out, but MTV was no longer targeting you.
Jann Wenner was the techie of his day, a Jeff Bezos-like figure who instead of starting an online bookstore started a magazine, figuring he could do it better than the established outlets which featured a few reviews if they had space for the music revolution at all. And in "Rolling Stone" you found all the news you were interested in, not only about musicians, but politics, about the culture, it was the bible of the younger generation. And with its peaks of Hunter Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and his and Timothy Crouse's coverage of the 1972 election the magazine earned respect and with the breaking of the Patty Hearst story "Rolling Stone" toppled the establishment, it was where you went to find out what was going on.
And then Jann Wenner took his eye off the ball. The magazine had always gone through financial ups and downs, but now Jann was more interested in being a man about town than an outsider poking those set in their ways. Happens all the time, once you gain approval you go for the victory lap, but the truth is there's no there there, the rich and famous club is a deep dark canyon where everybody's looking over your shoulder to see if there's someone more worthy and looking back over their shoulder to see if they're gonna be replaced. And they are, the fame never lasts, oftentimes the riches don't either. And the truth is the parties and people are frequently just as boring as those in your own neighborhood, the only difference being you can't get in.
This is a dirty little secret of society, which you think Jann would want to reveal. But then he purchased "Us" and that took care of his financial problems and then he turned his publication over to people without names who carried on the tradition.
The game was always the same. A little gossip, some music news, some reviews and some features. It's just that it became formulaic, like a band recording the same ten tracks over and over again, only with different titles.
And certain artists were canonized and nothing bad could be said about them. And the fans of these bands had long stopped reading and the younger generation couldn't care less. And then "Blender" lied about its circulation and "Rolling Stone" cut the length of its reviews in response and all the gravitas was thrown out the window. "Rolling Stone" was the Howard Stern of its day, there was enough room to stretch out as long as you wanted to.
And you read the stories.
Sure, the music changed, it became a lot less interesting, players no longer drive the culture. Where were the musicians when North Carolina cracked down on the LGBT Community? Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg raised a ruckus, but the artists were silent, because not only are they uninformed doofuses, they're afraid of alienating a potential audience member... The stars of yore were alienating entire communities willy-nilly, that's what being a rock star was all about!
Then came the UVA controversy. Credit the WaPo for poking holes/breaking the story, it just didn't sound right. From here on in when it sounds too good to be true, when it just doesn't add up, I'm gonna question it, that's what Snopes is for! Not that this is a badge of honor for RS, but what's worse is no heads rolled, certainly not at first. Jann supported the writer and it wasn't until months later that the editor was ousted.
And now there's shrinkage. "Rolling Stone" is only one downsizing away from becoming a pamphlet. Must be an advertising crisis. Then again, magazines go into death spirals all the time, they hemorrhage readers, cut costs, lose advertisers and go down the drain.
As will happen to the "Stone." It ceased being a must-read years ago. It missed the internet completely. Seems that every established brand in the music industry did, the labels and MTV included. Revolution comes from outside. I don't think anybody in the younger generation relies on "Rolling Stone," if they read it at all.
It's probably unsavable.
But first they came for the record stores.
Now they've come for "Rolling Stone."
As for the vinyl revival... There's an over-trumpeted phenomenon if there ever was one. It's like saying there's a furniture revival because of "Antiques Roadshow." What next, the return of Stanley Steamers? Vent windows? Why is it media always lauds revivals of the past when the truth is no one's got a deck to play a cassette, never mind an 8-track, and what's in the rearview mirror is there for a reason.
"Rolling Stone" lost the plot.
But to see it fade away in front of my very eyes is sad and creepy.
It won't be long before it's a website like "Paste," a vestige of what once was, when music drove the culture and it was us versus them, before everybody wanted to be them, just like Jann Wenner. Let that be a lesson for you, once you sell out it's only a matter of time before you become irrelevant and die.
So, so long to long afternoons spent mesmerized by the words of musicians.
So long to the belief that music ran the world.
And so long to the canard that "Rolling Stone" matters.
It doesn't.
If only it took their vaunted Zimmerman's advice.
He not busy being born is busy dying.
"Difference between a Saddle Stitch and Perfect Bind": http://goo.gl/Rw12fC
"Major Companies Press North Carolina on Law Curbing Protections From Bias": http://goo.gl/lH1bAe
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But this binding issue is the last straw.
What killed "Rolling Stone"?
The refusal to regenerate, it got old with its audience, as opposed to MTV, which jettisoned the VJs and continued to play to the same 12-24 demo. You could still pay attention after aging out, but MTV was no longer targeting you.
Jann Wenner was the techie of his day, a Jeff Bezos-like figure who instead of starting an online bookstore started a magazine, figuring he could do it better than the established outlets which featured a few reviews if they had space for the music revolution at all. And in "Rolling Stone" you found all the news you were interested in, not only about musicians, but politics, about the culture, it was the bible of the younger generation. And with its peaks of Hunter Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and his and Timothy Crouse's coverage of the 1972 election the magazine earned respect and with the breaking of the Patty Hearst story "Rolling Stone" toppled the establishment, it was where you went to find out what was going on.
And then Jann Wenner took his eye off the ball. The magazine had always gone through financial ups and downs, but now Jann was more interested in being a man about town than an outsider poking those set in their ways. Happens all the time, once you gain approval you go for the victory lap, but the truth is there's no there there, the rich and famous club is a deep dark canyon where everybody's looking over your shoulder to see if there's someone more worthy and looking back over their shoulder to see if they're gonna be replaced. And they are, the fame never lasts, oftentimes the riches don't either. And the truth is the parties and people are frequently just as boring as those in your own neighborhood, the only difference being you can't get in.
This is a dirty little secret of society, which you think Jann would want to reveal. But then he purchased "Us" and that took care of his financial problems and then he turned his publication over to people without names who carried on the tradition.
The game was always the same. A little gossip, some music news, some reviews and some features. It's just that it became formulaic, like a band recording the same ten tracks over and over again, only with different titles.
And certain artists were canonized and nothing bad could be said about them. And the fans of these bands had long stopped reading and the younger generation couldn't care less. And then "Blender" lied about its circulation and "Rolling Stone" cut the length of its reviews in response and all the gravitas was thrown out the window. "Rolling Stone" was the Howard Stern of its day, there was enough room to stretch out as long as you wanted to.
And you read the stories.
Sure, the music changed, it became a lot less interesting, players no longer drive the culture. Where were the musicians when North Carolina cracked down on the LGBT Community? Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg raised a ruckus, but the artists were silent, because not only are they uninformed doofuses, they're afraid of alienating a potential audience member... The stars of yore were alienating entire communities willy-nilly, that's what being a rock star was all about!
Then came the UVA controversy. Credit the WaPo for poking holes/breaking the story, it just didn't sound right. From here on in when it sounds too good to be true, when it just doesn't add up, I'm gonna question it, that's what Snopes is for! Not that this is a badge of honor for RS, but what's worse is no heads rolled, certainly not at first. Jann supported the writer and it wasn't until months later that the editor was ousted.
And now there's shrinkage. "Rolling Stone" is only one downsizing away from becoming a pamphlet. Must be an advertising crisis. Then again, magazines go into death spirals all the time, they hemorrhage readers, cut costs, lose advertisers and go down the drain.
As will happen to the "Stone." It ceased being a must-read years ago. It missed the internet completely. Seems that every established brand in the music industry did, the labels and MTV included. Revolution comes from outside. I don't think anybody in the younger generation relies on "Rolling Stone," if they read it at all.
It's probably unsavable.
But first they came for the record stores.
Now they've come for "Rolling Stone."
As for the vinyl revival... There's an over-trumpeted phenomenon if there ever was one. It's like saying there's a furniture revival because of "Antiques Roadshow." What next, the return of Stanley Steamers? Vent windows? Why is it media always lauds revivals of the past when the truth is no one's got a deck to play a cassette, never mind an 8-track, and what's in the rearview mirror is there for a reason.
"Rolling Stone" lost the plot.
But to see it fade away in front of my very eyes is sad and creepy.
It won't be long before it's a website like "Paste," a vestige of what once was, when music drove the culture and it was us versus them, before everybody wanted to be them, just like Jann Wenner. Let that be a lesson for you, once you sell out it's only a matter of time before you become irrelevant and die.
So, so long to long afternoons spent mesmerized by the words of musicians.
So long to the belief that music ran the world.
And so long to the canard that "Rolling Stone" matters.
It doesn't.
If only it took their vaunted Zimmerman's advice.
He not busy being born is busy dying.
"Difference between a Saddle Stitch and Perfect Bind": http://goo.gl/Rw12fC
"Major Companies Press North Carolina on Law Curbing Protections From Bias": http://goo.gl/lH1bAe
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The End
"Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free"
Did I tell you I went to Jim Morrison's gravesite?
Weird scenes inside the gold mine indeed.
I have no idea if Pere Lachaise cemetery was west of our hotel or not. I just plotted it out on the Metro map and went. I insist on using public transportation, I like to experience a city from the viewpoint of its inhabitants, I like to figure out the game of the grid, I feel triumphant when I get to my destination. Although I was flummoxed the day before on my way from the Pompidou to the Louis Vuitton, I was deep in the bowels of the city and I couldn't figure out which direction to take and I didn't want to be late, but I made my best guess and eventually made it not only to my destination but the jitney that took me to the museum on time.
But this was a day later. I was surprised Felice wanted to go. She ultimately said the cemetery was the highlight of last year's Paris trip. I recommend it.
So the Metro is underground and then it's aboveground, in a neighborhood you'd prefer not to live in, tourists usually only see the spiffed-up parts of a city, ones peppered with cafes and attractions, whereas this looked like a place people actually lived.
But we were in search of the dead.
Not that cemeteries usually creep me out. There was one down the street when I grew up, I used to ride my bike there all the time, it was peaceful. But as I get closer to the end of the line I can see myself in residence, I don't often go, my mother has never been to my father's gravesite since his burial, I went, it was really creepy, his name was on the stone but to think he was buried below in a deteriorated state...it was him but not him and it's almost like he was standing next to me reflecting how bizarre it was, my father would have booked, he was not one for nostalgia, to wallow in not only the past but down times, he always put a smile on his face and marched forward, which is probably why I'm just the opposite.
So there's a conflict as to which stop to get off at. But the great thing about the Metro is no stop is that far from another. We took the wrong one, and walked down the avenue, following the bars, looking for the entrance. Google Maps help so much. Do you know the blue dot moves even when you don't have internet access? You're always worried about that overseas, the data charges, especially with an iPhone, which eats up bandwidth when you think it's asleep.
And one thing my research had told me was to buy a map, which seemed superfluous, what with the phone and so much online help, but it was the wisest decision I made, without it I wouldn't have found a single grave, it's an endless maze of paths, some paved, some not, a hillside of stones, big and small, with no delineation as to who is legendary and who is not.
Jim Morrison is off the beaten path. Halfway up the hill, not on a main drag, he's in a cluster of headstones, you wonder how they fit all the bodies in. You expect something special, but if there weren't the flowers and token gifts left by admirers you'd have no idea someone important was buried there.
And then we stumbled into so many people we knew. Claude Chabrol was perched overlooking the city. I used to see his flicks when reading subtitles separated intellectuals from the hoi polloi, before everybody stopped going to the movies and the only people in the theatre were teenagers and those who did not get the memo.
And Oscar Wilde reminded me of that hot night in the seventies, when I went with Fredda to see someone do his act at USC.
And then you get into it, you want to hit as many of the highlights as possible. The adventure is in finding them, but there's satisfaction when you see their name engraved in stone. Whether it be Edith Piaf or Alice B. Toklas, Marcel Proust or Honore de Balzac. Pam is criticized for interring Jim's body in this foreign graveyard, but you spend some time there and you think you want to be buried there too, that it's a special place.
But before we were done, after we'd climbed to the top, seen the memorials to the war dead, viewed a funeral, I insisted on seeing Morrison's grave once again.
And I'd be lying if I told you it was a thrilling moment, a supernatural escapade wherein I channeled the rock god. Rather I felt almost nothing, other than his death was a waste, having died at 27, having failed to have years of experiences, never mind grace us with more music, it's too young to have such a misadventure, live long enough and you're stunned how young that is. It made me truly grateful that I was still alive, that I'd endured the trials and tribulations, had a life, because it ends for everyone and then you're truly done.
It's the end.
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So limitless and free"
Did I tell you I went to Jim Morrison's gravesite?
Weird scenes inside the gold mine indeed.
I have no idea if Pere Lachaise cemetery was west of our hotel or not. I just plotted it out on the Metro map and went. I insist on using public transportation, I like to experience a city from the viewpoint of its inhabitants, I like to figure out the game of the grid, I feel triumphant when I get to my destination. Although I was flummoxed the day before on my way from the Pompidou to the Louis Vuitton, I was deep in the bowels of the city and I couldn't figure out which direction to take and I didn't want to be late, but I made my best guess and eventually made it not only to my destination but the jitney that took me to the museum on time.
But this was a day later. I was surprised Felice wanted to go. She ultimately said the cemetery was the highlight of last year's Paris trip. I recommend it.
So the Metro is underground and then it's aboveground, in a neighborhood you'd prefer not to live in, tourists usually only see the spiffed-up parts of a city, ones peppered with cafes and attractions, whereas this looked like a place people actually lived.
But we were in search of the dead.
Not that cemeteries usually creep me out. There was one down the street when I grew up, I used to ride my bike there all the time, it was peaceful. But as I get closer to the end of the line I can see myself in residence, I don't often go, my mother has never been to my father's gravesite since his burial, I went, it was really creepy, his name was on the stone but to think he was buried below in a deteriorated state...it was him but not him and it's almost like he was standing next to me reflecting how bizarre it was, my father would have booked, he was not one for nostalgia, to wallow in not only the past but down times, he always put a smile on his face and marched forward, which is probably why I'm just the opposite.
So there's a conflict as to which stop to get off at. But the great thing about the Metro is no stop is that far from another. We took the wrong one, and walked down the avenue, following the bars, looking for the entrance. Google Maps help so much. Do you know the blue dot moves even when you don't have internet access? You're always worried about that overseas, the data charges, especially with an iPhone, which eats up bandwidth when you think it's asleep.
And one thing my research had told me was to buy a map, which seemed superfluous, what with the phone and so much online help, but it was the wisest decision I made, without it I wouldn't have found a single grave, it's an endless maze of paths, some paved, some not, a hillside of stones, big and small, with no delineation as to who is legendary and who is not.
Jim Morrison is off the beaten path. Halfway up the hill, not on a main drag, he's in a cluster of headstones, you wonder how they fit all the bodies in. You expect something special, but if there weren't the flowers and token gifts left by admirers you'd have no idea someone important was buried there.
And then we stumbled into so many people we knew. Claude Chabrol was perched overlooking the city. I used to see his flicks when reading subtitles separated intellectuals from the hoi polloi, before everybody stopped going to the movies and the only people in the theatre were teenagers and those who did not get the memo.
And Oscar Wilde reminded me of that hot night in the seventies, when I went with Fredda to see someone do his act at USC.
And then you get into it, you want to hit as many of the highlights as possible. The adventure is in finding them, but there's satisfaction when you see their name engraved in stone. Whether it be Edith Piaf or Alice B. Toklas, Marcel Proust or Honore de Balzac. Pam is criticized for interring Jim's body in this foreign graveyard, but you spend some time there and you think you want to be buried there too, that it's a special place.
But before we were done, after we'd climbed to the top, seen the memorials to the war dead, viewed a funeral, I insisted on seeing Morrison's grave once again.
And I'd be lying if I told you it was a thrilling moment, a supernatural escapade wherein I channeled the rock god. Rather I felt almost nothing, other than his death was a waste, having died at 27, having failed to have years of experiences, never mind grace us with more music, it's too young to have such a misadventure, live long enough and you're stunned how young that is. It made me truly grateful that I was still alive, that I'd endured the trials and tribulations, had a life, because it ends for everyone and then you're truly done.
It's the end.
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Wednesday, 30 March 2016
Dog On A Chain
"Once she praised me
Now she hates me
I can't see how I have changed"
It seems that what they loved about you is the same thing that ultimately gets them to leave, which is quite a conundrum if you're the one left standing there. You're just being yourself, everything's hunky-dory, and then she does a one-eighty, you go from hero to zero and you just can't understand why.
"Rainbow Ends" is my go-to LP. The one I play when I'm at loose ends. The one that makes me feel like someone understands me. The one that gives me hope.
Used to be you paid for albums, and you didn't own many, and therefore what you purchased you played until you knew. But that paradigm is history, even with your favorite acts, everything's on the streaming service, you listen once and if it doesn't grab you...
You may never listen again.
But that's not the way it was with "Rainbow Ends." I liked the opening cut and then was overwhelmed by track five and then knew I had to listen again and as I have other tracks have emerged as favorites, this is the way it used to be, a satisfying listening experience, of someone who's got something to say that I can relate to.
Don't think I could write these lyrics right now, but boy have I lived them, especially "Isn't It So."
"Whenever I'm worried and I'm feeling low
When problems are many and I'm all alone
When all the world's troubles are too much to bear
That's when I break down and wish you were here"
"Break down" is the essence. You put on a brave face, you believe you've turned the corner, and then you have a bad day and you just wish she was here, whether you left her or she left you, she knows you, unlike someone else, someone new, you want that glove-like fit.
"I'm still trying to please you even though you're not here
Still talking to you even though you can't hear"
Whew! I don't remember this truth being revealed in a song before, changing your behavior even though she's not there, believing if you're just your best self, doing what she wants, she'll come back.
"But the more I deny it the more that it's true
There's hardly a moment I'm not thinking of you"
I don't know how some people crawl from the wreckage into a brand new car. How they say they're over a relationship mere moments after it's done. For me it's a long fade, I'm not sure if the feeling's ever completely gone, I still feel something for everyone I'm involved with, I don't truly get over anyone until I'm involved with the next person, and I don't truly appreciate what we had until it's gone, I'll bitch and moan when we're involved, but when it's in the rearview mirror I'm crying in my beer, testifying to friends to the point they no longer want to listen, I can't get over you.
But "Isn't It So" isn't the first song that enraptured me on "Rainbow Ends," that was "Someone Else."
Then came "Dog On A Chain," which I haven't written about because it's the most obvious, the opening cut, the single.
"You ain't no good I hear her say
Under her breath as she turns away"
Women are specialists in this, hating you after loving you, while you're still involved. Men eventually get there, but it takes much longer, usually after you've broken up. And it's especially bad when you're trying to please them, it almost works against you, you evidence weakness and they pounce all over it.
"She berates me, calls me crazy
Certifiably insane"
No one likes to be berated, it's one thing not to get along, it's another for your significant other to put you down and rub their heel in your face.
Emitt Rhodes has obviously had some bad luck at love, but he's also learned some lessons.
"Love's not easy, love's not kind
It only works when you're half-blind
Don't be the only one to sacrifice
Don't be the only one to compromise"
The newness wears off. Then you're just two people trying to make it work, or not. That's your goal, to find someone who still likes you after the thrill is gone, who's willing to stick it out for the dividends that are rarely depicted in movies but are true in real life, the longer you stay together the better it gets, assuming it's not only one person giving, one person understanding, both of you have to sacrifice and both of you have to compromise.
And I'm listening to this LP and loving that it's only me who seems to be clued in, it's a private experience. But in the seventies you went to the show and found out that truly wasn't the case, in reality there were scores, sometimes thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, sometimes a hundred thousand who felt just like you and when you were all there at the concert mesmerized by the songs you knew by heart it felt so good.
But unless you're a mega pop star, that rarely happens anymore. Sure, there are mid-level acts, and there are always people testifying they listen to every album from start to finish over and over again as if anybody had that much time, but most people are out of the loop, clueless.
And there's no room for "Rainbow Ends" on pop radio, it rocks too much. Maybe a song could be reworked and covered, there's so much wisdom, so many changes, then again, melody now takes a back seat to beats and few are interested in middle aged wisdom, few are interested in wisdom at all, boasting rules, and one can see why, life is so hard, it's so hard to make it, that we look for beacons to follow and if you're not saying you're great you'll probably get no notice at all.
So where does that leave a guy who's just speaking his truth?
There are so many records, so few radio outlets that mean anything. And today going on the road is not about spreading the word, but preaching to the converted, making the money you cannot with records.
So it's almost like "Rainbow Ends" did not come out. And shy of Justin Bieber tweeting about it, it's already in the dumper, already in the rearview mirror, which troubles me. Has marketing become that important that even if something is great it gets no traction?
Seems like it.
"Dog On A Chain"
YouTube: https://goo.gl/EmFPsU
Spotify: https://goo.gl/7yW4bm
"Isn't It So"
YouTube: https://goo.gl/4a4WDG
Spotify: https://goo.gl/dFr7lF
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Now she hates me
I can't see how I have changed"
It seems that what they loved about you is the same thing that ultimately gets them to leave, which is quite a conundrum if you're the one left standing there. You're just being yourself, everything's hunky-dory, and then she does a one-eighty, you go from hero to zero and you just can't understand why.
"Rainbow Ends" is my go-to LP. The one I play when I'm at loose ends. The one that makes me feel like someone understands me. The one that gives me hope.
Used to be you paid for albums, and you didn't own many, and therefore what you purchased you played until you knew. But that paradigm is history, even with your favorite acts, everything's on the streaming service, you listen once and if it doesn't grab you...
You may never listen again.
But that's not the way it was with "Rainbow Ends." I liked the opening cut and then was overwhelmed by track five and then knew I had to listen again and as I have other tracks have emerged as favorites, this is the way it used to be, a satisfying listening experience, of someone who's got something to say that I can relate to.
Don't think I could write these lyrics right now, but boy have I lived them, especially "Isn't It So."
"Whenever I'm worried and I'm feeling low
When problems are many and I'm all alone
When all the world's troubles are too much to bear
That's when I break down and wish you were here"
"Break down" is the essence. You put on a brave face, you believe you've turned the corner, and then you have a bad day and you just wish she was here, whether you left her or she left you, she knows you, unlike someone else, someone new, you want that glove-like fit.
"I'm still trying to please you even though you're not here
Still talking to you even though you can't hear"
Whew! I don't remember this truth being revealed in a song before, changing your behavior even though she's not there, believing if you're just your best self, doing what she wants, she'll come back.
"But the more I deny it the more that it's true
There's hardly a moment I'm not thinking of you"
I don't know how some people crawl from the wreckage into a brand new car. How they say they're over a relationship mere moments after it's done. For me it's a long fade, I'm not sure if the feeling's ever completely gone, I still feel something for everyone I'm involved with, I don't truly get over anyone until I'm involved with the next person, and I don't truly appreciate what we had until it's gone, I'll bitch and moan when we're involved, but when it's in the rearview mirror I'm crying in my beer, testifying to friends to the point they no longer want to listen, I can't get over you.
But "Isn't It So" isn't the first song that enraptured me on "Rainbow Ends," that was "Someone Else."
Then came "Dog On A Chain," which I haven't written about because it's the most obvious, the opening cut, the single.
"You ain't no good I hear her say
Under her breath as she turns away"
Women are specialists in this, hating you after loving you, while you're still involved. Men eventually get there, but it takes much longer, usually after you've broken up. And it's especially bad when you're trying to please them, it almost works against you, you evidence weakness and they pounce all over it.
"She berates me, calls me crazy
Certifiably insane"
No one likes to be berated, it's one thing not to get along, it's another for your significant other to put you down and rub their heel in your face.
Emitt Rhodes has obviously had some bad luck at love, but he's also learned some lessons.
"Love's not easy, love's not kind
It only works when you're half-blind
Don't be the only one to sacrifice
Don't be the only one to compromise"
The newness wears off. Then you're just two people trying to make it work, or not. That's your goal, to find someone who still likes you after the thrill is gone, who's willing to stick it out for the dividends that are rarely depicted in movies but are true in real life, the longer you stay together the better it gets, assuming it's not only one person giving, one person understanding, both of you have to sacrifice and both of you have to compromise.
And I'm listening to this LP and loving that it's only me who seems to be clued in, it's a private experience. But in the seventies you went to the show and found out that truly wasn't the case, in reality there were scores, sometimes thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, sometimes a hundred thousand who felt just like you and when you were all there at the concert mesmerized by the songs you knew by heart it felt so good.
But unless you're a mega pop star, that rarely happens anymore. Sure, there are mid-level acts, and there are always people testifying they listen to every album from start to finish over and over again as if anybody had that much time, but most people are out of the loop, clueless.
And there's no room for "Rainbow Ends" on pop radio, it rocks too much. Maybe a song could be reworked and covered, there's so much wisdom, so many changes, then again, melody now takes a back seat to beats and few are interested in middle aged wisdom, few are interested in wisdom at all, boasting rules, and one can see why, life is so hard, it's so hard to make it, that we look for beacons to follow and if you're not saying you're great you'll probably get no notice at all.
So where does that leave a guy who's just speaking his truth?
There are so many records, so few radio outlets that mean anything. And today going on the road is not about spreading the word, but preaching to the converted, making the money you cannot with records.
So it's almost like "Rainbow Ends" did not come out. And shy of Justin Bieber tweeting about it, it's already in the dumper, already in the rearview mirror, which troubles me. Has marketing become that important that even if something is great it gets no traction?
Seems like it.
"Dog On A Chain"
YouTube: https://goo.gl/EmFPsU
Spotify: https://goo.gl/7yW4bm
"Isn't It So"
YouTube: https://goo.gl/4a4WDG
Spotify: https://goo.gl/dFr7lF
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Tuesday, 29 March 2016
More Attention
START SMALL
Big time publicity is for big time acts. Not only will most major outlets not cover you, if they do, people will think you're a hype. Better to start small and hit singles rather than home runs, better to activate a core fan base than try to reach everybody, better to take risks and fix your mistakes when fewer are paying attention. People forgive you when you're starting out.
DIFFERENCE DIFFERENTIATES
You can imitate what everybody else is doing, but chances are someone much better funded with more tools at their disposal is doing the same thing. Your best hope of getting noticed is to be unlike everybody else. Like them, but with a twist, not a complete revolutionary. There's room for revolution, just know it's a long hard slog and it rarely happens. Better to do it like the successes, but change it up in unexpected ways. This is where your creativity shines. Execution is important, but inspiration is key, ideas are truly everything. When the light bulb in your head goes off and you smile, then you know you're on the right track, especially when others share your enthusiasm when you tell them your idea or expose them to your work.
YOU'RE GONNA FEEL LOST
That's the world we live in, no one dominates and in the sea of wannabes you're not sure whether you're winning or losing. Oftentimes it feels like you're standing still, treading water, despite working so hard. Keep working, but don't move forward on sheer will and determination, letting your underlying optimism rule. When things are stagnant that's when you must set aside time to think, to ask if the issue is your product or the marketing or whether people just haven't been exposed to what you're doing yet.
TEN YEAR OVERNIGHT SUCCESS
The first win feels great, but it usually isn't even close to first base. When the high wears off you'll have to ponder new questions that you previously could not foresee. Did you expose on the right platform properly? Do you have the right team? Was your product as professional as it could be?
ONE STEP AT A TIME
Keep your eye on the ultimate prize, but know that you'll probably never get there and might end up somewhere else much more satisfying. This is the personal pivot. You think you know what you want, but you probably don't. Success breeds opportunity, as does failure. You get into new situations and find out what you truly want to do. Don't be afraid to give up the original dream.
KEEP LEARNING
It can be in school, through reading or just by hanging out with people, running ideas and listening, but the truth is there's a wealth of mentorship at your fingertips. Sure, it's important to stay in contact with your fans, especially via social media, but there must be balance, if all you're doing is tweeting you'll run out of things to say. One of the great thrills of life is learning and discovery. And in the process you'll find out there are those who are helpful and those who are not, those who know what's going on and those who do not. One pearl of wisdom from a heavyweight can pay dividends for years, whereas a week with a second-rate wannabe can end up with no result, even taking you in the wrong direction. Feed off of others' experiences, but know that you cannot walk in their footsteps, you must tailor what you've learned for yourself.
QUALITY
Your only chance of getting traction is greatness. That's not slickness, but usually something more intellectual, that titillates people. Good is no longer good enough, not if you want to get ahead. Feel free to woodshed, even in public, but know the rocket ship will never leave the launch pad until you deliver your 10. That's right, 10, not 9, never mind 8. A pro knows when he delivers a 10, hits the sweet spot, bangs one over the fence. You learn this through experience, anybody can get lucky once, but to replicate your success... Pay attention to your inner tuning fork, when you're excited about something that's the time to push the button, to make your network aware. Beware of being the boy who cried wolf. In the internet world most people only give one look, it's hard to get them to come back. And there's the conundrum, you work in the wilderness trying new things worried that you're alienating others but if a tastemaker stumbles on something substandard it could hurt you.
Better to play than to hold back, best to satisfy your creative urges than to worry if others care.
CHAOS
That's the world we live in now. Some of the biggest names get less traction than indie players, there's no worldwide ranking that shows us what's truly important. So, everybody is foraging, looking for greatness and eager to spread the word. And everybody is overwhelmed with content. So if you're in the content creation business...you can amp yourself up, tell yourself you're a winner, but that is not enough. In the old days that might work after you got through the golden door, got a record deal. But today everybody can play. The field is flattened. And creativity must be in your blood, just like entrepreneurship. Not everybody can start a company, not everybody can be a star. But we do need companies and stars, and there's a chance you could be it. A very long chance.
CREATION
They call them the "creative arts." Don't lose sight of this. You can go to school and learn how to market, how to write a business plan. But no one can teach you how to be inspired. Look for inspiration. Create when you're elated, catch lightning in a bottle, it's when you're the least inhibited, the most free, that your soul will emanate in your work and you have the best chance of connecting with others.
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Big time publicity is for big time acts. Not only will most major outlets not cover you, if they do, people will think you're a hype. Better to start small and hit singles rather than home runs, better to activate a core fan base than try to reach everybody, better to take risks and fix your mistakes when fewer are paying attention. People forgive you when you're starting out.
DIFFERENCE DIFFERENTIATES
You can imitate what everybody else is doing, but chances are someone much better funded with more tools at their disposal is doing the same thing. Your best hope of getting noticed is to be unlike everybody else. Like them, but with a twist, not a complete revolutionary. There's room for revolution, just know it's a long hard slog and it rarely happens. Better to do it like the successes, but change it up in unexpected ways. This is where your creativity shines. Execution is important, but inspiration is key, ideas are truly everything. When the light bulb in your head goes off and you smile, then you know you're on the right track, especially when others share your enthusiasm when you tell them your idea or expose them to your work.
YOU'RE GONNA FEEL LOST
That's the world we live in, no one dominates and in the sea of wannabes you're not sure whether you're winning or losing. Oftentimes it feels like you're standing still, treading water, despite working so hard. Keep working, but don't move forward on sheer will and determination, letting your underlying optimism rule. When things are stagnant that's when you must set aside time to think, to ask if the issue is your product or the marketing or whether people just haven't been exposed to what you're doing yet.
TEN YEAR OVERNIGHT SUCCESS
The first win feels great, but it usually isn't even close to first base. When the high wears off you'll have to ponder new questions that you previously could not foresee. Did you expose on the right platform properly? Do you have the right team? Was your product as professional as it could be?
ONE STEP AT A TIME
Keep your eye on the ultimate prize, but know that you'll probably never get there and might end up somewhere else much more satisfying. This is the personal pivot. You think you know what you want, but you probably don't. Success breeds opportunity, as does failure. You get into new situations and find out what you truly want to do. Don't be afraid to give up the original dream.
KEEP LEARNING
It can be in school, through reading or just by hanging out with people, running ideas and listening, but the truth is there's a wealth of mentorship at your fingertips. Sure, it's important to stay in contact with your fans, especially via social media, but there must be balance, if all you're doing is tweeting you'll run out of things to say. One of the great thrills of life is learning and discovery. And in the process you'll find out there are those who are helpful and those who are not, those who know what's going on and those who do not. One pearl of wisdom from a heavyweight can pay dividends for years, whereas a week with a second-rate wannabe can end up with no result, even taking you in the wrong direction. Feed off of others' experiences, but know that you cannot walk in their footsteps, you must tailor what you've learned for yourself.
QUALITY
Your only chance of getting traction is greatness. That's not slickness, but usually something more intellectual, that titillates people. Good is no longer good enough, not if you want to get ahead. Feel free to woodshed, even in public, but know the rocket ship will never leave the launch pad until you deliver your 10. That's right, 10, not 9, never mind 8. A pro knows when he delivers a 10, hits the sweet spot, bangs one over the fence. You learn this through experience, anybody can get lucky once, but to replicate your success... Pay attention to your inner tuning fork, when you're excited about something that's the time to push the button, to make your network aware. Beware of being the boy who cried wolf. In the internet world most people only give one look, it's hard to get them to come back. And there's the conundrum, you work in the wilderness trying new things worried that you're alienating others but if a tastemaker stumbles on something substandard it could hurt you.
Better to play than to hold back, best to satisfy your creative urges than to worry if others care.
CHAOS
That's the world we live in now. Some of the biggest names get less traction than indie players, there's no worldwide ranking that shows us what's truly important. So, everybody is foraging, looking for greatness and eager to spread the word. And everybody is overwhelmed with content. So if you're in the content creation business...you can amp yourself up, tell yourself you're a winner, but that is not enough. In the old days that might work after you got through the golden door, got a record deal. But today everybody can play. The field is flattened. And creativity must be in your blood, just like entrepreneurship. Not everybody can start a company, not everybody can be a star. But we do need companies and stars, and there's a chance you could be it. A very long chance.
CREATION
They call them the "creative arts." Don't lose sight of this. You can go to school and learn how to market, how to write a business plan. But no one can teach you how to be inspired. Look for inspiration. Create when you're elated, catch lightning in a bottle, it's when you're the least inhibited, the most free, that your soul will emanate in your work and you have the best chance of connecting with others.
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You Need To Be On Spotify
Maybe YouTube is not king.
As of this moment, Mike Posner's "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" has 200,912,604 streams on Spotify. But nowhere near this count on YouTube.
The Vevo/YouTube clip has 37,303,201 views.
The next most watched YouTube clip of the SeeB remix, which is the track we're talking about here, has 1,697,208 views.
The one after that, 1,399,712 views.
Then there are seventeen clips with views between 100,000 and a million, almost all of them covers. Proving, once again, that fan-created clips are your friend, you get paid on them too, don't take them down.
But the cumulative number on YouTube is nowhere close to the 200 million streams on Spotify.
Now let's go to Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself. It's got 470,378,996 streams on Spotify.
On YouTube, the Vevo clip has 473,103,375 views.
Lukas Graham has 252,848,507 streams of "7 Years" on Spotify, but only 56,907,403 views of the official music video on YouTube and 42,217,563 of the lyric video, together nowhere close to 252 million.
So...
Maybe there's an explanation, maybe there's something I'm not seeing.
And there's the issue of YouTube adoption in the rest of the world, it's not as big for music overseas, and I'm giving you international numbers here, it's a worldwide business.
Then there are the issues of genre and audience. Adele's "Hello" YouTube views far outpace the Spotify streams. The clip has 1,389,801,721 views, there are only 464,430,885 streams of the songs on Spotify. Then again, the entire album isn't on Spotify. And who knows how many playlists it was on. (However, YouTube is free to all, there's no sign-up necessary, it's a larger pool of people.)
But it certainly appears if you're a pop act, appealing to youngsters, you're doing a disservice to your career by not being on Spotify. Where not only your hard core fans can find you, but others experience you via playlists. Furthermore, could it be that Spotify subscribers utilize the service like a CD player/turntable, listening to the tracks over and over, more than those do on YouTube?
The Apple Music numbers are not public.
Never mind Tidal or Rhapsody.
Then again, Spotify has the most subscribers.
If you keep your music off the service you're leaving your fans unsatisfied.
Then again, you might be into cash more than exposure.
Gwen Stefani's new album debuted at number one with 84,000 units sold, supposedly 90% of them pure sales. So, you've got some serious billing there.
But the official video of "Make Me Love You" has only got 6,413,194 views on YouTube in a month. The audio only video has got another 2,937,596 views. Still, these numbers are paltry compared to those of the acts above, even if they've had a longer chart history.
Maybe "Make Me Like You" is a stiff, maybe being on Spotify wouldn't help, but by searching for dollars has Stefani hurt her career? After all, the recorded music is a loss leader for the tour, the merch, the sponsorships. And let's not forget, the revenue for Spotify streams is going up, up, up. Needless to say, Posner, Bieber and Graham will be getting big checks.
If you're interested in mass audience, if you're interested in discovery, you've got to be on all the services day and date, especially Spotify.
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As of this moment, Mike Posner's "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" has 200,912,604 streams on Spotify. But nowhere near this count on YouTube.
The Vevo/YouTube clip has 37,303,201 views.
The next most watched YouTube clip of the SeeB remix, which is the track we're talking about here, has 1,697,208 views.
The one after that, 1,399,712 views.
Then there are seventeen clips with views between 100,000 and a million, almost all of them covers. Proving, once again, that fan-created clips are your friend, you get paid on them too, don't take them down.
But the cumulative number on YouTube is nowhere close to the 200 million streams on Spotify.
Now let's go to Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself. It's got 470,378,996 streams on Spotify.
On YouTube, the Vevo clip has 473,103,375 views.
Lukas Graham has 252,848,507 streams of "7 Years" on Spotify, but only 56,907,403 views of the official music video on YouTube and 42,217,563 of the lyric video, together nowhere close to 252 million.
So...
Maybe there's an explanation, maybe there's something I'm not seeing.
And there's the issue of YouTube adoption in the rest of the world, it's not as big for music overseas, and I'm giving you international numbers here, it's a worldwide business.
Then there are the issues of genre and audience. Adele's "Hello" YouTube views far outpace the Spotify streams. The clip has 1,389,801,721 views, there are only 464,430,885 streams of the songs on Spotify. Then again, the entire album isn't on Spotify. And who knows how many playlists it was on. (However, YouTube is free to all, there's no sign-up necessary, it's a larger pool of people.)
But it certainly appears if you're a pop act, appealing to youngsters, you're doing a disservice to your career by not being on Spotify. Where not only your hard core fans can find you, but others experience you via playlists. Furthermore, could it be that Spotify subscribers utilize the service like a CD player/turntable, listening to the tracks over and over, more than those do on YouTube?
The Apple Music numbers are not public.
Never mind Tidal or Rhapsody.
Then again, Spotify has the most subscribers.
If you keep your music off the service you're leaving your fans unsatisfied.
Then again, you might be into cash more than exposure.
Gwen Stefani's new album debuted at number one with 84,000 units sold, supposedly 90% of them pure sales. So, you've got some serious billing there.
But the official video of "Make Me Love You" has only got 6,413,194 views on YouTube in a month. The audio only video has got another 2,937,596 views. Still, these numbers are paltry compared to those of the acts above, even if they've had a longer chart history.
Maybe "Make Me Like You" is a stiff, maybe being on Spotify wouldn't help, but by searching for dollars has Stefani hurt her career? After all, the recorded music is a loss leader for the tour, the merch, the sponsorships. And let's not forget, the revenue for Spotify streams is going up, up, up. Needless to say, Posner, Bieber and Graham will be getting big checks.
If you're interested in mass audience, if you're interested in discovery, you've got to be on all the services day and date, especially Spotify.
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Monday, 28 March 2016
Andy Grammer Responds
Re: Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah)
Bob,
Thanks for the love. Been reading you since I was a street performer out on 3rd street in Santa Monica. The truth is Good To Be Alive is my favorite song I've ever had. Glad it hit you like it hits me. As for chart positions, sales, and ways to quantify its place in a digital era all that is important and I would be lying if I said I wasn't somewhat consumed with figuring it all out and measuring it up to other songs. All I can say is that when I first heard the demo after recording it (with co-writers Ross Golan and Ian Kirkpatrick) I was in a hotel room and I literally danced around the room like an idiot in my underwear. With all the charts out there that's gotta pull some weight too. Anything that scores that well on the underwear charts is a song I'll sing forever.
Andy
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Bob,
Thanks for the love. Been reading you since I was a street performer out on 3rd street in Santa Monica. The truth is Good To Be Alive is my favorite song I've ever had. Glad it hit you like it hits me. As for chart positions, sales, and ways to quantify its place in a digital era all that is important and I would be lying if I said I wasn't somewhat consumed with figuring it all out and measuring it up to other songs. All I can say is that when I first heard the demo after recording it (with co-writers Ross Golan and Ian Kirkpatrick) I was in a hotel room and I literally danced around the room like an idiot in my underwear. With all the charts out there that's gotta pull some weight too. Anything that scores that well on the underwear charts is a song I'll sing forever.
Andy
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I Took A Pill In Ibiza
This is the video that sold me: https://goo.gl/w9jdDd
Just when you think we've hit the end of the line, that music has got no future, you encounter something like this.
Everybody didn't sing along like this back in 1972, everybody didn't know all the words, we were all uptight, we were all too stoned, but I first noticed this at Taylor Swift shows, before she went pop, when she was still country, when the lyrics were everything and the music served the words...everybody knew them by heart and sang along with them. That's the change today, acts have been pulled down from the stage, into the crowd, that's how you know you've really made it, when your fans see you as a regular person, one who has a moment of genius that makes them feel good.
And "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" makes people feel good.
I'd been tracking the song, figuring it was another EDM number with a hooky sound, but little meaning.
But that is untrue.
The truth is Mike Posner released it last summer and if you hear it you'll be hard-pressed to believe it's the same song, the original's a slowed-down acoustic number, that's heartfelt and suffers from going nowhere musically, but lyrically...it's the opposite of today's I'm a driver, I'm a winner, all positivity, all optimism all the time world. The lyrics stick out...
"I took a pill in Ibiza"
Now there's nothing uncommon about that, that's what you're supposed to do in the Balearics.
But then...
"To show Avicii I was cool"
How much do we do to look cool? We're afraid to be ourselves, we put ourselves at risk, image is everything, if they knew who we truly were they wouldn't include us.
And I barely knew who Mike Posner was, other than he'd had some success before.
But he hadn't had any since, which is what inspired him to write this song.
"And when I finally got sober, felt ten years older
But fuck it, it was something to do"
You can't say anything negative about drugs in our culture, they're the coolest thing going. And I'm not saying users should be put in jail, but I've never had a trip as good as a live experience, I've got more regrets than good times, and I think of all the burned out people I know who smoke ad infinitum, the dope of today, not the mild stuff of yesteryear, which will check you out and remove you from your pain, as well as society.
"I'm living out in L.A.
I drive a sports car just to prove
I'm a real big baller 'cause I made a million dollars
And I spend it on girls and shoes"
L.A. is all about image, what you drive, where you live, you show your wealth, it's the opposite of the east coast, the east coast of yesteryear, when artists could still live in Manhattan. What are all these people gonna do when we go to driverless cars, owned by the man called up by an app? Youngsters know it's your identity that counts, the rest can be summoned on demand.
"You don't ever wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone"
No, you don't. Guys become stars, strive for achievement, for acceptance, for the perks because they want to get laid. But when they find out stardom doesn't solve their internal problems they can't write hits anymore, they find out their only hope is to be honest with themselves, find out who they truly are and change.
"You don't wanna ride the bus like this
Never knowing who to trust like this"
Trust is everything in this world, if you've got no one to trust, if you're not trustworthy, you're gonna be uber-lonely.
And there's nothing like being broke, losing your wheels, no one wants to hit you up on the bus because they know you're a loser.
"I'm just a singer who already blew his shot"
Posner had a top ten single, but he couldn't replicate it.
"I get along with old timers
'Cause my name's a reminder of a pop song people forgot"
Whew! You can get in the building, people know your name, but you're a has-been.
"And I can't keep a girl, no
'Cause as soon as the sun comes up
I cut 'em all loose and work's my excuse"
That's the truth of being a musician, it's hard work. It's not like Vince and his buds on "Entourage," there's little time off, those are actors playing roles, whereas a musician has to create all the time and then sell it, doing publicity, going on tour, assuming anybody cares, and in today's world it's hard to get attention, never mind keep it.
"But the truth is I can't open up"
Whew! This is a guy, being vulnerable! Do you know how hard this is to do?
"I met some fans on Lafayette
They said tell us how to make it 'cause we're getting real impatient"
Everybody believes they're a star, worthy of attention, even though this is patently untrue. The delusional ultimately have their eyes opened, but this comes some time after their impatience, they're hanging on Posner's words, he got there, how do they trample him and get the brass ring themselves?
"But you don't wanna be high like me"
Sounds like sour grapes, but Posner's just saying...be wary of getting what you want and finding it doesn't make you happy, crying in your beer.
And if you listen to the original studio acoustic take, not only is it not a hit you don't need to hear it more than once.
Until you hear the remix.
Then your head spins, the song flips, the lyrics are nearly irrelevant, they go by so fast you don't catch them, it's all about the sound. And just like a "Hamilton"-goer who hates rap suddenly realizes he was wrong, EDM-haters are enraptured by this sound.
This is the future the oldsters and record companies are trying to hold down. The truth is fans want to remix your work, want to make it their own, and sometimes fresh eyes and ears make all the difference, the SeeB remix made "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" a worldwide hit, embraced, ironically, by those who want to go to the island, drop a drug and cut loose.
BUT THE SOUND IS SO INFECTIOUS!
The remix would be a hit with completely different lyrics.
But they're not.
So what's a boy to do? Posner bears his soul, reflects how he's down and out, and he ends up with the party anthem of the year.
Which everybody knows.
That's the amazing thing today, how people know at all. How do all those people at the Roxy...how were they clued in?
We all want to be clued in. But the scene is overwhelming.
But then you get an email, something catches your ear or eye, and you're a member, you're a believer!
And that Roxy video shot from the audience closed me.
That's the power of YouTube, that's the power of having a camera in every fan's hand.
Suddenly a track comes alive, an experience is created.
This is the modern future, not a canned performance, one hermetically sealed that the audience can only watch but not embrace.
Posner has sped up his acoustic number. It's not EDM, but it's still the same song, it's all about the song, he who writes the changes wins.
He who creates the changes and lays down truth goes to the top, is not forgotten, that's the essence of Lorde's "Royals" and "I Took A Pill In Ibiza."
It'd be easy to dismiss the modern pop scene, EDM, say everything today sucks.
But the truth is it's hard to find.
But when you uncover gems you're touched, feel as you always did, it's the same as it ever was.
AND THAT'S SO FUCKING GREAT!
SeeB remix on YouTube: https://goo.gl/RQwjYh
SeeB remix on Spotify: https://goo.gl/Qjcrf8
"The Tonight Show" (Posner does the same take as he does at the Roxy, but with not quite the same magic, but magic nonetheless): http://goo.gl/sXDJw9
P.S. Posner's number 5 on today's U.S. Spotify chart, with 726,776 streams. The SeeB remix has been streamed 197,882,428 times so far on the service. It's a top ten digital download. The track went to number one in the UK, it's a hit all over the world.
P.P.S. In the old days the TV appearances would be about breaking the act, now it's about the victory lap. A hit track today is owned by the audience, and people don't need you unless you can do it again and again and again. Hits give you a start, but a career's so hard to achieve, just ask Mike Posner!
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Just when you think we've hit the end of the line, that music has got no future, you encounter something like this.
Everybody didn't sing along like this back in 1972, everybody didn't know all the words, we were all uptight, we were all too stoned, but I first noticed this at Taylor Swift shows, before she went pop, when she was still country, when the lyrics were everything and the music served the words...everybody knew them by heart and sang along with them. That's the change today, acts have been pulled down from the stage, into the crowd, that's how you know you've really made it, when your fans see you as a regular person, one who has a moment of genius that makes them feel good.
And "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" makes people feel good.
I'd been tracking the song, figuring it was another EDM number with a hooky sound, but little meaning.
But that is untrue.
The truth is Mike Posner released it last summer and if you hear it you'll be hard-pressed to believe it's the same song, the original's a slowed-down acoustic number, that's heartfelt and suffers from going nowhere musically, but lyrically...it's the opposite of today's I'm a driver, I'm a winner, all positivity, all optimism all the time world. The lyrics stick out...
"I took a pill in Ibiza"
Now there's nothing uncommon about that, that's what you're supposed to do in the Balearics.
But then...
"To show Avicii I was cool"
How much do we do to look cool? We're afraid to be ourselves, we put ourselves at risk, image is everything, if they knew who we truly were they wouldn't include us.
And I barely knew who Mike Posner was, other than he'd had some success before.
But he hadn't had any since, which is what inspired him to write this song.
"And when I finally got sober, felt ten years older
But fuck it, it was something to do"
You can't say anything negative about drugs in our culture, they're the coolest thing going. And I'm not saying users should be put in jail, but I've never had a trip as good as a live experience, I've got more regrets than good times, and I think of all the burned out people I know who smoke ad infinitum, the dope of today, not the mild stuff of yesteryear, which will check you out and remove you from your pain, as well as society.
"I'm living out in L.A.
I drive a sports car just to prove
I'm a real big baller 'cause I made a million dollars
And I spend it on girls and shoes"
L.A. is all about image, what you drive, where you live, you show your wealth, it's the opposite of the east coast, the east coast of yesteryear, when artists could still live in Manhattan. What are all these people gonna do when we go to driverless cars, owned by the man called up by an app? Youngsters know it's your identity that counts, the rest can be summoned on demand.
"You don't ever wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone"
No, you don't. Guys become stars, strive for achievement, for acceptance, for the perks because they want to get laid. But when they find out stardom doesn't solve their internal problems they can't write hits anymore, they find out their only hope is to be honest with themselves, find out who they truly are and change.
"You don't wanna ride the bus like this
Never knowing who to trust like this"
Trust is everything in this world, if you've got no one to trust, if you're not trustworthy, you're gonna be uber-lonely.
And there's nothing like being broke, losing your wheels, no one wants to hit you up on the bus because they know you're a loser.
"I'm just a singer who already blew his shot"
Posner had a top ten single, but he couldn't replicate it.
"I get along with old timers
'Cause my name's a reminder of a pop song people forgot"
Whew! You can get in the building, people know your name, but you're a has-been.
"And I can't keep a girl, no
'Cause as soon as the sun comes up
I cut 'em all loose and work's my excuse"
That's the truth of being a musician, it's hard work. It's not like Vince and his buds on "Entourage," there's little time off, those are actors playing roles, whereas a musician has to create all the time and then sell it, doing publicity, going on tour, assuming anybody cares, and in today's world it's hard to get attention, never mind keep it.
"But the truth is I can't open up"
Whew! This is a guy, being vulnerable! Do you know how hard this is to do?
"I met some fans on Lafayette
They said tell us how to make it 'cause we're getting real impatient"
Everybody believes they're a star, worthy of attention, even though this is patently untrue. The delusional ultimately have their eyes opened, but this comes some time after their impatience, they're hanging on Posner's words, he got there, how do they trample him and get the brass ring themselves?
"But you don't wanna be high like me"
Sounds like sour grapes, but Posner's just saying...be wary of getting what you want and finding it doesn't make you happy, crying in your beer.
And if you listen to the original studio acoustic take, not only is it not a hit you don't need to hear it more than once.
Until you hear the remix.
Then your head spins, the song flips, the lyrics are nearly irrelevant, they go by so fast you don't catch them, it's all about the sound. And just like a "Hamilton"-goer who hates rap suddenly realizes he was wrong, EDM-haters are enraptured by this sound.
This is the future the oldsters and record companies are trying to hold down. The truth is fans want to remix your work, want to make it their own, and sometimes fresh eyes and ears make all the difference, the SeeB remix made "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" a worldwide hit, embraced, ironically, by those who want to go to the island, drop a drug and cut loose.
BUT THE SOUND IS SO INFECTIOUS!
The remix would be a hit with completely different lyrics.
But they're not.
So what's a boy to do? Posner bears his soul, reflects how he's down and out, and he ends up with the party anthem of the year.
Which everybody knows.
That's the amazing thing today, how people know at all. How do all those people at the Roxy...how were they clued in?
We all want to be clued in. But the scene is overwhelming.
But then you get an email, something catches your ear or eye, and you're a member, you're a believer!
And that Roxy video shot from the audience closed me.
That's the power of YouTube, that's the power of having a camera in every fan's hand.
Suddenly a track comes alive, an experience is created.
This is the modern future, not a canned performance, one hermetically sealed that the audience can only watch but not embrace.
Posner has sped up his acoustic number. It's not EDM, but it's still the same song, it's all about the song, he who writes the changes wins.
He who creates the changes and lays down truth goes to the top, is not forgotten, that's the essence of Lorde's "Royals" and "I Took A Pill In Ibiza."
It'd be easy to dismiss the modern pop scene, EDM, say everything today sucks.
But the truth is it's hard to find.
But when you uncover gems you're touched, feel as you always did, it's the same as it ever was.
AND THAT'S SO FUCKING GREAT!
SeeB remix on YouTube: https://goo.gl/RQwjYh
SeeB remix on Spotify: https://goo.gl/Qjcrf8
"The Tonight Show" (Posner does the same take as he does at the Roxy, but with not quite the same magic, but magic nonetheless): http://goo.gl/sXDJw9
P.S. Posner's number 5 on today's U.S. Spotify chart, with 726,776 streams. The SeeB remix has been streamed 197,882,428 times so far on the service. It's a top ten digital download. The track went to number one in the UK, it's a hit all over the world.
P.P.S. In the old days the TV appearances would be about breaking the act, now it's about the victory lap. A hit track today is owned by the audience, and people don't need you unless you can do it again and again and again. Hits give you a start, but a career's so hard to achieve, just ask Mike Posner!
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David Gilmour At The Hollywood Bowl
Their Syd Barrett LPs made nary a dent in the U.S. Most people first heard "See Emily Play" when David Bowie covered it on "Pin Ups." But when the shiny diamond was gone word started to spread, Pink Floyd were testing limits, in an era where that was admired, unlike today, where life is so hard that anybody with any success just repeats himself, and the wannabes imitate what's on the hit parade.
So I bought "Ummagumma" and didn't really get it. I didn't find it offensive, it's just that I didn't want to spin it ad infinitum, in an era where money was precious and if you bought it you played it until you knew it.
And then I viewed Pink Floyd from afar, I saw their albums in the record store bins, but I didn't buy them. It seemed the act was a curio, doing their own thing to a marginal audience. From "Ummagumma" to "Atom Heart Mother" to "Meddle" to "Obscured By Clouds" and then...
I was going to college in Vermont, there was no radio, unlike today if you were living in the hinterlands you were truly out of it. Except for the rock press, "Creem" and "Rolling Stone," they said Pink Floyd had a hit.
This was impossible. They'd given it multiple tries. Why now? Why did the punters suddenly embrace this left field act?
"Money."
The cash register rang, Storm Thorgerson's images covered the bandshell and it was one of those transcendent moments that you could never foresee that made you tingle and feel fully alive.
You see there was barely a more played track in the seventies. Every city you went to, every time you turned on FM radio, you heard "Money." There was a level of ubiquity far outstripping the tunes of today, and when Gilmour and band laid into that bass heavy groove it was positively shocking, it was like having your best friend from school walk through the door completely unchanged, HOW COULD THIS BE?
And unlike the fearful acts of today, nothing was on hard drive, and unlike Bob Dylan, Gilmour saw no need to rework the number to satisfy himself, he played it just like the record.
Only different.
The bass was emphasized, the sax solo was alive and present, and he was WAILING on the guitar.
You forget what a great guitarist he is, because he never bragged, and all the accolades go to Jimi and Jimmy, Eric and Jeff, but Gilmour's bending notes and it's like what you heard on FM suddenly became three-dimensional, went from stereo to 5.1., it was the difference between watching porn on your computer and touching someone in real life. You're totally in the moment, your senses are heightened, this is the GUY!
"Wish You Were Here" came before that.
This got nowhere near the airplay "Money" did. But remember when the Twin Towers collapsed, when life in these United States stopped? Jimmy Iovine rallied a retinue of stars for a concert while we were all still in shock, Fred Durst and Johnny Rzeznik did "Wish You Were Here." Both of them have been forgotten today, they're period pieces, but not only does this song live on, it was the most fitting number of the evening. That's the power of rock music, that's the power of classic rock, that's the power of Pink Floyd, "Wish You Were Here" was not momentary, not a ditty to be digested and discarded but something you pondered and embraced, that became part of you. And it wasn't only those who were there, but those who came after. Gilmour's version was faithful to the record, the highlights were the picking and the nonsense vocalizations he replicated, no one does that anymore, gives us what we want, the way we heard it originally, it ended too soon, it could have gone on all night.
And, of course, there were new tracks, that was the reason for the show.
David Crosby's vocalizations made them special, but that was not what people came to hear.
Then again, it was a somnambulant audience, they'd stand and applaud after one of the Floyd numbers, but they never really got into it...
Until "Run Like Hell."
"They're gonna send you back to mother in a cardboard box"
Disco had supposedly killed rock, on August 10, 1979, CBS laid off 120 people.
They just didn't wait long enough. Because at the end of November, the 30th to be exact, right after Thanksgiving, Pink Floyd dropped a double album so big it made the assembled multitude forget about corporate rock, Steve Dahl was just a memory, everything was plowed under by the "Wall."
Imagine if Adele's music meant anything, stood for something, and her latest album was released with a tenth the hype and ended up being heard EVERYWHERE!
Sure, "Dark Side Of The Moon" never fell off the chart, but although successful, the albums that followed it were nowhere near as big, no one expected Pink Floyd to dominate at the turn of the decade.
But they did.
"Another Brick In The Wall" got incessant airplay. All we hear today is education rules, our nation is run by people who jumped through hoops, but it wasn't this way in the classic rock era, instead we got not nincompoops, wet behind the ears idiots like Justin Bieber, but self-educated men and women who questioned authority, all the established precepts, to be an individual was key, today everybody just wants to be a member of the group.
And for years thereafter, when the station had time to kill, running up to the news, they'd play "Run Like Hell," it's the most famous near-instrumental you're aware of but don't know.
Like all the Floyd hits, they were incessant presences in our lives.
Now you've got to know the production Thursday night was spectacular. Not only were there Storm Thorgerson's graphics, but Marc Brickman's lights, he got an extra 250k to make it exceptional, this was not the same show you saw indoors, this was SPECIAL!
And Phil Manzanera is picking notes, there are three backup singers and two keyboard players, but the man at center stage was the star.
Clapton can't even play "Layla," maybe because those notes were picked by Duane Allman.
And so many have trouble replicating studio excellence live.
But Gilmour was making those guitar strings squeak, notes were flying out of his axe like lightning bolts, the drums started to pound, this was RUN LIKE HELL!
I jumped up. I couldn't help it. This was unexpected. I figured he'd do "Comfortably Numb," which he did. Sure, it was cool to hear "Astronomy Domine" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," but "Run Like Hell" is rarely mentioned as sitting atop Pink Floyd's canon.
And it took a while for the audience to recognize it, to wake up from sleep after digesting their picnics, but the sound spread, the space became electric, everybody rose to their feet in sheer wonderment, at this seventy year old who seemed not to lose a step, who wasn't showing off, but seemed deeply entranced in playing this number that's part of our DNA, that sets our minds free, that separates you from me, illustrates we're all individuals, trying to survive, trying to make our lives work.
And you can turn it up to eleven at home, but you'll never experience the power, the assault that it was on Thursday night.
"And if you're takin' your girlfriend out tonight
You better park the car well out of sight"
That's where we heard this music, in our automobiles, privacy ruled, there was a direct link between the musicians and us, everywhere the tunes played, they rode shotgun, they gave guidance.
"'Cause if they catch you in the back seat
Trying to pick her locks"
Parents didn't let girlfriends sleep over. Mom and Dad were clueless enemies. We were inventing it as we went along. You didn't save yourself for marriage, rather you searched mightily for experience.
"You better run"
Everybody's stopped running.
We're afraid of being left behind, but we're anesthetized by Netflix, communication is done on Instagram, whereas going to the gig used to be a tribal rite, it was the best place to find like-minded people.
And sure, we liked to zone out.
But we knew the future was in our hands. And nobody was gonna help us out. Institutions were not to be trusted, corporations were the enemy.
And the biggest stars in the world were musicians.
This was pre-MTV. The average person couldn't pick David Gilmour out of a lineup.
But when they heard his guitar come out of the speaker, they knew exactly who it was.
This was the sound that soothed them, it was the soundtrack to their dreams, it was what set them loose.
David Gilmour set me loose Thursday night.
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So I bought "Ummagumma" and didn't really get it. I didn't find it offensive, it's just that I didn't want to spin it ad infinitum, in an era where money was precious and if you bought it you played it until you knew it.
And then I viewed Pink Floyd from afar, I saw their albums in the record store bins, but I didn't buy them. It seemed the act was a curio, doing their own thing to a marginal audience. From "Ummagumma" to "Atom Heart Mother" to "Meddle" to "Obscured By Clouds" and then...
I was going to college in Vermont, there was no radio, unlike today if you were living in the hinterlands you were truly out of it. Except for the rock press, "Creem" and "Rolling Stone," they said Pink Floyd had a hit.
This was impossible. They'd given it multiple tries. Why now? Why did the punters suddenly embrace this left field act?
"Money."
The cash register rang, Storm Thorgerson's images covered the bandshell and it was one of those transcendent moments that you could never foresee that made you tingle and feel fully alive.
You see there was barely a more played track in the seventies. Every city you went to, every time you turned on FM radio, you heard "Money." There was a level of ubiquity far outstripping the tunes of today, and when Gilmour and band laid into that bass heavy groove it was positively shocking, it was like having your best friend from school walk through the door completely unchanged, HOW COULD THIS BE?
And unlike the fearful acts of today, nothing was on hard drive, and unlike Bob Dylan, Gilmour saw no need to rework the number to satisfy himself, he played it just like the record.
Only different.
The bass was emphasized, the sax solo was alive and present, and he was WAILING on the guitar.
You forget what a great guitarist he is, because he never bragged, and all the accolades go to Jimi and Jimmy, Eric and Jeff, but Gilmour's bending notes and it's like what you heard on FM suddenly became three-dimensional, went from stereo to 5.1., it was the difference between watching porn on your computer and touching someone in real life. You're totally in the moment, your senses are heightened, this is the GUY!
"Wish You Were Here" came before that.
This got nowhere near the airplay "Money" did. But remember when the Twin Towers collapsed, when life in these United States stopped? Jimmy Iovine rallied a retinue of stars for a concert while we were all still in shock, Fred Durst and Johnny Rzeznik did "Wish You Were Here." Both of them have been forgotten today, they're period pieces, but not only does this song live on, it was the most fitting number of the evening. That's the power of rock music, that's the power of classic rock, that's the power of Pink Floyd, "Wish You Were Here" was not momentary, not a ditty to be digested and discarded but something you pondered and embraced, that became part of you. And it wasn't only those who were there, but those who came after. Gilmour's version was faithful to the record, the highlights were the picking and the nonsense vocalizations he replicated, no one does that anymore, gives us what we want, the way we heard it originally, it ended too soon, it could have gone on all night.
And, of course, there were new tracks, that was the reason for the show.
David Crosby's vocalizations made them special, but that was not what people came to hear.
Then again, it was a somnambulant audience, they'd stand and applaud after one of the Floyd numbers, but they never really got into it...
Until "Run Like Hell."
"They're gonna send you back to mother in a cardboard box"
Disco had supposedly killed rock, on August 10, 1979, CBS laid off 120 people.
They just didn't wait long enough. Because at the end of November, the 30th to be exact, right after Thanksgiving, Pink Floyd dropped a double album so big it made the assembled multitude forget about corporate rock, Steve Dahl was just a memory, everything was plowed under by the "Wall."
Imagine if Adele's music meant anything, stood for something, and her latest album was released with a tenth the hype and ended up being heard EVERYWHERE!
Sure, "Dark Side Of The Moon" never fell off the chart, but although successful, the albums that followed it were nowhere near as big, no one expected Pink Floyd to dominate at the turn of the decade.
But they did.
"Another Brick In The Wall" got incessant airplay. All we hear today is education rules, our nation is run by people who jumped through hoops, but it wasn't this way in the classic rock era, instead we got not nincompoops, wet behind the ears idiots like Justin Bieber, but self-educated men and women who questioned authority, all the established precepts, to be an individual was key, today everybody just wants to be a member of the group.
And for years thereafter, when the station had time to kill, running up to the news, they'd play "Run Like Hell," it's the most famous near-instrumental you're aware of but don't know.
Like all the Floyd hits, they were incessant presences in our lives.
Now you've got to know the production Thursday night was spectacular. Not only were there Storm Thorgerson's graphics, but Marc Brickman's lights, he got an extra 250k to make it exceptional, this was not the same show you saw indoors, this was SPECIAL!
And Phil Manzanera is picking notes, there are three backup singers and two keyboard players, but the man at center stage was the star.
Clapton can't even play "Layla," maybe because those notes were picked by Duane Allman.
And so many have trouble replicating studio excellence live.
But Gilmour was making those guitar strings squeak, notes were flying out of his axe like lightning bolts, the drums started to pound, this was RUN LIKE HELL!
I jumped up. I couldn't help it. This was unexpected. I figured he'd do "Comfortably Numb," which he did. Sure, it was cool to hear "Astronomy Domine" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," but "Run Like Hell" is rarely mentioned as sitting atop Pink Floyd's canon.
And it took a while for the audience to recognize it, to wake up from sleep after digesting their picnics, but the sound spread, the space became electric, everybody rose to their feet in sheer wonderment, at this seventy year old who seemed not to lose a step, who wasn't showing off, but seemed deeply entranced in playing this number that's part of our DNA, that sets our minds free, that separates you from me, illustrates we're all individuals, trying to survive, trying to make our lives work.
And you can turn it up to eleven at home, but you'll never experience the power, the assault that it was on Thursday night.
"And if you're takin' your girlfriend out tonight
You better park the car well out of sight"
That's where we heard this music, in our automobiles, privacy ruled, there was a direct link between the musicians and us, everywhere the tunes played, they rode shotgun, they gave guidance.
"'Cause if they catch you in the back seat
Trying to pick her locks"
Parents didn't let girlfriends sleep over. Mom and Dad were clueless enemies. We were inventing it as we went along. You didn't save yourself for marriage, rather you searched mightily for experience.
"You better run"
Everybody's stopped running.
We're afraid of being left behind, but we're anesthetized by Netflix, communication is done on Instagram, whereas going to the gig used to be a tribal rite, it was the best place to find like-minded people.
And sure, we liked to zone out.
But we knew the future was in our hands. And nobody was gonna help us out. Institutions were not to be trusted, corporations were the enemy.
And the biggest stars in the world were musicians.
This was pre-MTV. The average person couldn't pick David Gilmour out of a lineup.
But when they heard his guitar come out of the speaker, they knew exactly who it was.
This was the sound that soothed them, it was the soundtrack to their dreams, it was what set them loose.
David Gilmour set me loose Thursday night.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
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--
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