Tune in Saturday October 5th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
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Thursday 3 October 2024
Richard Thompson-This Week's Podcast
The one and only.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/richard-thompson/id1316200737?i=1000671654137
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5azQic3KXglhodDzUh9zR1?si=ea20de0df6b84090
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/richard-thompson-223096078/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/22dab886-9681-4c9f-b13e-9e147b0e70ad/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-richard-thompson
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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/richard-thompson/id1316200737?i=1000671654137
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5azQic3KXglhodDzUh9zR1?si=ea20de0df6b84090
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/richard-thompson-223096078/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/22dab886-9681-4c9f-b13e-9e147b0e70ad/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-richard-thompson
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Tuesday 1 October 2024
The Vice Presidential Debate
JD Vance is very intelligent, but he's unlikable.
Whereas Tim Walz is smart, he might not have as high an IQ as Vance, but he's definitely likable.
This is what the Democrats didn't understand in 2000 and 2004. And 2016, while we're at it. Their candidates were skilled, but not very likable. I'm still not exactly sure who Al Gore is. The college roommate of Tommy Lee Jones, whooping it up and testing limits, or the buttoned-up son of a career pol?
And John Kerry... Educated war hero or the husband of a very rich widow?
As for Hillary Clinton, I know exactly who she is. I don't like that she can be duplicitous, triangulating to the point where you know she doesn't believe what she is saying, but Hillary was and still is incredibly skilled, incredibly experienced, and could probably tie JD Vance in knots intellectually.
But people didn't like Hillary. People don't even like the Hillary type. The elite educated person who thinks they're better than you are.
This played in the day of JFK, when government was all about the best and the brightest, but with Reagan ushering in income inequality, with the passing of NAFTA, America got divided into winners and losers, and most of the winners were given every advantage and it's hard for the losers to still believe in the American Dream.
Politics is not business. Could JD Vance be good at business? Possibly. But in politics? He barely won his Senate seat, this guy is smarmy, I don't believe he believes half of what he said tonight. This is a guy like Don King, who starts off in one corner of the ring and ends up in the other, when his fighter is beaten by the challenger.
So what does tonight's debate have to do with next month's election?
NOTHING!
The best article you can read about the election is by Ronald Brownstein in "The Atlantic," it comes as part of your Apple News+ subscription, but if you're cheap or a Windows person you're allowed some access to "The Atlantic" before the paywall kicks in, so unless you've used up your quota, you can read this article:
"The Undecided Voters Are Not Who You Think They Are - For most, the big decision is about whether to vote at all."
https://t.ly/n6234
Bottom line?
There are no undecideds. It's a fiction propagated by big media and the self-styled political pundits online in order to sell advertising, make money and boost their image.
To tell you the truth, I don't know anybody who is still following the presidential race.
Oh, that's a bit dramatic. But no one e-mails, no one texts, no one calls about the election anymore. Literally, zippo. Ever since the debate.
But there are gotchas in the news on a regular basis.
You have the out of touch Bret Stephens still needing to be convinced to vote for Kamala Harris. He needs more information, more policy. The best response to Stephens was by Stephanie Ruhle on Bill Maher's show. This is what she said to Stephens:
"'For the last two weeks, I've been going on and on, like, I can't figure out where ... informed undecided voters are,' Ruhle said. 'Like, who's the person who has a list on their refrigerator of, like, "Well, she said this, and he said ..." I'm, like, who is this person? And then I open the New York Times three days ago and it's you.'"
https://t.ly/H6IZC
Bingo. And the video went viral.
You've got to laugh at the opiners. They think they matter, but they've lost touch with the public.
I don't care whether Tim Walz was at the protest in Tiananmen Square and it's interesting to me that JD Vance was against Trump before he was for him, but I don't think these revelations are swaying a single voter.
Like tonight's debate. Which had an element of kumbaya. This is the debate we've been hoping for for years. Although by the end it was akin to high school.
We agree on most things. Walz acknowledged this. But some of Trump's statements are so wackadoodle...
It's about Trump.
Now in the old days, the Republican party was run by business people, fat cats. The Republican candidates were the ones you couldn't really get a bead on, who were smiling, but you knew beneath it all they were really just for themselves and their fat cat brethren. Lower taxes and little regulation! So business can prosper. Talk about a bill of goods for the middle class. None of the benefits trickled down to them, and business started to take over politics.
Donald Trump tapped into the discontent of those without a voice, who got screwed.
Oh, don't tell me about the upper middle class white nationalists. There are not enough of them to win. But the lower classes, who've suffered these past few decades, they were all in on Trump. Was there racism? Sure, but these people were sick and tired of being told what to do by the educated rich. Don't you remember Trump claiming that he loves the uneducated?
Clinton couldn't tap into this. Biden was a bit better, and was boosted by Trump hatred. But rust never sleeps and Trump is back, meanwhile, the Democratic party turned into the Republicans, everything was done behind closed doors, we were told Biden was ready to serve into his middle eighties. We don't even want many people to drive at that age, if they're even alive!
And I can't tell you who Kamala is either. But I know Tim Walz. I've had this guy as a teacher. What you see is what you get. And in a world where this has been absent so long, this is appealing.
Ever try teaching? Forget what you know, especially today it's about keeping order in the classroom, it's a skill, that most don't have. But Walz does.
As for those who said Josh Shapiro should have been the vice presidential candidate... I heard him on James Carville and Al Hunt's podcast. Shapiro is whip-smart. You believe he believes what he is saying, unlike JD Vance. But Shapiro is much closer to Vance than Walz, as in he is highly intelligent and very articulate.
Walz seemed to stumble at times. No, let me say that he FROZE at times. Threw me way off guard at the beginning. Were we in for another Biden debate? And then I was convinced it was a matter of being overprepared. He was so stuffed with facts, so concerned with getting it right, that he had a hard time being folksy, being natural.
But as the debate wore on, he continued to have those frozen moments. I guess that's just him and I hadn't seen him enough previously. But this mannerism does not mean I won't vote for him.
Tim Walz is a man of the people.
JD Vance...WENT TO YALE LAW SCHOOL!
As did Hillary Clinton. And Vance is much closer, much more similar to Hillary than Trump.
So, I could delineate the issues...
Vance started off pretty good, irrelevant of the veracity of his statements, but then it became a constant hammering of energy and immigrants, he shoehorned these issues into every answer, and everything isn't about energy and immigrants.
Walz was more straightforward and honest. And the more you watched, the more appealing he became.
As for the truth, the vaunted fact-checking CBS QR code? I guess Paramount Global's lack of cash has trickled all the way down to their news service, because CBS didn't have enough bandwidth for people to see the page! How in the hell can you be this unprepared? You're a news organization? This is laughable. I refreshed and refreshed, it never loaded. Hell, you could have contracted with AWS and been ready, but NO... And if CBS gets it so wrong on this, how trustworthy is it on the big issues?
So for a while there the debate was good entertainment. And then it slowed down and got boring and it was hard to stay off your phone, multitasking.
Donald Trump is an anomaly. His strategy is to try and win in the swing states and if not, challenge a Harris/Walz victory via the legal system. I mean JD... He lost all credibility when he wouldn't admit Trump lost the 2020 election. I mean really? You went to Yale, you worked in banking and you're buying the canard that Biden didn't win? You could see he didn't believe it just watching him, but this is a litmus test for Trumpers, and he couldn't cross the boss.
So Trump screwed up. He should have nominated someone folksy, to cut through his high strung, silver spoon ravings.
Vance adds nothing to the ticket. If anything, he convinces you that the whole Trump enterprise is a Trojan Horse affair. Everybody telling Donald what he wants to hear, but no one with any power believing it.
If you're the smartest person in the room, think twice about going into politics. Because that's not what's needed. Being warm, likable, being able to relate is a skill, one which many business titans don't have. Can you say "ELON MUSK"?
You can get away with it in business, not all the time, but if you put up the numbers and/or have voting control...
But Steve Jobs excoriated his employees on a regular basis. All in pursuit of excellence, which was often achieved, but people were not lining up to go for a drink with him, furthermore Jobs didn't want to go for a drink with THEM!
Walz's closing statement was amazing. Upbeat and optimistic about a coming together, a great antidote to the Trump train.
But, once again, stop paying attention and vote. You know who you're going to vote for. Encourage your friends to vote. The ones who never have or only sometimes do. That's what's going to make the difference.
The news for another thirty-odd days?
It's just a sideshow. A bad blockbuster being pushed by a studio that people don't want.
This debate had additional gravitas because Trump won't get in a room with Harris again. And it was not a cartoon, like most VP debates. It was more edifying than the Trump/Harris debate.
But in truth, that's who it comes down to, either Trump or Harris, the VP candidates really don't make a difference.
You know who you're going to vote for.
Do so.
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Whereas Tim Walz is smart, he might not have as high an IQ as Vance, but he's definitely likable.
This is what the Democrats didn't understand in 2000 and 2004. And 2016, while we're at it. Their candidates were skilled, but not very likable. I'm still not exactly sure who Al Gore is. The college roommate of Tommy Lee Jones, whooping it up and testing limits, or the buttoned-up son of a career pol?
And John Kerry... Educated war hero or the husband of a very rich widow?
As for Hillary Clinton, I know exactly who she is. I don't like that she can be duplicitous, triangulating to the point where you know she doesn't believe what she is saying, but Hillary was and still is incredibly skilled, incredibly experienced, and could probably tie JD Vance in knots intellectually.
But people didn't like Hillary. People don't even like the Hillary type. The elite educated person who thinks they're better than you are.
This played in the day of JFK, when government was all about the best and the brightest, but with Reagan ushering in income inequality, with the passing of NAFTA, America got divided into winners and losers, and most of the winners were given every advantage and it's hard for the losers to still believe in the American Dream.
Politics is not business. Could JD Vance be good at business? Possibly. But in politics? He barely won his Senate seat, this guy is smarmy, I don't believe he believes half of what he said tonight. This is a guy like Don King, who starts off in one corner of the ring and ends up in the other, when his fighter is beaten by the challenger.
So what does tonight's debate have to do with next month's election?
NOTHING!
The best article you can read about the election is by Ronald Brownstein in "The Atlantic," it comes as part of your Apple News+ subscription, but if you're cheap or a Windows person you're allowed some access to "The Atlantic" before the paywall kicks in, so unless you've used up your quota, you can read this article:
"The Undecided Voters Are Not Who You Think They Are - For most, the big decision is about whether to vote at all."
https://t.ly/n6234
Bottom line?
There are no undecideds. It's a fiction propagated by big media and the self-styled political pundits online in order to sell advertising, make money and boost their image.
To tell you the truth, I don't know anybody who is still following the presidential race.
Oh, that's a bit dramatic. But no one e-mails, no one texts, no one calls about the election anymore. Literally, zippo. Ever since the debate.
But there are gotchas in the news on a regular basis.
You have the out of touch Bret Stephens still needing to be convinced to vote for Kamala Harris. He needs more information, more policy. The best response to Stephens was by Stephanie Ruhle on Bill Maher's show. This is what she said to Stephens:
"'For the last two weeks, I've been going on and on, like, I can't figure out where ... informed undecided voters are,' Ruhle said. 'Like, who's the person who has a list on their refrigerator of, like, "Well, she said this, and he said ..." I'm, like, who is this person? And then I open the New York Times three days ago and it's you.'"
https://t.ly/H6IZC
Bingo. And the video went viral.
You've got to laugh at the opiners. They think they matter, but they've lost touch with the public.
I don't care whether Tim Walz was at the protest in Tiananmen Square and it's interesting to me that JD Vance was against Trump before he was for him, but I don't think these revelations are swaying a single voter.
Like tonight's debate. Which had an element of kumbaya. This is the debate we've been hoping for for years. Although by the end it was akin to high school.
We agree on most things. Walz acknowledged this. But some of Trump's statements are so wackadoodle...
It's about Trump.
Now in the old days, the Republican party was run by business people, fat cats. The Republican candidates were the ones you couldn't really get a bead on, who were smiling, but you knew beneath it all they were really just for themselves and their fat cat brethren. Lower taxes and little regulation! So business can prosper. Talk about a bill of goods for the middle class. None of the benefits trickled down to them, and business started to take over politics.
Donald Trump tapped into the discontent of those without a voice, who got screwed.
Oh, don't tell me about the upper middle class white nationalists. There are not enough of them to win. But the lower classes, who've suffered these past few decades, they were all in on Trump. Was there racism? Sure, but these people were sick and tired of being told what to do by the educated rich. Don't you remember Trump claiming that he loves the uneducated?
Clinton couldn't tap into this. Biden was a bit better, and was boosted by Trump hatred. But rust never sleeps and Trump is back, meanwhile, the Democratic party turned into the Republicans, everything was done behind closed doors, we were told Biden was ready to serve into his middle eighties. We don't even want many people to drive at that age, if they're even alive!
And I can't tell you who Kamala is either. But I know Tim Walz. I've had this guy as a teacher. What you see is what you get. And in a world where this has been absent so long, this is appealing.
Ever try teaching? Forget what you know, especially today it's about keeping order in the classroom, it's a skill, that most don't have. But Walz does.
As for those who said Josh Shapiro should have been the vice presidential candidate... I heard him on James Carville and Al Hunt's podcast. Shapiro is whip-smart. You believe he believes what he is saying, unlike JD Vance. But Shapiro is much closer to Vance than Walz, as in he is highly intelligent and very articulate.
Walz seemed to stumble at times. No, let me say that he FROZE at times. Threw me way off guard at the beginning. Were we in for another Biden debate? And then I was convinced it was a matter of being overprepared. He was so stuffed with facts, so concerned with getting it right, that he had a hard time being folksy, being natural.
But as the debate wore on, he continued to have those frozen moments. I guess that's just him and I hadn't seen him enough previously. But this mannerism does not mean I won't vote for him.
Tim Walz is a man of the people.
JD Vance...WENT TO YALE LAW SCHOOL!
As did Hillary Clinton. And Vance is much closer, much more similar to Hillary than Trump.
So, I could delineate the issues...
Vance started off pretty good, irrelevant of the veracity of his statements, but then it became a constant hammering of energy and immigrants, he shoehorned these issues into every answer, and everything isn't about energy and immigrants.
Walz was more straightforward and honest. And the more you watched, the more appealing he became.
As for the truth, the vaunted fact-checking CBS QR code? I guess Paramount Global's lack of cash has trickled all the way down to their news service, because CBS didn't have enough bandwidth for people to see the page! How in the hell can you be this unprepared? You're a news organization? This is laughable. I refreshed and refreshed, it never loaded. Hell, you could have contracted with AWS and been ready, but NO... And if CBS gets it so wrong on this, how trustworthy is it on the big issues?
So for a while there the debate was good entertainment. And then it slowed down and got boring and it was hard to stay off your phone, multitasking.
Donald Trump is an anomaly. His strategy is to try and win in the swing states and if not, challenge a Harris/Walz victory via the legal system. I mean JD... He lost all credibility when he wouldn't admit Trump lost the 2020 election. I mean really? You went to Yale, you worked in banking and you're buying the canard that Biden didn't win? You could see he didn't believe it just watching him, but this is a litmus test for Trumpers, and he couldn't cross the boss.
So Trump screwed up. He should have nominated someone folksy, to cut through his high strung, silver spoon ravings.
Vance adds nothing to the ticket. If anything, he convinces you that the whole Trump enterprise is a Trojan Horse affair. Everybody telling Donald what he wants to hear, but no one with any power believing it.
If you're the smartest person in the room, think twice about going into politics. Because that's not what's needed. Being warm, likable, being able to relate is a skill, one which many business titans don't have. Can you say "ELON MUSK"?
You can get away with it in business, not all the time, but if you put up the numbers and/or have voting control...
But Steve Jobs excoriated his employees on a regular basis. All in pursuit of excellence, which was often achieved, but people were not lining up to go for a drink with him, furthermore Jobs didn't want to go for a drink with THEM!
Walz's closing statement was amazing. Upbeat and optimistic about a coming together, a great antidote to the Trump train.
But, once again, stop paying attention and vote. You know who you're going to vote for. Encourage your friends to vote. The ones who never have or only sometimes do. That's what's going to make the difference.
The news for another thirty-odd days?
It's just a sideshow. A bad blockbuster being pushed by a studio that people don't want.
This debate had additional gravitas because Trump won't get in a room with Harris again. And it was not a cartoon, like most VP debates. It was more edifying than the Trump/Harris debate.
But in truth, that's who it comes down to, either Trump or Harris, the VP candidates really don't make a difference.
You know who you're going to vote for.
Do so.
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E-Mail Of The Day
Re: Breaking Records
Hey Bob,
I completely agree.
You and I yearn for the visionaries, the Ahmets, Clives, Jerrys, Berrys, Herbs, Ricks, and Jimmys. These were the noble chiefs who knew talent and took chances. Your label was deemed successful because you signed great acts like Led Zeppelin, The Carpenters, The Police, The Jackson 5, Aretha Franklin, etc., not because you reorganized, trimmed some fat, and saved money.
Puh. Wall Street is right!
As a market develops and expands, the visionaries thrive and change the world. As a market contracts, the bean counters take over and celebrate profitability as they fall down the increasingly sterile, vapid staircase.
Lucian Grange is no more "internet savvy" than my Great Dane, Bravo. Don't get me wrong, he's a great businessman and a great leader, but how in the hell can ANYONE pulling the levers in this music industry of ours be mistaken for "internet savvy" when it's the last industry on the planet Earth that still doesn't know who their customer is?
Let that sink in…
All tickets are sold online now; by definition, this is ecommerce! 2023 was heralded as the biggest year yet for worldwide ticket sales. So, how are ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Amazon 1,000 times more digitally sophisticated than platforms like Ticketweb?
I've been working with artists and promoters in the digital marketing space since 2019. The first three shows we promoted used three different online ticket outlets. When I spoke with support at each outlet, asking where to put the Pixel (different term for a "cookie" aka digital sales and traffic tracking code), they asked, "What's a pixel?". These ticket outlets aren't Silicon Valley startups, they're digitally ignorant music industry people trying to sell tickets online.
Today, Ticketweb is one of the most advanced because they'll let you inject a pixel ID number, but no proper code, so we don't get data on who was shopping, who abandoned their cart, and who purchased.
We can't retarget the specific accounts to get them add tickets to the cart
We can't send consumers that abandoned a cart a message getting them to purchase those tickets.
We can't inject Hotjar code to see where people are getting stuck on the purchase page so we can change the sales copy.
We can't inject attribution code to eliminate blind spots on platforms like Facebook Ads and determine which ads are working and which are not.
We can't use the data to teach the algorithms to better identify who the artist's potential fans are!
The venues are worse with good ol' Ethel who's worked the ticket counter since 1942 in charge of the online ticket platform.
They get away with it because the artists and the industry aren't asking, but this kindergarten level approach to digital marketing would be mocked in true ecommerce.
What happens when you go to Amazon to shop for a product but choose not to purchase? That product follows you around and you see it on every website, your gmail, your Facebook, etc.
Can you imagine this kind of power marketing artists?
The Lucian Grange's of our industry approach digital promotion by spending $50k-$100k and if a song doesn't go viral in 2 weeks, it's a failure and they pull it. The same approach to a radio single would be ridiculous, right? "The singles been out for 2 weeks, but it's not a smash yet…let's pull it!"
The fundamentals of marketing, reach & frequency, are still the fundamentals, and the fundamentals still work. The strategies and tactics must change on a digital platform because it's consumed differently.
Streaming is still the same ol' way of doing business through a distributor but on a digital platform. I'll remind everyone that the only value a distributor brings to a business deal is they have a relationship with the end-user that the creator of the product or service either can't have, like it was with physical product and record stores (although Columbia had one hell of an email list back in the day with their direct to fan mail marketing, didn't they?) orchoose not to have, like it is now.
There's nothing internet savvy about the music business.
Hollywood eventually figured it out. The studios and the networks began their own streaming services, eliminating the distribution middleman, and DECOMMODITIZING their products. You got young kids, you got Disney. Period. Your 5-old daughter doesn't give a flying F**K about your politics.
Hollywood has your name, your email address, your credit card, and your data!
Bob, I haven't had a live cable hookup in my home in the last 10 years, consequently that's the last time I saw a tampon commercial; they know I'm not a buyer and they're not spending one penny marketing to me! However, any label trying to break an artist on radio today is purposefully paying a fortune to put their artist in front of people they know don't like him/her or aren't ready to come into the market yet…I digress.
But a supposed "internet-savvy" music business? Puh-lease.
You're absolutely right, Bob, the market retooled 30 years ago (do you even remember the name of your local travel agent anymore?). The music industry is still stuck in 1969 but with cool new digital toys.
All is not lost though, Bob. Reach & frequency still apply, and miracles still happen when a compelling artist is regularly introduced to millions of people. Only now, we can tell who likes them!
Sadly, the retooling won't happen until the bottom drops out of radio, because that's all this industry wants to know about.
Johnny Dwinell
Daredevil Production, LLC
1604 8th Ave. S.
Suite 340
Nashville, TN 37203
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Hey Bob,
I completely agree.
You and I yearn for the visionaries, the Ahmets, Clives, Jerrys, Berrys, Herbs, Ricks, and Jimmys. These were the noble chiefs who knew talent and took chances. Your label was deemed successful because you signed great acts like Led Zeppelin, The Carpenters, The Police, The Jackson 5, Aretha Franklin, etc., not because you reorganized, trimmed some fat, and saved money.
Puh. Wall Street is right!
As a market develops and expands, the visionaries thrive and change the world. As a market contracts, the bean counters take over and celebrate profitability as they fall down the increasingly sterile, vapid staircase.
Lucian Grange is no more "internet savvy" than my Great Dane, Bravo. Don't get me wrong, he's a great businessman and a great leader, but how in the hell can ANYONE pulling the levers in this music industry of ours be mistaken for "internet savvy" when it's the last industry on the planet Earth that still doesn't know who their customer is?
Let that sink in…
All tickets are sold online now; by definition, this is ecommerce! 2023 was heralded as the biggest year yet for worldwide ticket sales. So, how are ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Amazon 1,000 times more digitally sophisticated than platforms like Ticketweb?
I've been working with artists and promoters in the digital marketing space since 2019. The first three shows we promoted used three different online ticket outlets. When I spoke with support at each outlet, asking where to put the Pixel (different term for a "cookie" aka digital sales and traffic tracking code), they asked, "What's a pixel?". These ticket outlets aren't Silicon Valley startups, they're digitally ignorant music industry people trying to sell tickets online.
Today, Ticketweb is one of the most advanced because they'll let you inject a pixel ID number, but no proper code, so we don't get data on who was shopping, who abandoned their cart, and who purchased.
We can't retarget the specific accounts to get them add tickets to the cart
We can't send consumers that abandoned a cart a message getting them to purchase those tickets.
We can't inject Hotjar code to see where people are getting stuck on the purchase page so we can change the sales copy.
We can't inject attribution code to eliminate blind spots on platforms like Facebook Ads and determine which ads are working and which are not.
We can't use the data to teach the algorithms to better identify who the artist's potential fans are!
The venues are worse with good ol' Ethel who's worked the ticket counter since 1942 in charge of the online ticket platform.
They get away with it because the artists and the industry aren't asking, but this kindergarten level approach to digital marketing would be mocked in true ecommerce.
What happens when you go to Amazon to shop for a product but choose not to purchase? That product follows you around and you see it on every website, your gmail, your Facebook, etc.
Can you imagine this kind of power marketing artists?
The Lucian Grange's of our industry approach digital promotion by spending $50k-$100k and if a song doesn't go viral in 2 weeks, it's a failure and they pull it. The same approach to a radio single would be ridiculous, right? "The singles been out for 2 weeks, but it's not a smash yet…let's pull it!"
The fundamentals of marketing, reach & frequency, are still the fundamentals, and the fundamentals still work. The strategies and tactics must change on a digital platform because it's consumed differently.
Streaming is still the same ol' way of doing business through a distributor but on a digital platform. I'll remind everyone that the only value a distributor brings to a business deal is they have a relationship with the end-user that the creator of the product or service either can't have, like it was with physical product and record stores (although Columbia had one hell of an email list back in the day with their direct to fan mail marketing, didn't they?) orchoose not to have, like it is now.
There's nothing internet savvy about the music business.
Hollywood eventually figured it out. The studios and the networks began their own streaming services, eliminating the distribution middleman, and DECOMMODITIZING their products. You got young kids, you got Disney. Period. Your 5-old daughter doesn't give a flying F**K about your politics.
Hollywood has your name, your email address, your credit card, and your data!
Bob, I haven't had a live cable hookup in my home in the last 10 years, consequently that's the last time I saw a tampon commercial; they know I'm not a buyer and they're not spending one penny marketing to me! However, any label trying to break an artist on radio today is purposefully paying a fortune to put their artist in front of people they know don't like him/her or aren't ready to come into the market yet…I digress.
But a supposed "internet-savvy" music business? Puh-lease.
You're absolutely right, Bob, the market retooled 30 years ago (do you even remember the name of your local travel agent anymore?). The music industry is still stuck in 1969 but with cool new digital toys.
All is not lost though, Bob. Reach & frequency still apply, and miracles still happen when a compelling artist is regularly introduced to millions of people. Only now, we can tell who likes them!
Sadly, the retooling won't happen until the bottom drops out of radio, because that's all this industry wants to know about.
Johnny Dwinell
Daredevil Production, LLC
1604 8th Ave. S.
Suite 340
Nashville, TN 37203
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A Little More Oasis/Ticketmaster
You have to hate Ticketmaster. It's the law of us vs. them. If you question this orthodoxy, you're a pariah. Truth be damned.
But the truth is there is no way underpriced concert tickets will end up in the hands of hard core fans. It's literally impossible. Speak to the titans of the industry and they'll tell you. People with decades of experience. So the question becomes how to address this problem.
At the end of this e-mail I'm going to print an e-mail that links to a CNN article about Coldplay playing India. The band kept prices low, so fans could attend, but resellers got the tickets and are now selling them for $11,000.
Now not only is Coldplay not getting the uplift, most fans can't afford to go!
I'm also going to print the letter of someone who is contemplating buying extra Oasis tickets to resell himself.
I hear all this b.s. about only allowing ticket owners to be able to resell them at face value, but there are umpteen ways for scalpers to get around this.
It's a cat and mouse game, trying to eradicate the secondary market. So far, no one has been able to accomplish this completely.
And, once again, if you tie up the tickets with the fans as opposed to the secondary market, the public doesn't like this either. Because people want to believe if they're willing to pay the freight, however expensive it might be, they can get a ticket at the last minute.
Michael Rapino, Jay Marciano, Irving Azoff, Coran Capshaw...they do this all day every day, with multiple acts. These are the questions they're confronted with.
What both Live Nation and AEG have decided is it's best to adjust prices on the fly, if they are underpriced. They watch the on sale and raise prices accordingly. Their goal is to capture fair market value before the scalpers do. Because if the scalpers see that the tickets are underpriced it's a field day, they're going to buy even more.
Now most bands are not constantly on the road. Most managers don't represent bands that are constantly on the road. Which is why acts and managers can be out of the loop regarding modern touring conditions. Things change just that fast. You toured, took a year off, and now are going back on the road.
I've spoken with lawyers who try to set managers straight. They've been making these tour deals day in and day out and know the market conditions, but these managers are operating on old information, on gut feeling, and their beliefs are out of date.
Ticketmaster is imperfect. We can debate all day long whether Ticketmaster and Live Nation's concert promotion division should be broken up. But one thing is for sure, even if there is a division it will not lower ticket prices. It's not Ticketmaster setting prices that keeps them high, it's fan demand!
Sure, there are fees. I'm not going to delineate them for the umpteenth time. I'm just going to say most of the money from these fees does not end up in the pockets of Ticketmaster and without fees there can be no show, because the acts take almost all of the face value of the ticket.
Once again, do not listen to club owners and developing acts.
Do you know how hard it is to keep a club in business? That's why so many of them went out of business! So many were kept alive by record companies, purchasing tickets and drinks for showcases. That money has dried up completely. So, a club has to make it on the shows it's got. And it's great they can sell out on Saturday night, but what about the other six days of the week? And no one is obligated to play a club. There's no guarantee you'll get talent. And margins are thin and...
And developing acts. This is the world you're living in. You can't really make big money until you can go clean and can play bigger buildings. This is the way it works in essentially every sphere.
Let's talk baseball. The major leagues pay extremely well. The minor leagues, the farm clubs, pay horrifically. Even though it's a revolving door. You're the same player in each, playing the same game, but until you're called up to the majors, you're making bupkes. Ditto those who can't get re-signed by a major. They play for almost nothing trying to put up good numbers in order to get back into the majors for the big payday.
And you can't listen to most agents and managers, because they're posturing. They want more of this money for their acts. Which is one reason the fees were established in the first place, to keep a pot of money out of the pot that the acts can commission. And agents and managers are always trying to get more of this money. This engenders a whole 'nother slew of shenanigans. Fake fees or fake upcharges the promoter instills in order to make a profit. Yes, the promoter can make a profit while telling the act it has not. The act got paid its guarantee, but the promoter doesn't want the show to go into overages.
I could go deeper but you don't want me to. This is a professional business. With history. Not easily understood unless you're in it.
Let's go one step further, in the old days it was more about percentages than guarantees, the acts and promoters were sharing the risk. Now it has flipped. An act can have a bad gig and make no money. So the act wants a big guarantee, and the promoter is on the hook for it, even if the show stiffs. And if you're capable of selling tickets, the margin for the promoter, the upside, is tiny, predicated on a near sell out, if not a total sell out, and if you don't sell these tickets, if you sell 15,000 in an 18,000 seat arena, the promoter might take a bath.
Not that the punters know any of this. They just know that concert ticket prices are high and they want to be inside the building.
But they are not the only force involved. There's the building itself, and its costs. And Ticketmaster's costs. And the band's costs, never mind the commissions to agents, managers, attorneys and accountants. This is not the Little Rascals putting on a show, this is complicated, a world where a percentage point here or there can make all the difference.
You may not want to believe this, but there's so much you don't want to believe. But music hits you in an emotional way, so you're concerned about the price of concert tickets.
There is a way to solve this problem, charge what the tickets are worth. Why is it only in music that tickets should be underpriced, why should high ticket prices reflect negatively on an act if that's what the public is willing to pay?
As for waiting online hours to buy tickets... There are multiple causes. An act wanting to put multiple shows on sale all at once to create mania so the shows will sell out. But even more, the secondary market, the scalpers, the bots. And in many cases the use of bots is illegal. But this is another thing the public doesn't understand. A law doesn't mean anything without enforcement. As for going to court... A lawyer will tell you not to bother if the defendant is judgment proof. And even if you win in court, good luck collecting the money. Hell, look what is happening with Alex Jones! The judgment is clear, getting the money is taking years, and still hasn't really happened.
I hate to go all Jack Nicholson on you, but most people can't handle the truth. But that does not make it any less true.
Shoot the messenger all you want, but it's not going to change reality.
_____________
From: James Spencer
Re: Oasis Won't Use Dynamic Pricing In The U.S.
I saw the Apple/Zane Lowe Coldplay interview..The guys were beaming with pride about being able to keep ticket prices reasonable..I got the "warm fuzzies"..Who WOULDN'T?
Then, this morning, THIS..
"Coldplay tickets for $11,000? Uproar in India after tickets sold out in minutes and resold for outrageously high prices"
https://t.ly/2empg
_____________
From: Jason Orr
Re: Oasis Won't Use Dynmic Pricing In The U.S.
I loved Oasis. I mean, loved. I'd carry around my anti-skip discman with my headphones singing their dumb songs like Digsy's Dinner or Girl with A Dirty Shirt all day long. My purple Oasis shirt with their orange logo shirt was so stained and faded from wearing all the time. It was gross. I think I had a moppy hair cut to boot. I was a total dweeb.
I remember going to see them one time in Duquesne University basketball gym in the 90s. I got the tickets as a Christmas gift from my grandmother (God rest her soul, what a woman). I'll tell you tho, guaranteed she didn't scalp those tickets. She probably drove her Oldsmobile into the mall a few days after they were released, parked and went in to Camelot or Sam Goody, and bought those hard tickets in person. I remember that I couldn't even get anyone to go with me. I begged my best friend and he finally relented, persuaded by a free ticket and assurance that I'd never tell anyone he went. (He had a rep to keep up, ya know, his Metallica, Megadeth and Pantera fandoms were well known.) That show was one of my favorites tho. Small venue. Probably only die hards there. Loud as hell and raw sounding. Oasis in peak form. Thank you grandma.
Today, when I got the email for the Oasis pre-sale or lottery access or whatever it is, I immediately signed up. Then, I turned to my "make a quick buck" colleague and said, 'ya know what might be a better opportunity than those Travis Scott sneakers you were trying to get last week? Oasis tickets if they don't do that dynamic pricing like they did in the U.K. Six shows over here. Only one in the U.S. on the east coast.' He only feigned interest.
Lo and behold, your email comes thru and I had to laugh. First time I had heard they weren't doing dynamic. But then I started thinking about what you said… are they even going to sell out? Do I even know anyone now that would go with me?
And on the other hand, if they sell out in seconds and I somehow get them, would I even go if I could scalp them for two grand each or whatever they are going for across the pond? Would I be selling out, or wallet first, as you said? They haven't been in my Spotify top 100 songs of the year in the last decade. Sure, the show would be a trip down memory lane I never thought I'd get. Hell it could be new memories! But I saw them plenty in the heyday. Will it even be the same?
I guess the question we'll get answered soon is, what's it actually worth to be here now?
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But the truth is there is no way underpriced concert tickets will end up in the hands of hard core fans. It's literally impossible. Speak to the titans of the industry and they'll tell you. People with decades of experience. So the question becomes how to address this problem.
At the end of this e-mail I'm going to print an e-mail that links to a CNN article about Coldplay playing India. The band kept prices low, so fans could attend, but resellers got the tickets and are now selling them for $11,000.
Now not only is Coldplay not getting the uplift, most fans can't afford to go!
I'm also going to print the letter of someone who is contemplating buying extra Oasis tickets to resell himself.
I hear all this b.s. about only allowing ticket owners to be able to resell them at face value, but there are umpteen ways for scalpers to get around this.
It's a cat and mouse game, trying to eradicate the secondary market. So far, no one has been able to accomplish this completely.
And, once again, if you tie up the tickets with the fans as opposed to the secondary market, the public doesn't like this either. Because people want to believe if they're willing to pay the freight, however expensive it might be, they can get a ticket at the last minute.
Michael Rapino, Jay Marciano, Irving Azoff, Coran Capshaw...they do this all day every day, with multiple acts. These are the questions they're confronted with.
What both Live Nation and AEG have decided is it's best to adjust prices on the fly, if they are underpriced. They watch the on sale and raise prices accordingly. Their goal is to capture fair market value before the scalpers do. Because if the scalpers see that the tickets are underpriced it's a field day, they're going to buy even more.
Now most bands are not constantly on the road. Most managers don't represent bands that are constantly on the road. Which is why acts and managers can be out of the loop regarding modern touring conditions. Things change just that fast. You toured, took a year off, and now are going back on the road.
I've spoken with lawyers who try to set managers straight. They've been making these tour deals day in and day out and know the market conditions, but these managers are operating on old information, on gut feeling, and their beliefs are out of date.
Ticketmaster is imperfect. We can debate all day long whether Ticketmaster and Live Nation's concert promotion division should be broken up. But one thing is for sure, even if there is a division it will not lower ticket prices. It's not Ticketmaster setting prices that keeps them high, it's fan demand!
Sure, there are fees. I'm not going to delineate them for the umpteenth time. I'm just going to say most of the money from these fees does not end up in the pockets of Ticketmaster and without fees there can be no show, because the acts take almost all of the face value of the ticket.
Once again, do not listen to club owners and developing acts.
Do you know how hard it is to keep a club in business? That's why so many of them went out of business! So many were kept alive by record companies, purchasing tickets and drinks for showcases. That money has dried up completely. So, a club has to make it on the shows it's got. And it's great they can sell out on Saturday night, but what about the other six days of the week? And no one is obligated to play a club. There's no guarantee you'll get talent. And margins are thin and...
And developing acts. This is the world you're living in. You can't really make big money until you can go clean and can play bigger buildings. This is the way it works in essentially every sphere.
Let's talk baseball. The major leagues pay extremely well. The minor leagues, the farm clubs, pay horrifically. Even though it's a revolving door. You're the same player in each, playing the same game, but until you're called up to the majors, you're making bupkes. Ditto those who can't get re-signed by a major. They play for almost nothing trying to put up good numbers in order to get back into the majors for the big payday.
And you can't listen to most agents and managers, because they're posturing. They want more of this money for their acts. Which is one reason the fees were established in the first place, to keep a pot of money out of the pot that the acts can commission. And agents and managers are always trying to get more of this money. This engenders a whole 'nother slew of shenanigans. Fake fees or fake upcharges the promoter instills in order to make a profit. Yes, the promoter can make a profit while telling the act it has not. The act got paid its guarantee, but the promoter doesn't want the show to go into overages.
I could go deeper but you don't want me to. This is a professional business. With history. Not easily understood unless you're in it.
Let's go one step further, in the old days it was more about percentages than guarantees, the acts and promoters were sharing the risk. Now it has flipped. An act can have a bad gig and make no money. So the act wants a big guarantee, and the promoter is on the hook for it, even if the show stiffs. And if you're capable of selling tickets, the margin for the promoter, the upside, is tiny, predicated on a near sell out, if not a total sell out, and if you don't sell these tickets, if you sell 15,000 in an 18,000 seat arena, the promoter might take a bath.
Not that the punters know any of this. They just know that concert ticket prices are high and they want to be inside the building.
But they are not the only force involved. There's the building itself, and its costs. And Ticketmaster's costs. And the band's costs, never mind the commissions to agents, managers, attorneys and accountants. This is not the Little Rascals putting on a show, this is complicated, a world where a percentage point here or there can make all the difference.
You may not want to believe this, but there's so much you don't want to believe. But music hits you in an emotional way, so you're concerned about the price of concert tickets.
There is a way to solve this problem, charge what the tickets are worth. Why is it only in music that tickets should be underpriced, why should high ticket prices reflect negatively on an act if that's what the public is willing to pay?
As for waiting online hours to buy tickets... There are multiple causes. An act wanting to put multiple shows on sale all at once to create mania so the shows will sell out. But even more, the secondary market, the scalpers, the bots. And in many cases the use of bots is illegal. But this is another thing the public doesn't understand. A law doesn't mean anything without enforcement. As for going to court... A lawyer will tell you not to bother if the defendant is judgment proof. And even if you win in court, good luck collecting the money. Hell, look what is happening with Alex Jones! The judgment is clear, getting the money is taking years, and still hasn't really happened.
I hate to go all Jack Nicholson on you, but most people can't handle the truth. But that does not make it any less true.
Shoot the messenger all you want, but it's not going to change reality.
_____________
From: James Spencer
Re: Oasis Won't Use Dynamic Pricing In The U.S.
I saw the Apple/Zane Lowe Coldplay interview..The guys were beaming with pride about being able to keep ticket prices reasonable..I got the "warm fuzzies"..Who WOULDN'T?
Then, this morning, THIS..
"Coldplay tickets for $11,000? Uproar in India after tickets sold out in minutes and resold for outrageously high prices"
https://t.ly/2empg
_____________
From: Jason Orr
Re: Oasis Won't Use Dynmic Pricing In The U.S.
I loved Oasis. I mean, loved. I'd carry around my anti-skip discman with my headphones singing their dumb songs like Digsy's Dinner or Girl with A Dirty Shirt all day long. My purple Oasis shirt with their orange logo shirt was so stained and faded from wearing all the time. It was gross. I think I had a moppy hair cut to boot. I was a total dweeb.
I remember going to see them one time in Duquesne University basketball gym in the 90s. I got the tickets as a Christmas gift from my grandmother (God rest her soul, what a woman). I'll tell you tho, guaranteed she didn't scalp those tickets. She probably drove her Oldsmobile into the mall a few days after they were released, parked and went in to Camelot or Sam Goody, and bought those hard tickets in person. I remember that I couldn't even get anyone to go with me. I begged my best friend and he finally relented, persuaded by a free ticket and assurance that I'd never tell anyone he went. (He had a rep to keep up, ya know, his Metallica, Megadeth and Pantera fandoms were well known.) That show was one of my favorites tho. Small venue. Probably only die hards there. Loud as hell and raw sounding. Oasis in peak form. Thank you grandma.
Today, when I got the email for the Oasis pre-sale or lottery access or whatever it is, I immediately signed up. Then, I turned to my "make a quick buck" colleague and said, 'ya know what might be a better opportunity than those Travis Scott sneakers you were trying to get last week? Oasis tickets if they don't do that dynamic pricing like they did in the U.K. Six shows over here. Only one in the U.S. on the east coast.' He only feigned interest.
Lo and behold, your email comes thru and I had to laugh. First time I had heard they weren't doing dynamic. But then I started thinking about what you said… are they even going to sell out? Do I even know anyone now that would go with me?
And on the other hand, if they sell out in seconds and I somehow get them, would I even go if I could scalp them for two grand each or whatever they are going for across the pond? Would I be selling out, or wallet first, as you said? They haven't been in my Spotify top 100 songs of the year in the last decade. Sure, the show would be a trip down memory lane I never thought I'd get. Hell it could be new memories! But I saw them plenty in the heyday. Will it even be the same?
I guess the question we'll get answered soon is, what's it actually worth to be here now?
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Monday 30 September 2024
Oasis Won't Use Dynmic Pricing In The U.S.
"Oasis Calls Ticketmaster's Dynamic Pricing 'Unacceptable Experience for Fans,' Won't Use It for 2025 North American Gigs."
https://t.ly/DEN6l
Let them get back to me when they find out how much money they left on the table.
Or, they could employ super-high prices like the Stones and not sell out on the on sale date. Then again, do they really want to risk this, I mean how strong is the demand for Oasis in North America anyway, can they sell stadiums at all, and how many?
This is a major screw-up. The customer is not always right. The Gallagher brothers are demonstrating their ignorance here. This is what happens when you're so removed from the market you have no idea what is going on.
What is the price of a concert ticket? WHAT PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO PAY FOR IT!
With so many seats to sell in a stadium, many far from close, it is imperative that there be mania, that demand outstrip supply. As a result, prices cannot be insane, because people won't buy at first. And if it turns out sales are soft this might result in the venue not going clean, which is anathema. These deals, the entire structure of these major tours, is based on the buildings selling out, or close to it. The acts have sky high costs, even worse the promoter has minimal margins. But why don't we just blame it all on Ticketmaster and call it a day?
Do you know that Mercedes G-Wagon? During Covid, they were going for 100k over sticker, if you could even get one. You know why? Crypto bros were loaded with cash, they were the ones who were overspending for these urban assault vehicles.
But subsequent to the crash of FTX, with the crypto future unclear, you can now buy a G-Wagon at sticker. Which is $148,250. No, the G-Wagon is not for everybody.
Nor are concert tickets.
HUH??
But I'm a big fan, I've been listening to the band forever, I'm entitled to be in the building! And since I've listened to the music for years, I'm entitled to get in CHEAP!
Sure, dynamic pricing caused a kerfuffle in the U.K. But the tickets SOLD, because that is what people were willing to pay. And when the show is over almost no one will complain about the price they paid, they got a unique experience, a once in a lifetime experience, that they can boast about and tell the story of for years! I got a ticket and you didn't!
I've got a Royal Oak and you do not. There are all these cultural signifiers. But does Audemars Piguet lower the price? If anything, the company raises the price, even though the watch just tells time, something everybody is entitled to, but not everybody can afford a Royal Oak!
Or a Rolex. Try buying one at an authorized dealer at sticker. Unless you're a regular customer odds are low.
But when it comes to concert tickets! LET ME IN!
You can pay the monthly fee, $11.99 for Spotify, and listen to all the music you want. It's a commodity. But not concert tickets. WHICH IS WHY THE PRICE HAS GONE UP!
So when Oasis sees their tickets at multiples of face value on the secondary market after the on sale is completed, what, are they going to be HAPPY?
Or, they can be completely duplicitous and just scalp their own tickets, which has been done for ages. Hell, that was what Lyte was doing for festivals!
The bottom line is no one can fix an exact price for a concert ticket before it goes on sale. If it turns out you priced it too low, you want to be able to raise it!
Oh, there's a way to combat this, by tying the ticket to the customer. There are even systems in place that will allow you to sell your unused tickets for face value before the show plays. BUT THE PUBLIC DOESN'T WANT THIS, BECAUSE THE PUBLIC WANTS TO SCALP THEIR OWN TICKETS!
So Oasis is caving to these fans whose loyalty is to their wallet as opposed to the band? That's crazy.
If you think the fans have clean hands here, you're wrong.
Concert tickets were underpriced for eons. Now that they've gone up... Once again, that comports with demand.
Furthermore, if you tie the ticket to the buyer, limiting the number each individual can purchase, you run the risk of not selling out. Once again, the mania helps sell the tickets, which is why Taylor Swift put up her entire tour up at one time. But somehow Ticketmaster ended up as the villain there and Swift got off scot-free.
Oasis should take the hip-hop view. That you've been screwed by the man and every dollar you can garner is evidence of your success. Isn't that why Oasis was successful to begin with? A working class act with attitude?
The fact that we're having this discussion at all is just crazy. It's almost like politics in the U.S. Two teams with two different sets of facts, forget the truth.
So you've got the acts and the public and rather than look at the truth of the situation, that there are more buyers than capacity, that the acts take almost all of the revenue, that without fees the entire enterprise doesn't fly, they just say screw it AND BLAME IT ALL ON TICKETMASTER!
It'd be like Trump and Harris being in cahoots and blaming it all on Smartmatic. Hell, didn't Fox already try that?
Ticketing is so complicated that even the bands don't understand it. They don't know where the fees go, they don't know what a fair price is, but I haven't met a single performer who has not been pissed that their tickets are listed on the secondary market for far more than the face value. Because they don't get a single cent of the uplift, the scalper does.
And what did the scalper invest?
Now the truth is not every gig sells out. If you can't sell most of the building, they pull down your tour, expenses are just that high.
But if the demand is there...
Let's be clear, the Gallagher brothers are reuniting Oasis for the money. It's not like there's a new album or anything. It's a dash for cash. And they're going to forgo some of this money?
NO WAY!
They'll wake up.
Let's hope so, otherwise their ignorance will create a free-for-all where the average person can't get in at the listed price because the tickets are so cheap, the secondary market will hoover them all up and sell them at sky high prices!
Oasis thinks it's solving a problem? IT'S CREATING WORSE PROBLEMS!
If you charge what the tickets are worth, fans get in, and the act gets all the money. Isn't this what you want?
You'd think so. But someone must be blamed for the fact that everybody who wants to see Oasis can't get in for cheap and let's lay that at the feet of TICKETMASTER!
LOL.
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https://t.ly/DEN6l
Let them get back to me when they find out how much money they left on the table.
Or, they could employ super-high prices like the Stones and not sell out on the on sale date. Then again, do they really want to risk this, I mean how strong is the demand for Oasis in North America anyway, can they sell stadiums at all, and how many?
This is a major screw-up. The customer is not always right. The Gallagher brothers are demonstrating their ignorance here. This is what happens when you're so removed from the market you have no idea what is going on.
What is the price of a concert ticket? WHAT PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO PAY FOR IT!
With so many seats to sell in a stadium, many far from close, it is imperative that there be mania, that demand outstrip supply. As a result, prices cannot be insane, because people won't buy at first. And if it turns out sales are soft this might result in the venue not going clean, which is anathema. These deals, the entire structure of these major tours, is based on the buildings selling out, or close to it. The acts have sky high costs, even worse the promoter has minimal margins. But why don't we just blame it all on Ticketmaster and call it a day?
Do you know that Mercedes G-Wagon? During Covid, they were going for 100k over sticker, if you could even get one. You know why? Crypto bros were loaded with cash, they were the ones who were overspending for these urban assault vehicles.
But subsequent to the crash of FTX, with the crypto future unclear, you can now buy a G-Wagon at sticker. Which is $148,250. No, the G-Wagon is not for everybody.
Nor are concert tickets.
HUH??
But I'm a big fan, I've been listening to the band forever, I'm entitled to be in the building! And since I've listened to the music for years, I'm entitled to get in CHEAP!
Sure, dynamic pricing caused a kerfuffle in the U.K. But the tickets SOLD, because that is what people were willing to pay. And when the show is over almost no one will complain about the price they paid, they got a unique experience, a once in a lifetime experience, that they can boast about and tell the story of for years! I got a ticket and you didn't!
I've got a Royal Oak and you do not. There are all these cultural signifiers. But does Audemars Piguet lower the price? If anything, the company raises the price, even though the watch just tells time, something everybody is entitled to, but not everybody can afford a Royal Oak!
Or a Rolex. Try buying one at an authorized dealer at sticker. Unless you're a regular customer odds are low.
But when it comes to concert tickets! LET ME IN!
You can pay the monthly fee, $11.99 for Spotify, and listen to all the music you want. It's a commodity. But not concert tickets. WHICH IS WHY THE PRICE HAS GONE UP!
So when Oasis sees their tickets at multiples of face value on the secondary market after the on sale is completed, what, are they going to be HAPPY?
Or, they can be completely duplicitous and just scalp their own tickets, which has been done for ages. Hell, that was what Lyte was doing for festivals!
The bottom line is no one can fix an exact price for a concert ticket before it goes on sale. If it turns out you priced it too low, you want to be able to raise it!
Oh, there's a way to combat this, by tying the ticket to the customer. There are even systems in place that will allow you to sell your unused tickets for face value before the show plays. BUT THE PUBLIC DOESN'T WANT THIS, BECAUSE THE PUBLIC WANTS TO SCALP THEIR OWN TICKETS!
So Oasis is caving to these fans whose loyalty is to their wallet as opposed to the band? That's crazy.
If you think the fans have clean hands here, you're wrong.
Concert tickets were underpriced for eons. Now that they've gone up... Once again, that comports with demand.
Furthermore, if you tie the ticket to the buyer, limiting the number each individual can purchase, you run the risk of not selling out. Once again, the mania helps sell the tickets, which is why Taylor Swift put up her entire tour up at one time. But somehow Ticketmaster ended up as the villain there and Swift got off scot-free.
Oasis should take the hip-hop view. That you've been screwed by the man and every dollar you can garner is evidence of your success. Isn't that why Oasis was successful to begin with? A working class act with attitude?
The fact that we're having this discussion at all is just crazy. It's almost like politics in the U.S. Two teams with two different sets of facts, forget the truth.
So you've got the acts and the public and rather than look at the truth of the situation, that there are more buyers than capacity, that the acts take almost all of the revenue, that without fees the entire enterprise doesn't fly, they just say screw it AND BLAME IT ALL ON TICKETMASTER!
It'd be like Trump and Harris being in cahoots and blaming it all on Smartmatic. Hell, didn't Fox already try that?
Ticketing is so complicated that even the bands don't understand it. They don't know where the fees go, they don't know what a fair price is, but I haven't met a single performer who has not been pissed that their tickets are listed on the secondary market for far more than the face value. Because they don't get a single cent of the uplift, the scalper does.
And what did the scalper invest?
Now the truth is not every gig sells out. If you can't sell most of the building, they pull down your tour, expenses are just that high.
But if the demand is there...
Let's be clear, the Gallagher brothers are reuniting Oasis for the money. It's not like there's a new album or anything. It's a dash for cash. And they're going to forgo some of this money?
NO WAY!
They'll wake up.
Let's hope so, otherwise their ignorance will create a free-for-all where the average person can't get in at the listed price because the tickets are so cheap, the secondary market will hoover them all up and sell them at sky high prices!
Oasis thinks it's solving a problem? IT'S CREATING WORSE PROBLEMS!
If you charge what the tickets are worth, fans get in, and the act gets all the money. Isn't this what you want?
You'd think so. But someone must be blamed for the fact that everybody who wants to see Oasis can't get in for cheap and let's lay that at the feet of TICKETMASTER!
LOL.
--
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--
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-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
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Mailbag-Nick/Nova/JD/JB/Books...
Re: Nick Gravenities
Thanks for paying tribute to Nick.
I have a lot of great memories of Nick.
It's interesting that he has a current album out. I'm honored to have played on it while remembering rehearsing with Nick in his parents basement in Chicago in the early 60s. So much happened between then and now that it's hard to remember it all, but I've got stories.
I hope Nick passed peacefully.
-Charlie Musselwhite
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Re: Nick Gravenities
Thanks for posting about Nick. Such a unique fixture in the start of white Chicago blues and the west coast rock and roll.
We released his last album in April, "Rogue Blues." The recording were from 2022 and 2023 and produced by Pete Sears with Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmy Vivino, and Lester Chambers.
https://open.spotify.com/album/6PB8M2FLY0pGZXgHPV7zcR?si=L3a87gidRJe0ua71-kwZyA
Mark Carpentieri
M.C. Records
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Re: How are you coping with the hurricane
Still no power. There is a very little cell service or Internet, where we live as well. We have to drive to Greenville to get full service, which is about 20 minutes away. Talking Friday ETA for it to be restored. The number of trees down here is really hard to explain, so widespread, so random. Generators running all over the neighborhood. The mountains in North Carolina are absolutely devastated. Big tree landed on my parents house. Overall though, we are perfectly fine and very lucky. Thanks for asking.
Marty Winsch
At about 3am Friday morning they reported the the storm was tracking 50-70 miles east of what they forecasted putting us right in the path of the eye which meant more wind, but making it less of a rain event. The issue was the 5-12 inches of rain we received the days prior to the hurricane so the ground was already saturated. So, when the winds came, it was game over for thousands of trees, power lines, the electrical grid.
My mindset? I retired in July so things were weird already. This just was the next weird thing. I'm fine, focused on helping as many people as I can. The lines for gas, stores being out of food, having to drive for internet with hundreds of texts popping up once you hit the grid is a touch unnerving. But we're fine compared to the folks in the mountains. They are cut off. Lots of suffering. Very sad.
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From: Rishon Blumberg
Subject: Re: Re-Nova Festival Exhibition
I'm the son of a holocaust survivor. My mother passed two years ago. I'm thankful she hasn't had to experience what is happening now. That said, it wouldn't surprise her.
I went to the exhibit when it was in NYC. It was, I believe, the only night a massive, organized pro-Palestinian protest engulfed the exhibit block and we were trapped inside for over an hour. While I personally wasn't overly worried for my safety, people who were on line to enter when the protest arrived were terrified. Security slowly let the most concerned into the exhibit to take shelter. One such woman was quite young and pregnant and with her husband. She was hysterically crying when they finally let her in. In the exit room where we all waited, a minion formed and prayers were audible. A few survivors (which was part of the program) were speaking to some of us about what they experienced. I was watching some of what was going on outside via the Citizen app. The organizers did a good job of trying to keep everyone calm but as time passed, as you can imagine, people were getting more and more agitated. Luckily this was NYC and the middle of the financial district so the police mobilized fairly quickly. When we were finally let out, the police helped guide myself, my wife and our friend to a safe path through the streets to avoid the remaining protestors.
The entire event was quite surreal, from the exhibit itself to what transpired afterwards. One minute you feel totally safe, the next, not so much.
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Subject: Re: The Nova Exhibition
I agree with every word of this Bob.
I went to Israel for the first time in March and I am 56 years old. I wanted to bear witness and volunteer. Going to the Nova site and seeing with my own eyes that patch of land in the Negev where these beautiful young adults, my own three children's ages were brutally raped, tortured, murdered and stolen tore me apart in ways I will never be able to put into words.
It's always been hard to be Jewish carrying the history of our ancestors and now more so than ever. I wouldn't exist if not for that small piece of land in the desert. My maternal great great grandparents escaped the Pogroms in Belarus in the late 1800's to live there. My Great Great Grandfather was buried in 1926 in Mt Olive cemetery behind the Wailing Wall.
Tragic. The world truly feels upside down and I have never felt more scared for the future of that beautiful country filled with people of all religions. The most misunderstood country and all because of hatred for the Jews. It really is that simple. Otherwise there would have been peace long ago.
Renee Litt, LMFT
www.reneelitttherapy.com
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From: Karen Ruttner
Subject: Re: Re-Nova Festival Exhibition
Date: September 25, 2024 at 7:39:18 AM PDT
I live in Union Square in NYC. I've lost count of how many "Free Palestine" protests have disrupted my daily existence. Now that NYU is back in session, I fear it's only going to get worse. Last night, for about an hour, there was a full MARCHING BAND and DANCE TROUPE with what was clearly a rehearsed performance on 14th street chanting things like "f*ck Israel" and "f*ck the oppression". This generation of "students" who have gleaned the bulk of their education from TikTok and other social media are chilling me to the bone.
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Subject: Re: Re-JD Souther
Since hearing of J.D.'s passing I've thought a lot this past week about the amazing door our band America stepped through into the L.A. music scene in 1972. At that time in our new career while living in London, we were suddenly given a management offer by long-distance phone call. A phone call we could not refuse...from David Geffen and Elliot Roberts. Would we like to join their stable of artists at their Lookout Management office on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles? We couldn't get on a plane fast enough! In retrospect we were dropped in the deep end of that pool as 3 young American songwriters arriving on the strength of our #1 first album with the #1 single Horse With No Name, and we thought we knew how it was done! But we were far from the seasoned artists we joined in those offices who had actually inspired us...CSN, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young among others! In addition we met artists we were not so familiar with around the office...Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey with this new band called the Eagles, David Blue, Judee Sill, etc…and a guy named J.D. Souther. We began recording our 2nd album as soon as we settled, and Geffen began arranging our first major tour of the U.S. playing large venues, arenas etc. We had only played a week at the Whiskey a Go Go in L.A. on a club tour as our introduction to the U.S. earlier that year, before returning to London. We did not even have a rhythm section, as we were accustomed to sitting on three stools with just our acoustic guitars and our three-part harmony vocals.
And then we became aware that J.D. Souther would be our opening act for that first big tour (Jackson Browne would open the following tour) and we started hanging out together at rehearsals etc. From the beginning he was obviously his own man and experienced in ways we were not, and he had great songs and a beautiful voice. Being 7 years older and wiser with a wicked sense of humor we bonded on that tour and I remember being taken by his confidence and comfort in his own shoes as he stood alone at the mic, in front of what was actually our audience curious to see this upstart band coming out of nowhere with this huge hit record. J.D. had to endure some heckling at times and always rose to the occasion with a sharp response, "Hey I've only been doing this for a little while, you've probably been an asshole you're entire life!" He would sometimes have his girlfriend at the time, Linda Ronstadt, fly out for a few days as we would stay out for 2-3 months in those days of long tours. And we would get him out to sing now and then for the finale…a grand time was had by all!
That was a great tour and our formal initiation into that special group of artists and musicians that we interacted with for decades to come. The arrival of Irving Azoff with Joe Walsh was great news too, as we were fans by then, and Joe is still a good friend. Now it's 50+ years later, and as with the passing of Glenn Frey 8 years ago, and having drifted away from most of those early friendships, I am saddened to know that we have now lost J.D. and time continues to march on. May he rest in peace and spice things up out there in the somewhere!
Dewey Bunnell
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From: Jennifer Feeney
Subject: Re: Re-JD Souther
Hi Bob,
One of my favorite stories is about J.D. Souther. I hosted him in our Los Angeles showroom (Gibson) many years ago. Before he left, he pulled out his calling card—not a business card. It had his name, and just below that, the word 'Songwriter.' That was it. He then took out a pen and wrote his phone number on the back.
I thought to myself....classy.
Best,
Jennifer
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From: Jack Tempchin
Subject: Jackson Browne
I'm so glad you wrote about him. That album from Japan is one of the BEST ALBUMS I EVER HEARD. Peak of the magic for him. Wow.
Then I looked at Running Down The Road...live 1972.
I was Shocked to find that he recorded Peaceful Easy Feeling...!!!!
What a guy, he sure did not have to include that song.
I had only heard him do the version where he stops in the middle, I never heard him do the entire song.....fantastic.
I will see him on September 29th at the Coach House in San Clemente. There is a benefit for Richard Stekol, my old bandmate in the Funky Kings. I will get to play a few songs with Richard and Greg Leisz, they both played in my bands for about 16 years. It will be magic for me to play with them again.
And Jackson will be there and Honk will close the show...
Bob, I can't thank you enough for writing about these two albums...
Yeah, the magic is still here Bob, still here!!
_____________________________________
Subject: Re: The Road East-Live In Japan
Hey Bob
Thanks for writing about JB. Only nice and kind things to say about our musical big brother and patriarch Jackson Browne.
He shows up for his musical community when we need it not only in his capacity doing the benefit concerts since the 70's for every good cause but just as a mensch.
One not well commonly known fact about Jacksons kindness is that he gave
Stevie Ray and Double Trouble (Chris and Tommy) his Downtown Browne studio to make his Texas Flood record over the Thanksgiving holiday 1982.
In 2019 when I was about to produce and track James McMurtry's Horses and The Hounds,
I got bumped out of one the bigger studios I had booked for a bigger client, I called Jackson and he paused his own sessions so I could use his studio Groovemasters.
His response when I asked for studio time was, "James McMurtry ? I wanna hear Jame's new songs, so of course we will work it out."
JB is the real deal
Late for the Sky has been the soundtrack to my life. I don't know what I would do without it.
The stanza from " For A Dancer" plays in my head every time someone close dies. JB sang it at David Lindley's memorial a year ago as we all teared up...
"I don't what happens when people die
Can't seem to grab it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
But I can't sing. I can't help listening"
In a world without record stores and real A&R men, I appreciate your occasional shining a light on things that I find interesting and important
Thanks again
Sincerely
Ross Hogarth
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From: John Hartmann
Subject: Re: The Road East-Live In Japan
Bob: Throughout more than fifty years in artist management I saw thousands of concerts from The Beatles on down. Only twice did a performer bring me to tears. Both times it was Jackson Browne.
As ever, Hartmann
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Re: Steve Poltz At McCabe's
It's about time that you wrote about Steve Poltz. Without a doubt, one of the finest and funniest singer/songwriter/entertainers out there. I can't tell you how many times I've told people the same message you ended your piece with. "You've GOT to go see his show. If you don't love it, I'll reimburse you for your tickets. But I won't need to do it because once you see him, you'll never want to miss his show again."
I've been fortunate to know Steve for the past 15 years or so. I operated a high quality house concert venue in San Diego known as the Oasis House Concerts, and we kept the bar high for who we booked. Without a doubt, Poltz's shows were always the fastest to sell out. We'd advertise one, and it would sell out within an hour. We'd add a 2nd show that would sell out within 6 hours. Then we'd add a 3rd show that would sell out in a little over a day. Then extra people would show up for the concerts and we'd have standing room only. I once told Steve that there was no rule about when the show had to end. He could play as long as he wants. I guess he took that as a challenge and played for about 5 and a half hours that night.
I'm a full time musician for a living, mostly in local restaurants along the Florida coast. But whenever I go out on a house concert tour, I try to make a point of catching one of Steve's shows before go just to inspire me to "up my game" for my performances. He's such a clever writer, a really good guitarist and a kind & generous guy. He's taken the time to sit down with me and show me how he plays some of his songs. He's genuinely happy to meet (most) every fan he encounters and give them a little one on one interaction.
Yeah, Steve could be a bigger star than he is, but he refuses to play the game and compromise for a big record company. He'd rather be true to himself… and that's a beautiful thing.
Charlie Imes
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Subject: Re: Don't React To The Snapshot
Bob, talk about media not getting it. Bad Bunny does not have the influence they think. He might have in 2021-2022. But he has steadily eroded it with his actions. When he started dating Kendall Jenner the mood in Latino circles was that this guy had forgotten his people and his background. (The hashtag #kardashiancurse started trending at one point). And he has only reinforced it since. He took all of that goodwill and didn't do sh*t with it..
Also, I'm sorry to say this, so many of my people are gone. They're turning out to be a combination of the same horrible MAGA racism aggravated by the Green Card phenomenon. Once they get one they feel superior to their undocumented peers. And it's worse if they are second or third generation. Now those, those really don't want to be perceived as the POC masses. If they could bleach themselves they would. It's embarrassing to me as a first generation US citizen.
We like to say "el peor enemigo de un inmigrante es otro inmigrante con papeles". (The worst enemy of an immigrant is another immigrant with legal papers)
-Jose Luis Revelo
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Re: Self-Published Books
Regarding your book non-promotion email. I agree. Getting a book out there is very hard. I know, I have tried. Spending hours, days, back in 2017 reviewing the bios of Amazon reviewers and managing to find several (even in their top 500) to review my journalistic ode to books, even having several published authors review me, even doing a virtual book tour, even getting a Washington Post reviewer interesting, (they can't review indie work alas), it did not sell. You really do need a big social media base today. I can't imagine what writers and even editors of yore, think Maxwell Perkins, Michael Korda, Agatha Christie, James Clavell, … would think of today's corporate writers world where books do not even pretend – esp. genre fiction – to be anything but product. I am a book reviewer of audiobooks for Library Journal and received their Audiobook Reviewer of the Year (2018) Award. Yes, I know, it's not the fabled New Yorker. I have reviewed for them since 2006, covering nearly all genres and even nonfiction, and will soon review book 131.
David F.
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Re Kristofferson
Kris was a great friend and supporter of my band the Unforgiven, and my songwriting, and he gave me the title of my first hit song, based on something I said on stage to the crowd when we were playing together. In the run up to one of our songs I said to the 60000 plus people in Cornhusker stadium: "on a day like this I feel like I can change the world!" After the set Kris grabbed me and said: "'Days like These I feel like I can change the world!' That's your next song." I didn't realize until much later that he'd tweaked it just a little bit because, after all, he was the poet laureate of rock n roll and that's what he did. And when the guy who wrote "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" gives you the name of your next song… you f*cking write it. I did. It changed my life. And I owe Kris a big debt. Move aside as the man goes thru to the other side. Respect must be given. RIP Kris Kristofferson.
Steve Jones
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Re: Nick Gravenites/Banana
Banana has a vintage musical instrument business in Inverness, CA, across Tomales Bay from.................... Elephant Mountain. I met him at a guitar show in San Rafael many years ago while searching for a mandolin. I came across a wall of vintage mandolins and after getting the lowdown on mandolins from guru Larry Cragg, I picked one and introduced myself to Banana. It was an honor! I was in Vietnam in 1968 and found a shop in Vung Tau that made reel-to-reel tapes for GIs. I bought "Elephant Mountain" put it on my brand new Akai reel-to-reel, and played it multiple times daily through a mostly plastic Singer Sewing Machine audio "system" holding the speakers up to my ears. (Yes, Singer was in the music business for a long weekend in the 60s)
I thanked Banana and said, "Elephant Mountain got me through Vietnam", and he said that that was probably the most rewarding aspect of making that music... as many vets expressed similar views over the years. I then asked if he offered any discounts and he firmly said "No", which I thought was funny. Thank you for your service.
I bought it anyway, of course, a 1935 Gibson, and it's sweet, although I rarely play it
I started seeing his name a couple of years ago playing locally at Hopmonk Novato and elsewhere.
Cheers!
Don Forbes
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Re: Lauren Christy-This Week's Podcast
Greatly enjoyed your podcast with one of my earliest signings, Lauren Christy.
Not only a great lyricist, melody writer and producer, but a great human being as well.
And with all the various artists, producers and songwriters I worked with in my 25 year career in the "old school" record biz, Lauren is the one who has achieved the most success by re-inventing herself and following her muse.
Proud to have signed her, though Ed Eckstine and I jumped through numerous hoops to get her over here to make a record. And trust me, it wasn't easy! Like she said in her interview, "she was standing on the verge" when things suddenly went upside down with a regime change and Ed leaving the label, and myself also being shown the door soon thereafter.
But Lauren and I have remained friends over all these years. This past January she did a short set at the Hotel Cafe, and it was truly amazing/awe inspiring to hear a room full of younger music fans singing every word of the iconic hits she wrote.
Good on ya Bob for recognizing her talent and conducting a great interview.
All the best,
Tom Vickers
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Re: Lauren Christy episode
Bob---What an incredibly thorough overview of the industry's inner workings. So much detail calls for repeat listenings. Brilliant. Thank you! Paul Lanning
Paul Lanning
_____________________________________
Subject: Tony Levin podcast
A couple anecdotes about Tony Levin. I was chief engineer at Artisan Sound Recorders in the late 80's and Rod Stewart was there working on the "Every Beat of My Heart" album with Bob Ezrin producing. I asked Bob who was the best musician he had ever worked with and without hesitation he said Tony Levin. Around the same time period I was walking from the studio to the kitchen when I heard this song blasting out of the mastering room. It was so infectious I had to walk down the hall and ask Greg Fulginiti what the hell it was. As I was walking towards the room I was struck by the great bass playing. After observing Greg's Knock, Pause, Enter sign I asked Greg what the hell is that? He said It's Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer. A legendary track with some of the best rock bass playing you will ever hear!
--
Peter A. Barker
https://www.spinmoveproducers.com/peter-a-barker
_____________________________________
Subject: Re: Tony Levin-This Week's Podcast
Bob,
I'm the guy who Tony mentioned that told him where to buy his first electric bass. I had been playing in a Rochester NY Jazz club for a week with Jackie Cain and Roy Kral, husband and wife jazz singers. They were pretty well known and very "hip" at the time. Tony and Steve Gadd, with whom I later played in the Yoko Ono Plastic Super Band, came into the club just about every night during that week. So I talked to Tony about electric basses as he related in the Podcast, and that's where it began for him in R&R. It was the late '60's.
I moved to LA in 1975 while playing with The Manhattan Transfer, got into the movie scene and other studio work there, never went back east to live - until five years ago when I moved to the Hudson Valley. I hadn't been back long when I saw that The Levin Brothers had a jazz group and were playing at a local club. Of course I went to see them and reconnect. Tony as usual was playing great and was on a twenty first century version of the Ampeg Baby Bass that he described in the interview. But this thing was way better, sounded like a real upright bass. It had almost no body but the fingerboard was perfect, beautiful wood with great workmanship and amplified.
We hung out after the gig and I asked Tony about the instrument. He told me who to call, hooked me up with the company's pro/endorsement guy and I got one right away.
And fifty plus years later Tony returned the favor of "where do I get the bass."
Full circle, karma. Love it!
Andy Muson, Balmville, New York
_____________________________________
Subject: Re: Cowboy Carter Snubbed
Slipknot and the "mall goth" aesthetic are SUPER in with Gen Z. Ask a random teenager if they like Slipknot and Deftones and if they fancy themself at all alternative or cool, they'll say yes. Nu Metal is having a revival through TikTok and the Y2K trend devoid of any cultural context.
- Miranda Shakes
Rock Music Teacher
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From: Dan Millen
Subject: Re: Universal Superfandom
Dumbest thing the labels ever did was sell their spotify shares after the lock up period expired!
Clearly they thought it was a fad, took the money and ran.
I was gonna email you about this but hadn't gotten a chance to yet. My wife has a family plan on Amazon music and wanted me to get on it and save a few bucks by ditching spotify. I said hell no, that was five years ago. I've had spotify since it came out and started paying for it the moment they released a mobile app. No way am I gonna try to rebuild years worth of playlists on a crappy interface.
A couple years ago my now 16 yr old step daughter started begging mom for Spotify because all the cool kids have it and they snicker about Amazon music. I was paying for two log-ins, one for me and one for a club that unfortunately didn't make it through Covid in time for SVOG, so I gave her my other one. Happy kid, happy us.
Last year my mother in law bought a brand new Ipad, which came with six months of apple music and apple TV+ and she got us the family plan. We love apple TV+ and kept that, but nobody wanted Apple Music.
Last night - at Midtown high in Atlanta they had a "coffee shop" performance where all the kids get up and sing songs and do skits, it's a pretty cool thing that I wish my redneck small town high school had.
One of the running gags was "my mom will only let me have apple music" and everyone booed. This was a call-back at least three times, maybe more, I left a little early.
Now, you know I'm an android guy but all these kids have Iphones and blue bubbles, and they all want spotify. I asked my step daughter afterward if there's really a social stigma about Apple Music and she confirmed it. She says everyone knows that spotify is better and apple music sucks, and people who don't have spotify get laughed at.
I told her she better be nice to me or she'll be back on Amazon ??
Oh and she also busts my chops whenever I play Taylor Swift's original versions and not "Taylor's Version" even though I like the originals better. She knows all about Big Machine and how they FAFO'd Tay Tay, and she was devastated when UMG took Tay Tay off TikTok, and thinks Taylor is the most powerful person in the music biz because she told the label to pound sand and put her music back on TikTok.
I told her she's probably right.
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From: Marty Bender
Subject: Re: Come And Go Blues-Solo Live 12/11/1981
I was on the air in Cincinnati on a Saturday night.
Request line rang---
"Hey man, it's Gregg Allman and I just wanted to call and tell you how much I'm diggin' what you're playin."
I was skeptical, but it sure sounded like him.
Knowing this was on the air, I asked the caller if he could prove he was Gregg Allman.
"Yeah, hang on, let me just grab this guitar."
Then he laid the phone down and played/sang "Melissa."
It was Gregg.
I thanked him for the song he played and he thanked me again for the song(s) I played.
Marty Bender
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Subject: Re: Come And Go Blues-Solo Live 12/11/1981
RE: "Come and Go" Blues: You have really captured Gregg here. I knew the guy and worked with him daily for years, but never felt I really knew him till the very end when I hugged his frail, failing body at his last Macon concert. I used his words from "Wasted Words" for my book title "No Saints, No Saviors".
RE: ABB guitars on commercial flights. Neither Duane, Dickey, or Berry trusted checked baggage, so I made a deal with the airlines for a half-priced first class seat called "cabin baggage" and used a seat belt extension for obese passengers to strap them in.
Willie Perkins
Macon, GA
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From: Tour Swag G
Subject: Re: Shot In The Dark
Pitty the poor roadie sentenced to a night in a guest room/cell at the Trump Taj Mahal when their rockstar boss took a gig there.
The rooms were damp, dingy, moldy the furnishings crap.
On load in, having to sweep aside food and drink wrappers to get the gear from the trucks to the concert hall floor.
Before doors the chair crew was lining up and numbering chairs with the previous show refuse still on the floor between rows of chairs.
Production Manager questioned and the House reply was that "our guests don't mind"
That's a culture.
We did not eat any of the food but ordered out.
And luckily our boss never accepted another engagement there
Cheers, TS
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From: Barry Lyons
Subject: Greg Kihn
So nice to see all the warm remebrancws about Mr. Kihn, I was especially moved to see the one from Marty Schwartz, a one -time Buffaloid like Myself.I arrived at Elehtra around the time that Marty talked about, the 60's winding down along with the culture of the 40-s and early 50's - much like the culture that made the 600's through the 90's what it was is down to it's last gasp now.In those days, my musical tastebds got turned on by what I read in Creem and Rolling Stone and a few other regional outlets. So as the the 60's prepared to exit, I was all aboard the Beserkley train and had see Kihn once in Cleveland, and had developed a Kihnspicuous thirst for his stuff. Had a friend record his performance on the King Biscuit Flower Hour (now there's a Kihnspicuous reference you don't often see or hear nowadays). And when the Breakup Song arrived, I made up my mind that THAT was going to be my first opportunity to go out and really try to make something happen out of my little territory (Buffalo, Rochester, Erie PA, Syracuse, and Utica.Every station that COULD have played it, (even WKBW in Buffalo, , known for taking no chances) did, Every station that could have or should have done an interview with him, DID. And in short order, some of the other reps at Elektra in those days, Ray Gmeiner, Beu Siegal, Tom Jodka, Ray Carlton, got the message - forcefully delivered to us all by Mr.s Schwartz, Burt Stein, and Kenny Buttice, and the rest is history. Gave me the start on a nearly 50 year career that is only now winding to a conclusion. I am Ever so thankfulthat I got into it when I did, WhEN It WAS FUN, something the current batch of youngsters today may never know or experience. So to Mr. Kihn, know that there will always be a special place for you in my heart, and in my memory banks. Rock on, Bro...
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Re: Breaking Records
Dear Bob,
Your article about the current state of the record business is right on. It was really better whenever hundreds of little Labels with people who really cared about Music. I just see Music losing its soul. As soon as it got corporate it began a big downhill run.
I just feel blessed to have been around from the late 60s and had a chance to touch the world.I just feel blessed to have been around and had a chance to touch the world.
Keep it up Bob
Robert Margouleff
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Re: Note
As a happily retired former publishing professional (i.e. I got paid) for nearly forty years, I really got a kick out of this letter. Getting a book published by a major or even minor publishing company these days is harder than ever, and if you're an unpublished author next to impossible. Getting an editor or agent to look at your manuscript, no matter how good, was very very hard even in the 70s and 80s, and it only got tougher. Voicemail and e-mail make it even easier for editors to ignore would-be authors. Long ago, I spent hours going through the "slush" piles of manuscripts of would-be authors at Western Publishing/Golden Books, and the odds of finding a manuscript worthy of publication were between slim and none. I do know writers who publish their own books, but they find ways to market their books (mostly non-fiction) to niche markets and readers who might be interested, but they do it to see their manuscript in print, even if they have to pay to do it, then sell 500 or copies. If I were foolish enough to want to be an author or editor in today's publishing world, like Rick Nelson said in Garden Party, I'd rather drive a truck." It probably pays a lot better.
Chip Lovitt
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Re: Note
I used to be the arts editor of an ethnic newspaper in Toronto before, like most papers, we went belly up. And I used to do book reviews, so, as you know, every wannabe writer would send me their self-published novel to review.
One guy kept pestering me, and because I knew his brother, I decided to look at it.
On the first page there was a sentence that went something like, "He was in a square room, 12 feet by 10 feet."
Dude, that's a rectangle. I stopped reading
Joe Serge
Toronto
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Re: Note
As a retired newspaper book review editor, I got a chuckle out of this rant.
It's how I felt, too, of course, and I would tell self-published authors as much. But in much more concise and polite terms.
I used to say: "When a legit publisher picks up your book, and you sell a million copies, I will be the first person to say I was wrong. And we will happily review your second book."
Morley Walker
Winnipeg, Canada
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Re: Note
I can't imagine what you are inundated with from your readers. You captured the disconnect. Even successful bands have a range of song quality. Why else did people get tired of buying albums with only one great song on them?
I love to write and I'm pretty good, you are verrry good. I know my strengths; articles in the local paper, storytelling. Writing great fiction, is incredibly difficult. Character and plot development, perspectives, mood, tone., the prose Less than one percent of all creative/artistic efforts reach the pinnacle of excellence. Nobody gets that.
I was talking to a really bright former radio gal from Boston and she sent me her first novel. I gave up after 30 pages. She was trying too hard and channeling authors that she loved. She got lost. Thanks for mentioning spelling and grammar. I still cringe at how we seem to have accepted referring to people as a 'what' instead of 'who' e.g. "She was somebody that knew every one in town". Wrong, we are not things.
John Brodey
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Re: Note
I totally agree.
I've been working as a DJ for a while and run into this with musicians. I often think…why shoot your shot with this track? Why not wait…work on it, get someone else to like it and offer to pitch it. Then at least 2 people think it's good. I'm much more receptive when someone says, "Have you heard of so and so. Saw them last weekend and really liked their songs."
This is why publishers and record labels are important — traditionally they set the bar as to what is good enough to be presented to those interested in that type of art. If an editor and a business man are willing to spend their time and money to get a book ready to be published — it's probably a reasonable book. Self published books will always suck…the writer should at least pay an editor to go through the book and fix all the things writers don't think about. Consistent voice, timelines, dates, names, etc. Editors fix that sh*t…not writers. And, a graphic designer or page layout professional to create the personality of the layout - type faces, spacing, and other professional touches. (maybe not important for kindle, etc).
Same with records. If an artist's songs are good enough that someone is willing to fork over $10k to record it and $10k to release it, then it is more likely to be likable versus a garage band song and uploaded to Soundcloud. There are always exceptions…but generally this is true to me.
Lid Dixon
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Re: Note
Thanks for another great and well-deserved rant.
I've always dreamed of writing a novel, wrote my first one at 17. It was about a guy who took acid in high school (go figure!).
Took it with me to a gig in Kodiak, Alaska and showed it to a kayak guide who said it reminded him of some guy named Thomas Pynchon, who had published Gravity's Rainbow the previous year. As soon as I was home in SF, I hit City Lights bookstore and bought my first copy of GR, took it to Cafe Trieste and…that was the beginning of the end of my novel-writing career.
I was a reporter and columnist for a decade, where novelists go to die.
Jim Caroompas
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Re: Note
When it comes to proofreading you can't have enough eyes.
Reminds me of a story a good friend of mine told me who was a legal proofreader and Herman Melville buff.
He ordered the definitive edition of Moby Dick from Northwestern Press and on the inside title page it had Moby Dick by Herman Meville.
Jim Eigo
Warwick NY
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Re: Note
My daughter Michelle writes young adult fantasy fiction. She signed with an agent and landed a publishing deal with a major house right out of college, even securing a decent advance. It was amazing seeing her books on shelves across the country, but the tradeoff was a low percentage and the publisher having control over everything. After learning the industry, she went indie and hasn't looked back—she's now sold over three million books and is a USA Today Best Selling Author. She publishes exclusively through Amazon and has complete control over her work.
You really can't judge a book by its cover—or its publisher!
Rich Madow
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Re: Note
If you have a story to tell.. then you've got to tell it.. and if it means self publishing, your book to sell it one by one, that's what you do.. I have a 50 year story to tell about my life in the music business and the extraordinary moments that I was a part of that the public would never see or know about what was the truth.. when I couldn't find an agent who thought that maybe stories about working with Miles Davis and Luther Vandross, Sting, Chaka Khan and so many others that I was up close and personal with seeing a perspective that nobody else had an opportunity to see my friends encouraged me to self publish it and help me come up with a plan that helped me raise all the money I needed to put it out .. then thankfully the connections that I had in the press and around the world.. pre-bought over 200 copies and I was able to go from there..
Great reviews help me sell more, and I decided to write another one..
If you were going to sell publish, you have to have an audience and you have to be prepared to work your ass off.. I went to a company for Printing and they printed all the copies wrong.. To be done over again and it was painful, but I learned to roll with it.. now now I finished my second book .. and I'm going to try the same formula wherever I go to perform or speak.. I bring books with me and always sell them out.. It is a continuing process and if you have a good book, there's always somebody to buy it, but you have to put yourself in the position.. you have to have a strong story and you also have to have patience… a lot of it.
Peace,Jason Mles
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Re: Note
I hear you and I agree 100% most people might have an idea but that does not make them a writer. I cant even imagine how much crap you have to ignore. Out of the five books friends have written the only one enjoyable was written by a guy who has been a poet for 40 years, was Californias poet laureate for two years and knows how to edit and tell a story.
Hang in there and delete as needed.
Regards
Chris Hill
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Re: Note
There's an alternative for authors. And it's one not often mentioned. Hybrid publishing.
I've done books with major publishers in the past. I get a nice advance and they will print and distribute the book in 18 months. What the hell can I write that I know will be relevant then? If I insist it does, it proves I don't know what I'm writing about.
My publisher, Forefront Books, is the product of a highly respected guy who worked with Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and more. S&S offered him an imprint. Instead of an advance, I pay upfront for printing, editing, and design.
But it's not "self publishing." He turns down LOTS of wannabes. I know many who will pay the fee and get rejected because the quality of the work isn't of the level the publisher will support.
Simon & Schuster handles distribution. On their website, I'm an S&S author. My royalties are infinitely better than a traditional pub deal. A Forbes online post rated my latest as one of the "year's ten best" and sales have been great for my genre.
Few know it's not a traditional deal. But it's better for me - and because of sales, better for the publisher. We are doing more books together.
So — is there a music equivalent? If not, why not?
Scott McKain
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From: Seth Godin
Re: Note
Unleashed!
Here it is again, but shorter:
FIRST, TEN
This, in two words, is the secret of the new marketing.
Find ten people. Ten people who trust you/respect you/need you/listen to you…
Those ten people need what you have to sell, or want it. And if they love it, you win. If they love it, they'll each find you ten more people (or a hundred or a thousand or, perhaps, just three). Repeat.
If they don't love it, you need a new product. Start over.
Your idea spreads. Your business grows. Not as fast as you want, but faster than you could ever imagine.
This approach changes the posture and timing of everything you do.
You can no longer market to the anonymous masses. They're not anonymous and they're not masses. You can only market to people who are willing participants. Like this group of ten.
The timing means that the idea of a 'launch' and press releases and the big unveiling is nuts. Instead, plan on the gradual build that turns into a tidal wave. Organize for it and spend money appropriately. The fact is, the curve of money spent (big hump, then it tails off) is precisely backwards to what you actually need.
Three years from now, this advice will be so common as to be boring.
Today, it's almost certainly the opposite of what you're doing.
April 2, 2009
https://seths.blog/2009/04/first-ten/
Thanks for paying tribute to Nick.
I have a lot of great memories of Nick.
It's interesting that he has a current album out. I'm honored to have played on it while remembering rehearsing with Nick in his parents basement in Chicago in the early 60s. So much happened between then and now that it's hard to remember it all, but I've got stories.
I hope Nick passed peacefully.
-Charlie Musselwhite
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Re: Nick Gravenities
Thanks for posting about Nick. Such a unique fixture in the start of white Chicago blues and the west coast rock and roll.
We released his last album in April, "Rogue Blues." The recording were from 2022 and 2023 and produced by Pete Sears with Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmy Vivino, and Lester Chambers.
https://open.spotify.com/album/6PB8M2FLY0pGZXgHPV7zcR?si=L3a87gidRJe0ua71-kwZyA
Mark Carpentieri
M.C. Records
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Re: How are you coping with the hurricane
Still no power. There is a very little cell service or Internet, where we live as well. We have to drive to Greenville to get full service, which is about 20 minutes away. Talking Friday ETA for it to be restored. The number of trees down here is really hard to explain, so widespread, so random. Generators running all over the neighborhood. The mountains in North Carolina are absolutely devastated. Big tree landed on my parents house. Overall though, we are perfectly fine and very lucky. Thanks for asking.
Marty Winsch
At about 3am Friday morning they reported the the storm was tracking 50-70 miles east of what they forecasted putting us right in the path of the eye which meant more wind, but making it less of a rain event. The issue was the 5-12 inches of rain we received the days prior to the hurricane so the ground was already saturated. So, when the winds came, it was game over for thousands of trees, power lines, the electrical grid.
My mindset? I retired in July so things were weird already. This just was the next weird thing. I'm fine, focused on helping as many people as I can. The lines for gas, stores being out of food, having to drive for internet with hundreds of texts popping up once you hit the grid is a touch unnerving. But we're fine compared to the folks in the mountains. They are cut off. Lots of suffering. Very sad.
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From: Rishon Blumberg
Subject: Re: Re-Nova Festival Exhibition
I'm the son of a holocaust survivor. My mother passed two years ago. I'm thankful she hasn't had to experience what is happening now. That said, it wouldn't surprise her.
I went to the exhibit when it was in NYC. It was, I believe, the only night a massive, organized pro-Palestinian protest engulfed the exhibit block and we were trapped inside for over an hour. While I personally wasn't overly worried for my safety, people who were on line to enter when the protest arrived were terrified. Security slowly let the most concerned into the exhibit to take shelter. One such woman was quite young and pregnant and with her husband. She was hysterically crying when they finally let her in. In the exit room where we all waited, a minion formed and prayers were audible. A few survivors (which was part of the program) were speaking to some of us about what they experienced. I was watching some of what was going on outside via the Citizen app. The organizers did a good job of trying to keep everyone calm but as time passed, as you can imagine, people were getting more and more agitated. Luckily this was NYC and the middle of the financial district so the police mobilized fairly quickly. When we were finally let out, the police helped guide myself, my wife and our friend to a safe path through the streets to avoid the remaining protestors.
The entire event was quite surreal, from the exhibit itself to what transpired afterwards. One minute you feel totally safe, the next, not so much.
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Subject: Re: The Nova Exhibition
I agree with every word of this Bob.
I went to Israel for the first time in March and I am 56 years old. I wanted to bear witness and volunteer. Going to the Nova site and seeing with my own eyes that patch of land in the Negev where these beautiful young adults, my own three children's ages were brutally raped, tortured, murdered and stolen tore me apart in ways I will never be able to put into words.
It's always been hard to be Jewish carrying the history of our ancestors and now more so than ever. I wouldn't exist if not for that small piece of land in the desert. My maternal great great grandparents escaped the Pogroms in Belarus in the late 1800's to live there. My Great Great Grandfather was buried in 1926 in Mt Olive cemetery behind the Wailing Wall.
Tragic. The world truly feels upside down and I have never felt more scared for the future of that beautiful country filled with people of all religions. The most misunderstood country and all because of hatred for the Jews. It really is that simple. Otherwise there would have been peace long ago.
Renee Litt, LMFT
www.reneelitttherapy.com
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From: Karen Ruttner
Subject: Re: Re-Nova Festival Exhibition
Date: September 25, 2024 at 7:39:18 AM PDT
I live in Union Square in NYC. I've lost count of how many "Free Palestine" protests have disrupted my daily existence. Now that NYU is back in session, I fear it's only going to get worse. Last night, for about an hour, there was a full MARCHING BAND and DANCE TROUPE with what was clearly a rehearsed performance on 14th street chanting things like "f*ck Israel" and "f*ck the oppression". This generation of "students" who have gleaned the bulk of their education from TikTok and other social media are chilling me to the bone.
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Subject: Re: Re-JD Souther
Since hearing of J.D.'s passing I've thought a lot this past week about the amazing door our band America stepped through into the L.A. music scene in 1972. At that time in our new career while living in London, we were suddenly given a management offer by long-distance phone call. A phone call we could not refuse...from David Geffen and Elliot Roberts. Would we like to join their stable of artists at their Lookout Management office on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles? We couldn't get on a plane fast enough! In retrospect we were dropped in the deep end of that pool as 3 young American songwriters arriving on the strength of our #1 first album with the #1 single Horse With No Name, and we thought we knew how it was done! But we were far from the seasoned artists we joined in those offices who had actually inspired us...CSN, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young among others! In addition we met artists we were not so familiar with around the office...Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey with this new band called the Eagles, David Blue, Judee Sill, etc…and a guy named J.D. Souther. We began recording our 2nd album as soon as we settled, and Geffen began arranging our first major tour of the U.S. playing large venues, arenas etc. We had only played a week at the Whiskey a Go Go in L.A. on a club tour as our introduction to the U.S. earlier that year, before returning to London. We did not even have a rhythm section, as we were accustomed to sitting on three stools with just our acoustic guitars and our three-part harmony vocals.
And then we became aware that J.D. Souther would be our opening act for that first big tour (Jackson Browne would open the following tour) and we started hanging out together at rehearsals etc. From the beginning he was obviously his own man and experienced in ways we were not, and he had great songs and a beautiful voice. Being 7 years older and wiser with a wicked sense of humor we bonded on that tour and I remember being taken by his confidence and comfort in his own shoes as he stood alone at the mic, in front of what was actually our audience curious to see this upstart band coming out of nowhere with this huge hit record. J.D. had to endure some heckling at times and always rose to the occasion with a sharp response, "Hey I've only been doing this for a little while, you've probably been an asshole you're entire life!" He would sometimes have his girlfriend at the time, Linda Ronstadt, fly out for a few days as we would stay out for 2-3 months in those days of long tours. And we would get him out to sing now and then for the finale…a grand time was had by all!
That was a great tour and our formal initiation into that special group of artists and musicians that we interacted with for decades to come. The arrival of Irving Azoff with Joe Walsh was great news too, as we were fans by then, and Joe is still a good friend. Now it's 50+ years later, and as with the passing of Glenn Frey 8 years ago, and having drifted away from most of those early friendships, I am saddened to know that we have now lost J.D. and time continues to march on. May he rest in peace and spice things up out there in the somewhere!
Dewey Bunnell
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From: Jennifer Feeney
Subject: Re: Re-JD Souther
Hi Bob,
One of my favorite stories is about J.D. Souther. I hosted him in our Los Angeles showroom (Gibson) many years ago. Before he left, he pulled out his calling card—not a business card. It had his name, and just below that, the word 'Songwriter.' That was it. He then took out a pen and wrote his phone number on the back.
I thought to myself....classy.
Best,
Jennifer
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From: Jack Tempchin
Subject: Jackson Browne
I'm so glad you wrote about him. That album from Japan is one of the BEST ALBUMS I EVER HEARD. Peak of the magic for him. Wow.
Then I looked at Running Down The Road...live 1972.
I was Shocked to find that he recorded Peaceful Easy Feeling...!!!!
What a guy, he sure did not have to include that song.
I had only heard him do the version where he stops in the middle, I never heard him do the entire song.....fantastic.
I will see him on September 29th at the Coach House in San Clemente. There is a benefit for Richard Stekol, my old bandmate in the Funky Kings. I will get to play a few songs with Richard and Greg Leisz, they both played in my bands for about 16 years. It will be magic for me to play with them again.
And Jackson will be there and Honk will close the show...
Bob, I can't thank you enough for writing about these two albums...
Yeah, the magic is still here Bob, still here!!
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Subject: Re: The Road East-Live In Japan
Hey Bob
Thanks for writing about JB. Only nice and kind things to say about our musical big brother and patriarch Jackson Browne.
He shows up for his musical community when we need it not only in his capacity doing the benefit concerts since the 70's for every good cause but just as a mensch.
One not well commonly known fact about Jacksons kindness is that he gave
Stevie Ray and Double Trouble (Chris and Tommy) his Downtown Browne studio to make his Texas Flood record over the Thanksgiving holiday 1982.
In 2019 when I was about to produce and track James McMurtry's Horses and The Hounds,
I got bumped out of one the bigger studios I had booked for a bigger client, I called Jackson and he paused his own sessions so I could use his studio Groovemasters.
His response when I asked for studio time was, "James McMurtry ? I wanna hear Jame's new songs, so of course we will work it out."
JB is the real deal
Late for the Sky has been the soundtrack to my life. I don't know what I would do without it.
The stanza from " For A Dancer" plays in my head every time someone close dies. JB sang it at David Lindley's memorial a year ago as we all teared up...
"I don't what happens when people die
Can't seem to grab it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
But I can't sing. I can't help listening"
In a world without record stores and real A&R men, I appreciate your occasional shining a light on things that I find interesting and important
Thanks again
Sincerely
Ross Hogarth
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From: John Hartmann
Subject: Re: The Road East-Live In Japan
Bob: Throughout more than fifty years in artist management I saw thousands of concerts from The Beatles on down. Only twice did a performer bring me to tears. Both times it was Jackson Browne.
As ever, Hartmann
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Re: Steve Poltz At McCabe's
It's about time that you wrote about Steve Poltz. Without a doubt, one of the finest and funniest singer/songwriter/entertainers out there. I can't tell you how many times I've told people the same message you ended your piece with. "You've GOT to go see his show. If you don't love it, I'll reimburse you for your tickets. But I won't need to do it because once you see him, you'll never want to miss his show again."
I've been fortunate to know Steve for the past 15 years or so. I operated a high quality house concert venue in San Diego known as the Oasis House Concerts, and we kept the bar high for who we booked. Without a doubt, Poltz's shows were always the fastest to sell out. We'd advertise one, and it would sell out within an hour. We'd add a 2nd show that would sell out within 6 hours. Then we'd add a 3rd show that would sell out in a little over a day. Then extra people would show up for the concerts and we'd have standing room only. I once told Steve that there was no rule about when the show had to end. He could play as long as he wants. I guess he took that as a challenge and played for about 5 and a half hours that night.
I'm a full time musician for a living, mostly in local restaurants along the Florida coast. But whenever I go out on a house concert tour, I try to make a point of catching one of Steve's shows before go just to inspire me to "up my game" for my performances. He's such a clever writer, a really good guitarist and a kind & generous guy. He's taken the time to sit down with me and show me how he plays some of his songs. He's genuinely happy to meet (most) every fan he encounters and give them a little one on one interaction.
Yeah, Steve could be a bigger star than he is, but he refuses to play the game and compromise for a big record company. He'd rather be true to himself… and that's a beautiful thing.
Charlie Imes
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Subject: Re: Don't React To The Snapshot
Bob, talk about media not getting it. Bad Bunny does not have the influence they think. He might have in 2021-2022. But he has steadily eroded it with his actions. When he started dating Kendall Jenner the mood in Latino circles was that this guy had forgotten his people and his background. (The hashtag #kardashiancurse started trending at one point). And he has only reinforced it since. He took all of that goodwill and didn't do sh*t with it..
Also, I'm sorry to say this, so many of my people are gone. They're turning out to be a combination of the same horrible MAGA racism aggravated by the Green Card phenomenon. Once they get one they feel superior to their undocumented peers. And it's worse if they are second or third generation. Now those, those really don't want to be perceived as the POC masses. If they could bleach themselves they would. It's embarrassing to me as a first generation US citizen.
We like to say "el peor enemigo de un inmigrante es otro inmigrante con papeles". (The worst enemy of an immigrant is another immigrant with legal papers)
-Jose Luis Revelo
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Re: Self-Published Books
Regarding your book non-promotion email. I agree. Getting a book out there is very hard. I know, I have tried. Spending hours, days, back in 2017 reviewing the bios of Amazon reviewers and managing to find several (even in their top 500) to review my journalistic ode to books, even having several published authors review me, even doing a virtual book tour, even getting a Washington Post reviewer interesting, (they can't review indie work alas), it did not sell. You really do need a big social media base today. I can't imagine what writers and even editors of yore, think Maxwell Perkins, Michael Korda, Agatha Christie, James Clavell, … would think of today's corporate writers world where books do not even pretend – esp. genre fiction – to be anything but product. I am a book reviewer of audiobooks for Library Journal and received their Audiobook Reviewer of the Year (2018) Award. Yes, I know, it's not the fabled New Yorker. I have reviewed for them since 2006, covering nearly all genres and even nonfiction, and will soon review book 131.
David F.
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Re Kristofferson
Kris was a great friend and supporter of my band the Unforgiven, and my songwriting, and he gave me the title of my first hit song, based on something I said on stage to the crowd when we were playing together. In the run up to one of our songs I said to the 60000 plus people in Cornhusker stadium: "on a day like this I feel like I can change the world!" After the set Kris grabbed me and said: "'Days like These I feel like I can change the world!' That's your next song." I didn't realize until much later that he'd tweaked it just a little bit because, after all, he was the poet laureate of rock n roll and that's what he did. And when the guy who wrote "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" gives you the name of your next song… you f*cking write it. I did. It changed my life. And I owe Kris a big debt. Move aside as the man goes thru to the other side. Respect must be given. RIP Kris Kristofferson.
Steve Jones
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Re: Nick Gravenites/Banana
Banana has a vintage musical instrument business in Inverness, CA, across Tomales Bay from.................... Elephant Mountain. I met him at a guitar show in San Rafael many years ago while searching for a mandolin. I came across a wall of vintage mandolins and after getting the lowdown on mandolins from guru Larry Cragg, I picked one and introduced myself to Banana. It was an honor! I was in Vietnam in 1968 and found a shop in Vung Tau that made reel-to-reel tapes for GIs. I bought "Elephant Mountain" put it on my brand new Akai reel-to-reel, and played it multiple times daily through a mostly plastic Singer Sewing Machine audio "system" holding the speakers up to my ears. (Yes, Singer was in the music business for a long weekend in the 60s)
I thanked Banana and said, "Elephant Mountain got me through Vietnam", and he said that that was probably the most rewarding aspect of making that music... as many vets expressed similar views over the years. I then asked if he offered any discounts and he firmly said "No", which I thought was funny. Thank you for your service.
I bought it anyway, of course, a 1935 Gibson, and it's sweet, although I rarely play it
I started seeing his name a couple of years ago playing locally at Hopmonk Novato and elsewhere.
Cheers!
Don Forbes
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Re: Lauren Christy-This Week's Podcast
Greatly enjoyed your podcast with one of my earliest signings, Lauren Christy.
Not only a great lyricist, melody writer and producer, but a great human being as well.
And with all the various artists, producers and songwriters I worked with in my 25 year career in the "old school" record biz, Lauren is the one who has achieved the most success by re-inventing herself and following her muse.
Proud to have signed her, though Ed Eckstine and I jumped through numerous hoops to get her over here to make a record. And trust me, it wasn't easy! Like she said in her interview, "she was standing on the verge" when things suddenly went upside down with a regime change and Ed leaving the label, and myself also being shown the door soon thereafter.
But Lauren and I have remained friends over all these years. This past January she did a short set at the Hotel Cafe, and it was truly amazing/awe inspiring to hear a room full of younger music fans singing every word of the iconic hits she wrote.
Good on ya Bob for recognizing her talent and conducting a great interview.
All the best,
Tom Vickers
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Re: Lauren Christy episode
Bob---What an incredibly thorough overview of the industry's inner workings. So much detail calls for repeat listenings. Brilliant. Thank you! Paul Lanning
Paul Lanning
_____________________________________
Subject: Tony Levin podcast
A couple anecdotes about Tony Levin. I was chief engineer at Artisan Sound Recorders in the late 80's and Rod Stewart was there working on the "Every Beat of My Heart" album with Bob Ezrin producing. I asked Bob who was the best musician he had ever worked with and without hesitation he said Tony Levin. Around the same time period I was walking from the studio to the kitchen when I heard this song blasting out of the mastering room. It was so infectious I had to walk down the hall and ask Greg Fulginiti what the hell it was. As I was walking towards the room I was struck by the great bass playing. After observing Greg's Knock, Pause, Enter sign I asked Greg what the hell is that? He said It's Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer. A legendary track with some of the best rock bass playing you will ever hear!
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Peter A. Barker
https://www.spinmoveproducers.com/peter-a-barker
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Subject: Re: Tony Levin-This Week's Podcast
Bob,
I'm the guy who Tony mentioned that told him where to buy his first electric bass. I had been playing in a Rochester NY Jazz club for a week with Jackie Cain and Roy Kral, husband and wife jazz singers. They were pretty well known and very "hip" at the time. Tony and Steve Gadd, with whom I later played in the Yoko Ono Plastic Super Band, came into the club just about every night during that week. So I talked to Tony about electric basses as he related in the Podcast, and that's where it began for him in R&R. It was the late '60's.
I moved to LA in 1975 while playing with The Manhattan Transfer, got into the movie scene and other studio work there, never went back east to live - until five years ago when I moved to the Hudson Valley. I hadn't been back long when I saw that The Levin Brothers had a jazz group and were playing at a local club. Of course I went to see them and reconnect. Tony as usual was playing great and was on a twenty first century version of the Ampeg Baby Bass that he described in the interview. But this thing was way better, sounded like a real upright bass. It had almost no body but the fingerboard was perfect, beautiful wood with great workmanship and amplified.
We hung out after the gig and I asked Tony about the instrument. He told me who to call, hooked me up with the company's pro/endorsement guy and I got one right away.
And fifty plus years later Tony returned the favor of "where do I get the bass."
Full circle, karma. Love it!
Andy Muson, Balmville, New York
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Subject: Re: Cowboy Carter Snubbed
Slipknot and the "mall goth" aesthetic are SUPER in with Gen Z. Ask a random teenager if they like Slipknot and Deftones and if they fancy themself at all alternative or cool, they'll say yes. Nu Metal is having a revival through TikTok and the Y2K trend devoid of any cultural context.
- Miranda Shakes
Rock Music Teacher
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From: Dan Millen
Subject: Re: Universal Superfandom
Dumbest thing the labels ever did was sell their spotify shares after the lock up period expired!
Clearly they thought it was a fad, took the money and ran.
I was gonna email you about this but hadn't gotten a chance to yet. My wife has a family plan on Amazon music and wanted me to get on it and save a few bucks by ditching spotify. I said hell no, that was five years ago. I've had spotify since it came out and started paying for it the moment they released a mobile app. No way am I gonna try to rebuild years worth of playlists on a crappy interface.
A couple years ago my now 16 yr old step daughter started begging mom for Spotify because all the cool kids have it and they snicker about Amazon music. I was paying for two log-ins, one for me and one for a club that unfortunately didn't make it through Covid in time for SVOG, so I gave her my other one. Happy kid, happy us.
Last year my mother in law bought a brand new Ipad, which came with six months of apple music and apple TV+ and she got us the family plan. We love apple TV+ and kept that, but nobody wanted Apple Music.
Last night - at Midtown high in Atlanta they had a "coffee shop" performance where all the kids get up and sing songs and do skits, it's a pretty cool thing that I wish my redneck small town high school had.
One of the running gags was "my mom will only let me have apple music" and everyone booed. This was a call-back at least three times, maybe more, I left a little early.
Now, you know I'm an android guy but all these kids have Iphones and blue bubbles, and they all want spotify. I asked my step daughter afterward if there's really a social stigma about Apple Music and she confirmed it. She says everyone knows that spotify is better and apple music sucks, and people who don't have spotify get laughed at.
I told her she better be nice to me or she'll be back on Amazon ??
Oh and she also busts my chops whenever I play Taylor Swift's original versions and not "Taylor's Version" even though I like the originals better. She knows all about Big Machine and how they FAFO'd Tay Tay, and she was devastated when UMG took Tay Tay off TikTok, and thinks Taylor is the most powerful person in the music biz because she told the label to pound sand and put her music back on TikTok.
I told her she's probably right.
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From: Marty Bender
Subject: Re: Come And Go Blues-Solo Live 12/11/1981
I was on the air in Cincinnati on a Saturday night.
Request line rang---
"Hey man, it's Gregg Allman and I just wanted to call and tell you how much I'm diggin' what you're playin."
I was skeptical, but it sure sounded like him.
Knowing this was on the air, I asked the caller if he could prove he was Gregg Allman.
"Yeah, hang on, let me just grab this guitar."
Then he laid the phone down and played/sang "Melissa."
It was Gregg.
I thanked him for the song he played and he thanked me again for the song(s) I played.
Marty Bender
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Subject: Re: Come And Go Blues-Solo Live 12/11/1981
RE: "Come and Go" Blues: You have really captured Gregg here. I knew the guy and worked with him daily for years, but never felt I really knew him till the very end when I hugged his frail, failing body at his last Macon concert. I used his words from "Wasted Words" for my book title "No Saints, No Saviors".
RE: ABB guitars on commercial flights. Neither Duane, Dickey, or Berry trusted checked baggage, so I made a deal with the airlines for a half-priced first class seat called "cabin baggage" and used a seat belt extension for obese passengers to strap them in.
Willie Perkins
Macon, GA
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From: Tour Swag G
Subject: Re: Shot In The Dark
Pitty the poor roadie sentenced to a night in a guest room/cell at the Trump Taj Mahal when their rockstar boss took a gig there.
The rooms were damp, dingy, moldy the furnishings crap.
On load in, having to sweep aside food and drink wrappers to get the gear from the trucks to the concert hall floor.
Before doors the chair crew was lining up and numbering chairs with the previous show refuse still on the floor between rows of chairs.
Production Manager questioned and the House reply was that "our guests don't mind"
That's a culture.
We did not eat any of the food but ordered out.
And luckily our boss never accepted another engagement there
Cheers, TS
_____________________________________
From: Barry Lyons
Subject: Greg Kihn
So nice to see all the warm remebrancws about Mr. Kihn, I was especially moved to see the one from Marty Schwartz, a one -time Buffaloid like Myself.I arrived at Elehtra around the time that Marty talked about, the 60's winding down along with the culture of the 40-s and early 50's - much like the culture that made the 600's through the 90's what it was is down to it's last gasp now.In those days, my musical tastebds got turned on by what I read in Creem and Rolling Stone and a few other regional outlets. So as the the 60's prepared to exit, I was all aboard the Beserkley train and had see Kihn once in Cleveland, and had developed a Kihnspicuous thirst for his stuff. Had a friend record his performance on the King Biscuit Flower Hour (now there's a Kihnspicuous reference you don't often see or hear nowadays). And when the Breakup Song arrived, I made up my mind that THAT was going to be my first opportunity to go out and really try to make something happen out of my little territory (Buffalo, Rochester, Erie PA, Syracuse, and Utica.Every station that COULD have played it, (even WKBW in Buffalo, , known for taking no chances) did, Every station that could have or should have done an interview with him, DID. And in short order, some of the other reps at Elektra in those days, Ray Gmeiner, Beu Siegal, Tom Jodka, Ray Carlton, got the message - forcefully delivered to us all by Mr.s Schwartz, Burt Stein, and Kenny Buttice, and the rest is history. Gave me the start on a nearly 50 year career that is only now winding to a conclusion. I am Ever so thankfulthat I got into it when I did, WhEN It WAS FUN, something the current batch of youngsters today may never know or experience. So to Mr. Kihn, know that there will always be a special place for you in my heart, and in my memory banks. Rock on, Bro...
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Re: Breaking Records
Dear Bob,
Your article about the current state of the record business is right on. It was really better whenever hundreds of little Labels with people who really cared about Music. I just see Music losing its soul. As soon as it got corporate it began a big downhill run.
I just feel blessed to have been around from the late 60s and had a chance to touch the world.I just feel blessed to have been around and had a chance to touch the world.
Keep it up Bob
Robert Margouleff
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Re: Note
As a happily retired former publishing professional (i.e. I got paid) for nearly forty years, I really got a kick out of this letter. Getting a book published by a major or even minor publishing company these days is harder than ever, and if you're an unpublished author next to impossible. Getting an editor or agent to look at your manuscript, no matter how good, was very very hard even in the 70s and 80s, and it only got tougher. Voicemail and e-mail make it even easier for editors to ignore would-be authors. Long ago, I spent hours going through the "slush" piles of manuscripts of would-be authors at Western Publishing/Golden Books, and the odds of finding a manuscript worthy of publication were between slim and none. I do know writers who publish their own books, but they find ways to market their books (mostly non-fiction) to niche markets and readers who might be interested, but they do it to see their manuscript in print, even if they have to pay to do it, then sell 500 or copies. If I were foolish enough to want to be an author or editor in today's publishing world, like Rick Nelson said in Garden Party, I'd rather drive a truck." It probably pays a lot better.
Chip Lovitt
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Re: Note
I used to be the arts editor of an ethnic newspaper in Toronto before, like most papers, we went belly up. And I used to do book reviews, so, as you know, every wannabe writer would send me their self-published novel to review.
One guy kept pestering me, and because I knew his brother, I decided to look at it.
On the first page there was a sentence that went something like, "He was in a square room, 12 feet by 10 feet."
Dude, that's a rectangle. I stopped reading
Joe Serge
Toronto
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Re: Note
As a retired newspaper book review editor, I got a chuckle out of this rant.
It's how I felt, too, of course, and I would tell self-published authors as much. But in much more concise and polite terms.
I used to say: "When a legit publisher picks up your book, and you sell a million copies, I will be the first person to say I was wrong. And we will happily review your second book."
Morley Walker
Winnipeg, Canada
_____________________________________
Re: Note
I can't imagine what you are inundated with from your readers. You captured the disconnect. Even successful bands have a range of song quality. Why else did people get tired of buying albums with only one great song on them?
I love to write and I'm pretty good, you are verrry good. I know my strengths; articles in the local paper, storytelling. Writing great fiction, is incredibly difficult. Character and plot development, perspectives, mood, tone., the prose Less than one percent of all creative/artistic efforts reach the pinnacle of excellence. Nobody gets that.
I was talking to a really bright former radio gal from Boston and she sent me her first novel. I gave up after 30 pages. She was trying too hard and channeling authors that she loved. She got lost. Thanks for mentioning spelling and grammar. I still cringe at how we seem to have accepted referring to people as a 'what' instead of 'who' e.g. "She was somebody that knew every one in town". Wrong, we are not things.
John Brodey
_____________________________________
Re: Note
I totally agree.
I've been working as a DJ for a while and run into this with musicians. I often think…why shoot your shot with this track? Why not wait…work on it, get someone else to like it and offer to pitch it. Then at least 2 people think it's good. I'm much more receptive when someone says, "Have you heard of so and so. Saw them last weekend and really liked their songs."
This is why publishers and record labels are important — traditionally they set the bar as to what is good enough to be presented to those interested in that type of art. If an editor and a business man are willing to spend their time and money to get a book ready to be published — it's probably a reasonable book. Self published books will always suck…the writer should at least pay an editor to go through the book and fix all the things writers don't think about. Consistent voice, timelines, dates, names, etc. Editors fix that sh*t…not writers. And, a graphic designer or page layout professional to create the personality of the layout - type faces, spacing, and other professional touches. (maybe not important for kindle, etc).
Same with records. If an artist's songs are good enough that someone is willing to fork over $10k to record it and $10k to release it, then it is more likely to be likable versus a garage band song and uploaded to Soundcloud. There are always exceptions…but generally this is true to me.
Lid Dixon
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Re: Note
Thanks for another great and well-deserved rant.
I've always dreamed of writing a novel, wrote my first one at 17. It was about a guy who took acid in high school (go figure!).
Took it with me to a gig in Kodiak, Alaska and showed it to a kayak guide who said it reminded him of some guy named Thomas Pynchon, who had published Gravity's Rainbow the previous year. As soon as I was home in SF, I hit City Lights bookstore and bought my first copy of GR, took it to Cafe Trieste and…that was the beginning of the end of my novel-writing career.
I was a reporter and columnist for a decade, where novelists go to die.
Jim Caroompas
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Re: Note
When it comes to proofreading you can't have enough eyes.
Reminds me of a story a good friend of mine told me who was a legal proofreader and Herman Melville buff.
He ordered the definitive edition of Moby Dick from Northwestern Press and on the inside title page it had Moby Dick by Herman Meville.
Jim Eigo
Warwick NY
_____________________________________
Re: Note
My daughter Michelle writes young adult fantasy fiction. She signed with an agent and landed a publishing deal with a major house right out of college, even securing a decent advance. It was amazing seeing her books on shelves across the country, but the tradeoff was a low percentage and the publisher having control over everything. After learning the industry, she went indie and hasn't looked back—she's now sold over three million books and is a USA Today Best Selling Author. She publishes exclusively through Amazon and has complete control over her work.
You really can't judge a book by its cover—or its publisher!
Rich Madow
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Re: Note
If you have a story to tell.. then you've got to tell it.. and if it means self publishing, your book to sell it one by one, that's what you do.. I have a 50 year story to tell about my life in the music business and the extraordinary moments that I was a part of that the public would never see or know about what was the truth.. when I couldn't find an agent who thought that maybe stories about working with Miles Davis and Luther Vandross, Sting, Chaka Khan and so many others that I was up close and personal with seeing a perspective that nobody else had an opportunity to see my friends encouraged me to self publish it and help me come up with a plan that helped me raise all the money I needed to put it out .. then thankfully the connections that I had in the press and around the world.. pre-bought over 200 copies and I was able to go from there..
Great reviews help me sell more, and I decided to write another one..
If you were going to sell publish, you have to have an audience and you have to be prepared to work your ass off.. I went to a company for Printing and they printed all the copies wrong.. To be done over again and it was painful, but I learned to roll with it.. now now I finished my second book .. and I'm going to try the same formula wherever I go to perform or speak.. I bring books with me and always sell them out.. It is a continuing process and if you have a good book, there's always somebody to buy it, but you have to put yourself in the position.. you have to have a strong story and you also have to have patience… a lot of it.
Peace,Jason Mles
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Re: Note
I hear you and I agree 100% most people might have an idea but that does not make them a writer. I cant even imagine how much crap you have to ignore. Out of the five books friends have written the only one enjoyable was written by a guy who has been a poet for 40 years, was Californias poet laureate for two years and knows how to edit and tell a story.
Hang in there and delete as needed.
Regards
Chris Hill
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Re: Note
There's an alternative for authors. And it's one not often mentioned. Hybrid publishing.
I've done books with major publishers in the past. I get a nice advance and they will print and distribute the book in 18 months. What the hell can I write that I know will be relevant then? If I insist it does, it proves I don't know what I'm writing about.
My publisher, Forefront Books, is the product of a highly respected guy who worked with Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and more. S&S offered him an imprint. Instead of an advance, I pay upfront for printing, editing, and design.
But it's not "self publishing." He turns down LOTS of wannabes. I know many who will pay the fee and get rejected because the quality of the work isn't of the level the publisher will support.
Simon & Schuster handles distribution. On their website, I'm an S&S author. My royalties are infinitely better than a traditional pub deal. A Forbes online post rated my latest as one of the "year's ten best" and sales have been great for my genre.
Few know it's not a traditional deal. But it's better for me - and because of sales, better for the publisher. We are doing more books together.
So — is there a music equivalent? If not, why not?
Scott McKain
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From: Seth Godin
Re: Note
Unleashed!
Here it is again, but shorter:
FIRST, TEN
This, in two words, is the secret of the new marketing.
Find ten people. Ten people who trust you/respect you/need you/listen to you…
Those ten people need what you have to sell, or want it. And if they love it, you win. If they love it, they'll each find you ten more people (or a hundred or a thousand or, perhaps, just three). Repeat.
If they don't love it, you need a new product. Start over.
Your idea spreads. Your business grows. Not as fast as you want, but faster than you could ever imagine.
This approach changes the posture and timing of everything you do.
You can no longer market to the anonymous masses. They're not anonymous and they're not masses. You can only market to people who are willing participants. Like this group of ten.
The timing means that the idea of a 'launch' and press releases and the big unveiling is nuts. Instead, plan on the gradual build that turns into a tidal wave. Organize for it and spend money appropriately. The fact is, the curve of money spent (big hump, then it tails off) is precisely backwards to what you actually need.
Three years from now, this advice will be so common as to be boring.
Today, it's almost certainly the opposite of what you're doing.
April 2, 2009
https://seths.blog/2009/04/first-ten/
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Breaking Records
Is there anybody interested in record company news who doesn't work for a label?
What we've had in the last twelve months is financial engineering. The disappearance of Capitol (they call it a merger, what next, a comeback?), and the elevation of supposedly internet-savvy Elliot Grainge to the head of Atlantic, as if music were some sort of Billy Beane enterprise, while jobs are eliminated and...
The only people pleased are on Wall Street. That's what this is all about.
Remember the eighties and nineties, when new labels were being launched, everything from Interscope to Giant? That's where the money was. Get those damn videos on MTV, ship those overpriced CDs and then roll in dough. What should we say now, we haven't had that spirt here since 1999?
Never has an industry been so out of touch with its customer base.
In the heyday of Napster we heard that acts were going to have to make a living on the road, little did we realize the road would eclipse recordings, even for the most successful acts. Never mind that those at the bottom of the food chain have to focus on the road, because streaming revenues are so bad.
Meanwhile, the labels have circled the wagons, cut costs and declared victory. Huh?
The biggest story of the summer is Chappell Roan. Who's been recording for a decade, whose first label, the aforementioned Atlantic, dropped her. Furthermore, her breakthrough was not predicated on anything the label did, but her opening slot on a Olivia Rodrigo tour.
As for Sabrina Carpenter, she's been at it for fifteen years. And she was built by Disney, not one of the big three label groups. As for her road business... There's always been demand for hot acts, will this sustain or is it flavor of the moment? It's not like we haven't seen this before, in the heyday of the aforementioned MTV. The faster you made it, the faster you fell.
And opening for other acts is not a new paradigm. Louis Messina's been doing it for years. Kenny Chesney opened for George Strait, Ed Sheeran opened for Taylor Swift. But country is a different market, and Sheeran is a once a decade talent/superstar.
Then again, all the action is in country. Sure, it's still controlled by radio, but it seems to be offering something that "pop" music does not. Humanity, singability, connection with an audience...
But we keep hearing about hip-hop acts and divas. And Kendrick Lamar has been at it over a decade and no one wants a new Mariah Carey.
But the major labels are paralyzed by a commitment to an era and a paradigm that have expired.
There is no MTV. As for the Video Music Awards, that used to be a cultural rite, now it's a sideshow promoted by the nearly dead network and those who believe an appearance will make a difference, which it really does not.
So where does this leave us?
With a ton of wannabes dying to play the old game, become instant stars, and road dogs slugging it out not only day by day and month by month, but year by year. And many of these acts will never break through via recordings. Not that their songs won't matter. But it's more akin to the Grateful Dead than even Coldplay, whose first album came out in 2000 with its hit "Yellow," when despite all the hoopla about Napster on college campuses, most people at home didn't even have a high speed connection.
So you've got to lay many eggs, put out many traps and wait for years to see if anything happens.
Yet the major labels think they can force it, make it quicker. Get lucky.
No one controls social media, NO ONE! Anybody who tells you they can make a track go viral is lying. Futhermore, it can go viral on TikTok and there's still no demand for the band/act.
It's not like we've never been here before. Albeit without the power of terrestrial radio. Major labels put out a lot of records, not made for zillions of dollars, and continued to nurture the acts hoping they'd break through. Mo and Joe at Warner Bros. were famous for this.
We need a complete retooling.
And in truth, the marketplace has retooled. It's just that the major labels have not. The majors are signing and releasing ever fewer records massaged for hits. Composed and remixed by committee. That's movies, television, not music. Music is about the vision of the artist. Sure, commerce is key, but sans artistry you have a business, not an art form. That's how it was before the Beatles, and that's how it is now.
The majors hope they can hoover up anybody who has a hit individually. By offering tons of bread. But the acts worth signing don't fit their game. Never mind their recordings not throwing off a ton of revenue. Now being an act is more holistic. The labels may have initiated the 360 game, but the new acts have embraced it, and they own their recording rights. But even more, they know that recordings are only part of the puzzle.
Music will never die, because of the hunger of people to hear it and the ease with which it is made. But its power in the marketplace waxes and wanes. Music today is like GE, or some other corporate titan, which peaked and everybody keeps trying to achieve that same peak without retooling.
GE was broken up down to nothing. The company was not prepared for the modern era.
The labels have their catalogs. Otherwise, they'd already be out of business. They control the greatest hits of recorded music history.
But those hits were made in a different world, a different marketplace.
Hell, movie studios can't even open most movies these days. Despite all the marketing. Never could hype be so ignored.
As always, innovation comes from the outside. And there's no outside inside. No free thinking.
There's tons to talk about regareding the road.
There's almost nothing to talk about with the labels.
Yet the labels get all the press.
Something will happen. But it will be a surprise.
The reason there's been little innovation in the recorded music sphere is because there's just not that much money in it right now. And the real money is in brand extension. Yes, income inequality killed the music business. The best and the brightest, the educated, those who think outside the box, don't go into music, there's just not enough money to be made.
But the power of music is undeniable.
We're not looking for he or she who can garner the most revenue, but those who can touch our heart, change our life. And just because something is a hit that does not make it so.
So keep talking about the executive turntable, the changes in structure. They've got nothing to do with music.
Actually, the biggest record company story of the past week is Universal UK CEO David Joseph leaving the company to get a master's degree in religion and theology. We've never seen a move like this before, NEVER EVER! Leave the circus? Almost unheard of. You get squeezed out, you don't leave.
But one doesn't have to know Joseph to decode that he was looking for meaning he was no longer finding in recordings. More soul fulfillment.
And the truth is the public is looking for this too.
But that's a much harder game than assigning the usual suspects to massage someone with little talent into a star.
A game the majors are unprepared to play, not that they even want to, not that they're even aware of it!
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What we've had in the last twelve months is financial engineering. The disappearance of Capitol (they call it a merger, what next, a comeback?), and the elevation of supposedly internet-savvy Elliot Grainge to the head of Atlantic, as if music were some sort of Billy Beane enterprise, while jobs are eliminated and...
The only people pleased are on Wall Street. That's what this is all about.
Remember the eighties and nineties, when new labels were being launched, everything from Interscope to Giant? That's where the money was. Get those damn videos on MTV, ship those overpriced CDs and then roll in dough. What should we say now, we haven't had that spirt here since 1999?
Never has an industry been so out of touch with its customer base.
In the heyday of Napster we heard that acts were going to have to make a living on the road, little did we realize the road would eclipse recordings, even for the most successful acts. Never mind that those at the bottom of the food chain have to focus on the road, because streaming revenues are so bad.
Meanwhile, the labels have circled the wagons, cut costs and declared victory. Huh?
The biggest story of the summer is Chappell Roan. Who's been recording for a decade, whose first label, the aforementioned Atlantic, dropped her. Furthermore, her breakthrough was not predicated on anything the label did, but her opening slot on a Olivia Rodrigo tour.
As for Sabrina Carpenter, she's been at it for fifteen years. And she was built by Disney, not one of the big three label groups. As for her road business... There's always been demand for hot acts, will this sustain or is it flavor of the moment? It's not like we haven't seen this before, in the heyday of the aforementioned MTV. The faster you made it, the faster you fell.
And opening for other acts is not a new paradigm. Louis Messina's been doing it for years. Kenny Chesney opened for George Strait, Ed Sheeran opened for Taylor Swift. But country is a different market, and Sheeran is a once a decade talent/superstar.
Then again, all the action is in country. Sure, it's still controlled by radio, but it seems to be offering something that "pop" music does not. Humanity, singability, connection with an audience...
But we keep hearing about hip-hop acts and divas. And Kendrick Lamar has been at it over a decade and no one wants a new Mariah Carey.
But the major labels are paralyzed by a commitment to an era and a paradigm that have expired.
There is no MTV. As for the Video Music Awards, that used to be a cultural rite, now it's a sideshow promoted by the nearly dead network and those who believe an appearance will make a difference, which it really does not.
So where does this leave us?
With a ton of wannabes dying to play the old game, become instant stars, and road dogs slugging it out not only day by day and month by month, but year by year. And many of these acts will never break through via recordings. Not that their songs won't matter. But it's more akin to the Grateful Dead than even Coldplay, whose first album came out in 2000 with its hit "Yellow," when despite all the hoopla about Napster on college campuses, most people at home didn't even have a high speed connection.
So you've got to lay many eggs, put out many traps and wait for years to see if anything happens.
Yet the major labels think they can force it, make it quicker. Get lucky.
No one controls social media, NO ONE! Anybody who tells you they can make a track go viral is lying. Futhermore, it can go viral on TikTok and there's still no demand for the band/act.
It's not like we've never been here before. Albeit without the power of terrestrial radio. Major labels put out a lot of records, not made for zillions of dollars, and continued to nurture the acts hoping they'd break through. Mo and Joe at Warner Bros. were famous for this.
We need a complete retooling.
And in truth, the marketplace has retooled. It's just that the major labels have not. The majors are signing and releasing ever fewer records massaged for hits. Composed and remixed by committee. That's movies, television, not music. Music is about the vision of the artist. Sure, commerce is key, but sans artistry you have a business, not an art form. That's how it was before the Beatles, and that's how it is now.
The majors hope they can hoover up anybody who has a hit individually. By offering tons of bread. But the acts worth signing don't fit their game. Never mind their recordings not throwing off a ton of revenue. Now being an act is more holistic. The labels may have initiated the 360 game, but the new acts have embraced it, and they own their recording rights. But even more, they know that recordings are only part of the puzzle.
Music will never die, because of the hunger of people to hear it and the ease with which it is made. But its power in the marketplace waxes and wanes. Music today is like GE, or some other corporate titan, which peaked and everybody keeps trying to achieve that same peak without retooling.
GE was broken up down to nothing. The company was not prepared for the modern era.
The labels have their catalogs. Otherwise, they'd already be out of business. They control the greatest hits of recorded music history.
But those hits were made in a different world, a different marketplace.
Hell, movie studios can't even open most movies these days. Despite all the marketing. Never could hype be so ignored.
As always, innovation comes from the outside. And there's no outside inside. No free thinking.
There's tons to talk about regareding the road.
There's almost nothing to talk about with the labels.
Yet the labels get all the press.
Something will happen. But it will be a surprise.
The reason there's been little innovation in the recorded music sphere is because there's just not that much money in it right now. And the real money is in brand extension. Yes, income inequality killed the music business. The best and the brightest, the educated, those who think outside the box, don't go into music, there's just not enough money to be made.
But the power of music is undeniable.
We're not looking for he or she who can garner the most revenue, but those who can touch our heart, change our life. And just because something is a hit that does not make it so.
So keep talking about the executive turntable, the changes in structure. They've got nothing to do with music.
Actually, the biggest record company story of the past week is Universal UK CEO David Joseph leaving the company to get a master's degree in religion and theology. We've never seen a move like this before, NEVER EVER! Leave the circus? Almost unheard of. You get squeezed out, you don't leave.
But one doesn't have to know Joseph to decode that he was looking for meaning he was no longer finding in recordings. More soul fulfillment.
And the truth is the public is looking for this too.
But that's a much harder game than assigning the usual suspects to massage someone with little talent into a star.
A game the majors are unprepared to play, not that they even want to, not that they're even aware of it!
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Sunday 29 September 2024
Re-Nick Gravenites
I was The Electric Flag's last roadie and the roadie for Mike Bloomfield & Friends so I spent a lot of time with Nicholas both on and off stage. While Nicholas was a great front man I don't think his behind the scene work is well known. For instance, in the early 60s he was involved with the San Francisco folk scene and with a Texas transplant named Janis Joplin and later helped with the Full Tilt band. There are lots of stories like that. He also produced some very good records. One you might not know is Sam Lay In Bluesland starring the great drummer. One that sadly didn't work out was the record he was going to do with Magic Sam, who tragically died the month it was to be recorded. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Nicholas was the Musical Director for a lot of the "San Francisco Sound." I'll miss him but he left behind a huge body of work we can still enjoy.
Phil Brown
P.S. Nick did in fact write Groovin Is Easy. He was trying to get out of a songwriter's contract he had with someone so Ron Polte, manager of the Quicksilver and a friend from Chicago, "wrote" Nick's songs on the album.
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I was saddened to learn of the passing of Nick Gravenites with whom I had the privilege of working for quite a few years this century. He's part of the documentary film "Born In Chicago" that chronicles the rise of young white blues players mentored by their idols. The centerpiece of the film is the Chicago Blues Reunion, the band's core being Nick, Barry Goldberg, Harvey Mandel along with, at various times, Corky Siegel, Tracey Nelson, Jimmy Vivino, Charlie Musselwhite and Elvin Bishop, all of whom are musical treasures deserving greater recognition and appreciation. Of course, Nick's song, that was Butterfield's theme song is the source of the film's title and the truth is that Nick was born in 1938, not ''41 as cited in the song, but he explained that it scanned better that way — he didn't fake his age. He actually was born just outside of Chicago but the fact his that despite his having attended the University of Chicago, he embraced what he called "the hoodlum life stye" and carried a gun on occasion."
The film was written by Joel Selvin, includes commentary by all of the aforementioned (including Nick's commentary on his being enthralled by "the hoodlum life style") as well as Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Steve Miller (Barry Goldberg's former partner), Hubert Sumlin and some others. Dan Aykroyd narrated it but in his real voice not the Elwood Blues character thank goodness. It was directed by John Anderson ("Horn From The Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story" and Bob Sarles ("BANG: The Bert Berns Story" and "Sweet Blues: A Film About Mike Bloomfield."
It played quite a few film festivals and the band toured in support of it. It's streaming now on Amazon and Apple and here's the trailer:
https://vimeo.com/bsarles/review/579679761/74806b4ab8
Best,
Bob Merlis
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Nick was as authentic a soul as you could ever meet. He spent the lion's share of his career living in remote Sonoma County, a small town called Occidental, where he played chess in a coffee shop during the day and played music at night in an Italian restaurant three nights a week. He walked to work. His Janis Joplin royalties kept him in business ("Dead people pay my rent," he liked to say). He was always the old soul in his crowd, the beatnik who mapped out San Francisco for all his old Chicago pals and brought them out -- Bloomfield, Elvin, Charlie. He always knew what he was about. Have you seen our movie, "Born in Chicago"? It's showing on Amazon these days. Nick is all over it and he has pretty much the last word in it when he says that it wasn't the English guys who saved the blues, it was him and the cats from Chicago.
Joel Selvin
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Thank you so much for this. As we are losing so many of my generation, your likening it to the original blues founders was somehow comforting. The death of Happy Traum was devastating for our community. As you know, he was tutored by Brownie McGee. So I like the idea of a chain of creation, passed on from one generation to the next.
Keep up the good work and the documentation of the music we love.
Johanna Hall
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Along with Harvey Brooks (who lives in Israel these days), Nick produced the first (and best) Quicksilver Messenger Service album.
RIP
Richard Pachter
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Thank you for writing this. I almost sent you an email asking if you'd write something or if you'd even heard, but I figured I'd give it a week. Or, maybe, I thought, Nick was just a Bay Area legend and not on your radar.
As for where he's been: Occidental, CA. Up until about 10 or 15 years ago, he'd play every Saturday night at Negri's hotel. It wasn't the easiest place to get to from Santa Cruz, but it was always worth the trip when I made it happen.
I didn't know Nick personally but I loved his music. I'm what you like to refer to as an 80's deadhead. As such, I didn't experience the 60's scene. I first learned about Nick when we were coming out from the East Coast for dead shows in the 80's. He was playing with Cippolina in band called Thunder & Lighning. When I moved to California in 1990, Nick was playing with band called Animal Mind. He'd play every Saturday night or so at a place called the Boathouse in SF. He'd also play The Saloon and some other places in SF often throughout the 90's. There was a crew of us that would go see him a lot. I have so many great memories from those shows.
One of the many songs, I loved from that era was "Four floors or forty. Ain't no difference when you're falling down"
Anyway, thanks for writing about him. RIP Nick.
Rich Waters
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I don't know how he survived the later years either sans money making music. He did the best version of Roy Buchanan's 'You're Killing My Love" bar none. He lived up here in Occidental, a great town where the respect and honor the community showed him, according to his words, made him feel like a hero.
He lived for the music alone.
John Brodey
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Excellent piece on Gravenites and all the others. The Electric Flag was a great, great band but they had some problems as I understand it. But that record was amazing. Even better than Groovin' (IMO) was an outstanding rendition of Killing Floor, with Nick singing and some of Bloomfield's best guitar work ever. That band had great musicians, played blues, soul, and rock like no other group has, and, sadly, left just a small body of work.
You're right, they're dropping at a faster rate. And the music will never be the same based on what I see.
Dave Thorn
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Good one on Gravenites. RIP. I LOVED the Flag. What a band.
I was also a massive Youngbloods fan, from the very first album. I can still play most of the parts and sing all the harmonies. Their second LP was Earth Music, also excellent. No one remembers that one.
As far as Banana, he's Lowell Levenger. Been in northern CA forever. Regular acoustic gigs for umpteen years. Answers emails and facegram posts. Good guy. He was a sideman a few years back with Steven VanZandt's soul band experiment. Shared some cool and funny stuff during the tour.
You're right, though. They're dropping like flies. Sigh.
Keep up the good work!
Rik Shafer
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Hey Bob, thx for all your writing, great stuff. I saw Banana playing in Little Steven's Disciples of Soul a few years ago at the Beacon, they were great. And yes, Banana! The Electric Flag had two or three albums. I saw Harvey Brooks playing bass with The Doors at MSG and he was on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, among many other things. And yeah, Al Kooper, wow. And there's a whole cadre of lesser-known musicians who are and were important cogs in the giant wheel, people Rob Stoner and so many others. And hey, how about important VENUES/clubs that are gone, they had a giant place in it all! Keep on writing Bob, thx for all you do!
Ira Zadikow
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RIP Nick…as brighter lights than I will surely tell you, Banana—the great Lowell Levinger—is indeed alive and doing great shows, primarily as a multi-instrumentalist for Steve VanZant's Disciples Of Soul…they even drop "On Sir Francis Drake" live on occasion!
Don Crouch
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Wow! What a treasure trove of info!
Saw the "Flag" in Philly at the Electric Factory. Buddy Miles held court that night and brought the house breaking into a soul shout and repeat mid song . Banana? Hell yeah Still at it. Tours with Little Steven's the Disciples of Soul. If you've never seen that act live, it's a must. Butterfield introduced all us white kids to the Blues in the late sixties. Was working with Dick Waterman in the 70s, and hearing Paul loved Coors Beer, which you couldn't get on the east coast then, I brought in a case for him from a trip out west when they were playing in Boston. I'll never forget the smile on his face when I walked into his dressing room with the case on my shoulder.
These were the artists that brought it every night. University of Chicago? Impressive ! Who knew?
Barry Schneier
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"Where in the hell has Banana been all these years? How has he survived?"
In 2017 when Steve Van Zant resurrected the Disciples of Soul and went out on the road to back the Soulfire album, Lowell "Banana" Levinger was in the band on keyboards and mandolin.
https://www.littlesteven.com/disciples-of-soul
David Fagan
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Banana, aka Lowell Levinger is alive , well and gigging around Marin County with occasional side trips to Italy where he is a legend.
Barry Melton is an occasional bandmate.
And with Little Steven reformed the Disciples of Soul, Banana was one of the keyboard players and had a featured spot playing the instrumental "On Sir Francis Drake" from the Elephant Mountain album.
Cheers
Tom Claycomb
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Banana has not only been continuosly performing music, but has dealt in acoustic instrument collecting and selling, and for the past several years has been a member of Little Steven's Disciples of Soul.
Check out Banana at https://www.lowelllevinger.com/
Cheers,
Rob Bleetstein
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Nick with Little Steven & The Disciples a few years ago. I love this version:
"Groovin' Is Easy":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EsYSWW1qK8
Vince Welsh
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Hello Bob. There is a little hill with some grass beside the marina in the city by the bay with a bandstand on the west side. Hippie Bob was there grooving in the early 80's after a bus ride from yoga at IYI near Delores and 24th street. I thought time had stopped when I heard some tunes start up. There was Nick G. and Mr. C. doing a public gig with a pick up band for the people at the Marina. I had a flash. Last time I saw either was at the Filmore with the Paul B. or Elvin or the Flag or Quicksilver. Here they were on the same stage playing tunes for the people and me. Bless them. Peace
rwhake
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By coincidence I was reminiscing and watching the Paul Buttfield movie last night 'Horn from the Heart'. Now your observations on on Gravenites have come which I enjoyed reading. I am an unknown still standing, recording and occasionally performing. Your thoughts were like my thoughts so they resonated deeply with me. Thanks for recognizing and remembering and honoring these men and women. PS: I always remember Killing Floor first track first album LBJ pontificating on the dignity of man and the horns enter and Bloomfield's solo comes ripping with applause and drowns out LBJ's discourse. The triumph of blues over politics.
Cheers
Fred Hostetler
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Hi Bob, and thanks for the thoughtful words on Nick Gravenites.
Nick was back on the road in 2016 as part of the Barry Goldberg-led Chicago Blues Reunion Band, whose tour included a San Diego stop.
As for Youngbloods' alum Lowell "Banana" Levinger, he is well worth considering for an interview on your show.
Banana still has his Jewfro! He does music performances nearly every weekend. He is a father of 7, a longtime volunteer fire department member in his Marin County town, and in 2016 became the keyboardist in Little Steven's reactivated Disciples of Soul band. In 2015, Banana released the album "Get Together -- Banana Recalls Youngbloods' Classics."
And there's more: He and the Youngbloods were sued in 1970 by Merle Haggard, who did not like "Hippie from Olema," the Youngbloods' satirical response-song to Hag's "Okie from Muskogee." When the Youngbloods broke up, Banana became a hang gliding instructor, then.-- despite his lack of any background in tech -- became the manager of the development team at Passport Designs, where he was instrumental in the creation of the Mac/Windows music notation and transcription software program Encore.
"At first, I went out for donuts and rolled joints! I watched the other guys and learned" is how Banana recalls it.
George Varga
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You blow me away with your insights at times …and this is one of those times
As a kid I worshipped the Electric Flag and followed the band members for decades thereafter into Rhinoceros etc and other outcomes
Inspiring writing and performances that resonate to this day - other than perhaps BS&T they were on an island
Triumph may not have been contextually relevant to some but music is a circuitous journey without clear logistical explanation
They certainly influenced me
Thank you for the Lefsetz letter
Gil Moore
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I've lost two heroes recently, John Mayall and Nick Gravenites. Both led long lives, so we can't say they were cheated.
I'm 55 years old, but go back to the early 1980s, and I went to a garage sale in my neighborhood. They were selling an old reel to reel tape recorder, along with a box of tapes. When I was a kid, they would show movies from the 60s and 70s on TV, and all of the really cool guys had reel to reel tape recorders as part of their stereo set ups, so I had to have one.
I bought this thing for a few dollars, took it home, and just randomly grabbed a box with a tape in it. I managed to figure out how to thread the tape, and hooked it up to my own cheap home stereo, and what do I hear? "Born in Chicago".
Can you imagine, you're 13 years old, your hormones are going nuts, you scored a really cool toy at a garage sale, and out of nowhere you hear "Born in Chicago?"
It turns out it was the only box of all of the tapes I had where the person wrote the name of the artist and the songs on it. Of course, I had to then try and find the album.
If you have the album, you will note that there are instructions on it that tell you to play it at the maximum possible volume, not being smart ass about it, but being very earnest, saying that this is how you can truly appreciate the sound of The Butterfield Blues Band.
Nick Gravenites was very much a part of my musical life, and his memory has been, and will remain a blessing.
Jon Green
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Hadn't heard this Bob. Thanks for sharing. This is the killer Gravenites track fo mer: https://open.spotify.com/track/3bbSR5Fur4mPOEVECCJnMj?si=ZT7VDkOlTP-Epk-Fy4WOoQ&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A0BBkZzz6Bl8Zku7nSp8D8w "Killing My Love" off the My Labors album. Live, Bloomfield on guitar, amazing horns, killer groove and the vocal is from God himself.
Dave Duggan
Dublin
Ireland
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Thanks Bob
The only person in the world I've ever talked about Nick G with is Jenni Muldaur, Maria & Geoff's daughter. Nick seemed like an all star utility infielder to me.
He and his band mate Mark Naftalin were everywhere in the late 60's.
I knew of him in high school because Electric Flag. That & the first BS&T's record w Al Kooper were huge for me.
Those two plus Mayall were responsible for turning me on to the Blues…I was lucky enough to see Howlin' Wolf twice before he died…the best was at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival…an early 70's affair that rarely gets mentioned.
Best, Kevin Teare
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Wow, that brought back a ton of memories...opening several times for the Youngbloods, opening for the Electric Flag (and Mike Bloomfield said my guitar playing sounded like Coltrane - I still haven't recovered, he was one of my idols), sharing a stage with Big Brother and numerous blues artists who were still alive and well (like James Cotton and Muddy Waters)...playing for a week with Procol Harum right after the ill-fated Democratic convention in Chicago...those were the days. And I'll never forget hearing what Paul Butterfield could do with a harmonica. I immediately set out finding how to get that sound, with the amazing kind of power that sounded like a full brass section. I still weave blues harp into my music.
What was special about that time was there was so much newness, whether it was the re-invention of the harmonica, the electric guitar, radio, or songwriting that left the pop of the 50s behind. Well, mostly. There were still the Lemon Pipers and the Cowsills, LOL.
I'm a bit older than you are, but those few extra years made it possible to enjoy that scene pretty fully. Imagine what it was like for some kid to hang out with the Mothers of Invention, or Tim Buckley, or have Traffic come to see us at Steve Paul's Scene in New York, or watch in amazement as some Canadian folkie named Joni Mitchell opened for us...what the hell was she doing with those guitar tunings?!? Or recording with the same engineers who did Tommy, or Hendrix. Their generosity in sharing knowledge provided the foundation for who I became. That's what we've *truly* lost with the disappearance of the big studios - not the gear, but the interaction among devotees to, and disciples of, the music.
You're right that it's not the same today. The closest I've come was playing EDM in Germany in the early part of this century, there was that feeling of community, of events being powered by youth, and a wild urge to experiment - the results were different from someone like Hendrix, but the impetus was the same.
It will cycle back at some point, probably after we're both gone but who knows? It takes only one spark to start a conflagration.
Craig Anderton
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Elvin Bishop is 81 years old and does a lot of Blues Cruise shows, the last one with his trio and with
Charlie Musselwhite (their joint album called "100 years of the blues."
Listen to two of Elvin's most recent songs "We Are All In the Same Boat" about us elders and his
song "What"s the Hell Is Going On" video with Los Lobos. He has this classic line in that song,
"He was our President, he wants to be our King, What do I like about him, not a Goddamm thing."
Not bad for an 81 year old and he still plays great blues guitar.
Live Life Happy!
Don Jung
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Thanks so much for writing about Nick Gravenites, he is one of my heroes.
One of coolest things about our era is that for those "in the know" there was something to KNOW ABOUT!
The blues captivated a lot of us and we found our way back to Muddy Waters, Freddie, Albert, and B.B. King amongst others through next generation bluesmen like Michael Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites.
These guys are as authentic as the originals for real blues feel. One of my favorite "in the know" albums is "Live At Bill Graham's Fillmore West 1969." And one of my all-time favorite tracks in the world is "Blues On a West Side." The first 3 and 1/2 minutes is Bloomfield at his peak with a long intro guitar solo. Ahhhh, the sexy tones of a 1959 Les Paul (another "in the know" thing). Then Nick enters the picture. What a voice! Such emotion. The whole piece is 15 plus minutes long but what a great musical journey.
"Blues On a Westside" https://youtu.be/1fS7rjCUEoI?si=vGZFh7dD377jJB3w
The Electric Flag album, "A Long Time Comin'" didn't do that well because it was a bit all over the place in terms of musical genres so it was hard to pin down. But it's a great f*cking album! Besides "Groovin' Is Easy," I highly recommend "Killing Floor," "Wine," "Texas," and "She Could Have Just." Guaranteed to lively up your step and you will hear Nick and Bloomfield at their very best.
Paul Rappaport
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Nick came up when music still mattered. Music was the cultural glue of our generation.
Nick had the respect of his peers and his audience.
All that together made his career possible. All that together made those years wonderful.
Jim Charne
______________________________________
Harvey Brooks posted one sentence the next day, implying Nick Gravenites had passed. If not for that, this would have been the first time I heard the news.
Nick's best solo album was "My Labors" which has Bloomfield all over it.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0BBkZzz6Bl8Zku7nSp8D8w?si=DqNpJ1jKSEqiW0WaSm9LFw
The live material comes from the same show(s) as Bloomfield's "Live At Bill Graham's Fillmore West".
https://open.spotify.com/album/1FSxsC7uAgaI4sRVtpDzLQ?si=67Q2qo22Rs6ahcq0ICKfzg
Nick Gravenites and Huey Lewis met during Huey's Monday night sessions in 1978 - where Huey played with local Bay Area musicians resulting in the formation of Huey Lewis & the News.
They collaborated on the album "Kill My Brain," released in 1997, where Lewis played harmonica.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3md4ccnIfnoBKM5FdOuTE6?si=euxVWKBgTtGiCInRWGAh0w
Additionally, Lewis contributed harmonica to Gravenites' earlier solo album "Bluestar," released in 1980.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3bi4FZN7Qp7yzuSGdRFdpH?si=Gek8YdouQyefuZgKzfkT1g
Bob Levy
Branford CT
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Check out the documentary "Born in Chicago" produced by my pal Richard Foos and Shout Factory (streaming on Amazon) which details the early history of the Chicago mashups of blues legends Muddy Waters, Wolf, Otis Spann, Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon (who I met that same day at Bug Music at the behest of the Bourgoise boys) — with a 1960s new generation of that city's white suburban musician kids and University of Chicago students including Nick Gravenites, Mike Bloomfield, Barry Goldberg, Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musselwhite, Steve Miller, Elvin Bishop and others. The film was made on a shoestring and is uneven in places. However, it's well worth watching as a valuable and interesting piece of the history of American music that ignited interest in the blues by baby-boomers which helped spawn the explosion of rock music, FM radio, and so much more post the impacts of the British Invasion and Motown. The film takes its title from the song of the same name written by Nick Gravenites.
Second, the band formed by Gravenites, Goldberg, Bloomfield, Harvey Brooks, and Buddy Miles; The Electric Flag was something very special. They were a direct descendant of that mid-60s Chicago scene. I suspect Clive Davis, who signed the group to Columbia Records during his 1967 signing spree post Monterey Pop, knew not what to make of them.
The guys billed themselves as 'The Electric Flag, An American Band' and were the first rock band to my knowledge with a horn section. They designed it to emulate the great sound of Memphis and Stax with a big nod to blues and country. Buddy Miles was a teenager and a last minute substitution for the legendary Bernard Purdie on drums. The band was centered around Mike Bloomfield, America's first bonafide guitar hero and, the voice of Nick Gravenites.
While I only met Nick through Barry and Gail Goldberg and did not actually know him, I ran into him one morning a few years back at an old school breakfast place near the Russian River in Occidental, CA where he lived. I reintroduced myself and genuflected. I think I embarrassed him, although he was very kind. My bad.
As I know the story, Bloomfield and Gravenites left the Paul Butterfield band, moved to San Francisco, and were offered a gig in LA by Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, and Roger Corman to create the music for their low budget film, "The Trip." The Electric Flag as a band was birthed out of that Gravenites-Bloomfield film music experience. You can check with Barry Goldberg (one of life's sweetest guys) to see if my recollection is accurate. (Btw, Mike Bloomfield…wow! Ask any of the living great guitar players who is on their top 5 list. Brooks introduction of Bloomfield to Dylan had far-reaching implications and was an huge influence on Dylan, but that's another story).
Anyway, I was a big fan of the Flag's sound which meshed Chicago blues, Stax, and Brit rock (like The Yardbirds, Spencer Davis, Peter Green, etc). I first saw The Electric Flag in 1967 at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco during the 'Summer of Love' headlining a bill with Moby Grape and the Steve Miller Blues Band and, then again that December on another bill with The Byrds and B.B. King. Fantastic! I learned the meaning of musicianship at those two shows.
Give a listen to "Another Country" — the Gravenites penned and arranged track off that remarkable 1968 first Electric Flag album you referenced in your piece. It speaks to the band's prowess, the condition of America in 2024, and the incredible chops of Nick Gravenites and Mike Bloomfield whose extended solo on the track combines extraordinary taste, tone, and breathtaking guitar playing.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0th9UI4u77iB2GGx3FxvUM?si=1314428925954d22
Tim Sexton
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Thanks for this piece Bob. I had many a great night at Keystone Berkeley/SF with Nick, John C, and sundry others who would show up and make amazing music. I am hugely grateful for having witnessed all of those you mention here, including the pantheon of blues legends (thanks to the Belly Up wayback machine). His (and his peers') work and community helped me form a life ….
I appreciate what you do and wish you well.
mark wasserman
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Back in the day, Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood (where the University of Chicago was located) was an artsy, bohemian enclave of academicians who morphed into the musicians we know and love. Paul Butterfield attended the University of Chicago Lab School, studying classical flute. (Although his physician father wanted him to become a doctor.) Chaka Khan, then Yvette Stevens, was in high school then, but singing free gigs at every club in the neighborhood.
Hyde Park is on the city's South Side, a pricey, upscale neighborhood encircled by the abject poverty of the inner city's ghetto. Blues clubs abounded there, and every weekend, it was vey common to see Butterfield, Gravenites, Bishop and a very young high school-aged Mike Bloomfield at those clubs, taking the stage in between the sets of the established blues men.
Before Bloomfield was even old enough for to be admitted to these clubs, he and the rest of the guys were on those stages, jamming with the blues greats, and astonishing the locals with their already prodigious chops.
One of their favorite places to play was a blues club called Big John's in Chicago's Old Town. It was one of those joints that was a magnet for anyone who loved and understood Chicago blues. Rather than having a nightly roster of acts, musicians would just show up and jam until the sun came up. On any given night, it wasn't unusual to see Paul Butterfield, Bloomfield, Nick "The Greek" Gravenities, Elvin Bishop,Steve Miller, Corky Siegel, Jim Schwall, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Little Walter, James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Howlin' Wolf, and Sam Lay all on the same stage.
The music was incendiary. It was a golden age of Chicago blues from local talent that hadn't yet been discovered by the rest of the world. The musicians who provided that music were playing to feed their souls and ours, without an agenda of charting big hits. Imagine that.
Cheers,
Gina Gallo
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I saw Nick Gravenites and the Electric Flag a number of times and they were a great band live ..He also also wrote the great song Another Country from their 1st album Long Time Coming.. one night at the Cafe Au Go Go they played the Joe Tex song Show Me.. i it was burning and I could just never forget it. I saw them at the Fillmore East in June 1969 with Quicksilver Messenger Service and Steppenwolf. They played a great set and the audience wanted an encore.. so the band comes on stage and I'm sitting in the fourth row and people are clapping and I yell out for them to play Show Me.. I yelled out a couple of times..Nick Looks right at me…at Says.."You want me to show you..Come to the dressing room after the show ..I'll show you.." The musicians in the band were cracking up when he said that and me and my friends couldn't believe that he actually responded in such a crazy way.. That was my Nick Gravenites's experience… and by the way, if you ever have a chance, you should check out his solo album on Columbia ..My Labors..it's excellent! BTW.. Elvin Bishop never played with the Electric Flag..
Peace,Jason Miles
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I knew Nick Gravenites' name, knew he was a respected but lesser-known guy. Like you said, flies are dropping.
Then you mentioned Banana, and I can share a small story or two. I've been attending folk conferences, trying to get my songs heard. A few years ago I found myself sitting in a hotel room in an in-the-round showcase, just 3 of us: myself, a woman I've forgotten, and Lowell Levinger AKA Banana… turns out he collects vintage instruments and plays the odd gig on the coast but comes East to seek opportunities. I told him I'd seen the Youngbloods at Fillmore East.
I've also shared showcase time with Buskin & Batteau… Robin Batteau has a wonderful song "Heart Of The Audience," inspired by his own Fillmore East appearance as a member of Appaloosa, sandwiched between Blood, Sweat & Tears and the Allman Brothers Band. Turns out not only was I in the audience for that show, but also David Buskin, and their percussionist Marshal Rosenberg, who recently passed. None of them had met yet… but here we all were in a folk gathering. David's songs had impressed Mary Travers enough that she recorded 5 of them and took him on tour for a few years. I've also met Freebo, Bonnie Raitt's bassist.
It's been strange for me to meet guys who had been my idols, signed to major labels, now scrambling for the same house concerts and small venues that I'm seeking.
Hank Stone,
Patchogue, NY
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What a great tribute. I guess it wasn't a coincidence that a Nick Gravenites Band song with John Cippolina came up on my YouTube video thread the other day...but yeah, what an unsung hero...Talk about musical resumes...I bought East West, and the Electric Flag's first LP...and they were electrifying...but I had to chuckle though, when I saw the name Banana...the wonderful lead guitar player of those Youngbloods' hits...having devoured liner notes, rock mags, etc...I immediately remembered his real name was Lowell Levinger, without having to Google it...I guess a few memory cells are still working...Somewhere in my fading memory I can still remember the days when someone got a new album, and a few of us would sit in their room and listen to all the new LPs, uusually on a crappy record player (unless someone was lucky enough to have a "component" system with separate amp, speakers, and turntable...). East West was one of those electrifying LPs, from the first burst of Born in Chicago on. My first introduction to Mike Bloomfield too. I'm old so I repeat myself...thanks for that great tribute to a real unsung music hero.
Chip Lovitt
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Hi, Bob, thanks for your piece on Nick Gravenites.
In 2014, we held the premier of the film "Born In Chicago" at our Sonoma International Film Festival and had the "how did we get so lucky?!" fortune of, after the film, having a full set of music that brought to our stage, Nick Gravenites, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Harvey Mandel and Barry Goldberg for an unforgettable evening of killer Chicago blues, and we danced HARD!
Nick, though at that time in a wheelchair, gave an inspired performance on vocals, playing cuts from Butterfield and Electric Flag and many others.
And I'm glad you mentioned Barry Melton and Banana.
They're both still very active. Banana still lives in the beautiful town of Inverness, West Marin where he's been since the Raccoon days of the Youngbloods and is a multi-instrumentalist and actively plays with many different bands, including a band he's in with Melton, David Aguilar, Roy Blumenfeld of Blues Project and Peter Albin of Big Brother.
Speaking of Big Brother, remember that Nick Gravenites joined that band after Janis Joplin left the band. He made a great lost classic with them, called "Be A Brother". There was definitely a Chicago-Marin connection.
I think one of Gravenites' greatest legacies is that he was part of the vanguard of young white "kids" who came to Chicago, starting in 1960 and literally sat at the feet of the Black Masters (Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, James Cotten, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, etc) and learned from them and started getting their own bands together, in Chicago, when there was no such thing as electrified White Blues bands, anywhere. Before the Rolling Stones and before Eric Clapton and The Yardbirds, there was Butterfield, Bloomfield, Musselwhite, Bishop, Mandel, Gravenites and others.
If you haven't seen the film, please do. It's a thrill. This IS the bridge between the original Black Chicago Blues masters and the beginning of White Blues and Rock that spawned Butterfield, Bloomfield, Harvey Mandel, Steve Miller and, soon thereafter, informed just about all of the 100s of Blues and Rock bands that exploded out of The US, England and around the world. Nick Gravenites was a big part of that.
Here's a link to the trailer:
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Ds9X7rzTGzPc&sa=U&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwj42ZL1hOWIAxUOKkQIHS5xKc4QwqsBegQIDhAF&usg=AOvVaw3-1YKlKgaP9XX7jnOrs6uJ
Peace, Bob!
Darriel Arnot
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So I am about 14 or 15, learning to play guitar. One day in the Sunday paper magazine (Parade or it's equivalent) my dad shows me an article about two bands, Electric Flag and something like USA. Electric Flag got their name from an Elks club, or other fraternal organization, that really had an electric flag that made it look like it was blowing in the breeze.
So I am in the local record store, and I see the album. The cover was cool, which was an important criteria in those days. Plus it had horns. I was very into Blood Sweat and Tears as well as Chicago, so this was right up my alley. Heck, my 32 year old bar band always had 3 piece horn section.
So I bought it, and the first cut starts with an LBJ speech then goes into Killing Floor! I am blown away! At least by the first side, much better than the second side.( I had my band learn their version of Wine.)
And of course, I buy the second album, which had a much cooler cover: Buddy Miles in an American flag shirt. Which has the coolest version of Bobby Heeb's Sunny.
Anyway, I had to find out more about Michael Bloomfield and the rest of them, Harvey Brooks and Buddy Miles being the standouts.
And once I was aware, I see Nick Gravenites name all over the place,songwriting, hanging with Janis Joplin, and more. Over the years, I see his name here and therane and remember my strong feelings for the Electric Flag and all those people I followed for years.
RIP,Nick. You touched a lot of people.
Dale Janus
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"That's what I wanted to know, how did Nick Gravenites survive? Were his songwriting royalties enough to carry him through, or had he had a straight job."
Getting the answer to this question is one of the reasons why I like your interview approach. You're not afraid to go there. To pretend that "it's not just about the money - it's the work".
We're all humans, we all have to eat and support our families. In your interviews, I want to hear how my heroes made out.
Gary Lang
Phil Brown
P.S. Nick did in fact write Groovin Is Easy. He was trying to get out of a songwriter's contract he had with someone so Ron Polte, manager of the Quicksilver and a friend from Chicago, "wrote" Nick's songs on the album.
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I was saddened to learn of the passing of Nick Gravenites with whom I had the privilege of working for quite a few years this century. He's part of the documentary film "Born In Chicago" that chronicles the rise of young white blues players mentored by their idols. The centerpiece of the film is the Chicago Blues Reunion, the band's core being Nick, Barry Goldberg, Harvey Mandel along with, at various times, Corky Siegel, Tracey Nelson, Jimmy Vivino, Charlie Musselwhite and Elvin Bishop, all of whom are musical treasures deserving greater recognition and appreciation. Of course, Nick's song, that was Butterfield's theme song is the source of the film's title and the truth is that Nick was born in 1938, not ''41 as cited in the song, but he explained that it scanned better that way — he didn't fake his age. He actually was born just outside of Chicago but the fact his that despite his having attended the University of Chicago, he embraced what he called "the hoodlum life stye" and carried a gun on occasion."
The film was written by Joel Selvin, includes commentary by all of the aforementioned (including Nick's commentary on his being enthralled by "the hoodlum life style") as well as Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Steve Miller (Barry Goldberg's former partner), Hubert Sumlin and some others. Dan Aykroyd narrated it but in his real voice not the Elwood Blues character thank goodness. It was directed by John Anderson ("Horn From The Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story" and Bob Sarles ("BANG: The Bert Berns Story" and "Sweet Blues: A Film About Mike Bloomfield."
It played quite a few film festivals and the band toured in support of it. It's streaming now on Amazon and Apple and here's the trailer:
https://vimeo.com/bsarles/review/579679761/74806b4ab8
Best,
Bob Merlis
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Nick was as authentic a soul as you could ever meet. He spent the lion's share of his career living in remote Sonoma County, a small town called Occidental, where he played chess in a coffee shop during the day and played music at night in an Italian restaurant three nights a week. He walked to work. His Janis Joplin royalties kept him in business ("Dead people pay my rent," he liked to say). He was always the old soul in his crowd, the beatnik who mapped out San Francisco for all his old Chicago pals and brought them out -- Bloomfield, Elvin, Charlie. He always knew what he was about. Have you seen our movie, "Born in Chicago"? It's showing on Amazon these days. Nick is all over it and he has pretty much the last word in it when he says that it wasn't the English guys who saved the blues, it was him and the cats from Chicago.
Joel Selvin
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Thank you so much for this. As we are losing so many of my generation, your likening it to the original blues founders was somehow comforting. The death of Happy Traum was devastating for our community. As you know, he was tutored by Brownie McGee. So I like the idea of a chain of creation, passed on from one generation to the next.
Keep up the good work and the documentation of the music we love.
Johanna Hall
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Along with Harvey Brooks (who lives in Israel these days), Nick produced the first (and best) Quicksilver Messenger Service album.
RIP
Richard Pachter
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Thank you for writing this. I almost sent you an email asking if you'd write something or if you'd even heard, but I figured I'd give it a week. Or, maybe, I thought, Nick was just a Bay Area legend and not on your radar.
As for where he's been: Occidental, CA. Up until about 10 or 15 years ago, he'd play every Saturday night at Negri's hotel. It wasn't the easiest place to get to from Santa Cruz, but it was always worth the trip when I made it happen.
I didn't know Nick personally but I loved his music. I'm what you like to refer to as an 80's deadhead. As such, I didn't experience the 60's scene. I first learned about Nick when we were coming out from the East Coast for dead shows in the 80's. He was playing with Cippolina in band called Thunder & Lighning. When I moved to California in 1990, Nick was playing with band called Animal Mind. He'd play every Saturday night or so at a place called the Boathouse in SF. He'd also play The Saloon and some other places in SF often throughout the 90's. There was a crew of us that would go see him a lot. I have so many great memories from those shows.
One of the many songs, I loved from that era was "Four floors or forty. Ain't no difference when you're falling down"
Anyway, thanks for writing about him. RIP Nick.
Rich Waters
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I don't know how he survived the later years either sans money making music. He did the best version of Roy Buchanan's 'You're Killing My Love" bar none. He lived up here in Occidental, a great town where the respect and honor the community showed him, according to his words, made him feel like a hero.
He lived for the music alone.
John Brodey
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Excellent piece on Gravenites and all the others. The Electric Flag was a great, great band but they had some problems as I understand it. But that record was amazing. Even better than Groovin' (IMO) was an outstanding rendition of Killing Floor, with Nick singing and some of Bloomfield's best guitar work ever. That band had great musicians, played blues, soul, and rock like no other group has, and, sadly, left just a small body of work.
You're right, they're dropping at a faster rate. And the music will never be the same based on what I see.
Dave Thorn
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Good one on Gravenites. RIP. I LOVED the Flag. What a band.
I was also a massive Youngbloods fan, from the very first album. I can still play most of the parts and sing all the harmonies. Their second LP was Earth Music, also excellent. No one remembers that one.
As far as Banana, he's Lowell Levenger. Been in northern CA forever. Regular acoustic gigs for umpteen years. Answers emails and facegram posts. Good guy. He was a sideman a few years back with Steven VanZandt's soul band experiment. Shared some cool and funny stuff during the tour.
You're right, though. They're dropping like flies. Sigh.
Keep up the good work!
Rik Shafer
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Hey Bob, thx for all your writing, great stuff. I saw Banana playing in Little Steven's Disciples of Soul a few years ago at the Beacon, they were great. And yes, Banana! The Electric Flag had two or three albums. I saw Harvey Brooks playing bass with The Doors at MSG and he was on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, among many other things. And yeah, Al Kooper, wow. And there's a whole cadre of lesser-known musicians who are and were important cogs in the giant wheel, people Rob Stoner and so many others. And hey, how about important VENUES/clubs that are gone, they had a giant place in it all! Keep on writing Bob, thx for all you do!
Ira Zadikow
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RIP Nick…as brighter lights than I will surely tell you, Banana—the great Lowell Levinger—is indeed alive and doing great shows, primarily as a multi-instrumentalist for Steve VanZant's Disciples Of Soul…they even drop "On Sir Francis Drake" live on occasion!
Don Crouch
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Wow! What a treasure trove of info!
Saw the "Flag" in Philly at the Electric Factory. Buddy Miles held court that night and brought the house breaking into a soul shout and repeat mid song . Banana? Hell yeah Still at it. Tours with Little Steven's the Disciples of Soul. If you've never seen that act live, it's a must. Butterfield introduced all us white kids to the Blues in the late sixties. Was working with Dick Waterman in the 70s, and hearing Paul loved Coors Beer, which you couldn't get on the east coast then, I brought in a case for him from a trip out west when they were playing in Boston. I'll never forget the smile on his face when I walked into his dressing room with the case on my shoulder.
These were the artists that brought it every night. University of Chicago? Impressive ! Who knew?
Barry Schneier
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"Where in the hell has Banana been all these years? How has he survived?"
In 2017 when Steve Van Zant resurrected the Disciples of Soul and went out on the road to back the Soulfire album, Lowell "Banana" Levinger was in the band on keyboards and mandolin.
https://www.littlesteven.com/disciples-of-soul
David Fagan
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Banana, aka Lowell Levinger is alive , well and gigging around Marin County with occasional side trips to Italy where he is a legend.
Barry Melton is an occasional bandmate.
And with Little Steven reformed the Disciples of Soul, Banana was one of the keyboard players and had a featured spot playing the instrumental "On Sir Francis Drake" from the Elephant Mountain album.
Cheers
Tom Claycomb
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Banana has not only been continuosly performing music, but has dealt in acoustic instrument collecting and selling, and for the past several years has been a member of Little Steven's Disciples of Soul.
Check out Banana at https://www.lowelllevinger.com/
Cheers,
Rob Bleetstein
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Nick with Little Steven & The Disciples a few years ago. I love this version:
"Groovin' Is Easy":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EsYSWW1qK8
Vince Welsh
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Hello Bob. There is a little hill with some grass beside the marina in the city by the bay with a bandstand on the west side. Hippie Bob was there grooving in the early 80's after a bus ride from yoga at IYI near Delores and 24th street. I thought time had stopped when I heard some tunes start up. There was Nick G. and Mr. C. doing a public gig with a pick up band for the people at the Marina. I had a flash. Last time I saw either was at the Filmore with the Paul B. or Elvin or the Flag or Quicksilver. Here they were on the same stage playing tunes for the people and me. Bless them. Peace
rwhake
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By coincidence I was reminiscing and watching the Paul Buttfield movie last night 'Horn from the Heart'. Now your observations on on Gravenites have come which I enjoyed reading. I am an unknown still standing, recording and occasionally performing. Your thoughts were like my thoughts so they resonated deeply with me. Thanks for recognizing and remembering and honoring these men and women. PS: I always remember Killing Floor first track first album LBJ pontificating on the dignity of man and the horns enter and Bloomfield's solo comes ripping with applause and drowns out LBJ's discourse. The triumph of blues over politics.
Cheers
Fred Hostetler
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Hi Bob, and thanks for the thoughtful words on Nick Gravenites.
Nick was back on the road in 2016 as part of the Barry Goldberg-led Chicago Blues Reunion Band, whose tour included a San Diego stop.
As for Youngbloods' alum Lowell "Banana" Levinger, he is well worth considering for an interview on your show.
Banana still has his Jewfro! He does music performances nearly every weekend. He is a father of 7, a longtime volunteer fire department member in his Marin County town, and in 2016 became the keyboardist in Little Steven's reactivated Disciples of Soul band. In 2015, Banana released the album "Get Together -- Banana Recalls Youngbloods' Classics."
And there's more: He and the Youngbloods were sued in 1970 by Merle Haggard, who did not like "Hippie from Olema," the Youngbloods' satirical response-song to Hag's "Okie from Muskogee." When the Youngbloods broke up, Banana became a hang gliding instructor, then.-- despite his lack of any background in tech -- became the manager of the development team at Passport Designs, where he was instrumental in the creation of the Mac/Windows music notation and transcription software program Encore.
"At first, I went out for donuts and rolled joints! I watched the other guys and learned" is how Banana recalls it.
George Varga
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You blow me away with your insights at times …and this is one of those times
As a kid I worshipped the Electric Flag and followed the band members for decades thereafter into Rhinoceros etc and other outcomes
Inspiring writing and performances that resonate to this day - other than perhaps BS&T they were on an island
Triumph may not have been contextually relevant to some but music is a circuitous journey without clear logistical explanation
They certainly influenced me
Thank you for the Lefsetz letter
Gil Moore
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I've lost two heroes recently, John Mayall and Nick Gravenites. Both led long lives, so we can't say they were cheated.
I'm 55 years old, but go back to the early 1980s, and I went to a garage sale in my neighborhood. They were selling an old reel to reel tape recorder, along with a box of tapes. When I was a kid, they would show movies from the 60s and 70s on TV, and all of the really cool guys had reel to reel tape recorders as part of their stereo set ups, so I had to have one.
I bought this thing for a few dollars, took it home, and just randomly grabbed a box with a tape in it. I managed to figure out how to thread the tape, and hooked it up to my own cheap home stereo, and what do I hear? "Born in Chicago".
Can you imagine, you're 13 years old, your hormones are going nuts, you scored a really cool toy at a garage sale, and out of nowhere you hear "Born in Chicago?"
It turns out it was the only box of all of the tapes I had where the person wrote the name of the artist and the songs on it. Of course, I had to then try and find the album.
If you have the album, you will note that there are instructions on it that tell you to play it at the maximum possible volume, not being smart ass about it, but being very earnest, saying that this is how you can truly appreciate the sound of The Butterfield Blues Band.
Nick Gravenites was very much a part of my musical life, and his memory has been, and will remain a blessing.
Jon Green
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Hadn't heard this Bob. Thanks for sharing. This is the killer Gravenites track fo mer: https://open.spotify.com/track/3bbSR5Fur4mPOEVECCJnMj?si=ZT7VDkOlTP-Epk-Fy4WOoQ&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A0BBkZzz6Bl8Zku7nSp8D8w "Killing My Love" off the My Labors album. Live, Bloomfield on guitar, amazing horns, killer groove and the vocal is from God himself.
Dave Duggan
Dublin
Ireland
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Thanks Bob
The only person in the world I've ever talked about Nick G with is Jenni Muldaur, Maria & Geoff's daughter. Nick seemed like an all star utility infielder to me.
He and his band mate Mark Naftalin were everywhere in the late 60's.
I knew of him in high school because Electric Flag. That & the first BS&T's record w Al Kooper were huge for me.
Those two plus Mayall were responsible for turning me on to the Blues…I was lucky enough to see Howlin' Wolf twice before he died…the best was at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival…an early 70's affair that rarely gets mentioned.
Best, Kevin Teare
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Wow, that brought back a ton of memories...opening several times for the Youngbloods, opening for the Electric Flag (and Mike Bloomfield said my guitar playing sounded like Coltrane - I still haven't recovered, he was one of my idols), sharing a stage with Big Brother and numerous blues artists who were still alive and well (like James Cotton and Muddy Waters)...playing for a week with Procol Harum right after the ill-fated Democratic convention in Chicago...those were the days. And I'll never forget hearing what Paul Butterfield could do with a harmonica. I immediately set out finding how to get that sound, with the amazing kind of power that sounded like a full brass section. I still weave blues harp into my music.
What was special about that time was there was so much newness, whether it was the re-invention of the harmonica, the electric guitar, radio, or songwriting that left the pop of the 50s behind. Well, mostly. There were still the Lemon Pipers and the Cowsills, LOL.
I'm a bit older than you are, but those few extra years made it possible to enjoy that scene pretty fully. Imagine what it was like for some kid to hang out with the Mothers of Invention, or Tim Buckley, or have Traffic come to see us at Steve Paul's Scene in New York, or watch in amazement as some Canadian folkie named Joni Mitchell opened for us...what the hell was she doing with those guitar tunings?!? Or recording with the same engineers who did Tommy, or Hendrix. Their generosity in sharing knowledge provided the foundation for who I became. That's what we've *truly* lost with the disappearance of the big studios - not the gear, but the interaction among devotees to, and disciples of, the music.
You're right that it's not the same today. The closest I've come was playing EDM in Germany in the early part of this century, there was that feeling of community, of events being powered by youth, and a wild urge to experiment - the results were different from someone like Hendrix, but the impetus was the same.
It will cycle back at some point, probably after we're both gone but who knows? It takes only one spark to start a conflagration.
Craig Anderton
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Elvin Bishop is 81 years old and does a lot of Blues Cruise shows, the last one with his trio and with
Charlie Musselwhite (their joint album called "100 years of the blues."
Listen to two of Elvin's most recent songs "We Are All In the Same Boat" about us elders and his
song "What"s the Hell Is Going On" video with Los Lobos. He has this classic line in that song,
"He was our President, he wants to be our King, What do I like about him, not a Goddamm thing."
Not bad for an 81 year old and he still plays great blues guitar.
Live Life Happy!
Don Jung
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Thanks so much for writing about Nick Gravenites, he is one of my heroes.
One of coolest things about our era is that for those "in the know" there was something to KNOW ABOUT!
The blues captivated a lot of us and we found our way back to Muddy Waters, Freddie, Albert, and B.B. King amongst others through next generation bluesmen like Michael Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites.
These guys are as authentic as the originals for real blues feel. One of my favorite "in the know" albums is "Live At Bill Graham's Fillmore West 1969." And one of my all-time favorite tracks in the world is "Blues On a West Side." The first 3 and 1/2 minutes is Bloomfield at his peak with a long intro guitar solo. Ahhhh, the sexy tones of a 1959 Les Paul (another "in the know" thing). Then Nick enters the picture. What a voice! Such emotion. The whole piece is 15 plus minutes long but what a great musical journey.
"Blues On a Westside" https://youtu.be/1fS7rjCUEoI?si=vGZFh7dD377jJB3w
The Electric Flag album, "A Long Time Comin'" didn't do that well because it was a bit all over the place in terms of musical genres so it was hard to pin down. But it's a great f*cking album! Besides "Groovin' Is Easy," I highly recommend "Killing Floor," "Wine," "Texas," and "She Could Have Just." Guaranteed to lively up your step and you will hear Nick and Bloomfield at their very best.
Paul Rappaport
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Nick came up when music still mattered. Music was the cultural glue of our generation.
Nick had the respect of his peers and his audience.
All that together made his career possible. All that together made those years wonderful.
Jim Charne
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Harvey Brooks posted one sentence the next day, implying Nick Gravenites had passed. If not for that, this would have been the first time I heard the news.
Nick's best solo album was "My Labors" which has Bloomfield all over it.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0BBkZzz6Bl8Zku7nSp8D8w?si=DqNpJ1jKSEqiW0WaSm9LFw
The live material comes from the same show(s) as Bloomfield's "Live At Bill Graham's Fillmore West".
https://open.spotify.com/album/1FSxsC7uAgaI4sRVtpDzLQ?si=67Q2qo22Rs6ahcq0ICKfzg
Nick Gravenites and Huey Lewis met during Huey's Monday night sessions in 1978 - where Huey played with local Bay Area musicians resulting in the formation of Huey Lewis & the News.
They collaborated on the album "Kill My Brain," released in 1997, where Lewis played harmonica.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3md4ccnIfnoBKM5FdOuTE6?si=euxVWKBgTtGiCInRWGAh0w
Additionally, Lewis contributed harmonica to Gravenites' earlier solo album "Bluestar," released in 1980.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3bi4FZN7Qp7yzuSGdRFdpH?si=Gek8YdouQyefuZgKzfkT1g
Bob Levy
Branford CT
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Check out the documentary "Born in Chicago" produced by my pal Richard Foos and Shout Factory (streaming on Amazon) which details the early history of the Chicago mashups of blues legends Muddy Waters, Wolf, Otis Spann, Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon (who I met that same day at Bug Music at the behest of the Bourgoise boys) — with a 1960s new generation of that city's white suburban musician kids and University of Chicago students including Nick Gravenites, Mike Bloomfield, Barry Goldberg, Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musselwhite, Steve Miller, Elvin Bishop and others. The film was made on a shoestring and is uneven in places. However, it's well worth watching as a valuable and interesting piece of the history of American music that ignited interest in the blues by baby-boomers which helped spawn the explosion of rock music, FM radio, and so much more post the impacts of the British Invasion and Motown. The film takes its title from the song of the same name written by Nick Gravenites.
Second, the band formed by Gravenites, Goldberg, Bloomfield, Harvey Brooks, and Buddy Miles; The Electric Flag was something very special. They were a direct descendant of that mid-60s Chicago scene. I suspect Clive Davis, who signed the group to Columbia Records during his 1967 signing spree post Monterey Pop, knew not what to make of them.
The guys billed themselves as 'The Electric Flag, An American Band' and were the first rock band to my knowledge with a horn section. They designed it to emulate the great sound of Memphis and Stax with a big nod to blues and country. Buddy Miles was a teenager and a last minute substitution for the legendary Bernard Purdie on drums. The band was centered around Mike Bloomfield, America's first bonafide guitar hero and, the voice of Nick Gravenites.
While I only met Nick through Barry and Gail Goldberg and did not actually know him, I ran into him one morning a few years back at an old school breakfast place near the Russian River in Occidental, CA where he lived. I reintroduced myself and genuflected. I think I embarrassed him, although he was very kind. My bad.
As I know the story, Bloomfield and Gravenites left the Paul Butterfield band, moved to San Francisco, and were offered a gig in LA by Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, and Roger Corman to create the music for their low budget film, "The Trip." The Electric Flag as a band was birthed out of that Gravenites-Bloomfield film music experience. You can check with Barry Goldberg (one of life's sweetest guys) to see if my recollection is accurate. (Btw, Mike Bloomfield…wow! Ask any of the living great guitar players who is on their top 5 list. Brooks introduction of Bloomfield to Dylan had far-reaching implications and was an huge influence on Dylan, but that's another story).
Anyway, I was a big fan of the Flag's sound which meshed Chicago blues, Stax, and Brit rock (like The Yardbirds, Spencer Davis, Peter Green, etc). I first saw The Electric Flag in 1967 at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco during the 'Summer of Love' headlining a bill with Moby Grape and the Steve Miller Blues Band and, then again that December on another bill with The Byrds and B.B. King. Fantastic! I learned the meaning of musicianship at those two shows.
Give a listen to "Another Country" — the Gravenites penned and arranged track off that remarkable 1968 first Electric Flag album you referenced in your piece. It speaks to the band's prowess, the condition of America in 2024, and the incredible chops of Nick Gravenites and Mike Bloomfield whose extended solo on the track combines extraordinary taste, tone, and breathtaking guitar playing.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0th9UI4u77iB2GGx3FxvUM?si=1314428925954d22
Tim Sexton
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Thanks for this piece Bob. I had many a great night at Keystone Berkeley/SF with Nick, John C, and sundry others who would show up and make amazing music. I am hugely grateful for having witnessed all of those you mention here, including the pantheon of blues legends (thanks to the Belly Up wayback machine). His (and his peers') work and community helped me form a life ….
I appreciate what you do and wish you well.
mark wasserman
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Back in the day, Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood (where the University of Chicago was located) was an artsy, bohemian enclave of academicians who morphed into the musicians we know and love. Paul Butterfield attended the University of Chicago Lab School, studying classical flute. (Although his physician father wanted him to become a doctor.) Chaka Khan, then Yvette Stevens, was in high school then, but singing free gigs at every club in the neighborhood.
Hyde Park is on the city's South Side, a pricey, upscale neighborhood encircled by the abject poverty of the inner city's ghetto. Blues clubs abounded there, and every weekend, it was vey common to see Butterfield, Gravenites, Bishop and a very young high school-aged Mike Bloomfield at those clubs, taking the stage in between the sets of the established blues men.
Before Bloomfield was even old enough for to be admitted to these clubs, he and the rest of the guys were on those stages, jamming with the blues greats, and astonishing the locals with their already prodigious chops.
One of their favorite places to play was a blues club called Big John's in Chicago's Old Town. It was one of those joints that was a magnet for anyone who loved and understood Chicago blues. Rather than having a nightly roster of acts, musicians would just show up and jam until the sun came up. On any given night, it wasn't unusual to see Paul Butterfield, Bloomfield, Nick "The Greek" Gravenities, Elvin Bishop,Steve Miller, Corky Siegel, Jim Schwall, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Little Walter, James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Howlin' Wolf, and Sam Lay all on the same stage.
The music was incendiary. It was a golden age of Chicago blues from local talent that hadn't yet been discovered by the rest of the world. The musicians who provided that music were playing to feed their souls and ours, without an agenda of charting big hits. Imagine that.
Cheers,
Gina Gallo
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I saw Nick Gravenites and the Electric Flag a number of times and they were a great band live ..He also also wrote the great song Another Country from their 1st album Long Time Coming.. one night at the Cafe Au Go Go they played the Joe Tex song Show Me.. i it was burning and I could just never forget it. I saw them at the Fillmore East in June 1969 with Quicksilver Messenger Service and Steppenwolf. They played a great set and the audience wanted an encore.. so the band comes on stage and I'm sitting in the fourth row and people are clapping and I yell out for them to play Show Me.. I yelled out a couple of times..Nick Looks right at me…at Says.."You want me to show you..Come to the dressing room after the show ..I'll show you.." The musicians in the band were cracking up when he said that and me and my friends couldn't believe that he actually responded in such a crazy way.. That was my Nick Gravenites's experience… and by the way, if you ever have a chance, you should check out his solo album on Columbia ..My Labors..it's excellent! BTW.. Elvin Bishop never played with the Electric Flag..
Peace,Jason Miles
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I knew Nick Gravenites' name, knew he was a respected but lesser-known guy. Like you said, flies are dropping.
Then you mentioned Banana, and I can share a small story or two. I've been attending folk conferences, trying to get my songs heard. A few years ago I found myself sitting in a hotel room in an in-the-round showcase, just 3 of us: myself, a woman I've forgotten, and Lowell Levinger AKA Banana… turns out he collects vintage instruments and plays the odd gig on the coast but comes East to seek opportunities. I told him I'd seen the Youngbloods at Fillmore East.
I've also shared showcase time with Buskin & Batteau… Robin Batteau has a wonderful song "Heart Of The Audience," inspired by his own Fillmore East appearance as a member of Appaloosa, sandwiched between Blood, Sweat & Tears and the Allman Brothers Band. Turns out not only was I in the audience for that show, but also David Buskin, and their percussionist Marshal Rosenberg, who recently passed. None of them had met yet… but here we all were in a folk gathering. David's songs had impressed Mary Travers enough that she recorded 5 of them and took him on tour for a few years. I've also met Freebo, Bonnie Raitt's bassist.
It's been strange for me to meet guys who had been my idols, signed to major labels, now scrambling for the same house concerts and small venues that I'm seeking.
Hank Stone,
Patchogue, NY
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What a great tribute. I guess it wasn't a coincidence that a Nick Gravenites Band song with John Cippolina came up on my YouTube video thread the other day...but yeah, what an unsung hero...Talk about musical resumes...I bought East West, and the Electric Flag's first LP...and they were electrifying...but I had to chuckle though, when I saw the name Banana...the wonderful lead guitar player of those Youngbloods' hits...having devoured liner notes, rock mags, etc...I immediately remembered his real name was Lowell Levinger, without having to Google it...I guess a few memory cells are still working...Somewhere in my fading memory I can still remember the days when someone got a new album, and a few of us would sit in their room and listen to all the new LPs, uusually on a crappy record player (unless someone was lucky enough to have a "component" system with separate amp, speakers, and turntable...). East West was one of those electrifying LPs, from the first burst of Born in Chicago on. My first introduction to Mike Bloomfield too. I'm old so I repeat myself...thanks for that great tribute to a real unsung music hero.
Chip Lovitt
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Hi, Bob, thanks for your piece on Nick Gravenites.
In 2014, we held the premier of the film "Born In Chicago" at our Sonoma International Film Festival and had the "how did we get so lucky?!" fortune of, after the film, having a full set of music that brought to our stage, Nick Gravenites, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Harvey Mandel and Barry Goldberg for an unforgettable evening of killer Chicago blues, and we danced HARD!
Nick, though at that time in a wheelchair, gave an inspired performance on vocals, playing cuts from Butterfield and Electric Flag and many others.
And I'm glad you mentioned Barry Melton and Banana.
They're both still very active. Banana still lives in the beautiful town of Inverness, West Marin where he's been since the Raccoon days of the Youngbloods and is a multi-instrumentalist and actively plays with many different bands, including a band he's in with Melton, David Aguilar, Roy Blumenfeld of Blues Project and Peter Albin of Big Brother.
Speaking of Big Brother, remember that Nick Gravenites joined that band after Janis Joplin left the band. He made a great lost classic with them, called "Be A Brother". There was definitely a Chicago-Marin connection.
I think one of Gravenites' greatest legacies is that he was part of the vanguard of young white "kids" who came to Chicago, starting in 1960 and literally sat at the feet of the Black Masters (Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, James Cotten, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, etc) and learned from them and started getting their own bands together, in Chicago, when there was no such thing as electrified White Blues bands, anywhere. Before the Rolling Stones and before Eric Clapton and The Yardbirds, there was Butterfield, Bloomfield, Musselwhite, Bishop, Mandel, Gravenites and others.
If you haven't seen the film, please do. It's a thrill. This IS the bridge between the original Black Chicago Blues masters and the beginning of White Blues and Rock that spawned Butterfield, Bloomfield, Harvey Mandel, Steve Miller and, soon thereafter, informed just about all of the 100s of Blues and Rock bands that exploded out of The US, England and around the world. Nick Gravenites was a big part of that.
Here's a link to the trailer:
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Ds9X7rzTGzPc&sa=U&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwj42ZL1hOWIAxUOKkQIHS5xKc4QwqsBegQIDhAF&usg=AOvVaw3-1YKlKgaP9XX7jnOrs6uJ
Peace, Bob!
Darriel Arnot
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So I am about 14 or 15, learning to play guitar. One day in the Sunday paper magazine (Parade or it's equivalent) my dad shows me an article about two bands, Electric Flag and something like USA. Electric Flag got their name from an Elks club, or other fraternal organization, that really had an electric flag that made it look like it was blowing in the breeze.
So I am in the local record store, and I see the album. The cover was cool, which was an important criteria in those days. Plus it had horns. I was very into Blood Sweat and Tears as well as Chicago, so this was right up my alley. Heck, my 32 year old bar band always had 3 piece horn section.
So I bought it, and the first cut starts with an LBJ speech then goes into Killing Floor! I am blown away! At least by the first side, much better than the second side.( I had my band learn their version of Wine.)
And of course, I buy the second album, which had a much cooler cover: Buddy Miles in an American flag shirt. Which has the coolest version of Bobby Heeb's Sunny.
Anyway, I had to find out more about Michael Bloomfield and the rest of them, Harvey Brooks and Buddy Miles being the standouts.
And once I was aware, I see Nick Gravenites name all over the place,songwriting, hanging with Janis Joplin, and more. Over the years, I see his name here and therane and remember my strong feelings for the Electric Flag and all those people I followed for years.
RIP,Nick. You touched a lot of people.
Dale Janus
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"That's what I wanted to know, how did Nick Gravenites survive? Were his songwriting royalties enough to carry him through, or had he had a straight job."
Getting the answer to this question is one of the reasons why I like your interview approach. You're not afraid to go there. To pretend that "it's not just about the money - it's the work".
We're all humans, we all have to eat and support our families. In your interviews, I want to hear how my heroes made out.
Gary Lang
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