From: Lincoln Myerson

Subject: Re: Re-Willie Nile

Hey Bob-

I’m late to your post on Willie. (I blame the international timeline despite being a day ahead of you here in New Zealand but I digress) I thought I’d share my anecdote nonetheless.  You might enjoy it.

I brought Willie to McCabe’s for the first time in 2006 or 2007.

I’d  been a fan since the mid 80s when, while working at the old Rhino record store on Westwood, I got hipped to that first Arista record of his.

Cut to 2006 and I’m at my first SXSW as the new booker for McCabe’s.

I’d seen Willie at a daytime party and loved what he was doing and after the show tried to get him to play McCabe’s. He wasn’t so sure. Didn’t really get out to the West Coast that much yada yada.

I gave him my card and left it at that.

The next day I went to see a Ray Davies interview/Q&A at the convention center. Turns out about 5000 people had the same idea and the line stretched out around the block. I gave up on that and started heading out when I heard “Pssst! Hey McCabe’s” and then, slyly… “cuts?”

Willie and I were the last two admitted before they cut off the line.
10 minutes of us fanboying over the Kinks while in line and the dye was cast. Willie was at McCabe’s later that year.

A real rock n roll lifer.

And gem of a human being.

A goofy side note- my father was a TV and film director.

He directed Private Lessons which features a Willie track on the end credits.

Take care Bob.
Until the next time,
Lincoln

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From: Meg Griffin

Subject: Re: Re-Willie Nile

My True Friend in RocknRoll!  The unstoppable Willie Nile!

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Subject: Re: Re-Willie Nile

Back in 2013 and we had tickets for Ian Hunter at the City Winery, flying in from Oklahoma. There was a blizzard arriving the same time we were so we changed our flight to a day earlier. We decided to see what was happening at the winery. The scheduled band couldn’t make it as the snow was coming down heavily. So, I guess they called up Willie who made the short trip from his home and did a hell of a solo show. We had the window view of the beautiful snow falling and Willie Nile singing his beautiful song “The Crossing” at the piano. It was magical memory.

Steve Walker

Tulsa

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From: Steve Martin

Subject: Re: Re-Willie Nile

Hi Bob,

I so glad you saw Willie at McCabes and slightly surprised he hadn’t come across your radar earlier.

I first saw Willie in Central Park in 1980.

The Arista album had come out,with quite a buzz.

And he killed that night.

He was —and still is- one of the best live artists,ever.

I’ve seen him countless times over the years & he has never disappointed.

He’s a truly gifted songwriter,dynamic performer & a true gentleman.

Glad you gave him a spotlight.

 

Write on, my friend.

Best,

Steve

#UAP

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Subject: Re: Re-Willie Nile

I saw Willie Nile at the Bottom Line when the first album came out.  The record label did not know how to promote him and the record got lost.  I moved on to other artists until 2006 when Streets of New York came out.  Simply a fantastic album and one of my five favorites of this century..

I saw him at Joe’s Pub two weeks ago.  It was the first time I had seen him since I saw him at City Winery several years ago.  At that show Congressman Joe Crowley, who lost in a primary to AOC a year later, came out to sing with him on “One Guitar”.

The show at Joe’s pub was solo and was terrific.  Interesting thing was he knew half the audience and was calling people out by name.

He truly is a NYC treasure and deserves as much recognition as possible.

Adam Gerstein

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Subject: Re: Re-Willie Nile

Worked as an Arista label mgr at
EMI Sweden, when the 1st Willie Nile album surfaced on my desk. Loved the first listen and still love it

hasse breitholtz

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Subject: Re: Re-Willie Nile

I had the privilege of seeing Willie a few years ago at the Grammy Museum in L.A. Great show and talk back. Been a huge Willie guy since the early NYC days. Seems he was always playing the Bottom Line, Max’s Kansas City, etc. He still rocks and is 100% the real deal. He should give seminars to the current crop of rock artists to show ‘em how it’s done with integrity and courage.

All the best,

Larry Laffer
Malibu, CA

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From: Michael Leonard

Subject: Re: Re-Willie Nile

Thanks for this heads up on Willie, whom I most definitely never heard of until now. Sadly.

I know you said not to run to Spotify to check out his albums but that advice i decided to ignore. Thankfully.

Goddamn there’s some certified BANGERS on his last several albums! “The Great Yellow Light”, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “New York at Night” all burst with such vital old school rockin energy. Willie and his band would most definitely fit along side a playlist or concert with the Black Crowes, Whiskey Myers, Blackberry Smoke or the Stones.

His lyrics didn’t loose any bite at all with his band – including a new favorite of mine, a duet with Steve Earle, “Wake Up America”.  Not only bites, it’s a kick in the teeth.

Wake up America
Rise and shine
The sun’s going down
And it’s all on the line
Wake up America
Red, white and blue
You used to be great
What happened to you? …
Wake up America
Land of the free
Are you everything
That you say you want to be?

Thanks Bob. Here’s hoping Willie has got the same longevity as is Pop!

Michael Leonard, Portland Maine.

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Subject: Re: Re-Willie Nile

For the Streets Of New York album, Willie came to play for the staff at the SonyBMG branch office. As awkward as office performances can be, he was utterly amazing and blew the team sway. Afterwards, Willie couldn’t have been kinder to everyone (even me, a lowly college rep at the time). Became a fan for life.

The standout track for me on that album is “Cellphones Ringing In The Pockets Of The Dead” (which stemmed from the bombings at the train station in Madrid, Spain). When I visited the station a few years after that performance, that song was in my head & further drove home the impact of his writing. A surreal & powerful moment, which is what great art (like Willie’s) should make you feel.

Later had the pleasure of booking Willie & Johnny Pisano for a private late-night party during Folk Alliance (you remember the setup – artists play 30 minute sets in hotel rooms while conference attendees watch). Will never forget watching Willie sing & jump on the bed in the room – no one was having a better time that night than him!

Mike Fordham

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Subject: Re: Re-Willie Nile

Bob,

This was shared with me by someone who knows I’m a fan and friend of Willie Nile

You captured how I feel perfectly.

I little more than dozen years ago, I was dragged by my father-in-law, with my wife and two young daughters, to a small venue in the DC suburbs. My father-in-law had been been following Willie for decades and had asked enough times that we couldn’t say no. We should have listened sooner.

He had his full band and they rocked. His base player, Johnny Pizano is a talent. They, especially Willie brought magic. My then 8 year old ended up on stage for his closing anthem, One Guitar. We have been a fans since.

We’ve probably seen him play 20+ times in a half dozen venues. Mostly with his band but also solo. You are spot on… We have had him to play two (business) client events and done two unplugged shows for close friends in our home  We had our kids’ talented piano teacher join for a few songs. Very cool to watch musicians who haven’t played together figure it out. Clip attached.

I think some of his songs could be perfect in a movie soundtrack.

I imagine you know he is a musician’s musician, with relationships with many big names. Springsteen has jumped on stage at multiple Willie Nile shows- lots on YouTube. I would think a shout out from a big name or two could give Willie a nice boost. Maybe if he was invited on stage on a tour to play one of his songs like One Guitar with a superstar…

Separate from his talent, he is a special human being. I’m not in the music business. I have this idea that one break could help him catch fire and maybe get him into an elevator building…

Long way of saying, I appreciate what you wrote. If you find yourself in DC when Wille is here, feel free to reach out and join us for a show. For that matter, we have and will travel if the logistics work.

Best regards,

Peter Glassman

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Subject: Re: Re-Willie Nile

Thanks Bob

A long overdue tribute.

I’ve seen Willie three times in London, both with the band, electric and also on his own ( maybe plus 1?), acoustic.

He is criminally underrated and plays clubs here so small I doubt he can pay his hotel bill!

He has some fab songs of his own and his Dylan covers album is a gem.

Love him!

 

Adam AB Pollock

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From: Jason Cilo

Subject: Re: Re-Willie Nile

Just think, with those genes, Willie’s got another THIRTY YEARS to rock!

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From: nancy barnum

Subject: Herb Alpert….the 91 year old we all aspire to be

Hi Bob,

Thanks to your review of Herb Alpert some months back, I was motivated to see if his tour would be coming nearby and sure enough, he had a date in Rochester NY, a mere 90 minutes away. The show was 5 days ago and I am STILL euphoric over the musicianship, the memories and the fact a 91 year old guy can still blow with the best of them!   I don’t remember how much I paid for the tickets but it was a bargain at any price! I see by your mailbag he’s talking about a European tour next year…that would absolutely be a show worth dealing with the inconveniences of traveling to experience again. Thank you for keeping us all informed and thinking…about music, books, cinema, television and the current political hellscape.

All the best,

Nancy Barnum

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From: John-Angus MacDonald

Subject: Jack Douglas

Hey Bob!

Jack was the best. We hired him to produce our second album, Den of Thieves, back in 2005. We were still a pretty young band at the time — I was only 24 when we made that album — but Jack was a great guide in the studio. He loved to tell stories and have a laugh, but he was also able to crack the whip and keep us on task. And the record turned out great. It was a big hit for us in Canada.

We hired him because we loved the work he did on Aerosmith’s 2004 album, Honkin’ on Bobo. Put on that opening track, Road Runner, again — if it doesn’t have you grinning ear to ear and bopping along, you haven’t got a pulse!

He went on a good run after that record, doing our record next, followed by the New York Dolls comeback record, One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This, which is also a damn good record — easily their second best after the debut, which he also had a huge hand in making.

What a legend of a man he was. I really enjoyed the interview you did with him for your podcast a few years back. Another great one gone. May he rest in peace.

~ John-Angus MacDonald (The Trews)

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From: Chip Dorsch

Subject: Harry Styles in Amsterdam

I’m here in the 2nd weekend. Anyone bitching about the stage / view is only here for instagram, or I bet if we dig they bitch about everything on twitter or whatever it’s called. Somehow, and it’s beyond my comprehension, but the silent majority is louder. There is truly nothing to complain about with this show. There are accommodations for everyone. Gender neutral bathrooms. Everything. Air conditioning (we all take it for granted!) and even f*cking ice (when requested). Champagne problems but you get the point, if my lil issues are being accommodated, just imagine how they are treating this with actual needs. With kindness. It’s not just a lyric, it’s a business strategy. I don’t understand why we all don’t follow it. Money is awesome. But can we all just f*cking chill out and make it at least SECOND to kindness!?!  If you’re reading this, you’re either a real music head, a kid rock fan who’s here to troll bob or probably rich – and if not, you’re much more comfortable than basic needs. His band is multi-racial, mostly women and has a keys player in a f*cking wheelchair. And the story is the stage got in my way?!?  F*ck off!  Harry runs a marathon+ a night. The marathons we’ve read about online are just him warming up. He runs more during a show than most of us do in a lifetime to make sure everyone feels connected and seen…and spends an unusual but appreciated amount of his time on stage expressing his gratitude. Even when singing it, it’s often with direct eye contact. These complainers clearly see the bridges of his stage as a barrier. And anyone amplifying it as a story is part of the problem and missing the f*cking point. Can we all stop amplifying hateful sh*t and take a f*cking second to look for the meaning?!?

Full disclose:  Card carrying homo here. He’s f*cking gorgeous. Even my straight male friends can acknowledge that. Also, I’m not a Harry fan girl or whatever they’re called. I’m a music manager with real industry perspective who chose to spend my own money and Memorial Day weekend seeing 2 shows. I have to ask all of your readers… WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS???

Chip Dorsch, Red Light Management

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From: Amanda Palmer

Re: AI Protests

Hey Bob –

So so right on about this one.

Just yesterday my mgmt team had to reach out to Spotify to get some horrific AI slop animation video taken down as the background for all the songs on the The Dresden Dolls 2006 record we are about to re-release. It looked horrible and wasn’t there even a few weeks ago. Why? Who knows who put it there….and what they were thinking? For sure: the band wasn’t consulted. I was pissed. It wasn’t about the AI so much as the lack of agency, control. We’re a band who tried so hard to exercise artistic control and there’s our beloved logo, which held a lot of emotional meaning and was deliberately made to read hand-drawn (it was, my me, in a tour bus in 2005)….there it was, looking like a badly animated spinning AI joke.

This really struck me, what you said, re: the molotov cocktail:

“People only react when it affects them directly. People feel their futures are bleak, and that’s what they’re reacting to.”

I have been reflecting lately on the times I’ve been personally caught in the crossfire of a cultural moment – more than I can count now – and this sentiment seems to be the big common denominator.

My infamous 2012 Kickstarter kerfuffle (when people got on my case about a tour in which I asked my fans to bring their instruments and play on stage with my touring band in exchange for tickets and merch and glory) did not happen in a vacuum.

It happened RIGHT at a time when young gigging musicians were facing the aftershocks of the 2008 recession. If you’d just spent serious dough on a music education and you were trying to bust into the music profession in 2012, getting a gig was looking increasingly bleak. There was nobody to directly be pissed at; the conditions just sucked at that moment. And along comes this lady (hi) who had just optically made a million on Kickstarter (even though it all went to pay for the project and the goods, etc) looking for – on the surface – unpaid labor. You just graduated Juilliard or Berklee, you can’t find a paid gig, and there’s nobody to yell at and then you see someone like me asking for volunteers. Whether or not the gun was badly aimed at me. I get it: how tone deaf it must have felt to other musicians; I really do.

I wasn’t looking for unpaid labor, really, I was just hoping to do what we’d always done as a scrappy punk band, which was to get the local community involved as much as possible…I had a paid crew and a paid touring band, etc.

But the optics…the optics were that I was a gazillionaire getting unpaid labor using my beguiling witchy grifter ways.

I think about this a lot with the AI….the collision could not be coming at a worse time.

The internet was supposed to make things FAIR. It was gonna educate everybody, help everybody, make everything accessible. Revolutions against governments happened on twitter. It would be great, it would flatten the artistic playing field.

It didn’t happen. We all clicked “I agree to the terms and conditions” having no idea what we were selling off to platforms that seemed utopian. There were no ads on early twitter. NONE. For YEARS. We didn’t think about how the bill would come due.

Then….the money didn’t flow into the middle, it flowed straight to the top. This is exactly what I was hoping we would all avoid, post-Napster. I was hoping the people would all move to more of a middle class economy for artists, a meritocracy based on artistic have and need, from the avant-garde to the pop world…some utopian global street-theater mindset, imagining consumers sharing their small disposable incomes via the internet. I imagined the common person putting money down on the various artists they enjoyed and discovered, from the large to the little local ones….all in direct proportion.

No way. Spotify and the streaming giants have squashed that possibility.

There were missed opportunities for sure. We could have done what the publishing industry did, what the movie industry did, and locked things up, hard, and early. We didn’t. I put my hand up as one of the responsible ones, here. Trent Reznor and Bono both came and grumbled at me that I was ruining the ecosystem by espusing a “just give it away, and ask” approach, and I pooh-pooh’ed them as old-school dudes who didn’t understand that the genie couldn’t be put back in the bottle. But they were kinda right: my TED talk (my defense of Kickstarter, and of “giving things away, then asking for help, do the grand trust fall! The net will appear!”) was missing one main key factor: not only does the audience has to be on board…. so do the corporations,and more importantly: the monetizing internet itself has to play the game, and it didn’t. HOW was I giving my music away? YouTube. Twitter. Somewhere, somewhere, some company was hosting and distributing my “free” content and waiting to strike, then frack.

The bill has come due.

There was Flattr, for a while, created by Peter Sunde from The Pirate Bay (he wound up doing jail time), which would have distributed the download/subscription wealth among all creators in a way that Spotify doesn’t, but it sank due to lack of critical mass. Not enough people got on board to float it.

And then there’s this handful of hyper-social ADHD artists like me willing to be super-interactive and present, ready to basically run a community center and an open-kimono art workshop in a bid to get people to support the whole life of an artist directly, and hey, I’m doing great, I have 25,000 patrons paying $5-$750 a month and I make a solid salary and pay my team well.

But it isn’t alway replicable. Most musicians and songwriters I know can’t organize their way out of a paper bag…..nor should they. THEY’RE ARTISTS. And I spend way more of my time running a small company than I do making songs and art. Wah wah, you say, poor rich artist. But it’s true: running a full time crowdfund takes a ton of attention, time, energy, and money…it’s not for everyone.

This gets us back to the AI & the moment; it’s about the health of the existing arts economy NOW. It blows. Arts funding is getting slashed everywhere, at the city, state and federal levels. Young artists I talk to don’t understand the idea of not wanting a brand endorsement as an amazing thing, a golden ring. My 90s DIY self dies a million deaths when I hear them talk about where their dough is gonna come from.

But you’re right, in a nutshell: it’s a mess, corporations rule, people know, and people are PISSED. They feel powerless. Artists feel powerless and so do the ordinary people who love listening to music. Nobody feels like they can control their reality. It feels so hard to get away from the corporate tithe.

AI may not – in retrospect, like twenty years from now – wind up being as satanic as people are currently making it out to be (though I think it’s pretty satanic and meanwhile we are totally missing the mark on where to put the guardrails), but for the moment, for sure, it’s the perfect target for all this caged rage that has nowhere else to aim itself.

Amanda Palmer

The Dresden Dolls

p.s. This is also where I plug subvert.fm, where a lot of my musician/songwriter friends are currently trying to point people as an alternative to this sh*tshow. If I can make one small change in this industry, maybe we can all put our attention there, place our bets, and make a change for the better.

A reality TV star who’s bad at business?

That sounds like a perfect candidate to be mayor of Los Angeles.

Never mind that Los Angeles is essentially an ungovernable city where the mayor has little power, as evidenced in this article by Steve Lopez in the “Los Angeles Times:

“Spencer Pratt, please call me. You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into”:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-23/la-mayoral-hopeful-spencer-pratt-is-making-big-splash-but-can-he-swim

Now the truth is if you can find someone who lovingly and full-throatily supports Karen Bass, they must be related to her.

As for the rest of us…

Can I fault her for being overseas when the fires hit? I mean who has that foresight? Then again, Monday morning quarterbacks have all the answers.

As for the empty reservoir… I’ve got to ask you, when are you supposed to fix a reservoir? I’ll tell you, in the rainy season, when fire is least likely to happen, which is what was being done.

And now it turns out that the fire was set and the fire department did a poor job of monitoring the exhaustion of this fire such that it smoldered and reignited and ultimately there was a conflagration. Do we need to re-evaluate and hold responsible those at the fire department? Definitely.

But also note that it took nearly a year to find out the facts, while everybody rushes to judgment.

As for the homeless problem… The unhoused got smart, they went where the weather suited their clothes, where it never goes below freezing, and that is the streets of Los Angeles. The homeless are not migrating to Buffalo nor Sioux Falls.

As for what should be done with the homeless… It’s a thorny problem. We live in the richest country in the world but we’ve devolved into a nation where everybody must pull themselves up by their bootstraps…if you get cancer, if you run out of money, if you’re mentally ill, it’s your fault.

So what are supposed to do about the homeless? That’s a good question. But if you’re faulting the Los Angeles government for having compassion for these people…

I’m not saying I like seeing people tented in Hollywood, it’s creepy. But if there were an instant, easy solution, it would have been found and executed.

So now Spencer Pratt is channeling the anger of the populace. And the populace is angry.

But this is the same situation we had with Trump. Adding in an aged Biden who was too dumb to go and a replacement candidate Harris who was so inauthentic that she basically handed the election to Trump.

And how is that working out?

Trump has abysmal ratings. And seems not to care about the economic problems of the hoi polloi, never mind believing the law doesn’t apply to him.

Of course Trump has supporters.

But who exactly is supporting Spencer Pratt?

Certainly not fans of “The Hills,” where he played a villain. As for his business acumen…this is a guy who made millions and squandered them. This is the guy you want to put in charge of the government?

But Pratt does have name recognition and is employing modern media, i.e. the internet, to gain mindshare. But does he have to be supported by the Grainges?

Of all things to come out for… This doofus?

I mean David Foster has retained his talent but has squandered all credibility with his reality TV appearances and in true Hollywood fashion he’s somewhat connected to Pratt… He was married to Linda Thompson, whose son Brody is close friends with Pratt.

That’s Hollywood. Where nepotism reigns supreme.

But Foster is a lone wolf, whereas the Grainges are responsible for nearly half of all music production in America. They represent more than themselves.

And now you’ve got Trump supporting Pratt and I don’t see the Grainges distancing themselves from Spencer.

Don’t tell me it’s a personal choice, that’s not the world we live in.

Pratt is a Republican… Which means the odds of him winning the mayorship are miniscule in super-blue Los Angeles. You can see the latest odds here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/polls/los-angeles-mayor-election-polls-2026.html

I’m not saying Pratt can’t win, but just imagine if he did…

Not only must we ask what government/leadership skills Pratt possesses, but his monetary skills and people skills…

Is this who we really want for mayor?

Of course not.

I can understand wanting to throw a spanner in the works, there is frustration with L.A.’s governance, but why support a nincompoop? Why not get involved in the process and support a better, experienced Democratic candidate? Or throw your money down for Bass… We all know money gives you access and power.

And we’ve already seen this movie with Rick Caruso… Who spent $104 million trying to become mayor and failed. But at least it was his own money. Donating to Pratt… That’s who I want as mayor, a guy who blew through all his money and is now monetizing his appearances on TikTok.

All you fat cats, you need to distance yourself from Pratt. How can you be so out of touch, you’re akin to the tech bros being vilified by the younger generation for their AI efforts.

And it’s the younger generation who disproportionately support the music industry.

And if Pratt is so appealing to the notoriously left-leaning music business, how come no one else has lined up in support of him?

Rather we’ve got fat cats who are all about using their money and influence to tilt the table in their favor. People like the Winklevoss crypto-bros and the beloved Sean Rad, founder of Tinder.

The Grainges support of Pratt is a bad look.

Probably Elliott is friends with Spencer and they didn’t think twice about supporting him, I don’t know for sure, yet that’s how it works in politics. But now that Pratt is all over the news the Grainges’ support is trumpeted in all the media that thrives on this long shot candidacy to sell advertising.

I didn’t see the Grainges come out against ICE. I didn’t see them taking public positions on the White House ballroom or the slush fund or… Why Pratt?

Once again, L.A. has issues. And Harris has a low profile. But that does not mean you throw the baby out with the bathwater.

But the Democratic party has lost control of the narrative, which today is established online. It’s all about creativity. But the Democratic candidates keep asking us for dollars for television advertising…who exactly watches broadcast TV these days? My phone is burning up with requests for money… Not until they start living in the twenty twenties…I’m not giving them a f*cking dollar.

But that does not mean I support Pratt.

And you shouldn’t either.

As for those who do… They need to be called out. These tax-evaders who just want to make the game work for themselves…

And one more thing, the billionaire tax.

I was actually going to vote against this tax, but after reading the below, I’m not so sure.

You MUST read this story:

“The Case for California’s Billionaire Wealth Tax”: 

Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/05/26/opinion/wealth-tax-california-billionaire.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lVA.6x7K.AyDLG_idtHFw&smid=url-share

Here’s the key point:

“California’s billionaires currently pay such a low tax rate that even if all of them left the state, it would take 25 years for the loss of their tax payments under the current set of rules to surpass the amount the state would raise if the one-time tax succeeds this fall.”

We keep hearing all these protestations about the rich paying a disproportionate share of taxes, but these billionaires borrow against their holdings and the increase in their wealth is not taxed.

Read this:

“From 2019 to 2025, California billionaires’ wealth grew an average of over 15 percent per year, while they paid, on average, just 0.26 percent of their wealth annually in state income taxes. Their income tax payments accounted for only 2.4 percent of California’s income tax revenue.”

So what we’ve got here is oligarchs and idiots struggling for power while the rest of us are powerless and getting more and more pissed.

How did Stealer’s Wheel put it?

I’m stuck in the middle with you. And if you don’t agree with me, you’re on the wrong side.

BLONDIE CHAPLIN

“Lonely Traveler”

I’m still waiting for another solo album from Blondie. He’s sent me new music, but…he’s kind of elliptical when it comes to communication.

Anyway, I read about the Flame and then there he was singing “Sail On Sailor” on “Holland”!

As for this solo album… I bought it from the promo bin, but I would have paid full price if not. It’s good throughout, but this is the best song on the album. I positively love this track. I remember playing it and talking about it the spring of my first year of law school, when the records I bought and the shows I went to were more important than anything I learned in class, never mind enjoying them a lot more (and paying more dividends today!) One record can brighten up your whole day, play this and see if it does yours.

CARL WILSON

“What You Gonna Do About Me”

I fell in love with Carl’s voice on “Girl Don’t Tell Me” from “Summer Days (And Summer Nights!).” And I love, love, LOVE his vocal on “I Was Made to Love Her,” the third cut on the “Wild Honey” album, which actually had a hit, albeit released before the LP, “Darlin’.” And the title track was also exquisite, with Carl’s vocal.

And, of course, you’ve got “Good Vibrations” and “I Can Hear Music” and “This Whole World” and “Feel Flows” and “The Trader” and “Funky Pretty” along with Blondie and “Good Timin'” and “Full Sail”…god, that’s a playlist unto itself.

So, needless to say I had to buy Carl’s initial solo LP, on Columbia and produced by Buckinghams/Chicago legend James William Guercio, and I even went to see Carl at the Roxy when he toured on this album.

But I’d be lying if I told you the material on this LP and the second Columbia one was as great throughout as the songs I mentioned above. And by time the second LP was out there was little hype, but this song on the first…

Just like “Lonely Traveler,” “What You Gonna Do About Me” was not on streaming services for a long time.

But now it is.

ROBERT PLANT

“29 Palms”

I bought all the solo LPs up to “Now and Zen,” which was actually the best of the first four, but I loved “In the Mood” (for a melody!) and “Big Log” from “The Principle of Moments,” both of which got radio airplay, the former especially, and “Little by Little” from “Shaken ‘n’ Stirred.” “Now and Zen” was seen as a comeback, a return to form, you heard “Heaven Knows” and “Tall Cool One” and “Ship of Fools” all the time.

And for some reason I purchased “Manic Nirvana,” whilst skipping “Now and Zen,” but that was not a big success, and then fully fourteen years after “In Through the Out Door,” when little was expected, when grunge had captured the airwaves, Plant came back with a tour-de-force, “Fate of Nations.” I played it ad infinitum, and got hooked on “29 Palms” and told Danny Buch that it was a hit but he told me they’d tried with radio, but radio rejected it, stations said it didn’t react, so…

You may not have heard “29 Palms.”

Now I saw this tour at the Universal Amphitheatre, and this was when Plant was still faithfully rendering Zeppelin tunes to keep the fans coming, and after this Robert reunited with Jimmy and…”29 Palms” doesn’t really sound like Led Zeppelin, but this was when Robert was still rocking, before he jumped the track with Alison Krauss.

CHRISTINE MCVIE

“Ask Anybody”

I was always a Christine fan. Not that I bought any of those Fleetwood Mac albums before the one with Stevie and Lindsey, but you heard her voice on “Station Man” and “Heroes are Hard to Find,” which got some radio airplay. But what people forget in the wake of the gargantuan success that followed was that no one was waiting for the so-called “White Album” that contained the first contributions by Stevie and Lindsey. There were no hosannas. And what made inroads, and what broke the album, was Christine’s “Over My Head.”

Now after that, “Rhiannon” broke big and Christine was overwhelmed by the twirling witch Stevie Nicks who deserved her success…

But so did Christine.

One can argue that Christine was the secret weapon, writing hit after hit, but that’s not the way it was perceived by the public.

Now there was an initial solo album, re-released as “The Legendary Christine Perfect Album” after the Mac’s commercial breakthrough, but…

It was Stevie who branched out to a solo career first, she had two albums, with hits, before Christine even had one. But in 1984, Christine finally released hers, produced by Russ Titelman, a Warner/Reprise staple who was not part of the Fleetwood Mac camp. But Russ had a well-deserved rep, making some of the best records of the seventies with Lenny Waronker and…

Russ was ultimately famous for bringing Eric Clapton back from the dead, or at least limbo, with “Journeyman” in 1989, and in the interim between Christine’s album and Eric’s, he produced Steve Winwood’s legendary “Back in the High Life” and…

Winwood is on this track.

Now the single was “Got a Hold On Me,” which was good, but in an upbeat, jaunty kind of way, like those latter-day Fleetwood Mac singles Christine spearheaded.

Oh, the opening cut, “Love Will Show Us How” was also released as a single, but made little headway.

And neither of these tracks are the best on the album.

The third best is “One in a Million,” which features a duet with the aforementioned “Winwood,” and it’s really very good, but…

“So Excited” is even better, it really sounds like reconnecting with a love, it’s a veritable tear.

But the best song on the whole LP finishes side one, and not only is co-written by Winwood, but he plays on it too and his keyboards help define the mood…

“He’s a devil and an angel

Ooh, the combination’s driving me wild

Drive me wild”

Supposedly that’s about Dennis Wilson, but…

The song changes, amps up with the chorus, and then retreats…despite being released in the eighties “Ask Anybody” is really more of a seventies album track, and that’s a good thing!

DON HENLEY

“The End of the Innocence”

“O’ beautiful for spacious skies

Now those skies are threatening

They’re beating plowshares into swords

For this tired old man that we elected king”

That was about Reagan, even though he had already been succeeded by Bush. But the lyrics fit Trump, yet no song today can have the ubiquity “The End of the Innocence” had in 1989, never mind be as good.

Now the funny thing is despite being a big hit, this track has been nearly completely forgotten, superseded by “The Heart of the Matter.”

But…

This was when Bruce Hornsby was still a chartmaker, it’s his music, his piano, but don’t underestimate Don…in addition to the words and the delivery he adds a gravitas that Bruce has never been able to equal in his versions.

But that’s Henley.

This is one of my go-to songs, one that I play the most.

I remember going to visit my younger sister in Minneapolis and driving around the lakes in her Fiero punching the radio buttons to try and find this song, which I did a couple of times.

Remember that?

Maybe you do.

But that’s how it was. When tracks were giants, known by everybody.

Like “The End of the Innocence.”

MIKE & THE MECHANICS

“Something to Believe In”

You might have never even heard this song. There was a hit on this 1995 album, “Beggar on a Beach of Gold,” “Over My Shoulder,” but that featured the other Paul in the group, Paul Carrack. Yes, there were two Pauls in Mike & the Mechanics, and they were both lead singers. The other one was Paul Young, who is not the Paul Young who had solo hits, and had a great voice and died of a heart attack way before his time, and it’s Young who sang this song.

You’ve got to hear this to get it. There’s the simple descending figure, but even more there’s Young’s vocal and the mood and…

At this point Mike & The Mechanics was a band out of time, and after this Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford reformed Genesis with a new lead singer, Ray Wilson, and that album, “Calling All Stations,” was really pretty good, but sunk like a stone commercially so…

Turn out the lights late at night and listen to this.

GRAHAM NASH

“I Used to Be a King”

He was the last member of the group to release a solo album and for a long time I thought it was the best of the initial LPs.

Now with time I’ve reconsidered, that initial Stephen Stills solo album is a monster, yet I still don’t understand the veneration of Crosby’s “If I Could Only Remember My Name.”

As for that initial Stills album, “Love the One You’re With” was very good, just not as good as “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and “Carry On,” the previous album openers, and it blows my mind that the man is totally forgotten, but still…

“Songs for Beginners” was great, but unfortunately its heart on the sleeve lyrics makes it a bit dated, but still…

This was the flip side of “Blue.” Songs for the broken up. When you’re young and both hopeful and vulnerable the lyrics of both mean so much to you, you pick them apart, find meaning…

“I Used to Be a King” was the best song on the album.

PHIL COLLINS

“You Know What I Mean”

“Thunder and Lightning”

There was a time when almost no one knew his name, and now everybody seems to have a bad taste in their mouths regarding Phil Collins. And he’s hobbled and there was the story of the ex who wouldn’t leave the house, but once upon a time he was just another rocker home from the road who found his wife had abandoned him.

And with an 8-track recorder he stayed at home and made an album all about his situation, his feelings and…

No one was waiting with bated breath.

I bought it because I was a fan of latter-day Genesis, loving “Squonk,” having seen them at the Forum, but…this is an album that took a while to percolate in the marketplace, before “In the Air Tonight” not only garnered airplay, but whose bass sound was then sampled ad infinitum.

And “I Missed Again” was nearly as big.

But although I liked both those numbers, those were not the ones I cottoned to first, that I played incessantly.

The one that resonated was “You Know What I Mean.”

“Just as I thought I’d made it

You walk back into my life

Just like you never left

Just as I’d learned to be lonely”

It’s SO hard to break up, so hard to recover, and I was going through a breakup myself at this point. And at some point after the back and forth you have to call it quits and stand your ground and…it’s the only way you can get through.

“Oh, leave me alone in my heart

It’s broken in two and I’m not, I’m not thinking too straight

Just leave, oh, leave me alone with my dreams

You’ve taken everything else, you know what I mean”

It’s just Phil and his piano and… It’s haunting and meaningful. And then when it ends…the track segues into “Thunder and Lightning.”

“‘Cause they said thunder and they said lightning

It would never strike twice

But if that’s true then why can’t you tell me

How come this feels so nice

Feels alright, feels alright, alright”

This is self-explanatory, but that feeling of falling back in love…

Ah…

PETE TOWNSHEND

“Pure and Easy”

“Who Came First” was promoted as a Meher Baba-influenced album and by this point at the end of 1972 I’d had about enough with the spiritual seekers finding gurus and…

I guess my natural skepticism… Like anybody is really god. We’re all out here alone and the challenge is to address the world facing forward, believing in yourself.

Anyway, needless to say, I didn’t buy this.

But just after Thanksgiving junior year John Hughes picked me up outside Painter Hall after a wet snowstorm in his ’66 Catalina with a cassette deck and the song playing was this, the opening cut on “Who Came First.”

To say I got it immediately…

Now there’s this other magical number on “Who Came First,” “Nothing Is Easy (Let’s See Action),” and I wanted to write about that one, how Townshend got the groove from a machine outside his window, but…

The truth is “Pure and Easy” is a bit better.

Now both of these numbers were written for the aborted “Lifehouse” project, which was ultimately released by RED about twenty five years ago but is not available on streaming services and…

The Who version of “Pure and Easy” was finally released in 1974 on the “Odds and Sods” collection, and most people who are familiar with this number know the one with the Daltrey vocal, however, this is one instance where the original home demo with Pete on vocals is superior, it’s less bombastic and more meaningful. It’s both in your face and subtle. Is that possible?

I’m not sure, but there is magic in “Pure and Easy.”

“We all know success when we all find our own dream”

Ain’t that the truth.

This is one of the two best-reviewed books of the year.

As for the other, “Transcription”…forget about it.

Now “London Falling” is nonfiction whereas “Transcription” is fiction, and I vastly prefer fiction, but…

There was an interesting article in the “Wall Street Journal”…

“Dad Books Are a Dying Breed – Sales have been sliding for nonfiction titles about politics, biographies and other books often aimed at men”

https://apple.news/AnbzaXId_RZivL_4P9Sp3gg

The writer posits a theory about podcasts and other internet diversions having eviscerated the sale of nonfiction Dad Books, but traditionally these are the ones most males want to read. Actually, women not only dominate fiction, they dominate book-buying entirely. But the kinds of books women purchase run the gamut from romance to literature and…just because it’s on the best-seller list that does not mean I’m recommending males read it. And I am recommending fiction to males, because usually you’ll learn more about life in these made-up stories than real ones, but…

To tell you the state of the business, according to the WSJ article above the number one selling fiction book, the romantasy (how do you like that for a genre) “Rites of the Starling sold 105,396 copies while the number one nonfiction title “London Falling” only sold 13,468.

Then again, “Rites of the Starling” was a sequel.

But “London Falling” was written by Patrick Radden Keefe, who wrote “Say Nothing”…

Now if you haven’t seen “Say Nothing” on FX/Hulu, dial it right up, it’s one of the great series, and therefore when I started to read the book thereafter, I stopped, because although it was detailed and interesting, did I truly want to spend all that time learning about what was delineated so clearly in a series?

And I started to see “London Falling” written about everywhere and when I realized it was written by Patrick Radden Keefe, I immediately reserved it at the library. And I was stunned Libby delivered it so quickly, but I was still hesitant to read a nonfiction tome. Especially after finishing Joanna Stern’s “I Am Not a Robot.” So I dove into Elizabeth Strout’s book, but that cut like butter, and after I finished it in twenty four hours…

I realized it was now or never. I decided to give “London Falling” a shot, not believing I was really going to get through it, but very soon I was hooked.

The book starts by telling the history of London and the Thames. About shipping and redevelopment… The funny thing is everybody expects everything to last forever, for nothing to change. The industries flourishing today, the jobs you have today, should last at least until you’re six feet under. Actually, we have an entire political party based on returning us to a past that was not that good to begin with and really isn’t coming back. As for the facts, wind power is flourishing everywhere but the U.S., as well as electric cars, and despite being allowed to buy Nvidia AI chips China has so far refused to do so and…

If you’ve been to London, this book will make the landscape make sense.

And that’s a feature of this book. Just when the narrative hits an inflection point, when you’re ready for the story to move right along suddenly there are endless pages of history. But after consuming them, you realize they’re integral to the story and informative to boot. This makes “London Falling” different from your average nonfiction book, which tends to be the facts and nothing but the facts. And it’s these historical diversions that set the mood, that take you away. If you want an escape from your everyday life, read “London Falling,” from the first instant you’ll be in another world with another mood and…

The issue is quite clear and put forth right away. A nineteen year old falls from a building to his death. What exactly happened?

But to get into the nitty-gritty, you’ve got to dive into the family. On both sides the parents’ fathers are Holocaust survivors. One a famous rabbi. How did that affect their lives?

And the parents want to keep the story hush-hush, afraid it’s going to negatively impact their image, the tabloids seeing a death like this as raw meat.

But still, they’re looking for answers.

As for Scotland Yard… Is it just ineptitude and certain avenues were not explored or were they protecting the oligarchs?

We don’t have that in the U.S., the Russian oligarchs. And until the law recently changed, they had non-dom status, which ultimately meant they paid no taxes, even the wife of the prime minister had this status, which is one reason the law was finally changed. But the bottom line is even more than Manhattan, many of the multimillion dollar domiciles are uninhabited, not only buildings, but neighborhoods can be a veritable ghost land. As for who actually owns these properties… Good luck trying to find out, because the owner is rarely the person who seems to use the apartment when they actually do, you’ve got corporations and trusts and offshore accounts and…

Now according to Balzac:

“The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.”

This leads to another concept the average person either does not know or cannot wrap their head around…that so many of the rich are essentially judgment-proof. You can get a decision in court, but good luck collecting, like in this book, there are rich people who on paper are destitute.

So what exactly went on here and who is at fault?

I don’t want to reveal anything, I’ll just say after finishing this book I was ultimately satisfied. But that does not mean those responsible may not have skated.

So it’s like “London Falling” exists in an alternative world, it’s not exactly highbrow, but it’s so well done, and not simplified for the reader, such that it puts conventional works to shame. I had a hard time getting into another book after reading “London Falling.” I could read “London Falling” for the rest of my life and be happy. I mean books like this, that are not only about life, but how it works.

We all have families, we all have backgrounds, we have personal narratives and…

Does anybody really know one’s child? The point is made here that when you’re exposed to someone’s search history you’re surprised. But it’s not only nineteen year old boys, but everybody.

I can recommend “London Falling” to everybody. I won’t say it cuts like butter from word one, but it’s not hard to read and just after you get through the history of the Thames and the present day narrative begins, you’re hooked.