Instead of going to the club, why don’t you come over my house.  I’ve got
some records to play you.  We’re not going to dance.  I’m going to turn the
lights down low, you’ll probably only see the glow from the amplifier, we’re gonna
sit on the couch and revel in the SOUND!

By accident, I pushed the button for FM on the head unit in my car.  I got
Uncle Joe Benson giving an introductory spiel to John Fogerty.  And playing not
"Run Through The Jungle", or even "Born On The Bayou", but one of those famous
Creedence hits.

Or maybe it wasn’t Fogerty at all.  My memory fails.  All I know is Uncle Joe
earnestly told his story, and then played a track EVERY person listening was
guaranteed to know.  That’s what radio is today.  All tune-outs have been
eviscerated, to the point where YOU’VE tuned out.  You’ve switched to your iPod. 
But iPods sound shitty in cars.  And, it’s all the tracks you already know. 
You want to hear something new.  Even if it’s old.

I was driving up 20th Street yesterday.  Ironically, right by the Sony
building, I heard this fantastic SOUND!  It sounded like a COUSIN of Led Zeppelin. 
Something from that early era.  When Englishmen escaping factories put their
heart on the line on vinyl.  They’d studied the works of the delta bluesmen
that their peers in America had ignored.  And what resulted was this strange
amalgamation of rock and emotion.  It wasn’t earthy like the work of the bluesmen,
but it had soul.  Because the people singing and playing, like those old
blues masters, they MEANT IT!

Supposedly Terry Reid was the number one candidate to front Led Zeppelin. 
But he wanted to go solo.  Or maybe Bonzo insisted Robert get the gig.  And even
though we saw Terry’s records in the bins, the one or two songs we were ever
exposed to on the radio…we just didn’t get it.

It was different thirty five years ago.  The only way you could hear a record
was to BUY IT!  This is the paradigm the big labels love.  It’s what their
game is BASED UPON!  They say they want more music exposed, but not really. 
They don’t want the COMPETITION!  Sure, if the radio played one more act of
THEIRS they’d like it.  But NOBODY ELSE SHOULD GET AIRPLAY!  This is the EXACT
OPPOSITE of the Internet paradigm.  On the Internet EVERYTHING is available.  And,
since there’s such limited focus, everybody is so spread out at different
sites, hype doesn’t work.  You just can’t REACH people.  Word of mouth is the
key.  Releasing something SO good that people will tell each other.  Turn each
other on.  You don’t turn someone on to a dance track.  Maybe you put it on and
bump up against them, but you don’t lay the needle in the groove and wait for
their jaw to DROP!

And, when someone tells you about something good, if they don’t e-mail it to
you, you go on a P2P service and take it.  You check it out.  Because you
trust your friends.  You want to BELIEVE in things.

That’s the way things are now.  Despite what the RIAA is feeding the media. 
It’s not about teaching kids to pay for music again, it’s about the labels
realizing the game has changed.  They’ve got to release quality, the single is
not as important as the album, as the act’s TOTAL OEUVRE!  People want to
BELIEVE!  FANS want to believe.  And make no mistake, this business was built on
belief.  You had to believe to wait all night for tickets in the back row.  And
be thrilled just to be in the building.

Having bad times
I am paying dues
Got you the money
Good friends too
Always played to win
And always seemed to lose
That’s why I think I got a rich kid’s blues
That’s why I think I got a rich kid’s blues

Can you imagine Paris Hilton singing the above lines?  That’s all she’s got
is her wealth.  She’s got no education, no intelligence.  She’s
two-dimensional.  If her life is one of happiness, I’d be stunned.  Endless parties.  Endless shopping.  To the twits who follow her it might sound good, but anybody with a brain sees her life as vapid.  But that’s how our government and media WANT us.  Dumb.  Consumers.  Thinking is anathema.  It’s SCARY to them.  But,
thirty five years ago it was ALL about the thought.  John Lennon and Grace Slick didn’t test the wind before they made a public pronouncement, they always spoke from the heart.

Being rich ain’t all it cracked up to be.  Makes you suspicious of others’
motives.  And what did that famous song say?  Money can’t buy you love?

XM is my best friend.  It’s not like terrestrial radio.  The satellite
service turns me on to new stuff.  Constantly.  And, the fact that some of this
material is DECADES OLD bothers me not a whit.  Since I, like the teen musos, know
that all the good shit was cut EONS ago.

So, take my advice, follow my hint.  Download Terry Reid’s "Rich Kid Blues".

Don’t pay for it.  You might not like it.  I’ve never ever found someone with
the same taste as I.  But I’m hooked.  Oh, the chorus is pedestrian, but the
verses are pure magic, and that Hammond B-3 will slay you.  Just pure ooze,
unlike the processed sounds of today.

Who knows, you could become a believer.