"It Ain’t Easy"
Ron Davies

The best track on "Ziggy Stardust" is "Moonage Daydream".

But the most surprising cut is Bowie’s cover of Ron Davies’ "It Ain’t Easy", which ends side one.

I’m trying to replicate a sampler album I got from A&M in my freshman year of college.  Oh, I’ve got Free’s "I’ll Be Creepin’", and Humble Pie’s "One Eyed Trouser Snake Rhumba", but I just could not find the version of "It Ain’t Easy" performed by its writer.

Oh, at this point EVERYBODY has heard "It Ain’t Easy".  If not Bowie’s cover, then the earlier one by Three Dog Night.  And Long John Baldry named an album after the song.  And even my secret blues man Chris Smither did a version.

But my favorite remains the one done by the writer.  It’s just more intimate, it just sounds like it’s NOT easy.

The breakthrough of the Beatles wasn’t only the great changes, the incredible harmonies, but the fact that they WROTE THEIR MATERIAL!  Today we’ve jetted back to the fifties.  The singer is just a front person.  And although there are great interpreters, when someone sings their own words they just resonate in a certain way, it’s that person’s STORY!

Count on those guys at A&M to give Ron Davies a deal.

But the inheritors of the legacy over there at Universal…  Well, let’s just say you can’t buy "It Ain’t Easy" on iTunes.

But today, I FOUND IT ON LIMEWIRE!

I was brought right back to my dorm room at Middlebury, when what poured out of the stereo was not only the soundtrack of my life, but saved me.

You can hear a snippet by going to: Ron Davies and clicking on "It Ain’t Easy", the first track, the title track, of the third album down.

"Tale In A Hard Time"
Fairport Convention

I watched Mel Karmazin on C-SPAN.  I won’t quite say he’s a lying sack of shit, but he’s so duplicitous as to make one puke if one has any knowledge of the satellite radio sphere.

Mel said you could get all the stations on either Sirius or XM PLUS additional channels from the other that you desired.  But then how come they kicked MusicLab off XM?  Didn’t they say there wasn’t enough BANDWIDTH?

If this satellite radio merger is approved, I’m gonna stop believing in America.  Our representatives are our last best hope for democracy.  They’ve got to stand up to the corporations, they’ve got to look through the bullshit, they’ve got to do what’s right for US!

And what’s right for us is two separate satellite companies.  Because they have two separate PROGRAMMING PHILOSOPHIES!

Oh, there are some good stations on Sirius, most notably those programmed by Little Steven.  But it’s a fact that XM has much broader playlists.  And isn’t that the goal?  To eclipse Clear Channelism and give MORE PEOPLE A CHANCE?  To get their stuff heard?  To enrich the listening public?

I decry the ineptitude at XM.

You can’t blame Sirius, they were fighting for their lives.  And Karmazin is a serial dealmaker.  But why couldn’t someone at XM SELL the damn service?  Delineate its advantages so that people WANTED IT!

First and foremost, fuck Wall Street, the price has got to go back to under ten bucks.  Ever hear of a price point?  $12.95 exceeded it.

Then, Hugh Panero and his team must stop selling Oprah and start selling MUSIC!

The acoustic guitar intro of this track is worthy of a month’s subscription in itself.  And the sixties vocal will bring you right back to the hope and joy of that era.

Not that "Tale In A Hard Time" is a hit, or a classic, but it’s a KEEPER!

That’s what we’re looking for, KEEPERS!  Songs that make us feel good, take us away from our everyday lives, make us believe in LIFE!

I once saw Fairport Convention at the Fillmore East.  It was during the "Full House" tour.  Just as the band was imploding for real.  This is from their second album, "What We Did On Our Holidays", before they knew they would never have a hit, before they were disillusioned, before the car crash changed their direction.

If you ever brought friends over after school and played them records as you sat in silence, maybe stoned, and reveled in the sound, then you’ll like this.  Well, assuming you like acoustic music, country music, that’s ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE MUSIC!

I heard this on XM’s Deep Tracks.

If you think XM sucks, then you either haven’t listened or are a snob.

It’s all about music DISCOVERY!  And you never discover anything new on your iPod.  And the filters at XM are of a higher quality than those on Net radio.  They’re experts.  Not that you’d know this from the company’s inane advertising.  It’s not radio from the sky, it’s a CLUB, an alternative universe sans all the BULLSHIT of traditional media.

But here we have Mel Karmazin saying that satellite radio’s JUST LIKE traditional media, that it’s COMPETING with traditional media, like it’s just radio or something.  It’s not radio, it’s RELIGION!

Sell the religion and you’ve got a chance.

Sell the deal and…who gives a shit?