Spotify Extra
Did you hear they put out a Bridge School compilation?
Neither did I. But I found it on Spotify.
I searched for Led Zeppelin on the service. I didn’t believe the band was there. I was right. But I did find a bunch of soundalikes and tributes and the Lovemongers’ version of "Battle Of Evermore". Actually, there were two versions, the one I know from the EP and…one from a Bridge School compilation.
That was on Volume One. Not that I was looking at versions at that point, but I proceeded to search on "Bridge School" and all these tracks came up… And that’s where I saw Don Henley’s version of "Yes It Is".
Never loved this Beatles song…until I found Henley’s cover on the original Napster. Acoustic and underplayed the song gains a wistful feeling that brings your mind right back to ’65 with your feet still planted firmly in today.
It’s the same version I discovered a decade ago. Play it.
But what caught my eye was Sheryl Crow’s "The Difficult Kind". The best song off "The Globe Sessions".
You know why it was called that? Because it was recorded at Globe Recording Studio, owned by Robert FitzSimons and Tracey Loggia. I went to college with Tracey Loggia, what a small world we live in. I never knew this until tonight.
But I knew "The Difficult Kind".
Funny, we were ragging on Sheryl Crow for overexposure and now the Internet has flattened the landscape and although not forgotten, she can’t command the mindshare she once did, no one can. And now her peaks have receded into the past. Oh, you hear the hits on oldies radio, but not the album cuts.
Not that "The Difficult Kind" was hidden back then. But it wasn’t a big hit single and it’s the essence of what I love in music, it’s honest and heartfelt, the opposite of "American Idol". There’s nothing like an artist singing his own composition.
I think I was wrong
I think you were right…
OOH! Our culture changed into one peopled by boasters who ran with posses. Whereas most life is intimate and alone. You search for connection. And then your fucked up personality prevents it. Everybody wants a relationship, unless they’ve been wounded beyond repair, but they cannot round the edges on their flaws enough to couple or sustain. You’re worried about compromising, about losing your identity, and in the process, you lose them.
The fight is over. And the longer you’re alone, stewing in your own juices, the more your adrenaline fades, the more you can see their side. Is it too late? We live in a country where apology is anathema, but if you can’t do so in a relationship it’s doomed.
And combing through the titles I found a mislabeled cover of a sixties gem by Nils Lofgren. They list it as "Cry Just A Little", but the Beau Brummels song was entitled just "Just A Little". Put it up there with "Walk Away Renee", "Just A Little" is haunting, and Nils does it justice.
I was a bit disappointed with Springsteen’s acoustic take of "Born In The U.S.A.", but Simon and Garfunkel’s "America" still had the magic.
If it weren’t for Spotify, these songs would go unheard.
If everything’s available, we’re enticed to dive in. Suddenly, it’s not about the hit. A song can percolate online for years, passed from listener to listener until you stumble upon it and are thrilled.
Everything you know is wrong, everything has changed.
You can put out an album on a drop date, but don’t expect everyone to care. But if there are a few good tracks, eventually people will find them. Whereas it used to be unsold albums were shipped back to manufacturers to be buried or destroyed and the only way you could hear these songs was if you knew someone who owned the disc.
Go out and shoot a famous person and everybody will read about you on TMZ.
But if you’re a musician, chances are you’re a lover, not a fighter. If so, you’ve got to change your perspective. You’re an artist, music is a calling, you’re a lifer, you’ve got no idea when your breakthrough will occur.
Sure, you can dance, you can work with Dr. Luke, but if you want a career, you’re gonna have to do it for yourself, you’re gonna have to find your own way and create music that sells itself, that’s its own calling card.
And when you do, it’ll be eminently hearable. You won’t have to pay radio. The public will not have to cough up a buck to experience it. Attention will come from the music itself, which will be sitting in plain sight, forever, waiting to be discovered.
Monetization does not come at the beginning, but closer to the end. Just like a house. You don’t move in when you pour the foundation, when you frame it, it’s not inhabitable until it’s complete.
Don’t think about charging upfront.
Know we live in an attention economy.
And that attention is at a premium.
But when you create something as great as "The Difficult Kind" I’ll stumble upon it, I won’t be able to stop playing it.
