Nobody plans to fail.

But they fail to plan.

That’s what the dental hygienist told me today. After telling me she moved to a new duplex in South Central L.A., an hour away. One day she decided to take the freeway, despite Waze’s incantations, but then it took an hour and a half. But she was still fifteen minutes early, she doesn’t want to be late.

On the drive into Beverly Hills Howard was chastising Benjy for being late, again. Told him he could lose this paying job and end up nowhere, like so many Stern alumni.

And this got me thinking, that half of the job is just showing up.

Forget the entrepreneurs, they’re a separate breed. But if you get there on time and do the assigned job you’ll climb the ranks, because so few others do!

Kinda like Daniel Glass telling me he only hires college graduates, not because you learn anything special in school, but because it shows you can complete something.

And this hygienist was a fountain of wisdom. She got married to a fifty year old and he had no retirement plan.

I have no retirement plan. I put some money in the bank, but not enough to get me to the end. And that’s where you want to go, the end.

She’s buying property, she’s learning along the way. It makes me wonder, what are my values, am I just a dreamer?

Last night I went to this “Influencers Dinner.” Utterly fascinating. Eight youngsters all on the make. People my age? They’re either running the business or they’re out. And it’s fascinating to hang with those in charge, who have power, but one forgets they’re making new people every day and that there are others who grew up with a passion for music.

One is starting a management company, Faction. It’s based on data and shared services.

You pay cost for an office and then you cough up 20-30% of your earnings, but you get shared services, social media experts, publicity, they’re built-in, available in the office, equity, and you get to use the app.

The app blew my mind.

Most of these things are half-baked. This one…

There was a whole approval system, a timeline, to make sure everybody had seen and signed off on something.

And you could allow people to talk to each other or not, you could end the conversation so you could move on with your project, or…

Andy Gould is in. Marc Friedenberg too. In six months they’ve exceeded expectations. There is still disruption to be had in the music business.

But I stressed it’s still run by duplicitous renegades, who march to the beat of their own drummer.

The majordomo said he was doing it for the artists, to claw back a bunch of the revenue leaking to others. Good mission, but artists tend to be ungrateful, it’s in their DNA. You’ve got to be screwed up to make it, and it’s your only chance, so…you make decisions others won’t and whine about it.

The organizer of the dinner started a publishing and record company. He used to work at Kobalt, now he’s on his own. He’s got a website where you suggest acts, the suggester gets a percentage of future revenue. This guy has signed four acts already. Spotify took a liking to one and in a matter of months its track has gotten 1.7 million streams and the majors are nibbling.

But the game is getting harder.

And it’s more sophisticated.

Tech is integrated into music. Which is why education will pay dividends in the future. The old gofer becomes President paradigm? Guy from the street makes it to the top? That’s probably going by the wayside, all the winners have skills and are much more intelligent.

And on the way home from the dentist, where I thought I had a broken tooth, having eaten two bowls of those hot nuts they serve you on American Airlines…

I heard Matt Nathanson’s “Come On Get Higher.” Howard was in commercial so I pushed the button for No Shoes Radio and after a John Mayer song, this came on.

I’d never heard it before, but I just checked on Spotify and it has 34,511,335 streams. Turns out I’m the last one to get the message. But I immediately knew I liked it, because music is first and foremost emotional, when it comes from the gut it resonates. And I wondered if it was the situation, driving on Olympic towards the beach after dodging a dental bullet. But I’m listening right now and it still sounds good.

Life is an adventure. Your job is to leave the house every day. Interact. You’ll learn lessons where you least expect to. Every person has wisdom, some are trying to get ahead, some are falling behind and…

I want to hear all of their stories.

“Come On Get Higher”

P.S. Faction is run by Robb McDaniels, who started INgrooves. Benjamin Groff is the guy who used to work at Kobalt…

Country Primer Playlist

For all of you classic rockers who can’t fathom the pop sound.

For all of you who wonder where the rock went.

For all of you who think country is redneck music, either totally right wing or too twangy…

This is for you.

I was once like you, and then I discovered…

“Stupid Boy”
Keith Urban

This is the breakthrough track. For me personally.

I realized I had a misimpression of country one day stuck in traffic on Sunset Boulevard when I decided to check out each and every Sirius station and ultimately heard Tim McGraw and realized he was good, but…

This is the track that made me believe I was truly missing out, and there was a whole new world that understood me, where I could be happy.

I know, I know, you’re not supposed to begin with a ballad, you’re supposed to hit ’em with the Hein, but the reason I’m starting here is…

The guitar solo.

It starts at 4:04, be sure to stay through there. You’ll think it’s the seventies, lying on the floor in the dark, sitting on the porch watching the world go by, when the ability to play was everything and we lived for the mellifluous sound, when it didn’t have to be a hit to be your favorite.

“Bones”
Little Big Town

The band has changed sounds, it no longer works with Wayne Kirkpatrick.

This sounds like “Rumours,” without being a remake. Little Big Town’s “The Road To Here” is a gem, one of the best LPs of the first decade of the century, if you like this you’ll like all of it.

“Before She Does”
Eric Church

If you think country doesn’t rock…

Eric Church’s “Caught In The Act: Live” sounds straight out of the seventies, and I’m emphasizing SOUND! It’s in your face, if you like your music heavy, if you like it to squeeze out the rest of the noise in your head, this is for you.

As for the reference to Jesus…

Listen to the lyric completely, don’t turn it off because they refer to the Lord.

It’s:

An’ I believe that Jesus is comin’ back
Before she does

And that’s just FUNNY!

Remember sense of humor, it was key in the old days, but it’s been eviscerated from music today.

Now this only sounds good if you CRANK IT! If you’ve still got a big rig, if you’ve still got your JBL L100’s… GO FOR IT!

“Gunpowder & Lead”
Miranda Lambert

She’s become tabloid fodder, but her fame is deserved.

This is her breakthrough track, in it she’s every bit as soulful and infectious as all the female singers of the seventies. She’s Linda Ronstadt cutting even more loose. She sounds nothing like Ann Wilson, but they’re sisters from another mother.

The way the verse draws you in and then the chorus seals the deal… Makes you want to jump up and stomp your feet.

“Nobody To Blame”
Chris Stapleton

A cross between Pure Prairie League and Gram Parsons with a dose of Charlie Daniels thrown in.

This guy deserves the accolades, he’s the real deal, he’ll make you a believer, not only in him, but the present and future of music.

Funny, in a world where everybody’s boasting it’s refreshing to hear someone take responsibility, to say they’re less than.

“Drink A Beer”
Luke Bryan

Our bands did not only rock, they got sensitive too. One of the most poignant tracks CSN and sometimes Y ever cut was Stephen Stills’ “4+20.”

This is not the same sentiment, but…

We want our music to set us adrift. Life is complicated, music is the grease that allows us to move forward.

This is the cut that closed me on Luke. Could be by anybody, it’s that good, a deserved #1.

“Back Where I Come From”
Kenny Chesney

Listen to the audience sing along, that’s where this trend started, in country.

Kenny Chesney’s 2006 live album is the twenty first century Jimmy Buffett LP you wanted that does not exist.

Written by Jimmy’s sidekick Mac McAnally, “Back Where I Come From” will relax your muscles and make you feel good about yourself.

I’m an old Tennessean
And I’m proud as anyone
That’s where I come from

Makes you want to go to Nashville and Memphis and Chattanooga to soak up the roots of these songs.

“If I Die Young”
The Band Perry

If you dig Stevie and Christine and want them melded together in one meaningful cut…

This is for you.

“Still Feels Good”
Rascals Flatts

What a TEAR!

Come on, you like picking, you like energy, if this doesn’t hook you you’re already dead.

“Stay A Little Longer”
Brothers Osborne

Speaking of wailing.

This just makes you want to take a road trip, one of the kind before mobile phones, when it was just you and the radio with the top down, hand banging on the outside of the door to the music.

This ain’t that far from the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

But stay for the solo, you’ll be blown away, this ain’t no “Deliverance,” these guys all have Gibsons and unlike the pop prima donnas they practiced!

When the song changes around 2:45, hang on for the ride, it’s kind of like the break in “Hotel California,” it starts somewhere and then it takes you to a place you had no idea existed.

“She’s Got A Way With Words”
Blake Shelton

He walked by me at the Hollywood Bowl and I was struck by…how tall and what a hunk he was.

And now I’m stretching you a bit. But think back to the days of yore, when you stopped at a roadhouse or diner out in the boonies and there was a jukebox filled with country tunes and there was always one with a turn of the phrase that cracked you up, that entranced you.

“Round Here”
Florida Georgia Line

Did you go to college? Did you drink beer? Did you live for Friday nights when you took it to the limit?

Then this song is for you.

FGL nails it here. You can’t live the hip-hop lifestyle, you can just be you, and so many have decided that FGL speak for them.

Even if you despise the band in principle, you’ll have to admit this is catchy.

Or maybe you tuned out a few tracks ago…

“Night’s On Fire”
David Nail

An unheralded act who gets it right enough that it rings true. A country single with a catchy chorus and a good verse. Compare this journeyman work to that of the rockers and you might decide you prefer this…

“Ain’t Worth The Whiskey”
Cole Swindell

There’s truth in the twangy sound, even though the twang is oftentimes in the vocal only.

We’ve all had our hearts broken, what do you do when you’re at loose ends?

LISTEN TO MUSIC!

“Our Song”
Taylor Swift

Before she became a pop icon, when she truly appealed to everybody by being an everywoman, she was Joni Mitchell for teenagers, unselfconscious, speaking her truth, deserving of all the accolades.

This, of course, is not on Spotify. Because Taylor Swift lost track of the fact that music is for the audience and if you do it well enough there’s more money than you can spend. You want your tunes everywhere, keeping them from streaming services is a failed argument, Spotify free causes conversion. After all, it’s the market share winner and its paid tier is increasing at a faster rate than Apple’s, need I say more?

“Lips Of An Angel”
Jack Ingram

That’s right, the Hinder tune.

But this cover is better, it’s more meaningful.

And now we’ve come full circle. Maybe I lost you in the journey, but maybe I didn’t, maybe I opened your eyes, now you’ve got a whole new genre to explore. Start with Spotify playlists, but if you’re a Sirius subscriber, and you should be, check out the Highway and Kenny Chesney’s No Shoes Radio, where he blends your music and his, rock and country, you’ll see we now all have the same roots, it’s a big tent, we’re all in it together.

I’m alive and I’m free
Who wouldn’t wanna be me

Dr. Becker goes to more shows than I do.

We forget how many fans there are. Insiders stay in catering, conversing, whereas those who pay to get in, live for the music.

I know, I know, physicals are passe, you no longer need them.

Hogwash. Mitch diagnosed my leukemia. He said I should tattoo on my arm that I need a physical every year. Because you never know what will happen. Like that actor on that TV show, who died of an aortic aneurysm…even the worst doctor could have diagnosed that, but you’ve got to see the physician to begin with. As someone put it to me so eloquently, you can’t be too scared to get better.

And I am getting better, from my shoulder surgery, what an ordeal!

I went to Dr. Knapp last week and he said I was back on track. The visit before I was behind the curve. It was bad genes, I wasn’t that stretchy, he said to call my mother or father and blame them, if they were still alive.

My mom still is. She’s gonna be 90 in December.

And that’s what Mitch was talking about. The ninety year olds he takes care of. He says they adapt.

Which is hard for us boomers who think we’re gonna rule forever.

It’s the memory, it starts to go. I heard from an old classmate who caught me up on some of our high school brethren. I knew only half. My mother threw out my yearbooks so I can’t cross-check, but would I remember them anyway?

And Mitch starts talking about the inability to heal when we age and then he says he’d prefer that I no longer ski.

HUH?

What if I fell?

Now I’m not one who likes to give up. Then again, it snowed in Vermont over the weekend and on Monday I watched videos of people skiing at Mad River and Jay Peak and I thought to myself…I might be unable to climb to the top of those mountains in the snow. You see the Gleevec I take, the main side effect is fatigue. It’s like someone has their hand on your shoulder, a heavy weight. I don’t feel it in regular life, but when I exercise?

But at least I’m alive.

Tom Hayden? How can he die?

The musicians, the political icons, they’re dropping like flies. It’s so weird, we thought this would never happen to us. But it is.

Mitch said he started on his bucket list at fifty.

That’s why I skied 53 days last year. Because I know I won’t be able to do it forever.

What will I be able to do forever?

What do I WANT to do forever?

That’s what they don’t tell you about aging, you no longer care. You’ve seen the trick, you realize no one is remembered and you wonder…what is life about?

All those movies hyped every weekend? If any of them are good, you’ll find out.

All those products being advertised?

You no longer need them, you need so little. I’m a hoarder, but for the first time in my life I could throw everything out. There will not be a museum of my life. And when I die, my heirs will just toss everything anyway.

Weird.

So Mitch went to Desert Trip. He paid for the pit, and the dining experience too. And if you listened to him…

The people who went had a good time.

Because these are the best times in life, going to the show.

We thought it was about records, but now they’re secondary to the live experience.

I just heard Bon Jovi on Howard Stern. Did you see that commercial Jon’s in? Cringeworthy. Doesn’t he have enough money? And the new album is instantly forgettable. But when they set up and did “Bad Medicine,” I wanted to go to the show. How could they be that good in the AM? I was listening critically, was this really live? It was astounding.

And then I thought of “Wanted Dead Or Alive,” and its clone “Blaze Of Glory,” and “You Give Love A Bad Name,” and I realized not only was I a Bon Jovi fan, not only had I gotten over any bad reaction, but that I wanted to be inside the arena thrusting my arm in the air.

We all want to be inside the arena thrusting our arms in the air.

And when I was making an appointment for a phone call follow-up, to get my results, Jennifer told me she liked my piece about the Keith Urban show, SHE WENT!

I was astounded. She’s African-American.

But she lives for country.

I asked her how she discovered acts.

She said the Highway, on Sirius, as well as the local terrestrial station.

And I’m completely confounded. I write about country and there are crickets. My audience seems to be made up of old white men yearning for the days of classic rock, only into shoegazing artists today. Or youngsters. I’m supposed to write about what’s cool. Kanye and the Dirty Projectors. And when I write about Bieber the audience winces and…

Insiders are judging each other while the audience just can’t get enough of their chosen genre.

The more I learn the less I know.

But I do know that when Jennifer mentioned Keith Urban that led us into a discussion of Brett Eldredge, Little Big Town, Eric Church…there’s a whole subculture. I felt rooted, like I still cared, like I wanted to live forever.

Oh the sun is shinin’
And this road keeps windin’

Who wouldn’t wanna be me.

Who wouldn’t wanna be me – Spotify

P.S. Yes, he stuck his finger up my tush. I don’t know why guys have such a problem with this, or maybe Mitch just knows how to be gentle.

P.P.S. I want to be a doctor in my next life. I want to give back, take care of people. Because it’s only about people. And I’m fascinated by the science. Mitch was explaining how the blood flows, how it goes from your feet to your heart without a pump. How the arteries push with the pulse and there are valves and…it was all so fascinating!

P.P.P.S. Don’t take Protonix and don’t eat salt. That’s why you go every year, for the updates, which are frequently contrary to public opinion. Proton-pump inhibitors can cause dementia, although Mitch said I did not have it. He said you can tell by the way people talk. As for salt… His mother-in-law cut back and avoided congestive heart failure. I rarely salt anything, but Mitch said most prepared food comes with salt, because otherwise they can’t sell it, people don’t want it, even at Whole Foods.

P.P.P.P.S. I went to the eye doctor yesterday, he said within ten years I’d get cornea implants and I would see as well as I do with my contacts! Oh, what a wonderful world we live in.

“WATCH: Skiing Powder @MadRiverGlen In October”

“Watch: This Party Ski Down Jay Peak Yesterday Looks All-Time”

It’s a stiff.

Ignore the sales chart. That’s where hard core fans and looky-loos go to participate, the store, the action is now in streaming, where we can see right away if anybody is listening. AND THEY’RE NOT!

It’s staggering, not one track off of Lady Gaga’s new collection is in the Spotify United States Top 50. It’d be like putting out a new “Star Wars” movie and finding no one in the theatre, ending up with a gross of les than seven figures for the weekend. How did she go so wrong?

Well, her last album, “Artpop,” was a flop.

And then she detoured into a collaboration with Tony Bennett.

And now she’s put out an album without a hit. And she lived and died on the hit.

But the same thing happened to Katy Perry. That Olympics song? Straight to the dumper.

What is happening?

The rules are changing. The audience is changing. And if you’re looking for the mainstream media to jump in and set you straight, or the major labels, you’re going to continue to be blind.

We live in an on demand culture. Data rules. And we can tell if something is successful instantly. And it’s hard to resuscitate a project, especially when it’s got the stink upon it.

Five of “Joanne”‘s fourteen tracks don’t even have a million streams.

Six break a million but don’t reach two.

“Perfect Illusion,” the advance track, is at 38 million and change. But #50 on the Spotify US Top Fifty, Lil Yachty’s “One Night,” has 38 million streams. And #1, “Starboy,” the Weeknd’s collaboration with Daft Punk, has a cume of 144 million plus, and it’s racking them up at the rate of 1,285,283 a day.

Now Gaga used collaborators too, but that’s become the story, whereas it’s only the end product that make a difference, and “Joanne”…is a curious collection of songs that lean more towards rock than EDM, and the electronic sound dominates today.

Isn’t it funny how the cognoscenti pooh-poohed EDM but despite the Sillerman shenanigans and the bad press, i.e. O.D.’s, the truth is EDM has never been more dominant in America, all those deejays became producers and the sound has triumphed.

It’d be one thing if Gaga didn’t depend upon hits, if she made it on critical acclaim alone. Adele rode that paradigm with “25,” banking on oldsters to buy CDs

“Adele’s Most Fervent Fans? Soccer Moms”

but CDs are a de minimis part of the picture now, and at least she led “25” with “Hello,” a much bigger hit than “Perfect Illusion.”

You see while the oldsters and marginal players were bitching about streaming payments and the death of albums a younger generation stole their lunch. They moved into the vacuum and triumphed. Just ask a manager, the only radio format that means anything is Top Forty. Go to number one on Active Rock and…you might be able to sell out large clubs. Have a bunch of hits on Active Rock and you still can’t fill arenas.

This is the new truth. Now it’s about pop music released on a constant basis, you don’t want to lose your stranglehold on the public. Bieber put out an album not quite a year ago that contained huge hits and he’s already got new product in the marketplace, his collaborations with DJ Snake and Major Lazer are BOTH in the Spotify Top Ten (with cumes exceeding 334 million and 435 million respectively).

If Katy Perry were smart, she’d call up Dr. Luke right now and put out a track before Christmas, to shore up her base. Instead, she’s staying at home creating a long player, a bad strategy.

If long players counted… The opening cut on “Joanne” would have huge numbers. But the truth is it’s not quite at one and a half million. People are cherry-picking what they want to hear. And the cuts at the end of the LP… Are the weakest in streaming numbers.

Albums were a good strategy when it was about ownership, not listenership, when you got paid on every track, no matter how bad it was.

Now you sink or swim on the quality of the music. A lame track on an album isn’t worth the time you put into making it.

The data doesn’t lie. Labels can influence radio, spread false stories to a somnambulant press, but now that we know what people are listening to or not…

It’s a whole new ball game.

P.S. “Joanne” is not bad, just not good enough. You listen and hear quality, but it’s not great, and today you’ve got to fire at 10 to succeed.

P.P.S. Everybody can hear your music these days. The barrier to entry is low. I never would have bought “Joanne,” but I did check it out on Spotify. That’s a good thing, that I’m interested. The bad thing is it didn’t make me want to hear it again.

P.P.P.S. My favorite cut on the album is “Sinner’s Prayer,” track 8, which barely breaks a million in cume. It’s buried in the tsunami of hype. Better to space out your releases, if this was a surprise track it would have gotten more traction.

P.P.P.P.S. Even Bruno Mars is struggling. His “24K Magic” is #14 and on the way down and it’s got a cume of 40 million. It’s a rough game these days, you can’t buy a hit, you’ve got to deliver.

P.P.P.P.P.S. Can she sell a ticket? Streams can be marginal yet you can still garner enough fans to fill buildings, this is the game for the oldsters and wannabes, because they can never rack up enough streams to make big money on Spotify.

P.P.P.P.P.P.S. I doubt there will be instant sellouts, but she could do good business, or fail completely. It’s a question of how many hard core fans want to pay big bucks to see her and how many looky-loos get caught up in the excitement, which is waning as the album sinks in the marketplace.

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. The Super Bowl! Bad timing. The album and the on-sale should have been the same day. You want to strike when the iron is hot. Then again, she might kill it on Super Sunday and create demand. We do live in a live experience culture. But the truth is Gaga doesn’t have that many hits, she’s become a creature of media, how many hard core Gaga fans are out there? Many fewer than you think.