Is it 1968 all over again?

Wherein Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy put such a dent in Hubert Humphrey’s campaign that despite garnering the nomination, the Minnesotan did not win. Kinda like Gore in 2000… Humphrey was tainted by Johnson and Gore was tainted by Clinton and despite both being reasonable, upright men, albeit politicians, they were defeated by their Republican competitors, unelectable Richard Nixon, who’d been shunned by his home state of California, and doofus George Bush.

All the energy was with the antiwar protesters, the younger generation was sick of the establishment, that’s why Johnson declined to run, Vietnam was his Waterloo. And one can argue that Obama’s steered the ship with a steady hand, but that ship has left so many out, college students are burdened by debt and the working class whites have been closed out.

Yes, we’re in an economic crisis, despite all the hogwash in the papers about GDP and the number of jobs. The truth is you may be able to make it in America today, but just barely.

Trump is channeling this anger, rounding up all the nitwits and bozos who have anger but little knowledge. Whereas Bernie has rounded up the young, the educated…and these same damn people. That’s right, Bernie just killed it with working class whites in West Virginia.

And this looks very bad for Hillary Clinton.

And if you think attacking the Donald will win you the election, you’ve got no understanding of a populace scorned. Some people don’t care what you say about him, they’re sick and tired of being screwed. Carrying the water for the rich and established and getting little in return. And if you don’t think the poor pay taxes, you know nothing about payroll taxes and sales taxes and so many other charges that eat at your income besides income taxes. The rich keep boasting they’re paying so much but the truth is we’re not buying that anymore. We know as much as they pay, the super-rich do a great job of avoiding paying so much more. And this fact has wreaked havoc on the Republican establishment, the party’s been ripped apart, because giving tax breaks and business benefits to the rich whilst fighting for the social issues dear to the poor…just doesn’t work anymore. Furthermore, it turns out the social issues…gay marriage, abortion, religion…are not what’s important to the poor white voters, what they want are JOBS! That’s what all this bitching about immigration has been about, the theoretical loss of jobs. And one can say there’s net zero immigration from Mexico and that whites don’t want to do the work of browns but the truth is perception is all that matters, I can’t make it and somebody’s at fault. And that somebody is not only the immigrants, but the Congress, the party… What the Trump supporters want is to elect somebody who will DO SOMETHING!

And a huge swath of the public believes Hillary will not.

The Democrats have traditionally been the party of the working class. But on their watch not only have unions been eviscerated, the term itself has a stink upon it. This is what happens when you allow the enemy to define the terms. And so far, the enemy, the Republican party, has defined Hillary…as a duplicitous lifer out for herself who bends rules willy-nilly. Is this the truth? As we’ve established above, so many voters don’t care about the truth!

Get your own house in order, that’s what you do before you cast stones. The Democrats are lining up decrying Trump yet the truth is they’ve got so much work to do on their own side. Come on, a septuagenarian socialist is challenging an established player for the nomination? You know what happens when you play not to lose, you frequently do, just ask a golfer.

That’s right, Hillary is not playing to win. She’s not aggressive. People find no reason to believe in her. Sure, she’s a woman, but is that enough to elect her?

Do you really expect the Bernie supporters to line up behind her when she gets the nomination? This same constituency abandoned Humphrey after their McCarthy hopes were dashed. And Sanders has made much further inroads than Clean Gene.

But she’s winning it fair and square!

But everybody believes the game is rigged. Not only the nomination process, but the entire casino nation we inhabit. True or not, that’s the perception, and that’s the only thing that matters.

And the pundits and the polls have been wrong all year. Trump had no chance of winning and women and Latinos will never vote for the Donald. But is this really true?

I’m not sure Bernie could survive scrutiny, I’m not sure all of his plans are practical. But he has plans for a new deal that will aid the up and coming and the dispossessed. People believe the Bern is on their side.

It’s getting ugly out there, and the Dems have the most to lose. Trump’s got it sewn up on the other side, by time he gets to the convention it will be clear sailing, the wind will be at his back. Meanwhile, on the left Hillary will be limping into Philadelphia and paying lip service to the progressive wing all the while, and it’s not only the right that believes she lies.

What we learned is when the public voted people wanted Trump.

And what we’ve learned is the same people angry enough to vote for Trump are voting for Bernie. That’s right, the people the educated and entitled have shorn from the agenda on the left, the working class. If Bernie is done, so many of these people move over to Trump or don’t vote. If the party line meant so much Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio would have gotten the nomination. If you expect the Bernie supporters to roll over and go Hillary…

You’re probably living in the bubble.

And outside the sphere life is rough. It’s every man for himself. We’re looking for a leg up, a hand to help, and so far it’s not only the right that distrusts Hillary, but the left.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

We’ve been racing towards the center ever since the internet blew a hole in distribution. Used to be we had controlled models that were very profitable. Now we’ve got unlimited channels with many more competitors and it’s extremely difficult to scale.

Scale, that’s the mantra of the tech companies. If it doesn’t appeal to everyone, they don’t want to sell it to anyone. And despite you having your personal favorites, those in charge look at the balance sheet and axe them. The WSJ reports today that BlackBerry is contemplating getting out of the handset business. There’s just no there there.

Sure, we saw a concentration of eyeballs in the pre-internet era. MTV minted stars and the film companies employed their near monopoly to sell a ton of DVDs. But then MTV was usurped by the web, musicians as au courant as Justin Timberlake kept telling the channel to bring back videos, but that was never gonna happen, music was now an on demand item online.

But not every musician was inured to the past. It was Ozzy Osbourne who broke the barrier with his family on their TV show. It made Ozzy a household name. One can argue it ultimately dented his touring business, but that was in decline anyway, and new monetary opportunities were in the offing. Sharon became a mini-TV mogul, and the spoils rained down upon both of them.

The next hit to the body was Steven Tyler becoming a judge on “Idol.”

He did it for the money.

Ozzy may have sacrificed his credibility on TV, but in the twenty first century it turns out credibility doesn’t pay. Selling out pays. And now the floodgates were open, everybody was looking for a payday that granted exposure. There were coaches on “Idol” and the “Voice” was solely about the judges, the already famous, not a single contestant has ever broken through to the mainstream.

Because that’s incredibly difficult. To go from zero to hero.

Used to be you got the company behind you. Which spent money and pulled strings to push you to ubiquity. But then ubiquity wasn’t what it used to be. And with the decline in recording revenues there wasn’t a big enough pot to support everybody. So now only a few get a chance. And those few play by the rules, they give the people what they want, via insurance bought from a cadre of usual suspects. Taylor Swift may be the biggest star in America, but her power is eclipsed by Max Martin, who cowrites not only her hits, but those of seemingly everybody else on the pop chart.

As for the film business, with the DVD pot gone, the only hope was to play to everybody, around the world, thus we got the comic book movies, which you could understand without even knowing the language. Furthermore, with television becoming a hotbed of story it wasn’t worth it for the studios to compete, there just wasn’t enough money in it, although they did make a lot of the television shows.

But despite living in the golden age of television, a hole is about to be blown into the heart of the medium, on demand streaming is going to eviscerate so many channels, which will fold because cable companies cannot afford to pay them, what with subscribers fleeing.

And it’s not only drama, but sports too. ESPN is going down, down, down. Not only do people not want to pay for it, it turns out they only want to know what’s going on with the behemoths, as Keith Olbermann just said:

“If it’s not about the N.F.L. or N.B.A., they’re gone.”

Fox’s Sports Network Hires an ESPN Veteran for a Reinvention

So how do you succeed, how do you make bank?

By doing what already works, by giving people what they want. Niche is passe, unless you’re rolling up a bunch of niche, then again, HBO has “Game of Thrones” and Netflix has not only “House of Cards,” but some of the best movies ever made. If you’re reinventing the wheel, you’re gonna be lost in the noise. Because not only are you competing against the history of art, which is available at everybody’s fingertips online, you’re competing against everybody with an internet connection, who is a star unto themselves, posting on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat…they don’t have time for anything but the popular, which they want to be able to comment upon.

And fantasize about. The Kardashians are aspirational figures. It’s not about sitting passively at home, enjoying their antics, but imitating them, so you too can move up the ladder, in a cutthroat world where opportunities are limited and everyone’s replaceable. Hell, even Taylor Swift went on the “Voice.”

You go where the eyeballs are.

No one sits at home enduring commercials on the box.

And no one sits through either commercials or songs they don’t like on the radio. However, the purveyors love the radio, the same way advertisers love television, because despite the lowered ratings it’s the best way to reach mass, and all they care about is mass.

Radiohead just dropped a new LP which has been lauded by every press outlet. Then again, the public no longer trusts the press. But the truth is that without a hit single, something that plays on Top Forty, the band’s new music has not only been forgotten by the masses, they’re never ever gonna hear it, it’s for fans only, the retreat from social media and the band’s reappearance are a bigger story than the tunes.

And even the classic rockers are banding together to bank coin. None of the Desert Trip performers could make this kind of money alone. And they want to make money, because art is no longer a factor, they’re too old and have lost their way.

But that happens to all of us, time eventually passes us by, we cling to old models wanting to believe the past will return. But that never happens.

So with success so elusive, with distribution open to all, those already established, with deep pockets, end up owning the game. Of course, enterprise needs new blood, but ultimately you play by their rules, because you yourself are afraid of being left behind. One stiff single and you’re no longer mentioned.

Maybe a new platform will appear that will aggregate the outside, that which is different from what presently exists. Distribution always changes the art, it doesn’t get enough attention.

And attention is what it’s all about. How do you get it and keep it. And it’s even getting hard to have a moon shot in tech. With the big four, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, so dominant. You can sell out to them, but going your own way is a struggle.

So, despite there being endless opportunities to get started, there’s been a narrowing of options for success.

Not that Trump and Sanders haven’t made inroads, but they were both the beneficiaries of huge cash outlays, whether by themselves or the traditional media.

You cannot do it alone, you need partners. And partners want it just like what came before. Which is why Trump was pooh-poohed and Sanders was ignored by the press and the establishment.

It takes a strong figure not to get blown by the wind.

And it takes an extremely strong figure to be willing to be left behind.

Alice Cooper turned out to be a Republican who plays golf and Ozzy Osbourne is a harmless grandfather who putters around the living room and you’re supposed to have me believe that Donald Trump is DANGEROUS?

Those with memories will recall when music tested limits, when the establishment was up in arms about the sound and the lifestyle, before every act became a brand playing to corporations to get money. What’s the first word you hear in music? SPONSORSHIP! Whereas Donald Trump paid for his campaign by himself, garnering tons of free publicity in the process. Yes, Donald Trump is a rock star, if you go back to what that once upon a time meant, someone who adhered to his own vision living a rich and famous lifestyle who cared not a whit what others said.

MTV may be dead, but everybody in D.C. and the mainstream media is still living in a monoculture, believing we all read the same stuff and are on the same team, sitting at home watching “Thriller” and partaking of the spoils of Reaganomics. But the truth is we all get our news from different sources and we love poking and prodding the powers-that-be. This Paul Ryan thing is hysterical, that the wimp couldn’t come down and say he supported the Donald or not and now the Donald’s issuing warnings! This is like seeing the aforementioned Coop’s “Killer” tour! Wherein you had no idea what was coming next but you knew it was all in fun.

Oh, come off it. There’s gonna be no wall and immigrants won’t be expelled and every trade agreement won’t be canceled… What Trump is doing is channeling the populace’s anger, and the more the establishment gets its knickers in a twist, the more I laugh. I mean did you really think Alice said dead babies could take care of themselves for anything but shock value? Once an outsider, Coop hit the mainstream with “School’s Out,” blowing the institution to pieces.

And that was about the last hit he had.

But then you had Tipper Gore afraid the kiddies would listen to Prince. Meanwhile, the Purple One dies and gets more press than any public figure passing in years, he’s a national hero, he was the grease of our life, can we stop paying attention to the prognosticators and gatekeepers of our nation, who made them king?

And speaking of gatekeepers, for all the musicians bitching that the new system screws them, Trump figured out how to make it work. First and foremost by licensing his name. Second, by knowing it’s all about appearances, did you see that article in the “Times” that stated his air force was decades old?

Donald Trump’s Aging Air Fleet Gives His Bid, and His Brand, a Lift

He declared himself king and then he got a TV show and then he utilized social media to get the word out and now the press is following him. Wanna succeed in music? Do the same damn thing. Put yourself on the map. In Trump’s case it was by paying for the renovation of an ice rink, in your case it’s about a hit single. Without either you don’t get the mic, sorry. And then once you get the mic you leverage the relationship with the media, because it turns out the papers and the websites and the networks have to fill space and if you deliver controversy… Watch the Shep Gordon documentary if you want to see about manufactured controversy, he made Coop the star he was!

All we keep hearing from acts is they can’t get paid.

You’ve got to spend it to make it. Trump’s drinking at the well now. There’s plenty of money in music if everybody knows your name, there’s streaming revenue, endorsements/sponsorships, merchandise… It’s just that the players are lazy, they want the label to pay, the machine to make them a star, get them on the radio so they can sit on the couch and make dough. But times change, musicians are just like the Republican establishment, the fat cats who don’t realize they’ve lost touch with the proletariat, the common man, those who elect them.

The public LOVES YouTube, the public LOVES being able to hear whatever it wants whenever it want. Remove this and acts are gonna freak. If you think that people are gonna listen to radio ad infinitum to hear their favorite tunes and then pay to hear them again not only are you living in the last century, you’ve got stock in the failing Cumulus and the debt-challenged iHeart. Turns out people are not worried about gay marriage, but their jobs. And all the Republicans keep doing is granting advantages to the rich, beholden to religious zealots all the while, despite religion fading in America and believers betting on Trump.

And the left wing ain’t much better. All you’ve got is overeducated Northeasterners who want nothing to do with THOSE people. Like a Beatles fan who couldn’t fathom Black Sabbath. But the holier-than-thou left depends on the downtrodden for its culture. That’s right, you may send your kid to private school, but he’s living for hip-hop. The left is the thought police. If you say something they don’t agree with they excommunicate you. Phew!

So I’m not saying I agree with what Trump says. I’m not even saying I’m gonna vote for him. But right now, his personality and antics are aligned with my sensibility more than those with names who’ve controlled the mic for far too long. Karl Rove, time for you to leave the building. Fox News? The truth is you prey on the fears of alta kachers, you’re gonna sink like a stone, you’re the buggy whip of news, I’d rather surf BuzzFeed. And the more the “New York Times” fans the flames of fear the more I laugh.

Those Trump supporters aren’t bad people. They’re not insane. They’ve gotten a raw deal and not only do they want a better one, they relish seeing those who think they’re in control squirm.

Metal… Sold out arenas when no one was watching. Ain’t that America, where despite garnering dollars the establishment shies away from that which it believes is unseemly.

And the reason metal triumphed was because it was the other, it channeled the audience’s anger, it was for all those closed out of the mainstream, and it turns out there’s plenty of them.

Lady Gaga ain’t had a hit in eons, but the press keeps fawning over her. But her audience has moved on. Give Taylor Swift credit, at least she understands the new game, where you’ve got to make news all the time. But she’s safe. Drake’s more dangerous and he just blew up the charts. Then again, that’s a chart so antiquated, so irrelevant, that you’ve got to laugh. No, x number of streams does not equal an album, IT’S JUST X NUMBER OF STREAMS!

And there you have the story of the music business in the twenty first century, even at this late date clinging to past models, praying that the old days will come back, burying its head in the sand re the new. We haven’t had a rock star in music since Shawn Fanning, who disrupted the status quo.

That’s what Donald Trump is, a disruptor.

As is Bernie Sanders.

And rather than analyze their success, try to bring the disaffected on board, those in power want to denigrate and isolate them. The fat cats are hair bands who couldn’t see rap coming. You enlarge the tent to bring people in, you don’t close the flaps.

To see the press and the Congress and everybody who paid their dues under the old paradigm freak is incredibly satisfying. Like turning up “Purple Haze” to those used to listening to Up With People. Trump goes on Howard Stern years before the mainstream and Obama still won’t go on Bill Maher.

Howard Stern reaches more people and has more influence than Jimmy Fallon. He helped get Christie Todd Whitman elected. And you know why Howard wins? Because he’s just like you and me, a regular guy who sings it straight. Someone obsessed with sex who farts and works for a living.

Trump is more real than Hillary Clinton. Using that old saw of who you’d rather have a beer with, if you don’t say the Donald you’re a wimp without a dick.

That’s right, it’s all right to have testosterone. It’s all right to have opinions. It’s all right to be wrong. It’s all right to bark back. We all put our pants on the same way and when I keep hearing those who shop at Brooks Brothers as opposed to Old Navy complaining about the unwashed I only want to do one thing….

TURN IT UP!

Wendy Waldman Playlist – Spotify

OLD TIME LOVE

Back in ’73, when “Rolling Stone” was still the Bible, the magazine printed a review of Wendy Waldman’s debut, “Love Has Got Me,” that was so positive I immediately purchased it.

Through the magic of the internet you can read said review here:

Love Has Got Me | Wendy Waldman – Rolling Stone

And although I love every single track on this LP, what hooked me was the second side opener, this.

It was so enthusiastic, so heartfelt, sung with such exuberance that I was immediately closed.

I hope you will be too.

VAUDEVILLE MAN

This follows “Old Time Love” on the LP. You may have never heard the original, only being conscious of the Maria Muldaur cover. But Wendy has nothing to prove, she doesn’t have to take charge of the song, she already owns it, and she’s completely comfortable here, it’s like she’s singing in the room next door, you hear her and cannot help but go inside and marvel.

One ear glued to the radio
One hand practicing the piano

That’s how we lived. Addicted to what came over the airwaves. And then we bought the records, put them on the turntable and then sat there with our instruments trying to learn them.

LEE’S TRAVELING SONG

My favorite cut on the LP, I moved to California, I was wondering what my destiny would be. The entire track is laden with meaning. You know, that anticipation of what’s to be.

This is the kind of stuff acts used to cut when they felt if someone actually bought their LP they’d play it and get to know it, when it wasn’t about cutting for the radio so much as the living or bedroom.

NATURAL BORN FOOL

It swings!

Four killers in a row! This is a rarity in the CD era, it wasn’t so prevalent back then, but the second side of “Love Has Got Me” achieves it.

LOVE HAS GOT ME

Play this late at night, alone, when you’re a bit too optimistic for “Ladies Of The Canyon.” You know that feeling when you’ve fallen in love and you tingle all over…this track encapsulates it.

TRAIN SONG

The opening cut.

There’s a long history of railroad songs in music. And even though Adam Levine sang about a pay phone, most of which have disappeared, I think the days of train songs are done.

What I love about this cut is it chugs along like a train, that’s the groove.

NORTHWOODS MAN

It’s hard for me not to mention every track on “Love Has Got Me,” especially “Pirate Ships,” which Robert Smith of the Cure covered

Robert Smith – Pirate Ships – Youtube

but in the spring of ’74, long before a year had passed, Wendy put out a second album, “Gypsy Symphony.” Needless to say, I bought it. And went to NYC to see her perform at the Bitter End. And sometime during the performance Wendy stopped and said…THERE’S A GUY IN THE SECOND ROW WHO KNOWS EVERY WORD!

I was embarrassed, but proud.

This is the most accessible song on the LP.

THE ROAD SONG

Slow and meaningful, if you’re the kind of person who reflects, gets into mental backwaters and can only be rescued from them via music, this is for you.

MAD MAD ME

The other famous Maria Muldaur cover. Only this iteration is more Laura Nyro, more just piano and vocal, an expression of personal truth.

SPRING IS HERE

The buzz was gone. “Gypsy Symphony” was not the success “Love Has Got Me” was and there were no hit singles so “Wendy Waldman,” the third album, almost snuck out, there was little publicity, you stumbled on it at the record store, where our generation made regular pilgrimages. And on first listen the album didn’t overwhelm. Production was simple, there was no obvious single, but as we played it that summer of ’75, I came to love it.

And then I never heard it.

The album got lost in a divorce, it ended up in my sister’s ex’s possession and he was holding it hostage and I never heard the LP for decades, until Napster, when everything out of print resurfaced. that’s right, you couldn’t buy an album like this at any price, there were none available, the company didn’t make any and there was no internet to find any.

This is the killer. The first song I put on my Rio MP3 player that had me dancing outside on a cold spring evening.

Spring is here right now. I’m not sure if God is smiling, but I know you will when you hear this.

CONSTANT COMPANION

This is so intimate that teenage girls would swoon and elevate Wendy to the heights if they ever heard it. Even today. This is not that different from Tori Amos, albeit with more coherent lyrics, and it’s a better song, better produced than the girls singing today. This is the opposite of the “Voice” paradigm. Wendy is not mowing us down, not wowing us, but entrancing us.

WESTERN LULLABY

The opening cut is so simple you almost miss its magic. But after a few plays you become enamored. The sound of this whole LP is a revelation.

GREEN ROCKY ROAD

The album closer, you’d be hard-pressed to know it’s not an original. It sounds like the seventies, when we returned to the land, when we lived so much in our own minds.

SECRETS

Where are people with this much talent today, who can write, play and produce?

This is simple, but entrancing.

EAGLE AND THE OWL

Produced by Peter Bernstein, Elmer’s son, the fourth album, “The Main Refrain,” is a sonic masterpiece. When you dropped the needle back when owning an expensive stereo was a goal you were wrapped in a rich sound that demanded attention. Play the album through and through, it’ll relax you and get your mind flowing…

PRAYER FOR YOU

The sun’s sinking down behind the haze and the trees
Just another L.A. day

I did not have an apartment. I was sleeping on the floor of a friend’s house in Culver City. I’d steal off to my sister’s abode in Brentwood to play records and be alone. She lived on the second floor. You could look over the roofs through the palm trees and see the ocean.

I listened to this so many late fall afternoons, while I was contemplating the alienation I was experiencing in law school.

It’s been a long hard year but now the good times are coming
And you should be feeling fine

I had the world’s worst case of mononucleosis, I was at odds with my parents. But in a few short months I had a girlfriend and the good times had definitely arrived.

If I could have you listen to only one Wendy Waldman track, this would be it.

LONG HOT SUMMER NIGHTS

But “The Main Refrain” was not commercially successful. So Wendy regrouped, formed a band and cut a record with Mike Flicker, who was coming off huge success with Heart.

And Mike did a good job, there was no scrim between the music and the listener, the presence was astounding, but “Strange Company” was not successful either.

But they tried, even cut this “single,” which hit not a whit.

“Long Hot Summer Nights” is catchy, it lopes along, you can sing along, but in an era where corporate rock was taking hold on the FM and AM was as cheesy as ever, there was no place for “Long Hot Summer Nights.” Furthermore, Wendy was seen as an album artist, this was just too obvious an effort. Still, it’s good.

THE WIND IN NEW YORK CITY

The best cut on “Strange Company,” it’s really two tracks. An intro and then…

You hear the story of a woman alone in New York City lamenting what she has lost. It’s intense, a wound opened, it’s got a vibe you can only get in New York, where everybody lives on top of each other but no one wants to know your name.

HEARTBEAT

Yes, that “Heartbeat,” the one Don Johnson rode up the chart. It opened Wendy’s 1982 Epic album, “Which Way To Main Street,” which was heavy in a way none of the Warner albums were. It was the height of the new wave, MTV had made inroads, Wendy tried to get on the train, it didn’t work.

Wendy Waldman – Heartbeat – Youtube

DOES ANYBODY WANT TO MARRY ME

Needless to say, “Which Way To Main Street” is out of print, but not only that, it’s unavailable on streaming services. Napster resurfaced everything and now so much has disappeared. The best cut on this album is “Lovin’ You Out Of My Life,” which resonated so during breakups, it’s a hit in waiting, but I can’t find it anywhere online so you can hear it.

Meanwhile, the sentiment here has meaning to those who are no longer in their twenties and are wondering what life has in store.

Does Anybody Want To Marry Me – Wendy Waldman – Youtube

WHAT IS THE PRICE OF LOVE

And then Wendy disappeared. Two major label deals and then she was done.

And back in the eighties when you were off a major we had no idea what happened to you, truly, it was not like today, when you can look up everybody you’ve ever heard of on the internet.

But in ’87 there was a new LP, on the indie Cypress, and it was a complete return to form, certain tracks that were so good you wanted to stand on the mountaintop and testify.

Like “What Is The Price Of Love.”

What is it?

I’m not sure, but it’s high.

What is the Price of Love – Wendy Waldman – song365

LETTER HOME

The title track of the Cypress LP, this was a top ten country hit the following year for the Forester Sisters.

What happens when you’re in your mid to late thirties and you’re a single parent and you’ve learned too many of the life lessons your parents told you about but you didn’t believe?

You write “Letter Home.”

Letter Home – Wendy Waldman – song365

P.S. I’ll include the Forester Sisters’ rendition, since that is available on Spotify.

RENEGADE SIDE

To every person out there tonight who feels like he don’t belong
Who was born with dreams that seemed so right in a world that seemed so wrong
Yeah, there’s a million more that felt like you until they finally realized
Sometimes the only chance you’ve got is out on the renegade side

And there you have it, the story of a generation, with hopes and dreams that were carried along by the music. I’m still waiting for mine to come true.

Meanwhile, I’m walking the renegade side.

You?

Renegade Side – Wendy Waldman – song365

FISHIN’ IN THE DARK

Wendy and Jim Photoglo wrote it, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band covered it, and not only did it go to number one on the country chart, it lives on today, on the radio, in the the Dirt Band’s shows, in your mind.

We all like to fish in the dark!

SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST

I loved this track long before I knew Wendy cowrote it with Phil Galdston and Jon Lind.

I taped it from VH1 and used to play the video all the time. It made me feel good, it gave me hope.

Sometimes the snow comes down in June
Sometimes the sun goes ’round the moon
Just when I thought our chance had passed
You go and save the best for last

We’re all praying they’re saving the best for last, that it will all work out.

And only a song has the power to keep the dream alive.

TAKE ME IN

And in the mid-nineties Wendy re-formed her hoot house band Bryndle from before her solo career and cut two LPs. It was a veritable all star act, containing Karla Bonoff, Andrew Gold and Kenny Edwards, as well as Wendy.

But wrong time, wrong place. It was no longer the seventies. Music was slicker than ever, big pop and rap triumphed on MTV, rock radio was in the rearview mirror, but this song has magic.

Bryndle – Take Me In – Youtube

UNBOUND

Then, Wendy formed another supergroup, with Deborah Holland and Cindy Bullens, for the joy of it, not to get rich, but because they love each other and the music.

CAST YOUR SOUL

From Wendy’s odds and ends album “Seeds And Orphans,” this sounds straight out of the seventies, not dated in sound, but overflowing with meaning. Remember when music wasn’t just ditties you bumped hips to?

I certainly do.

This is the music I like to listen to most.

RESTLESS IN MIND

It plays and my whole life is laid out in front of me, from the suburbs of Connecticut to the hills of Vermont to the mountains of Utah to the valleys of Los Angeles.

My dreams keep me on the run, I’m certainly restless in mind. I’m still going, I’m still growing.

And so is Wendy Waldman.

She may not be a household name, but she’s got a body of work. She’s touched my soul. She’s my absolute favorite.

She might be one of yours.