Their Syd Barrett LPs made nary a dent in the U.S. Most people first heard “See Emily Play” when David Bowie covered it on “Pin Ups.” But when the crazy diamond was gone word started to spread, Pink Floyd were testing limits, in an era where that was admired, unlike today, where life is so hard that anybody with any success just repeats himself, and the wannabes imitate what’s on the hit parade.

So I bought “Ummagumma” and didn’t really get it. I didn’t find it offensive, it’s just that I didn’t want to spin it ad infinitum, in an era where money was precious and if you bought it you played it until you knew it.

And then I viewed Pink Floyd from afar, I saw their albums in the record store bins, but I didn’t buy them. It seemed the act was a curio, doing their own thing to a marginal audience. From “Ummagumma” to “Atom Heart Mother” to “Meddle” to “Obscured By Clouds” and then…

I was going to college in Vermont, there was no radio, unlike today if you were living in the hinterlands you were truly out of it. Except for the rock press, “Creem” and “Rolling Stone,” they said Pink Floyd had a hit.

This was impossible. They’d given it multiple tries. Why now? Why did the punters suddenly embrace this left field act?

“Money.”

The cash register rang, Storm Thorgerson’s images covered the bandshell and it was one of those transcendent moments that you could never foresee that made you tingle and feel fully alive.

You see there was barely a more played track in the seventies. Every city you went to, every time you turned on FM radio, you heard “Money.” There was a level of ubiquity far outstripping the tunes of today, and when Gilmour and band laid into that bass heavy groove it was positively shocking, it was like having your best friend from school walk through the door completely unchanged, HOW COULD THIS BE?

And unlike the fearful acts of today, nothing was on hard drive, and unlike Bob Dylan, Gilmour saw no need to rework the number to satisfy himself, he played it just like the record.

Only different.

The bass was emphasized, the sax solo was alive and present, and he was WAILING on the guitar.

You forget what a great guitarist he is, because he never bragged, and all the accolades go to Jimi and Jimmy, Eric and Jeff, but Gilmour’s bending notes and it’s like what you heard on FM suddenly became three-dimensional, went from stereo to 5.1., it was the difference between watching porn on your computer and touching someone in real life. You’re totally in the moment, your senses are heightened, this is the GUY!

“Wish You Were Here” came before that.

This got nowhere near the airplay “Money” did. But remember when the Twin Towers collapsed, when life in these United States stopped? Jimmy Iovine rallied a retinue of stars for a concert while we were all still in shock, Fred Durst and Johnny Rzeznik did “Wish You Were Here.” Both of them have been forgotten today, they’re period pieces, but not only does this song live on, it was the most fitting number of the evening. That’s the power of rock music, that’s the power of classic rock, that’s the power of Pink Floyd, “Wish You Were Here” was not momentary, not a ditty to be digested and discarded but something you pondered and embraced, that became part of you. And it wasn’t only those who were there, but those who came after. Gilmour’s version was faithful to the record, the highlights were the picking and the nonsense vocalizations he replicated, no one does that anymore, gives us what we want, the way we heard it originally, it ended too soon, it could have gone on all night.

And, of course, there were new tracks, that was the reason for the show.

David Crosby’s vocalizations made them special, but that was not what people came to hear.

Then again, it was a somnambulant audience, they’d stand and applaud after one of the Floyd numbers, but they never really got into it…

Until “Run Like Hell.”

They’re gonna send you back to mother in a cardboard box

Disco had supposedly killed rock, on August 10, 1979, CBS laid off 120 people.

They just didn’t wait long enough. Because at the end of November, the 30th to be exact, right after Thanksgiving, Pink Floyd dropped a double album so big it made the assembled multitude forget about corporate rock, Steve Dahl was just a memory, everything was plowed under by the “Wall.”

Imagine if Adele’s music meant anything, stood for something, and her latest album was released with a tenth the hype and ended up being heard EVERYWHERE!

Sure, “Dark Side Of The Moon” never fell off the chart, but although successful, the albums that followed it were nowhere near as big, no one expected Pink Floyd to dominate at the turn of the decade.

But they did.

“Another Brick In The Wall” got incessant airplay. All we hear today is education rules, our nation is run by people who jumped through hoops, but it wasn’t this way in the classic rock era, instead we got not nincompoops, wet behind the ears idiots like Justin Bieber, but self-educated men and women who questioned authority, all the established precepts, to be an individual was key, today everybody just wants to be a member of the group.

And for years thereafter, when the station had time to kill, running up to the news, they’d play “Run Like Hell,” it’s the most famous near-instrumental you’re aware of but don’t know.

Like all the Floyd hits, they were incessant presences in our lives.

Now you’ve got to know the production Thursday night was spectacular. Not only were there Storm Thorgerson’s graphics, but Marc Brickman’s lights, he got an extra 250k to make it exceptional, this was not the same show you saw indoors, this was SPECIAL!

And Phil Manzanera is picking notes, there are three backup singers and two keyboard players, but the man at center stage was the star.

Clapton can’t even play “Layla,” maybe because those notes were picked by Duane Allman.

And so many have trouble replicating studio excellence live.

But Gilmour was making those guitar strings squeak, notes were flying out of his axe like lightning bolts, the drums started to pound, this was RUN LIKE HELL!

I jumped up. I couldn’t help it. This was unexpected. I figured he’d do “Comfortably Numb,” which he did. Sure, it was cool to hear “Astronomy Domine” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” but “Run Like Hell” is rarely mentioned as sitting atop Pink Floyd’s canon.

And it took a while for the audience to recognize it, to wake up from sleep after digesting their picnics, but the sound spread, the space became electric, everybody rose to their feet in sheer wonderment, at this seventy year old who seemed not to lose a step, who wasn’t showing off, but seemed deeply entranced in playing this number that’s part of our DNA, that sets our minds free, that separates you from me, illustrates we’re all individuals, trying to survive, trying to make our lives work.

And you can turn it up to eleven at home, but you’ll never experience the power, the assault that it was on Thursday night.

And if you’re takin’ your girlfriend out tonight
You better park the car well out of sight

That’s where we heard this music, in our automobiles, privacy ruled, there was a direct link between the musicians and us, everywhere the tunes played, they rode shotgun, they gave guidance.

‘Cause if they catch you in the back seat
Trying to pick her locks

Parents didn’t let girlfriends sleep over. Mom and Dad were clueless enemies. We were inventing it as we went along. You didn’t save yourself for marriage, rather you searched mightily for experience.

You better run

Everybody’s stopped running.

We’re afraid of being left behind, but we’re anesthetized by Netflix, communication is done on Instagram, whereas going to the gig used to be a  tribal rite, it was the best place to find like-minded people.

And sure, we liked to zone out.

But we knew the future was in our hands. And nobody was gonna help us out. Institutions were not to be trusted, corporations were the enemy.

And the biggest stars in the world were musicians.

This was pre-MTV. The average person couldn’t pick David Gilmour out of a lineup.

But when they heard his guitar come out of the speaker, they knew exactly who it was.

This was the sound that soothed them, it was the soundtrack to their dreams, it was what set them loose.

David Gilmour set me loose Thursday night.

I think I finally found my hallelujah

That’s about the fifth hook in a song that’s only three minutes and nine seconds long. There’s the “Uh-hah,” the handclap/percussion, the keyboard, the staccato singing and and then…we’ve got this distorted vocal with a ton of other stuff under it, which ends with the track dropping down the roller coaster hill into an explosion of mirth.

And this track is a FAILURE!

Felice is addicted to Sirius XM’s Blend. She keeps telling me about the tracks she hears, she’s an expert on modern pop, listening to this music station with no commercials.

Terrestrial radio comes last. Unless you’re a superstar it could take a year for your track to hit the commercial airwaves, you get started on Spotify on Sirius XM on YouTube…

And all of them are light years ahead of regular radio.

Read how “7 Years” got started on Spotify, how the service peppered it in playlists, this article will be the most informative thing you encounter all day:

7 Years: How Streaming Fuelled the Rapid Rise of Lukas Graham

So, sometime last year Felice starts testifying about this track “Honey, I’m Good” by Andy Grammer. I’ve heard of neither, the track nor the act. But Felice was right, “Honey, I’m Good” turned into a monster. The official video has 57 million views on YouTube, the lyric video another 28 million and…”Honey, I’m Good” has 91 million streams on Spotify.

You’d think “Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah)” would get an instant pass, go straight to the top of the chart.

But that’s not how it works anymore. Sure, Bieber and Beyonce get that kind of treatment, but everybody else isn’t as good as their last hit, they’re almost starting all over! Needing to prove themselves, that’s how tough the competition is.

“Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah)” only lived on the Hot 100 for three weeks, peaked at #62 and is presently off the chart.

But Mediabase is what truly counts, and there we see “Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah)” ensconced at number 24 on AC. Moving down from number 23.

Then again, how much attention do we want to pay to terrestrial radio? Lukas Graham’s “7 Years” is still moving up the AC chart, it’s at number 20 this week, it’s higher on Top 40, but “7 Years” is still at only number 13, despite being number 3 on the Spotify chart with 855,404 daily plays, 240,927,322 cumulative plays and 49,913,742 views of the official clip on YouTube.

Does terrestrial radio still matter?

As the victory lap, as the way to reach those out of touch, who are not really listening, satellite and Spotify and YouTube are where the action is, the revolution is happening, Les Moonves gets it, selling CBS Radio, but the rest of the old farts believe the old format is forever.

They’re wrong, it no longer rules.

So I’m driving to dinner Tuesday night and I hear Felice’s cut, the Andy Grammer one she can’t stop testifying about, “Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah),” and I get it intellectually, but it doesn’t penetrate my brain and body completely.

BUT THEN I HEAR IT AGAIN!

Repetition, that’s what makes hits, never forget it. And if people can’t sit through your track once, never mind want to play it again, you’re dead.

Sorry. Andy Grammer gets it, you don’t.

And Felice has no desire to hear anything but Andy Grammer’s hits. The performer has four tracks on Spotify with double digit million streams and then…the numbers go down, down down, way into the single digit millions. That’s the world we live in, one of hits only, that’s how cutthroat it is.

I’ve been grinding so long, been trying this shit for years
And I got nothing to show, just climbing this rope right here
And if there’s a man upstairs, he kept bringing me rain
But I’ve been sending up prayers and something’s changed

The target audience, young people who still have their optimism intact, are worried things won’t work out, but they still believe they will.

I think I finally found my hallelujah
I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life
Now all my dreams are coming true, yeah
I’ve been waiting for this moment

We’ve all been here, maybe it’s a long anticipated, long desired victory. Maybe it’s just a serendipitous moment, when you smile and think things are pretty damn good.

Feels good to be alive right about now

These are the moments we all live for, this is how you feel when you hear this song, it’s inspirational, it rides shotgun, it squeezes out all the negativity, allows you to be your best self.

And you wonder why people want to dance to this stuff, sing along with it…in a world with so many challenges. The popsters give their audience what they’re looking for, hope and inspiration. Sure, there’s room for Joni Mitchell introspection, but we haven’t got anybody providing that, at least not on a quality level.

I was dead in the water, nobody wanted me
I was old news, I went cold as cold could be
But I kept throwing on coal, trying to make that fire burn
Sometimes you gotta get scars to get what you deserve

Come on, you’re sitting at home, lying on your bed in your parents’ house, feeling down and out, and then you hear this track and you tell yourself…GODDAMN, I CAN WIN!

Now “Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah)” has only 6,246,634 streams on Spotify.

And the official video only has 3,153,311 views on YouTube.

And you wonder why you can’t get paid! This guy had a gigantic hit and he’s still struggling, and you have five figures of YouTube views, maybe six, and you think you should be rich! Never mind how much money was spent on this video.

Yes, you need money to make it in the pop world.

And you’ve got to social network up a storm.

And then you just might have a chance.

This is the major league. Too many are playing in the minors and not even realizing it! “Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah)” is a top ten record in every era prior to the internet, where all records are competing against all others, and if it’s a second listen track you can’t compete with the first.

Still…

If you listen to Sirius XM you’d be convinced “Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah)” is a smash, they play it constantly. I just listened to it twenty times in a row on Spotify, it makes me feel good. Maybe it’s got a chart life in its future.

But even if it doesn’t, it lives on in the minds of those who heard it.

And Andy Grammer has to go back to the salt mines.

Welcome to 2016.

Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah) – Spotify

Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah) – YouTube

It’s a producer’s medium.

Howard’s on vacation and I’ve been sampling the Pulse on Sirius XM and what stuns me is how the songs all sound alike. They’re peppered with a zillion hooks and the voices are interchangeable.

Welcome to 2016. Wherein the youngsters get it and the oldsters are scratching their heads.

Whilst the oldsters keep bitching that the album must be saved, that music is best heard on vinyl and streaming sucks, the youngsters know it’s all about the hit single, it’s the only way to break through the noise, because Top Forty has the biggest footprint and the odds of gaining ubiquity elsewhere are nearly nonexistent.

That’s why you’re broke, no one’s listening.

Used to be you got a record deal and some publicity and some fame and people knew who you were and would check you out, and once they got hooked by you they stayed attached.

But now we’re bombarded with media all day long. It’s nearly impossible to get anybody to check anything out. And despite the oldsters owning the press, traditional media, with reviews about hipsters and statement makers…

The younger generation just doesn’t care.

The younger generation might know who Jimi Hendrix is, but they never experienced underground FM radio, they never experienced limited options, they’ve only known a smorgasbord of opportunity, wherein he who buys insurance and lights himself on fire wins.

It started with MTV. Where you needed to be good-looking and make obvious tracks. Sure, “Thriller” was long, but that was an anomaly, the cut was propelled by a lengthy, intriguing, state of the art, over the top John Landis video, it was a moment in time.

Which quickly passed.

Disco didn’t kill rock radio, MTV did.

MTV returned us to a hits format. New Top Forty outlets appeared on the FM dial and their ratings surged. And sure, KROQ had impact in the nineties, but the reason that format was so successful was because Rick Carroll limited the playlist.

So, in a world of unending plentitude, the spigot gets ever tighter, we want ever fewer tracks.

So if you want to be successful…

You don’t go into the wilderness and write dirges about your lack of love.

No, you imitate Kelly Clarkson, who went on “American Idol.” Today it’s about instant fame. And let’s not forget, Clarkson had none before she not only got television exposure, but worked with MAX MARTIN!

Listen to Top Forty… The only difference between Taylor Swift’s hits and the rest of the dreck is she’s got the best tracks and one of the worst voices. Everything she built her career upon, the intimate, melodic, tuneful country stories…that’s been eviscerated, it’s out the window. The tracks are catchy, but mostly Taylor Swift is a product, known primarily for her fame.

And the wannabes are imitating her.

They not only know no different, they know how hard it is to break through!

The oldsters make a statement without a single and are heard at best on marginal formats. They don’t cross over, and usually they don’t deserve to, because when the best of the best are mediocre…no one pays attention.

And all the Top Forty stuff… You get on one listen, two at most, or else you’re done.

Scream all you want to. The people working in this sphere are not dumb, with blinders on, it’s the oldsters who are clueless. The youngsters realize how competitive it is, they’re dealing in reality as opposed to being lost in the past.

But how do we wrest popular music from this drivel going down the drain?

First we must have music in the schools, teach people the tools, then we can hope someone can be inspired to do something different.

And I’d like to tell you exactly what different is, but I’ll be honest and say every new trend was unforeseeable.

Other than it featured a new sound that was honest and credible and those involved didn’t care about anyone else.

All the stories in the “New York Times,” the reviews, the analysis, the twenty tracks you have to hear right now… IRRELEVANT!

Daily Pitchfork info goes straight to the dustbin. Oh, a few embrace it and live for it, but the scene is so minor it can’t come close to selling out an arena. And then you’ve got the moribund Conde Nast purchasing the outlet as if it was the future. Hell, the future ain’t even GAWKER! Even Nick Denton is in the rearview mirror.

So you may decry the modern pop scene, but everybody involved is damn smart, they get what you don’t. It’s like they decided to be engineering majors and you decided to get a psychology degree.

But wait you say, we need psychologists!

Of course we do. But not ones bitching they can’t get paid who don’t help anybody! It’s their excellence that must draw people to them.

We live in a Tower of Babel society, We’re looking for connection and communion. The popsters have figured out a solution.

It’s your turn to learn the lessons and improve upon their work, to do something new, that changes the culture.

Change comes first, money second.

And if you’re reversing those, you’re never gonna make it.

Some of the pop stuff is astoundingly good.

Most is repetitive.

But despite the wide swath of music being played today, it’s only pop that has critical mass, only pop that matters.

P.S. Meanwhile, the greatest threat to the popsters is one Dave Cobb, who produced not only Jason Isbell, but Jamey Johnson before him and Chris Stapleton after him. The history of the music business is the jump from one legendary producer to another, they each come with a new sound and are then buried under the work of another. From Sam Phillips to George Martin to Mike Chapman to Stock Aitken Waterman to Max Martin. Cobb is on to something, he’s the opposite of pop, he’s about truth and soul. Furthermore, Cobb’s work has traction and is making an impact. March into the wilderness and don’t complain. And do work that’s true to itself. We’re counting on you to bring down the pop monolith. And listening to David Lowery complain about Spotify, and believing that vinyl made more profit than free streaming

patently untrue, read a brief analysis here:
A Closer Look At RIAA Claim That Vinyl Sales Generate More Revenue Than Billions Of Ad-Supported Music Streams

will just keep you stuck in the mud, living in a past which will never return.

WTF Podcast Episode 691 – Todd Rundgren

He calls Andy Partridge a prick.

You must listen to this podcast, you will find out more about record production than any seminar will teach you. Rundgren is surprisingly erudite and articulate and unlike everybody else in this insider business, especially those in the studio, he’s willing to tell the truth.

About Garth Hudson being a narcoleptic, about Richard Manuel’s misadventures, about helping to write the lyrics for the Tubes’ “Remote Control.” It almost makes you want to run out and hire him, if today’s music weren’t so vapidly constructed of hooks via beats with lyrics so banal no one can be offended.

He came from Upper Darby, PA. His writing changed after meeting with Laura Nyro, he wanted to speak from his soul, as opposed to writing teen jingles on the guitar, he sat behind the piano and the rest of Nazz were unhappy.

He underwrote “Bat Out Of Hell,” and when it was finally sold to Steve Popovich’s Cleveland International, he ended up with a greater royalty than that of Jim Steinman and Meatloaf combined. Credit a savvy manager, Albert Grossman. The best know how to extract their pound of flesh.

And it was Poppy who made the album successful. Releasing single after single until one hit. You’ve got to have someone who believes, that’s better than employing a name.

And after receiving a $700,000 check for BOOH, Rundgren felt liberated, that he could do whatever he wanted, and he did. He knew how to write pop songs, it was a formula he chose not to repeat, he blew a ton of dough on a video studio and went in search of the cutting edge, following his muse all the way.

Which works best with no interruption, “Bang The Drum All Day” came to him in his sleep, as did “Lost Horizon” and other numbers.

As for that cowbell on “We’re An American Band”…yes, it was probably his idea.

But back to XTC… It was Andy Partridge’s band, and Andy ended up putting too much on the records, no one could say no to him. Psychoacoustically, the records were tough on the listener, they didn’t breathe. So Todd cut an album that captured the essence, around a theme, and Partridge didn’t like it and insisted that “Dear God” be removed. It was, but being a throwaway track it was used as a b-side on the first single, which radio then flipped, and it became a hit, and it had to be put back into the album.

And we’re not arguing money here, there are few “Skylarking” royalties coming in. But Todd did a solid for the band, resuscitated their career, and all he got from Andy Partridge was tsuris. So, he’s setting the record straight.

Like on sales via service.

How can a guy this aged, this experienced, this inured to the old system, know more about the new than those wet behind the ears? He says sales are dead. He makes fun of the vinyl fanatics, relishing their objects, saying it was always about the music, the rest was penumbra, and with streaming the essence flies. And sure, he wants streaming royalties worked out, but mostly on the label end, the acts are being paid bupkes under an old construct, one wherein the label takes the lion’s share of the money, almost all the money. Furthermore, Rundgren believes live music is the biggest part of the value chain.

Todd is God. That’s what his fans believe. And he’s had so many images, so many voices, that even believers have lost track.

You think he’s lost the plot and then he drops all this wisdom and you’re stunned. Despite being over an hour, this podcast is too short.

But even if you hate him or have no idea who he is, you should check this out. This is a snapshot from the trenches, from someone who was there and is pulling no punches. It’s both informative and entertaining.

A+

P.S. Marc Maron is absolutely terrible. He’s so uninformed on Todd and his career that he needs to be corrected on a regular basis, you’re stunned Todd doesn’t lose his temper. I thought the internet was supposed to allow those with expertise to delve into that which they know about. But Maron’s too busy rushing for fame…it’s about the show, not the interviewee, about building Maron’s brand as opposed to being informative. Rundgren is so sharp he needs little leading, he can tell his own story, but it’s an insult to have someone so great interviewed by someone so clueless.

P.P.S. Maron asked me to be on his podcast, but once I wrote that he blows interviews with musicians, because he knows so little and wasn’t there, he got angry. I can understand that, no one likes to be called out. But I ain’t gonna kiss butt and play nice just so I can have a publicity opportunity. That’s what’s so revelatory about Todd here, that he pulls no punches, unlike the wimps in the industry today.