Art is power.

In this crazy screwed up world that we live in, where the rich get the breaks and the poor are kept at bay, money has become everything.

But when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.

That’s how it was for the acts of yore, accumulation was a byproduct, not the main goal. Therefore acts could speak their mind, could take risks.

But that no longer happens.

Musicians are court jesters. Come on, what self-respecting player would perform for the corporate pricks who hire them for privates? Once upon a time these pillagers were seen as the enemy, as they should be.  But today musicians envy CEOs. They want to fly private, they want the perks, and they will do nothing that gets in the way of that.

Furthermore, they’ll make choices that squander their credibility. Not only the aforementioned privates, which frequently are unknown to the hoi polloi, but sponsorships and endorsements. An artist is an embodiment of his identity. When done right, the artist channels his emotions and feelings and insights directly to the listener. That’s why we revere artists, because they speak to us.

But how can you respect someone who’ll do what’s expedient, who has no backbone, who is constantly in search of money?

Not that there’s anything wrong with getting rich, but if you’re not willing to leave some cash on the table…

That’s what Bruce Springsteen has done here. Not only has he canceled the gig and gotten all that publicity, ultimately it’s costing him money, not only lost revenues, but refunds and more.

That’s an artist. Someone who puts truth, justice and the American Way before cash.

Whew!

Things have gone topsy-turvy. Prior to this it was only corporate titans who balked at the North Carolina bill. Then you got PayPal saying it refuses to put its operations there. All laudable efforts, but where were the artists?

Home, afraid.

If you take a stand, some people won’t like it.

But you can change hearts and minds, you can make a difference.

Right now Bernie Sanders is the biggest rock star out there, speaking his truth. But I give Bruce credit for putting his hat in the ring. He’s still smarting from the blowback from his previous political efforts, but a true artist can withstand the social media criticism, can lose a few fans, all in an effort to stand up for what’s right.

Bruce Springsteen grew up when musicians were giants, when they were the most powerful people in the world, they owned the youth, they helped stop an unjust war.

Decades later the Dixie Chicks were excoriated for stating the truth about our President, the same truth that Donald Trump has employed to gain so much traction.

You remember truth, don’t you?

Bruce can’t deny his roots, his upbringing, where he came from.

But today’s fans have never experienced what he did. The Youngbloods implored us to get together, but Kanye West is all about himself, how he’s been wrong, stifled… He doesn’t seem to care about you.

So is it any wonder that today’s acts don’t take a stand? They’ve got no one to look up to!

“American Idol” was based on the paradigm of Mariah Carey, she was the patron saint of that show. That’s how far we’ve come, a nitwit with a good voice melismas and the proletariat falls in line.

Who’s going to be next? Who else is gonna follow Bruce? Jeopardize their career and lose money all for what’s right?

Used to happen all the time.

It has to happen again.

“A Statement From Bruce Springsteen On North Carolina”

I have no idea whether Kesha was raped by Dr. Luke.

But I do know the singer has a bad lawyer. This is the same guy who represented Winona Ryder, who was accused of shoplifting. Rather than copping a plea and having it go away, he turned it into a cause celebre that resulted in a media circus and ultimately Ms. Ryder’s career was devastated. Is Mark Geragos doing the same thing for Kesha here?

A good lawyer looks at the desired result, what he wants to achieve for his client.

What did Geragos want to achieve for Kesha?

It doesn’t appear to be a conviction of Dr. Luke on charges of rape. Because there is no criminal case. Rather this is a purely civil matter, it appears Kesha just wants to get out of her contract.

But this is nearly an impossible thing to do. At best you can make a deal, have another label pick up the rights and pay back the original owner. But Geragos is playing the long ball, with Kesha’s career at risk. He wants the contract invalidated on a rape that was once denied by his client and will be hard to prove.

This has got nothing to do with whether the rape happened or not. This is about goals, and how to achieve them.

One can argue the result proffered by Sony and Dr. Luke is a pretty good one, the ability to record without Dr. Luke’s involvement. As for Kesha’s allegation that benefits will go to her “rapist”… A good attorney tells his client not to try for everything, but to get as much as she can.

I won’t walk you through the mumbo-jumbo of what the judge said yesterday. There are issues of jurisdiction, but there are also instances wherein the judge says Kesha’s case was not supported by enough evidence, which also indicates shoddy lawyering.

But, once again, good lawyers focus on result.

Marcia Clark, et al, were so busy entering all evidence, boringly, that the O.J. Simpson jury tuned out. Whereas Johnnie Cochran knew a trial was a drama, a play, that had to entice and convince the jury. Who wants to watch a bad show?

But that’s a criminal case. But I bring it up to show just because you believe someone is guilty, and they just might be, a bad lawyer will have a hard time convicting them.

I can’t think of a single instance wherein an artist under contract has been able to walk away with impunity, not one. This is a novel theory, that Kesha should be able to do this because of rape. It could possibly be won, but what are the odds, and at what cost?

The odds are low.

And the cost to Kesha is her career.

Didn’t Kesha’s team allege that musical careers are evanescent?

Did George Michael’s career ever recover from suing Sony?

This is business. I sympathize with those who say rape is hard to prove. But, once again, Kesha is trying to get out of her contract, that’s her main goal. Is her attorney helping her achieve this?

Right now, no.

And the clock keeps ticking and ticking.

TiK ToK.

“New York State Judge Rejects Kesha’s Claims in Dr. Luke Case”

Kesha v. Dr. Luke

A footnote in the history of rock and roll, under his moniker a classic rock track was created that will never die.

But he did. Last week. Years after his bandmates Speedy Keen and Jimmy McCulloch.

McCulloch joined the band when he was fifteen. And it was he who went on to further notoriety, most famously with Paul McCartney’s Wings, wherein he composed the music for “Medicine Jar,” from the band’s 1975 smash “Venus and Mars,” which gets no love today, it’s completely forgotten, but how could one follow up “Band on the Run”? Yet, “Venus and Mars” contains one of my favorite McCartney tracks, “Letting Go,” the whole album was the soundtrack of my summer of 1975, along with “Blood on the Tracks” and “One of These Nights.” McCulloch also composed the music for “Wino Junko” from Wings’ 1976 album “At the Speed of Sound.” More famous than “Venus and Mars” because of the lightweight hits “Silly Love Songs” and “Let ‘Em In,” the album was not as good, it featured too much of Linda, “Cook Of The House” may have been a joke, but it was execrable, however there were some standout tracks on the LP, like “Beware My Love” and “Warm and Beautiful,” and let’s throw in “She’s My Baby” for good measure. And let’s not forget McCulloch’s debut with Paul, et al, was on “Junior’s Farm,” a ripper. But Jimmy couldn’t keep his hand out of the medicine jar and died at 26, what a waste.

John “Speedy” Keen held out much longer, he didn’t pass away until 2002, but despite being the genius behind Thunderclap Newman, writing almost all the material, after this success he slipped into obscurity, I bought his 1975 solo LP, anyone who knew his work had to have it, but it was disappointing.

And the man the band was named after?

Andy Newman was an enigma, a piano player who seemed to vanish into thin air once the band broke up. Who was responsible for the band’s success? Was it Pete Townshend who produced and played bass? McCulloch was a stellar guitarist. But, as stated above, Keen wrote the songs.

But the album had Newman’s piano all over it. Especially the almost ten minute masterpiece “Accidents.”

Okay, now you think I’m overstating. Could be the case. But I listened to “Hollywood Dream,” the band’s one and only LP, ad infinitum back in 1970 and ’71, I purchased it at Sam Goody’s during fall break from college. I met my new best friend Larry at the museum toting all the LPs I’d retrieved, needing them for sustenance, to get me through the first semester of my freshman year.

It did not begin auspiciously.

I’m game. I’ll make the most of a situation. I leave the starting line. I learned all this from my mother.

But it doesn’t always work.

You can give it your best try, the old college try, and still…you may find out you’re in an untenable position.

Kind of like freshman orientation. They bused us all up to Bread Loaf, Middlebury’s summer campus, wherein a band played and we ate unmemorable food and I was as lonely as a boy could be.

Except when the band from Boston played Thunderclap Newman’s “Something in the Air.” The sound man let me listen on headphones. I couldn’t believe they were playing a song I’d only heard a couple of times on FM radio that seemingly no one knew but me. You could buy it as part of the “Strawberry Statement” soundtrack LP, a double, but even though I read the book I wasn’t about to lay down my cash for an album of songs I already owned just for this one cut. And who would even know where to buy a single, a format I’d given up on once the Beatles hit.

So, inspired by the song, that’s the power of music, on the way back to campus I sat next to a woman and did my best job of chatting her up. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. I just looked her up, she’s an MD in the middle of the country. Don’t you love the internet?

Sometimes.

But for a long time the band’s LP “Hollywood Dream” was unavailable.

And it’s still not on streaming services.

But Tom Petty brought “Something In The Air” back from the dead on his “Greatest Hits” LP, it’s a faithful version, I give TP credit.

And the way the song goes…

Call out the instigators
Because there’s something in the air

Funny how 1969 and 2016 are so similar. Even if Hillary wins we know there’s widespread unrest, the populace is no longer happy with the rich and powerful dictating to us.

We’ve got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution’s here

That’s the difference between yesterday and today. Yesterday the youth were all on the same team, there was no such thing as a twentysomething Republican, we loved our brothers, we wanted change, now we’ve got chaos.

Hand out the arms and ammo
We’re gonna blast our way through here

Not if college students insist on trigger warnings, back then we were afraid of getting our ass shot off in Vietnam, so we were much more willing to put our lives on the line, death’ll do that for you.

Another difference between then and now is music rode shotgun, it greased the skids of change.

And you know it’s right

That’s right, you know you’ve got a gay brother, that your grandparents were immigrants, that really you’re no better than anybody else. So why do we keep trying to keep each other down?

At least we used to have the Hollywood Dream. And the American Dream. The dream that things could get better and would. Our music inspired us.

And now our heroes are dropping like flies. Some that you recognize, some that you’ve hardly even heard of, as Ray Davies would say.

Merle Haggard passed today.

And David Bowie and Glenn Frey and Paul Kantner and Dan Hicks and more bit the bullet already this year.

Joe Cocker passed a year ago.

But we know all them.

Most people don’t know Andy Newman.

Let that be a lesson to you, you can have a worldwide hit and still live in obscurity, never mind poverty. At least Andy Newman went back to being an electrician, as opposed to continuing to court the dream.

So, reach for the brass ring. And if your work resonates you can be an agent for change.

That’s the job of an artist, to link us all together, to show us the way, to illustrate that life is not dreary, to give us hope.

Andy Newman’s act did all that for me.

I salute him and his bandmates, who may be gone but are not forgotten by me.

Maybe you know what I’m talking about…

Or to put it another way, are you better off telling people what they want to hear?

Trump tells his acolytes there’s gonna be a border wall that Mexico will pay for.

Bernie tells his believers that college is gonna be free.

Neither will happen.

But neither will get elected. The true winners don’t hit the long ball, don’t promise the fantastical, they titillate your inner soul with the possible.

And then you fall for it, and then you get screwed.

The truth in this life is that there are leaders and followers, and I’m not sure one can become the other. I’m also not sure if you’re born that way. But I do know the winners are charismatic people who charm you into believing they’ll deliver what you want. So you follow them and support them and even give them the benefit of the doubt until…you’ve been screwed over too many times and cry foul, but the truth is the leader then has a whole new group of followers who believe.

Because they want to. Otherwise life would be too tragic, if you had no hope, if you didn’t think things could get better. That’s what Maria Konnikova posits in her book

“The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It Every Time.”

Not that everybody leading a corporation is a con man.

Then again, corporations are not the only organizations where this applies. Ever hear the coach or manager of a sports team say they suck, that they cannot win? Not if he wants to keep his job. But eventually, when results falter, that person is bounced and a new one comes in with the same mantra.

Which happens at the company too. But in many companies the CEO controls the board, it’s all groupthink all the time. Only in America can a CEO underperform yet still get his bonus.

But that’s what the underclass is reacting to, and everybody from the middle on down is now part of the underclass, they believe the game is rigged.

And it is. Dishonesty reigns. Lying, cheating, fudging… That’s what the winners do.

They also take the reins, like a basketball player with a hot hand they want the ball, they don’t shy away from risk, they want to be in control, they want to take the shot.

Is there room for honesty?

That’s what Trump and Sanders are depending on. Before he blew himself up honesty was Trump’s calling card, saying the unsayable. And Sanders may not have gone for shock effect, but unlike the Donald Bernie was consistent, he’d been saying the same things decade after decade.

But Bernie can’t win because the game is rigged. First the debates were on Saturdays, when no one was watching, so he couldn’t get traction. Then, he hit the superdelegate wall.

Meanwhile, the press didn’t cover him because common wisdom was that he had no chance. Bernie had not cultivated the media powers-that-be, it hurt him.

But the Donald knew how to use the media to his advantage, that’s what powered his campaign.

And one could be frustrated, or one could lead too.

But the common man does not want to, does not want the scrutiny and the pressure, does not want the risk.

There are those who can accept the spotlight and those who cannot.

And the winners of the game bask in it.

It’s no different from Kanye West telling us he’s a winner ad infinitum. We start to believe it. With the endless coverage of his antics West appears the most powerful musician on the planet, one who can lie with impunity. Didn’t he say “Pablo” would never be available on Apple?

Oops.

But we give him a pass, because we love the theatre, and most people don’t care anyway.

So if you want to win, you can’t do it without friends. And the way you make friends is to be entertaining and the way you get them to do what you want is by promising them promotions and money, finding their soft spot and playing to it. Meanwhile, you’re constantly foraging for new believers to replace the old ones who fall off. And if you’re all truth all the time, you’re doomed. But give people hope of a better life and you can win.

Don’t blame me, I’m just the messenger.