Sometimes the only way to get by
Is to get high

And I don’t even smoke dope!

There’s a quiet revolution going on and it’s called the Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. Beats 1 gets all the hype, but Discover Weekly gets all the love.

I ignored it at first. Well, after a glance. Too many tracks I already knew and more I never wanted to. But people kept e-mailing me about the playlist, run by algorithms and particularized to the individual, everything I hate in theory but in practice…

People now wait for Mondays, for their new playlists. And I check it out too, for the rare discoveries, and I just made one, Brandy Clark’s “Get High.”

She hates her job
Loves her kids

Well, that sounds like reality. For all the stories of winners, there are even more of losers. Those who find their houses underwater who aren’t even working for the weekend, but just to pay all the bills.

Bored with her husband
Tired of the same old list of things to do

Now that’s modern life, not one wherein we’re thrilled by the plastic people who dominate the interwebs, but frustrated by the situation we find ourselves in. Overburdened, underappreciated and unhappy.

So when the to-dos have all been done
She sits down at the kitchen table
Rolls herself a fat one

HUH?

You’ve got to understand I’m just clicking through the Discover Weekly playlist, skipping past the detritus, and I hear some pickin’ that could come off a Ry Cooder album, and then there’s this hooky pattern and lyrics sung by a woman without tons of attitude and then…there’s a dope reference?

I had to see who this was. Brandy Clark. In the endless tsunami of hype everything rolls right off my back, I know the name, but not the music. And now I’m completely hooked.

She laughs out loud
At who she used to be
A girl who’d a looked down on
A woman smoking weed in her kitchen
Sometimes she misses them younger days
Seein’ the world through rose-colored glasses
‘stead of this purple haze

Was that a Jimi Hendrix reference? Are country people experienced? Yes, they’ve been shook all night long and we live in a great mish-mash where everybody knows a little bit of everything even though they tell us how different we are. However I know a ton of right-wingers who hate taxes but love gay marriage.

But the politicians pander, they can’t change. And when they do, it’s purely expedient. I’ll vote for Hillary, but if she stopped flip-flopping in search of satiation of a theoretical majority I’d smile and spread the word.

Life’ll change you. That’s what they don’t tell you. They tell you you jump through hoops and everything works out. But stuff happens and you realize what your parents told you is wrong. How do you square who you used to be with who you are now?

You know life will let you down
Love will leave you lonely
Sometimes the only way to get by
Is to get high

“Get High” would be a great record with completely different lyrics, the sound is so entrancing, so hooky, but it’s the truth in its three and a half minutes that astounds. The words are everything that blew up not only country music, but rock and roll. When you didn’t know which way the wind blew unless you were glued to the radio.

So she tucks her kids in at night
Kisses her husband
Turns off the light
And talks to God
Says Lord help me accept what I can’t change
But ’til I learn to do that
Thanks for the Mary Jane

This is the national anthem, not that formulaic crap they beam on the airwaves. If we want music to burgeon, it must resonate. But the truth is there are so many layers of crap heaped upon us that most throw their arms in the air and ignore the scene while those inured to the radio hits trump stuff so worthless it slides right off of you when you hear it.

But not Brandy Clark.

I immediately went to Wikipedia, I wanted to know more, not less, which is quite a switch with today’s celebrities. I found out she’s a lesbian with a string of hit covers. That’s right, you can be out today, the only people who care about sexuality are the old school gatekeepers who don’t realize like the woman in this song, our country has changed.

But it’s not only “Get High.” I’m playing Brandy Clark’s 2013 album “12 Stories” and marveling.

There are people who will say I’m late to the party. But you can’t get on your high horse unless something’s ubiquitous, and Brandy Clark is not.

But she could be.

Change starts small. Little stuff that seems irrelevant alters the entire paradigm. Buzz is building on Discover Weekly. Sure, people are listening to different music, but they’re talking about it, and that’s a start.

And listening to Brandy Clark I’m astounded by the truth encapsulated in song, it makes me a believer, after I’ve strayed from the faith.

Maybe I’ll pick up the pipe!

Get High – Spotify

Get High – YouTube

DOCTOR MY EYES

The first time you probably heard him.

But I discovered him at the Fillmore East, opening for Laura Nyro in December 1970, during her annual Christmas spectacular, they were both managed by David Geffen, ergo Jackson’s appearance. Very few people impress you the first time out, especially if you’re completely unfamiliar with their material, but I was enraptured by Jackson and waited with bated breath for his debut LP, which didn’t come out until early ’72.

“Doctor My Eyes” was not my favorite cut on the album, it was somehow too obvious, but hearing it a decade later waiting to check out at Fedco I realized the magic was in the piano part, and I now love it. It stands the test of time.

ROCK ME ON THE WATER

The first cut to enrapture me on the debut LP, it ended up with a big skip in the middle which I used to wait to hear on the CD, but it was gone.

There have been a number of covers, but no one sings it as well as Jackson.

SOMETHING FINE

My favorite song on the album. It opened side two and was quiet and meaningful and was the soundtrack to that bleak Vermont winter.

Now you say ‘Morocco’ and that makes me smile
I haven’t seen Morocco in a long, long while

Never underestimate the ability of a song to paint a picture and take you away to a place you’ve never been before.

SONG FOR ADAM

Who was he? How did Jackson know him?

Death. It’s something barely understood in your late teens, when I first heard this. But it wasn’t long thereafter that my roommate’s brother was killed in a car crash.

Some never get to fulfill their promise. While we waste time and spin our tales squandering our futures.

JAMAICA SAY YOU WILL

The opener. With that majestic piano part. Once again, there are many covers but Jackson owns it. You’ll find yourself singing along with the chorus, you won’t be able to help yourself.

UNDER THE FALLING SKY

Can I say I prefer Bonnie Raitt’s take, on her definitive album “Give It Up”? (Actually, Bonnie equaled it twenty years later with “Luck Of The Draw,” how many people return to the pinnacle…ALMOST NOBODY!)

A CHILD IN THESE HILLS

Everybody acts so grown up today. Am I the only one who still feels like a child?

TAKE IT EASY

Yes, Jackson cowrote it, many argue he was mostly responsible for the Eagles’ breakthrough hit, he released his iteration in 1973, a year after theirs. It was quieter and less majestic, more intimate, and its greatness was in the way it segued into “Our Lady Of The Well” on the album.

I THOUGHT I WAS A CHILD

Once again, Bonnie Raitt did a killer cover, on her third album, “Takin My Time,” but that LP is a bit slicker than “Give It Up,” and “I Thought I Was A Child” suffers for it.

It’s such a clever innocence with which you do your sorcery

Whew! Who writes this stuff? One Jackson Browne, the bard of the seventies, the king of the California sound. Hipsters knew him, he had a place in the firmament, but he was not ubiquitous, his true fame was years off, but his greatness was evidenced early. “For Everyman” was not quite as good as the initial LP, it moved the ball forward ever so slightly, but that does not mean it’s not excellent, even better in retrospect, after decades of substandard albums by pretenders.

THESE DAYS

At this point Jackson was not famous for writing this, as he is today. “For Everyman” pre-dated Gregg Allman’s solo LP by a smidge, but when the southern rock icon released “Laid Back” Jackson’s fame grew. Funny, as time marches forward the wisdom and greatness of this song is being forgotten, we thought our music was forever… Well, it is for us!

READY OR NOT

And the next thing I remember, she was all moved in
And I was buying her a washing machine

The story of Jackson meeting and marrying his first wife, if this song doesn’t make you want to move to SoCal and partake…you have no dreams.

THE LATE SHOW

My number one album of all time.

Go ahead and judge me, but there’s more insight and wisdom in 1974’s “Late For The Sky” than anything released in the twenty first century.

This is the closing song on side one of the LP, and it’s full of couplets that deserve to be framed.

My favorite is:

Now to see things clear it’s hard enough I know
While you’re waiting for reality to show
Without dreaming of the perfect love
And holding it so far above
That if you stumbled on to someone real you’d never know

There it is. We’re so busy looking in the distance that we don’t see what’s right in front of us.

Maybe people only ask you how you’re doing
‘Cause that’s easier than letting on how little they could care

Whew! Ain’t that the truth. If someone is truly listening, make them your friend, you’re gonna need ’em, life is rough.

Afraid that all these words might scare you away

If you meet the right person you can’t shut up, you want to share everything.

If you’ve got more questions than answers, if you feel damaged and alone, with no direction home, spin “The Late Show.” No one ever talks about it, you never hear it on the radio, but it’s my favorite song on the LP. Join the club.

LATE FOR THE SKY

Now the words had all been spoken
And somehow the feeling still wasn’t right
And still we continued on through the night

You’ve said everything but you’re still yearning to connect, to make your point, so you soldier on, even though it’s way past midnight.

Tracing our steps from the beginning
Until they vanished into the air
Trying to understand how our lives had let us there

Breakups, they’re hard. Today you ghost, just disconnect, maybe text your exit. But when you live together, when you’re invested, it’s so hard. We used to review everything that once was, reminiscing as we knew there was no future. You’ve come this far, but you can go no further.

You never knew what I loved in you
I don’t know what you loved in me
Maybe the picture of somebody you were hoping I might be

As close as we are in relationships, we’re still alone. We never really know what bonds others to us. What we think are our flaws are our attractions.

Awake again I can’t pretend
And I know I’m alone
And close to the end
Of the feeling we’ve known

It’s so scary. Part of you is dying to march forward, into the universe.
Another part of you just wants to stay put.

How long have I been sleeping
How long have I been drifting alone through the night

You could see the end coming, if you were looking.

And now you’re here.

FOUNTAIN OF SORROW

As depressing as the opening cut might be, as heavy as “Late For The Sky” is, the piano bangs and then you’re off and running, on the album’s opus.

Listen for the truth.
I’ll just quote one line, which I use on a regular basis:

I’m just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you

We’re all going through this life at our own speed. And it’s rare that we’re on the exact same page. We’ve got so much to learn, and opportunities are lost when we can’t connect because we’re in different places.

FOR A DANCER

Keep a fire burnin’ in your eye
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be comin’ down

You learn this as you age, the best plans are ruined. Life is about the unexpected. Like death.

I don’t know what happens when people die
I can’t seem to grasp it as hard as I try

I said these words at my father’s funeral, and I’m gonna say them at yours. He had terminal cancer, but his death was still a shock. The finality. They’re gone.

Just do the steps that you’ve been shown
By everyone you’ve ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own

So many never do this, they never grow up, they never make decisions for themselves, they still worry about what their parents and society have to say.

Don’t.

WALKING SLOW

With Freebo on tuba. This tack is upbeat, the kind you sing to yourself when you’re walking down the avenue feeling good and not exactly sure why.

THE PRETENDER

It’s 1976, two years after “Late For The Sky,” Jackson is reaching critical mass and Jon Landau produces an album if not quite as good as what came before results in much deeper cultural impact.

This was a staple on the radio, along with Hall & Oates’s “Rich Girl” and eventually “Hotel California,” it was a magical time, the fall of ’76.

YOUR BRIGHT BABY BLUES

The best song on “The Pretender.”

Everybody’s going somewhere
Riding just as fast as they can ride
I guess they’ve got a lot to do
Before they can rest assured
Their lives are justified

As true today as it was back then. Everybody’s fakin’ it, trying to prove something to someone who is not them.

I can’t help feeling I’m just a day away from where I want to be

My mantra.

Well, it used to be. When I believed in the power of the individual, when I thought I could make it on sheer will.

I haven’t, but I’ve still got this record.

Baby if you need me
Like I know I need you
There’s just one thing
I’ll ask you to do
Take my hand and lead me
To the hole in your garden wall
And pull me through

Please.

HERE COME THOSE TEARS AGAIN

Here come those tears again
Just when I was getting over you

Oh, your twenties. When so many relationships end in dead ends.

You can’t live with ’em, and you can’t live without ’em.

This song is a tear, with backup vocals by Bonnie Raitt, it will empower you to hang on.

RUNNING ON EMPTY

Made Jackson Browne a star.

Only a year later, much sooner than ever before, Jackson released this 1977 album cut on the road and ended up a giant. This was the opening track, and if not quite as famous is as much a part of the culture as the Eagles’ “Life In The Fast Lane,” you should know that your baby boomer predecessors uttered these words all the time…

They were RUNNING ON EMPTY!

THE ROAD

Written by one Danny O’Keefe, it feels like being on the road. Check it out.

THE LOAD OUT/STAY

The first of its kind, where many people first learned about life on the road, this epic production was an FM staple.

DISCO APOCALYPSE

Now it’s two and a half years later. The eighties have begun, disco killed corporate rock and then the whole enterprise imploded. There’s just something magical in the sound of this track, I’ve come to love it more with each year that’s gone by.

OF MISSING PERSONS

The story of Lowell George, who most didn’t know then and still don’t know now.

LAWYERS IN LOVE

The eighties were in full swing, yuppies were coming into prominence, but despite the dash for cash Jackson Browne didn’t cast aside his role as commentator. You were either with us or against us. But the truth is most had given up and switched sides, the revolution was in the rearview mirror.

CUT IT AWAY

The best song on “Lawyers In Love,” it’s about when your brain says yes but your heart says no. Jonathan Franzen details this eloquently in “Purity,” but not as well as Jackson does here. You’ve got everything you thought you wanted, you fought hard for it, and then you find out…it doesn’t make you happy. Why does life has to be so strange? You think you’ve reached the mountaintop, but the truth is you’ve got to journey back down into the valley in search of a destination you can only feel and may never find.

DOWNTOWN

Supposedly the album was concocted in a loft downtown, when L.A.’s titular epicenter was a true wasteland, before its renaissance.

FOR A ROCKER

I’m gonna tell you something I found out
Whatever you think life is about
Whatever life may hold in store
Things will happen that you won’t be ready for

It’s 1983, MTV’s got traction, Jackson’s on the losing side of distance, yet he’s still got it!

I used to say to play this at my funeral, when I was still a rocker, when I still felt that music could save your life.

Listening on headphones right now…maybe it still can.

IN THE SHAPE OF A HEART

Jackson’s last single with any real traction. 1986’s “Lives In The Balance” is not good, it just wasn’t timely, “Thriller” had and the SoCal sound seemed quaint. You can listen to more of the album, check out “Candy,” but you don’t have to, not if you’re not a fan.

I AM A PATRIOT

Written by Little Steven, when he was on EMI America and trying to make it as a solo act, when he thought politics were important, before he became Silvio Dante and retreated to the E Street Band with his tail between his legs.

Jackson still plays this live.

As for the rest of 1989’s “World In Motion”… A true disappointment.

And then came…

I’M ALIVE

A complete return to form. Four years later. Completely unexpected.

Suddenly Jackson retreated to the sound that made him, cast aside the electricity and went for that intimate sound.

This is the post Daryl Hannah album. And maybe it was less than successful because his female fans were now judging him, but this album is nearly as big an accomplishment as the aforementioned Bonnie Raitt album “Luck Of The Draw,” a high point decades later when it was least expected.

You’re deep into it.

Then you escape.

Then you’re…ALIVE!

MY PROBLEM IS YOU

But to go on attempting to break into the prison
You’d have to be me

Perseverance. Or maybe myopia. You’re not ready to give up.

EVERYWHERE I GO

Great white reggae. Infectious.

I’LL DO ANYTHING

The haunting sound that sold JB in the first instance.

MILES AWAY

It rocks, all of “I’m Alive” is not a downer, you can groove to the sound, even if the story is less than optimistic.

TOO MANY ANGELS

For those of you who thought Jackson burned out, that he couldn’t do it anymore, check this out.

SKY BLUE AND BLACK

“I’m Alive”‘s epic. Which had some word of mouth and some traction, but ultimately “I’m Alive” did not fulfill expectations, so Jackson backed away from this intimate sound, to his detriment, he was on to something. “I’m Alive” is a hidden gem, check it out.

LOOKING EAST

It’s three years later, 1996, and Jackson’s rocking out again, the title track of the LP is infectious in the same way as “Disco Apocalypse,” the hooks will grab you.

THE BARRICADES OF HEAVEN

This survives. Jackson plays it regularly today. The story of growing up in California, the story behind the exuberance of “Running On Empty.”

No, I couldn’t tell you what the hell those brakes were for
I was just trying to hear my song

And the song remains the same, the youth run head first into the future with little wisdom but plenty of drive. The only difference was back then you did it anonymously.

SOME BRIDGES

Almost yacht rock, a modernized “Walking Slow,” the magic is in the change into the chorus.

I’M THE CAT

Come on, sometimes you feel good, you feel powerful, and you sing a song like this in your head. At least I did. Yup, I waver, but sometimes…I’M THE CAT!

CULVER MOON

That’s Culver City. Before it became gentrified, when the Lakers still played just south of there. If you’re a basin resident, you’ll crack up and smile.

BABY HOW LONG

Totally different from the sound of “I’m Alive,” the essence is in the electric guitar, but it feels so good here!

THE NIGHT INSIDE ME

And then all hell broke loose. Napster eviscerated the recording industry and suddenly the baby boomers no longer counted. Jackson didn’t return to his acoustic sound of yore, he was stuck in band mode, but there’s some magic on 2002’s “Naked Right Home.”

I caught a ride into the city every chance I got
I wasn’t sure there was a name for the life I sought
Now I’m a long way gone down the life I got
I don’t know how I believed some of the things I thought

It’s too late to start over. Suddenly, we are what we’ve become. Oh, what a long strange trip it’s been.

ABOUT MY IMAGINATION

There are two killers on “The Naked Ride Home,” two unforgettable tracks that will get inside you and won’t let go.

This is one of them.

It’s about the changes. Supported by the organ, the sound.

And the magical chorus.

NEVER STOP

And this is the other. Not only my favorite track on the album, but the best thing Jackson Browne has cut in the twenty first century.

And never stop coming up with all that love for me
Never stop coming with your faith in what a love can be

Be there for me, PLEASE!

THE BARRICADES OF HEAVEN-LIVE

And then Jackson gave up, stopped recording new music and went on a victory lap, recorded two double live albums of greatest hits and sold them himself.

If you don’t know these “Solo Acoustic” albums you’re in for a treat, especially when you hear the stories, like when the audience asks Jackson to sing a SoCal song he didn’t write.

This is that 1996 song from “Looking East,” which gains gravitas in this solo acoustic rendition.

LOOKING EAST-LIVE

A complete reworking, the same song, yet different. This is my favorite of the solo acoustic redos. Check it out, it’ll get under your skin. The kind of music you used to treasure, you know, when you were alone, at home, behind the wheel…it sets your mind free, you can see the past and the future and you’re aware of your place in the landscape of life.

NEVER STOP-LIVE

From the second “Solo Acoustic” set. A great song works in all formats, fully produced and stripped down. This is so intimate and so great. It’s stuff like this that keeps me going.

LOOKING EAST-LIVE

And then Jackson reunited with his old partner David Lindley for a tour and live album. I saw it, hope you did, I’m not sure it will ever happen again.

But Jackson does go out solo with his eighteen guitars. If he shows up in your neighborhood RUN to see him!

Once again, this is a slowed-down, reworked rendition of this song, nearly as infectious as the iteration on the solo acoustic album above.

WHICH SIDE

I prefer the acoustic YouTube version with Dawes at the Occupy site downtown. It has an energy the studio take does not. Yet, this has got a great electric guitar sound and maintains its lyrical insight.

Which side are you on?

Do you think music is a sideshow, something casual that pairs with wine?

Or do you believe it can save your life, can move mountains, can exact change.

Used to be musicians used their power to right wrongs, to fight for not only themselves, but you. Back before the best and the brightest all went into tech and everybody became so narcissistic and most concerned with self-preservation. Jackson Browne has a long history of standing up for what’s right, and still does, few have done as many benefits, he still believes.

And when you listen to his music, you still do too.

Rhinofy-Jackson Browne Playlist

This is not the movie you wanted it to be.

This is a business story. About the power of individuals, with big dreams and the ability and desire to make them come true.

No Russ Solomon, no Tower Records.

Your heart will pitter-patter when you see Elton John combing the aisles in a tracksuit before opening, hoovering up LPs as Tower’s best customer.

You’ll puke watching Dave Grohl talk his way through nostalgia, who made this guy the keeper of the flame? If Kurt Cobain were still alive today he’d want nothing to do with him.

That’s what’s wrong with today’s music business, the incredible yearning for what once was. But even Russ knows it’s never coming back.

Russ. He took a risk his own dad did not want to. He opened up a record shop and then another and another. And along the way he hired his family and then the longhairs no one else would. No ties and you could wear your street clothes. Oh, how far we’ve come, today what you wear is more important than who you are, and that’s just plain sad.

But the paradigm remains the same, it’s about scale. Being able to replicate an item at low cost and sell it to everybody. That’s what music was. It was the cultural grease of an entire generation. It was the radio and the stereo and the concerts, it was the iPhone of its day.

With a lot fewer zeros.

We’re never going back to the past, just like the industrial revolution looks quaint compared with the 1960s. Wal-Mart leveled the corner store and then Amazon leveled Wal-Mart. The customer is inured to top shelf products at the lowest price delivered nearly instantly. If anything, costs are gonna come down and delivery is gonna speed up. You mean you want them to go to a retail shop, you mean you want them to stand in line for tickets?

Starting at the bottom. Everybody began as a clerk. That’s why they hated Mike, Russ’s son, he didn’t pay his dues, he got no respect.

Whereas today the badge of honor is dropping out of Harvard and running a tech company. We revere the intelligent, and some become rich upon the scraps thrown away. And those outside try to play in this tech sphere laughingly. No one is good at everything. Own what you do. But how can you feel good about yourself when there’s a cadre of people making so much money!

It’s a financial nuclear bomb. It was exploded a couple of decades back, and we’re just feeling the effects now. Not only did they kill physical retail, they took our jobs too. We might get free music, but we’re paying for it with our attention, with our postings on social media. The only thing that doesn’t scale is us. We keep clicking, looking for attention, but fewer care. Otherwise why would YouTube start to charge? There’s just not enough money in placing advertisements against your home videos. No one cares.

But we all cared about music.

So Russ kept saying yes. Primarily to expansion. If you had a good idea he’d let you run with it. And he had a financial wizard to keep him in place. And when the CFO left the company…

The truth is the tide turned. No one could have saved Tower Records.

But the story of how it was built is a lesson those with MBAs should study, instead of self-satisfyingly writing their business plans and perusing their spreadsheets.

Money comes last.

The idea is first.

Then comes execution.

Not all ideas take hold. But those that do…

Tower was not the only record chain. But it won by doing things differently. Refusing to overcharge and carrying a staggering amount of inventory. Tower had it. Kind of like Amazon today. But instead of visiting online, you went in person.

And it was all about the Sunset store. When Tower closed down, the Strip faded, it’s nearly history, rock is gone and condos are rising.

Because Tower was a mecca. A shrine. Where all the music was. The Apple Store on steroids.

But unlike at Steve Jobs’s creation, the help at Tower was rude and barely existed. The store was a paragon of hip. And if you weren’t, you didn’t belong. Or you could start studying. And many did, because they wanted to be involved.

We knew about the acts, the players, the information was our manna. It was not about us, but them, the stars, those ruling our universe. Today everybody believes that they individually rule, but that can’t be.

So you need a visionary.

Who empowers his troops.

Who creates a work culture. Where people are loved as opposed to threatened.

You’ll be stunned at the ragtag group of employees. From Sacramento, for godssakes. Without college degrees on the fast track to nowhere. But they got the job done, on pure passion and hard work. Pay was crappy, but you could live on five bucks an hour.

You can’t any longer.

We need music. It’s part of life.

But once upon a time it was the only thing.

We don’t need more Tower Records. We don’t need more vinyl. We don’t need higher prices. WE NEED MORE RUSS SOLOMONS! A guy just like you and me, but different. Who knew work was supposed to be fun. Who operated with a gleam in his eye. Who knew you didn’t have to have all of the money, just some.

So write your app.

Post your selfie.

Try to make it through the sieve of modern life.

But some of us have lived long enough to know how it once was. When it was more decentralized and not only music, but information was scarce. And back then there were business titans just like today. And stunningly, none of them wore suits. And none of them reported to higher-ups. They had to do it their way, and they won.

For a while anyway.

P.S. This phony-baloney movie is so wrongheaded that it shows the triumph of Tower Japan at the end as evidence that Russ’s vision still rings true. But Japan is the last standing physical market, where not only streaming doesn’t rule, but neither does files. It’s all going to crater soon, along with Tower Records. Proving that timing is everything. Which was a big point in Gladwell’s book. Just because you put in 10,000 hours, that does not mean you’re gonna be rich, timing is everything.

P.P.S. The star of the show is one Jim Urie, the recently retired Universal sales majordomo. Who tears up while telling the story of Russ inviting him to dinner after he’d been fired. Humanity is everything, that’s what we’ve lost in this digital age.

P.P.P.S. Documentaries have it right, music has it wrong. Although “All Things Must Pass” is playing in theatres, its true life will be on Netflix and other digital outlets, where people will stream it. Those who believe it’s about the initial impact, getting in and out fast, are lost in the modern economy. You’ve got to last. Streaming pays…if people keep streaming your tunes.

P.P.P.P.S. Speaking of pay, tickets used to be four, five and six dollars. Musicians were not that much more wealthy than we were, their pay scale was reachable, unlike that of the billionaire techies. When you’re complaining that you can’t make bank know that the enemy is society at large. You don’t scale. If everybody was listening to your music you’d be a lot richer. But never as rich as the tech CEO.

P.P.P.P.P.S. Once again, if you’re watching this movie to feel all warm and fuzzy, remembering what once was, you’re gonna be disappointed. Because the truth is Tower Records was a retail joint. A business. The soul was the music, and that’s not what this film is about. Then again, there’s a lot of money to be made on the penumbra of the action. Like cell phone bumpers. People gravitate to what’s hot, they find a way to make it pay. But music is no longer hot, sorry.

The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories

Marketing is a start.

But it’s word of mouth that rules this world.

And I’m telling you to read Anthony Marra’s new book, “The Tsar of Love and Techno.” Not because it has music in the title, but because it will make you forget about your little life and its everyday troubles and will take you away to a world so horrible you’ll be thankful you live on the underside of this great nation of ours.

Maybe you read Marra’s previous book, “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena.” Probably not, because it’s about war in Chechnya, which most Americans can’t pick out on a map, certainly not me, all I know is the Russians got their ass kicked there. Kinda the way Apple’s getting its ass kicked in streaming music. The big kahuna doesn’t always win. That’s a myth we believe in in order to make order in this world. If the Yankees spend a fortune they should be World Champions, right? But no, little KC and St. Louis are the powerhouses.

Not that I would have bought “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena,” it was a gift from Daniel Glass. Who sends items on a  regular basis, because he cares. Kinda strange in today’s dog eat dog world where everybody’s out for themselves. But Daniel learned from the masters decades back, before life got coarse, and he’s passionate about music, but nearly equally as passionate about books.

As am I.

Didn’t used to be. It was the Kindle that got me. Felice bought me one for my birthday back in 2009 and I’ve been on a reading tear ever since. I was intrigued by not only the new technology, but the low price of books, I felt I was on the leading edge of a revolution, which I was until the publishing industry and its compliant authors took back the power from the Seattle giant and killed the business. You see they wanted it for themselves. Which is kinda why novels are stagnant. Because it’s a club and you’re not a member, they don’t want you. You think record execs are bad, publishers are much worse, kinda like movie executives on steroids, people who believe they’re better than us. And I’m not going to laud the uneducated, but the publishing world is everything I hate about New York, where your pedigree rules and it’s all about keeping everybody else down. Come on, have you seen Donald Trump’s act?

Books are so passe it’s laughable. And so many are written by graduates of writing workshops where the standard is unreadability. It’s like they pack their tomes with words you have to look up to make them feel better about themselves. Whereas the first criterion of a book is readability.

And I’d be lying if I told you “The Tsar of Love and Techno” cuts like butter. I’m the kind of reader who has to get everything, who can’t skim, who wants to be able to picture it in my mind. But I advise you to run roughshod and go for the plot, and then you’ll get into the rhythm of this book.

Of short stories.

No, wait a minute, hold on, they’re linked!

Yes, it’s really one big book. Well, kinda slim actually. But the characters reappear and when they do it’s like finding out the clue to a crossword you didn’t know you were doing, the satisfaction is palpable.

As is the wisdom.

That’s why I read novels, for the wisdom.

“People who have it easy are always telling you how hard it is.”

EUREKA! BINGO! THAT’S IT!

People who are truly working hard don’t complain, they believe the results of their efforts are sufficient. But dilettantes, those who need us to admire them, they keep telling us how hard their lives are…as they go nowhere.

“Wealth announces itself with what’s easy to break and impossible to clean.”

Ever see a white rug in a poor person’s house? Where you find plastic plates and linoleum flooring?

“You know I hate stories.”

I live for them. I want to hear yours. Where you came from, how you got here, where you want to go, how you feel about it all. Especially the loss, the one who got away, the time you got fired…I want to experience your humanity. But someone close to me does not. If it’s more than sentence, she tells you to stop. I thought she was the only one, but now I’ve read this book.

“…but the obvious is only obvious when it happens to someone else. We’ve all ended up with men we’d pity others for marrying.”

Everybody is not a winner, everybody can’t be married to a movie star. Life is about compromise, about seeing the good, which ultimately transcends the mediocre, the less than you hoped for. If you’re not willing to roll with the changes, you’re not going to get anywhere. Kinda like the people I know who never married, no one was ever good enough. And you don’t have to be that good, you just have to stop judging and stop worrying about what other people think. Because so many people have a heart of gold if you’d just start mining for it.

“It takes nothing less than the whole might of the state to erase a person, but only the error of one individual – if that is what memory is now called – to preserve her.”

I guess you’ve got to read the book to get that one. About the artist whose job it is to paint people out of history, the one who turns his brother into the government.

This all happens in Russia. From the revolution to now. What’s it like to be right and still be wrong. Just ask the people who plead guilty to get out of jail…we’ve got that problem in modern America, those who didn’t do it who say they did so they can get back to their regular lives sooner.

And then there are those exiled to Siberia. Where the mines will kill you and you can kiss ass but you’re still not getting back to Moscow.

Unless you’re beautiful.

But then you’re haunted by where you came from…until you screw up and return. It’s as if Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie lost all their money and cred and had to return to where they grew up, and you rubbed elbows with them at the grocery store, what would that feel like? Read this book and you’ll find out.

We’re in this together.

But we don’t know it. I’d say those in power want to keep us divided but the truth is they can’t shoot straight, and life is so difficult that if we just stopped trying to climb the greased pole, if we were just nicer to each other, if we just realized we were the same…

We’d be so much happier.