You used to be nobody. Los Angeles and New York were a dream. Rather than build a shrine to yourself on social media, you became engrossed in media, in music and films, and you went to the theatre, to the show, to get closer.

Nowhere as much as in Washington, D.C. Where there was a live Go-go scene that most of the country never heard of when it was peaking and still have no idea how to characterize. We had the Go-Go’s. The sound was big at the beach. Was this some kind of surf music? Or soul, akin to “Under The Boardwalk”?

“Sonic Highways” is the first explanation of Go-go music to make it comprehensible. As an interviewee claims, it was what shoulda been rap. If you don’t feel like you missed out when you see the Go-go show, if you don’t want to get in your car and drive there right now, you’ve got no soul, and certainly no ears. It was about the drums, the beat, it was participatory, it was about the interaction between performer and audience.

That’s today’s conundrum. All the action is at the show and all the publicity surrounds the record. It’s hard for musicians to flip the switch, to realize live has triumphed over recordings. That they can make it if they really try. But they must try harder.

It’s easy to fake it in the studio.

It’s almost impossible to fake it on stage. And that’s one of the reasons so many acts carry huge production, to cover up. If they had to be there naked it would all fall flat. But not for Trouble Funk at the Go-go show.

You’re watching Dave Grohl talk to this big black guy and you ask yourself…WHO IS THIS? Just another guy from the Chocolate City? No, it turns out to be Big Tony, Trouble Funk’s majordomo. But then Big Tony starts to testify about Chuck Brown. WHO?

But once you see the recently departed Mr. Brown on stage you get it, he was the progenitor of Go-go.

And that was the highlight of these two episodes, along with Steve Earle singing his Townes Van Zandt song. How is it that someone we all know the name of could be broke? Especially before the days of the internet, when it was nearly impossible to get noticed. But being a songwriter used to be enough, it still is, if you’re great.

And once upon a time a song was a story. Something heartfelt, that would make you cry, as Nanci Griffith does when Steve sings on “Austin City Limits.”

But the point is the seventies and eighties were a long, long time ago.

If you think music ruled in the sixties… It was even more dominant in the seventies, when it had an established place in the firmament, when FM ruled and the hardest part of going to the show was getting a ticket.

In the eighties…  What can I say, we had MTV. Musicians triumphed. You wanted to be one.

And then VH1 catalogued everybody’s exploits on “Behind The Music” and the past imploded. The scorched earth formula took what was personal and special and made it pedestrian, with the arc of a film, and the truth is every band has its own arc, every band tells its own story.

So you’re in Austin and a blues fanatic, Clifford Antone, opens a club to showcase his favorite sound. Was he doing it to get rich? Of course not! That was the difference between then and now. Today everybody wants to ring the bell, make a billion, back then we thought if we were paying our bills, if we were doing what was important to us, if it was fulfilling, we were happy. You remember happiness, don’t you? That’s when you pursue your dream. And if you take the money out of today’s dreams, do they still fly?

Rarely.

And the highlight of the Austin episode, other than Mr. Earle’s performance, is the Roky Erickson footage. And just when you figure he’s never going to be on camera, Roky is. Not all there mentally, but certainly all there physically. It’s astounding these people are still around.

That’s what you don’t realize, your heroes, the icons, they’re reachable, they’re here, touch them while you can.

And Willie Nelson only triumphed when he returned to Austin. Footage of his Fourth of July picnic will also have you lamenting you missed it. Once again, this was a minor story in “Rolling Stone,” most people were unaware of it back when, the boomers did not yet control the mainstream media, music was huge, but it was still outside.

And now Austin is booming. Willie just says to move west. The way the arts have taken hold in the old industrial areas of western Massachusetts. Artists need time to be able to create, they need to pay almost no rent and no overhead. But today that’s impossible in the cities.

And the cities pay the price, our whole country pays the price. Money has certainly triumphed over music. We want statistics, data. That which touches the heart is unquantifiable, and therefore doesn’t get much press.

And although Dave Grohl can be sycophantic, the truth is he’s doing God’s work here. He’s treating the music and the history with respect. Want to inspire the next generation? Show “Sonic Highways” in schools.

Because that’s not what music is today.

Stardom has triumphed over art. How do you look? What is your plan? Who do you know? As opposed to inspiration, and following it.

If you haven’t watched “Sonic Highways,” borrow someone’s HBO GO log-in and log on. Because it will take you to a different place, one you remember if you lived through it, one that will be intriguing if you did not.

When you had to make the record sleeves yourself, as they did at Dischord, as opposed to clicking a button and pushing your music into the online abyss.

I’m not saying that the internet is bad, I’m just saying you lose something with every advancement. And what we’ve lost is the local scene. The same way we’ve lost it in radio and concert promotion. The entire nation is homogeneous. It’s the same everywhere, the same TV shows and fast food. Maybe that’s why the restaurant scene is burgeoning. Cuisine is different at each and every establishment. Sure, Danny Meyer may rise above, but that’s the same way the Beatles and the Airplane rose above. But that didn’t mean we didn’t play music at home, that we all weren’t happy where we were.

Now no one’s happy where they are. They have to measure themselves against the titans of not only music, but tech. Everyone feels inadequate, and burdened by the self-promotion online. Everybody wants to be important and with everybody vying for attention, almost no one is.

But it used to be different. You used to be part of your own local community. Your identity was three-dimensional, your influences more important than your number of followers.

Then again, this insularity caused bigotry, caused us to leave and go to the big city to find our people.

Like I said, something is gained and something is lost in every revolution.

Chuck Brown “Wind Me Up”

Chuck Brown “Go Go Live”

Steve Earle (fast-forward to 9:30)

Trouble Funk, “Drop The Bomb”

Roky Erickson “Two Headed Dog”

Billy Joel by Fred Schruers

It really was different.

It bugs me that people claim otherwise, the youngsters who were not around and the oldsters hanging on by a thread.

First and foremost, as Malcolm Gladwell said in “Outliers,” timing is everything. Jason Flom’s father may have been blackballed because he was Jewish, but he found an opportunity in a Jewish law firm doing hostile takeovers, something that didn’t exist previously. So, you’ve got to be bright, you’ve got to be ready, but timing is everything.

And the truth is when Billy Joel took piano lessons, he could not foresee the advent of the Beatles, he could not foresee music driving the youthquake and the culture. But when it did, he was ready. He started off as the piano player in the band, and ended up the lead singer too. You’ve got to make the most of your opportunities.

And opportunities came his way. But they never worked out. It’s kind of like tech today, where failure is a badge of honor because you learn something. The Hassles, Attila, they proved what Billy did not want to do. And unlike his compatriots Billy stayed at it. That’s right, most people give up. Not only are they frustrated, life gets in the way. They want a new car, a house and a family. Billy didn’t even know how to drive. He was about music and girls only.

And music could keep you alive. You could play six nights a week, honing your chops without realizing it.

And then there was the deal with Artie Ripp.

The book makes the point that the two worst deals Billy made were what ensured his success.

Yes, Billy had to pay Artie Ripp seemingly forever, but no one else believed in him, no one else was giving him a chance. And it was the initial album and the resulting tour that gave him traction.

And Howard Kaufman gives credit to Billy’s wife Elizabeth. She fought harder as his manager, she believed.

So as you sit at home trying to get it right, know that if you insist on winning every time you’re probably holding yourself back.

And there was the switch to Phil Ramone as producer, and Walter Yetnikoff believed in Billy and got back his publishing, but the truth is Billy had the music in him. Still does.

It’s very different from today. When people are focusing on money from day one. When they want to expand their brand. The music is enough, it will get you through, if you believe in it, if you trust in it, if you’re good at it.

And despite all the naysayers, at this late date Billy Joel even gets respect. Last long enough and the flavor of the moment disappears and only the great remain, and Billy Joel is great.

And this is the book that was supposed to be the autobiography. And, unfortunately, some of the deepest questions remain unanswered. We hear some of the Artie Ripp story, find out that Mike Lang was the link between the two, but just when the story should slow down it speeds up. Billy’s tale is not unknown. If you’re reading this book it’s because you want to know more. And you learn tidbits, but you still want more depth.

But what struck me most was I could not put it down.

I was going through a stack of books, scanning them, getting them out of the way. But I got hooked by this and spent hours reveling in the way it once was. When the album mattered, not because it made more money but because it made a statement, and the public wanted to hear it.

SHE’S GOT A WAY

My favorite album is “Songs From The Attic,” wherein Billy re-records all his old songs the way he wants to hear them. I’m not sure I ever heard the original from “Cold Spring Harbor,” I was a latecomer to Billy’s oeuvre. But the original is astounding, because it’s intimate and heartfelt. You dropped the needle on stuff like this and you owned it, it spoke to you. And it still speaks to me today.

She comes to me when I’m feelin’ down
Inspires me without a sound
She touches me and I get turned around

Artists are sensitive. We’re insecure. We need to be lifted up, dusted off and encouraged.

THE BALLAD OF BILLY KID

This is on “Piano Man,” but the definitive take is on “Songs In The Attic.” Never a hit, it’s as important to Billy’s canon as the songs that charted.

From a town known as Oyster Bay, Long Island
Rode a boy with a six-pack in his hand

We all come from somewhere. Usually unhip, where we were an outcast. We migrated to the city to find like-minded people, to reinvent ourselves, to make it.
Billy’s a product of the suburbs. He wanted to GET OUT!

STREETLIFE SERENADER

Streetlife serenader
Never sang on stages
Needs no orchestration
Melody comes easy

Not everybody makes it. We all know naturals without the gumption, without the breaks. And when we listen to them, we’re reminded of what we thought would once be.

Billy decries the “Streetlife Serenader” album, says it was rushed, sounds wrong and doesn’t deliver, he wouldn’t even let it get released in Australia, for fear of hurting his momentum. But if you ever listened to a Broadway cast album, if you believe music doesn’t have to be hard-edged, but can be smooth and soothing…the sound of “Streetlife Serenader” will entrance you.

SUMMER, HIGHLAND FALLS

Another song whose definitive version is on “Songs In The Attic.”
There was a real house, a real location that inspired this song.
And for artists, who feel more than we do and translate for us…
It’s always either sadness or euphoria, they’re not even-keeled.

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

But I’m taking a Greyhound
On the Hudson River Line
I’m in a New York state of mind

He was. On a Greyhound. Returning from the west coast, to reside on the Hudson in a house Elizabeth rented. He landed at the airport and got on the bus, back before everybody had a black car waiting, never mind a private jet delivering them, and on the ride up… Billy was inspired. He didn’t know he was composing the definitive statement, but when he got to his new house he went to the piano and immediately wrote this. A track that marinated for decades before it found its rightful place as the anthem of New York in the wake of 9/11.

MIAMI 2017 (I’VE SEEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT ON BROADWAY)

Inspired by the famous newspaper headline, Ford telling New York City to drop dead, it’s written from the perspective of years hence, from a Jew in Miami, telling those who were not there what happened.

And one great thing in the book is learning of the Joel factory in Nuremberg. The family had money, the Nazis took the business, at least Billy’s grandfather escaped, ultimately going to Cuba and then America. We’re all immigrants. Our desire to make something of ourselves makes our country great.

JUST THE WAY YOU ARE

Don’t go changin’…

Sappy. Even Billy thought so. But it’s this standard that made his career. He didn’t even want to put it on the album, Linda Ronstadt had to tell him it was a hit. Write one song this good and you can live forever. Write more…

SCENES FROM AN ITALIAN RESTAURANT

A bottle of red, a bottle of white
It all depends on your appetite
I’ll meet you any time you want
In our Italian restaurant

Back when they had Chianti bottles hanging from the ceiling, before foodie culture told hold and everywhere there were Italians there were red-checked tablecloth joints where we met and drank and told our stories.

That’s what’s great about the east coast, the dialogue, the stories. Doesn’t matter who you are and what you’ve done so much as how well you tell it!

And the best of us told their stories in song.

We were addicted to not only the radio, but our records. They were our truth.

But that was back in 1975, when Brenda and Eddie were still in their prime, right after their divorce, before they gained weight, got sick and had their dreams dashed.

No one believed like we baby boomers. We thought we controlled the world. Still do, even if it’s untrue.

And the integral element wasn’t our smartphones, but our music.

Our social network was radio. We went to the gig to convene with our brethren.

And you wonder why we go in droves to see our heroes perform their hits.

Because they’re our songs.

And Billy wrote a whole hell of a lot of ’em.

Billy Joel – Spotify

It’s the narrative stupid!

The “New York Times” did a story on those helped by Obamacare. The prime person was taking advantage, she was getting long-delayed dental care, but she was against national health care, because of the death panels. Over 40% of Americans believe they exist, even though they don’t.

How did this happen?

The anti-Obamacare adherents controlled the narrative.

You don’t play for today, you play for tomorrow. Otherwise, you never win.

Like the Republicans. They thought the judiciary was becoming too liberal. So they formed the Federalist Society on campuses, and years later right-leaning judges were a force in the system. The same way these same people realized fighting abortion on a national level was nearly futile, so they decided to change their focus to the state level… Just try getting an abortion in Texas now. Hard to do. Statistics bear this out, abortions are down.

So the American narrative, instituted in the days of Ronald Reagan, is the government is inept and wastes your money, that you work so hard for, so you shouldn’t give it to them.

But the truth is America is a business. And businesses waste money. Just ask a VC, the victories cover the losses. Or ask yourself, ever buy something you didn’t use in the office? Of course you did. But the government can’t do this. And the government can’t hire people. That’s one of the reasons our economy has had a hard time recovering, under George Bush more people were working for the government. People need jobs, work needs to be done. But the real problem with the country is the deficit, and inflation is just around the corner. Huh? That was the narrative for the first half of Obama’s presidency, even though it turned out to be completely false.

And Obama’s main failing is experience. Being President is a job, but we run it like a popularity contest. But those running realize it’s a money contest. And he or she who wins is beholden to fat cats, even though there are more of us.

Income inequality is a scourge upon our nation. Not only does it undermine upward mobility, it drags down the economy. Because the economy burgeons when people have money to buy things. That’s right, the economy is driven by consumer spending. And the fat cats don’t buy a hundred cars or twenty five homes, never mind a score of plungers and other household items and electronics. But the narrative is the rich are job creators, and the poor pay no taxes. But the truth is everybody pays taxes, certainly sales taxes, usually payroll taxes, if they have a job. But the poor have been demonized, as if having no cash is a character flaw.

How long is this going to persist?

There are two different countries now. The affluent and the poor. And not all the affluent are billionaires. But the affluent can afford to enrich their children’s education, they can point them to good schools. And when these kids graduate they take jobs in banking and tech that ensure they won’t be poor, they’re running away from the underclass, never mind the disappearing middle class.

And false narratives persist in the music business. A recent one being Spotify doesn’t pay enough, that it should give more of its revenues to artists. But if the Swedish streaming service already pays 69% of its revenues to rights holders… Apple pays 70%. How are you supposed to have a profitable business with no margin? But Taylor Swift said the service sucks and pulled her music and now players are up in arms. Not realizing the enemy is obscurity and YouTube pays so much less.

Life is a game. And the rules are stacked against you. Did you read the “New York Times” story about private art museums? How did these wealthy people get big tax breaks? They paid their Congresspeople. Who listen to them because they donate. You may vote but you’re only significant when the numbers are counted, then you’re forgotten.

And then there are the pejoratives, like “socialism.” Read this piece in yesterday’s “Los Angeles Times” saying how much better life is in Scandinavia, especially Norway:

“The American Way over the Nordic Model? Are we crazy?”

But they have high taxes and socialism kills incentive! But the truth is the American Dream lives larger overseas, where they have national health care and a safety net and…

So you’re working two jobs and buying lottery tickets and trying out for the “Voice” believing if you just work harder, you can be like them. You can never be like them. They let a few people through so you’ll continue to believe in the game, but the odds of upward mobility are infinitesimal. If you think you can get ahead on two minimum wage jobs you don’t eat and need no shelter, and then you still won’t succeed. But you believe you will.

Because of the narrative.

America is the greatest country in the world!

Pledge fealty to the troops!

All this nationalistic hogwash that has you believing you’re gonna be a winner, that things are good.

Meanwhile, you’re watching sports, you’ve got to root for something, especially if you can’t root for yourself.

And then you complain that music is bad. Of course it is, who’s going to become a musician? No one educated with a brain. And then envious of the techies, all those who do break through will do anything for a buck, they’ve got no backbone. But you can’t criticize their behavior, because of the narrative, that Napster crippled the music business and everybody is broke.

Kind of like the Long Tail narrative, if you create it there’s an audience for it. Probably not, other than your mother and your girlfriend. While you keep hearing the internet has democratized art, the truth is it’s created a world of blockbusters. With so little time and access to everything we only want the best, we only have time to check out the famous. It’s like everybody in Paducah is competing for affection with movie stars. That’s right, if you play in a band, the Stones are in the club next door, that’s what the internet is like.

And change is everywhere. Bands used to have places to play live. By time you heard them, they’d played a zillion gigs and were good, now you’re just getting overwhelmed by wannabes, telling you to check out their substandard wares online.

He who controls the narrative controls the country. Money is important, but not as much as power. And oftentimes they go hand in hand, but the cycle is broken in art. That’s right, one song created in your basement can change the world, ask not only Barry McGuire, but Lorde. But you desire to work with the hitmakers du jour, you want to hang with the rich and famous, you want to get out, flying private and drinking Cristal instead of being able to pay your bills in an apartment in the city. You have a dream, but as John Lennon said, the dream is over.

Meanwhile, media, except for the occasional story in the newspaper, keeps reinforcing a narrative that keeps you powerless. That’s right, the media killed Occupy Wall Street, and now the new Congress wants to eviscerate Dodd Frank. The media quashed civil rebellion against police brutality. That’s right, now the narrative is the men and women in blue have a tough job and we’re just not behind them enough. And I’m not saying it’s black and white, but I will say if you think racism is dead, you’re probably on the Supreme Court, which got rid of voting laws. The same Supreme Court that is now right-leaning because of the Federalist Society.

We need leaders.

In the sixties they came from the youth. Who were in college without momentous debt, brought up in middle class homes believing, truthfully, that opportunity was plentiful. And money and attention was garnered by artists, with universal appeal. Not the outsiders, but those on the charts, with an audience. Today everybody’s so busy trying to pay their bills and make it they don’t have time to protest.

But they should.

But there are no leaders, no one telling them the truth in a narrative they can understand. That taxes are good, they put music in school. Instead, the narrative is public schools suck and home-schooling is best and we should have vouchers to get out of bad schools. How about a voucher to get out of a bad neighborhood, to move to Manhattan into one of those apartments the fat cats occupy for only two weeks a year? How about a voucher for a private island vacation in the Caribbean? How about a voucher for an audience with a Senator who will write legislation allowing you to avoid paying taxes, or have your income taxed at capital gains rates, like the hedge funders?

It all sounds overwhelming, it all sounds undoable. You’re too busy trying to get ahead yourself to help everybody else.

Which is exactly how they want it. Divide and conquer. If you’re fighting your brother, you don’t have time to fight them.

But you’ve got to love your brother. You’ve got to unite. You’ve got to see we’re stronger together than apart. That the American way is in peril. That America is us. Not only the rich in the news, but the hardworking people who go to work each day and put most of their income into commodities, food and drink and products, that keep America humming. Or at least used to.

In the information society too many know nothing. They’re aware of gossip, but not basic economic precepts. Just like music is in disarray, with only a small segment of the public aware of the hits, most people know nothing about how the world works.

And we can either blame them or enlighten them.

Or we can let the usual suspects herd us like cattle into doing what’s best for them.

What about what’s best for us?

“Writing Off the Warhol Next Door, Art Collectors Gain Tax Benefits From Private Museums”

And they say women can’t be funny.

Once upon a time we looked up to movie stars, they were royalty we emulated and adored. Now they’re fodder for derision. They don’t realize we don’t care about their high concept films. That’s right Nic Cage, you were a star, now you’re a punchline. We revere money and actors ain’t got much, which is why your agents are all invested in tech and sports, furthermore you know nothing about investments, constantly losing your shirt on real estate deals, leasing worthless cars, believing that life is about looks and not power, and then Tina Fey and Amy Poehler go on to shoot it all to hell, they make us believers, illustrating the power of art to ridicule, inform and tickle our funny bone all at the same time.

We adore the NFL because life doesn’t make sense. Unlike television, there’s a limited number of teams. Sure, they’re beating each other to hell, but at least we’ve got something to root for, something to believe in while America goes down the tubes. And if you don’t think America is busy dying, you don’t realize the dream is over, that if you make it from the bottom to the top you’re the exception, not the rule. But that doesn’t keep everybody from praying for success, when the truth is if you weren’t born on third base, you might as well give up right now.

So the NFL gets stratospheric ratings because we feel involved, we know the teams, if not the players. It makes sense to us.

But Hollywood stopped making sense years ago. Which is why movie grosses are down. As far as television…we may be in a golden age of drama, but no one’s got time to watch it all, and you need a subscription to not only cable and HBO, but Amazon and Netflix, the landscape is incomprehensible, but don’t tell that to Amy Pascal who thinks running a studio counts. The public has got no idea who runs the record labels and they don’t care. Because if it’s all about the billions and you haven’t even got the potential of making ten digits, we’re not interested.

We’re only interested in ourselves. Everybody is a star. And Jennifer Aniston may be labeled America’s sweetheart, but we gag on the overhype of her latest flick, and feel sorry for her evaporated biological window, because, after all, if life isn’t about reproduction, it doesn’t make biological sense.

And then come two girls you wouldn’t date in high school, who joked with the boys who held all their romance in the palm of their hands, and they proceed to skewer the audience and lift this entire half-baked show off the ground on their very narrow shoulders.

First you have to disbelieve.

That’s what America is all about, believing. Did you read James Fallows’s essay about how we lose wars because we’re not hard enough on the troops? We’re not hard enough on movies and music, we don’t demand enough, everybody tells us to be satisfied and we’re not.

But then we’ve got these two women making fun of the institution.

And then they break the cardinal rule of modern communication, they deliver a joke without explaining it, requiring those at home to fill in the blanks.

That’s right, Tina and Amy made a joke about cake without stating the obvious, it was only implied…THAT THOSE IN ATTENDANCE ARE SO BUSY DIETING THEY’VE NEVER TASTED IT!

And there you have it folks. Despite their self-anointment as royalty, the stars are missing out. Not only on the big money, but food, which is much more of a hit than any flick. They think it’s about the exterior when we all know it’s about what’s inside.

And then Tina and Amy go into a routine of who would you rather…

This is Howard Stern territory. Who you’d rather screw. But they’re doing it on national television. Titillating the audience as it squirms in its seat.

Proving once again, if you’re talented enough, if you’re willing to test limits, you can go to the head of the class. Tina Fey can be absent from the airwaves and reclaim her throne in ten minutes, just by doing her act, spectacularly. It’s not about the hype, but the work, what a concept.

It doesn’t matter who wins. Trophies might be taken home, but we forget the victories almost instantly. It’s about impacting people’s lives, making a difference in the culture. And it’s not that hard if you’ve paid your dues and have the skills.

But we don’t want to focus on that. Not in the entertainment industrial complex. We want to focus on your ass, your malleability, we don’t want something too edgy.

And then these two middle-aged women take the international stage and blow us all away.

WTF?

“The Tragedy of the American Military”