Something About You – YouTube

Something About You – SoundCloud

On a day when AC/DC is announced as the headliner at Coachella…

I’ve been on the Highway to Hell my entire life but AC/DC put out a new album and the press bought the story but no one bought the album, no one cares.

That’s the story of today. You can tell us about it, but that does not mean we’re going to partake, that we’re going to care. There are so many stories, we’ve become immune, the only people we trust are our friends.

Like Neil Jacobson. We met in the desert. He linked me to “Uptown Funk” before it was released and I got it but found it too derivative. But this…

There’s just something here, from the Youngs’ fellow-Australian, Hayden James.

Oh, it’s repetitive at the beginning, if Neil hadn’t told me about it I probably would have clicked it off, but then everything dropped out thirty seconds in and it got so moody, and I’m a sucker for mood.

And then I found myself thinking I liked it but it wouldn’t be a hit, and then everything came back in and I found myself dancing in my chair, and then around the house, and I rarely move. And now I’m snapping my fingers. It’s making me feel so good on this insanely warm winter afternoon.

Music is incomprehensible. They shove down our throat that which is not innovative and seems to speak to people who are not us and we’re looking for something more personal that touches us and we don’t know where to look other than to our friends.

Thanks Neil!

Taylor Hawkins asked Joe to play “COUNTRY Fair”…

What I love about the internet is the ACCESSIBILITY! In the finale of “Newsroom” they played a song “That’s How I Got To Memphis.” It was a bit cheesy, as were the romantic tie-ups, but I am a sap, and anyway, the song reached me immediately, and I’d never heard it. That’s the power of a hit. And this Tom T. Hall composition was for Bobby Bare, and a bunch of other people covered it, and you should pull them all up on Spotify or Deezer or YouTube and if you bitch one more time about Spotify payments I’m gonna throw you down on the floor and put my foot on your throat and lecture you about the past, how we went from the flourishing CD days to Napster to iTunes to streaming and that the enemy is theft but you’re too ignorant to remember the past and that’s what makes you an American, THERE!

Anyway, “County Fair” is the best track on Joe Walsh’s disappointing follow-up to “The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get”, “So What.” Stream it. Now. It was a sales disappointment, but an artistic triumph. “Welcome To The Club” did not equal the success of “Rocky Mountain Way,” and as a result not as many people purchased the album and they missed out on “Falling Down,” “Time Out,” “Song For Emma” and “COUNTY Fair.”

Come on all you vinyl cronies, you know who you are. I’ve got the round black disc, and the stereo to blast it. That’s right, the phono pre-amp and the zillion watts and the huge speakers and when Joe strums that famous chord the whole house shakes and this is how it was when music ruled the world.

It does not now.

There was an article in the “Atlantic” the other day saying today’s artists have to wear multiple hats, that you just can’t be a musician or a writer or… And Dave Grohl is testimony to this. Hollywood’s most likable guy, Dave is a one man extravaganza of effort, and hype, and if you thought the over-promoted “Sound City” was good you should check out “Sonic Highways,” a love letter to a past that no longer exists, but everybody over forty remembers, these same people bitching that the Internet moved their cheese.

It most certainly did.

It used to be so different. You were waiting, you were eager, you heard someone had new music, you listened to the radio to hear one track, you saved your money to buy the album, and you could not buy all the albums you wanted. You’d go to a friend’s house and see something you were interested in and immediately put it on, and usually be disappointed, because you didn’t already know it by heart. That’s right, in the era of scarcity we knew our favorite albums by heart, they were all we could afford.

So last night I started at the beginning, at the “Sonic Highways” Chicago episode. And Dave Grohl makes me feel inadequate, it’s so well done. Maybe he’s got incredible help, maybe he’s got his chops up because he already did “Sound City,” but if you were deep into it, if you were a fan back when, you’re riveted.

Bonnie Raitt testifies. They show her when she was young and ripe. Can I say that Bonnie? That you oozed some kind of intelligent, down home, unique sexuality that infected us college boys long before you made it back in the “Nick Of Time”?

And as cool as Buddy Guy is, and believe me he is, to see Muddy Waters is transfixing. I once hung with Willie Dixon. That’s right, at a Bug Music Christmas party, I’ll tell you the story sometime. After I tell you about the summer I spent in Chicago with the famous AIDS doctor downstairs and the famous rabbi upstairs with my hormones raging in a frat house I didn’t want to go to but did and was happy I went.

The summer of ’69. The real one. When I went to the newsstand and “Penthouse” showed pubic hair. I’ll never forget it. This was long before everybody was naked online.

ANYWAY…I hung with revolutionaries and almost got my ass shot off without knowing it and I’ve had an affinity for Chi-town ever since, even though I don’t think I’ve been out of the airport in decades. But to see Steve Albini, a rock original whom I only know from his online screeds, testify in the flesh is to instill religion in this disbelieving boy. That’s right, the last studio owner standing is mired in debt, but he’s not changing his belief system.

And Rick Nielsen comes in to lay down some licks, and it reminds me of seeing Cheap Trick at the change of the decade, from the seventies to the eighties, and marveling that they were a hard rock band when I loved the melodiousness of “In Color,” but it was nothing compared to Joe Walsh’s guest shot.

So the star of the L.A. episode is this dead guy Fred and Josh Homme. It’s mostly about the desert. However, when they’re walking down Bundy, a street I drive every day, my eyes did bug out, but that’s L.A., with famous people all around the neighborhood.

So Joe talks in this way that is almost affected. But he journeys to the desert to lay down a solo and…

Then he doesn’t play. He lets bars go by. And then he adds just a few notes and they’re oh-so-right. Which is so refreshing in this era where everybody gives everything they’ve got, all the time, figuring if they don’t they’ll never make it.

But the truth is they won’t make it for other reasons. Because no one’s got any time anymore. And they’re too busy looking at porn. We can’t disconnect, we can’t give up the access to each other via our devices. So we’ve only got time for hit music and the oldies and everybody in the music business laments this, believing they’re immune to the changes.

But I’ve seen the changes. And it ain’t easy rearranging.

And it certainly gets harder, as you get older. As far as farther away as you get closer… I’ll let you decide.

But even though that song is from 1977, Stephen Stills broke through with the Buffalo Springfield a decade before. The James Gang came after.

And in between CSN hits came “Hotel California.” With Joe Walsh’s indelible solo.

So the point here is we’re both stimulated and overwhelmed, consuming while we’re comatose. We’ve got so much information passing before our eyes that it all becomes a blur.

Except for one note, pure and easy.

And Pete Townshend raved about Joe Walsh. And when he strums that chord from “County Fair”…

Time stands still.

Sonic Highways-Joe Walsh – Spotify playlist

1. The major labels will only get stronger. We live in an a money economy and the only ones willing to invest in artists are the labels. Furthermore, they’ve got the relationships at radio, which are key to developing acts. The players want cash, the major labels have it, no one else will get involved because the returns are so bad, the majors have gotten a second wind, they’ve adapted to the internet, all the hogwash about disruption was just that. (P.S. This isn’t forever, but it’s certainly for now.)

2. The Apple Watch will be a success. First, because it’s Apple. Second, because wearables will become important, they’re already here with fitness trackers. You don’t want to pull your phone out of your pocket a hundred plus times a day, that’s inefficient. Will the expensive Apple Watch or cheap one sell? It’s too soon to know, but once again, a company with an integrated approach triumphs. Apple was not the first in MP3 players or smartphones, but it was the one that blew up the market. People love to hate on Apple, especially those not addicted to the brand. The noise level creates dissonance in the marketplace. But the truth is the press gave a pass to Google Glass and it failed, it’s skeptical of the Apple Watch, but it will win. Once again we’re moving towards utility as opposed to show-off status. If it doesn’t do much, if it doesn’t work right, we don’t want it.

3. The concert business will burgeon. We’re in the midst of a long journey from ownership to access, concomitantly people want experiences more than ownership of status items. Once you’ve got an iPhone 6, you’re covered, there’s no $5000 model. If you’re buying a fancy car to impress people, if you’re all about acquisition, the millennials are laughing at you, you’re branding yourself a baby boomer. This is an important change in our country. Virtual goods have value.

4. There are only three news outlets in America, the “New York Times,” “Wall Street Journal” and “Washington Post.” Their only challenge is securing their power. No one else has boots on the ground. TV news is a joke. If you turn on the television to find out what’s going on you’ve probably got an expensive automobile in the garage, trying to impress those who don’t care. Television news has no reporters. The aforementioned print publications do. As well as Bloomberg, that’s the x-factor here. He who controls the news controls the dialogue. Hits matter, but Buzzfeed, HuffPo, et al, are sideshows. There has always been gossip. There will always be listicles and link-bait, but don’t confuse them with the genuine article.

5. Twitter might not be doomed but it is challenged. It’s just too hard to use. How about the ability to just subscribe to a news feed of topics you’re interested in, maybe even curated by experts in the field? But the Twitterdomos won’t do this, because they’re too impressed with the service. They know there’s a problem, but to admit it would be to acknowledge the service is less than perfect, which it is. Meanwhile, Wall Street already knows, the stock has tanked. We want real time news, we don’t want it quite like this.

6. Snapchat. Evanescence is the new trend. Driving people to see something now before it disappears. It’s kind of like sports. It’s meaningless tomorrow. Only in this case, it doesn’t exist tomorrow.

7. There will be a left field, artistic success in the music business. The public demands it. Despite all the hype for stars of the moment, there’s a hunger for that which feeds the soul, that we truly can’t shake off. This new act will be comprised of very skilled players, who are not beholden to the usual precepts or partners. The hipsters will laud them, but then the press will put them over the top.

8. The mainstream press and the owners of this country are doing their best to keep down lower class agitation, i.e. protestation against income inequality. The tragic shooting of New York policemen has been utilized to silence stories of protest and unrest. But income inequality is the story of the year, which will be amplified by the Republican Congress. Not everybody can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Self-reliance only goes so far. Expect further conflagration, you can only keep people down so long.

9. Ignorance reigns. Misinformation is king. This is a cancer upon our society. Special interests spread falsehoods, or shade the truth, and the public picks it up and we’ve got an entire nation that can’t agree on the facts, never mind where we’re going. This is an exponent of bad leadership, or the lack of any leadership at all. Sometime in the future we’ll all go to one place to get our news. But unfortunately, that’s not imminent. Artists have the power to spread the truth, unfortunately artists are so interested in money, truth takes a back seat.

10. Mobile won. Even more so around the world. Think of the handset, not the desktop.

11. Streaming won. Vinyl is agitation against a disconnected society where we have no way to display our identity. If it were really about sound, people would be gravitating to Deezer Elite and Tidal. But they’re not, because they don’t want to hear better sound, the want to own something. This sounds like a contradiction to the new non-ownership society, but really it’s about the non-identity society. In a world where we all have the basics, the aforementioned smartphone, et al, how do we distinguish ourselves? People always want to distinguish themselves. Vinyl is a ripple on the ocean. And streaming sound quality will improve.

12. The movie business is headed for turbulence. Ticket sales are down, theft is high… The “Interview” revolutionized the business, not because of the hack, but because it went live in theatres and online day and date. This is the future. And until you can see all movies at one low price in one location online, expect theft to continue. That’s right, the movie business thinks it’s smarter than the music business, but nothing could be further from the truth.

13. Curation will rule, but not in 2015. We’re still in a streaming turf war. Songza was a joke. Playlists have been around for over a decade with little impact. The people talking about curation don’t care about it, they just want to sell you their scaling streaming service, which is why it won’t work. Curation works in radio because everyone agrees on the same songs. This will happen in music too. Making the blockbusters even bigger. But it won’t happen this year.

14. Baby boomers will continue to run the music business. No significant change will happen until they retire, which is at least a half decade off.

15. The American Dream is alive and well in the mind of the consumer, if not the true statistics. Everybody’s got an idea, everybody wants to get rich. Now, the focus is primarily on tech and “Shark Tank” products, they scale better, you can get rich easier. But people still believe they’re entitled to music success. But the truth is the most successful people are those with wealthy parents who send them to the best educational institutions wherein they make life-long relationships that pay dividends in their endeavors. That’s right, they were born on third base and the rest of you are outside the stadium, and most people don’t even know it. The poor have no idea of the advantages of the rich. Despite all the hoopla about wealth, if the general public had any idea how rich the rich truly are, the lifestyle they live, there would be spontaneous revolution. Meanwhile, they’re kept busy perfecting their dreams, which rarely come to fruition, they participate in the sideshow.

Furthermore, the best and the brightest don’t go into the arts, the odds are long and the rewards not only elusive, but relatively scrawny. Expect no change here this year. The progeny of the rich are too anxious to take a risk. I’d like to say change is coming from the artists, but you’re better off looking to “Vice.” That’s the story of the age, the power of news, not art. Create an alternative news site and you’ve got power. But people don’t want power, they want money. Not realizing that power is the trump card. He who reaches the most people and controls the dialogue wins, especially in 2015. I’ve about given up on the artists taking a stand. Mark Zuckerberg is more powerful than any musician. But it doesn’t have to be this way…

Music is a popularity contest.

That’s right, you can’t bitch about your Spotify payments if no one wants to listen to your music.

This is where we’ve arrived, the data-centric world. The old days of Tommy Noonan manipulating the “Billboard” chart are done. Now all we’ve got is raw statistics, which will leave most people out.

And they don’t like it.

That’s the number one bitch in the music business, that you can’t make any money, that the internet destroyed the paradigm and now you’re broke.

Well, just like Sam Kinison said not to send food to Africa, but suitcases, if you want to make money…MAKE MUSIC PEOPLE WANT TO LISTEN TO!

Sounds simple, I know.

But you don’t want to do it. You want to make the music you want to make, and then bitch that people won’t listen to it, that the label won’t sign it and that radio won’t play it, ignoring the fact that YouTube and Spotify are open worlds, and if there’s any demand, it can be instantly filled.

Are you a member of a club that is marginalizing yourself? Are you so busy talking to your friends in the echo chamber that you don’t realize you’ve got to convince those outside it to make money?

Being a hipster might make you cool, but it won’t make you rich.

Of course, some hipster music breaks through. And that’s great, we need the bleeding edge, that’s what’s wrong with too much of today’s pop, the formula. But most hipster music is just not made for mainstream consumption, which is fine, but please stop complaining that no one wants it.

Imagine making a tech product no one wants. Do these people complain, no they PIVOT! An incredible percentage of tech companies started out making something different, and when no one wanted it, they took the essence and turned it into something else.

Which means if you know how to play, you don’t only have to play the music you do.

And if you can’t sing, you can get someone who can.

And you can learn how to write songs.

Just because the barrier to entry in music is so low that does not mean everyone is entitled to be successful.

As for Taylor Swift bitching about Spotify payments, not only is she already rich, she gave the biggest injection of publicity to the Swedish streaming music service ever. Now everybody knows what Spotify is. Thanks Taylor!

And if you’re successful on Spotify you’re gonna get rich. Don’t conflate low Pandora payments with Spotify royalties, they’re a different animal, although songwriter payments need to be improved (thank the government for screwing that up.)

There’s tons of money in music. You’ve just got to make stuff people want!

And if you’re decrying everything successful as pabulum, the joke is on you.