The means of production have come down in cost and we’re overwhelmed by the resulting productions. Everybody’s got a documentary, everybody’s got a track, and other than their relatives, no one’s got time to view or listen. Therefore, there’s a rush to talent and publicity and those excluded are disillusioned while the public is overwhelmed by the tsunami of content.

Every week I get e-mailed a link to a new documentary. Not a Kickstarter campaign, but a fully-finished production. Once upon a time docs were exclusive, it took money to make one, but today with a camera in your phone and editing software on your computer, anybody can be a documentarian.

So I’ve given up watching documentaries. No, not completely, but it’s hard to know what to spend my time on, since I have so little, so I wait for universal acclaim and an airing on HBO. Which is why I watched the Scientology documentary but did not watch the one on Kurt Cobain.

Huh?

The campaign turned me off.

This is where it gets tricky. Those in power know it’s all about attention, so they double down with the press and we’re so overwhelmed we get turned off. The press believes it must promote everything and is rarely critical. Just open the Sunday paper, whether it be the New York or Los Angeles “Times,” there are endless features about this film or that, and you end up being disgusted.

Kind of like music…

The campaigns are brief and intense and the products come and go, so why should you bother checking them out, since time is precious?

Even if a track gets stellar press at this point it’s irrelevant unless one hears about it from a friend.

So we’ve got an echo chamber wherein the insiders are clueless, believing the public loves Kanye when he ends up getting booed at the “Billboard” awards.

This is the “Tidal” story. I thought it was interesting that Jay Z freestyled his position until I saw it everywhere, realizing that was his intent, it wasn’t a spontaneous rant, it was something done for the press corps. And once you get the press corps involved I’m out.

But Kanye and Jay Z are stars! What if you’re just starting out?

Good luck!

That’s where talent comes in. Since the barrier to entry is so low, it’s not enough that you know how to play and sing, you need to be able to write too, or have access to Max Martin. Which makes the barrier to success incredibly high, frustrating the wannabe, who blames Spotify for this problem.

But the truth is the public is overwhelmed.

Everybody’s a creator, everybody’s a broadcaster, everybody’s a writer, and that’s just too much.

And the funny thing is the filters don’t realize their power. All we hear about the press is the decline in profits, and the resulting cutbacks. But the truth is unless a screed is presented by an authorized outlet, I don’t care. In order to be a nobody and penetrate my consciousness you’ve got to be better than the NYT or WSJ writers. Which is an incredible burden, but I’m only conveying the truth, don’t shoot the messenger.

It will not be like this forever. At some point there will be a clear delineation between professionals and hobbyists. And the latter will expect neither attention nor profits.

And I hope at some point in the future the press will exercise some judgment, help the public wade through the crap to see the gems. But I’m not counting on that, because press and pros are all about relationships, scratching each other’s backs.

Which is why when it comes to blowing something up we rely on each other.

The pros put their best on the line and we decide what works. It’s not radio, as powerful as it is it’s less powerful than ever before. It reaches some people, not everybody. And we’re all concerned with what to watch on our flat screen, but we care not a whit where it’s shown. It’s about the content, not the channel.

So we no longer live in an era of spontaneous virality.

But we do live in an era of chaos.

But it won’t last forever.

There will be a thin layer which many consume and then everything else.

Even fewer people will be successful than before, despite everyone being able to create.

This is what the internet and digital tools have wrought.

It’s not about the talent, it’s about the EXPERIENCE!

Especially if you want me to schlepp across this great nation of ours to overpay to attend your festival.

In case you missed the memo, and seemingly everybody but those in the business did, Rock In Rio was a disaster. Garnering about half the attendance of a sellout. Because, after all, why do you need to go schvitz in the desert to see the same damn acts that are going to come closer to your town anyway?

Welcome to festivalitis. Wherein the promoters try to wrest control of the cash from the acts and the fans are the beneficiaries.

The truth is fans will pay boatloads to see superstars in arenas. After that… Good luck. It’s hard filling the building.

But if you put everybody on the hit parade in one place, and throw in a few up and comers, going to the festival becomes a value proposition.

But headliners are not enough, not anymore, when there’s a festival close to home.

Yes, it started with Coachella. Which lost so much money AEG had to rescue Goldenvoice. But if you think it’s about losing money until you break through, you probably expect another Budweiser festival in the heart of L.A. That ain’t gonna happen. You want me to go downtown and hang on the asphalt just to hear bands… I NEED MORE THAN THAT!

So what we’ve got right now is a turf war between AEG and Live Nation. They’re dividing up the nation, territory by territory, festival by festival. And there’s a dose of SFX, but we’re all just waiting for that enterprise to implode.

So, there are country festivals. That’s a culture right there. A big tent where everybody gets the concept.

And Coachella built its rep on cutting edge talent.

And ACL was built on location.

And the new Lollapalooza in Chicago was built on the brand name and location.

And Bonnaroo was built on the back of jam bands.

And then Outkast went on the road and headlined all the festivals and suddenly there was little reason to travel, other than to the brand names above. You could get the same talent everywhere. So why do you go?

FOR THE HANG!

We live in a narcissistic culture where it’s all about me.

Want to know the number one thing you’ve got to provide at a festival these days?

CELL SERVICE!

Or wifi.

Because the attendees want to share the experience, with each other, with those at home. Isn’t that EDM culture? That’s why the Sahara Tent is so big at Coachella, literally and figuratively, it’s not about the deejay but the revelers.

This is hard for oldsters to understand.

It’s impossible for Brazilians to understand.

So…

Festivals are here to stay. They provide the two necessary elements delineated above, an experience and a place to see a ton of talent.

You can’t cheap out, you’ve got to spend on attractions. BUT THEY’RE NOT WHAT BRINGS PEOPLE IN! Otherwise, Coachella wouldn’t be able to sell tickets without announcing ANYBODY!

A few zip lines is not enough.

JazzFest has food… And New Orleans, which is party city to begin with.

If you expect Rock In Rio to come back in two years, then you believe hedge funds are winners.

But the truth is hedge funds are closing. They’re a bad deal. And when you put on a festival it’s all about the money, and no one can lose that much.

So, let me see… It’s metal the first weekend and pop the second? Where’s the culture in that? Now if Taylor Swift were gonna duet with James Hetfield, that would be interesting. But just a bunch of stars, who I can see everywhere else?

Not gonna fly.

Just ask everybody who didn’t go.

And what gets people to go in the future is word of mouth.

And Rock In Rio is a dead zone. There’s nothing to talk about.

People don’t talk about the bands they saw but the experience they had.

Hanging out in a parking lot hearing the hits of the day is not an experience. It’s just a concert.

AND FESTIVALS ARE SO MUCH MORE!

Did you listen to James Taylor on Howard Stern?

Despite all the press about the drought, it actually rained in L.A. on Thursday and Friday. Which is really quite strange. This came a couple of weeks after summer weather. Even worse, rain is like snow in L.A. It loosens the oil in the highway and you slip and slide and people get freaked out and traffic is slow and it demands concentration and you end up in your own cocoon, listening to the radio.

And in my car I heard JT tell the story of “Carolina In My Mind.”

I loved that record. The original opener on the Apple album. I bought it, actually, it was a present from my sister now that I remember, it was big up at BU, she gave it to me for my birthday. And for a month straight I’d drop the needle before school, to put me in a good mood as I got dressed.

It worked. And even though James is not enamored of that version, it’s always been my favorite. And I loved his brother Livingston’s “Carolina Day” from his Capricorn LP, but now I’m getting ahead of myself.

The story is “Carolina” was written during a break in recording his first album. He went with Joel Zoss (I LOVE “Too Long At The Fair”!) to Formentera and one night he went with Karen to Ibiza for a party and they missed the last boat back and while she slept on a bench he wrote the song.

Whew!

And to discover new facts about an old hand so far down the line is fascinating, but just as intriguing was putting the facts together, how JT made it.

But I’m driving in Beverly Glen, actually, I’m stuck in traffic in Beverly Glen, and I’m thinking that’s how all the great work is done, on a whim, when the stars align and you’re suddenly in the mood. Sure, you can get a group of writers together in Nashville and eke it out but it’s not the same thing. Just the same way a prepubescent’s songs don’t last because they have nothing to say.

Yes, JT made it at a relatively young age, but he’d LIVED!

Met Kootch on the Vineyard.

Been to Milton Academy.

Went into the mental institution.

Got hooked on drugs.

Met the Beatles! They even signed him!

There’s a lot of stories there. And that’s how the best art is created, through experience. Because when you lay that experience down you can feel the humanity, and we can all connect, and that’s what we’re looking to do, feel so not alone in this crazy world of ours.

And it is a crazy world, but so different from the sixties.

In the sixties the Vineyard was not upscale, there were no billionaires. And you could get lost in the Balearics. Sure, you could make an ultra-expensive long distance phone call, but you couldn’t e-mail or text, you were out on your own, having an experience.

And this is what the old farts can’t get over, that the experience is not the same. You had to pay your dues to get a record deal, often more than one, in order to break through. You just couldn’t declare yourself an artist and put your music up on YouTube. And it’s this experience that informed our music, that made it great.

JT played with Kootch in the Flying Machine as the house band in the Village. Do anything long enough and you become comfortable with it and can then spread your wings and innovate. But without this time…

Not that today’s world is not scintillating and invigorating, but the emphasis is on tech as opposed to music. Tech gives us tools to communicate, and we love this. But it also gives us the ability to create cheaply and insist everybody pay attention, even though we are not worthy.

James Taylor is worthy.

I saw him last summer and I cringed. He had a crack band but he’d turned into a crooner. But on Howard’s show it was just him and his guitar. To say it was authentic is nearly an understatement. You’re touched, tears come to your eyes, you’re thrilled to be in the presence of such greatness, you remember what once was, when you first heard these records.

The Berkshires used to be covered with snow on the first of December.

But now with global warming, they rarely are.

Our world has changed.

But the songs remain.

Listen.

“The Howard Stern Show – James Taylor Full Interview (May 12, 2015)”

Jett Schmett. Girls wanted to be PAT BENATAR!

The story is always the same, if you’re good-looking you get no credit.

Now I’m not saying we need to have sympathy for the beautiful, although being good-looking is a sentence, something you think you want but don’t really, but the truth is if you’re an attractive female singer you get no respect from the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Waiting decades to induct Linda Ronstadt? And then there’s Joan Jett, member of a failed band overhyped by the dearly departed Kim Fowley, who ultimately had a couple of hits, and she’s lionized and Benatar’s been forgotten… IT’S UNFAIR!

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT

Fire away!

I start here, because it’s where Pat Benatar became a star, known by EVERYBODY!

You come on with a ‘come on’
You don’t fight fair
But that’s okay, see if I care

ATTITUDE! That’s what Pat Benatar was delivering. Talk about girl power, forget the punks from later decades, it’s Benatar who empowered young women. But she doesn’t get credit because she wasn’t unattractive with a bad voice singing about her plight. Rather, Benatar had power, she owned her life, and people just couldn’t get enough of her.

I NEED A LOVER

It’s really all about the first album, produced by Peter Coleman and Mike Chapman at MCA Whitney studios. It had so many good tracks I had to run out and buy it. And the key cut was this, a cover of a John Mellencamp song before the man from Indiana became a star.

And if you go back and listen to Cougar’s version (that’s what he was called back then), you’ll see it has magic but Benatar’s version is a triumph. The thrown-off attitude with an element of sincerity, it’s the definition of “infectious.”

And isn’t that what we all need, A LOVER WHO WON’T DRIVE US CRAZY?!

HEARTBREAKER

You’re a heartbreaker
Dream maker, love taker
Don’t you mess around with me

With enough balls for the notoriously male-centric AOR radio to embrace, it was this that led off the album and cemented Benatar’s reputation, demonstrated that she’d arrived.

You’re the right kind of sinner
To release my inner fantasy

Males were Benatar’s initial fans. They wanted more of…THIS!

WE LIVE FOR LOVE

Written by Benatar’s guitar player and eventual husband Neil Giraldo, this is the track that made me buy the album. “We Live For Love” was a girl group-styled track by someone with the pipes to hit all the notes. We all have a soft spot for well-done pop, catchy songs that have us tapping our toe that make us feel good. “We Live For Love” may not have burned up the radio, but it ignited me!

IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW HOW TO LOVE ME

A hit for Smokie overseas, a band that never made it in the U.S., it’s the vocal, especially in the chorus, that puts this over the top.

So if you think you know how to love me
And you think you know what I need
And if you really, really want me to stay
You’ve got to lead the way

Hey, I can learn something from this!

YOU BETTER RUN

The debut announced Benatar’s arrival, it was a hit, but it was her second, “Crimes Of Passion,” that made her a star.

Of course, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” was the monster. But this cover of the Young Rascals’ hit was nearly as ubiquitous.

A great song is a great song, never forget it!

HELL IS FOR CHILDREN

The press hook was child abuse, just like Little Big Town is employing lesbianism to break “Girl Crush,” but the truth is both records stand on their own, the press is irrelevant. This is a dark, hypnotic track no matter what it’s about.

TREAT ME RIGHT

Like its predecessor, “Crimes Of Passion” began with a killer, a tear that announced Benatar meant business.

This was a radio staple, and deservedly so.

Furthermore, Benatar’s initial album was released in 1979, pre-MTV. And even though “Crimes Of Passion” came out in August 1980, a full year before the launch of the music video service, “You Better Run” was the second video MTV aired. And Benatar was all over the channel. Because Chrysalis believed in video, they had the clips, and, needless to say, Pat Benatar was photogenic.

FIRE AND ICE

There was no national radio station, not everybody had been subjected to Pat Benatar, but now that MTV was here and growing Benatar’s act could be seen throughout the land and despite the albums declining in quality, a hit like “Fire And Ice” could suddenly be bigger than anything ever before.

Insiders realized this immediately. Duran Duran’s expensive videos got all the press a few years later, but anybody with a clip on MTV suddenly saw record sales jump, they could play to a full house nearly everywhere, it was a new golden era.

Ooh, you’re givin’ me the fever tonight

It was the dynamics that put “Fire And Ice” over the top. It started off so quiet and intimate and meaningful and then…

Fire and ice, you come on like a flame
Then you turn a cold shoulder
Fire and ice, I wanna give you my love
But you’ll just take a little piece of my heart
You’ll just tear it apart

But it gets even better. There’s a bridge!

So you think you’ve got it all figured out
You’re an expert in the field without a doubt
But I know your methods inside and out
And I won’t be taken in by fire and ice

And then a screaming guitar solo.

Produced by Keith Olsen and Neil Giraldo, “Fire And Ice” is a tour-de-force!

PROMISES IN THE DARK

Starting off quietly and then exploding, this Giraldo and Benatar cowrite opened up the album “Precious Time” on a high note. Benatar was playing by the rules, the rules of rock and commercialism, give us your best shot FIRST!

SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT

We’re running with the shadows of the night
So baby take my hand, it’ll be all right
Surrender all your dreams to me tonight
They’ll come true in the end

Gives me chills.

With Peter Coleman back in the picture, “Shadows Of The Night” is an everything but the kitchen sink production, there’s no restraint after the a cappella intro, just more, more, MORE! Listen to those pounding drums, that army of guitars!

And you remember the video, with Pat as a factory worker who ultimately flies off to save the world… It was 1982, performance clips were history, and Benatar was leading the way. “Shadows Of The Night” got incessant video play, Pat was on a victory lap nonpareil, back when all the excitement was in music, when even oldsters tuned in to MTV to see what was going on.

It was 1982, teen movies still moved the needle, “Fast Times At Ridgemont High” included a Benatar reference, Pat was a cultural icon!

LITTLE TOO LATE

Just works. Listen.

LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD

A studio track tacked on to a live album, this was the video that proved Pat Benatar couldn’t dance.

Well, it wasn’t that she was bad, but just that she wasn’t great, she was executing scripted choreography whilst concentrating so hard that she lost all soul.

Maybe this is where we started to go wrong, when singing was no longer enough.

But having said that, “Love Is A Battlefield” was a gigantic hit, the clip was an MTV staple, and while girls were perfecting the moves, boys couldn’t get enough of Pat shaking it.

WE BELONG

The last hurrah. There were further chart records, like “Invincible,” “Sex As A Weapon” and “All Fired Up,” but by that point Benatar was running on fumes, she’d strayed from what she once was, a simple hit machine, the material was not as consistent, and the audience knew it and moved on…to hair bands, to Michael Jackson and ultimately rap.

But she had a good long run.

And she’s still out there doing it, the female Bon Jovi. Who had help writing his hits too.

Then again, we never quite knew who Pat Benatar was. This was pre-internet, we knew about her vocal training, but she kept giving props to her husband/guitarist when she was the star and then they both kinda faded away…

And I can’t say their music has radiated.

But if you were there then, if you know these tracks, you know how big Benatar was. Not only big enough to influence women’s looks in “Fast Times,” but so big that when you hear her music you’re brought right back to then.

And isn’t that what music does best? Mark our lives, remind us of who we once were and ultimately still want to be?

Rhinofy-Pat Benatar Primer