NATHAN LA FRANEER

If you bought “Joni Mitchell,” aka “Song To A Seagull,” when it came out, you’re a member of a very exclusive club or you’re lying. There were no famous covers, no big media campaign, the record barely made a noise. Yet, when you discovered it sometime thereafter, which you did if you were a big Joni Mitchell fan, you became enraptured, because of the sound. This is my favorite cut on the LP, the story of a ride to the airport. Exquisitely recorded by Art Cryst and produced by David Crosby this is the sound of enough money to get it right, it’s evidence of a lost art. Hearing the album is akin to viewing ancient relics of the Mayans and the Greeks.

MICHAEL FROM MOUNTAINS

Probably the most well-known song from the first album, you’ll get this on the very first listen.

CACTUS TREE

Oh, that guitar!

You can’t help but get hooked by the lyrics, I’ll let you listen…

CHELSEA MORNING

By this time many knew who Joni Mitchell was, she was the woman who’d written Judy Collins’s big hit “Both Sides Now.”

This song, the second on Joni’s second album, “Clouds,” is the reason Chelsea Clinton sports that moniker, although the Clintons knew the tune from Collins’s cover.

TIN ANGEL

This is the opener of “Clouds,” from back when you didn’t have to hit them right between the eyes to get their attention, when an album was a relatively brief statement we devoured. This was produced by Paul Rothchild, of Doors fame.

I found someone to love today

It sounds like she did.

Love is private, you smile on the inside, “Tin Angel” sounds like that inner glow.

I DON’T KNOW WHERE I STAND

My second favorite cut on “Clouds”…

This is the opposite of today’s paradigm, wherein everybody evidences an indomitable confidence, even women. But if you’ve ever risked love, you know…that sometimes you don’t know.

Whew!

THAT SONG ABOUT THE MIDWAY

My favorite cut on “Clouds,” I completely missed it until I heard Bonnie Raitt’s cover years later. Bonnie’s rendition is better, but there’s something haunting about Joni’s original, like she’s sitting in your living room singing, but not to you, but to a distant rogue you’ve never encountered that she’s obsessing over.

SONGS TO AGING CHILDREN COME

Featured in the 1969 film of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant,” it’s in the funeral/cemetery scene, in the snow. I saw it and never forgot it.

BOTH SIDES NOW

Yes, Joni includes her most famous song on her second album. It’s the same, yet different, sans the production and the twinkly, hooky riff.

FOR FREE

The debut was good, the follow-up was excellent, but “Ladies Of The Canyon” was TRANSCENDENT! This level of greatness was not infrequent back then, we didn’t expect it to become so elusive in the future.

And I play if you have the money
Or if you’re a friend to me

Ditto. I’ll do loads of favors for friends, I’ll put my fingers to keyboard for you, everybody else pays…always.

CONVERSATION

The best track on “Ladies Of The Canyon,” it’s the story of having a better relationship with someone than they do with their significant other, at least in your eyes.

Conversation is everything. Doesn’t matter how you look, how rich you might be, if you’ve got the gift of gab, if you can not only persuade but empathize, you’re gonna win in the lottery of life.

She removes him like a ring
To wash her hands
She only brings him out to show her friends
I want to free him

But you can’t, he’s got to free himself.

THE ARRANGEMENT

You could have been more
Than a name on the door
On the thirty-third floor in the air

Do you wonder whether all those Ivy League graduates in finance are gonna wake up and realize they’ve taken the wrong path?

OF COURSE!

Life was different in the boomer era, personal fulfillment superseded remuneration, it wasn’t until Reagan took office that we all started to dash for cash. And we counted on artists like Joni Mitchell to keep us honest.

RAINY NIGHT HOUSE

Supposedly about Leonard Cohen, this does not affect your appreciation of the track, which sounds like a rainy night, you know, just the two of you in the house, finding out who each other are.

THE PRIEST

A magical elixir of words and sounds, it’ll penetrate your soul.

BIG YELLOW TAXI

I only include it because it’s one of Joni’s most famous tracks. It’s been overplayed and over-covered, but her take still sounds fresh, it has not suffered from the passage of time.

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone

Every baby boomer knows this lyric and verbalizes it and plays it through his brain constantly. Is change good or bad? Should you hold on or let go? I DON’T KNOW!

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

This was just at the advent of the Back To The Land movement, when we realized America’s unchecked development might have a cost. Now we know it does.

WOODSTOCK

Released subsequent to the famous Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young version, it doesn’t sport the iconic riff, but it does evidence loads more meaning.

THE CIRCLE GAME

Already a famous song, Joni put her personal stamp upon it.

ALL I WANT

The piece-de-resistance, “Blue” is one of the best albums ever cut. Not huge upon its release, it has stood the test of time, it’s there waiting to be discovered by future generations. Taylor Swift was clueless as to its existence until I told her about it on the phone, she listened and subsequently titled her next album “Red.”

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling

That’s what we used to do, go on road trips. Before flights were cheap and we traveled to distant locations on a whim.

I want to be strong I want to laugh along
I want to belong to the living

My credo. I sing “All I Want” whenever I’m extremely happy, when I’m newly in love, after meeting Felice.

CALIFORNIA

I’m going to see the folks I dig
I’ll even kiss a Sunset pig
California I’m coming home

Either you get it or you don’t, either you need to live in the Golden State or you don’t.

There are many tracks about my adopted homeland, but this one is definitive.

A CASE OF YOU

My favorite song on “Blue,” “A Case Of You” was an album track buried on the second side which has been plucked free by generations, covered by everyone from Tori Amos to Prince, it evidences humanity and truth and has got that astounding metaphor.

Oh I could drink a case of you darling
Still I’d be on my feet
Oh I would still be on my feet

THE LAST TIME I SAW RICHARD

Exes. You were in love once, the memory fades, but never ever goes away, you’re bonded forever, you share something personal that no one else does, but you can never ever recreate what you once had.

What a conundrum.

YOU TURN ME ON I’M A RADIO

Joni finally had a hit! You could hear her on the radio!

There’s a bit of pandering to the format, the track is slick, but it’s so infectious!

I know you don’t like weak women
You get bored so quick
And you don’t like strong women
‘Cause they’re hip to your tricks

I feel for the other sex, we make it tough. We want to be understood and coddled, we want to be treated just right, we keep sending messages that you’re overbearing or inadequate. Joni understands.

Meanwhile, I’ve used the below lines in romantic encounters numerous times, they always seem to kill the deal, the opposite of my desire.

Call me at the station
The lines are open

BLONDE IN THE BLEACHERS

Male rock stars are pursuing something that can’t be found, they believe if they become rich and famous their lives will work. Alas, this is not true.

WOMAN OF HEART AND MIND

Shocking because of the inclusion of the f-word, a no-no back in ’72, “Woman Of Heart And Mind” is the best track on “For The Roses,” it’s the one I play most today.

You know the times you impress me most
Are the times when you don’t try
When you don’t even try

Heed this. The harder you work it, the more you turn us off. You appear desperate, you need to be loved, and that’s unappealing to everybody. Just try to be yourself, it will work…with some.

LESSON IN SURVIVAL

I get so damn timid
Not at all the spirit
That’s inside of me
Oh baby I can’t seem to make it
With you socially

We want to be our best selves, but somehow we cannot. Even though we might have been able to once.

This is just a smidge of the plethora of truth in this track.

BARANGRILL

Hooky. I used to hear this in my head before the mallization of America, before you saw the same restaurants everywhere.

THE SAME SITUATION

Despite a mild radio hit, “For The Roses” underperformed, it was darker than “Blue,” it ended up being for fans only, which is why it was such a surprise that “Court And Spark” was so gigantic.

Caught in my struggle for higher achievements
And my search for love
That don’t seem to cease

I’d rather listen to Joni Mitchell on women’s issues than Sheryl Sandberg any day of the week. Joni delineates the issues more clearly, she evidences the frustration, the questions, she makes males understand.

This is my favorite track on the album. Laden with insecurity, which everyone can identify with.

FREE MAN IN PARIS

There’s a lot of people asking for my time
They’re trying to get ahead
They’re trying to be a good friend of mine

The best description of business I’ve ever encountered, it’s the story of my life, it’s why I no longer talk on the phone, they want to chew up my time just to serve themselves.

Supposedly about David Geffen, this was a hit despite being so personal, proving that platitudes are not necessary for mainstream success.

HELP ME

Seemingly every woman got the message that spring of ’74, they all went out and bought “Court And Spark,” they wanted to be escorted on their journey to love, “Help Me” was ubiquitous, played by everyone who’d fallen…in love that is.

PEOPLE’S PARTIES

Genius. This is Hollywood. Still. I sing this in my head all the time, especially when I’m at an affair which everybody would die to be at while I’m wondering what I’m doing there.

Saying laughing and crying
You know it’s the same release

Where this expression became famous. Truly.

DOWN TO YOU

Intimate, quiet, more like what came before as opposed to the rest of “Court And Spark,” “Down To You” would fit perfectly on “Ladies Of The Canyon.”

Everything comes and goes
Marked by lovers and styles of clothes

I knew it then, I know it more now, that’s the power of the artist, making truth self-evident.

TWISTED

A cover, Joni rescued the song from obscurity, made it famous for the ages.

COLD BLUE STEEL AND SWEET FIRE

1974’s double live album was a bit too slick, but some songs shone, like this.

WOMAN OF HEARD AND MIND

A bit slower, this live iteration has even more meaning than the original, if that’s possible.

IN FRANCE THEY KISS ON MAIN STREET

I’d be lying if I told you I loved 1975’s jazz-influenced “The Hissing Of Summer Lawns.” This track is the most famous and most palatable to old fans.

SONG FOR SHARON

“Hejira” is a revelation. It did not restore Joni Mitchell’s sales success, casual fans moved on, but the hard core who bought and digested the LP were absolutely stunned, there was a new level of insight, the album is incredible.

This eight and a half minute epic is the centerpiece. Just listen.

However, I must point out the words I hear in my head too much, when those frustrated by modern life can no longer endure it:

A woman I knew just drowned herself
The well was deep and muddy
She was just shaking off futility
Or punishing somebody
My friends were calling up all day yesterday
All emotions and abstractions
It seems we all live so close to that line
And so far from satisfaction

When “Hejira” came out I was close to that line, I’m much further away today, I’ve got to give credit to “Song For Sharon” for keeping me here.

REFUGE OF THE ROADS

With the legendary Jaco Pastorius on bass, “Refuge Of The Roads” was about a road trip, it closed the LP, it set your mind free.

The road used to set you free, before modern technology, before cell phones, before Instagram, when life was interior as opposed to exterior, when you were so often alone, in your own mind, with the tunes as your only companion.

FURRY SINGS THE BLUES

Handy is cast in bronze, I saw him when I went to Beale Street, I looked for him, I couldn’t leave Memphis without seeing him. Joni brought W.C. back from the dead, he’s fading into the woodwork again.

AMELIA

An incredible sound, the track is about Amelia Earhart, from back before most baby boomers knew who she was.

THE THREE GREAT STIMULANTS

I saw Joni at the Troubadour, a special guest, she was unannounced, there were few in the venue, she played this accompanied only by herself, the performance was indelible, as great as anything I’ve ever seen.

I saw a little lawyer on the tube
He said ‘It’s so easy now anyone can sue’

It was 1985, lawyers were in love, yuppies ruled, what once was was now gone.

But the music remains.

Rhinofy-Joni Mitchell Playlist

What if after a long bout of writer’s block you put out an album nearly as good as your debut, but most people ignored it?

Then you’d have Karla Bonoff’s 1988 LP “New World.”

Produced by Mark Goldenberg of Cretones fame and released on Danny Goldberg’s Gold Castle Records this gem sank like a stone…what chance do you have of your less than stellar work breaking through today’s internet cacophony?

Not much.

Therefore people become disheartened and give up. Sometimes you need to stay the course, sometimes the public just hasn’t caught up with you yet. And at least twenty-odd years later “New World” lives on online.

THE BEST PART OF YOU

My favorite track on the album, the one that went through my head as I just walked through the front door.

Friday has been my record shopping day for time immemorial. It’s when life slowed down, obligations receded, and I could do what I wanted to. I’d get in my ’63 Chevy and drive to Burlington to stock up at Artec, I’d drive to Westwood in my 2002 and shop at Grammy ‘n Granny…the hipsters preferred Rhino, and I went there too, but the promo selection was better at the former, and the clerks didn’t insult you.

But now music comes to you, in a tsunami. Scarceness is history, as is anticipation and the breaking of the shrinkwrap.

I’ve got a CD of “New World” at arm’s length, I used to play it a lot, but now I can just click and hear it on Spotify, and you should too.

I know they’ll never fade
These memories we made
Sad times slip away
And I hold on to the best part of you

We do. Look in the rearview mirror and reminisce about the good times that is.

“The Best Part Of You” evidences the synthesizer so prevalent on this LP, marking not only the era, but the fact this record was made on the cheap. Yet on “The Best Part Of You” the synth texture is part of the magic, it sets the mood.

Sure, there were hard times, “the hurt we thought we’d never face,” but “The Best Part Of You” feels like that old Simon & Garfunkel song from “Bookends,” “America.” There’s travel, there’s a reference to this great country of ours, to youth, when we were full of drive, when opportunity was prevalent.

Pull this up late at night. You’ll be set at ease and haunted at the same time.

If your mind ever drifts back to what once was and never more will be.

STILL GETTING OVER YOU

When I finally find
I finally find
My love, I’ll still be getting over  you

Whew!

We live in an instant culture, where we’re supposed to instantly forget the past, the good times as well as the hurts. Society tells us no one wants to hear it, you’ve got to keep it to yourself, especially if you’re a guy, you’re supposed to buck up, put a smile on your face and be optimistic.

Hogwash. Breakups hurt. Live long enough and you know it’s mutual, on both sides, both the leaver and the left feel bad. As for the breakup itself being mutual? Decided on by both? Anybody who tells you this is lying, someone always wants it more, the leaver feels guilty and the left doesn’t want to be perceived to be a loser so neither tells the truth. But what goes on in your head cannot be suppressed.

They stay in our brain forever. The memories fade, but they never go completely away. The new person is not identical. They’re better overall, but they don’t have that certain something the old person did, which still haunts you.

Who’s singing about all this?

Karla Bonoff!

ALL MY LIFE

We don’t know how to love. If we’re lucky, someone gives us some hints. But truly we learn through experience. Sometimes you’re the teacher, sometimes you’re the student.

And I never really knew how to love
I just hoped somehow I’d see
Oh I asked for a little help from above
Send an angel down to me

The beautiful might not understand, they may be overwhelmed with offers, from people who see the exterior but not the interior, but the rest of us…we pray, maybe not to God, but to someone above to help us, to deliver them to us and allow us to behave reasonably.

I never thought I could feel a love so tender
I never thought I could let those feelings show
But now my heart is on my sleeve
And this love will never leave
I know I know

This is the warmth, this is the essence of a relationship, not the sex, not the physical intimacy, but the sharing of information, it’s what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. We have a unique desire to be known, to share our thoughts, not only our victories, but our dilemmas, our inadequacies. And when you’re deep in love you feel safe opening up, you feel someone is finally open to you. That’s what bonds you together.

Some people never take the risk.

Then there are others who overshare, who are so busy talking they don’t listen.

And then there are those whose best self is drawn out by the other.

That’s what Karla is singing about here.

GOODBYE MY FRIEND

The track I listened to on 9/11.

Oh we never know where life will take us
We know it’s just a ride on the wheel
And we never know when death will shake us
And we wonder how it will feel

Ain’t that the truth. You think you have it figured out, that you know where you’re going, but that’s patently untrue. Life is a pinball machine. Some become so frightened they take themselves out of the game and live lives of quiet desperation, the rest of us keep getting banged around, ending up in places we could never conceive. Are you doing the work you thought you’d be? You might have envisioned being married once with three biological children yet your second or third spouse who fits you like a glove comes with two adolescents you come to know and love as your own.

Life’s a mystery.

And then it ends.

It most certainly will.

This is what I admire in the young, their belief that they’re gonna live forever, healthily. But when the first person around you passes away you experience a loss so deep you could not previously fathom it. And then you get older and realize you’re gonna go too, and except for those around you, no one’s gonna care, that so much of what you’ve spent your time achieving is a waste.

TELL ME WHY

You can’t break up. You know you should, but you can’t.

So won’t you tell me why
I can’t say goodbye
Won’t you tell me why

And then something happens. They two-time you, you find out something so horrifying you’re stopped in your tracks.

I’m walking on a real thin line
A fool in love with a fool that never cared

This is a hard lesson to learn, that you’re best off with people in love with you. You might be attracted to him or her, but if it’s not mutual, you’re headed for a plethora of pain.

Certain people are not relationship material, others just don’t want you. The sooner you find out, the sooner you can escape and find someone who’s right.

OH MARY

The rush is incredible.

But it fades.

Some become addicted to the high and jump from person to person.

Oh Mary he takes my hand
He tells me that he understands
Oh I wanna know
Did that happen to you

You don’t broadcast it, yet some people can see it in your countenance, but you’re eager to share the information, like the cat that ate the canary, you’ve fallen in love. Is yours unique, is this what everybody’s been talking about, is it real?

Love, or is it just a passing thing
Does time take away the gift it brings
Oh no Mary tell me will this love be true

What they don’t tell you is time pays dividends, the longer you stay together the better it gets. The rush is long gone, but the interconnectedness and the dependency endure. You can count on this person, and nothing feels so good.

WAY OF THE HEART

We just fight all day
Not meaning anything we say
And now we’re frozen
Afraid to let go

I’ve been there, have you? It started out good, you dreamily looked into each other’s eyes, and then…you never saw eye to eye again. Oh, you’d have a good night, but then it’d devolve into arguing and hard stares. You can’t live with ’em and you can’t live without ’em. How do you cope, what do you do?

When you find out, let me know.

HOW LONG

You say you need someone to love
But when will you learn?
Whatever’s done in this world
It’s still gonna turn

This is what we depend on our artists for, truth. Honest insight, delivered with emotion.

It’s why music’s in the crapper. Whatever truth is revealed is delivered with bluster. Most times the words are either tossed off indiscriminately or written by cynical old men who know more about craft than art.

But in the heyday of yore, when music blew up because the same people who wrote it performed it, we looked for something more, beneath the sheen we were looking for those nuggets of truth.

Yet “How Long” is a cover, it was written by David and Andrew Williams. Proving there are no rules, that a great song is a great song, if it’s delivered well it will reach you.

How long til you see that we’re in this together?
How long?
How long?

That’s the key. An understanding that you’re more than a couple, you’re a team. That you look out for each other, that you can be counted on.

Which reminds me of my favorite movie of the twenty first century, “You Can Count On Me.”

No one could count on Mark Ruffalo, which is why his life was so hard. The more you’re there for people, the richer your life becomes.

But how are you gonna learn how to behave, who’s gonna help you through?

Hopefully your parents gave you a good start. After that… My generation looked to records.

I’d like to tell you that we’re in this together. But even though we can communicate with the push of a button, I still feel alone so much of the time, while my brethren post about their fabulous lives on Instagram. But I know they’re lying, it’s the nature of being human, you’ve got ups and downs. How do you cope?

For my generation it’s music. It not only crowded out the noise, it spoke to us, personally.

I’m thinking about all this on a Friday afternoon, which feels so much just as it did in the decades of yore, because as much as I’ve changed, I really haven’t, I’m still the same person. I loved the thrill of not only buying the records, but the listening.

I’m listening to one now.

“New World” – Karla Bonoff on Spotify

SOMEONE TO LAY DOWN BESIDE ME

Linda Ronstadt was America’s sweetheart, the coolest rock chick who owned the airwaves, she released her third smash in a row, “Hasten Down The Wind” and the killer track, which finished the LP, was “Someone To Lay Down Beside Me.” The instrumentation was perfect, haunting, the sheen shone, and then we experienced the exquisite voice we all knew and loved.

Singing a song by someone we were completely unfamiliar with, one Karla Bonoff.

Still you know that may be what I need
Is someone to lay down beside me
And even though it’s not real
Just someone to lay down beside me
You’re the story of my life

A beautiful song sung by someone who seemed to own the world, the darkness was absent.

But when Karla sang the same song with the same arrangement…WHEW!

Well morning is breaking, the street lights are off
The sun will soon share all the cost
Of a world that can be sort of heartless
Not like love that you feel in your heart

Sung by an unknown, someone just like us, the words seemed so much more…BELIEVABLE! This was someone who was yearning for connection in a world that so rarely provides it, back before Match.com, never mind Tinder. When loneliness killed.

You heard Karla sing and you thought about yourself. And how the world really was kind of heartless, that’s the key word in the song, the one you remember.

I CAN’T HOLD ON

Oh baby, this time it’s good-bye
And you can be sure that I won’t cry
Our love is just a faded story
I’m walking down the road
And you’ve just got to let me go

Have you read the Franzen book? There are moments in “Purity” that will make your eyes bug out, the stories of young love, when we’re passionate and inexperienced and make choices we wince at years later. Back then we didn’t know whether to double-down or RUN!

“I Can’t Hold On” is upbeat as opposed to the dirgy “Someone To Lay Down Beside Me.” It evidences the freedom of one who’s thought about it a long time and has broken away and is now reveling in the power of her aloneness.

‘Cause I can’t hold on
I can’t hold on
I can’t hold on anymore

These are not the words of a fly-by-nighter. She tried, she’s not the one who jumps from relationship to relationship, but she’s finally reached her limit, she’s done.

And maybe next time you’ll cry
When someone like me says good-bye
You’ll wake up when she’s gone and wonder
How you could let her go
But look at me, I’m going under…

Come on, if you haven’t said this to yourself, maybe even made the mistake of saying it to your ex, you’re a leaver, not one of the left. You’ve given your all and it’s still not enough. You want to scream and shout, but they’re still playing games…

It’s all here. This is the best post breakup song I know, I’ve sung it to myself many a time.

LOSE AGAIN

The opener on that Linda Ronstadt album. Yes, there were three Karla Bonoff songs on “Hasten Down The Wind.”

When the heart calls, the mind obeys
Oh, it knows better than me, baby

Ain’t that the truth. You know you should end it, but your heart won’t let you, you go back for another go-round. I always thought this is the same person who was free in the previous song. She thought she was done and then…he pulled her back in.

But you’re keepin’ me goin’, I know it’s insane
Because I love you and lose again

Once again, I think you’ve lived this story…I certainly have.

HOME

Covered by Bonnie Raitt on her LP “Sweet Forgiveness.”

And home sings me of sweet things
My life there has its own wings

I sing this song every time I go away, just before I come back…home.

FACES IN THE WIND

The side-closer, written by Craig Safan, it’s the mood that gets you.

The remorse…

ISN’T IT ALWAYS LOVE

My favorite song on the album.

Isn’t it always love that makes you hang your head
And isn’t it always love that makes you cry
But isn’t it always love that takes the tears away
And you wouldn’t have it other way

That’s what we’re living for, money and status are a sideshow. And if you have those…how do you know your beloved is true? Life is a roller coaster, we’re looking for that thrill of connection, that pitter-patter in our heart.

When you find someone that’s true to you
Some days are up and oh some days are blue
Just don’t go and throw it all away
Wait a minute, you gotta hear what I say

The rewards are in staying together, enduring the ups and downs, deepening the bond, knowing you can put the pieces back together and march on. Boomers grew up in the era of divorce, if things weren’t right you were supposed to break up and find something better…but oftentimes that didn’t happen.

IF HE’S EVER NEAR

The third and final Karla Bonoff song on “Hasten Down The Wind.”

They say just once in life
You find someone that’s right
But the world looks so confused
I can’t tell false from true
And love’s so hard to find
In this state of mind
Oh, I hope I’ll know him
I hope I’ll know him
If he’s ever near

Definitive, the best words I know on this subject. In a country of 300 million, in a world of 3 billion…what does love look like, who is the right one for you?

Well I know that in my time
I’ll have it sweet and fine
But it won’t add up to much
Unless I feel his touch
‘Cause love’s so hard to find
And I guess I’ll just give up tryin’

Don’t. Those of you broke and busted on the side of the road, keep at it. Look inside yourself, work on your issues, because there’s someone out there for you and you’ll feel so much happier when you find them.

That’s right. Those of you who just can’t win at the game. That’s because you don’t know how to play. You can change, you can make it work, I know it.

FLYING HIGH

The other song on the album not written by Karla.

She said now you’re flying high
Tomorrow you might be low
The same thing that makes your baby cry
Might make him get up and go

Happiness is followed by despair, and it seems inexplicable. You want to avoid the turmoil, but ups and downs are the story of life. Grab hold and don’t let go!

Credit Steve Ferguson for the wisdom.

FALLING STAR

Positively creepy, positively brilliant.

Oh, my heart aches deep inside me
Oh, how I miss you
Will you come back, oh, why’d you leave me
Oh, what can I do

Inexplicable. They rarely tell you why they’re gone. Was it something you did, something you can change? And if you’re everything they say they want you to be…will it make any difference?

‘Cause every night I sit here by the phone
You know it rings a lot inside my head
I daydream you’re home

Oh, the telephone. Especially before answering machines. You’d stay home and wait, believing they’d call, but they didn’t. Eventually they did but to assuage their own guilt, not because they’d reconsidered and wanted to come back. It’s over and you don’t want to believe it.

But now I know that love can leave a scar

Oh, to be young and inexperienced once again, to have a do-over and try other options. It’s amazing how one person can have such an impact upon your life.

ROSE IN THE GARDEN

And now it’s over.

So different from today’s music, where the singers are winners and kick their significant others to the curb. You can tell Karla Bonoff’s been hurt, she’s been on the losing end of love, but now she’s resigned to the loss, she’s gonna let him go.

I’m not telling any lies now
I need  you
You know how
I think I can see how to let you grow
I’ve got to let you go

EEGADS! This is the last thing you want to do!

Though that’s my face in the mirror
It’s sometimes you that I see
‘Cause we’ve been here for so long now
I see your soul in me

You’ve merged. You’ve even started to look alike. The person closest to you, who knows all your secrets, is no longer there, and will ultimately be with someone else. It’s soul-crushing.

“Karla Bonoff” was produced by Kenny Edwards. Bonoff’s significant other, once. He’s now gone. Bonoff is still here. You can hear her sing these songs live, she goes on the road. You’ll be sitting in the audience reflecting upon what once was, all the turmoil when most of your life was still ahead of you instead of behind.

Or maybe you’re in your twenties and eating life up.

Well, Karla’s got some insight for you.

Seems like a long time ago, the seventies are deep in the rearview mirror, but life hasn’t really changed, if you nailed it then the lessons still apply. And if you made great music it still satiates.

I plucked Karla Bonoff’s debut from the promo bin, and then went back and bought every copy they had, so I could gift it to people. They needed to hear it. Back when we got our truth from music. When we were all conflicted and concerned about love, when communicating meant more than a text, when you had to be vulnerable to connect and it hurt so much to be rejected.

Actually, that last part is still true. Hook-up culture is more of a media fiction than reality. You’ve got to be yourself to get ahead, open your heart for someone to reach inside, but who’s gonna help you, soothe you when you lose?

Karla Bonoff.

Rhinofy-Karla Bonoff

“Jimmy Iovine wants Apple to save the world from free music”

It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

Or one can just say that every time Jimmy Iovine opens his mouth he digs his hole deeper.

Let’s rewind the clock all the way back to 2004, January of that year, when Jimmy Iovine stumbled through a speech at CES, as he shilled for HP and its soon to be disgraced CEO Carly Fiorina, and complained, as he did yesterday, that free was killing the music business.

“HP Declares War On Sharing Culture”

Jimmy references 50 Cent. If you know your history, Fitty took his newfound fame and ended up with a serious slice of Vitamin Water, generating more riches than any recording contract ever could.

As for Carly Fiorina extolling the virtues of digital rights management (DRM), this was already after the iTunes Music Store had launched and lock free files were swimming all over the web.

This was also the CES wherein Carly launched the HP iPod. And if you want to know how that turned out, how Jobs snookered Fiorina, read this:

“How Steve Jobs Fleeced Carly Fiorina”

And this is the woman we want running our country?

Of course we don’t. This is the woman selling newspapers and TV advertising, media loves her challenge to Trump. And I’ll cede Carly her intelligence, but her business history is superseded by Andy Lack’s tenure at Sony Music, wherein he put the rootkit on CDs and not only killed Neil Diamond’s album, but helped put the CD business in its grave, all by alienating customers.

Now Jimmy is targeting Spotify and YouTube at “Vanity Fair,” but really he’s pointing his finger at you, the consumer. You don’t pay for music. But you do overpay to see your favorites live who are “forced” to go on tour and make millions. How could he and Carly get it so wrong?

By having no experience.

Carly Fiorina knew little about tech and little about running a major tech corporation. It would be like putting a fantasy football champ in charge of the Patriots, because really Belichick is doing the job of an amateur, his wins are accidental.

Jimmy knows loads about signing talent and selling music.

Digital distribution of goods? HE’S CLUELESS!

What do we know about tech…

Excellence is key, the price goes down and scale is everything.

Is most of the music deserving of our attention?

OF COURSE NOT!

But now that everything’s available people are gravitating to the few anointed artists. And that means that both the good and the marginal are left out. It’s about listens. And all the listens are going to the hit artists. You’re broke because of your content, not because Spotify and YouTube are screwing you.

As for YouTube…

It garnered most of the viewing/listening because Warner Music refused to license Spotify and therefore the service didn’t launch in the U.S. until 2011. YouTube is much less of a factor in nations where Spotify launched earlier, like in Scandinavia in 2009. Timing is key. Hell, if Apple Music predated Spotify it might be in a triumphant position today.

As for the freemium tier… It was enabled to kill piracy. Does Jimmy really believe if freemium goes away that everybody will pay? He doesn’t think it will just drive piracy underground again, via P2P and sneakernet? The book business declared war on Amazon, Bezos capitulated, prices were raised and sales went down. Or is Jimmy just out for himself, and if Apple Music can make money he doesn’t really care about piracy… That’d be the self-centered music business way.

We’ve learned for the past fifteen years that the only way you win is by getting on the customer’s side. If you’re trying to shame people into compliance, corral them into seeing it your way, you’re doomed. Remember when the RIAA sued file traders?

Furthermore, Jimmy is now playing defense. He doth protest too much. He got his ninety days free, he’s responsible for a botched product. But suddenly it’s Spotify and YouTube’s fault?

And Jimmy tried to tilt the playing field. By making rightsholders end their Spotify freemium deal, by making them eradicate free music from YouTube. The end result? GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION! This is hilarious because back in 2004 Jimmy was begging for the government to get involved. Karma’s a bitch. And everybody in tech knows you keep the government at bay, because D.C. is backwards and incompetent, and when you finally fly on the radar you hire lobbyists to educate and implore elected officials.

Ranting and raving just makes Jimmy laughable, marginalizes him.

He’s making these statements at a fat cat confab. Try saying the same things in front of the public, rotten tomatoes would be flying, boos would drown him out. Can Jimmy really be that out of touch?

Yes.

We’ve hit bottom. Recorded music revenues are only going to go up. Streaming has won and will continue to rule, because we live in an on demand culture and that’s what streaming is…you don’t own it, you have the ability to access it. If you hate Spotify, you hate Netflix, you’d rather own DVDs. But good luck finding someplace to buy them, your brethren have moved on.

But the marginal, like Jimmy, yell loudest.

Ten percent are never going to pay. Forget about them.

As for the other ninety percent, they’re looking for convenience, and advantages.

Did AT&T and Verizon put a gun to consumers’ heads and force them to buy expensive data plans?

No, people wanted them, so they could play!

They paid for AOL.

They paid for broadband connections.

And now some have stopped paying for cable.

Cablevision got out. But before Dolan made the deal, he said how the value of cable in the future would be the internet, not TV.

If Jimmy wants Apple Music to win, he’s got to provide a better experience. And he’s got to realize we’re in a transitional period. Music has been free for so long that most people have fallen out of the habit of paying for it, if they ever paid at all. But history is littered with stories of people adopting new habits, expensive ones at that.

But you’ve got the artists saying they’re being screwed.

Billionaire Jimmy Iovine saying it’s all unfair.

And everybody at home is struggling just to survive.

Jimmy can’t rewrite the rules of business, of human behavior. How come he knows so much about selling good records and so little about selling streaming music?

Can you stream on Sonos without paying?

OF COURSE NOT! But Jimmy launched Apple Music without Sonos compatibility, not realizing these upscale sneezers would spread the word.

Is YouTube a good listening experience on the handset?

OF COURSE NOT!

Can you pick and choose the songs you want to hear on Spotify’s mobile freemium tier?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

It pays to pay.

People just don’t know it yet.

But do you get a date by insulting someone?

Don’t we hook drug addicts by giving dope away for free?

Everybody needs to STFU. Streaming services just have to improve, become an indispensable business proposition, then people will pay.

And they will.

But never forget…

One service will have the lion’s share of the paying customers, you go where your friends are, we live in a social world.

And just because you can play, that does not mean you can win.

And that goes for both wannabe artists and Jimmy Iovine.

Excellence rules. Word of mouth counts.

And if you’re over fifty you’re probably clueless.

Unless this is your area of expertise to begin with.

Kids don’t own televisions, if they watch on their computers or handsets at all.

Jimmy would tell them to sit down in front of the big screen.

I’m saying we’re in a good place. We’ve beaten back piracy and you can get all the goods in one place. Take that television, take that movies.

Happy days are here again, just you wait and see.