They couldn’t be anything else.

The first time I heard “Dream On” was just about now, only forty one years ago, crossing the great state of Massachusetts from Amherst to the 91.

There were no iPods, never mind Walkmen, and unless you had a modern car, you were limited to AM. And my automobile was a ’63 Chevy, which I inherited from my older sister and eventually passed down to my younger sister who threatened to leave it on Nantucket until my father insisted she fix it and drive it back to its homeland of Connecticut.

And that car required full-time attention, it had a wandering front end. But it was a convertible, when those were almost extinct, and if you drove on the east coast the goal was to keep the top down until it snowed. And I did. And rambling down this two lane highway I heard this magic elixir emanating from the one speaker in the dash that had me riveted and exhilarated to the point where I purchased the band’s debut album just to hear it.

And although uneven, I took the plunge on the second, “Get Your Wings,” which may not be their best but is certainly my favorite. Sans any hits, tracks like “Lord Of The Thighs” and “Seasons Of Wither” had you playing them over and over again and for others to the point where Hooker borrowed my cassette without asking so they could flip to it.

A little explanation… When you drove cross-country back then you prepared, you spent two days making cassettes, because before satellite radio there were vast stretches of highway where your antenna pulled in absolutely nothing, and you needed your tunes, they truly drove the culture back then. And I made a cassette of “Get Your Wings” and I played it that magic month in Mammoth Lakes in the spring of ’75 and I got everybody hooked on it, even Hooker, who blasted it while he and Dave and the rest were practicing their flips on Mammoth Mountain.

And when you were in the boonies back then you were on a virtual news blackout, I was unaware that Aerosmith had released a new album that was suddenly dominating the airwaves, that there was one song that might not have crossed over but had made the band stars. That track was “Sweet Emotion.”

Joe Perry is flogging a book. I haven’t read it, I usually don’t, they’re all the same. How drink and drugs and fighting drove the performer to oblivion and then they returned, intact, for a victory lap. But Howard Stern elicited the nuggets we were interested last week and when they were talking about “Sweet Emotion” I had to pull it up in Deezer, to hear it stream in CD quality.

And it is all about the sound. It’s about Tom Hamilton’s bass, the percussion, and then the way the band settles into the groove and absolutely wallops it. You stood in the audience nodding your head like a zombie, if you were privileged to see the band live, if not, you replicated this behavior in front of the giant speakers you worked minimum wage to buy.

Talk about things that nobody cares

Welcome to my world. Somewhere along the line I lost the plot, or the world forked off and I wasn’t even aware there was a choice. Suddenly it became all about the money and our heroes were people who could make things, the perpetrators of ideas took a back seat, if they were in the car at all.

Wearin’ out things that nobody wears

I’m stuck in the seventies, I wear the same clothes I did in college, and I know I stick out, but I’m afraid of inauthenticity, feeling fake in the attire of the day which is gonna fade and be laughed at in far less than a decade. That’s right, I’m proud I never wore a leisure suit.

Ya callin’ my name but I gotta make clear
I can’t say baby where I’ll be in a year

That’s the difference. Once upon a time I was itinerant, sleeping on floors all across the west, and now I’ve lived in the same place for decades, waiting for the one big break that seems to constantly elude my grasp.

Some sweathog mama with a face like a gent
Said my get up and go musta got up and went

You can’t even say that today, the politically correct police will denounce you. That’s the society we live in, one of gotcha, where the goal is to find the mistakes of those who raise their head above and pull them down into the hole you’re in.

Standin’ in the front just a shakin’ your ass
I’ll take you backstage you can drink from my glass

We were envious, the girls had something to give our heroes. They sacrificed themselves at the altar of rock and roll, and we just wished  we could have been there at the ceremony. And this behavior is deplored today, but sex makes the world go ’round, and when you speak from your heart and your words and music resonate the world spreads its legs and lets you inside. And no amount of naysaying will deny this. The only difference was back then the money was not the primary attraction, you just wanted to get closer to the people singing and playing these songs.

Sweet emotion
Sweet emotion

There’s something that goes on in your ears, and it’s perfectly sweet, and it’s definitely emotion. And the older generation couldn’t get it, never mind understand it, and those listening to AM radio were out of the loop but by this time nearly the entire younger generation had slid over to the FM dial and rock star was the apotheosis, the peak of living on this mortal coil.

The rock stars got politicians elected. Just ask Jimmy Carter, who was helped by the Allman Brothers. Or Jerry Brown, who was helped by his paramour Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles and so many other SoCal performers.

The rock stars defined society, we hung on every word.

And yet, still, the scene was not embraced by the mainstream.

Until MTV. Which rained down coin previously unfathomable.

And then came the Internet, which made the rest of the nerds rich and famous to a degree the musicians could never foresee.

And now everybody wants to say nothing has changed. When the truth is everything has. Music does not only not make as much money, it doesn’t even glorify the same people. Used to be outsiders ruled, who insisted on doing it their way, who gave the middle finger to social mores, whereas today’s doofuses do it for the label and the corporate cash and the ability to show up at the Met Ball and the rest of the affairs that used to exclude them.

No more no more

Actually, “Sweet Emotion” was not my favorite track on “Toys In The Attic,” that role was filled by its follow-up, “No More No More.”

No more rock stars dominating our culture, respecting the past but focused on making the music and the world their own.

No more rock stars recording their albums without label input.

No more cheap tickets.

No more practicing in isolation, honing your chops so your nonverbal self could get laid.

No more buying the latest release and playing it for weeks until you knew every lick.

No more satisfaction with your success and your station, today the musicians are as greedy as the rest of our society, bitching about being ripped off and unable to be…

Aerosmith.

“Joe Perry On The Howard Stern Show”

“Rocky Mountain High”
John Denver

Love him or loathe him, if you’re not enamored of this song you’re not a friend of mine.

From the acoustic intro you’re immediately transported to a place of fresh air where your troubles have been left behind.

We all want to be born again, we all want to find the key to every door, and despite having such a poignant message, what really makes this track soar is the sound and the indelible chorus, with the way it gets quiet just before the title words are sung.

“Rocky Mountain High” is one of those tracks you can never burn out on, that you never tire of hearing, that makes you go out and buy the album containing it just to hear it, just to be able to play it over and over again.

I did.

“Rocky Mountain Way”
Joe Walsh

It looked like he was toast, that leaving the James Gang was a decision akin to Shelley Long leaving “Cheers,” his first album had “Turn To Stone,” but it got little airplay, Joe was in a funk and then he dropped this.

Spent the last year Rocky Mountain way

People who’d never been higher than sea level could and did sing every word. On this track alone, Joe was back and bigger than ever. Never argue with the power of a hit.

Or a riff.

This was the first track to popularize the use of the voice box, but it would have been gigantic without it, talk about capturing magic in a bottle.

“Colorado”
Linda Ronstadt

This Rick Roberts penned tune was on Linda’s first Asylum album, the one that was going to make her a star.

Alas, it did not happen, that didn’t occur until the next LP, which came out on her old label Capitol.

The LP has a genius version of Neil Young’s “I Believe In You,” a complete misreading of Randy Newman’s “Sail Away,” another take on “Love Has No Pride,” that Bonnie Raitt debuted, and one of the first covers of the Eagles’ “Desperado,” but I find this to be the most memorable track on the album.

But I’m tired of that race
It was much too fast a pace
And I think I’ve found my place
Colorado, I want to come home

This was still the seventies, pre Internet, pre airline deregulation, pre no cost long distance, Colorado was still off the grid, celebrities had not yet discovered Aspen, you could truly retreat to the Rocky Mountain state, slow down and live an alternative lifestyle.

“Boulder Skies”
Pure Prairie League

Colorado canyon girl could set me free

Never underestimate the power of Craig Fuller’s voice. It closes you immediately. And many baby boomers know this song by heart, because it followed “Amie” on side two of Pure Prairie League’s breakout album, “Bustin’ Out.”

It’s all about the sound.

Especially in the fast-paced world of today, we want something that puts our mind on the back porch of life with a beer in our hand, reflecting on what has happened and is yet to be.
“Boulder Skies” does this.

“Man Of Constant Sorrow”

I’ll say goodbye to Colorado
Where I was born and probably raised

Covered by everybody from Bob Dylan to Dan Tyminski (who, alas, changes it to “Kentucky”), my favorite version of “Man Of Constant Sorrow” is contained on Rod Stewart’s debut album.

This is not the prancing peacock of today, he was completely unknown in America when this album was released, and to drop the needle was a revelation, it was so intimate.

And who knew you pronounced it RAD instead of ROD.

I laughed at him, figured he was English and he didn’t know. But the truth is everybody who lives in the state pronounces it his way.

“Rocky Mountain Breakdown”
Poco

Jim was gone and Richie too, the act had not yet switched to ABC and had hits, but this is pure Poco and fans know it and it’s contained in Epic’s superb Poco compilation, “The Forgotten Trail.”

“Colorado Christmas”
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Written by the long forgotten but undeservedly so Steve Goodman, this is a Christmas song you might have never heard, but should.

But all along the Rockies you can feel it in the air
From Telluride to Boulder down below

Makes you want to hop a plane to the mountains immediately!

“The Bitch Is Back”
Elton John

Huh?

Don’t you remember, the album was named CARIBOU!

That’s right, that was the cool place to cut your LP back in the early seventies, at James William Guercio’s Caribou Ranch in Nederland, Colorado. Walsh recorded there, Joe’s producer Bill Szymczyk cut Rick Derringer’s “Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo” there too, Supertramp did “Even In the Quietest Moments,” and of course multiple Chicago LPs were constructed at that high altitude.

Meanwhile, this was a huge hit when I lived in the mountains. Albeit in the Wasatch, in Utah.

“Get Out Of Denver”

Made famous, of course, by Bob Seger, he and his manager are too ignorant to be on Spotify, so I’m including Dave Edmunds’s glorious take.

“Grand Junction”
Poco

Was it metaphorical or was it really about the western Colorado burg? I’m not sure!

But it tears right along on Poco’s fantastic initial LP.

“No More Buffalo”
James McMurtry

We headed south across those Colorado plains
Just as empty as the day

Not about the mountains, but the half of Colorado that’s flat, that people forget about, this track elicits the feeling of that landscape.

“I Know You Rider”
Grateful Dead

Most famously on the live album “Europe ’72,” many people have cut it and it contains the line:

I’d shine my light through cool Colorado rain

“When It’s Springtime In The Rockies”
Gene Autry

When it’s springtime in the Rockies
I’ll be coming back to you
Little sweetheart of the mountains
With your bonnie eyes of blue

Yes, Colorado and its topography have been inspiring songwriters for eons, even back to the Singing Cowboy. We all yearn for the simple life and the clean air.

And a multitude of acts have emanated from the state, from Lothar and the Hand People to the Samples to Big Head Todd to the Fray and…

I’m sure you’ve got your own favorites, but this is a start!

Rhinofy-Colorado Songs Primer

From: Irving Azoff
Subject: re: Buffett “sell a plane” quote and the digital space

“Vanity Fair” wrote:

“Moderator Irving Azoff, the owner of Azoff MSG entertainment responded with a zinger for Buffett, whom he told to ‘sell one of the planes.'”

In classic fashion, the press twisted words about getting paid by
selling planes rather than focusing on how hard it is to actually get
paid online as an artist. There’s no rewards program for frequent
streamer-miles yet….

The point I was trying to make was that guys my age and Jimmy Buffett’s age need to be looking at digital services as the future, not the present road for real money. We might need to sell some tangible assets if we want to keep playing in the streaming music space because it’s hard for today’s legacy artists to make a real buck in the digital space vs the touring business. I don’t think that’s going to change in the near term.

_______________________________________

From: Dan Navarro
Subject: Re: The Jimmy Buffett Dustup

What I never see mentioned in any account of the economics of the music business is that labels recoup off the artists’ share, not off the top.

That simple fact alone means that it is mathematically possible…even likely…that a record can be in profit, based on sales numbers and wholesale prices, but the artist remains unrecouped, which is then spun to imply that the label is not paid back for its investment.

It has also meant that managers go for the quick kill on the advance, since they know that, hit or not, they may never see another dime in royalties.

I can’t help but factor that into any opinion I have of the economics of the record business, and how much artists are paid. We’re not trying to get rich, we’re trying to get paid, accurately, fairly, in a timely manner.

_______________________________________

Re: Paul Revere

Thank You Bob
I am not good at saying goodbye! You did it for me. Of course I loved Paul and all the Raiders records!
Yes. Even us Brits got a taste of that fun band although we didn’t see the TV show! Thank you for saying good bye so beautifully!

Peter Noone

_______________________________________

Dear Bob
In response to your piece ”Napster would kill creation ” etc.

I have been a record producer since 1966, so i can speak with the experience of history. In spite of all the stories and myths about how unfair and horrible record companies were prior to the ”new” world of the internet and streaming, the old model, as flawed as it might have appeared was responsible for  facilitating the entire history of recorded music. From Louis Armstrong to Michael Jackson, it was the structure of discovery and development that defined the record business. The pecking order that was in place during these years made us all better at what we did. If you were going to make it, you had to have your s___ together. It drove the most talented, the hardest working, the best and the brightest to achieve the results that now comprise the catalogues of the streaming services. Somehow in spite of the snakes and hustlers that sometimes ran the business, what was created was a body of work of great value and beauty. What has the ”new ” model Created.

Stewart Levine
Record Producer

_______________________________________

“On the one hand information wants to be expensive.”

That’s the first half of the Stewart Brand quote that everybody forgets but the news media has embraced. Used to be reporters asked hard questions and revealed their answers in their newspapers and magazines, now they’ve all emulated the music business and taken their show on the road, it’s all about conferences baby, where the well-heeled overpay and the hoi polloi get crumbs from the people who can’t write and leave the best parts out.

Yesterday Jimmy Buffett asked Daniel Ek for more money at the “Vanity Fair” conference in San Francisco. What, you didn’t get an invitation? Of course not, because you don’t count, it’s a whole world of intelligentsia who are all about relationships and the only people you know are hanging at the bar.

And Jimmy Buffett stands up in all his glory and asks Daniel Ek for a raise. Why don’t you try the same thing. Why don’t you go into Lucian Grainge and talk about his pay and the money Universal is making and ask for a bonus. Even better, ask for a discount on the subway. Better yet, on your taxes. What Buffett is asking for is to throw out the rule of law, of contracts, and to have Spotify throw artists a few shekels out of the goodness of its corporate heart, although the last time I checked they didn’t have one, no corporation does, Apple doesn’t pay taxes and neither does U2. Everybody’s in in for themselves but since Buffett makes art, he gets to evade the rules. Huh?

Even better, how about Jimmy kicking back some of that live dough to his label. Ticket prices have far exceeded inflation for years, doesn’t Lucian Grainge get to dip down into the seaman’s pocket for some of that?

Actually, they do that today, with a 360 deal. Which you don’t have to sign.

You want the label to make you famous, you want it to employ its marketing power and relationships, and then you want to bitch that you’re just not getting rich. No one said you had to do it their way!

Bitch about something you can change. Elect a different congressperson, fight to ensure gay marriage or abortion, take to the courts, because jawboning hardly ever works, check it, the President rarely employs it.

I expected more from Jimmy, who’s a minor Gene Simmons, for all his affability Buffett is supremely confident, he thinks he knows everything. When his record sales started to tank he opened restaurants, put the pedal to the metal on merch, even got into the casino business. Once again, did he share a piece of this revenue with those who got him there? Of course not!

And no one beats up on Google, which started this problem, with YouTube, because Google is their friend, those guys are over forty, we all use Google every day, it’s an institution in this short term memory society.

But the wisest words were spoken by Tom Freston, who declared that music no longer drove society, tech did. This is the same guy who said MTV was no longer gonna show videos, that they’d become an on demand item online. But the artists complained about MTV’s U-turn until very recently, when they found out YouTube allows them to go directly to their audience whenever they want and get paid in the process. Come on, hear anybody bitching about the cable channel recently?

And they won’t be bitching about streaming services either.

But the truth is artists are dumb. Trotted out for entertainment. Unaware of how business really works. U2 will not recover from the stink of the Apple cram down forever, the same way Metallica has never fully recovered from the Napster fiasco, because in both cases they could not read the landscape. Napster died and was replaced with worse and piracy reigned and then streaming services reined piracy in. And U2 is the poster boy for aging out of touch rock stars which tech companies will now keep at arm’s length, because they’re only about the money, only about the promotional value, do you really think Tim Cook is gonna listen to Jimmy Iovine now?

Streaming revenues will go up.

And if you create something as good as the iPhone you will not be bitching about your income.

That’s right Jimmy, write a hit, you’ll make money in ways you never thought of, and you can whore it out to the corporations you bitch about, licensing it to the beer company or TV show or movie du jour, never mind playing corporates for seven figures.

But that’s much harder to do than complain.

“Jimmy Buffett Asks Spotify C.E.O. Daniel Ek for a Raise”