I could watch this all day!

Talk to Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney too…it’s all about inspiration. And in a world where money comes first and fame second, it’s hard to find that thing that makes your hair stand on end and say…I WANT TO DO THAT!

Everybody successful has that moment. When lightning struck and they instantly knew what they wanted to do.

But that was just the beginning…

Zac Brown wrote “Chicken Fried” in 2005. He told Joe Galante to pull a cover from the radio. Because originals are rare, both artists and songs.

That’s what Nashville is all about, songs, according to Dave Grohl. Which begs the question why the tracks that fill the end of every episode are so mediocre. The public knows, the “Sonic Highways” album is a stiff. There just wasn’t enough inspiration to push Mr. Grohl into greatness. Furthermore, he’s a terrible lyricist. But no one will tell him this, because he’s so nice and so successful. That’s what’s wrong with America, you can’t criticize anybody with money, who’s made it.

Anyway, the key to this episode, the moment when I got caught up, is when Tony Joe White starts to testify.

Who?

POLK SALAD ANNIE!

A track that I know by heart that never really did it for me but now that I’ve heard Tony Joe White tell the backstory, I LOVE IT!

I never knew what “polk salad” was. Turns out it’s a weed. That you boil like spinach and eat with corn bread when you’re poor. Dolly Parton ate it. Tony Joe White was singing what he knew about. He heard “Ode To Billy Joe” and told himself that if he was ever gonna make it, he was gonna have to tell stories that were true, that people could relate to, that’s what made “Polk Salad Annie” a hit.

And there’s a lot of naysaying about Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line, and we can argue all day long whether they’re singing about what they know, but the one thing is those songs are hits, written by experts, who’ve paid their dues. The only problem is the people writing today’s pop hits were all born overseas and don’t focus on communal experiences but platitudes, and that’s what’s wrong with music right there. Tony Brown, who’s got enough naysayers himself to rival Florida Georgia Line, says if it’s all about formula, he’ll go the other way. And I won’t say I believe Mr. Brown, but this episode rehabilitates him, reveals his gospel roots, tells the story of working for Elvis after his piano player defected to Emmylou, and then he follows said piano player to Emmylou’s band.

That’s right, music is an adventure, you never know where it will take you. But in these days of instant fame, we’ve eviscerated that concept. We want it all, and we want it now. As if Queen wrote “Bohemian Rhapsody” on its first album, hell, the band was barely kept alive after its debut, I was the only person I ever knew who owned it.

But the point is today it’s about making it and selling out, nowhere so much as tech. But Mark Zuckerberg refused to relinquish his company, he’s making acquisitions, he’s looking for a second act. Same deal with Snapchat, they don’t want to sell out. WHY DOES EVERYBODY IN MUSIC WANT TO SELL OUT??

So Tony Joe White tells about hearing Lightnin’ Hopkins and being inspired to become a musician. Getting in his car and driving to Nashville to get rejected. That’s right, he had “Polk Salad Annie” and nobody wanted it, until he got to Monument. The point being no one knows anything, you’ve got to believe in yourself. But you’ve got to have the goods. And almost no one does…

It almost sounds like a Creedence record, before anybody knew who Fogerty was. Listen to that guitar TONE! And that guttural utterance…

Some of you all never been down south too much
I’m gonna tell you a little story, so you’ll understand what I’m talking about

This was back before BMW was in South Carolina, before Mercedes left New Jersey, when the south was seen as backward, the land of racism, and suddenly there’s some guy with a heavy accent telling us what’s really happening down there…

Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods and the fields
And it looks like something like a turnip green

I’ve heard “Polk Salad Annie” hundreds of times. But it was out of the speaker in the dash of the family Oldsmobile, I could not make out the lyrics. But one thing’s for sure, the track was laden with hooks. Because to have a hit, you’ve got to HAVE IT ALL!

And Tony goes on about the chain gang, that I heard back when. But now, hearing Tony Joe White tell the story of “Polk Salad Annie” I’ve got a new appreciation for the track. That’s right, we’ve got more music news than ever before, but it’s all hype…so and so released this, so and so is dating that person, so and so is artificially dissing so and so or saying how great they are, it’s like no one has a brain, certainly not the writers, there’s no narrative.

And the narrative is first and foremost music is SOUND! It’s something you hear. And underneath that is the song, the story. There’s a construction, with groove and chorus and hooks and it’s not as formulaic as everybody says it is, but if you leave all the formula out, you’re never gonna make it. And when done right, there are lyrics we can all relate to.

We’ve got to get ourselves back in the garden.

Blame the labels. No one there ever played with his own money. They’re all so inured to the past, they don’t get the present. All competing not realizing no one’s paying attention. We need ten tracks a week we all need to listen to. The industry should provide this, it doesn’t.

As for the acts…uneducated, lowest common denominator denizens who don’t realize music is a calling, not a profession. It’s a road you get on that takes you away from everybody else and if you’re lucky, you’ll find an audience and be able to pay your bills. If not, no bitching. But bitching is everything in the music business today, no wonder nobody pays attention, the world hates a whiner.

And when you’ve got culture, when you’ve got talented lifers selling their wares, hype becomes irrelevant, it all fades away, records are king.

You remember records, DON’T YOU?

Doesn’t matter if you hear them on files, lossless or compressed, CD or vinyl, a killer track penetrates in all media. It’s something you’ve got to hear again and again, that you can’t stop telling people about. It’s the elixir that keeps you alive.

Like “Polk Salad Annie”…

Give it a spin.

P.S. I could watch “Sonic Highways” every damn day. It’s “Behind The Music” without the phony arc. Strip the axe from Dave Grohl and force him to tell these stories, they’re more important than his music. Really, if you were ever a fan, you’ll hang on the edge of your seat as people whose names you know come alive right in front of you. I thought I was over music, but when I watch “Sonic Highways” I realize it’s the most important thing to me.

“Polk Salad Annie”: Youtube or Spotify

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…