Van Halen honed its chops in the clubs.

At the edge of Boys Town was a cavernous barn known as the Starwood. Booking no-name hard rock acts, it’s from there that Van Halen emanated. Back when you had to come to L.A. to make it, when you started out live as opposed to online, when how you could play and perform were paramount.

Featuring a flamboyant frontman and brothers and a friend all from Pasadena, the act struggled, looked for investors, cut a demo with Gene Simmons (the best investment the Kiss frontman ever made, even though it did not pay dividends for him), the band’s name slowly became known and higher profile gigs were attained.

Like opening for Nils Lofgren at the Santa Monica Civic, when that was the premier theatre in the Basin, where you performed if you could not fill the Forum. They did the full-on act, David Lee Roth resembled no one so much as the execrable Jim Dandy of Black Oak Arkansas and it was all a laugh until the album came out, cut by uber-Doobie helmsman Ted Templeman and released on Warner Brothers, the paramount label of the day.

It was astounding. Airplay was initially a cover of the Kinks klassic kreation “You Really Got Me,” but what was positively revelatory was the first side opener, “Runnin’ With The Devil.” Dave screeched and screamed, the bottom oozed, but what was undeniable was the riff, flung by the soon to be famous Eddie Van Halen, the new gunslinger in town.

That’s right, guitars still mattered. And the classics like Clapton and Beck were still on their victory laps, but there hadn’t been a riff as indelible as this since “Smoke On The Water,” it infected the entire Southland, blasted first from the boys’ hometown outlet, the pre ROQ of the 80s KROQ. Back when you could be an instant overnight success, back when you could woodshed in near silence, back when you could emerge fully-formed to spread your sound from radio station to radio station, turning on not only those in the metropolis, but those in the hinterlands.

And then came MTV.

Well, not that fast. There were multiple albums and multiple hits. Van Halen was a feature on FM radio, which ruled. Sure, disco was a reaction to corporate rock, but it had no effect on Van Halen. Van Halen was not calculating, not playing it safe, not figuring out the Lee Abrams formula and delivering it, rather this was an act that if not quite sui generis, was blazing its own trail. Literally, across America, screwing and drinking when that was what you did it for. Sure, getting paid was a feature, but there was so much dough you didn’t have to worry about it, you could just play. And who doesn’t want to play?

But MTV took Van Halen to the biggest band in the land. It happened at the advent of 1984 with “Jump.” Filling the after holiday hole, the band rushed into this vacuum and satiated fans and converted those who previously did not care.

And then they broke up.

It’s always the singer. He leaves the band behind. Whether it be Alice Cooper or Phil Collins. They’ve got the name, they’re the ones out front. They’re the ones the public remembers.

And it’s not like Diamond Dave did not have all these qualities, with an irreverent motormouth to boot, but he was not the magic elixir, that was Eddie.

That’s right, Dave came out of the box first, singing about California girls, before Katy Perry bastardized the concept, resurrecting the old chestnut “Just A Gigolo,” but it turns out the audience was really waiting for Eddie.

Imagine if Max Martin shredded. Imagine if he played in a band. Then you might understand Eddie Van Halen. If Max Martin wrote memorable tracks as opposed to disposable ditties.

Turned out the public was smart. They were not fooled by the media. They were waiting for the iconic player, to hear what he had to say.

And what he delivered was a question, “Why Can’t This Be Love”?

Sure, it was a different singer. And new vocalist Sammy Hagar, a journeyman with notable credits, delivered, but it was really about the track. At first you were flummoxed. The cut didn’t sound exactly like what had come before. It pushed the envelope. It confounded you. It was a twisty-turny amusement park ride with a distortion-laden sound that cemented itself in your brain the second time through…you had to hear it again, you had to know whether it was a hit or not.

And it was.

That’s what today’s rockers don’t understand. Sure, there’s not a dominant radio network we’re all listening to, never mind a dominant music television channel, but without the goods you’re nowhere. You’ve got to give the machine something to work with. And Van Halen did.

And since you purchased the album, because this is what you did back then, there were no singles, there was no YouTube, you found a magic mash-up of Eddie’s signature sounds with Sam’s histrionics and you just had to play it again and again. Sure, “Dreams” became an anthem, but if you never cranked “Best of Both Worlds” to window-rattling volume you’ve got no hard rock cred. That’s what it’s all about, turning it up and drowning out a world that doesn’t understand you, that is working against you, back before the players were in bed with these same people. Hell, how can you believe in an act that ties up with the same soulless corporations that trample you?

And after “5150” came “OU812.”

If you want an explanation, listen to “Finish What Ya Started.” Which had no predecessor in the Van Halen canon. Back when the album cuts were our favorites, when we went to the gig just to hear them, before it was greatest hits all the time.

But the big hit was “When It’s Love.”

And I heard that today.

Everybody’s looking for something
Something to fill in the holes

Ain’t that the truth. If you’re not confused, if you don’t find modern life confounding, please e-mail me your map. There’s more info than ever before, more music, every day there’s a new trend, people dominate the conversation for a week at best, and we all do our best to soldier on.

The Prius put a dent in automobile culture. The smartphone killed the telephone call. Everybody’s so busy trying to get rich that seemingly everybody is untrustworthy. Used to be we could depend on the music. But that was before the under-talented complained about the attention they believed they deserved  and were not getting and the successful paid lip service to their audience but deserted us for a club of rich people and activities that we can never gain access to.

Today you’re on your own, it’s all about your personal experiences. And it’s the small triumphs that make you smile. Like hearing Van Halen’s “When It’s Love” going 70 on the 405 on an 80 degree November SoCal day.

I know it’s hard to understand. Hell, it didn’t even used to be this way here, summer seemingly indefinitely. But as the sun ravages the planet, as the rich keep us down whilst telling us they’re our saviors, about the only thing that satisfies is a great track on a great day.

How do I know when it’s love

When I hear it twenty five years later and it gives me the same hit it did back then. When it goes in my ears and I don’t feel like my life is a waste. When I think I was here when music dominated the world.

That’s right, they might call it classic rock, but after the sixties and seventies came a last hurrah in the eighties, when MTV minted new stars and maintained old ones and we all knew the hits and the acts were beholden to nobody because fame delivered enough fortune not to worry about it.

I miss those days.

But the recordings live on. In my car, Eddie Van Halen is still shredding, Sammy Hagar is still screaming, and all is right in the world.

When It’s Love – Spotify

When It’s Love – YouTube

This is from before Phil Collins went solo.

Actually, it’s from right after Peter Gabriel went solo, it’s the third track on the first side of “A Trick Of The Tail.”

Genesis were seen as imitation Yes, assuming you were not into the band. Most people could entertain only so many prog rock acts, and it was Yes that broke through on Top Forty radio, Genesis was for fans only, Gentle Giant’s cult was even smaller. But then Gabriel left and blew the whole thing up.

That’s right, leaving the band and cutting “Solsbury Hill” with uber-producer Bob Ezrin pushed Gabriel into the public consciousness. Genesis marched on as four, unheralded. They eventually lost guitarist Steve Hackett and were down to three when they finally got some radio traction. Then Phil Collins went solo, MTV blew up the act and too many people now despise a band with history and cred.

Not that I don’t believe “Abacab” is undeserving of attention, especially the iteration on “Three Sides Live.”

But it all started here, with “Squonk.”

There were no expectations. As a matter of fact, people were skeptical. The drummer’s gonna become the singer?

That’s right, Phil Collins, who was faceless, at least in the eye of the public. He sounded remarkably similar to Gabriel, not as close as Brian Johnson did to Bon Scott in AC/DC, but the band still featured the same sound. At this point still artsy, but minus the limit-testing of the Gabriel era, the band still stretched out, still explored arcane themes. Like in the six and a half minute “Squonk.”

Like father, like son

It was so HEAVY! Not metal, but you banged your head nonetheless to this monolithic sound. “Squonk” was nothing if not hypnotic.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Could never put a smile on that face

This was not hot tubs and booties. Not that I can tell you exactly what the lyrics are about, even though I’ve sung along for decades.

It’s really about the riff, it’s always about the riff.

The trail they leave is very clear for all to see at night
All to see at night

Dungeons and Dragons. “The Lord Of The Rings.” This was fantasy music for mostly men who wanted to indulge themselves, who wanted something they could dig into deep, that would reward them.

And “Squonk” was nothing if not rewarding.

And thus began the renaissance.

Two albums later there was finally a radio track, “Follow You Follow Me.”

And on the album after that, there truly was a hit, “Misunderstanding.” The band had reached a pinnacle, who knew that there were further mountains to climb.

But before everybody took notice, before giant puppets on MTV, the band took a small victory lap, testimony to its ability to survive. That’s right, after “A Trick Of The Tail” and “Wind & Wuthering,” the band went on the road with an extravaganza and released the double live album “Seconds Out,” whose centerpiece was a live take of “Squonk.”

Only this time they put it right out front, “Squonk” opened the album. You can hear the audience cheer in recognition. They didn’t need to hear any words, only the riff. All hail the power of the riff.

You never had the things you thought you should have had
And you’ll not get them now

But this is untrue! We didn’t get the job we wanted, the relationship we desired, our bodies became weak, but one thing we got was this music, which was our best friend, which got us through.

Either you know what I’m talking about, or…

Pull up “Squonk.”

Cast aside your judgment of Phil Collins, of the band. Don’t evaluate the commercial appeal, the radio-friendliness. Just let the elixir wash over you. Soon you’ll be exulting like a fan.

I’ve got you, I’ve got you, you’ll never get away

Rhinofy-Squonk

The company has lost control of the narrative.

That’s what we see online more and more, entities that speak to their users in the new world, but have no presence in the old. Spotify users are not complaining, content creators are. Spotify is no different from Barack Obama, who let the media define him, to the point where his own party was running away from him. You’ve got to control the story or the story will control you. And the story controlling Spotify is that it rips off artists.

P2P rips off artists.

YouTube rips off artists worse than Spotify is perceived to do. But somehow YouTube is a panacea and Spotify is the enemy. And those in power know this, read Adele’s manager Jonathan Dickins’s comments here:

“‘Spotify have always been pictured as the bad guys in this, but the biggest music streamer out there is YouTube, without a doubt,” he said, pointing out that when artists or labels remove music from Spotify, it is often still easy to find it on YouTube.

‘If I make a search now for Taylor Swift on YouTube, give me 30 seconds and I can have the whole Taylor Swift album there streamed. Some of it’s ad-supported, so there is revenue, and some of it’s not,” he said.

‘On the one hand, labels are trumpeting YouTube as a marketing tool: 10 million views on YouTube and it’s a marketing stroke of genius. But on the other hand they’re looking at 10 million streams on Spotify and saying that’s x amount of lost sales.'”

Adele’s manager: ‘Streaming’s the future, whether people like it or not’

Dickens is dealing with practical reality, wanker musicians are living in a fantasy world. First and foremost, Spotify is a piracy killer. As Michael Eisner once said, 10% of the public will never pay, but the rest…convenience triumphs, Spotify users stop stealing, because everything’s there.

To reinforce the point, what is the alternative?

Let’s say we kill Spotify and other streaming services. That will drive people to YouTube where artists get paid less, and P2P where they don’t get paid at all.

Sure, we’d all like to live in a perfect world where everybody pays $15 for an album’s worth of music, but we’d also like to live in a world where gas is a dollar a gallon and you can get somebody to fix your gadgets. Things change. Something is lost in every march forward. To cry about the loss of the past is to marginalize yourself. Yes, artists are marginalizing themselves keeping their music off Spotify, they certainly are not helping themselves. Sure, sales continue, but not for long. Know anybody using a dialup modem these days?

Then there’s the music publisher Kobalt, which represents superstars Max Martin and Paul McCartney amongst many others, the company says “its writers earned 13% more from Spotify streams in Europe during the first quarter of 2014 than they did from iTunes downloads on the continent.”

“Spotify Royalty Payments Outpace iTunes in Some Markets”

iTunes is dying. The main culprit is YouTube, but Luddites not only blame Spotify, they want a return to a service they decried at inception. Suddenly the album was unbundled, revenues were down, remember when iTunes was the enemy?

Spotify won’t be the enemy for long. It’s always the same. Time marches on and new services gain scale, Jonathan Dickens knows this, but somehow Davids Byrne and Lowery do not. We idolize musicians, successful ones trump techies in adulation, but that does not make them right. Furthermore, these old acts are victims of bad deals where the lion’s share of the dough goes to the label.

As for labels owning a share of Spotify… That does not reduce your royalties, that comes out of the 30% Spotify keeps.

As for Aloe Blacc decrying his songwriting royalties…they’re calculated differently for radio than choose your own track services. In other words, songwriting royalties are higher on Spotify. However, they are still anemic as a percentage of overall revenue. But this is an issue that must be addressed by the government, the government screwed this up. Hopefully Irving Azoff will help. Meanwhile, do you remember e-mailing the government to keep Pandora alive? Yup, you same Spotify-haters? Well, you’re part of the problem, you played into Tim Westergren’s hand, but you seemingly don’t remember this.

How could Jonathan Dickens be so right and the rabble-rousers online be so wrong?

That’s the difference between the smart and the dumb, the haves and the have-nots, the informed and the uninformed. Just like with tech help, you’re on your own today, no one is going to spoon-feed you information. You’re responsible for educating yourself, all the info is online. If you just glom on to inflammatory posts and promote them you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution.

And I have sympathy for Dickens and Scott Borchetta at Big Machine when they desire to have their wares removed from Spotify’s free tier. The only problem is that eradicates all the progress Spotify has made against piracy. Put it behind a paywall and people will find a way to steal it. Or they’ll just stream it on YouTube for less, or nothing. And Spotify’s conversion rate, from free to paid, increased when they made the mobile app free!

I’m not being paid by Spotify. I’m just dispassionately looking at the facts. Hell, if the labels had approved the U.S. launch of Spotify before music on YouTube got traction, the service would have even more paying customers.

People who put brakes on the future end up screwing themselves.

Streaming is here to stay. Revenues will only go up. The goal is to get as many people to pay as possible, to increase the pot. Tech is all about scale. There are billions of people in the world, tech reaches almost all of them, a few shekels from all trumps a lot of shekels from a few. Yes, getting everybody to pay for streaming trumps getting a few to overpay for ownership.

But that’s hard for artists to understand. Who yearn for a world where the label would be their daddy, where radio would force feed their product to fans so not only would albums sell, the acts could tour.

But the labels were hurt by P2P which they could not even see. Radio has so many competitors that a good percentage of the public has never even heard #1. And the barrier to entry is so low that artists today are competing with many more competitors, never mind the complete history of recorded music, and the audience is overwhelmed by choice.

Spotify puts some discipline in the system. Its playlists add coherence. It pays artists.

If you can’t see this as a good thing, you’re blind.

You’ve got to listen to this on headphones.

And while you’re at it, get a subscription to Tidal or Deezer Elite, to immerse yourself in the sound, because that’s what it’s about…the organ, the guitars, they’re so exquisite you’ll smile as the band lays down in the pocket.

Taylor Swift may have sold a million albums, but most LPs go unlistened to. Used to be you paid for it, you played it. Back when music was scarce. But now with everything available we’re inveterate grazers, it’s hard to get us to stop and stay without excellence, and I’d be lying if I told you Jackson Browne’s new album “Standing In The Breach” was excellent.

The truth is happiness does not beget riveting personal testimony, we don’t like to hear exhortations of how in love you are, especially when we’re still searching ourselves, especially when odds are you’re gonna break up and be back where we are eventually, if not soon.

But Jackson Browne is no longer in his twenties, he’s on the far side of sixty five, and last time I checked he was in a long term relationship, but he’s still angry, about the world situation.

That’s the story of today, the election. I like to see it as dissatisfaction with business as usual, a desire to shake things up. Otherwise it’s too depressing, people voting against their interests, giving more power to people who don’t care about them.

And Jackson feels the same way.

There’s a restlessness out in the street there’s a question in the air
How long if this theft goes on will our country still be here?

They might still call it the United States, but I barely recognize it. Sure, forty five years ago you didn’t want to venture in your VW microbus south of the Mason-Dixon Line with long hair, but you knew if you were broke down and busted on the side of the road you’d be taken care of. And when you got back on your feet you could get a job flipping burgers, digging ditches, and you’d be able to put a roof over your head and food on your plate. But those days are through. Today poverty is only a slip away, a return to your parents’ basement, as they parade winners in front of your eyes and you wonder if you’ve even got a chance.

Come on come on come on if you’re coming
Which side – which side are you on?

We all used to be on the same side. We’d never seen a Ferrari in real life, there was no such thing as private jets, we paid our taxes and were all in it together, at least the baby boomers.

Yes, the way the younger generation is addicted to its mobile devices, we were addicted to our stereos. That was our goal, to get a big rig. Everybody had a device to play discs and you saved your money for something better, to get closer to the sound.

And you can get closer to the sound again. We’re now delivering everything you want but you’re too cheap to partake of. Ain’t that how it always is, people want to bitch. That’s right, you’re no longer relegated to MP3s, but are you willing to lay down $20 a month for pure sound?

You should.

Because your life will change. That’s the power of music.

Not the stuff you hear on pop radio, compressed crap, but stuff made by people who’ve spent their lives learning how to play, who’ve spent money and time to get it right.

That’s right, you’ll listen to “Which Side?” in CD quality with no disc and the election will fall away, it’s aural dope.

Come on, you remember the Beatles, you remember Ed Sullivan, when you saved your shekels and bought a guitar, when everybody was in a band, when your only goal was to work in music, to be closer to the sound…that era is here again.

No joke.

He has to sing at a lower pitch, but he’s putting one foot in front of another, he’s no longer sure of the direction, but credit Jackson Browne for soldiering on, for trying. That’s right you can just go on the road and play your greatest hits but that’s all about money, that’s not about art.

And I blame the audience as well. Is that what it comes down to? Going to the shed to hear the songs of your youth? It gets creepy after a while. We yearn for something new.

And Jackson Browne’s “Standing In The Breach” does not deliver.

It came and went almost instantly. I played a few cuts and moved on. There’s too much new stuff to experience. But late one night doing my back exercises with my headphones on I decided to give it a full chance, and that’s when I discovered “Which Side?”

Jackson screwed it up. It was an Occupy anthem. It was acoustic and edgy. It wasn’t quite the new “We Can’t Make It Here,” but it was on the continuum. Now in its slick, studio iteration the rough edges are smoothed over, the message is submerged, but the sound is PURE MAGIC!

That’s right, life is full of contradictions, it’s nearly inexplicable. But the truth is “Which Side?” is a thread pulling you down into wonderland, somewhere you remember but rarely visit anymore.

But you have to listen on headphones, via CD quality streaming.

Which side?

Music used to be on the right side, not only the makers, but the listeners. We questioned authority, which you should always do, we strove for a better society, not only personal achievement.

In search of El Dorado, but you haven’t found it yet

We’re all searching. There are so few opportunities, but we’ve still got our dreams. I want yours to come true.

Or you might be an old man with his whole life at his back

That’s what’s so scary. My generation is trying to deny the shifting sands of time, they think if they just get plastic surgery, wear hip clothing and refuse to go to the doctor they’ll live forever. If only it were so.

But you know that it’s coming, as surely as the dawn
The battle for the future, baby, which side are you on?

Stop with the CDs. Stop with the anti-streaming rhetoric. The first path to victory and happiness is a refusal to deny the future, and the future is here.

Can we all get on the same page people?

Can we stop keeping each other down as the rich carry the ball to the goal line unopposed?

Can we save not only ourselves, but the music?

That’s right, it’s up to you.

You have to insist it be made by artists, people who’ve practiced, people who have something to say, who aren’t only in it for the cash. You have to ensure that first and foremost it be ear-pleasing.

Like “Which Side?.”

The bankers and their special friends
Who rob you time and again
Who like to pretend they’re the only game in town
Or the people who
Hope with everything they do
They can build something new
And turn this world around

Which Side? – Spotify

Jackson Browne and Dawes “Which Side?” live and acoustic

 

Tidal – 7 day free trial

Deezer Elite