So I’m sitting on the floor of a Starbucks in Idaho Springs waiting for I-70 to reopen. Electrical outlets are at a premium and our driver said he’s waited for four hours for the highway to clear, so we might be in for a long haul.

Meanwhile, there are a few things on my mind.

First, Coachella.

I’m sure everybody there is having a good time, but I’m not sure it has much to do with the music. When did concerts devolve into a place to see and be seen? Probably when the festival paradigm took over. Now they’re events, not concerts. As for the headliners…if you can’t miss the reunion of OutKast then I fear you’re still living in the aughts, using a flip phone and unaware we’ve got tablets, never mind LTE.

Second, breaking rules.

The flight attendant said we could not go to the bathroom, they were ready to serve drinks. But the problem was they weren’t going down the aisle yet, could I steal a run to the loo?

My dad was a rule-breaker. Alternatively he stated if everybody jumped off a bridge, does that mean you should too?

Bottom line, are you coloring inside the lines or outside them?

All the winners color the exterior, while insisting you remain interior.

Kind of like all that business b.s. you read from CEOs, informing you how to make it. Sean Parker never says he stole the e-mail addresses from Napster to start Plaxo, as the legend goes, and no one winning will go on record about the corners they cut. Cash flow is everything. Independent labels don’t pay royalties because they need the money.

Now I’m not telling you to rob banks. But if you see a stupid rule, maybe you should break it. All innovation is about breaking the rules, which is why Coachella falls so flat. All the innovation is non-musical, it’s about food and sculpture. Whereas the acts paint by numbers (thank you James McMurtry!) Isn’t it funny the last ten years have been dominated by TV singing competitions where people tell you how to perform, where you’ve got to run the gauntlet to get noticed. Artists don’t do this, entertainers do.

New musical stars will emerge that will rivet the public. But they’ll be different. They won’t be focusing on sponsorship or fashion shows but causing us to look at the world just a little bit differently. That’s what rule-breakers do, make us challenge our preconceptions. Coachella is a celebration, it’s not art.

Third, there’s a very interesting interview with Fred Wilson on BusinessInsider:

FRED WILSON Q&A: The Legendary Investor Talks Retirement, Tumblr’s Exit, And Getting Over A Tough Year

I hate to admit I’d rather read the musings of a VC as opposed to the blathering of nitwits in “Rolling Stone,” but that’s the truth. Fred is a thinker who has something to say. The people in RS are fame whores eager to promote their next forgettable project.

Furthermore, Fred’s got a better track record.

But what fascinated me most were Fred’s comments on Instagram:

“A lot of the stuff that was on Instagram has now moved to Snapchat. It doesn’t mean that people are not using Instagram, but if I go back and look at my Instagram feed a year ago versus today, there’s a lot of people who were in my Instagram feed a year ago who aren’t there today. They’ve been replaced by brands.

So now my Instagram feed is full of things like the New York Knicks and restaurants posting amazing photos of food. The young Facebook user base who left Facebook to go to Instagram has now seemingly moved mostly to Snapchat and my generation plus brands are what’s on Instagram now.”

Old people are the ones still on Facebook and now using Instagram. Youngsters move on. For all their supposed love of brands, when ads appear, they disappear.

In other words, by time the mainstream starts touting something, it’s done. Just ask Fred, his company Turntable.fm died right after an insane wave of publicity.

Point is if you’re in the tech game, if you’re in the popular culture game, you’re concerned with where the people are going. The music business is primarily concerned with where people have been, believing they’re going to stay, buying CDs, listening to radio…

Building something from nothing. Seeing the future. Changing the world. That used to be music’s job, now it’s the VC’s. In other words, Fred Wilson is a bigger rock star than everybody appearing on stage at Coachella. He’s reaching more people, and thrilling them all the while.

Finally, there was an article in “BusinessWeek” that the convertible is dying.

I’d give you the link but now I’m writing from the back of a CME van moving slowly in a twelve mile line of cars on the east side of the Eisenhower Tunnel. The wifi is not working.

But the point is, convertibles are baby boomer dreams. Hell, they’re still buying expensive ones, Mercedes makes many. But VW is stopping. And Chrysler. You see kids don’t care about cars.

But they care about going to the festival to see and be seen, to take selfies and upload them.

It’s a completely different world these days.

Baby boomers think they run it.

But they just live in it.

Time is passing them by.

Because they’re all about leisure and lifestyle, and it’s very hard to keep your finger on the pulse when that is so.

Once upon a time music led change and adapted to the new world.

The concert companies are doing an incredible job of extracting dough from customers. Give AEG credit for making Coachella a foodie paradise.

Just don’t tell me it’s about the music…

Wifi is working!- “Convertible Car Sales Have Plunged as Image of Fun and Freedom Dims”

ADVANCE PROMOTION IS DEAD

Your anticipatory hype is forgotten in the endless tsunami of new data. It makes no sense to build anticipation, it just dissipates. Now you pounce when the story is hot. Radiohead started it, Beyonce improved upon it and now Michael Lewis is taking it to the book business. The new watchword of marketing is SURPRISE!

PEOPLE LOOK FOR AN EDGE

It’s no different from Sony selling Mariah Carey singles for 49 cents to go number one. Everybody’s trying to rig the system. But when this is so, it’s he who is honest and has credibility who gains people’s ears. That’s what today’s musical artists don’t understand. That by chasing the buck, whoring themselves out to anybody who’ll pay, they’re losing their identity, they’re becoming no different from their compatriots. Want a tribe? Go your own way, have integrity, speak from the heart, people will follow.

QUALITY TRIUMPHS

Unlike in the music business, Michael Lewis is building a long term career. Sure, he started with a hit, “Liar’s Poker,” but many of the greats do. Then he wandered in the wilderness until he truly found his groove. “The Blind Side” made him a star years after the book came out, and “Moneyball” enhanced his reputation. You think you’ve made it but the truth is most people have never heard of you. Now people have heard of Michael Lewis, to the point where he can hype his book on “60 Minutes.” That’s almost equivalent to playing the Super Bowl. Only unlike Bruno Mars, Michael Lewis has something to say.

MOST PEOPLE CAN’T READ

“60 Minutes” did a good job of explaining the story:

Is the U.S. stock market rigged?

But the truth is most people will not read “Flash Boys” because they can’t. Inured to television, they can’t hold multiple concepts in their brains at one time, when the reading gets tough, they give up. “Flash Boys” is even harder to read than “The Big Short,” it’s the hardest book I’ve read in years. But wading through gives you passage into the club, and the truth is all winners want to be in the club, but most just say they’re there, without truly being inside. Success is not only money and status, it’s wisdom and knowledge. You gain that through experience, and hard work, like reading “Flash Boys”

QUALITY COUNTS

Despite “Flash Boys” being a difficult read, Michael Lewis is a great writer. He’s evidence of the blockbuster syndrome. We only have time for great. I’ll read anything Lewis writes because he’s trying to get it right, he’s not dumbing it down for mass consumption, and his style is to explain without emotion, he lets the carefully laid out facts sway you.

JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE’S RICH, THAT DOES NOT MEAN THEY KNOW ANYTHING

Nobody on Wall Street could explain flash trading, except for those perpetrating it, who were tight-lipped. Imagine a world wherein a label head has no idea how the records are made, how they get on the radio, that’s what’s been going on on Wall Street.

SPEAK THE TRUTH AND BLOWBACK WILL BEGIN

They’re not gonna let Michael Lewis edge in on their turf. As soon as the book came out, insiders pooh-poohed it. They always do. America is a game of who has the biggest dick, and those at the top whip theirs out on a regular basis and the little people succumb to this intimidation. You get ahead not by kissing butt, but by standing up to power, that’s what a great artist does. Michael Lewis is a great artist. Nobody on the “Billboard” chart is.

CURIOSITY RULES THE WORLD

Brad Katsuyama couldn’t understand why trading had changed. He searched for answers. It was a long torturous path. He found them. If you’re not busy questioning, you’re busy dying.

SUCCESS IS A TRIAL BY FIRE

In other words, they’ve got no time for you until they do, after you prove yourself. Brad Katsuyama worked at the also-ran Royal Bank of Canada, the big boys laughed at him, but when he enlightened them and proved he could make them money… You want access? In business it’s all about money. Doors open when you can make people a profit.

MONEY ISN’T EVERYTHING

Coders quit jobs they find unfulfilling. There’s more money on the Street than there is in music, but many leave aside the riches because there’s no fulfillment. In other words, when you’ve got access to money, you realize money is not the only thing.

RISK

Change doesn’t happen without it. Brad Katsuyama quit a $2 million a year job to open a new exchange. There was no guarantee it would be successful. It still may not be.

GREED

We don’t get good music because those at the top are all about the money. And those at the bottom don’t understand the game. What we need are people who rise above who stand up to the b.s. That was what made Kurt Cobain a hero. He was insanely talented and yet refused to play the game, he needed to stay punk. It killed him. Hopefully it won’t kill you.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

We all need a purpose. Being famous is not one. That’s just an end. But in today’s culture we’re inundated with the scorecard of fame and money, because they’re easy to quantify. Work takes up an insane amount of time, it needs to be fun.

INFINITE AVAILABILITY

In the old brick and mortar book days, W.W. Norton would either be caught short or overprinting. It’s hard to guess the amount of physical inventory necessary. But in the digital sphere, where you can buy a book wirelessly in a foreign country, a runaway success can continue to run.

TECHNOLOGY RULES

If you’re unfamiliar with technology, you’re going to have a hard time being a success. That does not mean you’ve got to code, but you’ve got to know what coding is, and fiber optic cable, and have a familiarity with tablets and smartphones and not only usage patterns, but where the game is going. If you want to bring back the past, you’re doomed to live in it. It’s hard to see 0’s and 1’s. Some people believe they need to be able to touch something to experience it. But the truth is so much is virtual these days. And this frees you up to play. But in a world of cacophony, you must execute at the top level and deliver that which intrigues if you want attention.

ART IS FOREVER, TECHNOLOGY IS NOT

The fiber optic cable laid from Chicago to New York is being superseded by microwave transmission. A great record is forever, nobody wants yesterday’s flip phone.

IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS

It just ensures you continue to be the tail wagged by the dog. Inform yourself. Care. It’s not only stimulating, it’s profitable.

THE WORLD RUNS ON MONEY, SO WHAT HAPPENS WITH IT COUNTS

The cash the flash traders were extricating from the system reduced productivity, the same way so many of the best and the brightest are wasting their time in finance as opposed to making a difference creating something.

LINKEDIN IS A TREASURE TROVE OF INFORMATION

That’s where IEX found so many of its talented employees.

INTERVIEWS WILL TELL YOU ALL

In Wall Street if they want to know what’s up with a competitor’s business, they make like they’re trying to poach you, or fill a gig, and you’ll spill your guts.

THOSE AT THE TOP USUALLY HAVE NO CLUE WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THE BOTTOM, AND WHAT’S  HAPPENING AT THE BOTTOM USUALLY BECOMES THE NEW TOP

It’s like record execs who didn’t use e-mail. But still, most execs don’t have the time to check out social networks and WhatsApp, believing they’re beholden to radio and retail. The truth is all these new systems will eclipse radio and retail, and if those in power let young ‘uns in, they would. And they will eventually.

YOU DON’T NEED A PEDIGREE TO SUCCEED

Brad Katsuyama went to the local university in Canada. Sure, Yale and Harvard will open doors, but they won’t make you a success. Furthermore, they may not make you think. Read this editorial re the job opportunities of the Ivy League prospect:

The Red Carpet Syndrome

THE PUBLIC HAS A VERY SHORT ATTENTION SPAN

Those in power on Wall Street know that this brouhaha about flash trading will fade. Power is often about distracting the masses. If someone can easily become famous on reality TV, they’ll put all their energy there as opposed to doing the hard work to climb the ladder and crash your established party.

THE GOVERNMENT CAN’T BE COUNTED ON

Because of the revolving door between the companies being regulated and the regulators themselves. Furthermore, the best and the brightest rarely work for the government. And those who are rich get the best justice, it wasn’t only O.J.

MAKING A LOT OF MONEY MAKES YOU NEITHER HAPPY NOR LIKABLE

“Flash Boys” is littered with put-downs of the blowhards who think they rule, but are oftentimes clueless.

WE CAN’T ERADICATE EVIL BUT WE CAN INSPIRE GOOD

That’s the ultimate message of “Flash Boys,” that one person can make a difference. Then again, Brad Katsuyama built a team around him. Which he found through relationships and interviews and LinkedIn surfing.

GOOGLE WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING

He who knows how to sift out information wins in the end. Almost everything is lying in plain sight, assuming you know how to enter the right search terms and know what you’re looking for. This is the education that is sorely lacking in our schools. How do you theorize and reconstruct the obvious to end up with new insights? That’s your challenge.

“Flash Boys”

I lived with the decent folks
In the hills of old Vermont

I know I’ve become the obituary guy, but Jesse Winchester had a place in the firmament and now he’s been completely forgotten, a footnote who’s succumbed to the sands of time.

Kind of like “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”

No one knows that flick anymore, at least not those of college age, even Princeton attendees, check out Frank Bruni’s column for the story

The Water Cooler Runs Dry

It’s kind of like jetting forty years into the future and finding out no one knows what an iPod is.

Actually, that music playing device is already fading, just like the iTunes Store.

But my point is tech runs this century.

But music ran the last one.

Especially before we were all connected, when we could only find our brethren if we left our house and went to the gig.

And before we did, we played our records.

But not many played Jesse Winchester’s debut, because like Todd Rundgren’s initial LP, it was released on Ampex, and labels mattered.

Actually, they still do today.

And it’s about marketing and radio, but back then it was also about distribution. Which is king. If it’s not available, you can’t buy it, most people were completely unaware of Jesse Winchester’s debut.

Except for those who read the reviews.

And heard the covers of “Yankee Lady” by Brewer & Shipley and Tim Hardin and Matthews Southern Comfort.

Yankee lady so good to me
Yankee lady just a memory

1970 was a twist from what came before. It was the era of back to the land. After Kent State, after the first Earth Day, we began to look inward, we began to move to the hinterlands.

Assuming we weren’t in Vietnam getting our ass shot off.

That’s another thing the younger generation is clueless about. That through no fault of your own, you might get shipped off to a meaningless war and die, or come back so damaged you never recovered.

First you had to register for the draft.

That’s when you became a man.

And you got a four year educational deferment and then…

It was open season.

Sure, we talked a lot about music, but we also talked a lot about Vietnam, the war, the chance we had to go.

Jesse Winchester did not. He fled to Canada. When that was a rare choice.

That was the legacy of the sixties, an emphasis on thinking for yourself. Which is out the window once more. The Dixie Chicks’ career ended when they expressed a nonconformist opinion, and despite being entrepreneurial, today’s youngsters all hew to the group.

Jesse’s career was irreparably impaired. Being on Ampex and unable to tour in the States.

But it’s the hard choices that build character.

So let his life be a beacon. That sometimes you’ve got to save yourself, because no one else will.

You’ve got to protest against injustice.

And if your message is not heard, maybe you’ve got to move on.

The fabric of our nation has changed so much. We celebrate neither rugged individuals nor freethinkers.

But they’re the ones who are truly Americans. Those who lead by example as opposed to hectoring.

So dial up some Jesse Winchester if you remember.

Or listen to a cover of “Yankee Lady.”

But know once upon a time the problem wasn’t too much information, but too many questions. Our parents were not our best friends. We were influenced first and foremost by our own generation. To test the limits. To question authority.

To rally around the music for change.

And that’s why this music means so much to us.

And Jesse Winchester might just be a footnote, but he’s in there.

Because back then there were one hit wonders, but no one was listening to AM radio.

We were home, spinning soul-fulfilling stuff on our turntables, like Jesse Winchester.

“Yankee Lady” on Spotify

SUITE: JUDY BLUE EYES

It wasn’t an immediate hit. “Marrakesh Express” got all the airplay. And being in excess of seven minutes long, radio was reluctant to play the track in its entirety, the days of free format radio were dying.

So the initial Crosby, Stills & Nash album developed slowly, most of us heard it at friends’ houses, at parties, and marveled at the elixir that emitted from the speakers.

There was harmony before. But not in the rock of the day. And we remembered acoustic guitars from the folk/hootenanny years. But their return here was so fresh we all broke out our instruments and tried to replicate the sound.

All this was done without Neil Young, who now gets all the accolades. But at the time, Stephen Stills was king, one can argue he still should be.

WOODEN SHIPS

Say, can I have some of your purple berries

Yes, we listened to this album stoned, it was the heyday of marijuana, not today’s mega-powerful bud, but the multi-joint stuff that mellowed you out without putting you on the floor.

The song was cowritten by the Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner and appeared in a bit slower take on their late ’69 album “Volunteers,” which has been unjustly forgotten, check it out.

But know at the turn of the decade, this was what was categorized as a hit, even though it was not a single, wasn’t on AM radio, everybody knew it, we weren’t mindless, but deep thinkers, and this music set us on our way.

LONG TIME GONE

My favorite cut on the debut. It sounds like mud is oozing all over the floor, pulling you into the sound, for which you’re extremely grateful.

A David Crosby masterpiece wherein not only his vocal is the starring element. Listen to that organ, that bass, that electric guitar!

YOU DON’T HAVE TO CRY

Probably my favorite cut on the album today. It was one of the last tracks I got into originally. Its quiet subtlety prevented it from standing out, but it ultimately became indelible in my brain.

HELPLESSLY HOPING

This is what we’ve lost in the transition from McIntosh to Macintosh, from three-way speakers to earbuds. This is a rich sound that should be heard on vinyl.

Notice I included neither “Marrakesh Express” nor “Lady of the Island” on this playlist, not because I detest Graham Nash, I preferred his initial solo album the most of the three, but because they’re sweet in a way the rest of the material was rich, and it’s this richness which has given the debut longevity.

CARRY ON

To say “Deja Vu” was anticipated is an understatement. By this time, a year later, Crosby, Stills & Nash were the biggest band in the land, and they had an album cover befitting this status, it was faux leather, with an old-timey photo glued upon its front.

And there was nothing like dropping the needle on “Carry On” the very first time. Because of the SOUND!!

You’d put your ear in front of the speaker, you couldn’t believe the mellifluousness of it all!

Incredible!

WOODSTOCK

It’s the GUITAR!

Talk about a riff! Not quite as famous as “Smoke On The Water,” but known by every baby boomer just the same.

We saw the Joni Mitchell credit, we knew who she was, but this was a completely different take upon the song she released in a slower, quieter version on “Ladies Of The Canyon.”

This was a month before the “Woodstock” movie was released. We were still high on the Woodstock energy, and when the movie hit and was so gigantic, this was the anthem.

4+20

I didn’t get it until I’d graduated from college and I was living in Sandy, Utah with a couple from Asheville, North Carolina and every day Tom put his head in front of the speaker as this played and wistfully contemplated his life.

You see he’d just turned twenty four.

I was only twenty one.

I didn’t get it.

Yet.

ALMOST CUT MY HAIR

It was overblown even back then, but the emphatic Crosby vocal and stinging guitar triumphed anyway.

It took me eighteen months to cut mine, back when long hair no longer bespoke your politics, but back then…we all wanted to let our freak flag fly.

And yes, “Teach Your Children” was the hit off this album, but you already know that, and can live without it if you’ve never heard it, it’s too sappy.

And yes, this is the album with Neil Young, I preferred “Country Girl” to “Helpless,” but really his sound was different from that of the other three, and this playlist is about them, not him.

SHADOW CAPTAIN

Sometimes you give up on your dream, the Beatles never reunited, you never got back together with your summer camp girlfriend, we thought Crosby, Stills & Nash would never reunite.

AND THEN THEY DID!

AND IT WAS GOOD!

Everybody else disappointed, the Byrds reunion was close to abysmal, mostly because of the material. But this 1977 album not only sounded like the original act, the material was memorable!

And we were ready and willing.

This album was embraced by both radio and fans alike.

DARK STAR

This, “Shadow Captain” and “Fair Game” got the most airplay. But they were not the best tracks on the album.

CATHEDRAL

It’s MAJESTIC!

Yes, it’s a Graham Nash composition, but not an AM radio ditty, but something personal, akin to his solo work.

It goes from quiet to loud…it’s an epic!

JUST A SONG BEFORE I GO

Once again, Graham Nash had the hit. But this one is less sappy than “Teach Your Children” and a bit deeper than “Marrakesh Express.”

I GIVE YOU GIVE BLIND

The finale, a Stephen Stills number, it built and built and at home alone it resonated so much! When a record rode shotgun and kept you company, completed your life.

SEE THE CHANGES

The piece-de-resistance, the best song on the record.

Ten years singing right out loud
I never looked was anybody listening
Then I fell out of a cloud
I hit the ground and noticed something missing

Fame does not fix your life. Neither does money.

You think it will, that’s your motivation. But if you live through the studio, the road and the dope, one day you wake up and look for more than one night stands.

Now I have someone
She has seen me changing

Change is so hard, especially if you’re successful on societal terms. No one is more boorish than a rich and famous person. Which is why you’re disappointed so much when you meet your heroes.

And it gets harder as you get older
Farther away as you get closer

Ain’t that the truth. When the sand is running out of the hourglass, when you’re becoming set in your ways, you wonder if you’re ever gonna get to the destination, whether you’re ever going to be happy.

And the more you know, the less you do.

Think about it. Only the young know everything.

And then Crosby, Stills & Nash went on to make more albums, none of them extremely memorable. 1982’s “Daylight Again” even had a single that’s become iconic, played endlessly on satellite radio, “Southern Cross.”

But the truth is after coming back, the band was spent.

And we can speculate why, or just revel in the greatness of what came before.

Crosby, Stills & Nash were the biggest rock stars of their day. Today you might find that hard to believe, but listen to the above tracks and reevaluate, you’ll be forced to.

Rhinofy-Crosby, Stills & Nash Primer