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Popcorn Time

Thank god we’re in the music business, we’ve already been through the transition, we’ve already been pushed back to zero, we’re in an era of rebirth so strong that if you think the music business is in trouble, you’re not in it. Blockbuster acts make more money than ever before. Piracy has been eviscerated, killed by the aforementioned YouTube and legal streaming services, and from here on, it’s only up.

Kind of like that Pixar movie…

Except the filmed entertainment business, now shot on digital, is screwed. Because unlike the music business, these pricks always thought they were better than us, that their fans “respected” their work and chose not to pirate it. What a bunch of hogwash.

Listening to music is easy. The entire history thereof. If it’s not on the streaming service, it’s certainly on YouTube. If you’re still stealing you’re a hoarder and need treatment. Why waste so much time to own that which is freely available?

Not truly free. YouTube pays. As do the streaming services. And if you’re complaining about the payout, you never would have invested in Verizon or Comcast or any enterprise wherein startup costs are high and dividends are paid forever. Just check the stocks of cable providers, they’re cash cows, people pay every month for infrastructure that was built eons ago.

So the movie business’s worst nightmare just happened. A site that will be all but impossible to take down has launched that allows you to watch everything, now, for free. Movies in the theatres, movies on home video, movies you can’t find anywhere else.

There was a hole and somebody filled it. Film people were so busy protecting theatre owners and cable channels and everybody else who paid for their product, the same way record labels protected brick and mortar retailers, that they forgot about the customers, who want a simple interface and access. Sure, if you’re a teen you might want to go to the theatre to make out and cause trouble, or if you’re an alta kacher you might go out of habit, but everybody else just doesn’t understand the theatre experience anymore. You mean I have to get into my car, park, and the movie doesn’t start when I want it to? We all live in an on demand world, except in the movie business.

We’ve got what everybody wants in the music business. All access streaming. Yup, that’s what people want. YouTube is the music player of choice. It dwarfs not only CDs and MP3s, but dedicated music streaming sites. This is also the problem of the labels, who wouldn’t let music streaming sites launch early enough, such that YouTube got a head start, but the point is…we’re at the end of the road. The consumer is living in a land of luxury, a pure nirvana, he’s lost all incentive to pirate. Can we get him to pay for dedicated streaming services? We’re gonna find out.

And now the movie business is gonna have to move forward, gonna have to deliver all their product, instantly, on demand. Windows are going to collapse, prices are going to come down, because the public now has an easy alternative.

Ain’t technology grand!

Not if you’re a struggling band without superstar talent. Suddenly, no one has time for you.

Not if you’re a traditional record company. Sure, you might make a ton of money off streaming in the future, but these companies have not configured themselves for the new reality, within which…

Talent is king.

Never forget, distribution is truly king, if you can’t access it, it’s like it doesn’t exist. But as I illustrated above, the music distribution problem has been solved. The only issue is what flows through the pipeline, what people choose to play.

And what they choose is superstar talent. The blockbuster syndrome.

The superstar talent may make less money off recordings than in the past, but live business exceeds the past by a huge factor. Concert tickets have gone up in price even more than college tuition! And then there’s sponsorships/endorsements and privates and sync and so many avenues of remuneration that no one who is a superstar is bitching.

Yes, all the bitching is from those who’ve been left out. Even Thom Yorke isn’t bitching for himself, but the theoretical people following in his footsteps. But anybody as good and big as Radiohead will have no problem making money in the future, it’s there to be had. Will they make as much as techies and bankers? Maybe not, but almost nobody does.

She died, get over it.

If the “New York Times” doesn’t stop tributing this willowy ex-model with the fake name who has no meaning in the lives of the rest of the world, those not member of the glitterati, I’m gonna open the window and scream I’M MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!

Supposedly the paper of record, the “Times” has been caught up in the story of a woman living beyond her means who just happened to be the girlfriend of a famous rock star, maybe the most famous rock star, sorry Sir Paul.

And I’m sorry Mick. The show does not go on. You canceled the Stones shows. Good move.

But this is a personal matter. Not one for everybody who ever touched fame to be given a chance to testify how they knew her but didn’t.

Hell, if you want to read the best story, check out the one in the “New York Post,” wherein they delineate the foibles of the wannabe rich and famous, how smoke and mirrors make them look fabulous, but the truth is they’re going broke and they’re afraid to lean on their famous friends who are too narcissistic to help out the little people:

“Scott’s suicide reveals tragic side of city’s glitzy scene”

Or, as they say, it’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll.

But at least if you make it to the top in music, you can sing your hit forever, you were famous for something legitimate. Although I am looking forward to thirty years from now to the package rap reunion shows, with everybody squeezing into their leathers like Fat Elvis and testifying about danger while backstage they’re worried about retirement and the leaking of their Depends.

Yes, we live in a phony society where truth rides in the back of the bus and we glorify anybody who’s tall, thin and acts like they’re rich.

It’s like we’re all aspirational, to become fashion nitwits. If I want a pair of sneakers, why would I want them to be made by Prada? Doesn’t Nike specialize in performance, aren’t sneakers about performance?

I guess not, in a country where how you look is so important. Imagine if Obama weren’t black…never mind his wife. Some people can’t get over this, just like they still make fun of gays, Jews and anybody who is not like them, an ignorant bully.

But still, why can’t we focus on real issues?

Because the people in charge don’t want us to. The truth is those who run this country like us unintelligent and uninformed. They laugh at us as they pull the strings of society.

And I’m starting to think you just can’t battle it. Last night I watched Robert Reich’s income inequality documentary on Netflix. It was incredibly well done, it just wasn’t a talking head, it’s available everywhere.

Inequality for All

But almost no one will see it, because Republicans will say it’s flawed, because you just can’t trust short people, never mind Democrats, and most people are tied up in the shenanigans of L’Wren Scott, nee Luann Bambrough.

She was a model who became a stylist who dated Mick Jagger who became a designer. Whoop-de-doo! She deserves more attention than a Rhodes scholar!

Oh, that’s right, the educated and the intelligent are to be despised, not trusted. They think they’re better than us, with their ability to read and analyze and hold two opposing concepts in their brains at the same time.

Then again, the number one story coming out of SXSW is rampant commercialism. And the only people who can turn the tide are the musicians themselves, who fell for this boondoggle, that the only way they could survive was to tie up with the Fortune 500.

The truth is the Fortune 500 will always be richer than you. And that most of these “entertainers” deserve neither the notice nor the cash. Create a song as ubiquitous as Doritos, satisfying and lasting, and then maybe you’ll make a difference.

Instead we’re telling everybody L’Wren Scott is a role model. Someone to aspire to be. Albeit without offing yourself in the end.

Actually, what I’ve read makes me believe L’Wren would be horrified at the big deal her death has become, how her entire life has been raked over the coals and exposed. She liked her privacy.

But you give that up now. It’s all grist for the mill. For those looking to make money selling media, burnish their image by attaching themselves to someone further up the food chain and the ignorant who believe these people are worthy of adulation and imitation.

Yes, the lesson of Kim Kardashian is you look to your progenitor and exceed her.

Paris Hilton created the paradigm, of being famous for nothing. Kim just got on the gravy train and executed not by whim, but with cold calculation.

And the truth is now every idiot in America is trying to imitate her, the way every singing show on TV is populated with Mariah Carey clones.

So there you have it. The underclass is trying to be famous for nothing and the rich are all trying to get wealthier in tech and anybody with an art history degree is to be derided, even the President said so, since they have no financial future.

I’m an art history major. I’m glad to starve.

I read it with my iPhone.

No, I don’t read it ON my iPhone, (oh wait, that’s not true, I do, the night before, when I can’t wait for tomorrow’s news), but with my handheld wireless device by my side, in my pocket, ready to look up anybody who says something provocative or intimate…I want to know them.

Kind of like that guy who was flummoxed when his anonymous dating profile was sussed out by a prospective date. There is no such thing as anonymity anymore. Unless you have neither computer nor smartphone, nor tablet too, almost forgot that one. You’re leaving digital cookies not only for corporations, but sleuthers. If someone is interested in you, and most people are not, they can dig down and find out who you are.

That’s right. As you’re trying to get famous, e-mailing people you don’t know to try and get them to write about your music so others will follow you, the girl you’ve ignored next door, the geeky boy who can never seem to get the words out…they’ve assembled a full dossier on you, they know where you went to college, what you’ve eaten for lunch… That’s what Twitter and Facebook are best for, your secret admirers.

But the Internet is also good for curiosity. Not only what happened to those high school colleagues, but what is the history of the writer, what do they look like.

I just started reading Rachel Kushner’s “Flamethrowers.” There are so many good insights. Unfortunately, what’s in between them is difficult to read. But books are just like records, hipsters don’t want to admit they like the mainstream, they’ve got to trumpet what most people can’t digest, what they won’t put enough time into, so the arbiters can feel superior. But what fascinated me most was who this Rachel Kushner was. The pic in the book (yes, a friend sent me a hard copy as a gift, thank you Daniel!) seemed at odds with the story. I Googled, I checked the images, I wanted to know more.

You think you want to become famous.

But what you’re truly looking for is to become known. That’s why you post. Sure, sometimes you want to demonstrate that you’re better than the rest, but usually you just want to share.

And the truth is you are. You’re building a cobweb of information that lies dormant until someone, a person you may have never had contact with, becomes intrigued.

Kind of like me and Sarah L. Courteau, author of this week’s Modern Love column. Her boyfriend said she hogged the bed, was she a large woman?

Oh, it doesn’t really matter, thin, fat or otherwise. It’s just I wanted to flesh out the details of the story. I wanted more. That’s what the Internet provides, more.

We used to think a little was enough. But the truth is humans are voracious animals. If we become intrigued, we become insatiable.

And everyone is a star. Just like Sly Stone sang.

Those people up on stage may have throngs of fans, but they’re oftentimes lonely, and there’s a limit to how many people you can screw and have a conversation with and…

The truth is very few deserve and command this attention. In a world where everything’s available, we gravitate to excellence. It’s why there’s one Google and one Amazon and only one Taylor Swift and one Justin Timberlake. We don’t need another Taylor Swift, certainly not a local one, when the internationally famous one is all over the Internet for us to size up and listen to.

So instead of being frustrated that you’re not world famous, know that you are part of the fabric of this great nation of ours. And the more you reveal your identity, your truth, the more we become intrigued. We don’t want to listen to you implore us to buy your album, we don’t want to be sold something, we just want to know who you are. Testify about your thoughts and dreams and imperfections and we’ll go down the rabbit hole with you.

Will this deliver monetary rewards?

Doubtful.

But if you think money solves your intimacy problems, delivers happiness, then you know no rich people.

I’m not saying it’s good to be poor, to be struggling, to worry about food and shelter. But I am saying if you’ve got the basics covered, we live in an era where it’s very easy to connect.

There are dating sites for those with Asperger’s, those who are fat, those who are Muslim and those who are gay. Used to be you lived in an empty silo, now you live in a vast cornucopia of like-minded people and if haters decry you it makes no difference, usually because there’s little penetration between worlds. That’s what the old music guard can’t get over, that no one is listening to them as they say hit music sucks. The people who enjoy it…are enjoying it.

So you can look up my life, examine my digital cookies, but if you think you truly know me…

But that’s the nature of life. We all believe we know those we don’t, that if we just interacted with someone else our lives would be complete.

And this mashup of old technology and new has so many confused. Stalk someone and reveal this information and your prey will run.

But instead of sitting home alone, watching the tube, now you can surf endlessly, learning about your heart’s desire, so when you encounter them live…

And it’s all about live. In an era where Billy Joel makes no new records but has Brian Johnson comes on stage at Madison Square Garden to sing “You Shook Me All Night Long” it’s all about the experience.

Billy Joel / Brian Johnson “You Shook Me All Night Long”

And my experience is dreaming who these people might be, those who feel it necessary to reveal their truths online, like me.

“An Act of Protection, Even as Things Fell Apart”

A SONG FOR JEFFREY

Purists believe the initial album is best, “This Was,” the one before Mick Abrahams left. If nothing came after, Tull would be seen as English blues progenitors, but a hit changes all perceptions. There were no hits on “This Was,” but I’d start here, with the signature flute intro and then the instant groove. “A Song For Jeffrey,” all of “This Was,” is Jethro Tull for people who think they hate Jethro Tull.

MY SUNDAY FEELING

The opening cut on “This Was,” and probably the most famous. Most jam bands can’t hold a candle to this.

BOUREE

The instantly accessible rearrangement of Bach’s composition is the signature track on Tull’s second album, “Stand Up,” which did, i.e. when you opened the gatefold cover, the band popped up inside.

FAT MAN

Intense, it had a quiet acoustic feel long before Mumford & Sons, and required only one listen to get. It sounded like a group of like-minded fellows playing in the park, not for the adulation, but for the fun of it. Oh, not fun, this music is not tossed off and irrelevant, it’s life itself. It’s stuff like this that made you want to buy the album, what was buried inside was better than the hit, not that there was a hit on “Stand Up.”

NOTHING IS EASY

Sounds like it could fit on “This Was,” except it was faster, a bit more polished and more intense. If you don’t nod your head to this, you haven’t got one.

JEFFREY GOES TO LEICESTER SQUARE

You learned about geography via records. And the English ones were especially exotic.

BACK TO THE FAMILY

When it slows down in the middle and changes…risk was paramount way back when. Formula was abhorred. Ian Anderson is singing about the flaws of trying to make it, and thinking about going back to the family…don’t we all.

LOOK INTO THE SUN

My favorite cut on “Stand Up.”

Once upon a time we didn’t want to rush to the club or the tent to gyrate with the minions, we just wanted to shut the bedroom door, turn out the lights and listen…to this music we believed was made just for us.

This is so wistful and so right.

FOR A THOUSAND MOTHERS

The closing cut on “Stand Up,” it’s intense and frazzled and it leaves you so shook up you can do nothing but flip over the cassette and play the whole album from the top.

There’s not a bum cut on “Stand Up.” It still sounds fresh today, maybe because there was nothing else like it.

TO CRY YOU A SONG

Riff rock. From the Stones to the Troggs to Deep Purple, and in between, yes, Jethro Tull.

“Benefit” was the album that turned off the purists, but it was the one that clued me in, maybe because of the wild ride in John Morosani’s Trans Am without seat belts at 110 MPH on Route 125 the opening weekend of college. The soundtrack makes an indelible impact.

That’s how it used to be, before everybody had all the music. We learned about stuff from the radio, from friends, and then we had to buy it ourselves. I had to own “Benefit” myself. I read the mediocre reviews, but I loved it!

A TIME FOR EVERYTHING

Kind of like how “Have A Drink On Me” follows up “You Shook Me All Night Long” on “Back In Black,” “To Cry You A Song” segues into “A Time For Everything” which drives even faster and closes us too. Today we expect to be let down, Tull were showing us they still had something left in the tank.

INSIDE

Actually, it was three tracks in a row on the second side. “Inside” wasn’t quite as good as what came before, but was infectious nonetheless.

SOSSITY; YOU’RE A WOMAN

The kind of track the naysayers hate but the fans love, “Sossity” closes the record on a reflective note. This was an age when most of us were just growing up, when boys were becoming men and girls becoming women. Responsibilities were changing, and our music was guiding the way.

FOR MICHAEL COLLINS, JEFFREY AND ME

Sounds similar to Simon & Garfunkel’s “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her,” and you’ll be missing out if you never hear this.

NOTHING TO SAY

Probably the second most played cut on “Benefit” after “To Cry You A Song.” Typical of the canon, but still good.

LOCOMOTIVE BREATH

Funny how at this late date this is the most memorable and most played cut off “Aqualung,” which turned Jethro Tull into superstars. It was the accumulated quantity of quality music and the riveting live performances, with Ian Anderson playing flute on one leg, that caused the fans to fill arenas. And yes, radio airplay…”Aqualung” and “My God” were all over the radio.

AQUALUNG

Another riff, but with a story to match, “Aqualung” was an epic that dominated the airwaves to the point that many people never need to hear it again. It was “Hotel California” before that cut was. But what puts the cut over the top is when it slows down and becomes reflective in the middle, a la classical music, there were multiple movements, little did we know what was coming down the pike.

MY GOD

The other epic, not played as much as “Aqualung,” but still in regular rotation. And “Aqualung” was 6:37 and “My God” 7:13.

THICK AS A BRICK

Really don’t mind if you sit this one out.

But few did.

Here’s where rock goes classical, where one song with multiple movements fills both sides of an album, “Tubular Bells” came after.

There’s not a baby boomer alive who does not know the riff and the opening lyrics.

You’d think no one would be interested in an album like this. But an edit was all over the airwaves, the newspaper-like cover was enrapturing and only hipsters were too cool to love it.

You’d think it would get old.

But it didn’t. We played “Thick As A Brick” over and over again.

And the love that I feel is so far away

Ain’t that the truth. We knew about love and sex from music, so many fans had never experienced it.

Spin me back down the years and the days of my youth

When music drove the culture and changed the world. When English musicians built upon the delta blues to create something new and different and the baby boomers followed them to a new way of thinking.

LIVING IN THE PAST

And finally, Jethro Tull has a huge AM radio track, over Christmas no less, when playlists are frozen for weeks and everybody’s home, driving around in their parents’ cars trying to escape.

It was a double album of what came before, but somehow mainstream radio was finally ready and suddenly the whole of America was hip to Jethro Tull.

FARM ON THE FREEWAY

And from there it went downhill. “A Passion Play” was a failed attempt to follow up “Thick As A Brick.”

“War Child” had the execrable “Bungle In The Jungle,” which was second-rate Tull, made for those with mush for brains. But the band was on an endless victory lap, all its previous work was paying dividends, live business was bigger than ever.

“Minstrel In The Gallery.” A good title track, that’s all you need to know.

“Too Old To Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young To Die.” Ditto.

“Songs From The Wood.” That’s three in a row with a good title track and not much more.

Then people stopped paying attention. There were endless albums and you needed none of them. “Songs From The Wood” was followed by “Heavy Horses,” “Stormwatch,” “A,” “The Broadsword and the Beast” and “Under Wraps.” To say they were for fans only would be charitable, Tull had lost most of its fans.

And then came “Crest Of A Knave.” In 1987. Almost a decade and a half after the band’s heyday. And it was GOOD!

Too good, by a band with a known name, the album beat out Metallica’s for the metal Grammy and Jethro Tull became a joke, a whipping boy, emblematic of all that came before and should rightfully be forgotten.

But the people loved this record, whose tracks were decided upon by focus group, and the biggest and best was…”Farm On The Freeway.”

A companion piece to Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” by this time the boomers had lost the war, they’d followed Reagan into the land of greed and AOR radio had become so corporate it had been eviscerated by new wave, pop and MTV. But “Farm On The Freeway” was so good, it climbed out of the ghetto into national consciousness.

We all lament what we’ve lost in the transition, from addiction to the radio to MTV to music made by people with little skill, and, ironically, this song is all about that.

LIVE/BBC

And that’s all you need to know.

Unless you’ve been hooked by the above.

If so, you’ll find a wealth of material to explore and devour.

Starting with the BBC tapes from the band’s initial incarnation. This was not a studio outfit, they could most definitely do it live. And, as the years have passed, more and more live material has been released.

My favorite place to start is the 1988 3 CD set, “20 Years Of Jethro Tull,” which is no longer available, however elements have been distributed here and there on rereleases of previous albums. Wanna be a true archivist, live the way we used to, search this out.

But before you do…

Listen to the following BBC material, which I’ve included here:

“Serenade To A Cuckoo”
“Cat’s Squirrel”
“A Song For Jeffrey”
“My Sunday Feeling”
“Fat Man”
“Nothing Is Easy”
“A New Day Yesterday”
“Bouree”

Happy hunting!

Rhinofy-Jethro Tull Primer