THE POOL

So I’m accosted by this woman who works for Jason Flom who’s bitching that Republic won’t let her put her artists on channels other than Vevo. Huh?

So she introduces me to this English cat, who controls twelve YouTube channels with eight figure revenue. Each one has a million subscribers. They find acts on SoundCloud, then put them up on the tastemakers’ channels, and then they blow up! They even sell compilations on iTunes. And since Radio 1 looks at YouTube views…

It was like I descended on another planet.

Everybody here is so young and so innovative, it would spin the heads of the old farts who believe they control this business.

Oh, one more thing, these channels only post a new clip once every two or three days. They’re not overloading their subscribers. How can these nobodies get it so right and Beats and Songza get it so wrong?

THE ELEVATOR

“Are you here for EDC?”

YUP!

From D.C. The Electric Daisy Carnival is a destination unto itself. And when someone travels across the country, it’s a commitment.

THE FOUNTAIN

I’m right by the Bellagio, whose fountains blow up on a regular basis. I Shazamed the song that accompanied the explosions. It was Faith Hill’s “This Kiss.” Who knew?

IMPLANTS

Are rampant. Along with tattoos. Everybody’s trying to advertise their desirability, at various class levels. The ultra-rich employ their private jets. The upper class wears designer items. The lower classes are all about their bodies, their looks. And if you grew up on the east coast and believe it’s all about your mind, you’ve got no place in Vegas, maybe not America.

THE WYNN

It’s like the classes are self-separating. The lower go to Planet Hollywood, which was packed. The Wynn was completely empty. Especially the high end shops, from Vertu (who’d want one?) to Louis Vuitton.

GAMBLING

The tables were next to empty. Once upon a time the rooms were cheap and it was about getting people gaming. Now the rooms are expensive, as are the experiences. I’m not sure of Vegas economics, but if your impression is one big smoky gambling floor, you’re wrong. At the Cosmopolitan, gaming is almost a sideshow.

ABSINTHE

The producer tracked me down to go. I’ll say that the roller skating act was positively scary. Wherein they spin on a five foot diameter platform and if someone lets go whole swaths of the audience will be wiped out.

ROSE. RABBIT. LIE.

The same Australians who produce “Absinthe” produce this. A cornucopia of vaudeville acts and personal experiences. These are independents, they’re doing it for themselves, they’re the team that toured “Puppetry of the Penis.”

What was fascinating was the ticketing. Only twenty percent of tickets are sold in advance in Vegas (not including Celine, Britney, et al, the destination performers…the head of Caesars’ gave me a primer, turns out Caesars is owned by Harrahs and this guy oversees double digit venues). It’s about relationships with concierges and resellers and if you’re coming to Vegas and want to see a show, you’ll do best if you do your web research.

CLOTHING

Believing it’s all in the mind, I’m happy to dress down. But walking the Strip made me want to upgrade my wardrobe, to separate myself from everybody else.

SCALE

Come to Vegas to get an idea of how many people there are in the world. How much money you can make with a good idea. This is not L.A., the people don’t look like it, what I like most are the hanging bellies over the Daisy Dukes, do they not know or where they come from does no one care? It’s hard to fathom 300 million people. But they’re out there. And that’s the power of art. Steve Wynn may be a hospitality genius, but one hit track will reach many more people.

7UP

Watch this video:

Light It UP! – Tiesto (7UP Commercial)

They showed the long iteration yesterday, wherein Valparaiso, Chile is turned into…well, just watch it.

This deal was hatched at EDMBiz last year. 7Up saw its market shrinking. They were gonna focus on Latinos, who are heavy drinkers. But they learned that EDM skewed millennial, and they decided to invest in EDM instead. Their whole site is now EDM-centric:

7up.com

Tatiana from Nielsen said sponsorship should not be overdone. What I mean is, the length of time the product is exposed in the clip doesn’t matter. An instant of organic presence far exceeds extended airtime that is unnatural.

This deal is paying off for 7Up financially.

7Up was there early, others will soon follow.

JAKE UDELL

He’s all anybody would talk about, the manager of Krewella who spoke the first day, when I was still on Southwest.

I caught up with him yesterday.

He graduated from the entrepreneurship program at Indiana. He made a million before school hawking autographs on eBay. He quit his candy job because the big shots couldn’t understand his plan to make millions. He broke Krewella by piggybacking on a Skrillex track that was released without vocals or dubstep elements.

Jake is a new Shep Gordon, maybe a new Irving or Geffen. Because suddenly, kids are interested in the music business because they see money. And they don’t fit into the corporate world. And they’re innovative and limit-testing just like the titans of yore.

PASQUALE ROTELLA

He did the layout. In the big time music business, everybody’s too far removed, they’re not hands-on. It didn’t even occur to me that the number one guy at Insomniac would be in charge of designing the stage placement, etc.

10 PM

That’s when we’re leaving for the gig.

The traditional festivals begin early and end at midnight. Just like in Ibiza, it doesn’t really start happening here until the early morning. And if that’s too late for you, it proves the point, this music, this scene, is not for you. And the adherents, the fans, DON’T CARE!

THE HELICOPTER

That’s how we’re getting to the gig tonight. Yes, I’m afraid. Wish me luck!

I FEEL FREE

The best song off the debut, “Fresh Cream,” which only hipsters were aware of, mostly because of Clapton’s history with John Mayall. Credit its minor impact to the production, which was attributed to Robert Stigwood, the tracks just didn’t jump out enough, there was mud in the grooves, except for this one, which is so infectious it would be a smash if released today.

N.S.U.

Most Americans had no idea it was a car. Very hooky, with the line about only being happy when he played his guitar…no Facebooking for Jack Bruce!

I’M SO GLAD

Sure, check out the original studio takes of “Spoonful” and “Toad” on “Fresh Cream,” but they were rendered superfluous by the live iterations on “Wheels Of Fire,” however the original “I’m So Glad” stands on its own, it’s an interesting curio next to its ultimate smash incarnation on “Goodbye.”

SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE

The riff. Which played in bedrooms and on FM radio long before it penetrated AM in the summer of ’68. So simple, yet so satisfying. Is there anybody who plays guitar who doesn’t know this?

TALES OF BRAVE ULYSSES

My favorite cut on “Disraeli Gears,” credit the band’s new producer Felix Pappalardi for the darker, more vibrant sound. I remember playing this for my mother and imploring her to like it, ah, the myopia of youth.

STRANGE BREW

It really was all about “Disraeli Gears,” which built over the course of a year to be one of the biggest albums extant. The English cover was superior, it was slick to the U.S.’s matte. This was the opening cut, proving once again you should grab people immediately, only the Stones seem to have hung on to this lesson.

WORLD OF PAIN

You’ll never hear this on the radio, but it was so satisfying in the bedroom, because of its INTIMACY!

DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY

It almost sounded like it came from a Doors album.

SWLABR

You can surf the Internet to find out what the title stands for, in rock’s prehistoric, non-connected era, we had no idea.

WHITE ROOM

Ah, the majesty! The feel, the sound, a simple track driven forward by Ginger Baker’s drums. A hit, deservedly so.

SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD

The old blues chestnut, evidencing the band’s roots. The first disc of “Wheels Of Fire” was cut in the studio, the second live, the double album was an unforeseen victory lap, something that everybody bought and you heard everywhere.

POLITICIAN

Almost sounds like a West, Bruce and Laing cut. Plodding, but the changes make it a winner.

BORN UNDER A BAD SIGN

Another blues cover, the original was done by Albert King. The truth is most Americans learned about the blues not from their country’s progenitors, but the long-haired English boys, who devoured this sound and fed it back to us.

CROSSROADS

The definitive statement, if you didn’t pick up a guitar after seeing the Beatles on “Ed Sullivan,” you did now, if you were ever gonna.

Most Americans’ first exposure to Robert Johnson, this was long before the two CD set compilation, and it was one of their first exposures to Eric Clapton’s voice.

How could he play so fast, how could he get it so right?

SPOONFUL

Nearly seventeen minutes long, and other than “White Room” and “Crossroads,” probably the most played track on “Wheels Of Fire.” The soundtrack to drugs.

TRAINTIME

The other short song on the second, live disc, most notable for Jack Bruce’s harmonica work. Totally forgotten today.

TOAD

You don’t have to listen to it, we did, a few times, but “Toad” is most notable for ushering in the era of the drum solo. Before this, there were no fifteen minute interludes where you could leave your seat and go to the bathroom. Alas, Ginger Baker was a great drummer, he did it first, everyone else thereafter was an imitation.

I’M SO GLAD

So, the band is excoriated by the critics, and gets so much notoriety, that it implodes. But announces a farewell tour before this. I went to see the band in a barn in New Haven that no longer exists. I sat six feet from the speakers. I smuggled my Norelco cassette recorder inside. They mixed all the instruments through the PA. That tape still sounds exquisite today.

We had no idea there’d be a resulting album, with studio cuts and live recordings from the Forum, yes, the Los Angeles arena that was just remodeled and reopened.

This live take of “I’m So Glad” renders the original nearly irrelevant, there’s Jack’s intimate vocal, Eric’s incredible playing, this was heard everywhere.

POLITICIAN

Less plodding than its studio take. You can also listen to “Sitting On Top Of The World.” And know that truly everybody owned “Goodbye,” even those who’d managed not to purchase the three previous albums.

BADGE

The apotheosis, the final statement. Sung by Eric Clapton and written by him and George Harrison, this was a harbinger of what was to come, Eric’s solo career.

This was the album’s obvious killer, but it got no airplay. If you asked someone back then, they’d have no idea this would be the only cut from “Goodbye” that would survive half a century later, the one that’s a staple of Clapton’s show.

As for the title, it’s got to do with guitar…a chord progression, not a physical badge. I wince whenever I hear Clapton sing “Where is my badge?” when he performs it today.

But the reason the track is so incredible is…

Let me just say that Eric performed the legendary solo on the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and George Harrison plucked the strings on “Badge.” Credited to L’Angelo Misterioso, we all know who it was, because the sound was so familiar, it was UNDENIABLE!

Rhinofy-Cream Primer

“Loco-Motion” was the second record I ever bought. Yes, I remember it’s hyphenated. Do you know how much I stared at that label? That’s where I first saw the words “Goffin/King.” At the time, I didn’t even know those were the writers!

But how I loved that track. What is that sound? A saxophone? It went straight to my gut, got me moving, and the lyrics might sound stupid but dance crazes were all the rage back then, and really…they weren’t that stupid. They were conversational, they made sense, I felt Little Eva was singing just to me.

And I had no idea the same duo wrote “I’m Into Something Good,” which introduced Herman’s Hermits to America, it wasn’t until weeks later that the label put a sticker for “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter” atop the album, which came from the print shop with “I’m Into Something Good” emphasized. “Mrs. Brown” was the bigger hit, but it’s “I’m Into Something Good” that lasts.

And it’s funny, because the song means much more to me today than it did back then. That’s the power of an exquisite lyric, you grow into it, you know it by heart, but as you age you come to understand it.

Woke up this morning feelin’ fine

What could be better? Waking up with a smile on your face, knowing that you can’t wait to eat life up.

There’s something special on my mind
Last night I met a new girl in the neighborhood

It was only a year and a half later that I met Betsy at the camp social. She was my first ever girlfriend. Suddenly the song made sense.

But really, the number is even more powerful as I age, because when you walk out of their front door after the first night…you feel just like this song.

Of course Gerry Goffin was Carole King’s husband. But back then we knew neither of them, this was long before Carole broke through as a solo act.

They got the music bug early, long before the Beatles. Because despite wars and tech, one thing always sustains, music. It comes right after food, water and sex. At the top of a mountain, around a campfire, you can’t show a movie, but you can sing your favorites at the top of your lungs.

And back then life was different, we all knew those songs atop the hit parade. They’re part of our DNA.

And Goffin was no one hit wonder. He racked up classics both with Carole and without. Illustrating that success in life is not about the right parents or a degree, but the ability to capture the zeitgeist, to communicate to another human being what you feel inside.

I think I’m goin’ back
To the things I learned so well in my youth

That life is all about passion, about following your dream.

I think I’m returning to
Those days when I was young enough to know the truth

Society is about eradicating your essence, making you conform. Education is not about liberation, but constriction. I’ve always marched to the beat of my own drummer, instructed by my dad, an iconoclastic loner who lived to connect but was hampered by a tragic personal life who found his refuge in music.

And he found my mother, who shared the same musical values. My father picked her up hitchhiking on the way home from Tanglewood.

In my house there was unlimited money for piano lessons and concert tickets, because my ‘rents knew that art was the spice of life.

Now there are no games to only pass the time

No time to play the same album endlessly to get into the deep tracks, no time to discover who I am as opposed to being the person I’ve become.

No more electric trains, no more trees to climb

My mother tossed mine. Then she moved out of the house I grew up in, where I nailed a ladder to the tree in the backyard.

But thinking young and growing older is no sin
And I can play the game of life to win

That’s the truth about this music game, we never grow up, we’re young forever, and nothing is as satisfying as listening to the songs from way back when, which remind us of who we used to be.

And I used to be different. I used to be alone. I used to be depressed. But by following my musical dream, my whole life opened up. The songs led me there. I’ve played the game of life, and I’ve come to win. And it’s thrilling.

But not as thrilling as the music coming out of the speakers this very second, Dusty Springfield’s rendition of the Goffin/King composition “Goin’ Back.”

That’s where I’m going right now. Back to the sixties. Before illness, before tragedy, when life was all about opportunity, when the sky was the limit.

Gerry encompassed all of this in the lyrics to a pop song.

So long Gerry! Your body might be gone, but your soul lives on, your music lives forever, in our hearts and minds.

And thank you Carole too!

Cool, disruptive, cheap.

Pick one.

Pick two and you’ve broken the paradigm.

Pick all three and you’re a ubiquitous product that eliminates all comers and has established companies scratching their noggins in the dust.

The Fire Phone has none.

One of the main reasons people rush to buy the new iPhone and Galaxy is because they’re cool. They may be highly functional, but they’re also fashion items. You get to brandish them for up to a year and feel superior, create envy. Which is why people line up to buy them on day one.

Disruptive. That’s what the iPhone was back in 2007. It didn’t matter that it was on the inferior network known as AT&T. It didn’t matter that at first the price was exorbitant, it wasn’t subsidized, people had to have it.

Cheap… Well, Apple rarely goes there. But Windows 95 was cool, disruptive and cheap and it almost put Apple out of business. If only Microsoft could see that the desktop would not rule forever.

Yes, we live in a mobile world. Yes, more shopping will be done with handsets. But do we need an Amazon device to do this?

The Kindle was a breakthrough, which is why Amazon still controls the e-book market today. Apple came later, with iBooks, which look cool, run seamlessly, and featured page numbers when Amazon’s Kindle did not. But Apple’s an also-ran in books.

Furthermore, as the Kindle gained traction, Amazon kept lowering the price. It was no longer an exotic item, but an everyday one.

Ditto with Apple and the iPod. $400 for 5 gigs might have been out of the reach of many, but soon you could buy a much cheaper iPod Mini, and then a Shuffle for under a hundred bucks.

Not that Apple and Samsung are not vulnerable in phones. Smartphones are on the brink of becoming commodities. Cameras are good enough, they all run the apps. If the iPhone were not subsidized by carriers, few would be sold every September when the new model is launched, especially now that the LTE barrier has been broken. In other words, you truly only need a new iPhone if you’ve got a 4/4s, if you’re pre-LTE, otherwise, you’re buying a 6 as a fashion statement.

Which is why all the Wall Street analysts are skeptical about the Cupertino company. They’re awaiting a new breakthrough product, something cool and disruptive.

Apple specializes in cool, at least under Steve Jobs. The original iMac was the same damn computer in a better package, talk about marketing, talk about cool…

So the Amazon phone is not cool. It takes branding to extremes. Never a company you wanted to broadcast an affiliation with, especially now that they’re beating back rights holders, does Jeff Bezos really expect us to advertise his enterprise 24/7? Most people are going to be embarrassed if they whip out this phone, the subject of ridicule.

And sure, there are some nifty features, but how usable are they, how necessary are they, or are they like that button on your television remote which you’re not sure what it does…

But if the Fire was free. Or if it came with free data… Then there’d be an incentive to buy one.

And these rules don’t only apply to phones. They apply to music too.

Let’s start off with cheap. New and developing bands always go on the road for bupkes. You can go see them for under twenty bucks, furthermore, you get the advantage of being able to say you were there first, and now with Instagram, etc., you can document your early allegiance.

And what these bands are usually selling is cool. Otherwise, why go?

But the truly big acts in music are disruptive. They have names like Beatles, Hendrix, Grandmaster Flash, Kurt Cobain… And contrary to popular press, they are not popular at first. They hone their craft for years, removed from scrutiny, and seem to emerge fully-formed when that is far from the case. Which is why the teen of the moment usually fades.

But Taylor Swift was disruptive because she sang truthfully about her own personal life. Sure, the tunes were catchy, but she became a superstar because girls could relate to her story.

So while you sit there at home plotting world domination, contemplate these categories.

Roxy Music was cool and disruptive.

Justin Bieber was disruptive because he started on YouTube and created a new paradigm.

The Fire phone is not a bad product. But you want me to pay the same as an iPhone or Galaxy and be restricted to the substandard AT&T network for what?

I can’t see any concrete advantage.

And that’s why the Fire is dead on arrival.

P.S. Amazon will keep improving the Fire, will keep lowering its price. And the more mobile handsets become a commodity, the more they lose their cool, the greater the chance for Amazon penetration. But Prime is disruptive, the shipping service, not the video service, Netflix was the first mover there, it’s got all the eyeballs. We pay attention to the first, the progenitor, the disruptor. And then it’s their ball to lose. If they keep innovating, if they keep dropping the price, if the product is still cool, they own that category. But categories are not forever.