DELAYED GRATIFICATION

In the era of instant, it’s about the complete opposite. You want it now, but in order for it to last you’ve got to wait to start, to gain experience, and you’ve got to keep at it with no obvious chance of success in sight.

So elite college grads go for safety, soul-draining, high-paying jobs on Wall Street, and the poor want instant acclaim. And it’s only the lifers who last.

If you’ve got nothing to say, no one’s gonna want to hear it, at least not for long.

YOU DON’T WANT WHAT YOU THINK YOU DO

Not only are the odds of winning the lottery long, in order to have a million dollars to spend each year, you’ve got to win seventy five.

This article in the “New York Times” breaks it down:

Win a Lottery Jackpot? Not Much Chance of That

What you want is freedom. And if you can’t gain it by winning the lottery, maybe money isn’t the answer.

Now I’m not saying money isn’t important, having not enough will make you think about it all day and will ruin your life. But freedom is charting your own course, being able to do what you want, and that’s rarely about cash.

DON’T EQUATE PRESS WITH SUCCESS

There’s a story in the newspaper about a live stage version of the movie “Point Break.” I’m sure the actors and creators are congratulating themselves. But few people will ever see the production. And there will be very little money. So I hope they’re doing it for the fun of it, because there’s not that much more. Oh, you could get noticed by producer bigwigs and move up the food chain, but this is the bane of indie movie producers. You make something meaningful and then you want to make “Iron Man”?

MOVIES

Have left the public conversation. That’s what’s killing everything but the blockbusters. Used to be you had to go see the flicks so you could discuss them at parties. For all the publicity about “Blue Jasmine,” nowhere I go is anybody talking about it. It appears it’s a press story, kind of like Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s banjo folk tour.

People talk about television because it’s accessible.

Music doesn’t last because it’s too accessible. Your track can be trumped by another with a click.

We’re all grazers looking for something superior and spending more time in transit than at our desired location.

MOBILE PHONES

Are mature. It doesn’t matter whether you use Android or Apple, they both do the same thing. They’ve become commoditized. Future breakthroughs will not be in mobile phones but in another, heretofore unseen area. In other words, if your phone has LTE, you may not need to upgrade for years. Which is kind of what killed computers. You had to have the latest and greatest chip and more RAM to utilize the new applications, and now what you own is good enough and you’d rather not spend the money.

If you’re still excited by mobile phones, you probably can talk for an hour on bathtubs.

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

I wish I were born yesterday, so this present, cacophonous world, was all I knew. A baby boomer didn’t realize three networks and needing to go to the theatre to see a movie were restrictions. We liked cable and VCRs, but now we’re stuck, lamenting the passage of the good old days, the seventies movies and the seventies records. And we want to be hip and glom on to what’s new, but we just don’t know how to play. How do you make sense of a world with endless choices?

SUMMER

Is highly-anticipated and then it wanes.

All the good thinking is done in the fall, after we’ve gotten our ya-yas out. When the days get shorter and the nights get cooler and we don a sweater and spend time indoors, reading, watching…

MONEY IS FORGOTTEN

David Geffen did an interview in “Fortune.” It’s behind a paywall, so it got no traction. But the most interesting thing he said was how Bill Paley had been forgotten. Everybody with money has been forgotten. So enjoy it while you’re here, because there will be no lasting monument, unless you give your alma mater a hundred million and then students will know nothing but your name, they’ll have no idea what you did.

Art can last. But very little of it does.

David Geffen unplugged

IT’S 2013

And they still don’t call it the “teens.” I don’t know what they’re waiting for. But it’s almost fifteen years since the beginning of the new millennium. Classic rock music is even further behind us in the rearview mirror. Today’s youngsters don’t remember the eighties, never mind the seventies.

AL COURY

He died this week.

The most vaunted record exec in the seventies, absolutely unknown today. He was the guy behind the success of “Saturday Night Fever.” Some of those songs remain in the public consciousness, he does not.

GETTING OLDER

You can’t remember who’s alive or dead. So much time has passed that your memory is clouded, if it can be penetrated at all. But they say those who let go of the past live longer, let that be your prescription.

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM KILLS

It killed the L.A. “Times.” The publication looked at the circulation numbers, thought they told the truth. Whereas the reading public suddenly realized there was nothing left in the newspaper and gave up.

Same deal with Bieber. Don’t look at grosses, it’s perception that matters. Everyone believes he’s lost control, he’s already done.

GOING ON THE ROAD

You’ve got to love it. Otherwise it’s an endless grind.

Ask yourself… Do you want to spend months a year wasting time traveling to play the same damn songs again and again? Sure, the Dead stretched out, and Dylan remakes his tunes, but many acts cannot afford to do this, people want to hear the hits.

So when the techies say to forgo recording revenue and make it up on the road… Do you really want to do this?

Ask yourself before you go down the pike of a music career.

SIR KEN ROBINSON

This guy is a star. He lived in his niche until he got lucky, with a TED talk.

We’re all looking to get lucky. If you keep doing it, you’ve got more opportunity to succeed. It’s always the one thing you don’t really want to do, that you think will be a waste of time, that breaks you through.

The record companies of the late sixties and seventies didn’t ask you for a single, they just gave you money and hoped to get lucky. Oh, they picked people they believed in, but they steered clear of the creative process.

And it’s all about the creative process.

Sir Ken comes out with some gems in this article:

EVERY CHILD IS AN ARTIST

Like:

“It’s important to note, especially for parents, that there just isn’t a straight line between what you do at school and what you go on to do. I argue in my new book it’s like being on the ocean. You keep correcting your course according to things that happen to you. And we end up writing a resume, which makes it look like it was a plan. There was a study by a professor at Duke University looking at the degree majors for leaders in 500 companies in Silicon Valley. Forty percent were in math, science, or engineering, but 60% were in the arts and humanities.”

And:

“The continuum, as I see it, starts with imagination. It’s the most extraordinary set of powers that we take for granted: the ability to bring into mind the things that aren’t present. It’s why we are so different from the rest of life on earth. That’s why we’re sitting in a beautiful building, drinking from these cups. Because human beings make things. We create things. We don’t live in the world directly; we live in a world of ideas and of concepts and theories and ideologies.”

But what’s most interesting is Sir Ken is not selling t-shirts or coffee mugs, he’s not trying to capitalize on his fame, waiting for a Fortune 500 company to break him big. No, this is who he is.

Be happy with who you are.

I neglected to mention it was his arrangement of “Dreams” that Molly Hatchet copped and rode to AOR success.

Buddy Miles… Drummer for Electric Flag, a member of Hendrix’s Band Of Gypsys and then…he never really broke through. He wasn’t warm and fuzzy, he was the victim of a bad label, and he’s almost been completely forgotten, but if he were still alive today, if he hadn’t died of heart problems back in 2008, he’d finally be in the right place at the right time.

You see Buddy only wrote one hit, “Them Changes.” Which he played ad infinitum. Back when you had to have radio action to get noticed and to survive, it was damn good, it was his calling card, but we all tired of it. And only the cognoscenti heard the “Them Changes” album, because of the aforementioned bad label, but…listening now, you can see with his covers Buddy was positively poised for YouTube, where you don’t have to write the tune to get noticed, just ask Walk Off The Earth.

And his cover of “Down By The River” on “Them Changes” bugged me. It seemed superfluous. Then again, at this point most people had no idea who Neil Young was. “After The Gold Rush” wasn’t released until September 1970, “Harvest” in February of 1972, most people, almost no people, had heard Neil’s first two albums, the second of which contained “Down By The River.”

As for “Dreams”… The Allmans didn’t break through until late summer 1971, with “Fillmore East.” The first album, which included “Dreams,” sank like a stone. “Idlewild South” slowly made inroads, but like Springsteen thereafter, the Allmans built their rep on the road. In other words, when most people heard 1970’s “Them Changes” album they were unfamiliar with both “Down By The River” and “Dreams,” but as stated previously, most people didn’t hear the album at all.

Now I don’t want to completely rewrite history, I’m not saying “Them Changes” is an unknown, unheralded masterpiece, but with forty-odd years of distance…it’s astounding how good it is. Then again, quality was rampant in this era, when music drove the culture and you had to know how to play to make it.

Furthermore, you hear the money in the tracks. Everybody’s so busy doing it on the cheap today. Or else it’s a superstar production with tons of writers and remixers, polishing the tracks to death. But way back when, if you had a deal, you got a budget, you did it your way. You could have strings and horns…

Listen to “Heart’s Delight.”

Now, at this distance, you yearn to tweak the vocal sound. Make it a bit richer. Not that Buddy hasn’t got the pipes, it’s just that today with technology and experience we can do so much more.

And “Heart’s Delight” takes off like a shot and even if you’ve never heard it before you can get into the groove.

And I like the closer, “Your Feeling Is Mine,” it just swings. You believe that Buddy believes, and isn’t that what it’s all about?

“Memphis Train” is another cover. A Rufus Thomas original, Buddy’s take is not quite as good as the master’s, but if you’ve never heard the original, you’ll be satisfied.

I still can’t listen to “Down By The River,” maybe because the original made me a Neil Young fan, but at this distance it does not sound sacrilegious.

And that brings us to the legendary opener, “Them Changes.”

That’s how it used to be and what people no longer remember. The opening cut had to grab you by the genitalia and not let go. And “Them Changes” did that. Oh, there’s the riff, the horns, the vocal…but what’s so revelatory is the lyrics. Nobody goes through any changes anymore, at least not those they’ll admit to. All men are superconfident, they’re never on the losing end, even though that’s not how it truly is, certainly not on the inside. We were all going through them changes back in 1970, with the Vietnam War and Kent State and…the only thing on our side was the music, back before it was owned by the man. I mean what kind of crazy world do we live in where it’s a badge of honor to sell out to the Fortune 500… Huh?

Once again, if you’ve never heard “Them Changes,” you’ll be stunned. You’ll wonder where this powerful music came from. That’s 1970.

But what’s got me writing this is “Dreams.”

The original Allmans’ take is slow and dreamy. It’s the same song, but it’s oh-so-different.

That guitar sound intro. You can positively SEE the player! And then the organ oozes in. And all kinds of other sounds. There’s positively too much on this track, it should have been pared down, but that does not mean it doesn’t WORK!

And Buddy finds a groove completely absent from the Allmans’ take. One so hypnotic you’ve got to play the track again and again.

And the horns are right out of the first Blood, Sweat & Tears album. Which hearken back to the roots of rock and roll. Today, when a band goes on the road they want to do it as cheaply as possible. It’s all about the money. But in 1970, it was about the music. Hell, the money was in the records. So every once in a while you’d be treated to a stage full of players laying into a groove and wailing. Just imagine hearing this live!

And how about that guitar solo that begins at 1:49? They might not have treated Buddy’s vocal, but the effects here are positively otherworldly. Meanwhile, as the guitar beams down from outer space, the horns suddenly march in in military formation. So rigid and cut. You nod your head.

And then there’s an organ solo. Not a synth. Hell, this was before the Moog and ARP made inroads. You can hear the elbow grease.

And then it all comes back together and gets even more powerful.

The original is a drug trip. Buddy Miles’s cover is a freight train. And when Buddy comes back in after the break, the vocal sound is so heartfelt, so real. It’s not someone worried about overdoing it, or the melisma masters overdoing it to impress us, it’s someone who FEELS IT!

And isn’t that what great music is all about? FEEL?

And the last thirty seconds is an acceleration. The band is leaving the stage. No! Wait! THIS CAN’T HAPPEN!

And now you get it, why we followed this music…EVERYWHERE!

That’s the power of pop. It’s in the grooves.

And this is an album on the positively weak Mercury Records that didn’t make it!

Look at the album cover. Buddy’s a mean mofo. He had something to prove.

In retrospect, he did. It just took us decades to realize it.

Rhinofy-Buddy Miles

Without You – YouTube

Without You – Spotify

No, not the Badfinger song turned into a hit by Harry Nilsson and remade by Mariah Carey, but a new production by an acolyte of Diplo, Dillon Francis.

Huh?

Released Tuesday, if you go to the iTunes Store, you’ll see there are 78 reviews, and 71 are five star. I know, I know, the fans love it. But isn’t that just the point?

In other words, yesterday this track was at the bottom of the iTunes chart, but last night Tom Windish, Dillon’s agent, told me he was good for 2,000 tickets a night, if not more.

So listen to the track… It sounds like an English new wave production from the eighties until you hit the electronic elements. And I mean that in a good way. You know, the intimacy, with the vocal melody, and no covering up of the thin voice. Yup, today everybody wants to sound like everybody else, and they lose their personality in the process. But the slight voice in this case adds intimacy. Instead of swinging for the fences, Dillon Francis is just trying to hit it over the infielders’ heads. He doesn’t want to crush the game, but be part of it. In other words, you can be included. It’s like catching the eye of that imperfect girl at the club or the party. Everybody’s pitching and fantasizing about plastic-surgeried airbrushed stars. I ask you, how do you kiss Kim Kardashian’s lips? Inflated with a rubbery substance, does she quack when she makes love?

In a world exceptionally phony, “Without You” is positively real.

And, as I stated above, it’s not a home run. But it’s infectious. Not something you need to listen to forever, but you need to hear it a few times through and you want to tell your friends about it and you want to go to the gig to feel good. And since Francis has been at it for a few years, there’s more than the “hit” to experience live.

In other words, what you considered mindless, beat-driven music may not be. Maybe the deejays are coming closer to the melodicists, the singers and songwriters. Or maybe it’s the reverse, the singers and songwriters are moving towards electronics. But the point is this is new, or at least different from what has been proffered for years.

I don’t want to beat a dead horse. I don’t want you to tell me your metal band is better. I’m just e-mailing you this because it portends possibilities.

It should be a full time job being a fan of your band.

I just finished reading “Fast Company”‘s Amazon story. Amazon’s goal is to eliminate all competition, under the guise of being your go-to retailer, charging you for Prime, so you’ll spend even more, thrilled with faster delivery and some bells and whistles, like free books and movies, and getting you to pay even more, $299, for same day delivery of groceries.

The company never sleeps. Because it’s seen the movie.

What turned Apple into a juggernaut was the iPod. Which was not a good portable music player, but the ONLY portable music player. The company cornered the market on flash storage, no one could buy it as cheap, and hooked people into their ecosystem, i.e. synching and buying via iTunes, and no one else could even get a toehold.

In other words, take a hint from tech, you want to be the only band, the only service.

Huh?

That’s not the way art is!

But that’s the way it’s gonna be.

Kinda like Phishheads. The band keeps giving its fans more tools to flex their fandom. Downloads, streaming concerts… Whereas the biggest acts in the business today run by the old rules. They wait twelve plus months to put out an album of ten songs and then go on the road in support of it. But what if you’re a diehard fan and bought the album on the day of release? What are you supposed to do for the next twelve months, other than wait for the act to come to your town and get a lousy ticket because the game is rigged against you, if you can even get inside at all.

Everything you were afraid of you now have to do. To stoke the fires of your hardcore fans, who are a better advertisement for your music than any radio station or TV play. You’re a cog in the wheel of those media outlets. Whereas you’re the driver in the act/fan relationship. You’re in control. You can read the feedback, deliver what people want.

What do fans want first and foremost?

MORE MUSIC!

That major label paradigm wherein a track is polished to perfection over months… That doesn’t even work for them, because after spending so much money, no one buys the album, they see no need to, they’re a fan of the single, not the act.

Look at Kanye… If he were smart, he’d put out new music tomorrow.

Huh? And kill “Yeezus”?

“Yeezus” is already dead. As is Jay Z’s album. Fans have digested both and are hungry for more. To try to convince those not interested is to be inefficient and waste your time.

In other words, every band is its own little corporation. And should be run as such.

Microsoft charged manufacturers a Windows license fee whether they put the OS on the box or not. The company was cutthroat. You’ve got to be cutthroat too.

Don’t waste time helping your friends. Don’t even bother to sleep. Keep feeding the fire of your act 24/7.

And don’t try to imitate Instagram or Tumblr or the rest of the one hit wonders. You’ve seen the movie, a few services or apps sell for a fortune to deep pockets and then fade away and do not radiate. If you’re in it for the instant splash and the instant cash, buy a lottery ticket, or try to make a deal with a major label, doing everything they tell you to, losing your personality in the process.

Steve Jobs? Steve Ballmer? Jeff Bezos?

Not nice guys.

That’s what I find hilarious about today’s acts. They’ve got no edge. Look at country. They’re afraid of being excommunicated. They sing about SUVs and babies and Christianity and you wonder why the music doesn’t spread beyond the niche…because there’s nothing there!

Artists first and foremost have edge. They’re different.

But there’s not an endless list of tech giants. I’ve got a couple of ideas for great sites in my back pocket, but that’s where they’re going to sit, because I don’t have the time, money and general wherewithal to proceed. In other words, execution is everything. You can have a plan, but if your music doesn’t kill, it’s irrelevant.

Amazon works because it’s cheap and easy and trustworthy. The rest are just add-ons.

Who cares about your social networking if at the core your music sucks?

So from now on write music constantly, post it online, every live show, keep feeding the beast. If you know exactly what resonates with your audience, you’re wrong, you must experiment to find out, and keep doing so.

But the major label paradigm is just the opposite. Do less. Make it safe. Play nice.

Does that sound like Amazon?

Read this article and find out:

“AmazonFresh Is Jeff Bezos’ Last Mile Quest For Total Retail Domination”