The Top Five people on Twitter are all musicians.

Lady Gaga is number one with 22,131,698 followers.

At number five, we’ve got Shakira, with 15,264,505.

And in between, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Rihanna.

Britney Spears is number six.

Taylor Swift number nine.

In other words, the bankers may have all the money, but musicians have all the power.

And they didn’t get there by tying in with the financial fat cats, but by making music that resonated with their fans. Musicians are beholden to their fans, they control an army, and it’s about time they did something good for our country.

"The case decided Monday, Florence v. County of Burlington, No. 10-945, arose from the arrest of Albert W. Florence in New Jersey in 2005. Mr. Florence was in the passenger seat of his BMW when a state trooper pulled his wife, April, over for speeding. A records search revealed an outstanding warrant for Mr. Florence’s arrest based on an unpaid fine. (The information was wrong; the fine had been paid.)

Mr. Florence was held for a week in jails in Burlington and Essex Counties, and he was strip-searched in each."

Supreme Court Ruling Allows Strip-Searches for Any Arrest

My eyes bugged out when I read that.

Needless to say, Mr. Florence is African-American. He was in jail FOR A WEEK FOR A FINE HE ALREADY PAID??!!

"According to opinions in the lower courts, people may be strip-searched after arrests for violating a leash law, driving without a license and failing to pay child support. Citing examples from briefs submitted to the Supreme Court, Justice Breyer wrote that people have been subjected to ‘the humiliation of a visual strip-search’ after being arrested for driving with a noisy muffler, failing to use a turn signal and riding a bicycle without an audible bell."

Supreme Court Ruling Allows Strip-Searches for Any Arrest

I got fury in my soul
Fury’s gonna take me to the glory goal
In my mind
I can’t study war no more
Save the people
Save the children
Save the country, now

Momentarily, Laura Nyro is going to be inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Way too late. Poseurs have gotten in before this woman with more talent than seemingly everyone on the hit parade today. And sure, Ms. Nyro became famous for writing "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Stoned Soul Picnic", but she also wrote "Poverty Train" and "Save The Country", a huge hit for the Fifth Dimension. Back in an era where we didn’t tell the poor to pick themselves up, but we helped them.

The strip search of Mr. Florence was deemed legal by a 5-4 vote in the Supreme Court. The five empowered by Republican administrations who believed the country had taken a turn for the worse. I ask you, where does this leave us now? If you don’t think you’re liable to get strip-searched for a minor infraction, you’re wrong. We all break the law, oftentimes inadvertently.

But it gets worse. According to the American Bar Association, international treaties ban the strip-search procedures the Supreme Court just deemed legal.

What happened to our country? Are we all just in an endless dash for cash with no morality, no desire to help our brethren, no desire to live in an harmonious culture, more desirous of living in a police state where the supposedly threatening are kept in jail?

The youth have power.

And who do they take their instructions from?

MUSICIANS!

"Save The Country"

It’s time for the Cousin Bobby Comparison!

That’s what I used to do back in the deep dark ages of my tenure on college radio, before I got bounced when the regime I’d made friends with graduated and I went from having coveted slots to my own lunar rotation, once every two weeks instead of college drive time, every Saturday morning from 9:30 to noon, when everybody’s waking with a hangover and actually listens to college radio.

And I was on during the week too, everybody knew who I was, but that was too much for the new powers-that-be, if you don’t think society is about keeping winners down, you’re not playing.

So I quit.

Went through withdrawal, but are any of those pricks in radio today? NO!

Anyway, back in the day, as the youngsters are wont to say, I’d play the original and the remake…

Speaking of the original and the remake, you’ve got to listen to Joe Cocker’s version of "I’ll Cry Instead", it’s almost as good as the original…who knew Joe was cutting Beatle covers back in ’64! And he didn’t make it for another half a decade, long after today’s wimps give up and go to graduate school, thinking that the public rejected them when the truth was the public didn’t know about them yet because they just weren’t good enough, they hadn’t plied the boards.

Joe Cocker, I’ll Cry Instead

But today I’m not gonna play the original and the cover.

Then again, I’m gonna.

But this time it’s by the same damn band.

I want you to watch the Alabama Shakes legendary live version of "Hold On":

Alabama Shakes – "Hold On" – Live from the Shoals 8-21-2011

Then listen to the final studio single version here:

Alabama Shakes – Hold On (Official Video)

Or, if you’re Spotify savvy, here:

Alabama Shakes – Spotify

HEAR THE DIFFERENCE?

The original live take swings, it breathes, the band locks onto a groove, wallows in it and draws you in, they seal the deal.

As for the studio take…blecch. They were so busy getting it right they squeezed all the life out of it. Where’s the GROOVE!

There’s an original version of "Whipping Post" on the Allman Brothers’ debut. It’s good, I like it.

Whipping Post – Spotify

But it’s a distant cousin of the take on "Fillmore East". The live version has energy, it lives.

Fillmore East – Whipping Post – Spotify

People make this mistake all the time. They think it’s about perfection.

No, it’s about capturing lightning in a bottle.

I’m reminded of Leeza Gibbons, who had so much plastic surgery she lost her identity. You think you want to be perfect, but that’s not what people want, we seek your imperfections. Who cares if the drummer speeds up a bit, if the vocal is not perfect, we’re looking for the je ne sais quoi. Something indescribable, that hooks us.

You’ve got to put your best foot forward. Good is not good enough. We’ve got to be stunned.

Whether that means you cut the whole album live or you sit in the studio until you get it right or…

I’ve got nothing against the Alabama Shakes.

But I refuse to settle for mediocrity.

And all the press in the world can’t convince those not in the echo chamber.

Sure, they’ve got a great start. It’s not like no one has noticed.

But we heard about Elton John and his first single was "Your Song".

We heard about Alanis Morissette and her first single was "You Oughta Know".

You don’t get many chances, you want to get it right, right away.

From: Al Kooper

Alabama Shakes need a good producer.
Not a high-priced, FAMOUS, in demand producer.
Simply a good producer who can guide them through their deficiencies and make them into the better band they could easily be with proper guidance.
Their first album is not on a par with what first albums should be.
You have your whole life to get your first album ready.
You only have the time between your first album and the second album’s release date to conjure that second one up. You MUST be better prepared by then or you’ll only have a three album chance.
I think of first albums that FLOORED me – U2, Black Keys, North Mississippi All-Stars, Field Music, XTC, and I can’t put Alabama Shakes in that category. They have the talent – they simply need the outside professional guidance.
Okay – I’m done now.

Al Kooper

It’s about the song.

Richard Griffiths began as an agent. Then he went into publishing and eventually ran Epic in America and then BMG UK/Europe. He gave Simon Cowell a job.

And that’s how Richard’s company ended up managing One Direction, the hottest act in the business today.

Sure, there are more details, but my point is experience counts.

Friday night I had dinner with Richard and Will Bloomfield, the day to day manager of One Direction.

And who did they credit most for One Direction’s success in America?

SIRIUS!

Yes, the satellite outlet embraced One Direction, made the band its own.

Now we’ve been hearing satellite radio is irrelevant since its inception, that there are too many channels and too few listeners. But starting eighteen months ago I began hearing about the power of XMU, that it drove club business, people heard songs on the station and wanted to see the bands live.

What was the second driver of One Direction?

TUMBLR!

Do you know what Tumblr is? Let’s just say it’s like the web pages of old, the personal blogs that the prognosticators said we were all going to have.

Twitter is limited to 140 characters, it’s an information service. Tumblr is your home, where you evidence your identity.

And when you’re a prepubescent girl not only is who you are important, you’ve got crushes. But now you can evidence them not only on your bedroom wall, but online. You can see what your friends are into, you can gauge buzz, you can cause a conflagration.

In other words, One Direction broke without the mainstream media. It wasn’t terrestrial radio and it wasn’t the press. Because they didn’t know.

Things no longer get started on terrestrial radio or in the press, they’re last, after the fire has been lit. So where you begin is ever more important. The web world is where you get started.

But it only matters if you’ve got the right record.

They say lyrics don’t count. But they’re a key part of One Direction’s success…

You’re insecure
Don’t know what for
You’re turning heads when you walk through the door
Don’t need makeup
To cover up
Being the way that you are is enough

What’s the most important thing in junior high school?

BEING POPULAR!

And what’s the surest way to popularity? LOOKS!

How much time do you spend in front of the mirror, how much time do you agonize over what you’re gonna wear. You feel inadequate, but this song says YOU’RE ENOUGH!

Now if you go online and research the lyrics of "What Makes  You Beautiful", you’ll see they list who sings each verse. This is hard to decipher on the radio, but it’s information that fans savor, that they want to know and trade and put online.

I’ve heard better songs than "What Makes You Beautiful", but you can’t deny that it’s hooky. And sure, it’s simple, but that’s the easiest way into a kid’s heart, boil it down to the essence.

On one hand, One Direction is no different from the boy bands that preceded it. On the other, they don’t dance and they’re using the tools of the new world to break.

Look at it this way… Their fans never knew a world without the Internet. And Sirius comes standard in all new cars, the ones their parents schlep them around in.

Sure history repeats, but it’s never in the exact same way.

It takes 10,000 hours to be world class.

But that doesn’t mean everybody in the world’s going to know you.

The problem in society today? No one wants to put in the effort, no one wants to go into their bedroom, turn off their computer and cell phone and invest in themselves, dividends come late, not early. Point being you should read Malcolm Gladwell’s "Outliers" if you want to quote it, because he goes on and on about the importance of timing.

Despite all the hoopla about the live business, we live in the era of the Internet, we live in the era of recordings.

Huh?

To get someone to go to the gig is nearly impossible. Your only hope is to entice them with recordings, both audio and visual.

Let’s go back a chapter…

Unless you make beat-infused music, forget about radio. Bitch all you want, but you’re never going to get on. That’s that timing thing… Once upon a time, Top Forty radio was the best forty, and then twenty, songs in America. Now it’s a few songs from a very limited genre, and if you’re not in it, give up.

There are other radio genres. The Country pipeline still works well. But it’s completely controlled by the usual suspects/infrastructure, if you’re not a member, if you don’t play along, you won’t get on.

And there’s so-called "Active Rock"… Which is like a mole on your face, a tiny part of the whole, but a few people see it and remember it.

And then there’s KCRW/public radio. If you’re a hipster, this is your only radio choice.

But let’s revisit the above. Only Top Forty, which is essentially equivalent to Urban, and Country radio, still make stars. The rest of the formats are also-rans.

So if you make rock music, GOOD LUCK!

In other words, if you don’t fit neatly into one of the above categories, most especially Top Forty/Urban and Country, you’ve got to do it for yourself. Thank god, the tools are at your fingertips.

It’s got nothing to do with free music, getting paid. That’s like complaining the government didn’t buy you a boat when the tsunami hits. It’s every man for himself, you’ve got to climb that damn tree, NOW!

You’ve got to make incredible recordings and put them on the Internet. You’ve got to make incredible videos and put them on YouTube.

Then the games begin…

Lana Del Rey made a very good track and matched it with video to the point she got noticed. So far, live business sucks. But imagine if she were truly good live!

Despite all the Alabama Shakes buzz, it doesn’t mean much because the live vibe doesn’t translate online. I know I’m overstating the case, it was their live video of "Hold On" that gave them the traction they did. But without more good songs that people can make others take notice of, there will not be exponential growth. Right now, the Alabama Shakes are caught up in a hipster echo chamber.

So, first ask yourself what kind of music you make.

And then, if it doesn’t fit into an obvious radio format, know that you’re in control and you have to promote it and yelling won’t help you, quality is your only option.

That’s where timing comes in. Hype is dead online. It’s all about word of mouth. People only talk about what is great or has train-wreck value. That with train-wreck value doesn’t last, which Rebecca Black doesn’t understand. As for quality cuts that gain traction…that’s just the beginning. Once you catch fire, you’ve got to be truly good live, you can’t develop on the road.

In other words, you have to practice even more now, be even better, you have to emerge fully realized, once you get the public’s attention you’ve got to DELIVER!

If you don’t make mainstream radio music, forget about the press, forget about radio and television, they’re as foreign to you as the meat market in Siberia. Everything is on your shoulders.

But at least now you’ve got an opportunity…