I care not a whit about fashion, but “Style” is my favorite section of the Sunday “New York Times.”

There’s a ridiculous article in this week’s paper about two women who invented a drumming workout. What they obviously do best is network and get publicity. I know this is true because there’s a mention of a man who hounded me to hype him in my newsletter and deleted his e-mail address in a huff when I wouldn’t. There are hustlers and there are…

Hustling. Isn’t that how you get a relationship? By kissing a bunch of frogs?

That’s why I read the “Style” section. For the weddings.

And “Modern Love.”

Every week someone tells a relationship story. That’s “Modern Love.” And sometimes it’s about parents and sometimes it’s a bad writer but usually, there are some nuggets you can connect with. This week, the story’s about dating on vacation.

Long time readers will know that I love Dido’s “Life For Rent” album. I know, I know, she’s cute and Eminem utilized “Thank You” from her first album for his hit “Stan” and ultimately her song got heavy rotation on MTV and I saw the video, but it slid right off of me. Then I heard “White Flag” on the radio in my mother’s car, when I was home in Connecticut cleaning my stuff out of the family home before she moved into an apartment. I was enraptured. When I got back to California, I searched the house for the CD, found it, played it, and loved it. My favorite song is “Sand In My Shoes.”

Two weeks away feels like the whole world should have changed
But I’m home now
And things still look the same

Isn’t that amazing. You leave for weeks, you get home and you ask your friends what you’ve missed…NOTHING!

Tomorrow’s back to work and down to sanity
Should run a bath and then clear up the mess I made before I left here
Try to remind myself that I was happy here
Before I knew that I could get on the plane and fly away

Isn’t it amazing how you rush to leave and then you get home and it’s exactly how you left it? You sigh, you thought your apartment would magically be clean!

Anyway, Dido laments leaving her vacation paramour behind, but in today’s “Modern Love,” Eve Fairbanks likes exactly this. The fact that vacation relationships are brief. And her writing is far from spectacular, until she nails it…

“The makers of Persian rugs know that an imperfection makes a beautiful carpet more winsome. We are drawn to cracks in a wall, the cake with the slight droop, because these are what make something – or someone – individual. We indulge our natural attraction to imperfection more freely on vacation.”

Eureka! That’s it! You’re lying at home, mad that you’re too fat or your nose is crooked or your hair is unmanageable, but that’s exactly what we love you for, your imperfections. I’m not saying you should not try to look you best, but that you should accept that not everyone will love you, but those who do will because of all the quirks that make you you. Don’t change them, don’t fix them, embrace them!

But even though I thought Ms. Fairbanks nailed it, I wasn’t planning on opening the lid of my laptop and firing off a missive. No, it wasn’t until I got to the story of Heather Zeller’s wedding that I was inspired.

You see she works for Pandora. She’s a senior manager of sales development at the company. And I hate Pandora, and isn’t it interesting how it’s going to be devastated by Apple’s new service, hell, Pandora’s stock already cratered upon last week’s news, but most people believe a combination of music and tech would get you laid.

It appears not.

Oh, believe me, in the old days the rock life was a guarantee of sex. And it’s still a social business. But you bring yourself everywhere. You won’t get laid at an orgy if you’re uptight about removing your clothes and even if you’re smart, attractive and seen in the right places that does not mean you’ll have a satisfying relationship, not if you don’t know how.

Maybe you’re too picky. Maybe you’re barking up the wrong tree, looking for perfection. Heather Zeller looks attractive in the photo, but I don’t know her, she could be a first class bitch. Or a bit of a mouse.

But she got married last night. This Cornell graduate’s dream came true at the cusp of her eligibility, she’s 39, she hadn’t had a relationship in a decade, it’s hard to do work and love. And how did this all happen?

A MATCHMAKER!

You’ve watched that TV show, right? With Patti Stanger, “The Millionaire Matchmaker”? It’s great fun. Because she’s so ridiculous and so are the daters. She’s brassy and offensive but her clients are caught up in a dreamland, looking for something that doesn’t exist.

But Heather Zeller was open, and she found what she was looking for. Hell, she refinanced her mortgage to pay for the matchmaker’s services! That’s how bad she wanted it. Kind of like how you want a music career.

Heather Zeller bought a ticket and went to the show. And the resulting story is intriguing because it’s honest, it’s real life, it’s not boastful like a rap lyric or filled with platitudes or falsehoods like so many pop lyrics. That’s real life. You’re not perfect, you feel inadequate in a world where everybody keeps telling you how great they are, you’re looking for a way to make it through, a thread you can follow.

You used to get tips in records. Hell, I learned a lot about relationships from Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne.

Now you’re better off cracking the pages of the “Style” section. The women’s sports pages.

But men can read ’em too!

“Heather Zeller/Simon Olenick”

“Romance, the Quirky Souvenir”

“Sand In My Shoes”

I told myself I was going to spend all day reading, but I got hooked on these BBC documentaries, which I recommend.

The first is on Roxy Music.

Unfortunately, the second half, after the band reforms, is paint by numbers. But the first half, about the formation of the band, the motivation, is educational and inspirational.

It was the opposite of today. There was a lot of thinking involved. Bryan Ferry had definite concepts he wanted to get across. And who else could write “In Every Dream Home A Heartache,” about a lonely man in a beautiful house who has a relationship with a blowup doll…

I blew up your body
But you blew my mind

The tidbits are fascinating. From Eno joining and leaving to the piece de resistance, wherein Bob Clearmountain claims he gets more feedback about mixing “Avalon” than any other project he’s been involved in:

“It’s amazing how many people love that record. I’ve gotten more comments on that record than anything I’ve done in my career, by far, you know more than Springsteen, or anything… you mention ‘Avalon’ and people…’oh, I love that record…my children were conceived to that record.'”

I discovered Roxy Music almost by accident. I was in London that summer of ’72 and all the newspapers were buzzing about it (multiple weekly music newspapers…I was in heaven!) I purchased the debut, which of course came without shrinkwrap and was sans “Virginia Plain,” which was stripped into the American version. My favorite song is “If There Is Something.”

And I purchased the follow-ups religiously, but it wasn’t until “Love Is The Drug” that they had any impact upon America.

As for “Avalon”…it was so different from what came before that at first I didn’t get it, then it became the make love classic. Yup, that’s what you did in the 80’s, put “Avalon” on the turntable and had a go at it. And you had to be fast, this was before CDs and the endless loop…although my Technics turntable would repeat a side.

And if we’re going to the later era, I’ve got to mention “Oh Yeah” from “Flesh+Blood.”

Almost completely forgotten, “Oh Yeah” is the quintessence of our musical fandom. We didn’t care if it wasn’t on the radio, we didn’t care if nobody else knew it, we just wanted to escape into our favorite tracks, they made our lives complete.

____________________

The second BBC documentary I watched is entitled: “Sweet Home Alabama – The Southern Rock Saga.”

I’d like to tell you I learned a lot, but I didn’t. But if you’re too young to know or remember, it’s a good primer.

But the reason everybody should watch it is the visuals. Beginning with the footage of Martin Luther King’s assassination. Especially listen to Gregg Allman’s song about it, “God Rest His Soul.” Not only is it great, and fitting, Gregg delineates perfectly how songs write themselves. It doesn’t happen all the time, but when you’re inspired, the song channels itself through you.

And then there’s Duane… Who’s utterly arrogant! He thinks he’s the best and he wants no one to tell him what to do! What a difference from today, where everybody wants to cave to the whim of labels and producers and if they’re arrogant about their talent, they’ve got nothing to back it up. But Duane could just plug in his Les Paul and prove it instantly. His solo on Wilson Pickett’s “Hey Jude” was his first recording at FAME…and a breakthrough for a soul record.

And the Allmans played 306 gigs in a year. Before they made it, trying to make it.

Can you imagine?

Might sound glamorous, but this was before plush buses, and despite some drugs and dames, the best two hours of your day were on stage, the rest was utter drudgery. But that’s what it took to make it. And there was no guarantee you would.

But everybody tried.

That’s the difference from yesterday and today. The money. That’s why everybody wanted to be a rock star, that and the girls. But now the money’s been taken away, not by Napster but tech in general. There’s much more money in tech and banking and therefore not everybody is playing music, mostly only the young and dumb, and what results is poor and most people don’t care.

Music used to rule the world! That’s the way the message got out. And they’re playing music today, but we lived through the Renaissance in the sixties and seventies, just watch these documentaries for edification.

P.S. Unlike VH1’s “Behind The Music,” which became an instant cliche, the BBC is not interested in story arc and ratings so much as getting the facts right. We can’t do this in America. Oh, that’s right, they’ve got socialist TV in the U.K.

P.P.S. It’s great to hear Nile Rodgers tell how Chic was inspired by Roxy Music, right down to the album cover. And then how Roxy/Ferry was inspired by them!

P.P.P.S. For eons, my favorite cuts on “Avalon” were the opener, “More Than This,” and the second side slow burner, “To Turn You On.” Then, suddenly, I flipped for the second side opener, “The Main Thing.” It’s rock, it’s dance, it’s industrial, it’s otherworldly! Whatever the essence of the track is, it’s not contained in movies, televisions or books, it’s something you feel, as if you’ve being injected with a serum that inspires you and alters your perception of the world. And no drugs are required! Be sure to listen to not only the original, but the now readily available seven and a half minute remix:

Spotify – The Main Thing

P.P.P.P.S. “Now the party’s over…” I’ve heard these introductory lyrics to “Avalon” to the point they’re in my DNA, but they rang true in another way watching this video… The party is truly over, rock is dead. I know the Who sang “Long Live Rock,” but watching these documentaries you can see how we were all caught up in music, making our statement, trends coming and going quickly…those days are through.

“The Roxy Music Story”

“Sweet Home Alabama – The Southern Rock Saga”

“God Rest His Soul”

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where a 66 year old ex-President trumps the younger generation in buzz?

One in which one person knows it’s about ideas, and the other thinks it’s about money.

I didn’t watch either. I’ve got the VMAs on my DVR just in case. As for the election, my vote doesn’t count. I live in California. Yup, the election only comes down to a handful of contested states. And the parties are fighting over money and truth and our country has gone in such a bad direction that I can’t pay attention. I’ve got no kids, I’m not that worried about the future, I’ve given up.

Kids. The millennials.

My brother Roy Trakin posts a blog on hitsdailydouble.com every week. It’s a bunch of ass-kissing until the very end, when he has his “Gripe Of The Week.” It’s one of the highlights of my Thursdays, when just before midnight my phone buzzes and I get to read what Trakin has to complain about. I identify. But for the past couple of weeks, he’s turned his Gripe over to his daughter, a recent college graduate. This week she complained that she failed a job interview because she wasn’t given the questions in advance. Huh? Is that the generation we’re raising?

Yes, it is.

A generation that calls its mommy and daddy twelve times a day, to ask how to drive from here to there, how to run the washing machine. And instead of imploring their kids to figure it out on their own, these parents tear a new tucas to anybody who gets in their way. I can’t imagine my parents calling the college administration to complain. But that’s what baby boomers do today.

And today’s kids have been brought up in a nation so commercial, so absent of values, that they believe money trumps ideas, that if you’re rich your life works, that if I’ve got mine, who cares about you.

I cared about the future. Until the reporters became fans of the politicians. Before CEOs believed they were beholden to shareholders instead of workers, and should profit at the latter’s expense. And I’m not saying everybody’s bad, I’m just wondering when we’re gonna have a correction factor, based on truth, based on values, based on all being in it together.

Whatever MTV was it no longer is. The “M” doesn’t stand for music and it’s run by bottom-feeding ignoramuses made in the mold of the corporate titans who run their business, Sumner Redstone and Philippe Dauman, who overcompensate themselves and add commercials to Nickelodeon when they can’t figure out a way to sustain ratings and make money.

Once upon a time, the train-wreck value at the VMAs was secondary to the music. But that’s back when music still counted, when it drove the culture, before Apple, a corporation, became more revered than anybody playing an instrument.

Music used to be about cutting edge ideas, about truth. Now, we get Taylor Swift crowdsurfing, as if that’s a brand new idea, we get Rihanna kissing Chris Brown, and if you know about either of these “highlights” of the VMAs, you’re either under twenty years old or in this business.

The ratings were halved. And I’m not saying the ratings for the Democratic National Convention were stratospheric, but that’s all anybody’s talking about, Bill Clinton’s speech.

I was getting e-mail during it. I got a phone call from my mother about it. Even right wing pundits gave him credit. Last night on Bill Maher everybody was in awe, of someone who slayed the Republicans using arithmetic.

I just watched Clinton’s speech. The buzz became too deafening, I had to see what everybody was talking about, I wanted to become a member of the club.

Remember this process? It’s how we used to break music, how we used to get people to listen to the radio, buy records and purchase concert tickets. Because they needed to belong!

Hell, you can’t even belong in the music business anymore, and no one wants to. The acts can’t stop saying they’re being ripped off and you can’t get a good ticket to the show because someone richer has gobbled up the best and furthermore, the best were never available to you at any price, maybe you can overpay a broker to get inside.

Musicians are all about greed. They don’t want to stop the war, rail against injustice, they just want the corporation to line their pocket. Do you think this is appealing to their theoretical fans, who truly support them?

Without fans you’re nothing.

And it appears that despite the impeachment, despite the bashing, Bill Clinton’s got tons.

It’s never too late to triumph. If you double down on what made you successful and deliver like only you can.

Bill Clinton was so good, he blew Obama and Romney away. You could listen to him, your mind didn’t wander, he made sense. In a nation that’s full of nonsense. Not only cut taxes and the budget will balance, but overpay CEOs and it will help corporations. It’s like the USA is in the depths of a fire sale, with the rich raping and pillaging and the poor afraid the security camera will put them in jail. Yup, bankers don’t go to prison, but dopers do.

Clinton had a great act. He knew it was about a show. Not about him, but the audience. He held people in his hand. He manipulated them. He made them laugh, he made them cry. You know who also does this? Prince! That’s why he can go on his endless victory lap tour, people saw him on the Super Bowl and were wowed.

And Clinton talked about working together, left and right. When do you ever hear about acts working with their fans, successful acts, acts that can make a difference? Oh, they pay lip service, but they fly private, stay in hotels under assumed names, do their best to put a huge gulf between them and those keeping them in business, all in the name of profits.

Hell, wanna know how politics is just like the music business? Acts refuse to deny the fiction that Ticketmaster is responsible for fees. So there can be no solution. Until acts are blamed for the fees, we can make no progress.

But you can’t say anything negative about an act. Because the public won’t allow it. The public’s too dumb to see the truth.

And it might be because no one can explain it to them. Everybody’s got an underlying agenda. If you think TV talking heads are about the truth, you’ve got no idea how they’re getting paid and how much.

Bill Clinton demonstrated it was important to be smart, it was important to be educated and that you run on your record. Sure, you might have had a couple of stiffs, some miscues, but if you can’t own your past, you’re nowhere.

I don’t care whether you’re left or right. But it can’t be denied that Bill Clinton owned the discussion this week. He dominated public discourse. And the music industry’s number one vehicle fell flat, faded away and didn’t radiate.

Everyone thinks it’s about exposure.

No, it’s what you do when you get the spotlight, where it happens, whether you can create virality.

The history of recorded music is sitting online. How do you get people to pay attention, check you out and spread the word? By being talented, by having something to say, by standing for something.

Don’t worry about the people you’re alienating, but the people you’re saving. If you’re putting the money first, you’re doing it wrong. Bill Clinton is a sexagenarian, he’s still in his prime. You want to peak before you’re twenty, everything you say is stupid and fades away. Kinda like Justin Bieber, who thinks Michelangelo painted the “Sixteenth Chapel.” Role model? Idiot!

Bill Clinton’s speech (video halfway down the page)

“President Obama killed the VMA’s”

“Trakin Care Of Business” (10. Tara’s Gripe Of The Week)

“David Letterman Rips Justin Bieber for Ignorant Remark”

From: Richard Tafoya
Re: Carrots, Peppers & Onions

Burrito King is still alive on the east side. The governor just made
the pilgrimage for the beloved machaca burrito.

Gov. Brown takes an Echo Park burrito break

______

Warren Zevon goes to Burrito King

“In Los Angeles, the Burrito Sometimes Bites Back”

“What does Echo Park’s Citibank building have to do with Warren Zevon and Burrito King?”

 

And while I’ve got your attention…

Re: Carrots, Peppers & Onions

While I was in LA during the recording of “End Of The Century” with the Ramones and Phil Spector in May and June of ’79, Los Tacos was a mandatory nightly stop.

It was Johnny’s favorite joint in LA…

We recored at the legendary Gold Star Studio… an amazing time !

cheers ….

Ed Stasium

 

Lucy’s El Adobe :