Paul McCartney should be quaking in his boots.

This record should be unlistenable, a complete waste of time, Brian hasn’t done anything good since 1998’s "Imagination". That’s the only time he recaptured the original Beach Boys sound, when he worked with Joe Thomas.

He worked with Joe Thomas again.

I had zero hopes for this album. The last two times I ran into Brian Wilson:

1. He hung his head on the table at the BMI dinner, even though he was the one being honored.

2. He wouldn’t reveal a single detail about this album, as if he worked for the CIA and would be shot if anything came out.

And seeing him live is almost creepy. It’s really the Jeffrey Foskett show. Sometimes I think it would be better if Brian didn’t even show up.

As for this reunion and tour… If you don’t think it’s about the money, you’ve got enough. Brian’s played it out live, he can do clubs at best. So, he buried the hatchet with his "brothers" and is on a tour that I refuse to attend, to see Brian catatonic at a keyboard he doesn’t even play. As for the Grammy performance…who knew Mike Love couldn’t hit the notes either?

But there are elements on "That’s Why God Made The Radio" that are so right, so perfect, so melodic, so joyous, they transcend not only Top Forty radio, but everything in the marketplace.

You see Brian still hears the sounds in his head. And with the right interpreter, in this case Joe Thomas, he can lay them down on tape.

Ignore most of the Mike Love stuff, about half the album is disposable. But drill down to certain tracks and you’ll become speechless. How did they get such beauty, how did Brian Wilson concoct a timeless sound that would fit perfectly on the Beach Boys’ sixties albums yet doesn’t seem dated today?

I’d start with "Pacific Coast Highway".

Those multi-voice harmonies, I don’t know anybody who can still do this, and make it sound so rich.

And what is that, a french horn?

And then Brian starts to sing… And his imperfect voice finally works, it’s found its space. His age and inability to be as sweet as he used to reminds us all that we age, and even though we may be pushing seventy, that doesn’t mean we have nothing to say…

Driving down Pacific Coast…

Have you ever done this? With the top down and the wind blowing in your hair? You feel like the rest of the world doesn’t matter, you feel utterly happy to be alive. Brian captures this, along with the bittersweet feeling that it won’t be forever.

Isn’t this what music’s supposed to do? Touch our hearts and souls, set our minds free, so they can reflect on times gone and yet to come?

No one else could even write these changes, never mind make them work.

And be sure to stay until the 1:20 mark, when the above words are sung… It’s like an angel, the voice of God, has come out from the wings to reveal truth. Utterly astounding. "Pacific Coast Highway" may only be 1:47, but that’s enough, it’s not too short, it’s not unfinished, it’s just right, you want, you need to hear it again and again and again.

After "Pacific Coast Highway" I’d go to the top of the album, "Think About The Days". The Eagles tried this with their last album, opening up with a rich, quiet a cappella number, but now you know where Henley gets it, Brian Wilson doubles down and trumps the band that owns the biggest selling album of all time. It’s like you’re lifted from your chair and carried over the landscape, in a bubble, only you and the music, no one else. There are no distractions, you can only observe. The human condition is a lonely one, it’s a search for connection. Music, when done right, does this better than any artistic medium, even better than conversation. You feel touched by Wilson’s magic wand.

And now we go to the third cut, "Isn’t It Time", whose title is so close to the superior "It’s About Time" from "Sunflower", and it’s not as good as what comes before, but the chorus, harmonies and changes beginning just before forty seconds in…this is the Beach Boys sound, something we’ve given up on hearing again. But the piece de resistance comes at 1:15, I ask you, who else can concoct such a satisfying vocal blend?

And speaking of vocal blends… When you hear the band sing the chorus of "Beaches In Mind", which starts this song, you’ll smile. It’s just a snippet of the song, but it’s so great it puts a smile on your face and makes the rest of your record collection irrelevant.

And I’ll throw in "Strange World", maybe because it mentions the Santa Monica Pier, and unlike too many tracks today, the verse actually has a melody. "Strange World" is one of those strange songs where the elements are better than the whole. There are bite-sized nuggets spread throughout. So many songs today are unfinished. But it’s the change at the end of the verse that grabs you. Who else takes such risks? NO ONE!

And then there’s the single, "That’s Why God Made The Radio". Yes, Brian Wilson wasn’t made for these times, who listens to the radio anymore? They’re talking on the phone, texting… The sixties are done. Or are they?

I bought every Beach Boys album until "Friends". I kept waiting for them to recapture the magic, but Brian faded away and the albums became uneven. Then there was a resurgence with the aforementioned "Sunflower" and I’ve never given up hope. Kind of the same way you always believe your best days are in front of you, despite all the evidence to the contrary. You see we run on hope. And music. And somehow, Brian Wilson has regained hope, which has allowed him to bestow such great music upon us once again.

There’s no "California Girls", not even a "Help Me Rhonda". But there are so many snippets, little pops and crackles of Brian Wilson genius, that not only are you thrilled, you too have hope, that our best days are ahead of us. Hell, if Brian Wilson can deliver, come back from the dead and show that not only has he not lost it, he’s still better than just about everybody else, what can you do?

Skip the live show, ignore the reviews, if you were never a Beach Boys fan, move right along. But if you bought the albums, if you lived for more than the hits, your jaw will drop, you will be absolutely stunned. That sound is still there. Brian is still here.

Spotify link

Howard Stern interviews Joe Walsh (06/04/12)

I play "So What" all the time.

I know, I know, you’re supposed to play "The Smoker You Drink" or "But Seriously Folks", not the disappointing follow-up to the hit. But I drop the proverbial needle and it makes me feel so good!

Now I was there at the beginning. Well, close to it. A girl I had a relationship/crush on turned me on to "Yer’ Album" by the James Gang. Way past the peak of our connection, I stopped by her house to play mini-pool and while she and her girlfriend just about ignored me she spun the James Gang’s debut. Which gets no love today. Then again, that was forty years ago, more than that.

But the big hit came on the follow-up, "Rides Again". "Funk #49" was a staple in the bedrooms of wannabe guitarists, you know, the kids who grimace when they play air guitar. And then Joe made a third album with the Gang and went solo, to…nothing.

"Barnstorm" was a complete stiff. Barely had any airplay, just a bit for "Turn To Stone", and Joe’s living in Colorado, mowing the lawn thinking he’s got to have a hit.

And that’s when it hit him. The riff. For "Rocky Mountain Way". He wasn’t sitting in the studio, trying to eke out a bowel movement. But when he was distracted, inspiration hit, but what were the lyrics, what was it he had to say? He looks up at the snow-capped mountains in the distance and the song starts to write itself, with lyrics about his old band, about their manager, suddenly his career was jump-started, when the track came out he was JOE WALSH!

That’s the story Joe told on Howard Stern. I just took an hour out of my life to listen to the interview. You see I’m that big of a fan. I don’t send him e-mail, I don’t press his music upon friends, I just play it.

Which is why I gave his new album a chance. Maybe I was intrigued because it was his first one sober. It’d been so long since he’d done something good. "The Confessor", back in the eighties. And lo and behold, the title track, "Analog Man" was good…

I cruised YouTube for a live version.

I listened to the entire album four times, "Analog Man" was not the only good track. But I wasn’t sure where Joe should go from here.

And the Stern interview was not helpful. Because Joe was not forthcoming. He wouldn’t say a single negative thing about Don and Glenn, hell, he wouldn’t gossip whatsoever. But when he told the tale of "Rocky Mountain Way" it made the whole hour worth it.

Pete Townshend told Rush it was worthless to make an album:

"Waste of time, making albums these days."

Neil Peart.net

Joe Walsh said rock was dead. Or close to it.

And you can either be a baby boomer, resting on your laurels, dreaming of the good old days, or reinvent yourself.

First you’ve got to realize no one’s paying attention. To just about anybody or anything. We’re down so low in our niches we can’t see anything surrounding us unless we’re tapped on the shoulder. So if it doesn’t really matter to you, if you don’t really need it, don’t even start. If you’re not willing to play at least 100 dates a year, maybe 200, for at least five years, give up, just go on the oldies circuit and play your hits. But you can reinvent yourself. If you care, if you’re really damn good.

Second, you’ve got to have good music. There’s enough on "Analog Man", but unless you’re me, no one’s gonna listen to a whole new album of Joe Walsh stuff. Better to build up the live business and go on the promotional victory lap after you’ve gained a head of steam. You can do it the old way, get a bit of ink, sell five digits of albums, but it’s almost like you never even played. Whereas if you go on the road and give away the one or two or three good tracks, you’ve got a chance.

Third. You do have to play live. But where is a whole ‘nother thing. Your best option is to play festivals. If you’re a rocker you need to do Bonnaroo. Forget about the oldsters, they’re too stuck in their ways, you’ve got to appeal to newbies, who care more about music and performance than their mortgage or car payments. They’re looking for something new, they want to spread the word. I’m not saying Joe Walsh should have played Coachella, that festival’s more about eighties rock, but imagine if he did, imagine if he swallowed his pride and played a tent and blew everybody away. Then he’d have a chance of spreading the word.

Fourth. You build it live now. The album, the new music comes last. Instead of announcing from the stage that you’ve got a new tune from a new album that people should buy, just play it. And if it’s not as good as what came before, leave it out of the show, which is why you don’t need an album, because most of your new stuff is nowhere close to your classics, and when you’re a star, no one wants to hear your work tapes, your crap.

Joe’s done so much right. Tied in with ESPN, made YouTube clips, even gone on the Stern show, but all that’s peripheral to where the rubber meets the road… Yes, he’s got to go on the road. And do his damnedest to play to young people. I’d forget the old people almost completely. Are you dead?

P.S. "Analog Man"

The problem with this track is the riff isn’t quite memorable enough, and the verse ain’t either. But then the song changes and reveals its magic…

The whole world’s glued to the cable TV
It looks so real on the big LCD
Murder and violence are rated PG, too bad for the children
They are what they see

And then the track makes way for a break with a Walsh solo better than any of the guitar work that came before…

I’d recut this track, emphasizing the lyrics and the changes more than the riff, because the hook is the changes and the lyrics.

In other words, this track is gonna make no headway, but if it sounded closer to "Life’s Been Good", people would laugh in concert, it might gain some traction.

Joe Walsh – Analog Man [from his new album released june 5 2012]

P.P.S. The second track is supposed to suck, but in some ways "Wrecking Ball" is even better than "Analog Man", once again, it’s the changes. They’re unexpected. And since the second track was so good, I continued to play the album.

Joe Walsh -Wrecking Ball

P.P.P.S. "Lucky That Way"… This is closest to the magical seventies sound that broke Joe Walsh so big. If you haven’t got a magical riff, don’t build a song around it. This is the kind of track that fans love, then again, how many fans are gonna actually know about this album, never mind listen to it?

Joe Walsh – Lucky That Way [from his new album released june 5 2012]

P.P.P.P.S. "Band Played On". The problem with Jeff Lynne productions is they’re thin, whereas Joe’s best records were rich and fat. Still, the Eastern-sounding instrumentation is so inviting.

One of the reasons rock died is it sounds so bad on digital. CDs or files. Rock, when done right, is rich. It occupies a spectrum from low to high. The only music that sounds good compressed is the crap you hear on Top Forty radio. This record sounds like it was made without wood, and it was that wooden sound that added so much naturalness and believability to all of Joe Walsh’s music.

"Analog Man" entire album

Now that Steve Jobs is dead, are we going to enter the dark ages of user interfaces?

Pick up an Apple product. Usability is intuitive. You don’t need to employ a manual, it just works.

But even though Apple has been making products like this for over a decade, no other company has mastered this seemingly simple paradigm. Remote controls still come with a plethora of buttons. And setting up a TV usually requires a visit from an outside contractor.

Apple is the world’s most valuable company because it makes insanely great products that are easy to use. And we can attribute this to Steve Jobs.

I just finished reading this book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking". It posits that he who speaks loudest is not always right. And that great creativity is often fostered alone. Which is why our rush headlong into collaboration is so wrong. I refuse to get on conference calls. They’re a complete waste of time. Not only do they go on too long, nothing is accomplished, some blowhard bloviates ad infinitum, snide jokes are made and anybody with a left field, innovative idea is shut down, if he or she even bothers to mention it.

So many of our great achievements were made by one person, acting alone. Films by committee ruined the movie business and you can argue this same groupthink has ruined the music business. What’s the first thing the label wants you to do? Cowrite! And when you visit the cowriter’s house does he stimulate you to do something new and different or does this usual suspect drive you to create me-too music?

Which leads me to a fascinating article in yesterday’s "Los Angeles Times", by Neal Gabler, which asks why all our sitcoms and films are endless repeats of what came before. Gabler posits "Puttnam’s Law":

"It is more acceptable to fail in conventional ways than in unconventional ways. And its corollary: The reward for succeeding in unconventional ways is less than the risk of failing in unconventional ways. In short, you can screw up with impunity so long as you screw up like everybody else."

Perspective: The tyranny of Puttnam’s Law in American culture

In other words, sign a boy band or a melisma shrieker and fail and everybody shrugs their shoulders and you keep your job. But sign an unattractive madcap balalaika player and stiff and not only do you lose your gig, no one returns your phone calls.

Everyone’s playing it safe. And all innovation comes from the outside, usually as a result of the efforts of a single individual.

Like Elon Musk.

Read up on him, he doesn’t seem to be an easygoing guy, hell, he’s got that in common with Jobs. But not only did he make mega-millions with PayPal, he went on to start Tesla and SpaceX.

Tesla might still fail, it’s literally living on borrowed time, deposits on future vehicles, but it’s already lasted longer than any new car company in decades. Usually, they launch and fail, like DeLorean. And it looks like Fisker. But not only did Tesla produce its first model, it’s well on its way to delivering its second.

And SpaceX had a successful launch.

Musk seems to be doing the undoable.

In other words, there was no Doors without Jim Morrison.

And Elektra could not have been successful without Jac Holzman the first time and Bob Krasnow the second. Krasnow broke every rule, he operated in every genre, but not only did he triumph, his acts were perceived to be paragons of excellence in their field, whether it be Metallica (which an indie did develop), or the headscratchingly successful Gipsy Kings.

In other words, one man or woman can make a difference.

But these people who do make a difference, they listen only to themselves, they categorically can’t work for someone else, unless that person gives free reign, which is incredibly rare.

If we’re looking for breakthroughs, we need to look outside the system. Don’t expect the usual suspects to deliver them. And sure, many obtuse ideas will fail, but enough will succeed to change the paradigm.

20th Century Fox was not a believer in "Star Wars", I saw the trailer multiple times and the audience laughed, it was so cheesy. Not only did "Star Wars" become the biggest grossing movie of all time, it spawned sequels and imitations and created the merchandising paradigm.

Capitol refused to release the first Beatles album.

And Apple fired Steve Jobs. Because he just couldn’t get along, he was a troublemaker.

Now ultimately these people needed help to succeed. But they didn’t share power, they were dictators, it went down their way, their vision was unsullied.

There’s no safety net when you’re trawling the far reaches of creativity. But that’s where the next big thing is gonna come from.

I went down to the crossroads…

Or did he?

I didn’t think I liked Christopher Titus. But after hearing him tell his story on Marc Maron’s WTF I loved him. Because he was honest and forthright in a world of complete b.s. He stood up to power, Gail Berman, the Fox exec who wanted him to insert a love triangle in his TV show. Titus asked if she watched his show. What made it work was the fact that the couple stayed together, in light of all the shenanigans surrounding them.

As a result of this, his sitcom got canceled.

You see suits need to teach talent a lesson.

But talent, real talent, is in search of truth, nothing can alter their art, it’s got to be pure, because that’s when the public can relate.

And when the podcast ended I was disappointed, I wanted an extension, I wanted to know more. But there was none. So I dialed up Radiolab, to hear a short, for I only had a little listening time left.

I went to the live Radiolab show, at UCLA, about a month ago. I loved it. Interwoven into the stories was the comedy of one Demetri Martin, who was utterly fantastic, he radiated intelligence, which is not something you experience much in music. I paid for my ticket. I felt like I was a member of a club, of geeks, who weren’t looking to get rich, just to be thrilled.

And I was thrilled with the Radiolab podcast on Robert Johnson I just finished listening to.

You know Robert Johnson, the most famous blues musician of all time, who sold his soul to the devil. Or did he..

Jad Abumrad went down to the crossroads, at midnight, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, looking to find out.

Nothing happened there. But upon returning to New York, he found out that John Hammond discovered Robert Johnson. That in 1938, Hammond was putting on a Carnegie Hall show of the history of black music, "From Spirituals To Swing". And he wanted an authentic backwoods bluesman, so he sent one of his people to Mississippi to discover one. And at a record store he did. Upon hearing Robert Johnson’s music, Hammond insisted the young bluesman perform at his show. But it turned out Johnson was poisoned by a jealous husband whose wife Johnson consorted with, and had died.

At least that’s the legend.

But now everything’s in question.

It turns out that crossroads story, of selling his soul to the devil…was about a different Johnson, a musician who yodeled. A UCLA graduate student went to Mississippi to interview Tommy Johnson’s brother, who told this student that Tommy said he got so good by selling his soul to the devil. That’s how he could write songs on the spot, satiate all the white people.

And when he got back to UCLA, this graduate student told the tale, there’s actually an audiotape, you can hear it on the podcast. But his buddies were disappointed, because it was the wrong Johnson!

But that didn’t deter a friend in the room, who tracked down Son House and asked him if it was possible that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil…after all, everyone knew he sucked, then disappeared and returned fully-formed, better than everybody else. Son House said it was possible, and eureka, the legend was born. That’s how everybody came to believe that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads, it wasn’t even the right Johnson! But the story was repeated endlessly and now it’s considered fact. Or at least well-known myth.

But then it gets even better. Turns out Johnson married at age eighteen, he was planning to retire from music and become a farmer. But when his new wife died in childbirth, he was so distraught, he became the Robert Johnson we all know, composing "Love In Vain"…

But they track down the man who told this story, the big Robert Johnson historian Mack McCormick, and he won’t confirm it, he doesn’t even want to talk about it. And when they finally open him up, he now believes it’s a different Robert Johnson. That there were many Robert Johnsons. And further research revealed that many people had seen "Robert Johnson" long after 1938, even at a rodeo. As for dying of poison, at the hand of a jealous husband, had they seen the back of the death certificate? It said this Robert Johnson died of syphilis!

So maybe the death story isn’t even true. Maybe all we’ve got is the music.

And although everyone agrees how fantastic it is, that almost never broke through. You see you get really good, and then your success comes down to luck. Robert Johnson didn’t knock on John Hammond’s door, he was an itinerant musician, playing gigs. An intermediary told the story.

And from 1938 until the early sixties, Johnson was meaningless, until Hammond decided to release Johnson’s music in the middle of the early sixties folk/blues revival and all the English musicians popularized his music.

This was riveting radio about a subject I thought was exhausted.

That’s what we live for. Excellent entertainment.

There’s very little of it.

But this Radiolab podcast about Robert Johnson is exceptional!

Radiolab – Crossroads