Everybody will say you’re on the wrong path.

You have to decide if you’re an insider or an outsider, an innovator or a follower, a member of the group or a loner.

Everybody wants something new. They just don’t know what it is.

Established industries give people what they want. Up and comers deliver what they could not foresee, what they have no idea they want.

This is the difference between Microsoft and Apple. The initial iPod was met with derision. Who wanted a $400 MP3 player?

Turned out many.

And when capacity increased and prices fell, it turned out just about everybody.

Who wanted a phone where you could surf the Web, never mind utilize free or nearly-free apps to execute unheard of jobs? RIM thought it was on the cutting edge with its BlackBerry, a seamless e-mail machine. It triumphed for a while. Now BlackBerry is left in the dust. It thought e-mail was enough. Turned out it wasn’t.

I’m fascinated by the failure of "X Factor". And that’s what it is. Simon Cowell said anything less than 20 million viewers would have to be considered such.

Why did "X Factor" fail?

Was it the fact that it debuted in the fall, during reasonable weather, as opposed to the winter when much of the country is homebound?

Was it the stellar competition on other networks?

Or did the public just tire of the format.

Hell, "The Sing Off" failed completely.

If you keep on giving the public what you think it wants, one day it doesn’t.

That doesn’t mean if you do something different the public will eventually find you, but all the legends, all the greats, from the Beatles to Steve Jobs, thought different. So if you want to make a paycheck, think like them. Get a degree, network like hell and find your place on the totem pole and try to keep it. But if you want to last, if you want to change the world, there are no rules, you’ve got to forge your own identity, your own path, your own work.

That’s one of the reasons why music is in the shitter. Everybody’s seen it all. Sure, you can light yourself on fire, sell out to corporations, but what does that have to do with the sound?

And if you endlessly repeat yourself, fewer will care. Isn’t that what happened with Jay-Z and Kanye? People had seen it before, they perceived it as a dash for cash, fewer were interested. But neither of these artists is willing to take a risk, do it different, for fear of the audience abandoning them. And as soon as you’re trying to keep your audience, once you have one eye looking over your shoulder, you’re doomed.

Sure, few can innovate forever. But it’s astounding how a brief spark can flame a career. Whether it be Patti Smith or Van Morrison, who’s so crotchety I doubt he plays nice with himself.

Now Steve Jobs didn’t wake up one day and suddenly invent the Apple I. He was fascinated by electronics and paid his dues, and hooked up with programmer extraordinaire Steve Wozniak.

In other words, if your only desire is to be rich and famous, you’re probably not going to create something of worth. And whatever you create probably won’t be successful unless you employ the work and creativity of others.

Most abstract expressionists knew how to draw, they just weren’t dripping paint on a canvas. Looks simple to the uninitiated, but it’s the training underneath that begat the conception.

So if you want to have an impact, don’t try out for "American Idol", don’t buddy up to everybody in the business. Follow your muse and create something insanely great. Refine it until it’s so. And then the audience will find you.

That’s not only the story of Steve Jobs and Apple, it’s the story of classic rock. Yes sounded like nothing else. But the band broke through to AM radio and ultimately played arenas. There hasn’t been a track like "Roundabout" before or since on mainstream radio. But Yes, or what they call Yes these days, is still touring on that long ago hit.

The history of the music business is the endless triumph of outsiders. Whether it be the Beatles or Eminem or Simon Cowell. None were rich, none were connected, they just did it different, a way everybody else said they could not.

Simon Cowell spoke the truth on TV! Whew! That was unheard of in a nation that coddles its young and is duplicitous.

But now that he’s about fame and money as opposed to truth, the truth is the acts he promotes are mediocre at best, we’re no longer interested.

The Beatles are legendary because they kept innovating, kept taking risks.

And Neil Young was not afraid to alienate his audience and destroy his fanbase in order to maintain his creative freedom. Neil’s beholden only to himself, that’s the mark of a true artist.

And if I could tell you where we’re going, what music comes next, I’d record it and sell it to you. But I’ve got no idea. I’m gonna be as surprised as you are. But I’m looking out for it. My spies are on the ground. If they find anything great they’ll tell me.

And there’s very little great stuff out there.

But when it hits the Net, it’s gonna spread like wildfire.

Actually, it might lie in plain sight for years. But suddenly the public will catch up to it. This is the classic ten year overnight success.

Don’t try to second-guess what people want. You’re better off working at Procter & Gamble. You might not make millions, but you won’t go hungry. An artist is willing to go hungry, he plays without a safety net, and we give him all our money because he satiates us in a way no one else can. He’s a fully-realized human being. He’s our best self.

If you hear "How did you come up with that shit?" you’re on the right path.

If the establishment says you’re doing it wrong, that you suck, you might just be a winner.

But you’ve got to be willing to lose. Possibly forever.

But the rewards if you win are gargantuan, for not only you, but listeners.

We’re separating the wheat from the chaff. Almost everybody has played basketball, but few make it to the NBA, there’s only one Kobe, one LeBron. We’ve got room for a few great acts. Just a few. You’ve got to be better than everybody else, and unlike in basketball, there are no rules, you make them up as you go along.

You’re the key to the future. Not anybody at a label, Live Nation or television. No one can help you as much as you can help yourself.

The odds are daunting.

But someone’s gonna break through.

I was in a ski movie.

The best month of my life was spent in Mammoth Lakes, California, skiing every day during the month of May 1975.

The season had not had an auspicious beginning. I’d broken my leg in a freak accident the first day out. But I recovered enough to hit the hill in January. But bumps were taboo.

But as the year wore on, my leg healed, I hit Gadzooks, bumper’s paradise at Snowbird, and I curried favor with the world’s best freestyle skiers by overloading the ice cream cones I served them at the Birdfeeder, my half day job.

And when the season ended, one of these freestylers let on they were decamping Utah for Mammoth, to get in more skiing. And they let me in because they needed my money, to pay rent.

And I was begrudged at first, but when we got tanked on tequila and I quoted Elton John, claiming it was "seven o’clock and I want to rock", the tide turned, I was accepted into the fraternity.

And a couple of weeks later Scott Brooksbank arrived. The freestyle world champion. Along with another competitor from the PFA, Professional Freestyle Associates, Dave Bossard.

And when one day they suggested going up to Wipeout to make a movie, no one else would go. But I had to prove myself.

And after the camera had been set up on this forty plus degree slope, after Brooksbank and Bossard had dropped in, I popped a spread eagle off the lip and shined for the camera.

And suddenly I was a made man.

But I forgot about the flick until the following fall. When I was invited to a screening at a house in Sandy, Utah.

I’d like to tell you my footage was incredible, but it was a bit overexposed. Yet I’ll never forget that night because that’s when I discovered Honk.

You see there was this incredible music underlying our feats. And when the lights came up, I asked what it was…

FIVE SUMMER STORIES!

Huh?

They thought I was joking, that the guy who traveled with boxes of cassettes was pulling their leg.

But when they accepted I was truly clueless, that I had no idea what they were talking about, they told me "Five Summer Stories" was…THE BEST SURF MOVIE EVER MADE!

They didn’t show surf movies on the east coast. It was a California phenomenon. Up and down the coast, there was a circuit. Sure, I’d seen "Endless Summer", but this was something different. Surf movies weren’t shown in chain movie theatres, some of these venues hardly showed films at all, but the surf rats flocked to them like lemmings, and in the winter a bunch of these surf rats were ski bums. That’s how we made contact.

And I’m gonna warn you. Don’t mind a surf bum, it takes no money to survive at the beach. Whereas skiing requires equipment and a lift pass. Whenever there was a theft at the ‘Bird, it always turned out to be a surfer…

I made it through another winter in Utah. But after choking on the freestyle circuit and getting the world’s worst case of mononucleosis, I moved to L.A., to attend law school, I felt if I spent one more year in Salt Lake, I’d never leave.

And I rewarded myself by buying the stereo of my dreams. And then I went on a vinyl binge, scouring one record store after another for all those albums I’d forgone during those two years on the road, sleeping on couches and floors.

And at Music Plus in the San Fernando Valley, I found it. "Five Summer Stories". By Honk.

Yes, that was the name of the band. No one used that moniker for the music back in Utah, when I heard snippets on 8-tracks, they just called it "Five Summer Stories".

And eventually Honk signed with Epic.

But they never captured the magic again.

Yet "Five Summer Stories" is a masterpiece.

If you’re living in NYC and wearing your black duds, you might not get it.

But nobody in California is envious of New York. Sure, it’s the greatest city in the world, but they’d rather live in California. Land of freedom, land of possibilities. And that’s what "Five Summer Stories" sounds like. Not exactly permanent vacation, but an environment where you can explore and discover yourself. After listening to this music, you’re gonna want to pick up and move.

Every track on the album is good, but start with "Blue Of Your Backdrop".

It’s the change twenty eight seconds in that grabs you:

Leave them all to the trappings they choose
Values on what one may win or lose
I can’t discern between the two
But with no God above, guess we all start with the things we love

HEED THIS! Laird Hamilton knows better than Lloyd Blankfein. Don’t sell out for the money, don’t do what’s expedient, pursue your dream, do what makes you happy…no, do what you LOVE!

Then, at the 1:04 mark, the track becomes positively MAGICAL!

Be your own saving grace
Tip your hat
Take your place
SHINE ON

That’s what I want you to do, shine on. "Blue Of Your Backdrop" is only 2:01 long, but when it’s done, you’re gonna play it over and over and over again.

And be sure to listen to the "Blue Of Your Backdrop" instrumental. It’s like waking up on a bright sunny day in Hawaii. You just want to go out and eat up life. Yup, kiss your girl or boyfriend on the lips and seize the day.

Then check out "Don’t Let Your Goodbye Stand"…

It’s like a cross between Loggins & Messina and an acoustic number from the White Album.

Be sure to catch the change at 1:19, when he sings about the brand new loom and shopping trips to town. Yes, this was the early seventies, when we went back to the land, to our roots, after the disillusionment of Vietnam. Women bought looms. Ask your mother.

And "Lopez" sounds like sunset. You can see it. With your elbow on your knee and a tequila sunrise in your hand.

Then comes the surf music. The background to that ski footage so long ago.

"Pipeline Sequence" was the number. The organ enthralls you, but then it and the guitar speak to each other, the track explodes, you’re completely in the moment, like a surfer riding the curl. Surfing and skiing have one thing in common…if you don’t pay attention, if you think about anything else, you fall. That’s why they’re such great sports, they squeeze everything else out of your mind.

And "Tunnel Of Love" and "Brad And David’s Theme" are essentially the same number, but the latter is acoustic. They both connote mindless doing, being in the moment. And that’s where you should strive to be.

And there’s a bit of country and music that resembles nothing so much as a jig. Like life, there’s more than one sound.

Richard Stekol ended up playing with the Funky Kings.

But the rest of Honk faded away. Yet this music still radiates.

The movie’s no match for the music. When I ultimately saw it, I was disappointed. But the soundtrack always puts a smile on my face.

Maybe you won’t get it. Maybe you’ll think I’ve lost my mind.

That’s okay.

That’s why I live in California and you don’t. You’re still quoting your SAT scores, worried about your place in the pecking order, proud that you’re pasty and overburdened. I’m into self-realization. I’m into being a better me. And for this I need a soundtrack.

Thank god I’ve got "Five Summer Stories".

Spotify link

Graham Nash wrote "Teach Your Children", "Lady Of The Island" and "Right Between The Eyes" in one night. He was on tour with the Hollies, he was frustrated, he was sick of making pop music, he wanted to write songs with meaning…and these three came out.

After the movie tonight, Graham said all we’ve got is time. And he doesn’t want to waste ours.

I don’t want to waste yours. I realize this is the third missive from me today. But I just came back from the Aero Theatre from the premiere of this Hollies movie and I’m buzzed. Because they made such great music. And they really knew how to play and sing. And they were at it for years before they did their best work.

They were Mancunians. Graham and Allan Clarke. Best buddies since age six they were infatuated by the Everly Brothers and chased them all the way back to the Midland Hotel from a gig. And stayed up talking so late that they missed the last bus home, they had to walk nine miles.

But they didn’t care.

You see they had a passion. Encouraged by their parents. It’s a baby boomer thing. We were the first generation who could be something more.

And sure, Graham and Allan are just a little bit older, but they were the leaders, the progenitors.

Actually, they followed the Beatles into the Cavern Club. Which Graham labeled a "death trap". There was only one way in, it was the same way out. And one night, a thug came up on stage while they were playing and walked right off with Tony Hicks’s amp. No one could stop him. It was just that kind of place.

And discovered by producer Ron Richards, they went down to London and started to record.

And there were changes in the band. Jazz-influenced Bobby Elliott now pounded the skins and the bass player got married and was replaced. Keeping a band together is hard. Eventually Graham left. The turning point? "King Midas In Reverse". It wasn’t a hit. But the throwaway "Jennifer Eccles" was. Is there no justice? Beware of creating a niche, you just might get locked up in it.

And Graham went on to even bigger success with Crosby and Nash. But Allan Clarke and the rest of the troupe triumphed too. Although "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress" was considered a throwaway, it’s one of the great singles in rock and roll. I can still picture driving on Route 30 in Vermont as it blasted out of the dashboard. Like "All Right Now", it was indelible.

And now it’s nearly fifty years later. And Allan’s voice is questionable, at least in his own mind, and Bobby and Tony are still fronting an edition of the Hollies and Nash is still palling around with David Crosby. Oh, what a long strange trip it’s been.

It was different back then. Music was the glue. The way to connect. It was a way out of the drudgery. You might have done it to get noticed by the opposite sex but the money was secondary. It was a lark. Not meant to be forever. But when the Beatles started experimenting and getting strange, the public followed, that was the power of the tunes.

The film has got twenty two complete performances.

And it’s not like "Behind The Music", there’s no dirt.

But you marvel at how great the voices are, the technical skills of Tony and Bobby. If these guys were on "American Idol" or "X Factor" they’d win. They needed no auto-tune, no technical help. They could do it live.

And they did.

You watch this old footage and your heart palpitates. You were there, when music changed the world.

And when the lights came up and Graham and Allan were there to answer questions, they did not appear to be seventy year old men but Gods, still walking this Earth.

They made this music. They’ve aged, but it has not. One day they’ll be gone, but the records will last forever.

So if you want to play this creative game know that you’ve got to start young. And you’ve got to have the fire in your belly. And if success comes too fast, it probably won’t last. But if you need to make it. If you can’t do anything else.

You will.

‘The Hollies: Look Through Any Window 1963-1975’ DVD Out October 4

Maybe it’s the weather.

L.A. is hottest in September. It can be positively gloomy in June, overcast and cool, but in September, the sun bakes, and in October the Santa Ana winds usher in a season of wildfires.

But the light is different. The light is fall, but the air is summer. And maybe this contradiction was why this track sounded so good heading west on Pico, with the warm glow of the sun in my face.

Or maybe my mood was improved by how well my car was running. Just got it serviced. You know how you bring it in for $200 and it ends up being $1000? I don’t think they ripped me off, and you’re always best off owning rather than renting, repairs are part of the game, but at least Daryl is skilled, my car is running like a top. And when your machine is purring and the sun is shining you’re having a pure SoCal day.

Aerosmith broke through with their third album, "Toys In The Attic". "Sweet Emotion" was the hit, but the following track on side two was always my favorite, "No More No More".

But really my favorite is the second, "Get Your Wings". With "Lord Of The Thighs" and "Season Of Wither". But I bought the second because I bought the first. An album had to suck for me not to purchase the follow-up. And Aerosmith’s debut was not bad, but it was not perfect. Of course it had "Dream On", which is why I bought it, after hearing the track on the radio on the back roads of Amherst, Massachusetts. And of course the debut has "Mama Kin". But my favorite was always "One Way Street". Today I heard "One Way Street" on Sirius XM’s "Deep Tracks".

This is all the swagger Tyler is famous for, before he became a caricature of himself, before he was a judge on "American Idol". The way he throws off the words…it’s the essence of cool. That’s what our rock stars were selling. You just wanted to be closer to their charisma.

But really the star of the show is Joe Perry’s guitar work.

It’s a long track. Hang in there. The way the song gets suddenly soft at 1:30, the changes resonate in your gut.

But it’s the tone of Perry’s guitar starting at 5:09 that truly slays me.

Jack Douglas never got this sound, even though his production work with Aerosmith was far superior to that of Adrian Barber. With Douglas they were down and dirty. On their initial release the sound was a bit too clean, a little too thin. But it totally works on "One Way Street", you can’t help nod your head and you can picture yourself in the audience clapping your hands.

We used to be interested in where our bands were going, before it became a badge of honor to repeat yourself ad infinitum, giving radio what it wants to keep your perch atop the mainstream heap.

Aerosmith’s debut was a harbinger of what was to come.

We just didn’t know it yet.

Really, listen to this entire track. You’ll realize how we got from there to here:

Spotify link