"Ahead Rings Out" is not in the American Spotify library.

Yes, my playlist this week included songs from Blodwyn Pig’s debut. Only one problem, that album is in the international Spotify database, but not the U.S. aggregation. Frustrating? You bet!

I had to hunker down and compile a whole new playlist! But I didn’t want this one to go to waste.

If you’re in the U.K. or Europe the Spotify link at the bottom of the page should work just fine. But in America, you’re gonna be missing "See My Way" and "Sing Me A Song That I Know". You can find "Dear Jill", and there are alternative versions of the prior two, but you need to hear the originals.

So, if you’re playing in the U.S., I’ll provide alternative YouTube links at the end…

____________________________

BLODWYN PIG

Hard core Jethro Tull fans will tell you the first album is the best, the blues-influenced extravaganza, the one that got little traction in the U.S., the one that featured Mick Abrahams.

Now to tell you the truth, my Tull addiction began with the subsequent long player, "Stand Up", which truly did. Yup, you popped open the album cover and the band literally stood. At least on the initial copies.

Not that I bought "Stand Up" when it was released. But this was back when people brought their records to school, Jimmy Lesser brought "Stand Up", I remember looking at it.

But I got addicted to Tull on a 110 MPH drive the first weekend of college. We left the President’s reception in John Morosani’s Trans Am listening to Frijid Pink on the 8-track and he scared the living daylights out of me on the curves of Route 125, running straight through the Middlebury College campus.

And yes, all these groups are interconnected. That’s why Pete Frame’s family trees are so fascinating–see Jethro Tull’s here:

Jethro Tull Family Tree

But going back to the beginning, Mick Abrahams didn’t like the direction Ian Anderson was taking with Tull so he went his own way. Which segues into the first number I want you to play, "See My Way". It’s a torrid track that takes off immediately, which you hear once and remember, kind of like Thunderclap Newman’s "Something In The Air", albeit with a completely different feel.

I’ve never heard "See My Way" on the radio. I got turned on to it at my friend Marc Goloff’s house.

We all bought different records. It was at Marc’s house that I heard "Rock and Roll Woman" from Buffalo Springfield’s "Retrospective", just after Crosby, Stills & Nash started to break. And the incredible intro to "Gimmie Shelter". "Let It Bleed" had just come out, there was no airplay. I was shocked. This was ethereal and addictive, I immediately went out and purchased the album at Korvette’s.

But I didn’t buy Blodwyn Pig’s debut, "Ahead Rings Out", for years, until I found a used vinyl copy, funds were limited, it was not like today, when everything is at your fingertips on Spotify.

But Marc insisted I listen to the initial cut on the second side of "Ahead Rings Out", an album with a unique cover, a pig wearing headphones and sunglasses, smoking a cigarette.

Ahead Rings Out

Jack Lancaster blows two horns at once. Like his hero, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. But it’s the intro that hooked me, that made me need to hear "See My Way" every time I went to Marc’s house. It’s intimate. Too many people are playing to the last row, I like to feel they’re playing just for me.

Then "See My Way" explodes, it’s a rave up.

And then there’s a time change. This ain’t boy band claptrap, this is incredible players, working out.

And then the intimacy comes back, and eventually there’s a long instrumental break and you’ll be thrilled this cut is finally in your collection, it may not have ever been a hit, but it’s a classic.

But even better is "Dear Jill". Which I came to eons later. Never getting much past "See My Way" at Marc’s house.

This is classic English blues. The band is locked into a groove that you just can’t resist. On today’s Top Forty radio all the songs sound the same, but "Dear Jill" sounds nothing like "See My Way", it’s not a hit, but it’s the essence of music, you feel it inside. Cameron Crowe knows, he featured "Dear Jill" in the soundtrack for "Almost Famous".

And the follow-up album wasn’t as good.

And the band splintered.

But Mick Abrahams is still kicking around, go to his homepage. I hate when music starts playing automatically, but I love the sound coming out of the speakers when I navigate to his site:

Squirrel Music

Meanwhile, if you like "See My Way", which was curiously left off the original English version of "Ahead Rings Out" but appeared on the U.S. LP, and "Dear Jill", check out "Sing Me A Song That I Know", which was excised from the U.S. album.

Also, if you’re a fan of "This Was", you might be interested in Blodwyn Pig’s reworking of the album from the band’s 2001 album "All Said And Done".

You MUST listen to "See My Way" and "Dear Jill".

And like I said, if those appeal to you, be sure to check out "Sing Me A Song That I Know".

But the redo of "This Was" on "All Said And Done" is for fans only. But fans of "This Was" may not be aware it exists. So I’m including it here for them. It’s amazing what gems have been retrieved from the stratosphere for our listening pleasure on Spotify.

Spotify link

___________________________________

The "All Said And Done" tracks are in the U.S. Spotify library.

But here are some YouTube links for the "Ahead Rings Out" tracks:

"See My Way"

"Dear Jill"

"Sing Me A Song That I Know"

Don’t get your knickers in a twist. This is not the two behemoths joining forces to conquer the world, this is the world’s largest recorded music company doing its best to manage an orphan asset.

Universal acquired the management company as part of the Sanctuary deal. For a while there, it looked like record labels might actually become 360 degree companies, full service organizations, they might want management companies. But now it’s clear that Universal is about recorded assets, better to have this rogue operation run by Irving, who knows the management business cold.

And with the old Sanctuary, it was about the synergy. The low profits from the management company could be tolerated because so many of the managed acts forked over the rest of their rights to the company, where margins were superior. But that’s not the case with Sanctuary’s management companies and Universal.

As for the management juggernaut Irving has built…

He’s famous for not having paper deals, doing it on a handshake. So, theoretically the talent is not tied. Then again, no one leaves Irving. Because he services you better than anybody else. He won’t tell you what to record, but he will get you the most opportunities and the most dough. If you’re with Front Line, you’ve got leverage.

Then again, if you’re a small act, you could get lost in the shuffle.

All I’m saying is the assets in Front Line are not fungible. It’s all about people. On both sides of the desk. So theoretically, assets could deplete, just like Ron Laffitte left Red Light for Front Line with his assets, managers and acts could leave Front Line, as Andy Gould did with Rob Zombie.

But more importantly, there’s no barrier to entry. Any act with any manager can penetrate the scene. Establish a foothold and ultimately conquer.

Lady Gaga and Troy Carter were not established players tied up to a conglomerate and the talk of the agency business is the Windish Agency, which has so many of the new acts, as does their competitor Billions.

This tie-up does reveal the closeness between Irving and Lucian Grainge. There’s little enmity, they’re in bed together, Front Line acts have deals at Universal.

But the real power here lies with Irving. And managers may only make money if there’s an upside, but it’s the labels who are investing the big money to create big hits.

If Irving ran Universal, which he once did, when it was called MCA, he’d take a different tack. He put MCA in the concert business. He who has the most assets is going to win in the future.

But Live Nation/Front Line has got problems of its own. The deep pockets of Phil Anschutz and AEG. The limited barrier to entry in concert promotion, albeit a license to lose money for newbies, and the percolation of new ticketing services, from Fred Rosen’s Outbox to Ticketfly.

Irving’s goal is to make the trains run on time, to make sure Live Nation is profitable. Doing this via dominance, other than in the management field, is not feasible. There’s always someone willing to pay for a hit act to perform live, from AEG to casinos, and Live Nation’s monopoly on ticketing is fading. Then again, he does have leverage with the management company, and he intends to use it.

But Front Line is top heavy with established acts.

If you’re developing talent this deal barely affects you. The field is wide open. Run with the ball.

But be sure you pay attention to your act, be sure you give them opportunities and money, because even when you think you’re looking, they might jump to Front Line.

I was disappointed Lucinda Williams read all her lyrics, doesn’t she know her own songs? But I was blown away by her guitarist, Blake Mills.

Yes, Lucinda has a music stand, with a book, she turns the page for every number. Live performance is not only what you hear, but what you see, you’ve got to sell the song, it’s about the experience, it’s not a recital. And this was incredibly off-putting until I noticed the guitarist was suddenly duplicating the exact same tone and feel as "Wicked Game". Felice even leaned over and commented on it.

Sometimes a player is so good, he makes the whole show. You marvel at his excellence. And too often players today are about flash, as if the goal is to go to Guitar Center and wow their peers as opposed to actually playing satisfying, listenable music. But this guy added flavor, he was truly accompanying Lucinda, and what he wrung from his axe was positively mesmerizing.

He used to be in Dawes, when it was called Simon Dawes. He came out on stage with them when they played the Santa Monica Pier. But that show was more bombastic, it had more wailing. Whereas Saturday night, opening for Henley, Lucinda Williams’s show was more about groove, about feel.

Blake surely made the guitar cry and sing, but he did more than that, it was like he was populating a whole classroom with the sounds he got out.

It’s funny. After the boy bands, after the dominance of MTV, after the earth has been scorched, there’s a generation that’s all about the basics, writing and playing. It’s not about outfits, it’s not simply about getting rich, it’s about the music.

Everything’s been high concept for so long, everybody with any skill has become a producer, working behind the scenes propping up no-talents, it’s rare to see someone with talent out there up front, putting the music first.

We’ve heard too much about how these household names are truly talented. Did you see Justin Timberlake at the piano? How about Justin Bieber on the drums! But they evidence a rudimentary skill, far from genius, and Timberlake is now an actor and soon Justin Bieber will be a has-been. Blake Mills is an anti-star, like the heroes of yore. He doesn’t dress up in outfits concocted by Rachel Zoe, he wears the same clothes he does off stage and the music is his calling card. It’s enough, more than enough. Watch out. 

Welcome to your life
There’s no turning back

You expect the hits, and he did "Heart Of The Matter", even a faithful "Hotel California" instead of the Spanish version the Eagles perform, despite the presence of a seven piece horn section, but some of the left turns were so mind-bending you wondered if this was the performer accused of being rigid, of having no sense of humor.

So glad we’ve almost made it
So sad they had to fade it
Everybody wants to rule the world

Yes, last night at the Greek Theatre Don Henley played that well-worn nugget from the foggy eighties, "Everybody Wants To Rule The World". Huh?

It has an unmistakable intro. The number is in our DNA. There was no irony, other than that which is embedded in the song itself. Henley performed this English nugget like he was fronting the best bar band in the world, like the show was all about roots as opposed to as a career retrospective, a dash for cash.

And there was the funk interlude. Laced with a tribute to Otis Redding, whose song Don said he used to play in the clubs.

And there were the new songs, that he discovered pushing the buttons on satellite radio, composed by the likes of Jeffrey Foucault and Eric Hutchinson.

But the highlight for me was Randy Newman’s "Guilty", whom Henley pronounced his favorite songwriter. Don sold it in a way such that I got insight I’ve never had before, even though I know every lick of Bonnie Raitt’s cover and the original. You could see the hangdog man at the door, and when Henley sang the last line, "It takes a whole lot of medicine for me to pretend that I’m somebody else"…whew! I could feel the self-hatred.

This was unexpected. Henley told us he was going to take some left turns. But just like a performer tells the assembled multitude he’s going to perform each and every hit the audience screams out and doesn’t, I didn’t expect it.

Yes, as Don sang, he couldn’t get enough of that funky stuff.

We saw this last year with Donald Fagen’s Dukes Of September entourage. Taking chances, having fun, creating something new.

Suddenly, after all the classic rockers have decided to play the hits and nothing but, there’s a small coterie saying NO!

I think of Don Henley as an erudite saver of Walden Woods, a political commentator, a high class agitator. But last night I saw who he truly was.

A musician.

All the detritus was scrubbed away, only the essence shined. What a surprise!