Note: Sometimes you’ve got to leave the best stuff out.  That’s what I learned from Carl Reiner on Costas years ago.  But the quote I excerpted from this program resonates in my head, and even though it doesn’t fit in below, I want to lay it on you now:

"When it’s good, it’s irresistible."

That’s Leonard Bernstein on rock music.  Some things never change.  That’s what’s wrong with too much you e-mail me about, too much hyped by the mainstream, it’s not irresistible.  But Leonard Bernstein in this program is.  Watch it.

I was reading in "BusinessWeek" about an engineer who left Facebook because it was all about the ads.  That just wasn’t fulfilling enough for a Harvard math major.

He could have stayed.  He could have cashed in, or cashed out, however you choose to define an IPO.  Instead, he left to build a new architecture, that would reveal secrets heretofore unknown.

I have a theory.  Our country became about the money when Ronald Reagan legitimized greed.  He lowered taxes, and not only allowed the flourishing of the junk bond house Drexel Burnham Lambert, he turned the heads of baby boomers, who were no longer concerned about loving their brothers and world peace, but about getting a bigger house in a better neighborhood with a foreign car in the driveway preferably all behind a tall wall.

In other words, the baby boomers were co-opted.  The generation that rebelled against its forebears became them.  And their progeny grew up in a land of plenty, focused on the dollar, and now they want theirs.  Whether it be in Silicon Valley, or on the "Jersey Shore" or in Hollywood, where pretty faces are duking it out to be told what to do by Jimmy Iovine right now.

But it used to be different.  Used to be the baby boomers were restless, they wanted more, and they expressed their desires, their rebellion, through music.

The Leonard Bernstein special I’m linking you to is legendary.  Even though few people have ever seen it.  It’s most famous for the debut of "Surf’s Up", with Brian Wilson playing the heretofore unreleased number alone on the piano.

But what’s great about this show is not the testifying rock stars, but the denizen of the older generation, Leonard Bernstein, who says although 95% of the music is trash, 5% is fantastic.

And we can stop there and posit that 1%, or .5% is good today, with everybody able to get into the game, but it’s not a business lesson I got from watching the maestro, but a musical one.

Along with the rise in materialism in the eighties came a  denigration of education, of being smart, of critical analysis.  It’s cool to be dumb.  Just ask Snooki.  Or Sarah Palin, whose flock consists of idiots too stupid to realize the people they back are profiteers leaving them by the wayside.  But if you’re intelligent, if you’re educated, you can think about things, work them through your fingers and come to new, interesting conclusions.  You can debate economic policy instead of trying to prove Barack Obama was born in outer space.

If this were the sixties, there’d be a rock group right now setting the record straight.

Alas, it is not.

But through the miracle of YouTube we can go right back to ’67, where we are captivated by Mr. Bernstein and his infatuation with rock and roll.

It’s about smarts.  It’s about education.  It’s about charisma.

Sure, you can sit back with your arms crossed and reference Radical Chic, you can cynically say Bernstein is reading from a script, but if you truly let go you’ll be taken into a magical world, where music matters and life is about sensation rather than money.  That’s Bernstein’s power.  He takes the Top Forty under his wing and soars to new heights and we go along with him, thrilled with each insight he reveals.

This is not a man playing to the camera.  Even though he was not without his vain qualities, what truly makes Bernstein’s presentation magical is the way he gets caught up in the music.  This is not beats-oriented dance crap, made to play in the background, the songs he’s deconstructing are positively foreground.

He references "Pretty Ballerina" and ties it to classical music.  He talks about the Beatles leaving out a beat.  He reveals the Arabic influences in "Paint It Black".  They’re all there, we know the records by heart, but Bernstein adds fillips that deepen our enjoyment, that make us smile.  And when he bangs out the notes on the piano and sings along in his less than perfect voice he’s caught up in the music just like you and me.

How did we get so distracted?  How did we get so far off course?

Well, in the sixties, kids weren’t their parents’ best friends.  I’d rebel against these plastic-surgeried ultra-thin moms, but somehow today’s kids think their parents are all right, that they haven’t sold out and greed is good.

And there’s no draft.  Start sending kids involuntarily to be slaughtered and protest would rear its ugly head, acts selling out to corporations would be laughed off the map, like Up With People.

And then there was MTV.  Which made it about looks.

And the CD.  Which rained down more money than previously was available in the music industry.

And we’re running on fumes.  We don’t want innovation, just a pretty face.  That’s what all these TV competitions are about. Blame Simon Cowell.  He’s playing to the lowest common denominator.  And if only Jimmy Iovine could hire someone as innovative as Neil Diamond to write today’s "I’m A Believer" for the "A.I." winner.

But Bernstein goes on to say that the younger generation writes the music and owns it.  Yes, Diane Warren would be a loser in ’67.  Carole King had to stop writing for others and start doing it for herself.  The acts not only gained freedom in the studio, they started to own their songs as well as write them.  The money went to the act.

And the public was enthralled.  Because we were looking for leaders.  Because musicians were the best and the brightest, speaking the truth and beholden to no one.

I’m not sure music can come back.  When the man is Live Nation as opposed to a renegade concert promoter.  When the acts aren’t looking to be independent but to sell out, to whomever it takes to get paid and hopefully noticed.

They don’t teach much music in school.  And it’s hard to respect tripe like "My Humps".  But once upon a time, music changed the world.  It was the most vital art form.

And it wasn’t about the industry, but the individual.  To see that just watch all six installments of this show.  When Bernstein is on, you’re riveted.  When the youngsters come on, you tune out.  Their music is great, but their analysis is dated.

But the music was universal.  And it lasted.

It’s referred to as classic rock.

And instead of rebelling against it, today’s generation flocks to it.  For its originality, for its truth, for its honesty.

Tune into a glorious time.  Hang in there through the faulty sound and the blank screen time.  Because when Bernstein talks, your heart will sing, you’ll feel fully alive, you’ll want to play these records all night.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the kind words about "Foreplay/Long Time." And, if I may, I’d like to offer a couple of addenda:

1. Not many people know it, but "Long Time" is a guitar showcase for Barry Goudreau, the often unmentioned lead guitarist in Boston. All the solos are his. He can coax some amazing noises out of that red Gibson SG.

2. For some reason, I have a very clear memory of recording those handclaps – they were done in the men’s room at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, the last thing to be added to the record before we mixed it at the old Westlake Studio on Wilshire. We put a mic in the stall, ran a line into Studio "C," and Tom, Brad, myself, and anyone else who was handy did the claps, while Warren Dewey recorded them. Great sound in there.

3. The part where "the bass starts to pound" was the part where we edited the two songs together, using the downbeat to mask the cut. The tricky part was making sure that the sustained organ was the same level across the edit.

4. The organ part is quite unique as well – it’s a Lowrey, instead of the more usual Hammond B-3. Tom researched organs and bought that one for various reasons, mostly because of its slightly different sound. It was recorded in his living room on School St. in Watertown.

5. I miss Brad all the time. When the band came to LA for the first time, Brad and his wife stayed with me in Laurel Canyon and I got to know him well. He was a gentle soul, a vegetarian for moral reasons. "I don’t eat anything that has a face," he would say. His favorite food was egg plant pizza from some place on Boston’s North Shore. His favorite singer was Paul McCartney, and he could do an uncanny imitation of him. When I asked him if he wanted to bunk up with me, he sheepishly inquired if I would mind if he watched "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" every night. And he was thrilled when I offered to drive the two of them to see the sights in Hollywood – he had always wanted to see Grauman’s, I’ve been told that Boston has a new lead singer whose voice bears a striking similarity to Brad’s – I don’t think I’m interested in hearing it.

Best regards,

John Boylan

Foreplay/Longtime – original post

Re: Foreplay/Longtime – Tom Scholz

I’m in Vail, Colorado.  For my birthday.

Every year I check the schedule, to see if the mountain will remain open until April 22nd.  This year, with Easter being so late, it’s open until the 24th, only the second time in my relationship with Felice.

Yes, we’re staying in the condo.  Paid for by Felice’s dad.

You see he was a musician.  Quite famous.  You might not remember his name, but you know his music.  Businessmen fade, but the work of talented musicians last forever.  In other words, people will still be humming "Moon River" and singing "The Pink Panther" long after the overpaid media moguls are gone.

And weather is always touch and go this time of year.  Usually you’re worried about too much sun, but this week we’ve been confronted with too much snow.  Which promptly turns to mush when the sun comes out.  Sometimes we’re making powder turns, other times navigating slush, but too often we’re plowing through a sticky concoction akin to Maypo.

But it’s great to be here nonetheless.

And to get people to give up gardening and other warm weather pursuits, to get them to come skiing one more time, Vail concocts a festival entitled "Spring Back To Vail".  Saturday was Train, they were stunningly good, proving that it’s all about the body of work, going on a journey and creating and if you’re really good, coming up with hits.

And speaking of Journey, tonight there was a cover band.  At Checkpoint Charlie.  In Vail Village.  Right outside the condo.  Playing eighties hits.

And Felice was convinced they were going to finish with "Don’t Stop Believin’".

And this had me pondering the making of a classic.  This was not Journey’s first hit.  Hell, Steve Perry wasn’t even in the initial incarnation of the band.  And during their heyday, Journey was pooh-poohed.  But then David Chase put their song at the end of "The Sopranos" and it became iconic.  All these years later.  The song has eclipsed the band.  That’s why they can go on the road with a faux singer.

But this was not the last song of the night.  The band kept playing.  And the songs kept on winning.  "Livin’ On A Prayer" reminded me of the eighties, when video was king and we were all addicted.  Maybe that’s why eighties music is so big.  We were all experiencing it in real time, on the nascent service known as MTV.  It was the Facebook of its day.  You didn’t go home and turn on your computer, you turned on MTV.  If a friend had it and you didn’t, you insisted he turn it on.

But the final song of the night was not from that decade.  It was a complete surprise.  But when I heard that organ intro I was elated. It was Boston’s "Foreplay/Long Time".

My mother broke her femur.  I know, I know, I just told you she broke her hip.  That’s true.  And I told you she checked herself out of rehab early.  And last night she fell off the toilet and in the process of dragging herself to the phone, because she was not wearing her medical alert necklace, because she’s invulnerable, she heard a crack, the same leg she broke before had now broken again, just below the original injury.

And the phone started to ring and text messages started to fly and all I can say is we’ve got more questions than answers.  The EKG was too high, they couldn’t do the surgery today, was that because of a medical condition or a hospital fuck-up?  If you’ve ever been in the hospital you know it’s the most untogether place in the world.

And while all this is going down the band is playing in the background and then they hit "Foreplay/Long Time".

I’d just moved to L.A.  I’d just bought my first big stereo.  I didn’t love "More Than A Feeling", but I bought the album anyway, maybe because of "Rock & Roll Band", any record with two good songs probably held a third.

And Boston’s debut held a fourth.  "Hitch A Ride".

But the third was the last song on the first side, the third track, in fact, "Foreplay/Long Time".

This is how it works.  You buy a new album.  You drop the needle on the vinyl.  You turn up the amp.  Sound starts coming out of the speakers.

You’re not texting at the same time.  You’re not watching TV or talking on the phone.  You’re focused.  And out of the pipe, out of the connection of capacitors and wires, comes this glorious sound.

Really, listen to "Foreplay/Long Time" on vinyl.

I can’t say I love the long intro, the aptly-titled "Foreplay".  But then, after an incredible flourish, the record gets quiet.  The organ sustains, ever so distantly in the background, and then you hear a sound like wind rustling through the trees, or birds on a limb, and then…the bass starts to pound, the guitar starts to wail and Brad Delp lays down in the musical bed and you’re in heaven.  That’s one of the great rock and roll losses, Brad Delp’s voice.  If you never heard it live, you never will.

You’re on a roller coaster.  And after going up the big hill and down you’re cruising through the twisty darkness and there are handclaps and an acoustic guitar and it sounds like nothing so much as an American version of a great Led Zeppelin tune.  And then, once again, the band starts to WAIL!

And "Foreplay/Long Time" debuted thirty five years ago.  We’ve had disco, melisma, hip-hop and now "American Idol" since.  But somehow this track remains.  Because, like "Don’t Stop Believin”, it’s a classic, spun on radio, heard in the background to the point where everybody knows it.

And at this point, I’m inside the condo, with the door cracked, because it’s blowin’ and snowin’ out.

But the sound of the music makes me jump to my feet.  I run outside.  I conduct the orchestral element of "Foreplay" with my hands… The music breaks down and I hang my head in anticipation, and then, and then, AND THEN the bass starts to thump, the guitars start to wail and at the top of my lungs I’m singing…

It’s been such a long time, I think I should be goin’

I’m gonna be 58.  Sounds scary.  But like your parents said, one day it’ll happen to you.

And time doesn’t wait for me, it keeps on rollin’

Ain’t that for sure.  Grab hold, do what you love, because one day you can’t.

Sail on, on a distant highway

That’s the American dream.  The freedom to travel.  To let the wind blow through your hair as you pilot your own vehicle to the destination of your choice.

I’ve got to keep on chasin’ a dream
I’ve got to be on my way

Yes, I’m chasing it.  And I’m not afraid to admit it.  I care about money, but not as much as ubiquity.  Twenty years ago, I fell off the edge, I didn’t think anybody was listening.  The biggest thrill of my life is they’re listening now.

Well, I’m takin’ my time, I’m just movin’ along
You’ll forget about me after I’ve been gone

Unfortunately, I know that’s true.  Nothing lasts.  If you’re doing it for posterity, you’re sorely mistaken.  That’s the joke.  Life is essentially meaningless.  It’s not a game you play to get to heaven.  You live and then you die.

Well, I get so lonely when I am without you

Yes, we’ve got a bond.  And if I don’t write for a few days, I feel the loss, the absence.

But in my mind, deep in my mind, I can’t forget about you

I wonder what you think.  I’m worried about being judged.  But once you stop playing, you’ve truly lost.

And I take what I find, I don’t want no more
It’s just outside of your front door

In this case, right outside the condo door.

It’s not about collecting toys.  And it’s really not about money.  Sure, it’s bad if you don’t have enough, but the reason all those bankers buy the concert tickets you want is because their jobs positively suck.

No, life is about experiences.

And what keeps you going is the memory of those experiences, illustrating how great life was and how great it still can be.

And that’s exactly what I was thinking out on the patio just now.  How fucking great this life is.  That I love skiing and am glad I am still able to do it, to be in Colorado, looking at the sideways snow and the mountains fading in the waning daylight.  But the trigger is always the music.  That’s the switch that keeps me going.

I was reminded of that tonight.

And now I’m reminding you.

Because underneath it all I know we’re no different.  We’re all scared.  We’re all looking for pleasure and meaning.

And we all know music makes us forget about our problems and dream of a better life.

Re: Foreplay/Longtime – John Boylan

Re: Foreplay/Longtime – Tom Scholz

Oldsters believe concert promotion is all about the deal.

No, it’s all about the experience.

First and foremost, the act must be someone people want to see.  In the old days, this was the responsibility of the label, which invested and then reaped the rewards of gargantuan record sales.  Those days are done.  It’s now incumbent upon promoters to break acts.  In other words, they can no longer clean up behind the elephant, they’ve got to rebuild the circus themselves.

1. Live Nation must give away music.

They say we lack filters.  Live Nation/Ticketmaster are an inherent filter, that’s where people go when they’re interested, why not turn them on to new music?

In other words, Nathan Hubbard should come out of the closet and recommend a new act.  Maybe an old act too.  Every Live Nation exec must become a personality.  With tastes.  They must be conduits to the good music.

And just like you can’t promote iTunes, Live Nation’s picks have to be unbuyable.  They must be a privilege.

Every week there’s a free download of a new and developing act.  With an explanation of why it should be listened to.  Furthermore, there’s going to be a vote.  Did you like the track or not?  Transparency is everything these days.  If it turns out people like a track others will check it out and new acts will be broken, and isn’t that the lifeblood of the concert industry, new acts?

2. Investment must be made in the physical plant.  Every LN venue needs more than a new coat of paint.  Instead of overpaying the executives how about new seats, wi-fi, a concierge, giveaways…

3. Concerts are a social experience.  So every event has to have its own site, whether it be a Facebook page or some other nexus.  Upon that page not only can you network with other concertgoers, you can rideshare and look for a date.  That’s the secret I’m going to let you in on now.  Rock and roll dating.  But it’s all in the execution.  I know how to do it, you don’t.

4. Loyalty food programs.  Pay $100 in advance and you get $120 worth of food.  Pay in advance and you get the import beer instead of the domestic.

5. Turn concertgoing into a competition.  For every show you go to there’s a badge and ultimately there’s a leaderboard.

Even better, give everybody a swipe card with their ticket, or utilize their mobile and scan when they arrive and when they leave.  Give a badge for seeing the opening act.  Give a badge for staying until the end.  Whoever has the most badges every month gets a free backstage pass for the following month, in other words, they get to be an insider.  Whoever wins for the year gets flown to the gig of his choice and is loaded with merch from the band.

6. Parking is free if you buy tickets to three shows.

7. Every ticket comes with a link to a site where the show can be relived on video.  Come on, Irving/Frontline controls all these acts, he can get the rights.  Furthermore, you get the show free with your ticket, the audio version.  Don’t worry about quality, most people won’t listen.  But this will foster debate online about who’s good and who’s not and what’s wrong with that, enough with the smoke and mirrors!

8. Higher quality food.  It can be expensive, but it has to be good.  How come Live Nation can’t make a deal with Shake Shack?

What you’ve got to do is create a club, where every concertgoer is a member.  A virtual club.  With Live Nation as the ringmaster.  Live Nation/Ticketmaster must be the fans’ friend.

This whole business is wrong.  It’s become about serving the artist, not the consumer.  And without the consumer, there is no business.

You can continue to overpay the acts, increase fees so the promoter can profit and hold back tickets for insiders.  It’s a circle jerk that is contributing to people tuning out.  Or you can get rid of the b.s. and go tech, be totally transparent and honest.

What did Steve Jobs so famously say during the dot com crash?  That Apple was going to innovate its way out of the recession?

Looks like it did.

The only innovation we see at Live Nation is dynamic ticket pricing.  May prove to be a good thing, but I don’t think that’s the real problem.  The real problem is right now concertgoing is considered a shitty experience.  A rip-off you endure to see the star.

But there are fewer stars than ever.  Old ones are fading away and few new ones are being built.

The role of the promoter is not to be a bank, but to create demand.

Live Nation has forsaken this role.  As have so many of the other big time concert promoters.  They remember the indie promoters of yore getting rich and they want those riches for themselves.  But old time concert promoters gave food to those waiting in line for tickets.  They chided acts who did not deliver.  They built a business.

But that’s when music drove the culture and you couldn’t know which way the wind blew unless you listened to the radio.

Live Nation is not our friend.  It’s just another corporation ripping us off.  Unless it changes its ways, there will be no growth.

I don’t care how many people owe Irving Azoff favors.  I don’t care how Michael Rapino keeps his power.

It comes down to the music.  Live Nation needs to be in the music business.

But just like there were MP3 players before the iPod you’ve got to make it easy and fresh for people to consume.

You want to really revolutionize this business?

Sell it to Apple.

Steve Jobs will make sure the venues, all the products LOOK exactly right.  The blight of the LN sheds will be eviscerated and people will feel good just to go.

Prices may not come down, but people will believe the show is the best place to be.

The sound system will be first rate.  And the bands acts’ will have to be screened for value, for lack of rip-off.

Apple built an ecosystem.

Live Nation has built bupkes.