From: Aaron Levinson
Re: Aaron Lewis "Country Boy"

Aaron Lewis is a Russian Jew like you and me who grew up in Longmeadow MA. An all white town with a household median income of $90,000. A country boy? Please. Get real.

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he may have been born in rutland but im pretty sure he grew up in longmeadow mass.

Bear Connelly

He’s a real Vermonter.

When I went to college, the Green Mountain State was not blue, but red.  Fiercely independent people eking out a living on rocky land in bad weather.  Before the Internet, before cable TV, Vermont might not have been as far off the grid as Montana, but the locals never got in their cars and drove to Boston or New York City, they liked it just fine at home.

Now I’m not gonna tell you I’m down with Aaron Lewis’s politics.  The more I watch this video and research this song on the Web the more scared I become.  I just wish everybody singing these songs and listening to them got a chance to travel the world, and see that as great as the U.S.A. is it’s not so bad in Europe, not so bad in the rest of the world.  We’ve got it pretty good, but we ain’t got all the answers.

And guns scare me.

Because I know if I had one in the house I would have committed suicide by now.  Or shot some friend who knocked on my door unexpectedly.

And hearing the song the lyrics did not completely sink in.  Only snippets.  Like the bit about the Sunset Marquis.  But watching the video…I’ve got to ask are these people really not interested in helping their brothers?  Poverty was rampant in Vermont in the seventies.  I’d like to believe the government can provide a safety net.  And if that requires me to pay a bit more in taxes, I’m down with that.  Because every time I pass a homeless guy near the VA I wonder what happened to him. At least the weather’s good in Santa Monica, but even if so many of the homeless are mentally ill, can’t we give them treatment?

I don’t want to go all political on you.

Except to say as freaked-out as I am by this song’s politics, I love it.

It’s hard to explain what music was like before video.  When we watched the vinyl spin ’round, when we lay back on our beds and let the music wash over us.  Music was not like television.  It spoke to your mind, not your eyes, and when done right it went straight to your heart.

Once upon a time "Midnight Rider" was brand new.  All those Skynyrd songs too.  Like "Saturday Night Special" and "Gimme Back My Bullets".  I’m not so sure about the politics of the Southern rockers, then again, Phil Walden and the Allman Brothers put Jimmy Carter into office.  Who’s the best ex-President we’ve ever had.

Oh here we go again.  You want to stop the conversation and talk about Ronald Reagan.  How did we ever get so divided?

So I’m cruising up 20th Street.  For the uninitiated, that takes you by the old Sony building, before Rick Rubin decided a shrinking label needed an I.M. Pei edifice in Beverly Hills.  Music is now virtual.  We may not even need offices.  Maybe everybody works at home.  Hell, A&R is done on the computer.

And the sun is setting and Howard Stern is on commercial and I push the button to the Nashville channel.  And I hear this:

Aaron Lewis "Country Boy"

Do you know that live version of "Outside"?  From the "Family Values" album?  When Fred Durst says Aaron Lewis is the "real fucking deal"?

Just listen to him.  Whew!  This ain’t no Britney Spears, you hear all the pain, all the emotion that music conveys so uniquely. I love Kraftwerk, but today’s machine music is sans emotion, no wonder it doesn’t connect.

But "Country Boy" does.  Because it’s the same guy, Aaron Lewis, singing.

Staind broke through.  Sold five million copies of that album with "It’s Been Awhile".  Listen to that track today.  It’s still haunting, it’s still riveting.

And there’s that other great cut on "Break The Cycle", "Epiphany".  "Country Boy" is cut from the same cloth.

I hate Staind’s hard rock.  There, I said it.  But I LOVE their ballads!  They’re lullabies for those of us with smudges on our souls.  A salve for the imperfect.

Now I grew up down an old dirt road in a town you wouldn’t know
My pops picked up the place up for fifteen hundred bucks back in 1964

The Wikipedia says Aaron Lewis grew up in Rutland.  Which is a place you drive through, nobody from down south stops there, they  motor straight to Killington.  Sure, there’s a main drag, but you’ve got to leave the highway to get to it.  Rutland is for locals.  And forty five years ago you could buy land for next to nothing, because that’s what it was worth.

My grandfather was a drinker
Back in the day he put ’em down
But a war is known to change a man, and the whiskey’s known to change a man
That’s not me
I rarely drink from the bottle
But I’ll smoke a little weed

I got high on dope before I ever got drunk.  That’s how it was back in the day.  Alcohol was for the older generation.  We were expanding our minds.

Now it’s been twelve years since I sold my soul to the devil in L.A.
He said sign your name here on the dotted line and your songs they all will play
We set up shop on Sunset
He put me up at the Marquis

That’s the Sunset Marquis.  Zeppelin might have stayed at the Riot House, the hipsters may still stay at the Chateau Marmont, but since the eighties the rock and roll hotel of choice has been the Sunset Marquis.  Want to see your hard rock heroes?  Don’t hang out at the Rainbow, go to the Sunset Marquis.

He said change your style, whiten your smile, you could lose a couple of pounds
If you want to live this life you better lose that wife
Do you need your friends around?
I said no that’s not me
‘Cause biggest things in life are your friends and family

Whew!  If you don’t think the company doesn’t want to change you, you’ve never been signed.  Artistic autonomy went out with the seventies.  The man knows better.

But when you’re done, when you’re over, when you’re looking at the four walls broke and busted, your friends are the only ones who’ll get you through.

And I like my jeans and my old t-shirts and a couple extra pounds never really hurt
‘Cause a country boy is all I’ll ever be.

Look at the video.  There’s no stylist involved.

Doesn’t it look like fun?  Hanging in the studio?  Isn’t that where we all wanted to be?

Now just before "Country Boy" I heard that ridiculous Keith Urban song "Put You In A Song".  Huh?  That’s not country, that’s commerce.

If you don’t think Aaron Lewis is this song watch this clip, the acoustic version:

Aaron Lewis- Country Boy (Acoustic)

No drum machine, no backup singers, nobody behind the curtain helping.  He’s enough.

It’s a cheap shot to go country.  Put on a flannel shirt, mix in a fiddle and you’re all Nashville.

But country ain’t Nashville, not today.

The old country was dangerous, like those townies you used to run into if you went down the wrong road in the Green Mountain State.  They wanted to be left alone.  They could survive just fine without you.

All those hard-working truck drivers don’t need Brad Paisley, they don’t need fakers in hats.  They need someone speaking the truth.

Now Clive Davis can say it takes too long to get to the change, that Aaron needs a new chorus.  But if you fix it, you fuck it up.  Great art is channeled, it’s not an intellectual process, it’s purely organic.  All those songwriting hacks in "Music City" are creating with their heads, not their hearts.

Nothing is as powerful as a performer singing his own story.

If you’re not touched by Aaron Lewis’s "Country Boy" you grew up in the city with no sympathy for anybody different.  You look down at the crackers, you wonder why they hate you?

But people are people.

I’m sure if I sat down with Aaron Lewis I could find commonality.  Because it’s not about politics, but humanity.  Life’s a struggle.  But it’s denied on sitcoms, movies are all special effects and so are the records, so when you hear something real you cannot turn it off.

I cannot turn off Aaron Lewis’s "Country Boy".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJngOHn96cs

This gave me goosebumps.

The number one criterion of live performance is to make those who did not attend believe they missed it.

That’s why Coachella sold out instantly this year.  Hell, they didn’t even need to announce the lineup.  It’s far from overwhelming.  But 50,000+ people want to be there.  They want to watch the endless parade of people, they want to tell their friends they attended, they want to be part of the discussion.

I’ve been wondering whether the good numbers for Coachella and the Katy Perry tour portend a good summer touring season.  It appears money is loosening up, people are spending again.  Will they spend on music?

If it’s a must-see show.

If you’re doing the same thing every night to tape, people might go for the extravaganza.  But it’s the same in every city. What if it’s different?

But let’s back up a step.  Sometimes it’s the same every night and it takes time for the word to spread.  Mainstream press covered Roger Waters’s tour of "The Wall" like it was just another show.  Faded superstar hits the boards for one more go-round, a final dash for cash.  And all of that might be true, but it doesn’t speak to the essence of the experience.  People who saw "The Wall" can’t stop testifying.  Arguably, there’s been no better production.  But it’s even better than that, not all the production was on stage.  From the almost full scale airplane screaming over the audience to explode into the wall in the beginning to the remote-controlled flying pig to the surround sound, I’ve never seen anything like it before.  This show should play stadiums.  Roger is missing out.  Sure, put another act on the bill for insurance, to make sure the dates go clean, but "The Wall" is pure rock and roll.  You either saw it, or you missed it.

Like Cee-Lo with Prince.

Prince has got to stop putting out new music.  No one cares.

Let me clarify that.  He’s got to stop believing people care about his new music.  No one cares about the new music of old farts, and he’s one too, he’s over fifty.  If you want to sell the new music of an old fart you release only one tune, a verifiable classic, as good as "Crazy".  Alas, Prince has not cut this track, not in decades, even though he used to be able to seemingly at will.

So it’s about the show.

And Prince levitates the room.  But when he does the unexpected, that’s when we all want to go.

All the gossip sites were talking about Kim Kardashian coming up on stage.  Like I care?  But someone e-mailed me this YouTube clip.  It’s like a bootleg tape of old.  Recorded from a distance, but containing the essence.

Usually these surprises only happen in New York and L.A.  But when they do, you never forget them.  John Mayer with Taylor Swift at Staples was a highlight.  But Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker coming up on stage with Kenny Chesney excited me too.

It’s ultimately about the music.  Get people who can sing and play up with the star to improvise, to do something different, and you end up with heat.

This is the story the Super Bowl decriers were looking for.

Slash is lovable, but Izzy was the star of that band.

And one can argue that Danger Mouse is the star of Gnarls Barkley, but it’s Cee-Lo’s voice (which is why Axl Rose can still tour as GNR).

And "F___ You" is a novelty tune.

But "Crazy" is the best single of the aughts.

I thought I could miss Prince.  Hell, I saw him do "Dirty Mind" at Flippers Roller Disco.  I saw him open for the Stones.  I’ve seen him spin to "Little Red Corvette".  But watching him on stage with the portly man in the white suit, conducting the band in his red outfit, I feel both included and left out.

Included because I’m experiencing the video.  Left out because I wasn’t THERE!

Surprise the audience.  You don’t need to feature a superstar guest.  Maybe a rare cover, or a reworking of a classic cut… To make sure they know the gig is something special.

And today when you do something special, word gets out.

Because there’s video of everything.

And people talk.

This is not on hard drive.  Prince nails the solo.

This makes me CRAZY!

P.S. When I finished writing this, I checked the link for accuracy and what I got was the following message:

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim from NPG Records Ltd."

Ridiculous.  I thought Prince wanted to sell tickets.

Social is everything.  Give people the tools.  Encourage, don’t limit.  If limiting worked, Guy Hands’s acquisition of EMI would have been a triumph.

Meanwhile, this link is still working, but it’s from a distance, it’s much worse:

Cee-Lo Green "Crazy"

This is a music business story.

Arianna Huffington didn’t know shit about the World Wide Web. She was just a tireless self-promoter who wanted to be famous.  A money hungry woman who married a gay Republican, then divorced him and switched sides.  This is someone to believe in?

Of course not.

Which is why hair metal died.  Because the bands tried to look dangerous but they were singing wimpy ballads.  You can’t have it both ways.  James Hetfield doesn’t duet with Susan Boyle.  Sure, you might get a bit of publicity, some instant coin, but you alienate your core.

Then again, Arianna had no core.

She still doesn’t.

When she ran for Governor of California, it was laughable.  She tried to crash other candidates’ press conferences.  No one would listen to her, no one cared.

Then she started the Huffington Post.  Which was laughable at first, until she turned it into a links site.

Come on, NO ONE reads the blogs on the Huffington Post.  Who gives a shit what nine thousand nobodies have to say? Do you stop people in Times Square to ask them their opinions on the war and food?  OF COURSE NOT!  So why would you be interested in these blogs, the only original content on the site!

The reason the HuffPo got traffic was because of the interface and the sensibility.

Didn’t Steve Jobs teach us looks make a difference?

Then why are so many music sites so awful?

Number one is Ticketmaster.  HuffPo’s got  ton of color.  Ticketmaster.com looks like a gray day on the east coast.  Like you’re sitting inside and have got nothing else to do but surf this lame site with antique fonts and little excitement.

Sure, Ticketmaster can’t steal Jonathan Ive from Apple, but can they at least hire someone who knows what a site should look like?

Or maybe even turn it into Google, very spare, with only one search box for your desired tickets.

But at least both sites load fast.  They both know the less Flash the better, the greater stickiness you incur.

Oh, did I tell you that links sites make less money on advertising than those featuring original content?

And Arianna saying link sites are part of the DNA of the Web is like Rupert Murdoch saying MySpace is the ultimate in social networking.  Huh?  There’s no creativity in links sites.  They’re like a musical fad, the Macarena, they could end in a day, like the boy bands!  Especially in the coming era of apps.

Now do you need money to make it?

Look at Craigslist.  Clean interface, ultra-successful, built for next to nothing.

Yet Craig Newmark eventually sold a piece to eBay.  Biggest mistake of his life.  They’re the thorn in his side.

I’d say AOL is the thorn in Arianna’s side, but she doesn’t even know what the site should be, she’s so busy being famous, the gentleman who steered her online, Kenneth Lerer, he’s now gone.

Arianna did it the old way.  She signed to a label.  Which made her famous.  But then she had to do what the label said. She HAD to sell.  Her investors wanted that three hundred million CASH!

Like an act is gonna tell the label what to do.  Ha!

It’s about being independent.

Look at Groupon.  They turned down that Google money.  They thought the offer was too low.  If Arianna truly believed in the HuffPo she would have said no.  But like a lame act that’s all flash and no substance she wanted the publicity, the acknowledgement, the glory of a big deal.

Like appearing on the Grammys and being forgotten tomorrow.

If you think it’s about publicity, you don’t know that Mumford & Sons is higher on the chart than the Black Eyed Peas, that the U.K. band has sold almost as many albums as Katy Perry.

Publicity, my ass.

Arianna and her team built a company.  Which is now done.

Do left-wingers really want to associate with AOL, which is like driving a Rambler?  Workable one day, but now history?

And Tim Armstrong made his rep selling ads.  Where’s the cred there?

And now they’re gonna let Arianna loose, telling the other bloggers what to do?  Isn’t that like having to take musical advice from Britney Spears?

But these bloggers are a ragtag bunch, the bottom of the barrel. And blogs don’t succeed on branding, but content.  And AOL’s got the worst.

The sale of the HuffPo to AOL is an old school story.  About cashing in instead of going your own way and changing the landscape.

Mark Zuckerberg wants to change the world, he’s independent, this inexperienced pipsqueak gets to make all the calls and Arianna Huffington sells out to some slick ad salesman?

Come on.

You’ve got to have a good product…

No, you’ve got to have a GREAT product.

Me-too doesn’t work online or in music.

And you’ve got to call your own shots.  If you’re in a creative endeavor and you don’t get final cut, you’re beholden to bean counters, who don’t only lack vision, but are focused on the dollar.

It’s about the long haul.  Staying in the game.  Not overnight success, but ENDURING success.

Arianna Huffington…laughable.

Are you laughable too?