Bob,

We’ve never actually met before, but I feel like I have read hundreds of your emails over the years and they were all forwarded to me by my father, Gary Kurfirst.  I know he agreed with a lot of what you had to say about the music business and he admired your writing abilities and passion for music.  I’m writing to let you know that Gary (aka notalk888@aol.com) passed away yesterday.  It all happened very sudden, the details of which do not matter, bottom line is he was way too young.  I’m not sure why I am reaching out to you, but I feel like I need to make sure that my dad’s accomplishment in the music business are recognized and you have a lot of people’s attention.  He was a true music pioneer, an ole gunslinger back when the music business was like the wild, wild west and crafty kid from Forest Hills, Queens could carve out a living promoting (and later managing) cutting edge acts not because they were popular, but because they were different.  I actually got to work wit
h him for most of my adult life. He taught me about the importance of artist development, building the brand and finding acts that did not fit the mold but rather broke it. He believed in artistry and did not sign acts because they sounded like "so and so," he signed acts that were an extension of his creative being, ones that tested the boundaries of modern music and would change the face of music forever.  He was not a musician, or music historian and would readily admit that he knew zero about music in general.  However he understood how to identify, create and manage unique artists as good as any human being on the planet over the last 40 years.  He always stuck to his guns.  Didn’t care what other people thought and believed passionately that over time the cream always rises to the top.  Sometimes that rise took years (see the Ramones & the Talking Heads) and something it happened almost instantly (see Live).  My point is that my dad represented a lot of the good that h
as happened in music over the past 40 years.  He started out as a pioneer and morphed into an anomaly and at the end of it all I’m very proud to be his son and only wish that my two boys (Gary’s only grandchildren – Lucas 5 & Landon 13 months) got a chance to know him like I did.

Regards,

Josh Kurfirst

ps: Gary’s work history can be found here: www.garykurfirst.com
pps: two stories have broke so far http://www.nme.com/news/talking-heads/42077 and one at www.hitsdailydouble.com

Here are some quotes that have been rolling in from some of his friends, artists and colleagues:

Chris Frantz & Tina Weymouth, Talking Heads

Gary Kurfirst has been our manager since 1977. He never failed to take care of business for us. He protected us. He allowed Talking Heads to be Talking Heads while he took the blows that the music business dealt us.  Together we suffered heartbreaks and celebrated great triumphs. Gary truly was the fifth Talking Head.
We were very close friends and we will miss him terribly.


Ed Kowalczyk, Live

In my view, Gary’s greatest strength and the thing I will remember most about him was his unwavering loyalty. When he fell in love, whether it was an artist, a song, a painting or a grandchild, he did it totally and joined with what he loved completely. He literally became one with the things he loved. I used to joke with him that when I got kicked, he screamed out in pain. To say that I will miss his guidance, his wisdom and his love is an understatement to the maximum degree.

Seymour Stein, Sire

Gary was brilliant in his ability to spot changes in music ahead of most people and had the courage to act on his instincts.  Gary was tough, but not cut-throat in business.  He could fight hard, but fair and never held grudges.  Gary had great style.

Certainly one of the best and most successful relationships I ever enjoyed with a manager, working together on Talking Heads, The Ramones or Deborah Harry.

Can honestly say he will be surely missed.

Jeff Ayeroff, Creative Director Warner Bros Records

Gary was  one of the only managers I worked with who understood
the "art" in Artist Management….He cared deeply about the integrity of his artists, (Talking Heads)  what they did and how they did it.  And interestingly, his own personal art collection was as interesting as the artists he managed and he loved and understood his artists and his art…he wasn’t easy about anything…but he was smart about everything

Jerry Harrison, Talking Heads

My biggest remembrance of Gary is how much fun we had. How we used to get up early and fly through El Paso so the two of us could shop for cowboy boots at the factory stores located there. About the time he drove us up to northern Arizona to see the Red Rocks and how we drove through someone’s back yard in order to get a better view of the sunset and how I drank twice as much tequila as we passed a bottle back and forth because I was in the middle.
Our friendship really blossomed from a train ride in France. It was the first tour that Gary had come on. We had had a very late night at La Coupole and rushed to Charles DeGaule to catch the flight to London. The flight was cancelled because of snow and we were crowded on a bus to return to the train to the ferry to the train to London. As everyone dozed off on the train I realized that I had left my passport at the hotel in Paris, Gary and I began to plot what we would say when we would be questioned by customs and the conversation roamed all through our mutual histories and the hopes that we had for the Talking Heads. I delighted in telling him how I had bribed the doorman at the East Village Theatre to get into "The Who" concert he had promoted and he regaled me with stories from the days of "Mountain" and growing up in Forest Hills. I had been a stickler about paragraphs in our management contract which he had found to be insulting, but at the end of the conversation we
had grown to have mutual respect for each other’s judgment and he knew that I knew enough about "the business" to understand the value of his counsel.

Though we saw each other infrequently since I moved to San Francisco, there was always a recognition of the bond between us when ever we spoke; I shall miss him greatly and my heart goes out to Phyllis, Lindsay, and Josh and everyone else who was close to this extraordinary man.

Julian Turton, UK lawyer Mick Jones (Clash, Big Audio Dynamite)

My first impression of Gary was of a superb deal maker.  We worked together on the Thompson Twins’ deal with Warners in the late 1980s and the terms he secured were amazing.  It remains one of the best deals for an artist I have encountered in 30 years of practice.
 
When we got to know each other better through Mick Jones (of the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite), I realized how brilliantly he connected with artists.  He just exuded a cool self belief and sense of style which instilled confidence in his artists.  My lasting impression is of a decent human being who cared for his clients’ interests and always conducted himself with dignity.
 
His death marks the passing of a major player on the business side of music.  Had he been an artist, he would definitely have been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame years ago.

Gary Kurfirst: Retrospective Highlights

Over the course of four decades, Gary Kurfirst, known to insiders for his discerning taste, had been involved in record sales in excess of 100 million units worldwide. He has been pivotal in the careers and successes of major of recording artists, producers, film and video directors, agents, and major recording labels. Kurfirst’s professional achievements continue to shape pop culture and influence the global music community.

Gary Kurfirst was responsible for bringing the sixties music revolution to New York. In 1967 he opened the doors to the infamous Village Theater later known as the Fillmore East, where he promoted the East Coast debuts of more than twenty icons including, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, the Who, Janis Joplin, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page’s Yardbirds. In 1968, at twenty years old and one year before Woodstock, he created the model for the contemporary music festival by producing and promoting the legendary New York Rock Festival at the Singer Bowl in Flushing Meadow Park where Hendrix, the Doors, Joplin, and the Who appeared together, among others. He was also at the forefront of bringing acid-rock guitar bands to the music community with the band Mountain, who he managed from 1967 to 1975.

In 1971 Kurfirst signed the Brazilian artist Deodato and helped guide his album to gold status and achieve a number-one single.  In 1975 he helped Chris Blackwell introduce Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and reggae to America, delivering a new consciousness and sound to mass audiences. For the rest of the seventies and through the eighties Kurfirst rode a new wave of culture in an expanding musical landscape and signed the now-immortalized punk icons the Ramones, art-rockers Talking Heads, B52s, Annie Lennox’s Eurythmics, and also Jane’s Addiction who inspired the grunge music movement of the early nineties. His defense of creative expression earned both the Talking Heads and the Ramones induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. He holds the exclusive honor of having two management clients inducted in the same year, and he continues to manage and protect both bands’ catalogs, images, and artistic integrity.

In 1984, 1986, and 1987 Kurfirst produced three feature-length films while simultaneously managing his impressive stable of platinum-selling recording artists. Respectively, they were the Talking Heads’ critically acclaimed and award-winning concert film Stop Making Sense, directed by Jonathan Demme; the quirky satire of American life, True Stories, directed by David Byrne; and Siesta, directed by Mary Lambert and featuring an all-star cast including Jodi Foster, Ellen Barkin, Isabella Rossellini, and Martin Sheen, as well as a Miles Davis soundtrack.

In 1990 Kurfirst joined forces with MCA and launched Radioactive Records. His marketing strategies brought MCA rock credibility and their first modern music success of the era with Radioactive’s band Live. The band has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide, which include two number-one Billboard albums and dozens of number-one albums in international territories. Kurfirst also signed Shirley Manson in 1991 and then brokered her deal with Almo as the lead singer of Garbage who went on to sell more than 10 million albums.

In 2002 Kurfirst and longtime friend Chris Blackwell launched two new music ventures: a talent management company, Kurfirst-Blackwell Entertainment, and Rx Records, a uniquely structured imprint offering its artists more contractual flexibility and creative latitude than the majors.  Entering the new millennium and drawing on his vast experience, resources, and network, Gary Kurfirst continued to develop careers and influence the expanding global market, pioneering new business models and creative marketing strategies.

Does anybody want a Palm Pilot?  How about a Zip drive?

Technology moves fast.  Declaring obsolescent yesterday’s uber-desirable product.  The key is to ride the wave, get in at the right time, delivering what the public wants, and then get out.

But the music industry doesn’t seem to get this.  It believes there’s going to be a new CD.  A new MTV.  So busy waiting for the next "standard", the music business sits on the sidelines, missing out on revenue and becoming further marginalized.

Ringtones were supposed to save the business.  But they peaked long ago.  Even the iPod has morphed into the iPhone, barely half a decade after the original was introduced.  It’s no longer about the music, but the apps.  Labels are arguing about pricing and device owners aren’t even referencing music.  iPod Touch sales are booming and the old standby?  The hard-drive based mega-capacity iPod is now called the Classic.  And comes in only one model.  SMALLER than the previous iteration.

And now comes the decline of Rock Band and Guitar Hero.  Why should these last forever?  The game doesn’t change, only the songs.  You play for a while and you get over the thrill.  But the labels want to argue with the manufacturers about how much money they’re getting for tracks, as the business evaporates.

In the digital world, you license now, then you move on to the next technology.  You license Napster, knowing that in a matter of years, most people will no longer want to own.  You sell tracks at the iTunes Store in cheap bundles, knowing that no one’s going to want such a horrible-sounding file in the future, if they can even hold on to it, if it will even play on their new computer.  The song remains the same, but how you deliver it, how you consume it, that keeps changing.

Instead of worrying that some entity is going to steal the business’ thunder, make all the money, the key is to license everybody.  Knowing that the music will survive, but the companies won’t.  Sure, MTV is still broadcasting.  But now it’s not an island unto itself.  It’s just another cable channel fighting for teen viewership.  As for its assets…  Does anybody want to view its old programming?  Whereas labels own the catalogues of Led Zeppelin and Billy Joel, never mind the one hit wonders featured on the music television outlet.  The music has intrinsic value.  It will last.  Take the long term view.

As for Guitar Hero and Rock Band…  How many guitars do you need?  The new games are overpriced and they under-deliver.  Sure, some people own multiple cars, but for most, one is enough.  And cars get you somewhere, whereas the games are ends unto themselves.

And then you’ve got the curious case of the Beatles.  Who show up at the party when the janitor is just about to lock the door.  If Apple Corps is going to ride the digital wave, buy a surfboard, paddle out into the water, now.  If you think CDs will support you, you probably didn’t notice the Virgin Megastore closing in New York City.  What comes first, the death of the CD or the Beatles on iTunes?  Right now, it looks like the former.

What we’ve got here is pure, unadulterated greed.  From Activision and MTV/Harmonix.  It’s no different from Wall Street.  They feel ENTITLED to their money. There’s no pricing for consumer affordability, no contemplation that the bottom can fall out.  But it just did.

Videogame beat goes on, but muted

He’s gonna die.

That’s what I thought after reading the following article:

‘Hormone imbalance’ raises question of cancer

Apple cultists never believed Steve Jobs was ill.  They bought the rationalization for his non-appearance at Macworld.  Apple didn’t own the conference.  The timing of the show didn’t always fit the company’s product cycle.  Apple was pulling out, so why was it necessary for Steve to appear the final year?

But the financial press never bought this.  Traders were up in arms.  What’s the succession plan?  How’s this going to affect my pocketbook?

There was no succession plan for John Lennon.  When a rock star dies, that’s it.  The mercenaries at the label rush out product, in the case of Tupac, for years, but creativity stops.  They don’t find a new person to fill the role.  It’s history.

Apple is bigger than Steve Jobs.

But Steve Jobs is bigger than Kanye.  Bigger than Madonna.  Bigger than any act being purveyed by the music industry.

Steve put in his 10,000 hours.  He joined the Homebrew Computer Club when computers were for nerds, when knowing the latest tech innovations would never get you laid.  And one could say Steve was there at the right time, but in his case, he created the time, he and Steve Wozniak created the first widely adopted personal computer.

But didn’t Wozniak do the engineering? Didn’t Jobs screw his older partner?

That’s a rock star for you.  He’s complicated.  You can’t square all his behaviors.  He’s smart and he’s got an utter desire to make it.  A will to succeed.  And the great ones won’t listen to anybody else.

Steve Jobs got fired from Apple because after bending to the Board and hiring John Sculley, he realized Mr. Pepsi would ruin the company.  Sculley made a profit while driving the company straight toward a cliff.  Jobs returned to rescue his baby, but what is most interesting is Steve’s desire to get it right, his refusal to compromise.

The rock stars we revere?  That’s the way they were.  A businessman couldn’t tell them what to do.  They weren’t beholden to corporations.  Today’s musicians do what’s expedient, they’ve got no backbone, and as a result, few believe.  And those that do do so for a very brief time.

Not everyone loves Steve Jobs.  Some people hate Apple products.  But there are people who hate the Beatles and revere the Stones.  Some can’t stand Elton John.  And there are curious cases like the Carpenters, excoriated during their peak but adored after the passing of their key component.

Steve Jobs has always striven for excellence.  He doesn’t believe in market research, he believes in his gut.  He delivers what people SHOULD have, not what they think they want.  Like the Beatles with "Sgt. Pepper", he’s reached down deep inside and delivered the theoretically incomprehensible, like the iPhone. Furthermore, it worked!

If Steve Jobs dies it’s going to be a day of mourning eclipsing the rites surrounding those of the latest O.D’ed musician.  It will be like the loss of Lennon.  We will feel collectively that we’ve lost something, that can’t be replaced.

In a world of second-rate products, where people only care about the bottom line, where excellence is for pussies, I revere Steve Jobs and Apple.  He’s always got my attention.  Because he’s not resting on his laurels, but always trying to test the limits.  Not going on an overpriced greatest hits tour, but demanding you listen to his new material.

Steve Jobs lobbied against price rises at the iTunes Store.  He lobbied against DRM.  It was the labels that were the enemy here.  And how can someone who creates the iPod, which has enriched more lives than any other twenty first century product, be the oppressor?

I’m sure Steve’s got the best medical care.  Miracles happen every day.  Maybe a miracle is not even required here.  I hope this is a blip on the radar screen. That he can come back and keep pushing the envelope.  Because if he’s gone he’ll be sorely missed.  There will be a hole in the collective consciousness no one can fill.  It will be like one of those great teen songs, where the lover dies and the singer just can’t move on.

But we must.  And we will.  But it won’t be the same.

No one is passionate about Windows.  Most people can’t even remember the name of the guy that started AOL.  But everybody knows Steve Jobs.  Who made it through his work.  Not the trappings, but excellent product.  He knew when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em.  The famous "1984" Super Bowl ad only appeared once.  Take that all you stars whoring out your product.  Steve never caved in.  He created a reign of excellence at Pixar that William Goldman and the other Hollywood seers said was impossible.  The animation house is nine for nine.  Let’s hope Steve’s got the same success ratio with the medical problems he’s now facing.

This is going to change my family’s life.

That’s what a number of contestants said after winning a ticket to Hollywood last night.  Not that I’ve been woodshedding, my dream is to be backed up by Jeff Beck and Jim Keltner, to jam with John Mayer, but that if all goes well, I’m going to make a lot of money.

Somebody’s going to win.  But how much money is he or she going to make?  In an industry where the true stars are thrilled to reach a two million sales plateau and most people have no idea what the number one record is?

"American Idol" is a television show.  First and foremost.  It’s bigger than any contestant.  It’s glorified karaoke at best.  But it’s fascinating to watch because it perpetuates the myth that there’s a singular filter, a gate, which if you can pass through, solves all of your problems.

This used to be getting a record deal.  If only a label would sign you.  You’d hound A&R men to come to your showcase, even though, over time, they didn’t even have signing power.  But if you got a major label deal that meant someone believed.  It was like being in elementary school and getting a gold star on your paper.  You walked proudly and felt that the company was going to take care of you.  Now the company can’t take care of its own employees.  Wall Street is reeling.  They don’t give a shit about you.  Labels sign very few acts, want a ton of rights and most fascinatingly, break very little in a world where few are paying attention.

So you turn to "American Idol".  You’ll go straight to the people, plead your case.  And your case is usually, I’m beautiful, I can sing like Mariah Carey, this is America, I get a chance, don’t I?  I’m ENTITLED to my chance!

The English bluesmeisters, who still do sell-out business today, spoke through their instruments, because they were so shy, they could barely speak themselves. Sure, they took up playing to get laid.  How else would they connect?  You’ve got to ask someone for a date, and keep up conversation, they couldn’t do that. And it was the only way out.  The factory or top of the pops.  And if you did make it to the top, if your record did go to number one, it was just a momentary thing. Then back to your hometown, to watch some football, drink a beer in the pub, go to your day job.

But music blew up.  Not only can Paul McCartney still play music for a living, but the Stones and Peter Noone too.  It was a magical time.  The music came to represent the time.  Records told you which way the wind blew.  Bob Dylan would be laughed out of an AI audition, but he set the course for so many in the sixties and beyond.  You had to say something.

It’s hard to say something if you don’t write the material.  You’re just grist for the mill.

That’s what everybody is fighting for on "American Idol", to be grist for the mill.  Please, use me, abuse me, make me into whatever you want.  This is the opposite of classic rock, the sound that is still filling arenas.  Classic rock was about doing it your own way, giving the man the middle finger.  But now Simon Cowell gives the middle finger to you.  Now the businessman is the star.  And you’ve got to hand it to Simon, at least he’s honest.  More honest than anybody appearing in front of him.

The rest of the judges?  Thrilled they’re along for the ride.

Randy Jackson can stay off the road and pitch lame reality shows to MTV.

Paula Abdul can forestall a life of boredom in the San Fernando Valley.

Kara DioGuardi can finally be famous.  After failing as a performer and writing utterly forgettable songs.

We used to have Doc Pomus.  Leiber & Stoller.  Now we’ve got Kara DioGuardi?  Can you envision a "Smokey Joe’s Cafe" of Kara’s tunes opening on Broadway ten or twenty years from now?

Hope you didn’t ruin your computer screen by spitting up your morning coffee.

You see Kara DioGuardi is part of the myth.  That statistics make you famous, make you not only worthwhile, but legendary.  She’s got tunes on forty five Top Ten albums!  And those are..?  Maybe at best, chest-beater Celine Dion’s?

But Kara’s a good judge.  She’s not quite the new Simon, but she adds some life to this TV show.  Where they manipulate the people and the interactions to generate audience reaction.  Yes, AI is not reality, not even a facsimile, but an entertainment.  Fake, just like America specializes in.  Rather than show the nitty-gritty, we’ll pull your heartstrings, will make you laugh, you had a good time, right?

But it’s like eating a Twinkie.  You think you want one, but it’s never as satisfying as your desire.  You desire something more real.  But there are playlists to fill, tours to sell, we’ve got a whole industry that refuses to put on the brakes and ask if we’re going in the right direction.  We’re Detroit, with just a lot fewer zeroes.

And the plethora of people who line up to play our game, to be contestants on "American Idol", delivers the hope that people still care.  But they don’t, because winners on the show become fourth rate celebrities that most people just don’t give a shit about.  Kelly Clarkson made it when MTV was still a viable hitmaking machine, she could be sold far and wide (and she was the beneficiary of a great Max Martin/Dr. Luke track.)  Carrie Underwood is living in the old fading sausage factory known as country music.  Where titans with tight fists believe terrestrial radio and CDs will rule forever, however deluded they might be.  But the newly-minted idols, they’re entering a world where train-wrecks are posted all over the Web, almost instantly, and are then forgotten.

If you want to last, you’ve got to build slowly.  You’ve got to be selling something beyond your desire to be rich and famous.  You’ve got to get fans yourself.  And, you’ve got to be satisfied when you can give up your day job, because today, even if you’re on the cover of "People", you may still have to work 9-5.  Being famous is easy.  Making people care is much harder.

So "American Idol" is a perpetuation of the nineties.  It’s as if TRL didn’t go off the air.  As if boy bands still ruled the earth.  As if albums still had diamond sales. Contestants want some of that nineties fame.  But it’s the twenty first century.  And to the degree that old paradigm works, it’s marginal, it’s a very small mainstream.  But there is no new mainstream.  So people hold on to the old.  But true seers, performers who want to survive, are trying to figure out the new world, trying to become the new classic rock acts, famous for their material and their chops, however difficult that may be.  They’re like the Claptons of yore. They’re driven to do this.  They just want to survive.  They’ll be stunned if they ever become rich and famous.

Because if you put being rich and famous first, you’ve got nothing that makes you attractive, that makes you desirable.  And we need more.  A pretty face is not enough.