Wants to believe.

I just finished reading the Eagles story in "Rolling Stone". Halfway through I wondered why. I decided it was because it was written by Charles M. Young, one of the legendary second wave "Rolling Stone" writers, and because I cared, I had an investment. I’d bought the debut on a whim, knowing it contained "Take It Easy", but discovering it contained not only "Witchy Woman", but "Earlybird" and "Tryin’". I bought the follow-up because that’s what you did. Buying the debut was like purchasing stock, owning a piece of the band, you were devoted, you didn’t need to hear a new single to be convinced, you purchased the follow-up without hearing it first. "Desperado" was just another cut, on a failed album, financially. But I purchased the third record, which had "My Man" but wasn’t quite as good, and then the band broke through and started to be hated for its wimpy ballads. That’s what success breeds, hatred. But I soldiered on. I bought "One Of These Nights", and on the day it came out, "Hotel California". When I dropped the needle and sound started pouring out of the brand new stereo I purchased as a reward for attending law school, I was stunned. The track was not on the radio, hipsters were not debating the band… Everywhere I went I told people about this one track… That they had to hear the new Eagles album.

I guess that’s what had me reading the "Rolling Stone" article. My sense of belonging.

We all want to belong. Be a member of the club. Participate. That’s what bringing everybody to MySpace and Facebook, never mind dating sites. We feel the connection will cause our lives to make sense. Rock and roll made my life make sense.

I feel the gulf between today’s musical artists and the audience. Today’s stars feel entitled, they believe they’re from a different class, they create perfect electronic compositions that slide right off us. They’re hyped by the mainstream media, you can hire a quarterback versed in the game on a project by project basis if you don’t have or don’t want a major label deal, but we just can’t relate. It’s all gloss and no substance. All Saran Wrap with no story.

And we want the story. In the lyrics. In the mental movies the music generates. And the history of the music makers underneath.

It’s not about the gotcha moment, topless and drunk at the beach, but the events that caused them to write these songs, their and ultimately our personal truth. How did they get from here to there? What can we learn from the journey? Sure, there’s fame involved, but also reverence.

To be revered you have to get in bed with your audience. You cannot keep people at arm’s length. You don’t belong to your record company, to radio, but your fans. This doesn’t mean you have to be without edge, just that you know without this relationship you’ve got nothing. Truly. Listen to the country stars. Not only do they thank their fans from the stage, they tend to be available, whether it be at Fan Fair or another event. The audience thinks they own them. And rewards them with longevity. I don’t think I own Mariah Carey. Or Madge. Or Fitty. I think the dollar owns them. And the klieg light. They’re beholden to the money and the fame. And they feel entitled to continued success. But it doesn’t work that way, we determine whether you get to continue to play. Live Nation may say Madonna’s tour is an almost instant sellout, but they don’t tell you they had two additional dates on hold in Boston, that will never go on sale.

This music is not evanescent. It’s part of our collection. We carry it in various formats, everything from vinyl to cassette to MP3… Not that we truly need a copy, because it’s embedded in our brain, our DNA, it’s part of us.

That’s what the classic acts had over today’s…belief. Sure, it was a different era, they were making it up as they went along. But maybe that’s why we stayed with them, we felt part of it. We weren’t being sued by the RIAA, we weren’t being ripped off by TicketMaster, we weren’t being raped by the bands themselves with exorbitant merch fees. We don’t want to steal from you, we want to own you. Every little bit of you. We need you. To keep going.

Forget Michael Buffer and the ridiculous boxing analogy, the screaming meemies and the endless Coke ads (with Simon even drinking from a logo-emblazoned red cup!), what struck me about the "American Idol" final duel was these two cats didn’t write the songs.

David Cook did an almost credible version of "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For", but it had none of the urgency of U2’s original on "The Joshua Tree". "Where The Streets Have No Name" opens the album like the sun emerging over the horizon, but in the now broad daylight "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For" follows it with a loping gait that pulls you up on the pony and takes you for a glorious ride. Do we credit Edge or Eno for the guitar sound, I’m not sure…but one thing’s for sure, Bono’s got a voice nowhere close to either of the Davids’ in purity. But you have no doubt that he wrote the lyrics, that he believes every word, it’s like your best friend showing up at your front door and pouring his heart out.

This is why music exploded, why the revolution occurred. It was the Beatle originals that enraptured us. We wanted to know what the artists had to say! They seemed unfettered, following their own muse. If there was a svengali behind the scenes orchestrating their efforts, he certainly wasn’t perceptible. Our rock heroes were renegade gods, like Radiohead.

How come everything the music industry says you must do, Radiohead does not, and they’re the biggest, most credible band in the land?

You’ve got to get a sponsor, touring’s too expensive. You’ve got to whore out your music to TV shows and commercials, they’re the new radio, they’re the only way to reach the target audience. You hear this blather from towers in Century City, but this band from the U.K. doesn’t do it this way. Radiohead is not trying to reach every last fan, the band is only interested in the core, and only if it plays on their terms. Radiohead does not pander. One Radiohead album is not a blueprint for the next one… This is not Mariah Carey reproducing the formula, this is artists exploring, and you want to go along for the ride! And live, you probably can’t… Because the band underplays and you can’t get a ticket. Does it sound like the seventies to you? Does to me… So why does everybody say to do it the other way? Isn’t it about artistry, not selling out, playing on your own terms, isn’t that what being a rock star is all about?

Not singing a thirty year old composition by two guys who knew each other but composed their songs in different rooms.

David Archuleta sang Elton John’s "Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me". A great tune, but not Elton’s absolute best. You could hook David Archuleta up with Diane Warren until the end of time and they’ve never come up with "Your Song". For all his blathering, Clive Davis has never come up with one track as good as "Your Song". And "Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me" was on the eighth hit album after Elton’s American debut, and it wasn’t even the best track on "Caribou". That was "The Bitch Is Back". Those Elton albums still sell, and "Idol" winners from just a couple years back have been forgotten.

Maybe we have to blame MTV. Then Mariah, the rappers and "Idol". People watch this crap and they imitate it. But now, with the Internet, music’s past has come alive. The biggest bands today? Not the Top Forty wonders, but Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and AC/DC. The little kids don’t only understand, they know!

To see a marginalized Clive Davis on this blowhard extravaganza is to make anyone who remembers the heyday puke. He recently said to concentrate on your vocals, that he will supply the songs. I’ll buy that when he writes a hit single himself, which hasn’t happened yet. An executive can get song doctors to construct something salable, but he can’t tap into the zeitgeist and create something wholly new, that stops someone in his tracks and makes him a believer.

That’s what U2 did with its very first cut, "I Will Follow", from "Boy". It’s not about the song so much as the immediacy! There’s more to great music than a pretty voice. We learned this long ago.

Looks to me like David Archuleta is going to win. Not only did Simon Cowell say he was the best last night, he was right. But what happened was a made for television event, all about drama, with those in attendance playing the role of audience. At a real rock show, you’ve got to earn your applause. It’s not sustained by flashing lights and the exhortations of fluffers during commercial breaks. Even if there’s raw anticipation, the show goes on, you’ve got to deliver for ninety minutes.

That’s tough. You need enough material and you must be able to play live.

Don’t mistake "American Idol" for the music business. It’s television, it’s drama. The real music business begins in bedrooms. Managers are met in clubs. Careers are built gig by gig, not by instantaneous television recognition, but fan by fan, experience by experience. The sun has gone down on the vapid, rancid music industry of the nineties and early twenty first century. We still might not have found what we’re looking for, but it’s in the future, not the past.

Will probably never happen.

Chances are, even if you’re supporting yourself playing music and have a hard core fan base, most people in your neighborhood will have no idea who you are.

Used to be there were markers. Getting signed. Hearing your song on the radio. Going to #1 on SoundScan. All those things can still happen, it’s just their significance is ever-smaller. You can achieve ALL of the above things and still be a one hit wonder. Odds are the band playing live every night of the week will have a longer career than you do. In other words, as the Firesign Theatre once said, everything you know is wrong.

If you’re waiting for acknowledgement, acceptance by the powers-that-be… I hate to tell you, but the powers-that-be no longer exist. Last week the "New York Times" let Jeff Leeds go. Not because he was doing a bad job, but because they needed to reduce their headcount. What, there’s no longer going to be any music industry news? No, it’s just that the paper of record can no longer afford to cover it, the paper of record is trying to avoid a hostile takeover, going out of business itself.

The radio station? You have to ask yourself, do YOU listen to the radio? Do your FRIENDS listen to the radio? Chances are, the answer is no. So, if your demo is not listening, what difference does it make if you’re getting airplay there. If you are garnering fans, chances are they’re not the ones you want. And Top Forty fans, the only format that truly means anything anymore, are notoriously fickle. A number one radio record is akin to being the star magician at the old folks home. A minor figure in a dying world that most people want no part of.

The label? Everybody hates the major labels. They’re the ones suing their customers, right? The ones who tell you what to record and when. Your mother might be impressed that you’ve got a lawyer and a record company, but the public still has no idea who you are, and chances are, never will.

And without the mainstream media attention, the record company push, that breakthrough gig…that can’t happen anymore either.

In other words, if you’re playing with the old scorecard, you must be mightily confused, because that’s for the old game.

The new scorecard is all about fans. How can you make more fans, and make them stick! Collecting friends on MySpace is quantifiable, but MySpace is about getting laid and there’s almost no loyalty involved. If MySpace friends made music careers, you’d be spinning Tila Tequila’s record right now. You might have a desire to have sex with her, but you don’t want to listen to her music. She’s got no talent.

Who has talent?

You’ve got to believe you have talent. Doesn’t matter if the label thinks so, chances are they won’t sign you and if they do, they can’t break you. If you’re looking for some powerful person to wave his hand and say you’re great, you’re delusional. If you believe in yourself enough to put you and your music out there, you’ll continue to be able to play it if people want to hear it. It’s just that simple. Doesn’t matter whether it’s good or bad, but whether you’ve got an audience. If you get an instant audience, great, you’ll probably have a career. If not, chances are you suck, or if you don’t suck, you’re not making music most people want to hear. Don’t cry in your beer, either give up, change your act or accept your fate, as a marginal artist.

The big breaks today?

1. Being able to give up your day job. Used to be, you got signed, you thought you’d made it, you were just a year or so from going back to McDonald’s, behind the counter. Today, since you’ve invested in yourself, built everything yourself, if you can shitcan your day job and make it playing music, kick back and have a drink, congratulate yourself, you’ve truly made it. Carly Smithson had a record deal and national TV exposure and she’s still pulling drinks in a bar in San Diego, or will be again soon. That’s the first hurdle, earning your freedom from the everyday grind.

2. Which may come before 1, getting an agent. It’s hard to book yourself. The road is where you make money. If someone’s interested in booking you, they think they can make money on you, they want their 10%. This is a good sign. This is more important than getting a record deal.

3. Owning something besides an amp and your instrument. Maybe it’s a car, maybe it’s real property. But once your musical enterprise is generating enough extra cash that you can acquire extraneous items, you’ve truly made it.

4. And this can happen anywhere in the food chain, really. An act YOU respect says it likes YOUR music.

5. You play larger and larger venues and your merch numbers grow.

And that’s about it. There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, if there’s even a rainbow. It’s just you, playing music, for people who love it. There’s no awards show, no instant cash, no front page story, nothing that you can show to your relatives that will make them finally realize you’ve made it.

It’s now about being a musician, not a star. Savor the little victories, because that’s all you’re going to get, that’s all that’s out there. The night you were in the zone playing for 3,500 adoring fans. It’s not about the coverage in "Rolling Stone", they’re putting bimbos on the cover. It’s about what you feel inside, the self-satisfaction. You’re not only a player, you now own the game. It’s a big responsibility, are you up to it?

It’s not about whether YOU like the music, but whether SOMEONE DOES!

If I get one more holier than thou e-mail from some muso telling me that Wil Deynes sounds like everybody else, is not cutting edge…I’m gonna explode. THAT’S JUST THE POINT! He makes the kind of music that major labels sign, that radio plays… Maybe that’s why your projects are unsuccessful… You’re telling me how fucking different your act is, that it’s superior, but somehow you want mainstream recognition.

Meanwhile, got e-mail from my friend Don Elford about this act Down Under, who seems to be doing the Marillion/Jill Sobule/Sellaband thing, but just a bit different…

Hi Bob,

Don Elford in Oz here. I hope you are well and each day brings you more joy then you expected.

I have followed this guy for a bit but it looks like he is choosing his own destiny

This from management:

No one can argue that music has always been a place of creativity and positive energy. Sure sometimes business tries to by-pass these essential elements but the essence of what creates the music will always stand aside from those that are only interested in monetising it.

In recent times we have seen established artists giving away their music for free, new artists vieing for profile with myspace and other
community web sites, simply trying to get noticed. There is nothing wrong with any of these strategies except that at some point one has to put "food in mouth" hopefully from the product of their music.
Established artists will look for their money from touring and merchandise and the developing artist will probably continue to write and perform while working a day job until they get a breakthrough.

An Australian artist Clint Crighton and guitarist/producer Dale Allison believe there is a different way.

Clint has been writing and playing since he was 14 and has in fact never held down any other job except for playing and recording music. Call him a gypsy, call him a dreamer but at the same time you must add the tag successful. He has never opted out of the music industry he chooses to be part of. Clint has toured throughout the USA and China and performed countless dates in Australia, mostly throughout NSW, radiating from his home town of Tumut.

This experience over the years has had the 23 year old courted by management and record companies however their procrastinating has got to him. Clint has decided to take his destiny to those that really count, those that believe in the music the most…the Audience… the Fan.

Crighton and Allison are creating the ultimate artist/fan relationship. They are asking people to give Clint the opportunity to make his own record and this is how it works.

Limited to 1000 individuals who want to be involved, Talking Moon
Music (Crighton and Allison’s new label) are asking them to purchase a membership for AU$100. This is the deal.

1. Members will have the 1/1000 chance to be randomly selected for an all expenses paid 10 day journey to LA to witness part of the recording process as well as see the sites of LA including Hollywood,
Santa Monica Beach, Sunset Strip and Universal Studio’s.

2. Members will be a part of the creation of an independent record which will be marketed to the world (names will be printed ON the CD artwork).

3. Members will receive lifetime entry into all solo/headline
performances by Clint Crighton.

4. Members will receive a signed CD prior to its official release.

5. Once 100 000 copies of this album are sold worldwide, members will get their money back.

Launched last week to his own database Clint Crighton is already
proving that the innovative idea is paying off. One individual from
Prague has purchased memberships for all 5 member of the family.

Call it a loan, call it a blind leap of faith but maybe you should be calling it the future of the music industry. Regardless of what tag you want to pin to their strategy most will agree it is the most organic approach to the music industry to date and possibly the one with the most potential.

What is on offer can be viewed at the label website – Talking Moon Music www.talkingmoonmusic.com

Clint Crighton is not signed to any recording company but has a
management deal in the US with Fitzgerald Hartley Co.

For further information please contact
Anita Heilig – Fitzgerald Hartley Company +1 (805) 641 6441
Dale Allison – Talking Moon Music +61 (0) 409 313 837 or
talkingmoonmusic@gmail.com

Let me know if this approach is entirely new as far as you know

Cheers from down here

~ Don ~

What struck me here was the INCENTIVES! The trip to L.A., getting into the gigs…that seemed worth $100 to me. Kind of a charity lottery with a guaranteed return. Not sure these are practical, I can see them redefining "solo/headline performances"…and I see no reason to waste money on the L.A. trip, and what tourist level will that be…steerage? But this is unlike so many other give me money to make a record schemes… You get something in return. These people are thinking.

Meanwhile, since Don is a friend, I fired up the music. And it’s GOOD!

Don’t tell me it’s second-rate Coldplay. THAT’S NOT THE POINT! The music is for this guy’s FANS! And, unlike your piece of shit out there stuff, it’s ear-pleasing. To many. Sure, you might like prog-punk, some new kind of music mashup, but MOST PEOPLE DON’T! Nothing wrong with that, but can we inject a little REALITY?!

If you want mainstream rewards, you’ve got to make mainstream music. I know you hate that, but that’s true.

But, the good thing is both the second-rate wannabe imitators and you and your out there stuff can coexist in this new age and garner listeners and fans. Stop bitching that someone’s taking your spot AND ESTABLISH YOUR OWN!

Talking Moon Music