I agreed to do this story in the "Washington Post".

I turned down the "L.A. Weekly".  I just about said yes, then I read one of the guy’s articles while feasting on a tostada in Burbank and lost my appetite.  It was snarky!

When you submit yourself to others, you’re at their mercy.  And they’re never one hundred percent positive.  They can’t be, it seems to be the journalistic code.  They’ll comment on your appearance, even if they don’t twist your words, you’ll read and wince.  It’s their ego on the line too.  A rock star might be worth millions, but he’s an equal when speaking to a reporter.  Maybe less.

But this guy said he didn’t want to do an expose.  That he was genuinely interested in getting my story out there.  But did it make any difference?  Did my audience read the "Washington Post"?  Used to be that that was the only way to get the story out there, by playing with the major league gatekeepers.  I figured I’d get a ton of hits on my site, a hundred or two subscribers, most of whom would desert me once they got a taste of my act.  Then again, it was the "Washington Post".  I’d be lying if I said my ego wasn’t stroked a bit.  So, after about four months of back and forth, I said yes.

Then came the logistics.

The "Washington Post" commissioned an army.  There was the photo editor who had freelancers on the west coast…  When could we do it?

Well, I’m not going to let them come to my house.  I don’t want people seeing my true life.  But outside, the light fades.  And I’ve been traveling, and hunting up some real money.  But this photographer…he called me on my cell.  And I almost always pick up my cell.  Because I give almost nobody the number.  I agreed to come to his apartment, this afternoon, after my shrink appointment, at 3.

Where my doctor ended up raising my rate.  Oh, I agreed to pay.  I live frugally.  I’ve saved just about every dollar I’ve earned.  But I had a bad year, I lost almost ninety percent of my income.  Through no fault of my own.  They laid off just about everybody I worked with at Rhino, and they sold my hours at KLSX to a psychic, for a glorified infomercial.  But the increase threw me off guard a bit.  Whenever I’ve flown on hopes and dreams, I’ve fallen flat on my face.

I ended up finding a parking space not far from the photographer’s abode.

I was less worried about how I was going to look than what the reporter was going to write, so I let him drive the shoot.  But while we were setting up, I engaged him in conversation.  I love to hear people’s stories.

He’s a news photographer.  That’s his beat.  He doesn’t fantasize about art, he loves the adrenaline of this fast-moving world.  He shot McCain last night, and then the Democratic debate.  He’s slammed through Tuesday, the election.

And a bereted gentleman emerged from the apartment next door.  A sporadically working music video director.  He helped hold the giant reflector, to generate light in the late afternoon.

And we’re talking about the program, about life, about getting ahead.  I’m living in an alternative universe.  Not the one of business, but art.  These guys weren’t solely in it for the money.  They weren’t at 9 to 5 jobs.  I realized…I was a lot closer to them than the people minting dollars.  The photographer told me he loved what he did, and that got him through.

And after the video director asked the photographer if he could help him with his connections, I got back in my car and while driving up Pacific Avenue I heard "More Than This".

It was fun for a while…

"Please Read The Letter"

I thought this was a live Mike Doughty track.  It had an intimacy studio work normally does not possess.  But I was looking at the XM readout instead of the Sirius window as I drove west into the sun.  Turns out this is from "Raising Sand", the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss album.

"Gone Gone Gone" turned me off.  It was a ditty.  But this was more exciting than a Zeppelin reunion.  And when Robert started doing his vocal histrionics at the end, I said THIS IS ZEPPELIN!

Turns out it truly is.  It was originally on the "Walking Into Clarksdale" album that Robert & Jimmy did ten years ago.  But that take, which I didn’t even remember, didn’t do much for me when I downloaded it.  Sure, the same song, but it was about Jimmy’s guitar more than Robert’s vocal.  There was thunder, but no rain.

Is T-Bone Burnett a better producer than Jimmy Page?  I haven’t been enamored of T-Bone’s solo work since "Truth Decay", but he elicits a certain humanity from others in their performances.  He brings out what we can connect with as human beings.

You’re not going to drive around with your buddies in your Pinto getting drunk to the Plant/Krauss rendition…  But, if you’ve ever reflected on life, needed a track to get you through, this is the one you want to listen to.

Please Read The Letter

"Say"

I don’t hate John Mayer, but I wouldn’t listen to one of his albums.  But this isn’t saccharine like the execrable "Daughters".
 And I don’t see him wincing as he’s performing guitar histrionics.

I like the way it breaks down, with the acoustic instruments.  I like the intimacy.  If I didn’t know the guy’s history, I’d say this guy’s got something.  Maybe this is what got all those guys at CIMS hooked to begin with.
An enigma.  A twenty first century artist.  Overexposed, all over the Web, yet still talented.

Say – John Mayer

"Now That You’re Gone"

Unlike the other tracks, which I heard on XM’s Loft or Sirius’ Spectrum, a friend e-mailed me this.

Sheryl Crow’s "Globe Sessions" was great.  But after that, she lost her way.  Either too obvious, or too obscure.  But although the verses are pedestrian, the transitions and the choruses hook you, make you want to hear the track again.  And there’s that great line:

Now that you’re gone I can BREATHE!

Shit, I had that relationship, haven’t you?

I wish she weren’t overselling this in the media.

And, listening today, I realize this is a Bonnie Raitt track.  Bonnie would KILL IT!  But, Bonnie’s vocals have been a bit too controlled recently…

"Seagull"

I wasn’t even sure how to spell the guy’s name!

This is Joe Bonamassa singing the phenomenal final song from Bad Company’s debut.

Covers are a cheap shot.  Look at Sheryl’s cover of "The First Cut Is The Deepest".  But most people don’t even know this Bad Company track.  So for a youngster to pick it out, to hear it on the radio, put a smile on my face.

Seagull

"Everybody Knows"

This is the best track of this collection.  And it’s by the artist everybody hates most.  Ryan Adams.

Funny about music, you know instantly, whether something is good, certainly if it’s great.  "Easy Tiger" does not live up to the hype (and Ryan worked this album as much as Sheryl did hers).  It’s not "Gold", certainly not "Heartbreaker", but this KILLS!

Each and every Ryan Adams record has at least one gem.  And you should search for it.

I could quote the lyrics, but with truly great tracks, they’re irrelevant, an afterthought, a dollop of whipped cream on top of the sundae.  A great track grabs you, takes you somewhere immediately, a place you know well, but may not have thought of in a long while.  Listening to this reminds me of floating down a river in a rubber raft in the Sierras years back, checking out the scenery.

The laconic intro, the lazy groove, the sudden intensity in the vocal…

A manager would restrict Ryan to one album a year.  They’d tell him never to speak to the press, not even to the audience.  They’d try to control him.  But as soon as you control someone, you squeeze the art right out of them.  With the Internet, we’re exposed to every foible.  And Ryan Adams has had many.  Because he’s too cute and too talented, he’s been able to get away with too much.  And it’s not a pretty picture.  But this is a pretty song.

Everybody Knows

I just got a call from a paper in Glasgow, wanting to interview me about the future of the music industry.  The writer proffered the term "access".  The new buzzword spoken by Paul McGuinness.  Isn’t that what people wanted?

NO!!

I find it hard to believe, nine years into this online music revolution, that industryites are still trying to put the consumer in a box.  The way you make money isn’t telling the consumer what he SHOULD want, but giving him what he DOES want!

At some point in the future will music be a service, with delivery on demand, with most people owning nothing?  YUP!  But the question is, WHEN IS THAT FUTURE?

It’s not tomorrow.  I’d say it’s at least five to ten years off.  So can Rick Rubin and the other poobahs stop prognosticating and come back to Earth?

Have you been following the squabble with the iTunes movie rental service?  People are complaining, because they’re frustrated they can’t watch movies on THEIR iPods.  If they read the fine print, they’ll find out you’ve got to have a Classic or a new Nano (or an iPhone or iPod Touch).  What’s the percentage of the iPod population that fits this requirement?  DE MINIMIS!  You had to have purchased your iPod essentially in the last year.  So, if you were even a LATE early adopter, you’re shit out of luck, unless you buy a new device.  So, even if Steve Jobs announces a wireless rental service, as Paul McGuinness believes, it CAN’T be instantly successful, because most people don’t have the hardware, and aren’t about to pop for it.  Look at it this way, how many years has HD TV been available?  Does everybody have it?  Has everybody gone out and purchased a new set?  And, you can get the HD signal FOR FREE, over the airwaves (you can choose to pay for dish or cable, but that’s your prerogative).  Everybody’s going to rush out and buy a new iPod and start spending ten bucks a month?  Not gonna happen.  Steve’s got to proffer the new option, and then it will take years for it to gain traction.  As for the other players, have you used the Rhapsody-compliant Sansa?  The greatest advertisement for the iPod ever!  And Rhapsody’s software is not extremely intuitive.  And you wonder why subscription hasn’t taken off.

Let’s not call it subscription, let’s call it rental.

Do you think all the boomers, still buying CDs, are about to rent music?

And, don’t forget that the movie studios prospered when Warren Lieberfarb turned the DVD market into one of sale, as opposed to the VHS rental model.  Turns out the public wanted to buy and the studios made more money.

We live in an ownership society.  Forever?  I don’t think so.  But for now.

As for future models, I believe bundling access/ownership with ISP fee is a good idea.  But I don’t believe McGuinness is going to get his way by demonizing the ISP, by telling them they’re liable.  Sure, this jawboning might work, but history is not on his side.  It’s about the BUSINESS PROPOSITION!  It’s about the industry coming together and THEN going to the ISP and saying…for an extra fee of $1-$10 a month, people can download whatever they want P2P LEGALLY!  You don’t get a date by insulting a girl’s looks and telling her she’s a whore, you sidle up to her, YOU’RE NICE!

And do you think you’re going to get what you want by calling technologists west coast hippys?  This insult technique may work in horse-trading at the radio station, even backstage, but the revenues of these tech companies dwarf those of the music industry.  The key is to come to the table as an educated businessman, not as a bully!

Let’s stop pointing fingers.  Let’s stop saying who’s liable.  Let’s stop talking about thievery.  Let’s make both distributors and customers AN OFFER!

Not once has a P2P thief had the option to pay.  NOT ONCE!  The labels won’t authorize such a deal, allowing people to pay for what they desire.  Because Mr. McGuinness and the labels don’t want them to acquire the music that way, with that business model.  Music must cost a dollar a track, there’s history here, publishing fees…  FUCK HISTORY!  The customer doesn’t care about history.  The customer does care about music though, and liability.  I’d pay ten bucks a month to avoid the long arm of the law, for a trading license.  So many others would too…  If only they were given the chance!

We want to own our music.  When I hear a good song on satellite radio, my turn-on medium of choice, I don’t fire up Rhapsody to listen, I go to P2P to steal, to own.  Sometimes the track sounds as good at home, sometimes it doesn’t.  Don’t tell me to pay a buck for it, because then I can’t experience enough.  The new model is the availability of EVERYTHING!

Oh, that’s right.  You don’t approve of that model.  You want us to stay in 1977…  Well, do you think Led Zeppelin would be able to sell out every gig when they finally hit the road if it weren’t for file-trading?  I’m not saying these transactions should be free, but that there are benefits to the free flow of information.

But Mr. McGuinness and his cohorts want to deny all this.  They either want to look to the past, or the distant future.  When it’s necessary to play in the present.  The Yankees don’t wait for ten years for their 12 year old phenom prospect to grow up, they sign the best available talent NOW!

Authorize what the public is doing now.

Criminalizing, demonizing ANYBODY is not the path to the future.

And it doesn’t work anyway.  Can the ISP stop me from IM’ing a track?  Can it stop me from trading USB sticks?  STOP WITH THE STOP!  Say YES instead of NO!  It’s a lot less complicated if you just set your mind free, let go of the old precepts and accept REALITY!

The reality is many more people are going to own much more music, and this is GOOD FOR THE BUSINESS!  They’ll pay less for each track, which for the foreseeable future, the next half decade at least, they’ll want to own.  MONETIZE THIS BEHAVIOR!

McGuinness’ speech in case you haven’t read it: Online Bonanza?

I couldn’t remember the name of the watch repairman.

All my brain could say was "Walter Odemer".  Who was Walter Odemer?  Then I remembered, back in ’74, when I moved to L.A., Walter Odemer controlled Blaupunkts.  So if you went to the BMW dealer and you had a problem with your radio, you didn’t deal with Hoffman Motors, the automobile’s then distributor, but Walter Odemer.  Walter Odemer couldn’t still exist, could it?  Certainly not the man himself…  All those Germans who controlled the world of BMW and Mercedes certainly had to be dead by now…

Hell, even most car stereo places have gone out of business, now that cars come with much better radios.

What was the name of the guy who repaired my watch, that Rolex sent me to?

That was back in ’77, just after I’d gotten the watch, when I was still in law school.  Hell, that’s thirty years ago!

I drove by his last location on Bundy.  Walter GOODEN!  I guess I was on the right track.

I came home and I Googled him.  They had his whole story.  How Rolex had put him in business.  Back in ’76.  Turns out he was born in Panama in 1930 and started fixing watches when he was thirteen.  Hell, that’s a lot of experience!  Now he must be…seventy seven?

I’d just seen him.  When my watch stated to lose time.  I’d stopped by his emporium.  He didn’t look that old.  Then again, he’d shaved all the white hair evident on my previous visit.  Still, his insides were aged.  Was this an advantage or disadvantage?  Was he so worldly that he’d be schooled in the nuances of my thirty year old watch or…did I need someone younger?

I went to the dentist today.  And the woman who cleaned my teeth was a newly-minted dentist herself.  She used this special water tool, that emitted a high-pitched whine.  Turns out it removes discoloration.  I don’t ever remember having that treatment before.

And then the dentist himself showed up.  He told me one of the guys who died in the avalanche in Wrightwood was his patient.  He’d been watching TV and had been shocked to see his picture.  I asked Dr. Wood how old his patient was.  And I was informed that the deceased was his contemporary.  But exactly how old was Dr. Wood?  Certainly older than me, no matter how buff he appeared.  And if he’s older than me, with a daughter who’s a dentist herself, he must be over…sixty?

I read in a ski magazine earlier today that times had changed, that it wasn’t like back in 1985.  1985 is relatively recent in my book.  Certainly before shaped skis, but long after the Rossignol surge of the late sixties, when Stratos took over the slopes.

And then on the back page, Warren Miller was instructing us not to try and compete, to impress our aged buddies, that he believed we had only so many bumps in our knees.

My knee!  I’d escaped the slopes unscathed, but after our flight out of Eagle was canceled Monday night I’d slipped on the ice…  I stayed on the ground for a good thirty seconds, I was convinced I’d fucked something up.  I think I dodged a bullet, but I’ve got some soreness.  How long is that gonna last?  I would have brushed it off if I was still a teenager, even a twentysomething.  But at my age, you don’t heal that fast.

At my age?  How old am I?

When my father was my age, he had two kids in graduate school and another in a private college.  He was an adult.  I don’t feel like an adult.  Is the glass half empty?  Shit, is the sand in the hourglass running out?

Those kids in the van on the way to Denver…smoking as soon as we pulled up at the airport…  Don’t they know that kills?  And what about mercury in fish and red meat…  Do I live large and not worry about losing a couple of years of my life…  Or do I fight, struggle for every minute?

Soon, I’ll be gone.  Just a memory in the minds of the people who knew me.  The world will still be here, but inhabited by all new people, who’ll have no idea I ever existed.  They’ll think we always had the Internet and hybrid cars.  They won’t be dazzled by e-mail, certainly not by mobile telephones.

So do I stay with Walter Gooden or trade him in for a younger man?  It’s a big investment, approximately $350 to fix a Rolex.  I’m not interested in throwing anyone a bone.  I want success.  I don’t want the thing to go haywire like when I was swinging my arms at that Guns N’ Roses concert.

Guns N’ Roses?  What was that, 1991?  When Eddie Rosenblatt still ran Geffen Records?  Has it been over twenty years since "Appetite For Destruction"?

Yup, Axl’s had plastic surgery and Slash has written a book and there’s been no new music.  And, if there was, would anybody care?  Who would play it?  Are they just an oldies act now?

Stick around long enough and cool goes out the window, we end up alike, we’re all in this together.  And then we’re gone.