Dear Bob,

I always enjoy your observations on the state of the music business and I felt compelled to write you about the Kennedy Center Honors piece. I was elated to hear your beautiful words about Brian and what his body of work has meant to the world as well as each and everyone of us on a personal level, and that’s really what it comes down to–the magnitude of how young and old have been touched by his music through the years collectively. No matter what a person might be going through in life, how can you hear "Don’t Worry Baby" and not feel an ocean of divine love and warmth surrounding you, healing you, and making everything all right.

It’s been my profound honor and pleasure to have recorded and toured the world with Brian for the last nine years and see first hand on a nightly basis what this man and his music means to people from all walks of life. It was an honor to have been included in a clip shown on the Kennedy Honors telecast (blonde female singer) and even a bigger honor to have Brian grace my solo record on a few songs (along with Styx’s Tommy Shaw).

I must correct you on one thing though. Brian has not checked out from us. He lives above us. I feel he is very much there with us but exists on a different plane of consciousness. I have witnessed him first hand feverishly dishing out parts to us, his band mates, on material new and old and it is a joy to behold and be a part of. He is perhaps the gentlest and sweetest soul I’ve encountered and I thought you knowing this would add to the joy and elation you’re feeling about Brian at present.

If you have not seen the "Smile" double DVD (documentary/live performance) I urge you to do so. This will only add to your reverence that you obviously and lovingly have for this special man.

Thanks for reading this–and thanks for the beautiful piece that you wrote!

Sincerely,

Taylor Mills
TaylorMillsMusic.com

__________________________________

Hey Bob the singer of Bend Me Shape Me was Gary Loizzo and he is the front of house engineer and does all the studio reacordings for Tommy Shaw and James Young and the Styx band who were part of one of the biggest tours in the amphithearters this last summer with Def Leppard/Styx /Foreigner averaged over 12,000 paid a night and average grosses of over $500K. Every so often Gary leaves the front of house board and comes on stage with Styx to do Bend Me Shape Me.

Charlie Brusco
Alliance Artists Ltd.

__________________________________

Hi Bob,

Just subscribed to your blog and found your reference to the unavailability of Dancing in the Moonlight (5/27/07). We lost the master recording rights to all our music in the 70s after a record company bankruptcy and just got them back after a prolonged legal suit. For the first time DITM is now available on iTunes, etc. We also released King Harvest – The Lost Tapes in September 2007, which really should have been the first album. (Our first album was a mish mash of old tracks thrown together by the record company without our knowledge. It’s a long story involving two continents)

So we now find ourselves in the middle of this music delivery revolution trying to figure out what to do with our stuff. Obviously the CD market is dying, but the boomers are still buying them. So we’re considering putting The Lost Tapes out on CD. I’ve spent hundreds of hours building web pages on every music site I can find (We are "Track of the Week" and #17 on the charts with Take It Easy on garageband.com Groove Rock!) and I’ve done all the standard promos to oldies internet radio. Just started emailing all the oldies broadcast radio stations and college stations.

I’m amazed at all the young kids who have DITM as one of their favorites, but at this point, the more I read about the new music business, the more uncertain I get how to promote our music to them and the boomers. Way to much conflicting info for an old rock and roll guy to digest.

Any simple suggestions?

Really enjoyed the few posts I’ve read so far and looking forward to reading more.

Thanks a lot.

Rod Novak
King Harvest
www.myspace.com/kingharvest

__________________________________

Bob-

What a surprise to read your email about "Neon Rainbow". Someone phoned me about it just seconds after I got off a stage in Tulsa where I had just played that very song with Alex Chilton and the Box Tops. I’m the only non-original member out there with them- just a ringer they brought in from Nashville to play keys with them- but I’ve had the extreme pleasure of gigging with them for the last 6 or 7 years. It’s some of the finest music I’ve ever played- The Letter, with the half-step modulation that doesn’t kick in until the OUTRO! Who ever heard of such a thing! Unconventional arranging to say the least, but nevertheless it worked. And the great guitar solo played by Gary Talley that ends "Neon Rainbow", which also modulates even though the song is ending. Ideas like that would be laughed out of the studio in today’s focus-group atmosphere. Alex was just 16 when he recorded "The Letter". It was the first song they ever recorded, and became a massive hit. Nominated for song of the year at the ’67 Grammy’s, back when The Grammy’s mattered. But Alex kept growing, and did great work later on with Big Star, and still tours in Europe with them a few times a year. He’s one of a kind. Nice to see him get a little recognition.
Thanks for continual surprises….

Barry Walsh
Nashville, TN
myspace.com/barrywalshmusic

__________________________________

"The Letter," "Neon Rainbow" and "Soul Deep" were all written by Wayne Carson Thompson, who also wrote (or co-wrote) the classic Gary Stewart country hit "She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles)." Johnny Paycheck’s "Slide Off Your Satin Sheets," and a tune called "Always On My Mind," 1982’s Song of the Year. The Box Tops had not only Chilton’s ridiculously soulful teenage voice (he was like the American Steve Winwood). but some of the best studio players in Memphis, and some really great songs (like Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham’s "Cry Like A Baby" and "I Met Her In Church").

mitchell cohen

__________________________________

Bob,

This has got to be one of my favorite emails of yours because it hits close to home with me. I’m a 27 year old Memphian who is trying to start and independent record label and music publishing company with Ardent Music, LLC and my aunt used to go out with Alex Chilton when she worked in Ardent Studios back in the 70s. September Gurls, She’s a Mover, and O My Soul were songs partially written about or for her – or at least that’s what Chilton was feeding her. He would write the songs on napkins when they were out. The stories she tells are amazing because she was there in the mix when all this was going on and she talks about it as if it were nothing. But Chilton and his influence can be heard in so many different places and people have no clue…especially in Memphis. And I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know of Big Star and The Box Tops until somewhat recently. Once I started getting the albums I was blown away! John Fry, the owner and founder of Ardent Studios, told me my granddad overdubbed trumpet on some of the Cry Like a Baby album. He also did alot of overdubbing for Stax and even some for the notorious Chips Moman American Sound Elvis sessions…which he didn’t receive credit for. Hell, alot of the stuff he did for Stax just credits the Memphis Horns, which Wayne Jackson and Andrew Love’s management were smart enough to trademark. Anyways, I love your emails…especially this one. I’m going to give Neon Rainbows another listen!

Joseph Davis

__________________________________

Bob –

Appreciated the words about Alex Chilton and the Box Tops. I’ve known Alex since 1979, when I called him up in Memphis and offered him $300 and round-trip ticket to Buffalo to come up and do a show with my band (we were big fans to say the least) backing him up. Playing September Gurls with him was the musical highlight of my life. I just spent two days with Alex interviewing him for a book about Big Star’s Radio City album I’m writing for the 33 1/3 Series (published by Continuum). Rock writers and fans love the supposed drama and tragedy surrounding Big Star. I can tell you that the real story is a group of really talented people whose pure love of music and extraordinary creativity was respected and nurtured rather than second-guessed and tampered with. Without John Fry, the founder of Ardent and an engineering genius, Big Star would never have soared so high. Listen closely to September Gurls – there is ONE guitar (a Stratocaster recorded live with the drums and bass – they used the second take) and ONE overdubbed mando-guitar. That’s it. (I’ve heard the master tapes and have a copy of the track sheet.) It sounds like a chiming symphony of overdubbed 12-strings. But it’s not. All the fancy high-tech pro-tools drum-machine digital studio gadgetry in the world can’t duplicate what Fry and the band (who handled the overdubs) put down. Which is why it still touches people it a big way.

Happy New Year,

Bruce Eaton

__________________________________

I picked up a vinyl copy of no 1 record/radio city the day after xmas in a record shop in west london. I was out browsing the racks feeling a little blue after a really anticlimatic xmas experience.

My whole family is dead or divorced and as blase as I pretended to be about it this year it really hit home. A little retail therapy was in order.

About a year ago when I bought my first flat I decided to stop listening to digital music at home.

I realised I wasn’t listening to music properly at work on my computer or on my ipod. Great pieces of art had been reduced to crappy sounding overly compressed mp3’s that I flicked through rather than paying proper attention to.

A lot of music I’d loved growing up (I’m only 33 mind) also didn’t make sense anymore.

I really couldn’t work out why.

I used to love a lot of music that now just didn’t reach me in the same way.

I went out and bought a 120quid Pro-ject debut 3 turntable. They’re made and sound like a piece of kit that should cost 3 times the price. I bought a nice amp and some decent but not overly expensive wharfdale speakers and started rebuilding my music collection. It has been a revelation.

I fell in love with music all over again.

New bands I didn’t get (bright eyes,the national)suddenly made sense when I heard their music springing from warm plastic grooves in all their analogue glory. Old bands (dr john, the velvet underground, dinosaur jr)I seemed to have lost my love for suddenly came back to life for me in my front room. I was listening again, the music connected in an entirely different way.

I had owned all 3 big star record on cd/mp3/itunes for a few years but bar standout track like ‘El Goodo’ or ‘Watch The Sunrise’ I’d never REALLY been drawn in the way I had with say The Beach Boys or the Band’s records but on Vinyl…it was something else.
You can hear the richness of Chilton’s voice, the guitars are so bright and full of life. Its a fucking masterpiece.
In an alternate world Big Star would have been as big as The Beach Boys or you are right…at LEAST as big as Little Feat.

PS I’d rather you didn’t re-print any of this in your mailbag with my name on.

X

__________________________________

Bob,

You don’t know me (unfortunately) and I am no music big wig: But here is one reason the dinosaur is dying……………….

Over the course of the holidays I had the title Josh Groban Noels on several lists for relatives. I regulary buy cds (the pricing structure in Canada is much more forgiving) at the rate of about 2-3 per week (typically these cost me between $8 and $10 as new releases are priced to move in week 1).

I went to the following retailers to acquire this cd:

Best Buy x2 locations

Future Shop x2 locations

Music World (currently going out of business)

and even a local independent store End Hits

Guess what? "NOT AVAILABLE"

I would have hoped that some additional resources were devoted to Josh and that his cd would be available somewhere for purchase. I tried, really I did. WIth no luck or course. So what did I do? Probably what most people do before wasting time, gas and mileage: I went online armed with the search term "josh groban sendspace", checked about 4 sites and grabbed both the album and artwork within about 10 minutes. With a high quality printer, a torrent site and google- I did myself what 3 major retailers could not do, give me the music I wanted. And I was willing to pay whatever they were asking……….

Merry Christmas WEA / Reprise!

Sean Taylor

People seem to have forgotten Alex Chilton was in the Box Tops.

Labels make a difference.  If Big Star had been on Warner Brothers instead of Ardent, if not a household word, the band would be as well known as Little Feat.  People would ooh and aah when they heard "September Gurls" or "Back Of A Car".  They might not be party staples like "Dixie Chicken", but they’d be a rite of passage, listened to by adolescent males as well as power popster gurls.  And "Thirteen" would be "Pink Moon", Alex Chilton would be bigger than Nick Drake.

But Alex didn’t die.  He’s still out there hitting the boards, still working for a living, for the modest few aware of his greatness.  But before Alex Chilton was a cult item, he was a star, in the Box Tops.

Joe Cocker did a killer version of "The Letter", still it’s eclipsed by the under two minute original.

Oh, you know it…

Give me a ticket for an aeroplane
Ain’t got time to take a fast train

As great as the song is, it’s Alex’s delivery that puts it over the top.  With a throaty urgency an adolescent Alex captures the angst of  Shakespeare, it’s a modern day "Romeo & Juliet".  It’s utterly perfect.  But it’s not the only great Box Tops song.

If you lived through the sixties, you also know "Cry Like A Baby".  A trifle follow-up back then, but a classic when heard today.  Sure, there’s a plethora of backup singers, but it’s the offhanded Chilton vocal that enraptures you.

And then there’s the magical "Soul Deep".  Which didn’t get much airplay in my market, but bridges white and black to create a number that makes you want to dance, elatedly.

But the Box Tops track that’s my favorite is the one I heard on the Bromley jukebox.  At the end of the day, when the sun had gone down, before my mom and dad rescued their newly-minted teenagers from the base lodge and took them home.

I fell in love with the Who in that out of the way alcove, "I Can See For Miles’ got regular spins.  My absolute favorite was American Breed’s "Bend Me, Shape Me".  But the third 45 I had to buy when I got home to Connecticut from Christmas in Vermont was the Box Tops’ "Neon Rainbow".

It starts off with an acoustic guitar, like off a Gerry & the Pacemakers record.  And the atmosphere has an Anglo feel, like a walk in the English rain, until they hit the chorus.

City lights
The pretty lights
They can warm the coldest nights

Lying on the floor doing my back exercises the other day I got a sudden urge to hear "Neon Rainbow".  There was something about the weather, the darkness that made me think of those days at Bromley back in ’67.  I pulled it up on my iPod and I was brought right back.

Too many of today’s hits have no mood, no darkness, you can’t unzip them and wallow inside, alone, just you and the music.  Hearing "Neon Rainbow" sets your mind free.

And the way it concludes…  It doesn’t.  The instrumental comes at the end instead of the middle.  For over thirty seconds the music plays and you’re just left with the feeling, of having heard the song.  It’s like walking home from a date.  With a bounce in your step.  You never want this mood to end.

And that’s why you play the record over again.  That’s a hit.  Something that you don’t want to let go.  You want to stay in the place the song has put you…outside the regular world, where your humanity is all that counts.

You can live without direction
And it don’t have to be perfection
And life is love

In a neon rainbow
A neon rainbow
A neon rainbow

What we’ve learned in this decade is the major labels are becoming ever more irrelevant. Not only do they not create what so many are listening to, they’ve lost their power to dictate the future, progress in the marketplace has been wrested from them.

DRM is a red herring. As is sale by track. Most people with hand-held music players are listening to vast quantities of music sans copy protection. The fact that it’s taken this long for the major labels to come to grips with this reality is evidence of their sideshow nature. They just don’t get it, and seemingly never will.

Now that the DRM war is finally over, the labels have got to fight the value war. Yes, people today think music has no value, they need to be sued into submission, they need to be taught that CDs are worth every dollar of their inflated price, that digital tracks should cost the aliquot share price of a CD. This is utterly hysterical, because it too goes against reality.

People own a lot of tracks. It’s not relevant whether they actually listen to them, they want to own them. And they’re easily acquired. Not only via Net P2P, but hard drive swapping, CD ripping…techniques that cannot be quashed. Where is the major labels’ answer to this? Nonexistent.

The future is already here. The old CD paradigm, the old scarcity construct, is gone. If people want to hear music, they’re not forced to sit by their stereos, listening to the radio for an aural glimpse, they just go online and take what they want. This behavior must be monetized, but the labels won’t even make a reasonable streaming deal. Their numbers are so heinous that iMeem can’t make money. Is this a way to guarantee your future?

I’m not sure the major labels have much of a future. They’ve squandered it. And although they’ve got deep pockets compared to indie musicians, they’ve got no one working at their labels anymore, they don’t have the manpower to dominate in the coming years. Winners will develop and market acts. Whether they be by 360 or conventional deals. Where is the major label infrastructure that’s going to get people to sign with them?

It’s not like the TV and radio airplay majors may deliver has the impact it used to. It’s almost impossible to gain a large share of the public’s attention. Never mind get them to pay for music.

You could say the system is broken, I’d say it broke a long time ago and we’re now in the healing process. It looks like chaos from afar, kind of like a forest after a fire. But fires are necessary, to reinvigorate the land, seedlings develop, which grow into new trees. We’re in this phase now.

You can’t see the acts of the future. And you can’t see those who are building them. And when they grow, there might not be a hundred dominant trees, but thousands. A veritable forest of acts. This is a game the majors are not prepared for. In order to dominate the new music sphere majors must sign and develop a PLETHORA of acts at a very cheap price, making pennies at a time. This, of course, does not support the incredible overhead of today’s companies. Where the worker bees have been laid off and those left are making a fortune. You need a zillion worker bees and chiefs with only upside. But those in power at the majors don’t want to give up their salaries, their old Tommy Mottola lifestyles. But did you notice that Tommy Mottola has never come back?

This is not complicated. It’s about facing reality and monetizing it. Selling buckets of tracks cheaply and trying to hook people on credible acts, not evanescent crap. Lower the price and sell more. And rental ain’t in the immediate future, this dropping of DRM proves it. People want freedom, if you’re putting on locks, you’re driving people away.

Sale by track is economic death. Whether they be wrapped in DRM or not. You can’t have everybody making a 99 cent decision. You’ve got to get ten bucks from everyone. Just like the cable systems won’t sell their channels a la carte. The science is not new, it’s just that those in the record business have been so busying bullying and paying people off that they’ve neglected to study economics in general.

Mobile phones blew up when the price came down. Everyone over the age of twelve has now got a device. Everybody should own music. The way this happens is to forge reasonable plans, which are cheap, incentivizing people to partake. Ripping off the DRM is a nice start, but it’s a small part of the equation. Allow people to hear whatever they want when they want. Instead of putting up walls, send out invitations. Get in bed with the customer. You can’t sell music to people who are not friends. The war must end, music must be monetized. So far the majors have only succeeded in making music free. Their efforts are needed in order to get everyone to pay. But this requires a reasonable business proposition. But as seen in the last eight years, this business proposition is not needed for music to survive, just the major labels. Music’s doing just fine, healthier than ever. People are writing and playing and the audience is listening. Meanwhile, the majors are cutting staff and reporting horrific numbers. This disconnect won’t go on forever. At some point, the business will be run by people who understand the new world. Based on how long it’s taken three of the four majors to realize DRM is not the answer, I doubt these companies will be in charge of the game in the future.

It’s just too cold to ski today. My fingers are still tingling from yesterday, when I almost screamed in pain when I removed my Nordicas after just too long on the slopes. So, today is an easy day. We had a long breakfast and now we’re all sitting in the condo at our Macs. That seems to be the rule, no Mac, no seat at the table. We all came to Apple independently, but there are four laptops in close proximity. It’s not only the younger generation that comes home and surfs, but the older one too.

Anyway, Felice played a song she thinks should be on Monica’s new record, and then Gregg asked if we wanted to hear Shelby Lynne’s new album, he played drums on it.

Gregg’s a dyed in the wool jazzbo. Although I’ve followed Shelby’s career since the Morgan Creek days, I figured there could be no point of nexus between me and Gregg, but when I heard Shelby’s version of "How Can I Be Sure" emanate from the JBL sound ring I was floored.

THIS is a Starbucks record. This is something that you sip coffee to and dream. You don’t have to push this, you just have to let people HEAR IT!

Read the story on Shelby’s MySpace page, how Barry Manilow suggested she do an album of Dusty Springfield songs and when she finally took him up on the idea her record label folded.

It was a mistake to drop her. This record won’t enter the chart at number one, but it could sell FOREVER!

It’s on Lost Highway now. We’ll see what Luke Lewis can do.

Music, it’s the commonality between us all.

Check out the ninety second snippets on the MySpace page. I wish there were more, but Doug Morris doesn’t understand the Google philosophy, that you have to know where in the food chain to charge. Everybody should be able to hear all these songs in their entirety. That’s the hardest burden, getting exposed in today’s world.

I’ve been exposed. Felix Cavaliere’s music has been dormant too long. It needs to be back in the marketplace. Shelby is keeping the magic alive. Along with producer Phil Ramone, engineer Al Schmitt and a cadre of ace L.A. session players.

I can only imagine what this sounds like on vinyl…