Now THAT was an extravaganza.

Just before the show began, Barbara Skydel and I were reminiscing about the heyday of Premier Talent, when Frank Barsalona was the godfather, the Tony Soprano of his domain, keeping concert promoters throughout this vast land of ours in check, preventing them from invading each other’s territory. Barbara told me how she remembered when if you had a hit single, or were in a movie, it killed your career. Boy have times changed. But if you wanted to know how it used to be, you needed to be at the Hollywood Bowl last night, when in a thoroughly modern production, Roger Waters took us right back to the heyday, when music ruled the world, when everybody was in on the game, in the seventies.

Maybe I don’t go to enough shows. I remember seeing Yes on their "90125" tour and marveling at the descending light rig. Then Rod Smallwood told me Iron Maiden had been doing this for YEARS! Maybe everybody on the road is using a hi-def screen, but I’d never seen one before.

Yes, ensconced in the bandshell of the Hollywood Bowl was a screen as large as that inhabiting any movie theatre. And the images were so detailed, so warm, that your whole mood was changed just looking at them. You were brought back to your bedroom, listening to albums as you fingered the jackets.

And then a hand reached in to change the station on the multi-band radio on the screen, and the show began.

I’ve got to tell you, I don’t think Roger Waters exists. I don’t think ANY of these classic rock acts exist. Those are OUR records. They weren’t made by human beings, but GODS! And this God, he was only a few dozen feet away, prowling the stage. How can this be?

Oh, it’s not like running into a reality TV star on the Sunset Strip. This guy, he’s the soundtrack for a nation, the WORLD! He WROTE (along with David Gilmour and others, of course) that material. How did he come up with it? What was going on in his mind? And how is it that he’s a mere mortal, walking the stage?

They say we’re jaded here in Hollywood, that we’ve seen all the big stars, up close and personal. That they’re a dime a dozen. But when you see a creator, in the flesh, you TINGLE!

And tingle I did as Waters and his band played "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun". I bought "Ummagumma" when the hoi polloi had no idea who Pink Floyd was. Long before "Dark Side Of The Moon", long before "Money". It was dreamy music for alienated people, not made for Richard Nixon and the Administration, but US! Albums like this were our soundtrack. Their contents never appeared on Top Forty radio, and oftentimes you didn’t even hear the music on FM either. You were clued in by the buzz, in your high school, amongst your friends…you dipped your toe.

Now this was not a modern concert. Not a usual dinosaur production.

Somehow everybody’s seemed to have gotten the message, that seats are SUPERFLUOUS! That gigs are high energy, that you need to STAND to participate. But nobody was standing last night. Everybody was sitting tight, in the groove, enjoying the music.

This is the way it used to be.

Oh, the production values were unbelievable. They had flashpots. And the triangle from "Dark Side Of The Moon" appeared atop the bandshell, emitting laser beams.

But really, it was about the music.

Yes, it was billed as a full performance of "Dark Side Of The Moon", that was what was bringing the people in. But really, I enjoyed the first set better, with the tracks from "Wish You Were Here".

Everybody in attendance seemed to know "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" was about Syd Barrett. This was not an audience made up of casual fans, only knowing the hits, these were not dedicated followers of fashion, but dyed-in-the-wool BELIEVERS!

And "Have A Cigar"… You’re gonna go far!

The day the bands started believing the handlers, the fat cats at the labels, that they were on their team, is the day this business started falling apart. NO ONE IS ON THE ARTIST’S TEAM EXCEPT THE AUDIENCE! Fuck the corporations… I saw no logos last night, who can trust someone who SELLS OUT? No, you’ve got to REACH, following your muse, and your muse only, and record what’s in your head. Chances are you’re far ahead of the businessmen, the audience too, it’s gonna take some time for them to CATCH UP!

Who knew that "Dark Side Of The Moon" was gonna break through? Just another Pink Floyd album, right? But all those years of dedication, establishing their base, their sound, their ethos, paved the way for mass success. Pink Floyd didn’t come to the audience, the audience came TO THEM! Really, no one thought that "Money" was gonna burn up the airwaves, but when it did people wanted the whole album, the whole EXPERIENCE! Which is still in heavy demand TODAY!

When this tour hit L.A. last year, there was a backlash. How could Roger Waters be so political? Couldn’t he just play the songs, why did he have to offend all the REPUBLICANS! But in the year that’s ensued, the public has caught up with Roger. Now they too are against the war. And to hear Roger rail against the Christian Right, a taboo the politicos won’t commit…I stood up and CHEERED! FINALLY, someone speaking their MIND! You’ve got a mind, do you use it? Or do you calculate the response before you utter a single damn word…

And all this came as part of Roger’s new song, "Leaving Beirut". Which, stunningly, no one left during, even though he set it up as being new. You see the hi-def screen had cartoons, with the story of his trip to Lebanon back in ’62. With the lyrics emanating in bubbles from the characters. He brought the story alive. Aren’t we all brothers? Isn’t this war being fought in the name of religion more than dissension? Can’t America get off its high horse?

I don’t know if it can, but contemplating this, a giant pig started flying over the audience. With anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-religion graffiti painted all over it. If you want to know what it was like way back when, this was it. When the artist wasn’t just giving us a show, but enrapturing us, collecting us in his tiny little hand, and then leading us into his mindspace.

Oh, there was confetti raining down from the sky. And surround sound. It was a cornucopia of sensory effects. If you weren’t caught up in it, you weren’t alive.

Yes, the second half was comprised of "Dark Side Of The Moon". With the band, including Andy Fairweather-Low and P.P. Arnold, handling almost all of the vocals. You wanted the original four, with David Gilmour’s sweet voice.

But that’s not what we got.

It’s hard for us on the outside to understand the hatred within. You’ve got to live with each other for years, you’ve got to battle the egos, it’s a wonder ANY of these bands stay together. But if they got back together…

The last musical highlight was Pink Floyd at Live 8. If Pink Floyd would just go on one more damn stadium tour. Playing whatever the fuck they liked. Our heads would explode.

Only one problem… How to get the youngsters in. Yes, teenagers love Pink Floyd as much as those who experienced the band’s music when they were still together. If only there was a student price. Maybe for sitting WAY in the back, but…

Maybe the venues have to hold two or three hundred thousand.

But the audience is there. Because Pink Floyd is raw, unadulterated art. Uncompromised by the system. It’s the best of us.

 Put me on the bandwagon.

It appears "USA Today" wrote about this. And XM even hyped it.

But who reads "USA Today"? Especially if they’re not on the road?

And there are 100+ channels on XM.

So I found out about this from Nick Miller, at Jam.

I trust Nick, he BELIEVES!

First he asked me if I was AWARE of Lewis Taylor. Unlike you pricks e-mailing me tracks without asking, putting me on your mailing lists even though I don’t know you, haven’t even heard of you. If you think this is the road to success, WELCOME TO THE NINETIES! Seth Godin had it right, we do live in an era of permission marketing… Ask first.

Telling Nick I was clueless, he sent me a track.

And I’ve got to tell you, I thought "Hide Your Heart Away" was INTERESTING for the first minute, but then it CHANGED! And then, suddenly, I was on a Brian Wilson ride set in the U.K. decades ago and I had to hear this record AGAIN!

Now this wouldn’t have been Top Ten in America even when it was recorded. But this guy would have had fans a la Todd Rundgren, dyed-in-the-wool, wearing his t-shirts. Really, play it all the way through.

My second favorite cut on Lewis Taylor’s MySpace page is the last, "Lovelight".

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where the best new music is OLD?

Check this out… When you hit 2:50 in "Hide Your Heart Away", and Lewis Taylor goes nasal, you’ll be right there in MALIBU!

HackTone’s Lewis Taylor Page

____________________________________

Meanwhile, the fascinating e-mail keeps coming in.

You can’t hear the original demo of "Give It Away" by Jamey Johnson, but on the Web you can hear Sarah Buxton’s take on her co-write "Stupid Boy":

Sarah Buxton MySpace

 But one thing you can be sure of
You know that I’m a believer, in you and me

So I crack the Keith Urban CD and I find out that it’s co-produced by DAN HUFF!

Faces in the hit parade come and go, but talent, it lasts FOREVER!

Giant was the wrong band at the wrong time. An AOR outfit poised to break just as AOR was collapsing and Nirvana was in the wings. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t GOOD!

All I remembered was the brouhaha. During the Pollack Convention of 1990, Giant was supposed to open for Bryan Adams, at a private show on the A&M lot. There was the kind of spread that labels haven’t laid out for years. It was a schmooze-fest galore. And Bryan Adams killed, that’s where he closed me.

And then just about everybody left.

But this was not the way it was supposed to be. Bryan was supposed to close. A&M’s new rock hope, Giant, was supposed to open. But after Bryan exercised his star privilege and insisted on going on first, when Giant closed the show, the tastemakers had moved on to a night of drinking, an evening of debauchery.

And I can’t say that the guys in Giant had charisma, had stage presence. The lead singer, he was working it with all his might. But it just wasn’t translating. Another failed band of studio musicians, looking for their one moment of glory.

But then I heard "I’m A Believer" on the RADIO!

There’s a spot where the Santa Monica Freeway blends into the 405. The 10 into the San Diego. You’re flying high above the ground, it’s like being on a ride in Disneyland, and this guitar started EXPLODING out of the speakers. That song, it was "I’m A Believer".

I’m not sure rock can come back. Not the straight ahead, guitar-based arena sound of yore. People pooh-pooh it, it’s not edgy enough, not innovative enough. But it makes you feel so GOOD!

And now I’ve got a special treat for you boys and girls. Through the magic of the Internet, as a result of high technology, I’m going to let you experience "I’m A Believer", right there at your desk.

Oh, don’t go to the band’s MySpace page. For some reason they don’t have the act’s one killer cut, and the almost as good "Innocent Days". But, THEY DO HAVE A LIVE TAKE OF I’M A BELIEVER!

GIANT – I`m A Believer , Studio Live!

Oh, give it time. Especially if you’re a girl and not into guitar workouts.

You see for the first minute and a half, Dan Huff gives an axe primer. But this is no improvisation, this is how the RECORD started. This is how the ALBUM started. And after this ninety seconds, the fucking track EXPLODES! If you’ve got those cheap computer speakers, the ones that come free with your Dell, turn the power down, they’re gonna BLOW UP!

Girl, it’s been a while, you’ve lost THAT pretty smile, what happened?

They removed the guitars from the music! They replaced them with TURNTABLES! And those who did play, it was about raw sound, about inexperience more than years of practicing, of TALENT!

Guys like Dan Huff, they saw the Beatles, they experienced Clapton and Hendrix, and then they stayed up all night in their bedrooms perfecting their technique.

And stunningly, their children, your children, they’re playing TOO! Seemingly every kid’s got a guitar and an amp, they want to make that glorious NOISE!

Why isn’t this noise on the radio? Why is what’s on the radio about dancing, about going down to the club and bouncing bodies? Why isn’t it about being possessed, being overjoyed, so motivated by the sound that you’re DANCING IN YOUR SEAT!

That’s what I’m doing now. And this is a LIVE TAKE! Without the perfect comped/auto-tuned vocals. But I can feel the POWER!

You can check out the original at:

GIANT – I`m A Believer

the ninety second intro…you know MTV’ed never go for that.

Turn up the sound, for some reason on this video it’s too low.

But the audio’s just fine on the video for "Innocent Days":

Giant – Innocent Days

Oh, don’t bitch about the images. This was the end of the initial rock video era. Before bands stopped appearing in their OWN clips. When cute boys and girls took their place. When if you weren’t cute you couldn’t even BE on MTV.

I’m not gonna say Giant was ground-breaking, I’m not gonna say your life will end if you never experience "I’m A Believer".

But what I will say is, if you’re a fan of rock, if you listen to these tunes, they’re going to make you feel SO GOOD!

 "Stupid Boy"
Keith Urban

My two best friends in college were from Kansas. Although they didn’t know each other until they arrived at Middlebury. And they were oh-so-different. John was a single child, a product of public school, who always did his best to fit in. Whereas Steve was the man in the middle, an iconoclast, private school educated, yet anything but uppity.

Every summer I used to go to K.C. to visit them.

I stayed at John’s house, but Steve would come over, in his MG Midget. We’d sit in the driveway, under the vast Midwestern sky, and listen to 8-tracks, like "Sticky Fingers".

On the radio you hear "Brown Sugar", and "Bitch". But the key tracks on that album are more subtle. My favorites are the dreamy "Sister Morphine" and its only slightly more upbeat follow-up, "Moonlight Mile". Today the Stones are seen as a party band, but back then, they were a thinking man’s act. Doubt me? Listen to the third side of "Exile On Main Street".

We weren’t talking, "Moonlight Mile" was playing out of the deck between the seats. Nothing was being said. This was the seventies.

I was hiking listening to country music on my iPod.

First I played all of Bruce Hornsby’s "Spirit Trail". A double album worth the discs. But then, I dialed up my country playlist, populated with recommendations by those who weighed in after I’d written about my newfound fascination with country music.

And I liked the references to Milwaukee and Lynchburg in Brad Paisley’s "Alcohol", but the music was too pedestrian. And I had to look at the device to find out that George Strait was singing this song about giving it away. And when I was close to my car, stepping over the stones, thinking about what I had to do as the day wore on, a song started playing that was closer to rock than country. It had the acoustic guitar of the "Desperado" album, but with the feel of those quiet Stones tracks. I fell into a groove.

Well, she was precious like a flower
She grew wild, wild but innocent
A perfect prayer in a desperate hour
She was everything beautiful and different

Modern country is about the lyrics, the story. But this first verse is generic, like a rock song, wherein the music makes the difference, where the lyrics are secondary.

But THEN!

Stupid boy, you can’t fence that in
Stupid boy, it’s like holding back the wind
She laid her heart and soul right in your hands
And you stole her every dream and you crushed her plans
She never even knew she had a choice and that’s what happens
When the only voice she hears is telling her she can’t
Stupid boy, stupid boy

Okay, another country lament, a hangdog guy beating himself up, feeling the pain of his loss. Only not. Well maybe, but MORE!

What do you do when they give you everything and it’s not enough? You want them to look like the girls online. You want them to suck your dick like in a porn movie. You want them to be some fantasy. But they’re not. Can you accept who they really are?

But this story is worse. This wasn’t a completely selfless woman. She had life, she had vitality. But he was controlling, he had to be the focus. Now she’s gone.

You’ve got to let them be them, or it’s never going to work. You’re lucky when you find someone whose life consists of more than you, but still considers you paramount. Why couldn’t you see this, why couldn’t you see how great she was? STUPID BOY!

And you’ve got a country rock groove. With the intimacy of all those albums that used to come sleeved in cardboard. And maybe since Keith Urban is from Australia, there’s little twang. Just that sound you loved so much, but with a twist. It’s new.

So what made you think you could take a life
And just push it, push it around
I guess you build yourself up so high
You had to take her and break her down

And now the drums have kicked in. And by the end of this verse, the guitars are starting to WAIL! And he’s singing the "push" part like Rob Thomas in Matchbox Twenty’s biggest and best hit. But the boy’s doing the pushing here. He’s oblivious. As men are. He needs to be the center of the universe. Otherwise, he’ll crack. That’s what women know, how vulnerable men are. But what about her?

It took a while for her to figure out she could run
But when she did she was long gone, long gone

We’re past the peak, the record’s almost four minutes in. This is the end.

But it’s not. After a hesitation, a pregnant quietude, the acoustic guitar comes back in. And then a slide. Wistfully expressing the man’s state of mind. Yes, after you think the record is over, it becomes TRANSCENDENT! It’s like the end of "Moonlight Mile".

Then the guitar accelerates, expressing hope, that she’ll come back.

But they never do.

Nobody’s ever gonna love me like she loved me
And she loved me, she loved me
God please, just let her know
I’m sorry, I’m sorry
I’m sorry, I’m sorry
Baby, yeah, I’m down on my knees
She’s never coming back to me

The full six minute plus tour-de-force is on Keith’s MySpace page. The fidelity won’t be as good as a CD, even an iTunes AAC, but you’ll feel it. If you hang in there, until the end.

Keith Urban Myspace

"Give It Away"
George Strait

She was stormin’ through the house that day
An’ I could tell she was leavin’
An’ I thought: ‘Aw, she’ll be back’
Till she turned around an’ pointed at the wall and said:

If my fingers had been a bit more nimble, if I’d been able to locate my Nano in my pocket, I would have fast-forwarded and never heard this track.

But hanging in there long enough to hear what the woman said, I CRACKED UP!

That picture from our honeymoon
That night in Frisco Bay
Just give it away’
She said: ‘Give it away’
‘An’ that big four poster king-size bed
Where so much love was made
Just give it away’
She said: ‘Just give it away’

This is a portrait of a marriage. There’s the honeymoon, and the marriage bed. You build a home, a life…and then it falls apart.

And George Strait is singing these lyrics laconically, like he’s riding a horse. This ain’t modern country, this is more akin to Roger Miller and "King Of The Road". And if there were still Top Forty like back in the day, this would be a hit that EVERYBODY would know, because "Give It Away" wouldn’t be confined to the country ghetto, it would be a TOP TEN HIT!

When that front door swung wide open
She flung her diamond ring
Said: ‘Give it away
Just give it away’
An’ I said: Now, honey, don’t you even want
Your half of everything’
She said: ‘Give it away
Just give it away’

It’s the way George sings these lines that cracks you up. Like he’s reciting the phone book. Sans emotion. Like it just happened to him, like he had no involvement. Even though it was probably his LACK of emotion that drove her out the door!

So I tried to move on
But I found that each woman I held
Just reminded me of that day
Hmmm

He’s GUN-SHY! He loved and lost and he doesn’t want to AGAIN!

Ain’t that the human condition. Divorce is so rough, so hard to recover from. Oh, the media will tell you it’s no big deal, but if you’ve been through it, you know otherwise. Divorce destroys lives. Love lives in any event. It extinguishes hopes and dreams.

But then the song slows down, the music breaks down, George stops the horse in its tracks, and sings:

I’ve got a furnished house, a diamond ring
An’ a lonely broken heart
Full of love
An’ I can’t even give it away

He’s HURT! And you can’t blame the dame for leaving, he’s such a lug. But he WANTS love, he wants companionship. How come he can’t achieve his dream?

You might think "Give It Away" is just dumb, but it’s a MASTERPIECE!

George Strait Myspace

"Gunpowder & Lead"
Miranda Lambert

The intro, after the snore that sounds like a motorcycle, has got that Patrick Simmons picking, you know, from those Doobie Brothers records you loved, the album cuts from "Toulouse Street", "The Captain And Me" and "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits".

But this chick, she’s got a twang…

County Road 233 under my feet_
Nothin’ on this white rock but little ol’ me
I got two miles ’til he makes bail
And if I’m right we’re headed straight for hell

Oh, don’t you love the ATTITUDE! Like a small southern girl in one of those AIP drive-in flicks. We’ve got a story song here, but we’re not prepared for what comes NEXT!

I’m goin’ home, gonna load my shotgun
Wait by the door and light a cigarette_
He wants a fight well now he’s got one_
He ain’t seen me crazy yet_
Slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll_
Don’t that sound like a real man_
I’m gonna show him what a little girl’s made of_
Gunpowder and lead

Miranda Lambert is belting like Joan Jett with a hand in her coochie. She’s PISSED! She don’t care WHO hears her!

This ain’t no Ivy League story, this is all whiskey and emotions. We’re FASCINATED!

God, this chorus is better than the COMPLETELY phony Aerosmith comeback "Rag Doll".

The track quiets down, back to the acoustic guitar and drums. But when they hit the chorus again, the track positively WAILS!

This is DRIVING MUSIC!

They say the track is "Famous In A Small Town", but you want the album cut, you want "Gunpowder & Lead".

"The One In The Middle"
Sarah Johns

I would’ve given you the finger on my left hand
The one that you use for a wedding band

And now I’m givin’ you
The one in the middle
The one that’s a little bit longer
And I got another one
On my other hand
So I can say it even stronger
If you’re askin’ if I’m done
Well, I’m sure not sayin’ you’re number one

That’s all you really need to know.

You’re driving in your car, zoned out, watching the traffic, and suddenly you find yourself STARING AT THE RADIO!

Is she really saying that?

More danger here, in this semi-contrived, generic record, than in all those acts still on MTV.

Sarah Johns Myspace

"Hate It Here"
Wilco

I try to stay busy
I do the dishes, I mow the lawn
I try to keep myself occupied
Even though I know you’re not coming home

Not that Jeff Tweedy believes this. He’s becoming a better man, doing all the chores he never even contemplated when she was still around. So he’ll be more appealing when she’s back. But she’s not coming back.

It’s the wailing guitar that makes this. It’s almost a play on a country song. But it’s country enough for Sirius’ Outlaw Country station. I like this better than anything on "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot".

"Everybody Knows"
Ryan Adams

They’re pushing "Two", but this is better. You can see it on Amazon.com:

"Everybody Knows"
Ryan Adams

I understand this music. This is rock and roll. This is a direct descendant of what came before, in the seventies. But without the focus on perfection, with the grit that the Eagles gained with Joe Walsh that truly made the band iconic, it possesses a roughness that appeals.

Is this a hit?

No.

But it’s got great FEEL! Remember when you put on an album and just luxuriated in the sound, bathed in it, played the record over and over as you puttered around the house, did your chores? "Everybody Knows" is a cut from one of those albums. The kind you nod your head to and FEEL GOOD!