“Dirty kyke”
“Jew food”
“Fucking Jew”

Is Roger Waters antisemitic?

Watch The Dark Side of Roger Waters now and decide for yourself.

Then add your voice at https://t.co/7F6c6M3nk1. pic.twitter.com/eh9n15DLsn

— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) September 27, 2023

From: Phoebe Katis

Re: The Modern Music Business

Hi Bob

I really enjoyed this read. I am a new fan of your newsletter, and I love the direct & refreshingly ‘here’s what’s what kid’ nature of your words, especially with this article.

I manage two TikTok viral stars who have combined forces into a power group and are about to embark on their second US tour, playing 350-700 cap venues. They sold out 7/9 of their first tour shows, over 3000 tickets. They are the perfect example of what you advise below: artists who found a niche in the intensely saturated world of music making, found and & marketed themselves to their audience, and are now stepping out and jumping head first into the touring game. Transferring online viewers to bums on seats is no easy task, but they are out here doing it better than most. They created something unique and refreshing (as you said, their fans believe they are seeing something they cannot get anywhere else) while being two of the most down-to-earth, funny, engaging, and genuinely excited people I know. They are electric violinist Mia Asano and Ally The Piper (multi-instrumentalist and bagpipes). Their music combines rock, metal, pop, celtic, and so much more; their intense respect and love for their instruments and the history of their musical influences charm the pants off of millions worldwide.

Working with musicians who get it, as an artist and a manager, is so refreshing. No label is coming to sweep us off our feet. That just doesn’t happen anymore. We build our careers first, then labels step in when the time is right to open doors and provide finances we may not have been able to access. And if they don’t come knocking? We can do it ourselves! The internet is an incredibly powerful and scary place for creatives. Every day, a new swathe of artists & viral videos & trends come to light; & we either have to say ‘not for me’ or jump on the bandwagon. Admittedly, this is exhausting. But it is the world we live in as creatives, and we must keep up. This can be overwhelming. This can be demoralizing. But at the end of the day, if you truly believe in yourself as an artist and creative, if you truly believe you have something worth sharing, you’ll find your path amongst the madness. Understanding the new world order as a musician and artist is something I certainly wasn’t taught in school (I’m 31, and my BA in Music had zero business elements, ha!), but it is definitely something I’m constantly learning about now. I’m intensely proud of my girls Mia and Ally, not only for their own journey but also for what they are teaching me with my own artistry.

I think you’d like them… here’s them in action on their last tour; the music is their cover of The Devil Went Down to Georgia.

Thank you for reading!

Phoebe

www.phoebekatismusic.com

Trailer: https://tinyurl.com/mr233558

I’ve succumbed to the Netflix algorithm.

What I mean by that is I’m investigating the service’s suggestions, which I always pooh-poohed. I seem to have seen all the low-hanging fruit, the best rated TV series of all time. I’m always hoovering for more, and it isn’t an easy job, I need something that has great ratings, and therefor I started researching the international series that Netflix suggested and we ended up watching “Clark.”

Sounds like an American show, I know. Maybe Clark Rockefeller, if you remember that scandal. But “Clark” is a Swedish show. And in addition to having an 83/81 rating on RottenTomatoes, my research raved about the cinematography.

This is the best cinematography I’ve ever seen in a TV series. I’m not sure I can think of better images in a movie. What I mean here is not richness, I’m talking about innovativeness. It’s a feast for the eyes. Not hard to watch. If I tell you more… Hell, if you’re interested, dive in.

So what you’ve got to know is “Clark” is a true story. It won’t feel like one, it’ll seem ridiculous, but it’s very faithful to what actually happened in Sweden.

But we don’t know what happened in Sweden, because we are Americans.

Well, Clark Olofsson invented Stockholm Syndrome. Well, let’s just say the term resulted from his winning over hostages in a famous bank robbery.

Clark had a rough upbringing, and immediately turned to crime. Well, he turned to sex before that, but that’s his life, one of hedonism and criminality. He’s famous for robbing banks. There’s not a lot of planning, but when he needs money… And of course he gets caught, but he’s escaped jail numerous times (they say seventeen in the series, the internet is not quite sure of the number, but it’s in excess of ten). Jail is just a place for him to chill out.

Clark is played by Bill Skarsgärd, one of Stellan Skarsgärd’s eight children. He’s a tall, imposing, good-looking guy, and you believe he has luck with the ladies, and can beat up people when necessary.

As for the women…

If you’re a boomer, you’ll remember the movie “I Am Curious (Yellow).” It was a phenomenon, because of the nudity and the sex. Now this is hard to fathom if you’re a youngster with access to Google, never mind Pornhub, but that used to be a big deal, and “I Am Curious (Yellow)” was the breakthrough, because the nudity didn’t override the concept, as in the film wasn’t exploitive, it just didn’t censor itself like American flicks. All this to say that the Swedes are uninhibited. Therefore there’s nudity and sex and it’s got a very real feeling, as opposed to what we normally see in America. And you have full-frontal male nudity too. But the women are not all perfect, and there are scenes of sex that ring true, especially with Clark’s long time girlfriend Maria. So despite the hilarity, despite the broad strokes, there’s a resonance.

And there’s so much. Revolution, hippies, it is the sixties and seventies, even escape on a sailboat. And you’re watching, laughing, thinking it’s ridiculous, and then when it’s over you go online to find that it is all true.

Now I don’t want to ruin my credibility. If you’re a novice, a newbie, if you just watch what HBO serves up, I wouldn’t start your exploration with “Clark.” But if you’re a fan of international productions, if you realize that the best TV series come from overseas, and you can recommend a number of foreign productions off the top of your head, put “Clark” on your list. On some level, it’s indescribable. You can only watch and laugh and be amazed. But in terms of cinematic experiences… What you’ve got here is a linear story, but within this framework there’s a level of innovation in imagery that results in a great leap forward for TV series. If only there was this level of innovation in commercial music.

And one more thing… If you’re a cheapskate and watching Netflix with ads… I don’t understand it. Does your time mean that little to you? One movie in a theatre can cost more than Netflix’s $15.49 a month. But having said that… I resisted paying the extra five dollars a month for 4k. I mean LG OLED is so good to begin with. But all new Netflix productions are in 4k, and even though it improves the experience less than 10%, it does add to your viewing pleasure.

And I’d buy an OLED set. Think about how much time you spend in front of the flat screen. Think of it like buying a stereo in the seventies. Or a computer in the nineties. You want the best. And if you watch streaming television, if you’re even paying for Netflix, why not live large for so little money?

Now the standard for OLED is the LG C3. This model, with yearly updates, has reigned supreme for years, this is what everybody in Hollywood watches their productions on. There is finally a Samsung that challenges the LG…but if you know that, you probably don’t need my advice. I recommend buying at least a 65″ set. That size is large enough to allow you to blend with the picture. If you’ve got some bread, go larger. But once you go to 77″ there’s a big price jump, never mind 83.” The rule of TV is to buy the biggest screen you can afford. No one ever buys a TV and says there’s too much screen real estate, if anything they watch a new set for a while and wish they went bigger. Also, do not mount your TV high. The center of the screen should match the level of your eyes when you’re sitting down, in your viewing position. (Having said that, OLED technology makes it so the picture is still good at an angle.) TVs are introduced in January, hit the market in the beginning of February, and are constantly marked down as the year goes on. The list price of the 65″ LGC3 65″ set is $2500, but even LG itself is now selling the set for $1900. And on Amazon you can get it for $1800. And they even sell it at Costco! The price will drop at least once more this fall, but at some point they will run out of sets.

LG: https://tinyurl.com/5cz89uua

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/32b2bufk

P.S. I don’t want to hear from the holier-than-thou giving me crap for recommending a TV set at this price. If you’re proud you are poor, you’ve missed the message, the joke is on you. As for me…there was a time not that long ago when my eighties Sony was broken and I had to live without a TV at all. I like it better this way.

“Time Has Come Today: Rock and Roll Diaries 1967-2007”: https://tinyurl.com/3ze3m94d

I couldn’t put it down. And I wasn’t planning to read it at all. I figured I’d skim it, tell Harold about some positive points and move on. But I was hooked, I was gobsmacked, because this was my life.

I tell my shrink all the time… I might have been the oddball at Middlebury, a pre-judged outcast amongst a group of strivers studying for the test so they could get good grades and get into a good graduate school, live their professional life in the suburbs, have two kids and retire, but there were people just like me living in L.A. all the while.

Like Harold.

I know Harold pretty well, for decades, yet this isn’t about the man but the experiences. There were those of hooked by rock and roll, who spent all of our money on records, who needed to get closer, who never gave up the dream. There’s still a record business, but it’s not the same. And still a touring business, but it’s much more professional these days, and to a great degree still dominated by the old acts, but going to a club to hear a band you’d read about, one that had a deal, but no airplay…those days are through. As a matter of fact, all the days are through. Today’s world doesn’t resemble the sixties and seventies, never mind the eighties, whatsoever. It’s disconcerting, and lonely. There’s no center and nothing matters. Wait, did I say that? Does that evidence depression or my age or… If you used to work in the music business…everybody involved started to talk about how it was no longer fun. This was about 2003. Most of these people are no longer working in the business, some are not working at all, some think they are missing something, but I always tell them they are missing nothing.

The labels? There are only three, peopled by overpaid aged lords and underpaid young worker bees. The companies have been hollowed out, in the name of efficiency, in the name of the bottom line. But back in the day… Labels blew money constantly. Every album came with a tchotchke, a t-shirt or god knows what, there were billboards on Sunset Strip and endless parties, every night there was somewhere to go, where you wanted to go, it was a roving band of insiders, everybody knew everybody else, everybody was hustling and then it fell apart, credit the money generated by CDs, the universal promotion value of MTV and overpaid executives and then the internet came along to be the cherry on top. Used to be a national head of promotion made a million dollars, now you don’t even know their name, and records are broken on social media, not the terrestrial airwaves. Yes, the live business has inherited the torch, and that is exciting, but there’s already been consolidation. There’s been a bifurcation, between recordings and live, and all the money is in live, when it used to be the reverse. So there’s something to cheer about, yet it is different.

But for about two decades it was the same in tech. Remember when you hoovered up information, dreamed of upgrading your computer, tried new platforms and apps the day they were released? Same deal in music. But that’s gone now in tech too.

There’s a lot left, a whole hell of a lot left, but it’s all niches, we’re so deep in our own worlds that almost no one else knows what we’re talking about.

I was surprised that Harold wrote about the first time he met me, said my “musical taste is somewhat standard: Eagles, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Led Zeppelin, ‘Who’s Next,’ etc.” but isn’t it funny that all those acts have survived. I knew all the acts Harold talked about in this book, but I saw no need to demonstrate my bona fides by talking about the obscure, a feature of the cohesive music scene of yore. Today if you’re wearing tight jeans, a motorcycle jacket and engineer boots, standing around cutting down everybody else’s taste, the joke is on you, because no one cares.

That’s what I realized after I winced reading Harold’s description of my taste. No one is gonna read this book anyway. No one even reads the mainstream newspaper anymore and “Rolling Stone” is a joke. But my point is there’s so much out there that almost nothing surfaces, almost nothing.

But it didn’t used to be this way.

Which is why I was somewhat depressed reading this book. Because I remembered the passion, the excitement, the thrill…music was everything! But you’re not gonna read Harold’s book, even if you got it for free, I’d have to lock you up in a room and force you, because it’s very hard to get anybody interested in anything, to spend any time with anything, unless they’ve got a burning desire to do so. I ain’t gonna listen to more than fifteen seconds of your new song if I don’t like it so far, and the real wakeup call is that no one else is gonna bother either. Our time is just too precious. But from the very beginning of Harold’s book I was hooked, because this was my life too.

Harold was in Westchester (California, not New York) listening to the radio, buying singles… Hell, he even mentions “The Martian Hop,” which was the very first single I bought, my mother purchased Four Seasons records previously, but this one I wanted, I needed, to be able to listen to it at home whenever I wanted.

And then there were the bands…

Yes, reading “Time Has Come Today” you’ll hear stories of all the classics, from Badfinger to Ozzy, all the acts that had any traction back in the day. But the weird thing is most of them are broke. Working a day gig. I was having dinner with a friend who worked at the Enclave, he pulled up a picture of Tom Zutaut online, he’s selling Kias now. Honorable work, but a far cry from signing Motley Crüe and Guns N’ Roses. Everybody thought it would never end, they didn’t save, they woke up one day and they’d been ripped-off, no one cared about them and they had to get a day job. Really, it will blow your mind. Dick Dodd of “Dirty Water” fame, you know, the Standells, is an assistant manager at a restaurant, he asks Harold for a job in the Rhino mailroom.

Yes, this book is a compendium of who’s who, what was and where they’re at today and in most cases it’s not pretty. Life is short, but it’s also long. These acts were on top of the hill, but in retrospect it was only a few years, and after that?

These people are icons to us. But the younger generation in most cases does not care. Like Arthur Lee and Love. The album “Forever Changes”… I’d had an interpretation in my head for decades, but in truth the title is what Arthur Lee said to the girl that he said he’d stay with forever when he broke up with her. Yes, forever changes…

There are an untold number of nuggets like this in the book. And unlike in Harold’s preface, you should not read it randomly, but from the very beginning, it’s linear, as is your life.

You will be reading the book and pausing constantly to look up old people online, to see what they’re up to. I was at this girl’s house in Westchester (New York), and we watched Iggy on TV, there was a concert broadcast and it was a big deal. Now let me look up Lisa today…

And the people I went to gigs with. High school. What ever happened to them? To tell you the truth, I’ve looked up everybody I know already, mostly decades ago, but I’m always hungry for new information. But now it’s even harder to find the obscure, there’s just so much information.

Yes, so much of “Time Has Come Today” is obscure, but not to us.

So the first half of the book is about Harold coming of age. Going to UCLA. Graduating. Trying to find his future and purpose. I knew he lived next to George Carlin, I did not know he bought a red Firebird convertible, which promptly lost its water pump. This was back when cars were not reliable, when what you drove in L.A. was important, when the young were too inexperienced to know that you stay away from certain automobiles. Like if you’re young and not rich today absolutely do not buy a BMW, great car, but the repairs will bleed you dry. But you’ve got to know, it wasn’t until the mid-seventies that the public realized that Japanese cars were so much more reliable… I read about a Lexus LS400 with just shy of a million miles on it, with no engine work, no nothing. A Lexus doesn’t drive like a BMW, but it lasts a whole hell of a lot longer for a lot less money.

Then Harold finds his footing with the Rhino Records label and some of the stories are inside, but you read and you learn so much anyway. About the Monkees, about Gene Simmons. Invited to Gene’s birthday party, Shannon Tweed tells Harold “Gene has no friends. It’s all business contacts.”

Every week, if not more frequently, people e-mail me about their book, they insist on sending it to me. Like I’ve got time to spend on their crappy tome. And they’re almost all crappy, because in spite of the stories, books are about writing, and most people can’t, write that is. Writing is a skill, you have to develop and stay at it. But since people wrote in school, they think they can write a riveting book. No. There are exceptions, but very, very few. Like the Harvey Lisberg book.

But Harold’s book is on another level. Because it’s diary entries. So the superfluous is edited out. He talks about going here and there, what happened and his judgment thereof in most cases in just a paragraph. All wheat, no chaff. So you don’t have to see someone try their hand at flowery language, it’s just the essence.

So…

If you’re a youngster, you’re not interested.

If you’re a Gen-X’er, you’re probably not interested either.

But if you are a baby boomer and you were bitten by the music bug, if you still live to play your records and go to the show, Harold’s book will pull you down a rabbit hole and you won’t come up until you’re done. You’ll be thinking about getting back to it while you’re at work, doing other things, because “Time Has Come Today” is your life, you were at these shows. I saw George Harrison at the Forum with his hoarse voice just like Harold. I saw the Dolls at the Whisky. And unlike Harold, I was at the Troubadour Christmas eve when James Taylor, Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, Peter Asher, Linda Ronstadt and Albert Brooks came on stage to sing Christmas carols with Flo & Eddie. There were maybe a couple of dozen people in the room. It was shocking. You had to be there, which is the point, we were there, it was the most important thing, to know all the records, see all the shows, and if you missed it, many times you missed it forever, like Harold, who went to see Flo & Eddie at the Troubadour two nights later and… You always wanted to show up, you needed to show up, it was part of your identity.

So if Harold thinks my writing about his book is gonna cause a landslide of sales he’s wrong. No hype does that anymore, none. You’ve got to hear about it from a number of people, frequently one trusted source is not enough. And you’ve got to have the money and the time, and those are big hurdles.

But if you are a baby boomer rocker, “Time Has Come Today” is manna from heaven.