Bob, Thank you so much for writing about me and Tom Rush. I’ve heard from people all over the globe responding to the article. Since the stuff on Wikipedia I was in The Johnny Winter Band for 6 years and one of the people responsible for getting him off prescription drugs during that time. I also was featured in a movie about Delta Blues with Morgan Freeman, Willie Nelson, Charlie Musslewhite and others. I currently have 2 documentaries I Co-Produced, one about James Cotton that was one of 5 finalists in The Library of Congress Ken Burns Prize for Film, and another about my brother Jeffrey, an LGBTQ warrior who fought so diligently for Gay Rights that he ended up on the Aryan Nation hit-list (they actually tried to kill him a few times). Anyway, I continue to play out, have never stopped and never will. Thanks again for your kind words. Means a lot to me!
James Montgomery
www.jamesmontgomerybluesband.com
mail@jamesmontgomery.com
Grammy Nominated with Johnny Winter
Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame
New England Music Hall of Fame
Co-Producer: Bonnie Blue – James Cotton’s Life in the Blues
Co-Producer: America You Kill Me – Jeffrey Montgomery LGBTQ Warrior
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Subject: James montgomery/Duke and The Drivers
Bob,
I could not have been happier to Read what you had to say about James Montgomery. Early in my career I was given the wonderful opportunity to help James Montgomery first as a booking agent, and then as a manager. I felt exactly as you did about him.
I spent five years trying to convince the music industry and the world in general about the authenticity and incredible performances James Montgomery consistently delivered. It was an uphill battle.
Much like being the skipper of a classic sailing yacht — authentic, soulful, and original — in the era of MTV and the other converging forces of disco, rap, etc., James Montgomery got lost in the shuffle.
But James never lost his originality, and he never stopped playing. As a manager, it was tough to pull James away from playing benefits and giving back to his community at a time when it really wasn’t affordable for him. He didn’t care. James is the real deal.
Your mention of Duke and the Drivers, though, saddened me greatly. A lot of us worked diligently for “The Drivers” as they personified everything you could want in a hardworking band. I worked for their manager Peter Casperson and was eventually privileged to handle their first reunion tour in my own company.
Without Duke and The Drivers and James Montgomery, I don’t think there would have been an Aerosmith reunion. I got to learn the ropes from those guys and actually met Joe Perry through The Drivers’ drummer Danny “Doc” McGrath. The ties that bind Bostonian musicians and music industry folks run deep.
Perhaps it was an off night for them – or for a college aged Bob. I hope you know I have always maintained my respect for you even during times when I felt you were “off the mark”.
I do think they deserve more respect than the all too current easily thrown out label “loser” …
Tim Collins
(Note: As evidenced by Tim Swift’s e-mail in the “Re-James Montgomery” mailbag, Duke and the Drivers were a developing band when they played at Middlebury, sans even an album release. Winter Carnival is the biggest event at Middlebury, however small that may be, and to have an unknown, developing band be the talent…wouldn’t you be disappointed, especially with a history of shows by name/recognizable talent at prior Carnivals? Duke and the Drivers were not bad, they were okay, but they had the smallest attendance of any show at Middlebury while I was there. Maybe a great band at the advent of its development, but wouldn’t you expect more? I certainly did. Ultimately, this is about the infrequent and lame shows we got at Middlebury, not Duke and the Drivers. Sure, Duke and the Drivers might have been hot on the club scene in Boston…but we didn’t even have a club scene!)
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From: Peter Van Ness
Subject: RE: James Montgomery?!
Well…I’m catching up on your letters (that’s right I binge them) and come across this one about my friend James Montgomery. Â Thanks for giving him some ink. Â He deserves it. Â My wife and I hosted his “70th Birthday Bash” concert in May, 2019 at our little club north of Boston, called 9 Wallis (it didn’t survive the lockdown).
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Subject: Re: Re-James Montgomery
Bob,
Thanks for the shout out about one of my oldest friends…James Montgomery..in 1967 my parents dropped me off at the Boston University dorms…after they left I decided to go down to the street and light up a joint…on the way down the elevator opened and this guy wearing a tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows, like some professor, got in and it was James Montgomery… the first person I ever met at school !!! We shared that joint and over the years became best friends, housemates and really like family…He is an amazing survivor!!! he has been doing this for over 50 years… and one hell of a harp player…..
As far as “Duke and The Drivers”…I was their road manager right around their first record produced by Eddie Kramer at Electric Ladyland in NYC…Although they were not the kind of name like James in Northern New England… in the Boston area they were a big draw…WBCN took them under their wing and played their great cover of Eddie Bo’s “Check Your Bucket” as a tape…their shows were raucous and great energy… the covers they did were some real R&B gems.by bands like “Dyke and the Blazers”…crowds loved them… they recently released new mixes some of their old tunes and Joe Lilly know as “Sam Deluxe” has a great roots band called “The Mystics”…man did you bring back some memories of my days in Boston…..
Peter Wassyng
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From: Holly Knight
Subject: Re: Re-My Hometown
Hi Bob
I loved your story about Fairfield .After growing up in NYC- Manhattan to be exact, I moved to LA  for my career and lived here for fifteen years before deciding I didn’t want to raise my kids in LA. It was the year of the Rodney King beatings, THE EARTHQUAKE, and the Malibu mud slides. I think I told you that I did the unthinkable- Iike totally backasswards –  I packed up all my things, and moved back east thinking how lovely it would be to experience the four seasons again- and be closer to my (dysfunctional family) cause after all NYC is in my DNA.
I moved to Fairfield- specifically the Greenfield Hill area which is affluent and waspy but very beautiful. Three and a half years later and I wanted to slit my throat…especially after I went back to LA and saw kids in shorts playing in the school yard in January – and I said- why did I leave here? So I put my house on the market and moved back – 25 years ago.  In the beginning all of my east coast diehard New Yorker friends said LA was lame, plastic and phony. And gee, they all live here now. When I need a dose of grit and film noir I go back east to visit, but honestly after a week I’m so ready to come home and take my bike on the beach path. And yeah, I wouldn’t want to have grown up anywhere else. Now my favorite people are native east coasters that have moved out here and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
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From: James Spencer
Subject: Re: Re-My Hometown
Imagine our shock and disbelief, when family friends told us that they saw our beloved family home in the local (rural Arkansas) newspaper..
It was busted for being a METH LAB..
I drove those tiny streets a few years ago, in town for a funeral..Once proud houses were condemned..Yet people were still living in them..
The farming business had gone belly-up, and religion and meth had become the mainstays.
This isn’t that idyllic quaint small town you’ll hear about on country radio..That’s pure fantasy..
Of course (The Boss’s) “My Father’s House” can’t be touched for its poignancy..
But Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” comes in a close second..
She’s the real deal..An outlaw/rock star..She does HER..Suits be damned..Her work is anything but cookie cutter..Her Vegas show is fantastic, too..She rocks hard, sans the artificial sweetener so prevalent in Nashville pop..
Why can’t we have more country acts like her?
No one has her BALLS..
“The House That Built Me”: https://youtu.be/DQYNM6SjD_o
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From: Cob Carlson
Subject: Re: Re-My Hometown
“Bridgeport is Listed as One of Top 5 Booming Cities, According to Today Show”: https://tinyurl.com/yexs4xj2
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Subject: Re: Re-My Hometown
Bob: Long time reader.  A friend once said to me, “You can always go home, but you can’t stay.”
Marty Hecker
Denver, CO (originally from Green Bay)
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Subject: Re: Definition Of A Rock Star
Politicians are described as “Rock stars.”
Athletes are described as “Rock stars.”
A child learning how to ride a bicycle is a “rock star.”
You name it. I’ll give up there.
In other words, three chord velvet glory has gone into the mists of time.
Jumping Jack flashes no more.
No lemon juice is squeezed down anybody’s leg.
We still have the vinyl to prove our allegiance to rock ‘n’ roll & our glorious memories.
Michael Des Barres.
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From: Tony Dimitriades
Subject: Re: Definition Of A Rock Star
“Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – For Real”
“Tom Petty | What If You Had A Dream Documentary – Songwriting, MTV videos, Success, Longevity”
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Roberto, my newfound friend.
I loved every minute/hour of our conversation.
Absolutely one of my favorite interviews of all time. I love the way you conduct an interview. Your knowledge of the industry and your obvious intelligence make a person like myself just uncomfortable enough to stay focused, dig deep, stay honest, & be respectful.
I sincerely thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell my story knowing it will be presented the way I would want it to be presented.
Let me know if I can ever do something for you Bob
Sammy
PS: Â Finished the whole podcast. I love the second half of this podcast as much as any interview I’ve ever done. It’s my book written in shorthand. And not that short by the way! You certainly know how to get a lot of information in a short amount of time.
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In response to e-mail from listeners loving the podcast:
Well who coulda thunk that those four hours would be that entertaining for anyone else to listen to as opposed to being as boring as watching a truck rust… which is what my fear was about all my ramblings after we finished that night! Thanks again for having me on Bob and let me know if you want to finish as Paul Harvey would say “the rest of the story.” Thanks also for passing along that email.
As a fellow suburban escapee, I share your sentiments regarding the life from which I escaped. When Irving Azoff called and told John Baruck, and told him to “Grab the REO guys, and come to LA.â€, I semi-reluctantly packed up the smallest U-haul trailer available, and headed west. California was freedom, fun, and the center of the rock ‘n roll universe. And I knew deep down that was where I needed to be.
That said, every time we play Chicago, we stay on the familiar Near North Side. I hit the streets and stroll down memory lane past all the little clubs where I used to perform pre-REO. I usually rent rent a car and drive out to the southwest suburb where I grew up, slow down as I roll through the neighborhood where I got my first kiss, the sports fields where we played pick-up games, (I was usually picked last.) Feelings flood my bloodstream as I retrace the steps from my old house, where both my parents lived to the end, along 52nd Ave to Rossi Music, where I learned to play the guitar. When the Beatles played Ed Sullivan, and I was the only kid in town who knew some chords, I went from dork to hero …overnight!
But I too had a sense that life had more for me than the white-bread suburbs of Chicago had to offer. Oak Lawn was a nice place to visit, but Californy was the place I oughta be. Still those trips to the old neighborhood have a way of grounding and resetting me like nowhere else.
Your stories always stir up my soul, and I thank you for that, Bob. Much love, kc
Kevin Cronin
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There’s a line in one of the last episodes of The Wonder Years when Kevin Arnold is sent to the liquor store for ice or soda, while his parents were giving a Christmas Eve party. Â As he walked down the block, he remarked that he no longer knew who lived in each house. Â And he remembered that there was a time when he new the last name of each home owner, each kid’s name, every dog’s name and every cat’s name. Â And he knew it would never be the same as that again.
Thanks,
James Starace
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Bob, I liked your post on the east coast. I grew up in LA and always wondered why people who were not from there loved it so much. I went on the road with Eddie Kendricks in 1975. 23 year old kid from Burbank, playing with the Detroit session musicians, the Funk Brothers, Uriel Jones and Eddie Willis. We did a week at Paul’s Mall in Boston. I fell in love with the place, the city was so alive, to me Burbank could not even come close to the vibe of Boston.
Then in 1996 I moved to Massachusetts, I’m in the burbs and I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. I have been a stranger in a strange land ever since. Don’t get me wrong I do like living here but it’s in spite of the life around me, I look around sometimes at the neighbors and think that I am so glad I did not grow up here. Growing up in LA gave you a sense that anything was possible. It’s a mind set that Californians have, east coasters have to conform and to dream outside the box? Fuhgeddaboudit!  That’s why everyone moves to LA! (and the weather of course haha)
Marty Walsh
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“It was like someone shrunk the neighborhood down to 3/4 size.â€
I just recently did a lecture at my Alma mater Oswego State University in upstate New York, and I took the time to visit my old neighborhood. My experience was exactly like yours. My grandparents even had a convenience store called Maloney’s Superette, which is such a Syracuse landmark that the new Middle-Eastern owners haven’t changed that name in nearly 40 years. My grandparents raised four kids on selling beer and penny candy at that place.
…and you were dead-on about the calcification of dreams in your hometown. Had I been able to have the music career I wanted in the ‘Cuse, I probably wouldn’t have ever left. But like you, I heard So Cal calling and needed to up my game at Musicians Institute in Hollywood. I packed up my bass and my dreams and never looked back.
-Christopher Maloney (US)
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I’m often moved by your letters, I find them smart, informative, and deeply considered. You have a gift. You make a dent in the universe.
I was moved by your visit to Fairfield, but honestly can’t figure out why.
Maybe it’s because I left Long Island for South Florida and on my rare trips “home†the place feels alien to me, like a cover of a favorite song that doesn’t quite hit me like the original.
I miss the seasons, hate the heat, feel menaced by the tropics but don’t miss the grayness of the northeast winters which made me long for either Southern California or Florida when I was a kid, and the world was all in front of me.
But like you, I long for a “center.†I miss when facts mattered, when we had standards of behavior and it felt like we were at least loosely unified despite our differences.
I too long to make a difference, but your piece made my realize I traded one suburb for another. Mine is just hotter, more humid and now deeply red.
Jeff Perlman
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As a kid from a small town in upstate NY, this hits very close to home.  When I left that small town for LA, I didn’t know a single person west of the Mississippi, much less anyone in the entertainment biz.  However, I knew that staying put was never a viable option for me.  As Wayne Gretzky famously put it, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.â€
Glad we each get to put our own unique “dent in the universe”…
Jason Miller
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Good stuff again, Bob. I’m in the process of getting a place in California. My wife loves Carmel by the Sea.
I recently spent 5 weeks on Long Island looking at an opportunity there and I could feel the attitude about which you speak.
That wasn’t the coast for this hillbilly from the Ozark mountains of Arkansas either.
Have a great week and keep making dents in the universe.
Blaine Leeds
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It can be an eerie haunting and uncomfortable feeling going back home if you’ve been away so long where you’ve made a life for yourself somewhere else. You’re a stranger to that physical place you knew so well.
I left Cincinnati with my first wife and we subsequently divorced. I went to college in the south, married a southern woman and became an engineer. I got into a “profession.†I have a son.
My family was merciless to me concerning my divorce and me getting into a profession. I have multiple college degrees and engineering licenses.
I actually own a home.
I stayed gone from my hometown, infrequently returning. My grandparents passed as did my parents.
My father’s hobby was magic. He was a magician. There was a magic shop in Cincinnati that recently closed but, it was where my Pop and his buddies would hang.
On one of my trips back home I went in there and saw all the pictures of my father and his magic crew on the walls of that place as a memorial. It hit me hard that they were all passed, my family members too, everything all at once. It’s like I experienced a huge painful shift in time. I began to cry and had to leave. It was very painful and uncomfortable.
Tim Pringle
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Damn, Bob. This hits home. I’m only 53 and left Northeast Ohio for Nashville 15 years ago. I wrote a second lyric/poem for “My Hometown†for an English class in undergrad at Kent State but I’ll spare sharing it. I feel the same when I go back. No regrets. So many people I know there are living the same lives and it’s sad. I’m no one but I’m living a life I never could have back there. I’ve played on the Ryman stage and I have a book coming out next month. I love the place but I’m so grateful I got out.
Steve McClain
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I left Stamford twice.Last time was 23 years ago.I want a pizza and a cannoli.But the west is the best.Stay well Bob,Ted Keane
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I left Grand Rapids, Mi, my hometown, when I graduated from High School. I have been back a very few times since leaving. There still are hazy memories of the good times. But all in all it is a very small place where people want to be a big fish in a small pond or are just hanging by a thread. You see a huge percentage of high paying auto manufacturing jobs are gone.
I am glad I left, it was never the place for me!
Mike Busch
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That was a beautifully told story of a return to your place. I could relate to every detail.
I grew up in Branford, CT. My parents are side by side at St Agnes Cemetery. All the names are different, but the experience of driving around and seeing the building fires the synapses of stories long forgotten.
We had one  true love in common, on Wooster St in New Haven. Frank Pepe’s Neapolitan Pizza. To this day when we return East, Pepe’s is a must do. And perhaps like your first true love, no other pie has the same magic.
There are now numerous franchises of Frank Pepe throughout Connecticut and even near Boston.
We’ve also moved to the desert after a long radio career on both coasts. Seattle was home for 25 years.
And now that the literal final sunset looms near, life is all about meaningful moments with and for real people who care.
I’ve always appreciated what you do Bob. Thank you.
Bob Rivers
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Hi Bob. Like you I grew up in Fairfield. My recent film, THE GREATEST RADIO STATION IN THE WORLD, is about WPKN in Bridgeport. The station has moved from their 55 year plus home on the campus of the University of Bridgeport to downtown Bridgeport. Across the street there is Trattoria ‘A Vucchella, a five star restaurant. Wish I could have taken you there for a knosh.
One block away is Miss Thelma’s, a world class soul food joint. Another couple of blocks away is Berlinetta Brewing, making some of the best pilsner you’ll ever taste. New artist lofts are being built. Positive things are happening to the city. Slow, yes, but definitely happening.
Thrilled you revisited Seaside Park, one of the most scenic park combos of beach, lighthouse and playing fields you’ll find on the East Coast. All ethnicities recreating on a daily basis.
Head west on US 1 and you’ll come to the Black Rock section of the city. Terrific restaurants and the new Park City Music Hall, which has just got the local music scene exploding. And the upcoming “Porch Fest” is an absolute delight with musicians of all ilks playing on neighborhood front porches.
I hope you drove around downtown Fairfield and the beach area. In the summer it is kinda like Cali, your turf. Folks are active…bicycling, walking, skating, scootering…there is a definite energetic buzz. And Sacred Heart University bought and renovated the old Community Theater where they showcase films, live theater, and live music. In the building behind the Community sits FTC, a two stage venue that presents national music acts every week.
So, like you, even though I got out of Fairfield, in my case to work in the world of documentary film in Boston, I’m considering moving back to the home turf. Really good artistic and cultural stuff is blooming there. And a great food scene with the best pizza in the world.
Peace…
Cob Carlson
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Both my parents attended grad school at Brandeis, and my first home was down the street in Waltham, MA. We’d do Passover Seder in Queens and see the sights in NYC when I was growing up. So, I was up and down from Boston to NY frequently, and it never dawned on me how backward Connecticut was, stuck on I-95 in the middle. I lived in Burlington VT from 85-88, and by far the most broken, un-diverse place in New England is CT. I operated a business in Fairfield Center from 1990-2000, and I am forever grateful for that journey, I learned so much. But as you said, I also escaped, and I am even more thankful for that.
Micah Sheveloff
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Bob—In 1959, when I was 13, my family moved from Woodmere, Long Island (just outside Queens) to Westport. Â To me, we might as well have moved to Iowa.
Still, I got used to it. Â Now, 60 years later when I occasionally journey back to Woodmere and walk around (Woodmere is small and walkable), it looks weird and I feel like you felt when revisiting Fairfield.
Anyway, when I was 16 in Westport, some friends and I fell in with some kids from Roger Ludlowe. Â Â Â Westport and Fairfield kids partied together, swimming in the river at Devil’s Den (Weston) and Falls Hole (Redding), and dancing at two Westchester roadhouses north of Stamford, the Hearth and the Three Pines.
We all hung out at Cindy’s, a diner in Fairfield on the Post Road at the corner of Unquowa Road. Â Made out in the Community Theater balcony, or at the two drive-in theaters on the Bridgeport line.
Although the two towns differed markedly (Westport a celebrity enclave and Fairfield semi-tough) we hit it off and had memorable times together.
Paul Lanning
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Still miss CT this time of year.
Marth Winsch
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Funny my wife has been visiting her fam and old haunts in westport last several days
We often talk about those who stay or move back home. It’s a different wiring I think than those who leave for LA (best choice by far) and NYC
If u see a 15yo who looks like me flying back to la w my wife tomorrow early morn on AA say hi
Evan Harrison
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hi Bob…i always love these columns when you talk about Fairfield…like you, it was a town I couldn’t wait to leave when I was young but every now and then I have really good memories of friends, family and experiences…I hope you are well. Bob Dranoff
Dr. Robert Dranoff
Commissioner
East Coast Conference   NCAA DIVISION II
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I too am from Fairfield, and went to Fairfield Woods when it was a Jr. High (82-84) and then to Andrew Warde HS and in my senior year we were the first year of the new ‘history’ becoming Fairfield High School, and the Mustangs. (I lived near Lake Mohegan in a neighborhood that was built in 1973 when my parents bought the house.) I have continued to come back to Fairfield in the decades since I left, as my father lived down the street from another landmark liquor store, Harry’s Liquor Warehouse, just off of the Post Road as Fairfield becomes Southport becomes Westport. (He ended up there following my parents divorce).
I know exactly what you mean about the standards and expectations there. Had I followed the path that my parents suggested- I would have ended up at Pfizer or Met Life- they were both successful in those industries, and had connections I could have exploited to leap right into the upper middle class. Had I been very successful, I may have been lucky enough to purchase a home just like you describe, despite the fact that in Fairfield they are literally double or triple the cost of most places in the country.
Like you, I fled Fairfield and New England- my landing place ended up being in Eugene OR instead of California, but not too far from your experience I’m guessing, and I’m a bit younger than you. I too felt the need to strike out from a corporate and conformist lifestyle- and was able to build a booking agency and now I spend my time producing shows and acquiring them for my clients.
I do feel pretty strongly that the very skills that I needed to be successful at not conforming to the Fairfield life path, were learned and earned right there in Fairfield. How did a kid Bar Mitzvah’d off of Stratfield Rd in Fairfield end up in rural New England, running a meshuggenah music agency? Likely because of the confidence that I gained there, and the quality education and bucolic yet civilized surroundings of that area.
I’m a little sad like you that I have lost a primary reason to visit Fairfield, my Mom moved from there around 1992 or so to Florida, and my father passed almost three years ago. I do still have a lot of friends in the area that are helping me to keep Fairfield in my peripheral vision.
I’m always amused at the similarity of our upbringing.
Phil Simon – Simon Says Booking
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Good one, Bob.
I’ve had a similar experience but NJ to NYC.
Jack Morer
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I think the old adage “You can’t go back” is incorrect.
You CAN go back.
It’s just maybe you shouldn’t.
Mark Hudson
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Thanks for sharing — I can identify with a lot of what you wrote — very true. East vs. West —
R. Lowenstein
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Did that trip back once… got to leave twice!
Keep giving,
Terry Gottschalk
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This resonated with me Bob. All the same we never really leave the town we were born in.
Mike Howard
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I grew up down 91 from you in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, first exit in Massachusetts north of Hartford. I’ll be 69 in a few weeks so we are of the same generation.
I am wondering if you remember the Shaperos of Fairfield? They were my cousins. Sanford Shapero was the rabbi in town until he took the pulpit of a major reform synagogue in Beverly Hills. My brothers and I were awestruck by the stories of our beautiful cousin Andy hanging with stars and especially musicians. Â We would drive down to Fairfield once a month as my grandmother relocated there to be near her daughter, the rabbi’s wife. As the years passed their family fell apart, Sandy left the rabbinate and became executive director of the City of Hope in LA.
In any case your musings often closely parallel my own experiences, family, cultural etc. We probably saw some shows together…..Mountain and Johnny Winter at Quininpiac College in High School? My first Dead show was July 1971 at Yale Bowl. The entire crowd was given spiked cool aide.
Bands like NRBQ, Clean Living, Fat…..those were the days.
I was the staff cartoonist for the Valley Advocate. Anyway, nice to trip down memory lane with you….even in 3/4 scale.
Best regards
Jonathan.
Jonathan Plotkin
Chief Imagination Officer
The Spontoonist
www.spontoonist.com
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A similar story…
Last September, I returned to Massachusetts’ North Shore, where I grew up in the ‘60s. My favorite drive from Logan, up Rte 1A, through my hometown of Salem and on to Rte. 127 up through Rockport, where I used to titillate the coeds from Endicott Junior College, from my high school senior year until I left for the Navy after a fruitless freshman year at Colorado State. That was my turf. High school dances featuring Teddy & the Pandas – a killer cover band that had 2 top ten hits on WMEX radio in Boston in ’66 & opened for The Dave Clark Five at Boston Garden. We had Devereaux Beach in Marblehead & Singing Beach in Manchester. Woodman’s ‘eat in the rough’ in Essex for lobster rolls and fried clams, Treadwell’s Ice Cream for the best hot fudge sundaes.
In the summer of ’65, I ventured into Harvard Square to the well-known Club 47 to see and hear The Paul Butterfield Blues Band with Mike Bloomfield for the first time. This was before FM radio made its way into our consciousness. The folkies brought them to my attention from the Newport Folk Festival, the Bob Dylan connection and who could be more ‘in the know’. Bloomfield’s Les Paul & Butter’s blues harp blew me away – the seminal event in my passion for period rock. From  August ’68 to February ’69, I saw Hendrix first, then Cream in October, followed by Led Zeppelin’s 1st tour in February and a week later, The Jeff Back Group with Rod Stewart. I’m still gobsmacked that I saw Jimi, EC, Page & Beck in a span of 6 months while stationed outside Chicago in the Navy.
After college, I moved to San Francisco, launching a career in radio, tv and recording tech. Not long after, I moved to New York City to join ABC TV Network. Then back to the Bay Area, down to Calabasas and up to Portland, OR to follow the tech migration. The next 11 years I spent in Beijing, notching my 4th Olympics as a tech in ’08. Along the way, I saw The Stones’ and Clapton’s 1st shows in China – both in Shanghai – not to mention both acts separately in Japan multiple times.
I’ve lived in Las Vegas for the past 13 years, enjoying a more quiet life phase. But that recent trip to Boston’s North Shore struck a chord. All the old haunts have evolved – not for the better. People are less polite than I recall. Pretension abounds without foundation. Theirs is a smaller world, despite the hoopla of the New England tech corridor. They ain’t seen nothin’ until they witness a sunset at Malibu, or an Irish coffee at the Buena Vista in San Francisco. How homogenized our beautiful land has become.
These days, I yearn to return to Europe – one of my past sales territories. But these days, on my dime – my chosen destinations for whatever interval I determine. Burgundy and Tuscany in the past 14 months. Bordeaux, Spain and Portugal on tap, with a taste of Nova Scotia tossed in.
Through it all, there’s that soundtrack playing, from ‘East-West’, ‘Kind of Blue’, Derek & the Dominos, Little Feat to Chet Baker, Keith Jarrett and, most recently, Buddhattitude.
Thanks for the trip down New England’s memory lane…
Kevin Dauphinee
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At some point I wanted to move away.  But the thought of living on top or in between other people where I didn’t have a yard in a city was not negotiable.
I also played softball, hockey  still make original music, write for the regional newspaper and had a family.
Maybe Mellencamp was right
“I was born in a small town , and  I live in  a small town, probably die in the small town, oh those small communities”
John Emms
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Enjoyed reading that Bob. We were very lucky to have the era’s that we did. Not putting down the future and present, but it’s mind-blowing the talent that has flown through the years. I think in the future they will refer to the 60 years from 1950 to 2010 as a golden delicious apple for music, artists, actors and the arts. Steve Jobs included. I for one, born in ’59, would not have wanted to have missed it.
Simon & Garfunkel “America” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo2ZsAOlvEM
Eddie Gordon
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Good one!
I felt your disappointment.
Fact is NOTHING is the same. How could it be?
We grew up at the best of times. Best Music, sex didn’t kill you, drugs were weed and acid and beer and Boones Farm . haha NO one died and there was almost zero violence. You might get youir ass kicked at the flag pole after cschool. You HAD to show up no matter what
Have a good one my friend
Luke
(Steve Lukather)
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From a reader:Â
Someone told me: If Columbus had landed on the West Coast of the United States, New England would still be uninhabited.
Thanks for writing about James Montgomery Band. I had totally forgotten those guys. It was one of the first records I produced with Tom Dowd. We cut much of the record at Phil Walden’s Capricorn studios in Macon – that was a long time ago.
Best,
–albhy galuten
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James went to the same HS as me here in Grosse Pointe, MI. He comes back from time to time. I have backed him up on local gigs and consider him a friend. His late brother Jeff was a local gay rights activist and his brother John was a VP at I think Epic? He has great stories of the record biz and the majors and he came home to raise a family.
James is a great entertainer, and has all kinds of showmanship! He toured heavily with Johnny Winter.
Thanks for bringing him up! That Capricorn record was a favorite when I was in HS!
RJ Spangler
Grosse Pointe Park
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I was a sophomore at Tufts University in the Fall of 1971 living in Carmichael Hall. It was an all men’s dorm and the Animal House of Tufts.
I had seen James and his band at my friend’s frat at MIT and was totally blown away by his act.
My roommate and I decided to try our hand at concert promotion, so we hired James and the band for $100 to play in the common room of the dorm. He absolutely killed it.
Over the years since, I have seen James many times and we always joke about that gig. He insists that we gave him $200 but I don’t think so.
I do remember that the band came back to our room after the set and smoked at least $200 of weed, so maybe we are both right.
Cheers, Will Vogt
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I was on the concert committee at Penn State in the late 70s. Penn State is in the middle of nowhere but it’s a big school so we managed to get good shows. I remember Van Morrison on the Wavelength tour with Rockpile opening. We had The Kinks, the Grateful Dead, the Jerry Garcia Band, David Grisman, Utopia, Hall and Oates, Poco (you didn’t mention the excellent A Good Feeling to Know), Graham Nash, Graham Parker, John Hall, Ornette Coleman, Pat Metheny, Charlie Byrd, Talking Heads, Gregg Allman playing with the Nighthawks. We booked Elvis Costello on the Trust tour but there was a big snowstorm and they cancelled multiple dates. Speaking of Mahavishnu, we even had John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, and Paco de Lucia. These are just the bookings I remember. I imagine I’m leaving out a few.
One of my favorite stories is about Bo Diddley. He was booked to play an outdoor music festival I was in charge of. He was a little prickly at first. The first thing he said was he wasn’t going on until he was paid. He was great once I paid him.
Music is my passion. Live shows are the best. There is nothing like being anywhere in the building at a show. I wish I had had the courage to pursue a career in it.
Harold Love
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James is my neighbor.  Super nice guy,  I park my car behind his JMBB license plates often.  Plays locally in Rhode Island and Connecticut frequently. He’s still great!
Larry Webman
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Saw James and his hot band open for J Geils in Long Island around 1975. He plays free shows for the city of Boston every summer. Was just here a few weeks ago. Hasn’t lost a step.
Check Your Bucket was played all the time by Stoneman on WPLR back in the day. Was sorry I never got to see Duke and The Drivers live but still play that record in the car.
Ira Sperling
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Pure magic, thanks for asking Tom to provide that gift. You left Midd a little too early. I got to see B.B. King and Jackson Browne in the chapel and the Rolling Thunder Revue at UVM.
Michael March ’77
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When The Malibooz went to college, we changed our name to Sageworth. After college, Walter Egan took the band to Boston where they did many, many nights with James Montgomery band. James was the man on harp and I can see he still is. He used to wear a fishing utility belt when he performed. Each loop of the belt contained a different harp; that way he could switch keys very quickly and effortlessly. I’ve really never seen anyone else do that before or since.
By the way, Sageworth also did a bunch of shows  with Duke and the drivers as well. I just saw Tom Swift from the band last September and the boys are still out doing it , there’s no money in it anymore. We know that, but some people just do it for the magic.
Best,
John Zambetti
The Malibooz
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Hey Bob, when my band Sageworth played in Boston in 1972-73 we were managed by the same people who managed the James Montgomery Band. We got to see them close-up and get to know them. What a great band!
And James was always a great friend to us.
Thanks for giving him some notice.
Walter Egan
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You’re right about how some of us got started in the music biz—and how loose it was.  I got my start at Michigan State by becoming the poster artist for the student government’s concert organization.  Within a year, I was its chairman, running what was really a million dollar operation, booking and running dozens of shows every year.  Other than being a pretty good poster artist, and a serious music freak, I had ZERO experience.  Thankfully, my five years at the helm were quite successful and lots of fellow students and colleagues went on to make their marks in the music business.  Those were the “daze.â€
PS.  In fact, James Montgomery’s brother, Jeff, was a member of that committee for awhile!
Hugh Surratt
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Saw James Montgomery in Omaha Ne in about 1976 or so opening for Jefferson Starship. His band blew me away . Ran out the next day to the local record shop in Lincoln Ne ( Dirt Cheap) and found his album (which I still have someplace) Listened to it a lot. Then like a lot of acts, never heard from him again. I think about that band a lot more than I should and now , thanks to you, I know the story. Great job ,Bob, finding these folks after all these years!
ceetee
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In my college days, 70-74, I was like a vacuum when it came building my LP collection.  At the CCNY bookstore there were record bins which always attracted my attention, which is how I became one of the relatively few owners of the Live Yardbirds Featuring Jimmy Page LP before Peter Grant(?) had it quickly pulled from the shelves.
One day I saw two LPs that I decided to take a chance on.  Already a devotee of Al Kooper, I picked up the eponymous Lynyrd Skynyrd, their first.  Seeing his name and the album cover both intrigued me enough to drop ~$3.00 on it.  And First Time Out by The James Montgomery Band.  I knew nothing of either of these, but in those days that was merely a minor criterion.
And I couldn’t get enough of either of these two discs, both exceptional.  I really loved and still do love First Time Out, and figured this band would be going somewhere, although their followup was a disappointment and they soon disappeared from national exposure as I recall.  But that initial release was something that my ears could not get enough of.  Jump Blues I suppose is the category that it fell under.  Pretty much most all the cuts were delicious and addictive, still to this day.  This band knew how to lay down a bass groove and work from there.
One doesn’t need to get past I’m Funky, But I’m Clean and/or Going Down to understand where they were coming from.  But if this title is still available, please do yourself a favor, give a listen to the entire LP and you will be richly rewarded.
Alan Fishman
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I was a huge fan of the Allmans and anything on Capricorn records! The Capricorn release of JMB is one of my favorites. Back in the early 2,000s I was able to find and buy a copy of it on CD much to my delight! Hard rockin’ blues and R&B. My favorite track starts at 11:30 “If You Want Me.â€
I saw them open for the Allmans in ~ 74 (?). Had never heard of em’. They jammed, and I do mean jammed on “Train†“Drive myself Crazy†and the other tunes. I couldn’t believe how f*cking good these guys were. Incredible dynamics! They were killer!!! I was gob smacked…(!)
JMB “First Time Out†link below:
Tim Pringle
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The track I’m Funky But I’m Clean is pretty funky!
Kevin Kiley
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I Can’t Stop (No, No, No)
One of my favorites that a band I was in ages ago did. I’ll spare you the cover, and I apologize for the quality. I couldn’t find it anywhere other than my 30 year old iTunes rip.
Pamela Arnold
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Love the mention of college concert boards! College radio also a gateway drug to getting into the biz I’d have to guess…
My bridge/training wheels for the music biz was joining the Vanderbilt Programming Board committee in the fall of 05 to book Rites of Spring the next semester. Helping get my new (at the time) favorite band My Morning Jacket (currently still my favorite band half a life later) that year was (and still is) one of the peak experiences of my time here. A little known frat/bar circuit group called Zac Brown Band played very early in the same day. The next year I co-chaired and we had The Roots, Wolfmother, Drive-By Truckers, Amos Lee among others.
Fun tale: I was in a booking meeting when our grad advisor was going through booking inquiries / CD packages and asked the three of us running Rites booking if we wanted to sign up this virtually unknown teenage starlet with a demo single called “Tim McGraw” for pennies. We, being the ripeage of 20/21 or so, decided she was too young and in no way refined or hip enough for our highly developed music tastes/festival we envisioned and passed. Whoops.
I only lasted a few years in the music biz before moving on to my current world/industry, but look back at that whole experience above everything else I was paid to do in the several years that followed bouncing around the industry, what a ride!
Thanks Bob,
Wesley Hodges
freelance music journalist / former music biz hack / lawyer
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Your comments brought back the memories…  I worked on the shows in college because there was a lot I wanted to see, and needed them to come to me in Troy, NY if possible. Rensselaer was in a good position between NYC and Buffalo, so we had a pretty good selection. Freshman year I saw Chicago, Mahavishnu Orchestra with Jean-Luc Ponty, Frampton’s Camel, and some more. My strongest memory is of the show we were not allowed to put on because the financial people thought it too risky. The show offered was Mott the Hoople, with a tour opening on Broadway, NYC. They had a new opening act on its first US Tour, and that band was my primary interest: Queen. Queen’s first album doesn’t get much air play but is fantastic. So the accountants won the day and the show bypassed us on its way to the rest of the country. The memory still brings a deep sigh about “what could’a been”.
Amazing how music brings life into focus. I am about your age, and we had an incredible soundtrack for the world and our lives.
Cheers.
Todd Jackson
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I always love your stories about Middlebury. I went to St. Lawrence (1967-1971) where I was Coffee House Chairman and then Concert Chairman.
After college, I became a Lecture and Literary agent, which I am to this day.
I do identify with how hard it was to get A+ entertainment to an out-of-the-way college. We did have Jethto Tull, The Box Tops, Chuck Berry,
and The Chambers Brothers while I was there. Clarkson (10 miles away) had The Happenings, The Foundations, Jefferson Airplane (on acid),
Gordon Lightfoot, Judy Collins, and The Yardbirds (Page using the violin bow), among others.
Unfortunately, just prior to my becoming Chairman, we also were forced to contract for Every Mothers Son.
I booked Townes Van Zandt for one week of shows, which was a highlight. Hanging with Townes was a trip.
Also, I booked Seatrain for February 1971 and Boz Scaggs for 2 shows on his first tour (Moments LP) in May 1971.
It was a 525 seat theater and I convinced the Student Activities Director that we would sell out. We paid
$1100 total for 2 shows.  Tickets were $1.50.
Just as with many other events in my life, we lost money. I graduated 3 weeks later and never looked back!
At my 50th reunion, several of my classmates thanked me for bringing Boz to campus.. Lifelong fans of an artist do that.
Nevertheless, the musicians were all cool, very nice to us students and I cherish the memories. Also, they gave the illusion
of “not mailing it in”, which we appreciated.
Tony Colao
Easthampton, MA
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That brings back some memories. I believe I’m the same age/graduation year as you—Brandeis University 1974. Back in the day, the James Montgomery Blues Band was a regular at Brandeis’ coffee house, Cholmondeley’s (pronounced “Chumley’s). My friends and I saw them quite a few times; we even travelled once into either Boston or Cambridge (I don’t remember which) to see them perform. I remember they did get signed and put out an album, which went nowhere, and their major label career was over. I’m glad to hear he’s still around and doing well.
Speaking of on-campus concerts, in those days, the only performance space suitable for a rock band that could seat more than about 150 people was the gym. Our first year, we went to see Mountain there. The sound was so horrible that we passed on going the next year to see the act that came in, a “local act†that none of us had heard of—Aerosmith.
Don Friedman
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I went to school in Boston at Brandeis in the mid-70’s. James Montgomery was all over WBCN, and I really enjoyed the music. I especially loved Duck Fever, with its parody of a duck in the John Travolta white Saturday Night Fever suit and a big yellow bill.
Paul Kaytes
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Bob, In the fall of 1971, maybe your junior year at Middlebury, Mahavishnu Orchestra opened for The Byrds at the University of Vermont.  Blue Oyster Cult was also on the bill, sandwiched in between. Did you make the 30 mile drive north for that show?  I never served on the concert bureau but did own a nightclub called Hunt’s in Burlington, Vermont post graduation from UVM. James Montgomery and his band played there many times and we booked Tom Rush, like clockwork, twice a year.  He always sold out four shows over two nights with a $5 ticket!  I won’t tell you what we paid Tom but the club only had 140 seats in its earliest incarnation so you can do the math.  Saw Tom last summer at the Barre Opera House and he still puts on a great show.  Chico Lager
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Sounds like you kids at Middlebury didn’t know how to have fun. During my years in Boston and we had our share of bands that hit it big, but the ones that didn’t still had value. One of the most under appreciated on a larger scale was James Montgomery, so good on you for giving him some ink. I saw him not long ago in Boston, he’s still amazing. But music is more than name acts and exceptional talent, it can be about a good time. Duke and the Drivers were nothing but fun. Now I’m talking about the first couple of years and the album on ABC which may have been before your college run. Just a great house band if you like to boogie. The Modern Lovers don’t get enough props, punk before anybody knew what punk was.
John Brodey
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James Montgomery has always been the real deal. My friend Barbara Holliday sang a lot with him over the years.
As for Taj Mahal’s first album and his “Statesboro Blues,” there is no better version. I saw him on a tiny workshop stage at the Newport Folk Festival, with his band including Jesse Ed, in 1968 and he blew me away. I got the album as soon as I got home. I was there at the Fillmore East when the Allmans did it, and theirs is a great version, I mean how could it not be with Duane’s playing. But I’m sticking with Taj.
I remember ALL those bands you mentioned, saw pretty much all of them at one time or another.
Toby Mamis
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When The Allman Brothers went to LA for the first time the band that knocked them out was The Rising Sons, Ry and Taj’s band, and one of their staples was Statesboro Blues arranged about like the version on Taj’s first album, an album that gives me the same thrill today it did 50 odd years ago. The Allmans heard it and the rest is history.
Phil Brown
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I had the absolute joy of hearing James Montgomery play nearly every month during my time at BU.  In fact, a friend of mine (hello, Peter) and I snuck into the student government structure and started putting on “Ballroom Boogies†in the student union ballroom.  They grew to the point that the real student government “took over†(the money) and tried putting them on in the larger gym.  And then booked Aerosmith instead of James, and it was all over.  Aerosmith were aiming for MTV stardom before there was MTV, and it showed in their playing as well as their stance. James Montgomery wanted to play. And still does, as you rightly note.
David Frail
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Thanks for filling my afternoon with the 3 versions of Statesboro I have. All great but Blind Willie brought a tear….probably for all the old blues guys….from them it always  feels more like life than performance.
Keep writing, I’ll keep reading.
Joan Grayson SF
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I started out working the Orpheum in Boston for Don Law  1971 as usher ticket taker security stage hand and stage manager. All the great bands in a 2842 seat theater..Steely Dan Kinks Queen and everybody else …James Montgomery was the local band that rocked. We used to see them in the basement at Brandys
With Bonnie Roomful of Blues James Cotton…sometimes after  2am with the door locked. Aerosmith was playing on the street outside BU …Bruce at Joes in Cambridge and then opening up for Bonnie at the Music Hall …Little Feat on Halloween  2 shows first one was on WBCN unbelievable . Lots of great shows. I have been doing this for over 50 years now. I eventually, after touring with Eagles Joni CSN Neil  and many more as a lighting designer and tech, ended up being Brian Murphy’s Head Production manager at Avalon for 13 years.
…I did sneak into the Fillmore on closing night, even have the poster..ended up in Bill’s office.  rolling a keg in the front door with the caterers…Woodstock ,Concert for Bangladesh and many more.
Sometime I feel like Forest Gump with all the great moments I have seen…Â
Always a pleasure
Danny O’Bryen
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Fifty States of Freedom was on the third Brewer & Shipley album.
John Hughes
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I was surprised to see you mention Illinois Speed Press. Paul Cotton’s partner in that project was Kal David. Kal went on to form the Fabulous Rhinestones with bassist Harvey Brooks. Then Kal spent the rest of his career singing and playing the blues, and doing it quite well. I was fortunate to catch a great benefit show in Willimantic CT with Kal teamed up with James Montgomery and keyboard wiz Mike Finnegan (who introduced Gregg Allman to the Hammond B-3). Sadly, James us the only one of the three still with us.
Bob Levy
Branford CT
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On several occasions during my days in the radio business I worked with both James Montgomery and Tom Rush. They are truly great men and really incredible artists. We are very blessed here on the East Coast to have them living and performing regularly here.
Jack Casey
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I remember seeing James Montgomery at Ed Burke’s on Huntington Ave in Mission Hill. What a show from a quintessential bluesman!
I must say, Tom looks very comfy at home on Cape Anne on a Sunday afternoon. Â Why tour when you can hang out at home in your slippers and have your friends come over to jam?
Thanks, Ed
Ed Fleck (MRG shareholder)
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I have been a loyal subscriber for many years now. In all those years this is the first time I have seen you straight-out disrespect a working Rock n Roll Band. Unfortunately, it was my band.
I had 12 wonderful years with Duke and the Drivers. In 1973 when we got the Middlebury gig that you said was a “loser showâ€, we were just breaking out of the clubs having only finished at Boston University the year before. A new band. Working up a show.
I don’t remember much about the Middlebury gig, but I do remember that we got paid $1,200.00 to drive up from Boston, unload our own equipment and set it up, do a 90-minute set, break it all down, then, stuff all the equipment and ourselves in two station wagons and drive the three and a half hours back to our communal barn outside of Boston to save the motel expense and, that we were thrilled that we each got $100.00 for the show after expenses.
Over the next several years, when we were not doing a show, we were rehearsing, every day. We went on to record with Eddie Kramer at Electric Lady Studios, had good chart action, and recorded a second record in L.A. with Producer Deke Richards. In those days, the labels gave real cash tour support so we could play every roadhouse from Boston to Cleveland to Los Angeles and even a stint as the “House Band†at the old Starwood Ballroom on La Cienega Blvd. The Salt Palace in SLC with Deep Purple was a memorable show. Later, Tommy Bolan with whom I made friends, came, and jammed with us at the Bottom line in New York Unfortunately, it was his last appearance on stage before he died.
It is the camaraderie with other working bands that makes it all so special. Duke did a series of gigs with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. During our soundcheck at a shed somewhere. Southside boys ran onto the stage and pushed over all our equipment and then ran off. We laughed and laughed backstage. We called them “Juke Joint Johnny and the Jersy Joy Boys,†they called us “Puke in the Driveway.†We were tight and we honored each other. It’s the best feeling.
Duke did at least 50 shows with James Montgomery who I still count among my favorite friends and Maybe 20 shows with Aerosmith all over the US. Steven, Joe, and Brad especially remain friends, we are all still very fond of each other. Of course, Peter Wolf, Seth, Danny and Steven Jo came on stage with us numerous times, we played the Boston Garden together.
We did a show one evening with James Cotton, I remember him telling the venue owner, “These boys can stop on a dime and give you nine cents change.â€Â  We still use his tagline in our Spotify description. Our show got super tight, we had 3 frontmen, a lot of theatrics, and always a full house with our rowdy fans. Duke holds the record for the highest liquor sales ever at Legendary Paul’s Mall. You may recall that our fans were so crazy they tore out the ceiling after the show.
I’m proud of the determination that drove us to rehearse and record and rehearse again which enabled us to hold the #1 spot at WMMS for 2 weeks and gain “Hot 100†action. We accomplished a lot as far as we are concerned; we were a working Rock N’ Roll Band. What is better than that?
The work ethic we developed (sometimes 8 shows in a week) carried a lot of weight. I would never have been able to complete Law School without it that experience.
That is the true legacy of a working band. The collective energy to entertain and perform and the identification as a member of a tribe of hard-working traveling performers which includes the sound engineers, lighting directors, drivers, roadies and producers, and the folks like you who oversee, analyze and report on the state of the world we live and work in.
There are thousands of us out there right now, in garages and rehearsal spaces, playing the VFW lounges and the small colleges. Spending hours and years working up a show and giving it all to Rock N Roll. Maybe they will never fill a stadium or have a platinum record, but it is a musical tradition that deserves all of our respect as the backbone of the genre.
Duke is still at it in our own way, still best friends. We are even releasing a workup of re-mastered and previously unreleased live tracks this summer “Showtime†a fun-filled project meant to keep us in touch and involved. We love it. Here’s a link to a Boston Globe Article written when we had our reunion summer.  https://archive.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2003/11/15/the_boys_and_the_band/
I have always felt through my limited correspondence with you over the years, that you too are a member of that tribe I mentioned. So, to read from you, whom I have so long respected and enjoyed, such a seriously harsh comment is amazingly hurtful.  Bob, you are one of us, like it or not even if you hated the show 50 years ago at Middlebury College.
Still a fan:
Tom Swift
(Mad Mississippi Buffalo)
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Poco, Tom Rush, Â Duke and the Drivers, James Montgomery… Your post felt like a history of my booking career. At some point, I represented all four, and we still represent Tom.
James Montgomery has always been a great guy – talented, funny, warm, honest, hard worker – and, sadly, a very underappreciated talent.
Thank you for remembering and for shining your spotlight on James.
Bruce Houghton
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Thanks for the shoutout, Bob. If you liked this week’s Rockport Sundays posting, you’re going to LOVE the one that goes up this Sunday — James Montgomery and me again, jamming on Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” and Sleepy John Estes’ “Drop Down Mamma”.
Hubris on parade. Why is it CEOs and Big Swinging Dicks believe their sh*t doesn’t stink? And it’s almost always males. Women are about community, helping each other, being aware of each other, and although there are exceptions this all comes from Deborah Tannen, a Ph.D., as opposed to the self-proclaimed scientific experts who are anything but.
So these guys think they know better. Even worse, they believe they’re special, that they rose above and are entitled to stay above. They abuse the public as they grant themselves gargantuan salaries. And they think that the public loves them for this. They rained CDs down upon the landscape, why would anybody desire anything else? Lack of vision, that’s another thing these execs lack. But when you give people options…
If I get one more e-mail from someone decrying Zuck… Who are these people who believe by removing themselves from the situation they’ll triumph? All holier-than-thou, refusing to use Facebook or Instagram or TikTok, refusing to shop at Amazon. Notice, they’re all aged. Young people don’t do this. Young people know that one platform dominates online, until it doesn’t. Evolve or die. Best to get ahead of the marketplace in order to succeed in the future, but too many companies excise founders and employ managers who make the numbers work until the company is eclipsed. Makes me crazy how much money these people are paid. It’s one thing if you invent the product… Give Zuckerberg credit for maintaining control. The founder may be mercurial, but oftentimes has a vision others do not. This is the essence of an artist. I get e-mail all the time from people talking to me about trained musicians. But you cannot train insight and vision. You can learn how to play the notes, and there’s a role for that, but the spoils go to those who push the envelope. And that’s a lonely endeavor. Because you’re ahead of the public and the public may never catch up.
So…
Elon Musk couldn’t read the room. The vocal right convinced him that he was sitting on a gold mine of participation, of users, if it could only be unleashed. We’ve been watching this movie for decades in America. Trump gets more ink than any other politician, but that does not mean the majority approve of him. The devolution of media and society means there is no widely accepted truth, and therefore some believe those who are noisiest rule, when this is rarely the case. This is what is happening in Israel right now, as the echo chamber right wants to limit the power of the Supreme Court, but the majority of the public does not want this, does not want to sacrifice democracy. And if you don’t pay attention to the majority, you’re one step away from being burned. This is what is happening with Putin right now. He’s been a strongman, but there are cracks. And in hindsight it’s easy to see the evolution of change, but it usually happens very quickly, like the Wall falling, or the end of Communism.
So Elon Musk thought there was no place else to go. That Twitter was safe. It was just about balancing the books and morphing the platform into something more profitable. And he was cheered on by a vocal male right that still believes it’s correct. My inbox is filled with righties saying I only laud Threads because I abhor the freedom of the new Twitter. I LOVE freedom! Like the freedom to have an abortion, the freedom to walk the streets without worrying I’ll be shot by some nincompoop open-carrying a gun… Freedom has been redefined by the right. To mean their rights can’t be impinged and they can do whatever they want. But what about the rest of us? We don’t count!
Oh, don’t tell me to stop writing about politics. This is the story of the day. And either you’re a righty trying to silence me or an antisocial nobody who thinks by sticking their head in the ground they can know what is going on.
So Elon thought he ruled at Twitter. What he said went. And he could act however he wanted, consequences be damned. This is the Trump paradigm. And both of these men have followers, but they’re the minority.
So Elon stops paying bills. Bad look for a billionaire. Trump did this too. Most people are not going to cheer you on, they can’t get away with stiffing people.
And Elon made the operation so lean there were outages. We expect everything to work seamlessly in the modern digital world.
And he eliminated content moderation, which most people want!
How is it that the right wants law and order, but not for themselves?
And then there are the outright lies. Like all the advertisers are back, that Twitter is burgeoning, when the facts say otherwise. This also is the Trump paradigm, lie enough and people will believe it.
But not everybody.
So suddenly you were subjected to views you completely disagreed with on Twitter, that were oftentimes false. And ads from right wing political candidates and tertiary companies. The experience was bad. And didn’t Steve Jobs tell us the user experience was everything? Isn’t this how he ate Microsoft’s lunch?
And then Elon forced himself into our thread and got rid of the authenticated blue checkmarks and turned it into a free-for-all based on money and all the old users were pissed-off. So you got the freedumb crowd getting blue checkmarks and foisting their inane drivel upon the rest of us.
Where else does this work, where the lunatics take over the asylum? Nowhere!
Then suddenly there was an alternative.
Overpriced CDs with one good track fattening the bottom lines of record companies and their executives, they didn’t want the gravy train to stop, they thought they had a lock on distribution. And then came the MP3 and Napster and all these men could say was the sound wasn’t as good and no one would want it. Now you can get better than CD quality on streaming services. Just like on Threads there’s not a follower-only option today, but there will be. Evolution happens. Almost nothing emerges fully-formed in tech, there is evolution, expect it.
So not only could the public get only the tracks they wanted, but they could play them on their computers, they were portable. And the record companies were pissed at Jobs for Rip/Mix/Burn… Talk about missing the point. The point was CDs were on their way out, protecting them and their rights… Oh, then we had Andy Lack and the rootkit fiasco. Even copyright protection on the files Apple ultimately sold!
All these were non-issues. The public wanted ease of use and portability and if you stood in the way you were in trouble.
And then came streaming. Which was ahead of the public, delivered more than people knew they wanted. They didn’t understand it. And now streaming not only rules the market in consumption, but in dollars. Streaming saved the music business. As for all this hype about vinyl…can we forget about it? First, the number reported is retail, not wholesale, so it’s artificially inflated, and a lot of the records are never even played, it’s just a souvenir, and to cut vinyl from a digital source is a joke. But don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. The vinyl story feels good, but that does not mean it’s right. Vinyl is a business, a de minimis business, all the money is in streaming.
The public hated the record labels. The only worse offenders were the cable companies. And just like Musk, the labels fought the customers in public, kept telling them they were wrong, that they should listen to the poobahs, what a joke.
So let this be a lesson to you. One that streaming television is missing. Do what is right for the customer, not for you. Eventually the public will have options and you’ll be screwed. Just like Netflix, et al, killed network TV. And Netflix, which drops all the product at once, is more profitable than its competitors. I could go on, but I’ll be excoriated by those proffering spreadsheets, delineating the numbers. This is how you get in trouble. You must think about satiating the customer, keeping them satisfied. How come Simon & Garfunkel knew this and all the fat cats do not?
I love Musk losing. Makes me feel good inside. Chalk one up for the little people. We put this guy in his place. Let’s leave him in his own echo chamber with his acolytes. Kinda like Fox News, but with less power. Meanwhile, Fox News keeps on getting sued. Touch the third rail at your peril.
So this is how it is. All that hogwash from the tech bloviators wearing blinders talking about all the changes Musk was going to make to Twitter, how he could turn it into a profitable paradise. These people are too inside, with no perspective. Just like the reporters who missed Trump. They didn’t know any dissatisfied blue collar workers so they didn’t exist.
Yes, the elite worked hard to earn their status and cash, the fact that the blue collar workers lost traction… And to this day the elite don’t want to hear it, they want to blame it all on white nationalism, and say it’s the middle class with money who came to D.C. on January 6th…
But it was all built on the backs of a dissatisfied blue collar base. You can see it on Twitter. Spewing inanities, out of touch with the facts, and when confronted with the truth what do they say? They’re going to vote for Trump anyway!
As for electric car options… Chinese EVs are cleaning up in their home country. And they’re spreading their wings into the rest of the world. Because the derided Chinese got the memo, electric was the future. Meanwhile, you’ve got right wing idiots trying to prop up fossil fuels. Look out the window, like the weather? You may not think there is global warming, but most people do. And they’re down for electric cars and the elimination of fossil fuels.
Which brings us to Detroit, run by managers satiating Wall Street and missing the point. Pivoting to electric cars but losing in the process. Because it’s all about software, and theirs is piss-poor. It would be like General Electric trying to compete with Apple. Big name, big in electric products, but no experience whatsoever in personal computers…
And GE is just about toast. Because its lauded CEO kept feeding Wall Street while it began to implode from the inside.
Jack Welch, another great man like Elon Musk, until we learn he cooked the books and drove GE into the ground.
But you don’t want your heroes eviscerated.
But the truth is so many of these men have clay feet.
Come on, how many times has Musk crossed the line? Pedo-guy?
Forget the government courts, in the court of public opinion this guy has been on a losing streak.
And the funniest thing is having played fast and loose with the law for years, acting like he is above it, he wants to employ it to stop Zuckerberg and Threads. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t decry the system and break its rules and then want to be the beneficiary of its rules.
So the bottom line is the Twitter experience was getting worse and worse, it was palpable if you were a user. And I therefore used it less. And I was open to an alternative, and Zuckerberg gave me one.
