Nobody watched it.

Oh, that’s not true. But relatively speaking it is. 2.9 million people in a country of 331.9 million. A rounding error. I mean everybody says the U.S. population s 330 million, not 331.9.

But if you read the press, you’d think that the “Succession” finale was the Super Bowl.

Now I see no reason to delve too deeply into the show itself, although I will say what little I saw lacked the gravitas of a great European drama, “Borgen,” or “The Bureau” or “Line of Duty,” take your pick. “Succession” was a cartoon. Not radically different from a Marvel movie if you think about it. But those who watched it could feel good about themselves, that they understood high finance, the workings of the media and how families transfer wealth and power. Ain’t that a laugh. Want to know more about that…well, it’s basically boring, and you don’t. Which is why it was gussied up for television, made as entertainment.

Now let’s add some more perspective. In the U.S., HBO has 46.8 million subscribers. HBO is the Tiffany network, not CBS. And almost everybody who subscribes chose not to watch the “Succession” finale, and they’re paying for the service! As for those who are not, they’re completely out of the loop, they see no reason to lay down their cash, they can live without the service, never mind “Succession,” but, once again, you’d think “Succession” is the most popular show on television, that it is single-handedly carrying the flag of HBO. But it’s not, nowhere close.

“White Lotus” had an average of 15.5 million viewers per episode. But it gets even worse. “Euphoria” had an average of 19.5 million viewers per episode. And “House of the Dragon” and “The Last of Us” 30 million.

Now HBO says that the last season of “Succession” was averaging 8.7 million viewers per episode. Which is not nothing, Then again, if these were diehard viewers, why weren’t they tuned in on Sunday night? They obviously didn’t need to see the finale that bad. Which was pitched as a modern day “Who Shot J.R.?”

HBO gets all the love, but the big kahuna is Netflix, by far. Netflix represents between 70% and 80% of the top ten most viewed shows every week. Combine Hulu, Disney+ and HBO Max and they don’t even add up to Netflix’s share. But Netflix is in the crapper and the others are big winners. That’s the story that’s been spread.

As for final seasons… Netflix’s “Ozark” was the second most streamed original program in 2022, and number four overall. Did we see all these stories about the finale of “Ozark”? Of course not!

Because “Ozark” didn’t play by the rules. Didn’t dribble out episodes week by week. Satiating the news media but not the viewer.

If you thought that media would drive attention and viewership to “Succession,” that’s not the case. Otherwise numbers would have expanded exponentially, they didn’t.

In other words, it was a circle jerk.

I’d argue that “Succession” would have done better if it was dropped all at once, like a Netflix show. Because then no one would have felt left out. You watch a Netflix show when you want, you don’t feel left out if you don’t binge it on day one. And frequently, you binge a series, maybe even the whole thing, long after it’s been released. You see the buzz ultimately reaches you, you want to be a member of the club. Whereas if you’re not watching “Succession” week by week on HBO, you’re left out, and there’s little incentive to catch up.

Netflix shows build on word of mouth, HBO shows still rely on hype.

But conventional hype does not work in a world with a zillion choices.

But my main point here is media is out of touch with the TV viewing masses, never mind those who don’t even have cable or streaming accounts, who are dedicated to TikTok, which is the choice of the young ‘uns, primarily because it’s more human and more interesting than most of the fare on broadcast, cable and streaming outlets.

But TikTok is pooh-poohed by the press. Seen as a youth folly. Déclassé. And the funny thing is the people testifying as to TikTok’s faults never even go on the service. Which is like reviewing a TV program without ever seeing it.

But my main point here isn’t about “Succession,” most people didn’t watch and don’t care, but how the media is covering other stories!

Like its infatuation with DeSantis’s botched Twitter announcement. I hate to tell you, the regular public doesn’t care. They didn’t tune in, never planned to tune in, and it will have no effect on whether they vote for DeSantis or not. But if you read the news stories, the launch wounded DeSantis significantly. But that’s completely untrue.

It’s even worse in music, where it’s all Taylor Swift all the time. When the biggest act in the business today is Morgan Wallen. But the media’s decided he’s a racist backwoods hick so he doesn’t even get a fraction of the attention. And in case you didn’t know, Morgan Wallen sells out stadiums too. His album will be bumped from number one this week by a plethora of Swift special projects, physical product that’s counted disproportionately by the music business charts so that Swift and her team/label can tell everybody how well they’re doing. But, Wallen will be number one again the week after that. Wallen’s material has got staying power.

But neither Swift nor Wallen are number one on the Spotify Top 50 today. That position is held by Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s “Ella Baila Sola.” One of your favorites, right? You spin Armado’s album “Desvelado” constantly! Let’s be real, you’ve never even heard of it, it’s all news to you!

And Karol G. is playing stadiums! You might have heard her name, but you can’t sing a song.

As a matter of fact, you probably can’t sing a song from the new work by Swift or Wallen either, because in truth they’re both niche products!

The music world is completely different these days. A better indicator of popularity is the touring chart, that’s where fans lay down hard cash to see their favorites. You can have a big hit on the Spotify Top 50 and barely be able to sell a ticket!

The news is distorted, it’s out of touch with the populace.

We’ve known this for years, but it’s only gotten worse.

I was served a video of this guy on TikTok… An evangelical Christian. Who ultimately went to a non-Christian law school. The professor testified to some fact and the guy freaked out, stood up and said it wasn’t true and walked out and then dropped the class. And ultimately realized he was the one who was wrong, he’d been brainwashed. And then in a series of videos he explains the right wing evangelical Christian mind-set. There’s no way you can reach these people. But the left wing media, the middle of the road media, keep believing they can, but they can’t. That’s right, I learned more about the country’s political landscape on TikTok than I did in the “New York Times,” never mind the “Wall Street Journal” or the “Washington Post” or MSNBC or… Gave me a whole new perspective. The coming election is not about ideas, but getting out the vote. But we’re going to read about the horse race on a granular level for eighteen months.

You see the traditional media doesn’t want to lose power. It may be online, but it’s almost the same as it ever was, with the same kinds of writers. Today it’s not about going out with your notebook and getting the story, it’s about reading or listening to the words of those who are living the story. They’re readily available online, then again, mainstream media is caught up in this inane story that online is the devil. That we must keep kids from social media. Cut down their screen time. When in truth, the joke is on them, not only are the kids alright, they’re in the know!

And the point of all this is not to argue or offend you, but to wake you up, the world is much more vast than you’re being told, much more complicated. The successes are not as big as you’re being told, certainly not compared to the successes of the much smaller pre-internet world, and there are numerous players that have sustaining audiences that get no love from the media, but are adored by their fans.

This is a huge problem. It’s a distortion of the landscape.

Used to be you could get truth from a record. Now you’re better off checking out streaming TV, TikTok even more. You hear about all these influencers trying to make money… That’s the minority. Today the script has flipped, the public is the star. People want to be heard and the vast majority are listening.

But not the machers in the mainstream press.

Spotify: https://shorturl.at/LNPW3

YouTube: https://shorturl.at/zDL26

1

Most people had no idea Stephen Stills could wail until “Super Session.” As for the Buffalo Springfield… Most people considered it a band with a hit single and not much more. The Springfield really didn’t experience a renaissance until after the initial Crosby, Stills & Nash record in ’69, people wanted more and they purchased the Springfield compilation “Retrospective” primarily to hear Stills’s “Rock & Roll Woman,” the closest thing to the new sound of CSN. Sure, you were exposed to Neil Young’s “Broken Arrow” and “Mr. Soul,” but at this point Young was a relative unknown, having released his initial, eponymous record to crickets. “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” came out mere months later, but it only generated airplay, had an impact, after Young had joined the band and “Déjà Vu” had been released in March of 1970. And then Young put out “After the Gold Rush” in September of that same year and his great ascension really began. The others were just starting their solo careers, whereas Neil had hit his stride. But really, “After the Gold Rush” was a dorm room favorite, something you heard on FM rock stations, which were now nationwide, it wasn’t until “Heart of Gold” became a hit single on AM radio at the advent of 1972 that Neil Young was ubiquitous, when the masses adopted him as a seer. And not long thereafter Neil went on the road and played all new material in a hard rocking fashion and drove the mainstream away and delivered himself endless runway, the looky-loos had moved on, and in truth they never came back, now it was only the hard core who cared, but that was large enough when he dropped “Rust Never Sleeps” with its hard-edged statement “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)” that endeared him to the Seattle grungers, who warmly embraced Neil, even on MTV.

But Stephen…

He was the star. Sans Stephen, Crosby, Stills & Nash, with or without Young, didn’t work. Sure, the trio’s debut was fantastic, playable throughout, but “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” eclipsed the rest of the tracks, as did the not quite as good but still magical opener on “Déjà Vu,” “Carry On.” You have no idea how good “Carry On” sounded on the stereos of the day. People were accumulating sound equipment, they needed to be closer to the music, and a ton of dough was spent on getting the track right and it was transcendent, with not only the exquisite harmonies but the stinging guitar underpinning the whole thing.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were the biggest band in the land. Whose popularity was goosed by their appearance in that spring’s “Woodstock” movie and soundtrack album. Sure, the live harmonies were imperfect, and we all knew it, but we also knew they were scared sh*tless at the breakthrough festival and we overlooked the recording’s flaws.

And then came the solo albums. The aforementioned “After the Gold Rush” and just before Thanksgiving of 1970, Stephen Stills’ self-titled debut. “Love the One You’re With” was everywhere. It was a victory lap today’s acts can only dream about, its constant exhibition ran through the Christmas holiday, if you hadn’t gotten “Stephen Stills” as a gift, you bought it, and continued to play it into the new year.

Along with the two American Elton John albums. And George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass,” and Bob Dylan’s “New Morning,” and if you were in the know, Rod Stewart’s “Gasoline Alley” and… In other words, Stephen Stills was not alone at the top, there was a plethora of meaningful, hit material. And James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James” still had legs and “Mud Slide Slim” came along in April and then there was the great unknown, unseen “Tapestry” which came along like the little engine that could and confoundingly dominated. Stephen Stills was not quite the hero he once was, mere months later, when he released “Stephen Stills 2” at the end of June 1971. Suddenly the press turned. This was not the fawning writers of today, rock critics were exalted, and they had it out for you, they were the enemy, and they were not enamored of the album.

2

But back to “Super Session.”

It’s hard to fathom fifty plus years later, but the most played cut wasn’t on the Mike Bloomfield first side, but the Stephen Stills second side. It was the eleven minute version of Donovan’s “Season of the Witch.” It was when extended cuts were seen as a breakthrough. “Season of the Witch” was a reimagining of Donovan’s original, which was an album cut, not a hit single. And by this time Donovan had lost his cred. And it had nothing to do with Bob Dylan dissing the English bard in “Don’t Look Back,” but even though they show that film in college classes today, almost no one saw it back then, it had limited distribution in an era where documentaries were sideshows, and Dylan had retreated to Woodstock after his motorcycle accident and the focus was elsewhere.

Bloomfield was a star to those in the know, but they were limited in number. Paul Butterfield never had a hit, the Electric Flag never broke through and…Bloomfield was supposed to play on the complete album but left town and Stephen took his place and suddenly everybody knew his music, “Super Session” was huge. Al Kooper got the most credit, but it was hard to ignore Stills’s contributions, especially the phased guitar solo at the end of “Season of the Witch,” which built and built, jabbing you in the gut with a blunt, not sharp, end which meant it felt so good, and then Stills’s playing became ethereal and you drifted away…this was back when marijuana was starting to permeate the hinterlands, you’d drop the needle and… Funny today how drug addiction starts in the hinterlands, not the city, whereas everything used to happen in the city first. But that’s the legacy of OxyContin. And that same Stills guitar was on “You Don’t Love Me,” which had the driving energy of a Cream song. And then there was the complete reworking of Dylan’s “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry,” wherein Stills demonstrated range, the skills which would shine on “Crosby, Stills & Nash.”

But Stephen was still relatively unknown until the trio’s first LP. And then the audience couldn’t get enough of him, and here he was on “Super Session” as well as “Retrospective” and Stills was a star. No, a superstar. A status cemented by his solo LP. Which was his peak.

Yes, Stills’ solo album eclipsed the subsequent solo debuts of David Crosby and Graham Nash, and then…

The audience turned against him.

We love to hate our stars. And this was in an era where there was so little news, but gossip was rampant, even your local punter believed they were in the know. Supposedly Stephen Stills was an authoritarian drunk, too big for his britches, not humble like Neil Young…ain’t that a joke. And as I referenced above, it’s not like the populace was starved for stars it could pledge devotion to. Rod Stewart broke through with “Maggie May” and at the end of the summer there was “Live: At Fillmore East” and “Who’s Next” and earlier in the spring Leon Russell’s “Shelter People” and…”Stephen Stills 2″ wasn’t as good as the debut and was trashed by critics and suddenly, Stephen Stills had been eclipsed.

So Stills stepped back and regrouped. Formed a band, Manassas, and released a double album evidencing all sides of his abilities and personality. Short CSN/country/solo-type stuff on the first two sides, and extended wailing on the second two. But as good as the eight plus minute “The Treasure” was, this was 1972, not 1968. FM radio now wanted shorter cuts, not longer ones. And as great as “Manassas’ was there were no hit singles, in an era where hit singles were starting to mean less and less but were still the way to cement popularity, to sell tonnage. So Stephen Stills put out the best album of his solo career, and few cared.

But it was worse than that. Out of nowhere came a track that digested what Stills, et al, had done before and trumped it. Talk about a summer tune… “Take It Easy” was everywhere, AM and FM. It was smooth and slick to the point where you wondered if this band called “Eagles” was a one hit wonder, but you were forced to buy the album, the debut, and found out they were not. The second cut, “Witchy Woman,” alone convinced you of this. This was a band for the seventies, self-contained, with no obvious history, other than that of Randy Meisner, who was seen as secondary anyway, he was just the bass player…as for his rich, high voice, the public was completely unfamiliar with it, to this day they can’t attribute it to him. It was a new era. Hippies, love-ins, they were history. FM was no longer free-form. And the record business was bigger than ever. WEA had been formed the year before, and now with branch distribution more albums could be sold than ever before, assuming the goods were delivered, and the Eagles did.

As did Elton John with “Rocket Man” and Jethro Tull with “Thick as a Brick” and Deep Purple with “Machine Head” and the Stones with “Exile” and the hits just kept on coming, and Stephen Stills was now just one of the pack, he was no longer above it. And there was more press, which not being new he got less of, and…it was essentially over for Stills’ solo career. He kept on putting out albums, but to fewer and fewer returns. He switched from Atlantic to Columbia, but it made little difference, and then there was only one thing to do, reunite with Crosby and Nash.

1977’s “CSN” blew people’s minds, they never expected the band to get back together, everything was there, the harmonies, the songs weren’t quite as good as what came before, but there were peaks and no valleys, but… Now, years later, Stills could no longer dominate, he needed Crosby and Nash just like they needed him. So, he had to sacrifice some of the songwriting. The album didn’t even open with a Stills cut, but one by David Crosby, with Craig Doerge,” “Shadow Captain.” And, in true CSN fashion, the Top Forty hit was written by Graham Nash, “Just a Song Before I Go.” But the songs played the most on FM were Stills’s, “Fair Game,” “Dark Star” and “I Give You Give Blind.” And then there was that one special number, track two, “See the Changes,” the flip side of “4 + 20” on “Déjà Vu.”

“Ten years singing right out loud

I never looked was anybody listening

Then I fell out of a cloud

I hit the ground and noticed something missing”

It was less about the past than the future. All the hits did not fill that hole in his heart.

“Now I have someone

She has seen me changing

And it gets harder as you get closer”

Ain’t that the truth. The baby boomer anthem. It was now the mid-seventies. The Vietnam war was over. What was life about? And I’m not saying that “See the Changes” is unknown, but it’s been forgotten and it rings so true, to this day, it still gets harder as you get closer, unless you give up, as so many boomers have now done.

And then the three went their separate ways, and found most didn’t care, and then reunited in 1982 for “Daylight Again,” which contained the band and Stephen’s last hit, the overplayed “Southern Cross.” And then there were decades of albums, even a short-lived Buffalo Springfield reunion and Neil Young is seen as being contemporary, but the other three? Has-beens.

3

Until you saw Stills’ performance in “Echo in the Canyon.” It isn’t on the soundtrack album, but Eric Clapton played and then the image shifted to Stephen Stills in the studio positively wailing, never having lost a step, he still had it, in spades, he eclipsed the now self-destructing Clapton, but…crickets.

So Stephen Stills is hiding in plain sight. Not completely ignored, he did do that album and tour with Judy Collins and he is going to be playing at Clapton’s Guitar Festival in September, but when it comes to the younger generation…he’s a cipher. Joni Mitchell got her victory lap, deservedly so, however unending it might be, so many of the heroes of yore have been lionized, but not Stephen Stills, who could not only play at a world class level, but write and sing. Sure, his voice has suffered. And it’s hard to write new songs when no one cares, despite stories absolutely everywhere Graham Nash’s new album doesn’t even have one track in six digits on Spotify, six cuts are still in four, you can’t even lead the audience to the water, never mind have them partake, but Stephen Stills can still play, he can still play.

4

Stephen Stills has a new album. Well, not exactly new, it’s a live recording, from 1971. You  might be aware of this, but most people are not, it’s not even listed on Stills’s Wikipedia page, it’s got about the same number of streams as Nash’s new, original work. In other words, bupkes.

Now if it were still 1971, this live album would have been at the top of the chart, in everybody’s house, because it contains the old as well as the new and it’s got a sense of immediacy, but times change.

Not that I want to overrate this album, but today I got hooked on “Sugar Babe.”

“You can do what you want to do

You can be who you want to be”

No you can’t. That’s what we believed in the sixties, but that’s in the rearview mirror, today people are just trying to survive. Maybe not those who go to elite institutions, frequently on the coattails of their parents, but they can’t be who they want to be, not unless they want to be broke. Of course there are exceptions, but we all believed we could live a fulfilled life back when, on our own journey of exploration. So you can work at the bank, but if you want to be an artist…good luck. Funny, no one complained about being broke back in the day, no one thought they were entitled to attention and riches, then again you could survive on minimum wage.

And if you read this week’s “New Yorker” article about privates, you can see it’s no longer your father’s music business, there’s money, but…

“How to Hire a Pop Star for Your Private Party”: https://rb.gy/vpxxn

If you’re a pro you know all of this, but the one thing that comes across is how these gigs are soul-crushing, as Dylan sang we all have to serve someone, or maybe everybody just can’t say no to the cash anymore.

But once they could.

“People need love

People need trust

People need one another

And that means us”

True. But, once again, it’s no longer the sixties. Today it seems that hate is rampant. We trust almost no one. And people think they can live without others, whether it be the checkout person at the grocery store, assuming you aren’t forced to check out yourself, or the red states that want to secede not knowing that it’s the blue states that are propping up their economies. Money trumps everything, just ask Fox News.

“So close, then again so far away

Where are the answers, I hear them every day”

Now that applies, is just as truthful today. The closer we get, the further off the destination seems to be, meanwhile people don’t stop telling us who to be, what to believe.

Now today music is everywhere, but it sounds worse than ever. And you can’t blame the streaming services, you’ve got to blame yourself. Those earbuds you’re using. The truth is you can listen to better than CD quality, pretty cheaply on Amazon Music and Apple charges no more and then there’s Qobuz, which for some reason sounds better than all the rest.

So I’m sitting on the couch earlier today and I got a hankering to hear “Sugar Babe,” don’t ask me where these inclinations come from, I don’t know, it’s one of the surprises of life, and I look for it on Qobuz and then I’m reminded of the live version from Berkeley. I’ve heard it before, but it was never foreground, I wasn’t giving it my undivided attention. But today it grabbed me.

This ain’t no machine. This is a human being. You can hear it in the recording. You can get close if you want to, most people don’t bother to. Today most music is background, or loved by the barely pubescent, who haven’t experienced the world. And the “stars” pander to them. But we looked up to the stars of yore, because they had preternatural wisdom. How did they know so much at such a young age?

“Everyone knows that it ain’t easy

But when you get it all together in your heart

It’s the easiest thing to do to be pleasin’

Folks ain’t made to live apart”

But they are. Stephen is in limbo. He’s feeling the distance. He’s not sure where he is.

“I got to get next to the girl or I got to get away”

And you’ve got to get next to the person too. Unfortunately, business success, money, doesn’t fill that hole in your heart. And in order to get the dividends, you’ve got to pay. You’ve got to put in the hard work. You can go from person to person for the high, but you’ll never get the rewards. You see it works best when you’re low, or they are, and you can be there for each other, no one wants to be alone, no matter what they say.

We used to love our acts. They weren’t evanescent, they were here to stay. They had to earn our trust, it was not easy to do, but if they did we were along for the ride. You might feel like a party of one, but in truth that was not the case. You went to the gig and found others who knew the songs as well as you did, who needed to be there just like you, who had to bow at the feet of these gods.

We don’t have gods today. Everybody’s sold out. Or angry that no one is paying attention. Being good enough to triumph on talent alone… No, you’d better bring in outside writers, sign up with the hit-making producers, polish the track again and again, you want to capture lightning in a bottle, but to do that you’ve got to let go, you’ve got to channel the essence, whereas most acts today don’t even know how to do that, even though they protesteth, too much.

But the funny thing is the truth is still out there, still contained in the records of yore. So old that they seem new. Their messages are timeless. As is the playing.

“Let yourself be open honey, learn to bend

Remember everyone gets scared

But I’m still your best friend”

I am not, your best friend. You don’t really know me, but you think you do. Just like I think I know Stephen Stills. I’ve been around him a couple of times, but he wouldn’t remember, even though I do. But I’ve imbued so much meaning into his work. He reached me, he’s continued to do so.

And that’s the goal of an artist.

Full stop.

Songs with “Friend” in the title.

Tune in Saturday May 27th, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

Around 1982 I got the coolest call from Roger Davies that he and Tina loved our clients Heaven 17’s records, which they produced, and wanted to talk to them about working on her new album. The band were in LA promoting their new record for Virgin/Arista “Let Me Go.”  We went up to the house in Bel Air and met with them. We sat on the floor. It was dark, and as gigantic fans of Tina we just sat in awe of her magnetism and beauty matched with total humility. Anyway, we made a deal. Roger was such a great manager and there was no bullsh*t. They went in the studio and cut  “Let’s Stay Together”  and “I Can’t Stand The Rain.” The record sold a zillion copies, and  we were so proud to have been involved. We all throw around the words greatest and icon all the time but come on, then there’s Tina Turner.

Bill Gerber

____________________________________

In our interview, you asked about one of my greatest career moments and afterwards I thought of this and regretted not telling you:

I was in Dortmund Germany  in the 1980s, right after I started representing Tina, to see her perform at the local arena.  Backstage, before the show,  Graham Lyle and Terry Britten came to see her with a song they’d just written tucked her their arms.

Tina looked at it and started singing “We Don’t Need Another Hero” for the first time, a capella, in an echoey hallway with that overpowering voice.  It was a truly magical moment and I still get chills thinking about it.

Don Passman

____________________________________

She really was simply put. THE GREATEST!

The one and ONLY! I was fortunate enough to promote one event for Tina a long time ago. It was 1978 and I booked her at my club in Dallas named the Palladium of Dallas. It was for 4 shows in 2 nights and all performances were completely sold out. The Palladium was a rather odd setup in that the dressing rooms were located in the back of the venue behind the audience. The only path from the dressing room to the stage was a long flight of stairs from the dressing room up to a catwalk over the audience to another long flight of stairs down to the back stage area. Upon the completion of her 4th performance I met her as she came off the stage and helped her get up the 1st flight of stairs to the catwalk going back to the dressing room area. When we got to the other side she said “boss man I can’t make it down those stairs. Can you turn around?” I did and she immediately jumped up on my back and I carried her down the stairs to the dressing room. Tina was really and truly the epitome of leaving it all on the stage and she did it every time she took the stage for many decades after that. She was a real life hero and my hero 100% for sure. May God rest her beautiful soul.

Danny Eaton

____________________________________

While on staff as an engineer at Capitol Studios, I’d have occasion to cut demos with A&R staff producer, Carter. One of them was with Melissa Etheridge, who years later, I’d end up producing. But that’s another story for another time.

Carter brought Tina into the studio in hopes of cutting demos, not only to get her signed but to inspire songwriters to submit songs for her. She wasn’t the “new, young, hip” thing, having had success in the 60’s and 70’s with Ike and Tina Turner revue. But that was years ago. Songwriters didn’t want to give up their best songs to a has-been. Carter had a vision and the demos helped the ball rolling.

We were wrapping up overdubs on the demos late into the night. Tina had a red eye to catch at LAX, flying to Japan for some industrial solo gig. We had gotten 2/3 of the way through her vocal when the microphone crapped out (probably succumbed to the power of Tina.) It was a vintage Neumann and we had to take time out to revive it. The tech shop set about their task, estimating maybe 45 minutes.

I told Tina the estimate and she said, “OK, I’m just gonna catch a little cat nap.” She grabbed a packing blanket from one of the gobos for a pillow and proceeded to lay down at the mic stand. Minutes later, she was asleep.

Once the mic was back up and tested, I nudged her, “Hey Tina, we’re ready to go”. She popped up, and proceeded to blast through the rest of the song in time to catch her flight.

Total pro. Gentle soul.

Carter produced the title track, “Private Dancer”. A couple of the demos we cut ended up as B-sides and were included on later compilations. One of my favorites:

“Don’t Rush the Good Things”: https://rb.gy/8vbfw

You can hear the room sound of Studio B on the drums… And that VOCAL! And her backgrounds. Goosebumps.

That “debut” solo album would go on to earn 4 Grammys and sold 20 million copies. Carter was right.

The last time I saw Tina was with Carter when she wrapped her touring career at the Staple Center. High kicks and high notes intact. She was special. I treasure the Polaroid we snapped during the demo sessions…

David N. Cole

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You know I am a fan of your writing, and your tribute to Tina nails it. You not only encapsulate Tina Turner’s remarkable rollercoaster career, but in doing so explain the history of the music business through her ride.

I will say that I was aware of “River Deep, Mountain High,” and to this day, when that Ike and Tina record comes on, (Ike’s a**hole-ness notwithstanding), I drop what I’m doing, crank it up loud, and feel my arm hairs stand tall. Tina’s vocal covers so much ground. Its innocence draws you in, but that phrasing, ahead of the beat, teasing at the urgency of what is coming. Then she hits you with “And it gets stronger…,” and tears your heart out. That chord change into the chorus spins you for a loop, her scream at the end of the bridge is so crazy sensual. No wonder pop radio was afraid to play that record. It was simply too good. What could they play after it? Everything else would have sounded weak by comparison. I don’t know of another record (Phil Spector’s a**hole-ness notwithstanding) which was so far ahead of its time. No female vocalist had ever laid her pain, as well as her sexuality so bare. I listened to the record again just now, three times in a row, and I am on the floor…again!

Tina Turner transcended all stereotypes. She was a powerful African American woman who could out-rock the Stones. (Face it, Mick was the white male version of Tina!) “What’s Love” blew out the boundaries of what kind of music black artists “should” make. Her duet with Bryan Adams on “It’s Only Love” showed her to be a true rock singer. When I watched Tina’s recent documentary, and learned that she was living a quiet life in Switzerland, I put two and two together. But like you, I am proud of her for leaving us with only memories of her strength, fearlessness, relentless courage and drive, and selflessness. It takes a lot to go out on top, and that is what Tina did.

We are losing so many of our heroes. When David Crosby passed it broke my heart. I know Tina is gone. But the picture of her shimmying across the stage, fringe flying, every muscle in her body feeling the rhythm, and the sound of that voice, expressing emotion with every ounce of power in her being, are so ingrained in me that I can’t feel sadness. She is not gone, will never be gone, her spirit is simply too strong, her river simply too deep…she is simply the best. … kc

Kevin Cronin

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We were signed to Capitol and were recording at Mayfair Studios in London. Sitting in the lobby drinking tea when the doors blew open and in walked Tina along with her manager, bodyguards and surprisingly our friend Lisa Dalbello (who was about to be managed by Roger Davies, Tina’s manager). We had a chat, then 20 minutes later I had my ear to the studio door, listening to Tina laying down vocals on “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” 10 minutes later she was gone.

“Total pro” the producer later said. “She did 2 takes but nailed it on the first one.”

One of a kind.

Cheers,
Drew Arnott
Strange Advance

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As usual, an excellent and an insightful remembrance of a brilliant artist.
But you’ve forgotten to mention or give props to an absolutely essential element of the amazing career renaissance of Tina Turner, an “element” which I had the great honor and pleasure to experience & collaborate with first hand.

Namely the brilliant, always strategic and incredibly intuitive and supportive work of Tina’s longtime personal manager Roger Davies.

Right around the time that the Private Dancer album broke through on the strength of the “What’s Love” hit single, I worked very closely with Roger on a national marketing and media celebrity rebranding project for McCalls magazine.

The campaign featured several female music and entertainment icons which included Bette Midler, Carly Simon, Cher and of course Tina.
Developing and structuring the partnership with the ad agency and the client with Roger demonstrated not only his keen business and creative savvy, but above all his total dedication to doing only and precisely what he thought was best for his artist; and to making sure that she was both comfortable, relaxed and pleased with the project at all times.

You could feel Roger’s depth of understanding about how often Tuna had been previously mistreated and misunderstood and he wasn’t going to have any of that again.

And so he maintained appropriately firm but fair control of all aspects of her participation in the project throughout.

No ask, no decision was made without Roger’s direct and careful evaluation and approval.

And because Tina clearly trusted Roger so completely, everything went 100% according to plan. Which almost never happens in those sorts of multi party partnerships!

In all of the years in which I’ve had the opportunity to work with a wide array of great musical talent from every music genre, I’ve never encountered a more thoroughly professional and cooperative artist.
Nor have I found a kinder, more down to earth, honest and well balanced human being than Tina Tuner, who weathered many personal storms and traveled the hardest of roads in her earlier days and came out of it all as a true superstar & a one of a kind talent.

And, I’ve never worked with or observed a more perfectly well suited and “in tune” artist/manager team than Tina Turner and Roger Davies.

RIP

Stephen Dessau

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Bob, once again it’s Sammy Hagar, your every five year friend, ha ha.

First of all. what you wrote about Carter’s iinvolvement in Tina’s comeback put tears in my eyes! You obviously know how I feel about Carter and what he did for me in my career & our long time relationship. Carter did the same thing for Bob Seger, as he did for Tina, me and many others. always fighting for the artist. Carter was Our friend & champion in the corporate world of the music industry.

But his involvement with Tina, was so special and your acknowledgment and understanding of all the moving parts was just wonderful, esp In the midst of all the sad news, your article gave me a happy moment.

Thank  you.
Here’s to. Carter & Tina in rock ‘n’ roll Heaven.

Sincerely,

Sammy Hagar