https://amzn.to/40YbSFY

This is a “Read With Jenna” book. And usually that means I won’t read it. I don’t have anything against Jenna, but she usually recommends middle of the road stuff that will satiate her audience yet is anything but literary fiction.

It had to go back to the library, so I dove in on my Southwest flight, and I was ripping right along but when I was sitting in DIA waiting for my van I told myself I had to stop reading it. It was just too lowbrow, too predictable. Inexperienced woman leaves home and goes on dates and yada yada yada…aren’t there a zillion books like this?

Well, the twist is the protagonist is Ghanian, however she grew up in London. She is Black in a White world. And aware of it. And she’s also taking care of her dad who has Parkinson’s.

I mean this was chick lit. And life is too short and I have too much other stuff I want to read.

But then a couple of plot points didn’t turn out the way I thought they would and suddenly, the book got heavy, and there was all this discussion of introversion. And the counselor says:

“I believe in two dominant introvert types. Those who have always enjoyed their own company and those who have grown to prefer it because they weren’t given much of a choice.”

I used to be more outgoing. Then about thirty years ago, the script flipped. Maybe it was being a writer, if someone made contact I’d listen to their stories, hungry for any kind of connection. I got to the point where I couldn’t even tell my own story. If you’re around me and I’m blathering know that I’m in a good mood, relaxed, but usually I’m asking questions, trying to make the other person feel comfortable so I’ll feel comfortable.

“Maame” got totally into this.

And then the main character cracks and lets her feelings fly, tells her mother the truth, what she feels inside. This is exactly what happened to me. I was going to the shrink and I was listening to my mother and she was pushing me and…I laid it on her. She was shocked. It was a breakthrough for me. But rust never sleeps and my mother started needling me again and I had to push back and after I went to college I couldn’t tell my mother my truth because she’d twist it and use it against me. All this stuff about my mother…she’s dead and gone, and I don’t want you to think I’m haunted by her, because to a great degree her death set me free, but when I read about the mother/daughter relationship in “Maame,” it resonated.

So last night I stayed up until one finishing “Maame.” And that’s not late for me, but I adjust my hours when I go skiing. Not that you can go out too early right now, because the snow freezes overnight and you have to wait for it to soften up. And my goal was to finish the book before my Kindle died, I forgot to bring the charging cord, but I was also invested. That’s the great thing about a book, it hooks you, you’re in a private universe. And in “Maame” that happens about halfway through.

So the last thing I thought I was going to do was recommend “Maame.” I was determined to finish it, because completion not only builds character, it pays dividends. You never know where the book is going to go. Just like you never know what will happen when you walk out the front door. But too many people are set in their ways, and it’s risk that makes life worth living, it’s all about the unexpected. Especially as you get older and you’ve seen the trick, when you’re no longer working for work’s sake, when you’ve retired because you’re exhausted and hate your job or you’re working because you love it so much. You still have to push when you age, don’t become complacent.

But the point being this book made a big impression on me. And unlike Jenna and so many of the book group leaders, I don’t like to recommend  books on a schedule, I only want to recommend books that are worth your time.

So… I wish we had a male equivalent of Oprah and even Jenna. But everybody thinks men only want to read nonfiction, are interested in what Bill Gates and Obama read. I mean why? Gates is a techie with huge blind spots and Obama is better, but this is not his passion, recommending books. And in truth men are seeking stories, fiction, just as much as women, but it’s hard to get them to partake, to read. They think they’re too busy. And you do have to make time for books, but they’re oftentimes more rewarding than your priorities, like watching the game.

But if you can suffer the predictable chick lit first half to be hooked by the deep, meaningful second half, I recommend “Maame.” It’ll have you thinking, about your relationship with your family. About obligation. Those who feel they need to show up and those who believe they’re free and don’t have to.

I just wanted to tell you about this book, because it left a lasting impression. Too many books are page-turners, and when you’re done there’s nothing left, you followed the plot, but you’re not personally affected.

“Maame” affected me. And it might affect you too.

Give it a try.

And the winner is… “Sleep Walk,” by Santo & Johnny!

My inbox is inundated with readers proffering this sleep song. Never thought of it, couldn’t even tell you who performed it, but obviously I’m out of the loop.

I was also reminded that I failed to include the Spotify link for the sleep playlist, so here it is: https://spoti.fi/3nW1QGP

And another sleep song everybody wrote in to remind me of was Jackson Browne’s “Sleep’s Dark and Silent Gate” from Jackson Browne’s 1976 album, “The Pretender.” I was stunned to find out that “Sleep’s Dark and Silent Gate” only has 1,055,792 streams on Spotify. For comparison, “Sleep Walk” has 83,506,841. Not that Jackson doesn’t have cuts with more streams, “Doctor My Eyes” and “Running on Empty” are in triple digit millions. But those were “hits.” The non-hits, which Jackson is famous for, are fading away.

Let’s start with Browne’s 2021 album “Downhill from Everywhere,” for which he did a ton of promotion…print, TV, podcast, online… Even the single, “Cleveland Heart,” doesn’t have a million streams. Only one cut on that album has gone into seven figures, “A Little Soon to Say,” with 2,273,064. Then again, I’m one of the few that didn’t rave about “Downhill from Everywhere.”

The previous LP, 2014’s “Standing in the Breach,” actually has two songs with two million streams, two with one million, and “The Long Way Around” has 8,861,517.

None of the songs on 2008’s “Time the Conqueror” even break a million, as a matter of fact, none break five hundred thousand, the biggest, the opening cut, has 387,211.

None of the tracks on 2002’s “The Naked Ride Home” breaks a million. My favorite song on the LP, track 5, “Never Stop,” only has 188,295.

“Never Stop” has an adult perspective as opposed to the teenage dreck that dominates the airwaves, it’s about Jackson’s long term relationship. It’s positive, do people only cotton to negative stuff? And it’s slow, but there’s a groove. If you’re a JB fan hang in there, because about three-quarters of the way through the number it completely changes, it’s a surprise, and it talks about surprise:

“Remember when you look into my eyes

I’m the one who took you by surprise

The time has come and gone and come back ’round again

And I’m still here to take you by surprise my friend”

That’s how it is. Have you been reading the obits for John Lydon’s wife, Nora Foster? She didn’t like Johnny Rotten at first, but he grew on her. That’s how it is with so many relationships, they don’t work on the surface, but women are intrigued by personality more than looks, and if you evidence more than a shiny outfit and car you’ve got a chance, as long as you stay with it.

Check out that Nora Foster obit. It’s pretty interesting: https://nyti.ms/3GwjS9b (That’s a free link, by the way.)

But also if you’re a Jackson fan listen to “Never Stop”:

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/40ThoKd

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3KLn2YY

Now you’ve to listen to “Never Stop” like it’s the seventies, when you’d buy an album and play it over and over again until it revealed itself to you. Don’t listen for five seconds expecting a hit, but if you let it play a couple of times through it might get under your skin, it did mine.

1996’s “Looking East” only has one cut over a million, “The Barricades of Heaven,” which Jackson regularly plays live.

1993’s “I’m Alive,” Jackson’s comeback album, where he goes back to the early sound that made him famous, has two cuts in the millions.

But every cut on 1977’s “Running on Empty” is in the millions, the last two 40 and 64 million to be exact. 

But Jackson’s best album, a classic, which everyone should own as a companion to Joni Mitchell’s “Blue,” 1974’s “Late for the Sky”…two cuts don’t even break a million. “For a Dancer,” the ultimate funeral song, only has 1,940,788.

Now, in truth, the older demo tends to subscribe to Apple Music or Amazon as opposed to Spotify. But they also don’t tend to stream much, certainly not over and over. So what I’m saying is that although these piss-poor numbers may be strengthened a bit when the entire streaming universe is considered, in truth some of Jackson Browne’s greatest work is in danger of falling off the map, potentially to be rediscovered, but I doubt it. But believe me, if today’s generation listened to “Late for the Sky,” they’d set aside both Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor Swift. Then again, Jackson is not as good a self-promoter as those two. But couldn’t somebody promote the classics of yore for younger generations to discover? I mean you don’t have to buy them to hear them, you can even listen for free on YouTube. Then again, the record business, especially today’s record business, is focused on the new. But much of classic rock was inspired by Robert Johnson and the Delta blues players.

These tracks could take younger generations by surprise.

But as for classic acts making new music… It has to satiate them, because it has almost no impact in the marketplace. Sure, some physical copies are sold, but most are not listened to that much, to the point where if you play new music live the audience gets up and goes to the bathroom.

Then again, the old acts could learn that today it’s about the track, not the album. The album is too much. It’s only for the act and hard core fans at best. If that’s enough, more power to you. But if you’re expecting a market reaction, you need a track that’s a one listen smash, like “Running on Empty.”

And having skied so hard today, it was the last day of the season for Blue Sky Basin and we had to go off piste and ski the bumps, I forgot to include the final words of “Never Stop”:

“Show me your eyes, tell me again

Where you want to go

Now the night is glowing beneath your skin

And when you smile I’m the richest man I know”

You may be aged, but that does not mean you have to give up. Everywhere I go in L.A. my contemporaries are stunned I still ski. It’s too dangerous for them, but they’re the ones missing out, because skiing is like sex, you can only get that hit by doing it. And you need to do it, because there will come a time when you can’t. You might be physically compromised, you might even die.

But while you’re still here…

It’s the little moments that resonate, not the possessions and not even the trips, etc., the “experiences.” It’s that laugh you share with your significant other, that feeling you get when you look into their eyes. You’re old enough to know that’s what life is truly about. We look to our artists to point this out. In “Never Stop” Jackson Browne does.

With Anderson .Paak doing a DJ set before.

But Don told me I completely missed it, last night they had Polo & Pan!

Huh?

So I’m in Vail, Colorado, not the epicenter of entertainment, but you wouldn’t know that based on tonight’s crowd.

I’m gonna let you in on a little secret, they keep making twenty year olds. If boomers were at tonight’s show they’d be both impressed and depressed. Thrilled that the spirit is still alive, upset that they’ve been superseded and left behind.

Now the paradigm is passé. You know, the Renaissance, starting with the Beatles and ending with Spotify, with MTV and Napster in between. It was one long continuum. Now what?

Well, you’ll never find out reading the news. Because the news tells you what is happening after it blows up, not on its way to stardom. For that you need to be online, hooked-in, part of the community. We live in the information society, but it’s very easy to be out of the loop, but if you’ve got the right friends…

We were backstage and Don was asking people how they learned about Polo & Pan. Each one told the story of a friend. It was not radio, it was not Spotify, as a matter of fact, it’s not even about the track, it’s about the experience, the live show. You can read all about the “hit” acts, manipulating the weekly numbers, but you’ll be out of the loop, almost like in the sixties, when there was AM and FM. AM is the Spotify Top 50. FM is everything else, and there’s a lot of it.

And then there’s Stromae. A Belgian act. Polo & Pan is French. This never used to happen. Used to be that the English and European acts played to us, those in the U.S. Now it’s reversed, American kids are open to what is happening overseas. Acts that are uncompromised, doing it their way, to a great degree completely under the mainstream radar. But boy can they sell tickets!

So the headliner tonight was Big Gigantic. Two guys. A drummer and horn/synthesizer player. With a ton of production, top-notch. The assembled multitude was moving, the amphitheater was elevated. And most of America was out of the loop.

One can say that Big Gigantic is dance music. But it’s more than that, the show was an experience. And the twentysomethings in this outdoor venue, some standing in snow, were dancing and totally into it. Not that different from fifty and sixty years ago.

You can’t get this online. You can only get it at the show. Which is why live entertainment is burgeoning. It’s Saturday night, youngsters don’t want to stay home. While their parents, my generation, if not even younger, are going to bed at nine or ten their kids are out living the life. Yes, the oldsters, who believe getting up early is the way to win don’t know that everything worth knowing about culturally happens after dark.

And in L.A., most of the backstage experience is work. It’s anything but the party the hoi polloi believe it to be. But tonight it was a hang with laughs with the act and even their progeny. There were no airs, after all it’s just about the music, what happens on stage.

It’s easy to be jaded, especially after three years at home.

But tonight I was inspired, there’s a whole world out there. And it’s not beholden to the usual suspect media. It’s bottom-up instead of top-down. And in today’s multifarious universe people don’t care about their status vis-à-vis you, the pecking order had a giant hole blown through it. You’re in your own world, and oldsters can’t comprehend this, they think it’s still a monoculture.

As for the money… The acts tonight were handsomely compensated, but looking out at the crowd I realized no billionaire would get this reaction. Not Elon Musk, never mind the heads of the Fortune 500. They’re rich, but they don’t embody what the musicians do. Something of the moment, that’s more about feel than facts, which touches your body and soul. This is the power of music. And it’s as strong as it ever was.

That’s what I learned tonight.

Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3nW1QGP

“Sleep Come Free Me” – James Taylor

“I’m Only Sleeping” – The Beatles

“No Sleep Til Brooklyn” – Beastie Boys

“The Lion Sleeps Tonight” –  The Tokens

“You Can Sleep While I Drive” – Melissa Etheridge

“How Do You Sleep” – John Lennon

“Sleepwalking” – Gerry Rafferty

“Don’t Sleep in the Subway” – Petula Clark

“Sleeping Satellite” – Tasmin Archer

“Talking In Your Sleep” – The Romantics

“Sleepwalker” – The Kinks

“Had a Dream (Sleeping With the Enemy)” – Roger Hodgson

“Behind The Wall Of Sleep” – The Smithereens

“(Last Night) I Didn’t Get To Sleep At All” – 5th Dimension

“Sleepy Time Time” – Cream

“I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” – Warren Zevon