They can’t get anyone to do the show.

Used to be the airwaves were flooded with CBS touting the stars who were going to appear on the Grammys. Not this year. Because most of the superstars won’t commit!

Because they don’t need it.

Yes, the script has flipped. Used to be the stars needed the show for exposure. Now the fans of the mostly young acts dominating the Spotify chart (ignore “Billboard,” it’s manipulated and inaccurate, only for the industry and the sycophantic press that prints it) don’t watch network TV. And certainly don’t want to sit through commercials. And they know if anything good happens they can watch it subsequently online (assuming CBS allows the clips to be posted on YouTube, which it usually doesn’t, meaning you have to go to the network’s homepage, which is not one of your usual stops, find the clip, click and watch the ad and…why bother). And the truth is today’s acts have a plethora of video online, who needs one more clip?

Artists used to spend a fortune on production (or their labels…) for the show. Now that’s a waste of money. We learned that late night TV appearances didn’t move the needle, now we know awards shows with their tanking ratings don’t either, so why bother to show up!

All this hogwash about the Grammys alienating the artists… Well, it’s true, but it’s not the main reason the acts aren’t appearing, it’s just not to their career benefit. Ever try to get an artist to do something? YOU think it’s a slam dunk, the good charity, this or that, but it’s nearly impossible to get them unless you’re personally related/involved. It’s their career, they don’t see the benefit, and they’re all time-challenged, and unless you’re paying… Yes, a million and a half is the standard price for a private these days. It’s moved up from a million. And true superstars get multiple millions. And you want them to show up for free? Not gonna happen.

I mean if CBS were going to pay the acts…

That ain’t in the budget.

As for the budget…that’s how the Academy makes their nut every year, through the CBS payment for the show. Do you think CBS is going to continue to lay out big bucks for a show with low ratings that doesn’t even feature stars? Well, the term has a while to run, but as for renewal…

So the boys club Recording Academy implodes, and no one there saw it coming, even though everybody outside did.

Women… Corporations are bending over backwards to place and elevate women. What does the Academy do? Hire a woman and fire her, because she wanted change too fast! Do you think the oldsters have forgotten? And the youngsters never cared about the Academy and its bogus awards show anyway. As for the trophy… Who remembers who won? It was all about the appearance. The trophy only matters to those who are niche artists who put it on their resumé. A true star does not display their Grammys, of if they do, they’re in the bathroom. You see their fellow artists put them down for it!

But at least music still has true stars. As for film and TV…they’re soulless regular people.

It’s not like you couldn’t see the train coming down the track. Network ratings dropping in general. Young people not listening to terrestrial radio. Streaming being king (whereas the Academy members are all against streaming, I won’t even bother to get into the economics, but Spotify allows everyone to see how piss-poor their streams are). Evolve or die. And the Academy and the antique and minor acts dominating it want to live in the past. I bet a bunch of them drive Teslas… How come they can’t apply this same thinking to their organization?

And music is inherently organization averse. That’s what makes music so powerful, it’s the anti. With no inherent criteria. So you break out, throw the rules of society overboard, and then you want to conform and get into bed with these overlords? I don’t think so.

It’s not only the Grammys. And it’s not only awards shows. More then twenty years have gone by since Napster, a whole generation. Young people have no idea what happened in the nineties and before, and they don’t care. They don’t even have a CD player, never mind buy CDs. Music is plentiful, not scarce. And why would anybody steal music, when for ten bucks a month you can get it all?

Music moves so fast and the self-congratulatory Academy so slow.

I could point out how to try and save it, but why bother, it deserves to die.

TICKETING

Lets start with fees. This is a problem I never see being fixed. Fans love to pay fees. There might be some fans out there that are loud and complain but they still buy the tickets and majority do not complain.  Agents, managers and artists  want 85%, 90%, 100% of the profit from the door where else will a promoter make their money especially if they do not own the room. The promoter is also not going to say no to the artist or agent if they want to add on to the fee of the ticket for their benefit. As long as the Artists, the managers and the agents have the ticketing companies to hide behind and the fans do not boycott high fees or even crazy priced tickets nothing will ever change.  Actually like you mentioned high ticket prices are here forever that will not change. Even your local band gets $20 for a ticket. Americans pay fees for everything, hotel fees, travel fees buy a car pay a handling fee it is the easiest way to squeeze money out of someones pocket without feeling guilty. Soon there will be a Lefsetz fee. Owning the ticketing company, the management company and  being the promoter that is a separate issue.

Jon Topper

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I have a hard time believing as a fan that all in ticketing is the answer. It would be great for the promoter and  ticketing company but then a band that should only be charging $20 for a ticket is now charging $30 or $50 for a ticket is $65 makes it look like the artist is completely calling the final price.  I have said it before for the most part the fans do not care about the fees or the ticketing price. Americans love to pay fees and bitch about it but they pay. 

Personal example of  fans not caring, I once did a promotion with LN to put the first 1000 tickets of 2500 seat venue on sale with no fees for a limited time. My thinking was that the fans going to the show are your best marketers to other fans.  The way I structured the deal was half of the fees came from the Artist guarantee the second half came from the marketing budget for the show. I took half from the Artist guarantee because Rapino said to me that the Artist wants the promoter to take the chance and not put any of the risk on the Artist. We advertised it sent out emails to the artist’s fans really pushed it hard, When it was all said and done the on sale sold around 400 tickets which is normal for this artist and only about 550 of the no fees sold by the time the promotion was up. The venue ended up selling out by doors but everyone else paid fees. FYI this was not the first time the venue had sold out.

I personally think the answer for less fees and lower ticket prices would be way more income sharing all around. All expenses and profits both from the Artist side and promoters side being put on the table.

Jon Topper

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The bit at the end, where Vito says ask fans how they feel about ticket pricing and availability, is something called “consumer welfare.” As you may know, the last 40 years of American antitrust law is dominated by that line of thinking. Monopoly and monopsony power are okay to allow as regulators so long as the buyers (former) or sellers (latter) get better pricing. This is how American conservatives and market-focused liberals think about competition policy. It’s two generations of economics-dominated, math-based argumentation spearheaded by Robert Bork himself. USDOJ AT Division, the FTC, the FCC, and state regulations at the Public Utility Commissions have staff and leaders filled with this philosophy.

Instead, I’m a proponent of a “public interest” standard for regulation. The idea is that the net trade-offs to society are not positive for many of these mergers, even if some pinheads can make the pricing math work in a model. Amazon is not in favor of the public good because they can make prices go down by introducing their own Amazon Basics lookalike or deploy tens of thousands of gig workers to deliver in 2 hours from the trunk of their Civic.

We need a modern antitrust act to deal with all those internet platform monopolies, but Congress is out to lunch on this. Lina Kahn at FTC is the right woman for the right job at the right time, though.

Gordon Chaffin

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The problem described in Vito‘s PS is scarcity – if there was a central inventory API that all competitors could sell from, they would have to compete on service, not on exclusivity. Similar to how music streaming services more or less serve the same content. But then you couldn‘t have all of the shady kickback deals going on…

Stefan Hartmann

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All great points. I go to a lot of shows and I am in a few Facebook groups for artists who have had sales recently that went poorly.  (Meaning well for the artist.)  The people complaining in these groups just don’t get it. They see the few seats that are somehow $5000 and assume that’s what Jimmy Buffett is charging everyone.  Meanwhile, tickets that had quickly sold out are now going for about $200 with fees.  For a bucket list type show. Of course, the uninformed are blaming the artists, I know Springsteen’s taken a huge hit on his reputation, not that it affected ticket sales.

Here in Orlando, there was a Garth Brooks show last year. Garth keeps his ticket prices pretty low, and I checked after about a month and it was completely sold out. But massive amounts of tickets on resale sites.  I bought tickets the day of the show for $12. The scalpers bet and lost on that one. Felt nice.

Dave Arbiter
Davenport, FL

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Bob,

I waited to see if anyone called out your egregious error but it seems I’m the only one who gets it. The big issue with Ticketmaster is that they are ALSO in the “scalper” secondary ticket market!!!  They are DOUBLING up on fees with their “verified” resales.  Resales?  WAIT!!  How can the primary seller also be a secondary market reseller?  WTF?  Seems like a very slippery slope towards corruption.

In addition, no one is talking about the “Platinum” tickets.  Ok, hide behind the facade of platinum tickets are the best tickets so you have to pay a premium to get them but search this out.  Phish at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, Ca is 100% GA.  However, after 10 minutes of regular ticket sales, PLATINUM tickets popped up!!  Oh, and are still up!!! The $95 GA tickets can now be purchased for $250 plus charges.  HUH?  WTF is Platinum?  How can a 100% GA house have “Platinum” tickets?   Why did any member of congress not question that today?  Ticketmaster realizes what the devil is and is trying their best to cast their white angel wings and quash it only to have the blood of anti-trust and greed stain their snowy white feathers deep red.

Mitch Dorf

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“Ticket Prices Surging as James Closes in on Abdul-Jabbar Record

LeBron James is set to break the all-time career scoring record in the coming weeks.

Tickets to the possible record-breaking games have increased up to 305%.”

https://bit.ly/3HiIwcR

I demand a Congressional hearing.

Dan Millen

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Appreciate your informative recent pieces on ticketing. Thought you’d appreciate this letter to the editor in today’s Star Tribune.

Thanks,

Lisa

TICKETMASTER

Other crises can wait, apparently

“We cannot talk about Social Security, we cannot hold meaningful discussions on fixing our debt and deficit problems and we cannot fund our schools correctly, but I am so glad we can work on the Taylor Swift tour ticket issue (“Taking on Ticketmaster’s showstopper fees,” Jan. 25). This is in the U.S. Senate. Our senior senator, whom I adore, should truly be ashamed for this clear pandering, softball issue getting press and hearing time. Rome burns and on this one, Amy fiddles. No tickets required.

MARK A. RONNEI, Pequot Lakes, Minn.”

Lisa Dahlseid

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ZACH  BRYAN

Hi Bob,

Zach Bryan’s music has been  predominantly featured for a couple of seasons now on Yellowstone. He also performed a few songs as himself in a County Fair segment of an episode that aired this past December (Season 5).  Easy YouTube search if you are interested.

That is where I first heard his songs.  Became an instant fan because of the exposure on Yellowstone. He is a fantastic artist and it is great show.  Definitely binge worthy.

Sandra Laidlaw

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From: Ally Fell

Hi Bob,

I happened to read your October 19 post “Zach Bryan At The Wiltern” though I had never heard of him. I was curious and desperate for some new music so based on your writing, I took a few minutes to explore his songs. I do not consider myself a fan of contemporary Country Music, but I loved and connected with him immediately. The last time I can recall that happening with an artist was when I first heard King Princess. I avoid going to the Wiltern but I was super sad to have missed Zach’s LA show by less than a day. So I checked his remaining tour dates and wishfully noted on my calendar that he was playing Red Rocks two weeks later.

The next week I listened to him nonstop, and eventually decided to get to the Red Rocks show one way or another. I missed live music for so long due to Covid, I deserved this. My Colorado bestie was onboard and I found a roundtrip ticket on Frontier for $87. An Angel was able to get us tickets to one of the most unforgettable shows I’ve ever been to. I’ve seen plenty of crazy weather, lightning storms, hail and rainbows at Red Rocks, but have never been buried in snow during a show there. The cowboy hats around us had at least 3” of snow on their brims. I can’t describe how incredible it was, but for anyone who cares, they’ve seen the videos and listened to the live album he released not long after.

Now, I don’t even think he is Country, he’s just my favorite. I put down $1 each for the chance to buy tickets to 6 dates on the upcoming tour. I don’t even want the refund, I’m just happy to support this process, and hopefully will make it to one of the shows! Thanks for tipping me off to him in the first place.

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DAVID CROSBY

Around 2005, my mother drove down from Oregon to visit me in LA when I was still living and working there as a session drummer. I put her up at The Sportsman’s Lodge in Sherman Oaks as it was just across the boulevard from my place. The day I dropped her off, David Crosby was walking around the grounds with a group of people. As you know, living there and working in the industry immunizes you from star-struckism, as you run into these people while perusing varieties of ice cream at the grocery store, but I couldn’t believe he was there. I wanted so badly to break protocol and go make an ass of myself. A few days later, at dinner with mom, she offered up this little nugget. “Oh hey… I rode the elevator up to the room with David Crosby this morning after breakfast. He’s a great guy.” I looked at her like she’d just smacked me in the forehead with a 2×4. “Uh… what?” “Yeah,” she said. “He asked me if I wanted to come up to his suite for an evening of music tonight.” I freaked – “What the hell are you doing here then? You mean we could be hanging out with David fucking Crosby right now????” She says, “Well, honey…… I didn’t drive 24 hours from Corvallis to hang out with David Crosby!!!”

Parents are so hard to raise.

Deanne Ogden

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February 2019. We were promoting a David Crosby concert in an intimate (800seat) venue in a converted church in (a pro Trump) Vero Beach, Florida. He walked on stage, reflected on where he was and who he was, looked at the audience and opened with “can you believe I’m here?”   What he didn’t know was that we had given a block of tickets to 40 vets who had served in Korea and Viet Nam. He, his band and the audience settled in and the next 90 minutes were pure Croz.

He decided to close with Ohio..Standing in the wings, I was watching to see how this group was going to respond as the song and his performance became more anti war. One of the older vets got up from his seat, stood quietly and watched. In a moment that still moves me, he quietly lowered his head and raised his fisted arm. One by one the remaining vets did the same, as did the rest of the audience.

When the song ended, Croz stood there and smiled.   A blue moment in a red state.

Rusty Young

MusicWorks

musicworksconcerts.com

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Several years ago, I was managing Reid Genauer and Reid had the amazing opportunity to do a solo acoustic opener for a run of shows with David Crosby on the northeast spur of his CPR tour.

Needless to say, we were pretty over the moon about the opportunity. I had seen David in various forms many times and had obsessively listened (as I still do) to If I Could Only Remember My Name and Four Way Street. Having the chance to be in his orbit was literally a dream come true.

David had a sort of notorious reputation for being a bit bristly and of course we wanted to be on our best behavior and not do anything that would  draw negative attention to ourselves. 

One night somewhere, Reid was on stage and had his dog Maple locked in the dressing room. 

Or so we thought. 

In reality, Maple had been roaming around the backstage until he found an open door to the unoccupied star dressing room, where he helped himself to David Crosby’s rider.  All over the floor, furniture.  A total disaster.

The next part of this story is sort of a blur to me due to the terror I endured waiting for one of my musical heroes to show up and tear us a new one.

But I do remember the ending: It turns out David Crosby loved dogs and was really missing his own rascally pups while he was out on the road. He gave Maple some head scratches, laughed it off and paid Reid some fine compliments. Tragedy narrowly averted.

That was the first time but not the last time I got to work with him. Each time was one of the high honors of my life.

Bob Kennedy

Bowery Presents

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JERRY HARRISON PODCAST

Wow! Best episode yet. A super smart autodidact with a fabulous memory. And I love all his music so the backstories are fascinating.  Thank you —

David Meerman Scott

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Great podcast. He’s obviously brilliant & we knew the Heads were brainy but…

Steve Tipp

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And (producer) of Elliott Murphy Night Lights album!

Best,
Elliott

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I really enjoyed hearing Jerry on your podcast. Very interesting and deeply revealing!

Keep up the good work.

Chris Frantz

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WYNONNA JUDD PODCAST

From: Jason Cilo

My wife and I (both 53) and our 11-year-old daughter had a long drive up to Massachusetts last week. Over my daughter’s demands for Hits 1 on Sirius I claimed my right as the driver to select what I listened to. I chose your Wynonna podcast.  Fantastic. Fascinating. And REAL while still having that veneer of showbiz, of celebrity, of the stuff that makes the magic. And yet she was so honest about the pain behind it all and her own mercenary/egotistical attraction to the fame, the money, the lifestyle…all with very few platitudes, and what I can hear as sobriety in her responses.  And “Robert Weir” she mentioned maybe 3 or 4 times before I realized she’s talking about Bob Weir!  Somehow that’s so perfect, that she calls him “Robert Weir” as nobody else does. And then I’m streaming the Nugs.tv broadcast of Dead & Company’s Playing In The Sand concert this weekend and….there she is. And she was GREAT. I’ve been a Deadhead for 30 years and it’s hard to step onstage with any iteration of the Dead and find a place to fit in. Maggie Rogers did it recently.  But many have flailed. But she brought it and a sense of fun to the proceedings. When she was singing, she was interior…in a way your podcast illuminated. When she bantered, she came alive…in the way your podcast illuminated. Perhaps the highest praise was our 11-year-old, having pretended not to be listening…kept mentioning Wynonna all weekend….she was hooked! Kudos.

Wynonna & Dead & Company “Ramble On Rose”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf-Z5K1VfMU

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JEFF BECK

My Jeff Beck story;

When I was in my 20’s playing bars around Nashville, I played a lot of gigs with Jimmy Hall. He had just sang on Ambitious with Jeff Beck and was getting ready to do his tour. We had a gig at a funky little bar on Nolensville Road when Jeff came to town to go over material with Jimmy for the upcoming tour.

So, naturally, he came out to the gig to sit in. I was of course, losing my mind thinking I would have a chance to play with Jeff. This was long before I had ever played with anyone of note, and was just getting into playing a few publishing demos in the studio scene, but mostly just playing bar gigs. So, Jeff gets up to play, he’s standing right next to me on this little stage, this was around the time he was just moving into the phase of using the whammy bar and playing with his fingers, a sound he would develop over the next 20 years of his career, a style so completely original, I’ve never heard anything like it. Needless to say, on that stage that night, as I watched him play, about a foot away from me, it was like watching a savant, he just bemusedly looked down at the guitar, playing shit that completely blew my mind. It was total genius. I suggested we play Rock My Plimsoul, from his Truth record. I had learned that solo note for note sitting in my apartment practicing. So, we bust into that song, Jeff plays a solo, like, some unbelievable whammy bar future blues from outer space, and he nods at me to take a solo. I play his solo note for note from the record (or honestly, a fair approximation of it) he looks at me and kicks me…. affectionately. Ok, so I’m thinking, “Jeff Beck just kicked me” but in an endearing way. It  felt to me like a nod of approval. This was huge for a young unknown  guitar player like me.

 

He played maybe 4 or 5 songs total. It was the complete highlight of my life. But, there’s more..

 

At one point he broke a string and played my spare guitar. After the gig, I asked him to sign the guitar. He said, “Mate, get me a couple warm beers and a knife and I’ll carve my name in it.” Amazingly, there was a biker I vaguely knew with a buck knife, I asked to borrow it, even more amazingly he said yes, I grabbed a couple Guinness beers and headed back to the dressing room. We sat and chatted for about an hour as he ornately carved his name in my strat. At one point I said jokingly, hey Jeff if you hang around here ,you might get to play on some country records. His response was “haha, I’d love to” as he stopped carving for a minute and, just with the guitar unplugged in the dressing room, began playing blazingly fast, articulate bluegrass and country licks, kind of ala Albert Lee, but still sounding unmistakably like Jeff. All of us in the dressing room were sitting there(including my buddy Warner Hodges from Jason and the Scorchers) with our mouths open, like, ok you just put us all in our place. That’s it, that’s my Jeff Beck story. Still to this day, one of the greatest nights of my life.

 

Kenny Greenberg

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LUCIAN’S LETTER

From: Dave Dederer

“Trust nobody in entertainment, they’re all out for themselves. If you’re generating revenue, they’re your best friend, if you’re not…”

Bob,

Truer words were never spoken!  

We were heavily courted by every major label except Interscope in the mid 90s (how many were there then…8,9?).  

We signed with Columbia because we trusted Donnie Ienner.  

By “trusted,” I mean we trusted him to act in accord with the credo cited above with full commitment and transparency.  

He wasn’t going to pretend.  He wasn’t going to BS.  He was straight up.  And it was a great partnership. 

He was true to his word — told us in May 1995 that if we signed the final long-form agreement by mid-June, he would have the record out in mid-July.  We agreed and he delivered.  Anyone in the business knows that setting up a release in two months was just not done in the physical era, much less without a deal signed until a few weeks before the release date. 

When we were selling 60,000 records a week, I could typically get him on the phone within five minutes.  

When we were selling 6,000 a week, maybe get a call back in a few days, probably never. 

No offense taken.  That’s how business works. 

The bounds and rules of the relationship were clear.  Good fences make good neighbors!  

dave

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“Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”

AC/DC

Alex Skolnick

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1952 Vincent Black Lightning ……….just sayin

Richard Thompson

Bill Nelson

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Smooth Criminal – Michael Jackson

Bill Waliewski

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Whodunnit

Tavares

1977 mid-Top 40 & #1 Soul ditty co-written/produced by legendary hitmaker Freddie Perren – which name-checks a string of iconic mid-70s TV crime series!

Tim Hanlon

Lake Forest, IL

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Here are some of my additions to your “Crime Songs Playlist:”

Tom Dooley
Kingston Trio

Jailhouse Rock
Elvis

Stagger Lee
Lloyd Price

Gallows Pole
Led Zeppelin

House of the Rising Sun
The Animals

Smugglers Blues
Glenn Fry

Folsom Prison Blues
Johnny Cash

Rocky Racoon
Beatles

Hey Joe
Jimi Hendrix Experience

All the Best,

Bob Jameson

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What about Family Snapshot by Peter Gabriel?

Shane Cadman

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I Fought The Law:  The Crickets

Doug Thompson

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The Equals “Police On My Back”: https://bit.ly/3wFvzVE

The Clash covered this on Sandinista.

Both versions are so infectious.

Nick Petropoulos

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Indiana Wants Me – R. Dean Taylor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Wants_Me

John Garabedian

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What about

Robbery, Assault and Battery
Genesis
(from A Trick of The Tail)

Best,

Ian Penman

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No Folsom Prison Blues?

Marc Reiter

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Pittsburgh Stealers

The Kendalls

Michael Craig

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Folsom Prison Blues-Johnny Cash

Momma Tried – Merle Haggard

Mark Morrisey

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Krokus

Midnight Maniac

LD Glover

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Old Judge Jones
Les Dudek

Crime in The City
Neil Young

Benjamin Hunter

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1. Hurricane, Bob Dylan

~ Living in So Florida, I haven’t met anyone who knows this song and it should be iconic given its name, right!?!? I think it’s because the radio market is so tuned into Latin music, and there’s only one rock station that ONLY plays the ‘super’ hits where I’ve heard the same songs nearly 10k times. Whhyyyy 🙁

Hurricane is a song about racism, violence and betrayal. I used to sing that song with a live band in the 90s, after having a few beers of course! Now I’m in my 50s , not sure I could remember all the lyrics, but I still remember the impact that story had on me then, as a white, midwesterner (woman). Tyre’s story is no different- it’s just now more people have access to it.

~DebTurner

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A crime song list without Alice Cooper?

Thomas Quinn

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A little Canadian Crime by The Box.

Michael Greggs.

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Nice… cruising and listening… I would have added Ellis Unit One by Steve Earle…from the Dead Man Walking Soundtrack which is really quite underrated IMO… cheers

Todd Devonshire

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What about Maxwell’s Silver Hammer? HA

Jeff Weicher

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Outlaw Man
Eagles

Cash On The Barrelhead
Louvin Brothers

Thirty Days
Chuck Berry

Ballad Of Thunder Road
Mark Collie

Julie + Lucky
Dan Baird

Everglades
Kingston Trio

In State
Kathleen Edwards

(I Washed My Hands In) Muddy Water
Johnny Rivers

John Besanko

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Watching The Detectives

Elvis Costello

Whose Side Are You On

Matt Bianco

David Boloten

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The Curse of Millhaven – Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

Don’t Take Your Guns To Town – Johnny Cash

A Criminal Mind – Gowan

David Harley’s Son and Suicidewinder and In the Trunk of a Black Lexus – Ridley Bent (debut album – Blam)

They may or may not fit your criteria, but all, in my opinion, immensely entertaining

Kevin Young

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Being from Indiana – “Indiana Wants Me” – R Dean Taylor

Rob Evans

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Murder In My Heart For The Judge
Moby Grape

Ballad of a Well Known Gun
Elton John

Scott Sechman

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Copperhead Road, Steve Earle

A tale of 3 generations of criminals

could have topped the list

J.Cole – OG

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Down By The River – Neil Young

Mark Johnson

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Lock and Key

Rush

John Virant, Jr.

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A Week In a Country Jail

Tom T Hall

 

Alice’s Restaurant

Arlo Guthrie

 

One Piece at A Time

Johnny Cash

 

Folsom Prison Blues

Johnny Cash

 

Jeff Lysyczyn

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I remain especially fond of this one:

“The Holdup: David Bromberg: https://bit.ly/3WNmkx6

Corey Bearaj

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I love this playlist! Adding Tweeter and the Monkey Man…

Robyn Gould

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Tom waits “day after tomorrow “
Steve Earle “ Jerusalem “

Mitchell Greenbaum

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Uriah Heep – Stealin’…..

Donald Bartenstein

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What no Jailbreak?

Mick Wall

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​Bohemian Rhapsody Queen

​Gotta Get A Message To You Bee Gees

Wrick Wolff

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You forgot Smugglers Blues.

Greg Robson

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Great list, Bob.

Surprised to see, huge Zeppelin fan that you are, that Gallows Pole, was omitted. No worries though, will love listening to this playlist.

Mark Haar

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For What It’s Worth

Buffalo Springfield

Ohio

Crosby Stills Nash and Young

Hey Joe

Jimi Hendrix

Down by the River

Neil Young

RUNNIN’ WITH THE DEVIL

Van Halen

Riders On The Storm

The Doors

Swingin’

Tim Petty and the Heartbreakers

Guns, Guns, Guns

The Guess Who

The End

The Doors

Drugs in Me Pocket

The Monks

Laugh At the Judge

The Grease Band

Bank Job

Barenaked Ladies

Murder She Wrote

Chair Demus & Pliers

Jailhouse Rock

Elvis

Arrested For Driving While Blind

ZZ Top

I Fought the Law

The Clash

Bankrobber

The Clash

Anarchy in the UK

Sex Pistols

Riot in Cell Block Number Nine

Blues Brothers

Gimme Back My Bullets

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Olie Kornelsen

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Bohemian Rhapsody?

David Stopps

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Crime In The City (Sixty to Zero Pt. 1)

Neil Young

One of the best.

Jordan Holman

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Bob,
Rubber Bullets 10cc
Steve Langford

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Murder incorporated
Bruce Springsteen

Jeff Gabriels

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I love the list. Here’s an incredible song that you might want to put on the next time – The Road Goes on Forever – by Robert Earl Keen. It has to be the live version, though, with the crowd singing along and the two-minute jam session.

JP Lavin

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Murder Incorporated – Bruce Springsteen

Chris Xynos

______________________________________

whenever kindness fails – robert earl keen

Robert Earl Keen

Denise Mello

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Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash)

Mama Tried (Grateful Dead; Merle Haggard original I think)

Send Me To The ‘lectric Chair (David Bromberg; Bessie Smith original I think)

Indiana Wants Me (R. Dean Taylor; original?)

DG G

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Parchman Farm

Mose Allison

In Germany Before The War

Randy Newman

Take a Message to Mary

The Everly Brothers

El Paso

Marty Robbins

Don’t Take Your Guns To Town

Johnny Cash

Hey Joe

Jimi Hendrix

Russ Titelman

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Great list! Feels like the album or a song from Nick Cave’s Murder ballads would fit right in.

Cheers,

Christophe Carvenius

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Mr. Policeman… by Brad Paisley… such a silly fun song…!

Marc Lohrmer

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Send Me To the ‘Lectric Chair

Bessie Smith

Lauri Perason

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Indiana wants me!

Peter Wagner

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Big Iron

Marty Robbins

Bruce Gordon

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You forgot Me and My Uncle by the Grateful Dead.

Stefanie Lacoff

______________________________________

Hey joe

Stalag 17.- Ansel Collins: https://bit.ly/3wEDoe8

Jeff Lorber

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“Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde”: https://bit.ly/3HF8o3X

Georgie Fame

I’m roughly your age…I love this song!

Tom Clark

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You’re missing most of Nebraska

Merck Mercuriadis

Spotify Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3JoD4YO

 

I Fought the Law

Bobby Fuller Four

 

Crime of the Century

Supertramp

 

Midnight Rambler

Rolling Stones

 

Have Mercy On the Criminal

Elton John

 

Psycho Killer

Talking Heads

 

Ringo

Lorne Greene

 

The Ballad of Billy the Kid

Billy Joel

 

Machine Gun Kelly

James Taylor

 

I Shot the Sheriff

Bob Marley & the Wailers

 

Hurricane

Bob Dylan

 

Take the Money and Run

Steve Miller

 

Breaking the Law

Judas Priest

 

I Don’t Like Mondays

Boomtown Rats

 

Chain Gang

Sam Cooke

 

Wanted Dead or Alive

Bon Jovi

 

Woke Up This Morning

Alabama3

 

Don’t Take Me Alive

Steely Dan

 

Good Morning Judge

10cc

I was a part of the artist-facing team at Ticketmaster from 2003-2010, back then we called it Music Services. Basically a strategic attempt to increase Ticketmaster’s leverage in the upcoming then-CCE-soon-to-be Live Nation contract renewal negotiations (LN didn’t own TM at the time, but they were their biggest client). But if LN was going to threaten to build their own ticketing company in advance of that negotiation – which of course they did attempt – then Ticketmaster was going to start speaking directly to the artist managers and agents.

Our job was to deploy TM’s newest technologies on behalf of the artist to the benefit of the tour and their fans. Back then we started dynamic pricing with auction technology – and many of the bands were quick to adopt it even though the consumer experience was janky. But it increased the show gross and ostensibly decreased broker profit potential. Then we started shifting to the premium buy-it-now model also known as Platinum. Then we bundled recorded music and fan club subscriptions with the ticket. Then we rolled out “paperless ticketing” to try and thwart scalpers while keeping prices in check. By 2007 you would have been hard-pressed to find a major stadium or arena act that wasn’t working with us and deploying one or more of these platforms. There were exceptions of course like Pearl Jam, Radiohead, etc. but for the most part we were getting this stuff sold throughout the industry with little issue.

Then the company moved me to London and we built a similar team overseas and started deploying those technologies with European and global tours. Over there, Viagogo and Seatwave were just starting to break through – whereas Stubhub had already sold to eBay here in the states. Short story – while there was certainly more resistance at first in Europe, eventually the artists and promoters couldn’t resist the extra dollars/pounds/euros that came. Side note: while the European promoters will be the first to publicly demand equity and fairness for the fans, we found that many of those people were selling tickets out the back door to touts and that the culture in the industry was far more duplicitous than even here in the states. Not everyone, but more than you’d think. But the point is that yet again, in a new continent now, we were getting most of the tours to sign up for the technologies and platforms we were selling.

Then around 2009 we started selling the idea of “all-in” pricing to the artists. It was like the power went out. We couldn’t get anyone to say yes. Roger Waters was doing a tour in 2010 and his manager Mark Fenwick and I had laid the groundwork to really launch “all-in” on a global scale with that tour. Remember we are now in that window of time when LN and TM had already announced their intention to “merge” but it had still not been approved by the regulators. Well, short story is that Ron Delsener didn’t like the idea of all-in, he told Fenwick to kill it – and Fenwick did. And in retrospect it’s hard to blame them, the tour wasn’t going to get a huge tangible benefit from going all-in.

Our industry is the only one where you see the retailer’s mark-up. Imagine going into Nordstrom and seeing that the AG jeans you want to buy are $150, but then there is a $100 Nordstrom fee on top so now you’re paying $250. It doesn’t matter if you know that Nordstrom is going to take $70 of that $100 and send it back to AG – that purchase experience is brutal. But ultimately no matter how many studies you put in front of a manager or agent that show you’ll sell more tickets by going with an all-in price and avoiding the drip-pricing, they don’t believe taking on the risk of shouldering the burden of being the lightning rod for high prices that the ticketing companies are meant to serve as is worth it. Again, hard to blame them.

Vito Iaia

Ps. Ask the fans in Europe whether or not they like the fact that tickets to their favorite show are going onsale on three different ticketing companies websites this Friday at 10am – and that they have no idea which site will have the best or most inventory – and see what they say. As much as people slam the exclusive model in the states – it works for the fans. At least in the primary market…