If I say anything negative I’ll instantly become a pariah, I’ll be inundated with hate on social media and…

“How can there be 24 writers on a song?

Diane Warren tweeted this about a Beyoncé track four days ago.

And was instantly labeled a racist. It was said she didn’t understand African-American culture, one of collaboration, and then she APOLOGIZED! (And disappeared from Twitter for a few days.)

Is Diane Warren a racist? I’ve never seen evidence of this. Diane will work with anybody who can make one of her songs a hit. FURTHERMORE, Diane has previously worked with Beyoncé!

Now let’s say you make your living as a songwriter. Things are tough enough already, unless you have a hit you’re struggling. Used to be even an album track paid serious dividends, assuming it was on a hit LP in the physical era. But today, even though music is released as albums, they’re cherry-picked by the audience. And if you’re super-lucky, more than one track will break out. The rest of them have far fewer streams. And if you’re the writer of one of those…you might need to keep your day job.

Also, how do you write a song with 24 people?

Oh, we know, you sample this and you sample that, everybody in the room where it happens wants a piece and…the truth is Beyoncé has so many income streams that she’s willing to sacrifice some publishing money. But really… 24 writers?

I believe it’s reasonable to question that number, which appears laughable on the surface. I won’t go any further, talk about the craft of writing songs, in both the Black and White worlds…

But…

There are white acts that have a plethora of writers on their songs.

And there are black acts that only have one or two.

RACE IS NOT A FACTOR!

But you can’t say that.

I’ve been tracking the success of Beyoncé’s new album “Renaissance” since its release last Friday. To see if streams were commensurate with hype. And although initially the album peppered the upper echelons of the U.S. Spotify Top 50…

And then yesterday afternoon I saw a tweet by Om Malik, presently a VC. Linking to a piece on his blog:

“In Beyoncé we trust?”: https://bit.ly/3bCek0z

Om said:

“I have been listening to the album — on Spotify. Unlike the critics and reviewers, I am not having an eargasm. Except for two songs, Church Girl and Move, the album left me underwhelmed. She has done better work and will do better work in the future.”

This is the first negative word I’ve read about “Renaissance.” The hosannas in mainstream media have been overwhelming. It’s as if the Beatles got back together and released a record every bit as good as “Sgt. Pepper,” even better!

Now I’m a student of the game. One thing I keep noticing and hammering is most people don’t care. About Beyoncé, about ANYTHING! We no longer live in a monoculture, we live in a niche culture. You can promote it, but that does not mean people will consume it. And the rollout of “Renaissance” is the best ever in the streaming era, it was everywhere. Is it successful?

Om goes on:

“Still, I appreciate Beyoncé bringing attention to house music and its legends. As someone who has been a house music fan since the earliest days, this made me happy. But that doesn’t mean I will go ga-ga over the album, which is a bit ho-hum, at least to my ears. My reaction is very different from that of critics and reviewers. According to Metacritic, it scored 93, and 19 out of 19 reviews are positive. Fans gave it 9.4. I understand that taste is subjective, and not everyone likes the same thing.”

And then quotes “The Economist”: 

“Many superstars enjoy unquestioning critical veneration. This is driven by a number of factors—chief among them journalists’ fear of a social-media backlash. There is also the fact that the biggest stars rarely let their records go to reviewers before release, resulting in articles written on the fly, in which no one wants to be the person out of step.”

Now there’s the truth. This is not the sixties or seventies, where music criticism is an art form. Now it’s all positive all the time. I get “Relix,” the reviews are worthless, THEY’RE ALL POSITIVE!

And seemingly everything in “Rolling Stone” gets three stars. How do you tell the difference? Assuming you even see “Rolling Stone,” since it’s behind a paywall.

But if you go against trend, against the grain, be prepared, you’re going to be criticized, ostracized… One thing I like about Diane Warren is she has edges, she has an opinion, and sometimes it’s negative about herself. She’s 3-D. But if you’re 3-D in today’s world you’re gonna ultimately cross somebody whose goal is to have the world conform to their perception. Other opinions? NO!

So music criticism at large is passé. Because what “The Economist” says is true. Reviewers no longer get free product, there are no press junkets, being flown to a gig like in the old days, today the only thing you get is access, and if you say something negative, anything at all, you’re shut out.

So let’s go to where the rubber meets the road, Beyoncé’s streaming performance. And let me make this clear, Spotify is the only platform that matters. Apple and Amazon have many fewer subscribers who stream less and they both skew older. They don’t represent the cutting edge. And if you quote sales numbers, at iTunes, that’s absolutely ridiculous. If you’re buying tracks today… You get poor quality and if you like ownership…do you really believe the format is forevermore? You’ll be able to play vinyl. MP3s, AACs? How about WMA? The standard in the Windows world twenty years ago, history today.

So on Spotify, the highest charting Beyoncé track is “Break My Soul,” at #8. But this was the advance single, released six weeks ago.

Then you get “Alien Superstar,” on the way down, at #13.

“Cuff It” at #23 on the way down.

“Energy” on the way down at #27.

“Summer Renaissance” at #31 on the way down.

“Church Girl” at #34 on the way down.

“I’m That Girl” at #44 on the way down.

And finally “Cozy” at #45 on the way down.

Eight tracks in the Spotify Top 50, that’s PHENOMENAL! But other than “Break My Soul” they all have that red triangle, representing downward movement. As in people are checking out the album because it’s new, but the newness is wearing off and most people are really just only interested in the hit. There could be another hit down the line, but right now no track is jumping out.

But like I said, Beyoncé’s highest charting track, “Break My Soul,” is at #8 with 772,806 streams a day.

HOWEVER, #1 is Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” with over twice that number, 1,657,720.

And next comes Harry Styles’s “As It Was,” with 1,070,951. Harry’s a superstar. Not that he gets anywhere near the ink that Beyoncé does. Then again, does he have the same cultural impact?

#3 is Bad Bunny’s “Me Porton Bonito,” with 1,045,427 streams a day.

And this is where it becomes interesting. Not only is Bad Bunny #3, he’s also #5, #11, #19, #25, #29, #36 and #48. That’s also eight tracks in the Top 50. But Bad Bunny’s album came out May 6th. And six of Bad Bunny’s tracks, all except #5 and #48, have green triangles, showing they’re on the way up.

So I ask you, who is bigger, Bad Bunny or Beyoncé?

Not that it’s a competition. Yet it is, because streams are where all the money is. As for cultural impact, ultimately that’s unquantifiable, and they’re both not on the road and… Shouldn’t there be a lot of ink about Bad Bunny? Sure, there’s been a good amount, but are we going to say the media is racist by underrepresenting the Latin market?

Interesting question.

#4 is Kate Bush’s “Stranger Things” phenomenon. It’s going down with a red triangle but it still has 1,019,995 streams a day.

And then comes a Drake track. And then a Joji track. And then finally you hit Beyoncé.

If Beyoncé is so big, shouldn’t she have the #1 record, or close?

But it turns out the media is out of touch with the listeners. For all the over the top ink, turns out people would rather listen to something else.

But Bob, you say. Bad Bunny is an international act. It’s unfair to compare his success to that of Beyoncé’s, it’s a different market. But is it really? Those Bad Bunny numbers above are U.S. ONLY!

So let’s look at the Global numbers.

“Break My Soul” is at #16 with a downward red triangle.

“Alien Superstar” is #42 with a red triangle.

And “Cuff It” is #50 with a red triangle.

As for Bad Bunny, he’s at #3, #5, #8, #9, #11, #20, #25, #35 and #47.

And I won’t even bother to recount the fifteen tracks ahead of “Break My Soul” on the Global chart.

Is it racist for me to print the above numbers?

Is it racist for me to question the public’s acceptance of Beyoncé’s new work?

This is business. Have we gotten to the point where we can’t analyze the numbers for fear of offending someone? Not only the act’s superfans, but those in the media, in the business, in the…

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with “Renaissance” in the future. Will the label be able to break another hit? One thing is for sure, with almost all albums, after the hysteria of the initial release, after the multitude of tracks disappear from the Spotify Top 50, they don’t reappear en masse, usually only one at a time, or two. So what about the rest of the tracks on the album? Were they even necessary? Check the Spotify numbers, as you go down the track listing you see ever fewer plays, unless a deeper track was a single. Which is exactly what is happening with “Renaissance.” The first five tracks have between twelve and fifteen million streams. Tracks 9-15 all have single digit millions. In some cases, less than half of numbers 1-5.

Has Beyoncé aged out? Has it been too long between records? Is it better to constantly release new music to keep yourself in the public eye, to keep your hand in the game?  Is the media trustworthy?

These are all viable questions. And really, they’ve got very little to do with Beyoncé herself. This is not character assassination, this is business evaluation. What is going on in the market?

One thing I’ll tell you is happening is nobody’s a guaranteed success. Even Drake’s new album put up less than stellar streaming numbers. The new and different is what appeals to people most. And their judgment of what is good may be completely different from the media’s and the gatekeepers’.

And really, on streaming services, there are no gatekeepers.

It’s not about being discovered on playlists when it comes to superstars. It’s about raw acceptance. Is everybody starting from scratch every time they release music? Or in a much less advantageous position than perceived? Does the public actually want an entire album? Is there a quality issue, I mean look at the Kate Bush numbers. Or is it just simply the song was in “Stranger Things” and that cuts across exposure lines better than anything else in media, print, social or playlists.

The world changes. To keep up with it you have to keep asking questions.

I’m asking questions about “Renaissance.”

That’s taboo.

Mo, Lenny, and Russ, along with the WB staff were truly responsible for the early success of Prince. But Mo was at the helm. When I told them that we wanted three albums firm when we signed him, Mo gave the green light – no other label would have done that. When I told them that an 18 yr old kid from Minneapolis, who had never recorded an album, was going to also produce his first album and play all the instruments – he was given the green light. No label at the time would have done that. When Prince told WB not to pigeon-hole him as an R&B artist because he wanted to make music for all people – they believed in his vision. No other label at the time would have done that. But Mo was at the helm at WB, and he created that environment. After Prince and I parted ways Mo always made a point of coming up to me to say hello at various events – he didn’t have to do that. And I know for a fact that after Prince and WB parted ways (Prince changed his name to a glyph to get out of the deal among other salty actions) that if he would have called Mo to come back, Mo would have welcomed him with open arms. No hurt feelings. That was Mo Ostin. And I am sure that there will never be anyone like him again in the music business.

Owen Husney

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Tony is so right on. There never was a more menchy guy in the business.
I represented Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham when they joined Fleetwood Mac. I told Mo that I didn’t want them to be exclusive to Warner’s for any solo work they would do outside of Fleetwood Mac. Unlike other record companies at the time who insisted on complete exclusivity, Mo understood and gave me the point.

As they say, the rest is history.

Owen Sloane

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I knew Mo but not well. He was always easy to be around and down to earth, friendly. Bring you in his office and just hang for a few minutes. How ya doin, how’s the new album? Like that.

To a young kid at the beginning of a career (for however long) that mattered.

A great man In a business that that was kinda jive. He turned Warner Brothers into an artist friendly environment. That’s how I remember Mo.

RIP

Tom Johnston

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We met Mo Ostin back in 1987 or 88, right after my group Take 6 was signed to Warner Nashville. I remember how music centric and wonderful a person he was to us. This coming from the head of WB in Burbank in regards to an A Cappella, Gospel, Jazz vocal group, signed to the country music division of WB!
That should tell you a lot about him, as well as how the music business at that time was about MUSIC.
He was from a bygone era and will be truly missed!

Claude Mcknight

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I remember when Phil Walden moved Capricorn distribution from Atlantic to Warner because Mo and Joe gave him a joint venture partnership as opposed to a straight distribution deal. As close as Phil was to Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler he just couldn’t refuse the deal and Capricorn had their greatest sales and profits at Warner. The entire Warner team was top of the line at that time.

Willie Perkins

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Loved reading Tony’s story. Remember it well. I met Mo when I was very young man. My father was friendly with him, had worked with Sinatra and they played golf at El Cabellero CC in Tarzana occasionally. I remember him telling me about Jimi Hendrix and Alice Cooper and I almost fainted. I didn’t know people signed people. He was so humble even then. Later on when we were managing Devo I got to work with Mo, Lenny, and the whole team. It was a dream come true. We were in the studio once and Lenny came to hear some tracks and he told them they were being too conservative. Can you imagine that? He said it sounds like you’re trying to have a hit. Don’t do that. Just do what you love. That’s how Warner Bros. was in those days. Frankly when I worked at the film studio it was a similar vibe.  When I signed Scritti Politti with Elliott Roberts we had huge offers for their American deal. But Mo wanted them and frankly I don’t even remember negotiating. We just made a deal. I had lunch with him and Eric Eisner one day and we were talking about my then very young kids and Mo said as far as school is concerned there’s Harvard Westlake and then there’s everybody else and believe me all three of my kids graduated from Harvard Westlake.  He was the final word on so many things. And such a great dad and man. Michael is a testament to what great values the Ostins represented. And you could write books about Evelyn. She was the gold standard.

Bill Gerber

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In early 1999 I was a “wet behind the ears” Toronto-based music lawyer doing one of my first major deals with Mo Ostin at Dreamworks. After the signing ceremony Mo and the team had reservations for lunch at a restaurant in Beverly Hills. Mo and Robbie Robertson invited me to drive back to the office in Robbie’s new BMW. Robbie wanted to show me how the audio worked in his new car. I was freaking out!! What would I ask them? How would I keep up in a conversation with these 2 legends? What could I possibly add to the discussion? Would they just ignore more me and talk amongst themselves?

 

No. Both Robbie and Mo were genuinely curious about my music history. My music history??? What band was I in? What was the music like? How many people were in the band? Where did we tour? WTF??

 

They spent the whole drive drilling me about my old group and putting me at ease. It’s a method I’ve employed ever since when I meet a nervous young artist or manager.

 

Over time I was able to ask Mo a bunch of questions.

 

A mensch, a guiding light, a true gentleman that impacted so many.

 

Chris Taylor

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Hi Bob,  Thanks for the great write-up on Mo.  I was lucky enough to be on Warner Bros Records Nashville staff during some of that magic. I met Mo a few times. You could tell in the first two sentences: 1. He was very very smart. 2. He was a good, honorable person.  In all the time I was there, I don’t think I ever heard one bad thing said about Mo from anyone..

You’re so right. If only we had more Mo Ostins.

Reprise is pronounced like “leeds” BTW

Danny Kee

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Hi Bob,

Greetings from the other side of the Big Pond. I worked as Head of A&R for Warner Reprise (alongside brother labels Elektra/Asylum and Atlantic) in South Africa for close to 21 years. Every year I would fly to the US to visit the labels and catch up on new music, news etc. My favourite was Warner Reprise at 3300 Warner Boulevard. It was there that I met Mo, and many other legendary record men like Russ, Lenny, Stan and my boss, the late Tom Ruffino. Every time I met Mo he would remember that I was from South Africa and would say something like “Hey you`re doing a great job for us down there” and I, this country bumpkin from Africa, would beam with pride because I truly felt like family. He even congratulated me for releasing an obscure album by Jerry Williams, we were probably the only territory to do so. And the same is true of all the WBR people who worked there in the Seventies thru Nineties. I was taken to gigs, introduced to loads of new and exciting music. Mo made all of this possible because of who he was and how he related to staff & artists. There will never be another Mo, they broke the mould,  I`m proud to have worked for him and WBR.

Benjy Mudie
Warner Reprise, South Africa
1976-1997

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Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker.

I remember meeting Mo and Lenny in 1988 in Burbank.

My label Rhythm King had just had the first computerised hit records in the UK with Bomb the Bass and S express at  No 1 and Seymour Stein bought me in to meet them.

We spent two hours taking music, Mo was interested in this new computer music form and Lenny wanted to talk about song structures.

Seymour was pacing around outside, worried as usual!

The next day Mo took me to the lakers game.  He had a permanent seat right next to the goal on the court.

He was famous on TV as the guy who threw the ball back into play.

Neither of these men were corporate.

They were people persons.  Music people.

Curious and open.

They took an interest and bet on people.

And built one of the greatest labels on earth.

Martin Heath.

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I absolutely love this! Thank you for writing it!

I was blessed to know Mo. I moved to LA in the 80’s and was close to his son Randy. I spent many weekends at their Malibu beach home and Mo would be in the TV room glued to the basketball game.

One day the door bell rang and in walked George Harrison and Ringo. 

George ended up staying the weekend and couldn’t have been more genuine and kind. There was never a shortage of people popping in and it was always interesting.

I remember telling him early on, how lucky he was to have been born when he was. He truly was the kindest man and you were spot on when you said, “Maybe because he worried about careers more than sales.” That was Mo!

Today he is in heaven with his loved ones and Michael is the last one standing. It must be hard for him.

Thank you again for writing this

Melissa

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I was  working for a not to be named major record label  and was in New York for the post  Grammy party ( you know the big extravaganzas  labels used to throw)

The party was divided by the artists and the few top brass executives – while everybody else stood behind the velvet ropes. An artist friend called me and told me to bail and come to the Warner Bros party- and when I did there was Mo Ostin – the label  President who was just hanging with all the artists and the regular folks- no velvet rope in sight. When I introduced myself to Mo he gave me a huge warm hug and talked to me about my dad – who he knew and loved because they were frat brothers in college. I remember several superstars waiting to talk to him but he  was fully connected to me and didn’t do the typical brush off. This is why Mo was so loved. He was kind and he was real.

Tracy Gershon

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The Chairman has left the building….

Jed Weitzman

Melissa Etheridge is open, honest and forthcoming, nothing is off limits. We discuss her music, her relationships, her upbringing, her sexuality, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, the Oscars… It’s like talking with a friend!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/melissa-etheridge/id1316200737?i=1000574984329

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/b2391d50-7211-4bb4-ab3e-ed4ca08ae617/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-melissa-etheridge

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/melissa-etheridge-205503143

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3PZXBTF

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3SonL4g

1

But I’m listening on Qobuz.

That’s what I’ve been doing since Monday, all day, just listening, scouring the virtual stacks to see what is in Hi-Res. There’s no rhyme or reason what oldies are in Hi-Res or not. Some catalogues have been completely upgraded, others have not. And in truth, the regular CD quality stuff sounds pretty good, but the Hi-Res stuff…there’s not an adjective in the dictionary!

You see this is what we used to do. Sit in front of the stereo and do nothing else but listen. That was more than enough. We parted the scrim of the speakers and got inside the music where we could not be reached. And if it was too loud for others, we put on the headphones. You see if you paid attention, there were certain things in the record that you could not catch on a casual listen, but if you knew the cut and had a good enough stereo, there would be so much to be found. Like “I’m very cold” at the end of “Strawberry Fields Forever” on “Magical Mystery Tour.” It wasn’t until nearly two years later that it was claimed that Paul McCartney was dead and this buried snippet confirmed it, saying “I buried Paul.”

Not that we told everybody about these discoveries. They were private, just for us, not casual fans. We were the ones who blew up the concert industry, because we had to see these acts. It was the next step, it was a communal experience. There were seats, the music was respected, if you stood at all it was only for the encores. And it wasn’t about who you went with, but just you and the act and the music, a transcendent connection. The record was preparation for the ultimate live experience. All this comes back as I listen to Hi-Res on Qobuz.

The first James Taylor album was gifted to me by my sister for my 17th birthday, she said it was big at B.U. That same week I bought “Sweet Baby James,” which had only come out in February, but I always preferred the Apple debut, whose production hasn’t aged well, but was magic back then.

It all started with “Carolina in My Mind.” At least on the second side. The original version is different from the now famous slowed-down take which has replaced it in the public consciousness, the one that’s included in the first “Greatest Hits” album. It’s sunny and upbeat. Like James is remembering a sunny day and good times. Whereas the slowed-down version is reflective. Like he’s looking back, over years and distance, it’s a memory, but the original is palpably now.

“Carolina In My Mind” was my favorite at first, I played it every day when I woke up, that’s what I used to do in high school, it was a ritual, it demonstrated that there was a world for me, even if the one I was actually living in didn’t understand me.

My second favorite was the original “Something in the Way She Moves,” which is also much faster, as if he’s in the throes of the feelings as opposed to thinking back. From when James was a nobody as opposed to an international star when he recut it.

My third favorite was the traditional “Circle Round the Sun,” I’m a fool for the slow majesty of cuts like this, I’m conducting a virtual orchestra in my brain, totally in the moment, believing there’s a world, girls, who understand me, can see inside to who I really am.

“Sweet Baby James” has a completely different feel.

2

There was a time when almost nobody knew of James Taylor. When he was in the marketplace but only the cognoscenti were aware of him. Ubiquity came in the fall of 1970, when “Fire and Rain” dominated the airwaves. Whereas before this the song stuck out for me because of the mention of “Jesus,” when this was very rare.

The first song on “Sweet Baby James” that I loved so much was on the first side, “Country Road.”

Funny how I live in the city today, actually a giant suburb, that’s what L.A. is, but my heart is still in the country. Then again, the country is no longer so removed, what with Amazon and the internet. You used to be off the grid. Where people went in the seventies, licking their wounds from the sixties.

There’s a rhythm in “Country Road,” an emphasis, and then it amps up. It’s got more edge than “Fire and Rain.” James is exhorting, he’s not restrained whatsoever, he can feel it on a country road. Which he keeps traveling down…”walk on down, walk on down, walk on down, walk on down, walk on down a country road.” I learned to play this on the guitar, back when that was something we all did, before everybody used online tools to make beats. And we’d get together and trade songs and sing, it was part of experience, like singing around the piano before the age of recorded music, back in 1970 music was not portable.

And in truth I love “Sweet Baby James” because of this verse:

“Now the first of December was covered with snow

So was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston

Though the Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frostin’

With ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go”

I know all of it. The first of December, when winter really starts to begin. And the Mass Pike, which had a unique toll system, you got a card when you got on and paid at a man in a booth when you got off, whereas on the Connecticut Turnpike they had toll booths along the way. And if you had exact change, you threw it in the bucket.

As for the Berkshires… They’re hills, except for Mt. Greylock, but they’re higher than those in northwest Connecticut. The Berkshires are far from New York City, you can’t commute from there, it’s its own state of mind, even though cultured New Yorkers park there in the summer.

As for the slog of the highway, it’s a metaphor for life. Then sometimes you reach the distant destination and are flummoxed as to where to go next.

Beyond these three tracks I’ve got to single out “Anywhere Like Heaven” in the middle of the second side.

And I went to see James Taylor twice in a matter of weeks, just days after my birthday in Boston and then in Port Chester. But one song James never played was “Suite for 20 G.” What was that about?

3

It was actually two songs. A suite. But why these two? And why was it 20 G?

I didn’t learn the story until I became friends with Peter Asher, who produced the album. Truth is they wanted to finish the album to get the twenty grand due on delivery, but they were a song short, so they combined these two and thus, “Suite for 20 G.”

Not that anybody talks about it.

The track starts to gain power after the initial “chorus” about “Mary Jane.”

“I’ve been trying hard to find a way to let you know

That we can make it shine most all the time

This time ’round I’m searching down to where I used to go

And it’s been on my mind to make it shine”

This is just a bit more intimate, to the heart. The lyrics are relatively unencumbered by the instrumentation. In the lingo of the era, this is when the song starts to get “heavy.” And I’m listening to the cut on Qobuz today and suddenly I hear Carole King. Subtly, but clearly!

I mean I’ve always heard the female backup vocal. And if you’d asked me who I thought it was, I’d have said Carole, but in Hi-Res her vocal sound, the timbre, stands out. And she’s not belting, she’s just dipping her toe in the background, it’s so magical.

But the standout part of the track, which features Carole too, is the link, the segue between the two songs.

“You can say I wanna be free

I can say some day I will be”

And then there’s an instrumental interlude employing the melody of what came before and then…

There’s a repeat.

“You can say I wanna be free

I can say some day I will be”

And then the track changes completely, it’s a different song with horns, and it’s good, but not as good as that segue, that’s the key to the track. It resonates with sweetness in a way nobody does today.

There is meaning. That’s what we wanted to be, free. Back before the right co-opted that word. But we were talking about a different kind of free, we mostly wanted to be free in the mind. To explore, to be our best selves. We were reaching for something, we weren’t quite sure what it was, but that didn’t mean we stopped our yearning, our journey.

But wait, there’s more!

4

Now actually I heard this first on Amazon Music Ultra HD.

I didn’t realize James was doubling his vocal. But it’s clear as day when you do critical listening in Hi-Res. You can’t miss it, there’s a James in each channel. On the car speaker, on a mediocre music reproduction system, it sounds like just one James. But with critical listening in Hi-Res, which I can do with Qobuz, my DragonFly Cobalt and Genelec speakers, not only can I hear it, I gain insight into the recording process, I can see the studio. That’s what we wanted to know, how the acts recorded this music, the thought process, the tricks.

The truth is tracks are built in the studio. It sounds like one big amalgamated unit on the radio, but you start from scratch, with the songs, production ideas. You experiment, you risk, you keep some things and lose others. Sometimes a detour will deliver a full blown change.

And in truth there are tricks. And people are constantly coming up with new ones. Doubling is new, then it’s de rigueur. The envelope was constantly being pushed back in this era, tape machines had more tracks, there was outboard gear, you got new sounds, and they enhanced the records.

I’ve been trying to find a way to let you know that we can make it shine most all the time. That the magic is still there. Listening to these cuts this way makes me realize many more of them will survive than I thought. It’s because of not only the talent, but the effort. Nobody was just going through the motions, everybody was on their own hejira, searching for excellence. The acts didn’t sound the same, and that’s one of the things we liked about the scene.

And the music was enough, the penumbra was just that. There weren’t even t-shirts for a long time. The acts were artists. They didn’t want to do anything to compromise their artistry, their vision. They hewed to their own tuning fork. They were unconstrained. And to be a fan and to be able to go on the ride…it was better than anything at Disneyland, or social media. Because these tracks contained the essence of humanity, and truth and direction, if you paid attention there was so much there!

But the business stopped respecting the music. And then the audience did the same. Music is the accompaniment, not the essence. Musicians became brands. And I’m not saying that you can’t do it just as well employing the new tools, but the players don’t. Money comes first, everybody complains, when in truth only a select few ever made big bucks in the music business, and most people couldn’t record at all.

And there have been all these shows documenting the process. But they never illustrate it accurately. It starts with a beginning off the radar, years of woodshedding, working with different players, honing your material. And then if you’re lucky you gain notice. The industry is just the patina, laid atop what the artist comes into the studio with.

But you need engineers and producers to put it all together and levitate it. But old school producers are rare, those who didn’t work the board, but produced with their minds, on what they heard. Because the artists fear being told what to do, and an engineer can do both for less money.

But something is lost in the process.

Listen to all the James Taylor records, different producers created different records. Just when it looked like JT was lost, Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman resuscitated him, to the point where he was as big as ever, if not bigger.

But this is all to say when I hear Carole King singing in “Suite for 20 G” I not only feel connected to what once was, I connect to myself.

And when “Suite for 20 G” is opened up I can join in, mentally, I may not be able to impact the process, but I’m definitely a fly on the wall, exposed to the inner workings. I’m free! WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR?