Although not a total surprise, the timing of this changing of the guard was unexpected. It illustrates that everything comes to an end, and you’re better off if you prepare for it. As for those hanging on too long…
We now realize Disney was failing not because of the loss of Bob Iger, but because of a change in the landscape.
And the landscape has changed in tech.
What we’ve learned since the death of Steve Jobs in 2011 is it’s all about software, which somehow seems hard to comprehend for both pundits and the hoi polloi. In other words, it’s more about what it can DO than what it IS!
So…
The iPhone dominates in the U.S. with a market share north of 50%. Overseas, it just achieved number one in sales, but iOS is dwarfed by Android. So, the juggernaut will continue for a while, Apple isn’t losing its stranglehold on the market, it is not going anywhere, until..?
That’s the question.
For some reason, writers keep focusing on hardware. Remember that AI clip, the one you attached to your clothing? That failed miserably. As for glasses…there’s a market there, but if you think people are going to control their lives via their eyes, you’ve got to wonder why evolution has left us with the dexterity of ten fingers on two hands. Or to put it another way, used to be in American cars you changed the lights from bright to low beam via a pedal in the floor of the car, but then U.S. manufacturers took a page from their European brethren and moved the bright/low-beam function to a stalk on the steering wheel, because the hand functions faster and more easily than the foot. Actually, we’re in the midst of a usability crisis right now, automobiles have replaced buttons with touch screens and endless menus and…some have gone back to buttons, but one thing is for sure, everybody agrees buttons are easier to use. And all the functions you do on your smartphone will definitely not be easier to do with your eyes.
So, it’s become about the ecosystem, locking you into one or another. And at this late date, the selling point of Apple is still the same, usability. A power user might lament being unable to customize to his heart’s desire, but the average person just wants the damn thing to work, and Apple does…more than any other platform, never mind the reliability of its products is always topnotch/best in field.
So where do we go from here?
The AI path is unclear. And to what degree is it consumer facing, in terms of where all the money is. Most of the scuttlebutt on AI has to do with job replacement. As for search, Apple abandoned that field years ago, it would rather have Google pay it billions to be the Cupertino company’s preferred provider. Staying out of AI could be the best decision Apple ever made, whether it be conscious or unconscious.
And, although the lion’s share of Apple’s revenue comes from the iPhone, service income is no longer de minimis, it’s significant.
And, Apple has a full product line. You don’t only have an iPhone, but a Mac and maybe an iPad too. The competition does not cover the market as well, nor is the software unique/proprietary, keeping users in the walled garden.
So… Where is it all going?
WE DON’T KNOW!
Look at Mark Zuckerberg who professed the metaverse to be the future and just wrote off tens of billions of dollars as a result of this wrong turn.
Amazon makes its money via AWS, i.e. Amazon Web Services.
Microsoft also got into web services, i.e. cloud storage/computing, and its focus is on business, it’s the opposite of Apple.
Google… Give the company credit for owning the browser with Chrome, never mind its cash cow search, then again, traditional Google search is being challenged by AI and ad revenue might be heading for a cliff.
As for Nvidia… A one trick pony, and competitors are now doing their best to catch up.
So. Apple still looks pretty good, by being consumer-facing, which was one of Steve Jobs’s edicts when he returned to the company in the late nineties.
But there is one product that is making all the difference, which most people can’t see or fathom, and that is Apple’s proprietary chips, developed under Johnny Srouji, who was rumored to be leaving but just got a promotion to Chief Hardware Officer. Apple not only has its own chips, they’re one step ahead of competitors and they’re optimized for Apple products. Also, chip development allowed the release of the new MacBook Neo, which is a juggernaut… They say people want to use the same computer at home as they do in the office? Get kids on Apple with a $499 machine…and they may be in the ecosystem for life!
In other words, right now Apple looks pretty good, healthy in both products and financials.
Where ‘s it all going?
NOBODY KNOWS!
Don’t ever forget that Apple was almost never first, it was late and better. That philosophy can continue to triumph. Assuming John Ternus can see around corners like Steve Jobs did.
This transition, this changing of the guard, is a good thing. Something we rarely see not only in tech, but other corporations and the government. Everybody from the old world hangs on too long, they don’t understand the new world, they didn’t grow up in it, they aren’t entrenched in it. But the Boomers and Gen-X always believe they know better.
These are corporations, not people. As soon as they hew to tradition, become calcified, they’re done.
Let’s be clear, if it weren’t for their catalogs, all three of the major label groups would be done. They’re neither prescient nor nimble when it comes to new music exploitation.
Give Tim Cook credit, he didn’t wait to be pushed out, he walked. If only more of those in power would do this, would pass the torch.
As for John Ternus… He’s got the CV. Can he do the job?
You never know until you give someone the gig.
But you can only survive via change, and oldsters tend to be averse to this.
I loved Don – he was not only one of the most wired in promoters of his time , he was, as you say, a star in his own right….
Boy, did he know his market – when I did a show with him in Montreal , I met everyone – the building owner or manager,the Police Chief, the local mafia capo, the head of the local teamsters, the PD of the presenting radio station -everyone involved in promoting the show, and some, just essential for Don to operate as smoothly as he did in Montreal – He made them all part of the show …
I could recount tales of countless nights on Catherine Street, two weeks of total mayhem during the 76 Montreal Olympics, The Stones truck being blown up by the Separatists,and of course The Who being bailed out of jail. (that was actually caused by Keith Moon redecorating his hotel room in tomato ketchup rather late at night), My favorite memory however involves my dirty washing – for 30 years everytime I arrived in Montreal, Don would collect it, take it home to his wife and deliver it back to me after the show .. Needless to say I didn’t do my laundry for two weeks before one of his shows !
Peter Rudge
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Corky Laing here.
I’ve been following you since I worked at Polygram Canada in the A&R department with Bob Ansell in the 90’s.
After all these years, I’m writing to you as a response to your tribute on Donald K Donald. I’m feeling very sentimental because Donald was my first manager in Montreal during my Barthomew plus 3 days.I believe we were one on his first groups. After booking us all over Quebec in every kind of venue, he had us open for the WHO at the Forum! (In those days of the British Invasion, the Canadian government insisted on having a local group open those shows.)
In capsule form, I was pleasantly surprised to see you write this lovely tribute to not only a Canadian, but a music man who personally launched many, many Canadian artists in many, many different ways.
I’m honored to be one of them.
All good things,
Corky Laing
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Donald was a dear friend and besides doing lots of concert business, I did lots of mgt biz with his associate Terry Flood who managed Corey Hart “Sunglasses at night”. Great looking kid and good act too! I knew most of DKD stories but the best was when Flood came to New Orleans and Don Fox had set him up for a pot bust in his hotel room and they took Terry to the jail in hand cuffs and interrogated him (it was actually Fox’s office) but w flood lights shining in his eye, terry thought he was going to prison for a international pot smuggling scandal! Donald insisted Fox stop for fear of Terry having a heart attack!
Tom Ross
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Donald was a gem of a man. Smart as they come and always had a smile on his face. When us “Founders” started in the live entertainment business, in the mid to late 60’s, we were teenagers, I was 18, others were in their early 20’s. I was always considered the kid by Bill Graham, Larry Magid, Don Law etc. Now at 76 years old this “kid” is watching time go by and the Founders are either retired or passing. I think Don and I are the only active Founders still in the business….apologies to anyone I might have left out. We are full of great stories as we got friendly with the artists and the best part of our business was hanging out with the artists, managers and agents making stories. We were all about the same age and were going through life experiences together. I couldn’t wait to promote shows by the Beach Boys, Chicago, Marshall Tucker, Allman Brothers Band, Grateful Dead and many others because when they came to my cities the shows and after shows were memorable. I’m afraid the stories will disappear when we do. Someone should have gotten us all together to tell the story of when the concert business, now a multi billion dollar industry, started. May Donald’s memory be a blessing.
Jim Koplik
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When I saw you wrote the name Donald Tarlton in the subject my heart sunk cuz I knew what was coming.
I LOVED The Deeker or DKD as I would sometimes call him.
I met him on my first pro tour in 1988 as Rod Stewart’s guitar player when we would do endless multiple nights in Canada at the old Forum and Maple Leaf Gardens. I knew a lot of the old school promoter guys back then since my manager was Promoter Bill Graham and many would make a point of saying hello to me.
Later in the early 90s I helped make Donald a lot of money writing songs and producing records with his main big Canadian superstar Sass Jordan and I even released a couple solo records on his Aquarius label in Montreal.
DKD was always smiling and seeing him or talking on the phone was always a joy for me because he loved the music and loved the game.
Now you said if you were under 40 years old why would you care….Well if you are a kid who loves The Rolling Stones you better care cuz as the stories were told to me (by others and The DKD himself)that it was Donald that arranged for Keith Richards to not go away after his big drug bust in Toronto….The Stones did a lot of good work and brought a lot of people together during those years thanks to Keith not being in a prison cell.
Donald K Donald REST IN POWER !
Stevie Salas
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Just lovely. Bailing out the Who, the money came from the owner of the local strip club. Moonie and Townsend had destroyed a hotel wall to connect their two rooms. Donald also supplied limos in the morning to take the entire Who entourage to their next gig in Boston that night. Donald also operated in the French Canadian world. I can recall an all day Montreal Forum show with about 14 acts that Quebec superstar Robert Charlebois headed that also had The z Byrds and Ted Nugent. Donald also oversaw the emergence of Celine Dion in Quebec and then Canada then the world in the 90s.
Larry LeBlanc
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From Roger Daltrey’s Thanks a lot Mr. Kibblewhite book (pp. 160-161):
“On December 2nd, our American record company, MCA, threw an after-show party at the Bonaventure Hotel in Montreal. We were playing the next night in Boston and I had a killer sore throat so I went to bed, miserable, with my Mandrax and all its accompanying side effects. I left the rest of the band to it.
At some point in the night, Keith decided to redecorate the entire hospitality suite with his own abstract ketchup art before Pete helped him shove a large marble table through a wall. After they’d thrown several other items of furniture into the pool, they scarpered off to bed. At four in the morning, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived in force and dragged sixteen of us off to the nick. There was no point telling them I’d had absolutely nothing to do with it.
In the end, they held us for eight hours and let us go only when the local promoter agreed to pay six thousand dollars in cash to cover repairs.”
My most sincere heartfelt condolences,
Pablo Duran
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Yes, Bob, Don was a great guy, and as you say, one of a team of promoters who were our family during the years I was on the road with Jethro Tull before stepping down as manager to focus my efforts on Chrysalis Records: Don in Canada, Don Law in Boston, Bob Bageris in Detroit, Larry Magid in Philadelphia, etc. etc. and of course, Ron Delsener in New York and Bill in San Francisco.
Their contribution to the careers of so many artists of that era will never be understood, let alone appreciated. They not only helped develop those acts, they gave them THEIR START!
I remember well, on one Jethro Tull show , standing by the side of the stage with Ian Anderson watching the Eagles who were our opening act!!
Great memories, great days.
All the best, Bob,
Terry Ellis
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Well done remembrance to the Original Donald in my book. You touched pretty much all my bases with Donald, such a legendary character.
You only missed one thing – the Dude was wearing a suit & tie, or at least a sport coat, 90% of the time. Well 80% cuz he played a lot of golf but surely he wore a sport coat to the club!
My first thought was the Class of 1974 pic and my memory says he’s down front w a suit on and a white shirt and light tie. I respected his uniform always.
I was lucky enough to settle more than a few shows with his enforcer Brian, who was very competent, yet you didn’t leave feeling like you got totally screwed on a big show settlement.
I was lucky enough to get to hang out every year with him at the Commissioner’s Cup where his outgoing personality in year one saved the night because someone had to stand up and say something! God bless him for that.
I was lucky enough to host him at my club in Vegas during those years but never got the chance to see him in Montreal and maybe hang out at Royal Montreal Golf Club. We always talked about doing that.
I was very lucky to say I knew Donald and send heartfelt condolences to his family and all the industry peeps who were lucky enough to know him better than me.
Cheers Donald Tarlton. R.I.P.
With love,
Bob Cayne
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You nailed it, Bob.
One of a kind. Kind and hilarious, trailblazer and mentor to many of the industry’s great promoters. And a consummate storyteller.
I’ll miss Donald. I didn’t spend a lot of time with him but I enjoyed all the time we spent. Thanks for recognizing his life and contributions.
Bill Silva
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I worked with Donald in Montreal, first with Celine, then on with his artists from the label he created to promote french acts.
You are so right about him, he Will be missed. Even though the business is not the same!
As for the story, I’ve got a Few, but to go along with yours… one day he got his car stolen, he called his lawyer to check on his car … he said “I dont care about the car but my golf clubs were in it and they are customized” one hour later the lawyer called back and told Donald that they want 3 thousands to return the bag !!!
He was not only the King of Rock’nRoll, but the King of Montréal, he helped so many Canadian act, thanks for your dedication !
Rest in peace
Jean Lamothe
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Donald K. Donald was far more than a concert promoter — he was a builder of moments, a connector of people, and an architect of Canada’s music culture and landscape. For decades, his name stood behind some of the most unforgettable live performances this country has ever seen.
He had an instinct for people and charisma that couldn’t be taught. He opened doors for artists, created stages where there had been none, and helped turn Montreal into a destination for world-class live music. His influence lives on in every artist who found an audience here, and in every fan who experienced something unforgettable at one of his shows.
Thank you, Donald, for everything you gave – to the music, to the city, and to all of us who had the privilege of working with and knowing you. You changed the course of my life. I’ve got my bic lighter held up high for you tonight. I love you. It’s truly the end of an era.
Peter Wark
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One year at Midem Donald brought me to dinner with 2 other legendary titans of industry. On the way to the spot I was calculating who would own the discussion. It wasn’t a contest. Deke ran the table and had all of us laughing for hours. All the stories you mention above and another dozen. The stories and the delivery were masterful….and that was before security shut us down at the casino later that evening. I’ll try to retell that one sometime, but it will never be as entertaining as Donald would tell it. I wish I could ring him up and hear it one more time. One of a kind.
Chris Taylor
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I grew up in Montreal. Donald was a LEGEND in that town. Every great concert had ‘Donald K Donald ‘along the bottom of the flyer. He ran the concert business in that city. He’s a true one.
Dave Weisz
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DKD was known as ‘Deke’ and was into everything. When I asked him to help me get Puppetry of the Penis into Toronto after our Montreal NAM prem he was into it. So much used to happen in Montreal… Just for Laughs was a legendary launch vehicle for more than just comedy. For live shows. Bruce Hills used to run JFL (JPR in French…!) and is still enormous in comedy globally. Farewell Deke. Love the old promoters.
Ross Mollison
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He was one of the best! I was young, but had the opportunity to work with this whole lot, by way of Concerts West. Such amazing , good characters.
Maria Brunner
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I was in radio here in Montreal for a long time. I was THRILLED when he came into the station where I worked. Growing up I heard him on the rock station, CHOM FM, hyping up the next big show that was coming to the Montreal Forum. He was super cool and truly larger than life. Thanks for your remembrance.
Patrick Charles
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You have captured the uniqueness and sheer one of a kindness that was DKD. He was #1 mentor to me and so many others who are still in the business and many who have sadly departed. We won’t see his likeness again and yes you started the campaign here… Let’s get him inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame.
Barry Garber
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As a kid growing up in Ottawa in the 70s, I had my ear glued to my transistor radio, tuned to CFRA. When they advertised upcoming concerts they always said at the end “A Donald K Donald production”. Thanks for that trip down memory lane and the insight behind the man.
R. Cieszkowski
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Thank you so much for remembering Donald. Being 52 years old, I can honestly say that so many Montrealers of my generation have as many memories of Donald as the incredible shows he brought to Montreal. He just brought the best talent on stage. He also bridged the gap between French and English acts, he not only knew his market but he respected it as much, which tells you something very important about him. And whenever he gave an interview on CHOM, well like you wrote he was just the best storyteller… He was a big big piece of Montreal, we’ll miss him.
Simon Prieur
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Thanks for this great article about Don. I grew up in Montreal during that era and yes he was a top promoter and quite a character as you described. One of the places I believed he did book some acts not into was the Bonaventure Curling Club. It was a large concrete building that was converted into a concert hall during the summer. Some of the biggest Canadian bands of that era played there. I also remember a concert with the American band Shadows of the Knight playing there. Although the acoustics sucked it was still a great place to hear live music. From time to time Don would get on stage and do his shtick and introduce some of he bands he was managing. Always a fun time to hear his spiel. He was one in a million. He also booked international bands into the Montreal Forum and I had the joy to attend a few of those great concerts. To those who knew him he will be missed.
David Stein
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Great tribute.
And everybody always pronounced his full name as if it was one word.
RIP DonaldKDonald.
Janie Hoffman
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Don’t forget that Donald helped break bands in Canada before they hit in the US. CHOM-FM played it and he would promote it.
Peter Burnside
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Donald was the manager and agent of my band and any others he could get into the high school dances in Montreal’s English- speaking West Island every week .
The proximity of Montreal and Canada was so far from the core of the music industry, yet he had more passion and fun doing it, and it worked. Debra Rathwell, (AEG) Terry Flood (April Wine, Keith Brown -Cory Hart+) so many locals were lifted from his vision.
Thank You!
Your dedication to him is also again, one of a kind. I’ve known him my whole life and your description and perception of Donald is so right on in every sentence.
Bravo Bob! RIP DKD.
Marty Simon
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A short note to thank you for the great story on Donald.
You captured the essence of the man who was admired by everyone who came in touch with him and loved by everyone who knew him.
“Live Nation is supporting two California bills to lower prices. Can fans trust it?”: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-04-17/live-nation-is-supporting-two-california-bills-to-lower-prices-can-fans-trust-it
I don’t believe in it.
A. Because fans like resale.
B. Because it’s unenforceable
The bottom line is you can get a ticket to any show you want to go to today, assuming you’re willing to pay for it.
This is what StubHub has ushered in.
In a business that is notoriously consumer-unfriendly, tickets often go on sale for shows that don’t play for nearly a year. Do you know what you’re doing at the beginning of April next year? Then you’re one of the only ones. Most of us don’t plan that far in advance. But, the business wants to tie up that money, wants to get it before someone else does, and you ultimately find out that you bought tickets you can’t use because of a conflict, or the act gets hot or you become a fan and want to buy a ticket to a show that went on sale possibly before you’d ever heard the gig was happening, or even heard of the act!
The bottom line is concert tickets are underpriced. Live Nation keeps saying this and since the company is the biggest in the industry, no one wants to believe it. There must be a flaw in the logic, someone is pulling the wool over our eyes. However it’s quite simple, concert prices are subject to the rule of supply and demand, which is immutable.
So we have this antirust case prosecuted under the concept that breaking up or kneecapping Live Nation will bring ticket prices down, which is utterly laughable.
Everybody can’t get a ticket to the show.
Of course there are shows with unsold inventory, shows that are canceled for poor sales, but for the stars, most of the arena shows sell out.
Or maybe you can buy a ticket in the rafters, but fans believe they should be able to sit up close, at a low price to boot. After all, they’re FANS!
What have we learned again and again? The fans can’t wrap their heads around many business concepts, which is why Steve Jobs famously did no consumer research, he believed it would tell you where you’ve been as opposed to where you’re going.
Furthermore, the true way to succeed is to get ahead of the fans, which is what Spotify delivered. The labels wanted to sue customers into buying overpriced CDs, the fans thought ownership was key, the fans believed if they were out of cell range they’d have no music, and still others complained the sound quality was not as good. Turned out that Daniel Ek knew more than all of them, the fans LOVE streaming!
And the fans will love when acts charge what the tickets are worth.
Of course there are those who will grumble. They’ll grumble no matter what. Read the one star reviews on Amazon, you’ll get a feel for the public. There are people who just cannot be satiated, and to play to them is a gross mistake.
If the tickets were priced at their fair market value, there would be no need to go to the scalper/secondary market. You could always get a ticket, but you’d have to pay the promoter/act to get it, and all the revenue would go to the promoter/act.
I just don’t get it. Where else does a product that is in overwhelming demand, that cannot be produced in enough quantity to satisfy customers, is LOWERED IN PRICE?
Look at the car companies. A hot, new car comes out and they charge OVER sticker. Furthermore, those who buy these automobiles are proud to do so! Because they’re the first on the block, they have bragging rights. As for everybody else…they don’t want to pay the freight and they wait until the cost comes down.
What is the fair market price of a concert ticket and how do you establish it?
Right now there is no perfect way to determine this, but it can be attempted.
Maybe a quarter of the first ten rows are $250. A quarter are $500. A quarter are $1000. And a quarter are $2000.
Who do you think is buying tickets on the secondary market? Sure, sometimes it’s the wealthy, but mostly it’s hard core fans, they’re willing to pay, they want to see the act that much. And do they complain after the show? No! They’re thrilled they got to go!
Kind of like the Springsteen fracas. Remember when he was charging over a hundred bucks on tour a few years back…the Boss’s fans went berserk! It was too much, he’s a working class artist, he never charged this much before. They’re entitled to cheap prices as they spend a hundred bucks for their pre-show meal.
Springsteen is selling tickets for $593.55 in the middle of the floor in Atlanta.
For the same seats in New York, he’s charging $1,601.25.
WHERE’S THE OUTRAGE?
Crickets. I haven’t heard one word about tickets for this Springsteen tour being overpriced. People are thrilled just to go.
The public knows it’s a fair deal. Who knows when the Boss will go on the road again, who knows if he’ll play all these songs again.
And to be clear, these are not resale/secondary market Springsteen tickets, they’re primary, and still available long after the original on sale date.
Talk about a model…
There is another alternative, which is linking the ticket to the original purchaser. This does affect resale, but in this case the public’s hands are unclean. It’s easy to allow them to resell the tickets at face value to another fan, but NO, they want to scalp the tickets themselves, garner the uplift, make a profit!
So let me get this straight, the same people who are such big fans of an act that they want prices to be cheap and for the act to reap all the benefits are taking money from the mouths of the acts? In what world is that fair?
There have been so many changes in the world today, and in most cases, the public accepts them if they deem them fair.
You can’t get anybody on the phone at Facebook, but you’re not paying for the service.
Just like with music, you loved to own and now you rent/stream. OF COURSE some people still complain, but the dirty little secret is if you don’t like the prices, DON’T GO TO THE SHOW! And the people who bitch…so many end up buying tickets and going and being happy anyway.
You can’t listen to the public.
So let’s say that California passes a law saying resale must be capped at 10%… Are they going to comb Craigslist, go into people’s e-mail, how are they going to make sure this law is adhered to? Damned if I know. It’s all performative. Legislators trying to look good to their constituents to no ultimate effect.
As for banning speculative resale… I’m down with that, but once again, charging fair market value eliminates the problem.
And technology keeps marching forward, if the blockchain allows us to tie the ticket to the purchaser…
Sure, it’s a cat and mouse game, but who do you know who steals cable today? It’s all digitized!
And you used to be able to rip CDs that had no copy protection…there’s no discussion of copy protection whatsoever anymore, it’s been superseded in a streaming world.
Do not try to hold back the consumer. Do not try to combat the laws of the marketplace, never mind human nature. What you do is get out ahead of the public, have them come to you, provide them with a better solution.
And the solution is to charge what the tickets are worth.
I was doing an interview and I was asked who my heroes were.
Stunningly, I’ve never been asked this before. Normally you put a dime in my jukebox and you get endless spiel, these stories are embedded in my DNA. But I was stumped, I was speechless, I was having trouble coming up with an answer.
So then I started thinking about my go-tos, from the past…
I mentioned Tom Wolfe, exemplar of the New Journalism. But the more I know about the man, his distance from his subjects, his contempt for so many of his subjects, his right wing viewpoints, his meticulous management of his image… I still love “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” I love his writing style, but the man…
And then I thought of rock stars. I used to be able to list a score. Some were famous for throwing a spanner in the works, shocking us to attention, some wrote the words that embodied my life, still others took me away with their sounds and…
I still have respect for the music, but the people who make it?
Let me be clear, they didn’t change, I did.
You see I met a lot of these people, and not only were they just as f*cked up as I was, they were mortal. They could do this one thing exceptionally well, and it still means so much to me, their work, but the image…
Oh, it gets worse. Those who dye their hair, get plastic surgery, try to have you believe they’re the same age as they were when you discovered them, even though you’re decades older now. It’s like they’re locked in amber, they refuse to grow up.
And it’s not only them, it’s so many of the fans, with their long hair and leather jackets, their sunglasses at night. If it makes them happy, that’s cool, but on the inside I’m laughing when I’m not wincing. They don’t want to grow up, and the thing about life is it’s inevitable, assuming you continue to live.
2
Now it used to be different. It started with the Beatles. And then there was the San Francisco sound and underground FM radio and then Led Zeppelin and punk and new wave and it all ended up with MTV. If you wanted to know which way the wind blew, you listened to a record.
One thing is for sure, so many of these people were wise beyond their years. Jackson Browne wrote “These Days” when he was 16…how did he know all this stuff, I certainly did not.
And then there are people in this business who are doing the same damn thing they’ve been doing for the past fifty years. How do they stay interested? Their identity is so wrapped up in their job, how is it satisfying? They may be making money, still be connected, in the business, but do they really care? Do they want access that much?
Like the “Hits” guys… You’re deep into your seventies and you’re promoting the record du jour and talking about the young employees, do you really care?
And then there’s Irving, who has pivoted, to buildings and their penumbra, management, services, ticketing… You’ve got to keep it interesting to yourself.
3
So you may be connected enough to go to Coachella, but do you really want to attend? You saw Led Zeppelin during their week-long residency at the Forum in ’77, do you really need to see Sabrina Carpenter or Justin Bieber? As for festivals… You didn’t care that the food sucked, that you were all crowded in together, the music was paramount and…no one in the audience rose above another, you were brethren, who loved each other.
As for Woodstock, it wasn’t until years later that the festival went into the black, after the movie had played. The festival itself? A financial disaster.
Now the festivals are all about the money.
So where does that leave me?
4
Now let me be clear, the songs haven’t changed, not an iota, they still contain the magic. I don’t pull those up and wince, rather when I listen they not only make me feel good, they take me back to the era when they were hits. Which I know is gone, but…
That’s the best part of this Billy Idol documentary. The formative years. Especially if you grew up in America.
They make sense of the punk years over there better than “Rolling Stone” ever did over here. How it was not only a reaction, but a lark. And when the Sex Pistols were on TV…the entire scene broke open.
And then there was Marc Bolan’s TV show… Bolan only had one hit in the U.S., but he was as big as they come in the U.K., as big as David Bowie at the time.
And Generation X were on his TV show and…
I bought the Generation X debut, because not only had I read about it, I heard “Ready Steady Go” on the radio. On KROQ, when it was still a free-format station, I can still recite the names of the deejays, it was a club and I was a member and there weren’t that many of us. But…
You could find us at the club shows… You’d actually see the same people, you’d recognize those you’d never spoken with, there was a shared sensibility.
And, of course, there was the Masque and other clubs that featured unsigned acts, most of which remained that way. They wrote about them in the “L.A. Weekly,” which was the cultural Bible, it told you where all the shows were, who was playing. And even the L.A. “Times” and its Sunday Calendar section, never mind the daily paper. It was all happening in the city, but you could very easily ignore it.
And L.A. punk was different from New York punk, after all it’s sunny here and people don’t live vampire hours, but we got into the Talking Heads and Blondie and…almost nobody bought the first two Ramones albums, sales were anemic, barely five figures, you didn’t hear them on the radio until the third LP, “Rocket to Russia,” with the Beach Boys influenced “Rockaway Beach,” a hit if I’ve ever heard one.
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So you see the scene develop, you see Billy Idol develop.
First and foremost he was middle class in a scene that had contempt for those of that status, it was truly a problem.
But Billy built his character and hopscotched from opportunity to opportunity. He was good-looking, he even acknowledges this here, he’s not false-humble. And some good records were made, that the public embraced.
But on one level, he was no different from my friends and I. He grew up in the suburbs, his father was a successful salesman, Billy even went to college for a minute or two.
But then he jumped the track.
That’s not how it happens today. If you come from a good family with a solid middle class income, you want to maintain that income and lifestyle. You don’t want to get off track, and if you do…in the back of your mind, you can always go back to graduate school.
So it’s those without a future who are making music. We’ve lost the middle class sensibility, of questioning, of refusing to do anything and everything for a buck.
But back then… Everything was a lark, who cares about tomorrow, we’ll deal with that when we get to it.
But most of us just couldn’t take this risk. We jumped through traditional hoops, went to college, even graduate school, while people like Billy Idol lived our fantasy, we lived through him. To be that popular, that good-looking, to have that confidence and charisma. Whew! Give me more, more, MORE! You want to find the most passionate music fans? They’re doctors, other professionals, they did what their parents told them to do, they couldn’t take a risk, think for themselves, but Billy Idol did…
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And he was YOUNG! Not that young, Billy Idol was born in 1955, he’s only two years younger than me. But at that age at that time you didn’t need much money to get by, and you could be part of the free-floating party, getting high, getting laid, with somewhere to go every night…
This documentary gets that all right.
And you get the story of Billy’s beginnings, his home life, his first band… Not all of this has been public in this way previously, or you couldn’t literally see it, as you do here. Stunningly, other than Bill Aucoin, everybody’s alive. This was a different generation, it’s those who were born in the forties who died of misadventure.
But Billy gets into heroin, he says everybody is doing it. I mean really?
But when he does really make it, with Steve Stevenes by his side, you hear how hard it is to calm down after a show, after playing to nearly twenty thousand screaming people in an arena. Those who don’t do this do not know… There’s a hit you get from being on stage that you can’t get anywhere else. You’re God for two hours. And people will throw themselves at you for willing sex, drugs are free…everybody wants to get closer, you feel like the most powerful person on earth!
As for the money… As long as there is enough. And there certainly was enough, especially as MTV came along and made you a worldwide household name and CDs hit the market and…
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MTV. It was a mania.
At first it was a secret. I mean not if you were in the business or close to it, you knew it was coming, but when it launched in 1981 you couldn’t even get it in Manhattan, you couldn’t get it almost anywhere.
And then legendary rock stars said they wanted their MTV and people you knew had access and when you went to their house, you stared at the screen for hours. And you saw stuff you’d never seen before.
Culture Club. Duran Duran. They were a clear break from the classic rock ethos. And they knew without a hit, you were nowhere in the world of MTV. So the entire business changed, you absolutely had to have a single or you were dead in the water. The video could be lousy, but the song had to be great.
And if you had charisma…
Billy felt comfortable in front of the camera, his attitude came through. The sneer… No one thought Billy Idol was dangerous, just that he’d beaten the system. He didn’t have to get a day job, it was a life of hedonism 24/7…
And that’s another thing that changes as you get older. When people tell me they live to party… I want nothing to do with them. Because I find it so unfulfilling.
Believe me, I can tell you stories of the inebriated lifestyle, but after getting stopped for drunk driving… Don’t call me if you want to sit at the bar and have a drink or two, but if you want to have no limits, in pursuit of the night of your life…I WAS YOUR MAN!
But it catches up with you. Some get caught up in the whirlwind and go down the drain. Some truly don’t get out alive.
But just like people envied, had their hopes and dreams in rock stars, they wanted to live the lifestyle. The worst offenders are the techies and financiers. Money is not enough, it’s who you are. And our heroes existed outside the system, that’s what we loved about them. They weren’t brands, sponsorship was taboo…selling t-shirts was about the limit. But what they and their music represented…
Hair bands came along and burned out the power ballad.
But then Kurt Cobain and Nirvana came along and flipped the table.
And then rappers realized the true power of video and they carried the mantle of rock and roll, the limit-testing, the danger, and the HONESTY! Once the rock acts were wearing spandex, you knew it was over.
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And then came the internet and the twenty first century. At first it just poured gasoline on what already existed. Coldplay and Dave Matthews Band would be nowhere near as big today if they hadn’t broken through before the whole system fell apart.
And at first MySpace was about professing your love for your favorites, and then it was about professing your love for yourself.
And then Facebook and Instagram came along and it became about creating a monument to yourself…we were no longer all in it together, every day you were trying to prove to your brethren that your life was better than theirs.
And then you got the Kardashians who were famous, AND RICH!, with no discernible artistic talent.
And then TikTok came along and…
Suddenly, if you had a hankering to be famous, if you wanted to have impact, if you wanted to make money, you had an outlet!
Let’s be clear, the big influencers make a ton more money than almost all musicians, and many of them are very creative too and parents hate them just like the boomers’ parents hated the Beatles. There’s a gigantic generational gap, a cultural gap, but since they’re on GLP-1’s and have the latest smartphone, elders think they have their finger on the pulse, when nothing could be further from the truth.
As for the old acts… David Bowie continued to push the envelope until his death. If it wasn’t interesting to him, he didn’t do it. Ditto Bob Dylan, who is still confounding us. He’s on Patreon?
But the rest of the classic acts…most have given up making new music completely. Because it can never be as big as their original hits, the market has changed that much, and their fans who come to see them on the road don’t want to hear anything but the hits.
But those old records, they still remain.
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Now this Billy Idol documentary is great, I totally recommend it, until somewhere in the eighties when you get to woulda shoulda coulda, when they go down the rabbit hole of hagiography.
Yes, if it weren’t for Bill Aucoin and Billy’s motorcycle accident, he’d be a movie star. Is that even a paradigm anymore? Why in the hell would you want to be in a movie, you’re already famous, there are easier ways to make money and films have never had less of a hold on the culture.
And since everybody’s available all the time, no one can emulate Billy Idol. The people you grew up with will out your true self. You’ll be beaten up online. So, rather than focus purely on the content, acts are all about expanding their empire with brand extensions, they’re mini-corporations, they ARE the man!
The entire landscape has changed, but the business has not.
The industry and the media trumpet hit acts and records that most people have never heard of. You might know the name, but not the music, of even the supposedly biggest acts.
So the biggest acts are the older acts, who made it before the internet blew up the world, Green Day can play stadiums, never mind Paul McCartney.
As for Sir Paul… It’s a mind trick. Everybody knows that despite still appearing boyish, his voice is nearly shot, his band does a good job of covering it up, but it’s nostalgia personified, as he continues to put out mediocre records that are hyped but no longer deserve your attention.
But when Wings toured America in 1976?
And how about the Stones in ’72… They rampaged across the U.S., they didn’t compromise, if you could just go to the show… But now they still sing about adolescent tropes… Keith Richards has owned his aging, he’s the real deal, but on some level…it’s hysterical. You’re not like the old blues guys of yore, who after writing those great songs ended up getting day jobs, they couldn’t pay the bills with their music until the folk/blues revival in the sixties.
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Perspective. No one wants to have it, everybody wants to believe.
Look at politics. Forget the public, how about the elected officials in D.C? Or the wannabe judges who refuse to admit that Trump lost in 2020!
Then again, Trump is perfect for the internet, where the truth is oftentimes hard to discern, everybody spewing their b .s. all the time.
As far as believing… Sure, there are some who still believe in those who make music, but being a member of the BTS Army is like being a member of a cult. You believe and adore, but outsiders hear these tunes and go…WTF?
And it’s not that I’m too old to get it, but I am too old to buy into it. Been there, done that, give me something new.
But what we’ve got is people trying to recreate a past that has never returned. Begging for attention online 24/7. Attention being the hardest thing to garner.
But back in the eighties, when they put Billy Idol on MTV…
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My favorite was always “Flesh for Fantasy,” although “Eyes Without a Face”was pretty good too. And even at this late date, when I hear “Rebel Yell” I smile, it still makes you want to suspend disbelief and thrust your arm in the air.
But there ain’t no rebellion involved. That’s deep in the rearview mirror.
As for Billy Idol himself, he survived, he’s a grandfather… Good for him, but that’s not really what these acts were selling back then. Then again, two of the kids were born out of wedlock, one was only discovered via 23andMe.
I mean it would be fun to hang with Billy Idol, but it would be impossible to put him on a pedestal.
Then again, there are some who still do. They want to believe in these acts, in the past. They can’t handle that they got old, gained weight and lost their hair. When they hear these songs, they’re young again.
But if you’ve lived long enough to get old… What are you gonna do with that? Especially if you were a dyed-in-the-wool rocker.
You can just put on blinders and say it’s the same as it ever was, but even David Byrne reinvented himself…no one wanted to hear his new music so he made it all about dancing, a stage production, and it WORKED!
Because people are looking for the new and different.
And this doesn’t end just because you get old.
You can be like Billy Idol, play granddad, go on the road singing your decades-old hits to pay the bills or…
You also no longer envy these people. Is this the life I wanted to have? I’m not saying I’m perfect, but you get to the point where you believe in yourself, or at least admit who you are.
Start there and march forward because the old days are never coming back.
Billy Idol does a good job of reminding you of them… But at some points in this film he’s like that guy who says he coulda played for the Yankees, you know, glory days.
You don’t have to give up your past, but how do you march forward?
