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1

I didn’t buy “Rattle and Hum.” By this time I was burned out by the U2 adoration, by their constant presence in the press, the testimony of Generation X which embraced the band the way their forebears, the baby boomers, embraced the Beatles, and the endless play on MTV. And the reviews were not positive, the backlash had begun, only recently when hit acts are so much smaller have top acts been able to withstand the blowback of being number one. Once you’re on top, people are gunning for you. It’s hard to remove yourself from the fray, and how you react to this is evidence of your character. To bite back in the press shows signs of weakness. To repeat what you’ve done before is punting. but to walk into the wilderness, to try and create something new and different, that takes chutzpah, and that’s what the greats do. And sometimes they’re ahead of not only of the audience, but their bandmates, like Brian Wilson with “Pet Sounds,” but that was a different era.

I was a huge fan of U2’s first album, “Boy.” It came out in the fall of 1980, the same year that radio station in Pasadena, KROQ, decided to retool its format under program director Rick Carroll. The new format maintained the irreverence but now it was a Top Forty station of the alternative, it was the heartbeat of Los Angeles and within a few years the heartbeat of the United States, when its programmers and deejays ended up with prominent positions at MTV.

So previously KROQ had been a free-format station, akin to the late sixties monoliths. It was a club, with a poor signal, and either you were hip to it or you were not, if you believed in the alternative, before that word became a radio format in itself, if you wanted to expand your horizons, KROQ was where you went.

The new KROQ invented alternative. One can say that the first alternative radio was aired on college stations, but those were run by amateurs, and those at KROQ were definitely professionals, worried about advertising, which still drives terrestrial radio. Also college radio stations tended to have weak signals and no formatting, no playlist, and organization can help you ascend the ratings ladder, familiarity can breed contempt, but it can also breed love.

So I first heard “I Will Follow” on KROQ. There was a press buzz. I bought the album and loved it. As bright as the single was, the rest of the album was an exploration, was not bright and sunny, in-your-face, but dark and mysterious. It was great.

But the second LP? “October” was considered to be a dud. There were no good reviews. And there was no airplay, not of any significance in Los Angeles. But “Gloria” did get spins on the nascent MTV, which launched only two months before the LP was released. As for the song being titled “Gloria”… Some songs are so iconic you don’t want to employ their monikers. “Gloria” was a Shadows of Knight hit in the U.S., and by this point, more than a decade later, everybody knew it was a Van Morrison original. But Van is Irish…then again, from Belfast, not Dublin. As for employing famous titles… Does anybody even remember that Katy Perry number that employed the title of the iconic Beach Boys song?

But then U2 retooled. They seemed to realize they’d gone in the wrong direction, and once you lose momentum in the music game it’s hard to regain it, another disappointment would be a stake in the band’s heart.

On “War” the songs were catchy, starting with “New Year’s Day,” the first single. The darkness was excised, the band decided to evidence its power. “New Year’s Day” was a bridge between the seventies and eighties. It had the heaviness and propulsion of seventies rock with modern sounds injected. “New Year’s Day” was the kind of song that got your noggin nodding, you couldn’t sit still, you were immediately locked into the groove. Then came “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” U2 became the biggest band in Los Angeles, almost overnight. “War” was everywhere, even traditional rock stations, as well as the pioneering KROQ.

Now if you refer to U2 lore, the band truly broke through with a performance at Red Rocks wherein Bono ran around the venue with a flag in the fog, and that performance and the video thereof were very powerful, but not news if you lived in Los Angeles, the band was already big, this was at best a cherry on top.

And then the band decided to take a left turn. They turned away from their partner, Steve Lillywhite (who’d they’d ultimately call in again and again as the years passed), but now they worked with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. And everybody was eager for “The Unforgettable Fire,” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)” delivered, it was new and different, yet still U2, all the sounds, especially Edge’s guitar…it ultimately penetrated every hamlet and burg as a result of MTV airplay and its two listen infection. Yes, “Pride (In the Name of Love)” was just different enough to be unable to get it immediately. Kind of like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” if you were around back then. They both sounded completely different from what was on the airwaves, but both took little time to adjust to, to become your favorite.

“Early morning, April 4

A shot rings out in the Memphis sky

Free at last, they took your life

They could not take your pride”

It won’t be long before Martin Luther King is excised from the history books, at least in Texas and Florida. False pride is on parade amongst the ignorant doing their best to hold people back, taking away their freedoms one by one. As for one man who can change the course of history in a good way, we’ve got no MLKs, no one is willing to sacrifice that much.

Except for the more subtle “Bad,” the rest of “The Unforgettable Fire” was not as good as “War.” You didn’t hear as many tracks on the radio. It’s not like you forgot about U2, but they didn’t sit heads and shoulders above their peers, where they’d resided previously.

Then came “The Joshua Tree.”

If you talk to the aforementioned Gen-X’ers, this is the apotheosis, the best album of their generation, to the point where U2 instantly became an oldies act by performing it in its entirety a few years back. In truth, “Joshua Tree” wasn’t as accessible as “War,” but what had been started with Eno and Lanois on “The Unforgettable Fire” had come to fruition, the songs transcended the sounds, and there was more majesty, it was more obvious.

If anything, the real problem with “The Joshua Tree” was it was too successful. I mean if I have to watch the band plying the streets of Las Vegas one more time in the video for “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”… The title actually became employed in jokes, too often with the band as the butt. But having said that, albeit overplayed, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is one of the great tracks of the eighties, it needed no video, you just had to drop the needle, back when we still bought vinyl, and luxuriate in the sound, the track loped along like a ride on a white stallion in the dark, it both made you smile and set your mind free, you were happy, but not mindlessly so.

U2 had recaptured its mantle as the biggest band in Los Angeles. But now U2 was the biggest band in the land, on the globe. And the band, especially Bono, embraced this. And did we really want to listen to this guy? I mean how experienced was he? And he seemed to have no sense of humor about himself. So he was ripe for taking down. And with the overblown “Rattle and Hum” he and the band were.

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In reality, “Rattle and Hum” was just the soundtrack for a movie, nearly a throwaway, but the audience was ready to pounce, they wanted to punch back, tear the band down from its throne, enough already!

Nobody was waiting for a U2 album. And the band was not providing one. They went away. We had a bad taste in our mouth. We expected them to fade away, as most acts did after reaching an unfathomable height.

And by time they deigned to return, music had moved on. Hip-hop had made inroads. Attention was elsewhere.

And then came “The Fly.”

Because of U2’s prior achievements, every rock radio station in the land immediately added the track, and you heard it and scratched your head, HUH? What was this? It certainly wasn’t a one listen smash. As a matter of fact, you didn’t even need to hear it again, didn’t really want to hear it again, it was a button-pusher.

There was no word of mouth. The album came out to little fanfare. Just another band past its peak doing god knows what. And then…

It was Christmas Day, the Clippers were playing the Lakers in the afternoon. My friend John Ellis got tickets, in retrospect amazingly good, just under the basket, well, a few rows back.

And he’d purchased a Q45, back when that was seen as competition for the LS400, before Infiniti fell behind Lexus in the Japanese luxury race.

And by this time, cars had CD players. And I was sitting in the back seat and traffic to a ball game in Los Angeles, anywhere, is always bad. Which meant I had to listen to “Achtung Baby,” because it’s almost impossible to have a conversation between the front and back seats when the music is playing.

I asked John what album this was, because the music didn’t sound like anything I’d heard previously, and when he told me “Achtung Baby,” I laughed on the inside, he was still on the U2 train when I’d been smart enough to get off.

But by time the game was over, I was looking forward to the ride back to the Hollywood Hills, listening to “Achtung Baby.”

Yes, it was Christmas, but there was no “Achtung Baby” buzz. I immediately bought it and was on the tip, almost no one else had, I started testifying about it, and then other people started too, and then…

Well, Keryn Kaplan from the band’s management team insisted I come to the show at the Sports Arena and…

It’s one of the three best shows I’ve ever seen (the other two being the Who performing “Tommy” at the Fillmore East and Prince at Flipper’s roller disco).

I mean I could describe it, but…

At this point most people who care have been exposed, but they have no idea what it was really like unless they were there.

Let’s see, we walked into the building, milled around before the show began, and there were Trabants in the ceiling, and there were TVs everywhere, the tube-type, this was long before flat screens, and then the house lights lowered, the Trabants flipped to reveal spotlights and it was a visual assault, all to an indelible soundtrack.

Word got out, ultimately there was a stadium tour, but the buzz, all the action, began indoors.

3

Today when people say they’re a movie buff that means they’ve seen all the superhero movies, they know all the directors, like Michael Bay, how have we stooped so low? Then again, we have streaming television.

Anyway, movies used to be religion. Worthy of college study. And the seventies were considered the greatest era since the thirties, still are. You didn’t go to the movies so much for entertainment as soul fulfillment. There was a culture, you could keep up, you discussed them regularly.

And sure, you had to see American movies, but real fans also kept up with the foreign flicks. There was Truffaut and the French New Wave. And if you missed them the first time around, you went to the revival house. You clicked the films off your mental list. We were completists.

Which meant we went to the Fox Venice to see Wim Wenders’s “Kings of the Road.”

I don’t recommend it. Then again, if you could pause it… It was, and probably still is, just five minutes shy of three hours, and at the time such long movies were far from de rigueur. And did I say it was SLOW?

But I got a notch in my belt.

And then I got another when I went to see “The American Friend.” Such that when Wenders’s first American film was released years later, 1984’s “Paris, Texas,” I could say like with “Stripes” and Tito Puente, I’D BEEN WATCHING HIS MOVIES FOR YEARS! Yes, there used to be bragging rights in being there first. Back when the world was comprehensible, when we were all in it together.

Not that Wim Wenders was a household name. And “Wings of Desire” was not as big as “Paris, Texas,” and by time “Until the End of the World” came out in ’91, I was done, I skipped it. Then again, I was broke.

And when I looked at the track listing of “Achtung Baby” and saw #4 was entitled “Until the End of the World” I laughed. I mean this was a cheap shot, naming your song after a Wim Wenders movie. Yes, the album came out months subsequent to the film, and there was no internet to tell me the song was actually written for the film, and there was no ink in the rock press telling me so, at this point the music press was getting dumber and dumber, writers didn’t know who Wim Wenders was, never mind write about him.

Now at this point most people, at least those conscious thirty years ago, know “Mysterious Way” and “One.” But you’ve got to know, once upon a time “Achtung Baby” was brand new, and got little airplay, so when you purchased it, now on CD, vinyl and tape were passé, you were unfamiliar with it. And you know how it is listening to a new album, you’re waiting for it to reveal itself to you. It’s usually one track. Quite often the opener, or the second side opener, back when there used to be two sides, maybe even the side closers. The albums didn’t come with travel guides. I mean sure, if you were the kind who purchased albums as a value proposition, after they already had a few hits, it was different, but for true fans, every album was an adventure.

And I’d like to tell you that “Zoo Station,” the band’s opener, is inviting, but if anything it’s a warning to stay away. Yes, U2 was almost pulling a Neil Young, defying people’s expectations, going rough and scaring away all but those truly interested, willing to spend the time to dig deep.

And the opening of “Even Better Than the Real Thing” is rough and raucous too, more like “The Fly” than “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”

And I don’t remember getting hooked by “One” right away, but “Until the End of the World”…

Sure, there’s the screaming intro, so many of “Achtung Baby”‘s tracks started off scary, off-putting.

But then there was that buzzsaw guitar. Back when guitars were the hooks, before it became beats.

“Until the End of the World” hearkened back to the old, but was still positively new, it was Edge’s guitar, in a more palatable song than “The Fly.” And Bono’s voice, going up and down the notes, the track is hypnotic, and just when you’re starting to fade away, here comes Edge once again to wake you up.

And the instrumental break was like space lasers popping around inside your brain, you were just a pawn in the game, a definitely futuristic one you wanted to participate in.

But you were always brought back by those guitars, and Bono’s exclamations.

All this is to say “Until the End of the World” broke “Achtung Baby” open for me. It got me started. I had to hear it again and again. I started with it and let the CD play thereafter. To the point where I ended up loving “The Fly,” which also depended on an Edge lick, more driving and intense, less hooky, more out there, but therefore you were ultimately levitated even higher.

I peeled the layers of “Achtung Baby” away from the middle, track by track, jumping from one song to another, discovering new favorites, realizing this was definitely not what had come before, this was a revelation, a great leap forward, the biggest band in the land had reclaimed its throne, DID EVERYBODY KNOW?

I’m still not sure they do. They keep talking about “The Joshua Tree.” But the audience certainly did warm up to “Achtung Baby,” the live performances helped.

4

And then came “Pop.”

Everybody was waiting for the next statement, for their minds to be blown, “Zooropa” was not seen as a real album. But “Pop”…

You see rock is a meat and potatoes format, driven from the bottom up as opposed to the top down. If you appeal only to the top you become a critics’ band, you might even get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but most people don’t know your music, and with the Hall gone pop, and even hip-hop, good luck getting Television into the Hall of Fame, never mind Bad Company. Which is all to say that the audience couldn’t understand “Pop,” U2 had pushed too far. Was Edge gay? There’s no humor in rock, right? I mean maybe there’s Frank Zappa’s “Valley Girl,” but…

In other words, U2 was smart and the audience was dumb. And the audience moved on. They were interested in a new U2 album, but by 1997 hip-hop was firmly established, grunge was even long in the tooth, the public was ready if U2 delivered, but perception amongst the hoi polloi was it did not. The “Discotheque” video turned off more people than it turned on, they were not ready for a new Village People.

One could say the “Discotheque” video, the entire album, was a misstep, but this was not Billy Squier listening to outsiders tell him what to do, ruining his career overnight with one video, this was planned cheekiness, this was humorous intentionally, but once again, most of the audience had no sense of humor.

Then U2 blinked. 2000’s “Beautiful Day” seemed like nothing other than a raw desire to have a hit, to be back atop the charts. Sure, the track was catchy, but the message was obvious, the whole thing stunk, unless you were one of the dumb people who didn’t get “Pop.”

And then…

The entire world blew apart. No one was interested in what U2 had to say, what any rocker of yore had to say, any rocker at all! The internet blew a hole in the traditional music business, and U2 didn’t seem to get the memo. It was still operating on old school rules. The advance publicity, the hype… To a point where the albums were denigrated before they were even released. As for Apple paying them for their new LP and then foisting it upon all its users, what a miscalculation. We live in a pull economy, but Jimmy Iovine, Apple’s “guru,” was too far from the street, to the point where he’s now retreated completely, and the band was so into creating a first when in truth the real first was when Radiohead allowed people to download “In Rainbows” for free, I mean didn’t U2 have enough money?

And then Guy Oseary convinced the band to do the “Joshua Tree” tour, which is even worse than “Beautiful Day,” once you start giving people what they want you’re dead. At least artistically. You don’t see Dylan performing “Blood on the Tracks.” And he keeps releasing new music. Confounding us with standards and… Sure, many have gotten off the train, but you’ve got to give him credit, he’s still exploring, he’s still an artist, when U2 has given up the ghost.

Can U2 reinvent itself? Does anybody even care?

First and foremost they’d have to realize they’re smaller. No one has purchase on the worldwide state of mind, NO ONE! Acts will tell you they do, the old school press will tell you they do, but they don’t.

So are you a celebrity or an artist?

A hit machine or an explorer?

Are your eyes closed or open?

One thing is for sure, with “Achtung Baby” U2 were artists exploring with their eyes open. Which is why it’s legendary, the best album the group ever produced. Will it last until the end of the world? Well, the end of the world seems closer than ever before, so maybe!

Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3NIYT3A

1

So I was driving down Sunset listening to Lou Simon’s program on Volume 106. I remember exactly where I was, at the Burlingame intersection, where the light is so short but it’s too often red. And a guy called in to talk about Harry Chapin’s “W.O.L.D.” And he keeps remarking how he only got it decades later, what the song was about. And I’m chuckling on the inside, feeling ever so superior, until this dude continues and says that the call letters stand for OLD! I never caught that, you can learn something every day, at least I can. And I can’t get over “W.O.L.D.,” I keep telling people about it. A song I heard incessantly on the radio I just didn’t fully understand.

So I was driving up La Cienega, to go to a pharmacy that turned out to now only give covid vaccines on Thursday, and this was Friday, and I’m both steaming ahead and slowing down. You know how they tell you to pick a lane and stay in it? I was in a rush, and in truth I kept changing lanes to my advantage.

And I was punching through the channels, it was early for me, before ten, and one of them was the Bridge, the SXM adult rock channel, the KNX-FM of today. Oops, you don’t know what I’m talking about. KNX was a soft rock station, way to the left of the dial, when there were five album rock stations on the FM band in Los Angeles. You could always find something to listen to. And that’s where I first heard Bruce Hornsby and the Range’s “The Way It Is,” and had to immediately buy the album to hear it upon demand.

So there’s nothing they’re going to play on the Bridge that will alienate you based on its loudness, its intensity. Then again, there are certain tracks I never have to hear again, like “Southern Cross.” As a matter of fact, this overplayed track was on the 1982 CSN album, ‘Daylight Again,” when in truth it all ended with the comeback album from 1977, a complete surprise. It wasn’t as good as the first two CSN(Y) albums, but little could be, to this day. But the LP started with “Shadow Captain,” and it had “Cathedral” and “Dark Star” and “I Give You Give Blind.” Of course it contained the hit, “Just A Song Before I Go,” but that’s another track I never need to hear again.

And it also contained “See the Changes.” This is the best song on “CSN.” It’s almost a sequel to “4 + 20” from “Déjà Vu”.”

“Ten years singing right out loud

I never looked, was anybody listening?

Then I fell out of a cloud

I hit the ground and noticed something missing”

We think stardom will solve everything. But this was ten years later, from “For What It’s Worth” to 1977. And, to quote that old song, “Where is the love?”

“Now I have someone

She has seen me changing”

Having someone is everything. You don’t want to be on the endless road and come home to an empty house. As for the groupies, the women on the road, they don’t really know you, and sex is secondary to a relationship.

“And it gets harder as you get older

And farther away as you get closer”

Little did Stephen Stills know. The older you get what is in the distance gets even further away, it’s so hard to keep striving for what you want, most people give up.

But Stephen Stills had credibility. David Gates and Bread had none.

Well, that’s not completely true. You see Bread was on Elektra. Which put out far fewer albums than its mainstream competitors. If it was on Elektra, it was worth paying attention to, there was a reason behind the signing, just like with Knopf and books. It may not ultimately deliver, but you know there was thought behind the signing, more than pure commerciality.

And I remember my friend Keith telling me about Bread. Back in ’69, when the initial album came out. When we had no idea who David Gates was, never mind the fact that he was nearly thirty. He’d heard the act on WBAI, the public radio station, that played Phil Ochs and left field acts like the Fugs, it was the thinking person’s FM station.

And then came “Make It With You.”

2

I was stunned they played it on AM radio, that it was a hit, after all the band was singing “make it with you,” which in the era of free love, of personal exploration, I could see as nothing other than a desire to have sex. That was what we all wanted to do, make it with another person.

And this was in the era when they still banned songs from the radio, for being salacious.

But “Make It With You” was a staple on the radio that summer, of 1970.

It was released in June. And records ran up the chart quickly, or they didn’t. And if they connected, their run at the top was relatively brief, that’s how fast the charts ran. You see if you had a hit, everybody soon knew it, and by time everybody was sick of it, there was something to replace it. It’s vastly different today, where it’s nearly impossible to get known. And even if you’re a radio #1 most people still don’t know you. With so much in the channel, everything moves slower, it’s like there’s molasses gumming up the works, and the end result is so much smaller.

But back in 1970, music ruled.

Let’s see, Eric Clapton’s solo debut had just been released, and Dave Mason’s “Alone Together.” Oh, “John Barleycorn Must Die” came out on July 1st. Funny how these albums have sustained, and so much recent stuff has already been forgotten. The first Clapton album, which was considered to be a commercial disappointment, a mild success…my favorites were “Easy Now” and “Let It Rain,” which both got radio airplay. But who knew “After Midnight” and “Blues Power” were forever?

But you were always exposed to AM radio. Because this was before the ubiquity of FM radio, before every car had it. Many cars had 8-track tape decks before FM radio. And a lot of the early auto FM radios had poor reception. Which is all to say you knew the AM hits, from driving in the car if nothing else.

Now I’m looking at the WABC charts, and “Make It With You” never made it to #1. It entered the chart at #22 the week of June 16, 1970. Moved up one spot the following week and was up to #13 the week of June 30, 1970. Then #8, #7, and the week of July 21st, it was #2. Number one? Freda Payne’s “Band of Gold.” Anathema to FM rock, it’s a classic we all now love, if we didn’t back then.

The following week, July 28th, “Make It With You” was still #2, but “(They Long to Be) Close to You” by the Carpenters was #1, this was the Downey duo’s first hit. The week of August 4th, “Make It With You” was #3, #2 was “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours,” right before Stevie Wonder went on his hejira and became iconic.

In reality, “Make It With You” had a longer run than almost any other song that summer of 1970, that’s how much of a feel good hit it was.

Next for the Carpenters was “We’ve Only Just Begun.” And our stomachs started to turn. This was not what we wanted to hear driving around. The Carpenters were an AM act, and now we knew Bread was too. Both focusing on hit singles, in an album era, they became pariahs.

However history has been rewritten and people say how much they love the Carpenters now. As for Bread? This hasn’t happened yet.

3

Now in truth, the Carpenters  ultimately infected me, I got it in the summer of ’73, with “Yesterday Once More.” I had a job that had me driving a good portion of the day and I yearned to hear MWAH…

And it was the same deal with Bread in 1972. I’d written the band off, but I loved the song “Diary.” I loved the concept of finding the diary under a tree, also the melodic turns, something completely absent from today’s rhythm-driven world. This is what songwriting is about.

And over time, I’ve come to like more Carpenters songs, and I enjoy Bread numbers too, but in truth only two ever resonated, “Make It With You” and “Diary,” until Friday.

“It don’t matter to me

If you really feel that

You need some time to be free”

This was years before the Sting song, we just wanted somebody to love, never mind setting them free.

But in truth I saw “It Don’t Matter to Me” as distancing, he’s letting her go. Okay, a bigger man than me. And in truth, with the bad auto radios of yore I didn’t catch much more of the lyrics, and it was so sappy at the end, I’m not sure I wanted to. But Friday?

“Time to go out searching for yourself

Hoping to find

Time to go and find”

This was the ethos of yore, we all wanted to find ourselves. I remember my mother saying “What if you find out you’re a jerk?” Nobody looks for themselves anymore, unless they’re already rich, have conquered the business world and feel empty inside. But forgoing the money…today everybody’s worried about falling on the wrong side of the economic fence, you’ve got to start early or the fear is you’ll always be behind.

“And it don’t matter to me

If you take up with someone who’s better than me

‘Cause your happiness is all I want

For you to find your peace of mind”

Who is this guy who’s so well adjusted? And thinking there’s someone better than he is? Where’s his self-confidence? Everybody thinks they’re the best their partner can find, at least guys do, and they protect what they’ve got to boot.

As for their happiness…

I mean ultimately I’m cool with them being happy, but really, you put me through the wringer, I gave you enough rope, and I’m hurting and you’re living large, it hurts much longer than people say, MUCH longer.

“Lotta people have an ego hang-up ’cause they want to be the only one”

Once you realize you’re together, you have that conversation…how many people have you slept with? It’s always hard to wrestle with, to digest and accept, if they’ve slept with anybody but you. But please, don’t let them have slept with more, many more than you. You wonder if you’re up to snuff, experienced enough, good enough. And they keep telling you you’re the one, but it’s hard to accept.

“How many came before it really doesn’t matter

Just as long as you’re the last”

This is absolutely true. Then again, I never caught these lines fifty years ago, or in the interim.

“Everybody moving on and trying to find out

What’s been missing in the past”

Now wait just a second! This is a complete twist. He’s not really letting her go, what he’s really telling her is he’s more experienced, she’ll see her fantasies are just that, and she’ll come running back.

This guy is actually being passive-aggressive. The music is so smooth, there’s no hint of anger, but truly this is an angry side. She left him, and it really matters to him!

‘Cause there’ll always be an empty room

Waiting for you”

Wait just a second, he’s not even reclaiming the space in his house, he’s essentially got a shrine to her.

“An open heart

Waiting for you”

This guy is still in love with her, he’s carrying the torch, if anything this song is about imposing guilt in her heart and mind. He’s playing mind games under the patina of niceness.

“Time is on my side

‘Cause it don’t matter to me”

This is so messed up. He’s convinced she’s coming back. And with that mind-set you never move on. He’s not setting her free to experiment and find someone better, she’s letting her out of the house to have bad experiences and realize he’s the best man for her. This is much more “Every Breath You Take” than “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free.”

I had it completely backwards, completely wrong. He’s not an admirable guy, more evolved than me and the rest, he’s actually a mind game playing controlling man who can’t let go. Which unfortunately is too often the case. Men may put up a brave face, but women get over breakups much faster. They talk amongst their friends, they support each other, and move on. Men stew in their own juices. They always think they’ll come back, always.

So what I thought was a mindless saccharine ditty turns out to be anything but. This ain’t a groovy number to be played at weddings. It sounds so harmless, but in truth it’s anything but. The lyrics ultimately evidence the complete opposite viewpoint.

Proving once again that songs we thought were just airy concoctions have just as much meaning as the more raucous ones we hold close to our hearts.

Music… The gift that keeps on giving.

Credibility is the only way out of this mess.

Think as an individual, because that’s what you are. You’re on your own, even if you think of yourself as the member of a tribe, you don’t want the tribe speaking for you. But what I’m really saying is there are so many people, so many messages, that you’re not part of a system anymore, and chances are if you are part of a system, you’ve got no credibility.

Fans are looking for something to believe in. All people are.

However, our society, as a result of income inequality, or concurrent with the economic spread, has become all about money. And one thing about money, there’s always someone with more than you. You can’t compete. But on identity, credibility? You can stick out there.

You don’t want to be part of the fabric, but your own individual thread. You can only sustain if you foster belief. Sans belief, you’re a one hit wonder.

So if you employ the same producers as everybody else, the Max Martins, the Jack Antonoffs, you’re screwed. Your record is going to have the same sheen as the rest of their product. The sound might even be different, but the end result won’t be left field and dissimilar, because they can only do what they do. One person can neither know it all or do it all.

Prior to Queen, no one had heard of Roy Thomas Baker. And the Queen albums, from the very first note of the first track on the first album, “Keep Yourself Alive,” sounded different.

And if you know your Queen history, the first album did not break through. The second made some inroads, the third was a success and the fourth, “A Night at the Opera,” was a worldwide smash. And we can talk all day about artist development, the machinations of the business, the growth of the act, but in truth the audience was not ready for Queen. Programmers were not ready for Queen. It wasn’t that the band was completely outside, it’s just that they didn’t fall easily into a niche.

Even Mutt Lange. As many records as he had made, none were huge, none even close. And then “Back in Black” and “Pyromania.” Those backward drums… Nobody had heard them before, and people cotton to new sounds. If you just repeat what everybody else does, you’ve got no individuality, nothing that will hook people long term.

But that’s the music itself, there’s also image.

Image used to be clothing. Looks. But now it’s what you’ve got to say. That’s what social media is all about, your words, your personality. If you just beg people to listen, if you’re impersonal, your words can be discarded. But if it’s you, and you’ve got a unique identity, which the artists of yore had and some from today do, that’s what captures ears and eyes and ultimately fans. Used to be if a track was good enough, it would rise to the top, but no longer. Don’t take shortcuts. We learned in the MTV era if the channel rocketed you into the stratosphere, you fell back to earth just that quickly.

And yes, to use an overused word, you do need a “holistic” approach. As in 360 degrees, as in all-encompassing. Your social media is the publicity of yore. Used to be everything was driven by print, now print is a joke, pure hype. You do your own publicity. You express your own identity. And this is good in that there’s no filter, you can do and be what you want to.

Of course the music is important.

But let’s just say you’ve got the goods.

Let’s even say you don’t have a smash track.

Many acts worked for albums and years before they created “the” track. But still, they were building an audience. Only starting in the MTV era did acts come from nowhere, and like I said above, that’s where they ended up, pretty damn quickly.

You’ve got to adjust your sights. The picture is different. Why do the same damn thing?

As for the workload… If you’re not willing to work 24/7 and sacrifice the rest of your life, relationships, children, money…this business is not for you.

So stop doing what people tell you to. There’s a long history of this in the music business. Acts were newbies in the studio. They were cowed by producers. And suits. And only if they gained traction did they gain control. Today? You don’t even have a deal. And you don’t even want one at first. You want to figure out how to do it, who you are. And all the tools are at your disposal.

And look at the classic acts of yore. Most of the players were in a multitude of bands before they found the one that broke them big. Sure, there are exceptions, but they’re rare. Why do you expect to have success right out of the box, why do you expect to know what to do?

Your relationship is with the fans.

Not with radio, streaming services or even your label. You want to go to the source. You want to create bonds. And to do this, you’ve got to be honest and credible, trustworthy. The system insists on compromise, but that’s death in today’s society. Everybody’s compromised, so those who are not stick out.

If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it.

Beware of those in power who get a percentage of your income. They want you to make big bucks, so they can commission the money.

It’s a new world out there, to play by the old rules is a recipe for death.

But, the advantage is you have all the tools, you can create your own fan base. Be innovative, but fewer stunts and more honesty will take you further.

We have a dearth of credibility in all walks of life.

Used to be that artists led. When did musicians become such followers?

You can lead. You just have to walk into the wilderness.

But in today’s wilderness there are a zillion people just waiting for you to save them, give them insight, something to believe in. That’s your mission. Too many ignore it.

Needless to say I’m upset about today’s Supreme Court climate change ruling. I can’t see it other than a corporate thing. The corporations want to be able to rape and pillage unfettered, and they pay lobbyists and elected officials to ensure this. As for the environment itself…

But let’s get back to Roe v. Wade. I got an e-mail from someone spouting the right wing talking points, that abortion has not been made illegal, it’s just been thrown back to the states.

I want you to read this Heather Cox Richardson piece: https://bit.ly/3ugq4Mb

The hoi polloi believes these cases are decided in a vacuum. Or maybe there’s an originalist position, let’s try and honor the intent of the framers of the Constitution. But a whole hell of a lot more is going on beneath the surface. And if you read the above article you’ll get a sense of this. The goal is not to throw it back to the states so much as to get rid of abortion. The states’ rights viewpoint is essentially a cover-up.

And that cover-up has been a long time in the making. Not only the perspective, but the appointment of judges who agree with this viewpoint. Also, if you think you can be an independent thinker and get a judgeship, have power in the Republican party, you’re wrong. It’s a team outfit. It represents a minority of Americans. And this is the party’s strategy to win, to stay together, on point, and it’s been going on for decades and it’s very effective.

So it’s not like Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett were jurists without a preexisting agenda, nothing could be further from the truth. They brought all their baggage to the Supreme Court, all their beliefs, as for what they said in the confirmation hearings…like they were gonna say that Roe v. Wade needed to be overturned. That would just assure that they wouldn’t get the job, which they want for their self-image if nothing else, sports are not the only arena of competition. As for all the questioning in the Senate, that’s got nothing to do with the truth, that’s just for show, for headlines, it all comes down to the votes, do you have them or not?

And it’s not only Supreme Court justices. The Republicans are not approving of bureaucrats either. So major positions in the government remain unfilled, to the detriment of us all.

And when it comes to the Cassidy Hutchinson testimony… What does it take to convince people that Trump did not win the election, never mind acted like a spoiled child tyrant in the process?

So the debate is whether Trump took the wheel in the Beast, i.e. the vehicle. If you watched the testimony, you know that Hutchinson was recounting a story she heard, she said right up front she was not there. But the blowback has been all about unidentified law enforcement officers who say it didn’t happen. As for them standing up in court and testifying to that effect? Hasn’t happened. If for no other reason than if they did testify, there would be a lot they had to confirm, which is worse.

But it’s all optics. How can the story be spun to tell people that Trump is innocent, that it’s all a ploy.

As for no Trump supporters on the committee, yes, McCarthy misplayed his hand here, but in truth what would have changed? We’d just be getting right wing Representatives spewing stuff about the climate and inflation, trying to take the heat off the words of Ms. Hutchinson and the rest of those testifying. If you went to school, at least public school…your student council was run better than this. Everybody’s entitled to a defense, which is why you read these cockamamie theories in the news, which ultimately have no success. But at least stay on point. As for being rational…

So what we’ve got here is a cabal that runs unregulated.

All that hogwash about voting if you want change… Looks good on the surface, but is specious when you dig down deep. The voting districts are so gerrymandered that a Democrat can’t win, not whatsoever. So, vote all you want but good luck achieving the result you desire. Which is akin to the Electoral College. Forget the will of the people, the vote… It comes down to what happens in each state. I live in California, my national vote never seems to count, because it’s a blue state, oftentimes results are posted before the polls even close in my state. I’m not saying not to vote, but all the people who tell you to trust the system, to believe in the system, that the system works, are spewing BS, and probably sucking at the tit of the government or liking the skewed results we now get.

So how can we reach people with the truth.

Let’s be clear. There are active people atop each political party, but the average person just does not care that much. And they’re swayed by the marketing, the spin instead of the facts. As for facts, they’re fungible.

So that’s the number one issue in politics right now, how do we educate the public so they can make an informed decision.

As for the government at large, the system, the Supreme Court…

It’s hard not to give up, because our leaders are inured to the broken system. They say their hands are tied as democracy disappears. Our status in the world keeps declining. So…

It really comes down to spontaneous generation. That’s the only thing that is going to save us. Something will happen that is unexpected, the change won’t come from the usual suspects.

Who knows, maybe a right wing person shoots someone.

But probably, someone on the left will be sick and tired and won’t be able to stand it anymore and will defy the law.

That’s what it’s all about folks, defying the law. I’m not telling you to do it, but someone is going to, someone more invested than you, someone willing to do anything and everything to change the course of history.

The problem is most people are apathetic, because in truth they like what they’ve got and they’re unwilling to sacrifice. But those with nothing have got nothing to lose. And we all appreciate those who put it all on the line.

So let’s see, we’ve lost the legal war, the information war, we’ve been neutered politically, every problem is attributed to Biden, irrelevant of whether he has a hand in it at all, and it keeps looking worse and worse. I mean how can you battle Q, and people still believing that Trump won the election? That defies common sense. But if you talk to the Republicans they truly believe they’re saving our country from socialist Democrats who want to take away everything they have, who want to change the American way of life. Ever notice that there are plenty of rich left wingers too? Do you think that’s what they all want? No, but most on the left would like to see a leveling of the playing field.

As for witness tampering…

It’s like we’re living in a bad movie.

You need to pull away from the system, you’ve got to think outside the box, because the game is rigged against you. And what does a court decision mean if the people defy it anyway? And the judges are just people, they’re not gods.

It’s evening in America. Beware of darkness.