1

“Left a good job in the city”

No one does that anymore. During Covid a bunch of high-earners decamped to their country home, taking their job with them, but the concept of telling your boss to take this job and shove it and heading out to the country, that’s history. As for the great resignation, many of those jobs were not that good.

But that was the ethos back in the sixties. You wanted to go on the road, you wanted to see things, and if you went to college you wanted to spend time in Europe, maybe flying Icelandic Airlines with a stopover in Reykjavik, then again you could fly from New York to London on Pan Am and TWA for two hundred bucks. And with your Eurail Pass… The goal was to do it cheaply for as long as you could. If you lived large, stayed in hotels with bathrooms in the bedroom, you were derided. You slept in hostels, you learned the code of the road from your traveling brethren, not all Americans, and you felt alive.

Today it’s no longer a dream to drive cross-country. Hell, since the deregulation of airplane travel you can jump on a jet and be where you want to soon. For bupkes. As for all the places in between…. No one seems to care about them anymore, and interestingly those who reside in the places in between have contempt for these jet-setters. Furthermore, fluidity of residence used to be a thing. An American thing. You yearned to get out of your hometown. You moved where the action was, to try and live out your dream. I’m not sure people dream the same way today, the odds are stacked against them, moving up the ladder requires more than hard work. Have you been following the Kim Kardashian kerfuffle? Her advice to women was to work hard like her, to get ahead. There’s been a ton of blowback. But what interests me most is the myopia of Ms. Kardashian. She obviously doesn’t know how the other half, the majority, lives, oftentimes from hand to mouth, doing two jobs.

And shelter is so expensive that moving is a huge hurdle many can’t jump. But when I came of age, you got out on the road and it was a melting pot of travelers. And you learned so much. One of my ski buddies paid for his winter by working on a fishing boat off the coast of New Jersey the summer before. I didn’t know you could make that much money fishing, and my father told me from day one he didn’t want me working with my hands. And then there were those with little dreams. It was a shock after college. They didn’t want to go anywhere, and they weren’t moving fast in any regard. A job at the phone company? Yes, one of the ski bums retired to do that. IN SALT LAKE CITY?? The City of Salt is completely different today, it’s got high tech and a bunch of wealthy immigrant retirees. But back in the seventies it was a backwater.

2

“Big wheel keep on turnin’

Proud Mary keep on burnin'”

Now if you rely on Wikipedia, you may get the idea that Creedence Clearwater Revival had traction on their very first album. But the truth was that whatever success it ultimately had was a result of people going back after the band’s breakthrough. Then you might have heard “Susie Q” on FM radio, but not before, at least not on any station I listened to.

But the band broke with this track from their second LP, “Proud Mary,” from “Bayou Country.” And “Proud Mary” broke on AM radio, not FM, which was now ruling the airwaves of the metropoli. AM was for the car radio at best, assuming you were a hipster. And there was definitely a dividing line, between those in the know and those who knew nothing. Some people believe this dividing line still exists, but in truth we now live in a Tower of Babel society where no one knows everything and there are no elite hipsters, despite some people believing they are so. If you put someone down for their taste today you’re ignored. It’s not one coherent scene, there’s a cornucopia of entertainment and no one knows everything, it’s utterly impossible, there’s just too much out there.

Now in truth FM radio skewed English. With a dose of San Francisco thrown in. “Proud Mary” didn’t fit in. Roots music was still in the future. So we heard the song on AM radio and thought it was a novelty, I mean the band’s name certainly sounded like that of a one hit wonder. But then came “Bad Moon Rising,” a string of undeniable hits, and Creedence was now one of the biggest bands in the land, finally embraced by FM radio. But it was “Proud Mary” that broke the door down, that set the stage for what was to come.

3

My favorite Creedence Clearwater Revival song is the opening cut on “Bayou Country,” “Born on the Bayou.”

Now you have to understand it sounded like it was cut in the bayou. And since the rock press was not omnipresent and solidified, it took years until everyone learned that John Fogerty had no connection to Louisiana and the bayou. But somehow he had the feel. And the feel of “Born on the Bayou”…

“And I can remember the Fourth of July

Runnin’ through the backwood bare”

You could picture it. Something like the bacchanal in “The Secret History”. You have to remember, there were no cell phones. It was easy to be out of touch, and a great swath of American youth wanted to go up the country and what happened there…you had to be there to find out. There were drugs, nudity, sex…and deep discussions about life. It was the peak of experience. This was before you could Google nudity, and sex, when marijuana was still illegal, never mind hash and anything harder. The feel of “Born on the Bayou” was magic, it was the other. Today everything is nuts and bolts, zeros and ones, but in truth life is messy and when you acknowledge it you have a much better ride.

And my second favorite Creedence track is “Green River.” Which in many ways is so simple, but those descending notes during the chorus…utter magic. It’s like Fogerty has ripped open his chest and we can see inside. And just like in “Born on the Bayou,” the lead guitar is simple, but stinging. This was long before acts saw a need to use the umpteen tracks on the recording machine to fill up the record such that listening to it was like looking through steel wool.

And, of course, “Fortunate Son” has become a political staple. It’s almost bigger today than it was then. Let me explain, of course “Fortunate Son” was all over the radio, but this was back when we were all rebelling against the government, “Fortunate Son” was part of a movement, but stripped from its original context it resonates even more, especially in these days of income inequality when a president avoided the war with supposed bone spurs in his heels.

And then there’s “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” which I didn’t cotton to until I saw the movie so entitled. It could be Tuesday Weld’s best performance, it was gritty and added gravitas to the title song, at least in my brain.

But none of these tracks is “Proud Mary.”

4

At this late date, many consider “Proud Mary” an Ike and Tina Turner song. Their version was never a hit record, Ike and Tina hadn’t yet crossed over to the white market, but when the band opened for the Rolling Stones in 1969, white rockers were exposed to a level of stage performance that was heretofore unknown by them. Tina Turner made love to the microphone and those who saw it never forgot it.

But as good as Ike and Tina’s take was, it was different from the Creedence Clearwater original.

“Rollin’, rollin’, rollin on the river”

That was the feel of the original. Just like you can hear the gallop of the horse in the original Allman Brothers’ “Midnight Rider” on “Idlewild South,” you can hear the paddle wheel turning on that boat on the Mississippi.

And as the years wore on, laying back was a goal. Not taking life so seriously, slowing down and watching the river flow, Bob Dylan even wrote a song about it.

We did a lot of sitting around back then. We didn’t have the world at our fingertips, handheld communicators were something from cartoons, science fiction. You didn’t want to stay home, you wanted to go out, to hang, to talk to the people. And music was a big part of the experience, someone always had a guitar, and they’d strum and we’d sing along, everybody would join in on the chorus, they’d sing at the top of their lungs, with all the power they possessed, as they looked at their brethren, this was what it was all about. Sure, you needed money. But not much. Life was about experiences. Not to shoot selfies during, but to savor and store in your mental bank, so you could make context of the world at a later date.

Most of the tracks of the sixties and seventies have not survived. The boomers might remember them, but the younger generation is clueless. And then there are certain tracks that are sui generis, that are of no time and place, that exist in their own ether, locked in wax, that we can just marvel at.

One of these is “Proud Mary.” It sounds as fresh as the day it was released. It’s not dated whatsoever. So when you hear it today you don’t worry about the way things might have been, you don’t look to the past, you reside in the present. “Proud Mary” can still ride shotgun. It can still inspire. You can count on it.

John Fogerty may have been screwed financially, and I feel for him, but money pales in comparison to “Proud Mary.” In years to come when newbies hear “Proud Mary” and the rest of Fogerty’s canon they’ll be stunned, they won’t believe one guy could be responsible for so much. They won’t care a whit about how much money he made. Music trumps money. John Fogerty wrote a song that’s FOREVER!

Re: LGBTQ Protests

I’m making a statement today.

I can speak up BECAUSE of Elton… he taught me how all those years ago when I was 11 and he showed so many of us how joyful living out loud could be. There were many others like him each paving the way uniquely…and also paying the price for it.

I absolutely do remember when marriage equality was inconceivable… I was married without a license and couldn’t get my wife a green card. I can see a clear possibility of losing marriage equality in this country state by state until it’s no longer protecting families from the myriad of struggles that come from being “unrecognized” federally.

I hope that my kids will be allowed to learn about their family and families like ours in school… being “unrecognized” is not a burden I’d like to see carried forward and placed onto my children.

Xobc

The newspapers are positively wild today.

One interesting story is Peloton’s decision to go to a subscription model for both the classes AND the bikes. With the ability to cancel at anytime. Therefore the hurdle to adoption is lowered significantly. Felice was interested in a Peloton treadmill, but the cost was prohibitive. (Never mind that you can’t watch TV on the screen if you choose not go to to a class. Give people options, they don’t want to be locked in.) But I haven’t read that the treadmill has gone on subscription too. But this speaks to music subscriptions. They represent 83% of US revenues, up from 82.8% the year before. But all the news has been about the increase in CD and vinyl sales. But streaming subscriptions represent $9.5bn in revenue, whereas physical only represent $1.6bn. Revenues increased across the board, and the physical piece of the pie actually shrunk. But don’t let a good headline get in the way of the facts, which you can read here: https://bit.ly/36eQF3j As for the oldsters complaining they like to own something, they are further and further behind in the rearview mirror. Today’s generations don’t want to own anything, they want it all on demand, with improvements in delivery along the way.

And then there’s Margaret Sullivan’s article about fake fact checks in the “Washington Post.” Sullivan is the authority re the analysis of the news business, both the papers and the reporting. However, she is too invested in maintaining the established local newspapers. To speak like the street, their heads up their rear ends, if you’re not willing to think with a blank slate, you’re doomed. Which brings me to the article about Axios. Which is now going into the local news business. We need local news reporting, but the key is to come up with another way of delivering it.

Anyway, Sullivan’s article is not behind a paywall and you should read it, at least part of it:

“Russia’s new control tactic is the one Hannah Arendt warned us about 50 years ago – Fake fact-checks, designed to sow confusion, are Putin’s latest trick for undermining faith in media — and the truth”: https://wapo.st/3J7fVa2

Let me quote the beginning, which is the essence:

“You don’t need belief. All you need is confusion.

That’s how authoritarian leaders manage to control the populace, the great German political philosopher Hannah Arendt once explained.

‘If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer,’ she said in an interview nearly five decades ago.

When that happens, people lose the capacity not only to act but even to think and judge. ‘And with such a people,’ she concluded grimly, ‘you can then do what you please.'”

This is a huge problem not only in Russia, but around the world, especially the United States. This is what the concept of alternative facts has delivered.

But it’s the next article that inspired me to write:

“Businesses Assail Texas Move to Classify Care for Trans Teens as ‘Child Abuse’ – A new ad signed by dozens of big companies warns, ‘Discrimination is bad for business.'”: https://nyti.ms/3MHZwuS

Now this is where the music business, the artists themselves, can have an effect.

Like I said last night, unfortunately it’s the corporations that are leading when it comes to societal issues. But this is a natural for artists. Who can’t hide under the umbrella of their labels. Artists are individuals, independent contractors, they don’t get benefits like health insurance, therefore they are singular, which is part of their appeal.

And music appeals to outcasts. That’s its true power. The ability to speak to the disenfranchised, those misunderstood and derided, oftentimes without friends. Those who don’t live in the metropolis, and feel alone. When an artist speaks their truth it gives them power, to be themselves and soldier on. Nothing has the power of music in this sphere, NOTHING!

Not to mention that so many musicians fall under the heading of LGBTQ. Some out, some not. But there is strength in numbers, and if all the musicians came out against the new anti-LGBTQ laws in Texas and Florida…

Remember when gay marriage was inconceivable? Even the legalization of marijuana? Right has traditionally triumphed in America, it’s just a matter of time. But now in so many ways our country is going backward. Catholic countries like Colombia are liberalizing abortion laws and in the U.S. we’re shrinking them. At some point you have to make a stand for rights or you’re in jeopardy of losing them.

I cannot see why a statement can’t be made by artists re these heinous new laws. And in truth, you start with headliners and then everybody else wants to come on board for fear of being left out. Elton John, Brandi Carlile. They commit, and you’ll be stunned who lines up behind them. And it’s got to be from every walk of music. Women and LGBTQ members have been stifled, made to be in the closet, in country music forever. Once you shine light on a subject, change can happen.

Even better, get the major labels and the big streaming outlets like Spotify to pay for ads featuring signees. Both in print and on TV, online too. Facebook, Instagram, etc. Hell, have Facebook donate the ad space. All these outlets have philanthropic programs, why can’t the people they make their money from utilize them and benefit the population at large.

Do you know any trans people? I do. One person who was tortured, was on the verge of suicide living as a man. Look past the canards like bathroom utilization, these are just diversions put up to take the focus off the aggrieved.

Everybody’s got a gay relative. If you don’t think so, that’s because they’re in the closet.

This is a no-brainer.

Furthermore, additional action can be taken. Acts can refuse to tour in Texas and Florida. Hell, the superstars don’t need to go there, they’ve got more demand than they can fulfill.

We’ve got to push back.

This is where artists can lead.

And they should. Right away. Time is of the essence.

And one thing is for sure, musicians can spread the word better than politicians. They make a statement and it’s EVERYWHERE! That’s one of music’s powers, it’s time to employ it.

In that order.

Will the war in Ukraine reset the music business? I certainly hope so, but it’s highly doubtful.

People always tell me it’s the same as it ever was. That I’m just too old. That music means just as much to today’s younger generations, and is just as intrinsically meaningful. But that is patently untrue. Music is just one element of listeners’ entertainment portfolio, and that’s what music is, entertainment. For a while there, certainly back in the sixties, it used to mean so much more.

So the biggest music business story of the past month is the self-immolation of Ye. Brain dead reporters tell the story and no one stops the action. When Ye ultimately goes to the hospital, or something even worse happens, what are these same people going to say? They promoted the train-wreck, just like they promoted Donald Trump.

Trump was a symptom, not a causation. And as time goes by, he’s losing his hold not only on America, but his constituency. They’ve seen the movie, there’s not that much there. Just grandstanding. The truth is irrelevant, it’s all about attention. But Trump’s attention is fading, you see he’s out of time, the world changed and he did not. That’s one of the stories of the past month, how we’ve all come together, and the only people who haven’t are Trump and the blowhards at Fox News. They said Putin was an admirable ally, who they could control, who had no effect on the lives of Americans. Well, have you filled your gas tank recently? But it’s worse, democracy hangs in the balance. Suddenly, all of America is on the same page. Yes, there are fearmongers on both the extreme right and left who say we should mind our own business and stay out, but sometimes you have to move in.

So Ye employs the same playbook as Trump. It’s all about attention. Well, you know who is the king of attention? Vladimir Putin. Illustrating that the rest of what we’re spending time on is ultimately irrelevant, and an autocrat starting a war trumps everything.

Yes, Kim Kardashian. All the rest using attention to flog products and make money. It rubs us the wrong way today. But that’s all they’ve got, they possess no credibility, you see they thought dollars trumped everything, but this is not true. Unless you’ve got more dollars than anybody in music can make, like a corporation.

You see in the sixties, the corporations were the enemy. And credibility was everything. What you stood for counted. And you didn’t take a side without thinking it through. Brains were more important than dollars. No one on trial in Chicago was doing it to get rich. Although when the mores changed Jerry Rubin tried to go straight, he even became a stockbroker. But by that point no one cared, he was a curio to be laughed at.

So what the musical acts of the sixties realized was that the music itself had power. That the money was secondary. That the bond between act and fan was key. Fans are the lifeblood of a musical act. And if you put someone else in front of them, you sacrifice their belief, and ultimately their numbers. Used to be the act and their music were singular, and that was enough, and therefore they had so much power!

But we haven’t had that spirit here since 1985, since Live Aid. Live Aid was a culmination of what had come before. Woodstock, the Concert for Bangladesh, Bob Geldof thought he could meld MTV with old school philanthropic feeling and make a difference. And it worked! We can  argue all day long about whether the funds reached their intended recipients, but one thing is for sure, Live Aid raised awareness, everybody in the world was suddenly aware that there was a famine in Ethiopia. When was the last time music told us which way the wind blew? Turns out we need a weatherman for that, or an app.

Yes, that was the story of the late nineties. Tech. It blew up. And the music business was at the center of it. Because the files were small, and the desire for acquisition was through the roof. For ten years the music business was exciting. But then Spotify came along and solved the problem and…the people who are arguing about Spotify payments are missing the point. Not that anything I write here will convince them they’re wrong. The ball moves, and if you don’t move with it one day you wake up and are left behind. If you’re complaining about Spotify payments you’re on the road to irrelevance. Use the new tools of technology to make your music, reach your audience and grow it. There are plenty of avenues of monetization, to focus on recording revenue is like trying to save gasoline cars. Imagine how great it would be if America was now all electric. You’ve got to evolve, life is never static. If you’re not willing to throw over everything you know then not only are you part of the problem as opposed to part of the solution, you’re left in the dust.

So the biggest music business story of the past year was Lucian Grainge’s nine figure payout. Making more than almost all of the acts. For doing exactly what? Growing a record company. He was rewarded. The acts were not. And maybe the new acts don’t deserve to be, because they’re not as smart as Grainge, give him credit, he knew where the puck was going, and it’s all as a result of streaming, but…

Lucian Grainge is irrelevant too. He could have been the first mover. Pulling out of Russia. But he took a stand long after the fact, looking me-too as opposed to leading. It’s the big corporations who led. The enemy of the sixties. And believe me, they’re far from perfect, but they were willing to take a stand and lose money because it was the right thing to do. When was the last time you saw a musician do this? Essentially NEVER!

Come on, Stanley Black & Decker is gonna lose a fortune, at least by music business standards. The company did $150 million a year in Russia. It has $30 to $40 million in inventory there. And about a hundred employees. And what is Stanley Black & Decker doing? Walking away!

Yeah, unfortunately Stanley Black & Decker’s products have more credibility than today’s music. They do the job, they satisfy, they last. There are no seasonal tools, you build it to sell forever.

Read about companies exiting Russia here:

“No Ikea Shelves, No Levis: The Retail Exodus From Russia Is On – Since the invasion of Ukraine began, the increasing financial and reputational risks of doing business in Russia are leading Western brands to halt operations”: https://nyti.ms/3MGz593

Andy Gould e-mailed me marveling that the acts haven’t united and taken a stand. He implored me to make them. But what would that look like? Everybody knows the issue. And the acts are two-dimensional today, they’re not musicians, they’re stars. It’s all about the money. Who is going to be excited to watch them? I mean give Geldof credit, he reunited Pink Floyd for Live 8, but in truth the benefit concert is so long in the tooth, has become so repetitive, that few even bother to watch.

Of course there is a solution. Not that I think it will make any difference. You reunite Led Zeppelin and Journey. Even Crosby, Stills & Nash. So you end up with event status. But what is the message? Everybody knows Ukraine is a quagmire, that Putin is out of his mind, and the money musicians can raise is a drop in the bucket. Every little bit counts, but we need a lot more zeros, and a lot more revenue streams.

As for new acts… Who has the reach and credibility to move the needle. NO ONE! At best they’re caught up in petty wars online. Complaining about haters, focusing on the micro as opposed to the macro. I mean a rap beef? Seems quaint in comparison with the Ukrainian situation. Then again, we haven’t been able to stop the rap killings, because if it’s black on black crime, not enough white people care. But when white kids, the sons and daughters of politicians, started O.D.’ing from opiates, then there was outrage, then Purdue Pharma became a pariah.

So, there are no building blocks in music. Furthermore, the big acts that there are don’t want to take a stand on anything, for fear of alienating part of their audience. But politics has been the story of the past ten years. And rust never sleeps, and neither does hatred. Music was a refuge for LGBTQ people, but now we’ve got states impinging on their rights. But no one stands up.

Then again, it’s usually the old acts who stand up, to the point where they lose effect for doing so. I mean give Bruce Springsteen credit, he was on the right side of so much, but when it’s just him and his brethren, it gets derided.

Then again, derision and hatred are the ethos of today’s America. Everybody feels they’re entitled to a say. We’re a nation of individuals. But suddenly, the war in Ukraine has brought us all together.

And the corporations are taking the lead.

As for the music business, today’s big story is TikTok is going into distribution. This may be where the three major labels ultimately lose their power. Distribution is king. And if you have the youngsters… The youngsters know it’s not about radio and the mainstream media, where the aged labels have their power. But the labels do have catalogs, and they wield them, but they’re losing control of new music, and this is a good thing, because they are doing nothing for music itself.

As for musicians at home creating, broke and credible… It’s incumbent upon you to grow your audience and ultimately have leverage, you can’t piggyback on the general industry’s power.

So…

Music has had no effect, no impact on the Ukraine war whatsoever. I mean give Pussy Riot credit, they were willing to go to jail for their beliefs. Navalny was willing to go back to Russia to go to jail, after the government poisoned him. Zelenskyy is willing to die! These people have backbones, they are leaders. It’s got nothing to do with their bank balances, no one is concerned with them, by taking a stand, by rising to the occasion, by doing what is right, they’ve gone to the head of the class. Come on, if you admire any of today’s wanker musicians more than Zelenskyy you’re brain dead. There’s a good chance he’s going to die. No one in music wants to sacrifice their life. But your gravitas is based on what you’re willing to sacrifice.

Which is why corporations are now in power. Disney ultimately stood up to Florida and its anti-gay policies, albeit a day late and a dollar short. Will it make a difference? Change happens slowly, then overnight.

So when you say music is the same as it ever was, you’re just plain wrong. Music has sacrificed its essence, its universality, it has followed remuneration right off the cliff. As for those who complain they’re not making enough, did Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger complain they weren’t getting rich? Of course not! But we remember their names. Their songs are embedded in the fabric of American  culture, none of today’s songs will be.

To change the world you have to take the road less traveled, be willing to go against the grain, trust your gut. And it’s these elements that blew up music fifty years ago. I’ll be satisfied with a reset of values. And maybe from that can come good new music, that has a cultural impact. I mean it’s astounding how TikTok has single-handedly stolen the attention of America, and it’s all about letting people have their say, mostly to music. This is the kind of innovation we need. But we don’t get it. Because no one is willing to risk.

So, it’s a sad state of affairs.

I mean at some point Ukraine is gonna fall to Russia. But then what? Actually, we should be asking this question now. And the truth is people like Biden and the heads of the European Union countries are. They’re gonna have to come up with a plan. And it’s going to affect you and me. And if you think their goal is to screw you, to make bank, then you’ve got the former guy in mind, not the one in the White House.

So, instead of conjuring up ways to sell NFTs, worthless items that only have value because a certain number of people agree they do, why not turn to the real issues of the world. And there are plenty. Democracy. Global warming. Income inequality. It’s time for Americans to stop being myopic and focus on the big issues. But the good thing is to a great degree they are! They’re willing to pay higher gas prices for the cause. They’re united against the threat. Maybe this will pay further dividends down the road. I certainly hope so.