From: Tom Rush
Subject: Re: More Covid Attendance

I just played Jorma  Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch in Pomeroy, OH. It was the only one of my 5-in-a-row Midwest shows that was sold out, and I think it had to do with a very smart policy: you buy a ticket, you have a seat, but if you opt not to come to the theater they will live-stream it to your home. Not posted anywhere for any length of time — live only. AND they were requiring proof of vaccination and masks while indoors. It worked!!

Tom Rush

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From: David Fishof
Subject: Dennis Arfa podcast

Dear Bob ,
I just finished listening to the Dennis Arfa podcast. Knowing Dennis for over 40 years we partnered the Dirty Dancing Live Tour in 88. 
What was missing from the podcast is in addition to to being one of the top agents in the music agency business is his creative ideas and marketing knowledge that he brings to an artist. 
As he said in the podcast we sold out 8 Radio City shows in 24 hours based on one NY Times ad he negotiated with Radio City. I’ve seen his creative brilliance starting with Billy Joel and all his other clients. He’s been very modest over the years of his ideas which have been winners. 
I also have to say many of the lessons he taught me are part of my daily thoughts.
My favorite is before I make any business decision I ask myself…..What’s the Win!

David Fishof 

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Subject: Re: Brandi Carlile Sings Madman Across The Water On Howard Stern

These are musicians playing real instruments very well – and more important, playing a song that caught their attention enough to give it this beautiful treatment. Brandi’s rendition is so great. When we play this song in concert it’s a work of art – a performance – and yes of course Elton is just incredible.

It never fails to grab and hold you. It’s not a song you will doze off on no matter how many times it’s played. You have to be in it all the way. Dynamics. It’s a joy and an honor to play – wish we did it more often (-:

I love Brandi’s choice and I tell all the “youngsters” getting into music don’t be afraid to listen and play what you like – even if it’s not in the Top 40, hip hop tip etc… Follow your bliss – not someone else’s just to be cool.

Thanks for that Bob.
John Mahon – The Elton John Band.

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From: Marty Simon
Subject: Spedding on the original Madman Across The Water

That Brandi Carlile version is worthy, not only honouring the Song, but the Record (sound of that track). 
My friend Chris Spedding was called into Elton’s session and played that rich strat low note riff.. I sent Chris your piece yesterday and he wrote back.

“I was only on that one track on that album. The rest was Elton’s regular guys. I think the reason was that Paul Buckmaster had booked a live orchestra and he needed someone who could read a chart! Moi.”

Back when Chris and had a band, I once asked him about Madman and for him it was just a regular morning London recording  session…. But what a great legacy to be a part of. 

Marty Simon
Toronto

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Subject: Re: Brandi Carlile Sings Madman Across The Water On Howard Stern

I was in college, assisting my roommate in booking shows into C.W. Post, when we were sent an early pressing of the Elton John album containing “Your Song.” Suffice it to say that the album that followed with his live album “11/17/70” amounted to a one-two punch of emotional reaction. It had such a visceral impact that I left school to pursue a music industry career. My trajectory wouldn’t have happened without Elton’s befriending me. I wrote a freelance article comparing him to Leon Russell (little did I know that Leon was EJ’s idol) that led to a backstage introduction a few months later in Glassboro, New Jersey. It was Elton’s introduction of me to his music publisher that began a path that would soon lead to my becoming the first American publisher of ATV Music (later the Worldwide EVP), which owned the Lennon-McCartney catalogue.

So, I was intent on meeting Gus Dudgeon and Paul Buckmaster, who were so important to those first few albums. The collaboration with EJ was magical and created music that touched to the core! Years later, when I was working with Barry Mann (of Mann & Weil songwriting fame), I made a deal for him with Lenny Waronker at Warner Bros. Records and brought in Gus to produce.

Bob, you are so right about the Brandi Carlile cover of “Madman Across The Water.” Her creativity and those strings replicate the original with distinction. The music reminded me of an emotional quotient that rarely occurs with today’s music. Your point about authenticity is so important in an age of fabricated tracks, beats and twenty “writers” on yet another unremarkable recording.

To this day, Elton’s genius  continues to be a primary motivation to my aspirations as a music executive with a mission to develop creators of new, powerful, socially poignant music.

Stephen Love

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Subject: Re: Brandi Carlile Sings Madman Across The Water On Howard Stern

Bob –

Sorry for the long email first of all. Like millions around the world I’m an absurd Elton John fan and, as a musician and engineer, was obsessed by the incredible sound of these early albums. Not that I cracked the code but it is interesting to see how things magically aligned for him:

Elton – Listen to the demos. The songwriting is so good that all the riffs, hooks, melodies, intonations, phrases, etc are already there. No need to bring a “topline” writer here… 😉 I don’t think we need to say anything else. The catalog, the music, the mind blowing piano playing – it all speaks for itself. You mentioned his voice. I know that Elton likes to say that he prefers his post 1987 baritone voice following his operation after the ragged Australian orchestral tour. I’m definitely not with him on this one.

The EJ band – They are incredible and underrated. These albums are beautifully played and the musicians were literally hardwired to Elton’s brain, voice, hands, etc.

Gus – Brilliant producer who knew when to step in and when to let the band self-arrange. Elton kept him for most of his career and when it did not, the difference was pretty clear (not a stab at Chris Thomas who is equally brilliant but did not get the best version of Elton in the late 70s to mid 80s.

Robin Cable – Completely lost to history. It was before everyone and their mother was asking for credits on albums, movies, etc. Robin worked at Trident, one of the great British recording studio (more about that below) and worked for EVERYBODY: Carly Simon, T Rex, Queen, Genesis, Harry Nilsson, Leonard Cohen, and on and on.

Paul Buckmaster – Gorgeous arrangements and always very creative. “Come Down In Time” (which you mention) is stunning in its simplicity and creativity. Mainly a double bass played in pizzicato and a harp to support this song, then waves of strings. Buckmaster was able to find the right balance between restraint when needed and a very cinematic or theatrical approach to his arrangement (listen to the first EJ album for the latter part).

Trident Studio – Now we get to the most important part. Trident was an oddity and announced a gigantic shift in sound. Olympic Studios, Abbey Road, Decca and the classic studios were all big orchestral rooms. They were built for film scoring, classic music, opera, etc. Trident was totally different. It was the first room with barely any reverberation. It prefigured the classic mid 70s sound that The Record Plant (Sausalito and NY), Producer’s Workshop and my former home Sound City all shared. The sound is not dead but very controlled. It does not breathe as much. Trident was basically announcing this. Listen to Elton’s early albums recorded at Trident. It’s open, it’s clean, it’s precise but it’s not Who’s Next. It does not have as much “air” but it works beautifully. The band is there, Elton’s voice is very present. The engineering was perfect as mentioned above but that should not surprise anyone who is familiar with the rigorous military training that engineers received at that time. Think that Robin’s colleague was no one else than the genius Ken Scott who recorded Bowie (Hunky, Ziggy, etc), Supertramp (Crime of the Century), Lou Reed, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and yes many of Elton’s album including mixing Madman even though he never got credited.

The Equipment – Trident had the best. The Bechstein piano is now famous for having served many masters (Queen, Supertramp, The Stones, etc). I was so obsessed with the sound of that piano that I ended up buying a string of Bechstein until I got close enough that I outfitted one in the main room at Sound City (I still have the piano). All the gear used to record was top notch obviously from Neumann mics down to the legendary Sound Techniques console (I bought the last one in existence and also installed it at Sound City but was sadly too big for studio B at Sound City).

The Label – I know that Elton had his fights and disputes with Dick James but let’s not forget him. Maybe he was lucky but Dick signed The Beatles (for publishing on the recommendation of George Martin) and then signed Elton to who he also give a record deal. Elton may have been resentful in his later years but DJM took a chance when no one else would and they left him alone for the most. You can listen to Captain Fantastic and learn the whole story of the early years through Bernie’s lyrics. It’s all there. If you’re lazy, buy one of the vinyl with the cartoon which tells you the story – it’s fabulous.

Bernie Taupin – 50% of the publishing and 50% of the magic. Yes Elton has incredible talent but Bernie provided the outlet, the excuse, the reason, the path to channel all this boundless talent. It legitimized the songwriting. Let’s never forget that Elton John’s catalog is primarily about Bernie, his life, his emotions, his dreams.

Now, I started my note by saying that things magically aligned themselves for Elton but the truth is that exceptional talent tends to be like an unstoppable vortex. It attracts, sucks and keeps equally talented persons in its orbit until it either exhausts them or exhausts itself. In the case of Elton, it moved in ebbs and flows but, God, when he hits, it just floors you. As he sung: “Harmony and me, we’re pretty good company” Pretty fucking true in EJ’s case.

Olivier Chastan
Iconoclast

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Subject: Re: Credibility

Hey Bob-
Great piece. You’re right.   

These days, it’s hard to find artists who stand for something or who will stand up for their beliefs despite what anyone thinks.

However, there are a few left.

One such artist—still—is Patti Smith.  If you read about or attend her current performances, she continues to speak her mind and pay tribute to other artists who share her artistic values.

And she has always been like this.

I have a couple of good stories that will give some insight about her—she is totally for real—no pretense.

I had the pleasure of being her marketing person at Columbia Records when she released “Trampin.”

We had been offered some opportunity for exposure on MTV—I think maybe Patti was to be interviewed—I forget the exact promo details.

Patti had no manager, so I had to speak directly to her about everything.  

Record execs typically hate when an artist has no manager, but for me it was amazing.  

After all, Patti is a treasure—having that time with her was a fantastic experience that I will never forget.

Anyway, back to the story.

I spoke to Patti about this offer from MTV and she turned it down immediately.

“Why?” I asked.

Patti replied, “Because I don’t like the way women are portrayed on MTV; they’re objectified.”

She went on to tell me that she didn’t let her daughter Jesse watch MTV, so therefore how could she justify going on the channel to promote her record?

She didn’t like what MTV stood for.

Another example was when Patti got mad at me for ordering a car service to take us to a radio interview.  
“I don’t need a limo. Let’s take the subway.”

And that’s what we did. We walked to the West 4th Street subway station and rode the subway up to Q104.

Me and Patti Smith, riding the subway together; what a trip.  I’ll never forget it.

Anyway—the point is—there are still some good ones left…

Regards,
Mark Feldman
NYC

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From: drmrsdad
Subject: Re: Covid Attendance

Went to my first Live Concert since the March 10th 2020, Celebrating 50 Years of The Allman Brothers Band, 2 weeks ago in Nashville at The Ryman. 
 At 60 years old, this is the only band since my Deadhead Days that I will travel to go see. I’ve seen them 14 times since 2016. Travelled to Nashville twice, before this recent show, Kentucky, Detroit, LA, PA and locally in NYC.  The VIP Offer which I paid extra for was cancelled right before the show due to COVID protocols which I had no problem with, and they refunded the difference between the cost of my seated ticket and the VIP package. Proof of vax or Positive Test 48 hours before the show were required. I’ve been fully vaxxed since April. I have another ticket to see them in NYC next week. I have been diligent with my approach to life in COVID times. I have no problem wearing my mask when required and even wear my mask at a concert that has all the requirements above. I do this for all the “moral” reasons, but I do this because, God Damn it I want the concert industry to come back, because more than listening to my LP’s I fuckin love the live experience! The rush of preparing to head out to a show, I get to see my friends from all over the country who I haven’t seen in over two years, feeling the pulse of the crowd when the music is searing through our bodies, and reeling after the show with friends, mulling around before we say our goodbyes and return to our “normal” lives.   

After the Ryman show a member of the band tested positive. I saw him before the show heading to the Gift Shop, No Mask. I was with a friend who asked to take a pic, he said, “I can’t be next to you, you know COVID and all”. Now I can’t be 100% sure, but based on some social postings by he and his family members I think this band member wasn’t vaxxed. He’s posted videos of himself saying he’s feeling better, 8 days later, various symptoms each day, blah blah blah… During his “quarantine” he was replaced by his tech for the next couple of shows. Now two other members have tested positive and the rest of the Tour is in jeopardy. Like WTF!  I didn’t pay to see your tech play. How jipped must those fans who attended those shows have felt? You want us to be loyal, you want us back at the show, giving you our hard earned cash for tickets, travel expenses/lodging  and  swag… and you can’t even keep yourself safe! This is your livelihood and you risked it for some fool idea that you’re not going to get vaxxed!!! It baffles my mind how stupid and idiotic people can be. 

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Subject: Re: The Kacey Musgraves Kerfuffle

A few years back, before I stepped aside from assisting the process after 8 years, I once whole-heartedly suggested, in a core-room meeting, that there could be Bronze, Silver & Gold Grammy awards (3rd, 2nd & 1st like the Olympics) given in every category to be more INCLUSIVE and encourage more artist participation to the entire program – but was instantly laughed at. Then one year we found that a major record company’s British CEO had planted a ringer in our process room to ‘ensure’ one of ‘his’ artists got pushed forward (they didn’t, they got rooted out) and then the next year our ‘room’ was taken over by a member who had been trying to get one of his artists a Grammy by lobbying other members in the room, was misguidedly given adjudicating control (and yes his artist did then get ‘his’ Grammy and cake too) plus so many other shenanigans that are too long to go on about. At the end of the day the ‘Chief’s real vision is that all the Tribes are paying the Chief’s mortgage, pension and expenses plus the serious overhead of the offices on Olympic Boulevard, Santa Monica. The real artistic and music process is secondary or even third to the self glorifying. Shame, as the core idea of the Grammy’s in its real principle is a good one, just poorly fulfilled. 

Eddie Gordon

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Subject: Re: The Twitch Leak

Hi Bob,

I’m a long-time fan of your letter and as a fellow member of the tribe, I appreciate your perspective on life, tech, politics & the music industry.
I run a music production school in San Francisco and have been actively producing music & sound for video games for many years now.
Many who come to us to study music production know full well the state of our industry. It’s for that very reason that I pushed us into video games over twenty years ago and we provide a comprehensive training program for sound for games. As a result, we have seen many of our graduates who originally came to us for their passion for music go on to pursue very successful careers in game audio for companies like Sony, Microsoft, Facebook, Blizzard Entertainment, and many more. We’ve even had a long-standing association with The Game Audio Network Guild with whom we have created a scholarship program. 

There’s no doubt that making a living as a recording artist can be challenging at best but, those who have the bug, know that making music is not an option, it’s who you are. It’s a driving force and a raison d’etre that you can’t escape so ultimately your passion drives you. Fortunately between the tech world and video games a massive industry has been born that creates tons of opportunity for those brave enough (and smart enough) to venture forward. It’s definitely not a cakewalk and requires a deep understanding of a multitude of sound design and software skills that most musicians and artists are completely unaware of, but for those brave enough to take the plunge the rewards can be great and very fulfilling. 

Stay well and keep doing what you do!

Thanks,
Greg Gordon

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Subject: Re: Easy On Me

Bob,

Will be interesting to see the 30 album presale figures. I expected the 1st pressing black vinyl, the “limited edition” cassette single, the limited edition retail white and clear vinyl, to sell out. Like me, I expect many fans bought one of each. Going into fourth day, no sellouts. They must have a massive number of pressings. Or people are waiting to hear more of the album. Those who keep close watch know an artist may add signed copies to their store. It has become industry standard for artists to push sales with signed items. But, Adele having to do this? 

John Kauchick

It’s an album track.

Expect very short legs. There must be a hit single on “30,” but this isn’t it. This is a setup, Adele coming out with her viewpoint, prefacing the tone of the album, I can see it from an artistic standpoint, but not a commercial one.

Adele’s success was amongst oldsters who were infected by the radio when CDs were still a thing. End result? Adele sold three times as many copies of “21” as any of her competitors, an achievement akin to Michael Jackson’s with “Thriller,” but there was that original infectious track, “Rolling in the Deep,” which begged to be replayed, it burst with energy, albeit somewhat controlled, generating a tension that’s the essence of a hit.

But there was more. “Rumour Has It,” “Set Fire to the Rain”… “21” was an album, a heartfelt work in an era representing a turning point that the mainstream media was unaware of. Not only were we switching from CDs and downloads to streaming, social media was growing, our country was fracturing, yet somehow Adele seemed to unite everybody. Selling classic music with melody and slick production in an era of hip-hop beats, selling the songs in a way none of the melisma plastic people who focused on pipes as opposed to meaning could ever do. “21” was a breath of fresh air, because it hearkened back to what once was, a world where the single was just a sales tool for the album, where the body of work was more important than any single track.

The single track dominates today. Oh, big names release new albums and seemingly all of the tracks show up in the Spotify Top 50, but soon the focus is whittled down to one. And, if the act is lucky, another one replaces it, and then another one. The most successful at this paradigm today is the excoriated Morgan Wallen, who stepped in deep doo-doo. He put out a double album which was eminently LISTENABLE! With changes and hooks and not too much of the pandering Nashville is known for. But most acts are lucky if one track sticks, and it can stick for over a year, can you say “Blinding Lights”?

So in popular music, in hit music, it’s about the track. And most people only go that far, why go deeper when the rest is endless filler and there’s so much more to investigate? Of course, every successful act has a fan base, which will go to see them live, but even if you go on a stadium tour, you only reach a small fraction of listeners. And then there are those with hits who can’t sell a ticket, and today it’s all about the tickets. Ticket sales have been the metric for this entire century, even though the mainstream hasn’t caught up. Want to see who’s a star? Check the ticket counts. As for the “Billboard” chart? It’s manipulative and unrepresentative. And furthermore, if you don’t make hip-hop or pop you’ll be guaranteed to almost never make the Spotify Top 50, even though you might be doing boffo at the b.o.

That’s the metric for recordings, Spotify. You can see how many times each track is played. The demand.

And the truth is the younger the act skews, the more plays it has on Spotify. Now as of this writing, “Easy on Me” has 40 million streams on Spotify already, quite a feat in three days, but will it sustain? I highly doubt it, because it’s not a hit single. Which is okay if hit singles follow it, and having worked with Max Martin I’ve got to believe there are hits on “30,” but once again “Easy On Me” isn’t one.

Then again, failure in the marketplace doesn’t stain your career the way it once did. As long as you follow up with a hit, the public is ready to embrace it. The old days of a calculated battle plan are history. If you’re a major act and you’ve got a hit song on your album it will surface. Fans will find it and then radio will react and…

Radio built Adele. But don’t expect much airplay on “Easy on Me” two weeks hence. It’s a snooze, it’s a tune-out. It’s a statement, but a statement isn’t necessarily a hit, just ask Bob Dylan.

And the truth is “25” was nowhere near as successful as “21.” There was pent-up demand in the marketplace, there was a tour with many fewer seats than buyers, but that was more than half a decade ago. In the interim, the music marketplace has fractured even more, everything big is smaller, universal mindshare is impossible to achieve.

But Adele achieved universal mindshare before the nichification of music. She’s really the only act everybody knows, other than the young listeners who only came of age in the past few years.

And the media has been appealing to that mindshare. There have been stories EVERYWHERE! People have asked me about Adele who don’t seem to follow popular music whatsoever. Their interest is piqued. Adele represents inclusion in an era of exclusion.

But media means almost nothing these days. All the traction happens online. To the degree radio matters, it always follows in the footsteps of what is happening online. And you can’t fake a hit online, not of multiple hundred millions of streams. The public either embraces it or rejects it.

Notice that all the talk of Billie Eilish is now about personal appearances, live, on screens. The truth is her new music resonated with a hard core but then stopped. The public has moved on. The public is only interested in hits. How many hits do you need to sustain a touring career? That’s being debated right now. Used to be pop stars’ ticket counts rose and fell with hit singles, but today it appears if you have enough hit singles people still want to see you.

So, the truth is Adele’s music is out of step with the Spotify Top 50. But that was to her advantage in the past, will it work for her today?

Maybe.

But in the CD world, it was sales, not spins. How many times did those oldsters play those CDs? And one thing we’ve never been able to conquer, the fact that youngsters listen to music more than oldsters. They’ll play the track dozens of times, whereas ten times would be nearly unheard of for many oldsters.

So, Adele’s Spotify numbers…can they compete with those of the hit acts?

You can see the conundrum. Everything has been quantified. CDs are history, as are track sales. In a streaming world only, can Adele maintain her status atop the heap? In a world where you have to compete with the 850 million streams of Justin Bieber’s inane “Peaches”?

It’s nearly impossible to follow up a phenomenon. Michael Jackson kept trying and it ultimately killed him. The Eagles made one more album and then broke up. Carole King had a few more hits and faded away. Alanis Morissette is still touring on one album, without “Jagged Little Pill,” no one wants to see her.

And with “Easy on Me” Adele is posturing “30” as an adult “Jagged Little Pill.” Raw and reflective in its own way.

But no one could live up to “21,” NO ONE! And so far Adele hasn’t either.

And the truth is Adele gives one of the best performances extant. She’s one of the great performers in history. Her patter and banter with the audience pulls at your heartstrings, it’s undeniable. But when it comes to hit music…

We’ll get another rush of publicity when “30” comes out on November 19th. Stories about “Easy On Me” will fade away, because with so much in the marketplace, media moves on. As for word of mouth? We’ve never ever figured out how to measure it. But one thing is for sure, it’s faster the younger you are.

So, “Easy on Me” might be forgotten, seen as a set-up after the big hits arrive. But “Easy on Me” is neither a one listen wonder or a track that demands repeatability, as a matter of fact you might have a hard time making it through the entire thing.

But one thing is for sure, Adele will sell tickets. Forever. Maybe the new albums don’t have to be that great, maybe she can continue to experiment. Time will tell, but so far what we’ve got here is a disappointment, despite the mega streaming numbers reflecting pent-up demand. Everybody’s hungry, foaming at the mouth, and then they move on unless the new project is so interesting, so rewarding, that it is irresistible. “Easy on Me” is not.

Trailer: https://bit.ly/3lNMzo8

It’s not for everybody.

It’s about the money. And the jobs.

Stretching after my hike last night, not wanting to let a moment be wasted, also striving for the stimulation the internet affords, I read the “Washington Post” review of Fiona Hill’s new book:

“The rare Trump insider memoir that doesn’t obsess over Trump – In ‘There Is Nothing for You Here” Fiona Hill warns of the dangers to democracy and opportunity in America and beyond”: https://wapo.st/2XioADV

I highly recommend it. It’s more important than anything I’m going to write here. Left or right, it doesn’t matter.

“The preamble has become the point. Hill links her experiences in England, Russia and the United States to argue that the countries suffer a similar malady: a steady postindustrial decline that stokes cultural despair and leads to a polarized politics in which populists thrive. ‘From the late 1980s to the 2020s, in the heartlands of both Russia and the United States, I saw grim reflections of the decline of my hometown,’ she writes. ‘As the sense of hopelessness spreads, so does the anger — and the potential for people’s fears and frustrations to explode into the political arena.'”

To quote James McMurtry, you can’t make it here anymore. There is no lifetime employment, and you can’t make it on minimum wage. Meanwhile, there’s an entire sector of people who are flourishing, not only the billionaires but the college graduates living in cities who complain they can’t make it on $400,000 a year. That’s what Biden’s tax bill considers rich. And if you’ve got to pay for metropolitan housing, and private school and vacations, never mind the accoutrements denoting your class, the clothing and the cars, the elite say 400k isn’t nearly enough. Especially those on the right, the editorials in the “Wall Street Journal” have been screaming! On the other side of the equation we’ve got people who can’t make ends meet, who delay health care, never mind dental care, who live multiple generations per dwelling, who turn to drugs to get them through. As for lifting them up… Not if it costs the elite a single penny. After all, the elite’s efforts trickle down and enhance the pocketbooks of the poor, right?

But that’s today, when politics are everything. If you tell someone to stick to the script, to stay in their lane, the joke is on you, because this nation’s political situation is the most critical thing happening today, the future literally hangs in the balance, if you just want to party on…you may not like the consequences.

But it wasn’t like this in the sixties.

I know, the sixties are seen as an era of tumult…of riots, protests against the Vietnam War. And that’s all true, but there was more. There was a huge cultural explosion, a testing of limits, invention, primarily because there was so much money, primarily because there were no billionaires, and if you had a million dollars you were rich, your goals were not stratospheric.

So mothers didn’t have to work outside the home. Some chose to, some needed to, but today both parents have to work for the family to get by. Of course there are exceptions, but they don’t disqualify the rule.

So suddenly, starting in the fifties and evolving into the sixties, there was freedom to explore, to make your leisure time more than drinking and watching TV.

College was cheap. University was not about job preparation, our parents thought of our futures, but did not dictate them, they couldn’t get away with it. No, young people were on a journey of their own creation. And nothing would stop them. And this journey gained adherents and as a result, the sixties became the last cultural peak in this nation.

Of course they still make music today. TV and films. But it was different back then. Now, it’s all about the dollar, everybody shaves off their edges for the buck. And image supersedes art. It’s about you, the cult of personality, more than what you create. It’s the antithesis of Andy Warhol and its factory.

YET IT WAS A FACTORY!

That was Warhol’s breakthrough, to put the cash up front, previously taboo in the art world. And to continue the question of the century, as in what is art? You had not only Warhol, but before him the cubists and the abstract impressionists and then the minimalists… Being able to draw was no longer a prerequisite to a career as an artist, and being more than proficient at your instrument was no longer a prerequisite to playing music.

But that didn’t mean you’d become a star.

And there are a ton of stars in this film.

Like Mary Woronov. A Factory hanger-on who graduated to mainstream film roles as the decades wore on.

And Paul Morrissey. That was a thing back then, going to the cinema to see Andy Warhol films, which by the turn of the decade, from the sixties to the seventies, were really made by Morrissey.

Seems so quaint today. Making a journey to the theatre, sitting in a darkened room and seeing a film and…at best you could go home and talk about it. You couldn’t post on social media. The experience of going was everything, the message was on screen, the audience was not the star, as it is at so many concerts these days.

And these films were influential, BECAUSE THEY TESTED LIMITS!

You went because you had to, irrelevant of the reviews. What were the odds the critics would get it anyway? These films were influential. As Lou Reed himself began.

He didn’t want to be an accountant like his father. He wanted to be a rich and famous rock star. That’s made clear in this movie, from the very beginning, that was his goal. But it was a long hard road getting there.

First he had Warhol.

This film traces the trip from Long Island to the Factory.

And if you watch this film through twenty first century eyes you’ll keep asking yourself how all these people were getting by, paying their bills, but living was cheap back then! And you didn’t have to enter a career right after college for fear of forever being left behind.

Reed has a vision. But Manhattan is full of artists. They find each other. He gets hooked up with John Cale. Eventually they meet Warhol, who says yes to everything, that’s why people wanted to hang out with him at the Factory, and a bond is established. But in order to make it all work, Andy has to design the album cover and Nico has to front the band. Talk about being expedient, otherwise the Velvet Underground never would have happened.

So what you’ve got here is a slew of artists, with only Warhol having any real purchase on the mainstream culture, and at this point mostly in the metropolis, pursuing their passion as artists, filmmakers, painters, musicians… It was a hotbed of creativity.

And then there’s a stage show at the Dom. The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Doesn’t that say it all? No one names their events like this anymore. Hell, most have their sponsor in the moniker! And they were events, immersive, in the dark, with performances and lights and being there opened your mind. Assuming you were there. And almost all people were not. But word started to spread. You read about it. There was a pull to the city, to become part of this.

Watching this film I wondered why in hell I went to college in Vermont. That wasn’t my place. I came to Los Angeles and found people exactly like myself, in Vermont there were none.

It’s different today. As a result of the internet you can be anywhere and play. But playing is not the same, because of that damn money factor. And there are so many messages odds are yours won’t be heard.

Like the Velvet Underground. Today their music would be unknown. Anybody can make a record. But when their albums were released we saw them in the museum known as the record store, everybody was aware of them, even if they never heard them. And the truth is where I lived, there was always someone who owned one, who insisted you sit down and listen to “Sister Ray” or another cut. You sat there and listened, did nothing else simultaneously, can you imagine?

Probably not, unless you lived through it.

So if you read the review of Fiona Hill’s book above you can picture the journey from there to here. Yet watching this film I can’t believe I was really alive and aware in the sixties. Yes, I was going to high school, fifty miles from New York City, the light shined that far, it was part of my everyday world. I can’t imagine that today. If for no other reason than nothing is universal, nothing has that amount of mindshare, even though the surviving institutions keep telling us they do.

Like movies. What a joke. Superhero events for the brain dead. As for art films, if you went to the theatre to see this, you’re probably over seventy, at least sixty, you’re inured to the old rituals. No, this movie is readily accessible on Apple TV+. That’s how we consume culture these days, at our fingertips. Put any impediment in its way and people don’t bother.

So watching this movie you’ll see what the early to mid-sixties were like. It’ll be a revelation if you weren’t alive back then, but you probably won’t even be interested. Yes, you know “Walk on the Wild Side,” but that’s enough for you.

And many people alive back then were clueless.

And then there were the artists, those who were a little offbeat, who were not accepted anywhere else, for which this movie and the Velvet Underground are manna from heaven. Hell, one of the best parts of the film is when Jonathan Richman testifies. When everybody else was getting noisier, Richman fired his band and got quieter. He continued to experiment in the seventies when everybody else was playing by the rules.

And in the eighties you had to be beautiful to be on MTV.

And then Napster came along and blew everything apart and if you were awake and aware beforehand you might still believe the music business is in turmoil. But it’s not. Those days are over. Now it’s no longer about the platforms, but the music itself. And that’s much harder to do. Everyone has an opinion on file-trading and streaming, but almost no one can create a hit record, even though seemingly every young person thinks they can.

But their heads are in the wrong place. Sure, after the Beatles broke we all bought guitars and formed bands, we had dreams but they were quick to be shattered, we realized we were not good enough. Some were, but their number was exceedingly small. Today’s generation believes marketing exceeds music, that if they make enough noise they must break through, not knowing it’s about one note, pure and easy, as Pete Townshend sang.

So most people don’t want to see a movie like this. About what happened fifty-odd years ago. Shot in an artistic fashion. Yes, the movie doesn’t even look like a tentpole blockbuster. There’s split screen and talking heads and…it’s an art film. Which if you’re a boomer you’ll remember, if you’re not, you probably won’t.

And art films were not solely about the ride, they were supposed to deliver more, you were supposed to leave the theatre thinking.

If you make it through the Velvet Underground movie you’ll be thinking. You’ll be thinking during it. You may even go back to it. It’s not here today, gone tomorrow, it sticks to you. Kind of like “Don’t Look Back,” a film that was dead on arrival that has since become legendary. Do I think the Velvet Underground movie will have the same impact down the road? Not quite as much, but it’s a unique document of an era, it’s far from me-too.

That’s one of its best qualities. It’s not a traditional rock doc. It’s not pure hagiography. It leans towards that at the end, deifying Lou Reed, but then the credits start to roll.

So will this movie make you love the Velvet Underground if you don’t already?

I highly doubt it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from it. It’s those outside who do it differently who change the world.

Then again, wasn’t changing the world a sixties thing?

Unfortunately so.

THIS IS THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO HER!

In case you missed the memo, Kacey Musgraves’s new album was disqualified for the country music Grammy because it wasn’t country enough, despite her working with the same damn people she always has.

I don’t want to debate the issue. Because the Grammys are irrelevant. If they meant anything, their ratings would be sky high instead of bottom barrel. Nobody cares, it’s just a circle jerk for those sucking the at the tit of the organization and the wankers unknown by most people whose self-image is burnished by winning these crappy little trophies, physical in a world of digital, where the fake merch you buy for your videogame has more value. Real artists take no pride in awards. Because if you’re really pushing the envelope, organizations don’t give you your due until way after the fact. And art is not a competition. Then again, there are people invested in every tiny little niche, so I guess these males, and they are males, can live in their John Gruden world unfettered but they keep on committing these faux pas that draw attention to the inherent flaws of the generation.

Last year it was the Weeknd. He had the biggest record of the year and wasn’t nominated. THAT became the story. If he’d just been nominated and even won no one would have cared. But by being EXCLUDED, it was a big story, that ran for months, now everybody knows who the Weeknd is, everybody who cares was drawn to listening to “Blinding Lights” in a world where the history of recorded music is at one’s fingertips.

Do most Americans know Kacey Musgraves? NO WAY!

Most Americans don’t know anybody these days, except for maybe Donald Trump. This is the fallacy of the entertainment business. Everything is smaller than ever before. Look at TV ratings. Check the numbers for the networks. They’re less than A TENTH of what they were in their heyday, there’s just too much in the channel, and it’s even WORSE in music. So, you can make yourself feel good by hiring a PR company and getting ink in dead tree media that means nothing, or manipulate the “Billboard” chart by releasing signed CDs to people who don’t have CD players, but unless you’re the artist or the purchaser, no one cares whatsoever, NO ONE! No one cares what the number one television show is, nor the number one musical artist. That’s so last century. But the media loves charts, rankings… Today it’s all about the individual, their vertical, until there’s a train-wreck.

Like Donald Trump.

Like this Kacey Musgraves kerfuffle.

Kacey Musgraves is uber-talented. My only complaint is the endless plastic surgery/fillers/who knows what. She was a very cute woman who is now trying to achieve conventional beauty and ruining her appeal. It’s dangerous to even say this, but I’m sick and tired of women who change their looks, often permanently, to appeal to people who ultimately find it a turn-off. It seems women are doing their best to impress other women, because they’re certainly not impressing the men. And in this politically correct world one can’t even say this, even though I just did. Musgraves’s music is so honest, I wish she were happy, satisfied, with her God-given looks, which are better than almost all of the population’s to begin with!

But John Lennon urged us to give him some truth, and then Jack Nicholson told us we couldn’t handle the truth and then Leonard Cohen told us everybody knows the truth but in the end, truth is taboo, we have to deny it exists, to keep everybody happy.

Anyway, Musgraves’s latest album, “star-crossed,” is quite good. It’ll turn your head when you hear it, you’ll want to play the whole thing in a world where you can usually not even make it through the single. Is it her best work, is it great work? We can debate that all day long, but in a world of flotsam and jetsam it stands out.

On Spotify, all of “star-crossed”‘s tracks have over a million plays. One has ten million. Sounds impressive until you compare it to the hits, which have triple digit millions, can even have a billion. Actually, Kacey has two tracks over a hundred million streams, and one very close to that number, from her previous LP, 2018’s “Golden Hour.” But rather than repeat the formula, Kacey continued to push the envelope, into new territory, and for this she is being PUNISHED!

Isn’t this what we want from artists, to stretch? Instead, the Grammys keep rewarding those who stay in their lane and repeat themselves, they hew to conventional wisdom, and that’s got nothing to do with art.

In a changing environment. They rap in country songs and have soul singers in country songs and some of these even cross over to pop…that’s the world we live in, especially amongst the younger generation, the genres have blurred. But no, in Grammyworld, they’re defined. You’d better not put a fiddle on your rock record, you’ll be excommunicated from the category!

And the truth is the hype on Kacey Musgraves’s new album has been monumental, there’s been a story in every outlet known to man, but it’s definitely not working, the streams are not there, they’re not commensurate. Because the public knows it’s hype and no longer trusts it. I was aware of the hype, I’ve even seen Kacey Musgraves twice live, but I didn’t listen to it, and then I heard a track from “star-crossed” on a playlist from someone I respect and it stood out from every other track, it was a cut above, I had to listen to it again, then I had to listen to the album, I almost wrote about it, didn’t, BUT NOW I AM! Because the Grammy organization messed with her!

Unlike the Weeknd, Musgraves didn’t get her knickers in a twist, she just posted a pic on Instagram giving the middle finger. That’s where you speak today, on social media, Musgraves is young and gets it, the old men at the Grammy organization are still clueless. Let’s see, Harvey Mason, Jr. has 13,100 followers on Twitter, Kacey Musgraves has 977,300. Harvey Mason, Jr. has 26,500 followers on Instagram, Kacey Musgraves has 2,300,000. I ask you, who has the power here? THE ARTIST! The way it was before Clive Davis and Tommy Mottola tried to tell us they were the stars. It hasn’t been this way since the seventies, the artists are in charge.

But that does not mean each and every one of them can gain traction.

But when you pour gasoline on the fire they’ve created, a conflagration can transpire. Now the story is how out of touch the Grammy organization is, by time it burns out, the story will have been EVERYWHERE! More and more people will check out Kacey’s music to form their own opinion, just like they did with Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” which was deemed not country enough!

Categories are BS. Kacey Musgraves wasn’t promoting “star-crossed” based on category, it was just music. The Lil Nas X country kerfuffle was a manipulated story proffered by the establishment, it was not like any country radio stations had decided not to play it, THEY WEREN’T EVEN AWARE OF IT!

So now Lil Nas X’s career is all about spectacle, the music is secondary.

But with Kacey Musgraves the music is still primary. And when people go to check it out, a number will be intrigued. People will become fans. Her career will be enhanced, embellished, all because the Grammy organization is out of touch, not living in today’s musical reality, and doubling-down on the inanity. Didn’t the music business learn its lesson twenty years ago, with Napster, et al? If you don’t know what you’re talking about, SHUT UP! Then again, the more out of touch you are the less you’re aware your head is up your butt and you put yourself in the spotlight to be made fun of.

Let’s say “star-crossed” was nominated in the country category. It probably wouldn’t win, based on the number of streams, but even if it did, who exactly would be complaining? Not the rest of Nashville, because they know the Grammys are irrelevant, that it’s all about the CMAs. That’s right, country has its own awards show. Meanwhile, every other musical genre wants to get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And you wonder why all these organizations have lost credibility.

This is no movie.

But that’s what the best art is. Like Kacey Musgraves’s song:

“If this was a movie
I’d be surprised
Hearing your car
Coming up the drive
And you’d run up the stairs
You’d hold my face
Say we’re being stupid
And we’d fall back into place
If this was a movie
If this was a movie”

“If This Was a Movie..”: https://spoti.fi/3iYCKBO