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It’s the strings.

I was driving home from a night hike and Howard Stern was talking to Brandi Carlile, she was gonna sing “Madman Across the Water.”

“Madman Across the Water” was Elton John’s fourth album in a year, and that’s not counting the American debut, the eponymous “Elton John,” which really didn’t hit until the fall of 1970 anyway, the famous Troubadour gigs were at the end of August of that year.

Elton went from zero to a hundred overnight. And even though he broke on AM radio, with “Your Song,” “Tumbleweed Connection,” which was released on October 30th, gave Elton credibility.  And then there was the live album, “11/17/70,” and the “Friends” soundtrack, talk about overexposed, by time “Madman Across the Water” came out people were burned out on Elton, not that they expected him to have continued success, most acts that broke on AM radio came and went.

“Almost Famous” made “Tiny Dancer” iconic, but it was not upon the time of release, it went all the way to #41 on the “Billboard” chart, and they call it Top Forty but really it’s closer to Top Fifteen, which means you may be in the Hot 100, but that does not mean most people are hearing your song.

In truth, it took Elton over a year to come back commercially, with “Rocket Man” in the summer of ’72. The bitch was back and he’s never gone away, he’s got a hit right now, with Dua Lipa.

I bought “Madman Across the Water,” and played it plenty at the advent of 1972 and other than “Indian Sunset,” which I heard Elton play the previous June at Carnegie Hall, it was all new to me. And I can tell you I immediately cottoned to “Tiny Dancer,” but “Holiday Inn” and “Rotten Peaches” on the flip side, two songs I’ve never heard anybody mention, were my next favorites, and the majesty of “All the Nasties” cannot be denied.

Not that every track was not good. And I knew them all. Because this was the album era, you dropped the needle at the beginning, flipped the record over and started again on the second side, and you might even go back to the first if you were endeared, or were learning the record.

Learning the album, that was part of the process. Maybe you’d heard a single, oftentimes you had not. And therefore you kept playing the album until it revealed itself, first one track, then another. Yes, repetition helped. Most people don’t listen to music this way anymore, because tracks are not scarce, everything is at your fingertips, listening is different, you go broad, not deep.

Not that you heard the first side closer, the title track, “Madman Across the Water” on the radio. Playing entire sides on radio was a no-no, labels were afraid of taping, some stations did it anyway, but the odds of hearing every cut of an album on the radio were very low, which is one of the reasons you bought the album, and if you were a fan you had to buy the album before the show, to know the music when the act played it.

So, if someone is going to do an Elton John cover, I wouldn’t expect it to be “Madman Across the Water,” if for no other reason than it’s long and slow, it’s hard to get people’s attention, never mind keep it, but this cover by Brandi Carlile is RIVETING!

The music starts fifty five seconds in. And what’s astounding is Brandi’s picking the notes EXACTLY, the notes you know from the record, the ones embellished in your brain. This is rare, duplicating the exact sound of a record, many acts who cut the damn hits can’t do this.

And then comes Brandi’s voice. Elton doesn’t even sing this way anymore. That high voice on “Madman Across the Water” is kaput. But Brandi…she has no problem hitting the notes.

Now I’m listening to the radio, I don’t know it’s Brandi playing the guitar intro, this is not Madonna or some other pop star picking out the notes, she’s obviously paid her dues, she performed for years before anybody knew who she was. She’s not struggling, she’s confident, and you can feel and hear that.

And that vocal… Sure, Brandi’s a woman, not a man. But she’s closer to the original than Elton is today. Her voice is so pure, she’s not struggling, she’s putting the wannabe TV singers to shame.

BUT THEN CAME THE STRINGS!

Those early Elton John albums, there was a special sauce, producer Gus Dudgeon and arranger Paul Buckmaster. They’re both dead now, and Elton has never replicated the sound of those early LPs, they’re dark and deep, as if these records were cut in dim light in a church, listening to them is a religious experience, they exist outside the system, they’re for the listeners, not the gatekeepers. Which is one reason why I still play them. They’re not throwaways, they’re the essence.

So I’m going through the curves on Sunset, trying to stay within the speed limit but enjoying the front wheels pulling me around the corners, and then I hear those strings.

I figure they’ve got a whole string section, I don’t learn until the performance is over when Howard talks that it’s actually just three players, because once again, IT SOUNDS JUST LIKE THE RECORD! Even Elton doesn’t bring string players on the road. This is not a cover, it’s an exact replica in an era where that’s impossible to get, it’s the mountaintop when no one is even bothering to attempt to climb the peak. Suddenly, I’m no longer listening, I’m having a peak experience, I can’t believe they’re hitting all the notes, but even more I can’t believe the sound of those strings, the way they’re so rich, and the way they zing,

Hell, I could continue to rant and rave, but really this is about the listening experience. It’s the original, but it’s updated with Brandi Carlile’s voice, which somehow makes the song brand new, it resonates more than anything in the Spotify Top 50, because it’s not made to be a hit, because it doesn’t have twenty writers, because it wasn’t remixed into oblivion. You listen and you truly can’t believe it.

And maybe you’re not an Elton John fan, maybe you’ve never even heard “Madman Across the Water,” that’s possible, the album is fifty years old. But you cannot listen to Brandi’s performance and think it’s nostalgia, it’s actually more honest than so many of the new records, it’s done with acoustic instruments, it’s positively human, something too often missing in this digital age. When the machines take over, we want something they cannot create. Machines cannot evidence life, only people can do that.

As Brandi Carlile does here.

Listen, you’ll be stunned.

 

Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin have none. Why? BECAUSE THEY TOOK THE MONEY!

There’s a canard in the twenty first century that selling out is cool, that the public expects it, that there are economic advantages and no damage is done to your career. This is patently untrue.

I’m completely disillusioned with what is going on in Washington. Kyrsten Sinema used to be a leftie, now she’s a right leaning centrist and I wouldn’t expect her to flip back, why? BECAUSE SHE TOOK THE MONEY! From the right-leaning Chamber of Commerce. Ditto on Joe Manchin.

As for Mark Zuckerberg, he’s lied so much that we don’t believe a single thing he says. He can deny what the whistleblower claims ad infinitum and we won’t buy it, and why should we trust him when he won’t reveal the inner workings of his company?

As for the social media influencers, there’s no credibility involved, that’s one of the reasons why they have such short tenures. They’re faces selling products until we no longer care about them and move on.

But artists?

When you’re whored out to the corporations, when you’re a corporation yourself, selling clothing, perfume and tchotchkes, you may be making money but you’ve lost credibility, and credibility is key to longevity. And longevity is the only way to make any real money in the arts business. You get screwed until you generate capital and can redo your initial deals and then the money comes in and hopefully people are still interested in you.

Sure, the classic acts had fewer avenues of selling out. But they were also selling something different, that the music was their essence, an unfiltered personal statement, which is why their music is remembered and so much of the recent stuff is not. They weren’t complaining they couldn’t get recognition, they weren’t railing against the system, their target was the audience, and they did their best to connect with the people and cement that bond.

It’s kind of like having a best friend. You do everything together, you know each other’s habits, and then suddenly you can’t get them on the phone because they’re now hanging with the popular kids, they want the benefits. They’ve made movies about this, like “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Loyalty is everything. Once you start denying who you are, sacrificing for the perks, you’re toast. You get a momentary peak and then you fall down the mountain and no one is interested in you, your old friends abandon you, you’re starting from scratch all over again.

Then again, there’s not the money in music that there used to be. There’s plenty of money, but there are much easier routes to make a ton more. Like being a techie a banker or a Kardashian. But that’s commerce, not art. Then again, our entire nation is skewed towards commerce and money. If you’re rich, you’re right. Not only are you powerful, you lord it over people and they kowtow to you.

But not Frances Haugen. ONE person doing the right thing illuminated the flaws in Facebook and will generate at least some change. ONE PERSON! Because she did what was right, not for the money, but for society. The exact opposite of the unvaxxed. Haugen is not interested in the personal benefit, but the benefit to the world at large!

As for everybody else?

They’re silent. Not only the people at Facebook, but the advertisers who use it, no one wants to upset the apple cart. Which is like working for the man, your job is paramount so you’d better keep your head down and play the game. That’s not art!

In addition art is compromised by today’s major label system. Opportunity cost is so high that the label doesn’t want to release your track until it’s convinced it’s a hit. They don’t care if it’s a personal statement, they just care whether it will gain traction and generate capital. They bring in cowriters and remixers, your original vision gets lost in the shuffle. Which is why all the innovation is being done outside the major label system, and why the hit business is smaller than ever before.

Now the truth is today’s young hitmakers are completely unaware of the old era, when artists had backbones, when they wouldn’t compromise their values, never mind their art. Mariah Carey broke thirty years ago. TV competition shows are decades old. The music from the past may exist, but the context is absent. And all the business people don’t want the truth to get out, because they commission selling out, and the acts come and go but they remain.

Sure, you may gain attention for a moment, but every deal, every compromising situation, detracts from future fandom and the length of your career.

The big acts from the classic rock era?

The Eagles and Neil Young aren’t selling out.

And Pink Floyd won’t even take the money to regroup as their music is passed down from generation to generation.

Don Henley and Neil Young have rough edges, AND THEY’VE WORKED FOR THEM! Henley saved Walden Woods and Young was there at the advent of Farm Aid but refused to perform this year because of Covid-19 infection risk. Yes, Neil went on record, who is he making friends with by saying this? His hard core fans will stick by him, anti-vaxxers will criticize him, meanwhile he’s out of the public eye by not doing the show.

Can you say no?

A credible artist can.

Does it feel right?

If you were a fan what would you think?

All these opportunities your handlers are telling you you must embrace, did you take the bait?

Kurt Cobain wouldn’t take a limo in South America, it wasn’t punk. Would anybody have known? But Cobain’s credibility is still intact and Nirvana still matters when so many of its contemporaries do not.

We’re looking for people to believe in. Who are beacons, who do what is right. But after having a duplicitous president who continues to lie, after we were told there were alternative facts, nobody believes anybody anymore. Does anybody want to take advice from Kim Kardashian? Does anybody want to take advice from Kanye West? He can get publicity, but his political campaign got no traction, because people know that he’s POSITIVELY INSANE! He’s addicted to the spotlight, not the truth.

We all want something we can hold up as our own, that we believe in, that we take guidance from. And right now pickings are slim. But the hunger is still there. It’s a long game, but if you’re an artist it’s the only path.

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3a750NU

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

1

I’m immune to the hype.

Last week Bruce Springsteen interviewed Steve Van Zandt on pay-per-view: https://vanzandt.unisonevents.com/index.html I was unaware of it until the publicity person tracked me down. Bottom line, it was hype for the book, you got a signed book along with the video for $45, unsigned book and video for $35. A brilliant way to sell books. Assuming you knew about it. In the pre-internet era if Bruce Springsteen was going to be on TV it was big news, you tuned in, now his work is just part of the endless sea of product floating by us 24/7.

But I watched the video. SPRINGSTEEN WAS FANTASTIC! I’ve been down on Bruce, playing the humble elder statesman, but here he was completely relaxed, cracking jokes, it was like hanging with him at the kitchen table after dinner, opining on many subjects, reviewing history. Unfortunately, Van Zandt had a bit of stage fright, it took him a while to warm up. But Little Steven was better on Bill Maher, he’s been everywhere. Hoping you become aware, but then you’ve got to buy the book, and most people won’t, which is why we’ve become immune to the hype, even if we’re aware we don’t want to buy, the product is only for the hard core, why are you bugging us?

Nor was I interested in hearing Coldplay on Howard Stern. Funny how Chris Martin is the one who emerged with the gravitas, not his constantly in the news ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow, but Coldplay peaked back in 2002 with “A Rush of Blood to the Head.” Thereafter Martin has become lighter, and if you’re serious you can’t possibly be interested, the band’s projects are only for the hard core, which is larger than the hard core of all the new bands, because Coldplay broke and matured under the old system, when TV and terrestrial radio were dominant, that paradigm has completely expired.

So I’m reading today’s “Billboard Bulletin,” and the headline is “Coldplay & BTS’ ‘My Universe’ Blasts Off at No.1 on Billboard Hot 100.” Not surprising to me, anything with BTS involved is gonna make an impact, talk about fans, BTS has an army. So I decided to check out the play count, and on Spotify it was 60,593,807, which means the track’s success is not a manipulation, like so much on the chart, people are actually listening to “My Universe” and liking it.

Just for the record, the expensive video only has 41,979,120 views, proving that it’s what goes in the ears that matters today, the video game is no longer paramount, as for YouTube’s subscription numbers, I don’t believe them, the devil is in the details, I’m thinking a lot of people subscribed just to get rid of the ever more invasive commercials, and there have got to be a ton of trials, after all YouTube is imploring us to subscribe constantly. Bottom line, music does not live on YouTube, it’s not what the audience wants.

So with 60 million streams, I decide to play “My Universe,” and I can see why it’s a hit. It’s light, as I referenced above, it’s close to meaningless, but it’s what charts today.

So I’m scanning the “Billboard Bulletin.” You can’t read “Billboard,” what a joke. I now have a free subscription via Apple News+, I thought this was a benefit, but it’s unreadable, it’s all lowbrow consumer focused news, if you’re reading this rag to know what’s going on in the music business, god help you. The “Bulletin” is reciting endless statistics, pages of them, these labels know how to hype their vapid product, it’s a self-serving circle jerk, if you read every word you’re involved, it’s about as interesting as reading a book’s index. But as I’m scrolling I see “My Universe” was cowritten and coproduced by MAX MARTIN!

That’s right, a fifty year old from Sweden is the most powerful person in music, on the creative side, where the goods are baked. Everybody else has their era and then they’re done, this guy is coming up on twenty five consistent years of hits, THAT’S REMARKABLE! They should cancel the Grammys and just give all the statuettes to Max (except for the ones that go to Morgan Wallen), because he represents the zeitgeist of the music business.

About a year ago the buzz was how “Blinding Lights” was absent from the big Grammy nominations. The brand name might have been Weeknd, but the true star was Max Martin.

Max crossed Taylor Swift from country to pop. You buy insurance, just like Coldplay here.

2

It started with “…Baby One More Time,” no “…Baby One More Time,” no Britney Spears, nothing she did thereafter was even in the league of “…Baby One More Time.” This was 1998, the era of dialup, music online was not a big thing, you had to buy it to hear it, and I did, I had to hear this track, talk about a hit, whew!!! “My Universe” is not even close.

Nor is it close to “I Want It That Way,” the Backstreet Boys’ gigantic hit from 1999. I bought that album too, “Millennium.” Those are the only two boy band/tween albums I ever purchased, and I must tell you “Millennium” is great! It starts off with a rock track better than anybody functioning during that era. You see those are Max’s roots, hard rock, before it lost all its melody and became a niche product. When if it was loud and in-your-face, sung at the top of your lungs, it could still be considered rock. I know the musos, the boomers, pooh-pooh stuff like this, but the joke is on them, they don’t know what they’re missing. “Larger Than Life” is what is absent from the rock world, if bands today listened  to “Larger Than Life” first maybe rock would still matter. Then again, there’s no one in the rock sphere as talented as Max Martin.

Max helped build and sustain Katy Perry.

Max has 60 Top Ten singles, SIXTY!!!

Max has 25 number one singles, TWENTY FIVE! Six of these debuted atop the chart!

And the charts don’t mean what they used to, nowhere close, but these are still significant achievements, he’s now tied with George Martin for having produced the most number ones ever, and George Martin had the benefit of working with THE BEATLES!

And you could say Max doesn’t always work solo. But isn’t it funny how he continues to have hits when the acts themselves, the other writers they use, do not.

Max manages to stay young, hip, on track, with it without looking bogus like so many on the business side of the equation.

AND HE DOES NO PUBLICITY!

The execs have flacks, but not Max. If you know Max it’s only because you’ve read the credits, have gone deep into the weeds. And Max sustains when seemingly nobody else does, the big acts he’s worked with are now doing Vegas residencies, he’s still in the studio creating hits!

And Max does it how everybody else no longer does. Melody is a key element. While all the delusional wankers are sitting at home making beats, Max is the one creating lasting hits. Max knows it’s more than rhythm. Max also knows it’s about sounds, listen to that piano intro on “…Baby One More Time,” never mind the effect on Britney’s vocal. And you wonder why your project gets no traction, try comparing it to Max’s, you’re playing in the bush leagues and he’s WORLD CLASS!

All the things other acts overlook, Max does not. First and foremost the song, then the instrumentation and then the SINGER! Come on, if you’re not a great singer let someone else be the front person. Sure, Bob Dylan doesn’t have the world’s greatest voice, BUT HE’S BOB DYLAN! And you’re not!

3

Now at this point, Max Martin’s story is well known. He went to music school in Sweden, where they’ve got that dreaded SOCIALISM, which still provides arts in the educational system. Meanwhile, we’re starving the system in America, teachers don’t even have paper, never mind saxophones.

Then Max paid his dues FOR YEARS!

In America we’re supposed to be interested in the work of the barely pubescent. And there’s a canard that if you’re over 30, you’re on the scrapheap. Max is 50!

This guy is breaking all the rules and winning. He’s the antithesis of the American music business. Doing it the opposite of the way everybody else is.

As for working with collaborators, since Max is not an act, he lets everybody else participate in the riches, let them have a writing credit, let them be coproducers, better to be part of a hit than a stiff. And Max has so many hits…good luck getting him to work on your project.

Do you know how many tickets Coldplay is gonna sell on the back of Max Martin? There’s so much money involved, it’s staggering. And it’s all down to one track.

And these songs are not written and produced overnight, that’s not the route Max rides on, he’s not Neil Young, Max is not trying to make art, he’s making music for the machine, because he knows how hard it is to get any attention at all these days. You know what I want to see? Max Martin and Bruce Springsteen. Bruce knows melody, he’s just lost touch with what is a hit, and Max knows that through and through. When you’ve lost your way you’ve got to get outside advice, like Coldplay.

This is positively remarkable. This guy is consistently involved in the biggest hits in the world, year after year after year. And if you listen to “My Universe” three times it will resonate, you’ll feel good when you hear it in the background at the skating rink, while you’re shopping. That’s what music is today, something to hear while you’re doing something else.

Not that I doubt Max could do more, create art, but he’s changed with the times when so many others refuse to.

Pink, Kelly Clarkson, Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake…Max has had number one hits WITH ALL OF THEM!

This is the world we now live in, music is a producer’s medium, the artists are just faces, all the work is done behind the scenes, it’s just like the early sixties, just like “The Idolmaker.” I lament this, but it won’t be forever. We’ll never get a new Beatles, but we’ll get something! And I’d be surprised if Max Martin doesn’t end up working in the new world too, because the real talent is HIM! Max Martin should get a Kennedy Center award, Max should be teaching, his methods are much better than those at all the “music” schools, like Berklee. This guy has the music in him. He’s beaten America at its own game, and he’s not the only one, it’s just that Max’s focus is music, we’ve got no nukes to take him down, no tax policy, because music just can’t be denied, and it starts with Max Martin!

Albums where the second side is better than the first side.

Tune in tomorrow, October 5th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

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