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Subject: Re: The New James McMurtry Album

Hey Bob

Thanks so much for giving James new record Horses and the Hounds some love. 

I am very proud of it.

James is more than an artist I have worked with since the beginning, he is a close friend.

For me the work is the reward particularly when working with friends.

This is why I brought in David Grissom on guitar along with Charlie Sexton and had Kenny Aronoff on percussion along with other close pals.

We all go back together and it made making this record a really special one in the midst of challenging times.

James is a wordsmith and one of America’s finest songwriters.

My mission in the production was to frame James also as a fine singer/storyteller.

I feel this batch of songs holds up to the best of any,

Thanks again for shining a little light.

We appreciate it.

all the best

Ross Hogarth

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Subject: Re: The New James McMurtry Album

Hey Bob,

I was James’ TM/FOH when he toured “Where’d You Hide the Body” his last release on Columbia.

James is a heavy hitter as a lyricist, of that there is no doubt.

Touring with James was an education…

We toured in a faded green van he bought used from the INS motor pool. There was a dark green circle on each door where the immigration logo had been, before it was scraped off, and the roof occasionally leaked. James took out the two back seats and had a cage welded in so we could stack gear all the way to the ceiling in the back.  When we got hotels, I roomed with James. We also crashed on a lot of couches… Couches of people like Ken Kesey and once at his Dad’s place in Archer City.

There were just four of us. James on guitar, plus Ronny and Ron. Ronny on bass and Ron on drums. I handled TM, FOH, and Merch. We toured the living daylights out of that record, opening for Nancy Griffith and Joan Baez and playing headline shows at venues like the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro.

I remember the day James was dropped from Columbia records (At least my memory of it.) We had been at Sony that very day… We went up to the sky lobby, got ushered into Kid Leo’s office to admire his view of Central Park, and allowed to raid the CD closet.  No indication they were about to drop him – it was all smiles while we were there. We had a show at Tramps that night opening for Joe Ely.  I think it was just after our set that James got word from his manager, Mark Specter, that he had been dropped.

James didn’t show a ton of outward emotion. He took the news in stride and we kept touring. It was during that same run that Sugar Hill records came out to a gig to see him and they ended up signing him not long after that.

My total time with James and the road was maybe 18 months. I have an inordinate amount of road stories for being with him for such a short time… I learned a ton about the biz while touring with him, and it had an impact on me and my career that reverberates to this day.

Cheers,

Eric

Eric Frankhouser

Tour Manager

Wilco/Jeff Tweedy

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Subject: Re: 48 vs. 192

Hi Bob,

Thank you for the great piece. Glad you could hear the difference lossless audio provides over much lower bit rate lossy streams. These lossy streams are typically 256 – 320 kB/s or approximately one fifth the data of a CD which is 1.4mb/s or 1400kb/s. The CD is 44.1/16 bit. 

Leslie Ann-Jones & I co-chaired the Next Gen Audio committee for the The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing. We worked for six years with record companies, RIAA, DEG and many engineer/producers which yielded the agreement on High Resolution Audio standards (RIAA) having a   minimum of 48k/24 bits. This coincides with Apples “Made For iTunes” white paper created several years ago. 

192K/24 bit is nice. However, it’s important to point out that the real sweet spot for audio production is at 96K/24 bit which is more than twice the CD resolution. We still struggle to get massive adoption but it’s getting there. 

A lot of material available on streaming services is available at 192k with a greater amount at 96K. They both sound great. 

Just wanted to share these tech details. 

Phil Wagner

Solid State Logic

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From: John Boylan

Subject: RE: 48 vs. 192

Hi Bob,

I am beyond excited that you wrote this piece – in my mind it’s transformative! I sincerely hope that everyone picks up on how you clarify the problems with Bluetooth, and how you describe your experience hearing the Led Zeppelin music and being IN IT!

As you know, I have been pushing hi-res digital audio for a good many years, browbeating you and everyone who would listen about it. Many of my colleagues have also been on the forefront. Now that we have enough internet bandwidth to support streaming 24-bit/192k audio with a lossless compressions scheme, it’s available to everyone who wants it. It’s not beyond imagining that people will want to pay a little more to get a good Digital-To-Analog converter with a headphone amplifier in it – decent models start at around $200, with pro level models at around $500. I have a Lynx Hilo. Add a pair of great headphones and that’s really all you need. If you want to add great speakers, fine, but not absolutely necessary.

The ear-opening tracks that got me hooked on 24-bit, 192k years ago were: “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon, anything from “Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis, “God Only Knows” from the hi-res mix of Pet Sounds, and, lately, the hi-res re-mix of Sgt. Pepper that Giles Martin did. I urge everyone to listen to those tracks and compare.

My listening for pleasure now consists solely of either vinyl or hi-res digital. I hope everyone gets on board.

Thanks for a great piece!

Best,

JB

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From: Jeff Lorber

Subject: 48 vs 96

i’ve been recording at 96K since 2005.

When I first switched I felt like all of a sudden the music was on a much

bigger canvas.. it was pretty dramatic.

JL

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Subject: 48 vs 96

Of course it’s better and you can hear it. There is the naysayer chorus and it’s because they do ABX testing and can’t reliably hear differences but that’s not how we consume music. How you experienced it is how we listen to music and you can hear it.

Michael Fremer

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From: Craig Anderton

Subject: Re: 48 vs. 192

Bob, there are a zillion variables, it’s not just sampling rate. Some DACs have “sweet spots” and perform optimally at some sampling rates, but not others. A lot depends on the filter topology the DAC manufacturer chose. The “glue” – the components surrounding the DAC – make a difference too, as do the component tolerances.

When I upgraded to new DACs, everything in my studio sounded better, even when keeping the same sampling rate. I’m still waiting for a double-blind test where someone who listens to material recorded at 96 or 192, and played back at 48, 96, or 192, can identify consistently (more than chance) which is the higher sample rate.

Where high sample rates really make an obvious, “everyone-can-tell-100%-of-the-time” difference is with sounds of virtual instruments, amp sims, and limiters created “in the box.” Inside a computer, there’s no limit placed on the signals they generate, unless the software’s designers factored that in (which is happening more and more). These signals can create harmonics that interfere with the clock frequency, and cause a particular type of distortion (foldover distortion). So material recorded at 96 kHz can definitely sound different, and at least to my ears, better than the same material recorded at 44.1 or 48 if certain virtual instruments are involved. Not all software exhibits this phenomenon by any means, it depends on multiple variables. It doesn’t happen with acoustic or electric instruments arriving into the computer via an audio interface, which inherently limits the bandwidth anyway.

But…when I demo this difference at seminars, it’s surprising how many people prefer the sound with the foldover distortion compared to the accurately reproduced sound. Go figure.

If something was mastered at 192 kHz, and in-the-box limiting was used, then the limiter might respond more accurately compared to the same material mastered at 44.1 or 48 kHz. But in theory, you could downsample the material mastered at 192 kHz, and it would sound the same, because the correct transient response would have been “baked into” the audio, which ultimately is in the audio range.

That’s what I’ve found so far, but I’m always open to new data. I used to think 96 kHz didn’t make a difference, because I engineered every classical music session at 96 kHz, and no one could tell the difference between the 96 kHz master and the CD. But that was before I found about what can happen with virtual instruments and computer-based plug-ins.

Craig

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From: Dave Logan

Subject: Re: Donda

I met a couple from Detroit who bailed on their family vacation in Tennessee to fly here to Chicago for one night to attend Kanye’s Donda event at Soldier Field.

“We’re big Kanye fans,” said the guy.

When I inquired about the listening party, they started by complaining it was scheduled to begin at 9pm but didn’t get underway until 11:30pm. “And,” he added, “there wasn’t much merch either. The only thing I saw was a black t-shirt for $150… and there was line.”

How was the album?

“It was OK,” he answered.

The more we talked, the more he seemed intrigued by the event itself, followed by his desire to score some special swag. Kanye’s music/performance didn’t seem to be the most compelling part of his night, perhaps because he’d already sampled some of it online. Clearly, he and his wife were there for the event. That’s Kanye selling the sizzle instead of the steak, something he’s very good at.

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From: David Fearon

Subject: Re: It’s A Team Sport

Hi Bob

You are correct about record stores stock levels. I owned a store in New Zealand and as a small store I had to be selective. We are a small market and part of the problem was that the record companies catalogue was also pretty limited. 

Until Spotify a lot of this music has never been seen !

Dave

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Subject: Re: Covid-19

My cousin’s 24 year old son was taken by Covid yesterday. He has a 5 year old daughter. He didn’t wear a mask I’m sure he thought he had youth on his side. He fought for 10 days. At this very moment 5 friends and three relatives are being ravished by ‘fake’ flu. I have to take immune suppressing meds to keep my RA at bay so I have had both vaccines and a booster. Not enough is known about the disease to be certain about anything having to so with it, but if I can prevent myself and even just one other person from getting sick by wearing a mask I’m all over it. The anti vaccine and anti mask people are selfish.

 

Lisa Gregory

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Subject: Re: Covid-19

How about this. Last Tuesday I went to the US open.  Two days before the event, an email came in saying you need to show proof of vaccination in order to attend.  On Monday, the lines were up to 2 hours long to get in to see tennis.  So they made some changes for Tuesday.  When we were walking towards the security checkpoint, we were asked to get out our proof of vaccination.  I walk up with my ID and a copy of my vax card, and before they had a chance to read it, they said okay, good.  Basically, it was all for show.  If you walked up with anything looking like proof, they would just have waived you in.

Jared Polin

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Subject: Re: Covid-19

Hello Bob.

I read your latest rant from the French Riviera where we made it right before the EU banned US passports from entering. You are spot on!

We have not been to a single museum, bakery, outdoor restaurant (only choosing restaurants we can dip our toes in the Mediterranean!), live music cafés, supermarkets, antique shops etc… without being CARDED for our Pass Sanitaire (health passport) which has been embraced by most recalcitrant French people. Populist leaders in neighboring Italy have as well(!). Who would have thought French and Italians would be FOLLOWING orders from the government… 68% vaccinated last time I checked. Don’t believe the loud mouthed Yellow Vests. No one here is on their side and they are but a defunct movement.

See, Europeans value more their freedom to Culture, healthy food, , sipping espresso on a crowded café terrace, Dolce Vitta etc. than their disdain for orders.

We have been here 2 weeks, hardly noticing there is a pandemic raging, except for having to show our Covid vaccination document every time we want to go somewhere and having to wear a mask indoors only, small inconvenience.

First time EVER Europeans are watching us not with Envy, but with sadness, concern and consternation.

Respectfully.

Philippe SAISSE

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Subject: Re: Covid-19

Bob,

Thanks for being real about this whole thing, as always. I’m tired of people who don’t want to do their part bloviating about their individual freedoms while their parents and friends are dying alone in a hospital bed.

A friend I’ve had for over a decade passed away a couple weeks back from COVID. He was a libertarian and told me that he wouldn’t be getting the vaccine (this was before it was even available/tested). He died at 44 years old, and at the funeral, one of the speakers mentioned that my friend was “not a fan of vaccines or masks, was staunchly against any translation of the Bible besides the King James, yet there are people here who disagree with him on all of those things. That’s a testament to how loyal he was, even with people he had disagreements”.

The fact that my buddy, who was obviously wrong about vaccines, is getting accolades for it at his own funeral (albeit in a roundabout way) was hard for me to watch.

Thanks as always,

Adam Sliger

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Subject: Arizona #7 death rate

Hi Bob,

AZ is at 261 deaths per 100k population

California is at 168

So you are doing something right

Here the Governor ( with 18,999 deaths to his record )

Uses the public purse- Federal dollars-  to reward those who care not for public health

https://www.abc15.com/news/state/arizona-interest-in-anti-mask-school-vouchers-outpaces-funds

“ private school vouchers to students whose parents object to school mask requirements has seen a surge of applications.”

He’s also announced $60,000,000 for hospital who use certain medications post infection, to “ease pressure on staff”

yet masks are illegal in schools, universities and “publicly funded facilities” which would describe the arenas, stadiums and city arts/concert halls

Cheers, Mike K.

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Subject: Re: Covid in the Classroom

Hi Bob,

I couldn’t do it anymore…and then, the stars crossed, leaving me a lucky break; and I took it. 

I had been teaching in a district protesting masks, some claiming vaccines are child abuse. 

One parent called me a douchbag for teaching Elie Wiesel’s Holocausts memoir last spring. “Everyone knows he made that shit up,” says the parent whose kids rarely attended school during the pandemic. (I called home to offer help. They swore at me.) 

Once, admin called me into the office for having students read an article about the pandemic in Greek mythology, comparing to the myth’s pandemics. “Did you tell students never to leave their houses?” How does one respond to lies when there is no objectivity? 

Then, the parent groups started submitting FOIAs on the teachers! Why? To find out if we are ruining the curriculum, curriculum that hasn’t changed in ten years! A poem was scary? 

Well, language is a virus, but I’m sure few adults at the board meetings have read the author who coined the phrase, nor the biography on Emmitt Till we taught—since it’s been a required text before I was hired. 

Facts won’t stop opinions. Instead, they shift and get irate that the author capitalized B in Black…

I wasn’t sure how to go back into a classroom this year—a classroom with no mask wearing of even the staff now, no windows, 36 butts in desks two feet apart—when my little kids at home can’t get vaccinated yet. I logically know my kids have a low chance for hospitalization, but how would my wife, self employed, handle their or her sickness, ten days of quarantine, etc? It’s not only health, it’s the interruption, with no family help. We barely got through last year.

Plus, I have longhaulers in my family. 

But then, seven days before school started, I received a job offer from that blue bubble of Ann  Arbor. I took it! 

I’m running the marathon at a sprint to be teaching in a new school, for we are wearing masks, holding class outside many times, breathing air from upgraded HVACs, and most of us are vaccinated. It’s not perfect. I don’t know what the variants hold for us. 

Mike Vial

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Subject: COVID HYPOCRISY

The ultimate in hypocrisy:

I know you’re not a big sports fan, other than being a large skiing enthusiast, so you likely aren’t aware that the college football season has just begun. Last night there was a 3-hr. delay to the start of the game between Boise State and the University of Central Florida from Orlando due to lightning in the area. Administrators ordered the stadium cleared, a safe and prudent precautionary measure. 

When the game ultimately began there seemingly wasn’t a soul in the stands wearing a mask, nor were fans socially distanced from one another.

While the chance of getting struck by lightning is probably infinitesimal, that didn’t stop admin from clearing the stadium; a smart, precautionary measure. On the other hand, the chance of getting COVID in a packed and unmasked stadium, a “super spreader” if there ever was one, is probably reasonably high, though any attempt at masking or social distancing in FL is fundamentally a non-starter.  Theater of the absurd. 

The only thing missing from all of this is someone didn’t say, “Wait a minute, isn’t it my G-given right to be struck by lightning?”

Stuart K. Marvin

“Covid Deaths Surge Across a Weary America as a Once-Hopeful Summer Ends – Cases are starting to fall in some hard-hit Southern states, but nearly half of Americans are not fully vaccinated, allowing the Delta variant to persist.”: https://nyti.ms/3tgbiU2

So this is how it ends, utter chaos.

The same people bitching about the exit from Afghanistan are the same ones refusing to get the vaccine. Never mind that most people are lacking expertise in both areas. Then again, we all agree we’re glad to be out of Afghanistan, enough with endless wars, and we want Covid-19 to be gone, to return to normal life, but that doesn’t seem to be in the offing for eons.

So here’s how it is folks, news is just fodder for discussion. Legitimate news outlets with boots on the ground have had their credibility eviscerated by the right, where it’s all opinion all the time, where what you feel is more important than what is truth. So…

That’s right, the “liberal” newspapers are the ones gathering the news, with boots on the ground, “The New York Times” and “The Washington Post.” Yes, “The Wall Street Journal” can cover business, but it now does that poorly as it tries to be a more general newspaper serving the right, the articles are brief and you’re better off reading the business coverage in the “Times.” As for your local rag, it should go out of business. Why in the hell should I read national news in a local paper, when the true authorities are just a click away. In order to survive newspapers other than the Big Three above have to go hyper-local, but instead we can’t stop hearing journalists bitch like the musicians who decried the internet, wanting to preserve the dominance of the CD when the public had moved on. If you’re trying to gather the news, why are you so damn sentimental and glued to the past? Meanwhile, hedge funds own most of the local newspapers and are cutting staff to maintain margins and in a matter of years they’ll throw the outfits away, or sell their names, like “Newsweek,” which is a nearly worthless rag despite having the moniker of the old “Washington Post” weekly newsmagazine.

And most people don’t subscribe to a newspaper anyway. They get their news online. Where it is tailored by algorithms for them, so they only see what already supports their vision and then they go into the echo chambers of social media where the platforms’ sole desire is to keep you tuned in. That’s what they tell advertisers, how much time people spend on their sites. It’s kind of be like heroin dealers talking about the people they’ve addicted and kept using, social media won’t kill you, but it will deaden your mind. And why are people so uneducated, lacking the power of analysis anyway? We’re so busy fighting culture wars that kids can’t even get a reasonable education anymore, their parents are afraid of anti-religious screeds and critical race theory and…why not pull your kids out of school completely…actually, that’s what so many right wing religious people are doing, home-schooling, the worst effort ever, it separates your kids from the mainstream from the advent, you learn a lot more in school than what is contained in books, the socialization is key. Not only do you have to learn how to get along, you need to be exposed to people of different creeds, who don’t look like you, who are not from the same economic class, who have different opinions. Ain’t that America, where people hate those they’ve never even encountered! The Jews are wrecking America! But they know no Jews. Or they’re afraid of people of color when they know none of them either. But these minorities are subjected to hate and scapegoating from the uninformed, on cable television, and from their peers on social media and it’s more fulfilling to direct your attention to yourself than anybody else. That’s one of the main laughable if it wasn’t so serious characteristics of Trump’s legal team, trying to spread the fiction that he won the election and hand a victory to him. They all stonewalled, none of them showed any chinks in their armor, it was a full court press, they were automatons, utterly ridiculous unless you were a diehard believer in what they were purveying. Getting to the truth is a messy proposition, and if you’re not willing to be wrong, you can never really be right.

So the Delta variant is raging and now Mu has been found in America. Not that most people know about this latest variant, because they don’t follow the news, too often they think Covid is a hoax and that they’re inherently immune. As for all those blowhards who’ve said this and recently died, it makes no difference, because everybody in America thinks the rules don’t apply to them until ultimately they do, like criminals they think if they haven’t been caught yet they’re going to get away with it. But then they get arrested. But even an arrest is better than death.

But now the medical establishment has been discredited. Yes, we are arguing about science, because a nitwit from nowhere knows more than someone who has a decade worth of training, never mind experience thereafter. Why does everybody think they know everything. Would you set somebody’s broken leg? Then why do you think you’re an expert on infectious diseases?

So America ain’t closing down again, no way, it’s not going to happen. It’s only the Democrats who desire said action, as for the Republicans, they’ve already opened the country, there’s freedom in Florida and Texas, the freedom to die, not that that’s part of the promotion. But it should be. Keep telling these yahoos they’ve got the freedom to die and very well might and maybe they’d wake up and get vaccinated. As for the long term side effects of said vaccination… Forget what you read online, that you learned second hand, do you personally know someone who has been harmed by the vaccine, experiencing deleterious consequences beyond the side effects that might last a week? God, these same people wouldn’t dive into a swimming pool, they’re too afraid. Then again, so many are exhibiting inane behavior that is far riskier than a vaccine.

Like congregating in groups.

A good friend of mine got Covid-19 at the Dodger game. He’s vaccinated, he’ll survive, but what about the other 50,000 in attendance every night? Not that anybody’s tracking the numbers, and unless you go to the hospital the government is unaware of most people who get infected. And the fact is most people have not already been infected, otherwise the infection rate wouldn’t be in six digits every day.

But eventually everybody will get Covid. That’s the plan. Yup, infect everybody and then we’ll have herd immunity, at least until the next virus comes along. And while we’re at it, let’s stop vaccines for measles and shingles and everything else. Let your body fight it. So you can tell everybody you don’t need to be inoculated, unless you die of course, and then your voice is not heard anyway. Then again, think of how many people still smoke. Somehow they think they’re going to beat the odds. And some do, but most don’t. But the younger generation has realized smoking is bad and now the only people left puffing cigarettes are the addicted boomers and the uneducated poor, with little respect for their own lives, but it took decades to come this far. We don’t have decades to get people vaccinated against Covid-19.

And then there’s this:

“Oracle Park Concession Workers Threaten to Strike After Many Test COVID-19 Positive – If workers vote to strike on Saturday, they could possibly walk off the job just before the Giants game against the Dodgers that evening”: https://bit.ly/3DPX1SX

Work at the ballpark and get infected, because Covid restrictions are a joke, they say you need to be vaccinated or show a test but they don’t check, this is the same fiction they employ in the concert business, saying they’re doing the right thing when the truth is they’re not doing much of anything and when confronted they point the finger at somebody else.

As for the concession workers above, they worked over the weekend, but 96.7% voted to authorize a strike.

UNIONS SUCK!

Well, without a union these workers would have no chance to stand up to bosses with spreadsheets who are only worried about the bottom line. Like the workers in Amazon warehouses, or the meatpackers who were getting infected constantly because they were forced to work, because you’ve got to feed your family. As for unemployment and other government benefits, many people still don’t want to take lousy jobs that pay little and force you to work hard and be abused. Who wants to work at a fast food joint? People have found better ways to make a living, but the Fortune 500 still believe Americans are captive, needing to work their low rent jobs or starve. Or still starve, working at Walmart while they apply for government assistance.

So we were told to just wait, when Delta accelerated, when the vaccine was approved, the naysayers would get the jab. Well, this was said by people who didn’t know the naysayers. It’s not like the fifties and sixties anymore, the different classes no longer interact. If you’ve got any money you don’t even send your kid to public school, but private. You don’t vacation in the same spots, you don’t even fly on the same planes, so why do you think you know what is going on in the brains of others? As for the underclass thinking they know what the elite do…knowledge has now been branded as negative, better to be ignorant, didn’t Trump say he loved his uneducated voters?

And the truth is it’s a war. You’re either pro or anti-vaccine. It’s a religion. And Covid-19 is just the latest shot. These same people have been anti-vaccine for years, crediting so many illnesses to the shots that they don’t cause. And if these same people get ill, they’re the first ones who run to the hospital, unless they’re self-medicating with Ivermectin, which poisons them and clogs up hospitals. I mean you can’t even trust the science that Ivermectin won’t cure Covid? When you can get monoclonal antibodies? What planet are these people from?

The same one I live on. Where truth is out the window and there’s a chorus of right wing anti-vaxxers little different from fans at a sporting event. Never mind that they can’t spell, it’s all about being on the team, and they can’t be wrong, they can’t look in the mirror and not believe they’re God’s golden child, who will be watched over and saved.

It’s been everybody for themselves for years in America. But now it’s even worse. Because now it’s not just about money or privilege but life or death. If Democrats started lauding smoke alarms you’ve got to know Republicans would stop installing them. And if their house burned down and burned up the neighborhood, well…houses usually don’t catch fire, but when they do…

Which is why in California car insurance is mandatory. Because you might cause an accident and how will the injured party be made whole? Never mind their automobile, but their health? Covid vaccines are the same thing, yet worse. But if you say everybody has to get a Covid vaccine somehow you’re a Nazi, if only these people lived in Nazi Germany. Then again, they’d be the same ones pledging fealty to Hitler, being afraid to go against groupthink, saying nothing as Jews and other minorities were shipped off to camps. And when it’s over they all say it wasn’t their fault, they didn’t pull the trigger, they didn’t know what was really happening, just like with Covid when they get it.

And you need a license to drive, but we can’t have vaccine passports because… Exactly why? The truth is they already know who you are, where you live, what you eat, what you buy. That’s right, unless you haven’t surfed the web ever, and don’t use a smartphone, you’ve coughed up so much data that the social media outfits and the corporations know exactly who you are anyway. And you keep saying the government is bad and private industry is the way to go but the truth is you’re sacrificing much more to private industry than you are to the government.

And if you go to India or even college, you’ve got to have shots. But so many of these idiots have never been anywhere, never mind so many have gotten vaccines before. Why stop at Covid? It’s got nothing to do with it being new, which it is not, mRNA has been around for years, it’s got nothing to do with approval, it’s got to do with the fiction that shots invade your freedom. But I don’t see you refusing to bow to the TSA at the airport, you’re coughing up your freedom on a regular basis, but truth is no longer a defense.

So America is open for business. It’s a game of Russian Roulette. Go out and play and see if you get infected and die. No one is looking out for you, as a matter of fact, just the opposite. If you wear a mask to protect yourself in many communities you’ll be excoriated, despite it being a personal choice, a “freedom.” How come “freedom” only goes in one direction? We don’t get to tell you how to live, but you get to tell us all the time. Just try getting an abortion in Texas, never mind the whole south. And not only is the public pro-choice, but so are many of the Republican elected officials, they just say they’re pro-life so they won’t piss off part of their constituency, which in truth has nowhere else to go, who’ll vote for them anyway.

So forget it. You can talk about vaccines and mandates all day long but it’s never going to happen. Biden could mandate vaccines, and people would bitch to high heaven just like they did when he got us out of Afghanistan, but ultimately they’d be happy and forget about it. But Biden doesn’t have the balls, we’ve got no leadership. And the tail is wagging the dog anyway, how can there be more Democrats yet Republicans rule the country? The Supreme Court is Republican and Biden can’t get his agenda through because his own party members are afraid of blowback. The right doesn’t care about blowback, I’d say it’s their secret weapon, but it’s right out front, everybody can see it!

And we all know Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham are evil blowhards spewing false information, but you can complain all day and nothing will change, they’re just leading their lemmings over the cliff, you can bet your house that those two have been vaccinated, no way they’re taking the risk. YOU should take the risk, YOU should protect your freedom, but not THEM!

Nothing anybody can do can shut down the right wing juggernaut. Biden defeats Trump handily and not only do so many Republicans still believe Trump won, they’re still counting votes and bitching about Benghazi. I’m surprised they’re not complaining about Walter Mondale.

It’s frustrating if you have a brain.

It’s frustrating if you got the vaccine. These wankers can infect you and not only can you get sick, you can die. The odds are low, but who wants the risk? Never mind the potential long term side effects of infection.

It’s all about THEIR safety. They want to carry guns to shoot robbers… You’d think they live in the wild west when the truth is crime has crumbled, sure, it ticked up a bit during the Covid era, but no one is stealing your kids, you’re pretty damn safe, but they keep saying cities are hellholes…so why is everybody moving to them? We’re supposed to respect the rural counties, losing residents, when they’ve got no respect for those in the growing metropolises whatsoever. It’s like they want everybody to be Gomer Pyle and live in Mayberry R.F.D. Meanwhile, as for that mail delivery…magazines come so late it’s not even worth subscribing, meanwhile DeJoy still has his position, despite self-dealing and the change of the Board of Governors in the Democrats’ favor. They’ve got the power, but they’re still letting DeJoy wreak havoc. This would never happen in private business, then again, all these people in the government are getting rich on our backs, like faux principled Joe Manchin. He made millions from energy companies, even though coal, fossil fuels, are fading…and this isn’t an opinion, just look at the statistics.

But you won’t. Because you believe you’re right. And you only read news that supports your opinion. These whackos constantly send me links supporting their inanity, and it’s always from sites I’ve never heard of that if you just Google them they turn out to be conservative, oftentimes religious outfits. Anybody can publish online, that doesn’t make what you’re saying right.

I’d say it’s complete gridlock, but the truth is so many are moving, out in society, living it up. Would these same people go for a hike in the snow in their underwear? Why do they respect the weather and not Covid? Oh, they don’t really respect the weather either, do you expect people to care about climate change if they don’t care about infecting you with the virus? But if they have the slightest loss you know they’re looking to the government to make them whole, and Biden doesn’t play favorites, unlike Trump, who was tight with the money for states that didn’t vote for him.

And I’ll sum up by saying there are flaws on the left. Yes, some of the educated left are anti-vax. But the left is nowhere near as bad as the right. All these outfits with their false equivalencies, don’t they know the right has already rejected them? Why are you worried about what they have to say?

But everybody wants to be popular, they don’t want to offend anybody.

Unless you’re an elected official on the right. Then you get to obstruct justice not because it’s right, but because you have the power. McCarthy? Don’t cough up your 1/6 info to Congress. Why? Well, McCarthy’s team might look bad. And if you say no, it’s gonna be hard to get it from you and…

This is America.

I don’t know how you ignore it and go on with your regular life. Politics are your identity, your tribe, it’s the biggest sporting contest in the nation. It’s a fight to the death. And there are no rules. And not really any referees either. So if you’re looking for wise people to make judgments and call out bad behavior, you’re dreaming. Just decide if you want to risk Covid by walking out your front door. And it is a risk, higher than being killed in a car accident, by a huge multiple. But it doesn’t feel that way… Just like it feels like you might be killed in an airplane accident, but the odds are much higher on the highway. And if people can’t accept that, why should they accept that the Covid vaccine will save not only them but their brethren, the country, will even boost the economy. They can’t.

Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3DPg6oa

Long after midnight nothing felt right. I was reading a book that didn’t resonate, no streaming TV show seemed appealing and it was too early to go to bed, I could foresee lying there staring at the ceiling so I got my headphones and plugged them into my iPad and started surfing the web and I don’t remember what song I chose but on Spotify the music doesn’t stop it keeps going in a similar vein, and I was digging it, skipping occasionally, and then I heard “Big Man on Paper.”

“Then I drive into town and go to the Hudson Valley Mall

And look at the youth in their Whitesnake T-shirts

They’re wearing a poor man’s version of the haircut

Man they might as well be from another universe”

There’s more truth in these lines than there is in the entire oeuvre of Whitesnake, but Whitesnake was all over MTV and Graham Parker was not.

By 1989 it was almost over. From the promising new thing to a better label to little public acceptance and Parker’s major label career, from Mercury to Arista to Elektra to RCA was finally over, with little to show commercially, despite working with some of the biggest hitmakers from the era, from Mutt Lange to Jimmy Iovine to David Kershenbaum, he was relegated to becoming a footnote, living in independentland back when that was not a badge of honor.

It all started with “Howlin’ Wind,” which sounds like the best bar band locked into a groove, which is essentially what it was, Parker fronting the Rumour, made up of refugees from the pub rock scene. Produced by the man of the moment, Mr. New Wave, Nick Lowe, “Howlin’ Wind” swung, just drop the needle on “White Honey” and you’ll get it, you’ll be entranced. And “White Honey” is not the only cut, check out “Lady Doctor.” 

So Parker gets thrown in with the Stiff crowd, but he’s not really like Elvis Costello, Parker was more retro than future, pure rock and roll, albeit with more anger. Not that anybody in America paid attention to “Howlin’ Wind,” it was on Mercury, which was akin to having no label at all, they released an album and then…usually nothing happened.

But then came “Heat Treatment” in that same year of ’76 and Nick Lowe was cashiered for Mutt Lange who was seen as the inferior producer at the time, still wet behind the ears after years in South Africa. And unlike with “Howlin’ Wind” there was a ton of press in the U.S., mostly because the critics believed in it, back when critics were still a thing. And I bought it.

Now at this late date, many consider “Howlin’ Wind” to be the better album, and I might agree, but there are a few tracks on “Heat Treatment” that are so good they’re undeniable, in two cases TRANSCENDENT!

“Hotel Chambermaid” is great, but it’s really about the two second side burners, “Something You’re Goin’ Thru” and “Fool’s Gold,” but I left out “Pourin’ It All Out,” which listening now I realize I love too, but…

“Something You’re Goin’ Thru” was white reggae back when reggae was just truly breaking in America, it was Bob Marley & the Wailers’ live album that finally closed the U.S. on the sound. Meanwhile, reggae was flourishing in the U.K. and there were all kinds of white acts employing the sound, that’s how the Police actually broke through. Anyway, “Something You’re Goin’ Thru” is quintessential white reggae, back when AOR radio programmers were still scratching their heads over the sound, the Wailers’ live album was sold via word of mouth, not radio.

And then there was “Fool’s Gold.” An anthem embellished with Lange’s production, it was big, it would have blasted out of radio speakers and been adopted if…Mercury had a crack team and lowered the hammer, but that certainly didn’t happen.

So then Parker goes back to Nick Lowe on 1977’s “Stick to Me” and…it’s a step backward, the material is not as good and the production is more intimate as opposed to bombastic, in-your-face as it was with Lange and no one is happy, critics, radio or fans, and nothing happens, so to get out of his contract Parker drops a live album, “The Parkerilla,” that no one is clamoring for. At the time live albums were a cleanup move, repackaging the hits in a new incarnation to rake cash from fans or…there was one outlier, “Frampton Comes Alive,” but “The Parkerilla’ could have never fit that paradigm, it wasn’t even close, it sounded like a throwaway, even though Mutt Lange produced it and it sounded bigger.

But now Parker was a thing. A darling of the press. In the last heyday of the power of the rock press, MTV came along in 1981 and undercut “Rolling Stone” and the rest of its competitors either went out of business or became fanzines, even if they had glossy covers. And in 1979 Parker releases an F-You track entitled “Mercury Poisoning,” and gets airplay! But there’s no album to sell. And on the B-side of “Mercury Poisoning” there was a cover, why waste an original, and this remake of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” got airplay too, at this point it could be the most played track in Parker’s canon.

So now Parker’s all set up, in the chute, ready to come out with his first album on Arista…which despite starting with Patti Smith has morphed into a Top Forty factory, it was a bad fit from the get-go, never mind the fact that Clive Davis is not in it for the long haul, if a track isn’t reacting he moves on and despite garnering glowing reviews the truth is “Squeezing Out Sparks” wasn’t as good as “Howlin’ Wind” or “Heat Treatment,” just compare the opening tracks, “Discovering Japan” was never going to close anybody who wasn’t closed already…as for the rest of the album…you had to be an invested critic to like it.

Okay, the stars weren’t aligned, we’ll hook Parker up with Iovine and they’ll deliver, only they didn’t. The sound on “The Up Escalator” might have been more polished, more akin to what was on the radio, but that was not the essence of Parker, that was not his selling point, it was his growling vocals and his viewpoint! And the truth is if you were a fan you were wincing, Parker no longer seemed to be able to compose great material, there were no indelible tracks.

And then there were more albums that got promotion but almost no radio airplay that were hard to spread the word on because if you weren’t already a fan these new records would not close you. And now it was ten years later, Parker was no longer the new new thing, he was dated, on his way out.

So Parker releases “Human Soul” in 1989 and no one cares, no one is talking about him anymore, he’s out of time, but he redelivers, assuming anybody cares, which they don’t, especially on the second side, with the “medley,” from “Daddy’s a Postman” into “Green Monkeys” is pure brilliance, Parker no longer seems to care, he’s no longer controlled, he’s singing full-throatedly knowing it’s no longer about success but the music, he’s back to basics, the name producers are gone, he’s working with Brinsley Schwarz of the Rumour, it’s a last hurrah, not that “Human Soul” is perfect, but it does contain “Big Man on Paper.”

“I look at a newscast being broadcast and

Try to connect with the events in front of my eyes

But I can’t see any further than the bills on the table

Or my kid’s first Halloween disguise ooh”

Parker is now living in the U.S., having married an American, which is why he’s at the Hudson Valley Mall, he’s still got it, knowing the specific is what puts songs over the top, the more personal you make it the more people can relate.

And at this point if you came of age in the seventies you can no longer recognize America, it’s been remade in the name of the almighty dollar, greed is seen as good, income inequality is growing, it’s about winners and losers and even though musicians had always perceived themselves previously as winners, the truth is under the new financial paradigm they were not, a banker could make much more, and make it every year, something a musician could not.

And Parker had a kid, he was domestic, he was in the same situation as his fans, and like those of them who’d pursued the arts, who hadn’t sold out and gotten on the financial gravy train, he was concerned with his bills.

“I look at a magazine designed for the successful woman

And look for one designed for the unsuccessful man

But I can’t see it anywhere on the newsstands

Maybe next week, maybe next week

So I hit the arcade and then get back in the car

And drive drive drive down that empty highway again

Surrounded by food you don’t worry about starvation

Only temptation and keeping sane”

Parker’s got self-knowledge, something rare amongst musicians, even today, everybody’s on the way up when oftentimes this is untrue and if they’re not rich it’s got to be someone else’s fault, they can’t handle that the world changed or maybe in truth they’re really not that good.

So not having a nine to five job Parker’s driving around, lost. Living the musician lifestyle is great when things are going good, but when they’re not…everybody else is at work, they’ve got a job, they’re moving up the ladder while you’ve got many more questions than answers.

So the truth is Graham Parker is a big man on paper, but a nobody in truth. He’s famous, but broke. People know his name, but that doesn’t feed his family. And to wake up and realize this at forty is not easy, it’s too late to turn around and…

Could it have been different?

Absolutely. Parker could have been signed to Warner or CBS from the get-go, both could spread the word, push the button, get his early records on the radio, but when Parker was delivering he had no machine. Then again, by time Parker launches radio is tightening up, AOR didn’t play Elvis Costello either, but Costello got the benefit of KROQ airplay, and then there was that appearance on SNL and…Costello was selling something different, it was clear he was rebelling against what had come before, his was a new thing whereas in truth Parker was just another rocker, he was just not out there enough, he was angry, but he didn’t need the entire establishment overthrown.

So now it’s 2021. Parker is seventy. He puts out records independently now and again, he goes on the road and plays to the diehards, and when he finally has enough or is no longer healthy enough to do it, he can give up and retire, live on Social Security, just like all those angry young men who loved his music and thought the world was their oyster and had the rug pulled out from under them, not going for the buck when the going was good. You can still squeeze out a spark, but it definitely won’t cause a fire, and there are no do-overs in life, and the truth is you can give it your all and still fail, which is hard for the boomers who thought they’d always win. You can talk a good game, but the truth is you may have your house and your car but it’s all show, you’re just a big man on paper.