And we thought the revolution would arrive as a result of the red/blue divide. When in truth, it’s all about income inequality.
Please don’t criticize me for having sympathy for those screwed by the insurance companies. If I were in charge, there’d be no guns at all, or a law akin to that in Australia. But one would posit that the shooter is pissed because the insurance company didn’t pay.
But that’s what insurance companies do, not pay. That’s their business model. Even assuming you can see the doctor of your choice, which is rare. As a matter of fact, essentially all my doctors in L.A. don’t take insurance at all. You pay the freight, which ain’t inexpensive. And why did these MDs stop taking insurance? Because the insurance companies were running them ragged.
And then there are the hospitals… If you can even find an independent doctor… Everybody is now part of a giant organization, which squeezes the physicians. My dermatologist couldn’t sleep. She was on the edge of giving up practice, because at Cedars they required her to see an inordinate number of patients per hour. And this is the only doctor who could diagnosis my pemphigus, even the supposed biggest guy in L.A. couldn’t. She didn’t insist that I follow her into private practice, but for me it’s a no-brainer.
And my internist… He left the UCLA system and it was like he had a personality transplant. Instead of being harried and short, he’s folksy, talks music, and is unbelievably thorough. He diagnosed my leukemia. Do you really think I’m going to go back to the factory?
And sure, some private practice doctors will allow you to file insurance claims after the fact, for ten or twenty cents on the dollar, but if the doctors don’t take Medicare, then Medicare won’t pay. You’re SOL.
But you get incredible treatment.
Which is why the rich live longer than the poor. It’s very simple, health care.
In the rest of the western world, health care is a right. Everybody gets it. We should have that in the U.S. too, but everybody is fearful of losing something they’ve already got and paying for the indigent so there can be no change. But Obamacare? People love it, it’s never going away, just like Social Security. Neither is going to be clawed back.
I have no sympathy for the individualist who rails about taxes. We live in a society, we all use the roads, the police and fire departments, there have to be taxes. People tell me they gross X but after withholding they get half X, or two-thirds X, they want that money. It was never your money. That withholding pays for so much.
But that’s the country we now live in. Isolationist. Everybody wants to be a solo unit, which is impossible. Furthermore, if you don’t take care of your brethren, it’s only a matter of time before you pay the price. There’s a riot and they come to your neighborhood. There’s not enough money for a police person on everybody’s doorstep.
Okay. You’re either a winner or a loser in today’s America. And the winners have no idea what is going on with the losers, never mind having contempt for them. Therefore, CEOs keep up with the Joneses. Their boards rubber stamp exorbitant pay packages. Actually, Brian Thompson didn’t make that much money compared to his peers, just a bit over eight figures (ten million). But if your beloved needs an expensive procedure and the insurance company won’t pay for it and you can’t afford it…YOU GO INSANE! And you can’t stop thinking about that ten million.
Let’s be clear, Trump didn’t win because everybody’s ignorant or racist. They just weren’t happy with the way things are. And one of the things people are unhappy with is health insurance, especially when they see the gargantuan profits and paydays. I mean should people be making money based on denying me service?
I once had emergency surgery, serious, horrific, and the insurance company withheld 30% because I didn’t give them three days advance notice. My father even went to their office, ill with cancer, to die in only months, and he couldn’t get them to pay. At the end of the day, I had to eat it. And people are sick of eating it. People are even sicker of having to forgo treatment.
So…
The red people hate the blue, much more than the blue hate the red. We were worried if Biden or Harris won they were going to revolt, after all, they rioted on 1/6, and they’re heavily armed.
Now the truth is the blue people may ultimately revolt, if democracy truly hangs in the balance. I’d understand that. But, the rich are above the law. Like Elon Musk. The FTC says Twitter must comply with the consent decree and Musk just doesn’t do it. The government is no match for the rich. Never mind money can insulate you from so much.
But let’s never forget, most change is fomented by individuals. One overeducated fruit vendor ignited the Arab Spring. Look at all the change Trump has wrought. One person standing up to the insurance companies?
Our society, our systems, are much more fragile than we thought. That’s what we learned during Covid. Furthermore, so many are alienated and depressed. They believe the system is stacked against them. Hell, my presidential vote never means anything in California because of the Electoral College. Every company made you agree to arbitration, even though in most cases you were unaware of this, and if you look at the statistics, the companies almost always win.
And try standing up to the man… Their lawyer will bury you in paper.
Used to be we had heroes. Lone individuals who stood for what was right, who existed outside the system. But the big story in the music business is how much money Taylor Swift is making at Target with merch.
So people are either resigned or mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore.
And Joe pardoning Hunter… Yes, the Republicans were after him, but Joe’s not pardoning the rest of those convicted of the same offenses.
And the Supreme Court is biased and…
Who is going to stand up against the man for you? NO ONE!
So people take matters into their own hands.
I hope the aftermath of this shooting isn’t solely talk about gun violence and security. If they want to get you, there’s no security that will keep you safe. No, the story here is our health care system. And compensation. And the rich and the poor.
Those are the issues underlying society, and they need a strict look, and change.
It’s one thing if you’re an entrepreneur, if it’s literally your company, you’re entitled to the riches. But these stewards of already existing companies… Why are they entitled to so much compensation?
It skews everything.
I have sympathy for Brian Thompson’s family, this is a tragedy.
But it’s also a wake up call. Things cannot continue on the same path, at some point people just won’t put up with it.
And when it’s a matter of life and death… You’re less worried about the consequences of your actions.
I’m not condoning the shooting, at this point I don’t know what drove the shooter to do it. But when I saw the headline this morning, the first thing I thought about was our broken health care system and the overcompensation of the people who run it. They’re getting rich on our illnesses. They take our money and don’t pay.
“At $45.5BM in 2023, Music Copyright Now Worth More Globally Than Cinema, New Report Finds”: https://t.ly/yDfV5
The devil is in the details.
My inbox has been blowing up with the above story, it makes a good headline, but what you’ve got to know is…
Recorded music revenues eclipsed those of the movies in the seventies. The Warner Cable system? That was built on the back of Warner Music. That’s one reason Mo Ostin was so handsomely compensated.
So, we’ve got a long way to go until we return to those days.
However, there are many lessons in this study.
One, never sell your copyrights.
Music is like the stock market. Over time it only goes up. Sure, there are dips here and there, but in the long term…
Here’s the money quote:
“Of that total, $28.5 billion – or 63% – was in the form of recorded music revenues (up 12% YoY), while $12.9 billion was brought in by collective management organizations (CMOs, up 11% YoY) and $4.2 billion was in direct publisher income (up 4% YoY). Thus, compositions brought in 37% of the total.”
The bottom line is they keep finding new ways to monetize music. As for those decrying the advent of AI, don’t. With every innovation there are winners and losers, but the pie always grows overall. Like with the drum machine… Sure, it may have put some studio drummers out of business (some replaced by programmers), but the drum machine allowed people to make music cheaply, sometimes at home, and with a computer, costs can be really low.
Which is one of the reasons that cinema has been decimated.
The movie business missed the memo. The era of the blockbuster is over. I’m not saying we no longer have hit movies, I’m just saying that by leaving all the rest of the genres aside, other than superhero/tent pole movies, the cinema world has actually decreased its overall share of dollars. Because it turns out that given options…not everybody wants the same thing. Not everybody even wants the blockbusters. You had to see “Jaws” in ’75 and “Star Wars” in ’77. You don’t have to see “Wicked” or the umpteenth Marvel movie today, you don’t have to listen to Taylor Swift, Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar, you can be satiated with a plethora of other work.
That’s the story in the music business, the broadening of offerings. Sure, there are zillions of people posting music to streaming services who can’t stop complaining that they’re not making a living, but the truth is more people are making more money from music than ever before. There used to be a clear dividing line, you were either in the game or you were not, and most were not, they didn’t have label deals and couldn’t afford recording and were locked out of distribution. Today you need no label, can record cheaply and distribution is available to all. However, the road from nobody to superstar is slower than ever before, and most people never make it. Superstars tend to be two-dimensional, built by committee, and there’s a market for that, but it keeps shrinking. Not only does the public want more music in more genres, it wants more authenticity, more credibility, something lacking from almost every blockbuster movie and much hit music. These industries are tooled for an old model from an old world.
As for selling your copyrights… If they’re giving you 20x and you’re going to live ten years, maybe. Or possibly for estate planning, I’ll leave you to your lawyer (who hopefully isn’t getting a share, and therefore improperly incentivized). But revenues keep going up. And up.
If you’re not going to die imminently…
“Page notes the $45.5 billion figure is up a ‘jaw-dropping’ 26% since 2021, and it’s nearly double the $25 billion that he calculated for 2014.”
Nine years, double. Two years, one quarter more. That’s positively STAGGERING!
Of course not all boats are lifted equally, but…
You know music and the financiers know money. They are not stupid, they would not be giving you all this money unless they anticipated making a whole hell of a lot of money themselves. Never mind you’re selling your songs FOREVER!
But the dirty little secret that’s not referenced in this headline is all the money in television streaming, which many of the producers of films are involved in, licensing and in some cases owning their own outlets. And the success of streaming is based on a plethora of product. You’d be stunned how few people watch the supposed big streaming hits. This is not the days of “Laugh-In” or JR being shot or… Netflix played for the future and won. In a world the film companies couldn’t even foresee. Every fat cat producer was satisfied making millions, not realizing they could make BILLIONS! But that would require being innovative, possibly leaving the company and becoming an entrepreneur. When the brass has little skin in the game, you usually get little innovation.
But music parallels Netflix, and everybody complains about this. Everybody thinks they want the old, controlled model. I will say that under that system some acts were supported by the label, but most never got deals and even household names never got royalties.
Today you can make and distribute all by yourself and retain all the revenues. Furthermore, you can use the internet to promote for free, monetize on the internet and drive people to your shows.
Once again, NOT EVERYBODY CAN MAKE A LIVING!
The truth is there are a zillion independent movies. Just check the schedule of any film festival. But very few get distribution. Music is cheaper and more easily consumed. At this point the big streamers don’t want to buy most of the indie films, and Amazon changed its policy of making them all available for rent. The world keeps getting smaller for indie cinema.
So a comparison of revenues between copyright and cinema is a lame construct of what is really going on. Filmed entertainment, i.e. movies and TV, is bigger than ever before, music has a long way to go before it equals movie revenues like only recordings did in the seventies.
But in the seventies music was everything. You had to buy the record to know which way the wind blew. It started with the Beatles, and then there was FM and branch distribution and money came pouring in.
In the eighties revenues were high because of MTV exhibition, but fewer acts broke through yet they did so worldwide and CDs rained down a ton of revenue.
And the story today is a worldwide one. They’ve been freaking out in the U.K., their share of the overall music market keeps decreasing. Part of this is Brexit. Touring the Continent has become much more difficult and expensive. As for the reduction in clubs… Did you read that Google’s overall share of search keeps going down? First it was decimated by Amazon, and now TikTok. What you think is forever never is. And the government is always one step behind.
You’d think that the labels would be preparing for the future, but they believe that they can hoover up anything that shows evidence of success. But the numbers keep on improving for pure indies. And the labels have fewer tools than they ever did before.
And no one working at the big three has skin in the game, everybody’s on salary with a bonus. You expect them to take a risk?
So, the future ain’t so bright that you’ve got to wear shades, but it is bright.
Adjustments have already been made… With streaming television and indie music. The only question is to what degree legacy players will triumph in the future.
Am I telling you to get in the music game?
I tell everybody to stay out, because the road is just too hard. You’ve got to be one-minded and sacrifice almost everything in pursuit of your career and you still might not make it. Does a fine artist expect to make beaucoup bucks with their paintings and sculpture? Definitely not. They want it, but they know odds are extremely low, many give up. But in music where creation is cheap and talk is even cheaper everybody believes they should get paid. And this is patently delusional.
But if you do have success…
The streams of revenue keep increasing in number and volume and that is a good thing. No, that is a GREAT thing!
I went last night to the Write-off Room to see the Sherman Oakies. Felice heard about it from Dean Parks’s wife Julie. A bunch of studio musicians playing…exactly what?
I know some of the Dust Bowl classics from Ry Cooder. But there’s a giant hole in my country knowledge. This music was pooh-poohed in the northeast, and “Hee Haw” was a seedy cash-in after the demise of “Hootenanny,” the folk music TV show. That’s right, folk music was so big in the early sixties there was even a series about it on ABC. But it died in September 1964, buried by the British Invasion, or should I say pummeled. Even patron saint Bob Dylan went electric. Singer-songwriters with acoustic guitars emerged in the seventies, but we’re still awaiting a serious folk revival, with easily singable songs with messages, a throwback to simpler times in these days where protest against the system seems to have no effect, where the system itself seems to have triumphed.
Despite being influenced by the Delta blues, and even some of the Englishmen loving country songs, we young ‘uns didn’t want none of that hillbilly music, with its twang. Some people say their parents played Hank Williams, but my ‘rents played show tunes. And when a country song came on the radio, I pushed the button. But, in truth, very few country tunes crossed over to Top 40 in the mid to late sixties.
But in the seventies, when truly all the action was over on the FM dial, we got Charlie Rich’s “The Most Beautiful Girl”… That one I loved. I remember hearing it on the jukebox at the diner in Rutland, Vermont when we stopped for a pee break. Yes, you could tell where you were in the country based on the records in the jukebox, before the whole country became homogenized.
Then there was the big hair country. Played by people from the hollers. But I heard and liked Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” and somewhere along the line, maybe it was Gram Parsons, maybe it was not, country infiltrated rock and roll. But not too deep, not that twangy. And although these country rock acts were huge, Nashville really didn’t want much to do with them. Although ultimately the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band merged the two with “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” That’s the first place I heard “Tennessee Stud,” a song written by Jimmie Driftwood, what a great name, and sung on the album by Doc Watson, who’d actually played my college with his son Merle, who died tragically, leaving the blind Doc without his eyes.
I didn’t own “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” but I was at a house party in Salt Lake and a friend who I bonded with over the Souther, Hillman, Furay debut dropped the needle on “Tennessee Stud” and started to sing and I got hooked.
But all this is to say that my country knowledge is spotty, if I’m not completely ignorant.
Now today’s country music is the rock and roll of the seventies, which is one reason it’s so successful, but that original sound… You can read about it at the museum in Nashville, and be sure to go, but this certainly ain’t my roots.
2
So after discussing the pedal steel guitar with Dean, I ask Don Was about his country knowledge. He tells me about a radio station from Nashville he could get in Detroit. So I’m feeling completely out of it.
But then…
A number of songs in…Felice nudges me, isn’t this a Randy Newman number? And it was, “Rider in the Rain,” from “Little Criminals”! And I own that album, but despite it containing Randy’s first hit, I didn’t play it that much, I was partial to “Sail Away” and “Good Old Boys.”
So maybe the country the Oakies was playing was actually a big tent. After all, Holly Palmer came up and sang “Ode to Billie Joe,” which I absolutely hated back then, but have come to like, if not love.
And the funniest thing is Dillon O’ Brian had a printer right by his chair, where he was sitting and playing guitar, and he’d print off a number and distribute it to the band of studio aces and they’d dive in. It was that kind of night, loose, the kind you’re privy to in L.A., pros having fun.
And then Dillon starts to tell this story, about Jeff Porcaro observing Jim Keltner at Amigo, they’ve been trying to get the groove right with multiple takes, and then finally they nailed this song.
Whereupon the band fell into “City of New Orleans.”
Because that’s the kind of vibe the song has, you fall into it, you settle into it, like on a train that is starting to pull out of the station before it hits full speed and you start to cruise.
“Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty five sacks of mail”
Singer-songwriters were raging in 1972 when Arlo Guthrie’s fourth studio album “Hobo’s Lullaby” was released, but Arlo hadn’t really had any serious traction since the Woodstock movie.
Now the funny thing is Arlo’s last Reprise LP, 1976’s “Amigo,” was the best thing he ever did, but at that point in time, despite critical hosannas, singer-songwriters were out with full bands, the quieter sound was passé and…
People still had hope with Arlo’s third LP, 1970’s “Washington County,” but by the time of “Hobo’s Lullaby” even fans had given up, and suddenly Arlo had a hit, with the Steve Goodman song “City of New Orleans.”
But despite Arlo’s credibility, FM would have no part of it. “City of New Orleans” broke on the dreaded Easy Listening format, where it ultimately climbed to number 4, and then crossed over to the Hot 100, where it peaked at number 18. But by time it was through, everybody was exposed, everybody knew it.
3
“Good morning America how are you
Say don’t you know me I’m you’re native son
I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done”
And now the assembled multitude is singing along. Because somewhere along the line this song became embedded in our DNA. Everybody in the venue’s got their head in the air, exuberant, luxuriating in the moment. It’s one thing to watch the music, it’s quite another to participate.
But really, it’s the change that evidences magic.
“All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses farms and fields”
And it circles back. and at the end…
“But all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rail still ain’t heard the news
The conductor sings his songs again
The passengers will please refrain
This train got the disappearing railroad blues”
And this is when you get that sinking feeling, because you know just like the train this song is going to disappear, and you’re so locked into this feeling. Which is neither right nor left, red nor blue, but truly American. Not that anybody truly rides the rails anymore, and driving cross-country, discovering yourself along with the land…that’s gone too in an era where flight is cheap and you can interact with anybody on the planet instantly via the internet.
4
Now those who lived through the era know that “City of New Orleans” was written by Steve Goodman. He was one of the twin towers emerging from Chicago, along with John Prine. But Goodman was cut down by leukemia and nobody under the age of forty, fifty, has any idea who he is, but they know this song.
But do they know it because of Arlo Guthrie’s hit version or…
“City of New Orleans” was the opening cut on Willie Nelson’s album with that title in 1986. This was a decade after “Red Headed Stranger,” Willie was now even a movie star.
Willie’s version of “City of New Orleans” went all the way to number one on the country charts.
But Willie’s version has a slightly different groove, instead of the relaxing, yet tipsy train ride of Arlo’s version, in Willie’s take you’ve got the rhythm of the steel wheels of the engine pulling the string of cars forward. There’s this underlying power, it’s not like you can’t hear or understand the lyrics, but it’s the country groove that hooks you.
So maybe “City of New Orleans” is country after all.
The country/rock band I was in many years ago covered Ride Captain Ride; we had a reputation for playing tunes that were a bit outside of our genre. I remember us being the middle act at a 5-band jamboree one Sunday afternoon. We hit the opening piano riff and the members of the other 4 bands collectively stood up, grabbed a chair, and sat down on the dance floor in front of us in rapt attention….
Donald Bartenstein
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Not only was Metamorphosis my favorite Iron Butterfly album, I’ve been saying for years that Mike’s guitar solo on “Butterfly Bleu” (which he wrote) is, in my opinion, one of the best recorded rock guitar solos of all time. He was a super nice guy, too. I met him at NAMM once.
– Mark Towns
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Hey Bob…another Manassas member, Paul Harris, played piano on Ride Captain Ride. He and Layla were session guys at Criteria. They both also appeared on the first Michael Stanley Band album, also recorded there.
David Spero
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I lived briefly in LA 1970 and then moved to Atlanta where it was in constant rotation everywhere.. I thought the drums and bass drive reminded me of Grand Funk RR. I never got tired of hearing it.
Jump to 1972 in London I’m doing an interview with Melody Maker alongside my bandmates Chris Spedding and Andy Fraser… and they ask me what my favorite record is and I blurt out “Ride Captain Ride-Blues Image”
Everyone looks around and NO ONE in UK had ever heard of the song … and I’m in Melody Maker’s offices and I’d stumped them!
I don’t believe it was a hit anywhere but the US!
Love hearing it still on Sirius.
Thx for this memory, Bob!
Marty Simon
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Have not heard that name in a long time. I worked with Mike for a minute in Hollywood. We were planning a new project.
He confided in me that the making of RIDE CAPTAIN RIDE happened at a studio in SAN FRAN, Mike came in and they asked him to
sing a vocal….. He turned white, he needed a minute and headed to the bathroom.
While in there contemplating what to do about lyrics, he looked out a small window and saw a navy ship sailing into the harbor with sailors in their whites standing.
Hence 73 men sailed…
That is where the lyric came from
Sincerely,
Mark Wolfson
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Beautiful. You captured the elusive elements of the time perfectly. Almost tearful to look back.
Mike was a little older than all of us, but a great influence on us players in the south.
A true hero.
Ride on, Captain.
-Don Barnes
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Hi Bob – I bought the single of Ride Captain Ride when it came out because of the great singing and the hooks. I always thought it was about CDR Lloyd Bucher and the 83 men on the USS Pueblo that North Korea nabbed. Never saw or read anything that took that thought further. Thank you for your writing and the newsletter.
Boyd Allen
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And a True Vato…Carlos Michael…
He does have some Lost Royalties in Sacramento…
PLUS Two Million shares of Merrill Lynch stock!!!…
We need to research that…
Cheers, David Jensen
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I interviewed Mike Pinera about twenty years ago for Florida PBS. He was a nice guy and an absolute monster musician.
At the time he was touring with the Classic Rock All-Stars – a band that also included Jerry Corbetta, Dennis Noda and Peter Rivera. What a band.
His first name was Carlos – he told me he started going by “Mike” so people wouldn’t confuse him with Carlos Santana.
After Blues Image and Iron Butterfly (but prior to Ramatam) he worked with Black Oak Arkansas and told me that Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice offered him the lead guitar spot in Cactus, but Jeff Beck came along and Cactus was no more. Later on in the 70’s he had a solo hit (“Goodnight My Love”) and nearly joined Chicago before spending part of the early 80’s recording and touring with Alice Cooper.
He even cut a record with Roger Clinton – Bill Clinton’s younger brother.
Joe Lala and Steve Stills did not originally meet in Florida even though both attended high school in Tampa around the same time – Joe went to Jefferson, Stephen went to Plant – according to Joe, they met at the Whiskey sometime in the late 60’s.
Vince Welsh
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Nice mention, Bob.
Myself and 3 other guys from my old Beatlemania show days did some touring on the 30th Anniversary of Rock and Roll tours in the late ’80s early ’90s.
Jewel Akins, Bobby Day, Chuck Negron, Bobby Kimball, Pat Upton, Al Wilson and lots more. We intro’d the show doing some Beatles songs, and then reverted to background singers for most of the other acts. The core of Cannibal and the Headhunters was the backup band.
Mike was on that tour. He did a scaled down version of IAGDV. But when he did Ride Captain Ride, the audiences would go crazy!
He was a great guy to be on tour with, showed us lots of hospitality in Florida when we made our way there. A wonderful barbecue and party at his house. Stories about his friend Jaco Pastorius. We stayed in touch for a while and I’m sorry I didn’t catch up again. We were Facebook friends but I should have called more.
Rest in peace Mike.
Mitch Weissman
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i bought ride captain ride and i’m your vehicle both 45’s at leonard’s dept. store corner of palms and sepulveda. i was in 10th grade. loved both of those songs so much
Denise Mello
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It is always so, so sad when the legends, and even the lesser-knowns, that have been touched, participated or orbited the magic are passing on, at such an alarming rate.
I always loved the Special Forces-era Alice Cooper band, of which Mike Pinera was a part of. I discovered Alice around this time and worked my way back, forward and around this period.
Their performance on the Tom Snyder show, featuring a truly scary-looking, freebase-ravaged Alice being interviewed and performing live, is something I’ve always been thankful to have found on YouTube.
Compared to Alice’s previous bands, these guys, in army fatigues, berets, etc. seemed a bit faceless, but they were rough-and-tumble and Pinera’s crunchy guitar was front and center, stirring the pot, and moving things along.
Looking at Alice then, with him still alive today, with so many of his contemporaries and former bandmates gone, makes it very clear rocking-n-rolling through those wild 60s/70s/80s and beyond was rough business!
Some live to tell, thankfully!
Warmest Regards, Brian Friel
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“Ride Captain Ride” was one of the biggest songs of my 11th year on this stinkin’ rock. I loved it, too! I always cue it up on my inner jukebox with “Closer To Home” right behind it.
And I have looked those lyrics up and down and sideways trying to figure it out, but at least part of it got solved. And now I don’t remember the source of this story, but the legend goes that the keyboard player just made it all up. Nonsense lyrics for the most part (“As a storm was blowin’ out on the peaceful sea…”), with a grain or two of truth: The “73 men” were the 73 keys on his Fender Rhodes, upon which he was noodling those intro notes.
And I figure it may also have a bit of truth in the “Raindrops” reference. What song was damned-well unescapable on AM in 1969? BJ Thomas’s “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head”.
One of the hardest things to being an original band has to be the endless paying of dues, like CCR opined on “Lodi”: “Every time I had to play while people sat there drunk.” Maybe it’s a touch of sour grapes that nobody had time to pay attention to a nobody-band because they were too busy listening to that damned BJ Thomas song!
Take care,
Byron Beyer
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“And there’s a kind of simple, almost weak, guitar solo…” Are you kidding?
I put the two guitar solos in that song up with Amos Garrett’s solo in “Midnight At The Oasis” and Jesse Ed Davis’s solo on “Doctor My Eyes” as prime examples of taste, brevity and chops on a hit record by great players whose names may not be of the household variety.
The sweet middle solo is not played by Mike Pinera but by Kent Henry who joined Blues Image when Pinera left to join Iron Butterfly but Mike played the Les Paul-drenched fade out solo (reminiscent of Luke’s wicked fade on “Rosanna”). Regardless, guitar work by both.
Back in the day before people were falling all over themselves trying to categorize popular music, great guitar solos were the differentiator for me.
William Nollman
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Are you aware that “Ride Captain Ride” was written about the capture of the US Navy ship “Pueblo” by North Korea in 1968? It was captaineed by Captain Lloyd M. Bucher, USN.
The song was co-written, I believe, by Skip Conte, keyboard player in Blues Image.
Greg Astle
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My friends and I all heard it and sang it as:
“Seventy three men sailed her”
Bob Davis
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Blues Image self-titled 1st album rocked with”Leaving MyTroubles Behind “, which convinced me to book them into the Cellar in Arlington Heights Illinois in early 1970. Later my own band used that song to close our set, slowly exiting stage left singing the title and fading away. I loved the screaming Hammond organ on that vinyl album and it remains an all time favorite. – Jeff Walz
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Ride Captain Ride is a classic music production culminating in one of the best exit solos ever. The fade out was executed perfectly wanting you to hear more!!!!
Br,
Will Eggleston
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I was 14 and it was my first major concert. The Allman Brothers Band in Tampa. A National Guard Armory. Wet Willie opened. 1971. What do I remember? Mike Pinera sitting in.
John Kauchick
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I was a 15 year old kid, when “Ride Captain Ride” by Blues Image hit the airwaves on my local AM radio station and I could not hear it enough. I rushed out and bought their album, “Open” and although there were a couple of other cool tracks, like “Pay My Dues” and “Parchman Farm,” it was “Ride Captain Ride” that was the song I would play over and over. The album version was slightly longer than the single with one of the greatest guitar outros ever recorded. I always wished that ending solo would go on forever.
I soon found a copy of the first self titled album and while it did not hold up as well as “Open,” it did feature a real gem in “(Do You Have) Somethin’ to Say.” Mike Pinera may not have had the career he had hoped for, but he did leave us with a timeless classic for which I will always be grateful for.
Rich Ulloa
Y&T Music
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Couple of other tidbits for you, Bob –
* Pinera co-wrote “Ride” with Skip Konte, who later played second keys for Three Dog Night from 1973-1976.
* Blood, Sweat and Tears did a cool cover of “Ride” in 1975 on their New City album.
Here’s a great live performance of it with David Clayton-Thomas –
Best,
NELSON DUFFLE
Washington, D.C.
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Interesting fact about “Ride Captain Ride” – if it’s actually true. Mike Pinera was starting to write the song, looking for his opening line, while sitting at his Fender Rhodes. It was the 73 key model, with the “Seventy-Three” logo on the casing. He looked at that, wrote down the word, and that was the start of a classic.
Supposedly a similar thing happened with Robbie Robertson when he was writing “The Weight.” He was looking for the name of a town and glanced at the inner label of his guitar, which of course read “Martin Guitars, Nazareth, PA.” Simple inspiration can be great!
Rich Madow
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Nothing to do with Criteria. Steven recruited him to play in Manasas in either ‘70 or ‘71.
Joe was from Tampa, Criteria’s on my side of the state, Miami.
Even though it’s a mere 250 miles from Criteria in N. Miami to St. Pete Beach (280 to Tampa), the two music scenes are like worlds away. Similar to San Francisco to L.A.
Side note, after selling my interest in Vesper Alley Records to Sony 550 (and Fox) who wanted the management and our share of the publishing rights to our only monetized asset; Vonda Shepard, for her role in the eponymous T.V. Series Ally McBeal, I bought a 1/4 interest in Miami Label Y&T Records. (Y&T for Yesterday and Today”) (Our biggest hit, discovering, signing and selling the rights to Raul Malo and The Mavericks). Raul is now fighting his own battle with the big C.
It was 4 of us. Rich Ulloa who owned the largest used record store in Miami who handled A&R, Joel Greenberg a respected FL attorney, Joel Levy, whose father Hap Levy was somewhat of a Miami R.E. Magnate. Hap bought Criteria during troubled times and to give his “Hap”less son Joel a title with something to do and myself.
Richie handled A&R for his 1/4
Joel Levy all legal work for his 1/4
Joel Greenberg for unfettered access to Criteria, gratis. Mostly from 11:00 P.M. to early A.M. when it got quiet, and myself for financing and my biz contacts. We only released 3-4 Albums prior to being called by Joel Levy who told us; “the company has to break up,my dad sold Criteria to The Hit Factory.
Rob
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In 1969, after Mario kicked me out of my Whisky office, (for having too much traffic) I relocated my new Musicians Contact business to a small office next to the Hotel Marmont, (which is now PART of the Marmont). Around 1970 or 71 Joe Lala walked in and said his band, Blues Image, was looking for a frontman. They seemed real together with a lot of stuff happening. I told him that I was a lead singer and memtioned that I was nearly signed to Crescendo, the Seeds label, a couple years earlier. He said I seemed perfect for what they needed and I should come over to audition. But I told him I had no one else to run my business and couldn’t travel at that time. Within a year Ride Captain Ride was a huge hit, sung by Pinera, since they couldn’t find another singer. Oh well……
I was in school in SoCal that year. We all thought the song was about the Pueblo incident. I remember Rosenberg doing a presser on my Dad’s ship and saying the investigation on the matter would vindicate the crew. Yeah, right. Scattered to the winds and forgotten. They even tried to say they weren’t POW’s because we weren’t at war with North Korea, so no POW benefits.
Milo
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Bob, I don’t know where to start with you sometimes.. You get it right about 95 percent of the time but sometimes you get it so wrong….Mike Pinera was one of the finest guitarists from the seventies. You call his solo in Ride Captain Ride “weak”? You obviously never played guitar…That solo was one the most well crafted guitar tracks ever. I was thirteen in ’69..which qualifies me as a self described Post Hippie..And yes I was an Iron Butterfly fan, and saw them at the El Mocambo in Toronto in the mid seventies.. Met the guitar player on a break.. Nice guy..very nice of him to take the time with a country kid who was underage to even be there…But he wasn’t Mike Pinera. you say Butterfly’s Metamorphosis was a monumental stiff..How can you call an album that reaches Top Twenty on Billboard a stiff?..Come down off your high horse. Yes, it was an obvious departure from In-A-Gadda-Davida. You say their audience moved on? No, THE BAND MOVED ON! That’s the problem with you armchair critics..The quickest way to get a laugh out of me is to ask “why do bands break up?” Have you ever been on the road? Have ya ever lived out of a suitcase that you’re too tired to open until Wednesday ’cause yer so worn out and blurred that you can hardly function while travelling 50 weeks a year on six nighters in clubs in the seventies when you could actually make a living? Jet lag my ass. That’s over. :You’re right about one thing. There aren’t many Singer/Guitarists left. These clowns coming up don’t know what it took to actually tour endlessly with no end in sight. Lose yourself, your wife and kids and ultimately your livelihood because the searching artist within you just can’t stand the bullsh*t from record companies, bad managers, bad agents. etc. You should come up to the great white north for a year and we’ll see how ya do here. And yes I’ve played, drank and rubbed shoulders with more famous Canadian musicians who have contributed so much to your American pop fabric than you will ever know about..Who cares right?.. Well, us musicians in our big little community care,, RESPECT and love for each other at the worst of times…Be careful what you say about us. As an international community we DO know everybody. Mike Pinera? He was one of my little known Heroes.
Randy Dawson
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Sorry to hear about Mike’s passing. I worked with him a few times at Criteria in the mid-seventies. I also engineered a couple of “taxi shelter” albums that he produced for other artists in the late-seventies. He was always a gentleman, and fun to work with.
I was in a meeting with Mike and attorney in Ft. Lauderdale regarding an upcoming record when the law firm’s receptionist told me there was a call for me. It was the receptionist at Triiad Recording, who told me Neil Young was in the lobby asking to start an album (Comes a Time), and I should hurry back to the studio.
When I told Mike that I needed to leave to go meet with Neil, Mike cracked a smile and said, “Well, I’m a better singer than Neil, but he makes timeless records… go on, get out of here!”
