Speaking of Peter Asher…

I was reluctant to watch this movie, because Peter is a friend and this music is so near and dear to my heart. I guess I didn’t want anybody in on my secrets, I wanted to hold them and my passions alone.

And a lot of those stories are here, about hearing the initial version of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in the basement of the Asher house and…

I guess I was surprised how much I learned. About Indica, the bookstore and art gallery. As much as you know, there’s always more, and it’s in this film. Sure, some of this stuff is probably available on YouTube somewhere, but it’s the curators, those who make sense of it, who draw attention and reap the rewards today.

You know Peter was in Peter and Gordon. But Gordon comes alive here, is fleshed out in a way I’ve never seen previously. Peter was the intellectual, Gordon was the dreamboat who wanted to partake of the goodies of the road.

And speaking of the road…

The first time I met Peter I told him about seeing him and Gordon at Atlantic City’s Steel Pier, and they’ve got a promotional poster for that show in the movie, bringing it all back.

But that’s not the only thing that was brought back…

You see the girls screaming… This is why those of us who were around during the days of Beatlemania wince and then shrug our shoulders when the success of any act of today is compared to that classic era. The music was everything, you’d buy a 45 and spin it until it was gray, you knew it by heart, just like the oldsters singing along in City Winery at the end of this film. This stuff is embedded in our DNA.

So Paul McCartney meeting Jane… That’s here.

And as much as we know about James Taylor, there are nuances we were unaware of. And what was going on at Apple…

And then we’ve got Southern California in the seventies… It was a dream. Funny to think it’s labeled a hellhole by many today. It’s not, but back then there were no smartphones, never mind no internet. You were either in or you were out. Either you had access or you didn’t. We all wanted access, we all wanted to get closer, but all we had were these records and tidbits of information. We would have died to be inside the room back then.

And Carole King before “Tapestry”… Sure, she’d written all those songs, but she was just a member of James Taylor’s band. And when she goes on the road with him and she’s banging the notes out on the piano, you get it, the magic.

And that’s what it was all about, magic. And Peter was there.

And a surprisingly large number of people are still alive, able to testify. But Linda Ronstadt is hobbled by illness and other are worse for wear, but back then…

When they talk about the breaking of James Taylor…it’s not that it’s not emphasized enough, it’s just that if you were there!!

You heard about these albums, bought them and played them until they were part of you. Forget the hits, “Country Road,” Lo and Behold,” those were as important to us as “Fire and Rain.” And music just doesn’t hold the same place in society as it once did. There are many other options for entertainment and the stars are not at arm’s length as they once were but back then it was only about the music, not the penumbra, not the brand extensions.

But that was a long, long time ago.

That’s what shook me up.

I give Peter credit, he’s keepin’ on. Not only going on the road with this one man show after Gordon’s death, but working with Steve Martin and…

It’s different from yesteryear. Everybody makes records at home, on the cheap. Whereas before it was all about getting a deal and going into the studio, where you ran into other musicians and were inspired and stuff was made that changed the culture. It was rarefied air, that we had no access to. But you get a peek inside in this movie.

And you learn stuff like “Her Town Too” was about the breakup of Peter and his first wife Betsy, I always thought it had something to do with James Taylor and Carly Simon…

I’m stunned at all the images that were saved and collected.

But I was left with a a somewhat disappointed feeling, that it was a long time ago and it meant so much to me and so many others and means so much less to younger generations… Linda Ronstadt was a rock chick, yet America’s sweetheart. And doing cocaine like everybody else, whilst dating the governor, Jerry Brown.

That’s right, the acts weren’t sideshows, they were the MAIN SHOW! Politicians could not compete.

Will people see this film and get this impression, understand how it was?

Oldsters certainly will, they’ll be instantly connected and reminisce, but this movie would open the eyes of youngsters, assuming they see it.

That’s the hardest challenge today, getting your material heard/seen. Even if it’s great it may not surface, or it could be years before it does, that’s how long word of mouth takes.

So this is a document of what once was.

And Peter Asher was like Zelig, he was there, in so many spots.

I’m sophisticated, enough of an insider to know this doesn’t happen by accident. Not only do you have to have the goods, you’ve got to make the relationships, seize the opportunities, deliver, and know that there’s no safety net.

All of which Peter did. He was not Zelig in that he was not an interloper, but part of the main show.

And we wished we all were.

Well, watching this movie you will feel like you are. The story is there and Peter has no airs and…

Oh, what a long, strange trip it’s been.

1

Every day I wake up with a song in my head.

And I never know what it’s going to be.

And I’m inspired to write about it, and I know if I don’t write about it just then, I’ll lose the mojo. But do people want to read about old songs?

And it is usually old songs. But the sting from “Tehran,” the main soundtrack element, watch a few episodes and it gets baked in your brain. And when someone e-mailed me about it…I felt the connection, the commonality, and that’s what we’re all searching for.

And the song in my head a few days back was Robert Palmer’s “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming.”

Now Robert Palmer became a star with “Addicted to Love,” a very good song with an iconic video, but he had a career before that.

Palmer was in Vinegar Joe, but that didn’t mean much in America, not really anything. But then he put out a solo album, “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley” in 1974 with an opening three song medley that was absolutely killer, starting off with the relatively unknown, but not by me, Little Feat classic “Sailin’ Shoes,” segueing into the Palmer original “Hey Julia” and ending up with Allen Toussaint’s “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley.” It’s the best thing Palmer ever did.

But I think I bought the second album first, “Pressure Drop,” whose title song I knew in its original Toots and the Maytals version, but it was the opening cut I bought the album in the promotional bin for, “Give Me an Inch.” Although I did hear it on the radio, I don’t think many people did, because no one has ever mentioned it to me, and it’s one of he best thing Robert ever did.

Now Palmer kept making albums, but he wasn’t making much headway commercially. “Some People Can Do What They Like had his version of “Man Smart (Woman Smarter),” which got some airplay, but only on FM, not Top 40.

1978’s “Double Fun” had “Every Kinda People,” written by Free’s Andy Fraser, which got less airplay than “Man Smart (Woman Smarter),” but was heard and then… Came the fifth solo LP, which opened with Moon Martin’s “Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor Doctor)” which was all over the airwaves. Moon ultimately launched a solo career on Capitol as a result of this, and those records were quite good, but to illustrate their impact, not one of them has its own Wikipedia page.

And Moon Martin is gone now. As is Palmer himself. Despite the debonair look, he ingested copious amounts of substances, and ultimately they caught up with him, Robert died at 54, which is too young in anybody’s book.

But that previous album, the fourth, “Double Fun,” ended with the Palmer original “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming.”

Now to establish a timeline, it was not until almost eight years later that Palmer broke through with “Addicted to Love,” a hit in 1986. But it was “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming” that put him on the map. Because it fit the format. Was Robert Palmer an R&B crooner? A disguised rocker? In the heyday of corporate rock he lived in a no-man’s land, cool, but all by himself. But “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming” finally fit right alongside the rest of the tunes on the AOR format.

2

“You came upon me like a landslide

Once in a while I get taken like that

And I like it”

Now ultimately almost ten years later, in 1996, Oasis prominently employed the word “landslide” in my favorite song of theirs, “Champagne Supernova,” but at this point in the eighties, when we thought of “Landslide,” we thought of the Fleetwood Mac song. And the image Robert’s song conjured was completely different.

“I’ve got a Thunderbird parked right outside

Give me a minute to finish this thing

And we’ll light it”

This is why I’m writing. Because I woke up with “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming” in my brain this morning for the second time this week, which is a rare occurrence, double fun, and it’s this line that stuck out.

I’m walking around the house thinking they no longer write songs about cars anymore. Whereas that was a staple for DECADES! Even before Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys opined about the machines.

But not anymore. Cars have been superseded. The only horsepower that seems to matter anymore is the speed of AI chips by the likes of Nvidia. No one even cares about the power of the chip in their computer, like in the late nineties, and certainly no one cares about the speed of their smartphone. And not every kid salivates about getting their license the day of their sixteenth birthday and you don’t even need one, Uber will take you around town very nicely. And it won’t be long before Waymo, et al, make it so you neither own nor drive an automobile, talk about the end of an era.

But the truth was the Thunderbird was already passé by 1978, a bloated machine. Palmer was referencing the legendary fifties models, some with a porthole, that a shop in Culver City specialized in selling back in that era.

“You’re gonna get what’s coming

You’ve been asking for it two days running

You’re gonna get what’s coming

You’re gonna get what’s coming to you”

Now what exactly is she asking for?

Taken alone the chorus implies male dominance, revenge, an attitude that is frowned upon today, almost fifty years later. You’ve got to respect women. But is that what he’s really singing about?

“I hope that you’re half as intrepid

As you make out”

Now everybody back in the sixties knew the word “intrepid,” for that was name of the aircraft carrier that picked up the astronauts. Did anybody know what the word meant back then, does anybody know what it means right now?

Well, the Oxford dictionary tells us:

“fearless; adventurous”

That’s what men fantasize about.

Well, I guess there are men who want their significant other to be close to mute and cook and raise babies, but certainly in the seventies many men wanted an adventure partner, someone who not only would go along for the ride, but would LEAD!

I’d never heard a song use the word “intrepid” before and I can’t think of one since. This usage fit with Robert’s upscale image.

“More often that not, I’ll bet

You never got what you asked for”

Can I have some more? That’s what Oliver asked for, never before has a boy asked for more. But the image of a powerful, desirous woman grew and then exploded in the seventies. She wants it, will she get it?

“Keep on pouring until you hear me shout

And turn up the sound

If you want me to drive any faster”

Life in the fast lane… But now no one hits the highway. Driving cross-country used to be a rite of passage, now why bother, just fly, if you leave home at all.

“Caution went out when you walked in the room

If it never came back it would be too soon.”

No limits, baby. Never mind no judgment. This was the freedom we fought for in the sixties and were reveling in in the seventies. And that freedom was emblematized by the automobile.

3

Now Bonnie Raitt had the opposite problem of Robert Palmer. She, unlike him, was known, had a place in the firmament, but had a hard time capitalizing on it.

She began with two earthy albums, a feel that didn’t break through big commercially that she could never recapture.

From there she went smoother with John Hall and then slicker with Jerry Ragavoy, she’d left where she came from and had not found an equally strong place for her career to reside.

So then Bonnie worked with Paul Rothchild, who’d started out producing folkies for Elektra, but made his name as the producer of the Doors. The first LP the two worked together on, “Home Plate,” had incredible song choices, but no single, when that was becoming a thing. But the follow-up, “Sweet Forgiveness,” which contained the exquisite but now forgotten “Two Lives,” had a cover of Del Shannon’s “Runaway” that broke bigger than anything Bonnie had done before…then again, it was a cover of a well-known number that was due for a renaissance.

So Bonnie decided to shake it up once again. To work with those who dominated her homeland, Peter Asher and his Southern California troupe. Peter had worked his magic not only on Jame Taylor and Linda Ronstadt records, he’d made J.D. Souther’s “Black Rose” and…

“The Glow” opened with Bonnie’s cover of “I Thank You,” a year before ZZ Top did their version, a rock radio staple. Bonnie’s got history, she cut “Love Has No Pride” on her second album, 1972’s “Give It Up,” a year before Linda Ronstadt did her more famous cover of the Eric Kaz/Libby Titus classic.

However, the song selections on “The Glow” were not as good as the ones on the two Rothchild-produced albums, but on the second side, in the next to last position, was a cover of Robert Palmer’s “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming.”

4

Now when I pulled up Spotify to listen to “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming” earlier in the week I went for the Robert Palmer version, that was the one I thought I was singing in my head. But when it started to play, the chunky guitar, the rhythmic riff, was not what I had in my mind. The high points were there, “landslide” and “intrepid” and the chorus, but…could it be that what had become embedded in my brain was Bonnie Raitt’s more streamlined cover? I mean usually the writer does the better take, but…

Bonnie’s version starts off with an explosive guitar by either Danny Kortchmar or Waddy Wachtel, they’re both credited, I’ll let you decide. And then…

“You came upon me like a landslide

Once in a while I get taken like that

And I like it”

Whoa, Robert’s singing with attitude, it’s a come on, verging on a sneer, he’s trying to entice her, but Bonnie is ALREADY SOLD! She’s leading the man.

“Once in a while I get taken like that

And I like it”

Inherently a woman is the receiver in sex, but who is the initiator here, who is in control?

Then again, when I asked Bonnie about being the lone female in a group of males, all the guys being after her, she responded WHO SAID I WASN’T GOING AFTER THEM!

Synth-wiz Robert Margouleff and his compatriot Malcolm Cecil associate produced Stevie Wonder’s four album run from “Music of My Mind” to Fulfillingness’ First Finale.” On his own Margouleff produced Devo’s landmark “Freedom of Choice” with “Whip It” and albums by Billy Preston and Oingo Boingo and David Sanborn and…

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/robert-margouleff/id1316200737?i=1000767740777

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/45a1ef01-fe23-447a-91cb-17856ccb9f2a/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-robert-margouleff

Better Sony own these songs than the bank.

But what we’ve learned here is all the rightsholders who sold to Hipgnosis based on Merck’s involvement… I hope you had a key man clause, which you couldn’t get anyway.

Now the truth is most rightsholders are just interested in the money. As long as you pay them they don’t care who owns the songs, until…

They disapprove of a use.

Or find they underpriced their wares.

As for underpricing… How many times do rightsholders have to see this movie to understand that publishing rights keep going up? If you’re selling because you’re fearful your songs will be worth nothing tomorrow…

That may be true, but know that the assessors of the value of your catalog know that too. They are not in the business of overpaying. Merck’s theory was right, it’s just that interest rates went up and investors were pissed and wanted out. Merck may have single-handedly driven up the price of catalogs, he might have paid a ton in a fit of mania, but the truth is copyrights have long lives…

And the internet has proved a boon to the value of music and its associated rights. It’s music that underpins social media, every platform has to pay to use it. YouTube, TikTok, they’d be decimated without music. And they keep creating new platforms that need to be licensed.

And the truth is the new music business might be a fool’s errand, very little net for expenditure, but when it comes to proven hits, those pennies keep trickling in.

And giant music corporations are in the business of managing these assets. You need infrastructure. Was Hipngosis’s up to snuff? Comparable to those of the major labels?

Well, it’s all history now.

But the question arises what is going to be done with these rights. The truth is the major labels are somewhat somnambulant. They’re peopled by lifers who in many cases are phone answerers, as opposed to creative thinkers beating the bushes in new ways to drive up revenue.

The exception is Primary Wave, which is like a major label but without the new music costs. Yes, Primary Wave does release new music, but it’s de minimis in terms of their overall business.

All those roles at the record company, the product managers, the marketers… That’s how Primary Wave runs its business. So if you’re going to sell…

Then again, Primary Wave keeps buying and buying and how many acts can its A-level team service?

But now Primary Wave owns Kobalt and can do its own administration, which it lacked previously and…

What we learned with Spotify is that those with the most assets dictate the terms. Well, let’s just say they have inordinate power over the terms. And majors owning both recordings and songs…songwriters got screwed in these negotiations. Would it be better to have someone with a seat at the table who is song first?

Well, we’ve got that with Primary Wave, and now BMG/Concord…which is still in the front line record business, but is heavily weighted with publishing copyrights.

Independents innovate. Which is why they’re needed. And consolidation works against them when it comes to power. Although they still have power in new music production, where the majors are still operating under the old paradigm. Today you start very small in many areas and nurture and see what pops. If it doesn’t have a chance of getting in the Spotify Top 50 from the get-go, the majors aren’t interested. Which is why they are losing overall market share. Because it’s indie acts who are flourishing.

But when it comes to the past…

That’s where the power is in the music business. Hell, think of all the acts touring for Live Nation and AEG. The acts that broke prior to 2005, when the MTV/VH1 paradigm died, are cash cows. Can you say Coldplay? Good luck trying to build a Coldplay today.

So we lived through a decade of innovation in publishing, and now the era of consolidation has come upon us. Expect even more.

As for the acts…

The bottom line is you need someone who cares about you, who’ll fight for you, who will get licenses for you. After Kobalt’s computerized innovation all the major administrators have upgraded and are very good.

But…

Look at what is happening in visual entertainment, with Paramount scheduled to be acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery. Artists/performers are up in arms. But they don’t have the piece of the puzzle that makes all the difference, OWNERSHIP!

That’s what it all comes down to, that’s what gives you a seat at the table, and if you don’t have it…

Once you give up ownership, you give up power. Few performers own their recording copyrights, but many do own their publishing copyrights. And this results in a steady source of income without the creative accounting labels subject them to with recording royalties.

This business was built by independents. Consolidation started when Atlantic sold to Warner, and then Elektra fifty plus years ago.

And then thirty five years ago, A&M and Island joined the major folds.

And then Edgar Bronfman, Jr. rolled up companies to form what is now known as Universal Music and then Capitol was decimated and then split up and sold and…

What we’ve ended up with is a mature business. The only way you can beat it is via independence, which depends upon hits, whether it be rights from the past or new works. But the more rights the usual suspect majors gain, the worse it is for rightsholders.

Sony Music is baked into a larger corporation, it doesn’t have to worry about investor returns like Hipgnosis did when it was independent, it can weather storms.

But if it’s your rights that went from Hipgnosis to Blackstone to Sony…who exactly is looking out for you? You have no personal relationships, no one tied to the original sale. And what we know in the music business is someone with passion is more important than pure money, someone who will work your project/music is worth more than a big advance.

But all these acts took the money and now have little to absolutely no power. Everybody got paid, including their advisors, and they’re left with a pile of money after tax and I hope it pays dividends… Don’t forget, with songs you get paid on a regular basis, this does not happen when you sell out completely.

But we live in a money-based society, and everybody focuses on the buck.

Isn’t it interesting that the Eagles haven’t sold their rights. Nor Paul McCartney or the Stones. What do they know that everybody else does not?

Everything.

That all you’ve got is your music and your image and you want to be in total control over it, because no one cares about it as much as you.