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

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3ih1Fzv

1

“Gaucho” was hobbled by the three years since “Aja” and the $9.98 price point, a dollar more than all that came before, back when record price used to be a thing and labels were eager to make more money, damn the fans, or the acts. Tom Petty protested this same $8.98 price point successfully, then again Steely Dan were never salt of the earth, they never hit the road, they seemed to exist outside the sphere of their fans, but it was fans who bought “Gaucho” and if you played it enough you came to love it. “Hey Nineteen” was a mild hit but the rest of the album never connected with the mainstream, you needed to be somewhat cynical, lazing on a late afternoon contemplating the universe and then “Gaucho” would reach you better than any other album. And who else starts off an album with such a slow song as “Babylon Sisters”? There was no pandering involved, Steely Dan went on its own adventure and succeeded, you’ll have a hard time naming the other albums of the era, and “Gaucho” sounds as fresh today as it did back then.

The truth is “Aja” was a surprise, a hard turn, left or right I’m not sure, but it was definitely different, it was jazz-influenced in an era when rock was becoming corporatized, all tracks sounding alike, but not “Aja.” 

And there was anticipation, because there was always eagerness for a new Steely Dan album, but in truth the act hadn’t had anything resembling a hit since 1974, with “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.”

I’m partial to “Katy Lied,” even though no one ever talks about that album anymore. Just listen to the vocal on “Bad Sneakers.” And “Daddy Don’t Live in that New York City No More.” As well as “Your Gold Teeth II.”

And I know every lick of “The Royal Scam” because I drove cross-country and listened to it and only it and five other brand new cassettes…you get in a groove and you like hearing the same music over and over, it’s like being in a trance. Ever drive eight or ten hours at a stretch, especially on flat, straight highway, you become hypnotized, but I had to keep my pedal to the metal because this was before all cars had cruise control, although my car didn’t even have power steering, but if I could resurrect my 2002 I’d still be driving it, if it hadn’t been wrecked by an unlicensed and uninsured drunk driver on St. Patrick’s Day with 186,000 miles on the odometer back when no American car could even break six digits. And my favorite from “The Royal Scam” was “Don’t Take Me Alive,” because of Larry Carlton’s stinging guitar and the changes and those lyrics, the words:

“I’m a bookkeeper’s son

I don’t want to shoot no one”

But whereas “The Royal Scam” was personal, “Aja” could be played at cocktail parties, and was. Even “Bosch” would have liked it. You see all the people who didn’t even buy albums, the Top 40 acolytes who couldn’t tell Denny Dias from Skunk Baxter, bought “Aja,” in truth it worked in absolutely every environment. Steely Dan succeeded giving the public what people said they didn’t want, but it turned out they did, want it that is. And there was that misheard lyric in “Deacon Blues,” everybody thinking Donald was asking to be sued if he played it “wrong,” but he said LONG, and it made all the difference.

“I cried when I wrote this song

Sue me if I play too long

This brother is free

I’ll be what I want to be”

That’s the rock ethos, even though Fagen and the dearly departed Becker wouldn’t want to be categorized, be members of any group but their own. Art is personal, if you’re thinking about the audience you wreck it, it’s when you dig down deep and bare your soul that others can relate. The key is to be free to do it the way you want to, irrelevant of others’ reaction, their feedback, and Steely Dan was, and did.

But now it was three years later. In truth the record business was in the doldrums, disco and corporate rock both crashed, based on hatred from the audience, both had devolved into lowest common denominator pablum, but not Steely Dan.

In truth one of the best cuts on “Gaucho” was “Third World Man,” the final song on the second side, something so slow that radio would never play it, but if you did at home… Play it now, it feels like magic hour, when the sun is setting over the horizon and everything is in relief, when life and its penumbra seem so much more important.

And the second side opened with another slow number, the title song, “Gaucho,” a story told at a slow pace with exquisite instrumentation that was alien to in-your-face rock.

And then came “Time Out of Mind.”

2

“So you better be ready for love

On this glory day

This is your chance to believe

What I’ve got to say”

You could be so good-looking, or so rich or famous that you’re batting off admirers, but for the rest of us… In order for it to work we’ve got to feel good about ourselves, we’ve got to psyche ourselves up and get in the mood, believe we’re irresistible, that no one can elude our personality, our magic. I’m not talking about being oppressive, I’m not talking about rape, most men are too afraid to ask women for a date, they’re wallflowers, but it’s the loner sans groupthink who has a chance of resonating, assuming he’s confident and doesn’t break down, that he evidences his real personality. And the truth is most people don’t have much of one, a personality that is, they’re so busy trying to fit in, so busy doing what’s expected, that they don’t have the unique edges that appeal to women.

“Tonight when I chase the dragon

The water may change to cherry wine

And the sliver will turn to gold

Time out of mind

Time out of mind”

CHASE THE DRAGON? Back in 1980 we had no idea what Donald was talking about. It took a while to come out, assuming you read the rock press, which was still prominent and monolithic. He was singing about smoking heroin. Which has one re-evaluating the whole song, is this an addict trying to get someone on his page, telling them if they just get high everything will be all right even though it’s a road to ruin? And one thing about addicts, they always want company, people to support them, be in the same boat, a separate society, feeling superior, even though they’re anything but.

And after “Gaucho”? Crickets. And then the band decided to go back on the road when they were famous for not working live, sans new music, and their fans came out, they did very good business. And then there were two new albums, twenty plus years since “Gaucho,” and although those may ultimately have limited mindshare, the end result of decades of touring, being in the public eye, is that all those earlier albums came back alive. “Countdown to Ecstasy,” which barely sold, was seen as their best, not that I agree, and tunes from “Gaucho” are part of the firmament, like “Time Out of Mind.”

And now comes Lou Hayter’s version of “Time Out of Mind.”

Interesting last name, since the truth is Steely Dan has so many haters, dyed-in-the-wool rockers, especially the punks and skinny tie set of the late seventies and early eighties. This same crew hates prog rock, but that sound never really had the same reach as Steely Dan, and there were many prog acts, but only one Steely Dan.

And the truth is a cover is a cheap shot. An easy way to get recognition in an era where it’s almost impossible to do so. So at first I dismissed Lou Hayter’s “Time Out of Mind.” But today it started to resonate. Maybe because the underpinnings, the song itself, are so good, maybe because of the fuzzy guitar solo, maybe because of the rhythm, but suddenly it worked, it was more than a cover, something new, attractive, engaging.

Not that I knew who Lou Hayter was. She doesn’t even have her own Wikipedia page. But if you do some research you’ll see she’s been at it for over a decade and she’s a multi-hyphenate, a DJ, a model… The truth is that’s the way of the modern day, unless you hit out of the box if you want to stay in the game you’ve got to broaden your horizons, you’ve got to do more than music.

But Hayter is on Instagram, which is the new Wikipedia, the new album cover, that’s where you display your image, establish an identity. It’s like the sixties all over again, it’s all based on image.

Meanwhile, the internet tells me Steely Dan is Lou Hayter’s favorite band. And she wasn’t even born when “Gaucho” came out. Funny what penetrates, it’s usually not the hits, the younger generation is searching, for something great, the roots, the progenitor, they understand today but it’s so different from yesterday. Today the faders are always pushed up, everybody’s fighting for attention, the concept of the music being so damn good that people are drawn to it, that you don’t have to sell it, go on the road to flog it, is revolutionary.

So if you can let your prejudices go, if you can be open, if you don’t focus on the track but let it play as you go about your business, you might find yourself bobbing your head, digging Lou Hayter’s take on “Time Out of Mind.

P.S. If you’re adventurous, if you want more, there are two additional mixes, the Reflex Revision and the Generalisation Dub, but you definitely want to be hooked on the original before you expand your horizons.

Bob,

It would be too easy to just dismiss this missive…

But, you and I haven’t had a good go in awhile… so, let’s go…

Firstly, I believe in the First Amendment.  My job has never been to tell my artists what to sing and write about.  My job has always been about identifying unique talent with a unique voice and a unique point of view.

At the Big Machine Label Group we represent artists as diverse as Sheryl Crow singing “Woman In The White House” to Aaron Lewis singing “Am I The Only One” to Ray Wylie Hubbard to Tim McGraw to Thomas Rhett to Glen Campbell to Nikki Sixx/Rob Zombie/John5 (L.A. Rats) to Brantley Gilbert to Justin Moore to Florida Georgia Line to Brett Young to Lady A to Ayron Jones to Callista Clark and many more…

Aaron Lewis and I have political disagreements.  But there are also things we agree on.  I think that’s the foundation for the idea of our country.  It doesn’t work if we’re so divided that we can’t reach across the aisle, have a conversation or an argument, and ultimately, shake hands.  If we can’t do that, and this moment is so divisive, we may never get our country back.

To just ‘cancel’ (drop) Aaron is ridiculous and I’m disappointed that you would even suggest such a thing. Comparing Aaron Lewis to the Ghetto Boys?  That’s a reach and a half…

You don’t have to agree or acknowledge, but Aaron’s message is speaking to millions of people.

Let it be a wake up call to reps and dems alike – be loud and be heard!

It woke you up.  It inspired you to make a statement.  It worked.  And it’s working.  It’s inspiring conversation.

You have no basis to attack the sales or streaming numbers as your context is not accurate.  Our world is a building world, streaming world, terrestrial radio world, satellite radio world, social/Insta/TikTok world… it’s everything you can imagine and all verticals must be managed.

This is just the beginning of this story.

Example – Nelly/FGL’s “Lil Bit” came out in the Fall of 2020… it’s now on a collision course with 9m US streams per week, it’s well past platinum, it’s Top 15 at Top 40 radio and breaking at Country radio.  There is not always a set path for a hit record.  And this isn’t new.  Your aforementioned Geffen Records spent a full year breaking GNR’s “Welcome To The Jungle”.  If you had looked at first week GNR sales numbers and tried to project what that song and that band would have meant to the future of not just rock radio but its impact on culture, you would’ve missed it by a RnR Hall of Fame career.

Stop when it comes to criticizing first week sales and streams.  You’re only setting yourself up for failure and you’re not representing the full story or picture.

Ironically and culturally, Aaron Lewis and Morgan Wallen have a helluva lot more in common with each other than either of them have with you.  You’re talking out both sides…

But that’s why we read you.

You inspire conversation.

For that, I thank you.

Best to Felice,

Scott

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

YouTube: https://bit.ly/36LMIzP

Listen to “Seventeen Going Under” twice and you’ll listen to it ad infinitum. In fact, it sounds like forty years ago, the Alarm mostly, but the truth is the human condition never changes, being a teenager is the same, and although we’re happier as we get older we’re all still seventeen at heart, ask all the boomers getting plastic surgery trying to look young.

It’s not like it’s a hit. “Seventeen Going Under” has got 724,926 streams on Spotify and only 341,529 YouTube views in the week it’s been out. Then again, everything happens slowly these days, you can be unknown, bubbling under for over a year and then WHEW!, suddenly your track catches fire. Not that I expect U.S. radio to play “Seventeen Going Under,” there’s nowhere for it. It certainly isn’t hip-hop or pop, it’s rock, and even Miley Cyrus could not get traction with the retro sound. And I’ll give Olivia Rodrigo’s lyrics kudos, but musically most of her album is uninteresting, then again on one level “Seventeen Going Under” is a rap track as in there are essentially no changes! You’re waiting for the chorus, the break, and it never comes, but boy is there ENERGY!

That’s the essence of the metal/Active Rock sound, THE ANGER! But as that audience and its music have become less accepted it’s driven headlong into the oblivion of noise, if you’re not a fan there’s no way you’ll cotton to the sound, you’ll want to take it right off, but not “Seventeen Going Under.”

Then again, there are people who now hate rock in principle.

Then again, Sam Fender is not a teenager, at least not anymore, he’s 27, old enough to have some perspective, and you can hear it.

So I’m angry. I’m much happier than I was at 17, then again I still feel like I don’t fit in, am not part of the mainstream, and somewhere deep inside I want to be, or really I want the rest of the population to change and be more like me, but that’ll never happen.

“So I spent my teens enraged

Spiraling in silence”

Imagine being a teenager today, the parents can’t stay out of your business. Telling you what you can learn, telling if you have sex there will be no abortions, abhorring everything you do, TikTok, influencing, telling you to get off of the damn phone when the truth is that’s where your community is, your friends, the like-minded people.

“And I armed myself with a grin

‘Cause I was always the f—–g joker

Amongst the white noise and boys’ boys”

People cover up their true feelings, even though in truth we all want to be understood and this is the key to human connection, and relationships and sex, but people, especially guys, feel if they’re honest and open they’ll be ostracized.

“Locker room talkin’ lads’ lads

Drenched in cheap drink and snide fags

A mirrored picture of my old man”

The music business is a boys club. The Fortune 500 is a boys club. Sure, inroads have been made, but I’m talking less about numbers here than attitude, the in-jokes, the laughing, the sexual innuendoes, if you don’t participate you’ve got no future in the corporation, you’re immediately off the track, far from the mainstream. They say America is about individualism but if you’re an individual be prepared for heat, assuming anybody cares at all. And god forbid you’re a nerd, you’re bullied online and the truth is online bullying far exceeds real life bullying, it can be hard for anybody to take, did you see Valerie Bertinelli broke down in the face of it?

“Valerie Bertinelli tearfully hit back at an Instagram troll who said she needs to lose weight: ‘Not f—–g helpful'”: https://bit.ly/3wJLWyb

But really it’s not about “Seventeen Going Under”‘s lyrics, it’s about its SOUND! It’s loud but not offensive, you’re drawn to it, you want to immerse yourself in it, you want it to consume your moving body as you forget about the injustices of this world, knowing, thank god, that someone feels the way you do.

And there are no brand names in the song. No featured artists. “Seventeen Going Under” doesn’t sound mannered, overworked, overdone.

But that sound, that ENERGY!

You’ll catch it the first time through, when the song fills out, when the vocal becomes even more intense, but if you listen to it again you’ll feel a bubble forming around your body, you’ll start to get that feeling of happiness, when you relax and smile and don’t worry about what anybody else thinks.

Maybe this will get some traction in the U.K., where they embrace more genres of music. But, once again, the start is so slow.

But for those who are too young to have lived through it, THIS IS THE SOUND!

P.S. Play this on the big rig, the speakers with some bass, you want to feel the room SHAKE!

“With help from Fox News, Aaron Lewis tops country chart with song bemoaning statue removal”: https://lat.ms/3rbcsPE

Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous” is the biggest album of the year. Statistically, that’s what the MRC half-year report says.

But you don’t see this trumpeted in the newspaper. Instead we get all this crap about flavor of the moment pop and hip-hop acts that are all flash and no substance. There is a hit music business, but it has never been more out of touch with what is really being consumed than ever before.

So starting a couple of weeks back, people started e-mailing me this Aaron Lewis track “Am I the Only One.” It’s HEINOUS! This middle class, right wing wanker has recorded a song that should have been played at CPAC, in between speeches by nitwits like Lauren Boebert saying to refuse the “Fauci ouchie.” Frank Luntz, FRANK LUNTZ!, the guy who came up with right wing epithets like the “death tax,” has thrown his hands in the air:

“‘We always ask, what will be the last straw? What will be the moment that we lose the ability to communicate and cooperate and get things done?’ said Frank Luntz, a longtime GOP pollster who’s been working to encourage vaccinations. ‘Well, we’ve reached it. This is it.'”

https://wapo.st/3knqEDH

Why does Valory release such crap. Come on Scott Borchetta, David Geffen dropped the Geto Boys over their odious lyrics and now you’re marketing this junk? And for those who don’t know, all the execs idolize Geffen, and communicate and consort with him too. That’s his role today, elder stateman with a hand guiding all the players, young and old, Scooter Braun calls Geffen his rabbi and Jimmy Iovine doesn’t make a move without talking to Geffen first. You see Geffen made billions and they all want that money too. Come on Scott, get your head out of your rear end. How much money are you gonna make here anyway, and it is all about the money at this point, right?

But even worse is the music business is so screwed up that they consider this record to be #1 Country, and #14 on the overall Hot 100.  Lewis’s track “Am I the Only One” sold 58,622 downloads and was streamed 4 million times…IN A COUNTRY OF 320 MILLION! There are scores of TikTok influencers who dwarf those numbers, names you’ve never heard of, but we’ve got the lame music industry trumpeting the ascension of this ignorant bloviator when the truth is almost no one has heard the song!

Downloads? Only old people download. And you know those who saw Lewis on Fox News bought instead of streamed. As for streams, streams of a single, 4 million times? Number one on on the Spotify DAILY chart got 7,467,066 streams. And interesting that it’s a rock song by an Italian group, Maneskin. #2 is Justin Bieber with 6,674,819. #50 on the U.S. daily Spotify chart had 394,813 streams. And that’s an instrumental version of a fading Cardi B track “Up,” which if you do the math is 2.7 million streams in a week, but this detestable Aaron Lewis cut is considered to be #1 country, #14 overall? And that’s only on Spotify, which is 40% of the market, which means really the projected weekly Cardi B number is 6.7 million. WHO CAN TRUST THESE NUMBERS?

The truth is the music business is opaque. Soundscan added some clarity, but in a truly digital world the manipulated chart based on passé metrics deliver numbers that satiate no one but those who are featured.

But it gets even worse. Spotify told us that the overall market share of hit music is declining. But major labels are signing ever fewer acts in ever fewer genres. What about the rest of the music? This is especially clear when you look at the touring numbers. Not to mention that so many of today’s “hit” acts can barely sell a ticket.

I’m not even going to bother printing the “Am I the Only One” lyrics, if you’re interested you can find them here: https://bit.ly/3kkkcxq As for listening to the track, you don’t have to, because no one else is. But if you’re interested you know how to find it, unless you’re part of Fox News’ target demo and still use a flip phone.

The recorded music business is driving straight off a cliff while promoting how well it’s doing. The music itself is ripe for disruption. The only problem is you can’t make enough money in the field so everybody with a brain has gone elsewhere, leaving these inane singing “brands” tying up with anybody who’ll give them a dollar, they’re influencers, not musicians.

This is hiding in plain sight but getting no ink. It’s kinda like the Trump surprise, the victory in 2016. Who knew all these people felt this way? Who knew 74 million people would vote for Trump in the 2020 election?

Lewis is appealing to them, with Borchetta’s help. Without it, Lewis’s track is dead in the water.

We’ve seen this time and time again. The movie business only focused on worldwide blockbusters, superheroes, and now the business is failing, superseded by streaming TV which offers more than cartoons to the brain dead.

Morgan Wallen has the #1 album of the year because it is GOOD!

Just give it a listen. It’s comprised of SONGS! Did the guy use the “N-word,” absolutely, and he’s been banished as a result from everywhere but the court of public opinion, where he reigns, on streaming and sales platforms. They even canceled his live gigs. Is his crime really worse than those of all the wankers who say Donald Trump won the 2020 election? As for only right wingers buying “Dangerous” to give the middle finger to the left…I don’t believe that. Especially when there was no rallying cry, nowhere to celebrate, with no radio play, no news, they consumed it because THEY LIKED IT!

What should Wallen’s penalty be? How long should he be in jail? Let’s not even debate that, but let’s point out that a country artist singing songs is bigger than any of the supposed stars the music industry keeps telling us are so big, like Aaron Lewis. Lewis’s song sold because he was on Fox. Wallen is nowhere, but people keep listening. People like music. But imagine if the industry delivered something palatable like Wallen as opposed to all the junk it purveys?

It will never happen until they’re disrupted. But it’s going to happen, it’s just a matter of when, the field is just too wide open, the industry is just too busy promoting very narrow dreck.