Chris Difford, of Squeeze. We address the formation of the band and its various iterations, but first and foremost we focus on Chris and his life, both personal and musical, his viewpoints, his choices (and his tenure with Bryan Ferry!) You’ll feel like you’re truly getting to know Chris, and even if you’re not a Squeeze fan you’ll enjoy hearing what Chris has to say.

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This is what happens when you’ve got your head so far up your ass all you can see is your navel.

Let’s start from the beginning… The Oscars are irrelevant to everybody but those in the fading film industry itself, other than those who come out once a year to complain about this or that.

There, I said it.

How did this happen?

Well, films devolved from art to business. Oh, they were always a business, but along the way studios and directors occasionally created art and therefore gained respectability. But TV threw a monkey wrench in the whole process so the industry went for event pictures. But then it found in the sixties that by tackling stories too outré, too sexy, too deep, too dangerous for TV, people would be drawn to the theatre. Sure, there was still lowbrow stuff purveyed, but it was films like “Bonnie & Clyde” and “The Graduate” and “The Godfather,” never mind classic comedies like “Annie Hall,” that drove people to the theatre, but even more had America, the world, talking about them.

Those days are through.

Let me catalog the reasons…

Pure greed. Once “Jaws” and then “Star Wars” demonstrated how much money could be made, studios no longer wanted to hit singles, however profitable, they wanted home runs.

Marketing. In an era where it’s hard to reach anybody, studios spend upwards of a hundred million dollars trying to reach a potential audience, and they only want to do this if the film has mass appeal, and therefore they don’t want to make any “small” pictures.

As a matter of fact, studios cut down production. You can shoot a movie in hi-def on your iPhone, but good luck getting a green light at a studio. So, you post your effort on YouTube, or you make movies and series for streaming services, like Netflix.

Yes, TV has finally killed the traditional movie experience.

But Bob, people still want to go to the theatre! Yes, for a night out, the experience is more important than the film. And the experience, especially in this age of smartphones, can be so distracting as to convince people not to attend. At home, it’s quiet. If you want to talk to your spouse, no one complains. And with the standard now a 65″ screen, in 4k, home viewing satisfies, never mind that it’s on demand, i.e. the picture starts and stops whenever you want it to.

So, Oscar ratings continue to drop. On this one night, they appeal to cineastes, but the industry is supported by lowbrows, and they’re not interested in the pictures nominated. Furthermore, the number of cineastes is decreasing, just like the number of symphony fans, they’re aging out. It’s a circle jerk I tell you. If you win a big award the studio can advertise such, but an Oscar is barely more meaningful than a Grammy, which no longer gives you a sales bounce, which is employed by most musicians as a line on their resumé, to hopefully increase live bookings. Once again, the audience does not care, and the victors rarely comport with the Spotify Top 50, which is what the majority of people are listening to. Then again, the Grammy voters, just like the Oscar voters, have contempt for this popular stuff.

So, the goal is to save the Oscars. Which are out of touch with the film industry itself. And the way to do this is…

Include television.

Like the studios in the sixties and seventies, Netflix and its compatriots give creators free rein, with cash. The only downside is you don’t get points, but you get to make your project, which is even more important. No studio wanted to pony up for “The Irishman.” And Netflix and its brethren need product. We don’t need any movies. The middle man, the theatre owner might, but the public does not. Most people are no longer addicted to the ritual of going to the theatre, but they are addicted to the ritual of consuming deep streaming series.

The film studios have lost their power. Except when they make television. Quick, name a studio head. YOU CAN’T! Unless you’re in the industry. But everyone has heard of Ted Sarandos, think about that.

Is there a problem of diversity in films… OF COURSE! But films no longer drive the culture, TV does. It started when there were a million cable outlets, and then HBO started making its own shows, once again to satiate the audience, to keep people subscribed, but no one in Hollywood changed, certainly no one at the Oscars.

What did they do? COMPLAIN! It’s no different from the record labels at the turn of the century. But the film business always felt itself superior to the record business, even though it was Warner records that built the cable system, that threw off more cash than the studio. The Oscars could have seen the movie, it was hiding in plain sight, but it refused!

Disruption happens. Adjust, or you’re history.

Instead, we got filmmakers complaining about small screens, viewing experiences, as people started watching visual product on their smartphones, yes. Because they wanted the product so bad they couldn’t forgo it. This was the silver lining in Napster/file trading…AT LEAST PEOPLE WANTED THE PRODUCT! It’s just a matter of how you give it to them and how you charge.

But no, a movie must be something exhibited in a theatre. And, since fewer people are going, we’ll raise the price, to more than a streaming television subscription. Yes, Spotify gives you all the music for ten bucks a month, a bargain for the heavy consumer of physical product, but it brought new customers in for more cash than they ever spent and revenues went up, think about that.

So, if the Oscars have new inclusionary rules…

Most creators will shrug their shoulders and ignore them. BECAUSE THEY’RE NOT NOMINATED FOR OSCARS ANYWAY!

As for the studios, they’ll game the rules, they won’t play by them, after all they’ve got so much money involved. Furthermore, if the Academy was smart, and it’s not, it would have a credit system, so creators/polluters could buy from those not polluting to make their pictures. Yes, if you want to make a picture with white men, you can buy credits from a picture that features a rainbow of color.

And is the Oscar organization the correct one to right this wrong? Of course not! It should be the MPAA, a trade organization, not an awards-giving organization. But the Academy and its Oscars have been criticized so much that the appearance of looking woke is more important than the credibility and gravitas of its underlying product, the awards.

Not that we cannot change names, not that we can’t right the wrongs of the past. I point you to this podcast wherein the president of Squaw Valley explains why the ski area needed to change its name:

“Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows President & COO Ron Cohen – The Resort Name ‘Belongs In The History Books'”

By time you’re done listening, you’ll agree.

But explain to me why the Oscars need to change… No, explain to me why the studios and the films they make must change! Yes, there is racism and sexism, but once you start messing with creativity, you throw the baby out with the bathwater, it’s akin to censorship, there are too many exceptions to the new rules of the Academy.

Below the line, behind the scenes changes…I’m all for them, build the skills and grow the presence of those who’ve been discriminated against previously. But in a challenged industry do you start messing with what people make? Of course not! For example, once again let’s look at the music industry. The aforementioned Warner was so afraid of its partner Interscope, which featured hip-hop stars like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, that they got rid of it, all to turn down the heat from outside agitators. End result? Interscope went to Universal, creating a linchpin of the now dominant company and Warner faded, never to regain the market share it once had. And yes, hip-hop now dominates the culture.

Recapping… The goals of the Academy are good ones, but the organization is not the right one to establish serious roadblocks in the creative process. And, if the Academy wants to survive, make the Oscars important and meaningful once again, it must include TV, not only films, but series. After all, when you sit down in front of the flat screen you don’t say you only want to watch one or the other, then again, I prefer series, because they go deeper.

The Academy is out of touch with the public. Get that, an organization that believes, falsely, it is the epicenter, the driver of popular culture, is clueless as to the wants of its desired audience, and therefore on the way to irrelevance. And the solution is not to narrow the pipeline of product that qualifies, but to broaden it!

Then again, old farts cannot fathom true change. Once again, a movie must be in a theatre and be ninety minutes to two and a half hours long, actually the shorter the better, because exhibitors want to turn the house. But the medium affects the message. The invention of the LP begat the concept album, “Sgt. Pepper,” and in the on demand streaming era you can release as much product as frequently as you desire. The streaming giants know this, but it’s anathema to the Academy/film studios.

Best to evaluate inclusion and diversity in streaming TV. Where so much product is created you can have more impact. Go where the future is, not the past. Exxon gets dropped from the Dow and the Academy is still concerned with the pollution of internal combustion engines when the entire industry is moving to electric, just ask Volkswagen, the world’s largest auto manufacturer, it’s all-in. VW got rightly pilloried for the diesel emissions scandal, but it pivoted to do the right thing in the future. It’s always about the future, not the past, and the future is not feature films in theatres, sorry. If anything, it’s a dying art form.

So, Academy, you messed up. Maybe you should kick out members who are offenders, past and or present. To get in the organization you must adhere to certain rules, qualify. But to try and run herd over an industry that is not beholden to you is like the Baseball Hall of Fame trying to legislate rule changes in the MLB. Believe me, Rob Manfred does not go to Cooperstown to address the game’s ills. He doesn’t debate how to shorten the game, whether to have automatic walks and the designated hitter in the National League, with the board of that august institution. And yes, you can make it in the MLB and not be in the Hall of Fame, like Pete Rose, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

But welcome to America, where appearance is more important than reality, where bending to special interest groups is more important than addressing the real problem, where we paint over transgressions and no real change transpires.

Like in a movie.

I don’t believe in self-promotion. I figure you’re hearing from me enough already. Hell, I sent three missives yesterday, and this is the third one today and I know people resent it, they don’t want to be overloaded, say it shorter, be to the point, and only write about what they’re interested in, which is primarily music.

I’m not writing about politics. Because it’s useless. It’s no longer about the vote, but counting the votes and the reaction thereto. In other words, the credibility of the vote has been undermined and Trump has undercut the validity of mail-in voting amongst his minions and…

“Exclusive: Dem group warns of apparent Trump Election Day landslide”

Read it and weep. There’s a very good chance Trump will be ahead on election day and declare victory despite the onslaught of mail-in ballots that could tip the election to Biden that might take days or weeks to count.

Now the “Wall Street Journal” is even on it:

“Will Courts Pick the Next President? – If the election is close, the fallout could make Bush v. Gore look like an ice-cream social”

But you can’t satisfy everybody, no way. And it’s a fool’s errand to try. Because it’s the rough edges of your message that hook people and people don’t really know what they want until they experience it. Market research may work in conventional business, but it’s worthless in art. And famously Steve Jobs did no market research, he gave the people what they needed, not what they wanted. Oh, you want a litany of ports and a headphone hole on your phone and…if we listened to the public, we’d never get anywhere, because there are those so inured to the past that they cannot fathom any change. You know, the people who won’t sign up for a streaming service because they don’t want to cough up their credit card. Let’s add in ignorance too…people who don’t know you can synch Spotify, et al, tracks to the phone, so as long as you’ve got juice, you can hear them. But don’t let the truth get in the way of a belief!

Which is what I did on the Tom Marshall podcast.

Marshall is the lyricist for Phish. And he started a new podcast, entitled “Under the Scales.” And if you pay you can get bonus content, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’ve seen Phish multiple times, I’m friends with the insiders, of course I’m gonna say yes to this, and over time you learn to say no to most things, especially in this overloaded internet era. Yes, if you want an interview with anybody with a profile the first thing they’re going to ask you about is your reach, then who else has done it. I know, I know, it’s kind of like only being able to get a job if you’ve got experience. But in this era where there are a zillion outlets, no one has time to be on all of them and no one has time to read or listen/pay attention to all of them.

But, like I said, I’m there for the Phish community.

But Tom Marshall is trying to build a business. Now Phish fans are notoriously loyal, so maybe there’s a way to charge, but I’m anti-charge, because it inherently limits the growth of your business. If you’re thinking money before reach you’ve got it all wrong. And I don’t care how much money you’re making on your enterprise, unless you’re just into the cash, you’ve made yourself irrelevant if your work is behind a paywall. You charge last, you make money from the penumbra. Then again, what is your end goal, are you a hobbyist or are you playing for all the marbles? When I asked Mac McAnally about pursuit of his solo career, he said he was just not that ambitious, unlike Jimmy Buffett. Jimmy owns his ambition. He wanted it and got it, he wants more and he’s getting more. And it’s much more difficult to be ambitious than laid back. Because the competition gets stiffer as you move up the food chain, only a few can have huge success.

All this to say if you’re on Patreon and you’re making bucks, more power to you, it’s just that you should know you’re in a cottage business with walls, that your business is not going to grow, that you’ve inherently made yourself irrelevant. If you’re not willing to starve, you’re never going to make it big in entertainment. Some household names are starving, because they’re reinvesting all the proceeds into their art, whether it be creation or live show or… You can get an MBA and write a business plan, but I don’t know anybody who has made it as an artist via that route. But I do know people who made it through hard work and determination. If you’re not willing to forgo activities, don’t start. In other words, if everybody is partying, if everybody but you owns a house, if you’re envious, if those are the main draws, change course, you do not belong in the creative world.

Which is all to say that at the end of my interview with Tom, he asked me to create special content for subscribers, he wanted me to talk about my favorite streaming TV shows. Arguably, that was more interesting, at least to me, than everything I’d said previously, but unless you pay you cannot hear it.

So, I said yes to Tom. I’ve done a lot of this. I don’t want to know the questions in advance, I want to come in cold, so maybe we can create some magic, otherwise you leave all the good stuff in the green room.

So, I’m talking to Tom, about Phish and stuff, and then we veer into ticketing. Tom hates Ticketmaster.

So, I explain ticketing, but Tom still doesn’t get it.

And here’s where there’s a fork in the road. You can be nice, get along, or you can tell the truth. But people don’t want to hear the truth. And you sever the underlying relationship. But I don’t work for the man, I’m not gonna cover up my opinion or the truth, so I double-down. And it’s not until deep into the podcast that I realize I’ve come across as an asshole.

Now that’s another reason not to do press. Because the writers are oftentimes uninformed, this may not even be their beat, and you end up educating them and they still get it wrong. It’s a complete waste of time. Even at the highest levels, you’d be surprised. But, mainstream press means less than ever before and you can reach people directly so…

Tom asked me to promote the podcast.

Now that’s never gonna happen.

Like Maureen Dowd. She only tweets once a week, to promote her column. Doesn’t she know this makes her look bad? If you’re a fan, you know she’s in the paper on Sunday. And she’s got no respect for the medium, she’s not tweeting about anything else.

And I almost never tweet. Why? I reach so many fewer people than I do by writing a missive, because no one reads Twitter exhaustively, you jump in and jump out, inherently you miss a ton of stuff.

As for Facebook… I didn’t want to hear from everybody I grew up with so I never got on it.

As for Instagram… My friend the social media guru convinced me to join. But I hardly post, because it only works if you promote, and I’ve already got my own thing, this newsletter.

But can you make it if you don’t self-promote?

That’s an interesting question.

But as I’ve stated previously, I’m a voracious reader of Twitter. It’s where you hear it first, and where you hear it with analysis and attitude. Like today’s Covid story re Sturgis, I read that last night on Twitter.

And speaking of Twitter, people started to tweet positively about my Ticketmaster analysis on the Tom Marshall/Under the Scales podcast, and it made me wonder about perception…maybe listeners weren’t alienated by what I said, maybe they could discern the truth.

As for alienation, frustration and disgust, I get it all day long. If I listened and obeyed I wouldn’t be able to write or do anything at all. And then when I write about feedback from these jerks, the only people who stop writing me are the reasonable ones, even those with a profile. You just can’t fight it, you just can’t win.

Like with ticketing… THE ACT IS AT FAULT! The act takes ninety to a hundred percent of the gate and the only profit is in the ticketing. And Ticketmaster only gets a sliver of the fees. The rest go to the promoters and the buildings and sometimes even get kicked back to the acts!

BUT THAT DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT!

Tell that to a mathematician, or a scientist. Feel is irrelevant.

So, if you want to hear what I have to say about ticketing and more you can listen to me on this podcast, it’s up to you, I won’t push you.

Under the Scales

From: Martha Quinn
Subject: MTV Documentary

Hi Bob!

I hope this email finds you safe and well.

Thank you for the kind words in your piece regarding the MTV documentary.

I’ve not seen the doc yet but you mention it’s the viewpoint from inside the belly of the beast. For the sequel I’d love to see a compendium of views looking at MTV from the outside, an exploration of the profound effect MTV had on an entire generation of fans.

Today when you see the MTV logo it takes no time at all for our brains to process what it represents. Like looking at a grilled cheese sandwich. One second. Boom. Got it. It’s hard to remember now, but in 1981 this was far from the case. MTV burst out of left-field like a meteor into an unsuspecting world. One summer night (August 1st to be specific, a night I will always remember) a fiery, mind-blowing, meteoric pop-culture disruptor blasted into our consciousness, changing the lives it touched forever.

You might have seen the (excellent) ZZ Top doc where Dusty Hill, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard were calling each other the night they first saw MTV, asking each other “how long is this show going to be on??” No one could wrap their minds around what was in the world they were seeing. This extended to us working at MTV, we’d never seen anything like it before either. There were times when I Martha Quinn was late to my job working at MTV because I was home…watching MTV. One more video, just one more, just one more. The videos, the funky spray-painted logo, the unset we called a set, plus commercials with rockers?? Never, ever, ever witnessed before. The marriage of the 24-hour music radio format with television delivered an impact so massive it still reverberates today. I know first-hand how much MTV continues living in people’s hearts.

Listeners call in literally every day to my all-80s music radio station (iHeart 80s @ 103-7, KOSF in San Francisco) sharing what MTV meant to them. How they would dash home from school, turn on MTV and watch breathlessly for hours. Entire neighborhoods cramming into the basement of the one house on the block that had MTV. Kids who got jobs after school to help their parents pay for the cable. Stories of screwdrivers jammed into cable boxes to somehow receive MTV. Memories like these are Alive and Kicking. Fans have told me MTV was their solace while serving in the military, or enduring family struggles. Indie music fans have shared the isolation they felt until MTV blew into town showing them they were not alone, there was a tribe that existed for them in the world!

You’re so right nothing lasts forever (we can’t rewind we’ve gone too far) but wow what a miraculous We’re Not Gonna Take It moment in time. A shared experience that united a generation.

What do you say Bob, want to make the outside-looking-in documentary with me? We’ll call it I Got My MTV!

Best Always,

Martha

 

From: Meg Griffin
Subject: just the facts

Hey Bob..

I’ve been told you wrote that “Meg Griffin refused to be a VJ”.

Allow me to correct that.

I turned down an offer to work at MTV after some comments by Bob Pittman that rubbed me the wrong way.
Compensation they offered was not much to speak of, either.

My heart had always been in radio and shortly after I turned down MTV, Scottso hired me full time at WNEW-FM.

I had left WNEW FM in 1979 to be Music Director and full time host on
WPIX-New York’s Rock and Roll From Elvis to Elvis which was a groundbreaking radio station in NYC. When the ownership there decided to dump the format where we mixed the Ramones into Buddy Holly into Devo -and Elvis Costello into Elvis Presley – in favor of going with a format they called Love Songs Nothing But Love Songs, I was outta there. And Scottso asked me back to WNEW FM at just about the same time MTV was launching. I auditioned at MTV and they liked me enough to offer the gig.
I have never regretted turning that job down. It was not a mistake for me.

And I was a VJ at two different eras on VH1.

And way more fun than that, I also hosted as VJ a show called “New Grooves” produced by Campus Network – which aired in some markets on NBC TV, following SNL.

-MG

And that’s the truth.

 

 

Subject: Re: Mailbag

Just occurred to me that even though Les Garland’s contributions to MTV were surely a stellar achievement, I’m pretty sure he’d put being a featured guest interview on Golf Radio right up there in the top 3.

Regards,
Bob Cayne