From: Peter Frampton

Re: The Doobies & Frampton Play “Let It Rain”

Dear Bob,

The Doobies and I are so pleased you liked our “under covid cover” of “Let It Rain.” I’ve been a fan of their’s since their first album and was inspired to write Doobie Wah because I loved them and their music.

I opened for them way back and was in awe.  They were great then and keep on being great always. We recently toured together again and it was so enjoyable. Great people, good friends and I’m honoured to share this track with them.

Thanks Bob,

Peter

_______________________________________

From: Tom Johnston

Re: The Doobies & Frampton Play “Let It Rain”

Bob,

You hit upon two major factors in doing this project. One being we had a ball doing this song off that first Clapton solo album which I loved as did Peter and everyone else.

Secondly, we have toured with Peter twice. Last time was 2015 and it was a great pairing. Great jams and just watching each other play. And Peter can PLAY!

But you’re right, when you are singing/playing a song like this it is all about how good it feels!

So this was a win win for all of us.

And from some of the comments I’ve seen, the people are digging it too. 

It’s an upbeat song in decidedly rough times and folks need that right now. Something to make you smile and sing along. And with touring on hold so do we!

Tom

Separately.

As in not together. But they’ve both got videos you should watch once. But will you watch them again, will you send them to your friends, that’s the question.

At this point, seemingly all virality is serendipitous, you can’t pre-plan it. Come on, if someone told you a guy in Idaho skateboarding to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” drinking Ocean Spray would become a phenomenon, you would have done a spit-take.

Then again, how far is its reach? I did a Zoom call with a music management company yesterday and everybody was aware of it. But when there was an ad on TV Felice didn’t catch the references, and when I explained it to her, she still didn’t get it, she was unaware, she hadn’t seen it. Welcome to now, when what’s big in your own little bubble might be unknown elsewhere. Too many still think it’s the last century, with anointed gatekeepers, who dripped out only a few nuggets of information. But today it’s a firehose of info and if you don’t step away, find your own space, you’re gonna drown. Still, how do we achieve that “Dreams”/Ocean Spray phenomenon?

Well, you’ve got to ask yourself the question above, are you going for multiple views or just a train-wreck that people can’t help but forward?

You’re best off going for repeatability, which tends to engender forwarding.

And that tends to depend on raw creativity more than execution. Like Mike Campbell/The Dirty Knobs’ “F*ck That Guy.”

https://bit.ly/3jC26Dc

Actually, you should definitely watch this clip first. Because it’s low-key, as opposed to Jack Black’s. But what makes it work is the visuals, the guy with the Covid-19 head, that’s what makes the whole video, the concept, the execution is secondary. Everybody hates Covid-19, this guy walking around with the virus on his head engenders hate immediately. The video is more than surface, it gets your brain firing. And the song penetrates you a bit. But is it enough for true virality? Not everybody is gonna like the song, not everybody is a Mike Campbell fan, but the concept is so damn good, many people will forward the clip, assuming they see it.

And then comes Jack Black’s “Time Warp.”

https://bit.ly/37OKHVr

There have been tons of these VOTE videos, and not a single one has caught fire, not a single one. Which is kind of amazing, doesn’t anybody have the creativity to cut through? It looks not.

And the problem with Jack Black’s musical performances is they’re always at ten, there’s no subtlety, no director to hold him in check, it’s like Tenacious D always believes it’s on stage long after dark before an audience of 10,000 screaming drunks who just want to party, even though the band’s songs always have an intellectual component, they’re not dumb.

So, I wish this rendition of “Time Warp” had more dynamics.

I also wish it was just a bit closer to the mainstream musically, it’s a bit too much nineties/garage band sound, which has limited appeal, then again this is the sound Gen-X’ers grew up with, begging the question once again, who is this video for?

Jack Black has a huge footprint, people know him, more for his acting than his singing, and he crosses generations, but this sound does not, and the song..? Does anybody under the age of thirty know “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”?

But the cameos make it. It’s been overdone, but mixing actors/musicians and politicians has not, it’s almost akin to “Laugh-In,” if you’re old enough to remember that!

You’ve got to watch it once to see the cameos, and there’s a good chance you’ll forward it, but you’ve got little desire to watch it again, the Mike Campbell video has more repeatability, but less inherent forwardability.

Maybe if the acts switched videos. I’d love to see Jack Black with a Covid-19 head.

And the juxtaposition of Campbell and all these cultural celebrities would be interesting, but…

Like I said at the top, maybe virality can’t be pre-planned, maybe you’ve just got to do what you want as opposed to pandering. Because people know you’re pandering. As for spreading the word, it turns out nobodies own this sphere more than somebodies, which is why TikTok and YouTube killed Quibi. It turns out people want to choose their entertainment and make their own stars. And this confounds oldsters. We’ve got the music business, which uses old stars to build new stars, mixing them up in features, and then signing the social media stars who always fade thereafter, because their one viral moment was their one viral moment.

Which brings us back to Mike Campbell. He’s on the right path. And the song is good, but it’s not a one listen smash.

But those are hard to create.

But start there.

bit.ly/2Tuus7I

It’s the solos you want to watch for.

Eric Clapton’s initial solo LP was a disappointment.

Cream broke up and Clapton played, alongside Dave Mason, late of Traffic, with Delaney & Bonnie, to the point an album was ultimately released, “On Tour,” which featured the initial recording, the most famous recording, although not the best recording, of Mason’s “Only You Know and I Know,” alongside the Bramletts and Clapton’s “Comin’ Home,” featuring Eric’s unmistakable wailing. But most people were unaware. This was 1970, before there was FM underground rock in all markets, where to go big you needed a track to cross over to AM, which is what happened with Cream with “Sunshine of Your Love” and “White Room.”

Then, in the spring, both Clapton and Mason released their initial solo LPs. “Alone Together” was an instant classic, with its cover, rainbow vinyl and tunes, along with the definitive take on “Only You Know and I Know,” a bit quieter, with an acoustic guitar prominent in the mix. Clapton’s self-titled solo debut focused more on his singing than his playing, and in retrospect it’s his best solo work, but without that instant crossover hit on AM, it was purchased by fans of the man and played on what FM outlets there were, but it wasn’t until the following year, when Eric hooked up with Duane Allman and a hotshot band of his own that his tracks became ubiquitous once again.

Yes, “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” is Clapton’s best post-Cream album, however we must credit it to the group, the Dominos, as opposed to solely Clapton himself. Then again, it contains lengthy masterpieces, not only the title track but the first version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” that most people heard, along with “Anyday”… “Layla…” was the right album for the right time. But it still took time to grow, but it and its compatriot double album work by the Allman Brothers, “At Fillmore East,” helped cement the FM firmament, albeit with an emphasis on heavier music than what had come before.

But first there was the self-titled solo LP.

In retrospect, it looks like a smash. It contains “After Midnight,” but it was years later that Michelob made the track ubiquitous, and “Blues Power.” But it also contains my favorite cut on the LP, “Easy Now,” and…”Let It Rain.”

“Let It Rain” was the initial killer. Not the track that got instant airplay, but the one if you owned the album you glommed on to, that delivered what you were looking for, that you played over and over again.

When Clapton reappeared after the Dominos, his sound was in many ways different, the extended hit off “461 Ocean Boulevard,” “I Shot the Sheriff” brought reggae to the masses, albeit in an inferior fashion. “Mainline Florida,” the closing cut, delivered the sound of yore, but you had to buy the LP to hear it, that was never the song played on the radio.

And after conquering heroin and the hinterlands catching up with the metropoli, Clapton was seared into the brains of America, if not the world, as the foremost practitioner of the guitar. People paid attention to everything he did, and FM radio was complicit, there are songs like “Lay Down Sally” that I haven’t listened to completion in years, having been burned out on them via overplay on FM, not only in the seventies, but the eighties too.

Which leaves us with the solo debut. It eventually sold in prodigious numbers, but it took a long time. And as a result of boxed sets and now streaming, people are aware of it, but tracks like “Easy Now” and “Let It Rain” are overlooked at best, especially the former, the latter is seen as a secondary work, if it’s thought of at all.

But if you were of age, if you were there back then, if you were a rock fan, if you bought all the albums, you know every lick of “Let It Rain” by heart, and you immediately want to click this cover to hear it.

On the surface it appears an odd pairing, the Doobies and Frampton, but they must have been on tour together, some time, that’s how I explain it. And I must say, after the initial riff, I was a bit underwhelmed, but then came the SOLOS!

I was thrilled to see Billy Payne playing along. I’m glad he’s found a home with the Doobies, too many of these aces have fallen by the wayside. And I always loved his compositions with Little Feat, but after Lowell died there was too much Paul Barrere, who occasionally delivered, but he was the third best songwriter in the band, and with Lowell gone, so was most of the magic.

But you’re truly wowed when Frampton comes alive.

First you get John McFee on pedal steel, at 1:33, displaying the virtuosity that’s made him the glue in the Doobies, also playing guitar and fiddle and… But at 1:40, Frampton’s there with the Phoenix, his recovered Les Paul, the one he played on “Comes Alive,” and you’re positively stunned that it’s the exact same sound from that album, illustrating how every guitar’s sound is unique. Furthermore, this is a demonstration of Frampton’s skill, which was too long overshadowed by his looks and commercial success.

But then, after a recitation of the chorus, there are more solos. And at 3:08 Tom Johnston channels that iconic Doobies sound, you know, the one that burned up all the airwaves back in the seventies, he’s got his own unique style, back when that was the important thing, as opposed to how fast you can play.

And then Frampton answers Johnston’s work, he ups the ante in response.

And then comes Payne, with understated key work.

And then Pat Simmons alone, representing the other half of the iconic Doobies sound, it was the yin and the yang of Pat and Tom that was the special sauce that made the band’s sound so satisfying.

And somewhere in this axe fest, you realize everybody’s having fun. That’s the difference between yesterday and today, the moments on stage interacting with your brethren, being inspired, playing, that was why you did it. Sure, you liked the girls and the money, but they were secondary, it was the music that set your mind free, that lifted your spirits, and it translated to the audience, which is why these classic rockers and their spawn playing real instruments do such incredible live business. The Spotify Top 50 deliver a show, these people deliver a CONCERT!

And there’s a through line. You know that every one of these players was sitting in their bedroom spinning that initial Clapton solo LP, they devoured it, they unpacked it, they were inspired by it.

Just like you and me.

amzn.to/3kA6XWt

I bought it before I found out it was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick.

We finished the second season of “Top of the Lake.” But there was no lake, the action shifted to Sydney, and it did not ring true until about halfway through, then I got hooked. And I’ve also become an Elisabeth Moss fan, she closed me in this series, previously I’d found her too muted, too much in the background.

And then we shifted to “Fortitude,” on Amazon.

Winter is coming. I yearn for it. But those bitter cold days in December and January, not when it’s sunny, but dark…they make you yearn for summer, what a conundrum. But I’m into the winter lifestyle, I lived it for years, but not in years. Is it still the same, do you still feel isolated with the internet, Amazon and FedEx? I’m not talking about being in a resort area, that’s different. But just a town, and in the coldest of territories they’re all towns, because few want to live there. Everybody knows everybody else’s name and also their business, and I found that limiting. That’s one of the things I like most about Los Angeles, the anonymity. As for people moving away, Gene Simmons is leaving for Washington, I doubt they’ll be happy. It all looks good until you actually live there, and you experience the limitations. Sure, maybe the grocery store is open 24/7, but try getting a late meal, try making new friends, it’s inherently isolating, and if you haven’t lived it you probably won’t like it. As for leaving Los Angeles…you can only do it once, unless you’re rich. You cash out your dwelling for much more than you paid for it, you buy a new and better house for a fraction of the price somewhere else and have all this money left over. Meanwhile, real estate prices keep rising in L.A., and you can’t afford to move back. Think twice before you leave town, but people are impulsive, they always convince themselves it will be better somewhere else.

So “Fortitude” is set in a town north of the Arctic Circle. They don’t make it totally clear where, somewhere north of England and Norway, but the reality is it’s snowed in, all the time. There are glaciers. Kind of like Alaska. Take a cruise to Alaska, especially if you’ve never seen the frontier. You stare out at the endless nothingness and you get afraid, what if you were stranded out there?

And Fortitude, the name of the town, is kept alive by a research institute and a mine, but the mine is closing and there’s a push for a hotel and tourism and…

It’s very bleak. Spring has sprung, therefore it’s not dark all day, but the people are still bundled up, it still snows, the roads are covered in white. I love this landscape. And going outside in the cold makes you feel alive. And the mountains tower, but they’re also your friends, you own them, even though they’re unownable. And yes, “Fortitude” is another crime show, well-reviewed, which is why we’re watching it, but I don’t recommend it to everybody. Because these shows are inherently slow. And if this genre appeals to you, start off with “Trapped,” which is on one of the three big streaming services, I can’t remember which, and the truth is shows shift platforms. And if you want to start off with a book, don’t start off with “Such a Fun Age,” I’m not quite sure I can recommend it.

Like streaming TV shows, I don’t go by popularity, I go by reviews. I find that a lot of what people like is crap. Especially in books. So I was searching. Having gone over the 2020 books numerous times, I decided to tackle the 2019 best of lists. And one of the books that was mentioned was “Such a Fun Age,” they said it was long-listed for the Booker Prize.

Now the truth is oftentimes the winner of the Booker Prize is unreadable. Readability is not the main criterion in book competitions. But I downloaded the sample to my Kindle weeks ago and I was looking for a new book and started reading it.

Well, I started a few other samples first, and none resonated. I’m always hesitant to buy a book that bores me right from the start, even if people recommend it, I’m looking for something to engage me, that’s written in plain English, without a plethora of description, that flows like life, and the sample chapter of “Such a Fun Age” did, which is why I bought it.

And the truth is Kindle downloads start at the beginning. Of the tale, not the book. They skip over the cover, title page and table of contents. And I don’t bother with them unless I buy the book itself, since I abandon so many samples. And when I bought “Such a Fun Age” and clicked to begin at the cover I was disheartened to find out it was a Reese pick. I’m not sure I’ll download a Reese pick again. Because they’re made for a special audience. Females. Who don’t want anything too challenging, something that carries along, that can be made into a film.

And, unfortunately, sometimes that’s how “Such a Fun Age” reads, as if it were a treatment for a film, which I’m sure it will be.

But I must say I was drawn to it, I finished “Such a Fun Age” just now, mere days after I bought it. And you want a book calling out to you, especially in these dark days of Covid-19. We turn people off to books at a very young age, reading is seen as a chore. And the books required and recommended too often are the equivalent of eating your Wheaties, and you never want to read one again. If only someone could recommend the good stuff for each and every reader. People say independent bookstores do this, but the people I’m talking about never go into a bookstore, they don’t see it as an emporium of excitement.

So, the main character is African-American. And because so much of the book is set in the upper middle class white world I somehow thought it was written by someone from that world, and I got nervous, could a white woman really write this way, have the characters talk this way? But when I finished the book, I went to the web and did some research, and the author, Kiley Reid, is African-American. Light-skinned. And that’s a theme in this book. You can’t talk about it if you’re white, but if you’re black…how black are you, who do you appeal to, are certain romantic avenues closed to you?

Once again, this is the book. But these are touchy subjects in America today. There are racist people, but does that mean a non-racist person can’t write a book with a racist character, cannot address race at all?

That’s a reason to read “Such a Fun Age,” even though it was written before last spring’s protests. The intersection of white and black. What it’s like being black in America today. Whites think they’ve got it handled, that they know, but they almost never do. And all the issues surrounding this interaction are covered in this book. Should we judge negatively those who bend over backwards to lift up black people, are they doing it for themselves, to make them feel good?

And Emira and all of her friends are educated, they’re college graduates. But that does not mean their culture has been squeezed out of them. And one friend is rich, but Emira struggles. She doesn’t know what she wants, where she wants to be, and she’s aging every day, how is she gonna keep a roof over her head, will she ever get a job with health insurance?

So, Emira is a part time babysitter, for a white family.

And there the games begin.

But there are a lot of games, and not only racial interactions. Do you hate your kid because they need too much attention, do you want to foist them off on the help? Once you have kids and move out of the big city do you lose all your connections, is your career on the road to ruin? We all have wants and dreams, and then life happens and we find out we’re somewhere we never planned to be, oftentimes with an inability to go back to where we thought we once belonged.

And relationships… Do they ever die? Do you ever get completely over one, or do they remain dormant, ready to be activated at any time.

Now the good thing about this book is the expected doesn’t always happen, and when it does, it happens much sooner than it would in other books. You discover the set-up and you sigh, am I really gonna have to wait until the end for these characters to meet? Usually you do, but not in “Such a Fun Age.”

So, if you’re a snob, don’t read this book.

Then again, it’s not pure trash, not by a long shot.

And if you’re a guy…most guys don’t want to read this stuff, even if they’re reading fiction. This is not chick-lit, “Such a Fun Age” is not a genre book, but you can see how it would appeal to women first. And if you follow the fiction business, you know it’s driven by women.

But that does not mean men can’t read “Such a Fun Age.” All the characters and themes were interesting to me. But I love going below the surface, the game board is interesting, but not as interesting as the pieces, the players, what makes them up, what are their motivations?

So, I’m hesitant to recommend “Such a Fun Age.” It’s not a highbrow tour-de-force, this is not Jonathan Franzen, even though Franzen can at times be highly readable. But “Such a Fun Age” does make you think, does open your eyes to issues, and its plot is interesting enough to keep you reading, you won’t want to discard it in the middle.

It’s really hard to do great work. REALLY hard. We’re all looking for greatness and when we find it, we tell everybody about it. The iconic songs, books and movies are such for a reason, all the stars aligned. You’ve got to have the concept and then you’ve got to execute without getting self-conscious. And it’s worst with books, they take so long to write and oftentimes you know you’re off-track long before you finish, what should you do, scrap it or complete it?

Books are not records. Records have to work throughout, books can be imperfect in spots and still be worth reading.

I’m looking for experiences to take me away, make me forget this interactive world where we’re all piling up on each other 24/7. Which is why I’m into “Fortitude,” it’s isolated and it’s slow, what’s happening far away doesn’t matter.

And when you read “Such a Fun Age” you will be engulfed in its world. And even though anybody can read it, the experience is very personal, you truly believe you’re in these rooms, an observer, the characters mean something to you.

That’s another element of so much great art. It’s PERSONAL! Too much is ground down to appeal to everybody, theoretically anyway. But it’s when you dig down and reveal your true self, when you create real situations, that’s when we’re most interested in what you have to say.

Gotta find a new book.