You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

If Trump wins the election, there will be riots in the street.

The right believes by countering the protests, by waving the flag of law and order, they’re winning. What they don’t know is decades of tilting the playing field and working the refs has come back to haunt them.

If I talk about politics, and I’d rather not, like the rest of America I’d rather vote and get on with my life, paying cursory attention, those on the right get up in arms, they bite back, they tell me I’m wrong, but they don’t unsubscribe, whereas those on the left say nothing and if they’re sick and tired of being sick and tired they unsubscribe quietly and head into the night. Oh, then there are those on the right who want to make a point, they respond UNSUBSCRIBE when they know very well there’s a link at the bottom of each e-mail to do this, they just want to get their opinion heard. You see the right is working the refs and getting a disproportionate share of the left to question their numbers and beliefs, when each and every poll indicates the public overwhelmingly despises Trump and his policies.

That does not mean he won’t win. He’s helped by gerrymandering and voter suppression, and an expressed willingness not to accept the result if it doesn’t go his way. Then what?

This is not the America of 2016, never mind 1980. The problems of the underclass, of what’s left of the middle class, have festered to the point where people cannot take it anymore, they’re hopeless. That’s another reason Hillary lost, she represented more of what we already had, which wasn’t working for so many people. If I hear one more talking head or writer laud Obama my head is gonna explode. I’ve got nothing against the man, but he didn’t solve the underlying problems of America and Timothy Geithner succeeded in not only rescuing the banks, but paying them handsomely while the regular folk lost their homes and tried to stave off bankruptcy.

In other words, there’s no poll that will truly tell you the national mood, what’s blowin’ in the wind. But I’ll tell you it’s dissatisfaction, anger at minority rule for far too long. That’s right, Trump loses the popular vote and still gets in the White House. Gerrymandering results in a disproportionate number of Republicans getting into Congress, and the idea that less populated states like North Dakota and Wyoming get as many senators as California and New York is sticking in people’s craws.

Yes, everything is up for grabs.

There’s a belief that we adhere to a system, that the entire country buys in and we all play by the rules. But the Republicans haven’t played by the rules for decades and the Democrats have been too scared to stand up to them and the end result is people, not only the young, and of all colors, have taken to the streets to protest the state of America. And the only way to keep them down is through the use of the military.

You keep hearing the canard on the left that Trump won’t stay in office because the military is not on his side. I don’t see the federal law enforcement employees refusing to step up in Portland, what makes you think this is true, especially in a country wherein the commander of an aircraft carrier stands up for his coronavirus-infected sailors and he loses his job. Yes, that was political, just like the recent incarceration of Michael Cohen. As for Roger Stone, that’s no longer on the front page, unfortunately, but do you think America has forgotten about it? NO!

While the right oppresses, the left does nothing. Covid-19 rages and all Democratic governors and mayors can do is blame Trump. No one will stand up to the man, no one will outline a plan, a solution. Meanwhile, just yesterday Trump said we’ve got to push to reopen states. Do you think the public is ignorant, that they’ve got no clue as to what is going on? The news outlets and those in power keep blaming the young ‘uns, for partying. But the truth is these same young people stayed home under lockdown in March and April, and what was the result? NOTHING! There was no plan to transition from closed to opening, which should have been done slowly with testing and contact tracing, but those were absent.

In other words, it’s a free-for-all. And you expect the public to obey the law?

Back when music ruled the world, back when people listened to artists, before it was all about their brand and the number of streams and money, the bard from Hibbing sang:

When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose

You just can’t make it in America anymore. I just finished reading this book “Want,” by Lynn Steger Strong. It’s about the plight of a millennial couple. The wife’s got a Ph.D., but she can’t get a full-time professorship. Her husband leaves the bank because it’s soulless and unfulfilling and…they end up declaring bankruptcy. Student loans, dentistry problems, the vagaries of life…they happen to everyone and the only people who can survive them are those with rich parents or the thin layer employed on Wall Street and maybe in tech. Where is the hope for these people? They did everything right and it turned out to be wrong.

We didn’t expect the death of George Floyd to result in spontaneous combustion, not only protests in the blue cities, but the red, even overseas. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back, enough is enough.

So, federal troops, essentially secret police, rounding up people in the night…I’ll protest that to the end of time. The Holocaust taught us you stand up early, you just don’t let heinous activity continue in plain sight. Yes, there were news stories back then, but people shrugged and said it can’t be that bad, I don’t believe it, and then the camps were liberated and the photos came out and…

People still don’t believe it. Yes, the Jews are scapegoats. Are you following what happened with Wiley in the U.K., never mind Nick Cannon in the U.S? Sure, it’s anti-Semitism, but you get scapegoats when people feel oppressed and need someone to blame, no wonder it’s increased dramatically under Trump.

So, the people protesting/rioting/whatever believe they are powerless and the only way to stand up to the oppression is to take to the streets. They don’t care about the consequences. They’re willing to be gassed, get arrested, have their bones broken. They’re the last line of defense. This is the history of revolutions, if you studied them you’d know, and if Trump steals the election, or refuses to accept the vote, these protesters are going to go berserk and will be joined by many more, and the protests will not stop and it will not be business as usual.

Trump and Fox and Limbaugh and the rest of the right wing bloviators believe law and order will win the day, that if they keep denigrating the protesters, focus on destruction, they’ll remain in power. NO WAY! No one wants buildings burned down, businesses trashed, but the truth is it’s a result of Trump bringing in the feds. Before he did, the protests were not violent. In other words, it’s Trump who poured the gasoline on the smoldering ashes. Of course, if you’re in the right wing bubble, you believe just the opposite. That the public is scary and uncontrollable and must be kept down. That’s another thing the protesters have had enough of, social media that allows disinformation to run rampant. Just because Republicans are ignorant, that does not mean everyone else is. Do you have the equivalent of QAnon on the left? OF COURSE NOT!

Like Leonard Cohen sang, everybody knows.

But what the young and oppressed know, those who didn’t succeed in getting theirs after Reagan trashed taxes and before the cost of higher education went through the roof, is the game is rigged and they’ve lost and they’re no longer going to stand for it.

So, Trump wins. There are hosannas on Fox News. And just that quickly, they’re truly rioting in the streets, setting fires, overturning cars. And they’re not gonna stop, just like the protests haven’t stopped since May. And chaos will reign and the end result is Trump will declare martial law and the transition will be complete, we’ll live in an authoritarian state.

Blame the Republicans. Who are complicit, the Vichy regime.

Blame Fox and the rest of right wing news outlets, who did it for the money.

But don’t blame the protesters, the hoi polloi, the regular people. They’ve given up on the system, the law. They’re willing to sacrifice everything they’ve got because they don’t have that much. You can only push people so far before they’ll react.

So, read the news about the horse race. It’s irrelevant. The only people paying attention are those invested in the game. But most of the public opted out long ago. They just can’t win under these rules. And if you push them any further…

They’re gonna go wild in the streets and won’t stop until Trump and his cronies, including the spineless senators, either cave or crumble.

Come on, the rule of law didn’t save all those companies disrupted by the internet. And the record labels sued their customers, how did that work out? Just because you’re rich that does not mean you have power. Nothing can compete with the masses other than armor.

Beware of that.

This is what happens when government is out of touch with the people.

America slides into fascism and what do the Democrats do? Tell us to wait for the election. The same way they tell us their hands are tied as Covid-19 ravages the nation. Don’t they get it, IT’S NOT BUSINESS AS USUAL!

The system has failed the people. And the Democrats no longer represent the people. Rather the party is run by boomer elites who won money and power during the Reagan legitimization of greed and think they know better as their traditional constituency, blue collar and service workers, are told they must shut up and eat it, because the DNC knows better and the big enemy is the Republicans. Huh?

This is not the sixties. This is not the America of the twentieth century. Furthermore, it’s no longer the greatest country in the world. Covid-19 has proven this. 2008 demonstrated our country ran on greed, Covid-19 has proven that the government is unprepared for bumps in the road, just like our citizens have no money in the bank.

As for the Republicans…

Trump won because people hated Clinton. It’s just that simple. Give the Republicans credit, their hate campaign worked, they defined Hillary over the course of fifteen years and the public bought it. The only problem was they were part of the problem, causing gridlock in D.C. to the point where nothing was getting done anyway.

And they decry Trump, and then get into lockstep behind him when he gets elected. Like an abuser who keeps going home for the punch, who sacrifices her ideals and her safety because she’s afraid of being kicked out and ending up broke on the street. As if the only way these elected officials could earn a living is in Congress.

And now we’re here.

Can’t say you couldn’t see it coming.

Scratch that. We couldn’t. The spontaneous combustion of the public was heretofore unforeseen by anybody alive. Protests never spread this broadly in the sixties. And it was mainly the youth. And to a great degree, when it comes to Vietnam, the white college age youth.

There’s always a trigger event, isn’t that what history teaches us? The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand triggered World War I and the Arab Spring was triggered by an overeducated fruit vendor self-immolating. George Floyd is killed and what do the Republicans say, what is their talking point? MORE WHITES DIE! And while you’re at it, what about Chicago? Talk about being out of touch. The Republicans speak to their base, which is far less than fifty percent of the public. And they wouldn’t be in power if it weren’t for gerrymandering and voter suppression, did they think there would be no consequences?

And now Trump is trying to recreate 1968. Believing that law and order will win the day, that that’s what America wants. But that was back when hippies were the enemy. Who exactly is the enemy here, African-Americans, the white people protesting in Omaha and Salt Lake City?

At least give credit to the NFL for backing down, realizing the slaves on their plantation had had enough. Colin Kaepernick protests and they excommunicate him, take away his bread and water, isn’t that what blackballing and refusing to let him play and make money is all about?. They were teaching the rest of the players a lesson, get out of line and…this could happen to you.

And the funny thing is the NFL, and most notably the NBA, are dominated by African-Americans, and the music charts are dominated by African-Americans, do you think oppression of them is going to resonate with the majority of the public?

But Trump keeps waving the white nationalism flag. And whenever he does Tucker Carlson denies any racism and pushes back, saying everybody on their side is innocent, while he laughs all the while.

Carlson was never this bad before. Bad, but not this bad. He’s doing it for ratings.

And Roger Ailes knew you had to give the appearance of being “Fair and Balanced.” They don’t even use that motto anymore.

Go to the website, watch Fox News, it’s an alternative universe. Not dissimilar to the one you find on Facebook. And if you make noise about it they tell you it’s about freedom of speech. How did we get here, with the water so muddied that facts are up for grabs and spin is everything?

Meanwhile, our nation is ruled by an uneducated nitwit billionaire. We thought Bill Gates was bad, Mark Zuckerberg is much worse, he’s got no conscience, it’s all about the company and its shareholders.

We did not foresee the siloing of the news. We did not foresee social media. But that does not mean the ills should be left unaddressed.

But the public at large has gotten the message. Despite all the duplicity. They know that the country is no longer working for them and democracy is up for grabs, so they’ve taken to the streets.

It was not supposed to go down this way. It was the Republicans who were supposed to fight back, with all their guns protected by the NRA and an inefficient Congress. Instead, it’s those without weapons, but numbers, who are leading the charge.

As for the gun club, they are the ones responsible for reopening this country too soon, protesting on statehouse steps. Yup, everybody’s afraid of a gun, until EVERYBODY’S AFRAID!

What are they afraid of?

That they’re losing their rights slowly over time to the point where the country will resemble a dictatorship in Eastern Europe. They keep telling us it can’t happen here, while it does.

As for the news media… It just reports, it doesn’t take a side, like a ref in a rigged game it calls the fouls but it doesn’t call the game, when the whole enterprise must be questioned.

Workers can’t make ends meet while billionaires fly around in private jets.

Relief is given to financial institutions, corporations, while the government can’t eke out a few more dollars for the proletariat because it’s gonna break the bank. Screw the bank, how about the whole damn country?

Meanwhile, Trump rules with impunity. We make fun of him, books delineating his flaws are published, and there’s no change.

The polls say he will lose, but that assumes the election will be held and not rigged and the result accepted. Yes, have you been reading about the “secret powers” of the presidency? Sounds ridiculous, but it’s true:

How Powerful Is the President?

No one is afraid of the protesters. This is not a riot where they believe they’re coming for their goods, that their safety is in question. There’s no doubt this is a protest against the government, not fellow citizens. That’s what the right does, not the left. So, the public is behind the demonstrators, who just don’t stop, who just won’t give up.

So, Trump sends federal troops to Portland and says he’s gonna send them to more cities and what do the Democrats do? NOTHING! Yup, he tells us exactly what he’s going to do, and has a long history of doing what he says, but the elected officials and their bought-in media just accept it.

But the people are not. And the last time I checked, the government was supposed to be by the people, for the people, ain’t that a laugh.

Even if the Democrats sweep D.C. in November…what happens in the interim? What happens between November and the inauguration in January?

Oh, let’s see, in Wisconsin and North Carolina the outgoing regime attempts to strip the newbie’s powers. If you don’t think that’s a harbinger for D.C…you believe it can’t happen here, while it has!

The protesters are standing up for you, whether you know it or not. They’re even standing up for the Republican dimwits addicted to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, because this is exactly what they’re afraid of, a government run amok, where their individual freedom is compromised.

Meanwhile, the right keeps yelling about their freedom whilst curtailing ours, like the right to abortion.

As for federal troops, how about arresting anybody who won’t wear a mask?

All anybody wants to talk about is this. If you think the country is running somnambulantly, with heads in holes like ostriches, you’re wrong. Because people know what is at stake, EVERYTHING!

Don’t tell me about the rule of law, don’t tell me about precedence. Speaking of precedent, that’s how the legal system works, stare decisis. And as for the ultimate arbiter, the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell refused to accept Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland and…he got away with it and now the Supreme Court is stacked to the right and we just pray that Roberts’s conscience will save us. Then again, where was he on voting rights, the law protecting minority access to the polls? Now if you’re black you have to wait hours to vote at few polling places. Meanwhile, in a raging pandemic you can’t even vote by mail.

These protests are heartening. It’s the best I’ve felt in three years. They give me hope. That the entire country just isn’t going to go down the drain. Most Americans have been depressed, for decades, but they have felt powerless since the election of Trump. It’s good to know some people are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore.

We’re the last line of defense, you and me. It’s our responsibility to stand up to fascism. Which never sleeps, just like rust.

People have the right to protest peacefully.

But this is intolerable to our whiny, delusional president, who believes he can spew falsehoods and people will accept them. He’s not on the people’s side, he’s on HIS side, just like his hero Putin.

Come on, the guy won’t release his tax returns, won’t investigate the Russian bounty in Afghanistan while the Republicans defend him and keep blaming it on Clinton’s e-mails. Trump tells us Putin is a fine, trustworthy man, why do we keep thinking he doesn’t believe it?

This is it, the last line of defense before America goes down the drain.

If you think the election is gonna solve our problems then…you’re probably wealthy enough to be enduring this pandemic no problem.

We don’t live in 1789. The Supreme Court’s embrace of “originalism” is faulty. We saw what happened to this perspective in the music business, it couldn’t stop piracy, it couldn’t bring people back to CDs. After losing half of recorded music revenue the business embraced the future, in this case streaming, and then revenues went up! It’s time for our courts, our government, our entire country to live in the present as opposed to the past, to throw off old precepts and address the issues at hand. Which boil down to America no longer working for most people. And that you can only push people so hard before they’ll revolt. THANK GOD!

Peter Green

Fleetwood Mac meant little in the U.S. Their singles did not burn up the chart, and in the incarnation that featured Peter Green, there was almost no underground FM radio other than in the metropolis, if that. In other words, getting into Fleetwood Mac was a secret process, via word of mouth, there was no big ad campaign, no media presence at all, but as a result of touring some people knew the band…but very few.

Whilst the Brits were embracing the blues, in America we were focused on folk. The blues legends walking in our midst didn’t impress us, weren’t exotic, the pop chart was filled with studio concoctions, like in that movie “The Idolmaker.” It’s not radically different today if you think about it. Fabian was a big star, his name was everywhere, ever hear anybody talk about him recently, even heard his music on the radio? Of course not, it was disposable.

But in the U.K., the blues records imported by sailors and embraced by the populous inspired teenagers to pick up the guitar. They were wailing while across the pond people were sleeping. The cultural consciousness in America was ruled by the Yankees, Mickey Mantle was a bigger star than any musician.

And then came the Beatles.

When the Beatles arrived in the U.S. they were fully-formed. It would be like getting version 3.0 of the software instead of the beta. They’d paid their dues on the road, they’d had radio success in the U.K. and when America saw them on Ed Sullivan…it wiped what had come before right off the map, instantly. You see there was a ready stable of acts to follow the Beatles in their invasion of the U.S. If it wasn’t British, it wasn’t cool. And Americans didn’t reign again until the San Francisco sound, which started to make a dent in ’67, three years later.

In the interim, Dylan went electric. Folk music disappeared, other than at singalongs at summer camps and houses of worship. And if you wanted to know which way the wind blew, you turned on the radio.

And at this point, most people were still buying singles. The album truly didn’t become desirable until “Sgt. Pepper,” and that was in ’67. And sure, the Yardbirds had hit with “For Your Love” and to a lesser degree “Heart Full of Soul,” but gunslingers, guitar gods, were not yet a thing. George Harrison was good enough for us. Until Jimi Hendrix. An American who had to fly across the pond to get recognized.

But the music Hendrix was making…they never played it on AM radio. It was an underground thing. But then along came Cream, and in the summer of ’68, “Sunshine of Your Love” crossed over to AM radio and the hoi polloi, your regular American, was exposed to the album rock sound, something not made for AM radio, records that were embraced by AM for fear their audience would defect. Which eventually it did, but in most burgs it took until the seventies before FM, which was no longer underground and free-form, was a thing.

Now when an act hits, listeners go back to the catalog. Back before you were expected to have a hit the first time out, when you were trying to create a body of work, when it was about the music…and the money and the chicks…in that order. Brand? Endorsements? Privates? Sponsors? They weren’t even a thing. If for no other reason than being a musician paid well enough, assuming your manager didn’t rip you off, or you didn’t blow all the money. There were no billionaires. If you were a star, you had plenty. And you didn’t want to compromise the music, no way.

So, suddenly, starting in ’67, Clapton became God. To a small cadre of listeners, members of the mainstream public didn’t come along until Cream’s final album “Goodbye.” As for Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck…well, Beck was that guy in “Blow-Up,” but that’s all most people knew of him, if they knew him at all.

But they knew Clapton so they needed more, and they went back to the source, John Mayall’s “Blues Breakers” album, with a young Eric on the cover. Older boomers were cottoning to the blues sound, they were moving away from AM, breaking their own trail, you didn’t want to be a member of the group in the sixties, being unique was a badge of honor.

So, just like with the British Invasion following the Beatles, there was one that followed Hendrix and Clapton. Eventually, in ’69, Led Zeppelin appeared, but that band didn’t really hit until the fall of ’70, with “Whole Lotta Love,” they went from unknown to everywhere, but by this time, Peter Green had already left Fleetwood Mac.

Now a few fans of the “Blues Breakers” album stayed with Mayall and purchased the next LP, “A Hard Road,” with Peter Green, but the star, the attraction to the previous LP, was Eric Clapton, and they followed E.C. and his work and some of the new bands who were less steeped in the blues, who injected more rock, which were coming to America in droves.

And in the fall of ’69, assuming you were looking, assuming you went to a record shop as opposed to a discount store stocked by a rack jobber, you saw the Fleetwood Mac LP “Then Play On” in the bins, with its attractive cover, but once again, you had to buy it to hear it, and not hearing it on the radio, most people did not.

Now it was different in the U.K. Peter Green was a known quantity. As were Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. And the country was smaller and radio was more open and the band got airplay over there, but absolutely none in the U.S. Except for “Oh Well,” which somehow made it to #55 on the “Billboard” chart, but this was pre-Soundscan, when the chart was manipulated, and in reality, anything below 40, really more like 20, wasn’t played anyway. Yes, underground FM stations were playing it, but once again, there weren’t that many of them and they had no chart…that would be offensive to the ethos of the format.

So I knew “Oh Well.” From the radio. But I was lucky enough to be in the New York radio market.

But there were Fleetwood Mac fans. Primarily from the road work the band did. You hoped radio and the road went hand in hand, but prior to “Then Play On” Fleetwood Mac was on Blue Horizon, with little budget or impact, whereas “Then Play On” was on Reprise.

But then, Fleetwood Mac became known for its bizarre story as opposed to its music. Yes, by this time there was a rock press. And word was spread that Peter Green had left Fleetwood Mac because he was mentally ill, back when this had a huge stigma, when no one admitted it. Better to O.D. than to quit because you were hobbled by the problems in your brain.

The remaining members regrouped and recorded “Kiln House,” and delivered a radio track, “Station Man,” broadening its audience. But then Jeremy Spencer left the band mid-tour to join the Children of God, back when cults were new…you couldn’t help wonder what inspired him, especially in an era were musicians were gods.

Meanwhile, Christine McVie joined the band…she was a known quantity in the U.K., but completely unknown in the U.S. Paul McCartney let his wife Linda sing and play, but that was considered a joke, but Christine came with a CV and her presence added an exotic element, as well as a new dimension to the sound.

And now, being part of the Warner family, there was album after album until… The band’s manager, Clifford Davis, put a bogus version of the act on the road to fulfill dates and the story blew up, bigger than the music ever had. Could you get your money back if you bought a ticket? Who owned the name? How could he do this? The story was in the rock press for months.

And then the band comes back, astoundingly, because this looked like the end, yet now everybody knew their name and “Heroes are Hard to Find” was their biggest LP ever in the U.S. and then guitarist Bob Welch promptly quit.

This is where the rest of the public comes in, at this down and out moment Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham are asked to join the band, and the rest is history.

A long history. With multiple guitarists and sounds. And Peter Green was at the beginning, his story was mostly unknown.

But the fan base the band had remembered him, so when Stevie and Lindsey came on board…they had to play his songs. Lindsey could play “Oh Well” – both “Pt. 1” and “Pt. 2,” they went together, the first raucous, the second slow and meaningful, kinda like “Layla” if you think about it, and “Green Manalishi” was often part of the set too.

But Lindsey didn’t write them.

Today there are ten year olds who can shred like Jimmy Page.

But they can’t write. And few can sing. As a matter of fact, even Jimmy Page can’t sing. But Peter Green could do all three! And he was there at the beginning, he was inventing the sound, plowing the way.

Progenitors. They don’t often get the acclaim they deserve. Or they get a victory lap or an award way down the line. But without them, history would be different.

Now by time the Stevie/Lindsey Fleetwood Mac became superstars, people hungered for more information, and the saga of Peter Green became more well-known. And eventually Green even re-emerged, a shadow of his former self, but he could still play.

And now he’s dead.

The truth is Fleetwood Mac could never replace Peter Green. It was impossible. You see at this level, everybody’s got a different style, a different tone, as for writing…

“Oh Well” wasn’t Peter Green’s only composition that lives on.

There’s the aforementioned “Green Manalishi.”

And “Albatross,” a track that most boomers have heard, but being an instrumental many are unaware it’s written and played by Peter Green, never mind Fleetwood Mac.

And, of course, “Black Magic Woman.” The biggest hit Santana ever had, other than those on the ersatz comeback album of 1999, but I ask you, when was the last time you heard “Smooth,” never mind “Maria Maria.” You see those two tracks are commerce, “Black Magic Woman” is art, like it says in the title, MAGIC!

Now Carlos and his band did an incredible version of “Black Magic Woman,” but the blueprint was right there in the original, which is more stripped-down, and has more soul.

And to this day, most people don’t know “Black Magic Woman” was written by Peter Green, never mind that it’s a Fleetwood Mac original.

So, what have we learned?

Not much about Peter Green the man, he’s an enigma. Oh, when he was smoothed out in his later years, he gave some interviews, but that does not mean they contained the truth, never mind the whole story. A story wherein a teenager practices and practices for his opportunity, truly becomes world class, and not only reaches the pinnacle, playing with John Mayall, but then breaks away and leaves an indelible mark on rock history.

If he’d died in a plane crash, if as a result even AM radio played “Oh Well” and “Albatross,” he’d have the name value of Ritchie Valens or the Big Bopper, who left much less of a footprint, or the rest of those who succumbed to tragedy in rock history.

But Peter Green lived on. He was hiding in plain sight, and now he’s gone.

Kind of like the delta blues legends who inspired him and his cohorts to begin with.

It’s been a long time. Over fifty years. Longer than it took for Robert Johnson to infect all these British legends. And in this case, all the recordings still exist, and they’re not disposable crap, like the stuff on “Supernatural,” they’re pure, they’re instruction manuals, they’re easily accessible to everyone online.

So, the book closes on Peter Green. But in truth, the book closed on the sound he helped create long ago. It’s not the sound the current iteration of Fleetwood Mac purveys, it’s not what youngsters are exploring today, it’s dormant. Oh, you can hear it on oldies stations, classic rock, but I haven’t heard of any youngsters doing anything other than imitating guitar gods, if that, never mind being inspired to write something new, that pushes the envelope.

And speaking of writing… Got to give Jimmy Page credit, even if some of his great compositions were “inspired,” or totally ripped-off from others. But as I said above, Page can’t sing.

And neither can Jeff Beck, the best gunslinger of them all, he can’t really even write.

And then there’s Eric Clapton. Who has been able to do all three. But Duane Allman wrote and played the legendary riff on “Layla.” And…oh, I don’t need to bring Clapton down a notch, I’ll just say that Peter Green was in his league. And years from now, when all these legends are gone, and we realize what’s been lost, we’ll study this era and only the music will remain, and Peter Green will ascend to his rightful place in the pantheon.

This is what happens when you practice, follow your muse, get inspired, lay it all down. Your streak might be very brief, but your mark will be left for ages to come.

Like Peter Green’s.

AOC Gave The Most Important Feminist Speech In A Generation

What kind of crazy, fucked-up world do we live in where AOC is bigger than any rapper, rocker or country singer?

One in which there are a limited number of House seats and AOC knows truth resonates and if you’re not pushing the envelope, you’re getting no attention.

Virality. Doesn’t happen in music anymore. Maybe on TikTok, but TikTok is a fad. What I mean by that is people want to make videos of themselves, but they don’t necessarily need to do it on TikTok, and the story of the internet is once creators realize the attention is not worth the effort, they stop. In other words, everybody was gonna have a homepage, then everybody was gonna have a blog, then everybody was gonna live on Twitter and Facebook and…right now people are on Instagram and the aforementioned TikTok, but the views, unless you’re a star, a known quantity, are low, and there are better uses of your time than to cut down a tree in a forest no one even knows exists. Yes, most of the promises of the internet didn’t come true, or they exist with a twist. Single people believed by widening the pool, with internet dating, they’d be able to find the perfect person, not realizing the problem was within, that the reason they’re not coupled is because of their own flaws. And we heard all this hogwash about the long tail, but the truth is most of the action is at the head of the tail, because people want context, they want to belong, and if you’re a fan of somebody or something no one knows about, it’s very lonely. And sure, the best stuff doesn’t always gain attention, but generally speaking the quality at the head is much higher than it is at the tail.

So… In music, we’ve got no limit, everybody can play. The owners of the system profess otherwise, with their charts, organizing the game for consumption by…whom? The Top Forty of today is not like the Top Forty of yesteryear, when all genres existed side by side, rather today’s Top Forty is narrow, and a great percentage of the public has no idea who those at the top of the chart are, never mind their music. And therefore, the music business diminishes itself every damn day, just like the local newspapers, who cut the newshole down to the point where there was nothing left anymore. People don’t want the local newspaper, and they don’t want a lot of what is pushed down their throat by the major labels and the sycophantic media lining up to trumpet its wares, without evaluating the story.

So, if AOC was a local representative, in New York State government, she could say the same things and it would be heard by few. There are just too many representatives in state government, you can’t make sense of it. And many are ridiculed by John Oliver every week, they garner little respect, they’re lucky no one is paying attention.

But AOC is one of 535 congresspeople. There are no more slots. Membership is inherently limited. And you can’t get in via false hype. I’m not saying that everybody elected is worthy and trustworthy, I’m just saying there’s some scrutiny, and you can buy all the ads you want, but if you’re nobody from nowhere, good luck, even if you’re somebody from somewhere you’re gonna have trouble, like Mike Bloomberg.

Congress is a system. Where you pay your dues. Work your way up the ladder, to ultimately head committees, if you last that long. And if you upset the system, they don’t like it. AOC decided to upset the system, she didn’t worry about being labeled an upstart, she questioned the hierarchy, and although Congress pushed back, it turned out a big slice of the public was on her side, and elected people always pay attention to constituents, it’s how they get elected, they read the polls. Which is another reason why AOC is so attractive news-wise, she doesn’t seem to. She acts like she’s powerful and she’ll be there forever, like her endorsement counts.

AND SHE’S A WOMAN!

The music business argues how many women are on country radio, how many women run entities in the business. But, AOC won by taking charge, she knew she’d get blowback, but she didn’t care, she was speaking from the heart, what’s right. But the music business is one of a secret hierarchy, everybody is afraid they’ll be canceled. And therefore it’s not only women who are afraid to speak up, but men too. The boss doesn’t like uppity people, he, and it’s almost always a he, wants it his way. And if you don’t kiss butt, if you make waves, maybe radio won’t play your record. And you’ve got to kiss Spotify and Apple’s ass to get playlisted and by time you start…you’re already compromised. In an era where you can go directly to the public, our artists are hobbled by the insiders, they won’t fight the system unless they aren’t members of the system, like the same people with few followers who complain on Twitter…no one is seeing their tweets! Now I’m not saying women should “step up,” but I am saying change comes from those who question the status quo, who grab the flag and run with it. And the Grammys hires someone like that, and then they fired Deborah Dugan, because she wanted change too quickly, the men circled the wagons and…never gave a good reason why Dugan needed to be canned, and handled the PR horribly, and the end result is the Grammys will never recover, they’ve got a permanent stain, they thought they won when they lost, the same way the labels and publishers breathed a sigh of relief when they killed Napster, not knowing it was only the beginning, and it was going to get worse. So, we’re waiting for a few good men, and women, to challenge the system…but you could lose everything in the process. But AOC could lose everything, if she doesn’t get re-elected, she’ll be done in the public sector, the spotlight will not be upon her, but she continues to hang it all out there.

AND SHE SEIZED THE MOMENT!

This is what musicians do so poorly today. They wait for consensus. They don’t take action immediately, they don’t want to go first, they’re like teens needing to be a member of the group. And if someone does lead, they won’t follow, they don’t want to hurt their “career.” How did we get to this point? Where the most fluid and immediate art form takes a back seat?

AOC calls members of Congress to testify to abuse, and the record business wants everybody to post a black square online, come on.

But this is not AOC’s only play. Nothing lasts today, you’ve got to take a stand each and every day, be in the public eye always. But then you get musicians making albums because THEY need to make a statement, but the public no longer consumes music this way. Artists tell me media won’t review their work unless it’s an album…so, you’re placating media instead of the customer? And your album comes out and…then what? Unless you’re in the Spotify Top 50, your effort is over in a week, it’s like your work didn’t come out at all. Quick, anybody talk to you about John Bolton’s book this week? No, that’s already old news, just like the album you spent years working on.

BUT PEOPLE HATE AOC!

Not everyone. If you’re not willing to alienate some to bond to others, you’ve got no credibility, no sticking power.

And AOC is not in it for the money, but the message. But in music all we get is people bitching they can’t make enough. It’s about the message, the identity, it’s about being uncompromised!

So now AOC’s endorsement means more than that of senior congresspeople. She did this herself. She didn’t ask, she took, because she knew she was right. If you’re not acting from the heart, you’re gonna get busted.

AND AOC IS ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY!

That’s how it works in the U.S. It seems impossible, the issue has been raised for decades, and then seemingly overnight, the screw turns. Can you say gay marriage and legal marijuana? Polls say most people do believe black lives matter, they sympathize with the protesters. Of course not all citizens do, but if you want to placate everybody that means you can’t play at all, you remove yourself from the discussion.

And the last I checked, more than half of the population is female. We’ve all got a mother, maybe sisters too. Abuse of women is something we encounter every day. So, what are we gonna do, mutter anti-woman epithets sotto voce? Well, Yoho tried this, even though he’s trying to rewrite history, AOC heard his utterance. Yoho has been emboldened by Trump, believing you can say anything with no lasting effect, and that people are against AOC. But only SOME people. And in today’s internet world, if you say the wrong thing, everybody, at least everybody who cares, soon knows.

So, in a world of cacophony, everybody knows who AOC is, when I guarantee you most people don’t know who is #1 at Spotify, and don’t care!

And AOC is not selling herself out, becoming a brand for the man.

Once again, the playbook AOC is employing is the one musicians used to own. The one Grace Slick used to make herself a star. But no, today you don’t want to hurt your image.

This is about the message, not the woman. Don’t make this about AOC, I don’t care if you dislike her. But the truth is she is harnessing the zeitgeist and hammering it over and over again, not backing down, she’s showing backbone…AND THAT’S WHAT THE PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR, IN 2020 MORE THAN EVER!