Severance: A Novel

I found out about it through “Rolling Stone.”

The last three episodes of the second season of “Ramy” are ASTOUNDING!

The second season does not start off like the first. There isn’t as much humor, there’s a lot of religion. I was wondering if I’d written about the series too soon.

And then…

There’s the episode about Ramy’s father.

The one about his uncle, Naseem.

And then a long one about Ramy, where the loose ends are tied up, or not.

Now Felice has a problem with Ramy, the character. Because on many levels he’s a loser. No, more of a screw-up. I don’t remember this in any sitcom previously, where the main character creates problems but is not ultimately lovable. Doesn’t everybody love Raymond? Everybody does not love Ramy.

And so many issues are addressed. Love. What is it, who should you do it with? Can you lead with your head instead of your heart? And then there’s timing and information and…it’s hard to lock on and sustain.

Which brings me to Marc Maron’s podcast with Jerry Seinfeld. It’s a must-listen!

episode-1129-jerry-seinfeld

I’ve got a problem with Maron in that he does not prepare for his interviews, as a result he asks basic questions of guests that even a casual fan would know the answer to. After all, Jerry Seinfeld has been in the public eye for over three decades, he’s been scrutinized, laundered…

But ultimately this podcast becomes a conversation. It’s just not information, and that is very interesting.

Also interesting is when Maron says he gave up his show on IFC, because it just wasn’t going anywhere. The outlet was not going to increase the budget, the audience was not shooting up, why do it?

This is what the system doesn’t understand, that the paradigm changes.

Every comedian should aspire to a sitcom. The only problem is we no longer live in a three/four network world. You can make it and no one can watch it. You can put it on your resume but it won’t buy you much.

Kind of like a book. I’m constantly dunned to write a book. Sure, like a comedian with a sitcom I can promote it as evidence of gravitas, but no one is more out of touch with the digital world than book publishers. But even worse, the number of people who read books, well, let’s say the number of readers per almost all books is positively anemic! And it takes so long to do. You get an advance, you take a year or two or five or ten to then write a book that almost no one reads. I hit send and I reach a huge multiple of what almost all writers of books reach. But since it’s free and it’s online, it gets no respect. Except from readers. You see publishing is a club. And the world today is littered with clubs that only mean something to their members. Woo-hoo, you’re a member of Soho House! Yippie-ei-o tayey! If you think it’s exclusive, you don’t know with a connection anybody can get in. But this is how people measure themselves, by these phony markers placed in a book no one is reading. Kind of like likes. They’re meaningless.

But the podcast is interesting because of Jerry. Who is definitely different. He’d definitely on the spectrum somewhere, albeit high functioning. But he did the work when others didn’t. He wrote when the others were hanging out and doing drugs. Richard Lewis made a career out of being unprepared, winging it on stage, but those who’ve followed in his footsteps…kinda like Maron himself, that’s what’s wrong with his comedy, that’s what’s wrong with his execrable intros to his podcasts!

He wasn’t gonna have me on anyway. He’s already pissed about something else I wrote. Who cares, like I need to say I was on Marc Maron? Whoop-de-doo!

Not that I have a problem with the man. The one time we met he was cordial. But that’s personal, and this is business.

But most people don’t have Hulu so they can’t even watch “Ramy,” never mind having the outlet and pulling it up. There’s too much product. But we’re all looking for a recommendation, but we trust almost none of the traditional infrastructure, it’s hype.

So why did I trust “Rolling Stone”?

Well, I didn’t.

Well, I guess I did.

Anyway, “Rolling Stone” raised the price to $70 a year. For twelve issues. That’s insane! Especially when it’s included in Apple News+ for ten bucks a month, along with “New York” which essentially costs the same, at least with digital access.

So I can rationalize my ten bucks a month for Apple News+. Even though I don’t love the format.

And if you’re coming out every month you’re inherently irrelevant. In an era where this morning’s news is history this afternoon…you’ve inherently taken yourself out of the discussion. And the truth is “Rolling Stone” has a very active website, with some articles of note, but there are too many articles, what ever happened to curation? But it’s even worse over at “Billboard,” an endless spew of irrelevant stuff written by those who can’t write. But I get that as part of Apple News+ too, but I never subscribed, “Billboard” is an alternative universe for those not really in the game. Then again, it prints charts the labels love, because they are inherently manipulated, if it was just streams, why would you need “Billboard”? Then again, how interesting is this news, isn’t it supposed to be about the music? And if anyone thinks today’s music is the heartbeat of the culture, they haven’t watched television.

But I’m talking about a book.

Yes, “Rolling Stone” put the idea in my mind. So I looked “Severance” up, and it got uber-good reviews, from respectable outlets.

So I downloaded the sample chapter to my Kindle. Try before you buy, it’s the only way to do business…isn’t that how dope dealers work?

And I’d be lying if I told you I loved the sample, but I’d come off a bad book and “Severance” was my best option and…

This was no Rufi Thorpe. Ling Ma had gotten an MFA, and you could tell. Because the writing was somewhat stilted.

And I was pissed I bought it until about halfway through, when the book, the characters, the situation, came alive.

Yes, it’s a pandemic book. And what is so fascinating is despite being two years old, it presages the Covid-19 era. The virus is different…you don’t get it from people and you don’t die soon…but is your allegiance to your job or your life? And who do you look to lead you? And what happens when the institutions decline and hit their demise?

You’re on your own buddy.

But Candace yearns for connection and hooks up with others who’ve survived. Led by Bob, an authoritarian. There’s always someone who takes control, do you become subservient or stand on your principles or…there are no clear answers.

And what are the consequences of breaking the rules?

You go through school playing a game, and then you graduate and there is no game, even though many try to construct one. Maybe you’ve got to bend the rules to get ahead, even break them! Maybe the penalties for screwing up are not that severe. Maybe those in control of the game are clueless.

So…

Most people are not famous. Even if they think they are based on their social media follower numbers. Sure, the celebrities are no longer as big as they think they are, as big as they used to be, I mean why in hell do we listen to actors, who recite others’ lines, but that does not mean you’re the new star, even though you may think you are.

No, you’re probably overeducated and thrilled that you have this boring irrelevant job. In Candace’s case, printing Bibles.

And choices…do you get picked up for the one night stand or do you stay at home out of the fray missing out…

So once you get into it, “Severance” is a whole world, you will no longer think about this world, the one you’re inhabiting every day. It’s like Candace is a good friend, you’re continuing to learn more about her, her parents, her upbringing, her relationships, as she tries to figure out how to navigate life. Just like you, even if you don’t want to admit it to yourself. The world is littered with lawyers who hate their jobs, they went to law school because their parents told them to, got jobs, and now this is their life, banging out the hours, they never questioned the system, to their disadvantage.

And there’s wisdom:

“It was the anonymity. He wanted to be unknown, unpossessed by others’ knowledge of him. That was freedom.”

That’s why I live in the big city, nobody knows who I am, and in Los Angeles everybody’s so self-centered they don’t care who I am. And that’s just how I like it. I’ve lived in small communities where you’re instantly labeled and judged and cannot get out of the hole they’ve put you in. Furthermore, I’m not the usual suspect. I don’t hone off my edges to make friends, then stab them behind their back. I’m upfront about everything, but if we connect, I’m as loyal as they get.

“When other people are happy, I don’t have to worry about them. There is room for my happiness.

BINGO! I’m always worrying about other people’s happiness. I can’t relax until everybody’s taken care of, and when they are, there’s room for me. It’s kinda like Ramy’s dad… Farouk tells Ramy he has to live in the future so Ramy and his sister and their mother can live in the present. Reminded me of my dad…it ain’t easy being responsible for a household.

“Evan took special pleasure in teasing Ashley, the way a schoolboy might make fun of a girl he crushed on.”

I don’t know why this is, but it’s true. I saw it in the “Rugrats” once. Chuckie or Tommy kicked his crush on the playground. You don’t know how to show your affection, so you make trouble, just trying to gain their attention, just trying to get close.

“New York has a way of forgetting you.”

The city lives on, you are forgotten.

“I have always lived in the myth of New York more than in its reality. It is what enabled me to live there for so long, loving the idea of something more than the thing itself.”

You’re young. You move to New York. It’s difficult. And eventually…you move on, to where the living is easier.

Kinda like L.A. But L.A. is a giant suburb, so…you used to be able to move to the San Fernando Valley, but now even that is becoming expensive, so…maybe you do leave.

The country is reopening as Covid-19 is flaring and you don’t know whether to be scared or elated. You don’t know whether to live your life or stay home. And one thing is for sure, there is no leadership, no one is truly in charge. And then there are those convinced they know the way, who refuse to wear masks, who refuse to adhere to safety measures…in “Severance,” some of those die too.

So, the book won’t instantly hook you and wow you, like “Knockout Queen,” but when it’s over, it’ll stick with you, you’ll have a hard time reintegrating into regular life. And what more can you ask from art?

It’s Napster.

What do we know about Napster?

It happened as a result of technological change. Same deal here, but instead of high speed connections, it’s smartphone cameras.

In the late nineties and early 2000s, only college students had high speed connections. The public came along later. Same deal with smartphones. Sure, some had them in Ferguson, but now everybody has one. Come on, go on YouTube, whenever there’s a newsworthy event, there’s footage. A rock falls onto the freeway and hits a car? There’s video! Almost nothing is undocumented.

And the people trading files were pissed at the record companies. They did studies back then. Labels were some of the most hated entities extant, down there with cable companies. People were sick and tired of paying ten plus bucks for a CD with one good track. The labels thought they were winning, by eliminating the single, but they were wrong.

Today the rank and file don’t believe the government works for them. That the game is rigged, that it’s run by a professional cabal and corporations and they have no say.

So they protest.

So what does Trump do? CALL OUT THE NATIONAL GUARD! Push back, employ tear gas.

This is exactly what the labels did in the early 2000s, to support their business model, they sued their customers. Nobody agreed with this philosophy other than the labels themselves. This just made customers angrier and even the press questioned the tactic.

Meanwhile, revenue went up. This file-trading thing needed to be eradicated, but CDs were still flying out of the bins and the iTunes Store came along and proved…what, I’m not sure. That people without technological skills would pay for music while the rest of the customer base continued to steal? And now the labels’ great fear was reality, in other words, the single was broken out of the album. Oh, you could still buy an album, but why?

And then revenue cratered. To the point where half of recorded music income was lost, and it only bounced back with streaming services, most notably Spotify, which offered a free tier.

You still hear insiders saying they want to get rid of the free tier. And they keep bitching about music on YouTube. But the truth is the free tier, supported by advertising, was a disincentive to steal. Same deal with YouTube. These days, streaming numbers on paid services oftentimes outstrip those on YouTube. If Spotify had been able to launch earlier, music on YouTube wouldn’t have been such a big deal. But not all labels would sign on, and therefore Spotify’s launch in the U.S. was delayed.

And let’s be clear, it is about Spotify. Sure, you read the Apple numbers, but the truth is subscribers on Spotify are much more active, they listen to more music, and that’s what drives the business, active customers. As for Amazon…it’s got a unique strategy. The Echo is a Trojan Horse and unlike Spotify or Apple Amazon has a hi-res tier. To gain a foothold you must be different, which Amazon is. Try out their high quality tier. It’s not as expensive as Tidal’s. And Tidal is a joke, a gnat on the ass of paid music consumption.

So, the Democrats and Republicans have been acting in a vacuum for decades now. It’s a closed game, and you’re affected by who wins and loses. Disruption was impossible, because of the Constitution! There was no way around it.

So, taxes were lowered for the rich. Republicans thought no one would notice. But today news is everywhere, and many people noticed.

And the Republicans have been focusing on social issues to win elections. Anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage…but these don’t put food on the plate. Of course there’s a hard core of constituents who continue to vote Republican, but there are people who buy CDs TO THIS DAY! Furthermore, you’ll find people who won’t sign up for a paid streaming service. They’ve got all the answers. What if there’s no cell signal? They’re too ignorant to know that you can download the tracks to the device, so as long as it has juice, you’ve got tunes. They say they need to own it. When the format they possess won’t even last. Come on, when was the last time you saw a VCR in somebody’s house, never mind a LaserDisc player. As for DVDs… My computers don’t have drives. My last DVD player didn’t have an HDMI port…so what did I do? I tossed it, and didn’t bother to replace it.

We live in a world of on demand. And one of the great things about on demand is the product can always be improved and your gear is never obsolete. Even the car companies went to on demand. They outsourced manufacturing to third parties and they only want delivery when they need it, oftentimes just hours before car construction. And I know I’m mixing virtual with physical. But like the hoi polloi, who are constantly denigrated, the car companies had no savings and look to the government to be saved during times of crisis. So, the government rescues corporations and banks, and you’re plum out of luck. Maybe you got $1200. See how long that lasts. It’s socialism for the rich, and capitalism for the poor.

But it gets worse! The rich constantly brag about their lifestyle and believe since they’re wealthy they know better, fomenting anger in the lower classes, who are the overwhelming majority in numbers, if not bucks.

But big time media, in bed with those in the government, say politics is all about the money, even the Supreme Court endorses this, and gets rid of the Voting Rights Act to boot.

As for said media… This was the same media that beat up the record business for being unprepared and ignorant, meanwhile, it was just a matter of time until the internet came for them, and most of them were wiped out. And even the big ones today are essentially begging. It’s a glorified GoFundMe campaign. Keep local news alive! Why? You charged us more for less and it gotten to the point where your newshole is so small, I don’t need to subscribe. Instead of investing, you cut in order to maintain your profit margin. So, the only publications which survive are the “Wall Street Journal,” owned by Rupert Murdoch, who uses the paper as a right wing mouthpiece, irrelevant of income, the “Washington Post,” owned by the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, and the “New York Times,” which is so self-congratulatory while at the same time being self-flagellating that it seems removed from what is happening on the street. Furthermore, these outlets just report, as the country’s government turns to the right, as authoritarianism raises its ugly head. These reporters are tied into the system, they’re friends with the bigwigs, they want to get rich too, so the consumer is left out.

Yes, the consumer has been taking it up the yin-yang for years.

But now the consumer has the tools, the aforesaid smartphone and social media distribution, to get its message heard.

And then George Floyd gets killed in Minneapolis…

They’ve been killing African-Americans willy-nilly for years, but there were no cameras, there was always an excuse. Hell, until there was footage in Georgia the jogger was at fault, he was breaking into houses, you’ve got to take the white man’s word.

So, after being sick of overpaying for one good track on a CD, being labeled lazy, the African-American community revolted.

But it turned out they were not the only ones who were pissed. The white people came out too. Other people of color. There were demonstrations in 750 cities in America. You see it’s no longer an African-American problem, it’s an underclass problem. And compared to the wealthy, almost all of us are members of the underclass.

So, what do the insiders and fat cats tell us to do? VOTE! As if that’s gonna make a difference. They believe in the system, after all, it’s working for them! You know, buy CDs!

And then there are the people afraid to steal. But when they see everybody surrounding them doing it, they jump on board.

You see disruption doesn’t only happen in technology. And right now, we’re seeing politics disrupted.

The Republicans sold their souls to Trump, to keep their jobs. Just like the execs at the labels, they were thinking about themselves first.

And the Democrats said we had to return to the past, we could not venture into the future. The people couldn’t handle it, they didn’t want it, they needed to feel safe, they abhorred chaos, so the DNC nominated Joe Biden, someone no one is excited about. The Democrats are rock in an era of hip-hop. And let’s be clear, most rockers HATE hip-hop! They give it no respect, they say it isn’t music, they vilify streaming services, meanwhile hip-hop keeps getting bigger.

And AOC comes on the scene, a young ‘un, part of the demo, who understands the plight of those disadvantaged by the system, and she is EXCORIATED! Shut up you loud mouth, you’re too big for your britches, get in line and be quiet.

But she was on to something.

And then you’ve got septuagenarian Bernie Sanders, who suddenly seems like a seer. In light of Covid-19, Medicare-for-all seems necessary, to protect the health of the country’s citizens from those who are too poor to get medical treatment if nothing else. And as the big get bigger, Amazon and Google rule and we suffer, Biden is in bed with them.

You might think I’m a party of one, you might ignore my call, just like you ignored it in the days of Napster. But yesterday on the “Washington Post” app I saw this:

“New generation of activists, deeply skeptical of Democratic Party, resists calls to channel energy into the 2020 campaign”

Why trust the Democrats? They’re disconnected from the voting public. They’re just the party of the elite, the entrenched, who want to maintain what they’ve got. At least the Republicans are more honest about it.
You see both parties have lost the confidence of the rank and file. And we’re not going back to what once was. A return to normal Biden proffers? Well, normal wasn’t that good for most people to begin with!

As for gradual change, trusting the system, it didn’t benefit the African-Americans.

We are only going forward.

Change always comes from outside, insiders don’t want it, we saw this with Shawn Fanning and Napster. Insiders can’t see the future.

And the new leaders follow at best, the labels are no longer in control of recording. If nothing else, everybody can record at home essentially for free on their computer and promote themselves on the internet/social media. As for the labels, they don’t develop, they just skim the cream and promote as they continue to lose market share.

Adapt or die.

Hell, we’re dying on the street, and we’re sick and tired of it!

Everyday People

1

There’s a joy in playing music.

We were inspired to buy electric guitars after seeing the Beatles on “Ed Sullivan,” but we’d been struggling with acoustics for a long time before that.

In an era where music was not plentiful, just a click away, you had to make your own.

A piano was a status symbol in the house. And certainly in Jewish families, you had to take lessons. But it’s an uphill climb. First you had to learn how to read the notes, then how to play them. You started with “Hot Cross Buns,” and then you moved on to classical numbers that you really didn’t care for. You yearned to play what was on the radio. And the teachers were from our parents’ generation, they didn’t understand our desires, they taught piano in the same fashion it had been taught for hundreds of years. Whereas we were interested in the now. This was the generation gap, we did not accept the precepts of our forefathers without examination, and we did not need to pay fealty to their heroes, we had our own, we were breaking new ground, we had no idea if our music would last, but it made us feel so damn good!

So concurrent with the hits on the radio, there was a folk scene. Sometimes those songs made it to the airwaves, but really it was a separate world with two titans at the fore, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, and when you went to camp you sang “500 Miles” and “Blowin’ In The Wind,” they were our classics. And there was always a counselor, or a contemporary virtuoso, with an acoustic guitar, usually with nylon strings, playing and singing along.

Now many houses had such a guitar. They cost thirty to thirty five bucks. The strings were so high off the neck and so far apart that these instruments were hard to play, especially for young ‘uns. But we wanted to.

The people who taught guitar were different from those who taught piano. They might not have been younger, but they were definitely hipper, they lived in the now. And they taught you a few chords and…VOILA! You were singing a song!

You didn’t have to know how to read music, you just had to know some basic chords, and then you could feel the joy of making music.

And when you went to friends’ houses, the guitar came out, and you all sang along.

And then the Beatles came along and blew the whole scene wide open.

You see not everybody went to camp, not everybody was addicted to the radio, but when the Beatles broke the table was flipped right over. That’s when everybody got the memo. It was not only the music, but the opinions, the look, the lifestyle. They thought differently, so so did we.

But the first thing we did was buy electric guitars, so we could play along.

And when you knew a few chords and had an axe and an amp, you schlepped them over to someone’s basement or rec room and you all played along. Usually at the house of the guy who had the drums.

Bands were formed…they were the mobile apps of their day. And everywhere you went there was some band playing. The hits of the day. They didn’t think they were gonna be rich and famous, they didn’t dun you for likes, they just reveled in the joy of the music, being part of the scene.

Now one amazing thing is you could play these songs. Amateurs bought songbooks, or fakebooks, others just figured out the chords by themselves. That’s another experience we all had, sitting in front of the turntable, dropping the needle again and again. The key was to have a turntable with adjustable speed, so you could tune the record to your guitar, the other way…was not so easy for amateurs. As for tuners…at best, we had pitch pipes.

2

The only American acts who survived the Beatles were the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons. Everything that was a hit before, was suddenly not. Fabian, Bobby Rydell, even Bobby Darin…that sound was passé. The British Invasion ruled.

Until the San Francisco sound. That’s what came next. And it wasn’t the Grateful Dead, they didn’t really get any traction until “American Beauty” in the fall of ’70. First it was Jefferson Airplane. Even Country Joe and the Fish. But those were all white acts. There was also a black guy, a deejay who was familiar with the rock sound. Who soon formed his own band and shot to the top of the charts with his second single.

Sly Stone.

Forget the burned-out legend of today. This was the first time most of us learned that “Sly” was short for “Sylvester.” As for Sylvester Stallone, he was a decade away from success.

And the radio played both black and white music. But Sly, and his Family Stone, didn’t sound like what came out of Detroit. Its music had more to do with rock than soul, even though it was infused with soul.

We all danced to the music. That track was an explosion coming out of the radio. It was made for the tiny speakers we employed back then. It shook the cardboard cones. It was almost too hot for the radio.

And then came “Everyday People.”

Today’s hit acts are not everyday people. They tell you in their song lyrics that they’re better than you. They’re mirroring society at large. There are the rich and the poor and the goal is to hop over the fence, to the side of privilege. Forget that music can’t make you a billionaire (with a couple of exceptions, of course, but only one billion, not many), it does speak to the culture in a way that the techies do not. The techies make tools. The musicians build houses.

But the houses they build today are in segregated neighborhoods. Both white and black. Verticals that rarely cross.

But it was different back then, rock coexisted not only with soul but country too, and occasionally oddball tracks from the likes of Louis Armstrong. We were all in it together. And we took our instructions from the musicians, via the radio. Many people had no records at all, nobody had all of them, radio was the heartbeat of America, at least of the younger generation.

3

Sometimes I’m right and I can be wrong

That’s positively revolutionary in 2020. People have an opinion and they will not change it, no matter how much evidence to the contrary is provided.

The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then
Makes no difference what group I’m in

The bankers used to coexist with the rest of us. Now they’re on a separate plane, and the butcher gets no respect, unless he’s a tattooed millennial into grass-fed beef and…

I am no better and neither are you
We are the same whatever we do

Also out the window in 2020. Even the musicians constantly remind the listeners that they’re superior to them. And there are gated communities, and private jets and private islands, never mind private schools, and those on the winning side believe they deserve the spoils and while they do their best to keep us out, they tell us to be just like they are, despite being born with a silver spoon in their mouth, or being the beneficiary of elite education, never mind enrichment programs. These are the people who work for free, building a resumé, putting food on the table isn’t even a consideration.

There is a yellow one that won’t accept the black one
That won’t accept the red one that won’t accept the white one

Of course there was racism back in ’68. But it was the musicians who were preaching integration. Not only black acts like Sly and the Family Stone, but white ones too, like the Rascals with “People Got to Be Free.”

Despite the racism, people were optimistic. Today, that’s a dead concept. Seems the corporations and the entrenched players win again and again and again. And the truth doesn’t matter. Hell, the president was caught red-handed in Ukraine, even admitted it, but he skates. What are the odds you on the ground, with a camera everywhere, can get away with breaking the law? Miniscule.

I am everyday people

White acts were seen as album makers. Black acts were relegated to singles. Until…

Woodstock. The movie.

Everybody says the star of “Woodstock” was Jimi Hendrix, playing the national anthem. Huh? When most people had left and the place was a mess and the sun had already come up? No way! Sly and the Family Stone stole “Woodstock,” instantly Sly and his troupe were an arena act. The album “Stand!” sold over three million copies. And it was filled with messages. Not only did you have to “Stand!,” in an era where protests made a difference, but you were told “You Can Make It If You Try.” And music was not only cerebral, it was an aural lubricant for sex machines. And one thing for sure, music, along with marijuana, took you higher. And in 1970, when Sly still showed up on time, audiences of all races got together to bask in the sound, you see we were everyday people.

4

Quite quickly the Covid-19 era devolved into self-promotion. I’m doing a livestream, pay attention to me! It was all about ascending the ladder in an era where to a great degree, the ladder has been kicked away. There is no coherent scene. Chances are the radio doesn’t play your kind of music, at least not radio that matters. Assuming people are listening to the radio at all!

Then there are others who just see it as having fun, on a lark, and satiating those who do care, like Glenn Tilbrook.

What do I know about Glenn Tilbrook… He was a member of Squeeze. And KROQ played “Pulling Mussels From a Shell” ad infinitum, and I still don’t dig it. But I did like “Black Coffee in Bed,” I bought that album, but really it was about the one before, “East Side Story,” when Paul Carrack was a member of the band.

To this day, most people don’t know Paul Carrack was the vocalist in Ace, with its positively legendary “How Long.” But when Carrack was in Squeeze the result was “Tempted,” an undeniable gem, benefited by Carrack’s lead vocal, never mind co-producer Elvis Costello’s indelible background vocals.

That’s how I think of Squeeze. Great songwriters, not great vocalists.

Until today.

I got an e-mail telling me Glenn Tilbrook was doing covers on Instagram. It seems the whole world lives on Instagram today, even Ramy’s mother…that’s how you check people out, on Instagram.

Now the writer told me he was hooked by the Steve Nieve cover. But before even listening to that, I was interested in all the songs Tilbrook did.

And that’s when I saw “Everyday People.”

Now this ain’t gonna work. The whitest of guys from across the pond singing an American classic, originally sung by an African-American? When Sly emoted, the hairs on your arms stood at attention.

So it’s obviously a homemade production, with Glenn’s son counting off the song. And then the organ comes in, played by a kid still wet behind the ears and then the camera pans to Mr. Tilbrook himself, who looks like the hip teacher in your school, all gray-haired and over the hill.

AND THEN HE SINGS!

Glenn’s singing the verse and his voice is mellifluous, you tell yourself this works, and then he reaches down deep, leans back from the microphone and screams…I AM EVERYDAY PEOPLE!

I was completely caught off guard. I was expecting a pale facsimile, you know, poor production with weak vocals, but this rendition illustrates how music is truly a unifying force.

Everybody’s wearing their street clothes, Covid attire, not the fancy outfits of today’s “winning” musicians. Glenn’s wife is even contributing background vocals, he smiles at her at the end, with the joy of a job well done.

Now the amazing thing is Glenn Tilbrook, et al’s, rendition of “Everyday People” only has 2,026 views. That’s a lot of effort for very little result. But that’s not why Tilbrook is doing it, HE’S HAVING FUN!

Remember when music, never mind the music business, was all about fun, not money? When the music was just the music, with its message, making you feel good, as opposed to a stepping stone to building a brand?

Glenn Tilbrook lived the same life I did. He picked up a guitar, he played in bands, he remembers the joy.

And when you watch his production of “Everyday People,” you will too.

Once again: Everyday People

In part one of my conversation with legendary record producer Bob Ezrin we discuss his upbringing in Toronto, his journey into record production with Jack Richardson, and his meeting, signing and producing Alice Cooper as well as producing Lou Reed’s “Berlin.”

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