“Artist Andy Warhol is credited with saying that in the future, everyone would be world-famous for 15 minutes. The world has changed considerably in the 50 years since he allegedly made this prediction. Hockney, who has outlived his contemporary by more than three decades, has surveyed today’s cultural landscape and has arrived at a different conclusion.

‘In the future, probably nobody is going to be famous,’ he asserts. The mass media has become atomized, he says; information sources are becoming niche. Celebrity was, he says, a creation of the once-omnipotent mass media. Now global fame of the Warholian vision will elude most limelight seekers, he predicts: ‘People will become famous locally.'”

David Hockney in “WSJ”

I tell my shrink this all the time. The target has disappeared.
The goal of an artist is always to have a larger audience. Actually, Hockney talks about that too:

“‘I have the vanity of an artist,’ he says. ‘I want my work t be seen. But I don’t have to be seen.'”

In money culture this never gets airplay. That’s what people always have asked me, how I make my money. But money was never important to me, I’m not saying I dislike it, but my focus was on reach. How do I reach the most people with my message. But now, it’s harder than ever to grow your audience, my audience, you’ve got to be thankful you’ve got an audience at all.

Now the first act I remember talking about world domination was the Police. They toured everywhere, inspired by the Copelands’ CIA father.

Then it became a mantra, especially amongst brain-dead rockers. The goal was to be top of mind, known by everybody, in the MTV era that was sort of possible, but it’s impossible now.

How come a fine artist knows all this and the media does not?

Because the media reports, it’s always one step behind the news. Which is why Steve Jobs famously did no market research, people are not ready for the new and different until they experience it. And the media landscape is littered with publications that have bitten the dust. They superserve their readers, and then those readers age or disappear, and something else becomes the rage. “Time” was the Bible. Now not only do I not read it, I never see it anywhere. As for “Rolling Stone”…it got stuck in the past, not writing about new acts, and now the deep articles are still good, but with monthly publication in a fast-moving world it has become irrelevant, niche, for subscribers only. How do you grow your circulation? YOU DON’T!

So the media keeps trumpeting the Top Ten. But that chart no longer represents what people are truly interested in, what they’re listening to. Used to, back in the sixties, when AM was dominant, but not now. You can canvass legions of people and they’ve never heard these songs, but the media and the performers rage on about their impact, which in the age of instant availability is smaller than ever before. Come on, admit it, even with acts you love, if you play the whole album that’s significant, and it’s doubtful you continue to play it, because there’s so much else out there, and it’s not only music.

One can even argue that striving for world domination hurts you. Most people never see you, but if they see you too much, they turn against you, even if they don’t know you. Like most of the social media influencers. I don’t follow them, there’s no reason to, but I hate them anyway. It’s their tireless self-promotion that bugs me.

As for the pop acts? When successful, their promo lands everywhere, turning me off. Is this the system we live in, where purveyors can convince everyone to air/write about a story that almost always is here today, gone tomorrow? It undercuts the credibility of the media, which has already lost too much. We see this in politics, everybody has different “facts,” they don’t know the truth. Which is kinda the point of this story to begin with. Unless you subscribe to the “Wall Street Journal” you can’t read the Hockney article. And if you do, if you get the physical product, you will see ads for high-priced clothing that is the opposite of today’s fast fashion. Which is kinda funny unto itself. Kids today think clothing is disposable, that’s how cheap it is. Whereas oldsters still think if you pay more it means more, that it will last and be stylish, but who are they impressing?

And somewhere during this century I didn’t know the stars in the gossip columns, the people and their shenanigans talked about online. And then people played the system to the point they were only famous for their shenanigans. The first was Paris Hilton, she established the paradigm. Her fame was only based on her name. The Kardashians only improved upon the paradigm. But will this paradigm play in the future? Probably not, we just won’t care. Hilton and the Kardashians were products of their time. Kids today don’t watch broadcast/cable television, they stream what they want on demand, there are very few cultural rallying points. That’s why “Stranger Things” was such a big deal, kids rallied around that when they didn’t rally around almost anything else. And then the media reported on that. Once again, by time it hits the media, the early adopters, those who set trends, are involved in trends, have already moved on. And they couldn’t care less that there was a story about their activity in big media, they don’t read it, success is evidenced in cubby holes online. Used to be you were thrilled when big media featured you, now you just shrug your shoulders.

Today it’s all about the large audience you have. That’s why Howard Stern gets the A-listers. People pushing know he has a rabid audience, and that the rest of the media follows him. Yup, today Howard Stern makes celebrity news, not the magazines.

It’s going to be harder and harder to reach mass. You’re going to be thankful to have an audience at all. Your cult will support you handsomely, people have unlimited funds for their favorites, but the vertical is pretty narrow.

Oh, one more thing. This is why the Marvel movies are irrelevant. They’re just the biggest thing in a niche world, i.e. the movie business. Most people ignore them and move on. This is not “Butch Cassidy” or “The Exorcist” or the original “Star Wars.” Oh, they’re hyped to high heaven, but only a sliver of the public sees them and the rest drive right on by.

There’s only one star in America today, and that’s Trump, because he’s President and says outrageous things all day long. If he weren’t President, his musings would have little impact, but since he is, and he plays all day long, he can say whatever he wants with impunity, it can be wrong, it can be misspelled, but I challenge you to remember today’s faux pas two days from now, even tomorrow.

Everybody needs shoes. Food. Clothing. Although it’s harder to have a dominant brand in those areas too. But everyone certainly does not need your art. It needs some art, but not necessarily yours. And today no one likes stuff jammed down their throats, they’re busy promoting themselves online, they don’t like the competition, if they’re paying attention at all.

This is the new world. The internet lets everyone play. And fewer and fewer are paying attention to specific people and their endeavors. Get used to it.

Eddie Money – Spotify

1

It’s hard to write a hit. But from the moment he had one, the critics savaged Eddie Money.

It started with “Baby Hold On.” The lyrics were not intellectual enough for the cognoscenti. But the music was undeniable, you heard it once and got it whereas so much vaunted stuff, then and now, you listen to over and over again and still don’t get.

Then came “Two Tickets To Paradise.”

Now that was a smash right out of the box. Great title, great track, great, emphatic chorus:

I’ve got two tickets to paradise
Won’t you pack your bags, we’ll leave tonight

This was 1978. When airline travel was still expensive. When you didn’t hop on a plane to go to a show or a game, you were stuck at home, dreaming, of what could possibly be, and Eddie Money was opening the top of your brain and filling you with hope, and isn’t that what we all need to get by?

But then people started commenting on his weight. Said he ate too many cheeseburgers. Sure, the cover of Money’s debut was stylized, but it fit right in with the era, which might be one reason disco killed rock and then the whole business imploded until MTV resuscitated it.

And that wiped a lot of acts out.

But not Eddie Money. He made the transition. First came “Think I’m In Love” and “Shakin.” And there’s not a soul alive who was conscious in the eighties who does not know “Shakin’,” the video was all over MTV. Even bigger was “Take Me Home Tonight,” featuring Ronnie Spector, this guy brings back an original and he’s the butt of jokes…why?

Now I bought the debut. Got a promo for two bucks the week it was released, and played it into the ground. It made me feel good.

But not as much as “Unplug It In.”

It was 1992, “Unplugged” was flourishing on the now totally dominant MTV. Not that Eddie Money was cool enough to be featured, but he released his own acoustic live album, that positively ROCKED!

You see in ’92, labels sometimes sent cassettes. At this point vinyl was almost done, in promoland anyway, and I got one of those little Philips creations and pushed it into the Alpine and immediately got into the groove, from the very first note of “Gimme Some Water,” the opening cut. This was an album track from Money’s mostly hitless second LP “Life For The Taking.” Oh, “Maybe I’m A Fool” made it to number 22 on the singles chart, but at this point no one was listening to Top Forty, AOR ruled, and you didn’t need a pop hit to go platinum, as “Life For The Taking” did.

Now the studio take of “Gimme Some Water” was a studio concoction, slick, kinda like Bon Jovi’s “Blaze Of Glory.” You were watching the movie, but in this ’92 acoustic take you were LIVING IT! You felt like you were at the gig, it was immediate, engrossing, it made me feel alive, just after my father died.

That’s a weird thing, a parent passing. My father had terminal cancer, but when he left this mortal coil I still was not prepared. Little music sounded good, but “Unplug It In” did, because it exuded the feeling of being alive, embracing the excitement of the moment, the power of rock and roll.

And track 2, “She Takes My Breath Away,” continued the energy. Originally from Money’s 1991 LP “Right Here,” featuring writers like Mutt Lange and Diane Warren in search of an impact, it did not make one. The end of this live recording amped up the power. The original was the same song, but it was studio intimate. The live version, once again, was for everybody, you know the feel of a singalong.

But the piece-de-resistance was “Trinidad.” A redo of the opening cut of Money’s third LP “Playing for Keeps,” from 1980, the live iteration has a distinct groove that gives the illusion you’re all in a small club together:

She calls my name
To come on back to hold me
Trinidad
Trinidad, Trinidad, Trinidad
Trinidad

The only person I ever knew from Trinidad was Roger Ames. Who went to college in Canada. But we’re all eager to be called back to the good times of yore, those memories call to us, they’re what we think about when we put our head on the pillow.

And I’d have it down. Push the button to flip the cassette. Know how much to hold the fast-forward and reverse buttons to hear these three songs over and over. I distinctly remember listening to them on my ride back from that April day at Mt. Waterman, skiing locally, taking time off, grieving, and now after expending energy on the hill I had the sunroof open and the music blasting and…

I was smiling.

That’s what Eddie Money’s music did, make you smile.

2

And then we became friends. He had an AXS show. I asked him to do a podcast. He invited me to his interview and show at the Grammy Museum. He told me what I thought was an anti-Semitic joke, about his wife shopping, and then when I cried foul it turned out he had a Jewish mother, which is something I never expected, but now it made sense, Eddie Money was haimish, you met him and you were immediately his best friend. He whispered in my ear, he’d e-mail me, like we knew each other from way back when. But maybe we did, we both grew up praying to the god of rock and roll. And Eddie was over the hump, the drugs were in the rearview mirror, and then the cancer caught up with him.

First he told me it was gone.

But then it came back.

But he was checking up on me, on my pemphigus. The subject line of his e-mail was “How you feeling?” He was the kind of guy who cared. Oh, he could self-promote, although he had a sense of humor about himself, but I genuinely felt he did care, and to tell you the truth, very few people do, especially rock stars, they tend to be narcissistic and socially awkward, they let the music do their talking.

But not Eddie.

This is what he wrote:

Thanks Bob
Could be better
Esophagus Cancer stage 4
Leaked into my liver n lymph nodes
No pain n hopeing for the best
Glad you like the new material
I’m excited about a second season of “Real Money” AXS tv show ) and releasing the new cd
Kids are good and I’m still doing shows
How is your health
Good , I hope
At the usc Cancer Treatment Center right now ….in God’s hands
Lost 40 pounds
People say I look great
Go figure. .huh Bob
I know you must know how famous your column is ….the power of the pen …. i have people excited we’re communicating
I just hope your in good health
Eddie $

And then, nine days later, on March 13th of this year, Eddie wrote:

Hush on my illness
Please. Feeling pretty good
Doing a pod cast with Louie Anderson
Will announce it like Alex Trubeck
Short , sensitive with a positive vibe
Although ALEX is in worse shape than me
E$

And then he went dark.

I thought about Eddie, figured he was doing well, figured I’d hear from him if it was otherwise, but then Peter Paterno told me the curtain was falling.

And today he passed.

Which is strange, because he was so alive, he was a funny dude, a good hang.

And the music lives on.

And when I first saw the news this AM, it didn’t shock me completely, I knew he was sick. But as the day wore on and the e-mail came in, all I could hear in my mind was “Trinidad,” it kept playing in my head.

God took Eddie Money home tonight. They took him back to Trinidad. The music lives on, but 70 is too damn young.

The Big C knows no bounds. If it can get Steve Jobs, it can get you. Sometimes you beat it, sometimes you don’t. But I know if Eddie were here now, he’d tell you to spin his records and do your best to have fun, that was his goal, to inspire you to grab hold of this rock life, chuck off the straight world, stop being a policeman and cut loose.

Eddie certainly did!

It was boring.

The whole world tuned in…

And then the whole world tuned out.

This is why Roger Ailes succeeded, he knew it was all about showbiz, and the only person on stage who seemed to know this was Julian Castro. Yes, he was the big winner of the night, even though he called out Biden and was half-wrong. You see Castro came to win. A back of the pack softie, Castro demonstrated his fighting spirit, he stood up to Biden, laughed and rolled his eyes when somebody said something he thought was stupid or irrelevant. Now we know who Castro is. He certainly replaced Kamala Harris on the leaderboard.

Never pay heed to the analysts. By attacking Trump and nobody on stage, Harris took herself right out of the picture. She seemed like she really didn’t want to be there, like a prosecutor on Friday who wants to wrap up and get out of court. She’s toast.

As are the rest of the seven dwarves, other than the aforementioned Castro.

Beto O’Rourke, he even said some good stuff, but who cares? He was last year’s flavor, now he’s just another young guy trying to make a name for himself.

Klobuchar? A strict mother who was pissed with the shenanigans who kept telling us she knew better and to trust her, that she could bring the whole country together…huh? Forget plans, just meet me in the middle.

Cory Booker? Okay, you’ve been there and done that, but what have you done for us lately? You didn’t solve the problems in Newark and now you want us to give you the keys to the Oval Office because..? I can’t figure out a reason why.

And Andrew Yang, who triumphed by speaking English as opposed to political-speak, blew his whole candidacy by turning it into a game show. Yup, he was gonna give a grand to ten families every month…and then let’s see what happens? Everybody else laughed. And when he said he knew about doctors because he was Asian, implying that the profession was filled with Asians, he demonstrated that he’s living in a bubble, that he doesn’t know the rules, that there are certain things you can’t say, but he did! Over.

Mayor Pete? He said some good things, he appeared wise, he regained some luster, but not enough to recover from the police problems in his hometown.

Which leaves us with the three real candidates…Joe, Bernie and Elizabeth.

Warren avoided the question. Which was especially bad since Bernie answered it. Will Medicare For All make taxes go up? Of course it will, own it and move on. But she waffled to her detriment. And by time she found her voice again, even spoke, deep into the debate, when she was hitting them over the fence with no problem, nobody was watching.

Bernie killed, but his voice was shot, you couldn’t stop thinking he’d yelled so much that he’d worn himself out. One thing you can say for Bernie, and Elizabeth too, is that they’re passionate. Actually, they were the only two on stage who were. They were convinced what they were saying was true, they uttered it with emphasis, this stuff was important to them. The others? You wondered why they were on stage, because they certainly have no chance.

Other than Joe.

I’ll tell you, he’s from another era, with those teeth. As fake as can be. Bernie’s are yellow, Elizabeth’s imperfect, yet Joe’s look like Jim Carrey’s in “The Mask.” And he’s constantly fake smiling. Hell, that was the playbook in the last century, today we’re looking for authenticity and credibility, and the way Joe acts you just don’t buy it.

And he was creaky. He always seemed on the verge of forgetting something, a name, what he was talking about, it was uncomfortable watching him, you were willing him to get it right.

And he also came from the “trust me” school. Been there, done that, I’m the man. But Castro killed him by pointing out his selective embracement of Obama, saying he was with Barack when it suited him, and distancing himself when it didn’t. You can’t have it both ways. And the truth is Obama’s been out of office nearly three years, and the time has changed. Hell, we all like Obama, except for those who believe he was born in Kenya, but that doesn’t make him a great President. Hell, no one’s been a better ex-President than Jimmy Carter, he’s been on the right side of everything, advocating, unafraid of standing up to those who are wrong, but his term in office? Not so great.

Let’s see, Obama lost both houses of Congress and many governorships and state houses, to the point where he couldn’t get his agenda through. And as soon as he was gone, Trump and the Republicans eradicated/overturned almost all of his policies, clean water just today. But this is the guy we’re advocating and adoring? I don’t think so. Obama’s closer to a boy band. Hell, late twenty and thirtysomethings are going to see the Backstreet Boys, but today’s chart is dominated by Drake and Post Malone. We ain’t going backwards folks.

And after the candidates argued over health care, they became so lovey-dovey, team-like, that the debate was impossible to watch. Once again, the pundits had said not to have a circular firing squad and everybody agreed. The end result? The audience tuned out.

And there were few specifics, other than trumpeting their CVs. That’s why Bernie and Elizabeth stood out, there were some hooks in what they said. I mean when you talk broadly and say you’re gonna throw fifty mil at this or that…no one believes it, it’s too general, it doesn’t affect me if it even happens.

But Warren owned public schools. And someone else, either Yang or Castro, said that charter schools are not better than public ones. And Warren essentially came out against vouchers. Like I said, there was some substance there. But most of it was uttered after the audience had tuned out.

So what it came down to, assuming you watched, was emotion and image. Who was the most likeable, who was the most sincere, who had the best delivery.

Trump pushes the envelope every damn day and tonight everybody but Sanders bunts. Got to give Bernie credit, he stays true to his ethos, he’s always the same guy, it’s appealing, but tonight with his gruff voice he wasn’t.

As for moving the needle?

Not amongst the headliners, the big three, Bernie, Biden and Warren.

Like I said, Kamala is history, she killed her chances tonight, put a stake right through her own heart. Can Castro make hay from his appearance, be the new Harris? Possible, but doubtful.

So what we want is the three leaders on stage, sans kumbaya, a no holds barred cage match that reveals the true identity of these people, who they really are.

Biden will be overwhelmed and fold. He’s not good with direct attacks, he’s too busy going through his mental Rolodex, trying to figure out how to come back.

Sanders will fight hard. But we’ve seen this act before, back in 2016, it’s hard for him to generate heat today, even though so many of his positions are right and he’s got the aforementioned passion.

Which leaves us with Elizabeth Warren. She’s the candidate by default.

We want to be led forward, which Biden certainly won’t do, he’s too much of an insider inured to the past.

Bernie’s Metallica. All rough-edged, delivering his message with emphasis, hammering it home.

But Elizabeth Warren is closer to Ariana Grande. Someone who has a backbone who is the flavor of the moment. Warren’s not Taylor Swift, she’s not that devious and manipulative, she’s playing for her positions, not herself, and that’s appealing.

But this show was not. Makes you want to give up on politics.

One thing’s for sure, Trump was speaking English, he made the debates his own, he owned the stage, he defined the game.

And that appealed to people.

Very little appealed to people tonight.

From the Limeliters to the Smothers Brothers, Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, Travis Tritt, Trisha Yearwood and even Gallagher, Ken Kragen is a legendary manager and one of the main drivers behind “We Are The World.” Listen to hear his history, as well as the tale of that legendary charity project.

Now there was a point in this podcast where my heart started beating faster, where I got excited, when I remembered what once was, when Ken started talking about the seventies and eighties, the glory days, when music drove the culture and a performer was as rich as anybody in America, it’s gone, but it was thrilling.

And Ken started telling his story, about promoting shows at his high school in the fifties, and I was stunned how I didn’t know one of the singers’ names. That’s what seems to happen, you’re famous in your era and then you’re forgotten. The landscape is littered with superstars the younger generations do not know. Hell, once the boomers die, certainly the Gen-X’ers, will anybody remember Johnny Carson? It was kind of like growing up and hearing my mother lionize Sid Caesar, who eventually came back a bit, his old writer Mel Brooks featured him in “Silent Movie,” but you’re here today and gone tomorrow.

Kinda like the business titans too. You’re on top of the world and then a footnote. Ken’s not gone yet, but hearing about his lengthy career it reinforced a recent feeling…that it won’t be long before I’m on the scrapheap too.

P.S. If you’re only interested in “We Are The World,” it’s the last fifteen minutes or so.

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