It’s already off the front page. Literally. Check your apps, the NYT, the WaPo, you won’t find it. That’s how fast the news cycle is today.

Speaking of the news cycle, did you read the “Guardian”‘s article

“Pop’s need for speed: ‘You have to drop new stuff constantly'”?

Taylor Swift’s new album is a stiff, already in the rearview mirror, the only thing that can save it is radio airplay, never underestimate the power of Republic’s promotion team, but everybody gives up at some point, the opportunity cost is just too high, your team could be working on something else. But Taylor Swift is positively rearguard, everything she does is behind the times. She tried to burnish her image with social media after that venue had already gone on backlash and kept her work from streaming services and now has dropped an album in an era of singles. Albums are only for the niche. Or else you release multiple albums a year, otherwise you’re no longer top of mind.

Like the climate strike.

But the school strike for climate is not a new thing. It’s been a constant presence this year. Go to Wikipedia:

School strike for climate

Remind you of anything? Probably not, because you weren’t alive at the turn of the decade, from the sixties to the seventies, when antiwar protests ramped up and Johnson declined to run for re-election and the whole country turned against the war in Vietnam. It was the youth who did that. Because the war was unwinnable and unjust, and because men were afraid of dying in Southeast Asia.

Now people are afraid of dying as a result of climate change.

That’s right, as the bigwigs debate it, as governments pooh-pooh it, as those who lived through the aforementioned peace protests fifty years ago forget the lessons of history, a whole new generation, of both males and females, is freaking out, they’re afraid climate change is gonna negatively impact their future, if they get one at all, these lobsters have finally realized the temperature of the water is going up and they don’t want to boil.

Come on, just look around, another hurricane in Houston? Well, technically Imelda is a tropical depression, but who knew that living in Houston was so dangerous?

As for hurricanes… They had ’em when I was growing up. But not with devastating results seemingly every year.

My personal litmus test is the heat in Santa Monica. When I moved there at the beginning of the eighties, you didn’t need air conditioning, only one week a year was sweltering. But not now, now you can’t function without air conditioning, you’re shvitzing, you can’t run off to a meeting without a shower.

And then there’s the ski season. Which is shorter than ever. And those who venture to Colorado are aware of the bark beetle, killing trees all over the forest, it no longer gets cold enough to kill them. Yup, drive through the Centennial State, you can’t avoid it, those swaths of dead, brown trees.

But I’m not here to debate climate change with you, doesn’t matter if you disbelieve, THE YOUTH DO! The climate is the number one issue of one-quarter of Gen-Z. That means when they vote…

Yup, the polluting corporations and the Republicans are on the wrong side of this. Which is one reason California is a blue state. Oh, don’t buy the hogwash how bad life in the Golden State is. Sure, we’ve got an affordable housing crisis, but if you look at the economy at large…it’s booming, much better than the vaunted Texas.

And it’s not only Governor Newsom standing up for climate change, Trump wants to lower fuel economy ratings, but an additional twenty two other states disagree.

Once again, I’m not here to argue climate facts. I’m just putting you on notice that the youth are energized, just like they were during the Vietnam era, it’s their future they’re worried about, and they’re going to vote accordingly.

“Why the Black Keys shut out hundreds of fans, causing chaos at the Wiltern”

This is the best thing that ever happened to Safetix.

Now most people know.

Technology solves problems. It enables a step forward. But something is always lost in this transition.

For years, the touring industry discussed “paperless” tickets. Now, everybody going to a concert has a smartphone, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to afford the ducat. So, just like in recorded music, physical has gone by the wayside, enabling the act to control the ticket.

Who controls the ticket? That’s another thing debated for decades in the business. Is it the act, the promoter, the ticket-seller or the building or..?

Now I’m not saying brokers have not provided a service. I’m also not saying that acts don’t take advantage of the secondary market. But if the acts want to control who gains entry, isn’t this their right?

Never forget, Ticketmaster always gets the blame. It’s got to be somebody’s fault that little Trevor and Madison can’t see the show. But the acts are revered, it can’t bet their fault, so the blame is shifted to Ticketmaster, which is paid to take the heat. Ticketmaster just does what the acts tell them to do, but no matter how many times this message goes out, no one seems to believe it.

Then there’s the problem getting the message out to begin with.

How big a Black Keys fan could these excluded buyers be if they didn’t know this was a non-transferable ticket show?

Oh, maybe Ticketmaster and the Black Keys didn’t make the message clear. But next time they will.

But now that it’s news, more people will know how Safetix work. That’s how hard it is to get the message across these days. In a world where Fox and the rest of the media are arguing whether the whistleblower is a bad actor.

Acts hate the secondary market because they don’t get the uplift.

Unless they sell directly to the secondary market to not only gain more profit. but guarantee sales.

But concerts are different from other products for sale, the customer is not always right, even though an ignorant press often says he is. In a world where if you complain, someone’s afraid to speak to the veracity of such a claim, where you can return stuff with impunity at Costco, enabled customers think they can beat the system. But when demand exceeds supply, the tables turn. Those who get tickets are thrilled, and those left out just can’t wait to go the next time. As for those complaining today, do you think they’ll stop seeing concerts in the future? Of course not! They’ll become more informed, the same way they learned about Stubhub, et al, to begin with. And now the secondary market will have to police its wares. Shouldn’t resellers know what can and cannot be resold, isn’t this their business?

Then again, the purveyors have screwed up ticketing to begin with. You’ve got to join the fan club, get a credit card…by time of the public on-sale date, oftentimes fewer than 10% of the tickets are available. Why do acts do this? Because the credit card company and the fan club pay! It’s extra money. The acts say it’s for marketing, but the truth is it goes straight to their bottom lines.

So, if a gig is “oversubscribed,” if all the tickets are gonna sell instantly anyway, with Safetix shouldn’t we also go to randomized ticketing? As in everybody who says they want a ticket signs up and then the computer picks buyers at random?

Now in theory Safetix shuts out the secondary market. But it won’t be long before scalpers sell the smartphone the tickets are purchased on. Yup, a cheap smartphone for expensive tickets. It’s a war I tell you.

But now the act and ticketing company have a new weapon.

At first I ignored it, figuring it was just hype for his new movie and LP. Yup, Robbie’s selling something, and when the tsunami of hype starts, I tune out.

Now Robbie Robertson can’t sing. Oh, everybody can sing, and his vocal is perfect for his composition “Broken Arrow,” which is more about emotion and feel than perfection, Rod Stewart’s cover doesn’t come close, but there was a reason the songs were sung by Rick, Levon and Richard in the Band.

I don’t understand why they had to stop working together. Then again, the Band albums got progressively worse, certainly after “Stage Fright,” although the double live LP “Rock Of Ages” was great, especially with the horns. But like Steely Dan, the band could have continued to make records without going on the road, after breaking up, nobody equaled what came before.

I won’t get into the politics, the wars, the competing books, what we’re truly left with is the music. Most famously “The Weight.”

Now my favorite cut is “King Harvest (Has Surely Come).” The first time I heard it was in Brad Weston’s playroom, we had identical split-levels in the development. Brad told me I had to hear this one track, not the whole album, just this one cut, and he dropped the needle and…

Dry summer, then comes fall
Which I depend on most of all

This was not the 1960s, all shiny and mechanized, this was a guy living off the land, dependent upon Mother Nature, from seemingly the last century.

And at this late date, I love “Look Out Cleveland” and “Rag Mama Rag” from the second LP, which I think is the best, I can even listen to their take on “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” but I push the button whenever Joan Baez’s version comes on the radio.

And I’m a huge fan of “Stage Fright,” which is seen as second-tier, but not by me, maybe it’s the Todd Rundgren engineering. The killer is “The W.S.Walcott Medicine Show.”

There’ll be saints and sinners, you’ll see losers and winners
All kinds of people you might want to know

Actually, no. Today no one wants to know anybody not from their class. Losers are pooh-poohed, hell, look at the homeless situation.

But the truth is life is only about people, they’re all that counts. Your possessions won’t keep you warm at night. And one thing about people is they’ll surprise you, even the ones you think you know, but if you’re open to adventure you’ll be wowed and excited on a regular basis, that’s why you travel.

To Hawaii, the Congo, Japan, Jamaica, even Venice Beach in this video.

The rendition is not that memorable, but the video is. You’ve got Ringo, you’ve got Robbie, but the rest are a surprise.

Now the first thing you notice is Robbie is playing a brand new Stratocaster, in a world where old is better, you never see a star playing a brand new axe. Even better is the tone, it’s live, it’s not fed through studio sweeteners, it’s a guitar, it’s the sound that kicks you in the gut in live shows.

And I’ve never seen Marcus King live, but his vocal didn’t quite resonate, but it was cool to see him.

But not as much as Roberto Luti in Livorno, Italy. THEY’VE GOT ROCK AND ROLL IN ITALY? Man, if you didn’t see the credit, you’d think this guy was picking down in the delta.

Then Larkin Poe at Venice Beach? Hell, I’ve heard their name a zillion times, but have never heard them or seen them, I didn’t even know it was two women, now I’ve got to check them out.

And I don’t want to spoil it. But I will say that Lukas Nelson was the highlight for me, as well as the women singing in Trenchtown.

You start to smile, you’re intrigued, you come to believe music does link us all together, that it’s an alternative world from the politics dominating the discussion today. Somehow everybody got the message, everybody has commonality, everybody’s on the same page.

You almost feel like it’s the sixties again.

But that was fifty years ago.

Majordomo of the Zappa Trust, son of Frank and Gail (as they told him to call them from birth), TV show host, writer, entrepreneur, Ahmet Zappa grew up by the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen, he has stories to tell.

iheart

spotify

apple

stitcher