Feelin’ Alright

“Feelin’ Alright” is the song FM radio played first, this is the track that broke Joe Cocker in the U.S. “With A Little Help From My Friends” really didn’t supersede “Feelin’ Alright” until the release of the Woodstock movie, and its subsequent use on “The Wonder Years.” And Cocker’s iteration became so famous, it completely replaced the Traffic original.

Traffic really didn’t gain mainstream success in the U.S. until the band broke up, Stevie Winwood went to work in the supergroup Blind Faith, and then reformed with “John Barleycorn Must Die.”

“John Barleycorn”‘s release was perfectly timed. The late spring of 1970, when the Beatles had their last hurrah with “Let It Be” and FM had finally ascended to domination. Everybody was aware of album rock, singles were for sissies.

But there were three LPs before “John Barleycorn Must Die.” Ironically, the last, the worst, a mash-up of studio and live tracks, got the most traction, or as Joni Mitchell sang at the same time, “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”. “Shanghai Noodle Factory” was all over the airwaves, and “Medicated Goo” too. And they were a pretty good distillation of the Traffic sound, which was thought to have expired.

But the two LPs that came before, they were the essence of Traffic, then and now.

The first had the most impact. Musos cherry-picked it for covers. You know “Heaven Is In Your Mind” by Three Dog Night, not Traffic, and I hate to say it, Three Dog Night’s version is better, Traffic got the chorus right, but the verses? And Al Kooper made “Dear Mr. Fantasy” ubiquitous with its inclusion on the double album “The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper,” remember the mic cutting out midstream? And Kooper covered “Coloured Rain” on his initial solo LP, “I Stand Alone,” and I must admit I prefer the over-produced Kooper iteration, but no one could exceed the original version of “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” a classic rock track if there ever was one, which Winwood still performs just as well, his electric guitar picking in the outro will blow your mind, have you nodding your noggin, getting into the groove.

But I didn’t get on board until the second Traffic album, when Dave Mason was ensconced in the band once again. Actually, it was two Mason tracks that originally entranced me, the opening “You Can All Join In” and the second side’s “Cryin’ To Be Heard.”

“You Can All Join In” was especially noteworthy because of the lead vocal being in one channel and the supporting/backup vocals being in the other. And we all know the jaunty tracks reach us first.

As for “Cryin’ To Be Heard,” it was exactly the opposite, quiet and dreamy, as if cut in Morocco, this was not made for the radio so much as your bedroom, it still stands up today.

But this is about “Feelin’ Alright,” the first side closer.

Now some people might be aware of Three Dog Night’s 1969 cover of the track, but that never was a hit single, and nobody with cred was buying their albums.

But Three Dog Night’s version was like Joe Cocker’s version, it was UPBEAT! You listen to them and think everything is ALL RIGHT, when the truth is it’s not.

Now at this point, Dave Mason is most remembered for his soft rock hit on Columbia, “We Just Disagree.” But before that he was momentarily legendary for his Blue Thumb solo debut “Alone Together,” which not only came on multicolored pizza vinyl, but featured a triple-panel cover.

At the time the most noteworthy cut was his version of the Delaney & Bonnie cover of “Only You Know And I Know,” but every cut on “Alone Together” is genius, I don’t think younger generations have picked up on it.

But before Traffic splintered, there was that rendition of his song “Feelin’ Alright?”

Now I won’t say I never think of it, that it never crosses my mind, as a matter of fact, I sing it in my head on a regular basis, it’s Dave’s vocal so world-weary, almost understated. But still, at this point, I always think of “Feelin’ Alright” as an upbeat song, hell, the Cocker version is a tear. But last night, “Feelin’ Alright” revealed itself to me.

Of course I got it back in ’68, reading the lyrics, but I was inexperienced then.

You see “Feelin’ Alright” is a breakup song, one not of exuberance, I’M FINALLY FREE, but lamenting what once was, with the singer licking his wounds.

Seems I’ve got to have a change of scene
‘Cause every night I have the strangest dreams

Yup, he’s moved on, physically, leaving the bad memories and mood behind. BUT THAT’S NOT TRUE!

Imprisoned by the way it could have been

The average person is not a celebrity, they don’t crawl from the wreckage into a brand new car. No, they break up and…they’re left alone, contemplating what’s been lost, what’s been left behind.

Left here on my own or so it seems
I’ve got to leave before I start to scream
But someone’s locked the door and took the key

Wow, it’s like solitary confinement. But that’s the way it is when you break up. You can walk outside the house, go to the city center and be around people, but you can’t get the other person out of your head, they don’t leave your mind for a minute.

You feelin’ alright?
I’m not feelin’ too good myself
Well, you feelin’ alright?
I’m not feelin’ too good myself

Honesty. He’s in a bad space, he’s wondering if she is too, you always believe your ex is living it up, are they?

But boy you sure took me for one big ride
And even now I sit and wonder why

Hindsight is 20/20. How did you get wrapped up in their web? You compromise, buy into one thing, and then it’s a slippery slope, you’ve lost your perspective, you’re in a cult of two, and you’re not the leader.

And when I think of you I start to cry
‘Cause I just can’t waste my time, I must keep dry

You’re stuck. You can’t move forward, you can’t live. The world progresses around you, and you’re chained to the past.

Gotta stop believin’ in all your lies
‘Cause there’s too much to do before I die

He went through the meat grinder. He knows there’s a better future out there, he’s got to put one foot in front of another, but right now that’s impossible.

Don’t get too lost in all I say
Though at the time I really felt that way

He’s drunk-dialing, through a song. This is the worst, when you profess your undying love and get no response at all, or the brush-off.

But that was then and now it’s today

He’s apologizing, the tears have stopped, but she’s gotten the message, he’s desperate.

Can’t get off yet, so I’m here to stay
Till someone comes along and takes my place
With a different name yes, and a different face

He truly can’t get off. The merry-go-round of his mind and sexually. And he knows it’s only a matter of time before he’s replaced. But when that happens it will be a bitter pill to swallow, but it will allow him to go on, however haltingly.

You feelin’ alright?
I’m not feelin too good myself
Well, you feelin’ alright?
I’m not feelin’ too good myself

He wants to get his message across, he wants acknowledgement, of his bad space, of how she manipulated and hurt him. But still, he wants to believe she feels what he does and there’s a chance…guys always think there’s a chance.

And even the title is important. The Cocker cover is entitled “Feeling Alright.” It’s clear, he’s fine. But the Traffic original is called “Feelin’ Alright?,” with a question mark, it’s not about him, but her.

I guess that’s something amazing about music, how it constantly reveals itself to you over time, as you gain experience and perspective.

But “Feelin’ Alight” is another reason classic rock is classic. Sure, there’s bombastic stuff like “Smoke On The Water,” and then there’s more subtle stuff like “Feelin’ Alright,” which encapsulates the human condition in sound and lyric.

This is why we keep listening to this music.

All Blues – Playlist

I’d never heard it before.

Peter Frampton has a new blues album, “All Blues,” and although it went to #1 on the blues chart, that’s like being big in Poughkeepsie. But if it were 1969, this album would be all over aficionados’ turntables. Back when the blues still inspired the essence of rock and roll, when the scene was vital and comprehensible.

Actually, wasn’t Humble Pie directly influenced by the blues? Just listen to the “Fillmore” album. And Steve Marriott was a blues shouter par excellence.

But by time Humble Pie clicked in the marketplace, Frampton was already gone. The “Fillmore” double album was his last hurrah, he announced his departure before the tour, kinda like he’s announced he’s retiring from the road after this tour because of his illness. Did you read in the WSJ that Linda Ronstadt now says she was misdiagnosed, she never had Parkinson’s, but progressive supranuclear palsy, and there’s no medication for it? But unlike Frampton, who has inclusion body myositis, Linda wasn’t plying the boards on a retirement tour, she hadn’t made a new album, she kind of faded away and eventually said she was never coming back, but Frampton’s hiding in plain sight, and kinda like David Crosby constantly making albums fearing death, Peter is making albums at a prodigious rate before he’s unable to play at this level.

Now insiders know Frampton can wail. Hell, he was on George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass,” but he’s been forever negatively branded by taking a turn into teenybopper land. But “All Blues” sounds nothing like that.

We used to idolize guitarists. They were into the blues and soloists in England first, but after the Beatles broke in America, we hungered for more, and it wasn’t much later that Clapton became God and Hendrix was a legend and…oftentimes the material was just a framework for the axemen to show their skills… can you say “Spoonful”?

And it was Frampton who played on the Humble Pie “Fillmore” album.

But old rockers are supposed to fade away and not radiate. You don’t find anybody pushing the envelope anymore, they’re just on a dash for cash on the road.

But not Frampton, he’s time-stamped, and that inspires you. When you can see the end, you’re activated.

And Peter pulled an Ed Sheeran, he collaborated with a who’s who of players on many tracks. But instead of jumping genres, “All Blues” is just the blues.

The opener is “I Just Want To Make Love To You,” featuring Kim Wilson on the harp.

But to tell you the truth, Foghat burned me out on this song. I never cottoned to their version, even though I love their later stuff…”when I was stone blue, rock and roll still helped me through”. But Frampton’s iteration is less frantic, it sets down in a slow groove and keeps plowing ahead. And Frampton wails, as well as Wilson.

But actually, I like the second track, “She Caught The Katy” more. If you were in front of your stereo, if you were at the show, you’d be grimacing and playing air guitar.

And Frampton somehow makes “Georgia On My Mind” his own. It’s an instrumental take, the guitar sings the lyrics. Listen.

And now I’m intrigued. I start looking at the other featured players. And on the title track, I see Larry Carlton, a jazz master, a studio legend, so I pull it up. And I thought it was an original. And I didn’t like the subtle groove that began the track, the underpinning just didn’t have that much soul, but when Larry Carlton started to wail, at 1:42, my head about exploded. For a long time it was how fast you played. But then we realized that it was more about style. The key was to gain the skills, and then find your own sound, stake out your own territory. And Carlton shines on “All Blues.”

And then I’m listening to another song on the album, “Going Down Slow,” which features Steve Morse, and I wondered who wrote it and when I pulled up the page, I saw not only that “Going Down Slow” was written by St. Louis Jimmy Oden but that ALL the tracks on “All Blues” were covers, including “All Blues,” and I did not know that. You see the Mississippi roots, the building blocks of the blues, the fascination therewith, came a generation before me, in the U.K., at universities, I knew Robert Johnson like everybody else, and of course Willie Dixon and…there were names I’d heard of but didn’t know the music of.

So I immediately went to Spotify and puled up the original “Going Down Slow,” it was a REVELATION! The track had scratches on it, but it was like a previously unknown era came alive. This was not blues rock, there was almost nothing on the track, it was driven by St. Louis Jimmy Oden’s vocal. Packed into its length of 3:11 was a whole lifetime, it made you want to go down to the juke joints, that no longer exist, and hear this music…it was now obvious why the English cats and the students were infatuated.

Then I decided to pull up the original “All Blues,” by Miles Davis.

And what astounded me was it had the same groove, the same basic underpinning as the Frampton version, it’s just that it swung a bit more. And then Miles started to play and I instantly got it, why Miles is so revered, why he was so cool.

Now I saw Miles live in the “Bitches Brew” era, and I love “In A Silent Way,” but by that time he was far from the original sound that made him famous, he was experimenting with electronics.

And then I saw that “All Blues” is on “Kind Of Blue,” which I’d never really gotten, even though I literally had a copy someone sent me for my birthday, and I knew how famous it was…I just needed an introduction.

I mean if you think you hate jazz, have no interest in Miles, just pull this up, you’ll stop in your tracks, you won’t believe there’s something this good that you’ve never heard before.

That’s where Frampton led me. He knows his roots, he’s amplifying the sound.

And like I said, in a previous era, musos would be all over this album, talking about the playing, but now…

It’s just an artifact, like the original delta blues, waiting to be discovered by a later generation.

They’re killing the golden goose.

Because price matters. Otherwise everybody would use an iPhone and a Mac, but Netflix is not a premium product, it can’t win appealing to a sliver of the public, it needs all of it.

This is how the publishing industry killed digital books.

Despite the hosannas of boomers boasting that they saved the physical book, it won’t be long until they lose the war. You know change…it looks like it’s never going to happen, you laugh at the predictions, and then overnight, it takes hold. Can you say digital photography? Can you say internet connection?

People had been using digital cameras for years, but they were expensive. Just like people were communicating via bulletin boards utilizing low speed modems with arcane software. But non-traditional consumer camera companies, like Panasonic and Sony and Samsung, put out products while Nikon and other high-end manufacturers sat by, as well as the everyman’s company Kodak, and then in a year, digital eclipsed film, just like that. Kinda like AOL turned everybody into an internet user, they made it easy.

Now we had a similar situation in the music business, with the iTunes Store. At first the labels considered it a joke, being Mac-only. But then when sales far exceeded expectations and distribution included Windows, suddenly this sideshow was throwing off revenue… And what did the labels want to do? RAISE PRICES!

And who said they couldn’t?

STEVE JOBS!

The labels are greedy, short-term thinkers, why else would Universal have stored all those masters in an unprotected facility? The music business was always run on intimidation, but finally it came up against someone who wouldn’t play that game, Apple kept prices low until consumers were hooked, then they jumped from 99 cents to $1.29.

99 cents. Ever notice no car is advertised at a round number? How it’s always something 99? Even gas! Our minds trick us into thinking $3.249 is equivalent to $3.24. But the truth is it’s only a tenth of a cent from $3.25.

And going back to books, did you see that Pearson is going digital first on textbooks? Physical was killing them. They got no revenue on resale. And prices were so high, sales were less frequent.

Instead, they went to the subscription model. That’s right, for less than print you get something that can be upgraded on a regular basis, like a streaming music service. Your subscription to Spotify, et al, is not a fixed picture, but a constantly rolling enterprise that adds new titles on a regular basis…and as long as you keep paying ten bucks a month, you can hear them.

Ten bucks. Spotify is a public company under earnings pressure. It could immediately raise prices, but it would start hemorrhaging customers. If it’s under ten bucks, it’s a throwaway. Once it eclipses that number, you start to think about it. I mean there are months when we barely watch Netflix, but we don’t cancel. But if you’re counting your pennies, supporting a family, every little bit counts and you look for alternatives that are good enough, like Android and Windows.

There’s a huge market in good enough. Not everybody needs to buy Nike or 7 jeans or… They’ll settle for the knock-off.

So Netflix is under Wall Street pressure, to pay for all that programming. So it keeps raising prices. Now you think they’re going to keep going up FOREVER! You feel the company no longer cares for you, the bond is broken and you start evaluating cash versus benefit.

As for HBO… On one hand, people are accustomed to the $15 price point. But the dirty little secret is that most people don’t pay that $15, or don’t think they do. The HBO fee is baked into your cable plan, which is a negotiation worse than buying a car. I got so frustrated I told my provider to cancel everything but the internet, and just before the clerk did this, she told me for $9.99 more, I could get essentially all the channels I was getting, including HBO…believe me, I don’t think HBO is costing me $15.

Which is why Disney is so brilliantly starting with a low price for its streaming service.

And what Netflix kept doing was adding loads of product while raising the price.

But the truth is most of this product sucks. And it’s an experiment, if it doesn’t immediately generate an audience, Netflix kills it. That’s right the Northern Californians are so into algorithms and spreadsheets that they miss the essence… One or two great shows make up for a slew of crappy ones. Kinda like the CD business!

And I can’t say there’s been a killer show on Netflix this year. No water cooler moment.

And one thing we’re looking for from Netflix is something DIFFERENT! Not only from network, but HBO too. Come on, HBO never would have aired “Babylon Berlin,” no way, not enough people would watch it. But if you struggled through the first few episodes on Netflix, you got hooked, I haven’t stopped talking about the show and I saw it YEARS AGO!

And it’s not like history is unwritten. “Sex and the City” ended and HBO suffered, they needed more hits.

I scan the sites all the time, looking for what to watch. And when I rarely find new Netflix shows, it frustrates me.

And screw the algorithm, showing me what I should be interested in, I have no idea what’s actually on Netflix, I read about a movie being available on the service, but it never pops up on my screen. Where’s the website where I can scan all the content? Hell, it looks to me like they don’t have that much, even though they keep telling everybody they do!

There’s too much television for mediocre to survive. Not only are there so many other options on TV, there are non-series/movie distractions only a click away, like YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat…

In other words, Netflix has lost touch with its customers.

Just like the publishing business. Who in hell is gonna buy the digital version if the hardcover is cheaper, or only a dollar or two more? It’s a bad value proposition. Kids are down with virtual purchases, as they do in video games, but the oldsters still need to be convinced. Most people who are anti-digital readers never even read that way! But when all books were $9.99 or less… If you bought something and it sucked, no big deal. But when it’s $15?

Yup, the book business is just like Netflix. Not aware their business depends on customers. Amazon was growing their business, adding customers and sales. I used to buy a physical book a year, maybe two or three. It just didn’t make sense, $25? But with digital, I buy a book every other week if not more often. But I must admit, I think twice about my purchases at these inflated prices, and I’m pissed they’re so high when there’s no printing and shipping…

You want your customers to LOVE you, otherwise you’re the record business. Devastated at the advent of this century. Customers had been ripped-off for so long, they didn’t feel bad about stealing, And what did the execs say? Nothing could replace CDs, they were perfect! But the customers didn’t feel this way, and they wanted instant accessibility and portability, qualities that are the essence of digital.

And streaming saved the music business.

But sales don’t equal the pre-internet heyday, so the streaming services are…waiting to raise prices.

Let’s not talk about what something is intrinsically worth… It’s only worth what a buyer is willing to pay.

And one thing’s for sure, I’m not paying for every streaming video service, no way. I’m gonna end up paying as much as cable and getting less! I’m trying to hold off on Hulu. I don’t have the time, and I feel it’s an insult.

But, I did pay for Mhz Choice to watch a foreign series, I thought twice, but it was only $7.99 and opened up a world of proven quality television that otherwise I wouldn’t have access to.

Now is the time for Netflix to ensure that it trumps the competition.

All the news is negative. It’s losing “The Office,” “Friends.”

I don’t watch either, but there’s such blowback that my fealty to Netflix is wavering, I want to be a member of a winning cult. And I know Netflix is countering with all the product it still has, and the press is talking about viewer numbers, but entertainment is not facts, it’s about hearts and minds!

And Netflix is losing them.

Tom Bailey Spotify playlist

Dance with me across the sea
And we could feel the motion of a thousand dreams

KROQ was a free-format station.

No radio market was like Los Angeles, where there were five rock stations on the FM dial. And KROQ’s niche was playing those acts that never got airplay, the deep cuts from their albums, breaking acts that you immediately had to go see and did. This is where the ska revolution started, at least in the U.S.A.

But at the turn of the decade, Rick Carroll flipped the format to the “ROQ of the 80’s,” which was top forty for the new and different. It was KROQ that broke not only Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” and Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love,” but so many other acts, which may have been forgotten but are embedded in my brain. Like the Polecats’ “Make A Circuit With Me.” Suddenly it was hip to write pop songs, albeit in the new style, and the Polecats song had such a hook, I had to buy it, I had to hear it over and over again.

And of course KROQ played a lot of Depeche Mode.

But they also played this cut that slapped you in the face immediately with the popular synth sound, and was a joy to hear every time KROQ played it, and no one else played it. That song was the Thompson Twins’ “In The Name Of Love,” which in my mind was always an update of Ian Dury’s “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick,” it had a similarly propulsive chorus, you felt like you were being banged on the head, and it felt so GOOD!

But the Thompson Twins were just another KROQ band, you didn’t buy the records. But I knew “Lies” and “Love On Your Side” by heart.

And then came “Hold Me Now.” So simple, yet so right. But this was in an era where people didn’t make records like this. Nothing was relatively quiet and simple, everything was dressed up in instrumentation. “Hold Me Now” was almost like a love song from the sixties, especially the chorus.

And then suddenly “Hold Me Now” was everywhere, it crossed over to pop and other rock formats, suddenly the Thompson Twins were ubiquitous.

It’s hard to do it this way. Many songs are inundated with production, but the essence, the song is not there.

And what put “Hold Me Now” over the top was the last half of the chorus:

Stay with me
Let loving start
Let loving start

Not that there were not a lot of hooks in the song, it was positively magical and…

I had to buy the album, “Into The Gap.”

It’s one of my favorite records of the eighties.

I knew what the band sounded like, I knew the hits, but nothing prepared me for the opening cut on “Into The Gap,” “Doctor! Doctor!,” whose lyrics are at the top of this screed.

This was when albums were still a statement.

“Doctor! Doctor!” immediately set the mood, it was like you were in a seance, an alternative universe, privileged to be a member of a special club, FROM THE VERY FIRST NOTE!

This was not a traditional guitar rave-up, as a matter of fact, the intro to “Doctor! Doctor!” resembled nothing so much as “Funkytown,” which you pooh-poohed at the time, but love every time you hear it on the radio today, at least I do. Hell, even the Chipmunks covered “Funkytown”!

But “You Take Me Up,” the second song, was completely different, it started with a harmonica, or some synth that sounded like one.

Knowing what it means to work hard on machines
It’s a labour of love so please don’t ask me why

Now you were parked in this alternative universe, and Tom Bailey was talking about his work life. He wasn’t regretting it, he wasn’t complaining, it was taking up all of his time, but he loved it!

And the title song, which opened the second side, “The Gap” started with a synth resembling a Jew’s harp, and moved on to an Arabian feel, like there was a snake charmer present, it was hypnotic.

And the finale, “Who Can Stop The Rain,” sounded like the end of something…something you didn’t want to end, so you flipped the record over and played it again and again. This was supposed to wear out the grooves, but you couldn’t help yourself.

And thereafter “Lay Your Hands On Me” was a success, but eventually Joe Leeway left, not that we were ever sure what he contributed, and Tom and Alannah Currie moved to Australia and transmogrified into Babble and…

Then they disappeared.

Until about a decade ago, when Howard Jones implored Tom to go on a short tour with him, and Tom has been plying the boards ever since.

And in preparation for the podcast, Tom’s manager David Stopps sent me this video that he shot on his phone from the side of the stage:

Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey’s performance at Henley UK

And it’s shot during the day, and everybody knows you don’t want to hit the stage until after dark.

And you immediately notice that everybody in the band is dressed in white, and the supporting musicians are all women.

And I was digging it, enjoying it, then at 2:15 Tom stopped singing and the band stopped playing and…

The audience took the reins. At a volume and with such vociferousness that I’m tingling watching it again now.

This is a festival. Those alive when “Hold Me Now” was first a hit are not in attendance, it’s all young ‘uns…but they know this song and they’re waving their arms in the air and…

I asked Tom what it was like having an audience sing his song back to him and he said…YOU HAVE NO IDEA!

But this was not a one time only affair. Stopps sent me a video from last Saturday, and the same thing happened. It’s outdoors, during the day and the audience is singing “Hold Me Now” at the top of their lungs, a cappella. Start around :45 to experience the magic:

Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey ‘Hold Me Now’ Shrewsbury UK

I thought Tom was a super cool, unapproachable dude. But he was so normal.

Listen to what he had to say:

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