Charlie Puth covers Bruce Springsteen’s Growin’ Up for “Jersey 4 Jersey” Benefit Concert

But when they said, ‘Sit down,’ I stood up

Bon Jovi singlehandedly made New Jersey cool.

Or at least lifted it up from the depths.

Let’s see…

Newark? Nothing good ever happened there, other than maybe the birth of Philip Roth. Growing up in the sixties all you knew about the biggest city in New Jersey was the riots. To this day, most people cannot remember that the capital of the state is Trenton. New Jersey was not hip, it was where you lived if you couldn’t afford to reside in Westchester County. Sure, they had Atlantic City, but that was seedy…it’s still pretty seedy. As for the western part of the state? Residents there often say they live in Philly.

Never mind the swamps, the crime…if you’re gonna boast about the Garden State, you’re gonna have a hard time.

Until Bon Jovi. Who climbed out of the swamp to dominate MTV and to embrace his heritage.

So many of the Boss’s songs were about New York City. Bon Jovi embraced New Jersey, flew its flag high.

To the point where this special was aired, and many famous people from New Jersey, even if they no longer live there, appeared. Then again, the Boss moved back to Jersey from L.A. Generally speaking Jersey is someplace you’re from, not someplace you’re going to. But Bon Jovi legitimized it.

Now we’ve been enduring these streaming specials for a couple of weeks now, and no one has gotten it quite right. Too much gravitas, not enough humor. Give credit to Chelsea Handler, she tested the limits in this telecast, Jon Stewart was not wearing a suit, these were regular people doing regular things, in many cases the celebrities looked like us.

Especially Charlie Puth.

One unpredicted result of Covid-19 is the celebrity fallout. Even at this late internet date, “stars” don’t realize they’re seen as no better than the rest of us. Sure, there are nitwits who’ve barely reached puberty who adore them, but as soon as they can become influencers themselves, they see it’s all a scam. It’s all manipulated, and your only thing to sell is your credibility, your art, the public has not time for artifice, and certainly no time for grandiosity.

Like John Legend didn’t realize the public would see his awards.

Even on Bill Maher, the guests all show their books right up front.

Self-promotion in this time of self-quarantine looks bad. But shoving your accomplishments in our faces? No one remembers John Legend’s performance from the other night, but everybody remembers his tone-deaf display of his awards. Who cares about awards anyway. Legend is an entertainer, inoffensive, they didn’t give Lou Reed awards, or Led Zeppelin either, those pushing the envelope are too dangerous to get awards, the committees embrace them last, if at all. And now, when Billie Eilish can go from zero to hero overnight, it just illustrates that we’re all in this together, that the road from nowhere to somewhere can be seen. But it’s damn hard to achieve your goals, to ring the bell, and if you get there, you’d better be humble.

So you’re rich, so what? You couldn’t have made it without the spending of the public, pay fealty to the people, don’t brag, like David Geffen. Hell, if you post on Instagram you’re looking for positive feedback, otherwise why do it?

So, although at times somber, “New Jersey 4 New Jersey” had a lighter, more fluid feel.

But the Boss disappointed.

Yes, we cut Springsteen a break, he sings about the underclass, but when you see his rehearsal room, when he sings these dour non-hits, it’s hard to warm up to him, instead of making his point, he appears out of touch.

As for Jon Bon Jovi…his music is about bombast, about arenas, his studio was more low-key than Springsteen’s, but somehow, without the band, Bon Jovi emoted and it did not connect.

And then we’ve got Charlie Puth in his bedroom.

Puth doesn’t get a lot of respect. At best, people see him as talented. They know he went to Berklee, he’s got his pedigree, then again, we anoint those from the streets.

So, on this show, Puth seemed about sixteen. With a barely there moustache. As for the wifebeater… One couldn’t really understand… Was this about image? If so, it didn’t work so well. Or, was Puth really showing his roots, do he and his relatives wear these tank tops? I don’t know.

But unlike all the celebs of the past few weeks, livestreaming to embellish their image, Puth was playing from his bedroom, FROM HIS PARENTS’ HOUSE!!

Sure, he’s got a few bucks. God, maybe he even owns a house somewhere. Then again, he’s traveling all the time.

And who wants to hole up alone during this crisis?

And the bed is unmade. Most guys do this, after all, they’re gonna sleep in it again tonight.

And his dog ran in and out in the background, a black creature, not a show dog of some exotic breed which a famous person cradles in their arms and then discards.

And then Puth starts to play.

THIS WAS MUSIC!

He played a recognizable song, not even one of his own, but one of the Boss’s!

Yes, Charlie Puth upstaged Bruce Springsteen on this telecast.

So Puth starts tickling the ivories and…you start to smile, you start getting this tingle in your body, THIS IS MUSIC, THIS IS TALENT!

And sure, his voice is not perfectly matched to the song, being sweet and high register, but he can certainly sing, he’s got pipes.

And he’s singing “Growin’ Up.”

Bruce Springsteen was sold as the new Dylan. And “Greetings From Asbury Park” was made that way. You’d think this was some Woody Guthrie, a man and his guitar. In retrospect you can hear the band mixed down low, but in 1973 Bruce was not yet the Boss.

But he wanted to be.

“Greetings From Asbury Park” is stuffed with enough words for three albums. This is a guy who’s got something to say, who wants you to listen, who is doing his all to make it.

Now most people only knew Springsteen’s debut from the covers, by Manfred Mann most specifically. But if you purchased this LP when it came out, there were three tracks that stood out..”For You,” “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” and “Growin’ Up.”

Well I stood stone-like at midnight
Suspended in my masquerade
I combed my hair ’til it was just right
And commanded the night brigade
I was open to pain and crossed by the rain
And I walked on a crooked crutch
I strolled all alone through a fallout zone
And came out with my soul untouched

It’s the last line that really matters. Life is about making you conform, kowtowing to your parents and then your boss. But rock and roll threw a wrench in that. The people who made it didn’t fit in, and those who didn’t fit in themselves glommed on and made these acts known, before the rest of the public came clamoring. That’s what engendered corporate rock, that’s what’s wrong with too much music today…it’s not about the identity, it’s not about the resonance, it’s about the sell. Even the performances evidence this. They’re for some theoretical rich people, billionaires, corporations, hovering above the arena, not even in attendance. It’s about making your mark so you can climb into the pantheon of wealth and exclusivity. But no one ever wanted Lemmy at their party. Once you’re invited, once you sell out…hell, even Iggy is acceptable these days, and in the Stooges days even insiders thought he was too outside.

And today you can fake it.

It’s de rigueur for someone else to write the material. Through trickery, you don’t even have to be able to sing well. Can you say J. Lo? But there are a zillion more. You just have to decide to be a music star, talent is secondary, whereas you can’t compete in sports through sheer desire.

But, Puth can play the piano, you marvel.

And he sings too!

And he hasn’t got a big rig, all he’s got is a laptop and an electric keyboard, and a mic, of course, that’s enough. Just like in the old days when you recorded to two track and performed live in the studio. If you’ve got the goods, the technology is not necessary, it’s at most the cherry on top. Today, it’s all about the cherry, the script has been flipped.

Springsteen was a star in his own mind in “Growin’ Up.” He lived in the stratosphere, untouched, if only everybody could see it.

And that’s how we felt, especially in the suburbs. We yearned to break out, from where we weren’t understood, where we weren’t accepted.

And Charlie Puth does not display that edge in this performance.

But what the music does is set your mind and body free, makes you hover above the floor, think about your hopes and dreams, makes you believe it’s gonna be all right, that you’re gonna survive, that it’s gonna work out for you…the performance gives you hope.

And isn’t that what we want right now?

Join manager Jake Gold and me as we discuss life in the music business in the new world of Covid-19, along with political and musical differences between Canada and the U.S.

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If this were on Netflix, everybody would be talking about it.

Once again, distribution is king. You might get paid a lot of money to make a show for Apple, but odds are almost no one is gonna see it. It’s kinda like records. You can go with a major and they can promote it, give you visibility, or you can slug it out yourself. Sure, you can keep all the money, but getting notice is a bitch.

Kinda like the astroturfing employed to get governments to open up for business. These entities know how to stir the pot to get some people to act, which generates a certain amount of publicity, such that the issue becomes front and center. Come on, without the protests, without Trump telling people to liberate states, would we all be busy talking about when to open for business?

The dream was the internet would flatten distribution, everybody would start from the same place, all voices could be heard.

And that actually happened for a while, but the barrier to entry was so low that now anybody without money and a megaphone is ignored. The dirty little secret is when you hype your track, implore people to listen to it, they don’t, because they’ve been bitten too many times, by clicking on lame tracks, and they only have so much time to begin with.

So, being part of a giant corporation, Amazon’s TV offering looks like an afterthought. You get it for free. To the point where even a breakout hit doesn’t change perception of the service. “Mrs. Maisel” got all that ink, but who else is watching Amazon television? I don’t know a single person watching Apple TV+, and now they’ve got some new shows that have actually gotten good reviews, but they’re starting behind the 8-ball, especially after the mishandling of “The Morning Show.” By time it was done, those who hung in there actually liked it. But since they dribbled out episodes week by week, the publicity machine, the focus, was long gone. And you supersede the paradigm, you don’t try to change it. You don’t try to convince everybody to get a stick shift in an era of automatics, and you don’t drop episodes week by week when Netflix releases them all at once. Furthermore, I only binge, I don’t want to make an appointment for TV, I don’t want to think about scheduling it, how important do these outlets think these shows are to us anyway?

And now you’ve got HBO Max.

Stick shifts were killed by Formula 1. At the elite level of auto-racing it’s now automatic transmissions, with paddle shifters and no pedal clutch. Turns out the computer can shift faster than the person. So, car racing transmissions are superior to what you can buy off the lot, and the only people who still buy manuals are the same people who buy vinyl records recorded digitally. It’s nostalgia, it makes no sense. Especially when automatics get better mileage than stick shifts!

You see, Formula 1 superseded the paradigm.

So, to compete with Netflix, the new entrants to streaming are underpricing the streaming giant. So, what does HBO do? CHARGE MORE! That’s a recipe for disaster, it makes no sense. But, HBO wants to protect its cable partners, the same way record companies were so busy protecting their physical retail partners that Napster and other internet services undercut them. We heard all this hogwash about the value of music…yeah, but what are people willing to pay? Turns out they’re willing to pay ten bucks a month, ad infinitum, for everything, but not fifteen bucks occasionally for a CD with only one good track.

So, “Bosch” is on Amazon.

“Mozart in the Jungle”… It won all of those awards, almost no one saw it.

The first year of “Goliath,” great genre television, but almost no traction, and the following seasons have gotten worse.

But “Bosch”? “Bosch” keeps getting better!

Let’s start with Titus Welliver. He’s not quite James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, but Welliver has now truly become the character. He’s three-dimensional, he marches to the beat of his own drummer, he’s got his own code of ethics and nothing can persuade him to deviate from them. And he’s intense and he cares and despite people chafing at his methods and his success, he doesn’t change a whit. And he wants to go home and listen to jazz and he doesn’t hit on everything that moves…he’s a cop, and that’s good enough for him.

But the surrounding cast is nearly as good. “Bosch” is now a well-oiled machine. And even Crate and Barrel area no longer cartoon characters.

This is not “The Wire,” “Bosch” is not trying to recreate crime television. But it’s a great leap forward compared to the competition. It’s seamless and nuanced and you cannot turn it off, it cuts like butter.

That’s right, watch episode one and you roll right into episode two. You see the season disappearing in front of your very eyes. You want it to last, but you can’t hold back.

There is no deeper meaning. This is just about crime work. What happens in the police station, the politics, the government.

And it makes you yearn for L.A. in the summer, that’s when it was shot, into the fall, when it’s always bright and it never rains and… L.A. is not like New York, it’s not gritty, it’s suburban, but that does not mean there’s no crime. Everybody’s got a lawn, even if they’ve got bars on the windows. And you’ve got the loonies, the anti-government ones who don’t want to pay taxes and…

There’s this belief that Florida has superseded California when it comes to craziness.

That may be factually true, but all Florida has is craziness.

California is on the bleeding edge of innovation. To this day, it starts in California and spreads east. What you think is wackadoodle suddenly becomes a trend. As for the homeless problem…the homeless finally got smart, they’ve gone where the weather suits their clothes!

All of this is in “Bosch.”

But it’s Titus Welliver who glues it all together. He’s a force of nature without the braggadocio.

That’s the world we now live in, everybody’s boasting, trying to pull themselves up the socioeconomic ladder. It’s all about lifestyle baby!

But not Bosch. Harry Bosch is a cop. He can’t let the cold cases slip his mind. He wants the perps to pay. He’ll push the limits, but he won’t go past them. He’s on a mission, he wants to nail people. And not only the destitute and poor, but the rich who believe they’re above the law.

Don’t start with season 6, there are threads in this show that go all the way back to the first season. But on network TV, every season gets worse. Whereas with Bosch, each season supersedes the one before.

“Bosch” is made for bingeing, for how we watch television today.

And if you’re looking for a diversion from Covid-19…THIS IS IT!

Well, it doesn’t sound like anything else.

As a matter of fact, it resembles nothing so much as an early seventies experimentation, when the audience’s ears were open to the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Captain Beefheart and Terry Riley.

The audience outgrew AM radio. And before FM went top forty in most markets, via the Superstars format, there was a wealth of experimentation on the airwaves.

But really, you found out about records via print. There would be an ecstatic review by a writer you trusted and you’d buy the album. Then you’d go home and spin it and try to get it.

I can name so many albums like this. Whether it be Little Feat’s “Dixie Chicken” or John Cale’s “The Academy In Peril.”

Experimentation was baked in. That’s what the sixties taught us. And all the innovation was on records, so to be in the know, you had to buy them and listen.

Now eventually, via the Superstars format, FM became dumb, what was played became gigantic and that begat corporate rock. Why not game the system and deliver exactly what the audience wants?

The audience does not want “Fetch the Bolt Cutters.”

But the audience did not want Patti Smith. The audience didn’t want a lot of what was purveyed in the seventies, but they dipped their toe because it was part of their religion, to only get your music news from the radio labeled you a dilettante, the hard core studied print and made purchases accordingly.

Then you’d come home, break the shrinkwrap, drop the needle, and listen.

There were no distractions, you were focused. You’d laid down your money. You wanted to see what all the fuss was about. And since you’d paid for the album, you were prone to like it, there was no way anybody could own everything, you were limited in your purchases.

It is not that way today.

Today there’s a tsunami of hype. To the point where you ignore most of it. Which has me flummoxed as to why acts are holding back their releases during lockdown. This is when people have time, this is when everybody else is backing out, I figure artists would be clamoring to release their records, never mind books.

So, some people today find music via playlists. But really, that’s akin to yesteryear’s radio. Chosen tracks for the casual listener. But what’s worse, with endless time there are so many losers it’s hard to listen at all.

Therefore, all the focus is on the Spotify Top 50. And most of what’s in the Spotify Top 50 is manipulated by the usual suspects. This is where Max Martin still makes hits, can you say WEEKND? This is where the songs written by committee reside. As for Billie Eilish…Interscope worked her for years, planting seeds on Soundcloud, this was not an overnight success, it was a manipulated success, and even back in the seventies no one had years to do this, you put it out and see if stuck, and if it didn’t, you made another record. If you were any good at all, they let you make three to five, they were investing in you, they wanted a return.

But they, the labels, are first and foremost businesses. They want money. And in today’s chaotic landscape you only make money if there’s a plethora of streams, so the labels only invest in what can possibly achieve that. And they put out fewer tracks than ever, because of the opportunity cost, it takes just that long to push and make a track a hit. So, you want insurance, you don’t want to take a big risk. It’s corporate rock on steroids. And corporate rock was so obvious, so lowest common denominator, so lacking in innovation that disco slipped in, there was a war between the two genres and then the whole industry cratered, not to be rescued until the advent of MTV.

Now Fiona Apple made it in the MTV era. Via the Work label.

Work was a division of CBS Records, run by Jeff Ayeroff and Jordan Harris.

Jeff Ayeroff was a creative services genius, he tested the limits with videos and other promotional campaigns. And Work made Apple a star with the ultra-sexy, akin to kiddie porn video “Criminal.” Yup, people couldn’t stop watching this sultry young sexpot writing on their screen.

And when you had a hit in the nineties, the labels ramped up the press and convinced everybody the act was a star, as the label hoovered up money via those overpriced CDs.

And from there, Apple took a left turn. Her reputation plowed the way, she was seen as an artist and people paid attention, but she was no longer mainstream.

Now comes “Fetch the Bolt Cutters.”

Now the team knows who the target audience is. The release of the album was presaged by a very in-depth story in the “New Yorker”:

“Fiona Apple’s Art Of Radical Sensitivity – For years the elusive singer-songwriter has been working, at home on an album with a strikingly raw and percussive sound. But is she prepared to release it into the world?”

Normally the press gets it wrong. They send a writer with a chip on their shoulder who has to say something negative for their cred and… That’s not the case here, Apple emerges unscathed. She seems surprisingly normal, without airs. Sure, she’s revealing her neuroses, but that’s what an artist does, stand in for us all, we’re usually too uptight to speak our truth.

And Friday the album was released.

You need to listen to it. Because there’s nothing quite like it. And what really makes it appealing is the lyrics.

But I’m not sure you’ll listen to it more than once, if you can get through it to begin with.

“Fetch the Bolt Cutters” works on two levels, it embellishes the image of Apple, and it sets her up for a tour. But there is no tour.

So here is the difference between then and now.

Then, print would get you to buy the LP, and how much you played it was irrelevant.

Now, how much you play something is all that matters. And no track off of “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” will ever hit triple digit millions on Spotify.

But the truth is we live in a beat-oriented world, melody is secondary. So, is the audience ready for this?

Well, a certain cadre of females are. But this is not a record you play in the background, it demands attention, to say it’s got edges…it’s only edges! It’s something you can admire more than embrace.

But it’s Apple’s truth. The album hearkens back to what once was, when it was about making an artistic statement more than sales.

But all these positive reviews… If you’re expecting “Criminal,” if you’re expecting something instantly palatable, if you expect to be eating ice cream as opposed to glass, be forewarned.

So, the lyrics of every track are not so insightful they must be pondered ad infinitum. But a picture of Apple shines through. She’s her own woman. She is affected by her relationships. She’s thinking about her relationships. Men are an important focus of her life, seemingly the main focus in her life.

This is just the opposite of the feminism being sold in the media.

In the media women want equal pay, they don’t want to be harassed at work. They don’t want men to control them, men are an impediment.

But Apple is blowing off the facade to show what women really think. And it’s messy and complicated and like I said, men are a prominent feature, and they may act badly, but you cannot ignore their blowback.

Not that Apple is not powerful.

The key track on the album is “Under the Table.”

I told you I didn’t wanna go to this dinner
You know I don’t go for those ones that you bother about
So when they say something that makes me start to simmer
That fancy wine won’t put this fire out, oh

Men are social climbers. They’re networking all the time. They make lunch and dinner dates, they drag their significant others along, even though they ignore them and talk business all the time, always cheery, always boasting. Frequently, they view their significant others as eye candy. If you’re good-looking or famous or rich or all three, they believe it burnishes their image. But Fiona Apple is all three, and she won’t put up with it.

Kick me under the table all you want
I won’t shut up, I won’t shut up

Apple is anything but subservient. She cannot be controlled.

But she can be manipulated, even if she regrets it later.

But the truth is we all do things we regret when we fall in love, we’re going with the flow, finding someone you can connect with is so difficult.

And Apple is insightful and empowering in “Ladies.”

Nobody can replace anybody else
So it would be a shame to make it a competition
And no love is like any other love
So it would be insane to make a comparison with you

Far different from the good-timey, banal lyrics of the hit parade.

As for that dedication to men, in “Rack of His”:

It was because I was loving you so much
It’s the only reason I gave my time to you
And that’s it, that’s the kick in you giving up
‘Cause you know you won’t like it when there’s nothing to do

Now that’s a twist on the traditional kiss-off. She admits she was so into him, she’s pissed he gave up, the loss to him is just a fillip at the end.

On the same note of connection to men, in “Cosmonauts”:

When I met you I was fine with my nothing
I grew with you and now I’ve changed
What I’ve become is something I can’t be without your loving
Be good to me, it isn’t a game

She’s in this and she’s demanding good treatment. Sure, she’s standing up for herself, but she’s also admitting she’s addicted to him. Life is not cut and dry, there’s push and pull. Furthermore, the older you get, the harder it is to be pulled from stasis, your life works, even if there’s no companion, but when you throw in, it’s ever so serious.

I could quote more, but I won’t.

The positive reviews are deafening. And that’s cool, but they don’t reflect what this LP actually sounds like. And sure, you hear the words of an outsider who is sick of getting the wrong end of the stick, however unjustly, but this is music you may have never heard in your life, and there’s a good chance you won’t like it. If the album wasn’t so well-reviewed you’d put your hands to your ears and screech, TAKE IT OFF, TAKE IT OFF!

So, “Fetch the Bolt Cutters’ is a conundrum. It’s pushing the envelope, but it will ultimately leave a small footprint, more in people’s minds than in the listening.

But this is what artists do.

And I applaud Fiona Apple for her effort. She’s unafraid to go down the path less taken. She’s unafraid of judgment. She’s just being herself.

Do you want to be her friend?

I’ll let you decide.