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We didn’t make beats, we played the guitar.

I’m reading this book “The Dog Stars” because I just finished “The River” and I wanted more.

They’re both by Peter Heller. Who I found accidentally with “Celine,” but didn’t realize this until I was researching later.

I don’t like to recommend books that are not a 10. And a lot of what I’ve read recently is not.

I read the Rachel Cusk trilogy, from “Outline” through “Transit” and “Kudos.” But each installment got worse, so I didn’t want to tell you about them. But the first book, “Outline,” blew my mind. Do you live your life internally or externally? You know the external people, always in action, always talking, filling up the space, with tons of friends, they feel like they fit in. The internal? They’re often inside their heads, contemplating, analyzing, oftentimes telling nobody their thoughts. That’s what “Outline” is all about. Ostensibly it’s a novel about a newly-separated woman, or maybe she’s already divorced, teaching in Greece for a spell. It opens with a flight from the U.K. Do you talk to your seatmates? I no longer do. Then again, I know a director who got all the investments for his films by flying first class. He really couldn’t afford it, but it paid dividends. Not much really happens in “Outline,” but if you live your life on feelings, you’ll resonate.

And then “The River.” What did I read before? Oh, Gary Shteyngart’s memoir, “Little Failure.” Got good at the end, but it reminded me of why I disliked “Super Sad True Love Story,” his writing style is not smooth, “Lake Success” is much better.

And I downloaded the sample chapter of “The River” based on the reviews. I’m combing them all the time, seeing what resonates.

And yes, I read on a Kindle. The book business, readers, are anti-technology. Makes me crazy, there’s even an anti-electronic screed in today’s “New York Times.” But what bugged me more was the fact-checking of Bernie Sanders, you know, like they fact-check our President. But this was a false equivalency, Sanders stretched the truth by 10%, literally. The “New York Times” is so busy trying to look fair that it bends over backwards and hurts the left wing’s cause, which is kind of funny, since the right wing doesn’t read it, except for hard news. Incensed me, I wanted to stand up to the paper, but I don’t like pissing in the wind, sending them e-mail, I’m not the guy who calls in for the radio contest or buys lottery tickets or…if the odds are infinitesimal I balk. Then again, the “Times” has less impact than ever before. But its reach certainly exceeds mine.

So, “The River” sets a mood!! You think you’re in Canada paddling a canoe north like Jack and Wynn. Only Heller rewrote it with a dictionary. No one would know every word in this book. He’s a graduate of the Iowa program, he’s trying to impress an inside, out of touch group, not knowing that readability is key.

And “The Dog Stars” follows the same paradigm. Unknowable words (which I look up on the Kindle, that’s a built-in feature), but an incredible sense of place. Colorado after a flu wipes out most of the population.

And “The River” has a bad ending, a bunt after all that action. But like “The Dog Stars,” it isn’t until halfway through that the action truly begins.

So I’m lying on the bed reading “The Dog Stars” and they’re deep in a canyon in Colorado and…

I start singing “Country Road.” In my head, silly, no one breaks into song alone like that, especially not after reading a book.

And it made me think of James Taylor and that time.

I actually got the initial album on Apple first. I love the original “Carolina In My Mind.” The production is dated, but those songs are so good on the first LP.

And then I got the second album, “Sweet Baby James” and “Fire and Rain” are the famous cuts, but this was before James Taylor got any airplay. We were on our own. And I played those LPs, because I went to see James at the Capitol Theatre, and I wanted to know all the songs. There were only a few hundred people there, he was solo, he sat on a stool.

And only a week or so later I was in Boston and my friend and I went to see James at Harvard.

This was April 1970.

Within a month, tickets started to fly.

But the first song that enraptured me on “Sweet Baby James” was “Country Road.”

Walk on down, walk on down, walk on down
Walk on down, walk on down a country road

The chorus hooked me first.

But this was also at the advent of the back to nature, return to the land era. We weren’t all connected, we could live in solace.

Now “Country Road” was the fifth song on the first side, so for a long time I owned it, people only knew the hits, they hadn’t gotten that far.

And the trick was to sit in front of your turntable, adjust the speed so the key was the same, and learn the song on your guitar.

And I worked at a camp and we sang it.

And when I went to college…I even went to the basement club that soon closed and got up on stage in front of maybe three people and played it. I’d never do anything like that again, but when you’re a freshman, you’re looking for like-minded people, you don’t know you have to be cool.

And there really weren’t any like-minded people at Middlebury. They were all at UCLA, and they all knew each other.

Now eventually there was an extended version of “Country Road,” where James kept talking about walking on down, but it didn’t resonate like the original, the same way the redo of “Carolina In My Mind” on the “Greatest Hits” album was secondary to the original. When no one is paying attention, you do your best work. You’re not self-conscious. The key is to be able to get to this place after you’ve made it, and that’s so hard to do.

The original “Country Road” doesn’t seem to be made for an audience, just the people in the studio, so when you listen to it you too are taken away, to the river in “The River” or to Colorado in “The Dog Stars.”

And if you know “Country Road” you don’t forget it.

And it’s easy to sing.

And easy to play.

Mama don’t understand it
She wants to know where I’ve been

Our parents weren’t hip, as a matter of fact they were kind of clueless, they were not our best friends. We went on adventures, unsupervised, we took chances, and the end results were not always good

I guess my feet know where they want me to go
Walking on a country road

We’re overwhelmed by the news. But oftentimes it’s the same damn thing, nothing happens. And really, it’s what we do in our own personal lives that matters. But with this focus on politics we’re drawn in, afraid our lives and the country hang in the balance.

But we yearn to be set free. To let our minds drift.

Used to be the music came first. It was all about personal expression. Straight from the writer’s heart. So it resonated with truth. And it was anathema to sell out, the artists were on our side, which made their word even more powerful, because corporations were the devil, as well as the sold out old men.

But I can hear a heavenly band full of angels
And they’re coming to set me free
I don’t know nothing ’bout the why or when
But I can tell that it’s bound to be
Because I could feel it, child, yeah
On a country road

Something was coming, and we could feel it.
Is something coming now? I’m not sure I can feel it.

Take to the highway won’t you lend me your name
Your way and my way seem to be one and the same

But those times have passed. That’s what Woodstock was about. Turned out there was a mass of us, that the media missed, who were all like-minded, who were driven by the music.

But this was back when musicians were leaders. And were listened to.

We’re still listening to James Taylor.

Spotify – Country Road

YouTube – Country Road

This is what the internet has wrought.

We’re used to a top-down society. One in which the elite dictate, and the hoi polloi obey. You claw your way to the top and then you’re home free, inviolate. But homey don’t play that no more.

Let’s start with the media. It decided which stories would be distributed. It decided whether there would be spin or not.

But now it’s spun out of control, because everybody’s got a voice, and they’re choosing to use it.

Gain a profile and be ready for the feedback. Anybody who regularly interacts with the public knows this. They’ll be subject to hate tweets, contradictions, insults, to the point where they’ll be questioning their opinions and their motives. You can say you don’t read bad reviews, but that would mean you’ve disconnected from the internet, which is how you achieved your fame to begin with.

It was Trump who tapped into this phenomenon first. Or was the first person to do it on a national level. Facts were irrelevant, as were norms of conversation, profanity was used, insults were okay, and the media didn’t know how to handle this. It turned out Trump had a better handle on America than the media, and certainly Hillary. They were just going along like nothing had happened, like it was all about expertise and politics was a club, meanwhile they ignored the effects of globalization and income inequality.

Trump was aided by Steve Bannon and Breitbart. Little organizations with more power than the established media outlets.

And then came Facebook, a public company wherein Mark Zuckerberg has total control. That’s about stock and voting rights. The company may be public, but it might as well be private. Mark rules.

And then we have this latest Pelosi video, created by the site “Politics Watchdog,” that most have never heard of. And suddenly, Mark is in the crosshairs, he’s been punked, he doesn’t know what to do.

This is the story of Chance the Rapper. But the truth is today’s musicians want the fruits of fame, they don’t want its power. So they buy into the ancient system to their detriment. Then again, there are those who are using streaming to their advantage, knowing that radio is where the inactive consumers live, that everything breaks on Spotify, so suddenly the dominant music genre is hip-hop, and rockers are flummoxed. Then again, they haven’t had the spirit of innovation in rock since 1999, or before, they just thought it would coast along merrily, like the Democratic brass and Hillary.

You see one person can amplify their message for free online, and they’re immune. Try to fight back. The mob will annihilate you. And you can’t sue, because these individuals are judgment proof. Send them a lawyer letter and they’ll go berserk, doubling-down with their message.

It’s an era of tumult. There’s consolidation on the internet, four or five companies in control, depending on how you count, but they have enabled the individual to have a voice.

You constantly hear Twitter is trash. Mostly by people who can’t understand the service and don’t use it. But comedians make their bones there, it’s how they stay in touch with their audience and influence others. You too can go viral if you’re in the marketplace every day. A surgical strike rarely works. And if it does… “Old Town Road” was built on Tik-Tok, and it’s gonna be one and done, no different from fidget spinners. Meanwhile, those truly impacting the culture on a regular basis are ignored until they suddenly gain mass and can’t be.

They’ve weeded out the wannabes. You were supposed to have a blog, then be on MySpace and Facebook, and you found out posting didn’t deliver the return you expected so you stopped. But not everybody. Ergo the influencers, on whatever platform they are on. Like Olivia Jade, she had an audience and you had never heard of her! And Rick Singer upended college admissions, one guy with an idea, and everybody is positively stunned that the game can be rigged, but there are holes in the admissions process just like there are holes in software, ever hear of hackers?

So this is your time. It can’t be one tweet, one post, you must play regularly. But you too can rise up and change the course of history. Yup, that’s the power of the internet.

And you cannot only disrupt negatively, but positively too. Like David Hogg and the school shooting survivors. When Laura Ingraham attacks you, you’ve won. She doesn’t realize that despite having a pulpit, she’s vulnerable, that the backlash can work against her.

Meanwhile, the media outlets reach fewer people than ever before. Ingraham reaches all of 2.6 million viewers, in a country of 300+ million, and only 515,000 are in the target demo of 25-54, the eyeballs advertisers want. Then again, it’s the older white viewers Fox appeals to who are the least internet-savvy, who don’t know the world is changing.

As the studios and the press trumpet theatrical films, none of them has the impact of “Stranger Things” on Netflix. One guy with a vision upended the entire viewing landscape, when Reed Hastings’s outfit is attacked by Steven Spielberg, you know Netflix has won. It jut makes Spielberg look old.

And the truth is most innovation no longer comes from baby boomers. Who grew up in an era without billionaires, who just did not dream big enough, who played by the rules and thought they won but it turned out they didn’t.

No one has life-long employment anymore. You’re your own brand, in the gig economy, looking to navigate your own employment path. Loyalty yields no dividends.

You’ve got to think for yourself, manage yourself, be an individual.

Isn’t it funny that the greatest success is achieved by those who don’t fit in? Wall Street can’t stop beating up on Tesla, then Dan Neil in the WSJ says Audi’s electric offering is nowhere close to those of the electric-only company. Audi shoehorned a battery pack into a gasoline platform, it didn’t start with a fresh piece of paper, and Tesla did, and eclipsed Audi.

There is a first mover advantage. Head starts do count these days. If you’re late to the party, you’re oftentimes ignored.

So today it isn’t about money, but power. Want to go up against the Koch Brothers? Don’t try to become a billionaire, you can never reach their total, agitate online. This is how Bernie almost eclipsed Hillary. By taking small amounts from everybody instead of the fat cats.

And the truth is you can win on truth or falsehood. Truth resonates with so many, but so does falsehood. But you must have passion, you cannot be a wuss, you’ve got to be willing to double-down, you’ve got to have a profile…

But then you’re subject to the same slings and arrows as the big boys (and girls!)

You can make a difference, now more than any time in history.

People don’t want to vote because it’s not empowering, they feel too far from the destination. Motivating people to play is incredibly difficult, since they have so many options. The media has anointed Biden as electable, but there’s not a single voter excited about him, and that doesn’t play in 2019.

And this is also why music has less impact than it used to. Music is hard, you’ve got to practice off the grid. But you can display your wares online as soon as you learn to read and type. And you get a faster reaction. And you don’t have to drag people to a gig, your message can spread online. You can tune it on feedback.

Everything’s gone topsy-turvy, and it’s those who recognize this who’ll win.

Fouls are nearly irrelevant. Those bad actors in Virginia? They’re still in power. The news cycle is fast, just wait it out. Don’t react, just put your head down and continue to play when the conflagration is over.

You can get what you really want, but you must try, try and try.

So instead of sitting on the couch depressed, it’s time to act.

But they keep telling you you’re powerless.

But you’re not.

Could “Echo In The Canyon” bring the Mamas and the Papas back?

Stranger things have happened, the Doors emerged from their strange days and waning popularity as a result of Danny Sugerman’s book. And Queen’s legacy was not burning brightly until “Bohemian Rhapsody” was featured in “Wayne’s World.” Hell, I’ll argue the scene in “Reality Bites” made “My Sharona” the cultural staple it is today.

Brian Wilson has gotten his accolades. Hell, there’s a new movie of him driving around with “Rolling Stone” editor Jason Fine. And all the members of CSNY are still around, they have not left the cultural firmament, even though Stephen Stills’s rep needs to be boosted. But the Mamas and the Papas?

This was before free-form FM. This was when we were all listening to Top Forty. When a hit was truly known by EVERYBODY! Oldsters and youngsters, even those who didn’t like it, waiting for something else to come on the radio next. Tracks didn’t build over time, they made it to the top of the chart within a month or two, and then were replaced by new ones. We were hungry for more, in the era of singles, and we were satiated.

“California Dreamin'”…I certainly was, all the music and movies came from the Golden State. I’d bug my mother to move there. And when I graduated from college I did, and it did not disappoint.

So “California Dreamin'” was recorded on November 4th 1965, and released on December 8th of that same year. It wasn’t held back for a marketing plan, it was either in the grooves or not, you got a record on the airwaves and got a reaction or you didn’t.

Ironically, another track also infiltrated the playlists and dominated Christmas when the Top Forty was frozen, but it was much darker. That was “The Sound of Silence.” But we didn’t expect either group to sustain. I mean really, with the name “Garfunkel”? One hit wonders…that was what the American groups were after the assault of the British Invasion.

But mere months later, in March of ’66, the Mamas and the Papas came back with “Monday, Monday.” This cemented their place in the firmament. Suddenly everyone knew the group members’ names. Was it Michelle Phillips who started the long straight hair revolution? From overworked beehive to something more natural?

And in June, “I Saw Her Again” burst on to the airwaves, and despite its story of duplicity, it was upbeat and singable and suddenly, the Mamas and the Papas were truly stars. With a catalogue that was not just of a piece, they had range and depth and they were big, one can argue Cass’s size and Michelle’s looks were iconic and talked about and therefore they floated the act to the top of the monoculture.

You have no idea of the impact the act had. Suddenly, those who didn’t pick up guitars like the Beatles, the choir members, were forming groups with harmonies and I remember vividly going to a high school assembly and hearing two girls and two guys singing “Monday, Monday” and being transfixed.

Now the group didn’t last. Blame is put upon Michelle Phillips and her wandering eye (and body!), then again, Fleetwood Mac was never the same after “Rumours.” But they made records and the Mamas and the Papas did not.

You bought the albums for the hits, and I didn’t, but I certainly knew the songs from the radio. “Words of Love” with its carnival feel. “Creeque Alley,” telling the story so everybody knew…this was when info was scarce, Papa John was letting us know the facts when everybody held back and that just bonded us to the group and made us want MORE!

But the song that encapsulates the era only made it to #20 on the chart. And therefore mostly album buyers knew it. But when I stole all the hits on Napster, I became enamored of “Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming To The Canyon).” It was both wistful and energetic. Telling the story of those in the canyon, enticing those who hadn’t already gotten the message that they had to move out west, where life was free, where it’s still free. Life is rigid in the east, but in L.A., you can go where you wanna go and be whoever you wanna be.

Now I sing “Twelve Thirty” in my head on a regular basis, it gives me hope, that the era I lived through, both socially and musically, can return. And if it doesn’t, at least I lived through the glory days.

And today, sitting at the kitchen table, a line kept going through my head…

YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!

And I wondered, could I listen to the soundtrack of “Echo In The Canyon” online? I called out to Alexa, but she played something else, but then I was more specific and I heard the jingly-jangly intro. And then Jakob Dylan’s vocal. Which was less sweet and melodic than the original, with less sing-song, ending up less infectious, but then out of the ether comes this burst of sound:

That a girl like me can love just one man

The story is in the movie, how Michelle steps out on John and he ends up writing this song, but…

It’s implied it’s with Denny, but no, it’s RUSS! TITELMAN!

I know Russ, with his great production credits, but to think at this time this studio rat with little success could woo Michelle away from John…

Yes, I Googled the song, then I fell down the rabbit hole. Read the “Vanity Fair” story, even though I remembered most of it from my first read-through over a decade ago. You see, I wanted to know MORE! And in the internet era, you can find it. Hell, there’s even a page that decodes “Creeqe Alley.” I had to tear myself away from the iPad after an hour.

All because of Jade Castrinos’s vocal. It penetrated me. It’s these subtle elements that hook you. Not that Jade’s vocal is subtle, anything but, it’s much more dynamic and in-your-face than the original.

Which most people think is by the 5th Dimension, where the grammar is corrected to “whom.”

Turns out the Mamas and the Papas version stiffed, and it was released as a single BEFORE “California Dreamin,” P.F. Sloan testified that this proved you never knew what would be a hit because he thought “Go Where You Wanna Go” was a smash…

As it ultimately was.

The story of the Mamas and the Papas is every bit as fascinating as Freddie Mercury’s. And Michelle Phillips is still alive. And when she tells the story of the group in the movie you’re infatuated.

Especially if you didn’t live through the era, which was the one of free love, before AIDS.

And these are classic songs, they’re not only of the era, anybody can sing them and they’re still fresh. Because there’s melody and meaning and they’re everything that today’s era is not.

That’s how the Doors came back. Queen too. Because their greatness was no longer achieved and we had to go back to the source, the progenitor.

Funny how life works, you never know what will be remembered, what will trigger that remembrance. But for the past week, I haven’t been able to stop playing the Mamas and the Papas.

Spotify

YouTube

California Dreamgirl

Creeque Alley by The Mamas and The Papas