There are no do-overs, just like there’s no crying in baseball. You start at GO! and you never pass by again, if only you knew then what you know now.

You were much better looking than you ever thought you were. You look back at the pictures and marvel how skinny you were, your flaxen hair, you wonder why that person was so insecure.

You wanted to be popular but now you realize that’s not your personality. You don’t want to be phony and you’re not a member of the group and you don’t like to diss people, all you are is you. You had one close friend, maybe two, it’s been this way your entire life, own it, it’s all right.

Where you were born and who were your parents counts. Opportunity depends on it. But the truth is there are many pathways for the disadvantaged, assuming you do the work. The best colleges and universities are need-blind, meaning if you get in and have no money they’ll pay, but the truth is the entitled don’t want you to know this. All that time you wasted watching TV and posting on social media could have been used to get ahead.

Everybody’s got an interest, it’s up to you to follow it. Playing it safe means you’re never gonna get where you want to go. Be a dentist and you can buy tickets in the front row, but you can never get backstage, which is fine unless you want to be backstage, part of the action, because you live and breathe it as opposed to wanting to boast about it.

Not that where you went to college matters. It all comes down to you baby.

And they don’t prepare you for what comes next. You’re supposed to find a job, doing what you have no idea, you’ve just got to pay your bills, and maybe your student loans. And you can waste five or six years figuring it all out to find that you’re on the wrong path, and then it’s too late to change.

Kinda like having a family and children and a house and a car. No one told you to do all that, if you want to pursue your dream you’ve got to sacrifice. No one wants to sacrifice in America anymore, that’s someone else’s job.

And it’s true half of getting ahead is showing up. You’d be surprised who can’t. And if you’re not a kiss-ass, work alone, because organizations are all about kissing up. People like to be flattered, and it’s a veritable network of relationships and just doing your work is not enough. If you’re not looking for a new job the minute you start the old one the joke is on you.

As it is if you don’t go to college. It’s an entry fee. People just want to know you have a diploma. Find a school, figure it out.

And if you want to take the path untrodden…be prepared for hardship. If you’re lucky you’ve got parents who will support you, otherwise you’re gonna realize it takes money to survive. The corporations don’t only make billionaires, they force people to be poor. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the poor can’t pay their bills and since they have no money, politicians won’t listen to them. It all comes down to money, never forget that, it’s the great motivator, what gets people interested.

And the truth is your career won’t keep you warm at night, which is why you should have a spouse and children but they push you onto the hamster wheel. I know, it’s a conundrum. That’s the essence of life, everybody keeps telling you how to do it, you feel inadequate, and it’s not until you’re old and tired that you realize no one had a better idea than you, they were just faking it, or bullying, you could have competed, or maybe you are now.

You can’t do anything you want, you can’t be a basketball player if you’re 5’5″, but people will point out players who were but ignore them, trivia knowledge gets you nowhere unless you’re on “Jeopardy.” The record company doesn’t want an employee who knows music history, they want one who can get their record on the chart!

But you can find your niche. But know it’s a jungle out there. You’re on your own.

And don’t marry someone if you think you’re gonna get divorced, the aftermath is too painful. Then again, the most perfect marriages break up, because you don’t know what happens behind closed doors, and those who don’t argue…someone is holding their tongue.

And it becomes overwhelming. And you’re too young and then you’re too old. You get carded and then you don’t. The older generation runs the world and then the younger one, it never seems to be your time.

But you don’t know it then. You’re either a slave to the grind or barking up trees with no limbs. It comes down to people. You’ve got to know the right ones. Sometimes it’s only one. Spend time with losers and you too are a loser. Not that everyone poor or going nowhere is a loser, being a good person counts for a lot, but a lot of the losers are delusional or sour grapes, they’re gonna make it, they would have made it, except for…

But we’re all animals at the core, and we’re here to reproduce, and your children will make your life worthwhile, assuming you pay attention to them.

And if you don’t have children your career has got to work.

And you think your life is in front of you before it’s suddenly behind. Your parents die and then friends die and then you realize it’s you next. All the things you were gonna do, the places you were gonna go, it’s too late, time’s up.

But you don’t know all this until it’s too late. You’re drifting, and then you’re hanging on for dear life.

Some people will tell you the truth, but you don’t listen, you only realize their wisdom in hindsight.

Like your health is everything… Meaningless when you’re in your twenties, everything when you’re over fifty.

And speaking of meaningless, life is, achievement is, it’s all a game that means nothing. You can keep playing it, believing if you win you’ll be respected and feel better, or you can hew to your own desires, assuming you haven’t been so brainwashed you don’t know what they are anymore. People tell you what to do all day long, it really comes down to what you want to do.

And nothing happens if you don’t take action. You’ve got to engage.

And the path to where you wanna go is fraught with danger.

Then again, Julia Child didn’t make it until she was in her sixties, or was it seventies, or fifties…it doesn’t matter, because she’s not you.

And speaking of not being you, stop reading the business books, the self-help books, because you’re not Ray Dalio and you’re not a standard patient.

You’re just you. And they don’t want you to be you. So you’re fighting your whole life to be you.

And then you realize at the end it’s all about moments, laughs, good times, doing things for others…nothing makes you feel better.

But you don’t see this in the media. And in the internet age you can see everybody striving and you believe you’re doing it wrong, you’re not.

Everybody’s got their own special gift, respect others and find yours.

But time keeps rolling. Try to keep your eyes open. Try to capture your own personal zeitgeist. You only go around once, reincarnation, all that hogwash was created by people who were scared, who couldn’t believe this was it, all of it. But once you embrace that it’s one and done you’ve got a new perspective. Funny how life is. There are rewards in being a member of the group, but also restrictions.

Life is a riddle, you’ve got to figure it out.

Accept you’re gonna do so too late.

But that does not mean you should not keep keepin’ on, trying to solve your own personal puzzle.

You don’t know how many times I’ve wished that I could
Mold you into someone who could
Cherish me as much as I cherish you

Everything sounded good on the radio today.

Last week I was skiing in Colorado, and I came home to spring in Southern California. That freshness in the air, especially in the morning. But even more, the change from long sleeves to short, and soon I’ll be wearing my shorts, but not on the east coast where I’m going tomorrow, it’s not quite as warm there.

And I was listening to 60s on 6 and “Wooly Bully” reached me in a way that it hadn’t in decades. It was a revelation on the airwaves back in the sixties, we didn’t know about that sound, never mind the humorous lyrics.

And Lulu’s “To Sir With Love”…with its line “but what can I give you in return?”

Before, it was just an offer, a quid pro quo, but today, today it sounded like Lulu had gratitude for the experience, for the lessons she learned, and she really wants to let the teacher know she appreciates it, but knows that nothing she can give will equal what she has gotten.

Pop songs. You know them by heart, but then decades later they reveal meanings that heretofore went unnoticed.

I heard “I’ll Get You” on the Beatles channel.

That was the flip-side of “She Loves You,” which meant we played it incessantly until we knew it, that’s how hungry for Beatle material we were.

Prior to this, the B-side was dreck. Oftentimes unlistenable, but the Beatles changed that.

Now when I listened to “I’ll Get You” with my sixth grade brain, I thought it was about payback, I’ll get you for the way you treated me, just you wait.

And then, within the last year, I suddenly realized it’s about getting the woman in the end. He never had her, he wants her, she’s immune to his advances, he’s gonna win in the end.

This is a completely different scenario. It’s about desire, male power. Whereas I always thought it was about rejection and woman power. Whew!

The record didn’t change, I did. The meaning was there all along. It’s not like I misheard the words, I just never understood them!

So after “To Sir With Love” played, the read-out said it was gonna be “Cherish,” by the Association.

Now the first Association hit is an unheralded classic. “Along Comes Mary,” whether it’s about smoking marijuana or not, has the feel of dope, of being cut in another room, through a locked door, you can smell it, but you can’t go there, listening is your only option. The record took you away, made you feel older.

But the subsequent Association tracks were not as edgy, not as deep. The band was a known quantity, kinda like Bread after them, that existed on the hit parade but didn’t quite move your personal needle.

And I pushed the button to 70s on 7, but I didn’t cotton to that track and went back to “Cherish” and heard the above lyrics.

Now you’ve got to know, we heard these songs through a cheap speaker in the dashboard, or a transistor radio. That’s one of the reasons why so many people got the words wrong, like there being a bathroom on the right in that Creedence Clearwater Revival song. We know them, but we don’t know them as well as we think we do. Or maybe I was just too young to understand them back then.

I mean I thought “Cherish” was a love song, a man singing to a woman, how much he cherished his girlfriend/wife, but today I realized THAT’S NOT WHAT IT’S ABOUT AT ALL!

Oh, he’s got a feeling for her inside all right, he’s TORTURED!

I figured the lyrics about how many times he wished that he could hold her were about being on the road, I didn’t know it was an unspoken crush.

That I am not gonna be the one to share your dreams
That I am not gonna be the one to share your schemes
That I am not gonna be the one to share what
Seems to be the life that you could
Cherish as much as I do yours

I guess previously I just heard “dreams” and “schemes” and I thought it was just fear, of losing her, which is why he wanted to tell her he cherished her. But NOW, I realize he realizes that he’s never gonna get her, unlike in the Beatle number.

Oh, I’m beginning to think that man has never found
The words that could make you want me

He’s in the friend zone! She’s nice to him, but she doesn’t think of him that way.

That could make you hear, make you see
That you are drivin’ me out of my mind

That’s what it feels like. You can’t sleep, you think of them all the time, and you avoid them, because you realize if you talk to them you’ll be paralyzed, you’ll come across badly, better to dream than to have hope extinguished.

Oh, I could say I need you, but then you’d realize
That I want you just like a thousand other guys

She’s an icon, she’s desirable, and he’s nothing special, he knows he’s got no chance against the hunks, so he thinks he’s got to try a different approach, but he can’t approach her at all.

Meanwhile she’s got no idea.

He wants to change her, mold her, have her cherish him as much as he cherishes her.

And I do cherish you

He’s testifying, but only to himself. He’s in his own private universe, which may as well be in Idaho, that’s how far he is from her.

So “Cherish” isn’t a beautiful love song, but more a tale of frustration, of desire, of unrequited love.

And I didn’t know that until today!

Mastering…the final process in making a record, but most people don’t know anything about it.

Stephen Marcussen has mastered the records of the Rolling Stones, Eagles, Stevie Wonder, R.E.M., Gillian Welch, the Decemberists, the list goes on and on.

If you listen to this podcast you will understand what mastering is and how it is done.

You’ll also hear how Stephen followed a tip in the grocery store to Richard Perry’s Studio 55 and ultimately to his mastering gig.

If you make records, you want to tune in.

If you’re a student of the business, you want to tune in.

If you just like a good story…YOU’RE WELCOME!

Listen on:

iHeart

Apple

Spotify

Stitcher

Conventional wisdom is frequently wrong.

It’s kind of like a superstar act releasing a new album. Expectations are high, but frequently there’s disappointment. Not only Frampton’s “I’m In You,” but everything Michael Jackson did past “Thriller.” He kept telling us he was the King of Pop, we got turned off and stopped listening.

The newspapers will tell you where you’ve been, but not where you’re going. That’s the problem with research. That’s what’s great about art, you never know what will truly succeed, what will resonate, and when people will stop paying attention to what they once were riveted by. Kind of like movie musicals… A staple, and then unmakeable. Everything falls off the cliff. Whether it be baseball, football, Debbie Gibson or mood rings. Razr scooters too. There are fads and there are trends and if anyone could call them right, they’d be a billionaire. That’s what wowed us about Steve Jobs, he constantly gave us what we didn’t know we wanted. Meanwhile, Microsoft fell behind with me-too products, constantly refining what came before, as if we were looking for more features as opposed to a breakthrough. As for Amazon, it’s eye-popping numbers are a result of cloud services, hell, they make more money selling others’ products than their own, they’re the new eBay (and the new Google too, Amazon is the place to advertise).

The “New York Times” missed Trump. The whole media enterprise missed Trump. The statisticians missed Trump. They were just not in touch with the will of the public. That’s the game, what the public wants.

Does the public want an aged politician who hasn’t run for solo office for an eternity who’s got a long history of putting his foot in his mouth? Biden didn’t realize he could challenge Hillary in 2016, that he was more appealing, and the media got Bernie Sanders wrong then and now. They keep criticizing the Vermont senator for being a millionaire. His fans don’t care, he keeps saying things that appeal to them. Columnists thought he was a joke, they told him to drop out, but he’s leading now.

As for Mayor Pete, no one saw this coming. Come on, a gay mayor from Indiana? But he spoke truth to power and admits what he doesn’t know and that resonates with people. What resonates with Biden? His hair plugs and rust belt talk? The rust belt rusted, like coal it’s in the rearview mirror. We live in a tech/gas/solar world right now, youngsters know this, does Biden?

The Presidential race is not sports. Sports are littered with bad people who succeed. You may not be able to predict the winner, but you know who is excellent, who’s got the best possibility of winning. But Presidential races?

What the media doesn’t understand is not only has the game board been flipped, it’s been taken away. It’s like playing Monopoly without GO! Or tennis without a net. You can move your pieces, hit the ball, BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Hell, the news outlets themselves have been challenged, by Google, Facebook and the internet. Are they the sources to be trusted to know what is really going on? As for TV news, it’s professional wrestling, pure entertainment, outrage is king. But if you were that outrageous at work, you’d get fired, you’d have no friends in your personal life.

The truth is most people are hurting, except for the wealthy. They think the game is rigged against them, whether it be the right or the left. They don’t want incremental change, they want something more akin to revolution. That’s why they voted for Trump, that’s why Biden is in trouble. He’s the safe entry. The one in the middle. Look at music, in the middle always fails. We want something new, and edgy. And more people pay attention to music than politics.

I’m not saying it’s impossible for Biden to get the nomination, but he hasn’t run yet and the public hasn’t voted yet. Polls don’t reflect the truth… First and foremost, most people never answer them. Few have landlines. I’ve never answered a question online. It’s not the seventies anymore, it’s a whole new era, and it appears the populace wants new faces, or old faces that don’t reflect the status quo.

But the media keeps shoveling us the same old crap, believing they live in the pre-cable era, when the three networks purveyed bland product to appeal to everybody. But it turned out the public wanted edgier and racier fare on not only HBO, but FX and A&E and Bravo…

And then Netflix came along and upset the apple cart. Everybody is chasing the newbie and no one in Hollywood saw it coming.

Do the prognosticators see what is coming in politics?

NO!