More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 14

It’s a completely different record.

I first heard “Tangled Up In Blue” on the access road to Mammoth Mountain. I’d agreed to meet people I barely knew at the stop sign in town, but being early I figured I’d check out the ski area. And it being the middle of the day, there was little traffic, on a sunny May 1st I almost needed the air conditioning, and out of the rear speakers in my 2002 came this song that was instantly recognizable as Dylan even though I’d never heard it before, having lived in the hinterlands of Utah all winter.

And you know when a song resonates, when you’re into the groove, and you feel like pumping the accelerator and everything is great in the world? That’s where I was at. A true rock and roll moment, when only you and the music matter, when the trappings are irrelevant.

Back in L.A. that summer I insisted my sister buy “Blood On The Tracks.” I’d lay on her couch with the sliding glass door open as the sound flowed over me, so different from any previous Dylan LP, the sound itself was enrapturing, the lyrics were secondary.

But not on the original.

By this time, back in ’75, we knew there were two versions, that Dylan had rerecorded tracks in Minneapolis, and a couple of decades ago Jeff Gold gave me a bootleg copy of the original New York sessions, but being on cassette I never got into it, but last night, upon the day of release, I listened to the original iteration on “More Blood, More Tracks,” and I was wowed.

She said this can’t be the end, we’ll meet on another day

Do relationships ever end? I’m not talking about one-night stands, hook-up culture, I’m talking about an extended period of time, with ups and downs, with history. It becomes untenable, you discuss calling it quits and then someone pulls the plug and…it’s over, but it’s not. They stay in your brain. At first you see them everywhere, maybe you connect once or twice, the magnetism being too strong, and then you’ve got no contact, because it’s too painful. But they’re there in your mind, forever. The memory fades, but it doesn’t go away.

The ’75 version of “Tangled Up In Blue” is different, from the viewpoint of a world-weary, road-wizened denizen who could never really get close to anybody, swooped in for a moment or two, but then moved on. But not the person in this original version.

The original take is not a story for the masses, it’s positively personal. Kinda sad. The kinda story you tell long after midnight, after the laughs are gone, when truth emerges, when you start reminiscing about what once was and could possibly be again.

When he slips into the strip joint and sees her it seems he wants to make contact, but is afraid of where reconnecting will take him, but she picks him out and when she bends down to tie the laces of his shoe it’s not being subservient, like in the public take, but a moment of intimacy and control, she’s invading his space quite consciously, she’s making a move, he’s powerless in the face of her aura and action.

So what you’ve got here is a human story. Just another American story. Of two people who need each other but don’t. Who love each other but can’t live together. Who can’t stop thinking about each other. Meanwhile, the man is afraid of committing. Then again, he needs to get back to her in the end.

There are a few lyric changes, but most are not critical. But the sound is completely different, as is the speed, as is the groove. This original is sparse. An old folkie playing for an audience of one or two as opposed to a man on stage with a band playing to the faceless masses. And it’s slower. And it’s not a hit.

At this point Dylan is mostly a legend. Most people were not there the first time around, certainly not for the social commentary. A couple of tunes from “Nashville Skyline” survive, but unless you’re a dedicated fan, you can exist without ever coming into contact with him. And at this point there’s little money in these releases. They’ve been putting out these archival packages for years, some better than others, some more necessary than others, and there’s a multi-disc version for collectors, but who has a CD player anymore anyway. So what we have is these original “Blood On The Tracks” cuts sitting on streaming services, waiting for discovery for those interested, like scholars, who want to investigate what once was and forever may shall be. That’s the power of the word.

So I’m not sure you should bother with this if you don’t know the original. But if you’re a baby boomer, you definitely do know the song and you should listen, it’ll open your mind, thinking about the ones who got away, the ones you pushed aside, and wonder if…

You’re now a musician. Ignore the hit parade. Spotify Top 50 is a miniscule cult. Yours might be even tinier but own it. If you believe you’re on the road to stardom, get out of the car right now, because that’s not how we play it these days. You can set yourself on fire and own the news cycle for half a day if you’re lucky, then again, most news outlets won’t cover it unless you’re already a star and then you’ll be dead, so what is it worth?

Practice. Get good at your craft. Keep your nose to the ground. Get better. Gain an audience. Try to grow it.

That’s it.

Dreams of private jets, models, debauchery, making it rain in nightclubs… That’s for athletes, not musicians. There are fewer athletes. And a whole bunch of them aren’t stars either. But there’s a whole slew of musicians. And the public is overwhelmed and distracted, people only see music as one option.

So don’t think about creating the hit. Ignore all the advice about having numerous hooks and grabbing the listener instantly, those are people trying to game an ungamable system.

It’s like in the old days. An album is evidence of your work. No one may buy it, few may stream it, one thing’s for sure, you’re not gonna make much money on it, it’s just one part of your portfolio. Think about your recorded work as your LinkedIn profile, a job resume. You’re seeking listeners, and trying to hold on to the ones you’ve got.

So you want a steady stream of product and innovative live shows… If you’re doing the same set every night, the joke is on you. You want people traveling to different cities to experience different shows. You want to engender curiosity. You want to be alive and breathing as opposed to dead. Eliminate the hard drives, truth is your friend, mistakes keep you honest, show that you’re still striving for excellence, and the public forgives errors, they want to get closer to a living, breathing person. Forget comping the vocals, making it perfect, that eliminates all the humanity, and slickness is history these days, that’s why events are so popular, they’re living and breathing and different with ups and downs. You can make it perfect, but they don’t want it perfect.

Sure, some people play the game and create perfumes and sell out to the corporations, but they are very few in number. And really, they’re little different from the Top Forty acts of yore, you always knew the rewards were with the other, if you’re not testing limits, people will avoid you. If you’re repeating yourself, you’re not growing. Don’t reside in a living hell, release yourself.

Your goal is to support yourself making music, nothing more.

And if you make it, it’s gonna take a really long time. Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch told me this, that it takes ten years for a rock act to make it, their band Foals just went into royalties after a decade. They also said that rock bands last when everything else does not.

Think about that, whether you create rock music or a different genre, the key is to last.

This is what the internet has wrought, this is what streaming has wrought, with everything available at your fingertips, nothing stands out, despite all the hoopla and hype. Come on, the newspaper prints the chart…BUT WHO READS THE NEWSPAPER? As for reviews…I hope your mother sees them, because that’s about all they’re good for.

You’re a musician first and foremost. See where it leads you.

And speak from your heart. Channel the gods. That’ll give you your best chance to make it to the middle.

Where most acts will reside, if not lower. The superstar game is for wusses. Just like back in ’68, all the action was in albums with no singles on FM. And then that sound took over.

I can’t tell you what sound will win. Actually, there’s room for all of ’em. Just know that inspiration is king. And don’t filter yourself. And have the skills which allow you to execute the sound in your head. And know that social media for promotion is overrated. You speak to your fans and then they grow your career. That’s all anybody trusts anymore, other people with no investment. This is what this decade of social media salesmanship has wrought, an entire populace that ignores it, despite those involved and reporting on it hyping it.

Ignore the hype. Get busy. We want to hear what you have to say.

At least some of us.

America is about fairness. At least it used to be. A man’s word is his bond. You can count on the law. The little guy is protected. How are we supposed to believe in our country if the rules keep changing and we don’t have a say? Isn’t that why we revolted against the British in the first place, no taxation without representation?

This has been a long game folks. With paving laid over years. It’s all about illegal voting. Whether it be illegals or those unentitled to vote or those voting multiple times. But every study says this is a non-factor, but say it enough and people believe it, especially when they repeat and amplify it on Fox and talk radio and the internet, if they say it it must be true! Then again, the listeners must have been absent that day when the teacher asked if you believed everything in the newspaper. The answer was no. Assuming you went to a school not teaching to the test inspiring to be all you could be, before the Army stole our mantra to get you to enlist and get killed, but those with a future, with opportunity, the educated, could read the signs, parse the tea leaves, so they stayed out, and only the lower classes joined up, to the point where rules are bent so people can qualify.

Of course this is about winning. But it’s also about THOSE people. You know, the ones who don’t look like “America.” The African-Americans, the Latinos, this is racism pure and simple, and it’s not only embraced at the state and local level, but the Supreme Court, where they said voting laws were unnecessary, because racism is dead. I want to see what they say when it comes time to protect my Jewish ass. Oh, that’s right, Jews have all the money and rule entertainment and banks so there’s no anti-Semitism. Right? WRONG!

Meanwhile, African-Americans are in jail on trumped-up charges and with felonies on their records are unable to vote. And Native Americans live on the reservation, but without a street address they can’t vote in North Dakota. And in Georgia, you’re stripped from the voting rolls until you resubmit and everything is perfect. Otherwise, a black woman might become Governor!

Not that the left learns from lessons. This is how George Bush the junior became President, the elected official in Florida kept bending the rules. And then the right-leaning Supreme Court gave the office to Bush and Al Gore, trying to display gravitas and the spirit of competition he learned in the Ivy League, said it was okay…BUT IT WAS NOT!

That’s right folks, you haven’t gotten over a black President born who knows where and we haven’t gotten over the insanity at the turn of the century.

I mean come on. They teach you to play the game honestly. To let the best man or woman win. But then they change the rules, hope nobody can detect their duplicity and win in the end. The game is rigged folks. Even worse, the system is antiquated. Between gerrymandering and the fiasco in the Senate, i.e. overrepresentation for uninhabited states, it’s almost impossible for the Democrats to take control. That’s why people are not bothering to vote, it seems fruitless. And all that hogwash from entertainers saying their fans should exercise the right to vote… No, tell them to exercise the right to vote DEMOCRATIC!

Meanwhile, real Republicans like Max Boot are telling their readers not to vote for any Republican.

You can’t screw the public for this long and get away with it. At some point the people revolt. And one thing we’ve learned is the Democrats are the majority, we keep winning the vote and losing the election.

They put that woman in Texas in jail for five years for voter fraud, how about putting these sniveling nincompoops who’ve prevented good, hard-working Americans from voting in jail, where they belong, along with the Wall Streeters who blew up the economy and got paid by the government in return.

Meanwhile, with few taxes and the excoriation of public schools by the right wing the public is less educated than ever before, people can’t understand, never mind analyze the issues. These are the same idiots who are against the ACA but want their Medicare. The same people who benefit from the government but want their benefits taken away. It’s like no one can see the big picture.

Are you discouraged? I certainly am. When you go to court and you lose anyway. Those damn immigrants working in Dodge City should have cars to drive to the polls, or go back where they belong. Meanwhile, if every immigrant left the country, who’d do your laundry, who’d clean your hotel room. These are hard-working people keeping their heads down and trying to get a piece of the rock.

As for African-Americans… Everybody’s imitating them, consuming their music and films and comedy, but those are the only opportunities they’ve got, the whites have done a good job of closing doors so they can get the gigs themselves. Affirmative-action my ass. I’m entitled to that job!

What are you entitled to in America?

While they keep yelling USA! USA!, telling us it’s the greatest country in the world while chanting that Hillary Clinton should be locked up while the President lies and…

He’s just trying to win folks. It’s as if you ran and dissembled, telling the populace that Trump had sex with Ivanka and stole money from Bank of America and promised Putin he’d sell him the country.

No, but you won’t do that, you believe in truth, justice and the American Way.

Where’s Superman when you need him?

The problem isn’t that people are consuming fake news, but that we can’t reach them with the real news!

And for sure, one entity that’s got no insight into what is going on is the newsgatherers themselves, who keep wanting to stop screen time, the internet, as if ever in history we’ve gone backward. Trump thinks he’s gonna return to a time where America was great? Well, the truth is it was flawed but pretty great before he took over, and ask all the people and corporations hurt by his inane trade war which even the right wing paper of record, the “Wall Street Journal,” is against, whether it’s better today or worse.

Now the music business is always first. Because art drives the culture and the culture drives the nation and the files are small and there is little barrier to entry and everybody wants to become rich and famous.

The low barrier to entry… We had a tumultuous time dealing with it in the music business, but we’re close to the end now. Distribution has been figured out, it’s on demand online with streaming services, and there is a place for entities who can sign and promote acts, i.e. labels, and those with assets, i.e. catalogs, control the future.

Not that anyone who acknowledges the above is willing to acknowledge the effects.

The music business is a hit-driven one. But what is a hit these days? Something with a lot of streams online or that which tours to prodigious numbers? That which is evanescent or that which lasts? Every week “Billboard” publishes a chart so twisted it’s got little to do with reality, but do the streaming statistics tell the whole story? Used to be if you were not played on the radio, if your product wasn’t selling in stores, you were nowhere. But that’s not the case these days. Just because you’re not on the Spotify Top 50, that does not mean you have no impact. Look at Phish, which innovated last evening by playing the complete works of a fictitious band. The act’s audience was thrilled, they sell out arenas, are they successful? And Phish is thirty years into it while flavors of just a few years ago can’t sell a ticket. We haven’t come up with a metric for the music business and the somnambulant press is still caught up in the past, thinking its printing of charts and reviews makes a difference when it almost certainly does not!

And nearly two decades ago Tom Freston told me MTV wasn’t gonna play videos, that they were an on demand item online. Took almost this long for the industry and artists to catch up with that. There is a place for video, everybody wants to see what their favorite act looks like, but we all are not watching the same videos on YouTube, despite those who triumph telling us they dominate…THEY DON’T!

The now irrelevant MTV was a monoculture, we were all watching the same stuff, we are not today.

So the “New York Times” can delineate the history of Trump’s taxes and it has no impact, because those whose minds it is supposed to change are not reading! The same way you are not paying attention to the Spotify Top 50. Meanwhile, the “New York Times,” the “Washington Post,” all the old media companies have missed the memo, that just reporting the news is no longer enough, you have to be an advocate to have impact. Which is why MSNBC has so much mindshare. Then again, the right wing doesn’t watch it and has neutralized all the press but its own so…

This is where we are folks. And this is one of the reasons Trump is winning. Because people hate the chaos, they want to know what their future is. Meanwhile, the tech titans on the left seem to have no moral compass. Used to be you got a liberal arts degree, you took English, math and history, as well as sociology, psychology and science, in order to become a well-rounded person. Mark Zuckerberg is so focused on the buck he cant’ see anything else. Even worse, he doesn’t know anything else!

Meanwhile, you expect those at the bottom to place their trust in him?

And the press tears apart Elon Musk to the point where he goes loco and we end up with no heroes. Who are our heroes today? One of mine is Elizabeth Warren, who seems to have no problem standing up to the b.s., whereas everybody else is calculating their future, the impact on their status, and no one is worse than a musical act, afraid to offend a theoretical constituency when the truth is these people have no interest and when you have a viewpoint, make a stand, the audience resonates and clings. Hell, that’s one of the reasons music is in the dumper, in most cases it’s pure hedonism, as if you’d rather marry the person you bumped asses with on the dance floor as opposed to the one you talked with till four in the morning.

But that’s America, the land of superficiality. And money. And if you contradict the ethos everybody points the finger at you… What have you accomplished? What do you know? Stay in your own lane!

But we do have chaos, we do live in a Tower of Babel society, it is overwhelming, but you don’t make sense of it all by excoriating reality.

The reality is people love their devices because they allow them to connect, they’re personalized to each owner. How hard is this to understand? We decry the old three network monopoly, we loved cable and now we truly love streaming services like Netflix but those losing in the now keep telling us to go back to the past. Imagine those three networks once again, with their bland programming.

And people love to share.

And people love to game the system. Hell, nobody’s worse than the music industry, built on smoke and mirrors, looking for an edge. Every week another scam for attention comes across my transom. Twitter followers? YouTube plays? Spotify spins?

So this is where it’s at and it’s not gonna change overnight, the only solution is to go forward.

The Republicans have played such a long game that you cannot turn it around instantly, people have been consuming this crap for decades. Which is how we ended up with Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court and George Soros being the enemy of the people. Come on, if you hear something every day you tend to believe it, right? Kinda like Richard Gere and that gerbil…

So maybe Frank Rich is right, the only way to defeat the orange enemy is to get out the Democratic vote, because you can’t change the minds of those not in the party. And so many people don’t vote that you can win.

However, this is not a long term solution.

A long term solution is values. And a welfare state. And higher taxes on the rich, not lower. Come on, the right made taxes a dirty word. How else are you gonna pay for crumbling infrastructure? Or do you want to eliminate the Postal Service and then complain when you can’t send a letter. Or get pissed when your car hits a pothole. We can’t go in the direction of every person for themselves, it must be all of us in it together. And we’ve been going towards the latter ever since Reagan, it’s as if people believe they’re entitled to be rich and sacrifice is a dirty word and if you’re not winning it’s your own damn fault.

Even though Donald Trump was born at home plate, having touched all the bases in the womb.

So…

People are not gonna give up on social media.

The fans of bands without attention get pissed when they’re ignored. What do we know, change always comes from outside, it was Lou Pearlman who developed Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, not a major label. Trump was certainly outside, meanwhile all the major labels sign is hip-hop, even though the truth is a number one song today means less than it ever has since the Beatles. Don’t keep telling me how many number ones Drake has, it’s as if we’re comparing a Corvair with a Tesla!

Change is slow. Until it’s very fast. Kinda like the Trump triumph.

But both Trump and the intelligentsia are planning on a return to what once as opposed to what will be. Those focused on the latter win in the end, isn’t that how tech triumphed, how hip-hop won, by giving it away for free online when everybody else was bitching?

You can complain about Trump all you want, it makes little difference. Your only hope is to motivate the left wingers who agree with you.

As for your band that’s not on the streaming chart… Keep growing your fan base, that’s the most important asset you’ve got. And know it takes longer than ever to gain attention. But if you stick at it and you’re good.

You’ll succeed.

The game is rigged, calling FOUL has no effect.

You’ve got to invent a new game, commensurate with the new era. Which is why the youth embrace eSports and tune out baseball, even though the diamond addicts can’t stop telling them they’re wrong. Everybody’s protecting their turf, they don’t want to admit it’s shrinking, talk to someone in terrestrial music radio and they’ll tell you it’s bigger than ever, it’s a juggernaut, then ask anyone under twenty whether they listen and reevaluate.

This flat cacophonous society won’t last forever. In truth, it’s going to consolidate. But who wins in the end is up for grabs. You’ve got to face reality, you’ve got to plan, you’ve got to stop complaining and do the hard work.

Then again, nobody wants to do that anymore either.

But they want the fruits of their non-labor.

WHAT A COUNTRY!