He was telling me jokes.

You never know who these people really are. I was talking to Shirley Manson on Tuesday and I had the two-dimensional image in my brain, of a demure alternative girl. But she’s WILD! Very sharp, and can give it before you can. As for Eddie…

He was crucified in the seventies. For an airbrushed album cover. For basic music.

But I was a fan.

Which is why I went to this gig, I’d never seen him before.

You see Eddie is promoting his new AXS television show, which is basically “The Osbournes,” fifteen years later. Dad is dumb and the kids are running circles around him. Why are all the TV shows based on this premise? But Eddie is in on the joke, whereas Ozzy was oblivious.

Now if you’ve hung backstage, you’ve experienced this. For every serious rocker, for every Don Henley, there’s an Eddie Money, or a Robin Zander, who told me a joke I’ve repeated endlessly since he whispered it in my ear at the Whisky. It wasn’t risque, it was an insider’s story, if you’re not in the business, you wouldn’t get it. Whereas Eddie’s…

Were more along the line of a group of guys getting together to have a few beers and a few laughs, even though Eddie is sober.

And when we went down to the theatre, Scott Goldman teed up some questions about the AXS show, Eddie’s five kids, this series jump-starting their careers.

Meanwhile, Eddie is continuing to wisecrack.

He makes an anti-Hillary comment.

The audience boos.

That’s what’s changed since Trump’s election. The people are on their toes. They just don’t play along. They were with Eddie, but they had no trouble turning against him.

But Eddie tried to make it right.

You see, despite being a rocker, he’s in the Hollywood tradition. He’s been on the road so long that he knows it’s about being an entertainer more than the music. You want a bit of nostalgia, a bit of fun, and to go home feeling warm and fuzzy.

That’s not what it used to be about.

It used to be everything, it used to be life itself.

But the audience was more akin to Vegas than Coachella. Coasting on memories.

As was I. Of playing that first album in my apartment on Barry Avenue.

Of listening to the live EP driving home from Mt. Waterman.

I am a fan.

But my mental image did not quite comport with reality.

You see Eddie Money’s been earning a living.

We forget that.

Some give up, some go straight. The recently departed Tom Rapp, of Pearls Before Swine, became an attorney. Donnie Iris was a mortgage broker.

But Eddie Money’s been trading on his hits, which he had a lot of.

But he’s never gonna have one again.

Your old favorites, the classic rockers, forget about it. They’re not in the same place and neither are you. They’re not hungry and shy and wanting to make money and get laid, they’ve got kids and bills and they feel the pressure. Meanwhile, the business is so scattered that even if they made a great record there’d be nowhere to hear it.

So they’re working for a living. That’s right, even Huey Lewis.

That’s the news.

But Eddie’s story is fascinating. Although he can’t tell it straight, he can only do shtick.

Of being a policeman’s son. Of becoming a cop. Of almost being pushed off the force. Of competing with Billy Joel’s Hassles. Of getting a high draft number and moving to California. Of going to college with the Black Panthers.

Before doing a one-eighty and becoming a conservative.

And then the music started.

Nobody in the band seemed over thirty. Three family members played, they acquitted themselves admirably.

And when Eddie took to the mic…

It was 1977 all over again.

You realized why Bill Graham took a flyer. You see Eddie’s an ENTERTAINER! Back then you sold your music first and foremost. Whereas Eddie’s more of a performer. He’s twirling the microphone, posing, getting you amped up and involved.

And you realize this is the way it used to be. When we used to go to clubs to hear a live band. When rock and R&B ruled. When you could feel that energy.

It’s so different from the mechanized, hard drive music of today, where it’s about taking selfies and being a star yourself. You knew who the star was back then, the person on stage. And you felt their energy.

And when Eddie sang “Baby Hold On”…

You were waiting for that break, that you know by heart. AND THERE IT WAS!

And he not only played “Two Tickets To Paradise,” he talked about the GEICO commercial. He blamed it on new representation, wanting to up his image, but the truth is all these acts are fading in the rearview mirror.

As are we.

And when he does “Shakin'” you can remember the MTV era, you’re brought right back, you’re in the moment.

But when he made an anti-Semitic comment…

You think since they grew up in an enlightened era, they too are enlightened. But too many boomers, elder statesmen, are biased and ignorant just like their forefathers. This is not the MTV generation, that saw a rainbow of colors on the tube and has no problem with intermarriage and gays, rather Eddie Mahoney is a guy from Queens, and you can take the guy out of the borough, but you can’t take the borough out of the guy.

So it was ersatz. And ultimately offensive.

And if you saw it on a cruise ship you’d be happy.

But if you were paying good money…

Who is it who is paying good money? I don’t understand it. I’ve seen all these acts during their heyday and on multiple comeback tours. Why are boomers still going? Are their lives that empty that they can only repeat the past? Our music meant something to us, but watching Eddie Money I was reminded of sitting in the showroom at the Concord Hotel, watching the stars of my parents’ generation.

Yup, it happened. We may still be wearing jeans, but we’ve become our parents.

And it’s so confusing. Because even if you’re enlightened, unlike Eddie Money, you don’t like most of today’s music, even when you hear it. You don’t understand it, the hip-hop and the pop, where are those deep album statements from bands not beholden to the man?

They don’t exist.

So you can either live in the past or live in the present.

That’s the conundrum.

And after going back forty years Tuesday night it convinced me…

Forward.

So I’m sitting there, with the headphones on, listening to Lyor talk, thinking this is GENIUS!

That’s one of the myths of creativity, that you don’t know when you’ve done something great. ABSOLUTELY YOU DO! My favorite story on this comes from Al Kooper, he got a call from Skynyrd just after the first album came out, the band had a new song, could they come to Hot Lanta and cut it? They did. It sat on the shelf for a year before it was released. I asked Al if he knew it was gonna be a hit. Al looked me in the eye and said IT WAS SWEET HOME ALABAMA!

I don’t care what you think about Lyor, what you think about the supposed “value gap” at YouTube, you’ll be fascinated by his story, how he went from Bank Leumi to concert promoter to road manager for Run-DMC.

And so much more.

Now Lyor is optimistic on the future of the music business. He says the infrastructure is in place. All we need are some geniuses, people who can’t work for anybody else, square pegs in round holes, and the business will flourish!

Like Lyor. Like all the music business titans.

Most didn’t graduate from college. Most worked for someone else briefly, if at all. You see they had a vision, and a personality that could not be constrained.

This is not like going to work on Wall Street, where you’re a cog in the wheel.

This is not like working in Silicon Valley, where you’re a team member reporting to the VC.

This is make it up as you go, fleet on your feet innovation by larger than life people.

They sniff the money, the excitement, and they act.

You will too after listening to this podcast!

TuneIn

Google Play

Stitcher

Soundcloud

Overcast

Don’t trust anyone under thirty.

I debated renewing my subscription to “New York” magazine. In case you haven’t been paying attention, with the drop in advertising, periodicals are raising their rates. Used to be subscribing was a no-brainer, the cost of a couple of issues on the newsstand. Now it can be the better part of a hundred dollars. And to cut costs “New York” went to biweekly publication, and so much is NYC centered, but I hate going backward so I ponied up.

And I’m glad I did.

BECAUSE OF THE APP!

I’m an inveterate news-checker, especially in these troubled times. I’m going from Twitter to the NYT to the WSJ to the LAT on a regular basis, could be dozens of times a day, I want to know what’s going on. That’s why you shouldn’t publish a book. Unless it’s fiction. It disappears immediately. I laugh when these reporters go on book leave, so they can collect a paycheck from ignorant publishers who crippled digital so they could maintain their antique business model and then get reviewed by all their meaningless peers and sell no tomes. Whereas info online is not only immediate, it can be seen by MILLIONS! Which is why cultural impact is more important than money. Don’t ever forget that. Although you can combine both like the Mercers and go to the head of the class. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

With my subscription to “New York” comes access to its app. And its news feed. The self-righteous are all about the “New Yorker,” but its app analysis is hard to access and too self-satisfied. Whereas “New York”‘s is current and brief and if you want to know what’s going on…

You check the app. I do. It’s become one of my go-tos.

And you can also get this info online, for free, in your browser. But the dirty little secret is that’s a passe game, like CDs, like files, everyone’s on their mobile. Which is why you must buy the largest mobile screen available, because it’s not a phone, it’s a computer!

And all of this is to point you to the definitive article on Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, I found it in the “New York” app, you can read it via this link:

What You Need to Understand About Facebook and Cambridge Analytica

So here’s what happened. Employing subterfuge, Cambridge Analytica hired 270,000 people via Mechanical Turk to answer questions in an app they installed on Facebook. And then Cambridge had access to their friends, whereupon they scraped the data of 50 million people.

That’s right, you’re guilty. You gave up your privacy without a wink, so you could post pictures of your kids, cats and vacations and boast how great you are even though you’re dying inside.

What’s worse is Facebook built a whole business on this. And keeps saying IT’S NOT THEIR FAULT!

The Russians invade Facebook. Facebook says it didn’t happen.

Cambridge Analytica gets all this data and Facebook says IT’S NOT A BREACH! Yup, that was their response, although it’s now been deleted from Twitter, you see Facebook PERMITTED companies to do this. And then it sent Cambridge a note saying to delete the data. Which is kind of like e-mailing spammers to stop. Huh?

That’s right, Facebook was so busy making money that it didn’t care about ethics, didn’t care about people, didn’t care about our country or YOU!

And all the while Mark Zuckerberg is a hero. Sheryl Sandberg too. What did they do other than go to Harvard and use their connections and smarts to make money? Teachers need to get outside gigs and are harassed for forming unions to try to get a decent wage but Silicon Valley stars get a pass. WHY?

Same deal with the Mercers. In our no-tax country, and believe me, the richer you are the less you pay, percentage-wise, and there are so many loopholes and shelters, never mind the carried-interest rule, the billionaires get a pass and the poor are pissed upon. Forget that fiction that the poor pay no tax. They’re paying up the yin-yang. Maybe not income, but sales, gas, all kinds of other taxes. But you don’t want to hear that, because the poor don’t matter. They should just pay fealty to the rich.

But this is not the baby boomers who grew up with a background in equality. No, today’s young ‘uns grew up in an era of clear-sailing, they believe they’re entitled to their path and their payment, it’s their god-given right.

And we pay the bill.

What is Facebook delivering for all that cash? An advertising platform based on our info. It’s almost a scam, I tell you.

But worse are the values and insights of the team.

Maybe Zuckerberg should have finished college. Maybe those focused on STEM education need to take more liberal arts courses. Because these wankers are undeveloped, they can’t see the playing field. But they’re rich and powerful so they get a pass, WHY?

This is the story of the era, not the Second Amendment. I’m not saying people should have guns, I’m not saying there should be school shootings, I’m just saying if you think you can protect yourself from government overreach via arms, you’re dreaming, you’ve never used a computer, today all the power comes from chips, not clips.

But ain’t that America. The rank and file are worried about a dog dying on United and the rich and powerful are raping and pillaging. And those are the accurate words in our #MeToo era. No one is paying a price in Silicon Valley, just like no one paid a price on Wall Street after the 2008 crash. Hell, THEY ARE THE GOVERNMENT!

But like the Parkland students the onus is upon us to foment change. Believe me, D.C. is sold out to the usual suspect corporate bigwigs. They think no one is watching, no one is listening. But when you shine light upon their shenanigans and bad behavior the weight of the country is behind you.

We need a national NO FACEBOOK day. NO INSTAGRAM! You can live without them, believe me, they’re not bread and water. We need to let these social networks know THEY WORK FOR US!

Wild Wild Country

I was not going to watch this. But after flipping around from one lauded comedy series to another and being unsatisfied I tuned in.

And got hooked.

It’s six hours. Three yesterday, three today. It gave me something to look forward to, we all want something to look forward to.

And I don’t know whether I’m at the advent of something bigger, like the hubbub surrounding “Making A Murderer,” or whether the sheer volume and pace of this documentary means it will get little traction.

What do I know about the Rajneesh? Weren’t they the ones with all the Rolls Royces? Or was that Maharaj Ji. Or both? Who knows, I’ll never join a cult, I’m a skeptic, not a seeker.

But so many are.

The sixties were all about standing up to the establishment and our elders. But the seventies were about personal fulfillment, EST, the Me Decade. And to tell you the truth, this didn’t penetrate my consciousness, I had to read about it to know about it, no one I knew was going to a seminar or joining a cult, that’s what happened in California, before I moved there.

And Hollywood has a big part in this saga.

But before that…

All those people going to India… They were unhappy, looking for something more. And there are always people with answers, always. When someone tells you they’ve got the way out, to spiritual happiness, to fulfillment, beware, they’re usually charlatans.

Was Osho a charlatan?

I think so, but I’m not sure. That’s the game of modern documentaries, they don’t take a side. Well, the political ones do, but after “Capturing the Friedmans,” the progenitor of this genre, you’re usually left leaving the theatre wondering…were they guilty or not?

Same deal here, only instead of ninety minutes it takes six plus hours. That’s one bad thing about Netflix. Used to be a flick had to be viewable in a theatre, in one sitting, on Netflix it can go on FOREVER! Why does every documentary have to be “The Sorrow and the Pity,” the four and a half hour story of France during World War II. That film could justify its length. I’m not sure “Wild Wild Country” can. At some points it’s like watching paint dry, it’s so slow, but you can’t turn it off, you not only want to know what happens, you want to know who is at fault.

So the Rajneesh move to nowheresville Oregon and the residents, all fifty of Antelope, freak out. People are suspicious, they can’t handle the new, they’re afraid of losing their way of life. Kinda like what’s going on in the country now, those damn foreigners are gonna take over and ruin it for all of us.

Only in this case maybe they are. Were they taking over the town in reaction or was that always the plan, you’ll never know.

But the more the Rajneesh are oppressed, the more they strike back, to the point of illegality.

And I’m not giving anything away when I say the government wins, the U.S. and Oregon governments, not the Rajneesh one that ran their town, that’s history.

And speaking of history…

We’re in a new era. You see there’s VIDEOTAPE, DOCUMENTATION! It’s no longer left to speculation, you can view the footage itself. This presages today’s security cam world.

And it’s hard to believe I lived through the eighties, which seemed so modern and up-to-date at the time, but we were disconnected then in a way we will never be again.

And this doc does a good job of showing the inhabitants of Oregon. Live long enough in L.A. or New York and you think everybody else is subservient and paying attention to you, but life goes on outside the metropoli, and smart, educated people are doing honest work.

And speaking of work…

The Rajneesh lawyer was the number two litigator at Manatt.

And Al Ruddy’s ex-wife joined the cult. And got immediate attention because of her “Godfather” money and connections. You see fame and cash opens doors everywhere.

And where did all the cash come from?

And what did everybody do to survive?

On one hand it looks like a utopia. Free sex and love.

On another it looks like brainwashing.

We all want answers, we all want enlightenment. Hell, Pete Townshend wrote about it:

I’m a seeker
I’m a really desperate man

But that was back when rock stars were looking for answers, when the Beatles went to India, when we looked up to musicians, before they all pledged fealty to God, as if he had anything to do with their success, and focused first and foremost on cash. What if cash is no issue?

That’s what it was like in the sixties and early seventies. I know it’s hard to believe, but you could make it on minimum wage. So you were looking for something more:

I’m looking for me
You’re looking for you
We’re looking at each other
And we don’t know what to do

I look for my answers in art. I try to form my own opinions. But God help me if they contradict those of the mob. With the concentration of the world via technology we’ve gone to mob rule, the edges have been burnished off.

And sometimes the edges are whacked, like the Rajneesh.

And sometimes they’re the path to enlightenment.

So if you’re part of the Netflix cult, if you’re willing to go down the rabbit hole, if you lived through this era and were oblivious, thinking the Rajneesh was a far off cult in Oregon…

You should watch this.

To see how people age. To see how smart people fight. To see the power of the government. To see the fear on the faces of the townspeople.

To see…

People come and go but concepts remain.

What is the meaning of life?

Damned if I know.

“The Seeker” – Spotify

“The Seeker” – YouTube