What I Almost Was

But I thank God I ain’t what I almost was

Maybe your parents were hands-off, maybe you wandered through life blindly. But then you weren’t the child of Jewish parents, not the progeny of immigrants, who want to ensure their children are prepared.

And today it’s even worse. The kids are smarter than the adults. They know the score. They know if you’re not getting ahead you’re falling behind. That you can’t even get a job without a college degree, that you need graduate school to triumph. That life is hard and if you meander and get high and drift the joke is on you, you’ve got to move into your parents’ basement while your old friends are making down payments and having babies.

So our country is divided between winners and losers. Haves and have-nots. It’s every person for themselves, and as a result society is coarse, so we look to art for inspiration, to get us through. And what do we hear in music? Nonsense. Or how much better the performer’s life is than ours. Hell, that’s what social networks are built upon. No one puts a bad hair day on Instagram unless it’s a joke, we’re all worried about our image instead of our true identity. But then you hear something like Eric Church’s “What I Almost Was” and you raise your fist in the air and a smile creeps over your face…

If you lead this life.

Reminds me of freshman year at Middlebury. A pre-med student was pissed he got a C when he always got A’s. So he went to the teacher to bitch. Now I grade-grubbed in high school, we all did. But I was one point away from the next grade in Anthro 101 and I didn’t bother to go to the teacher, after all I was in college, why did this guy do it I asked him… TO GET INTO A GOOD GRADUATE SCHOOL!

That’s when I took the road not taken. Gave up. I couldn’t be that person anymore. And this resulted not only in a mediocre GPA, at a college where no one got an A anyway, but outcast status. You were supposed to go to the library and study, not lead your life. You were supposed to jump through hoops. I was sick of that.

I did go to law school. A waste of time. But it was the worst snow year in Utah, there was no skiing, and I fell into my first real relationship and that carried me through, but I could have lived without going, because my life has been one of self-education, my own journey. Business people tell me I’m doing it wrong.

But it’s right for me.

Which is why I grinned when I heard the live version of “What I Almost Was” from Eric Church’s “61 Days In Church.”

It was my senior year
I just turned eighteen
I was a Friday night hero, with Division I dreams

No platitudes here. Church drops ” Division I,” the big leagues of college sports. Institutions that have ceased being ones of higher learning. Pay the damn players, they’re taking joke courses and the coaches make more than professors, isn’t this a scourge upon society? I think so.

I had an offer on the table
A four year ride
‘Til that fourth and two and twenty four dive
I left on a stretcher, wound up on a crutch

My father always told me to live by my mind. The physical comes and goes. Especially in sports. A chance of fate and your career is sidelined, like those guys in “Hoop Dreams.”

Walked on that next summer
Wound up getting cut
Flipped off that coach, left that school in the dust
For letting my dreams go bust

Nothing feels worse than getting cut, from back when all males tried out for sports, when that list was posted in the gym and your name was not on it not only did your heart sink, it sank for days and weeks, you were not playing, you cleaned out your locker and lay on your bed depressed.

And we always hear it’s about trying, that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. But that’s patently untrue. He got cut, it was over.

As for flipping off the coach…

Forget the hotheads. They’re out there making trouble for themselves. But are you too afraid to stand up for yourself? That’s what being an artist is all about, lines in the sand you won’t cross, things you won’t do, the pushback.

Yea, I moved on back home
And came awful close to being some son-in-law to some CEO

You can picture it! He’s got this opportunity, he can slide right into a role. It’ll all work.

Could have been a corner office, country club, suit and tie man
Answerin’ to no one, but her and him

You see these people at the country club, the legacies, people following in their parents’ footsteps, doing what’s expected of them, they’ve got the perks but they’re dead on the inside.

I ran out on his money, ran out on her love
At four in the morning I loaded my truck
I left my home town in a big cloud of dust
I just had to follow my gut
And thank God I ain’t what I almost was

He ESCAPED! Left in the middle of the night so no one would see him, no one would convince him otherwise. He was running on emotion instead of intellect. Had to go with what he was feeling. Even though this is harder than ever because of the aforementioned economics. Nobody picks up and moves, they can’t afford to. But he did.

In a guitar town I bought this old Epiphone

Notice the Steve Earle reference? If not, stop reading this and immediately cue up his debut “Guitar Town” and get an education.

Started stringin’ chords and words into songs
I’ve been putting in time on 16th Avenue
Pouring out my heart for tips on a stool

This ain’t no fairy tale. He’s paying his dues, for bupkes.

I ain’t making a killing, but then there’s those nights
When the song comes together and hits ’em just right
The crowd’s on their feet ’cause they can’t get enough
Of this music I make and I love

The moments. They’re fulfilling, they’re signposts. They make it all worth it. They make you believe you’re on the right path.

And I thank God I ain’t, yea I thank God I ain’t
Man I thank God ain’t what I almost was

BINGO!

I have doubts. All of us taking the path less taken do. There’s no safety net, no guarantee. But the moments of triumph make it all worth it. This is what you were not only born to do, but decided to do.

This is why the music resonated with us. Because the artists took chances we didn’t, had insight we didn’t, they inspired us. Books and records charted the course of my life, I could not be denied, I tried to go straight, but it didn’t work, that’s for someone else.

Now there’s a studio take of this song, it flew right by me a decade ago. But this solo acoustic number fits right into the canon of what once and forever shall be. Songs written and performed straight from the heart. Where it’s less about the best voice or the ability to play than laying down your own personal truth that no one else can nail.

I’ve seen Church strut the stage with a cigar in his lips. I’ve seen him say no. I’m convinced this forty year old guy believes who he is, he’s not veering from the path.

Not all of us can do this.

But we all want to.

And when we listen to “What I Almost Was”… Either we know we’re on the right path or it’s time to change.

It’s never too late. Money isn’t everything. Approval neither. It’s about an inner mounting flame that makes you feel you’re doing it right.

Pay attention to your inner beacon.

Get in touch with it by playing “What I Almost Was.”

Eric Church-live covers

No one knows about this because it was exclusive to Apple Music for two weeks. Do this, and the rest of the streaming providers don’t lift a finger, they’ll add your music when they can, but they’re not about to promote it.

How could Church’s people be so stupid?

This is what happens when you enter the Apple alternate reality cloud, they suck you in and your thoughts are distorted thinking you’re getting ahead when you’re really falling behind. I’m a huge Church fan, I even know him and his management team, but I was unaware of this project, and it’s FANTASTIC, GROUNDBREAKING!

You see Church is essentially bootlegging his own material.

Prior to the internet the model was one of scarcity. Limited product, dribbled out. Now everything is available for free on YouTube and live cuts mean little and pay even less. So why not put out your own live recordings on streaming services and get paid for it!

That’s what Eric Church has done here. That’s what all acts should do. Fans want more, GIVE IT TO THEM!

So there’s a vinyl box costing nearly five hundred bucks for the diehards. And the thing is everybody’s got diehard fans who will pop for this stuff. That’s the model Patreon is built upon. Nobodies making a living on superfans.

But the average person can listen to the songs streaming and it’s a REVELATION!

You see I was bouncing through my country favorites, and Church came across my mind and I searched on him in Spotify and I came up with these live compilations “61 Days In Church,” and there are four volumes already, of 30 plus songs each! Can you imagine?

Assuming you’re a fan. If you’re not, you may not cotton to Church’s nasal delivery. But the choice of material will wow you.

He plays my favorite from “Eat A Peach,” the Allmans’ “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More.” The Faces’ “Ooh La La.” John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind.” Marshall Tucker’s “Heard It In A Love Song.” “Chain Of Fools”? CHEVY VAN???

If this does not make you want to go to the show, you were never a fan to begin with.

If you are a fan, this project bonds you to him.

I’m gonna make a playlist of some of these covers. Click through ’em, crack up. This is a guy with roots and he’s willing to evidence them. Isn’t that what a musician does?

61 Days In Church

It wasn’t great.

Beware the disinformation campaign. HBO is very afraid. It’s why Murdoch sold 21st Century Fox. Netflix is so far ahead of the game, with a strategy no one else employs, that not only will they continue to win, but they’ll dominate in the future.

You do this by spending. Anathema to every company disrupted by the internet. They all tried to maintain their margins, by laying people off, by decreasing production, and in the process they marginalized themselves. When it comes to art, success is hard to predict, which is why you must be in the marketplace constantly. Which is why the record companies are almost as stupid as the book publishing companies. The publishers neutered electronic distribution to their detriment. They think they’ve won by raising prices and keeping physical books healthy. They’ve only postponed the great fall-off in the future, like Kodak, which never did have a workable digital strategy. Amazon was building a whole new business, based on mass distribution at a lower price, eliminating a plethora of costs, but the publishers thought their price point was inviolate, like the music business. I laugh at the rewriting of history, all the hosannas for the iTunes Store. Musicians HATED IT! It disintermediated the album and barely put a dent in piracy, if at all. Whereas once we went to streaming at one low price of $10 a month people hoovered the offer up, Spotify has 70 million subscribers, it doesn’t pay to steal.

And now everybody puts their wares on streaming services and the labels cherry-pick the best and overlabor the production and the marketing thereof and think they’re winning?

No, now is when the majors should be spending, exploring new avenues, doubling-down on what they did in the seventies, when they signed a plethora of new acts and nurtured them. There were left field successes, and not everything worked, but a healthy business was built. The biggest act in the world is Adele, but not a single label is trying to replicate this formula, finding a great singer with singable material with melody, they’re all too busy chasing hip-hop tracks. But just a few of them with heinous deals. So now acts are going totally independent and the output of the majors is minimal, kinda like HBO and the movie studios.

Forget all the hoopla about there being too much TV. They’re fighting for a distant destination, who will win in the end. Of course there’s too much to watch now, but it won’t be this way forever, just like there are four tech companies that dominate today, there will be a small number of TV/outlets in the future, and they’ll dominate.

And Netflix and Amazon have a leg up because they’re SPENDING!

Amazon is late to market, but it’s got the power of Prime.

Netflix has first-mover advantage and it continues to innovate.

Traditional TV was so busy maintaining its traditional model that it missed the memo. Credit Jim Dolan, the New York City whipping boy, how smart is he? He blew out Cablevision before the crash. Channels are gonna drop like flies. Is anybody preparing for this?

Of course not.

Hulu was a bunt. Do I watch commercials or pay or what? Who can even understand the offer?

But at least they have a hit, “Handmaid’s Tale” was the best thing that ever happened to the service.

But Netflix has many more, from “Narcos” to “Stranger Things” to reboots of “Full House” and “One Day At A Time.” As for the failures, YOU FORGET ABOUT THEM!!!

Now Netflix is not a place to go to see old movies, its thrill is new production. HBO and Showtime and Starz and Cinemax think their ace in the hole is the airing of films. But we’re gonna go day and date and where’s that gonna leave them? Furthermore, Netflix is making movies! Hell, “Mudbound” not only got a ton of positive press, you can watch it every damn day on Netflix, you don’t have to go to the theatre or remember as it works its way through distribution channels in the future. Distribution coinciding with publicity, WHAT A CONCEPT!

You can only eclipse the frontrunner if it stumbles and you have a better product. Netflix ain’t stumbling and is Disney willing to markedly increase production, losing tons of dough, to make a run against it? OF COURSE NOT! IT WOULD HURT THE STOCK! They don’t realize they’re in a run for their life, they need to re-educate Wall Street, but that’s not where their head is at.

As for HBO… They just don’t have enough product. And too much of it fails. Remember “John from Cincinnati”? And there’s no buzz on “Divorce,” not from the first season anyway.

Which brings us to the curious case of David Letterman.

The dirty little secret is you learn as you go along. The first episode won’t be as great as the tenth. They stunted with Obama, but they blew their chance. Because Obama ain’t gonna be good entertainment, he’s too guarded.

BUT DAVE IS PHENOMENAL!

For those oblivious, David Letterman, along with his old girlfriend Merrill Markoe, reinvented the late night format. It used to be serious with a little comedy, they flipped the script, and brought in shenanigans. And just when everybody’s doing it his way, he’s now doing it THE OLD WAY!

Letterman’s show is serious. A lengthy interview not based on the guest delivering pre-screened jokes. He actually digs deep. And all that time in front of the camera has served him well, he’s actually gotten good at it.

But it’s the asides, the conversational responses that wow you. Letterman has an incredibly sharp wit, his comebacks will have you reeling.

But the highlight is when they go to the tape, outside the theatre, the package and interview with John Lewis is spectacular, what Vice News does but with more gravitas. Meanwhile, Dave does not wear a suit, he’s in his street clothes in Alabama, and this normalizes the whole thing. This isn’t shot for them, but US!

If Letterman was not famous, few would watch this.

But he is. And Netflix gave him so much money and such a commitment that he’ll get better. More of these news interludes, more wit and interaction. Will it ever be great?

I’m not sure, but I’m gonna watch and see.

After I pull up the episodes of Seinfeld’s “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee” that I missed. I watched Bob Einstein, never could manage to get to Crackle, or wherever Jerry used to be, but now that the archive is on Netflix…

You want to be on Netflix. Forget HBO’s b.s. about getting lost in the shuffle. Every time you log on to Netflix you get suggestions, you see where you were, HBO is a lame twentieth century outlet that you’re supposed to sit down and watch as it plays out, WHO DOES THAT? As for the app… There’s not enough new stuff you haven’t seen, so you go to see what you remember, you’re not just checking it out on the by and by.

Like you are with Netflix.

We want it all and we want it now. I ain’t gonna wait for a series to play out over weeks. If I fall behind I just give up, this has happened multiple times with HBO, even with their vaunted show “Big Little Lies.”

But when it comes to Netflix the entire series is lying in wait for when I’m ready. It remembers where I left off. And viewers are members of a secret club who love to discuss and exchange ideas. More people have e-mailed me about “Black Mirror” than any show on television. This is where hits are made, socially, not via mass market promotion.

Not everything works, but who woulda thought “The Keepers” would be such riveting television? Netflix is taking chances. It’s risking. It’s pushing the envelope.

Now that’s truly American.

And it’s exactly what we want.

P.S.

“HBO to Talent: You Won’t Get This Much Love at Netflix”

This is publicity in the financial paper of record to try and spin a story, no different from politics. All the comedians jumped to Netflix, so HBO says stay home where nobody is for more notice. Which is kinda like staying on the indie when the majors offer you a better deal. Well, back before the internet blew up the music business anyway. When the big boys pay attention to the upstarts and gear up their publicity machine you know something is happening. Never forget to read between the lines.

Troy Carter just confirmed.

In case you’re a newbie or just missed out last year, I’ve started a conference with Jim Lewi entitled the Music Media Summit, and this will be our second year in Santa Barbara, only this year we’re moving to the Four Seasons, at a vastly reduced rate, so even if you don’t attend the meetings…

This was the highlight of my year last year, and I know that sounds like hype, but the ability to interview people and extract not only their history but insight into the present world was incredibly stimulating, and that’s what I live for, even more than money, I love to pick apart the planks of life and understand why it plays out the way it does.

Last year Roger McNamee appeared. And you should read his “Washington Monthly” screed on Facebook, he’s an investor, he’s the one who convinced Zuckerberg not to sell out:

“How To Fix Facebook – Before It Fixes Us”

Now since that article last week Facebook has pulled back from the brink, but have they? Zuck keeps talking about the social graph, but he’s not as interested in that as cash, and are they really gonna give up being a portal for news? I don’t think so! News outlets are being whiplashed, Facebook’s stock has decreased, and what we’ve learned is the younger generation can turn the world topsy-turvy, but do they have any idea of the effect of their efforts? After all, Zuckerberg denied that Facebook had any effect on the election, that it wasn’t “hacked” by Russians. Then he admitted it was!

Roger led us in singalongs in Santa Barbara last year. Yes, this is a social group with similar bona fides and our goal is to make it like summer camp, albeit only a handful of days. Even if you know nobody you’ll feel like an insider, cliques are taboo, I know, I’ve felt left out before and it’s ANATHEMA!

Also last year we had Chris Moore, producer of “Manchester By The Sea” and “Good Will Hunting.” A combo good old boy and Harvard graduate, it was great to hear his story, working in sports, falling into an agency and becoming a producer. Chris wants to make movies that mean something, what a concept, especially when Laurence Fink at BlackRock says they’re no longer investing in companies that don’t have a social conscience, that only want to make money.

“BlackRock’s Message: Contribute to Society, or Risk Losing Our Support”

And Eddie Rosenblatt talked about consoling Yoko Ono the night John Lennon died and…

I know, I know, that was last year. But we’re cooking up some really good speakers this year, I just ain’t gonna tell you until they’re confirmed.

My goal is not to create the usual conference, where you’re overcharged to hear hashed-over info. These people have had too much media training, they’re not gonna break news unless they want to, and usually they don’t, so my concentration is on who they are and how they got to their present destination and what it all means. First and foremost they’re human beings, second they’re business people.

Okay, enough selling.

Lewi does all the organizing. I do ALL the interviews. So, if you like my podcasts, expect more of that.

As for my health…

I should have sent this save the date e-mail earlier, but now I’m in recovery mode. I’ve still got spots, I still itch a bit, I’m still taking prednisone, but I’m over the hump, I haven’t felt this good in months.

As for Santa Barbara, the freeway should be open in a week. And the hotel is not in the hills.

So, you can convince yourself this is not enough notice while you debate what to do tonight, never mind this weekend, or you can save the date and sign up when the website goes live, which should be soon.

I want to meet each and every one of you, discuss the issues, get into the nooks and crannies,

THIS IS YOUR CHANCE!