There’s only room for one majordomo, and it’s not him.

People forget that Jimmy was an independent, a record producer, who ultimately teamed with Ted Field to start a label, i.e. Interscope. And ask someone under thirty if they know who Field is, I doubt it, he’s a footnote, although Ted did have a great run in the movie business and did lay down the money for the label and hired Jimmy and got out of his way.

And never forget that Interscope Records was Doug Morris’s pet project. And when Warner excommunicated it, and Doug himself got bounced, they both reemerged over at MCA/Universal, an also-ran now nearly the only-ran. That’s right, Doug Morris saw talent. You always invest in executives in the music business. And one of the problems we have is so few have anything at risk/stake anymore. It’s only when you’ve scrambled to put food on your plate that you truly understand the game. Which is why the music biz’s lunch is repeatedly eaten by outsiders, the insiders are now rarely entrepreneurs but managers, to their detriment.

But Jimmy gets sick of being a label guy. He’s got bigger ambitions. He tries them. And people forget that so many of his endeavors failed, from QSound to the Farm Club to… Then again, isn’t that the mantra of Silicon Valley, you fail until you succeed?

Jimmy did with Beats.

And he wanted to cash out. You have to know when to take money off the table. Your stake rarely goes up and up, it plateaus, and if you’re looking to only sell at the peak the joke is oftentimes upon you, you don’t wait for every last dollar, you go.

Not that Jimmy’s Beats Music was going in the right direction. It was the Tidal of yesteryear, only with less cash.

So a deal was made.

Now you must realize this deal was not done with Steve Jobs. Jobs and Iovine are alike, they’re hustlers. Jimmy tried to get Steve to buy Beats forever, but Steve said no, because it didn’t make sense, a me-too product, i.e. headphones, as for the streaming service, Jobs wasn’t yet convinced.

And then Steve died, and there was only one boss at Apple, but he was a supply chain savant, a key element of corporate success, but far from a visionary product guy was Tim Cook. So Apple was rudderless, run by design, i.e. Jony Ive and trusted lieutenants, i.e. Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller, and they missed streaming completely, talk about hubris, so they were open to Jimmy’s offer, a deal was made.

But there still was no foresight. Amazon just canceled its locker service, Apple is still in the MP3 game with an app that’s still confusing. This from the company where they were famous for eliminating ports?

So Jimmy’s in charge.

But he’s not. Because you don’t come in from outside and have power. Especially if you don’t have the DNA, the roots. In Silicon Valley you want to know how to code, you want to know about roadmaps and organization and although one can draw a parallel to music production, the details are really quite different. Furthermore, outsiders don’t like newbies in their business. Remember when Andy Lack went to Sony Music? A disaster that was.

So Jimmy starts to sell. Only Jimmy’s expertise is selling from the outside, being the renegade, and Apple’s as establishment as they come.

And Jimmy’s got no feel for the digital landscape. Everything he does backfires. Like the U2 promotion/distribution. Jimmy’s about subterfuge, paying back friends, loyalty, tech is about transparency, with the best software winning, and no one thought the U2 album was cutting edge, even great.

So…

Now Jimmy becomes the mouthpiece of the music industry.

But he’s a distributor. How does that make sense?

It doesn’t.

Jimmy’s gonna save the industry, make sure everybody is properly compensated. This is the mantra of musicians, but Apple customers could care less, all they keep reading about is how rich the musicians are, about their lifestyle, meanwhile Iovine is donating money and…

There’s no sympathy.

So Jimmy becomes further and further isolated. At Apple it’s about keeping your head down, leading with success. But Beats 1 radio was and still is a disaster, no one is listening.

So Jimmy turned to his relationships, he’d build success on exclusives.

The only thing is this was to the detriment of the business, you don’t want to confuse the customer, Lucian Grainge put the kibosh on that and suddenly Jimmy’s hands were tied, he could no longer pull a rabbit out of the hat, he could just inch along, and Jimmy’s all about the big play, planning for supernova, but there is none at Apple Music, only hard work.

His job is done.

It’s about the money, which is why he hasn’t gone earlier.

But this is a good thing, for both Apple and Jimmy.

Jimmy never benefited Apple as a spokesman. The product is supposed to be the star. The problem is no one is testifying about Apple Music, all they’re hearing is Jimmy bitching about YouTube and free tiers. Now Apple can focus on integration with voice and try to make people wanna subscribe to Apple Music based on its performance as opposed to the sizzle.

As for Jimmy…

He never should have worked at Apple to begin with, he can’t work for anybody else, he can work WITH people…as long as they respect him, as long as they do it his way.

So he’s got to find another playground. Very few go back to where they once belonged. Richard Palmese went back to promotion after being President of MCA Records, but oftentimes the ego is just too big.

As for going back inside…

We look to the lesson of Irving Azoff, who also chafed under the collar of the company. Irving left Live Nation and is now in new enterprises with Jim Dolan and Tim Leiweke. What new ventures could Jimmy engage in?

Or is he tapped out?

Kinda like his hero David Geffen, the most feared man in Hollywood, that’s why he was so lionized in the press. Tom King wrote that book about him and Geffen took a step back, he assured the financial futures of Spielberg and Katzenberg and now he’s a philanthropist, pulling the strings behind the scenes. But Geffen always played that role, he always shunned the spotlight, even when he got it.

But Jimmy craves it.

So what we have here is an American story. “What Makes Sammy Run.” Jimmy Iovine is not satisfied with impacting the culture, producing some of the greatest records of the era, he needs more, he needs money. But when he gets his money, he loses his power. You don’t have to fear Jimmy Iovine anymore. Most people have already stopped listening.

Meanwhile, Apple will continue to engage in battle.

Long live the king.

Are they headliner dependent? And is every American festival turning into Glastonbury, an institution where the flavor of the moment appears? Then again, Glastonbury is famous for comebacks.

Coachella started as a genre festival. Lollapalooza too, at least in its traveling incarnation. Bonnaroo was a jam band gathering. Now they all have the same headliners, there’s no reason to travel far, you can see the hitmakers in your own backyard, or do you want to?

I’m not sure, but I’ve been thinking a lot about it since Governors Ball announced its three headliners would be Eminem, Jack White and Travis Scott. Em’s a legend, it’s his turn. But Jack White is a press darling who appeals to an older generation and Travis Scott appeals to youngsters and…is it the same audience that wants to see all three and does anybody NEED to see all three?

Used to be that’s why you went, you NEEDED to be there, at a happening.

Now it’s just another show. Albeit with better food and worse bathrooms.

In the music business we always believe we’re going forward, that no rearward steps will be taken. That the act will continue to have hits, that the shows will continue to sell, and then we’re stunned when nobody shows up after the album flops.

Nobody showed up at Bonnaroo in 2016, so Live Nation, its new owner, bought insurance, loaded the bill with heavyweights, i.e. U2. But could it be that camping in Tennessee in the middle of summer ain’t such a great experience? Used to be a badge of honor to go, not so much anymore.

Coachella is a rite of passage for Southern California teenagers. There aren’t enough hipsters to fill the polo field. But they love to dress scantily and dance. EDM lives forever in SoCal, like Oingo Boingo and Depeche Mode. Do you give the people what they need or what they want? Are you curating a cultural event with meaning or just selling tickets?

The canard has been that these festivals have meaning, but that now appears to be untrue.

But Coachella is equivalent to spring break, it will never die.

Nor will Lollapalooza in Chicago, it’s too good a location. Kinda like JazzFest. The music is just one element of an overall vacation.

And you can throw in Outside Lands and Austin City Limits but after that, how many of these festivals are cool and needed? Sure, you want an east coast location, but you also have to deal with the weather.

But, once again, that’s about selling tickets. A promoter will service everybody who comes.

But last year people decided not to come and some festivals were canceled.

So suddenly the festival world wakes up and realizes we’re living in an era of hip-hop, but does it dominate financially the way it does on Spotify? And what’s the live experience like? The truth is indie hip-hop festivals are burgeoning. And who wants to go see the same old tired rock acts. But do we just switch headliners and everything goes along swimmingly?

We’re at an inflection point. And it’s not only the changing of the guard at festivals, but the music itself. Hip-hop triumphed by embracing the internet. But new sounds will follow its pathway. Not the old sounds, but new twists. And if these festivals are so hip, why don’t they mix it up with country acts, who rap too? Why not give the audience everything?

But the truth is all the major festivals are rearguard events celebrating the past. Once upon a time they tried to usher in the future, when their proprietors were young and thought they knew better, now they’re inured to their lifestyle and the bottom line reigns.

So maybe it’s the same as it ever was, hell David Byrne is gonna play Coachella, to very few I’m sure. Maybe the festival is bigger than the acts on the bill. Maybe in this era of experiences everybody’s got to leave the house.

But the idea of a cutting edge enterprise where you go to experience what you should know?

That’s dead and gone.

The festival is no different from Google, Facebook or Snapchat.

You’re the star.

They blew it.

Show business is about perception, not reality. And the perception is that Taylor Swift is a self-satisfied performer who needs to be the biggest and the baddest and is not.

You don’t want to be able to get a ticket.

If I hear one more promoter talk about slow ticketing I’m gonna puke. This is the end game of what they’ve created, a world with no transparency where the secondary market scoops up too many profits and the greedy acts hide behind the ticketing company. You like the money, you want to live the lifestyle you flaunt all over the internet, why can’t you admit it? Instead of blaming Ticketmaster for fees, instead of bitching about the brokers, either go paperless or charge what the tickets are worth.

But you don’t want to do this. You want to appear to be a friend of the consumer while at the same time ripping them off. Tell me how that’s gonna work again?

So, to solve this problem, we’ve got the slow-ticketing phenomenon. Otherwise called flex-pricing. Trying to extract the most money from the customer, get the highest gross. But this has really only worked for the Stones, who are running on fumes playing oldies to a crowd that’s afraid Keith Richards is gonna die, whereas Taylor Swift is not yet a heritage act, she’s selling new music, she needs people to believe she’s happening, the hottest act in the business, but when you can buy tickets for her show at the last minute is she?

Of course she’s not.

Paul McCartney used to buy independent radio promotion. I don’t care who you are, how big you are, you’re starting over with every record. And the thing about the Stones… They never sold that many records to begin with, they’re kinda like the Dead, sui generis, other than those two it’s a game of…

What have you done for me lately.

And Taylor Swift hasn’t done much.

She’s continuing to feud with the world, only this time her posse has abandoned her.

And other than her initial single, which tried to evidence a sense of humor but didn’t, because she has none, every subsequent release went straight to the dumper. Live by the hit, die by the hit.

But they were doubling-down before the album even came out. With this insane boost phenomenon. Since you’re gonna be unable to get a ticket, you’re gonna jump through hoops to get one. Only in this case, she’s playing stadiums and that’s a lot of tickets, and ticketing is so obtuse that many of the best tickets never hit the general marketplace, they’re spoken for. Taylor Swift thought the rules didn’t apply to her, that she could set her own course.

But no, the rules apply to everybody. Even Adele, who stayed off streaming and sold a lot of tickets but became irrelevant to everybody who wasn’t at the show.

They’ve been lying about attendance and grosses since the Roman era, before that. Which is why you buy extra tickets to lay off on Craigslist or StubHub and then find out you can’t get rid of them. THE SHOW WAS NEVER SOLD OUT TO BEGIN WITH! But only insiders know this. You read ads congratulating the act on going clean, but if you think those ads are vetted by their displayers, you probably haven’t gotten a spam e-mail or junk phone call today. There’s no law about this, not one being enforced.

But if you think you can’t get a ticket, you’re gonna rush and buy one.

But if you think you can…

You’re gonna wait for the price to drop.

Come on, this ain’t Barbra Streisand. Taylor Swift is appealing to a very young generation, ever go to the grocery store with them? They’ve got to have it right now, and if they don’t they oftentimes forget about it. This strategy was not the right one for Swift.

Then again, it’s all being made up in the aftermath.

They expected tickets to sell better. This slow-ticketing thing is just an excuse. An explanation. And if you’re buying it…

Forget “Billboard” and the other elements of the music-industrial complex being bullied into printing falsehoods.

The story is Taylor Swift ain’t that damn hot, and it’s her own damn fault.

It doesn’t matter how much money she rakes in, unless you think money is everything, the Dixie Chicks sold out arenas before they were dead. Then again, those tickets were all sold before Natalie Maines attacked George Bush.

All these pop acts that have failed, they don’t understand the game. They stepped up to the plate and barely bunted. Whereas the rappers realized if one track fails, you just line up another, they test tracks out with mixtapes, they understand the culture, but Taylor Swift does not.

Your image is not rehabilitated in the press, but in the hearts and minds of your audience. Swift made an album for the inside, not her fans, she lost them. Look at Gaga, she hasn’t had a hit for eons, but she’s decided to get out of the game, work with Tony Bennett. Even John Mayer got out of the hit game. But Taylor Swift has to win at everything. And people hate people like this. As Eric Clapton said…”It can’t always be up – for anybody.”

Eric Clapton Talks Addiction, Cream’s Brilliance, the Future of the Guitar

So Clapton broke up the band, went to work with Delaney & Bonnie. Made a solo record, formed the Dominos, did acoustic work. He didn’t follow trends, he went on his own hejira, and his hard core stuck with him and the penumbra waxed and waned depending upon whether he hit pay dirt.

That’s a musician.

But Taylor Swift is too busy being a celebrity.

But we’ve got the press tsunami, talking about sales in an era of streaming, all kinds of facts, but deep in their hearts the fans know…

There’s something off.

Taylor could admit this. Blow out the shows at cheap prices. Give back. Create new music only for her fans, forget about the album cycle.

But she can’t. Because she had a plan. Which needs to be stuck to.

“Reputation” will come and go. You’ll hear varying opinions.

But one thing’s for sure. In show business your image is everything, perception trumps reality. You want people to PERCEIVE you’re the biggest and the brightest star, that’s the manipulation your team is in service to, not your gross, this ain’t Wall Street, this is closer to Main Street. This is bedrooms, this is people, this is soul-fulfillment. Who cares if you make an extra hundred million, it doesn’t change the songs, it doesn’t change what they mean to people.

They don’t teach this in books. There’s no school. Which is why the music business constantly repopulates with new people, usually uneducated, scrappers who do it in a new way and have their finger on the pulse.

A great manager is the quarterback who protects the act at all costs. When done right management is forever, the act should be able to tour until it dies.

But this requires constant adjustment, and being a slave to the audience, not the bank.

Because the audience decides whether or not to give you their money.

And it’s very hard to quantify their whims.

But one thing’s for sure, if they can’t get in…

THEY WANNA GO!

Dandy – Spotify

We used to live in darkness. It’s hard to explain. Everything was the same but we weren’t so connected. We took the telephone for granted, but it wasn’t until you were in your late teens that you became addicted, and really it was more women than men, can I say that, boys and girls, that a rite of passage for a girl was a Princess telephone straight from AT&T into her bedroom, hopefully on her own separate line, but oftentimes that was not the case and you’d hear people yelling throughout the house GET OFF THE PHONE!, long before call-waiting, when we didn’t assume we’d get someone on the first ring.

School never started before Labor Day. And it was hot, too hot, there was no A/C, and then it was cold. But never inside, they always overheated the buildings, long before anybody worried about energy depletion, never mind the prices.

And you’d ride your bike right up to Thanksgiving, albeit freezing, with your fall jacket on, you had a series of jackets, your Yankees jacket for the spring and summer, a nylon one for when it was just a bit cooler and a fall jacket that was not lined and then your winter jacket for the worst weather. And flannel-lined jeans. We became too hip for them, but I wish I had them today, they were so warm. And there was no water-repellence, never mind Gore-Tex, you got wet and you stayed wet. When you walked home from school, which we all did, when you went out and played in the snow, when you tobogganed.

We did that, a lot. We had a multitude of snow conveyances. Of course the Flexible Flyer, and what made that sled so good was it was truly flexible, you could steer it. And then the flying saucer, an aluminum pan that got dented the first time you used it, that you slid down the hill upon. And then the toboggan. We had two in our house. One with two seats and one with seven. And the trick with toboggans, or maybe the deficiency, was it was very hard to keep them going straight. You’d start out straight, but then the tail end would start to slip and you’d be going sideways and sometimes the whole thing would tip over and sometimes people would fall off and if you were lucky enough to be in front, with your feet tucked under the curl, you were along for the ride with no power, you got the biggest thrills, but the greatest injury. Oh, did I mention that sometimes you went over a bump? And then everybody came off in midair? But this was when we still got snow and you weren’t so worried about getting hurt.

And if it snowed, you went out and played. Even at night. Especially the first storm of the year. You liked being in what was coming down.

But most nights you were in your room, with the transistor, doing homework. Usually math. Why is it we were always doing math homework?

Of course there was television. But you did not have a set in your bedroom and you could not watch all night. You had to bargain with your parents how much you could view before you went upstairs.

And if you were lucky you had your own bedroom.

And the music was always playing. But it was not a cacophony of sound, it was the only sound.

Now I can’t overstate the impact of the arrival of the Beatles. Suddenly everybody was into music, just like everybody got into AOL in ’95. It existed before, but now it was a revolution. And the songs being played were no longer ditties, they had meaning. Oh, they might appear quaint today, but they were bleeding edge limit-testers back then. And so many came from the U.K., where it may not have snowed, but there was precipitation and darkness.

That’s what you avoid in Los Angeles, America’s hottest spot right now, precipitation and darkness. It does rain, but rarely, and it’s sunny nearly every day, and this does wonders for your mood. But when it rains, when it snows, when it’s gray, your mind starts to drift, especially when the records come on, it’s like your world is broadened, you gain insight, you get a feel for what the world is like and who you are.

I got this feeling last night.

I’d watched enough Netflix. I wanted to read and I wanted to listen to music so I did both, which is harder to do these days, especially if I want to concentrate.

And I’m reading a novel and listening to the hits of ’67 on Amazon Music. Not ’68, because that was sunny and upbeat. But ’67, when it was still dark, when “Purple Haze” was released. Most people didn’t hear it until the following year, but Jimi was there, if you had friends, if you listened to FM, if you were in the know.

But most people were still listening to AM radio, and that’s where they heard “There’s A Kind Of Hush (All Over The World),” by Herman’s Hermits.

They get a bad rap. But if you go back and listen to those tunes…

“I’m Into Something Good” has gotten its victory lap, mostly from the inclusion in 1988’s “Naked Gun,” I know that’s a long time ago, but the film still plays on TV and streaming services and look at the bump the “Sopranos” gave “Don’t Stop Believin'” and the one “Wayne’s World” gave “Bohemian Rhapsody”… One good placement can ensure legendary status.

And once you get past the unjustly maligned “Henry VIII,” which was a joke back then, I don’t know why you need to make fun of it today, you get to some truly fulfilling cuts that bring me back to that era, like “Listen People,” “A Must To Avoid” and “There’s A Kind Of Hush.”

It came up on the Amazon playlist.

And then I needed to hear “Dandy.”

I’m more of a late period Kinks fan, when everybody abandoned them. I prefer “20th Century Man” and “Preservation” but I owned the initial greatest hits album, it was an excellent value, I knew those songs by heart. And when I play them today…

Goosebumps.

That’s right, I played “Tired Of Waiting” just last week. I could picture myself on the steps of the high school, singing with my friend. We used to do this, before everybody rapped.

And the Kinks’ original version of “Dandy” was a hit overseas, but the single in America was by Herman’s Hermits. So most people have never heard the original. But you need to, it’s the same, but…

Different.

Dandy, dandy
Where you gonna go now
Who you gonna turn to

The amazing thing is they could play these songs. There’s a BBC album online that’s revelatory, it sounds like the Kinks, not a pale imitation, and what immediately grabs you is the acoustic guitar, listen to the Hermits’ instrumentation, it’s so close but not the same, there’s a jagged rhythm in the Kinks’ original that enthralls you.

But not as much as Ray Davies’s SNEER!

He was never anybody’s man (or woman!) To this day he’s sui generis, not a member of the group, an outsider who seems to know more of what’s going on inside than those ensconced therein.

You’re chasing all the girls
They can’t resist your smile
Oh, they long for dandy, dandy

It’s not Ray. From back when musicians were social commentators and not the story themselves.

Checkin’ out the ladies
Tickling their fancy
Pouring out your charm
To meet all your own demands
And turn it off at will
Oh, they long for dandy, dandy

He’s manipulative, he thinks it’s all about him, but it’s not.

Dandy you know you’re moving much too fast
And dandy, you know you can’t escape the past
Look around you and see the people settle down
And when you’re old and grey you will remember what they said
That two girls are too many, three’s a crowd and four you’re dead

Too much of a good thing…

Is not a good thing.

We’ve been taught that excess is part of success. But you get caught up in it and you lose yourself. You need to be called on your faux pas. That’s what musicians used to do.

But it’s the sound of the record that not only piques your curiosity, but keeps you riveted. Where is it cut, who are these people? This is not something you can see on Facebook Live. There isn’t any video. You have to know someone, you can’t get there. Still… If you were just a fly on the wall you’d know you were in the aura of excellence but you could not connect, the Kinks would not be friendly, the engineer would not give you the time of day, it was all somehow removed.

That’s what the amazing thing about this music was. It was right up front and center, ubiquitous, it meant everything to us, we needed to get closer to it, but WE COULDN’T! At best we could let it inhabit our own minds and create our own memories based on mood.

And when I hear “Dandy” I’m brought back to the midsixties. The pictures become clear, even though there are no photographs. I can remember what I felt. And it doesn’t seem like yesterday…

It seems like today.

P.S. We were a generation of Peter Pans. We never wanted to grow up. And even though some of us got married, had children and even bought houses and Teslas, we grow our hair long, don ponytails, jeans and leather and try to make like we’re still who we once were. But the joke is on us:

Oh dandy, dandy
When you gonna give up
Are you feeling old now
You will always be free
You need no sympathy
A bachelor you will stay
And dandy, you’re all right
You’re all right
You’re all right
You’re all right
You’re all right
You’re all right

OR ARE YOU?