Hey, look me over
Tell me do you like what you see

Michael Howe asked me if I wanted to experience Prince’s vault. He was the Purple One’s last A&R guy at Warner Brothers, he’s the archivist.

Who’d turn that down?

So I went to a listening room in North Hollywood and…

The walking wounded. There are a ton of us around. Who experienced the golden age of music. From the Beatles to the internet. And I’m not saying the internet is bad, I love Spotify, but something’s changed.

It used to cost a lot of money to record.

Very few acts, relatively speaking, could be distributed.

Getting inside was almost impossible. But if you had passion and a work ethic, you could penetrate the bubble, although it was always hard to stay in.

And music drove the culture, it was everything.

We read the liner notes, we played our albums over and over. And the holy grail was to get inside the studio, where the sounds were laid down on tape, where the magic happened.

Not that you could not get close at home. It just required a few thousand dollars, to buy a stereo setup. That’s what you showed off, that’s what you were proud of, not the number of likes, not pictures of where you’d been, but the pure sound you could reproduce at home. And you had a mental wish list, you always wanted to upgrade. And you judged people on their sound system. And you listened. For the pure joy of it.

That’s what it was like in the room today.

First there was the equipment. Lipinski towers and subwoofers, a brand I’d never heard of, although I know EveAnna Manley, whose products were the link between said speakers and…the laptop. Yes, this would be impossible way back when. You’d have to change reels.

And that’s what Michael Howe has done, gone through all the reels. Prince recorded just about everything. From demos to live shows. And when his voice came out of the speaker…

You thought he was still alive.

It was that clear, it was that present. He’s counting down the numbers, instructing the band and…

Some famous tracks were written years before, there are multiple iterations, you can hear them develop.

And there’s video too.

This was back when you could only experience it at the club. When your show wasn’t dictated by the videoclip, when it wasn’t all on hard drive, when you used to have to know how to play!

And to see Prince in action…

His mop of hair going from styled to stringy as the gig progressed. Twisting and turning the lyrics for an audience rapt in attention. And then squeezing out notes on his Telecaster…

Yes, he didn’t always have the custom axes. He had to prove himself. He had to pay his dues. He had to make it.

And it was a slow ascent. His talent was there, but he did not emerge fully-formed. He changed. Didn’t always sing in falsetto, worked with different musicians, because you need a band, you can’t do it alone. On some of the demos he does play all the instruments, but to deliver live…

The band was well-rehearsed, he conducted it.

It was everything.

Now I listened to finished versions of songs made famous by other people.

Demos of household name songs.

Soundcheck workouts of songs long before they were finalized on wax.

It was amazing.

Not that everybody will care.

And it is kind of weird that he was lord of his kingdom, deciding what to release, and now he isn’t, and his vault is being raided.

But we want to know how he did it. We want an explanation. How did he become a star?

Through sheer will.

He needed it.

The same way Steve Jobs needed to change the world, Elon Musk too.

But back then it was music. A club. Quite large, but some were more passionate than others. They followed the game like sports.

And giants walked the earth, who might not be so good at speaking, but they could sure lay it down on tape.

This was the magic.

This is what we lived for.

It’s so weird to be jetted back to the garden, to have your brain prick up and your hair stand on end. Back when musicians channeled truth as opposed to being celebrities. When you listened to a record to be taken away, to a better place, a nirvana that only players had the roadmap to.

He’s so alive on the recordings.

But so dead in real life.

It’s a conundrum. Couldn’t his death be prevented?

But we’re all lords of our own domain.

But it’s our individualism that draws attention.

Prince was one of a kind.

Still is.

“The Sopranos” was the Beatles.

There was music before “I Want To Hold Your Hand” hit the airwaves in ’64, before the band was on “Ed Sullivan,” quite good stuff indeed, like the Four Seasons and the Beach Boys, but the Beatles were different, a quantum leap forward, in their wake came a slew of British acts, the so-called “Invasion,” suddenly everybody was picking up an electric guitar, suddenly everybody was listening on their transistor, the same way people are watching television today.

There was TV before “The Sopranos.” Quite good stuff at times, like “thirtysomething,” but “The Sopranos” not only showed TV could be as good as movies, but also something different, it was not limited to ninety minutes, it was a whole series, you got hooked, and suddenly HBO was the go-to, unlike the theatre.

Now after the Beatles came FM radio. Format changes make a difference. FM is like television streaming, it opens up the possibilities! Before FM we were limited to the hit, after FM the album burgeoned, what was in between the hits was suddenly important. Many people didn’t get it at first, they stuck with AM and singles, greatest hits albums, just like many moviegoers pooh-poohed the television revolution. And then came streaming Netflix, along with Amazon and Hulu, and suddenly we were in a golden age of television, it was where the action was, where we all wanted to be. We talked about TV the way we used to talk about records. Everybody had their favorites, you lived to sit in front of the flat screen and consume, and then debate.

Many people resist revolutions. The Beatles, et al, wiped out whole styles of music. Perry Como was no longer on the hit parade, Elvis either, and despite present nostalgia for eras past, the truth is many were left behind as the pioneers went forward. Just like those who still go to the movie theatre, or watch network television in real time today. That’s another breakthrough with streaming, you get what you want when you want it. In any event, the people yearning for the music business of yore have been left behind. Streaming is FM, but only rappers seem to know this, they own the new format.

So we lived through an era of music domination, when TV was square. Then it was all consolidated in the seventies and crashed. But MTV, a new technological breakthrough, gave music new legs. Until videos became extravaganzas and how you looked became more important than how you played. Napster added excitement, but radio stayed behind, is still behind, and then TV came along to fill the gap.

Despite there being over 400 scripted series a year, way too much product, it’s even worse in music. And acts don’t get canceled in music, they keep putting out tracks, vying for attention. The consumer rules, but the consumer has been ignored in music.

So what comes next?

Further consolidation in television. With ultimately a few streaming outlets. And then fewer shows, and fewer payments for those shows, and then, eventually, something will come along to fill TV’s place. Another location to experience story.

What comes next in music? The truth is rap is long in the tooth, and rock is positively calcified. Those deep in the trenches believe if they just slog hard enough they will succeed, nothing could be further from the truth. To capture hearts and minds there must be something different, a new sound. But it’s nowhere to be found. No Beatles who put in 10,000 hours in Hamburg before most people had ever heard of them.

Now in between music and TV came the tech revolution. Everybody bought a computer to play, now everybody has a smartphone to play. But only a few entities control the sphere. We depend upon them, we’re addicted, but the excitement of the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries is gone.

After TV becomes consolidated and loses its excitement what follows?

I don’t know. Will it be something we have never contemplated, or a spin on the old?

Music is mature. Corporations own not only the labels, but the touring outfits.

Tech is mature. It’s Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
TV is still in flux. Yesterday’s court decision re AT&T and Time Warner is significant, other shoes will now drop.

But then?

Are you watching this?

We just finished five seasons of “The Americans.” That’s right, sixty five episodes, I can’t believe it myself. But we cannot see the sixth, unless we’re willing to pay for it, $24.95, that’s never gonna happen, the content companies are bleeding us dry, and it’s gonna be worse when they all merge and they’re the only game in town. We’re going through a great consolidation, with a dash of musical chairs thrown in. The five hundred channel universe…KAPUT! Now there are just gonna be a few outlets, and you’ll subscribe to some or all of them. As for the vaunted YouTube revolution, did you read that article about YouTubers burning out?

YouTube’s top creators are burning out and breaking down en masse

That’s right, it was another canard sold to the youth, a supposedly easy way to make money, a PARADIGM SHIFT, while the big boys, Google and Amazon and Facebook and Apple…took the lion’s share of the revenue and the government supported the rich. You work 24/7 on Maggie’s Farm and they change the algorithm and you’re making less and if you’re dependent upon likes, getting subscribers, working the system, you’re toast. If your talent isn’t strong enough to stand on its own, draw people to it by itself, give up now. And yes, there are those making money unboxing, but that’s like telling you Bill Gates and Steve Jobs dropped out of college and you’re just a shot away from being a billionaire. Yeah, right.

And “The Americans” is plot-driven. It’s got few layers, it ain’t that deep, but it does hook you, because of the drama, because Keri Russell BELIEVES!

Do you believe in your mission? Do you have a mission? Are you willing to die for it, like Hamas?

I won’t bore you with the Arab/Israeli rhetoric. The story today is you can’t convince people to change their opinion, even with facts, they’re stuck in their rut and they’re sticking to it. And I know that’s saying the same thing twice but that’s how much they’ve self-reinforced their ideas, living in an echo chamber, but…

“Fauda” is about the Arab/Israeli conflict. On the West Bank. And…

These are not the Jews you anti-Semites think they are. Hell, you could line them up and most would not pick them as Jews. People have no idea what’s going on in the world, especially Americans, because THEY HAVEN’T BEEN ANYWHERE!

Like Israel. Like the desert.

That’s right, it’s not a lush landscape, they didn’t give Jews California’s Central Valley, but the Mojave Desert. But the elements make you feel alive. When you see Doron riding a motorcycle in the sand you think…one breakdown and he could die. What are the risks of you dying, other than by O.D.’ing on opiates? I’d say that’s how far down your life has fallen, but the truth is Purdue wanted to hook you, by saying Oxycontin was not addictive, and then it became so scarce you got hooked on heroin and…

If your life’s in danger, if you’re running on adrenaline, you ain’t got time for drugs. Because…

Doron is a movie star. Not a superhero, not someone buff like the Rock, not a pretty boy like Tom Cruise, but a male who attracts you through attitude and action. He’s doing the right thing, as if nobody is watching, and then he does the wrong thing and everybody is watching and they blame him. He can’t win. But he’s fighting for more than stripes on his uniform, which none of them wear, he’s all about a CAUSE!

People need causes in life. And they need to do something about them. Being anti-Trump is not a cause. Getting out into the field and changing America is. The FBI is a cause, but now it’s been denigrated. We’ve lost our way.

But we’re addicted to television.

So, waiting for the next season of “The Americans” to appear on Amazon, we dove into season two of “Fauda.” Felice wants to stop, it’s too violent, the characters are not likable.

But that’s my kind of show. I hate when people say they can’t relate. Is entertainment just escapism? How about eye-opening, how about instructive, how about making you THINK!

Everybody’s into the formula. Everybody likes a happy ending. But it rarely turns out that way, you get cancer and you die. Or you live long enough to find out you’re irrelevant. What is life about? Damned if I know. But the longer I live I understand actions of the past, I can see why people become revolutionaries, lay their lives on the line, die for the cause, because other than the cause, WHAT IS THERE?

We’re threatened in the U.S. By the racist right and the corporations. Save me your bile, if you don’t agree, why are you reading this? You think your e-mails of denial are gonna convert me to your side? You’re just demonstrating your ignorance. I read “The Wall Street Journal,” I listen to Fox on the satellite, it all makes me laugh, you’re so busy demonizing “The New York Times” you don’t even read it, and there’s a hell of a lot more news there than anywhere else.

But you’re dug into your trough. Like Hamas. Hamas doesn’t want peace, doesn’t want a solution, unless it means Israel no longer exists. Is Israel perfect? No. Has it made mistakes? Yes. But when someone says you have no right to exist, you fight back, irrelevant of what the naysayers claim.

And “Fauda” is about this tension. You can enjoy it, if that’s the word, whether you know anything about the Arab/Israeli conflict or not. Although you’re gonna have to read subtitles. That’s a threshold in dumbed-down America, if you’ve got to read, you’re out. But the world is based on words, written ones, it’s why Trump is such a bozo, he doesn’t, read that is. And his grammar is terrible. People judge you on this, you should know, and right now Trump is winning and the liberals are letting him and the whole damn situation, the whole damn country, no longer makes sense.

So we turn to entertainment.

But there are more forms than laughable comedies, superheroes and mindless dreck. There is stuff that wakes you up, that gets you in touch with your humanity, that gets you to question your behavior.

Like “Fauda.”

P.S. Shirin tries to resist Doron, but she cannot. If she were American, Laetitia Eido, would get a nose job, but her honker here just makes her more attractive, she’s unique, like you, like me. We’re all different, but we’re all the same, that’s the conundrum. We despise each other but we cannot get along without each other. And what stimulates us, keeps us going, is love.

Playlist

ALL RIGHT NOW!

That’s right, this week’s podcast guest is the voice, vocalist extraordinaire, PAUL RODGERS!

I remember distinctly driving in my mom’s Country Squire on the way to the Yale Bowl for a Herman’s Hermits-headed revival concert (the following week it was Led Zeppelin!) and hearing the mellifluous sound of this track emanating from the dashboard, some cuts you only need to hear once to get, to love, to have them seared into your brain. And as great as Paul’s vocal is, the secret ingredient is Paul Kossoff’s guitar-playing, an axeman Paul considers to be the best ever, and Rodgers has worked with Jimmy Page and…

And while I was ensconced at Middlebury I sent away for a free A&M sampler album entitled “Friends” that contained the Free cut “I’ll Be Creepin’.” You should check it out on the above-linked playlist, it’ll get under your skin, especially when Paul croons “I’ll hold you in my arms/Like nobody else,” you’ll swoon. Be sure to check out the rest of the Free tracks included, most were not hits, certainly not in the U.S., but hopefully they’re the blueprint for a resurgent blues-rock sound in the United States, there’s genius here.

And then…

We couldn’t get enough of their love.

Mick Ralphs? He was overshadowed by Ian Hunter in Mott The Hoople, wasn’t he just a sideman? Turns out, anything but. That track jumped out of radios across America in the summer of ’74, just after I graduated from college, but my favorite cut from the initial LP is the title tune, and I love “Seagull” almost as much, Paul talks about both of them here, as well as having the band’s name first.

And as big as that initial Bad Company album was, the second, STRAIGHT SHOOTER, was even BIGGER! This is the one containing the monster, “Feel Like Makin’ Love.”

Baby, when I think about you
I think about love

And then comes the staccato of that machine-gun guitar and…FEEL LIKE MAKIN’ LOVE…FEEL LIKE MAKIN’ LOVE… FEEL LIKE MAKIN’ LOVE…FEEL LIKE MAKIN’ LOVE TO YOU!

And the follow-up album, “Run With The Pack,” opens with the anthem “Live For The Music,” that’s my theme song…

Some people say I’m a-no good
Layin’ in my bed all day
But when the nighttime comes I’m ready to rock
And roll my troubles away

And right after that…

SIMPLE MAN!

Freedom is the only thing that means a damn to me

Ain’t that the truth. I’m a square peg in a round hole, I don’t fit in, the only place I feel comfortable is in the grasp of a record, which understands me. I hear “Simple Man” and I picture myself atop a mountain, viewing the vast landscape, feeling peaceful and powerful, this is the Bad Company song I sing to myself most.

And Bad Company went on to have more hits. Paul ultimately worked with Jimmy Page, Kenney Jones, Queen and so many more. And despite being ignored by the cognoscenti, he resides in the heart of every dyed-in-the-wool rock fan, talk about being unjustly excluded from the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, that ridiculous institution, Paul Rodgers and his bands are the EPITOME of rock and roll, and if you’re a listener, you know it.

So sitting down with Paul was a great thrill. Because he’s still got it, his intellect and his voice and…listen to him croon herein. Hell, the Bad Company show at the L.A. County Fair is the best one I’ve seen this decade, the one I enjoyed most, the one that got me out of my brain, that tore away my everyday problems, that had me thrusting my arm in the air believing that music was enough to base an existence upon, that I’d won at this game called life.

That’s the power of music.

That’s the power of rock and roll.

THAT’S THE POWER OF PAUL RODGERS! HE MAKES US FEEL FREE!

Listen to a snippet here:

Paul Rodgers on this week’s podcast, listen here: https://t.co/XDjjhQaFab pic.twitter.com/2Xbe1dAQ6Q

— Bob Lefsetz (@Lefsetz) June 12, 2018

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