Billy Raffoul – Dark Four Door

If this were the nineties, he’d already be a star.

That’s the power of video, that’s the power of a monoculture.

You won’t get it if you listen to the new single “Driver” on Spotify. You won’t even get it if you listen to the version of “Dark Four Door” on Spotify. But if you watch the above video, you’ll be closed!

Oh, I know, I know, some of you will say it’s manipulated, it’s over-dramatic, but somehow Billy Raffoul’s performance is the antidote to everything popular today. It’s simple, it’s one man and his guitar, singing from his gut, there’s an authenticity emerging from his soul.

But maybe it’s because he’s Canadian.

Canada is different. It’s harder to be gigantic, but it’s easier to get noticed, and the government supports you, such that there’s a broader swath of music making it, not just hip-hop and pop.

So you watch this video and want to see Raffoul live. A guy who didn’t bother to change his name to “Keys” or “Legend,” there’s no fakery involved.

And if you’re in the target demo, and I mean under the age of 25, if you’re not jaded, having seen it all, Raffoul speaks to you, and embodies the part, i.e. the girls want to get next to him and the boys want to be him. Never ever underestimate the power of one person and a guitar. If you can convey your story sans effects…

Now you’ve got to credit Frank Ockenfels, who shot this clip. Everybody’s got a camera today, but few know how to use it. And without the swirling images too often employed in this supposedly short attention span era, you can’t take your eyes off of Raffoul, he’s all there is.

Now Raffoul may enter through the side door. He’s the featured vocalist on one track of Avicii’s new EP. And I won’t say it’s blown up, but in one week it’s had greater play than that of any of Raffoul’s cuts which have been in the marketplace longer. And the truth is today, anything that starts hot usually fails, not that Avicii’s EP can’t fail either, but now it’s not about bludgeoning the gatekeepers but penetrating the public consciousness, getting people familiar with a song/sound and having them spread the word and listen until it blows up.

So, it used to be the label pushed the button and you were a star. Or didn’t get off the starting line and failed miserably. But we knew your story, we knew you were coming.

And the truth is we still know hip-hop artists are coming, there’s a whole culture there.

But it’s nonexistent elsewhere. It’s like after a war. Bombed out, people numb, unable to pick up the pieces. Everybody but hip-hoppers and popsters missed the streaming memo.

But will acts like Billy Raffoul emerge in the aftermath? Acts you want to see not to clip your coupon but to bond with the emotion of live?

Time will tell.

But Billy’s a secret today.

He should be more than that.

Avicii – “You Be Love” (feat. Billy Raffoul)

Nothing happens fast anymore.

Last week Vice was a news outlet for youngsters, not the prepubescent set the music industry caters to, but the late teens to thirtysomethings with a brain who like to stay informed, who like to mull over issues and form their own opinions, absent the ravings of dictatorial oldsters who believe they know better, these same personages who called the election wrong, who marginalized Bernie Sanders and dismissed Donald Trump, heard anything about Debbie Wasserman Schultz recently?

Today, Vice is the purveyor of note, the breakthrough news service, the one with the embedded reporter letting the right wing protesters speak for themselves, but standing up to them when they show no remorse and get the facts wrong.

We’re used to journalism grads. Coiffed and pampered, people looking like robots who read the news sans emotion, told that no opinion should be exuded or expressed. And that’s how we got into this mess, false equivalencies in the media.

Or else we’ve got the bloviators, believing their opinion is correct, yelling over anybody who dares to interrupt them.

And now we’ve got this young woman who looks like the audience allowing the perpetrators to tell their own story.

I heard about it from Felice first. She’s addicted to the HBO show, she watches it every night, but she doesn’t tell me about it every night, but this time she did. That’s the essence of today’s society, you have to create something that ignites word of mouth. And too many lowest common denominator players believe that means train-wreck content, that which gets you to drop your jaw and stop. But train-wreck doesn’t last, it’s seen for what it is, candy, and you can’t live on candy, you need protein.

Then Jake called me from Toronto. Had to iMessage me the link. It was that powerful. And Vice didn’t advertise it, didn’t take a victory lap, but it did post it to YouTube for all to see. Just like with Spotify, while oldsters and the ignorant are bitching they’re getting ripped-off, upstarts use the new tools to get ahead. That’s right, while rockers were bitching about getting paid, rappers were posting their content on Soundcloud and Spotify and suddenly hip-hop became the sound of the nation. Not that any news outlet picked up on this, they were too busy repeating the protestations of the oldsters. Come on, when was the last time David Lowery had a hit, impacted the culture?

So the Vice video was lying in wait, for people to see it. Once again, the enemy is not nonpayment, but OBSCURITY!

So I watched it. Jake was so passionate about it. Not only do you respect the opinions of friends, you want to be a member of the club, you want to be able to talk intelligently, discuss what you’ve seen.

And you cannot watch the Vice video without feeling like you’re being pulled into an alternative reality that was somehow not depicted in the mainstream media. We got the usual story. ABOUT something instead of the real thing. But watching the Vice video you were truly in the belly of the beast.

And when I watched it the Vice video had under a million views. Was this truly possible? Had the counter not just caught up?

So I tweeted about it. Because I couldn’t help myself, I was that moved. And I e-mailed Tom Freston, who shepherded MTV into the stratosphere and now helps guide Vice. Because you give kudos when due.

And then I got in my car and every news outlet was talking about it.

That’s right, I listen to the news in my car. On the satellite. That’s one reason to sign up for Sirius in these challenging times. They’ve got Fox and CNN and MSNBC and more, and I flip between them to get the different viewpoints, to get the lay of the land.

And they’re all mentioning the Vice video.

There was no promotion, the print media was far behind, hell, the L.A. “Times” app didn’t even feature the Trump story, half a day after it had happened.

This is how the modern world works.

You labor in obscurity for years, unable to break through, and then you get lucky. It’s not like the Vice majordomos sat in their office and rubbed their palms and declared this was gonna be their breakthrough moment, this is what they do, every weeknight on HBO, all over their websites. But they got lucky.

I know, I know, it’s hard to employ that term in the midst of a national crisis, when three people died, I still haven’t gotten over how Heather Heyer perished, never mind those two state troopers in the helicopter. But what touched me in my Twitter feed today was the GoFundMe for Tyler Magill, who suffered a stroke as a “result of blunt force trauma to his carotid artery after he was hit with a Torch on Friday night.”

Tyler’s Stroke of Genius Recovery

And in one day, $66,240 has been donated.

And now 2,245,310 people have watched the Vice video on Charlottesville.

People are mislabeled, they’re seen as somnambulant, self-centered pricks who just don’t give a damn. But this is untrue. Think of all those people who donated to Tyler. Think of all those people who just had to watch the Vice video.

Nothing stays the same. We thought after the fall of the wall tyrants were done in Eastern Europe. Hell, after the treaty we believed that nukes were on the wane.

We thought network news was forever.

But then the screw turned.

News turned into an on demand item, constantly available. And although Al Jazeera failed in America, after mountains of publicity, Vice has started to gain steam, by doing it just a little bit different, telling the stories people are truly interested in, at length, because people have time for all that is riveting, and while you’re railing about talking heads on cable you’re gonna miss the takeover of the news by this upstart who has been there for years, but whose time has come.

Yesterday Vice finally had a hit. And in today’s world, one hit makes you a star. Most acts can’t follow that hit, there’s no there there, but not with Vice, it’s been making content for years, there’s more where that came from, all eyes are on Vice today.

Protest Playlist -Spotify

“We Can’t Make It Here”
James McMurtry
2006

My favorite track of the century, although I do prefer the acoustic take rushed out for the election that is now hard to find, it’s my most played song in my iTunes library with an indelible hook that is undeniable, the words are just an accessory, but it’s the words that the track is remembered for.

Check out this YouTube video of the acoustic take:

We Can’t Make It Here – YouTube

“Fuck Tha Police”
N.W.A.
1988

Believe me, they didn’t play this on MTV, it’s a track you read about more than heard, but it it incited imitators and ultimately revolution, known as the L.A. Riots of 1992, in the wake of the Rodney King trial, it’s then we learned that everything said by N.W.A. and Ice-T was true. Yup, you live in a bubble, you’ve got no idea what’s happening in others’ worlds even though you think you do. You decry the hillbillies hooked on dope, you read J.D. Vance’s book, the right wing prick who hooked up with the wrongheaded Peter Thiel and feel good about yourself. Why are African-Americans the problem? Put yourself in their shoes, your race identifiable by the color of your skin, with a legacy of enslavement, but too many whites just think black people are takers, as they wear their jeans low, baseball caps sideways and rap along to their records.

“Ohio”
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
1970

Written in the wake of Kent State. Great art is about inspiration, whereas everything today is belabored. Neil Young got a bolt of inspiration and wrote and had the band record this almost immediately, it was on the airwaves with its undeniable guitar sound while we were still licking our wounds.

“It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”
Bob Dylan
1965

I could quote “Masters Of War,” Blowin’ In The Wind,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” but this is the one that resonates with me.

By time Dylan hit the big time, his protest days were behind him. But due to the efforts of his manager, Albert Grossman, his songs were covered and known in the folk world, his reputation was sealed. That’s right, the work you’re doing now, when no one is paying attention, just might be that which cements your reputation.

Now you should listen to this because of the truth screaming from every lyric. That’s what we want from art, the unvarnished truth, because it resonates.

My favorite verse:

For them that obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Do what they do just to be
Nothing more than something they invest in

And the irony today is that this applies to many of the so-called “winners,” doing jobs they hate for the money, like in finance.

Ah, what the hell, I’ll quote one more:

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society’s pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he’s in

Sound like today?

It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

“Eve Of Destruction”
Barry McGuire
1965

We barely knew what the Vietnam War was. And suddenly there was this song emanating from the transistor informing us the world was doomed.

It certainly looked like it.

But then the youth rebelled and changed minds about the military industrial state and ultimately the war was stopped.

And then all these protesters sold out, had babies and became best friends with their progeny whose idea of rocking the boat is sending nude selfies online.

“Ain’t Got No”
“Hair (Original Broadway Cast Recording)”
1968

The “Hamilton” of its day, but much more ubiquitous, its songs were remade into huge, dominating singles on AM radio, from “Good Morning, Starshine” to “Easy To Be Hard” to “Aquarius”…

My mother was and is a culture vulture, she bought the original OFF BROADWAY cast album from 1967, we played it incessantly, I’m including that take which is a bit different, I prefer it.

“Hamilton” has untold impact, it’s just that it takes so much longer to percolate and rise to the top today.

“My Shot”
“Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording)”
2015

The hip-hop ethos filtered down to its original essence.

It starts with belief and desire, you’ve got to believe in yourself and desire the goal. People have no idea how hard it takes to make it, those who try and lose get it a bit, and those who’ve won can’t believe they’ve made it, it’s akin to climbing Everest without oxygen.

This is a protest against the system, in support of the individual.

Individuals change this world, never forget it!

“Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)
“Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording)”
2015

Featuring the famous line:

Immigrants, we get the job done

We’re all immigrants, except for the few, abused natives. “Hamilton” brings us all together, you might not know it but it’s the best and biggest musical enterprise of this decade, SEE IT! (If you can get tickets…)

“All My Trials”
Joan Baez
1960

Never underestimate her impact. She was the Taylor Swift of her day, assuming Taylor looked inward instead of throwing daggers outward.

Baez was beautiful with an exquisite voice, the women wanted to be her and the men wanted to…

The folk music, hootenanny scene got youngsters picking up the guitar, so they could play these songs and sing along. That was a regular exercise, sitting around singing songs, another thing lost to the past and the self-lionization of social media.

“Blowin’ In The Wind”
Peter, Paul and Mary
1963

They made it famous. The first time most people heard Bob Dylan.

“I Ain’t Marching Anymore”
Phil Ochs
1965

The power of one man and his guitar. Phil’s songs may not have charted on the hit parade, but they percolated, people knew them.

“War”
Edwin Starr
1970

What is it good for?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHIN’!

“Say It Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud”
James Brown
1968

That’s the difference between yesterday and today, black people were protesting their underclass status and now white people are trying to maintain their superiority. James Brown instigated pride in his audience, and that should never be underestimated.

“Everyday People”
Sly and the Family Stone
1968

Music can bring people together, it’s more powerful than the news, when done right it trumps all other info, “Everyday People” is INFECTIOUS!

“Get Up, Stand Up”
The Wailers
1973

Funny how this sound which was stiff upon release transcends decades and maintains, Marley wasn’t just for then, he was FOREVER! This is almost hermetically sealed, you have a huge desire to get CLOSER!

“This Land Is Your Land”
Woody Guthrie
1945

Do you think he was in it for the money?

It’s when you’re true to the sound, to the essence, to your inner being, that you last.

And the truth is, when you last there’s tons of dough. But even more, your work has impact.

That’s the power of ART!

“Walmart’s C.E.O. Joins Group to Rebuke Trump Over Charlottesville”

What kind of crazy fucked-up world do we live in where corporations speak truth to power and artists are silent?

One in which corporations are much more powerful than artists, one in which they incite belief far exceeding that of individuals. Come on, is there a single artist you believe in as much as Nike, Apple, Amazon or Adidas! They enlarged their logos and we went right along. We wanted to advertise where our fealty was paid. Hell, I’ll argue fashion is bigger than music, they lowered the price of clothing and no one bitched, allowing everyday people to change their look on a whim, and you’d think these same corporations would play it safe, worry about alienating customers.

And many still do.

But not all.

Yes, it takes a few good men, and women, to lead the way.

Like the CEO of Merck. And now Elon Musk and Bob Iger.

Musk, the new Steve Jobs, whose company depends upon government subsidies. GM killed the electric car, Musk resuscitated it, and in the not too distant future it will be the standard. Musk is an American hero. Musicians? As for Iger, Disney plays to both sides of the aisle. They’ve got more to lose than anybody.

But they took a stand.

Now it was different in the sixties. We had beatniks and then hippies, and college was cheap and not a trade school, and the Vietnam War had all the young worried about getting their asses shot off.

Now the young are somnambulant. Beaten into submission by economic realities. Either striving to leave the hoi polloi behind or complaining they can’t make it here anymore. Trump appealed to the latter, but so far he hasn’t delivered on his promises, despite his proclamations and protestations.

So what happens now?

Looks like the pushback is working.

The people stopped the demise of the ACA.

And now business leaders are saying NO MAS! They’re afraid to NOT take a stand, they don’t want to be aligned with a President who just doubled-down on his defense of the perpetrators on Saturday while blaming the left simultaneously.

Soon he’s going to be a party of one.

They’ve got him on the run.

Who?

The press and the corporations.

The press needles him by speaking the truth.

The corporate titans are people he respects, who he believes are on his side, and when he finds out they’re not, he’s enraged.

Wasn’t Walmart the enemy? Weren’t they hollowing out downtowns?

True. But it turns out people are inured to low prices. And convenience. And now Amazon has eaten Walmart’s lunch.

America is schizophrenic. It wants the comfort of the past while embracing the advantages of the new. Like that inane opinion piece in yesterday’s L.A. “Times” telling Jeff Bezos to raise prices on books to save bookstores. Yeah, when the bookstore has every title in print, when it delivers right away to my house, when the prices are lower so I can read more.

Luddites are on the left and the right. But thank god we have some forward-thinking people pushing our nation into the future.

We love to connect with our devices.

But the Luddites keep telling us the internet will eat our brains.

Right-wingers decry subsidies to Tesla while ignoring subsidies to oil and farms.

And the public is frequently too stupid to know what’s going on.

But sunlight illuminates the truth.

I’m not saying we’re all gonna get along. I’m not saying either the right or the left is perfect. All I’m saying is elections are not the end of the story, just the beginning. And we have a right to stand up and be heard.

Very exciting times. Who wouldn’t rather watch the news than listen to the hit parade?

“A Combative Trump Criticizes ‘Alt-Left’ Groups in Charlottesville”

“A bookseller’s advice for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos”