He made me feel inadequate.

You think you want to go down one path, then you find out you’re unsuited for it. Even worse, you age and discover that your heart’s desire is not. I remember wanting to be an agent, at this late date the idea of negotiating for a living is anathema to me, but what did I know then?

Bupkes.

Anyway, Guerinot grows up in Rochester and moves to Orange County, the home of his beloved Lakers, and finds his way in the music business because he’s a self-starter. He books gigs at school, then takes over a club, then works for a promoter and goes on to an even bigger one. There’s a great story of sitting on Brian Murphy’s couch while the promoter calls Cynthia Fox, the legendary KMET deejay, about upcoming Springsteen shows at the Coliseum. What we want is access and to feel like an insider. Guerinot achieves both.

But when he feels he’s getting a raw deal at Avalon he moves on to Universal and doesn’t like it there and ends up at A&M. Geiger hips him to gigs, it’s all about your network, but it’s also about being hungry and taking advantage of opportunities.

Which Guerinot does.

Which makes me feel inadequate. I’m more cerebral, I’m more reticent, I’m so busy weighing the options that I don’t take advantage.

And for those out of the loop, Jim ends up managing not only Social Distortion, but the Offspring and Nine Inch Nails and No Doubt and he even has a record label with total control under Clive Davis!

And now he’s excited about teaching.

You’ll get it all here.

Listen for the story.

But also ask yourself if you can be Jim. If you could make the same choices and create the same opportunities.

If not, maybe you should forge your own path.

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And he needs to be replaced by a woman.

Neil’s been there over 15 years, longer than most record company execs whose behinds he so busily kisses.

Instead, the Recording Academy continues to look backward, living in the past, just like the recording industry did for so many years confronted with digital disruption, isn’t it time to have someone lead us into the future?

Neil was a caretaker in the wake of the tumultuous reign of Mike Greene. Now it’s time to have a leader.

I could point out Portnow’s flaws, including the ill-advised New York Grammy journey wherein millions were lost, but this is not about his failings so much as an opportunity to move the organization forward, change it for a changed environment.

As for the task force, it resembles nothing so much as a movie cliche, ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS AND DO NOTHING!

So the Grammy organization needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

And a woman must head it.

The men are gonna say there’s no female qualified. They always say this. They don’t mentor women, they don’t lift them up, they just throw their hands in the air after declaring their hands are tied. The greatest musical artists inform and lead, whereas the Grammy organization is run like the worst of bureaucracies, with little transparency and no change.

So it’s time to give a woman an opportunity! Hell, maybe even hire a manager from the outside, some new blood with fresh insight. Or maybe even a woman musician, like saxophonist Mindi Abair, who has been involved with the organization for years. Not that I’m positing she’s the right person for the position, I’m just saying the net should be cast wide and there are many women who can STEP UP and fill Portnow’s shoes.

But the Trustees are blind, so busy giving Grammys to their cronies they completely miss what is happening in popular music.

The Oscars are castigated for being too white and the organization shakes out dead wood and actively seeks new members, AMPAS reacted immediately, whereas NARAS did nothing, waiting for the storm to pass, which is amazing, since music is more topical and reacts more quickly than film.

Anybody can misspeak.

But not anybody can be asleep at the wheel.

When organizations don’t reinvent themselves, they die, just like the Grammy ratings. Produce those numbers in Silicon Valley and you’re ousted, immediately, because shareholders are afraid of totally losing their investment.

It’s time for the Grammys to pivot. Instead, the organization is staying on its lazy course.

As for Mr. Portnow’s contract/salary, let’s not forget this is the man who moved the organization to new digs without selling the old building. If it was about money, he would have been bounced long ago.

But it’s not about cash, it’s about meaning, it’s about direction, it’s about doing what’s right.

Let’s not allow them to get away with it. Let’s not let the uproar fade. Let’s keep the pressure on. How are we supposed to have faith in the organization if it can’t clean and take care of its own house?

Portnow has to go.

The rolls must be cleaned.

New members must be signed up.

Transparency must be instituted.

This fiasco cannot continue.

Because although the Grammys always lacked credibility, now they’ve become a joke.

Jade Bird – Lottery

Music discovery is broken.

If this were the late 80s, Jade Bird would already be a star. The above video would have been aired on MTV and fans would have been intrigued, purchased her album, gone to see her and eagerly awaited the follow-up.

Now most people have no idea who Jade Bird is.

Actually, she’s a twenty year old Englishwoman and that’s her real name. An EP was released last year, but you only know if you’re in the know. Which some are, each track on that EP has over a million streams. But most people are unaware.

I thought Jimmy Iovine was gonna solve music discovery…

He certainly didn’t.

There’s just too much product. And the product mixes with the art and it’s completely overwhelming. We need a national top ten that’s compiled from all genres.

If I go on Spotify and check out the top tracks it’s all hip-hop, at least in America.

Looking for a bit of breadth, I went to the global chart, you don’t have to rap to make it in the rest of the world. And I discovered this cut “IDGAF” by Dua Lipa. And that stands for…

Well, you can listen here:

IDGAF – Spotify

IDGAF – YouTube

It’s strangely hooky, it’s the sing-songy chorus that puts it over the top, play it to the end and you have to hear it again.

Why is this not a hit in America yet? We live in a global business but Warner just started working this in the U.S. Yes, that’s how far we’ve come, even a glorified hit gets no traction in another market.

But back to Jade Bird.

“Lottery” sounds nothing like what’s in the Spotify Top 50 or on Top 40 radio, which is why it’s such a revelation. Isn’t this what we’ve been looking for, something DIFFERENT?

But we no longer allow different, it’s all me-too.

Now last I checked “Lottery” has made it all the way to #19 on AAA, showing how moribund that format is. It’s kinda like winning a Grammy in one of those down the list categories, hope it makes you feel good, BECAUSE NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION!

But we’d like to!

Last night I got stuck on Casting Crowns’ “Broken Together.” Which I found via Discovery Weekly, thank god, BUT HOW DO I FIND MORE?

That’s right, where do I go for meaningful music, with melody and changes, how do I find that?

I HAVE NO IDEA!

I can listen to genre playlists, but the crap to good ratio is horrendous.

And then I wonder what playlist has the music I want to hear.

And I utilize music as foreground, I’m not gonna put on a playlist and let it play in the background hoping something jumps out.

Instead, I click through cut by cut, skipping ahead in search of something good, but it’s truly like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Now “Lottery” does not need the video to convince you.

There’s the earnestness, but even more there’s the bridge. Remember when the Beatles use to employ these? Now we’ve just got beats, it’s all repetitive with no melody and…

Where’s the one playlist with ten good tracks of all genres?

How do we all come together?

Everywhere I go people want to talk television. But not music. Because we haven’t heard the same things. BUT WE WANT TO!

“Lottery” on Spotify

In Conversation: Quincy Jones

I don’t give a fuck.

That’s what musicians used to say, they gave the man the middle finger, their fans kept them alive, and if they struggled they had the wine, the women, the dope and the song.

Q argues there’s no song anymore.

This is a train-wreck you can’t take your eyes off of. Want to know what it was like reading “Rolling Stone” in the sixties and seventies? Read this. Pure, unadulterated honesty, leavened with a bit of craziness. We wanted to get closer to the artists, we needed to get closer to the artists, we’d put on headphones, sidle up to the speakers, because they were God.

There once was a note pure and easy…

That’s what Pete Townshend wrote, and that’s why he’s still remembered. History remembers artists first and then politicians, businessmen fade away, don’t you ever forget it. But in our monied culture artistry takes a backseat and everybody wants the bread and music has suffered for it.

But you can’t say that.

But Q just did!

The funny thing about Quincy Jones is he has no airs. If you can get close to him, he’ll talk to anybody. And he knows EVERYBODY! Take that you redneck crackers living in the hinterlands. You’re jealous, because life is about access, we’re a country of people, and knowing others is what it’s all about. If you’re satisfied with friends and family, so be it. But the reason TMZ and the “Housewives” series exist, never mind the Kardashians, is because we want more.

Q has been there.

So you get old enough and you know the jig is up. That life is a farce. A construct with inane rules. My dad told my friend Ronnie that when he turned fifty he started to live for himself, he stopped worrying about what other people thought, he ceased giving a fuck.

It’s the way of the world… AND IT’S SO FREEING!

So much b.s. I have no time for, so much fighting for attention that’s not worth it. I mean arts coverage is the worst, all the hype. If the film’s any good I’ll find out when it’s released, I don’t need to read the actor drone on about how it’s the best flick he’s ever done and his personal life.

Furthermore, actors are vessels.

Musicians are truth.

That’s why hip-hop triumphs, eviscerates other forms, there’s more truth and honesty there. Whether it be the actual words spoken or the emotion behind it, which is oftentimes I’ve been screwed my whole life and now I’ve got the mic and I’m not gonna let it go!

We also admire those who triumph against the odds. Only nitwits believe racism is eviscerated. Hell, if you were in an elevator and didn’t know who Q was you’d probably keep your distance. Imagine being black 24/7, that’s the game we’re playing here.

So Quincy is gonna be 85. And somehow, he decided to stop worrying what others thought, he decided to tell his truth.

And it’s all laid out in this interview.

It’s a breath of fresh air in this duplicitous nation. Where the true string-pullers stay quiet and the bloviators obfuscate. We depend upon artists for truth, but we’ve got too little of that.

Can you lay it on the line? Can you tell us how you feel? Can you reach down deep and puke it all up without giving a fuck?

That’s what we’re looking for.

That’s what’s been done here.

And no matter if you’re black or white, young or old, catch the references or not, you’ll be riveted by this interview, you’ll forward it to your friends, unlike the cotton candy movies you’ll continue to think about it, it will challenge your preconceptions.

That’s the power of art.

That’s the power of the individual.

That’s the power of Quincy Jones.