June 1970 Playlist

“Easy Now”
Eric Clapton

From the initial solo LP, right after Delaney & Bonnie’s “On Tour” and “Comin’ Home.” This is the first track that resonated with me.

Clapton didn’t become a superstar until 1974, when “I Shot The Sheriff” became a cultural staple, on all radio bands and formats.

Oh no, don’t get your knickers in a twist. I know, I know, you’re a hipster who was listening to the Bluesbreakers. And of course, we all went to see Cream, didn’t you? But that was a band. And sure, “Layla” was a monster, but the band name was Derek and the Dominos, and it was all about the FM, which not everybody was listening to, but by ’74, the two band radio had infiltrated most cars and there were aftermarket units galore and they did.

“Let It Rain”
Eric Clapton

The closing cut from that magical initial solo LP when Eric sang all the songs instead of Jack Bruce. The sound of the intro, the changes, it’s hard to believe this was the sound of the day back then when you listen to what passes for success today. Furthermore, the rockers that are left are either playing something harder or more obscure. Being lyrical and melodic, somehow that’s gone out of fashion.

“After Midnight” and “Blues Power”
Eric Clapton

I preferred the latter, but it’s the former that had more impact, more staying power, this was before we had any idea who J.J. Cale was.

“Only You Know And I Know”
Dave Mason

The opening cut from “Alone Together,” an unheralded masterpiece instantly purchased by fans of Traffic’s second album, you dropped the needle and could not believe how solid it was. This song was on the aforementioned Delaney & Bonnie album, “On Tour,” but this take far exceeded that one, it’s the acoustic guitar and the subtlety.

‘Cause you know that I mean what I say
So don’t go and take me the wrong way

Such a jaunty track with such chiaroscuro lyrics. But as Dave sings:

I don’t mean to mislead you
It’s just my craziness coming through
But when it comes down to just two
I ain’t no crazier than you

Remember when it was a badge of honor to admit your flaws?

Don Henley said it even better, years later, in “Not Enough Love In The World”…

I’m not easy to live with
I know that it’s true
You’re no picnic either, babe
That’s one of the things I loved about you

From back when our rock stars gave us insight into life.

“Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave”
Dave Mason

The best cut on “Alone Together,” it’s six minutes and two seconds long and it never drags, you never want it to be over, it’s hypnotic, the kind of stuff we loved sitting in our bedrooms listening to over and over and over again.

“World In Changes”
Dave Mason

As I said, there’s not a clunker on “Alone Together,” be sure to listen to “Look At You Look At Me” as well as “Waitin’ On You” and “Sad And Deep As You,” hell, listen to the whole thing.

But it’s the mood of this number that eats at your soul.

“Empty Pages”
Traffic

The last song on the first side of what was supposed to be a Steve Winwood solo album, it’s the changes and the organ that penetrated me, this is the number I got into first, you can still see Winwood live, and he’s as good as he ever was.

“John Barleycorn (Must Die)”
Traffic

When every song didn’t sound the same, when bands showed breadth, seeing Steve sing this at the Fillmore was TRANSCENDENT!

“That Would Be Something”
Paul McCartney

“Band On The Run” is McCartney’s best solo album. But the forgotten underrated initial LP is the second best. Overlooked because it coincided with the breakup of the Beatles, with “Let It Be” on its heels, the intimacy will haunt you.

“Every Night”
Paul McCartney

My favorite song on the LP, it’s the vocal. It’s subtle and meaningful.

“Teddy Boy”

A story song, like the ones on the White Album.

I missed this LP, and then I went with a co-counselor to his fraternity house at Cornell and toked up an listened to this over and over again and got it. If you’ve never listened to “McCartney” put it on and let it go a couple of times and you’ll be sold.

“Days Of 49”
Bob Dylan

From the excoriated “Self Portrait,” this is the cut I needed to hear from the double LP, it wasn’t even written by Dylan, but it sounded like it was.

“Hesitation Blues”
Hot Tuna

From the initial LP, the opening cut, the best, even though the act really hit its stride with its third album, “Burgers.” This got a lot of attention, after all they were in Jefferson Airplane!

“I’ve Got A Feeling”
The Beatles

The opening cut on side two of “Let It Be,” it’s my favorite track on the LP, it seems to be made without worrying about the rough edges, as a band, trying to capture the energy, knowing that’s more important than perfection.

And as good as McCartney’s emotive vocals are, and the stinging guitar, what puts it over the top is Lennon in the bridge…

Everybody had a hard year
Everybody had a good time

How many times have I sung this in my head? It’s the world-weariness of John, the all-knowingness, the wisdom, the resolution, he’s so comfortable in his skin!

“See My Way”
Blodwyn Pig

The ethereal vocal, the horns, the changes, this is a one listen get.

“Dear Jill”
Blodwyn Pig

The best track on “Ahead Rings Out,” but I must say I didn’t really get it until I heard it in “Almost Famous.”

“Love Like A Man”
Ten Years After

The best cut on “Cricklewood Green,” the band’s best album, which coincided with their triumph in the Woodstock movie, for a moment there they were superstars. This is an indelible riff, with a great change, do young kids get this?

Great marijuana music.

“50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain”
Ten Years After

You either got the memo or you didn’t, either you smoked dope and listened to albums or you didn’t. All these years later, this is my favorite track on “Cricklewood Green.” Alvin Lee is dead and forgotten, but when I listen to these tracks he seems totally alive, in their own way they don’t seem dated at all.

“Morning Morgantown”
Joni Mitchell

The opening cut off “Ladies Of The Canyon,” from before she was a star, this was a quantum leap beyond her two first LPs. This number literally sounded like waking up in the morning.

“The Arrangement” and “Rainy Night House”

At this point, these are my two favorite cuts on “Ladies Of The Canyon,” somehow you got the notion you were stuck in the middle of Joni’s story, and it was just you, her and the person she was singing about, you truly felt like you knew her.

“Conversation”
Joni Mitchell

Ever been in love with someone who’s involved with someone else?

I’m not talking from a distance. I mean the two of you are friends, even more than that. You touch a bit, but what you really want to do is reach over and kiss them. They complain about their relationship, you share intimacies they don’t, but you’re paralyzed, you feel the way Joni does in this song, elated and frustrated all at the same time.

“Country Road”
James Taylor

The first cut that got me on “Sweet Baby James,” from back when he was still a cult artist, when I saw him at the Capitol in Port Chester and there were a hundred or so people there, when he still played solo, before “Fire And Rain” became ubiquitous on the radio.

“Delta Lady”
Leon Russell

From the initial solo LP.

He’s gone now, but once upon a time, in the spring of ’70, this was a revelation, it took Joe Cocker’s version up a notch. And when you saw him lead “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” it was a revelation! But although those gigs were in the spring, the double live album didn’t come out until the end of the summer…

“Coming Into Los Angeles”
Arlo Guthrie

It was the summer of Woodstock.

The festival happened in August ’69, but the movie didn’t come out until April 1970 and the triple album the following month, but the film played all summer, people went multiple times, to revel in not only the music, but the culture.

It was a turning point, the final division between the oldsters and the youngsters. We had our music, our dope and each other.

Coming into Los Angeles
Bringin’ in a couple of keys

Either you knew what Arlo was singing about or you didn’t.

“Sgt. Pepper” came out in 1967, but it wasn’t until the seventies that albums truly triumphed, when singles died and everybody shifted over from AM to FM.

June 1970 wasn’t the apex of the transition, but a head of steam was being built, it was happening.

The deal was sealed with “Stairway To Heaven.”

But that was eighteen months away.

It rained today. Although anywhere else you’d call it mist. Southern California only has two speeds, mist and downpour, and today it was the former. And at first you think it’s overflow from the car in front of you, you know, its misaimed windshield jets, happens all the time, have you experienced it? And then you realize no, it’s coming from the sky, which is oh-so-rare in April, never mind June, and then you believe the wind will clear your windscreen and then…you turn on the windshield wipers, which you’re loath to do, because if there’s not enough water you just get streaks of dirt and even if you turn on you own washers it never seems to do the trick.

It’s not summer here. It won’t be until sometime after July 4th. I know, that’s hard to fathom if you live anywhere else, like the east coast, where summer begins on Memorial Day and ends on Labor Day, but out here, on the left coast, at the bottom of the state, summer can run all the way to Halloween. My A/C went kaput in September and I was debating whether to fix it and Felice said it would be hot for two more months, but she grew up here.

I grew up on the east coast, Connecticut, when school didn’t start until after Labor Day and it ended in the middle of June, how late depended upon how many snow days you’d had, but the earliest I ever remember school ending was June 17th. But in the last two weeks of classes we’d go down to the beach, with our transistors and suntan oil, maybe even make a rush into the water…no one goes into the water out here now, unless they’re a surfer, wearing a wetsuit.

After classes ended we’d have a week or two before camp.

Camp. Maybe it’s a Jewish thing. But I recommend it for all kids. It’s where you make friends, it’s where you belong, sans the stratification of academics. All day long you integrate and play, those were some of the best times of my life. If I could go to summer camp for the rest of my days, I’d sign up for that. I know, I know, there are adult camps now, but no one leaves their identity and status behind. What their job is, what kind of car they drive, where they’ve been… People want to let you know they’re better than you, whereas when you’re young, you’re all in it together, at least at summer camp.

And when you go to summer camp, there are days like today. Gray. When you’ve got to wear a hoodie to breakfast, when you’ve got to wear long pants. When swimming is canceled and there’s a movie in the lodge, assuming they have one and it’s really raining.

That’s something I miss about the east coast, the rain. Oh, it’s terrible when you live there, your plans are often thwarted, long weekends are ruined. But the precipitation changes the pace, the mentality. On a rainy afternoon you can sit home and read a book, or go to the movies and not feel guilty. When it’s sunny on the east coast you’ve got to take advantage. But it’s those rainy days I miss.

They happen in July, but I mostly remember them in August. When the days are getting shorter and the temperatures are dropping and you know fall is coming.

And fall’s stretch of good weather depends upon where you reside. In Connecticut, where I grew up, it wasn’t until October that you got cold days, the kind that had your fingers tingling. But that could happen at the end of September when I went to college in Vermont. And November is miserable everywhere. And when you hit winter, it could be bitter cold and snow or warm and rain and it’s so disappointing. Especially if you’re an outdoorsman. You’re thrilled if you can ski into April, this year they’re skiing at Mammoth, in the Sierras, until August. Really. Check it out. Go to the website.

But what I love about the gray weather and the rain is the mood it puts me in. Like I’m in a cocoon. Like what’s in my brain is more important than the penumbra. I’m a cornucopia of feelings and memories. They come flooding back, what I was doing when it was like this before.

Lying on my bed in Botwinik at Camp Laurelwood.

Lying in the grass with my hand on that co-counselor at Camp Pine Cone.

Listening to Eric Clapton’s “Easy Now” on cassette.

Listening to “Let It Rain.”

One Love Manchester On Spotify

Oh, what a wonderful world we live in, where what happened yesterday is available today, which means the show is not over and done, but lives on. And maybe, just maybe, the world will need to listen to these tracks to relive the moment and cuts will fly up the chart, dominating, illustrating that the manipulated chart we see in the newspaper is hogwash and that streaming rules and is the only definition of popularity and it’s not about goosing the numbers, manipulating the marketing for one week of glory, but tapping into the true desires of the public, what they really want to hear, and extolling that.

Now at first when you start to listen you’ll miss the video, you’ll want to be there, and isn’t that the goal of a live album, to get you to go to the show next time? And as is the case with any true live production there are imperfections, but there’s an undeniable energy. Start with “Happy” from Pharrell and Miley, they turn it into a soul number closer to Motown than Disney, they turn it into something more than it ever was, which is hard to believe since it’s been played to death already.

“Get Lucky” isn’t quite nailed, but it’s great to see a track from four years ago resuscitated, in a world where what happened this morning is already forgotten. And it’s funny how Pharrell now owns it instead of Daft Punk, that’s the power of a vocalist, of the lead singer.

And when the assembled multitude cheers and joins in you feel the joy of music, the joy of being a believer, a member of the crowd. We haven’t had this spirit here since Woodstock, but in that case the album came first and the movie second. This is not the 9/11 tribute with the commercial product months later, this is positively instant, on demand, once again sacred cows are slaughtered, you no longer dribble out music, get it perfect, rather you release it instantly, warts and all, and people forgive imperfections, because in today’s world we know everybody’s compromised, no one gets it right every time, you get honors just for playing.

And maybe acts like Little Mix and Take That will get the boost in the U.S. which they’ve never gotten.

Maybe Ariana Grande’s rendition of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” will dominate radio. Oh, don’t expect that, that outlet is moribund, waiting for consensus before it does anything, but maybe AC will go for it, stations should. Can’t someone in America champion the moment?

No, we have to rely on a Swedish streaming service.

Ah, those immigrants and millennials, ruining our business.

No, THEY’RE SAVING IT!

Apple – World Wide Developer Conference – June 2017

You’re either a member of the ecosystem or you’re not. Either you own Apple products or you don’t. And if you do…you can bitch all you want, but you’re not about to switch.

This was the best presentation since Tim Cook took over. Now that the audience is burned out, now that these keynotes are seen as de rigueur, they lifted the presentation to a new level yet few cared, there was little advance excitement, a few of the breakthroughs leaked in advance, but still…

AR is a breakthrough. And Home Pod could be a sleeper hit.

So what did we learn today?

It’s not about hardware. Software is key. Yes, they introduced the Home Pod, but if you’re looking for a device to send Apple into the stratosphere it’s probably not gonna come, it’s all about convincing people to join the cult and then giving them so many features they will not switch.

Now what are those features?

Well, the ability to not be tracked online in Safari. You know all those ads that creep you out, you clicked once and you’re haunted for eons? The new browser in the new operating system, High Sierra, eliminates that. Apple is all about privacy, whereas Google is all about the opposite. Do people care? Some do, but I’m not sure it’s enough to make a huge difference. Still, it’s fascinating to watch this all play out. Google is about prediction, do we want to sacrifice our privacy to make our lives easier? Unfortunately, I think so. Then again, Google is the land of failed products. Like Glass, like Home. My main problem with Home…IT CAN’T HEAR ME! Echo has no problem. And the speaker in Home is lousy. If you’re late to the party, you’ve got to be better, and that’s what Home Pod promises, but it’s really late.

So you get a free OS upgrade on all your devices. And this is important. Because less than 10% of users are employing the latest version of Android and over 80% are using the latest version of iOS. Which means… Developers are happier on iOS, that’s where the breakthroughs occur. And since the user base is balkanized with not only operating systems but devices, Android is hampered. But it’s cheap. But it looks like Apple’s strategy of going upmarket and maintaining margins and profits is working. Because it’s not so much like buying a BMW but a Buick. Pay just a bit more and you get no headache. Apple is the Hotel California, you can enter but you can never leave, even if you think you want to, almost no one does.

So, there are new operating systems. Which provide tweaks that most people will never use. We’ve got feature creep, and although many users have now grown up with computers, most are still not power users. They use just a few apps. But that’s ok. If there’s a breakthrough product, it can march to the pinnacle immediately. And that appears to be AR, not VR. In the VR demo the woman with the headset stumbled. Anybody who’s used VR has experienced this. Whereas AR gives you no headache and is super-cool. You’ve got to see the demo… It’s from Wingnut AR and it starts at about 90 minutes into the presentation, fast-forward to it.

And then there were the Mac upgrades. Somehow, Apple finally got religion! After being criticized for years for not upgrading anything but the iPhone, suddenly Apple upgraded EVERYTHING! Kinda pisses me off I missed out on Kaby Lake, having just bought the new MacBook Pro in November, then again, we’ve yet to have capabilities so eye-catching that you need to upgrade immediately. That’s a nineties paradigm. My laptop is just fine. And that was an element of this presentation that was palpable, it was not the first, we’ve seen the trick before, they’ve been doing this for two decades already. Computers are long in the tooth, but we still depend upon them. Politics rules the day, income inequality, hatred of others… Music and tech have forfeited their leadership role. But music and tech are now integrated, you make your tunes on computers and participate on social media, and tech is integrated into our society, there’s no going back.

And there were new iMacs and even an iMac Pro, which we have to wait for until December, WHY?

And Cook was more at ease and barely participated. There were multiple women, but no people of color. Craig Federighi is a natural, and it’s fascinating that everybody involved is an oldster. We keep being told that it’s a youth culture, but except in music, experience counts.

And they didn’t trot out Jony Ive or Jimmy Iovine. We got none of those futuristic phoney-baloney product movies with a voice-over from Oz, and none of that street urchin b.s. about music. But music was featured, primarily with the Home Pod.

Lousy name. Me-too product.

But better than all the rest.

First and foremost, Apple has 27 million Music subscribers. I still think the interface sucks, I don’t know how many are on a free trial, but that shows the power of the Apple brand. If the company were smart, and it’s not, it would convert to Spotify’s freemium model, because that has been shown to work, conversion is high. But still, if the Home Pod works…

Apple Music has got lousy sharing. And who’s gonna send a link to a walled garden? But most people still don’t have home music systems and…

In the nineties, your stereo was a boombox.

In the twenty first century, your stereo was an under $100 two or three-piece system attached to your computer.

All the people bitching about sound quality would love a higher level of reproduction, but Apple’s $349 Home Pod has multiple tweeters and a big woofer and it has Siri integration and it adapts to your room and you can have two for stereo and…

I’m not sure how Sonos is gonna compete. It’s the voice integration I’m worried about, not sound, not the ability to have different music in different rooms, Sonos is a genius product, but today it’s all about ease of use, and that means voice control.

Which is owned by Amazon. And to tell you the truth, the Echo doesn’t sound that bad. But I’m sure the Home Pod will sound better. And $349 is expensive, but not that expensive when you compare it with Sonos product, it’s affordable, then again, Apple failed with its music system when Steve Jobs was still alive. And Apple failed with social networks TWICE! But it’s not like Google, which hired Lyor Cohen and just pissed everybody off. Does anybody subscribe to YouTube Red? YouTube is a bad way to listen to music, listenership on clips is already exceeded on Spotify. But…

Apple hasn’t always been first. It wasn’t the first MP3 jukebox and it wasn’t the first portable music player. But its iterations were so much better than the competition that they won. Can Apple win again?

The iTunes/iPod juggernaut was helped by copy protection, it was a walled garden. But now you can get what Apple is selling elsewhere, from Amazon, from Sonos, from Google. But if Apple’s product is just a bit better, and it appears to be…

Then again, we’ve got to wait until December for Home Pod. When Amazon is already on second generation product. And Amazon has shopping, which Apple does not. And you’re gonna shop with your Echo, if you’re not already. And Amazon is an open system, you can use Spotify, and there was no announcement of Spotify inclusion with Home Pod. But there will be a new Amazon app on Apple TV.

But Apple TV is moribund. As is the Watch, which is losing mainstream developers.

But the Mac… It’s the gold standard. And now it’s up-to-date and cheaper. And the iPhone… It too is the gold standard. So, if they can win with Home Pod.

Apple plays in very few arenas. Is this going to be to their detriment?

Or will they play so well in their own verticals that they’re gonna keep adding to their cult and triumph?

Today it looked like the latter.

P.S. And they gave up on the phoney-baloney closing musical segment. They were not playing to popular culture, they were playing to geeks. And the truth is, we now live in geekdom, it’s the nerds’ world and we just follow their lead.