I remember when it was a badge of honor to be a lawyer. Before all the attorneys lied during Watergate and the profession was revealed to be ethically challenged.

Now I never mention I’m an attorney. Because the people on the other side of the desk will laugh. If I amp it up and say I’m gonna take action, they say to go ahead and sue, which calls my bluff, because any attorney knows it’s a long hard process to achieve minimal goals.

I just read a story in the “New York Times” about nut allergy people being kicked off airplanes.

These weren’t coal miner’s daughters from West Virginia, not heartland denizens going to visit grandma, but the sons of a doctor flying off to Turks and Caicos. They said they just mentioned there was a nut allergy and they were kicked off the plane and if you believe that you probably believe George Soros and the Koch Brothers eat at McDonald’s.

I’m not saying nut allergies aren’t real. But I am sure these people felt entitled to special treatment and that just doesn’t happen in America anymore.

Why can’t the elites see that their act is offensive? That the disadvantaged and left behind can’t wait to shove it up their rear ends?

That’s why they voted for Donald Trump. And I’m not endorsing Donald’s actions, but I just can’t get over how the educated left acts so superior and believes it is entitled to rule because it worked hard in school to get good jobs.

Kinda like the people who pre-board on Southwest Airlines. I pay extra for early boarding but the better part of twenty people get on before me. What makes them so special? Why does everybody in America feel entitled to win?

Then there’s the issue of “facts,” the laughing at Kellyanne Conway by the holier-than-thou. But these are the same people who will not believe Spotify pays out 69% of its revenues to rights holders. They’re really no different from the Trump voters. Their cheese has been moved and they want to jet everybody back to the past.

Everybody’s trying to hold on to what once was, only some people have more power than others.

The elites rigged the game in their favor, and if you don’t believe this, you can’t see that money and power yield advantages and the left wing lawmakers did not stand up for unions.

So this is the country we now live in. Where the rich hold sway over the poor and feel entitled to do so, they have contempt for everybody not like them, who wasn’t born with a silver spoon in their mouth and didn’t work hard to get into a good school and slave seventy hours a week to get ahead.

And the left behinds believe the canard that manufacturing will come back to the States and the problem is all immigrants.

And the winners don’t reach down and lift these people up, but laugh at them.

And the truth is there are more losers than winners and that’s how Donald Trump got elected.

So the next time you ward your privilege over us, beware of the backlash.

And the next time you laugh at alternative facts ask yourself what you refuse to believe, because it doesn’t fit in with your world view.

This is not the twentieth century. Technology has fostered income inequality and the spread of alternative, often false views, and everybody in power thinks it’s the same as it ever was, and they’re entitled to rule.

Not so.

“Travelers With Nut Allergies Clash With Airlines”

Why does everybody have to be a business.

Man.

I get that artists have been ripped off from time immemorial, but the acquisition and promotion of Tidal have proven that when it comes to understanding technology, artists are clueless.

But they are greedy.

That’s what this is all about, money. Forget the wannabes, forget the middle class, if you think the winners care about them you probably think the Koch Brothers care about the little guy. The truth is when you make it in music, you’re exposed to a whole class of people much richer than you are, with lifestyles you can only envy, so you want some of what they’ve got.

Like your own private plane.

Like a vacation on a private island.

Like access. You see, these artists want a seat at the table. Worst case offender? Bono. He loves to hobnob with the government elite, believing he can make a difference. Maybe if he writes a hit song about how the upper class is ripping off his audience he can have an impact, but he won’t do that because the dirty little secret is no one wants to offend those in power, those who can give them some of what they want. Hell, that’s how Trump won, he channeled the anger of the proletariat, people who were pissed that everybody paying them lip-service ultimately didn’t do a thing for them.

Oh, don’t get your knickers in a twist, whether you support Trump or not, I don’t want to hear it and the truth is no one is listening to each other anyway. The left wing says no one went to the inauguration the Trumpers say just as many did as for Obama and the facts have become irrelevant. It doesn’t even matter, you believe what you want to believe. The truth is irrelevant, because everybody’s hunkered down in their bunker, throwing grenades while they’re worried about losing a little bit of what they’ve got.

How did we get here?

Pure, unadulterated greed. The right wing is famous for this, but even the left wing…they make their billions and give a few away. Doesn’t put a dent in the fabric of our society, because the game is broken!

Used to be artists spoke truth, especially to power. Assuming you grew up before nitwits like Mariah Carey took over the airwaves and made it about pipes and dancing and all the stuff that’s entertainment without substance.

But that was back when there were no American billionaires. When a musician could be as rich as anybody. But now all those blowhard billionaires, they didn’t inherit the money, they made it, and they want to lord it over us, believe you me, they’ve got no idea how the underclass lives. But if you’ve got cash in America, you’re entitled to an opinion, how can that be?

So no one with a brain is gonna become a musician. No one with a good education, who can hold two conflicting thoughts in their brain at the same time. So we end up with these wankers who sell out to corporations and are envious of those with more.

So Jay Z thinks he can win at streaming.

First and foremost, he doesn’t know the first rule of the internet, which is one company ends up with seventy percent of the market. There’s no room for Tidal, Spotify’s already gobbled up the market share. And if Jay Z read a book, which no musician seems to be able to do, since they’re so busy networking, he would know that Peter Thiel wrote that you go into a business where no one else is. That’s how you make your money.

Or, Jay Z could have read all the hype from Masayoshi Son, head of SoftBank, when he bought Sprint, saying he was gonna win, which he didn’t. It’s right there in the business page, again and again and again, but if you’re a musician, do you have time to read and keep up with the paper?

So Jay Z found a mark, whoop-de-doo. Did you notice no cash amount was put forth? If it was high, that would have been in the press release, but it’s not.

As for telco/music streaming tie-ups, they’ve been around forever, and none of them have yielded significant results. Hell, Beats planned to triumph that way, but failed miserably before it was sold to Apple.

And no one seems to be in touch with the audience. You go where your friends are, and there’s a first mover advantage, and if you keep improving your product you win.

But then who would expect a musician to know all this? A musician is supposed to make MUSIC!

But they’re even afraid to do that. U2 works with songwriters du jour and the biggest star in the world is Max Martin, and he’s talented, but whatever happened to reaching down deep and writing your own music, making your own statement?

Now I’m gonna be inundated with music from wannabes. The great unwashed who believe they’re entitled to attention will spam anybody who might give them a chance, not knowing that in today’s world only the great triumph and we are immune to hype. Whatever happened to our country? Everybody’s self-promoting as opposed to focusing on their art, and everybody who got a trophy for finishing last in soccer believes they’re entitled to win at their heart’s desire. Huh?

We do need new, we do need winners, but few can succeed. Work at it, it’s a long hard road, but know there’s no easy way there and no one can give you your one big break, it’s a cumulative effort and it takes time and now…

I’m completely off point.

And the point is those who have won, are not focusing on music. Or, if they are, they’re playing it safe. And, most wannabes are imitating them, so music is circling down the drain.

When did we last have a new sound?

Tidal’s a bust, a disaster, it cannot succeed, it’s as dead as BlackBerry.

As for exclusives… No act is gonna give one because then Spotify’s gonna blackball them, not give them the push they want, which everybody wants. You don’t piss off your biggest distributor. And if you do it for the cash, you’re truly dumb, because cash comes and goes, but careers, when done right, last.

So, can we stop focusing on bands as brands?

Can we stop hearing about musicians becoming tech investors?

Can we get music back into the schools, so we can have some building blocks, so someone can be inspired to become a great artist? That’s how Adele made it, Max Martin too. They went to state-sponsored music schools. But in America, we believe the government wastes money and there should be no taxes and the arts are an afterthought.

Give me a break.

If you want to be a businessman, get an MBA.

If you want to be a musician, practice your instrument, write songs.

And know that one great song trumps a corporation any day of the week.

Remember when Jay Z took that cash from Samsung to make a stiff album?

He thought he won.

But he was just a pawn in their game.

Imagine if Jay Z had written an ANTI-SAMSUNG SONG! All hell would have broken loose.

But no, you kiss up to the man, because he might rain down some coin.

Makes me sick.

I just wish there were some talented people with backbones who could say no.

But we haven’t had that spirit here since 1969. When you slaved to get a deal and recording was expensive and if you got it right, you can still tour today.

How many of today’s bands/brands will be touring tomorrow?

Hits, schmits. What’s building your career is honesty, credibility and talent. We need to believe in you.

Get out of the boardroom and into the studio.

Most startups fail, as do most bands.

But most startups are eclipsed. When did you last use your iPod?

But a great record with a great message?

That’s FOREVER!

I couldn’t watch.

People have been sending me notes all day, about Trump’s speech, about the few people in attendance.

I lived through the election of Nixon. The sixties had brought so much positive change, we thought it was impossible to retreat. But the truth is, we didn’t.

We’ve got gay marriage.

For now, you can get an abortion.

And believe it or not, in many states marijuana is legal, amazing that we had a black President before that, but both were unthinkable back then.

But the truth is, socially we live in a very liberal country. Democratic principles win in the end. It’s just that the sixties ended and greed became good and there was a tear in the fabric of our nation far exceeding the gap between hippies and rednecks, it’s between the rich and the poor, and I don’t know how we find our way out of this.

And the funny thing is you can be educated and poor. Elite in thinking but empty of wallet.

But what drove the revolution, what drove change back in the sixties, was art.

Art is our only savior.

And if you noticed, very few artists wanted to show up at the inauguration. And that’s a start. Because a true artist has a backbone, will not do what’s expedient, but knows that character is everything and what you choose not to do is oftentimes just as important as that which you do.

But art has become about money. My inbox is filled with musicians bitching. And I’ll argue all day long that no one should go to bed hungry, or without a roof over their head, but I’ll also say that not everybody is entitled to make a living as an artist, but I will say that living is worthless without art.

Everybody’s looking over their shoulder, at what the other person’s got. And they want theirs. Whereas artists are singular, they march to the beat of their own drummer. And the power of the individual…

Can never be overstated.

I’m not saying all corporations are evil, but most are. People love Apple, but it doesn’t pay taxes, not many anyway. And when confronted with this fact, the Cupertino majordomos just point their fingers at the other guy, and say he’s doing it too. Kinda like the “artists” who make me-too music. We’ve had enough of that.

They rolled up radio and added a ton of commercials yet it’s a dead format for music anyway, kinda like MTV, but once upon a time it had power, they both had power, I believe that young people’s minds were opened by the music television service, they saw people of different colors, different sexual orientations, and they came to the conclusion…that we’re all the same under the skin.

But when things are going badly, you need a scapegoat.

In Germany, it was the Jews.

In America, it’s the capitalists who stole the jobs. Then again, these same finger-pointers venerate the capitalists. And if that doesn’t make your head spin, you know which newspaper to trust, but suddenly it’s every man for himself.

That’s what America has turned into, a nation where it’s every man for himself. Safety nets are for losers and need to be eviscerated and you’d better not take my job, not if you’re an immigrant, not if you’re an environmentalist…

Once upon a time we were all in it together, or at least it felt that way.

Now you wonder if anybody’s on your team, if anybody will be there when you need a helping hand.

And if you think protest and news pieces will bring down Trump…

They would have brought him down already.

But art?

Art can topple him. Not overnight, but in time.

People don’t have time to watch the news, but they go to the movies.

Hip-hop kills on streaming services, the right anti-Trump song could be…

But we’ve been hearing for years that bands are brands. You’re a mini-empire.

No, that’s completely untrue. You’re an artist, that’s it, the rest is trappings.

Artists lent their hand to the Dakota Pipeline protests…

Artists voiced their concerns about transgender rights in North Carolina…

And they made a difference. Hell, at least most people know what “transgender” means now, and that’s a start.

We could be on the eve of destruction. But when one heard Barry McGuire’s voice come out of the transistor, you felt like someone was speaking for you, someone had your back, and for others…they could finally see the truth of the situation.

Believe me, most people were for the Vietnam War before they were against it. It’s fine to change your mind. It’s the mark of an educated person.

So…

The public does not believe in Washington.

Most don’t believe in Fox.

But they do believe in Beyonce and Jay Z and the more stories you read about artists speaking truth to power, the more blowback there is, the more you know they’re doing it right.

Hell, Toby Keith showed up in D.C., but none of the rest of the supposedly right wing Nashville acts did. They don’t want a stain on their image, ain’t that a switch.

So I don’t know exactly where it goes from here, but there’s got to be some way out of this place, said the joker to the thief.

And Bob Dylan was the product of a long history of folk music, of protest music. And if you listen to his old records you’ll see they’re closer to hip-hop than they are to the Beatles, he’s almost talking the words, at a mile a minute. And Ice-T and the rest of the rappers were right about the police and…

We’ve still got a tradition of speaking the truth, it might be buried under a bit of detritus, but…

If we can inspire artists to create something undeniable…

The business people will fall in line.

And then the public will rally.

And when you unite the people behind a message, nothing can stop them, nothing.

We are in charge, we, the people. And we pay fealty to artists. We spread the word online.

We’re just waiting for instruction.

Help us out, speak the truth, illuminate the situation, tell us what to believe and what to do.

Because we’re hungry to know.

And we’re depending upon you.

He famously told a household name band he’d make them more money in two years than they had in the previous twenty.

And then he did.

Most people don’t know who he was. Because unlike those that followed him into the business, Howard was not about fame, he was about protecting the interests of his artists, and money.

And everybody cares about the money. Knock around this business long enough and you’ll hear the famous cliche… “It’s not about the money, it’s about the money.”

And Howard started off as an accountant. He worked with James William Guercio. And then he went on to partner with Irving Azoff and steer the careers of Jimmy Buffett and Stevie Nicks and Aerosmith and Def Leppard and… You want someone in your corner, and that was Howard. He could be funny and he could be stern, but one thing’s for sure, you could not pull the wool over his eyes.

The first time I met him was on a plane down to Chula Vista, to see Jimmy Buffett, and he told me Fleetwood Mac was gonna reform and I asked him about new material and he told me he’d be happy if they never made another record. This was 2003, he already knew where the bucks were buried, on the road. You see old does not mean dumb, does not mean over the hill, oftentimes it means wisdom and foresight and Howard had it.

And now he’s dead.

I won’t say he died before his time, prematurely, that he was cut down in his prime, he was 79, but yesterday he was in the office, manning the phones, working, he had time left on his clock.

Only it turned out he didn’t.

Huh.

This has been a very strange year. Although the press has gone on about the passing of legends, from Bowie to Frey to Prince to George Michael to lesser luminaries like Dan Hicks, even Leonard Cohen, the story has been about the individuals and their work.

But really, it’s about the passing of an era.

This music business didn’t sprout in its present incarnation overnight. There were a lot of twists and turns, it was invented along the way. Bill Graham may have institutionalized rock concerts, but it was Led Zeppelin’s manager Peter Grant who flipped the script, who had Jimmy and the boys getting ninety percent of the money, because after all, everybody knew the show was gonna sell out.

And in the twenty first century, Jimmy Buffett was getting over a hundred percent of the gross. How can that be, you ask. Because even if you give him all the ticket revenue you’re gonna make bank on parking and merch and food and beverage. Hell, if you’re a guaranteed sell out there’s enough money for everybody.

And there was plenty of money in the seventies. There were no billionaires. Rock stars were as rich as anybody in America. The only difference was, they were beholden to nobody. If they acted out, the manager just peeled off enough hundreds to make it right. It was the wild west, no wonder the Eagles made a concept album entitled “Desperado.”

And we’ve had a couple of revolutions in this century. We had Napster and the changing of distribution to all you can eat streaming. And, of course, the internet has also fostered the social media revolution, and tech has made it so the cost of production has sunk.

But the era of the one of a kind musician, riding through town defining the game as he played it? That’s through. Most of the business has become institutionalized.

So, it’s not as simple as David Bowie’s body of work, it’s also about hearing of an act that’s not on the radio and buying the album and becoming infatuated and going to see the act at a club or a theatre where they blow you away and you tell everybody you know and you drag them to the next show and eventually they get a song on the radio and everybody knows and you tell them you were there first but all the time you’re foraging for new acts.

And the acts neither sounded the same nor used the same producers. And their skills were paramount, how they looked was secondary. If you couldn’t sing, write and play, you couldn’t make it.

And if you didn’t have the right team, your career was a nonstarter.

You ended up with Howard. After you’d been ripped off by others, because Howard knew the landscape, he knew where every dollar was buried. In a world where concert promoters show you books that say they lost money, how do you figure out the real numbers? The kickback from the hall, the advertising shenanigans…only through experience.

There was a plethora of people who learned this way. There were no school programs, there were no books, because it was being invented along the way.

And now they’re passing too.

You can read about some thirty year old wanker getting a promotion at the label but that person… It’s like working on the assembly line making cars in Mexico. You’re filling a role, but it’s very different and with a lot less excitement than it was working at Ford a hundred years ago, never mind being Ford.

But the baby boomers remember. Right time, right place. The Beatles were on TV and it all blew up. But that was more than fifty years ago. Some of the music survives, but most of the story does not. How we got from there to here. From terrible sound systems with no production to great sound systems with hi-def projection. From tickets sold for $3 at record stores to clicking to buy on your mobile phone from StubHub for over a hundred.

I’ll let others who knew Howard better tell his story. But I was always intrigued by both his intensity and his laughter, and his dedication to the job.

Because it’s about the work.

Whether you’re slinging burgers at McDonald’s or pushing paper at Goldman Sachs, you spend a lot of time there and you’ve got to enjoy it. And, if you dislike where you are, you have to find a way to something better. To the point where the day before you die, despite having enough cash for your whole neighborhood to retire, you go to work, because you love it.

Howard Kaufman loved his job.

And those he represented loved him.

And in a world where we’re all ultimately forgotten, that’s all you can ask for.