He knows there’s no rulebook.

Whilst wannabes record albums and record labels sell CDs and the newspapers print the inane “Billboard” chart, Drake decided to innovate.

Ain’t that a concept, ain’t that what an artist is supposed to do.

But don’t think you can extrapolate a trend from his behavior, don’t think you can follow in his footsteps, for Drake is a party of one atop the pop/urban heap and he’s the beneficiary of attention, people are interested in what he does, they’ll spend time checking it out, and they’ve got almost no time for anything else.

The dirty little secret of streaming services is most people don’t even finish a song, they skip around. They’re looking for that hit of dopamine that satiates, and if they don’t find it immediately, they’ll move on. They’re especially interested in the work of stars, and this has less to do with the stars and their work than the society we now live in. Stars are rallying points in a Tower of Babel society. No one has seen the same niche movie as you or listened to the same niche song, but if you listen to the work of a star you can participate in the discussion, you can belong, and the truth is although the internet has provided endless verticals, we want to be in the big horizontal, we want to be a member of the club.

Drake got there by knowing what the classic and MTV acts did not. That dedicated fans want more. If you’re making an album and dribbling out tracks over years you’re missing the point. You speak to your core and your core testifies and your core wants more.

So Drake gives it to them, with an endless slew of product.

And if something doesn’t work, YOU JUST MAKE MORE!

This is contrary to the old ethos, where you spend hundreds of thousands of bucks to perfect a product for a museum. Drake knows that today’s music is evanescent, and the most important thing is to stay in the game, which he does.

And he doesn’t care that the global release date is Friday, he doesn’t care about physical formats, he knows it’s all about on demand access now. People expect to click and hear when the hype begins and then they move on and sometimes don’t come back. You don’t want a long buildup promoting a single product, that’s the movie business, you want an endless slew of music some of which makes it and some of which doesn’t. Remember when Bieber was releasing singles every few weeks that got no traction? That didn’t prevent him from coming back and triumphing with hit tracks later.

That’s what artists do, EXPERIMENT!

They take chances, risks. If you want everything to succeed, you’re not gonna be in the game.

So Drake has an instant success evidencing culture. It’s not only about him, but the scene he’s into. We’ve never experienced that before. But that’s what streaming services and instant distribution allow. Artists use the new tools to bend not only the rules, but our minds. What did McLuhan say, “The medium is the message?”

You can cut a track one day and have it released the next.

And you can make it about more than you, you can make it about your scene, your buddies.

One thing’s for sure, we know the old paradigm is history.

Music comes without advance notice and it sinks or it swims.

Drake knows this, how come the gatekeepers don’t?

Rag’n’Bone Man’s “Human” was a hit last year in most of the world, but U.S. radio is only going on it now. We need records to move faster, we have to hook the public on the great new stuff and then move it out and make room for new stuff. We’ve got to make music and the scene exciting again. We’ve got to forget the codification, the aged concepts the boomer-controlled business runs by, and build a whole new world.

Drake is in the construction business.

Kudos to him.

He was the father of rock and roll.

Oh, don’t talk to me about Bill Haley. Boomers were barely conscious at the time “Rock Around The Clock” was a hit, if they were alive at all. And Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis were vastly influential, especially in the U.K., but the progenitor who pushed it over the top, made rock a staple, was Chuck Berry.

Not that we had any idea who that was either.

But we knew the songs.

“Tutti Frutti” was already in the rearview mirror.

But not only did the Beatles cover “Rock And Roll Music” and “Roll Over Beethoven”…

But the Beach Boys ripped Chuck off for their gargantuan hit “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” which was really “Sweet Little Sixteen.”

Chuck’s got a bad reputation. As being an ungrateful SOB who demanded cash upfront and played with unrehearsed pickup bands. Keith Richards tried to give him a victory lap with that movie, but thereafter the Glimmer Twin testified as to Chuck’s bad behavior and I’m not sure if Berry’s reputation ever recovered. You usually only get one shot at a second chance.

But you’ve got to cut the guy a break, he was there at the beginning!

He was punk before punk. As in he did it his own way with the basics, with no trappings. Every band in a garage owes a debt to Chuck Berry.

And for years the road was a cash business. Even at this late date if you haven’t been ripped off by a promoter, you’re not in the business.

And until Peter Grant flipped the script, the act got the short end of the stick, the promoter made all the money.

And it wasn’t until the seventies that sound systems were any good, people basically cheered over the music, did it make any difference whether the band was tight, it was more about the experience, being there, in the presence of a renegade. That’s right, once upon a time rock and roll was dangerous.

But that time is long gone.

Don’t hate Chuck Berry. The truth is most performers are mercurial jerks. Do you know how hard it is to make it? DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO WRITE A HIT SONG?

When everybody else was using the usual suspects, Chuck composed his own hits. That’s the mark of a genius, when you can channel greatness out of thin air.

So by time the British Invasion happened, Chuck was mostly done, he only ended up having one more hit, the novelty “My Ding-A-Ling.” But at least that’s more hits than today’s classic rock acts manage to eke out.

And talk about influence…

ELO’s cover of “Roll Over Beethoven” jump-started their career.

And Brian Wilson testifies about the Four Freshmen, the vocal groups, but the band from Hawthorne, California was not a cappella, it needed a soundtrack, and not only were they influenced by Chuck Berry, as I stated above, they ripped him off.

So this is not the twenty first century. Wherein acts have hits and then fade into obscurity along with their music.

And it’s certainly not the twenty first century where everything is niche. Berry’s hits were not only huge, they’ve sustained! Even little kids want to know if Maybellene will be true. And “Johnny B. Goode” is a bar band staple.

We know all his songs by heart. Even though most of us were not around when they dominated the hit parade.

And he was a black man in a white man’s world. And he refused to accept second-class status. Chuck Berry was a beacon, an artist, who felt if he walked into the wilderness following his own muse the people would come with him.

And they did.

So at this point they die and we shrug. After all, Mr. Berry was ninety and no one lives forever.

But the truth is an era is disappearing in front of our very eyes. One in which experimentation was in music, not tech. One in which people were enthralled by the radio, not their mobile handset. One in which there was television, but if you really wanted to know what was going on you listened to the radio.

And the fuel was rock and roll.

And it was a big tent. Didn’t matter how you looked, attitude was key, and Berry had that in spades. Along with talent and inspiration, what a concept.

It was simpler back then. The lightning bolt hit and you tried to capture it in a bottle, get it down on wax, distribute it all over the country, will it into a hit. It was less a battle plan than a skirmish, we were developing it as we went along.

To the point where the highest goal in America is to be a rock star.

People label bankers and techies and athletes, winners in all walks of life, rock stars. It means not only are you rich and successful, but that you’re doing it your own way, beholden to no one, forging your own path.

Chuck Berry was there first.

CHALLENGE

Getting attention.

REWARD

Barrier to entry nonexistent.

CHALLENGE

Getting publicity.

REWARD

Publicity is nearly irrelevant and the means of spreading the word are at your fingertips.

CHALLENGE

Making money.

REWARD

Successful artists are making more money in adjusted dollars than they ever were, just not as much as bankers or techies. Furthermore, there are many avenues of revenue. Endorsements, merch, privates…and live pays better than ever before.

CHALLENGE

Only Top Forty counts/can make you go nuclear.

REWARD

We’re disruption ready. Radio will embrace the left field, the public wants it, if you can do something different well, you can break through. But you must be persistent.

CHALLENGE

Takes forever for a track to move up the chart.

REWARD

You can continue to release new music for no cost on YouTube and nearly no cost on streaming services to satiate your fans and bond them to you.

CHALLENGE

You’re competing against the history of music/greatest music of all time.

REWARD

Separates the men from they boys (and the women from the girls!) If you’re not good enough, drop out. And ignore those not good enough. Today you have to have a great voice and great tunes. The bar is ever higher, but if you can reach it…

CHALLENGE

Fake news.

REWARD

Art is about truth, ignore the hype. Don’t feel bad when someone else gets a review in the “Times” and you don’t, it doesn’t matter!

CHALLENGE

You can’t get booked.

REWARD

Festivals need undercards. Believe me, Bowie, Blondie and a whole host of acts could have broken out of festivals. Not only does your performance/music have to be good, you have to have a show, you must assault the audience, wow people.

CHALLENGE

You can’t get paid.

REWARD

Unless you make Top Forty music you don’t need a label and streaming services pay regularly and fairly. You can make 70 cents on the dollar if you own your rights. Ignore the old farts with their disinformation campaigns decrying progress. They just want to suck at the tit of the old record company CD paradigm which is not coming back.

CHALLENGE

Record labels rip you off.

REWARD

Not for long, new systems employed by millennials are coming online. They believe in transparency. A boomer cries peace and love and stabs you in the back a millennial will pay you your cash as long as they make some.

CHALLENGE

Getting on Letterman.

REWARD

Late night is meaningless. But YouTube is your tool, and it’s FREE! It’s better than MTV.

CHALLENGE

Being heard.

REWARD

Go back to the basics, the Beatles could sing, write songs with changes and looked good to boot. Adele sells ten times what everybody else does, because she focuses on songs and melody and she can sing!

CHALLENGE

Me-too business.

REWARD

Don’t work with the usual suspects, do it your own way, the means of production are at your fingertips, experiment, failure is forgotten, keep striving for the stars, see what resonates.

Is freaking out.

Oh to be young again, when eyesight was good and hearing was up to par and…

I didn’t need moisturizer and didn’t have to refrain from long showers and…

Used to be the dry air did not bother me, certainly not on the east coast. Then again, winter is the time of colds and being cold, but with the temperature drop comes hot chocolate and skiing and internal reflection and…

Now I live in Southern California where it rarely rains and never gets cold and dampness is out of the question, never mind bugs. That’s how you know you’re dealing with a real Southern Californian, when they start to complain about bugs. Come to Cape Cod in the spring, when the screen door is covered with mosquitoes, go to Maine, the home of beautiful landscapes and no-see-ums that can sneak through the holes in your bug netting. Yup, when I was in high school I went on a canoe trip down the Allagash, we walked around in our bug hats and with our good eyesight, not needing reading glasses, we could see the no-see-ums breaking in ready to get us. And what bug spray really works. Remember that old 6-12, what crap that was, Off! was a breakthrough, but it barely worked any better. In Maine we got these tiny bottles of citronella, the insects were scared of the smell, they stayed away, and so did humans.

And you know how you itch with a bug bite? My whole body feels that way now. Forget the internet, all that digital disruption, what I want is a machine that scratches my body 24/7, gently but firmly, to relieve me of this terrible condition.

It comes every fall. Sometime around October. And I’ve been to the skin doctor…

Did anybody ever tell you that dermatology is more art than science? Go to an orthopedist and they’ll set your leg, it’ll heal and you’ll be as good as new. Go to a dermatologist and they’ll prescribe a zillion ointments that don’t work even though they say they do and they’ll keep giving you more until you give up and stop going.

At least that’s what happened to me.

I’ve got this condition on my nose. It’s scaling. I look like a junior W.C. Fields. So I went to the big time skin doctor and he gave me medications…

And they didn’t work.

But boy did he service me. Told me to call. We bonded over celebrities we knew. We discussed politics. But my skin condition did not go away.

And then it spread to my head. Google me, I don’t have any hair up there. But I do now have red splotches. And that requires a different juice, but if I put it on before I go to bed doesn’t it get all over the pillow, and normally I sleep on my stomach but I still haven’t fully recovered from my shoulder surgery but I can now roll on my side and if the pillow is infected with the head stuff will I lick it and die? Did I tell you I have OCD? You know now!

And then I went to Colorado. And I was fine in Aspen, but then I got to Vail and…

My skin went nuclear.

Was it the dryness or the long underwear or…

I stopped using the Under Armour 3.0, which you need when it gets close to zero. I’m lathering my body with AmLactin, but I live for that moment in the shower, when I can turn the water blistering hot and have it shoot onto my skin and relieve me. Truly. As hot as it will go. That’s how you know you’ve got it bad, when you get relief from scalding H20. But showers are the worst thing for your skin, they deplete the natural oils. The dermatologist said to try and skip them. But after skiing? What about at physical therapy? There’s nothing worse than a body that smells. You can rarely smell yourself, but others can. And it horrifies them. Hell, I’ve searched for years for the right deodorant. But now my skin is so bad that the deodorant is giving me the itchies, I researched online and ultimately purchased Clinique and it’s better, but it’s still a problem. Can I tell you that on the weekends when I’m not going out in public I don’t use it? There, I did.

But go to a meeting or a doctor’s appointment or a movie without taking a shower right before? Never gonna happen. Those people who wash their hair every once in a while, those who never wash their jeans… Boy are you self-confident. I wash what hair I have every day, as for my jeans, life is tough enough already, interpersonal relationships are challenging, I’m not gonna risk smelling bad. Shirts get one day and one day only. When I read online about these women who reject men because they stink…

Kinda like the men who ghost you. I guess women do that too. But it’s usually men who behave badly, but not me, assuming I make the entreaty to begin with, assuming I can handle the rejection of you saying no.

So then it spread to my chest. And my legs. And I go back to the skin doctor and he mumbles some mumbo-jumbo, some technical term, and is barely concerned. Keeps telling me to call. Ups the strength of the ointment, but doesn’t understand my desperation, my pain.

So I give up.

I go to Ireland, it’s damp and my condition improves.

I go to Vail and I wear my decades old Patagonia underwear, too heavy for the conditions but my skin doesn’t get worse.

But then I make a mistake. After swimming in the Patagonia in Sun Valley, I switch back to the Hot Chillys and…

Come on, just one day?

Now my whole body’s got the heebie-jeebies.

And I don’t understand how you cope if you’re not in a relationship, who’s gonna treat your back, you can’t reach it! And the truth is in our independent society you need a partner, otherwise it’s just too rough. All those single people boasting about their lifestyle, they’re kind of like the childless, talking about being footloose and fancy-free. But who’s gonna visit you in the old age home, take care of you? Not your distant relatives, although there are saints, you need a close blood relation to put up with your crap, as you crankily lose it but hang on before leaving this mortal coil.

You think you want to live forever…

Believe me, you don’t. Who’re you gonna talk to? Who knows Howdy Doody, never mind Moochie and Ernie Kovacs. Hell, they changed the mascot at my high school, you think things are forever and then you go back home and find out they tore your house down. This ain’t Europe, nothing’s forever in America, certainly not in Los Angeles.

And I’m not a girl. I don’t spend time primping. Maybe I should, but I see it as a waste of time. Along with shopping and watching most TV. Especially now, there’s so much I want to do and see, it’s overwhelming, who can be bored, who can burn time? But now I have to, to slather on ointments all over my body, otherwise I can’t sleep.

And I’m scaling inside my ears and behind them and I’m just waiting for spring to come. To relieve me of this condition. My body looks like a battle zone, a war map, with marks from previous campaigns.

They’re busting my balls in Sun Valley, for not going into the hot tub. But if I go into a hot tub I’ll be itching for weeks, truly! I’ve experimented. You don’t want to believe your life is limited.

And what exactly is the biology here. How come it’s worse when you get older.

And am I the only person suffering? That can’t be.

But I’m sitting in the car, listening to Gary Dell’Abate do comedy on AXS TV and Howard’s poking fun at him and I can’t turn it off because I’m too busy scratching the itch, all over my lower legs.

And it’s all about the human condition. They tell you it’s about accumulating wealth but the truth is it’s all about your health. You learn this as you age. All the people no longer here, who used to call me on the phone, not only my dad but Chip Hooper, and those who couldn’t take it and ended their lives prematurely like my old friend Robert, life is about loss and it’s damn hard to cope with but the truth is life ain’t worth living if you’re not healthy.

But you’re young and you’re smoking and drinking and drugging like you’re immune.

You’re not. And one day you’ll end up an old fart just like me, minding your own business and then enduring afflictions you didn’t see on the horizon, that make your life miserable, and you’ll cope for a while and then take action and then become resigned…

This is how it’s gonna be from now on.

(Sorry, I had to take a break to scratch my clavicle…)

You’re going to soldier on in silent desperation as your body withers and…

Are you with me?

I think so. We all fight our silent demons. This is mine.