{"id":1327,"date":"2008-08-16T08:47:57","date_gmt":"2008-08-16T16:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2008\/08\/16\/potpourri\/"},"modified":"2008-08-17T14:03:05","modified_gmt":"2008-08-17T22:03:05","slug":"potpourri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2008\/08\/16\/potpourri\/","title":{"rendered":"Potpourri"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHOLE PAYCHECK<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had lunch at Whole Foods yesterday.<\/p>\n

Don’t know if you’ve been following the story on this market.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s in trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 One of its main suppliers of meat was sold, switched processors and the chain’s customers became very ill.\u00c2\u00a0 Bad press if you’re perching yourself at the top of the market, as the healthy choice.\u00c2\u00a0 And speaking of the top of the market…\u00c2\u00a0 It’s hard to sustain your business when the economy is tanking.<\/p>\n

If this were the music business, Whole Foods would start insulting its customers.\u00c2\u00a0 So, you got some bad music, boo-hoo.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a big bad world out there.\u00c2\u00a0 As for prices, you must buy music, it’s in the Constitution, so don’t complain.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m entitled to my private jet lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Although none of this is true.\u00c2\u00a0 You earn your customers every day.<\/p>\n

Which is why there was endless sampling in my Whole Foods yesterday.\u00c2\u00a0 Grilled salad, salmon, dips, water, carne asada…\u00c2\u00a0 I’d say they hired new people to man these stands, but I noticed only one guy behind the fish counter, only two behind the prepared foods case.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s as if the marketing guys suddenly went to visit the retail store and started explaining the merits of their records.\u00c2\u00a0 Whole Foods knows it’s in trouble, it’s taking action.\u00c2\u00a0 Will it succeed?\u00c2\u00a0 We’ll see.<\/p>\n

But throughout the entire Napster crisis to this present day, the record business has reacted like it’s entitled.\u00c2\u00a0 And the consumer knows it, and is fed up.\u00c2\u00a0 The consumer knows record royalty rates are abysmal, that executives live a lifestyle only they can dream of…\u00c2\u00a0 They’re struggling to put gas in their cars, and Lyor Cohen is building a mansion in the Hamptons (this has been all over the Web this week).\u00c2\u00a0 The battle for the industry’s customers’ hearts and minds has been lost.\u00c2\u00a0 Forever.\u00c2\u00a0 Only new, trustworthy entities will be able to regain it.<\/p>\n

I’d say if the majors wanted to survive, and they won’t, not as a dominant force, they need to force out all the so-called experts and hire young-uns.\u00c2\u00a0 But that probably wouldn’t work either.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s like trying to make a good Chrysler.\u00c2\u00a0 The 300 couldn’t even save that company.<\/p>\n

HARMONY<\/strong><\/p>\n

I became a fan of the Dirt Band when I heard "Tennessee Stud" on "Will The Circle Be Unbroken".\u00c2\u00a0 I continued to buy their albums.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially since I found them in the promo bin at my local record store.<\/p>\n

I won’t tell you you need to buy "Make A Little Magic", but I will tell you there’s a sweet song buried in side two, "Harmony".\u00c2\u00a0 Which was unavailable legally until very recently.<\/p>\n

I surfed P2P sites for the better part of a decade.\u00c2\u00a0 Constantly looking for it.\u00c2\u00a0 Two days ago I found it.\u00c2\u00a0 As a result of new Web techniques, I’ve now found all my digital rarities.\u00c2\u00a0 Stuff like Lenny LeBlanc’s "Breakthrough", recorded for Muscle Shoals Sound\/Capitol, and Leo Sayer’s "Living In A Fantasy".\u00c2\u00a0 Each contained tracks I couldn’t live without, that I heard too rarely on vinyl.\u00c2\u00a0 But now I’ve got them.\u00c2\u00a0 Now I’ve got everything I was ever looking for.<\/p>\n

Now what?<\/p>\n

Used to be I lived at the record store.\u00c2\u00a0 Coursing through the bins, looking for a hit, looking to uncover a gem.\u00c2\u00a0 Now that everything I want to hear is available for free online, it’s just not the same experience.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t save up my pennies for one record, which I play incessantly, I download music by the gross, and don’t go much deeper than the single, the track I love.<\/p>\n

Oldsters lament the loss of the way it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the wrong way to look at it.\u00c2\u00a0 Files have won.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t know this, you’re probably Doug Morris, lost in the last century.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio, if not dead, is as irrelevant as the network news, a sideshow for those too poor, too uninformed to tune in cable or surf the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 MTV is "The Hills", need I say more?\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t live in a monoculture, but a realm of niches.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s hard for both executives and acts to accept this.\u00c2\u00a0 That playing music isn’t an instant road to riches.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s even more confusing for the consumer, who doesn’t know what to listen to.\u00c2\u00a0 Except for the young ‘uns, who only want the evanescent hits or the classics.<\/p>\n

What if I told you there was no major league?\u00c2\u00a0 That you’re sentenced to a life in the minors?\u00c2\u00a0 That, at best, you can be Nuke La Loosh.\u00c2\u00a0 Would you still want to play music then?\u00c2\u00a0 Would you still want to be in the business?\u00c2\u00a0 You’d better be, because that’s the world we’re living in.<\/p>\n

There are vast opportunities in concierge services, however inexpensive to the consumer they might be.\u00c2\u00a0 The new king will tell the listener what to hear.\u00c2\u00a0 And the listener will be thrilled.\u00c2\u00a0 This new entity won’t be the rip-off label or some lame Pandora\/Last FM service.\u00c2\u00a0 It will be run by humans and trustworthy.<\/p>\n

The old business is dead and gone.\u00c2\u00a0 A new one will replace it.\u00c2\u00a0 And no one has any idea what the new business will look like exactly.\u00c2\u00a0 All we know is it won’t be Universal or Live Nation, but an entity run by someone young that in hindsight will appear simple and brilliant.<\/p>\n

Long ago the brothers fought
But still the tears are shed
So here we stand no wiser than before<\/em><\/p>\n

You’d think music is politics, a two party system.\u00c2\u00a0 With the record companies competing against the consumers.\u00c2\u00a0 With Live Nation a third party force.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of coherence, the last decade has only generated dissonance, and anger.<\/p>\n

Whether I’m right or I’m wrong
Too weak or strong
Sure seems plain to me
Too young or old
Too shy or bold
We all need help
Just to move the stone<\/em><\/p>\n

We’re going to get out of this together.\u00c2\u00a0 Read David Carr’s article from last Monday’s "New York Times".\u00c2\u00a0 NBC can’t fight YouTube, it must respect the audience, which now gathers the news itself.<\/p>\n

\n

"All of Us, the Arbiters of News"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

How long (sha-la-la-la-la-la-la)
Sing it sweet need the harmony
Brother it’s taken too long
(Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la)
What makes it shine is the harmony<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s what we had way back when, the harmony.\u00c2\u00a0 We went to the gig to feel like we belonged.\u00c2\u00a0 If we want to belong today, we go to Facebook.\u00c2\u00a0 The gig is a place to be ripped-off, an adversarial world you go to only if you truly, deeply, madly want to see the act.\u00c2\u00a0 Which puts on a show, not a concert.<\/p>\n

The jam bands have it right.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about the scene.\u00c2\u00a0 Prices must be reasonable.\u00c2\u00a0 People must feel like they belong.\u00c2\u00a0 What makes it shine is the harmony.<\/p>\n

LIKE SUICIDE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now we’ve come to the part of the program where the masses e-mail to insult me, tell me what a buffoon I am.\u00c2\u00a0 For being out of the loop.<\/p>\n

We’re all out of the loop.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve all got expertise that’s deep and matches with that of almost none of our compatriots here on this mortal coil.<\/p>\n

I was sitting at a light pushing XM buttons and I came across a number on Lucy that sounded so good.\u00c2\u00a0 It was entitled "Like Suicide", by Soundgarden.\u00c2\u00a0 From "Superunknown", released in 1994.<\/p>\n

My excuse?<\/p>\n

I gave up on Soundgarden long before.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t dislike them, just had enough of them after "Louder Than Love".\u00c2\u00a0 "Badmotorfinger" left me cold.\u00c2\u00a0 As for "Superunknown"…that’s when left field band sells out and goes commercial and I laugh, because I’m no longer interested.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t ever need to hear "Spoonman".<\/p>\n

But I’ve finally become enamored of "Black Hole Sun" on Rock Band, needing to get the notes right.\u00c2\u00a0 And now, this album cut, that was never on MTV, never crossed my path, has enraptured me.<\/p>\n

It’s a bookend to Alice In Chains’ "Rooster".\u00c2\u00a0 Faster, not quite as good, but coming from the same dark place.\u00c2\u00a0 You hear shit this good and you scratch your head and wonder why they’re not making stuff like this today.\u00c2\u00a0 OR WONDER WHY YOU’RE NOT HEARING THE STUFF IF IT EXISTS!<\/p>\n

I thought Chris Cornell would make it solo.\u00c2\u00a0 He did not and has not.\u00c2\u00a0 As for that ridiculous supergroup he was in, the less said, the better.<\/p>\n

Music is supposed to make you writhe, involuntarily.\u00c2\u00a0 Just before "Like Suicide" dies, when the music slows down and Chris Cornell emotes, you’re playing air guitar on the INSIDE!\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t help but fire it up again.<\/p>\n

And then, when you go to steal it, you find there’s an acoustic take which is the same, but different.\u00c2\u00a0 And suddenly, you want to go see the band, but you can’t.<\/p>\n

A MOVIE SCRIPT ENDING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here’s where I admit that even though I love "I Will Possess Your Heart", I haven’t given the rest of Death Cab’s new album a decent shot.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you can only listen to one album at one time, and since I didn’t pay for it, since I had so much at my fingertips, I jumped to something else.<\/p>\n

Actually, "A Movie Script Ending" isn’t from "Narrow Stairs".\u00c2\u00a0 It’s from "The Photo Album", released on Barsuk back in 2001.\u00c2\u00a0 I heard it on XM’s Loft.\u00c2\u00a0 This is when you get into moody music, stuff that’s more than a ditty, when you’re driving along uninterrupted, a captive audience, with your mood drifting.<\/p>\n

Now even that’s gone, with everybody talking on the damn phone.\u00c2\u00a0 Or listening to their iPod, not ever being surprised.\u00c2\u00a0 But they’re missing out on one of the great joys of life, music DISCOVERY!<\/p>\n

SIMPLE MAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard Pachter went to see the original Bad Company’s one off gig in Florida, which they did to protect their name.\u00c2\u00a0 And in his e-mail to me, he referenced a briefly-released live album, cut back in ’76.<\/p>\n

This was no reunion gig, this was when the band was at its peak.<\/p>\n

I did a little Web work and was ultimately stunned, this was no audience tape, this was quality, from Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

Yes, Bad Company played Albuquerque.\u00c2\u00a0 Can anybody but a star or a club band play Albuquerque anymore?<\/p>\n

I never saw Bad Company.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though I bought their debut the day it came out, even though I’m a huge fan, even though I turned so many on to them.\u00c2\u00a0 You see I was an itinerant freestyle skier, never in one place too long, certainly sans bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 And, Bad Company might have played Albuquerque, but not Salt Lake City…<\/p>\n

I bought a pair of skis last week.\u00c2\u00a0 I wasn’t intending to.\u00c2\u00a0 I was just asking Billy whether I needed something for the Back Bowls, something fat, that would float and plow through the crud.\u00c2\u00a0 He said he had a pair of Dynastar Legend Pro Riders that he’d sell me for $300.\u00c2\u00a0 That cheap, below wholesale, because someone had left them in the back room in Aspen and had forgotten about them.\u00c2\u00a0 And they’d changed the model.\u00c2\u00a0 But they were brand new, unmounted, last year’s edition.\u00c2\u00a0 He said Legend Pro Riders were all you saw in the Snowbird tram.<\/p>\n

I’ve spent many a day in the Snowbird tram.\u00c2\u00a0 When you go over the first tower, it swings back and forth like a pendulum.\u00c2\u00a0 Until you get used to it, you’re sure the 125 passenger car is going to fall.<\/p>\n

And, if you want to show off, you head right under the lift and ski Great Scott, to evidence your cojones.\u00c2\u00a0 But, if you’re a bit more adventurous, you take the catwalk behind the Cirque, waste a ton of vertical, cut through the trees, to the top of Mach Schnell, to ski the Wave.<\/p>\n

Halfway down Mach Schnell’s double diamond, you cut to the left, where there’s a giant cornice.\u00c2\u00a0 Only this cornice is sideways, the wind has blown across the ridge leaving a narrow piste on the left and a drop-off on the right.\u00c2\u00a0 The key is to stay on this oh-so-narrow piste, only a dozen feet wide, skiing right down to the top of Wilbere.<\/p>\n

But the skiing is almost secondary to the view.\u00c2\u00a0 After emerging from the trees, you’re confronted with the great expanse of Little Cottonwood Canyon, from an eagle’s nest, from an exclusive perch.\u00c2\u00a0 And whenever I think of that spot, I think of Bad Company’s "Simple Man".<\/p>\n

I am just a simple man, working on the land
Oh it ain’t easy<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s what a skier is.\u00c2\u00a0 A laborer.\u00c2\u00a0 Only he’s not tilling the soil, but the snow.\u00c2\u00a0 And, it ain’t easy, but even more rewarding than seeing one’s crops grow.<\/p>\n

I am just a simple man, working with my hands
Oh believe me<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s what I do.\u00c2\u00a0 My fingers dance across this keyboard, they render the story of my life.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do.\u00c2\u00a0 Read this review of a new book wherein a writer went to Harvard Business School: <\/p>\n

\n

What I Learned at Harvard Business School<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You\u00c2\u00a0can make money, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to live a fulfilling life.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, playing it safe yields no rewards.<\/p>\n

Freedom is the only song, sing a song for me
Oh we’re gonna make it<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s what your music represents to me, freedom.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why I want you untainted, that’s why I don’t want you to do a sponsorship deal, not to take any endorsements.\u00c2\u00a0 Because I need to believe in you and your music.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s my only way out when I’ve got more questions than answers.\u00c2\u00a0 I listen and believe there must be a better way.\u00c2\u00a0 That you’ve risked in pursuit of your passion, and I can too.<\/p>\n

I am just a simple man, trying to be me
Oh it ain’t easy<\/em><\/p>\n

They don’t want you to be you.\u00c2\u00a0 They want you to be just like them.\u00c2\u00a0 The pressure to conform is evidenced in our younger generation, where being a member of the group is the sole badge of honor.\u00c2\u00a0 Iconoclasts barely exist.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not sixties souls trying to test the limits, but obese kids trying to brave the big bad world by cocooning together.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s only when you reveal yourself, warts and all, that you have a chance of people opening up to you.<\/p>\n

I am just a simple man, trying to be free
Oh believe me<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s when I feel most free.\u00c2\u00a0 In the mountains.\u00c2\u00a0 On two boards.
You may not understand it, but that’s probably because you’ve never done it.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you’re afraid of the big bad world, the mountains, maybe you’re afraid of getting hurt.\u00c2\u00a0 But without risk, there’s no reward.\u00c2\u00a0 Soaring down an open slope is like flying.\u00c2\u00a0 Nailing the bumps is like poetry.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s got nothing to do with traditional criteria, your SAT scores, what kind of car you drive.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just you and nature.\u00c2\u00a0 As primal as it’s ever been.<\/p>\n

Freedom is the only thing means a damn to me<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ll own that.\u00c2\u00a0 Our President gives it lip service, then bans habeas corpus, all in the name of keeping us free…\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?\u00c2\u00a0 Makes you want to move to the wilderness and retire, leave this crazy, fucked up world behind.<\/p>\n

Whenever I hear this line, I’m instantly jetted to the Wave at Snowbird.\u00c2\u00a0 And that makes me feel good.<\/p>\n

"Simple Man" was not the hit.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t know it unless you’re a fan.\u00c2\u00a0 The rendition on this live album is every bit as good as the studio take.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s mesmerizing.\u00c2\u00a0 It brings me right back to who I used to be, and who I want to become.<\/p>\n

BARNSTORM<\/strong><\/p>\n

One more and I’m gonna go.<\/p>\n

I downloaded "Fast Times", "Feats Don’t Fail Me Now" and Neil Young’s debut.\u00c2\u00a0 But the album that made my fingers stop hitting the keys, that made me sit here and listen, dumbstruck, was Joe Walsh’s solo debut, "Barnstorm".<\/p>\n

I was a big fan.\u00c2\u00a0 I play the James Gang debut to this day.<\/p>\n

But I didn’t buy this solo debut, because I couldn’t afford it.<\/p>\n

And I know most of it, own most of it, but hearing it in its entirety thirty five years later is awe-inspiring.\u00c2\u00a0 Because of the mood.<\/p>\n

The record was not cut with a single.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s solely about what Joe felt.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s not the mugging Joe of today, but the serious musician of yesteryear.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s soft as opposed to loud.\u00c2\u00a0 It lifts you to 8,600 feet, to Caribou Ranch, where it was cut.<\/p>\n

How did stuff like this exist?\u00c2\u00a0 And how can it be gone now?<\/p>\n

Now, you either want a hit, or want to record something so outside that unless a listener is a member of the club, you can’t get it.<\/p>\n

Or maybe we need to blame punk rock.\u00c2\u00a0 Which insinuated that anybody could play.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is patently untrue.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s merit in simplicity, the Ramones were both an artistic statement and good.\u00c2\u00a0 But too many people with too few skills and lousy voices have followed in their footsteps.\u00c2\u00a0 And they’re not writing lyrics as good as Bob Dylan’s either.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas it used to be about becoming a virtuoso, and then writing, making a statement.<\/p>\n

The album starts with "Here We Go" and ends with "Comin’ Down" and includes between the eventual radio staple, "Turn To Stone".\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s the way the album opens and closes with these numbers, is a self-contained work, without endless filler tracks, that gets under your skin.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like reading a novel, but one which is fulfilling with each succeeding reading.<\/p>\n

Whatever Joe Walsh was shooting for here has been eviscerated from the landscape.\u00c2\u00a0 But maybe it’s exactly what’s coming back.\u00c2\u00a0 Without radio back in 1972, Joe Walsh could get no traction.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas an album like "Barnstorm" comes out today and fans start spreading the word far and wide online.\u00c2\u00a0 It never gets on radio, certainly not on television, but that doesn’t matter.<\/p>\n

Those are false goals.\u00c2\u00a0 That ubiquity, that fame.\u00c2\u00a0 In an era where a nitwit can be on a reality TV show and be famous for nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 In an era where the celebrity gossips focus on no-talents.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s almost as if those possessing talent should renounce the system.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of selling out to get in, they should wear their outsider status as a badge of honor.<\/p>\n

The old days may be gone, but the albums from that era are etched in stone.\u00c2\u00a0 If you play "Barnstorm" on a Saturday afternoon, from start to finish and then over again, while you clean the house, read the newspaper, do the puzzle, you’ll know exactly what it was like.
It’s not like the formula’s been hidden.\u00c2\u00a0 Just fat cats interested in getting rich have obscured it, it doesn’t benefit them.\u00c2\u00a0 But it benefits the musicians and the listeners.\u00c2\u00a0 The future is about the musicians and the listeners.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s time for the tail to wag the dog.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, the executives were always the tail, the musicians were always the head, and the listeners were stuck in the middle, an integral part.<\/p>\n

I’m stuck in the middle with you and Joe Walsh and it feels so good.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHOLE PAYCHECK I had lunch at Whole Foods yesterday. Don’t know if you’ve been following the story on this market.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s in trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 One of its main suppliers of meat was sold, switched processors and the chain’s customers became very ill.\u00c2\u00a0 Bad press if you’re perching yourself at the top of the market, as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-lp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}