Last night on "Celebrity Apprentice" Donald Trump said it was all about passion.\u00c2\u00a0 That he’d seen plenty of smart, educated, competent people, but what turned him on, what made people shine, was passion.<\/p>\n
On the freeway this morning, I heard Rod Stewart’s "Handbags &\u00c2\u00a0 Gladrags".\u00c2\u00a0 I flashed back to my dorm room at Middlebury, listening to the first two Rod Stewart albums, which I’d ordered blind from the Record Club of America.<\/p>\n
You can only imagine dropping the needle on that voice.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought it was a joke, I thought I’d been punk’d.<\/p>\n
You’ve got to dial up "Gasoline Alley"’s title cut.\u00c2\u00a0 You hear a great Ronnie Wood slide, and then this guy who sounds like he’s had too many drinks and has decided to step up to the mic after the bar has closed starts to sing.\u00c2\u00a0 You think you know twenty people who can sing this good and then…<\/p>\n
Going home, running home<\/span> You might not be old enough to remember the comic strip, but most of us come from nowhere.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got our dreams. Our lives are about the challenge of trying to make them come true.\u00c2\u00a0 Some make excuses, about upbringing, and slights, and end up woulda coulda shoulda been contenders.<\/p>\n Then there are others, with pure desire and a modicum of talent, who almost will their success.\u00c2\u00a0 They need to get out of the hole they’re in, they need the adulation, they just can’t settle.<\/p>\n This is the common denominator of all great artists.\u00c2\u00a0 Not talent, but desire.\u00c2\u00a0 The 10,000 hours Gladwell speaks of.<\/p>\n And when done right, their\u00c2\u00a0 music resonates with us not because of its sheer sheen, but its intimacy, its truth.<\/p>\n That’s what crossed my mind when I listened to "Handbags & Gladrags" on SiriusXM’s Bridge.\u00c2\u00a0 Some people want to go to the show to hear the hits.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to go to hear the tracks that touch my soul.<\/p>\n The casual listener needs the hits.\u00c2\u00a0 The fan needs to hear that song that he listened to in his bedroom that made him feel like he was not alone.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes the two are one and the same, but rarely so.\u00c2\u00a0 It would be like meeting someone at a party and immediately telling them your innermost thoughts, your victories, your losses, how you’re down because your relationship ended.\u00c2\u00a0 You just don’t do that.\u00c2\u00a0 You put on your best face.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what a hit is.<\/p>\n A hit puts a smile on your face.<\/p>\n "Handbags & Gladrags" puts my life in relief, makes me think not of parties, but solo experiences years back, when the song in my head got me through.<\/p>\n And this morning I’ve been checking out some recommendations.\u00c2\u00a0 Empire Of The Sun is pretty good.\u00c2\u00a0 So is Gazpacho.<\/p>\n Then I checked out Berton’s recommendation.<\/p>\n There was just a link, I figured it would be something snazzy and brand new.\u00c2\u00a0 But it was Laura Nyro.<\/p>\n And what immediately reached me was the joy in her playing.\u00c2\u00a0 It was effortless.\u00c2\u00a0 She wasn’t concentrating on getting it right, she wasn’t playing for the back row, she was setting herself FREE!<\/p>\n You can go to Berklee, even Julliard, they’ll never teach you passion.<\/p>\n The Iowa Writers’ Workshop will teach you how to craft a story, but it certainly can’t teach you how to tell it in a way that resonates with others.<\/p>\n There’s just something here.\u00c2\u00a0 Laura Nyro is not the most beautiful girl on the block, I’m sure you can find someone who can play the piano better, someone with a better voice, but the pure banshee wail of a bird in flight draws your eyes like a rocket blasted into the universe, you just can’t stop watching, you’re titillated, you feel strangely alive, you’ve got to play the clip AGAIN!<\/p>\n It’s almost impossible to delineate, to describe, you’ve just got to EXPERIENCE it.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what they always want to do, take you to the gig, so you can truly get it.\u00c2\u00a0 But rarely is what is being purveyed truly great.<\/p>\n That’s what sold Springsteen.\u00c2\u00a0 I saw him and the entire E Street Band scrunched onto the tiny Bottom Line stage in the summer of ’74.\u00c2\u00a0 When he debuted "Jungleland", a song that wouldn’t see wax for another summer, I could envision the entire tableau, not only because Springsteen was so talented, his words were so good, but because he needed to tell this story, he needed to convey what was in his head to those in attendance.<\/p>\n It’s kind of like what Clive Davis says, he’s looking for stars.<\/p>\n It’s just that the definition of a star has changed.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it’s someone good-looking, with a talent at melisma, who is totally malleable.\u00c2\u00a0 It used to be someone unique, who not only made us marvel, but made us feel human, and connected.<\/p>\n Laura Nyro was never that big a star.\u00c2\u00a0 But her songs were.\u00c2\u00a0 What seemed so personal when she performed it was positively universal in the hands of the 5th Dimension and Barbra Streisand.<\/p>\n But no one performs a song like the writer.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve lived through the birthing process, the pain and the joy.\u00c2\u00a0 When they sing, it’s from deep inside, from the depth of their souls, we’re shocked and riveted, we can’t pay attention to anything else.<\/p>\n Music will exist forever.\u00c2\u00a0 Acts will top the chart.\u00c2\u00a0 But that doesn’t mean there will be any stars.\u00c2\u00a0 Agents and labels can build an act, advertising can make them look big.\u00c2\u00a0 But too often you end up with something serviceable, like Grand Funk Railroad.\u00c2\u00a0 A blip in time that greased the skids of life for a while, but was forgotten when its time was done.<\/p>\n Then there are artists with music that survives the passing of its creator.\u00c2\u00a0 Because of its uniqueness, because of its vision.<\/p>\n The system is stacked against this kind of artist in the traditional world.\u00c2\u00a0 And in the independent world, there are too many acts with fans, but not chops.\u00c2\u00a0 They appeal to a group, but not everyone.<\/p>\n Not that Laura Nyro appealed to everyone.\u00c2\u00a0 But no one could see her perform and walk away and say she was trash. Because you could see her testing the limits, because you could see she needed this, because you could see yourself inside her music, your better self, who was not self-conscious, who was brazen enough to throw off his shackles, jump off the cliff and try to fly.<\/p>\n We all want to soar.<\/p>\n But most are too scared to take a chance.<\/p>\n So we revel in the flight of artists.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what brings us to the show, that’s what makes us go back.\u00c2\u00a0 We want to see that performer in the sky telling us how great life can be, that if we’re willing to dream and work hard we can live unfettered, fully-realized lives.<\/p>\n Laura Nyro – Save the Country<\/span><\/p>\n
Down to gasoline alley where I started from<\/span><\/p>\n