Once upon a time, I worked in the movie business.<\/p>\n
I fell into it.\u00c2\u00a0 First, as an attorney, then working for Charles Band, an independent producer, who made many films, all on a shoestring.\u00c2\u00a0 How do you make a movie?\u00c2\u00a0 I know how.\u00c2\u00a0 First and foremost, you start.<\/p>\n
That’s how you got into the entertainment business way back when.\u00c2\u00a0 You started.\u00c2\u00a0 You went to gigs, met people, networked, went to UCLA Extension and took any job to get into the game.\u00c2\u00a0 I know, I know, there were people like Joel Silver, who came to L.A. believing the industry deserved them, but the rest of us were just trying to find a toehold, just trying to be INVOLVED!<\/p>\n
You could do it in New York, but really you had to be in L.A.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no Internet, no YouTube, no Pro Tools, you had to lift yourself up physically and come to the west coast and hang out.\u00c2\u00a0 Ask Irving Azoff, ask all those other famous names.\u00c2\u00a0 You had to leave your comfort zone, and try to make it on a wing and a prayer.<\/p>\n
And in case you didn’t know, the entertainment business is full of shit.\u00c2\u00a0 Endless meetings with castles built in the air which collapse as soon as you walk out the door.\u00c2\u00a0 Although it takes you a few years to realize this.<\/p>\n
And somehow I found myself in Lionel Conway’s office on Sunset Boulevard back in the mid-eighties.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, he’ll never remember.\u00c2\u00a0 But back then anybody in the film business could get a meeting with anybody in the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 The thought of getting your track in a film…<\/p>\n
And Lionel’s talking to me and my sidekick like we’re legit, like we’re really gonna pay to put any of his songs in a movie, and then…he insists on playing us something.<\/p>\n
This is a fate worse than death.\u00c2\u00a0 Sitting there silently as a publisher, an act, any purveyor plays you music.\u00c2\u00a0 They want you to jump up and down, do cartwheels, tell them the track is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and you just want to leave.<\/p>\n
The funny thing is, most people say the music IS the greatest thing since sliced bread, the two parties bullshitting each other over the desk.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s STILL the entertainment business.\u00c2\u00a0 Tell ’em it’s great and snicker on the way out.<\/p>\n
But this song Lionel played us, it was FANTASTIC!<\/p>\n
Sometimes I’d like to quit you<\/span> But it wasn’t the verses, it was the GUITAR SOUND!\u00c2\u00a0 And the CHORUS!<\/p>\n Lionel pushed the button on the tape machine and it was like a chainsaw started ripping up the speakers.\u00c2\u00a0 You know that perfect rock sound, that alienates your parents, but feels so good?\u00c2\u00a0 This was IT! Actually, you may know this song.\u00c2\u00a0 A few years later, Patty Smyth had an MTV hit with "Isn’t It Enough".\u00c2\u00a0 But the track had the character of a party anthem and she oversang.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t ruin it, but the magic of the Danny Wilde original was buried.<\/p>\n Yes, Danny Wilde, that guy in the Rembrandts, the one who sang the theme song to that Jennifer Aniston sitcom, "Friends".<\/p>\n Hell, they didn’t even write it, and it ruined their career overnight.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why when your manager\/label\/publisher tells you to take an opportunity and it doesn’t feel right, you shouldn’t.<\/p>\n But by time Mr. Wilde had his one big hit, he’d been at it for two decades.\u00c2\u00a0 In bands, then solo and then back with Phil Solem and…<\/p>\n We were trying to make it on the business side.\u00c2\u00a0 And across the fence were musicians, who also came to L.A., clerked in record stores, waited tables, fixed electronics, all for a chance to make music at night, get a deal and MAKE IT!<\/p>\n Great Buildings, Danny’s previous band, issued a record on Columbia.\u00c2\u00a0 But it didn’t hit.\u00c2\u00a0 But he didn’t go to law school, didn’t get an MBA, he didn’t go straight, he continued to woodshed and came up with "The Boyfriend".<\/p>\n That’s the name of the album containing "Isn’t It Enough".\u00c2\u00a0 Two years after I heard it in Lionel Conway’s office, it was released.\u00c2\u00a0 On Island.\u00c2\u00a0 Before the label was sold by Chris Blackwell to Universal, before it fronted rap records, back when it was still a scrappy indie.<\/p>\n And I played that vinyl record through and through, over and over again, until it turned gray.<\/p>\n That’s what happens when you overplay a disc.<\/p>\n But I couldn’t buy another one.\u00c2\u00a0 A friend sent me a cassette.\u00c2\u00a0 But there was never ever a CD.\u00c2\u00a0 One of my great thrills of the Napster era was stealing the MP3s.\u00c2\u00a0 The cassette I made from my record had no highs, the pressure pad on the factory cassette had fallen off, now I had unbreakable copies.<\/p>\n "Isn’t It Enough" is the best song on "The Boyfriend", but it’s not the only good one.\u00c2\u00a0 The second cut, "Body To Body", has even a fuller riff, enough to throw a crowd of thousands into a frenzy.\u00c2\u00a0 And I have a special place in my heart for "He Can Have You"…<\/p>\n Well he can have you, ’cause I don’t want you<\/span> Note the undertone.\u00c2\u00a0 He really wants her.\u00c2\u00a0 Emotionally.\u00c2\u00a0 But she tortured him.\u00c2\u00a0 Intellectually he knows he’s done. Can the little head obey the big one?<\/p>\n Today it’s different.\u00c2\u00a0 The content of the song is secondary to…making it.\u00c2\u00a0 Fame eclipses music.\u00c2\u00a0 Andy Warhol is bigger than Bob Dylan.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about your fifteen minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if they occur early in your life and the rest of your days are a vast wasteland.
And find somebody who don’t know me quite as well<\/span>
Yeah like a gypsy, she would be my jewel<\/span>
Spend my days in a lovin’ spell<\/span><\/p>\n
And the chorus…
Isn’t it enough that I still love you?<\/span>
Isn’t it enough to make you stay?<\/span>
Don’t make me suffer, baby<\/span>
Don’t throw it all away<\/span><\/p>\n
What do I need with a girl who’s only gonna make me cry?<\/span>
Well he can have you, yeah he deserves you<\/span>
All I want is a lover who will satisfy me<\/span><\/p>\n
And the reason I’m writing all this is because I was on an MP3 blog and I saw a reference to the Rembrandts, which made me wonder what Danny Wilde was up to, which led me to his Website, where you can download "The Boyfriend" for free!\u00c2\u00a0 Better than that, the MP3s ARE STRAIGHT FROM THE MASTER TAPE!\u00c2\u00a0 "Isn’t It Enough" breathes in a way it has not since that hot summer afternoon in Lionel Conway’s Hollywood office.<\/p>\n\n