I went to see the Grateful Dead exhibit at the New York Historical Society.\u00c2\u00a0 Thank God I slept late.\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out they don’t open until noon.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, a rock and roll museum show!<\/p>\n
Not that I’d recommend it.\u00c2\u00a0 You see there’s very little there.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s kind of like going to Carvel and getting only a dollop, going to In-N-Out and getting a cheeseburger or going to Mrs. Fields and getting half a cookie.\u00c2\u00a0 We want the complete ice cream cone, shots and all, a Double Double, enough cookies to fly high above the astral plane on the sugar buzz.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s what the Grateful Dead delivered.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t a concert, but an experience.\u00c2\u00a0 They played for hours.<\/p>\n
And most people didn’t give a shit.<\/p>\n
Actually, very few people cared at all for a very long time.\u00c2\u00a0 The Dead were famous for playing for free, not only because they believed in the cause, but for the exposure.\u00c2\u00a0 The best way to convert new Deadheads was to get them to a show.\u00c2\u00a0 One can argue the Dead didn’t make a decent studio album after 1970’s "American Beauty", but their live show grew their audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Slowly. Steadily.\u00c2\u00a0 And now we’ve got all the pundits saying to do it like the Dead.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, exactly how did the Dead do it?<\/p>\n
Not through hit songs.\u00c2\u00a0 By time "Touch Of Grey" finally made it to MTV in the eighties, the band had been at it for more than two decades and was already established as a monster touring attraction.\u00c2\u00a0 The music was important.\u00c2\u00a0 But it wasn’t enough.\u00c2\u00a0 What made the Dead an institution was community.\u00c2\u00a0 The audience felt like they belonged.\u00c2\u00a0 They felt bonded both to the act and their fellow fans.\u00c2\u00a0 The Dead weren’t interested in everybody, just those who cared.\u00c2\u00a0 And this is much different from today.\u00c2\u00a0 When the goal of every band is world domination.\u00c2\u00a0 Quickly.\u00c2\u00a0 Accompanied by bags of money.<\/p>\n
It took the Dead years to even make an appealing record.\u00c2\u00a0 Their first three albums were stiffs.\u00c2\u00a0 Completely.\u00c2\u00a0 They only got a bit of traction upon the release of "Live\/Dead" in ’69.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the first Dead album that was truly listenable.\u00c2\u00a0 Then came the dynamic duo of "Workingman’s Dead" and "American Beauty", a one eighty in sound, and suddenly the alchemy took hold.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans of the records went to see the fully-developed show and were hooked.\u00c2\u00a0 And took their buddies.\u00c2\u00a0 All in search of a good time.<\/p>\n
That’s what the music represented.\u00c2\u00a0 Get high, lay back for a few hours and let’s see if we can lift the roof off this joint.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re not waiting for the hit.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re not amazed by the pyrotechnics.\u00c2\u00a0 But if the band stands on stage playing long enough, we’re all gonna fall into a groove, you’ll feel it and be transported.<\/p>\n
Not that it always went down that way.\u00c2\u00a0 There could be hours of lousy music.\u00c2\u00a0 But the band was trying.\u00c2\u00a0 To create something new and different each and every night.\u00c2\u00a0 Miss a show, and you missed a once in a lifetime experience.\u00c2\u00a0 So, you had to go.\u00c2\u00a0 Just in case. And while you were there, you met Bobby and Sue, Sally and Dave, like-minded people from all over the country, who too were in search of the elusive experience.\u00c2\u00a0 One that only the Dead could deliver.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially as years went by and music became slick and expensive, when the money was everything.<\/p>\n
And speaking of money, there was a ticket stub from 1994 with a printed price of $25.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t care how many years have gone by since, there’s no way you get to the ticket prices of today.\u00c2\u00a0 When the promoter and the act are adversaries, when the promoter is a public company and no gig is a transcendent event, just another blip on the cavalcade of revenue producing dates.\u00c2\u00a0 Bill Graham might have been a motherfucker, but the band respected him, was in business with him.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, the goal is to rip off Live Nation. To be overpaid by AEG.\u00c2\u00a0 And if the fan is fucked in the process, well, you can’t sell a record anymore, it’s got to be this way.<\/p>\n
But the Dead could never sell a record.\u00c2\u00a0 They weren’t even stars by today’s anemic sales standards.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, eventually some of those albums went gold, "American Beauty" even platinum.\u00c2\u00a0 But it took years and years.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, create something desirable and you can sell it for years.\u00c2\u00a0 Is anybody going to want "Poker Face" down the line?\u00c2\u00a0 If you believe so, you’ve drunk too much kool-aid, and not the kind Ken Kesey was spooning out.<\/p>\n
So, you’ve got to ask yourself, are you selling singles, hits, or a whole oeuvre of music?<\/p>\n
The Dead weren’t selling hits.\u00c2\u00a0 They seemed unable to write one.\u00c2\u00a0 And it wasn’t about the album.\u00c2\u00a0 So don’t give me any mishegas about preserving the long form.\u00c2\u00a0 But it was more than a track.\u00c2\u00a0 You couldn’t distill them down to one three minute song no matter how hard you tried.\u00c2\u00a0 How to square "Uncle John’s Band" with "Dark Star"?\u00c2\u00a0 Impossible.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why when someone tells you to settle on one sound and stay there you should scratch your head.\u00c2\u00a0 Might be easier to sell at first, but down the line, your one-dimensional sound lands you on oldies radio at best, maybe you can play the lounge at the casino, whereas the Dead ended up filling stadiums!<\/p>\n
The free music, the tape trading?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s been overstated.\u00c2\u00a0 Most Dead fans had never heard a live cassette.\u00c2\u00a0 But those circulating cassettes did so with such fervor that the legend spread.\u00c2\u00a0 So if you think the way to emulate the Dead is to give your music away, you’re missing the point, that’s one tiny element.<\/p>\n
But, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to give something away.\u00c2\u00a0 The Dead did this regularly.\u00c2\u00a0 Their fan club was free.\u00c2\u00a0 You got sample discs, newsletters and the ability to buy tickets.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, every transaction was not a revenue generating event.\u00c2\u00a0 This was about music and life more than money.\u00c2\u00a0 And, as a result, the band’s fans thought the performers had their best interests at heart, and responded by not only buying tickets, but creating comics, home made merch and endless artwork.\u00c2\u00a0 This is how they evidenced their belief.\u00c2\u00a0 So strange in an era where rights holders clamp down on any innovative behavior by fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t remix my music, don’t do anything unauthorized.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe I’ll have a contest, with strict parameters, but it’s all got to be controlled.<\/p>\n
The Dead were out of control.\u00c2\u00a0 They were on an adventure without a destination.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes leading their fans, sometimes being led by their audience.\u00c2\u00a0 They solicited feedback.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t know exactly what they were doing.\u00c2\u00a0 No artist really does.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t plan art, you can only start.<\/p>\n
Traipsing through the exhibit, one was struck not so much by what a long strange trip it was, but that it was over, that what the Dead represented is now long gone.\u00c2\u00a0 The Dead were the precursor to Silicon Valley.\u00c2\u00a0 We used to need to get a new computer, we knew all the specs, now they’re sold at Best Buy for cheap and most people don’t care what’s inside.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a mature industry.<\/p>\n
And music is positively over the hill.<\/p>\n
First and foremost, everybody wants to get paid.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only the labels, but the songwriters and performers.\u00c2\u00a0 They want the cash right away, not realizing that the heyday of the late twentieth century might be just that, a heyday, that’s gone, never to return.<\/p>\n
Music is free and concerts are events you attend infrequently, hell, who could afford to go once a month, like we used to?<\/p>\n
How successful would ecstasy be at $125 a hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine if a puff of marijuana cost $75.\u00c2\u00a0 You’d still want to get high.\u00c2\u00a0 But it would be a rare event, and you’d expect to see skyrockets, you’d expect to have the time of your life.\u00c2\u00a0 Ergo all the dancing and pyrotechnics on today’s stages.\u00c2\u00a0 Because if you pay that amount of money for a ticket and the show’s not stupendous, you’re beyond disappointed, you feel ripped off!\u00c2\u00a0 And you’re not eager to go again.<\/p>\n
So blame Universal.\u00c2\u00a0 And Live Nation.\u00c2\u00a0 And the acts.\u00c2\u00a0 But blame yourself too.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you no longer want to take a chance, you no longer want to risk going to a less than stellar show.\u00c2\u00a0 And when you go, you want something akin to "Avatar", all special effects with a lame story.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas, when done right, music is enough.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t matter how the performers look, doesn’t matter if they’re playing in front of a black curtain, if they’re in the groove, it’s transcendent.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 But how transcendent can it be if the show’s on hard drive, if it’s the same every night?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s a movie, not music.<\/p>\n
So, as you can see, we’re screwed.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody’s paying lip service to a bygone era, but not emulating it.\u00c2\u00a0 Bands are not willing to follow their own direction, starving until their audience finds them, getting so good that they can’t be denied.\u00c2\u00a0 And an audience brought up on music videos wants the show to be just like the clips, or they’re pissed.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, the Dead couldn’t play the same song the same way the following night, never mind a hundred nights straight!<\/p>\n
The Dead never had their victory lap, no cover of "Newsweek" and appearance on the "Today Show", no acknowledgement by the mainstream.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they weren’t made for everybody.\u00c2\u00a0 Just for a small coterie.\u00c2\u00a0 But in America, a small coterie can keep you humming along quite well, throwing off a ton of cash, keeping everybody in smiles.<\/p>\n
One of the signature Dead moments was a cover tune, in its most famous incarnation, segued into from Buddy Holly’s "Not Fade Away".<\/p>\n
In between, it wasn’t sure where the band was going, but then you realized they were headed down that road feelin’ bad.<\/p>\n
If you’re not willing to go down that road feeling bad, you’re not a believer in rock and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 The artist has to be able to keep his eyes open as he drives to the next gig, possibly a thousand miles away.\u00c2\u00a0 The fan has to wake up hungover and go to work.\u00c2\u00a0 And the label has to be willing to throw its hands in the air and realize that it may never get its money back.<\/p>\n
But everybody had a very good time.\u00c2\u00a0 An extremely good time.\u00c2\u00a0 Such a good time, that they want to do it again.\u00c2\u00a0 The act wants to play more gigs, the label wants to make more records and the fan wants to go to more shows.\u00c2\u00a0 All in pursuit of that peak experience, unique, unavailable anywhere else.<\/p>\n
Imagine if every love affair were identical.\u00c2\u00a0 That you went to the brothel and overpaid to get your rocks off.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s today’s music business.\u00c2\u00a0 You come, but you’re not satisfied.\u00c2\u00a0 And believe me, one thing Grateful Dead fans were was satisfied.\u00c2\u00a0 They felt by pursuing their interest in the San Francisco band they’d be rewarded in a way they were not in work.\u00c2\u00a0 They might even acquire a love interest.\u00c2\u00a0 And the music would inspire them and keep them warm at night.<\/p>\n
That’s rock and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 And you see glimpses of it now and again, but it’s mostly absent today.\u00c2\u00a0 Because everybody must get paid. Everybody must get STONED, and you must NEVER FORGET THIS!<\/p>\n
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I went to see the Grateful Dead exhibit at the New York Historical Society.\u00c2\u00a0 Thank God I slept late.\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out they don’t open until noon.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, a rock and roll museum show! Not that I’d recommend it.\u00c2\u00a0 You see there’s very little there.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s kind of like going to Carvel and getting only a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":[3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Jz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}