I’m pissed off.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone I agreed to go to lunch with, and I won’t go to lunch with anybody, just worked me on a track.\u00c2\u00a0 One with synthetic drums akin to those manufactured by a TR-808 back in 1982.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what’s wrong with mainstream music, it’s all lowest common denominator, that’s what people want to see live, someone singing to tape.\u00c2\u00a0 But worse is everybody working me.<\/p>\n
I know this famous guy.\u00c2\u00a0 If your idea of famous is someone in business.\u00c2\u00a0 His name is Johanan Vigoda.\u00c2\u00a0 He was everybody’s lawyer, most famously Stevie Wonder’s.\u00c2\u00a0 He grew up in New York, but ultimately he resided in L.A.\u00c2\u00a0 Where he went on exotic diets and played the part of a homeless guy, walking around Venice Beach in a faded blue sweatshirt, his wild hair a ‘blowin.<\/p>\n
Maybe Johanan didn’t find it that easy to make friends, maybe I was introduced by the right people, but we became buddies.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d run into him on the Third Street Promenade, down on the Venice boardwalk.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d occasionally call, and if I was ever in the vicinity of his apartment, I’d ring his doorbell.<\/p>\n
He’d discuss his battle with the IRS, stocks…it was more about being a friend than business.\u00c2\u00a0 Until that day at Pioneer Bread.<\/p>\n
Pioneer Bread, which was never that good, had an outlet in Santa Monica, where you could buy a crappy lunch and sit in the garden and drink wine.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a great place, a great environment, only the comestibles sucked.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m there with Vigoda and I’m thinking…we’re buddies, I’m a lawyer, he’s a lawyer, he trusts me…so I whip out some kind of business idea, requiring his participation, and Vigoda tells me:<\/p>\n
I AM NOT A RAILROAD TRAIN!\u00c2\u00a0 I DON’T PICK PEOPLE UP AT ONE STATION AND DEPOSIT THEM AT ANOTHER!<\/p>\n
Whew!\u00c2\u00a0 I got the message loud and clear.\u00c2\u00a0 Our relationship survived my transgression.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s what I’ve got to say.\u00c2\u00a0 I’M NOT A TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM!\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t send me your unsolicited MP3, you don’t hype me on your act and then I blow them up.\u00c2\u00a0 As a matter of fact, this is the kiss of death.\u00c2\u00a0 Because then I know you’re not a true friend…a true friend cares first and foremost about the relationship, about me, not about how I can be used to improve your career.<\/p>\n
As a matter of fact, I’m gonna tell you, one day your career is gonna be over.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll lose that job, or be too frail to sit behind a desk.\u00c2\u00a0 And who are you gonna talk to then?<\/p>\n
And I’ll make it quite simple.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s in it for me?\u00c2\u00a0 If I take you on the ride you desire?\u00c2\u00a0 No, not everything has to have a quid pro quo. But that’s if I decide to mention something.\u00c2\u00a0 I love to spread the word.<\/p>\n
But I hate being worked.<\/p>\n