Last night at Trader Vic’s Monica asked Christopher if he’d run into John Davidson in New York, at the toy show.\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out John and his wife design board games.<\/p>\n
I interjected that I didn’t think many people played board games in Southern California.\u00c2\u00a0 You needed cold, and rain.\u00c2\u00a0 You needed to be inside.\u00c2\u00a0 Mandatorily.\u00c2\u00a0 With time on your hands.\u00c2\u00a0 With nothing to do.\u00c2\u00a0 Then you were forced to read, play board games and listen to music.<\/p>\n
Somehow, as a result of MTV, music is now perceived to be a communal experience.\u00c2\u00a0 You put a boombox on the front porch and the whole neighborhood starts to dance, girls writhing in halter tops as tattooed men bump their hips into them.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas I usually found myself inside the house, alone, lying on my bed, with a book in my hands and a record on the stereo.\u00c2\u00a0 And the music I was playing…\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, it was occasionally celebratory, but more often it was EXPLORATORY!\u00c2\u00a0 It took me away.\u00c2\u00a0 It set my mind adrift.\u00c2\u00a0 To a better place.\u00c2\u00a0 Where I was accepted.\u00c2\u00a0 Where I was cool.\u00c2\u00a0 Where life worked out.<\/p>\n
It finally snowed in Vermont.\u00c2\u00a0 That monster dump of a couple of weeks back missed ski country completely.\u00c2\u00a0 But Mad River Glen has received two feet of fresh since Friday.\u00c2\u00a0 How do I know?\u00c2\u00a0 Every day I go to the Website, even though I haven’t been to the ski area since 1987, and that was in the summer.\u00c2\u00a0 You see we can’t lose our past.\u00c2\u00a0 We can try to shake it, but it follows us, comes along with us, a veritable shadow.\u00c2\u00a0 As you get older, you make peace with it.\u00c2\u00a0 You go to your high school reunion.\u00c2\u00a0 You connect with those you grew up with.\u00c2\u00a0 You realize that despite all the years that have passed, you’re still the same kid you were when you were in high school.\u00c2\u00a0 And, today, too many people are listening to the music they played in high school.<\/p>\n
Who do we blame?\u00c2\u00a0 Most often the people themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re ossified.\u00c2\u00a0 Calcified.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re out of it.\u00c2\u00a0 But is it really their fault?\u00c2\u00a0 Or have music and the media let them down.\u00c2\u00a0 Is there just not enough good music being made and that which is worthwhile not exposed.\u00c2\u00a0 Can we really blame the oldster for not caring about music when he’s a member of the demo that will shop for a CD, most especially at Starbucks, and is single-handedly keeping the concert business alive?\u00c2\u00a0 Could it be that it isn’t the oldsters’ FAULT?<\/p>\n
So many records of yore had the feel of a great board game.\u00c2\u00a0 Starting somewhere defined but ending up in an unimagined space.\u00c2\u00a0 A great album was like an all day game of Monopoly.\u00c2\u00a0 It demanded a certain level of concentration.\u00c2\u00a0 It delivered a certain amount of excitement.\u00c2\u00a0 It not only kept your interest, you wanted to devote your attention to it.\u00c2\u00a0 God, I remember being excited about starting a game of Risk just shy of midnight in college.\u00c2\u00a0 The thought that the game wouldn’t reach its conclusion until just before the sun came up was part of the charm.\u00c2\u00a0 Listen to "Captain Fantastic", it had this same charm.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, we listened to Elton John as we tried to conquer the world in dorm rooms.\u00c2\u00a0 And Santana.\u00c2\u00a0 And McCartney.\u00c2\u00a0 With darkness enveloping us we were ensconced in a cocoon.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the opposite of today’s connected world.\u00c2\u00a0 It was just us, buddies, the game and the music.<\/p>\n
Music isn’t made to play board games by anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Those albums had a flow.\u00c2\u00a0 They weren’t about one peak and endless valleys.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather they featured the rolling hills of England.\u00c2\u00a0 Ups and downs.\u00c2\u00a0 How many times did we listen to "In Search Of The Lost Chord", a record with NO hits.\u00c2\u00a0 Or "Idlewild South".\u00c2\u00a0 I’m looking for albums like this.\u00c2\u00a0 My brethren are looking for this same experience.\u00c2\u00a0 But we’re confronted with seventy minute opuses by people we’ve never heard of wearing outfits we’d never wear performing in videos that are not akin to our world.\u00c2\u00a0 We can’t relate.\u00c2\u00a0 So, we’ve tuned out.\u00c2\u00a0 But we want to tune in.<\/p>\n
I’m trying to understand Sirius.\u00c2\u00a0 It isn’t easy.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike XM, the titles don’t come up instantly on the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 It makes scrolling through channels much more difficult.\u00c2\u00a0 But, I’m settling in.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got three stations I’m bouncing between.\u00c2\u00a0 But the Bridge and the Coffee House just serve as respites when the Spectrum lets me down.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, I’ve finally found my Sirius station, Channel 18, the Spectrum.<\/p>\n
Oh, I could tell you what’s wrong with the Spectrum.\u00c2\u00a0 They refer to the music on it as "World Class Rock".\u00c2\u00a0 All I can say is it had BETTER BE!\u00c2\u00a0 Because I don’t want to listen to anything but.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, the deejays on the Spectrum are not as jive as those on most Sirius stations.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not upbeat.\u00c2\u00a0 They know almost nobody is listening.\u00c2\u00a0 So it’s more of a conversation.\u00c2\u00a0 Like a friend playing you records in his basement.\u00c2\u00a0 And the mix is made up of the kinds of records we listened to playing Risk in the seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not too edgy, but not too wimpy.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of the tracks are LITERALLY the same.\u00c2\u00a0 And then there are the new tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 You listen really closely to the new tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you want to discover something.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re not calcified.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re hungry.\u00c2\u00a0 For fulfillment.\u00c2\u00a0 Enrichment.<\/p>\n
I was driving to Felice’s house Saturday night and I heard something I loved instantly.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a "Blink" moment.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve heard enough music.\u00c2\u00a0 I know what works.\u00c2\u00a0 And stunningly, most of my baby boomer brethren do too.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just that there’s very little good stuff out there, despite the labels trying to convince us otherwise.\u00c2\u00a0 New does not equal good.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d rather hear only old stuff than new crap, but "Wisemen" is not crap.<\/p>\n
Richard told me that TV advertising sold James Blunt in the U.K.\u00c2\u00a0 So much for cream rising to the top.\u00c2\u00a0 I guess one can argue that even the good shit needs a push.\u00c2\u00a0 But the push being put on by Atlantic in the States is offensive.\u00c2\u00a0 It smacks of desperation.\u00c2\u00a0 James Blunt is being pushed into our faces.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a turn-off.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s got that weird high voice.\u00c2\u00a0 And he looks uncomfortable on stage.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d argue that his SNL performance turned off many more people than it turned on.\u00c2\u00a0 I certainly tuned out.\u00c2\u00a0 But then I heard "Wisemen" on the Spectrum.<\/p>\n
This is what we used to rely on radio to do.\u00c2\u00a0 To weed through all the crap and find the gems.\u00c2\u00a0 There isn’t even a terrestrial radio station we can trust anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 And those that do exist are in cahoots with the labels, not playing what is good, but what is a label priority.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve turned our backs.\u00c2\u00a0 At least Starbucks doesn’t play the game.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re trying to push quality.\u00c2\u00a0 No matter what the category.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, "Wisemen" is a Starbucks record.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the way you want to hear "Wisemen".\u00c2\u00a0 Not on a national TV show, but just in your daily rounds.\u00c2\u00a0 In your car.\u00c2\u00a0 Buying your coffee.\u00c2\u00a0 At home, after work, over the radio.<\/p>\n
The best way to sell music is STILL the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Fearful of pissing off terrestrial radio, the major labels hold satellite at arm’s length.\u00c2\u00a0 But satellite is the labels’, the MUSIC’S, savior.\u00c2\u00a0 There are dozens of music channels without commercials.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a listener’s paradise.<\/p>\n
Unlike XM, Sirius has small playlists.\u00c2\u00a0 When I got into my car to drive to Trader Vic’s last night, "Wisemen" was playing again.\u00c2\u00a0 And I heard it today too.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t need that amount of repetition.\u00c2\u00a0 I got it on one listen.\u00c2\u00a0 As soon as I got home I tore through about fifty CDs looking for my "Back To Bedlam" disc.<\/p>\n
I’d like to tell you "Back To Bedlam" is as good as "Tumbleweed Connection".\u00c2\u00a0 But it doesn’t have the twists and turns.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t stretch as much, it’s all kind of similar.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s a sound SO different from what’s being purveyed on Top Forty radio.\u00c2\u00a0 SO different from what is being pushed today.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why nobody wanted to sign James Blunt, why his record sat on the shelf for a year before being released.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s records like this that are the heart and soul of the business.\u00c2\u00a0 Records that touch us.<\/p>\n
Imagine you’ve had a long day on the slopes.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re lying on your bed in your dorm room drained.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve dropped the needle on a vinyl record.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re waiting to be taken away, on an aural trip.\u00c2\u00a0 "Wisemen" starts off dreamily, with strings and acoustic picking.\u00c2\u00a0 But there is a beat, a groove develops.\u00c2\u00a0 And then James starts to sing.\u00c2\u00a0 You can tell it’s important to him.\u00c2\u00a0 That he’s not trying to impress you, just desirous of conveying a story.\u00c2\u00a0 HIS story.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what we want.\u00c2\u00a0 Not people figuring out what we want and giving it to us, but artists following their muse giving us a view into their world.<\/p>\n
Did you listen to "Tea For The Tillerman"?\u00c2\u00a0 Did you listen to "Elton John"?\u00c2\u00a0 Did you used to think that music was a substitute girlfriend, and that if you finally did hook up with someone your records would enhance the experience?\u00c2\u00a0 "Wisemen" fits this description.<\/p>\n