Satellite radio has not been the same since Lee Abrams’s departure.<\/p>\n
I don’t want to be an apologist for Mr. Abrams, but that sluts video that got him fired at the "Tribune"…he was Dixie Chicked.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no uproar at first.\u00c2\u00a0 It was all after the fact.<\/p>\n
Not that I believe the "Tribune" staff shouldn’t have been fired.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio guys running newspapers?\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t that like baseball managers becoming football coaches?<\/p>\n
But what made Mr. Abrams so great, so effective at XM, was his elimination of all the radio b.s., the shuck and jive, along with "Stairway To Heaven" and "Free Bird" and all the burned out tracks that we never need to hear again in our life.\u00c2\u00a0 XM was made for fans. And fans built it.<\/p>\n
Until Hugh Panero destroyed it by failing to make a deal with Howard Stern.<\/p>\n
And now the Sirius brass is in charge of satellite radio.\u00c2\u00a0 And all the lame bumpers, all the stuff that appeals to no human being but consultants think is necessary, is stuffed into the cracks, along with all the tuneouts.<\/p>\n
But not on every station.<\/p>\n
I can no longer sell satellite radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas I used to be a free evangelist.\u00c2\u00a0 But that was eight years ago, a lifetime in the media world.\u00c2\u00a0 But I still listen, because it’s better than anything else, but not as good as it could be and once was.<\/p>\n
Which is an extremely long introduction to telling you about tracks I heard on the Coffee House yesterday.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, that’s an original Sirius station.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s not cohesive, it’s got jive bumpers, but every once in a while I hear a song that elates me, changes my life, if only for a few minutes on the highway.<\/p>\n
Like "Marry Me".<\/p>\n
I was a huge fan of Train before they started swinging for the fences.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you know "I Am" and "Free" from their debut?\u00c2\u00a0 You should.<\/p>\n
And now I’m a fan again.\u00c2\u00a0 Because "Marry Me" is exquisite.<\/p>\n
It’s not my favorite song on this subject, that would be Don Henley’s cover of Larry John McNally’s "For My Wedding" on "Inside Job".\u00c2\u00a0 Still, the feel, the vibe of "Marry Me" is what music does best.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s wistful, it’s personal, it penetrates you because it’s so simple.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t even bother to listen to the lyrics, just marinate in the sound.<\/p>\n
Eventually I heard "When I Was In Your Heart".\u00c2\u00a0 After my doctor’s appointment.\u00c2\u00a0 I haven’t gotten David Gray since "White Ladder".\u00c2\u00a0 He changed his sound, the records were slick, they didn’t touch me in the same way.\u00c2\u00a0 But this???\u00c2\u00a0 If you were ever a fan, check this out.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s almost creepy, you almost want to leave the room.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like you stumbled on your best buddy alone in a room and you just can’t handle the raw intensity.\u00c2\u00a0 This isn’t reflection, David is still feeling these feelings.\u00c2\u00a0 And nothing you say to him will be able to soothe him, to make him lighten up and forget.\u00c2\u00a0 This is so honest, so real that it almost scares you.<\/p>\n
But right after that Train track, I heard a cover of "Love Me Do".<\/p>\n
That’s a cheap shot, right?\u00c2\u00a0 Covering the Beatles?\u00c2\u00a0 Covering anybody?\u00c2\u00a0 But this version was rearranged just enough to be different, and to add insight.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean "Love Me Do" is one of the simplest Beatle songs, from the very beginning, it’s sing-songy, it’s about the rhythm, the sound.\u00c2\u00a0 But Lisa Lauren’s version is also about the lyrics.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, I got them, in a way I never did listening to the original.<\/p>\n
Lisa Lauren?\u00c2\u00a0 Who’s that?<\/p>\n
I e-mailed myself her name.\u00c2\u00a0 And just Googled her.<\/p>\n
She’s not famous enough to have her own Wikipedia page.<\/p>\n
But she did work with David Sanborn…come on, he’s GREAT!<\/p>\n
And "Love Me Do" is from a complete album of Beatles covers. Which I pulled up in Spotify (they were in Spotify??)\u00c2\u00a0 Then I played "Dear Prudence".\u00c2\u00a0 It had the same magic of "Love Me Do"…\u00c2\u00a0 It was just different enough to be enticing.<\/p>\n
The Coffee House is all acoustic music.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually live takes, although all three of these are studio originals.\u00c2\u00a0 You won’t hear any of this stuff on Top Forty radio, but that doesn’t mean it’s not great, that it’s not worth your time.<\/p>\n
It’s like we’re living in 1968 all over again.\u00c2\u00a0 All the good stuff’s on FM, AM is a wasteland.\u00c2\u00a0 If you hate today’s music, I get it.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the mainstream stuff that’s being jammed down your throat is too often crap.\u00c2\u00a0 Did you read Jon Pareles’s story about the minimalism of today’s tracks in last Sunday’s "New York Times" ("Want A Hit? Keep It Simple": http:\/\/nyti.ms\/fwWn3N)?\u00c2\u00a0 Pretty soon, a track will just be a shout.\u00c2\u00a0 Or a beat.\u00c2\u00a0 Or a yelp. Something a consultant can point to in callout research to get those not playing by their guts to program by.<\/p>\n
But we know better.\u00c2\u00a0 We know it’s all about your gut.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about feeling.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about thought.<\/p>\n
Play this shit.\u00c2\u00a0 It’ll turn your head.\u00c2\u00a0 You won’t be able to say there’s no good music anymore.<\/p>\n
\n"Marry Me"<\/a><\/p>\n"When I Was In Your Heart"<\/a><\/p>\n
"Love Me Do"<\/a>
"Dear Prudence"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Satellite radio has not been the same since Lee Abrams’s departure. I don’t want to be an apologist for Mr. Abrams, but that sluts video that got him fired at the "Tribune"…he was Dixie Chicked.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no uproar at first.\u00c2\u00a0 It was all after the fact. Not that I believe the "Tribune" staff shouldn’t […]<\/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":[7,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-radio","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-XG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700","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=3700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3701,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700\/revisions\/3701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}