Don’t it.<\/p>\n
I was driving down Benedict Canyon with a Mercedes on my ass listening to "Stairway To Heaven".<\/p>\n
When Lee Abrams was in charge of XM, "Stairway" was banned, we’d heard it enough, do we ever need to hear it again?\u00c2\u00a0 And while I’m contemplating the lift from Spirit, Robert’s pure voice, the inane lyrics and the dumb inner cover, the record changed.<\/p>\n
When "Every Picture Tells A Story" was released Rod Stewart was unknown.<\/p>\n
That changed overnight.<\/p>\n
Despite having two albums under his belt, "Gasoline Alley" being the best work he’d ever do, almost no one in the States had a clue who the guy with the rooster hairdo was.\u00c2\u00a0 Then came "Maggie May".<\/p>\n
That’s the game, staying in it long enough to get lucky.<\/p>\n
But I never loved that track.\u00c2\u00a0 For me it was the first cut on the other side, the opening song, the title track.<\/p>\n
Now back when this record was released, I didn’t even own a car.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember riding to the record store on my bicycle to buy the album the day it came out, I was just that big a fan, I had a poster on my dorm room wall.\u00c2\u00a0 And I dropped the needle and it sounded like where the last record left off, the plaintive acoustic guitar, the story continues, it was like getting a phone call from an old friend.<\/p>\n
And then the drum hit.<\/p>\n
Spent some time feelin’ inferior<\/span> Ain’t that the teenage condition.\u00c2\u00a0 If you could only break out of the house and begin your life…and that’s exactly what Rod Stewart did, he was telling us his story.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that I’m better than you, but this is the tale if you take a risk, follow the music, opportunities and surprises are rife.<\/p>\n Down in Rome I wasn’t gettin’ me none<\/span> Everyone’s a winner.\u00c2\u00a0 No one’s got questions.\u00c2\u00a0 No one has any despair.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just a constant climb to the top.<\/p>\n Bullshit.<\/p>\n Then there’s that moment when Rod goes "Whew!"\u00c2\u00a0 THAT MAKES THE RECORD!\u00c2\u00a0 You see music is about emotion.\u00c2\u00a0 Not the kind that Christina Aguilera fakes, but the elation that you’re in the music game now and even though you might be bounced out any second, you’re loving the ride.<\/p>\n And when Maggie Bell comes in with the "vocal abrasives" you want to run out the front door and sign up, WHERE DO I GET MORE OF THIS!<\/p>\n Sure, I want to meet Shanghai Lil.\u00c2\u00a0 But really I want to be in the studio, just let me be a fly on the wall, experiencing all this.<\/p>\n I was driving to lunch with Craig Kallman.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d like to tell you I got insight into the Warner sale, but he knows no more than you and me, he’s reading the papers too.\u00c2\u00a0 But he did tell me about his big project, Atlantic Studios.<\/p>\n You see Craig’s looking for virtuosos, players.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s chasing talent instead of stardom.\u00c2\u00a0 He wants someone who stayed home and practiced like John Mayer instead of someone with a ton of YouTube hits.\u00c2\u00a0 And he’s having a hard time unearthing talent. So he decided to foster it himself.\u00c2\u00a0 They got a building in Hollywood, installed four studios and want everybody to come and HANG OUT!\u00c2\u00a0 Craig figures there’ll be some serendipity, young players will get inspired, it’ll be about the music as opposed to the fame.<\/p>\n And now David Guetta’s working there.\u00c2\u00a0 The building is humming 24\/7.<\/p>\n That’s the future.\u00c2\u00a0 The music.<\/p>\n On paper, Rod Stewart was a stiff just moments before "Maggie May".\u00c2\u00a0 He didn’t sound like anybody else!\u00c2\u00a0 There was no slot. But the public becomes infatuated with that which is different and great, because there’s so little of it.<\/p>\n In other words, if you want to be successful you’re better off driving away from the mainstream instead of parking your car and hanging out with the usual suspects.<\/p>\n It’s a beautiful day in SoCal.\u00c2\u00a0 Not a cloud in the sky, it’s the time of possibilities.\u00c2\u00a0 And possibilities are born from music.\u00c2\u00a0 You put on your favorite record and get inspired.\u00c2\u00a0 I heard "Every Picture Tells A Story" and got inspired.\u00c2\u00a0 It sounded as fresh as it did back in ’71.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like a great book or "The Godfather" never fades, never loses relevance.\u00c2\u00a0 But few have the inclination to take such risk.\u00c2\u00a0 To be all in.<\/p>\n But that’s not enough.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to work hard to get to the point where you can be noticed.<\/p>\n Rod did that vocal for Python Lee Jackson.<\/p>\n He was the lead singer for the Jeff Beck Group.<\/p>\n And now he was a member of the Faces.<\/p>\n He didn’t know he’d become so big.\u00c2\u00a0 He was just another voice.\u00c2\u00a0 Becoming more mature with each mile passing by under his wheels.<\/p>\n There are no guarantees in music.<\/p>\n You just get bitten by the bug and practice.<\/p>\n Or maybe you’re a listener, building your collection, addicted.<\/p>\n But what gets everybody addicted is originality.<\/p>\n And originality doesn’t come from a twelve year old.\u00c2\u00a0 It comes from someone who’s been bruised and battered, who can not only play but tell his world-weary tale.<\/p>\n If you don’t want to go for a ride on the Peking Ferry you’re no friend of mine.<\/p>\n You can’t bring your snazzy automobile.\u00c2\u00a0 Nor your designer outfits.\u00c2\u00a0 You can only bring yourself.<\/p>\n So shine up your personality, rehearse your tales, perfect your smile and LET’S GO!<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Don’t it. I was driving down Benedict Canyon with a Mercedes on my ass listening to "Stairway To Heaven". When Lee Abrams was in charge of XM, "Stairway" was banned, we’d heard it enough, do we ever need to hear it again?\u00c2\u00a0 And while I’m contemplating the lift from Spirit, Robert’s pure voice, the inane […]<\/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":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-14i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110","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=4110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4111,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110\/revisions\/4111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Standing in front of my mirror<\/span><\/p>\n
Of the things that keep a young man alive<\/span><\/p>\n