Apple Buys EMI

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And the Beatles join the iTunes Store just in time for Saturday's iPad launch.

The deal... Just like with Apple's purchase of Lala, no hard numbers have been released. But both Citi and Terra Firma are happy. Citi gets its money back, and Guy Hands gets to save face, Terra Firma's covenant breaches become irrelevant, there's no need to raise and inject new capital and by selling to Jobs, et al, Hands gets to spin the concept that this was his plan all along.

Yes, the catalog license was just a ruse. Because, after all, everyone knows that Mr. Hands is smarter than Doug Morris and Mel Lewinter. Lucian Grainge? He's a glorified A&R guy with a bean counter mentality. Hands played the Universal boys like a fiddle. Do you really think he'd place the Fab Four's music in the hands of such charlatans? When he can put it in its rightful place, in the bosom of Steve Jobs, and see it live forever?


What we do know is Apple's got more of a future than major labels. Which is why the Cupertino company is smart enough to immediately close down new music development at EMI. It's about the catalog baby, unless you can stunt. Which is why Damian Kulash and OK Go are coming back. Yes, that was part of the deal, Jobs insisted. Upon launch of the 3G iPad, there will be a new OK Go video, to bump sales thirty days after the Wi-Fi launch. And, one year from now, when the 3-D iPad launches, the OK Go Rube Goldberg video will be free in 3-D for all purchasers. Along with a gratis copy of "Up" in 3-D.

A 3-D iPad?

3-D TV makes no sense. Sitting on the couch with those doofus glasses. But every 3-D iPad will come with WHITE glasses! Can you imagine the rage? Haven't heard from Kanye recently? That's because he's part of the 3-D iPad launch! He's going to promote the white glasses! Dr. Dre and Beats headphones? Come on. Monster compared to Apple? Iovine's no match for Jobs. Whatever happened to that Jimmy sponsored high quality sound for computers...go the way of SACD and DVD-A?

Anyway, despite turning EMI into a catalog company, there will be a road open into the new Apple-owned EMI (for the record, the EMI name will be dropped...no, it won't be called Apple Records, because of the Beatle conflict, the record company will just be another division of Apple Inc.) Apple has brokered a deal with SonicBids, wherein wannabes can submit music to be used in iPad promotions. One wonders how this works, because of the low quantity of music ultimately required and the vast number of submissions, but that hasn't stopped SonicBids in the past, so...

In other words, Apple will be in the new music business, but only for songs they can use to cross-promote Apple products. Furthermore, if you make a deal with Apple, you cannot tie in with any other company. Steve loves his walled garden. So, if you're contemplating a deal with Procter & Gamble, don't waste your time with SonicBids.

So what does this mean for music?

The story since the purchase of Lala has been cloud-based listening. But now that Apple owns not only the Beatles, but the Beach Boys and the Band (what Steve refers to as the "Three B's"), the company plans to drive down the price of music at the iTunes Store. Yes, within thirty days, every EMI track will be a dime. The major labels wanted higher prices?? Let them wrestle with LOWER prices! Yes, music will be a loss leader, all to sell iPads, iPods and iPhones. Everybody knows the money's in hardware. Furthermore, with streaming imminent, why not blow out MP3s? It took Universal ten years after Napster to drop the price of the CD to ten bucks? Apple can see that ownership is near extinction, they want to blow out product while they can.

As for the Beatles... They will only be available in Apple Lossless format. Yoko Ono insisted. It's a way of separating John from the legacy of Phil Spector, who famously wore that button "Back To Mono". By only making high quality files available, fidelity will be luscious, you won't get the compressed Wall of Sound and Phil can rot in jail, where Ono believes he belongs.

But, you say those lossless files take forever to download, they're bandwidth hogs!

Not Apple's problem. You pay for your Wi-Fi. And good luck downloading via AT&T on 3G, which is why Jobs will reveal the Verizon iPhone and iPads before the 3G model actually launches.

Controlling the music game, owning EMI and retail, forcing the other three major companies to play on his terms or die, Mr. Jobs is now moving into the touring sphere, where the majority of today's music money resides.

A deal has been brokered with Live Nation. With every concert ticket, you get a free download of the show within twenty four hours, IN VIDEO! Well, not every concert, just those acts controlled by Front Line. Yup, starts with the Eagles. Then Van Halen, who will be back on the road, although Valerie Bertinelli will not be singing backup, Perez Hilton's information is incorrect. Irving's plowing ahead with those acts who've collapsed all their rights and can make these deals. Yes, that was Terry McBride's concept, and his old charges the Barenaked Ladies, having a deal with EMI, will immediately make their concerts available on iPads too.

With so much power residing in Azoff and Rapino's empire, acts under contract to labels will clamor for their companies to grant iPad concert rights too. Soon, well, in two or three years, you know how slow the majors work, every concert ticket will come with a video. Expect audio first. You know how the majors like to dip their toes. Then again, Jobs has hired Hilary Rosen to whip the labels into shape, telling them this is the second coming, to get on board NOW, not to screw up like they did ten years ago.

Then, there's the true breakthrough. iPads at the show.

Yes, your iPad is your ticket. The screen will display a giant bar code. And this will thwart scalpers...like they're going to buy a boatload of iPads? Then again, just like acts scalp their own tickets, there's rumor of a back door deal between Azoff and Apple to do just this, sell discounted iPads to brokers, Azoff getting his money directly from Apple...

And once you've got your iPad at the gig, let the games begin!

Sure, you can tweet, and update your Facebook page. But, for an extra fee, you can get backstage video, every fan's true desire. For even more money, you get a personal greeting from the band member of your choice, to keep forever (or as long as your iPad works...) There's been talk of a further opportunity, one involving intimate involvement with performers after the show, but so far this has only been legally cleared in Nevada. Then again, Las Vegas is a burgeoning concert location.

Will iPads dominate at festivals?

Interesting question. Do you want Coachella Crud on your iPad? Or Stagecoach Schmutz? There's talk of a new device, much smaller, called the iWrist, but with such a small screen, it may be unworkable.

As for now, Steve Jobs illustrates his mercurial nature once again, doing the unexpected, swooping in and seizing an opportunity available to all, but making it work as a result of synergy. Yes, Microsoft kicked the tires. And Elevation Partners too. But Microsoft has got no hardware, no way to maximize the value. It made no sense for Ballmer to overpay. Sure, he could put Beatle pictures and music on Bing, but that's hard to truly monetize.

Palm's got the device, but no money and no traction. Bono and Paul McGuinness met with Guy Hands, but refused to put any of their own money into the deal. Guy told them U2 might be the biggest band in the world, but he couldn't sell the company on faith. As for trusting Roger McNamee...that just elicited a laugh.

As for Google... That was the reason for the Jobs/Schmidt summit last weekend (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?entry_id=60029&tsp=1) One, it distracted the press from sniffing out the EMI deal. Two, it signaled a division of spoils, wherein Apple gets music and Google gets search. Like two Mafia bosses, they divided up the landscape. Then again, Google was worried about worldwide exploitation of the Beatles, the band is still seen as subversive in China.

So the major label era is finally finished.

Steve said there's no way he's paying "Hits". Indie promotion is truly history.

Rob Stringer is cock-blocked. Yes, he wanted to sell to Apple first, but his brother nixed the deal. Sir Howard still believes he can resurrect the moribund Sony brand. Ain't that a laugh. Although there is supposedly a PlayPad in development.

Lyor Cohen... That's why he's selling his townhouse. He knew, he's out. As for Edgar Bronfman, Jr....it's like that old Paul Simon song, "Something So Right"...

"When something goes wrong
I'm the first to admit it
I'm the first to admit it
But the last one to know..."

So it's Steve's world. We just live in it. All you Apple haters can either get on the bus or be left behind. Tech rules. And techies are smarter than music business people. Even hedge funders are smarter than music business people. Come on, can't you give Guy Hands credit, he played this beautifully!

(Note: Clive Calder was outbid for EMI by Apple, he saw no reason to pay so much, he had no synergy, but expect him to buy both Warner and Sony in the aftermath, which he will run on the cheap, with Billy Ocean as head of A&R.)

WORD OF MOUTH

Image via CrunchBase

First and foremost comes a good product.

Requiring no admission fee, no college degree, no qualifications whatsoever, the music business is peopled by hucksters, who employ myriad scams to get you to pay attention to their wares.

But it doesn't work.

Used to. Back when there was limited distribution, when bribing a deejay to play your song got you a leg up. But who buys music because it's got a high iTunes chart position? Sam Adams worked the system in order to get meetings with major labels. But then what? If they sign him, they might market and promote him, but that doesn't mean his music will sell. Because only good music sells.

Sucks, I know. Makes it much more difficult for you. You can't get any traction outside your family and friends. The system's rigged against you. Bullshit. If you were actually good, you'd blow up. We've got people surfing the Web 24/7 looking for good stuff, dying to tell their peeps about it.

In Wednesday's "Wall Street Journal" there's a story about Porter Airlines. I wouldn't have bothered to read it except for the fact that in Toronto, my ear was bent constantly about the carrier.

People waxed rhapsodic. The terminal was downtown-adjacent! The planes had leather seats! The flight attendants were all decked out like the sixties! There was a brand new terminal! And you only had to check in minutes before!

If Porter does any advertising, I'm clueless. But having heard the rap so much, I started spreading the word too. When Seymour Stein told me he was having trouble flying back to New York I asked him, had he tried Porter?

Porter is triumphing with a good product. And it's being sold by its users. Kind of like Google.

I remember the turning point. A phone call with a non-tech savvy friend about a decade ago. She was telling me about some Web-activity and referenced "Googling" something.

This was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. I'd been ignoring the search engine, I was a fan of HotBot, but now I had to try Google out, now that the hoi polloi were employing it. Hell, the hoi polloi could barely surf the Web. If Google gave them answers...

I switched to Google overnight.

But it gets better. Not only did I become a user, but a fan. I was thrilled when Apple installed the Google search window in the Safari toolbar. Yeah! It was like my favorite team scoring a touchdown. This is what people don't realize about Steve Jobs' company. We not only buy the products, we're believers. We're interested in everything Apple does. Kick the tires on new products? Shit, sometimes we buy them without even experiencing them first. Ergo, iPad pre-orders.

But it only works if you've got a killer product.

It starts with a track. And from that track, you can build a career. Just like the iPod got people to buy iPhones and Macs. Give someone a taste of an exquisite product, and they're on board.

And it's not about speed. Hell, the twenty first century is littered with products that were hits overnight and disappeared almost instantly. You've got to let the audience discover you. You've got to let people believe it's their choice. Shit, Apple is one cold computer company. But their stores are warm, the customer service is great. And this pays dividends.

Let's focus on service. Because the initial product is not the end of the relationship. Point is, you want a relationship. Dell's lame overseas customer service ended up decimating the company. Apple's made in America customer service gets people testifying. See the difference?

The music business has been about batting people over the head to sell them a product once. You bought it. It sucks? That's your problem. Furthermore, we rip you off at every turn. Just try getting a good concert ticket...what's up with that? Hell, the experience buying an airline ticket is better!

So focus on the music. There's nothing wrong with updating your Facebook page, tweeting away. But those elements are never going to make you. It's your music that's your calling card. And if your music is good enough, it will be embraced by fans and the word will be spread. No one sits at home waiting for their favorite song to come on the radio anymore... Shit, if you like something you can e-mail a friend the MP3, point to a YouTube page, there are many entry points for exposure.

You don't stand out because of the penumbra. Shit, even J. Lo lost her Sony gig. It's no longer how good you look, who you know, who you hang with... It's about the tunes.

Don't point out the exceptions. Those acts tend to be here today and gone tomorrow. Furthermore, this is a twenty first century change. When so much is available, when marketing is abhorred and tuned out, the only people we listen to are our friends. We trust them.

Marketing is the final step these days. It's about positioning. It's about imaging. Like those iPod billboards. They don't tell you much, they just remind you how hip the product is.

So don't bother attending marketing seminars. Don't listen to the major label tell you how it used to be. Just practice, practice, practice. Make something insanely great. And post it online. Hell, give it away for free. Because if it's really good, people will ultimately clamor around you to give you their money...for concert tickets, t-shits and signed CDs, even if they only listen to MP3s. Because believers need badges of honor. They want to evidence what's close to their hearts. It's the key to logos on clothing. Shit, no one wants to sport a JCPenney or Wal-Mart logo just like no one wants to help you sell your lame music. But Louis Vuitton?

And, in case you didn't know... That LV luggage lasts FOREVER!

Money, Power & Fame

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I read a story on the airplane...

Not only am I not sure what time it is, I wouldn't even bet on what DAY it is!

I got off the airplane and my BlackBerry said 3:22 AM. How could that be? My watch said an hour earlier. Took me about twenty minutes to factor in Daylight Savings Time. Fucking BlackBerry can't figure out what time zone I'm in, but it can adjust for Daylight Savings Time?

Much earlier, as it rained outside, I had lunch on the twelfth floor of the Royal York with Roger Faxon, Chairman and CEO of EMI Music Publishing. They say these guys are clueless? Can't agree with you when it comes to Mr. Faxon. His views were practical, he had a handle on the landscape and informed me that EMI's record company and publishing company were two separate entities under the same umbrella, they were already divided, it had been a condition of Terra Firma's purchase. So when the whip comes down...

Which it inevitably will.

Then I journeyed with Jake to the airport, which was a clusterfuck nonpareil. The "Wall Street Journal" said to arrive two and a half hours in advance, ever since that terrorist incident at the end of last year travel from Canada to the States has been...well, let's just say they've gotten a lot stricter at immigration.

Not that it made any difference. My plane ended up being delayed by two and a half hours.

You see there was weather. Wind shear in T.O., our plane had to stop in Chi-town for more fuel after turning back, afraid of the waiting disaster at Pearson. As for NYC... Something was blowing really hard there too, flights were fucked up all day. Seymour told me he'd considered taking the bus. He had friends in for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he needed to get home.

THE BUS?

I couldn't quite envision it, Seymour Stein journeying like Joe Buck from T.O. to NYC. Only eight hours he said. THE BUS? I remember my parents making me take it from Connecticut back to college in Vermont. This was before every kid in America got a car when he turned 16, so his parents didn't have to schlep him around. I was scarred for life! Shit, if you want someone to strive for economic greatness, just make them take the bus. It's a window into a low class world that you're dying to escape. Shit, did they even HAVE buses anymore? I thought the companies followed the railroads into bankruptcy.

Last I heard, the flight to New York was canceled and rescheduled for 7 AM. Last I saw Seymour, he was heading for the gate. Maybe he should have taken the highway.

And after two hours of insight with Seymour, covering the history of the music industry from Sid Nathan to Lyor Cohen, he was replaced in his seat by Vince. Who I'd seen flying in the front of the plane on the way in.

NO, Getty Images doesn't pay for business class. Vince is EXECUTIVE PLATINUM! Shit, the CEO of Getty flies in the back of the plane. At least that's the ticket he buys. At least that's what Vince said.

And like Bonnie Raitt sang, the luck of the draw got me upgraded to one of the two empty seats in business class. Which was a godsend, having already spent the length of the journey to L.A. at the airport.

And the ride was bumpy. But I read an article in "Vanity Fair"...

Did you read Michael Lewis' "Liar's Poker"? He worked at Salomon Brothers and told the story. One I've never forgotten. Of blowing up bankers all over the world. Yup, Goldman Sachs had to unload paper, and if someone in a far-flung country, or the keeper of the pension funds lost a bundle, hell, it was just business.

And it freaked Lewis out so much he quit, married Tabitha Soren and started following baseball.

Well, not exactly. He did end up marrying the MTV News queen. His most famous book is "Moneyball". But he's still an expert on Wall Street. He's one of the few writers who can make it comprehensible. Wow, you can read this story online!

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/04/wall-street-excerpt-201004

You're never going to read it online. Hell, you're probably never even going to read it. And that's just the point. The article is about Michael Burry, who figured out the mortgage market was gonna tank and bet against it. Burry was the leading edge.

But this story isn't about money. It's about dedication.

You see Michael Burry was passionate. He was a doctor, training at the hospital, enduring those endless hours, but still he found time to pore over prospectuses, study stocks and pontificate online. To the point when he went pro, some of the most famous traders in America found him, invested in him!

Let me make this clear. This is like making music in your basement and getting a call from Doug Morris or Timbaland or David Foster. But they don't want to mold you, they don't want to change you, they don't want you to do anything different, they just want A PIECE OF YOUR ACTION!

Yup, they found Burry on the Internet.

Isn't it interesting that warhorses in the music business will pooh-pooh the Net, saying you can't break an act there, that it comes down to radio and television, but the real money men are trolling for info online?

And how did Burry get so good at picking stocks? BY STUDYING!

Yup, doing the work.

This is Gladwell time.

We live in a country where no one wants to do the work.

Oh, I know that's an overstatement. But most people want to watch television. They want to focus on their image. Is it any wonder they're left behind?

Not that you need a formal education to make it. You can't learn the stock market in school. You've got to learn it on your own, like the music business.

And Burry's returns at his Scion fund are confoundingly large. It's all about value. He bets on fundamentally sound companies that are experiencing a bit of trouble. He hangs in there during the downward spiral in order to ride the roller coaster to the top, making beaucoup bucks along the way.

This is like investing in a band that may not look great, may need to woodshed a bit, may need to make three or four albums, but when it gets it together will be a gold mine. We can call it the Kings of Leon. We can call it artist development. We can call it ANYTHING but flavor of the moment.

That's the point. Are you willing to do it differently? Are you willing to do the work and come up with your own conclusions, your own solutions? That's Steve Jobs' way. When everybody said you've got to have open standards, he promoted closed systems. And now he's the big winner.

And Burry got so deep into it, figuring out when and what mortgage bonds were gonna tank, that he bought credit default swaps and made...enough money to buy your entire neighborhood. And the one next to you. And the one next to that.

By being brilliant. Even though so many investors said his plan was lunacy and wanted no part of it.

THIS is the American story. Not making a mix tape and partying with Paris Hilton and getting a photo in TMZ... Snooki is a diversion for the masses, the losers. Do you want to be a winner?

Winners start off in the wilderness. They do it their own way. They stick to their guns. They work incessantly and they never give up.

Whew. That just does not sound like enough people in the record business, on either side of the fence, talent or businessman.

We live in a confusing, crazy world. But one thing is constant. The winners pay their dues. And it's not solely time on the chain gang. No, there's a ton of anxiety involved. Questioning yourself, taking risks, sticking to your guns when no one believes in you.

It's every man for himself out there. Shouldn't be, but it is.

There's a safety net in Canada. In Sweden. That's the socialism you decry. But in the good old United States, the game is stacked against you. Those with power, with money, have erected walls to keep you out. And if you think kissing butt is the way to get ahead, you're delusional. It's not about how you can get signed, it's about how you can beat Universal at its own game. You've got to be smarter than Lucian Grainge. Believe me, these people exist. And they're gonna be the winners. They're the ones we're gonna be reading about in "Vanity Fair" five years from now.

The Apple Paradigm

Image by armintalic via Flickr

Insanely great products a handful of times a year.

Imagine if Apple introduced a product no one wanted. Something lame. And held a press conference every other week to trumpet its features.

Then you'd have the music business.

What's the lifespan of excitement on a laptop?

Certainly not a year. Maybe nine months at most. Which is why Apple updates them before they get long in the tooth. To drive excitement. To drive desire.

Want a new iPod?

You know there's going to be a new lineup in September.

Just like you know there's going to be a new iPhone in June.

Just like you know once every twenty four months or so, Steve Jobs is going to blow our minds with a whole new category.

In between these announcements? A dearth of information.

Well, not exactly, the minions online are constantly debating what's in the future, the same way we used to get excited about the coming albums of our favorite artists.

Instead, we now see these releases trumpeted in advance in magazines and newspapers. Singles are leaked. And when they stiff, new tracks are proffered. Then, an album comes out, with more music than anybody wants to listen to. And we're supposed to play this same damn album for two or three years until there's a new one, while the act goes on the road and cleans up. Huh?

First thing Steve Jobs did when he returned to Apple a decade ago was trim the product line, to make it comprehensible.

Time for you to do the same thing. Only release great stuff. Until you're in such demand that people want the other stuff. And don't hype the other stuff the same way you do the great stuff. Maybe you sneak out the "album tracks" unannounced on your Website, for fans only. And, I hate to scare you, but album tracks are for fans only anymore anyway.

And either make yourself totally available or cloak yourself in secrecy. The latter works, especially if you're a happening/in demand act. No one foresaw the "In Rainbows" promotion. That was its genius, not the name your own price feature. How suddenly, there was a Website, and not that much more. The band didn't give interviews, the public went crazy and built the story.

Steve Jobs is bigger than any rock star. Not because he's better one on one, but because he seems to hover above us. Delivering what we don't even know we want, but makes us so happy. Like the Beatles with "Sgt. Pepper".

We laugh at Lady GaGa because she substitutes outfits for charisma. It's the gooey center we're interested in, not the wrapping. The twenty first century is not about flash, but substance. If you want to last.

U2 At The Rose Bowl

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Have you seen "U23D"? You should! Can't think of a better concert film. But the vibe is even better. Shot in South America, in soccer stadiums, you get the feeling of danger, of being outside the law, of being in a nation built by rock and roll.

That's how it felt last night.

If one person had yelled FIRE, many would have been trampled. You not only had to wait in line to get into the gate, you had to wait in line to enter the tunnel to your seat. And when you got there, the sea of humanity was both inspiring and frightening. All colors, not every age. Even though the Black Eyed Peas opened, the younger, bump your hips in the club to get laid and the barely pubescent I want to be like Fergie crowd was not in attendance. This was the last bastion of the population that believed rock and roll could truly save your life. A bunch of baby boomers, but really fortysomethings. They caught on with "Boy", and "Joshua Tree" was the soundtrack to their college years.

So why did U2 begin with the new album?

The Claw is far from impressive in real life. After all the hype, it seemed like something created on a whim as opposed to a military operation conceived and erected by the greatest minds in the business.

Let me be clear. It was the Claw itself that was the problem. What was beneath it, the stage, the ring, the video screen, the rotating ramps, they were MESMERIZING!

But the music was not.

Until "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".

"I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you"

Tell someone under twenty one that you sat at home with the TV on all day, waiting to see your favorite video, and they'll look at you dumbfounded. We live in an on demand world. There may be community online, but it's inherently niche. Whereas everyone with ears, everyone who grew up with the Beatles and younger was addicted to MTV.

And sure, there were notable transcendent moments, breakthroughs that changed the business forever.

First came the Duran Duran videos. A fortune spent on them, the band became a household world.

U2 came next. With "Sunday Bloody Sunday" from Red Rocks. If the air had been clear, would the video have been as classic? To see Bono run around with that flag, in the mist, was to believe that rock and roll could triumph.

Michael Jackson danced his way into America's heart.

But there was a parallel story. It was great that MTV became a big tent, but rock and roll did not die. We had U2 marching the streets of Las Vegas, singing "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". An exquisite concoction of electric and acoustic elements, who can forget Edge walking amongst the neon lights strumming his guitar? This was the joy, the triumph, the power that allows Bono to talk to heads of state. U2 led an army of listeners, all based upon these records, these tracks. They believed that via music we could have a better life, a better world.

Is this still possible?

Music is not leading the way. Steve Jobs and Sergey Brin are bigger rock stars than anybody on the hit parade. Still, U2 soldiers on. And we follow, because we want to believe.

That's what last night was. A celebration of who we used to be. With the hope that we could still be something more.

But the new album has not connected with fans. Most people in attendance seemed to be clueless. Instead of physical writhing, when U2 hit the stage to a slew of new tunes, the audience stood stock still. I was grooving during "Magnificent", I love that track, but with a million copies of "No Line On The Horizon" sold in the U.S., how many of this 100,000 in attendance had bought it?

We live in an attention economy. And U2 screwed up. They didn't get their audience's attention. The album should have come free with the ticket. Doesn't matter if you make new music, you're a has-been in the eye of the public if your new tracks don't catch on.

So, last night the set progressed in fits and starts.

And, picking and choosing from almost every era of the band as opposed to just playing greatest hits, the audience never completely caught fire.

Let's be clear. They were playing to 100,000. Manipulating that many is difficult. Is Bono up to the task? Absolutely! But when Paul McCartney wants to work in new material, he starts off with "Drive My Car", he gets heads exploding first.

Don't get the wrong idea. There were peaks. "Mysterious Ways". And the ultimate crowd triumph was "Where The Streets Have No Name". But the rising hands, the unity of the audience during that number, the feeling that you were part of one large, writhing ocean, was absent for most of the rest of the show.

But you could see just fine. Bono was in fine voice. And when the ramps swung around seemingly with a mind of their own, your jaw dropped. And when the video screen expanded, dropped, you said to yourself I'VE SEEN NOTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE!

But it still comes down to the music.

I LOVED hearing "Until The End Of The World". "Achtung Baby" is my favorite U2 album.

"Get On Your Boots" had a different feel live. Less experimental, more straight ahead rock. But if you didn't love it already, you wouldn't be closed.

And we had the recent hit "Vertigo", but we wanted to hear "Pride (In The Name Of Love)". "New Year's Day". Maybe even "I Will Follow". Last night should not have been an exhibition demonstrating that U2 is still relevant, it should have been a celebration of their career, a restatement of the bond between band and audience, a few more classics and no one would have gone out for a beer, everybody would have sung along, there would have been momentum, the whole Rose Bowl would have levitated.

They've got a chance. They can use innovative new ways to get the new music to the live audience. They can restructure the set so there are fewer dead spots, so the audience is riveted, along for the ride the whole time. Playing a stadium is different from doing your act in an arena. Even with 20,000, you can have everybody in the palm of your hand. But once you start singing to forty or fifty thousand plus, you've got to throw out the old rules, you're working with a different paradigm. In other words, the stage was not enough. It all depended upon the music.

But when the music was right...

"I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone"

Live rock and roll, when done right, strips away your regular life, school, work, even relationships. The band is on stage, you're in the audience, and the music hovers between you, an oil, a lubricant, that allows a certain freedom, a movement that you heretofore did not know you possessed. You're standing, moving like Gumby, not caring what others think of your moves, even if you're as bad a dancer as Elaine on "Seinfeld".

"But I still haven't found what I'm looking for But I still haven't found what I'm looking for But I still haven't found what I'm looking for"

I was looking for transcendence.

We can't get it from sold out politicians.

We can't get it from tools of the corporate music trade like the Black Eyed Peas.

We depend on a certain breed of artist, not beholden to anyone but themselves. Either so poor or so rich that they just don't care.

I want Bono to lead us out of the wilderness. I want to tell you that I saw God last night.

I saw God at the Fillmore East, when the Who performed "Tommy" from start to finish.

I saw God at Flipper's roller disco, when Prince performed "Dirty Mind".

I saw God at the Sports Arena in 1992, when U2 toured "Achtung Baby" indoors. The visual assault, with lights in Trabants, with TV screens blasting more information than our brains could process, set the stage for the music. It was a band on stage. They were a cohesive unit. Too many times last night, band members were almost furlongs away from each other. Playing to a last row that they just couldn't seem to reach emotionally.

Good attempt.

Imperfect execution.

I want to believe.

Make me a believer.