Stop Draggin' My Heart Around

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers via last.fm

"Leather and Lace" is my favorite track on Stevie Nicks' solo debut.

But it's not the best.

"Leather and Lace" has that vibe that's fallen by the wayside, you know, the one where a woman in a long dress takes you into the dell and reveals her inner truth as you stare into her eyes and fall in love. Today's female artists are in your face, competing with the men, kicking you to the curb, or so wimpy as to be disposable, completely irrelevant.

But as much as I love "Leather and Lace"'s intimate feel, its circular nature, what puts it over the top comes halfway through, when Don Henley starts to sing:

"You in the moonlight
With your sleepy eyes
Could you ever love a man like me"

This is who we wanted to be. A sweet man, with substance inside, a certain solid quality. And you could infer a sexual meaning to what I just said, and maybe that's just the point. Sex today is portrayed as rough, you take your woman, or vice versa, but reality is more about those who are self-conscious, yet are finally honest with another human being and end up connecting, coming inside.

Take that either way you want to. Metaphorically or sexually. That's just the point. When done right, sex is an opening up, a connection. But our society is too fearful to portray it that way. Movies are laden with special effects, but sometimes songs get it right. And "Leather and Lace" does.

The reason "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" triumphs is not because of Tom Petty's vocal, however great it might be, but the riffs, the underlying song. It's Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers backing Stevie Nicks, as she reveals her frustration with a certain intimacy, that doesn't want for power.

"Baby you'll come knocking on my front door Same old line you used to use before"

Truth. She's busting him.

But that's not the complete story...

I had to go to the bathroom. Which is why I entered City Market solo. Felice, her brother and my two college buddies were ensconced in the store, deep into the belly of the beast, long after dark, when the food emporium was almost empty, except for the catatonic cashiers up front.

And I hear something in the background, over the sound system, a record playing.

It's like the song scooped me up and took me for a ride.

Suddenly, there was a bounce in my step. I'd missed the explosive opening riff. But that groove was so wide, it swallowed me whole, carried me away.

"Leather and Lace" is a great song.

"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" is a classic.

Not something they sing on "American Idol", not something that can be sanitized and sung at pep or political rallies. It sits at the nexus of rock and roll and its audience. When the most important item you owned wasn't your cell phone, but your stereo. You came home and CRANKED IT!

Yes, I turned up "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" so loud the neighbors freaked. But who could resist? You just wanted to get closer, you just wanted to be enveloped.

As necessary as Ms. Nicks is to this rendition, it's Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers who shine. What mutation happened on stage, in rehearsal, that made them come up with this sound? Yes, it's uniquely theirs... They listened to the same British Invasion tracks we did, but with these influences they created something unique. That nestled perfectly alongside the rest of the FM hit parade. Bands didn't go to Timbaland to get the same sound as every other outfit, they crafted their own!

"It's hard to think about what you've wanted It's hard to think about what you've lost"

You bet. That's what I told Ron the night before. Life was about closing doors. Yup, as you're watching TV, as you're wasting time, doors are shutting behind you like crazy. There goes your chance to be a movie director, there goes your chance to be a famous author, there goes your chance to have kids. They tell you life goes by fast, but they don't tell you how hard it is to accomplish a single thing. They don't tell you how hard it is to be a rock and roll star, one with a career, who lasts.

I don't want to think about what I wanted. It freaks me out to think about what I've lost. But when I heard "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" in the supermarket Friday night my life worked. By spending those endless hours listening to the radio, the stereo, digging ever deeper, I'd come across this great record, which I'd played so many times it was in my DNA, to the point when it came over the sound system the other night it was better than being greeted by an old friend, it was like being welcomed by God.

Yup, that's what's in those rock and roll records.

Don't listen to the charlatans telling you to go to a house of worship, where you'll be instructed what you can and cannot do.

Rock and roll is a big tent. It allows all comers. Any height, any skin color. Just put on the record and turn it up. You'll see something that eludes every edition of the Bible. You'll see life itself, in all its glory, the warts and the inspiration.

Screw instant stardom. Tom Petty played more gigs in bars than most people in today's hit parade have played in their entire lives. Malcolm Gladwell said the Beatles were so good because of all that wood shedding in Hamburg? Tom Petty and his band are so freakin' great because of all those hours in Gainesville. Listening to the radio. Practicing. Gigging.

We baby boomers know the difference. Because when the Fab Four hit, we all picked up instruments, formed bands. But we gave up when it got tough, we went to college, but Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers PERSISTED!

Intention – The Bolder Dimension of Songwriting

Paul McCartney via last.fm

My buddy Wayne asked me to share this with my friends. It is a well written article about Songwriting that all songwriter's might enjoy.

Wayne Cohen, veteran multi-platinum selling ASCAP hit songwriter, producer and educator, owner of publishing/production company Stand Up Songs.

Wayne teaches individual and group songwriting tutoring sessions at his NYC Stand Up Studio and via Skype.

One of my song tutoring students recently sang me a song she was working on called ‘Listen You’, which I thought was a cool idea about missing that special someone. She had strong lyrics for her chorus, but the chorus chords she had were in a minor key just like the verse had been. The minor chords worked great in the verse, but the melody fell flat at the chorus. I call this kind of chorus melody problem flat lining, as in, the melody didn’t lift enough for a chorus. I suggested that she go to the relative major key for the chorus, and that the melody needed to be ‘happier’ to pay off the manic lyric idea she had set up. This eventually made for a killer chorus for that song.

This started me thinking, if the question is, ‘how do you write a breakthrough song?’

This experience with my student reinforced my conviction that having an intention when writing is the answer. In other words, if you can imagine the result you want before you get there, you have a much better chance of achieving that result.

I think lack of intention is one of the things that is crippling the music industry. I see creators in many fields (not just songwriters) influenced by the culture of immediacy that we are living in. I believe some songwriters are influenced away from writing a breakthrough song, expressing a riveting clear universal emotion with catchy melodies, and instead are focused on making trendy tracks that sell immediately. I think the craft of songwriting is suffering as a result, and this shortsightedness is contributing to a lack of certain songs’ longevity on the charts.

But keeping this idea of intention can be a tricky business when writing a song, because sometimes you don’t want to question that magical part of writing from pure inspiration. Great songs can seem to fall out of the sky and flow through the writer.

However there are so many facets of songwriting that can be improved by conscious thought. There are many examples of this, not the least of which is McCartney’s now clichéd story about ‘Yesterday’ starting out as a song he dreamed called ‘Scrambled Eggs’. After further consideration, the title and subsequent lyric story of ‘Yesterday’ had just the right feeling for the melody he dreamed. The title and lyric fit like hand in glove. But he worked at it ‘til he had something great. And that was all because of his intention to write a great song. Luckily he didn’t settle for ‘Scrambled Eggs’.

So, you ask, how can we take an OK song and make it better, with the right intention?

As a starting point, here is a quick intention checklist to run your songs by.
Intention Check List:

1. How do you want the song to feel?
2. Does every aspect of the song feel the way you want it to feel?
3. Does the lyric develop within a section, and from section to section, to express an urgent coherent story, the way you want it to?
4. Does the melody have the right flow, i.e., does it climax and subside where it needs to? (from the verse into the chorus, etc..)
5. Is there rhyme scheme consistency and development in the right places?
6. Have you mapped your melodic rhythm by using slash marks to count the number of syllables (for ex., map the V1 melody so that V2 will have the same melodic rhythm)?

Feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you did with the checklist…I’m curious! You can hook up with my buddy Wayne here: wayne@standupsongs.com

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

Image by Pesky Library via Flickr

You can't buy it.

But the buzz is unbelievable. Readers feel triumphant, special, like they're members of a cult. Does this remind you of the way it used to be in the music business?

Start reading "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". Just buy it. Don't check with your friends, the price is not outrageous, give it fifty or a hundred pages.

Actually, it doesn't take that long. Far before that, you'll be hooked.

There's no video, no outrageous outfits like Lady GaGa, none of the penumbra that saddles music today. Remember when music was enough? That's how it is with Stieg Larsson's "Millennium Trilogy", the story is enough.

As soon as you finish "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", you'll buy "The Girl Who Played With Fire". Nobody stops at book one, hell, they're thrilled there's a sequel. Kind of like buying the first album by a new act, spinning it to death, and finding out there's already a second, just as good!

But imagine that second album ending in the middle of a song. That's what reading "The Girl Who Played With Fire" is like. You've got to read the third book, "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest" to find out what happened to Lisbeth Salander. Is she alive, is she dead?

I'm not telling.

But I will say that for a book that's unavailable in the U.S., that needs to be ordered via subterfuge, from the U.K., it's astounding how many copies I see in my everyday life. People carry them around like trophies. And when you interrupt them, to ask them about it, they greet you with open arms, they want to talk about the trilogy.

This is so different from the way the music business has played out, which is now like the cocaine 80's. Who's holding, can I get in the bathroom with the cool people to partake? The stars are behind a wall, playing a game known as fame, which is separate from their music, just read the gossip blogs to find out. And if you want to get closer, you can't, you just can't get a good seat. Because you don't have an Amex card or you're not rich enough or even after joining the so-called "fan club", you're still offered overpriced, shitty tickets.

People love the work, even people who haven't read a book in years. There's just something about the story, which isn't lowest-common denominator, which is not solely plot, which requires some intelligence to juggle all the characters and scenes in your mind.

Imagine a band that's truly great, that is sans hype, that makes it solely because of the music. Which then releases its next album on the Internet, but doesn't allow you to buy it. Can you imagine how fast the music would spread?

But, but, but, I need to get PAID!

The musicians are as bad as Wall Street robber barons. Starting out with how much money they want to make in a year, they rape and pillage to get it, not caring that they add not a whit to the social fabric. Hey, it's my new album, you've got to buy it! And come see me in concert, where I prance to pyrotechnics at far too high a price!

Books aren't featured in the gossip columns. Stieg Larsson can't do interviews, he's dead. But the work he left behind is creating a frenzy. Which is not being fed by the mainstream media, but the reading public. If anything, it's seeping into the press as a result of reader fanaticism. The way the newspaper used to be last on a new act, as opposed to first, today being whipped into shape by the label, hyped to death.

We've all been hyped to death.

But the "Millennium Trilogy" is something different.

Join the cult. You'll be fulfilled, you'll be proud, you'll be titillated, you'll be thrilled, the same way you were when you attached yourself to the great bands of yore.

The Press

Image via CrunchBase

Did you read Frank Rich's column in the "New York Times" today?

Entitled "Obama, Lehman and the 'Dragon Tattoo', it's an indictment of the Wall Street robber barons via Stieg Larsson's best-selling book.

http://www.nytimes.com//2010/03/21/opinion/21rich.html

Here's the key passage:

"'A bank director who blows millions on foolhardy speculations should not keep his job,' writes Larsson in one typical passage. 'A managing director who plays shell company games should do time.' Larsson is no less lacerating about influential journalists who treat 'mediocre financial whelps like rock stars' and who docilely 'regurgitate the statements issued by C.E.O.'s and stock-market speculators.' He pleads for some 'tough reporter' to 'identify and expose as traitors' the financial players who have 'systematically and perhaps deliberately' damaged their country's economy 'to satisfy the profit interests of their clients.'"

Where are those tough reporters? Lapping up the spin of Timothy Geithner's public relations team?

"Geithner's major calling lately has been a public-relations tour, with full-dress profiles in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and even Vogue, which filled us in on his humble 'off-the-rack' Brooks Brothers suits. Last week he also contributed a video testimonial to the on-air fifth anniversary celebration of Jim Cramer's 'Mad Money.' Like the heedless casino culture it exemplified, that CNBC program has long been back to speculative business-as-usual, pumping stocks as if the crash were just a small, inconvenient bump on the road to larger profits and bonuses."

Then I turn to the Style section of the "Times" and find Patti Smith on its cover, in a dress.

Who gives a shit about Patti Smith?

The "New York Times", that's who. A bunch of self-congratulatory tastemakers who have paraded the work of this third rate artist ad infinitum for decades, even more so now, even though she hasn't done a worthwhile thing since the seventies.

I bought all the albums, save me the hate mail.

The point is, the papers are skewed.

I know, I know, it's complicated. I'm quoting Frank Rich at the same time I'm decrying the paper's efforts... But my point is, we've been dictated to by the mainstream press for years, have you ever questioned whether their viewpoint is accurate?

Take the Michael Jackson Sony deal...

I received the following e-mail from a powerful music business attorney:

"Have you seen that crap about the Michael Jackson deal? It's everything you talk about in lazy mainstream media reporting.

I've had 2 reporters call me and they seem to have no skepticism at all. I mean, I know it's more than a record deal, but if it's primarily based around records, they'd have to sell more than 50 million to come out of the deal--that will only happen in this market if Michael dies again.

Then in every report, you read about how Sony sold 31 million MJ records last year, 'almost 2/3 of them overseas.' So you check US Soundscan (which a few reporters actually did), and it's 8.3 million units (according to those reports). Multiply that by 3 and you get 31 million? Not in my math class. These guys are so lazy they can't even multiply.

Like I keep telling the reporters, every deal I've ever done that I've read about is wrong, so why should this one be right? Besides, I've inherited deals that Branca did and were reported at about 3 times what they turned out to be when I finally saw the contracts."

Whew!

The Internet is just a constant warning that the old players want to keep their cash cows, want no questions asked, believe they're entitled to their money.

One can argue that Stieg Larsson wasn't first, but a public that rebelled against a major label system that overcharged them for nine tracks they didn't want in order to get the one they did.

People are just as pissed about Wall Street. Unfortunately, it's a bit tough for many to comprehend. But maybe reform isn't as distant as the mainstream believes, as long as bloggers and those in the know online keep hammering away, revealing the truth.

The Health Care Bill

Image by Listener42 via Flickr

Most of you know that I never discuss politics, but I can't help but share an opinion on this out-of-contraol situation.

What if conventional wisdom isn't conventional?

Used to be you turned on the TV and took the temperature of the nation. If you were truly sophisticated, you read the newspaper. And learned what was really going on. Or did you?

Turns out the truth is a bit different from what the conventional media tells us it is. Turns out the only stories aren't the ones in the newspaper (and, for the record, TV does no reporting, unless someone got raped, killed or kidnapped.) Turns out the usual suspects have lost control of the thermometer, if you want to know what the temperature is in this country, you surf the Web and come to your own conclusions.

This is big.

Would George Bush be able to con America into believing there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2010? Doubtful. Because we're no longer dependent on Judith Miller, our country is no longer controlled by one reporter with a mouthpiece, rather there's a plethora of voices, and frequently the ones online are more informed. Because they're reporting within their area of expertise and not beholden to fat cats, and not on a career path determined by anyone other than themselves.

Speak with a newspaper reporter. They're asking questions. They're investigating. But what if the person who knew was writing what was going on? What then?

That's what's happening today.

Conventional wisdom said health care was dead. But then the President and the Democratic Congress were enlightened by vocal supporters, disillusioned Democrats, primarily online, asking WHAT THE HELL?

We elected you. We wanted change. And you're worried about these nitwit Republicans beholden to the religious right who can only say no, who are refusing to play because they don't have the ball.

Balls? Suddenly, the Democrats grew them.

And I don't care what side of the debate you're on, I don't care whether you support health care or not, you've got to admit it's fascinating how the media said one thing and the truth turned out to be the other way.

They tell us people like the beat-infused Top Forty. They tell us the best way to make a star is on TV, preferably "American Idol". They tell us the major labels' model has to be protected. But IS THIS TRUE?

Everything's up for grabs. It no longer matters what Rush Limbaugh says, nor the RIAA. Everyone's questioning what's fed to them, they're dong independent research and coming to their own conclusions.

Like:

1. Physical formats are dead.

2. Music is overpriced.

3. The concert ticket game is rigged.

4. Today's acts suck.

But, but, BUT you say, CDs still sell and...

You're making the same mistake the mainstream press did. You're paying attention to the fading minority. Or as Henry Ford once said, "If I'd listened to customers, I'd have given them a faster horse."

Market research doesn't tell you where the future lies. Steve Jobs didn't ask people whether they wanted an iPad, HE MADE IT!

Market research said no one would rent videos, and then everybody did. Market research says people don't want to rent music, but if you don't think the Spotify/streaming model will triumph, your head is truly up your ass.

It's just a matter of when.

Now is the time to take the ball and run it up the middle.

Now is the time to create truly great music, not worrying about what gatekeepers say, taking it straight to the public.

There's no center.

Doug Morris just isn't that powerful.

Nor is Lucian Grainge.

And whatever power Irving Azoff has is limited. He doesn't control music distribution. He may have a bit of a corner on live exhibition, but that's just a piece of the puzzle.

It's a whole new world! Doesn't matter what the fat cats, the usual suspects, those who once had power, have to say. Not a whit.

It matters what the Web constituency has to say.

Yes, people still listen to radio, but there are people who still buy CDs, DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO THE FADING MINORITY! That's like trumpeting Sarah Palin for President. She can't win. Numbers will tell you this. But the mainstream media likes the story. But she's just about irrelevant.

And I'm not saying the Democrats are princes, but when Obama and Pelosi finally grabbed the ball, stopped pussyfooting, challenged their critics and ignored naysayers, and more importantly, the American people, they got something done!

Stop listening to those who say you can't. Their opinion is worthless. Doesn't matter if the A&R guy doesn't like your music. Doesn't matter if radio ignores you either.

It comes down to this, DO THE PEOPLE LIKE YOU?

Do they?

Numbers don't lie. How many fans have truly downloaded your music? How big is your mailing list? How many Twitter followers do you have? If none of these numbers are large, either you're the worst marketer in creation or you suck. Or both.

But if you're good, now more than ever, it's your time. People don't care about the chart. They don't care about what the mainstream says. They care about what their friends and trusted filters say. They're making their own decisions. Play to them, they're the only ones who count.

Market Share Report

Image via Wikipedia

But I thought EMI was history, on the brink of extinction, how could Terra Firma's company almost equal the Warner Music Group in new release market share, only half a percentage point separating the two?

HitsDailyDouble has an exhaustive market share report:

http://hitsdailydouble.com/news/newsPage.cgi?news07997m01

You may have to register first, but it's free, and you should check the site on a regular basis, there's a plethora of information. But be sure to check for biases, both positive and negative. Their vendetta against Lyor and Warner seems to be done now that they're getting paid, but I haven't quite figured out their problem with Randy Phillips. I thought the "Hits" guys were radio mavens, who moved into management as the business caved. Guess they want some of that tour money too...

Anyway, the reason EMI is doing so well is because of one album, Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now", which has sold one and a half million copies so far this year (complete chart here: http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/special/market/hits_marketshare_2010_03.htm)

And why did Sony essentially equal perennial market share winner Universal? Can you say Sade and Susan Boyle? Which sold 990,000 albums and 553,000 respectively?

And why is Jimmy Iovine's IGA second in label new release market share? Can you say Lady GaGa? Placing at number 3, with 553,000 and number 10, with 334,000?

Ain't that an interesting spread. Number one, Lady Antebelleum's album, sold 1.2 million more than GaGa's "Fame Monster", number ten.

In other words, now, more than ever, the major label game is about hits.

They don't want your single. And by this I don't mean track, rather I'm employing a baseball metaphor. You can argue they want home runs, but I'd say the major label game is really about grand slams.

I can't fault them for this, they're businesses. But what if you're an act, do you belong in this game?

If you think you can sell tonnage, if you make radio and TV-friendly music, take your chances. If you're looking to build to a solid touring base, despite lip-service, the major can't be bothered. EMI is fighting for its life, actually, it's already dead, they're just arguing in court over potential fraud in the inducement by Citibank. Do you really want to put your developing act on EMI?

Or even Sony. Sure, Susan Boyle and Sade rain down cash, but the company just wants new winners of the same stature. So maybe they'll start you, but they might finish you too. As in jumping ship to something that shows major traction, leaving you to languish in signed to the label hell.

And usually, you're signed to a 360 deal, so even if you're working on the road, you're working for the label. Which is doing exactly what for you?

It's interesting to question whether these sales numbers evidence Long Tail backlash. Whether it's about winners more than small sales for the truly obscure. But looking at the spread between the number one and ten albums on the chart shows that it's about very few winners!

The majors created their game. Blame MTV, the concomitant resurgence of Top Forty radio, media manipulation by Clive Davis and Tommy Mottola. They've been so busy swinging for the fences, that's all they know how to do.

Hell, they've fired all the little people who help you build slowly.

Sure, Kings Of Leon broke through, but how many other acts have been nurtured from obscurity to mainstream success? You need immediate action, and at least gold at the end of the sales curve in order to continue to get attention. So if you're performing anything but mainstream music, if your act and music need time to develop, run from the major label system.

You've got to be willing to slog it out until you get lucky. The major labels try to force luckiness. But the hype and the fakery end up turning people off. GaGa is so big, she's got nowhere to go but down. And there's not another GaGa stealing attention. It's kind of like the Tiger Woods crisis, it festers forever in the public consciousness, because no one that big is willing to do something that stupid. GaGa should be toning it down, reducing expectations in order to achieve longevity, instead we've got press stories about a billion video views... Shit, anything that ubiquitous is headed for overload and ultimate obscurity. Hell, ask my buddy Peter Frampton, he went for the gold after his big hit album, played to the masses with "I'm In You" and the "Sgt. Pepper" film, and still has regained neither his credibility nor sales. Who to blame? Management! Which steered him wrong.

How's the major gonna steer you?

Are they even interested in you?

Are they going to be around long enough to see you through five albums? Or, if the name remains, will the employees sustain?

Interesting times.

The Real Crisis

Image via Wikipedia

The biggest crisis facing the music business isn't pricing, of either music or concerts, but the lack of a filter telling people what to listen to.

You may decry "American Idol", but at least it assembles a mass of eyeballs to pay attention to new performers. Yes, the music is well-known, but the performers are not. How can we get people to pay attention to new music?

Not via record reviews. That paradigm is shot. There are no trusted reviewers. And there's so much product. Hyped to high heaven because the purveyors want to get rich. And it costs so much to listen to it.

Yes, in time. Time is very expensive. Who wants to spend it looking for a needle in a haystack? And how much new music can one listen to anyway?

Actually, the original concept of Top Forty was not beat-infused, genre-specific mindless tripe. It was akin to what Gene Simmons says Kiss delivers, but we laugh about. What does the painted band begin its shows by saying..."You wanted the best, you got the best?" Or maybe it's "deserve the best"... The point isn't to laud Kiss, which needs no benefits, its hard core keeping the band alive, but to point out that if there was a radio station, Website or TV show that truly played/delineated/showcased the best music, people would be attracted to it and new music would flourish. Hell, that's what happened with Top Forty twice...in the sixties and early eighties.

But this would require leaving most music out. And refusing to play games with those with deep pockets, i.e. labels or rich individuals like Sam Adams. The same great cuts would have to be banged again and again. And if there was no good new music, then the old would have to be continued to be featured.

Don't tell me radio is dead. Don't tell me everyone's got their favorite Website. Don't tell me it's solely about word of mouth. I AGREE, I'm just pointing out an opportunity, for an entrepreneur who truly cares about music and wants to make a fortune.

It's not about the iPhone app. It's not about the ads on the Website. It's not about technology at all. That's what's been wrong with the past decade, it's been about science and marketing, not music. Everybody wants to get rich. From the wannabe acts to Tim Westergren and Pandora to the endless purveyors of music distribution platforms. No one's focusing on the music! And that's why we're hurting.

Sure, there's good music out there. But how do you get people to pay attention? Certainly not by allowing makers to spam, with endless unsolicited notices, and even MP3s, clogging up your inbox. It's about culling the best. And letting people know about it.

And it's got to be very good. Because few have the time.

But so many have the desire.

Ask people where they find out about new music. Baby boomers will be dumbfounded, college students will talk about friends and a small universe of acts and the prepubescent will rave about the hits on today's radio and in gossip columns, but what happens when they reach adolescence and want something meatier?

This is a huge crisis. And it's not unsolvable. But it does require a lot of thinking. And a lot of listening. The solution is less about building infrastructure than analysis. We all want great music, who's gonna serve it to us?

Winged Bull

Cover of Beauty on a Back Street

Bobby Gale tweeted about "Out Of Touch". He's got a regular routine going, Song Gem Of The Day. Follow him at: http://twitter.com/Bobby_Gale

"Out Of Touch" is off "Big Bam Boom", not a bad Hall & Oates album if you're into their later period, cut before they jumped to Arista and Clive killed their career (just ask them...) But it doesn't compare with "Winged Bull".

I visited Hall & Oates in the record store. I saw their "Abandoned Luncheonette" album. Was always interested in the band, any act produced by Todd Rundgren got my attention, but I didn't lay down my cash until "Bigger Than Both Of Us". It was "Rich Girl".

"You're a rich girl and you've gone too far 'Cause you know it don't matter anyway You can rely on the old man's money You can rely on the old man's money..."

What was so fucking great about "Rich Girl" was there was no introduction. No deejay could speak over a superfluous instrumental, Daryl Hall started singing from the VERY BEGINNING!

So intimately. Like he was sitting next to a princess on the couch, reading her the reality act. But then the guitar stuttered, the strings came in like a Barry White record and suddenly you were surfing the stratosphere, on a magic carpet that lasted another two minutes... Shit, it lasted FOREVER! Because you had to hear the song again and again and AGAIN! Some songs, some tracks are just so RIGHT that you wonder how you lived without them previously. It's like stumbling on an oasis in the desert, you sport a shiteating grin as you partake of the elixir.

I drove straight to the record store. And "Bigger Than Both Of Us" delivered. Dial up "Do What You Want, Be What You Are"...it could only be cut by denizens of Philadelphia, Hall & Oates may have been white, but they'd completely digested the black music of the metropolis, they distilled it absolutely perfectly, and like all great soul music, "Do What You Want, Be What You Are" is not dated in the least, it sounds just as fresh today as it did back in '76.

Then came "Beauty On A Back Street"... You know, the follow-up album with a wannabe hit that stiffs and takes the whole album down the toilet with it.

That wannabe hit was the opening number, entitled "Don't Change"... Whew! How to explain how much I love this number. Like stumbling into a dim basement at two in the morning and being injected with speed. You know perfect singles that are so perfect they're too good for the radio? That's "Don't Change".

And despite trying, Hall & Oates didn't break through again for years. The Hall & Oates you hate, the yacht rock band, was born years later, on another stiff album entitled "Voices" that suddenly came alive with "Kiss On My List" and "You Make My Dreams".

The band had been playing clubs. They'd even resorted to doing covers, like we needed another take of the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'". But "You Make My Dreams"... It was like "Rich Girl", it exploded out of the radio, from the very first note you were hooked. Instead of sounding calculated, "You Make My Dreams" seemed to be a middle finger to the business, something dashed off in an instant that made the band happy, damn the industry.

Listen to the track... What makes it so great? That incredible keyboard change, the "oohs", that incredible change two thirds of the way through or Daryl Hall's vocal...so off the cuff, so right.

Suddenly, Hall & Oates were back on the hit parade. DESERVEDLY SO!

Still, my favorite Hall & Oates number comes from further back, on that stiff album entitled "Beauty On A Back Street". "Winged Bull" is buried deep in the second side, the second to last track, but one listen was enough to stop you in your tracks.

Let's say you had a bad day. You wanted to come home and put on a record. This was 1977 not 2010, when all music is bottom-heavy and in your face. Subtlety's out the window, today you're immediately going for the balls and the tits, you want to squeeze both. But would you ever fall in love with someone who approached you this way?

Doubtful.

So, you come home from that bad day, and you want a track that soothes you, that's not wimpy, that radiates quality. An adventure, that sets your mind free.

That's "Winged Bull".

Like a cross between Jimi Hendrix and Mountain if they were trying to please a girl. There's an otherworldly caterwaul, and then Daryl comes in from the wings, singing so sweetly.

But this ain't no tender trap, a nauseatingly sweet number that makes you puke, the instrumentation evidences an ethereal quality, and as the number progresses, it build in intensity. Its four minutes and thirty six seconds are a tour de force.

And it's these tours de force that made us music fanatics, had us addicted, going to the record store each and every week on a hunt for magic. And the acts knew we were looking, so they tried to satiate us. Music wasn't cheap, it wasn't lowest common denominator, anything but... The acts were shooting for the stars, and we were boarding that rocket ship without a second thought, like the earthlings boarding the spaceship in that famous "Twilight Zone" episode, "To Serve Man".

I'm not a fan of hits, I'm a fan of music.

I don't give a shit what you say about Hall & Oates' eighties outfits, their videos, you're missing the point. These are extremely talented guys who kept experimenting, and persevered so long they could throw off Top Forty hits with no effort. And for this you criticize them?

That's a talent. To create something so ear-pleasing, something so IRRESISTIBLE! You wanna know why no one is interested in your career, why you can't get any traction, why no one gives a shit? Just spin "Rich Girl" or "You Make My Dreams" or any other one of Hall & Oates' monster hits and then play one of yours...see the difference?

But I'm not talking about the hit here. I'm talking about the album track. Because it used to be the hits were the invitation, the gold atop the surface that got you to dig, to find the subterranean gems.

"Winged Bull" is a masterpiece.

The fact that few know it is irrelevant.

The best music takes you away to a special place where nothing else matters, where you feel powerful, where you feel understood.

That's "Winged Bull".

Track 8, LISTEN!: http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.artistalbums&albumid=8084394&friendid=192662184

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!

ALEX CHILTON

Image by ojimbo via Flickr

THE LETTER

My introduction to rock music wasn't on television, not even radio, but the jukebox, at the Nutmeg Bowl. After a couple of strings I'd find myself peering through the glass, studying the tracks, waiting for my parents to pick me up.

That's where I first heard "Dawn (Go Away)" and "I Get Around".

I heard "Pretty Woman" on the jukebox at the JCC.

And I heard "The Letter" on the jukebox at Bromley, the ski area where I spent my youth in Peru, Vermont.

The old wooden base lodge, built by Fred Pabst with his beer money long before ski areas were about real estate, featured an alcove, in the very back, where worn out at the end of the day we listened to the jukebox.

"The Letter" is one minute and fifty two minutes long. Tell that to today's artists filling up entire CDs. It was and remains solely about quality. And "The Letter" was quality. A great song, with a brilliant intro, but what put it over the top was the vocal of one Alex Chilton.

"Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane
Ain't got time to take a fast train"

This was before air travel was de rigueur. When you still dressed up to fly, were scared shitless the plane was going to crash and the ticket cost a fortune.

"I don't care how much money I gotta spend Got to get back to my baby again"

URGENCY! That's what you heard in Alex Chilton's voice. No, he didn't write the song, but he made it his own. This wasn't an "American Idol" contestant singing for a record contract, one got the idea this record was cut on a dark rainy night and leaked out by accident. In an era where so much of what was featured on the AM band was sunny, there was a darkness to "The Letter". Chalk it up to Memphis. Or Dan Penn. Or both.


CRY LIKE A BABY

Anybody can have one hit. But can you do it twice?


NEON RAINBOW

A cross between the New Vaudeville Band and Petula Clark, if the Box Tops hadn't hit before, "Neon Rainbow" would be what we call a guilty pleasure, something outside your favorite genre that you want to hear again and again, that puts a smile on your face. "Neon Rainbow" sounds like it was recorded in black and white, and that's what makes it so great, you infuse your own colors into it.


RADIO CITY

I used to go to Andy's room to listen to the Kinks' "Everybody's In Showbiz" and the Velvet Underground's "Loaded".

"Everybody's In Showbiz" is a forgettable Kinks album, but it contains "Celluloid Heroes".

Today everybody knows "Loaded", but dropping the needle on "Sweet Jane" was a revelation, especially after that ethereal intro. The Velvets were supposed to be incomprehensible.

But one day Andy told me I had to listen to a new record, a group formed by the lead singer of the Box Tops.

The songs on "Radio City" had a certain power, and a certain intimacy. Like the Box Tops records, they seemed to be made without the audience in mind.

That's rare today. That's the first thing purveyors ask, WHAT'S THE MARKET? Put it in a slot for me, make it easy. If it's like nothing that came before, I can't sell it.

And, you guessed it, "Radio City" never sold.

But I drove cross-country with that album. The explosive guitar intro of "Back Of A Car" sounded like nothing else in my cassette box. The track was cut by someone who'd listened to a hell of a lot of English records, but there was definitely an American sensibility.

And "Way Out West" went up and down the scale with power.

"And why don't you come on back from way out west"

She didn't dump him. She moved on. But he's still here. Thinking about her...

Used to be California was a completely different state of mind from the East Coast, never mind Memphis. There was no Facebook, no e-mail, no SMS...just very expensive long distance phone calls. And when this track was cut, no one even had an answering machine. Way out west was out of mind. Yet he's still here, in the same neighborhood, going to the same clubs, listening to the same radio stations. She's living, he's dying.

Then there was "September Gurls". Just like the English cats, but better. "September Gurls" was too perfect for the radio. It was made for the garage, for headphones, just for the listener. Of which there weren't many.


THIRTEEN

Big Star broke up. They had no chance. This was before the resurgence of indie labels in the nineties, people shied away from something on Ardent.

And there was no airplay.

And the bands that were succeeding were BIGGER! From Boston to Journey, it was about playing to the last row, not the first. You wanted all the money, not some.

So I found Big Star's first album in a cut-out bin at Music Plus. No one wanted it.

But on that very first early seventies record there's a gem in the league of "Walk Away Renee". It's entitled "Thirteen".

"Won't you let me walk you home from school"

That's how it starts. It appears casual, but you had to get up the gumption, screw up your courage to ask. And carrying her books you feel like you're sitting on top of the world.

"Won't you let me meet you at the pool"

This is public. She's got to let you not only into her head, but her entire world.

"Maybe Friday I can
Get tickets for the dance
And I'll take you"

Most people listening to this record had never been on a date. But it was their utmost desire. They lived vicariously through this lyric. It got them through until they too could find romance.

"Won't you tell your dad, 'Get off my back'
Tell him what we said 'bout 'Paint It Black'"

Rock and roll was ours. Our parents didn't wear designer jeans and work out at the gym. They hated the Beatles and the Stones. But to us this music was everything.

"Rock 'n roll is here to stay
Come inside where it's okay
And I'll shake you"

Can she leave behind her Barbies, her cheerleading and enter his world? Can she risk the power of emotions?

"Won't you tell me what you're thinking of Would you be an outlaw for my love If it's so, well, let me know If it's 'no', well, I can go I won't make you"

He's not about to compromise. He wants someone to enter his world. We all want someone to enter our world. We want to show off our trophies, both physical and emotional. We want to share not only our victories, but our point of view.

And that's why Big Star is so important. The band expressed emotions, both musically and lyrically, that squared exactly with ours.

This made it tough for radio. Radio plays to a theoretical everyman. And Big Star was personal.

But that's why Big Star lives on. You may not recall who scored the winning goal at the basketball game, but you can never forget with whom you shared your first kiss.


ALEX CHILTON

We have a fantasy that our heroes live on a higher plane, live a better life than us...that they're surrounded by bucks and babes.

But watching Alex Chilton perform you were struck that his life was much more difficult than yours. He had to go from town to town, playing to appreciative, but tiny audiences, who loved him, but that love won't keep you warm at night, it won't pay your bills, it won't pay your health insurance.

My internist told me heart attacks are preventable. If you get treatment. Change your diet, take the appropriate drugs, get monitored.

But I doubt that Alex Chilton had the cash, never mind the wherewithal.

And now he's gone.

Never to be forgotten by a small coterie of fans.

Is that enough?

I don't know.

But I do know that Alex Chilton did it for the rest of us, not brave enough to take the risk, we who prayed in our basements for girlfriends as we studied for the SATs to get into a good college so we could become professionals. And we love him for it.

"Thirteen": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pte3Jg-2Ax4