Hound Dog Blog

The rise and fall of the stadium concert

I've never really been a big U2 fan, but after last night, I am. U2 sings about good things and that is why. Music (and the world) needs more of this, but it is doubtful that we will see the likes of these circus-like traveling tent shows. My apocryphal prediction is founded in today's emo-rock, Rock Band and the disappearing radio signal. These aren't bad things, by the way—just different. And U2 embraces them.

U2 is the only band from 'my generation' (and for some reason I missed them) that can actually do this—Dave Matthews Band can in some parts of the world.

It saddens me a bit, but I reached this epiphany when they started playing the song Vertigo last night. You remember the song in one of the first iPod commercials. You don't see as many any more do you? Maybe because iPods have become a music industry standard—sorry Casey K, we love you just the same.

Just like everything else in our mainstream media world, there are trailblazers—the ones that carve the paths with the new technology and then there are the the traditionalists? I presume that is the correct terminology.

The music industry, one in which I am familiar, is radically changed. In fact, there are some striking similarities between the music industry and print media industry. Both of the industry paradigms have been redefined by content distribution. At the same time, both of the industry's old-guards refuse to budge in these new models.

I'm certainly not suggesting that artists give away their crafts or publishers should give away their content, but I am suggesting that if you were to take the same talented musicians that make up the band U2 and put them in a Dublin bar in the year 2009—their rise to the top would be dramatically different—same with Rolling Stone magazine.

Marketing has changed dramatically. Music has changed dramatically. Marketing music has changed so much that the entire industry is turned upside down.

It all goes back to the social media thing again. The gatekeepers and the controllers are losing control. The U2 concert last night was proof positive of this. One thing is for sure though: We get to share it ... and it leaves you baby if you don't care for it...

"Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend"

Each year I age, I think about what age John Lennon would have been. It's hard to imagine that he would have been 69 years old.

His life was cut far too short.  This image below was one of the last images of him. Forever young, indeed.

For me it just makes me breathe a little bit deeper and makes me more aware of what I'm not sure... but more aware.

The crossroads

The crossroads. There is an old story about Robert Johnson being at the railroad tracks. Eric Clapton's inspiration, as well as one of the founders of our modern art forms: The Blues.

The tale is that he sold his soul at the railroad tracks to the devil. He sold it in return for prowess he possessed with the guitar. Johnson died very early. But his music lives on. He also died suspiciously {poisoned, it is believed}—nobody even really knows where he is buried. 

There are so many songs about Johnson, the man and his music, but the one that keeps ringing in my ears is Elton John's song—The Wasteland.

Here's T.S. Eliot's poem, just in case you've forgotten. No the two ideas aren't akin, but you could see how Elton and Bernie Taupin draw a comparison.

Quality youTube videos

This is a great band, a great website, and they are about the most inspiring group of musicians I have ever been around. Mikey is no longer with the band. He has passed on. But the band has not stopped—at all. Just like Mikey would have wanted it.

And, for what it's worth. I think one of the values in youtube.com is that sometimes the sound quality and video quality is AMAZING... and sometimes... well, you know. Maybe there's an opportunity there. Making quality youTube videos. 

John Lennon and the Number 9

John Lennon was born on Oct 9, 1940 in liverpool

L-I-V-E-R-P-O-O-L is 9 letters long

Some say he was born at 6:30 pm ... add the three numbers (hmm)

John's elementary bus was #72  . . . 7+2 = 9

McCartney - his best friend and Beatle is spelled with 9 letters

Lennon met yoko on November 9th 1966

The song or piece - Revolution #9

The song #9 Dream

The son One After 909

John Ono Lennon and Yoko Ono Lennon's combned names contain nine 0's

John lived at apartment 72 in new york add the 2 numbers. . .

The Beatles broke up after 9 years, in 1970

John and Yoko's son Sean was born on 10.9.1975

when lennon was shot on 12.8.1980, it was already 12.9 in liverpool, his birthplace

... oh... and Rock Band... the video game...

truth can be stranger than fiction... at least today, anyway...

The Harvey Wallbanger and gravity

So much gravity in gravity - from Widespread Panic - Counting Train Cars - Ball

If you think someone is your friend and you find out they aren't, it is just a crummy feeling. No two ways about it.

It happens to everyone. It used to happen to me often while pouring drinks. People would walk into the bar and they'd be my best friend just so they could get that bit of an extra pour of the Grey Goose shot in their Cape Cod or ghastly Harvey Wallbanger. It also used to happen on some frequency when I was playing music out a lot. When the lights were hot and the show was alive, everyone was your friend. . . but, when the lights went down, and it became too late to pour anymore vodka drinks, nobody was around. But, I got used to this sort of parasitic behavior. It seems almost human. Everybody wants to be part of the show.

So far as I can tell, in my life these truths are also self-evident:

• You get what you give.
• People get what they deserve.
• And everything always comes around and...
• someone will always ask you (if you're bartending) what this bottle is for: now you know - it goes in a Harvey Wallbanger - with Vodka and OJ

If you're struggling right now, and nothing is going your way, and you're treating people right, and being true to people that care about you (really - don't lie to yourself), you will come out ahead again someday. But, if you are struggling right now (by your standards) and abandoning friends that stood by you time after time... well, the reverse would be the rule.

In fact, it is sad how people can treat people sometimes. But there is also another fact at hand here. If you are beautiful on the outside, don't forsake this scientific fact: gravity. It carries a lot of weight - especially as we age.

So much gravity in gravity ~ Widespread Panic

Feeling musical

Do you think that The Beatles were such a phenomenal success because they were all relatively the same height?

I think that is part of it.

John actually said in an interview, after they had to stop touring, that the greatest thing about The Beatles was their live act. It's really hard to imagine. To think back of all those clips of the mop-tops in their 'Beatle' suits and 'Beatle-boots.'

But, this was what made them what they were. They were a gritty, working class rock band. And, they were very talented - together.

That is the point. John wasn't The Beatles. Nor was Paul. I always question someone's ability to reason when they tell me that Ringo is goofy (arguably, he is - but so are the others).

Also, George... well, he wrote a song that Frank Sinatra sang for years in Vegas showrooms without giving him attribution: Something. He used to say, "Here' s a song by Lennon and McCartney" ... wrong. George also wrote While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Here Comes the Sun. My opinion, those are 3 of the finest Fab Four songs ever - hands down.

And Ringo... well Ringo was the Beat in The Beatles! It is said that because he was a sick child, and frequently hospitalized that he was not a very strong man. There is a lot to be said about this. If you've ever heard of Led Zeppelin, the guitars are very loud because the drummer, John Bonham, was notoriously loud. Ringo, because of his inherent weakness, could only bang the drum so loud. As opposed to other drummers, who could knock the drumstick right through the skin. . . This is said to play a significant role to The Beatles' sound from the mop top days to and Sgt Pepper days.

I wonder. Do you think a kid playing their Wii is going to have any clue what inflection to put on the cadence that flies across the screen? I don't. Even if the kid (or adult) could - they aren't going to learn how to feel music through a video game.

And what happens when they're grounded? Do they have to actually play a guitar?

Rock band?

On 09/09/09 The Beatles: Rock Band is to be released for video games. I'm unsure how I feel about this. 

For the most part I think it is because it is a video game. I did see a demo of it while I was in Blockbuster the other day, and I have to say, the graphics were absolutely beautiful and the game itself is certainly better than shooting aliens - so it probably is a good thing. 

What concerns me is the kids who are learning this music through video games. It just seems that learning music is something of an aural experience that needs to be pedagogically imparted. Perhaps this is my age showing, though I wasn't even around when The Beatles were still a band. I can't figure out why I am still so nostalgic about this.

I guess maybe it is that I have fallen behind the video game world. I remember video games being Frogger, where you had to get he frog across the road before it got smashed by a car or Space Invaders, where you shot endless aliens over and over until your hand hurt. I suppose the 'new' video games are more cerebral.

Dan Pink's book, A Whole New Mind makes a large overture to video games and tomorrow's leaders. I can't really relate in this instance. I understand his point about video games and the new generation, but here is where I have to disagree. 

The Beatles were so much of a cultural anomaly that it might be worth having your child sit down and learn how to tune a guitar, put a capo on it and finger the different parts to George Harrison's Here Comes the Sun.

But that's just me being old school. Maybe I'm just missing the yellow submarine on this one.

P.S. There's more to the 9/9/9 than meets the eye. It was John Lennon's admitted lucky number.

On the bright side, maybe this will inspire kids to actually learn actual hand crafted guitars the way The Fab Four performed them.

Les Paul, Artisan

I don't know the entire story of the Les Paul, but I know mine. I have a 1977 Artisan Les Paul with 3 humbuckers. Before you start making Spinal Tap jokes, you ought to understand the relevance behind what this work of art is and what this man was and meant to music as we know it.

Yes, the Les Paul. From Slash, Duane Allman, Warren Haynes, to ... well the list is so extensive that I can't pay tribute to the legends who played them. Les Paul was not originally a guitar, he was originally a man. Les Paul was an amazing guitarist whose name was eponymous with the instrument itself. 

The tone from the Les Paul is quite unmistakable. For me, I think of November Rain - Gun's 'n' Roses, but you heard it and continue to hear it today on music of all ranges. 

The Les Paul (instrument) is a complete work of art and is solid - Solid to the point to where some musicians would develop back problems from rehearsals with the thing. The tone, the beauty, the comfort were all just a part of the instrument. What made it all the more special was when you plugged in, it came alive. And not for everyone. 

The Les Paul (instrument) is special because as a novice guitars, which most guitar players like myself remain, has an unrestrained, frenzied liveliness to it that one must quite literally tame.

What is more is he, Les Paul died today. It is not as sad as a usual death, simply because he was 94 and played a regular gig at the Iridium Jazz Club in NYC every Monday night until last year.

It is somewhat odd, because I was just up in NYC last week and I used to mention to my buddy Adam (who taught me how to bartend and many things on the guitar) that we should go see him play. The joke was that we didn't want to because he was such a legend that we better just keep on keeping on because he'd been playing for so long and we just needed ought to wait until next week (wink wink). 

I think Les Paul and the guitar he built is a testament not only to great man, an amazing life, a master craftsmen, and a great musician, but to the very words inscribed on my Les Paul - Artisan. He was an Artisan in the the truest sense of the word. 

The world needs more Artisans, I think.

20 things about 10 years gone - including Kool-Aid

By the time this posts, I'll should be nearing or in South Carolina on I-95.

I was staring at my fully packed Honda Element and a nervous 3 and 1/2 year old Beagle so I started thinking about things that have changed since I moved my life since last I had done this, which was 10 years ago.This is what I've come up with. 

20 things that have changed in the past 10 years:

1. My destination, New York City, has changed - the landscape, that is. Last time I arrived there were two towers on the Southern end of the island. 
2. My iPhone is now my road atlas (or at least Google Maps is).  
3. My iPhone tells me all I need to know about the Subway with an app called KickMap. 
4. As referred to in a prior post, when someone 'demands an apology,' tell them to go fly a kite. (I just learned this yesterday). 
5. In hard times, some people help, and some people don't. Just the way it is. So, expect nothing, and you'll be pleasantly surprised. 
6. Key West is a fun city, filled with talented musicians, artists and history. An incredible place to visit. 
7. Vancouver, BC is one of the world's most beautiful places, even on a cloudy day. 
8. San Diego, CA is a close second to #7, and (from what the locals told me) rarely cloudy. 
9. If something is called _____ Education, and you have to 'enroll' others to 'get it' and you don't know what 'it' is, and they tell you that you won't ever get 'it' if you don't go out and 'enroll' others, it's bullshit (pardon my french - but I am passionate about this one). 
10. If you ever encounter someone 'enrolling' you, like #9, steer clear, very clear. Don't even eat their food, let alone drink the Kool-Aid they have in their fridge. 
11. You can't teach someone how to sell a product that you cannot touch. It requires the transfer of emotion. If you are not an emotional person, and you are selling an idea, go into another profession, because mass emails don't transfer emotion. 
12. The 2 words human being are 2 words that weren't meant to be manipulated into junk philosophy. They aren't a play on words, they are just two words. So, the notion that because you are a human, does not necessarily mean that you are 'being human.' - this is faulty logic. 
13. Florida is different than it was 30 years ago. Still a lovely place, but dramatically different. 
14. A category 1 hurricane on the East coast of Florida is and can be catastrophic. 
15. The Space Shuttle lift-off is a sight and a feeling (the earth shake) is a once in a lifetime experience.
16. I read a lot of books, and I don't need them (unfortunately) anymore. 
17. I learned how to play the ukulele.
18. Beagles are great friends and family. 
19. Life doesn't always work out as planned. 
20. Nobody told me there'd be days like these... Strange days indeed.