Dog Days of the Music Biz

This weekend ends it for February 2009. Where did all the good times go? I peer in the mirror and see middle age branded indelibly in every line (lots of lines) upon a face I sometimes hardly recognize staring me down. The value of my holdings plummets in precipitous free-fall of late.

Also, many items I held in high esteem are very low on the mass market of worth these days. I never thought music, art, literature, journalism and film collectively would be worth less than a big dairy's lagoon of trapped methane. But that is what has come to pass.

I feel shitty about the current state of the music business today. Hard to believe we live in a world of commerce for music product that is controlled by Apple and WalMart. Or that Front Line Management would become Ticketmaster and dominate the concert market to such an extreme. Honestly, did you ever imagine that the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC and Journey would decide to sell any of their releases exclusively through WalMart? Did you ever imagine that mp3 sound would become the standard of the music industry? Why bother with a recording studio if you want make a product that has an audio range a little better than a telephone receiver? Cassette tapes are high fidelity compared to mp3s. What happened?

I get the fact that people want to be paid for their work, and that file sharing put a big crimp in royalty payments. Al Kooper wrote a great piece on Napster back in 2001. You can find it on his website, which I've linked here, and on the old side panel with other artists I find pertinent. (It's a cool site, and the man who brought a Norman Granz soul-jazz-blues element to the rock world 40 years ago with Super Sessions still has some juice.)

I recently wrote a brief few lines on this blog about record labels, and their total irrelevancy today. They were very important when the men who created the vision with like minded artists collaborated on music and put the sounds into the air and on the streets. That model broke down along the road somewhere in the late 20th Century.

Selling art like a commodity demeans and devalues art. Exclusives kill commerce, competition and creativity. This "new" business model only furthers a monopolist's control of content and marketshare. This type of deal only favors music artists who have become brands. The other 99% of musicians who toil honestly and creatively have no shot in this economic model. This is the blatant reality of an American Idol world, where the only creative forces in play are the promotional tools to get you to think this crap has any value. It doesn't.

Dream a little dream of Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Miles Davis or Thelonius Monk selling exclusively to Sears or Montgomery Wards back in the day. Maybe you can picture Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly doing an exclusive deal at Woolworths or J.C. Penney's. Creeps you out doesn't it? People were technologically more primitive back about 50 years ago, but they weren't stupid. Can't say the same today.

I Still Think In Pink

I received a terrific gift not long ago, Remember That Night David Gilmour Live At The Royal Albert Hall on DVD. I'm a big Pink Floyd fan, and did get an opportunity to see them in Sacramento about 20 years ago minus Roger Waters at Hughes Stadium. It was an amazing show. Timeless really, a 1989 Delicate Sound of Thunder tour, which Floyd seems to always personify at each marking point along the journey.

Watching this DVD of David Gilmour without the giant albatross of Pink Floyd expectations by audiences is a real treat. He has some unlikely guests, Graham Nash and David Crosby, to accompany the band and bring a new perspective to some old classics. The great guitarist from Roxy Music, Phil Manzanera, is part of the band along with longtime friend and Floyd mate Rick Wright, who only last September passed away suddenly after losing the battle against cancer.

This DVD showcases the last major tour David Gilmour undertook in 2006 to promote his On An Island cd and to pay some final homages to Pink Floyd's original songmaster, Syd Barrett. The concert footage is wonderful and David Bowie makes an appearance singing Comfortably Numb and Arnold Layne. Enjoyable high fidelity concert sound and vision.

The real treat for me with this 2-disc DVD set, however, are the three documentaries included on the second disc. You feel like a guest on tour with very unpretentious and cool people you would like to hang out with. It is striking to also see a real commitment to very worthy causes from David Gilmour and crew. There are special humorous, inspirational and touching moments throughout the documentaries. I don't want to give away great surprises but the use of wine glasses and an appearance by an old chum rehearsing in a separate sound stage at the same studio facility as David Gilmour's group is very cool.

For much of the world this music still is the right stuff, and retains the power to cast wonder over audiences in the east and in the west. David Gilmour and his music remain a very special gift people should indulge in more frequently.