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FROM DELANCEY PLACE.COM: 'THE STONES WERE BROKE'
December 6, 2013
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I've posted excerpts from delanceyplace.com before, and I thought two that came in over the Thanksgiving holidays would provide a great read.
The first is from 'The Last Sultan' by author Robert Greenfield (Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Date: Copyright 2011 by Schoolyard Productions, Inc.), and was posted on the delancey place website on November 22nd under their title 'The Rolling Stones Were Broke.' (If you go to the delanceyplace.com website and click on search archives, enter the title, you'll find it there)
Here is that excerpt...
"In today's selection - in 1969, one of the hottest groups in the world was the Rolling Stones, but its band members were also essentially broke:
"[Legendary Atlantic Records executive Ahmet Ertegun was] working harder than he ever had before to convince Mick Jagger that the Rolling Stones did in fact belong on Atlantic Records. While the band would never earn nearly as much money for the label as Led Zeppelin, Ahmet saw the Stones as 'the most desirable act in the business,' the jewel in the crown that would confirm beyond all doubt that Atlantic was the number-one record company in the world. ...
"The dark side of the original British Invasion, the Rolling Stones' distinctly dangerous onstage presence, sexually suggestive lyrics, and reputation for antisocial behavior caused them to be perceived in America as the antidote to the Beatles. It was not until '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' hit the top of the charts in 1965 that they achieved the superstar status in the U.S. they had already been accorded in England.
"During the last week in October 1969 when Ahmet sat down with Jagger at the Whisky, the Stones were in Los Angeles preparing for their first American tour in three years. ...
"After being busted for drug possession at an LSD party at Keith Richards's country home in England in 1967, Jagger and Richards had been tried and convicted only to have their sentences overturned by a higher court. In the process, they had become counterculture heroes. With the Beatles no longer touring, the Stones were about to stake their claim in America as the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band.
"After completing a very successful three-week, 15-city tour that featured three sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden, the Stones flew into Atlanta on December 2nd, 1969. The band then journeyed to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where they recorded Mississippi Fred McDowell's "You Got to Move," "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses." Ahmet, who rarely spent time in what had become Jerry Wexler's home studio, was there to greet them.
"Looking incredibly serious and focused in an immaculate dark suit, white shirt and tie, Ahmet can be seen in a photograph talking intently to Jagger. In full hippie mode, shaggy-haired Jagger sports a studded leather horse collar around his neck. On his head, he wears a top hat fashioned from a Union Jack. While the pair seem like ambassadors from two different worlds, they spoke a common language based on more than their shared love of the blues.
"Despite having released 14 albums and 29 singles in America and England, the Stones were still essentially broke because of the disastrous management deals they had signed, first with Andrew Loog Oldham and Eric Easton and then Allen Klein. Jagger, who had attended the London School of Economics, was by then already on his way to becoming a consummate businessman who understood the inner workings of the record industry as well as Ahmet."On December 6th, 1969, as the Rolling Stones were performing at a huge free concert at the Altamont Speedway in northern California, members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang who had been hired to provide security in return for cases of beer killed an 18-year-old black man named Meredith Hunter. Less than four months after the media had proclaimed the Woodstock Arts and Music Festival as the birth of the counterculture in America, the disastrous free concert at Altamont became its death knell. The event also served to increase the Stones' notoriety in America by geometric proportions."
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The second excerpt worth checking out is titled 'Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young And 'déjà vu' from 'Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970' by David Browne.In 1970, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, known for their reflective music and tight harmonies, released a chart-topping, era-defining album titled Deja Vu, which included such hits as "Teach Your Children," "Our House" and "Woodstock." The success of the album belied the fact that the album was made in disharmony, chaos and unhappiness. Most of the songs were cut without the whole group present, while band members vied for creative control and to have more of their songs on the album. Moments included Graham Nash breaking down in tears, Neil Young's "night vision" monkeys running loose in his hotel room, and the group dubbing themselves the Frozen Noses.
Read the rest on the delanceyplace.com website and enjoy it!
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 2
TURNTABLE.FM TO GO AWAY, TURNTABLE LIVE STILL HEREHypebot reports that after two years of uninterrupted service, Turntable.fm will shut down its site on December 2nd. The company will concentrate on its upcoming product called Turntable Live, an online concert platform.
"The cost of running a music service has been too expensive and we cant outpace it with our efforts to monetize it and cut costs," stated the company in response to the shut down. Read More
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 3
THE RECORD STORE IS COMING BACK?Check out these two great articles about Rough Trade, a great record store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in New York.
The first is from the New York Times and is titled 'Records Are Dying? Not Here' Read it here
The second article is from CNET's Audiophiliac Steve Guttenberg and is titled 'Why open a huge new record store in 2013?' Read more
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 4
DEEZER CREATES SOCIAL LISTENING ROOMSHypebot reports that Soundrop is making its cross-platform listening rooms available on Deezer.
"Soundrop is pleased to announce that it will be available on Deezer, the popular streaming music provider. Using Soundrop, Deezer users can join tens of thousands of social listening rooms in which they can chat with other fans, discover new music and even hang out with their favorite artist," stated Soundrop. Read More
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 5
SPOTIFY STUFFSpotify introduces a website aimed at explaining its operations to artists and other music professionals. They say they've paid out $1 billion in royalties thus far. Read more
AND...
Hypebot reports that the popular music streaming service Spotify is offering additional services to its subscribing artists, including free analytics to the artists. The analytics service will be powered by Next Big Sound. To help boost ticket sales, it has added ticketing sales to Songkicks concert listings. It is also planning to merge sales using Topspin. Read More
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THE 'A-SIDE' - THE BONUS TRACKS* Springsteen's Rare Live 'Secret Garden'
* The Band Play Woodstock
* Grammy Predictions 2014: Who Will Land The Major Nominations?
* The Beatles Chart Their 31st Top 10 Album
* Beatles Get a Mindblowing Tribute
* Lady Gaga Unveils ARTPOP Ball North American Tour
* Neil Young 'Live at the Cellar Door'
* Wilco, Guster and Furthur Members to Recreate 'The Last Waltz'
* Beatles, Eminem, U2 Set for Philippines Benefit Album
* Dylan Duets With Tom Petty
* Running Your Own Indie Record Label
* The 10 Artist-Music Commandments
* The 5 Most Surreal Music Genres Around the World
* 20 Best TV Moments of 2013
* 11 of the Greatest Movie Cameos
* Celebrating 35 years of Apple design
* How to get unlimited free holiday music
* A small wireless speaker with big bass
* Don't buy these phones
* CNET's Tech Turkeys of 2013
* Cyber Monday was the biggest online spending day in history
* 10 Obstacles BlackBerry Faces in Its Struggle to Survive
* 12 great stocking-size gadgets this year
Short News Items ...
NEW DMB:
"I'm just trying to come up with something that doesn't sound like the past," Dave Matthews tells Rolling Stone about preparing to record his band's next album. After using producer Steve Lillywhite last time, the new record will be overseen by Rob Cavallo.
SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE HERE ON EARTH:
"Dancing With the Stars" had its lowest finale ever down 20% from last fall's finale — and had 12.8 million viewers, according to preliminary numbers.
BOSS ALBUM DATE:
Bruce Springsteen has set a date -- January 14th -- for the release of his next album, 'High Hopes,' an eclectic collection of covers, re-recordings and studio outtakes from the past decade. "This is music I always felt needed to be released," he said. Read More
AND A SPRINGSTEEN FAN INDEED:
A handwritten, early draft of the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen's 1975 hit "Born to Run" fetched $197,000 at auction today at Sotheby's, according to the Associated Press.
NEW FOO:
Foo Fighters are working on their next album, and Dave Grohl promised Rolling Stone at the American Music Awards that it's "bad-ass:" "We're writing the album in a way that I don't think has been done before," he said, just after Joan Jett grabbed his ass.
MUSICAL XMAS IDEAS:
From box sets (the Clash, Grateful Dead) and rock & roll books to speakers and headphones, all your holiday gift-giving ideas for the music lovers in your life are right here. Read More
COEN BROS. LATEST A RAVE:
'Inside Llewyn Davis' won Best Feature at the 4th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York on Monday. Joel and Ethan Coen's latest film stars Oscar Isaac as a folk musician struggling to make a living in New York during the early 1960s. The film drew rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and the win comes at a fortuitous time for distributor CBS Films as the movie opens in limited release this weekend.
AND HERE'S THE MAN WHO INSPIRED 'LLEWYN DAVIS':
People who were close to Dave Van Ronk, the Greenwich Village folk-blues institution, had a feeling someone might be making a movie of his life. The title character of the Coen brothers' 'Inside Llewyn Davis' is loosely based on the late singer's memoir. Read More
THE ANDROID MODEL IS NEXT:
Just in time for your holiday wish lists, a Japanese company introduced prototypes of a "Gagadoll" this week in Toyko. The figures are life-size replicas of Lady Gaga, inspired by her Artpop album, that the company has dressed in fittingly flamboyant outfits, such as a dress made of Japanese newspaper and her round-frames sunglasses. Billboard reports that if someone were to listen to the doll's chest, he or she would not hear a heartbeat but messages from and music by Gaga instead. The dolls are not yet available for sale.
THE PIANO MAN TO PLAY MSG FOR AS LONG AS THE AUDIENCE WANTS:
Billy Joel has revealed the big news he promised about Madison Square Garden: He'll play the venue once a month "as long as there's demand." Playing the arena "is an experience that never gets old," he said. "It's more opportunities to connect with music fans." Read More
COLLINS COMING BACK?
Phil Collins may be ready to un-retire. Speaking at the premiere of the 'Tarzan' musical in Germany, he said he might even consider reuniting with Genesis: "Everything is possible," he said, though his manager told Rolling Stone, "No definite plans at this time."
STEVIE'S 'AMERICAN HORROR STORY' STORY:
Stevie Nicks will appear in an upcoming episode of 'American Horror Story: Coven.' "You'll be surprised," she says -- "not with my terrific acting, but the whole thing." Read More
THE YEAR'S TOP 50:
What are your favorite albums of the year? Did they show up on Rolling Stone's list of 2013's best? You can bet Kanye West's 'Yeezus,' Arcade Fire's 'Reflektor' and Lorde's 'Pure Heroine' made the grade; find out where they rank among the best of the best. Read More
BEATS MUSIC ON THE WAY:
Beats Music service will finally launch in January. The service was proposed to go live in the summer of 2013, but the service could not be finalized. With the expected launch in January, the company has started accepting reservations for usernames. The launch of the service was announced in a blog by CEO Ian Rogers. The new streaming service from the same Dr. Dre who brought you expensive headphones full of booming bass, is about to launch into competition with Spotify, Pandora and the cluttered field of music subscriptions. Will it be able to break out of the pack? Read More
BEST SONGS OF YEAR:
From French robots and a New Zealand wunderkind to Canadian rock redeemers and former child stars going off the deep end, music in 2013 was a hot mess of innovation and blurred genre lines. Picking the 100 best songs of the year wasn't easy, but it sure was fun. Read Rolling Stone magazine's list. Read More
EPSTEIN BIOPIC COMING:
'The Fifth Beatle,' a biopic about the Fab Four's manager Brian Epstein, will begin shooting next year. Director Peyton Reed, whose credits include 'Yes Man,' 'The Break-Up' and 'Bring It On,' will helm the film.
FACES AGAIN:
Rod Stewart recently told Boston radio station WZLX that the Faces – the bluesy rock group he and current Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood joined after they came to prominence together in the Jeff Beck Group – would likely return to the stage in 2015.
Leaving Us
Dr. Jerry Boulding, a veteran broadcaster, programmer, label exec, satellite-radio pioneer, consultant and journalist, and an Urban editor at AllAccess.com died Wednesday night (11/28). He was 75. The doc programmed stations in New York, D.C., Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit and San Francisco, among other markets, headed MCA's Black Music wing and developed the first Urban format for satellite, Heart & Soul. In addition to serving as SVP/entertainment programming for American Urban Radio Networks, Boulding co-founded industry trade BRE, founded Urban Network Magazine, was a co-founder of nonprofit The Living Legends Foundation (honoring trailblazing figures in the music and radio industries) and penned the "Urbanizing" column for All Access.
Dick Dodd, singer and drummer for garage rockers the Standells, died last Friday at the age of 68. The band was best known for its 1966 hit, "Dirty Water," which became an unofficial anthem for the city of Boston and its sports teams. The Los Angeles Times reports that he announced earlier this year that he had stage four cancer and died at a hospital in Orange County, California.
Quotes of the week
"I don't understand why any famous person would ever be on Twitter."
-- George Clooney (Editor's note: They're not, George. It's their PR people posting it all for fans)
The B-Side - 'Blips'
THE ONION (www.theonion.com) STORY OF THE WEEK:
Bizarre Sci-Fi Novel Posits World Where Natives Inhabited America Before Europeans
NEW YORK—In a riveting, if slightly far-fetched, work of alternate history that fans of science fiction are bound to enjoy, author Judith Nies' novel, "Native American History: A Chronology Of The Vast Achievements Of A Culture And Their Links To World Events," imagines a strange fictional world where, prior to its 15th-century colonization by Europeans, North America was actually inhabited by millions of indigenous peoples.
"Numerous Paleoamerican groups inhabited vast expanses of land along modern-day Canada and the United States as early as 1400 C.E., including what would later become the Navajo, Iroquois, Cherokee, and Ojibwe peoples," reads an excerpt from Nies' wildly bizarre science-fiction tale, positing a sweeping alternate reality in which vast tribes of "Native Americans" -- each fleshed out with their own names, rich cultural backstories, and even strange foreign languages invented by the author -- roamed the Americas for thousands of years before any European explorers set foot on the continent.
\Read the rest and laugh: Bizarre Sci-Fi Novel Posits World Where Natives Inhabited America Before EuropeansThe Music Industry Past, Present & Future, And The Internet I answer questions on EconTalk
I did an interview about the industry and the Internet at EconTalk with host Russ Roberts. Russ is also a professor of economics at George Mason University, blogs at Cafe Hayek, and has written three novels that teach economics. He's also the co-creator of the Keynes-Hayek rap video. (And if your understanding of the economic meltdown that occurred needs to be enlightened, this video will do it)
In the interview we talk about the evolution of the music industry, the impact of the digital revolution, and I give my reasons for believing in the virtues and potential of the Internet in enhancing the music industry. I point out, as I have many times here in the newsletter, that the internet allows numerous artists to make money from their music and it can enhance revenues from live performances by expanding an artist's base. We also discuss the challenges facing record companies and I suggest that the full potential of the Internet as a distribution channel has yet to be fully exploited. There's a lot of ground covered, but based on the comments already posted of those who have tuned in, they've enjoyed it.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Smart Marketing Consulting Services
Smart Marketing Consulting Services has been in business sixteen years, and consults clients in the music, entertainment, attraction, media, and technology industry on branding, marketing, online exploitation, maximizing new media, and more.
"And the beat goes on, the beat goes on ... drums keep poundin' rhythm to the brain."
"Work is life, you know, and without it, there's nothing but fear and insecurity." -- John Lennon
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