Eric Carmen

I'm goin' to Disney World!

Sorry it took me so long to reply to this post. First, I have a shock for you. DAVID IS NOT PLAYING A FRETLESS BASS!!!!!! Yes, you heard me right. He was playing a Fender Precision or Fender Jazz bass, WITH FRETS! He just happens to be such an unbelievably brilliant, melodic and smooth bass player that it SOUNDS as if there aren't any frets. I must now confess that you are now talking to the president of the David Wintour Fan Club. His playing on the "Boats Against The Current Album" amazes me to this day, every time I hear it. David and I became really great friends over the course of recording that album, and he is an absolutely lovely person, as well as a great bassist. The two of us were so "locked" at the end of "Nowhere To Hide" that the left hand of my piano literally disappears beneath his bass notes because they were played together, down to the nanosecond. And the beautiful "sixths" he played on those three last chords were improvised, on the spot, during the final take. It was soooo perfect, I seem to remember looking over at him, and giggling, after the last note had finally ended. Genius, that! And his playing on "Run Away" and "Boats" was every bit as perfect. In the midst of the hell that Gus Dudgeon brought to that recording, David's brilliance and sensitivity made it all bearable I always thought if Paul McCartney listened to those tracks, HE would have been knocked out!

The Trifecta! "Footloose" Soundtrack / Number one on Billboard's Top 200 album chart/ Multi-platinum "Dirty Dancing" Soundtrack / Number one on Billboard's Top 200 album chart/ Multi-platinum "Guardians Of The Galaxy" Soundtrack/ Number one on Billboard's Top 200 album chart/ Gold ( so far...)

P.S. Van Gogh sold TWO paintings before his death. Go figure. I've had some "great moments" in my career. One of them came at a BMI awards dinner, when this great big guy with a short beard came up to me and said "Boats Against The Current. That's a hell of a GREAT SONG!" I thanked him, and asked his name, and he said "Steve Cropper." And I said "Steve..."Dock Of The Bay"...Cropper?" and he nodded "yes." Those are the moments that make it all worthwhile. I had a "Sir George Martin Moment" like that one, as well. The recognition by my peers, the writers and artists I ADMIRED, has always been more important than the "official recognition" of The Rock Hall. Bruce Springsteen's approval trumps most others. Same for all the artists that wrote lovely things for the liner notes of "The Essential."\ A little statue is always nice, but I'd rather have the approval of someone I really admire.

I could write a thousand pages on this subject, but, sadly, the post above pretty much explains all there is to know. If, by some fluke, The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame ever sees fit to deem us "worthy,"( which is unlikely, for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that Jann Wenner doesn't believe that any group that wasn't from the East Coast or the West Coast is of any importance, from what I have been told). The Midwest doesn't exist and nothing that came from there could have any relevance. Rock, like everything else, is political, and I'm afraid the band never achieved the "stature" that would cause us to be nominated, let alone elected. And, because of "All By Myself", and Clive's refusal to support anything "rock" after that record, I will be dismissed as a "balladeer." Hell, The Moody Blues, who made one of the most magnificent, cutting edge, albums of the sixties ( "Days Of Future Past" ) aren't in the Rock Hall, but one hit wonders like Percy Sledge are. Personally, I would argue that "Nights In White Satin" and "Tuesday Afternoon" were more influential than "When A Man Loves A Woman," but I would also argue that "Warmth Of The Sun" was more important than anything Madonna ever did, or will do. So, it really doesn't matter whether we end up in the Rock Hall or not. I remember being absolutely shocked a few years ago when The Ronettes were finally inducted. THE FUCKING RONETTES WEREN'T INDUCTED BEFORE.....( I can't even begin to list the acts that shouldn't have been there, before The Ronettes ). All that means is one of those acts that WAS inducted had a better advocate than The Ronettes had. That's how it works. Life isn't fair. Get over it, or, as Taylor Swift says..."Shake It Off!"

I figured out the royalty rate Pandora pays for one "hit", which they define as one person, somewhere, listening to a song. It is .00004% of one penny. The justification is that, if the song was played on the radio, thousands of people would hear it, so there should be a higher royalty rate. But because each "hit" on Pandora represents only one person, the royalty rate is reduced to basically nothing. This philosophy will make the CEO's of Pandora, and Spotify, who are selling millions of dollars in advertising, rich, but it will never produce another Bob Dylan, or John Lennon and Paul McCartney, or Brian Wilson, or Jimmy Page, or Billy Joel. So, what we get is Kanye West, and Wiz Kalifa, and a thousand other people whose songs will never be remembered next year, let alone in fifty years, and a totally dumbed down audience who thinks these acts are "genius," because they've never been exposed to anything better. My son PRE-ORDERED a CD by someone named "Earl Sweatshirt."PRE-ORDERED, as if there wouldn't be enough copies of said CD to "go around!" I'm embarrassed, but it coincides with my theory that every generation has to find music their parents hate. It's just such a strange feeling to know that, somewhere out there, there could be the next Rolling Stones, or Beatles, or Who, and, because of the economics, they will have no reason to try to really "make it," and my son will think Kanye is a "genius." Makes me want to puke.

Gene IS right, but it's not 'rock" that's dead, it's the whole music business. There's an entire generation out there that have never held a CD ( Let alone an ALBUM! ) in their collective hands. The concept of owning the CD is almost dead. There are a handful of acts, like Taylor Swift and Katy Perry, who can still sell 3,000,000 units. Their fans are so devoted they WANT to own the CD! But, just watching the charts since the release of the "Guardians Of The Galaxy" Soundtrack, it's easy to see the problem. A couple of weeks ago, some rapper named Wiz Kalifa debuted his new CD, and knocked the "Guardians" Soundtrack out of the number one slot. I think he sold approximately 90,000 units, and "Guardians' only sold 68,000 that week. The following week, Wiz's sales dropped by 85%, and his album went from number one to number eight or nine. This is how it works in "the 'new' music business. All of the fans of a particular artist rush out and buy their CD the first week, and then sales drop off precipitously in the weeks that follow. Only a few artists have the ability to put five hit singles on an album, and that's what keeps CD's at the top of the charts these days. I think I mentioned in a previous post that "All By Myself" got almost a million hits on Pandora, during a six month reporting period. That netted me $38.00. Meanwhile, the CEO of Pandora took home a $29,000,000 paycheck last year. That is what Gene is talking about, and I'm afraid he's absolutely right. Why would anyone want to spend a year writing great songs, and then all the time and money it would take to record them properly, only to have them stolen and receive no compensation for all your hard work. Sadly, if I was thinking about being singer/ songwriter today, I'd probably decide to do something else. And that's why there are very few new records being made by people like me. And that's why there are basically three major record labels left, when there used to be fifty. If you give away what you do, for free, or people just steal it, how can you make a living? The only answer is touring 300 days a year, and selling lots and lots of merchandise, and there are darn few musicians I know that find that an equitable situation.

Very Cool!!! Thanks guys and girls!!! e

That's OK. The number one and number three spot were both "debuts." Usually, there is a major drop off the following week. We could go back to number one, next week unless there's another major debut, by a different artist. In any case, there are now over 300,000 people who have a new CD with "Go All The Way" on it, and my guess is, a whole bunch of them are in their teens and 20's! Good stuff!

Robert Downey Jr. Declares Guardians Of The Galaxy The Best Marvel Movie Ever by Jamie Lovett Marvel Studios’ Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr., has named Guardians of the Galaxy as the best Marvel movie yet. Downey made the proclamation in an interview with The Toronto Sun from the Toronto International Film Festival. “Galaxy in some ways is the best Marvel movie ever,” Downey said. “And it’s odd for someone with — on occasion — an ego the size of mine to actually say that!” Downey picks Guardians out of all the Marvel films – including the ones with him in them, like The Avengers and the Iron Man movies – because it was such an underdog. “We’re talking about how the Iron Mans and the Thors and the Captain Americas and the Avengers movies have afforded Marvel the opportunity to essentially take what was a third-tier, minor, kind of upstart bit of potential from one of their comic books series and say: ‘Look!’” Guardians of the Galaxy has made over $500 million at the worldwide box office, so it seems likely that Downey isn’t the only one who feels this way. —ComicBook.com, August 27, 2014

In this day and age, that would REALLY be something!

250,000 sales in three weeks, and counting!

To me, it means you don't see the target until genius makes it visible.

Here's another one I like. "Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way." Charles Bukowski