From: les@jmdl.com (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V4 #212 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk JMDL Digest Wednesday, May 12 1999 Volume 04 : Number 212 TapeTree #8 is ready to roll. To sign up go to: http://www.jmdl.com/trading ------- Join the Joni Mitchell Internet Community Glossary project. Send a blank message to for all the details. ------- The Official Joni Mitchell Homepage is maintained by Wally Breese at http://www.jonimitchell.com and contains the latest news, a detailed bio, original interviews and essays, lyrics, and much more. ------- The JMDL website can be found at http://www.jmdl.com and contains interviews, articles, the member gallery, archives, and much more. ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Joni on Storytellers -- Musings [evian ] NJC - My last post about gun control [CarltonCT@aol.com] Re: Bunch #1 (NJC) ["Helen M. Adcock" ] Joan of Arc [James Leahy ] Re: NJC - My last post about gun control [MDESTE1@aol.com] MacKenzie Phillips NJC [Bob.Muller@fluordaniel.com] Bunch #1 [Bob.Muller@fluordaniel.com] Sydney show/Jonifest NJC [Ashara@aol.com] Les Deux Cafes - Part Trois (NJC) [Steve Dulson ] NJC: goodbye for now [Alan ] Re: VH-1 Storytellers [Bounced Message ] Leonard Cohen (NJC) [Steve Dulson ] Re: VH-1 Storytellers [CaTGirl627@aol.com] Re: VH-1 Storytellers....Joni pic. disc [CaTGirl627@aol.com] Breaking the Pop Stranglehold -- Prt. 1 [Don Rowe ] Breaking the Pop Stranglehold -- Prt. 2 [Don Rowe ] Breaking the Pop Stranglehold -- Prt.3 [Don Rowe ] Breaking the Pop Stranglehold -- Prt. 4 [Don Rowe ] Bunch #2 [Wally Breese ] Re: Breaking the Pop Stranglehold -- Prt. 4 ["Kakki" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 02:28:38 -0600 From: evian Subject: Joni on Storytellers -- Musings > "So then there's 'Lead Balloon' ... what's that all > about?" > Hinton dear, As usual, you are warping my life to sell a few copies of that rag you call a book... However, you do have one thing right about Lead Balloon. I WAS thinking of Geffen, and how that cheap bugger was ripping me off. But, to make matters worse, David was on one of those kicks, trying to pad his pocket with more junk food for juveniles, all the while trying to resurrect the dinosaurs from his past... he must have been afraid we would all write books about him, now that he was becoming Mr. Dreamworks himself. Anyway, his big idea was that I could do duets with Cher, since her infomercials on the glories of Lori Davis hair care were wearing thin... the nerve of that man! He was keeping me prisoner to his label, and he had the nerve to suggest that I prostitute myself to sell a few records... doesn't he get it? Radio wrote me off after Mingus... anyway, the slimy little bastard (to think I used to bake him pies, and clean his gross thinning hair out of the drains of our bathroom) says this Dreamworks thing he concocted with those other suits had this movie coming out, and wanted Cher and I to sing "When You Believe" as a duet for this lame-ass movie. Cher stood there flipping her hair and acting like this was going to be some kind of artistic second coming.... So, as the story goes, I went into a diatribe, throwing my drink, cussing the short little bastard out, and then I immediately thought "here we go again, back to court for the money the jerk owes me"... but I couldn't undo it... I told him to get Mariah Carrey and some other soul-lacking pukoid to do it.... Then, he has the nerve to suggest that I take that "Believe" song and do some kind of dance-mix thing.... When I went over to the wet bar to reload, Cher nodded her moon-face and started guilting him about being his date for all those years, he gave the song to her. I threw both of them out, sat down, and wrote the song. I also wrote another version of Free Man in Paris, but the suits said I would be hauled into court again, so I couldn't put it on the album. Part of it goes as follows: I was a Free Man in Paris, because C&S kept the bank account alive, Cher was on my arm as a favor, She was keeping up my disguise, You know I'd go back there tomorrow, But the court case with Joan goes on and on, I stopped her star-maker machinery, Now she's got no popular songs..... Sadly, this one will never be recorded. Next time, I will tell you all about the story behind "Ray's Dad's Cadillac"... his father was cheating me out of a passing grade, because he didn't approve of me and Ray.... let me tell you, he got what was coming to him when I wrote that song! Yours SIQUOMBLY, Joan ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 05:05:58 EDT From: CarltonCT@aol.com Subject: NJC - My last post about gun control Hey again, Joni lovers - I promise to shut up after this, but had a few more things to say about gun control which should, but will likely not be, one of the most important issues of the election in 2000. It’s a sad shame to watch politicians on television that I otherwise admire skirt the issue of greater gun restrictions. Christopher Dodd looked pained the other night when questioned on CNN about what to do in the wake of Columbine. He knows what must be done. Barney Frank, a tell-it-like-it-is guy, has strong ideas about gun control but admits to the reality that some voters, especially in the West, may agree with a Democratic candidate on every issue, but will throw him or her over on the issue of gun rights. Now is the time to pressure our representatives to implement the sane laws of other modern Western nations, to vote for politicians who want to end the insanity and restore our greatest right: the right to life itself which is so obviously threatened by the availability of handguns and assault weapons. Al Date writes: <> I completely disagree that the number of people who use a gun irresponsibly in this country is “tiny”. What is an acceptable number of deaths each year so that gun manufacturers can continue to infuse up to 300,000 new weapons into the market each year? Here in Los Angeles, we have daily reports of innocent people being caught in the cross fire of gang wars. Are the 15 dead at Columbine an acceptable number for the month of April? On average, 15,000 people in this country are killed by firearms and another 70,000 are victimized , many left permanently disabled. (Source: FBI UCR report). This is not a tiny number, this is an ongoing Holocaust. Al Date writes: <> It’s absolutely necessary for the police of this country to be armed given the number of dangerous weapons in the hands of criminals in this country, and it will be that way for decades. Policemen, especially those who work in large urban centers, are overwhelmingly for greater gun control since they are very often the targets of assault weapons. It is true that in a country like Great Britain (where it is very difficult to get a hold of something other than hunting rifle) that the IRA and other terrorists resort to making bombs. The Brits are not completely free of crime -- who is -- but we should envy them their relative domestic peace due greatly to their laws on gun possession. What do gun rights activists tell a friend of mine (I mentioned her before) who was robbed of her purse -- and her peace of mind -- by three youths with three guns? Having her own gun would have been pointless. As far as self-defense goes, Research has shown that a gun in the home is 43 times more likely to to kill a member of a household or friend than an intruder. (Source: Kellerman and Reay, The New England Journal of Medicine, June 24 1986). The use of a firearm to resist a violent assault actually increases the risk of injury and death. (Source: Firearms, Violence and Public Policy, Scientific American, vol. 265, 1991). Al Date writes: <> Al refers to Florida and Texas and their concealed weapons laws. These statistics were eviscerated in a study by Professor Stephen Terret at Hopkins University, citing among other things, that these statistics averaged in data from counties with very low populations and ignored the dramatic influx of elderly citizens and retirees during the time of the study. Even if the statistics Al offers were unquestionable, a better study would be the crime rates of culturally similar Canada compared with those of the United States, especially since 1978 when stricter gun control was legislated in Ottawa. The Canadians have one fifth of our homicide and violent crime rates. Many of the guns used in Canadian crimes are smuggled in from the United States. Al Date writes: <> I am no lawyer, and I don’t know what the gun laws are from state to state, but the President recently proposed legislation that would raise the age to 18 before someone was allowed use or possession of an automatic weapon. This implies that in some places minors are allowed to use or own an AK-47 as much as they are allowed to use a rifle. I admire Clinton as a politician, but he doesn’t want to endanger his party’s chances in 2000, so his proposed legislation is only lip service, a band-aid that will float off the hemorrhaging wounds of our populace under assault. Kliebold and Harris had no problem getting the weapons they wanted. When I was a teenager and my friends and I wanted liquor, we took it from the cabinets of our parents or found a “cool” adult to buy it for us. The same goes with guns. 340,000 firearms are stolen each year (Source: FBI Crime Reports), but they are stolen from people who were able to buy, sell and manufacture them legally. We need a singular, National gun control law. New York City’s gun laws are subverted by the availability of guns in other states. Many gun rights activists cite Switzerland as a nation of armed civilians that has a fraction of our crime statistics. People for gun rights never bring up Greece. Like the United States, the Greeks have a lack of gun restriction and a corresponding homicide rate that equals our own. I would agree that culturally, there is at least one nation (the Swiss) whose citizens are capable of owning and using guns in a responsible manner. But clearly, the United States is a nation with too many people who are not predisposed to peaceful ways. It may be that our culture is innately a violent one, that we are a nation conceived in a bloody revolution, and our freedom and entrepreneurial values have invited a population of overly aggressive individuals intent on raising themselves in the hierarchy by whatever means. The idea that through education and a non-specific general endeavor we can can instantly become a peace loving nation of gun owners is absurd. Those are the kinds of intrinsic changes that take decades or centuries to achieve. In the meantime, we can take away the guns. This is the last post I will make about this topic because what is evident to me is that logic and compassion are pointless in this discussion. I work with many men who are NRA members who virulently defend their right to own assault weapons and pistols even after the events in Arkansas and Colorado. Most of them bring up this idea that we are a free nation because no one would dare invade a country with an armed citizenry. Well, that seems very silly to me now. What nation would invade the United States which is the only remaining super power? Clinging to the Second Amendment, (which provide arms for a militia and not individual citizens) these men won’t recognize that what gun control really threatens is the loss of *personal power* that comes with owning a weapon that can all too easily and effectively end the life of another, with an item that allows them a closeness to natural human fantasies about killing (most of us have them). The lack of rationale with which some men defend their right to own pistols and assault weapons leads me to believe they really do confuse their guns with their dicks. Peace, Clark NP: Stan Getz, best of the Verve years ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 21:14:06 +1200 From: "Helen M. Adcock" Subject: Re: Bunch #1 (NJC) Wally B wrote: > There is also a very cool-sounding Joni tribute show in Sydney, >Australia in just a few weeks. If you're going to be in that neck of the >woods on the right day, here's more details on the event: I can't even afford to go to this one (just across the ditch, ie. Tasman Sea) so how on earth do I think I can make it across the Pacific to Jonifest! Sigh..... Helen - living in a dreamworld call "eternal optimism"! NP - Jonatha Brooke - growing on me more and more - starting to LOVE it! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 07:48:09 -0500 From: James Leahy Subject: Joan of Arc I think I read somewhere that Joan of Arc was about Janis Joplin. Cheers, Jim ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 08:32:47 EDT From: MDESTE1@aol.com Subject: Re: NJC - My last post about gun control Thanks for your well stated position for gun control. I just wish you had thought through some of your points because you got a little confusing. Just to name a couple. Neither Switzerland and Canada have the same demographics from which most of our gun related statistics emanate. Of course when you point out that its mostly black on black crime and that Canada doesnt have the same demographic break down you are called racist. As if that diminishes the argument or the statistic. One would think that with so many examples of Government genrated mass murder in this century you would consider it a possibility but you do not. That is a big difference in our views. You think Waco and Kent State didnt happen or couldnt happen on a larger scale. But it did and I do. The nation that could invade in the future is some "World Government" (today it is called NATO) just like it is doing now only to someone else. Who knows they might use the need to confiscate guns as the excuse. And just as the population (presumeably yourself included) averted its eyes at Waco because the political views allowed for the exception in that case (ie its ok to liquidate a religious nut) they might say its ok as long as we eliminate those bad guns let the army break down their doors. Just....like.....Waco. remember all those people were killed by the government because it was reputed that they had too many guns. Lastly you also ignore the psychological factor as well which really hurts your case because you simply can not ignore that. What caused the HATE which pulled the trigger. If I handed you a gun it is obvious that you would not shoot anyone so clearly it isnt the weapons but the minds that use them. Sadly in typical gun control advocate style the single most important factor is totally ignored in lieu of a symbolic placebo. Just....like.....the Great Society of LBJ. We differ but I respect very much those with the courage of their convictions to state them publicly. I will be doing a similar post today to bring my arguments to closure on the subject as well. Respectfully yours. Marcel Deste ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 08:53:54 -0400 From: Bob.Muller@fluordaniel.com Subject: MacKenzie Phillips NJC Helen remembers: <> And don't forget her big break, as the adolescent "Carol" in the brilliant 'American Graffiti, one of my faves of all time (and also brought to you by George Lucas) The tender chemistry between her & tough guy John Milner (Paul LeMat) is very touching & funny...when he has to say "I'm a dirty bird, Carol's bitchin'" is a great moment... And Helen - get to that Sydney show...no excuses! ;~) Bob NP: Robin Lane & The Chartbusters, "What The People Are Doing" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 09:10:29 -0400 From: Bob.Muller@fluordaniel.com Subject: Bunch #1 Wally says: <> Thanks for all the news Wally! Boy, this NY show sounds like a ripper! Will you be recording it for posterity/trees, Simon? Or will it be recorded and sold commercially? Are there any other Southern JMDL'ers interested in road trippin' to NY? Because of my job situation I can't be sure but I might could make it work... Wally also adds about the Sydney show: <> Hmmmm...could be some long lost relative - maybe he can get me some tix for this one as well...;~) Bob, waiting with baited breath for Bunch #2 NP: Ladysmith Black Mambazo, "ofana naye"(nobody like him) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 10:10:33 EDT From: Ashara@aol.com Subject: Sydney show/Jonifest NJC Bob sternly admonishes Helen: << And Helen - get to that Sydney show...no excuses! ;~) >> OK, then while you're at it.......get to that Jonifest in September....no excuses!! ;-) Hugs, Ashara ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 07:51:20 -0700 From: Steve Dulson Subject: Les Deux Cafes - Part Trois (NJC) Kakki wrote: >SoCal and visiting JMDL'ers we must plan a night there! Count me in! ############################################################## Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA steve@psitech.com "The Tinker's Own" *NEW* website at: http://www.tinkersown.com "Southern California Dulcimer Heritage" http://members.aol.com/scdulcimer/ "The Living Tradition Concert Series" (Website soon!) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 09:50:27 -0500 From: Alan Subject: NJC: goodbye for now Well my friends, it's time to say good-bye for awhile. I'm out of the Air Force. The movers come tomorrow and I leave for Florida on Friday. I am so happy to be making this move. I've found a great job as a systems analyst for a company doing nuclear treaty monitoring, but most important, I'll be living near and sharing custody of my young Son. It's been three years since I had to leave; I feel like I'm walking out of the darkness. My divorce settlement says my ex-wife gets this computer. That's fine; except it means I'll be off the list for a month or two; however long it takes me to get settled in and build a new one. Until then, thank you very much for all you've taught me about Joni, and many other things... I may not post often, but I'm sure going to miss this list. "Daylight falls upon the path, the forest falls behind Today I am not prey to dark uncertainty The shadow trembles in its wrath, I've robbed its blackness blind And tasted sunlight as my fear came clear to me I think I understand Fear is like a wilderland Stepping stones or sinking sand" Who else? SIQUOMB, isn't she? Alan Poff. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 08:53:38 -0600 From: Bounced Message Subject: Re: VH-1 Storytellers Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 08:50:16 -0400 From: "Jerry Notaro" I got this cd from a friend who works at Ross. It is a very poor copy of Ladies of the Canyon. But the picture is very good. Save your money, folks, and get the real thing. - -- Jerry np: P, P, & M - Lifelines ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 08:04:23 -0700 From: Steve Dulson Subject: Leonard Cohen (NJC) Kenny quotes Lenny: >But we have a special kind of feeling for the singers that >we used to make love to. Which calls to mind (blush) some evenings long ago, glasses of Grand Marnier and a friend whose favorite album was Leonard's "Greatest Hits"... And on a different tack altogether, has anyone heard the Austin Lounge Lizards hilarious "Leonard Cohen's Day Job"? In it Lennny is working as an auto mechanic in NYC. Sample lyrics: "And I swear by the blood And the crud on my hands If you need your car back by five... I'm your man!" ############################################################## Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA steve@psitech.com "The Tinker's Own" *NEW* website at: http://www.tinkersown.com "Southern California Dulcimer Heritage" http://members.aol.com/scdulcimer/ "The Living Tradition Concert Series" (Website soon!) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 13:42:55 EDT From: CaTGirl627@aol.com Subject: Re: VH-1 Storytellers Hi Gang, The info I got about Joni on Story Tellers is true. My source doesn't want his name or TV guide mentioned so forget where I told you I got it. VH-1 has told TV Guide and doesn't want it leaked out but we got it anyway now....shhhhhhhhhh! :) Catgirl...be vewy vewy quiet! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 13:44:53 EDT From: CaTGirl627@aol.com Subject: Re: VH-1 Storytellers....Joni pic. disc In a message dated 5/12/1999 8:48:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time, notaro@bayflash.stpt.usf.edu writes: << I got this cd from a friend who works at Ross. It is a very poor copy of Ladies of the Canyon. But the picture is very good. Save your money, folks, and get the real thing. -- Jerry >> Yep, that is where I got it at. Like he and I both said the sound is terrible but the picture disc is cool so it is collectable. To get it for a few bucks makes it worth so don't spend too much money on it. Catgirl ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 11:00:27 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Rowe Subject: Breaking the Pop Stranglehold -- Prt. 1 Sorry, here's the first installment in the breakup of a very in-depth and fascinating article from the New York Times recently brought to my attention. There is a Joni reference, and a lot of insight into some other listers favorites. Sorry for the bandwidth, but it is remarkably interesting. Don Rowe A Chance to Break the Pop Stranglehold By NEIL STRAUSS There are two great pop music dreams. And they usually follow each other, like marriage and divorce. The first great dream is to get together with friends in a basement or garage, write songs, make music, feel the magic and perform at local clubs until a big record label rushes in waving a contract. And then the label takes care of the rest: hit singles, arena shows, limos, parties, a new house for mom. But the dream,even for those few who actually get to live it, has usually been a nightmare. That's when the next great dream kicks in. This is the dream of independence, of breaking away from the record label and going it alone. It's about rethinking the first dream, remembering that the most exciting part of being in a band was when you did it yourself. There was the joy of selling the first three copies of a CD or cassette you made on your own. Back then, you actually made a few bucks off those sales. Now, under a record label, promotional costs are so high that you may see no actual money, even if you're lucky enough to sell a million albums. And then there are the long tours spanning four continents, the executives that keep sending you back into the studio asking for hits despite the fact that you considered your album finished months ago, and the three-year gap between the release of each record. Signing to a big label suddenly doesn't seem like a step up anymore; it seems like a sacrifice. "There's no contract you can sign in modern life that resembles a recording contract; they're absolutely unconscionable," said Bart Bull, the manager and husband of Michelle Shocked, the singer-songwriter who spent four years extricating herself from her contract with Mercury Records after the label rejected her new songs for being inconsistent with her style. "You take those 48 pages of a typical contract and hold it in front of anyone familiar with other types of business contracts, and they think it's insane." A slew of recent events -- from the panic at major labels over the distribution of music on the Internet to the bloodletting following large music company mergers -- has made it clear to musicians that the structure of major record companies is not conducive to either their financial or, more important, their artistic goals. Talking to everyone from up-and-coming bands to those who have been signed for more than a decade, from artists with low sales to superstars, from lawyers to former executives, there is a growing dissatisfaction with a system that has been building its fortress for more than 100 years -- since a company called Columbia sprung up to challenge Thomas Edison's exclusive distribution of prerecorded cylinders to be played on the phonograph he invented. _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Free instant messaging and more at http://messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 11:04:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Rowe Subject: Breaking the Pop Stranglehold -- Prt. 2 This dissatisfaction stems less from the fact that the companies are owned by multinational conglomerates than from the belief that the labels are simply too big, numbers-driven and inefficient. Artists who could be much farther along in their creative work get bogged down in the bureaucracy. Waiting for the new record from Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction? Keep waiting. It's already been rejected by his record label, Warner Brothers, several times. And what ever happened to Joan Osborne? Her label hasn't liked her new material either. The Verve Pipe? The label made the band write dozens of additional songs for its next album in search of a new hit. And Beck? He has just been sued by his record label over a contract dispute. And this is how the labels treat their favored artists. Today, we are at an important moment in music history. Thanks in part to the rise of the Internet and music-business consolidation, a window has opened, one in which making this sacrifice of artistic freedom for commercial success may no longer be necessary. In the next few years, either a lot of best-selling musicians are going to climb through that window or the window is going to slam shut, tighter than it ever was before. Take a look at the music industry today. Manufactured teeny-bopper bands are dominating the pop world, corporate mergers are squeezing hundreds of musicians out of the business without even giving them the rights to their recordings, and executives of major record labels are meeting behind closed doors to develop a way to police and control the distribution of music on the Internet. These events are pointing the way to an exit from the status quo by fostering dissent and inadvertently giving musicians the freedom to act on it. In recent years, several people have stepped up to try to make the business work better for musicians and their fans, among them the musician, computer whiz and virtual-reality pioneer Jaron Lanier and the progressive rock guitarist Robert Fripp of King Crimson. They are developing new companies in hopes of chipping away at a business that loses money on far more records than it profits from. Despite the rhetoric on the Internet about an online music revolution bringing down the record establishment, it is not the Internet per se that is going to grant musicians their freedom. It's the idea of the Internet -- in other words, the knowledge that there is an alternative to the system. The golden age of the Internet -- as a freewheeling, chaotic world where all information is available free of charge and everybody is equal -- is fast coming to an end. There's too much money at stake for it not to be transformed into a new revenue stream for corporations. Look at the record labels. It may seem as if they are running scared because recent technological advances have made it very easy for Internet users to copy and distribute their favorite CDs on line without authorization, but the truth is that the labels have already found a way to turn this new technology to their financial advantage. Most major labels have added what's called a new technology deduction clause to the contracts they offer bands. What it does is subtract 15 percent to 25 percent of the royalty rate of 12 percent to 13 percent that a new band receives for each record sold. The labels maintain that the clause is necessary because of the costs of Internet-related technology. This rationale seems strange because the distribution of music on the Internet is supposed to save record labels money in CD manufacturing, packaging and shipping costs. "Even the lawyers with the most power can't get rid of those clauses," said Ken Freundlich, a top music-industry lawyer. "It's the same mind-set the labels have had since the CD: bring on the new technology, cut the royalty rate." The head of a record company, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he wasn't worried about artists releasing their CDs independently on the Internet. "How are they going to compete with someone putting $10 million into another Web site?" he asked. "Do you know how big the Internet's going to be? You're going to need infrastructure." Putting control of the Internet in the hands of the corporations means that a utopian musical vision may be dying. The vision is of a level playing field where all bands regardless of their record label or financing have equal access to the ears of the consumer. Here's the next installment ... Instead, the chances of a dystopian world are increasing, one in which record companies have even greater control over music distribution, and new bands are signed not because of how they sound but because of how many visitors come to their Internet site each month. At present, record companies have a great deal of control. A record deal is basically a service contract that puts the musician in the employ of the record company. In all but the rarest cases, by signing a deal musicians forfeit their ownership of any music they make under that contract. And, from the outset, the musician is put in a position of accepting debt. _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Free instant messaging and more at http://messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 11:21:45 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Rowe Subject: Breaking the Pop Stranglehold -- Prt.3 This part is really an eye-opener ... That tantalizing million dollar advance, for example, must be paid back to the record label at an interest rate far higher than that of a bank loan. Because the debt is paid out of the small royalty that musicians make, most acts never see a penny from their record sales. The record company executive said: "A lot of lawyers and artists don't understand how the record business works. Artists don't have $50 million in overhead. We don't make money on their T-shirts and concerts that we market and promote." For the music fan, far more disturbing than the financial toll record labels exact from artists is the creative one. Except in the case of an extremely slow, laborious songwriter like Leonard Cohen, artistic creativity moves at a much faster rate than the current system allows. Even in hip-hop, in which musicians tend to turn around albums quickly to take advantage of shortterm trends, there is frustration over inertia on the part of the record labels. "Years ago, there was a 9- or 10-day turnaround after an artist turned in a record; now it takes 9 to 10 months because the record labels can't handle the traffic and need a year to set up their marketing and promotion systems," said Chuck D of Public Enemy, a pioneering rap group that left a major label in January and will release its next record through an Internet company called Atomic Pop. "If the majors cannot adapt to change, they become solely banking systems. If they could sell Brillo pads with a slice of cheese on them, they'd do that, because the music is irrelevant to them." There are many musicians who probably belong in the major label system, particularly those using music as a route to money and fame or those who see their calling not in artistic achievement but in mass entertainment. Then there are songwriters like Aimee Mann, the former singer in 'Til Tuesday, who has a strong fan base and is an accomplished songwriter. But her experiences trying to release records have been soul-crushing, and as a result she has only put out two albums in eight years. Her first label, Giant, got cold feet and canceled her contract before releasing her first album. Her second label, Imago, folded before he second record came out, and, just after Ms. Mann completed her third album for her third label, Geffen, the company was consolidated into Interscope as a result of the merger of both labels'parent company, Universal Music, with Polygram. Ms. Mann thought she had finally caught a lucky break when she became one of the few artists whose contracts were not dropped in the merger. But soon after, she was told that Interscope -- her fourth label -- wanted her to continue working on an album. "I'm officially at the end of my major label rope," she said. Labels have built their business on hits. If they had developed a model that could profit from a record that sold 200,000 copies, the way many independent labels do, they could have made money by putting out the five or so records that Ms. Mann -- or the scores of other performers in similar situations -- might have released. This mishandling doesn't just happen with serious artists. Another merger casualty was the English teeny-bopper band Boyzone, which suffered a setback in its chance for success in America when, to meet a quarterly quota, its label, Mercury, quietly released 30,000 copies of its album before the merger instead of waiting to set up the record properly. A spokeswoman for Mercury said that the record had been released to get "a running start" for the band's promotional campaign this summer. Another problem is that labels judge with weekly sales reports and not their ears, giving up on a band that doesn't do well in the short term but may generate future catalog sales. History has proved over and over that one decade's failures (whether it's the Velvet Underground's proto-punk or Joni Mitchell's redirection into jazz) can become the next decade's classics. But the history of the music business is one of inefficiencies, dating back to the late 19th century, when less than half the sheet music released paid back the high cost of marketing the music, despite the tactic of paying well-known performers to include the song in their repertories. "For an artist like me, who is somewhere in the middle saleswise, I've maybe had a couple of records that once made the record company money," said David Lowery, formerly of Camper Van Beethoven and now in Cracker on Virgin Records. "But now, I doubt a gold record could make them money anymore. They need a platinum." Here is one more story, a common tale with a new twist: Josh Clayton-Felt, formerly of the rock group School of Fish, spent three years working on his second solo album for A&M Records. Every time he thought he was finished, label executives sent him back into the studio with the four words that have become anathema to working musicians, "It needs a hit." Clayton-Felt turned in a total of 22 songs, then waited for executives to set a release date for the record. But after eight months, A&M was taken over by Interscope. Clayton-Felt was one of some 250 artist dropped after the Universal merger. A free agent, Clayton-Felt asked if he could release the music he had recorded during that time elsewhere: the label said no. He asked if he could buy it back and release it himself, and again the answer was no. Label executives said they would negotiate only with a major label. So he decided he would rent a studio and record new versions of the songs. But Universal still said no: a clause in his contract prevented his rerecording the songs for five years. Bob Bernstein, a spokesman for Universal, said that Clayton-Felt had been told that his album could either be released independently for a limited term or shopped to a major label. "If he garnered interest from a major, Universal would be willing to negotiate a sale of that record," he said. For four months, Clayton-Felt wrestled with the label and with himself. "I started to look at why it has gotten to this point, that record labels have so much power," he said. "And the reason is because artists have given them far too much control. We need to start looking out for each other. But we so badly want a piece of the pie that we've knocked each other down in the process of pursuing it." Clayton-Felt considered changing his name to record the songs or performing them in a concert that his audience was encouraged to bootleg. Finally, he realized that there could be as many as 100 artists in similar situations because of the merger. And, legally, he could bring together a dozen or so of them and record an album on which musicians take their best songs stuck in the Universal machine and give them to another performer to record. Currently, Clayton-Felt is working on the compilation and hoping to use the proceeds to start an artist-run cooperative label. "God, I never thought I'd say these things," he said after explaining his plan. But Clayton-Felt is only echoing sentiments held by Chuck D, Ms. Mann, Ms. Brooke, Lanier, Fripp and Lowery. What is more surprising is that a large number of popular musicians -- even lawyers and label executives -- are agreeing with them. No one wants to give the system another chance. The idea of the Internet, the alternative, is much more tempting. There are three things musicians want from a major label: money for recording and touring, national marketing muscle and wide distribution. If another system could be developed that offered musicians this trinity, then perhaps when their contracts expired they would think twice about remaining with major labels. Especially considering that when asked, many artists said they would rather sell 200,000 copies of 10 records each than 7 million of 2. "If we didn't have a record deal, I would explore manufacturing the records ourselves," Lowery said. "I'd make an arrangement with an independent distributor, maybe hire some Internet marketing firms, make deals with MP3 sites and run the business more like a software company. I would like to see if doing it that way is going to afford us more creative control and make us more money and get our music to the people we think would like us." (By MP3, Lowery is referring to a popular technology that enables music to be converted into relatively small, high-quality computer files that can be easily distributed on line.) As for alternatives, there are a few different possibilities. The first is simply doing the work yourself. Lately, being on their own label has paid off for musicians like Ms. Brooke, Kristin Hersh, Jane Siberry, Ani DiFranco and, most popular and dramatically of all, the artist formerly known as Prince. Not only did he sport the word slave on his cheek while under contract to Warner Brothers, but he also announced that he would be rerecording all 17 of his records for the label to spite it for not giving back his master tapes when he was released from his contract in 1995. But there is a downside to independence. Just as it is unfortunate for artists to waste away creatively while waiting for a record label to put outtheir music out, it's also a shame when they spend more time doing business than making music. "I'm swamped with the business side of things," said Ms. Brooke, whose independent record has sold more copies than her major-label ones did. "So it's very hard to put on the other hat, close the door and start banging on my piano again when I feel like I should be calling up the indie promoters and publicists working the record." Another alternative is a holdover from the 70s: setting up a label based on a set of artist-friendly principles and trying to get other musicians to join the collective struggle. In 1991, Fripp, the British guitarist, formed a company called Discipline Global Music. There is little chance that it will even cause a blip on the radar of the current music business, but its ideas could inspire a related movement that will. "Any culture whose artists are directed or controlled by commercial interests is in mortal danger," Fripp begins one section of his company's manifesto, going on to declare: "Any record company who asks an artist, 'You want to sell records, don't you?' should be avoided. Any A&R man who tells the artist to record a single because their album can't be promoted without one has just told the artist to change labels." _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Free instant messaging and more at http://messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 11:28:32 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Rowe Subject: Breaking the Pop Stranglehold -- Prt. 4 Okay, this is the last one ... Then there's a third, more ambitious alternative: to devise an entirely new way of doing business. That is exactly what Lanier is doing. Recently, he drew up a five-point strategy, formed a musicians' collective called Musicisum with Kristen Stavola and signed up more than 45 artists to begin a noble experiment that involves the Internet, subscription fees an music filling stations. The plan provides that giving artists equity in the companies that market their work would motivate them. They would receive dividends, a much larger share of royalties, the rights to their master recordings and short, standardized contracts so that everyone would be aware of the risks and rewards in the deal. On a more radical note, the proposal suggests that successful musicians be asked to take a stake in new acts to help them get started. In turn, so-called music pirates would be encouraged to become mini-retailers instead and sell CDs and concert tickets on their own Web sites for a small profit. "The hacker kids are the indie retailers of the future," said Ms. Stavola. Lanier, cautiously optimistic, predicted: "If we do it and get crushed like bugs, we'll still have shifted what the business does so it will be better for fans and artists. At least they will be educated. But I don't think we will get squashed. There will just be a variety of different businesses in place -- the supertankers and ours, which will have the best music." There are several other schemes similar to Lanier's that have been suggested. What they all involve is finding a way for musicians to finance the release and marketing of their albums that does not involve their signing away their rights. In such proposals, it is the artists who hire the companies that promote, publicize and distribute their music. This way if any company isn't doing its job, it can be dismissed without serious consequences. And it is the Internet that serves to market -- and help distribute -- an artist's music by building up a network of dedicated fans not unlike the way the Grateful Dead did in the real world. Of course, the best of the plans don't rely entirely on the Internet, since its capabilities to distribute music lie in the future and a large portion of music sales will take place outside the home for years to come. The main problem with most such approaches is capital: where does the start-up money for groups to record and promote their music come from? The solution requires building better banks: Lanier suggests having "musician-friendly entities" or more successful artists serving a guarantors on a loan for start-up bands. Others suggest having financiers invest in a band in exchange for a percentage of the royalties but no other involvement, though this could create a new set of business problems. As anyone who's studied European revolutions knows, the revolution often becomes as tyrannical as the establishment it overthrows. Or, as the Who once sang, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." Public Enemy's Internet deal with Atomic Pop may be revolutionary because it will result in the first new album by a major artist available for direct download on the Internet before it is in stores. But look who is running Atomic Pop: Al Teller, the former head of two major labels, MCA and Columbia, for which Public Enemy recorded its first albums. Of course, the problem in the business is not necessarily the people in charge; it's the system they're entrenched in. The anti-major-label sentiment expressed by Lanier, Fripp and others is nothing new in pop music. It is actually what drives the business. Periodically, popular music veers into a period of stagnation and major labels shut their doors to new talent and innovation. Those shut out develop their own voice, usually through independent labels. This happened in the mid-50s with rock-and-roll, what's now called classic rock in the late '60s, punk rock in the late '70s, alternative rock in the late '80s and gangsta rap in the mid-'90s. And maybe it is happening again. Of course, the next step is that once the major labels see the success of outsiders, they embrace them and bring them into the system. The result is that the alternative becomes the mainstream, demoted from rebellion to trend. It is then diluted with successively cheaper imitations until the myopic gatekeepers slam the doors shut again, allowing the next band of renegades to gather their forces as the labels once more focus their resources on the superstars. This means that today we stand at the threshold of a revolution or a repetition. _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Free instant messaging and more at http://messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 99 12:01:37 -0700 From: Wally Breese Subject: Bunch #2 Hi everybody, Here's news bunch #2- The songbook for Taming The Tiger is now available, and, of course, I've put up a page to promote it's release. Read all about it on this page, and enter a contest to win a free copy of the book. I'm very pleased to tell you that our very own Internet buddy, Howard Wright, has been graced by having his "Guitar Notes" added to the songbook. Congratulations, Howard! Here's the URL for the songbook page: (http://www.jonimitchell.com/TTTSongbooks599.html) This Sunday, Joni is being honored at the 16th annual ASCAP Pop Awards, with the prestigious ASCAP Founders Award, their highest honor. It is presented to songwriters whose work has broken musical ground and has influenced the development of popular music and culture. The presentation of this award is for pioneering career achievement and is the highlight of the Pop Awards evening. CDNOW.COM has a current sale that's good through next Monday (5/17/99). It's a $10 off coupon on any order over $14.99! Not bad, since this means that you can get a CD for $4.99 plus shipping. Enter through any link on JM.COM, or go to this address: (http://www.jonimitchell.com/ShopPage998.html) Later, Wally Breese The Joni Mitchell Homepage http://www.JoniMitchell.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 12:44:19 -0700 From: "Kakki" Subject: Re: Breaking the Pop Stranglehold -- Prt. 4 Thanks, Don - a great article. Unfortunately, the points made below are probably the most salient. There may be ever-evolving revolutions in the music business but whatever works most successfully will no doubt be sucked right back into the starmaker machinery vortex of whatever megalith record companies survive the latest revolution. The revolutionaries of today may well find themselves to be the corporate suits of tomorrow. I used to be more optimistic about the power of indies/internet to finally break the stranglehold but have a more jaded view at this point. One of my goals is to learn more about how the business operated back in the 50s and 60s. While there were many abuses then that do not occur today, often there were also more fair and honorable deals for some of the artists. I think the artists of today could benefit from studying history a bit and take a cue from what did work for the artists in the old days. Kakki > As anyone who's studied European revolutions knows, > the revolution often becomes as tyrannical as the > establishment it overthrows. Or, as the Who once sang, > "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." > Of course, the next step is that once the major labels > see the success of outsiders, they embrace them and > bring them into the system. The result is that the > alternative becomes the mainstream, demoted from > rebellion to trend. It is then diluted with > successively cheaper imitations until the myopic > gatekeepers slam the doors shut again, allowing the > next band of renegades to gather their forces as > the labels once more focus their resources on the > superstars. This means that today we stand at the > threshold of a revolution or a repetition. > > _________________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Free instant messaging and more at http://messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V4 #212 ************************** There is now a JMDL tape trading list. Interested traders can get more details at http://www.jmdl.com/trading ------- The Song and Album Voting Booths are open again! Cast your votes by clicking the links at http://www.jmdl.com/gallery username: jimdle password: siquomb ------- Don't forget about these ongoing projects: FAQ Project: Help compile the JMDL FAQ. Do you have mailing list-related questions? -send them to Trivia Project: Send your Joni trivia questions and/or answers to Today in History Project: Know of a date-specific Joni fact? -send it to ------- Post messages to the list at Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe joni-digest" to ------- Siquomb, isn't she?