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"Into The Sunset" Neil Finn

Actually, I didn't download this one. Somebody e-mailed it to me.

Somewhere along the line, I got off the Finn Brothers bus.

Oh, I was there EARLY! I bought the Split Enz albums on CHRYSALIS! But what REALLY got to me was the ones on A&M. Especially "True Colours".

"Waiata" was good too. But they kept getting progressively worse.

But on their last record, the BARELY uneven "Conflicting Emotions", came the best Split Enz song EVER! "Message To My Girl".

"I don't want to say I love you That would give away too much"

Tell me when you figure it out. Whether it pays to be coy and removed or to GO FOR IT!

But it's not only the lyrics, it's the SOUND of this record. So lush, so REMOVED! Alone in your room on a hot summer afternoon. DREAMING about the possibilities.

But what is TRULY stellar is the LIVE version of "Message To My Girl" with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. One of my very first Napster downloads. Unavailable in the U.S. AT ANY PRICE! But this rendition is PERFECTION! Imagine your most meaningful rock song crossed with "Peter and the Wolf". Oh, when the strings crescendo a warmth spreads through my heart. I feel fully alive.

But then the band was done. And we got Crowded House.

"Don't Dream It's Over" eventually became a hit, but really, the track that got to me from that very first record is "Hole In The River". Oh, I had the record before ANY track was a hit. But I wasn't a lame modern A&R guy. Trying to second-guess the public, come up with something palatable to the lowest common denominator. I just went by what was pleasing to ME! Oh, the sound of "Hole In The River". Pregnant with meaning. Like reading a novel on your bed.

But then I was done. The material never measured up.

Oh, there's a CULT! Who go to see the boys whenever they're in town. But I remember the glory days. I want no part of it.

But then this dude tracks me down, asks me if I WENT! He's foaming at the mouth. Talking about the show at the Avalon. He's making me believe I might have missed something. Then he e-mails me this, I play it, and I find he's right. Turns out Neil's still got it. A way to penetrate your insides.

Make no mistake, the major labels want to eviscerate the ability to e-mail music. To TURN PEOPLE ON TO STUFF! The major labels are ANTI-MUSIC! And if they ever make headway in shutting down file-trading, which they haven't yet, expect protest as vast as the one from Bruce and his cohorts. And, the ACTS will participate. Because true artists do it to COMMUNICATE with people. But nobody working at the major labels is an artist. They don't understand this. They measure success purely by money. Oh, how sad. To think that a Mercedes-Benz can equal looking out over a sea of faces smiling, thrilled just to be able to hear your music.

"Hot Summer Nights" Walter Egan

"There was a time, not too far gone When I was changed by just a song On the radio, in my car The pounding electric guitar"

At this point in time, Walter Egan is just a footnote. A one hit wonder.

And about all you can find online is "Magnet and Steel".

But I never loved that song. The one that always got to me was "Hot Summer Nights".

You see, for a moment there, we took Walter Egan seriously. For he was part of the FLEETWOOD MAC CAMP!

That was it in the late seventies. Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles. They RULED! It was kind of like with rappers today, anybody they endorsed we paid ATTENTION TO!

"Hot Summer Nights" is the last track on Walter's second album, "Not Shy". It SOUNDS like a Lindsey Buckingham track. If only Lindsey could truly cut the Southern California music he dreamed of creating.

Oh, "Hot Summer Nights" doesn't sound like the Beach Boys. Rather, it sounds like someone who GREW UP listening to the Beach Boys. And is driving around Hawthorne, with the top down, REMEMBERING!

"Return with me to when times were best We were friends that could pass any test We shared our hopes, our dreams, and our goals And the fundamental roll As we sang in the hot, dark rooms Happy just to play our tunes We felt good when we did it right We felt good on a hot summer night, yeah Hot summer nights Hot summer nights, yeah"

I feel sorry for today's generation. There used to be this COMMUNAL EXPERIENCE! Of going to somebody's house, sitting around and SINGING! Yup, somebody would have an acoustic. You'd start with Beatles songs. And progressively go more obscure. From the Lovin' Spoonful to Jefferson Airplane to...

Well, I guess today's kids can freestyle. But, is it the same THING?

"Hot Summer Nights" sounds ominous. But it was only playing in my head. It took me a month to finally find it online.

And now I'm brought back to the late seventies. Running into Walter Egan at Zipper BMW. He was much taller than I figured. His hair was already gray. There was a problem with his classic silver 3.0 CS. I wonder where Walter Egan is today...

"Easy To Slip" Sandy Denny

One of the biggest songs of the seventies was "Willin'".

Oh YOU KNOW!

"I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari Tehachapi to Tonopah Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made Driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed"

Now I knew Tucson, but when friends of mine told me they purchased a vacation home in TEHACHAPI my mind was BLOWN!

Yup, Tehachapi is at the southernmost tip of the Sierra Nevada. In California. Tonopah's over the border in Nevada. I STILL don't know where Tucumcari is. But shit, I've sung the name of that city for EONS!

The version of "Willin'" most people know is the one from Linda Ronstadt's "Heart Like A Wheel". I got turned on to the song as the opening cut on Seatrain's debut for Capitol. It wasn't until '73 that I heard the original writer sing this song. Yes, Lowell George of Little Feat.

Right now I'm listening to a duet of Lowell and Linda singing "Willin'" at WHFS thirty years ago. But, as great as that rendition is, my all time favorite Lowell George composition is "Easy To Slip".

Oh, an acoustic guitar played with EMPHASIS! And then Billy Payne's organ c omes in like a cascading wave. And THEN, that voice of smoked honey enters the picture.

"It's so easy to slip It's so easy to fall"

Oh, the tune is UPBEAT! It's got ENERGY!

But then you listen closely. It's not about slipping into an altered consciousness. It's not about a high, but a low. It's about slipping off the edge of the earth.

"Well I don't want to drift forever In the shadow of your leaving me So I'll light another cigarette And try to remember to forget"

People remind me to forget ALL THE TIME. But I just can't. I have that connection, and it's over...and I won't say I'm a mess, I'm just NON-FUNCTIONAL!

Today rock stars are ICONS! That's the way the media makes them. You want to be JUST LIKE THEM! You want to go to parties, drive a Ferrari. Whereas it used to be what enamored us was when these performers demonstrated they were just like US!

Lowell George was a legendary ladies' man. People like that are supposed to be like Vince on "Entourage". Love 'em and leave 'em. They're not supposed to get HUNG UP! That's for mere mortals.

But our musical heroes used to be mortal. And that's what we LOVED about them. THAT'S what made us want to get closer.

Trying to find a live version of "Easy To Slip" I found out that I was not the only one who loved this song. No, other acts had COVERED IT!

The most easily findable is Bob Weir's. It's good, but a little too pretty, a little too dreamy, a little too ethereal.

But there's a slightly grittier live version with Ratdog. God, who knew "Easy To Slip" was a Dead classic?

And there's a modern take by this act Solitair. With rapping and such.

But the one that's HARD to find. That took me weeks. Is the one by Sandy Denny. Oh, it's not so special. But ain't it always the Brits who find the gems while we in the U.S. overlook our homegrown treasures...

"No Poetry" Gary Jules

I thought he was a one hit wonder. But when this came over the Loft last night, I couldn't leave my car. THIS is why you need XM. Because music still lives on satellite radio. You're not going to hear this kind of stuff on commercial radio. Or else it's going to be on one of those sleepy AAA stations. Made for somnambulant pseudo-hipsters. Whereas Mike Marrone is the OPPOSITE of dead. You see Mike still BELIEVES! His station might not be in your face, but that doesn't mean it doesn't GET TO YOU!

Subtlety is lost in today's society.

But subtlety is the essence of life. A glance. A stolen look. A touch. Those are the most meaningful moments. You can listen to Top Forty all day and not be touched, but spend a few minutes with the Loft, and you remember the power of music.

"Pleasant Valley Sunday" The Monkees

This sounds so fresh it's ASTOUNDING!

Oh, it's not CONTEMPORARY! It seems to exist in a parallel universe. But strangely, it doesn't sound DATED!

There's something about the production. But really, it's the harmonies.

This got me on a Monkees kick.

Now I bought the first three albums when they came out. But all these years later, I'm stunned how good some of this stuff is.

"I'm A Believer" is one of the best tracks of the sixties. And the funny thing is it's not the lyrics, the vocals, the delivery. All of which are SPECTACULAR! Rather it's the EXTRAS, the PENUMBRA!

Oh, the rhythm. It's a jangly GROOVE!

And the cheesy organ.

And the handclaps.

"I'm A Believer" is INFECTIOUS! You don't have to be ashamed of loving it.

"(Theme From) The Monkees" sounds better than the theme songs for TODAY'S shows.

"Saturday's Child" rocks HARDER than all those Firm bands. Yup, Limp Bizkit, Staind and Puddle Of Mudd. Really, download and LISTEN! There's this INTENSE guitar. This makes TODAY'S baseball cap-wearing acts seem faux!

And I downloaded "Valerie", which I'd forgotten about, but still delivers.

But the song I was dying to hear, that took me so long to find, was "Take A Giant Step".

Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as I remembered. Maybe I've spent too many years listening to Taj Mahal's take.

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