All Wood and Stones

A Review by Bob Lefsetz

1
One of the great thrills of hiking with my MyFi last week was hearing "Pathway To Glory".

It would be hard to imagine an act like Loggins and Messina existing today. Except maybe in the Christian world. That seems to be where the classic rock tradition has come to rest.

Yes, classic rock. Classic rock wasn't only Led Zeppelin, the Doors and Yes. It embraced the lullabies of James Taylor. The acoustically-strummed records of his then wife Carly Simon. And the in between Crosby, Stills and Nash, who'd switch from acoustic to electric and then back again.

You see classic rock was about an ATTITUDE! An ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT attitude. It was us against them. We had a whole culture. Not only road warriors who tore up hotel rooms but sensitive singer-songwriters like Cat Stevens. Yes, Keith Moon and the now Yusaf Islam were seen to be from the same world.

But then the alternative world became the mainstream. And rock and roll never recovered. Hell, MUSIC never recovered. Sure, hip-hop came along to carry the torch, but it wasn't about being separate as much as RIPPING OFF the establishment. Not for good, like the Diggers did for a while in San Francisco, but for personal embellishment. Despite the fact that there are a zillion people in a hip-hop video, on a hip-hop track, it's clear that there's a separation between who's on screen and who's watching. It's the old star system of the thirties, just a bunch of years later. Whereas classic rockers, despite their wealth and sexual conquests, liked to project the image that they were just like us. That they were singing for us. Reflecting ourselves back to us.

Oh, it was a different era.

If you didn't have the record, you weren't cool.

And records were sold by word of mouth.

Today's kids don't feel the same way we did. Don't think otherwise. The concept of these sold-out crooners and rappers adorned in the products of Madison Avenue truly having something to say is LAUGHABLE! It's all about the Benjamins. Hell, isn't that what the song said?

But, ironically, their parents still believe. Yes, it's baby boomers who are paying a hundred bucks a ticket to see gray-haired acts play their hits of thirty and forty years ago. They want to remember a time when life was more meaningful. When THEY hadn't sold out. When THEY still believed.

These are the same people who bought the Ray Charles record at Starbucks.

That's the story here. Not that Starbucks sold CDs. Or that Ray Charles reached a new economic peak. But that people wanted to BUY the damn pieces of plastic. Especially in this era of downloads.

But the baby boomer doesn't want the download. Because it's not TANGIBLE! They remember vinyl. They see the iconic element of music. It's not disposable. Hell, can you imagine today's kids buying Britney, the Backstreets, even JAY-Z on a new high definition format thirty years from now? OF COURSE NOT!! But that's just what baby boomers did. Replace all their vinyl, 8-tracks and cassettes with a NEW format. One that got them CLOSER to the music. Could it be that the revolution, hope, could come from THEM???

Think about it. It's not only Ray Charles, it's Norah Jones.

The baby boomer market is DIFFERENT!

The baby boomers don't listen to music radio. They wouldn't think of it. What with all the commercials. And, isn't talk more VITAL?

But they listen to their friends. The LAST thing a baby boomer wants to appear is out of it, behind the times, not cognizant of trends. FURTHERMORE, unlike their kids, the baby boomers have got MONEY! So, if a friend goes on about a CD...they buy it.

And if they like it, they tell people about it.

Oh, don't mistake this with Tommy Mottola's paradigm of hyping product on the "Today Show". The people buying Rod Stewart albums now weren't fans of his to begin with. No, I'm talking about a different audience. One that was HIP in the sixties and seventies. That knows the POWER of a great record. They're still hungry. They want to consume music. Unlike their kids, they NEED music. They might not listen to music radio in their cars, but they'll listen to CDs and a dinner party wouldn't work without tunes.

And they don't want to play the same tunes over and over again. They want something new.

And this new thing should emblemize them as hip. That's what's wrong with modern marketing. Music is sold so broadly that consumers can't be clued in and hip about it. And this is a key element of being a fan. You want to be there first. You want to turn OTHERS on to stuff.

The major labels are mainstreaming themselves to death. What's gonna save the music business is what's on the fringe.

2
We're gonna break a record.

Yup, just you and me. We're gonna show the major labels, the WHOLE BUSINESS, the new paradigm.

It starts with Mike Marrone. DJ at XM's Loft. Mike Marrone's only got one job. To play music so good, people keep up their subscriptions. He isn't selling dishwasher soap. Not cars. Not mortgages or tooth-whiteners. He only serves one master. The listener.

Part of Mike's gig is to play the best music of the rock era. But he knows that his audience needs more. They're hungry for more. That they need NEW music. That's got the essence of the old.

Then comes technology. Recording Mike's program on my MyFi I came across this strange cover of the Rolling Stones. By Batdorf &...

I thought Rodney. But after writing that, Mike contacted me and told me I was wrong. That this wasn't that seventies act, but a brand new one. John Batdorf and James Lee Stanley! They'd done a whole album of acoustic Stones covers.

Now the new music world doesn't play like the old. The gulf between artist and fan is not vast. You see every act has a Website. Where they can be reached. You can COMMUNICATE with your favorites. Because they're not STARS, but MUSICIANS! Just like you're a doctor or a lawyer or a plumber even. It's just their job. And just like you need TP, you need music. So, you go to the Web to get it. OH, kids don't NEED music. But talk to baby boomers. There's a HUGE SEGMENT that needs new tuneage.

So Mike e-mailed James Lee Stanley.

And James Lee Stanley e-mailed me.

And James sent me a CD.

Oh, I went to the Website first. Where there were SAMPLES! SAMPLES SUCK! I told James to GIVE AWAY MP3s. To at least STREAM the whole album.

But he couldn't. Because ABKCO wouldn't let him. Hell, if publishers want to survive in the new world they've got to play by the new rules. To grow cottage industries you've got to do things differently. Let people listen to the stuff.

3
I think the reason today's kids aren't enamored of music as much as their parents are is because they've never heard "The Last Time".

"High Tide And Green Grass" was the first Stones album I ever bought. Oh, it had the big hits. "Satisfaction". "As Tears Go By". But the track that MESMERIZED me was "The Last Time". It was that GUITAR SOUND!

All art is conception. "The Last Time" is not the BEST song ever written. It's just that it was DIFFERENT!

And what makes Batdorf and Stanley's "All Wood And Stones" great is the conception. This is not Michael McDonald doing straight ahead covers of Motown tracks. This is a REWORKING! Akin to what Joe Cocker used to do. Strangely, even though we've heard these songs a zillion times before, on "All Wood And Stones" they sound different.

"Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby?" is no longer an ACCUSATION, rather it's a comfort. A friend coming to your rescue as opposed to a sneering vigilante squashing you under his heel before he moves on.

"Under My Thumb" is slowed down to the point where it's WISTFUL! As if you were remembering when you HAD the power. Before you got gray, lost your hair, lost your shape, lost your arrogant perch.

"Ruby Tuesday" is no longer about the singer. No longer about Jagger's delivery. Rather it's about your junior high school girlfriend. Instead of being dark, the song is suddenly bright. It gives you hope.

And then there's "Back Street Girl". This is faithful to the original. But at this late date, "Back Street Girl" has been forgotten. To hear it all polished up, all new again, puts a smile on your face. Makes you believe your music COUNTS! That there's a warmth inside your sometimes dark path. That you come from a world of compassion. That in your world, people care about each other.

4
The renaissance in the music business is coming from the outside. To play in the mainstream is to insure death.

We're back to the sixties. It's every man for himself. It's about coming up with a great idea, executing it in such a way that it resonates with part of the public, which embraces it and sells it for you.

The big marketing campaigns. Ads on television. Radio promotion. Those are archaic.

That's why the major labels are going to die. They don't understand this. They think it's still about creating superstars, who sell five million albums.

But how super ARE these acts. Seems if anybody SELLS tonnage, they're done after that. Tossed on the scrapheap after mass overexposure.

Call it the Clive Davis paradigm. Something more about marketing than music.

If you think Alicia Keys will be selling catalog ten years from now, you're dreaming. Hell, if you think she'll MEAN anything five years from now you're dreaming. She's fodder for the machine. A face for TV. Who makes music to sell refrigerators by.

Alicia Keys isn't what blew up this business. It was LEFT FIELD STUFF! That the public embraced and blew up on ITS OWN!

And this is going to happen again.

Call it XM. Call it the Internet. Suddenly, it's much EASIER to hear a broader variety of music. And to tell others about this music.

The key is to NURTURE this process. Isn't it interesting that the major labels are doing the OPPOSITE of this? Because they know in this new world they die.

5
Go to allwoodandstones.com. Listen to the samples that ARE there. Especially the tracks I delineated.

Now buy a CD for a friend.

Oh, you know the person. The one who's always asking you what's new. Who's got a HUNGER for new music.

But not only him. Buy this CD for ANY baby boomer. They'll understand it. Because it will remind them of what used to be.

And it won't be a Christmas gift they shove in a drawer. No, they'll play it over and over again. Friends will hear it at their homes. THEY'LL buy it.

Will it go double platinum?

Not unless it's picked up by a major label. Which could happen. But the question is...why didn't the major labels think of this in the FIRST PLACE? Why didn't they sign an act like this in the FIRST PLACE?

Because they don't understand the market.

It's NOT about throwing shit against the wall, hoping one in five sticks. It's about selling that for which there is a market. And waiting for the marketplace to show you where to spend your marketing dollars.

The great companies of the past didn't have bad hit to shit ratios. Look at David Geffen's Asylum. Jac Holzman and Bob Krasnow's Elektra. Unfortunately, execs of this caliber are no longer in the business. Oh, today's execs will say it's a changed business. Yes it is. But what's the legacy? The above three men GREW the business. Today's execs are presiding over the SHRINKING of the business.

It's not about piracy. It's not only about new technology. It's about a change in the audience. It's about delivering something unconventional, that resonates. It's about making music mean something again.

"All Wood And Stones" is not the best record of the year. It IS covers. But goddamn, it does resonate with some weird warmth. It sets your mind adrift. It reminds me of listening to "Flowers" at just this time of year thirty odd years ago. Singing the songs to myself while warming up between runs at Bromley.

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