Fusion 45

In between appointments yesterday, I spent 20 minutes wandering around the neighborhood Best Buy, getting a picture of what’s happening in the two industries in which I work: the consumer electronics business and the music business. (Yeah, I know: get into a real business.)

I was encouraged by the fact that at least 6 different employees spoke to me, asked me if I need any help, offered me their services. I recall walking into the now-defunct Incredible Universe store in New Jersey around Christmas time several years ago. The place was a graveyard empty except for me and about 22 employees, none of which even acknowledged me. Given that Best Buy is predicting their worst Christmas season in 42 years, I’m guessing the directive from up top was BE FRIENDLY at all costs.

I was also encouraged by the stack of Rock Band and Guitar Hero kits that were on the floor. I have no business connection to the electronic gaming business (any more) but it was good to see that at least one product was being stocked to the rafters.

Unfortunately, I think that GH and RB are the only two things that will be walking out of Best Buy (or any other electronics retailer) with any great zest this year. First of all, as we all know, the economy sucks and people simply aren’t spending any money. But, the greater problem with the music and consumer electronics businesses is not the money. It’s the products.

Simply stated, Christmas 2008 in the electronics world leaves the MASS MARKET with absolutely nothing to get excited about. Yeah, there’s the digital conversion of analog on February 18, 2009 but my guess is that will have about as much impact on the technology world as did Y2K. When all is said and done, people will buy new TVs (like a 32″ at Costco for $500) but the TV world gives us nothing to get us excited about otherwise.

The same is true for the music industry. The upfront cardboard POP displays that tried to grab me as I walked in were about as exciting as a visit from your Aunt Esther: the “new” Guns and Roses Chinese Democracy hype (which has been available on torrent sites for weeks) and another concert DVD of the Police. Blah.

It drives home the point that has been made many times over the last few years. As it was in the 1940’s and 1950’s urban centers of America, the record industry is once again a loss leader business FOR MUSICIANS. Not one African-American musician in LA in the 1950’s made any long-term money from making a record. He was paid his $100 for the session and then benefited from his increased box-office value that came with a hit record. Those who were not ripped off kept their publishing but that was rare.

That’s where we are today. Musicians make records to sell at venues (a very lucrative stream of revenue) and to turn people on to coming out for their live shows. But, in the end, there’s virtually no value to anyone who can play their instruments to sign with a major record label. The only value a major label has is to the all-looks, no-talent types who need the hype machine to make money from teenagers.

But, here I digress: the short story is that my industries, the record and electronics industries, give the MASS MARKET nothing to be excited about this Christmas. If the best we can do is another DVD of the Police in concert and a slightly bigger, slightly cheaper TV, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

(I note that there is some great music out there — hopefully the last year’s worth of hype from this and other sites has helped you find it — but, for sure, it’s not on the racks at Best Buy.)

This year, I’ve decided to turn off my satellite TV (until baseball season starts). I’m borrowing classic episodes of the Odd Couple from the library for my DVD player, am buying more records from the Salvation Army and pondering what I’m going to do to make money next year. Maybe a video game!

These are remnants, like pieces of carpet in the warehouse, from the 45s I bought over the summer.

Now, go see Tony Orlando and Dawn live, will you?

Helen Reddy - If We Could Still Be Friends

Larry Graham And Graham Central Station - The Entertainer

R. Dean Taylor - Love’s Your Name

Tony Orlando And Dawn - The Spark of Love Is Kindlin’

It is the 25th 35th anniversary of the Summer of 1973. I was 10-years old during that particular summer.

I have a 10-year old of my own today. He’s sometimes sweet, often petulant, always inquisitive. In short, he’s a lot like his father.

I’ve been thinking a lot about that summer over the past several months, how much the music will always be a soundtrack to that time.

I was going to write a week long series of posts about my summer as a 10-year old, riding our banana-seated bikes around the lake where we camped (predecessors to the mountain bikers of today), catching crayfish in the creek, fishing for blue gills in the lake, burning piles of wood in the fireplace (because we could), singeing marshmallows and eyebrows over the campfire and listening to the jukebox in the campground rec room. Especially the jukebox in the rec room, where we dropped quarters on the pool table and the pinball machine in a freshly built space that smelled forever like concrete and sawdust.

But, I’m off on a business trip tomorrow (a few hours after school starts) and, like the summer of 1973, the opportunity for a long list of reminisces has largely passed.

I did get as far as making a CD of these songs for car listening. Grandmom immediately identified them as “songs from the lake” and my kids immediately wanted to hear Smoke On The Water several hundred times (which they promptly renamed Barbeque On The River).

In a way, I managed to pull my summer and his summer as 10-year olds together. Briefly, which is always the way life is…

And say goodbye to summer…one more time.

The Carpenters - Yesterday Once More

Not written by Paul Williams, but should’ve been.

Seals And Crofts - Diamond Girl

Great piano part.

McCartney And Wings - Live And Let Die

Maureen McGovern - The Morning After

Shelly Winters. Need I say more?

Mac Davis Clint Holmes - Playground In My Mind
Jim Croce - Bad, Bad Leroy Brown
Helen Reddy - Delta Dawn

Dr. John - Right Place, Wrong Time

Spent the entire summer of 1983 learning these lyrics.

Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water
BW Stevenson - My Maria

Like Croce, we wonder what would have been if he’d stuck around.

Paul Simon - Loves Me Like A Rock

Bette Midler - Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

Stories - Brother Louie

CDB - Uneasy Rider

Doobie Brothers - Long Train Runnin’

Paul Simon - Kodachrome

I had yet to have my first schoolboy crush (Stephanie Turk, 7th grade math class) but I got it.

Indeed…