"Words are only words but we turn them into gifts... then we seem confused as their meaning slowly shifts"

August 17th - Bar Harbor, Maine

I have no idea when they took this photograph. Probably at sunrise. Or the middle of winter. To see Bar Harbor, Maine this devoid of people must be wonderful. Right now it's packed wall to wall to water with TOURISTS - of the worst kind! And I'm one of them.

There's something quite sad about places that used to serve a purpose. Fishing. Seafaring of a broader nature. But now rely 100% on tourism. 

I wish I'd seen this place about 50 years ago.

A licensing deal? Or theft?

As I prepare to take a couple of weeks away from everything...including blogging...here's a taste of what has happened to the music industry. 

On the one hand it is fantastic that the indie scene - brought about by the sweeping changes that digital technology has brought to both the production and distribution of music - has enabled many more artists to get their work out there. But on the other it has spawned an entire industry that feeds off those artists.

Here's an "offer" sent to me by one of the reputable online A&R services I subscribe to. I won't mention which one because it's truly not their fault. They offer some very worthwhile opportunities but occasionally (well, a little too often to tell the truth) there are things like this mixed in:

"Licensing compensation will be $500 per track. Rights cover world in perpetuity, all media now known or hereinafter devised. "

The deal is to get one of your songs - or in this case my songs - featured in a TV show.

But if the offer is for one show why do they need to own the rights to that song for the whole world forever, for all media current and yet to be invented? And for just $500!

My fellow independent artists, beware. This is not a deal. This is theft.

If your songs are good they are valuable. If your songs are wanted they are valuable. If your songs fit what a TV show or movie is looking for they are valuable.

And if they don't meet any of these criteria they are still valuable - to you. 

Leonard Cohen once said, "I never wanted to work for pay but I wanted to be paid for my work."

Remember that...and never sell the worldwide rights in perpetuity to a song for $500. 

Live: THE WASTED YEARS.

This has lyrics not included on the recorded version on Raised In Vain.

Live: 13 DOWN

I had to mess with this song a little to make it work for performing solo. But I think it still hangs together.

Live: LOVE IS THE ONLY SURPRISE.

Beyond Belief

Iraq's oil-fueled surplus could hit $80 billion, report says.

Meanwhile American tax payers fund the rebuilding of Iraq. 

Bush has so much to answer for, the rest of history will not be long enough.

Please let's take a different path in November.

The driver's seat of America after 8 years of Bush.

The sadness of fifteen seconds of fame

I spent this morning - wasted would be a better word - reading some of the comments people have posted in response to various political articles on cnn.com.

The inescapable conclusion is one of these:

1. Only the very worst of America bothers to post its opinions, so desperate for its fifteen seconds of fame (it used to be fifteen minutes but times have changed) that it happily demonstrates its inability to spell or to think at every opportunity.

2. This country is in deep shit. 

I'm hoping...yes that hope word again...that it is the former. It is deeply worrying that in 2008 so many bigoted, naive, uneducated, narrow-minded, illogical opinions are still held so strongly by so many people. And it's sad that among these angry sentences the few sensible, balanced, rational opinions seem so bland. As Hollywood knows only too well, aggression is more compelling than calm correctness.

I guess the most fruitless exercise is to tell someone who's wrong that they're wrong. It simply cements the mindset of both parties (no pun intended).

Every time Obama rationally modifies his views on an issue he is derided as unreliable. When the truth is that being open minded is the absolute best quality we could ever ask for in a President.

Only an idiot keeps his view of the world fixed no matter how powerful the evidence that his view is wrong. We've had one idiot President. But many are already forgetting.

As someone once said...

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on."

- Robert Frost

Say "Goodbye" to the secret

Those of you who were kind enough to show up at The Cornelia Street Café on Friday already know the little secret embedded in my set list.

It was a song I didn’t write. Or rather I should say a song for which I didn’t write the lyric.

A dear friend of mine, Michael Vines, recently decided to try his hand at songwriting – having been a very successful writer of other things, including a novel.

He was kind enough to share with me some of his early efforts. And while his musical style is a little different to mine, his words really struck a chord. Literally. I felt compelled to put my own tune to one of his lyrics.

I didn’t even tell him I was doing this and I certainly didn’t tell him I was performing it on Friday. I knew that he was scheduled to be watching, with his son, his beloved Cardinals play the Mets. (Sadly they lost 9 – 1). There was no way I was going to spoil that evening by making him feel he had to be at my gig instead. Although, as he said later, with that score perhaps he should have changed his plans!

Anyway, I have since come clean about my commandeering his words and he says he’s thrilled that I liked them enough to do this. Of course, he has yet to hear the song but luckily he will be able to because Friday night’s performances were recorded.

For now, here are the words to “Goodbye New York City.”

And thanks Michael! 

GOODBYE NEW YORK CITY

 

This was once a place of possibility

You could make of yourself whatever you wanted to be

But now it’s not the town that I used to know

Goodbye New York City…I hate to see you go

Goodbye old New York…hate to see you go

 

This was once a place where you could find anything

We even had that store with a million kinds of string

But now the metal workers have had to leave old SoHo

Goodbye New York City…I hate to see you go

Goodbye old New York…hate to see you go

 

Kids used to come here with just the shirt on their backs

Now you need a job with Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs

That artist loft is now a luxury condo

Goodbye New York City…I hate to see you go

Goodbye old New York…hate to see you go

 

They closed all the bookstores put ATMs everywhere

And don’t even get me started on what they did to Times Square

The Lower East Side shops – the mom and pops – they just had to go

To make way for a bigger, brighter, better-known logo

Goodbye old friends...hate to see you go

 

This was once a place of possibility

It held lots of promise for the likes of you and me

But now it’s not the town that we used to know

Goodbye New York City…I hate to see you go

Goodbye old New York…hate to see you go

 

© 2008 Michael Vines

I'm sorry but do we actually want to fail?

I simply don't get it. Even the New York Times (which, I guess, it must be remembered endorsed Hillary Clinton) described Obama's Berlin speech as "weak on issues."

Here's a man behaving, speaking and uniting countries - old allies that we have lost in the past eight years - in a way that can only be described as "Presidential" and still America is not happy.

Read his speech...PLEASE! It is the most honest, thoughtful, accurate assessment of where America stands and where our relationship with the rest of the world stands, that you will hear from any politician in this country. Obama tells the truth. Period. McCain, for all his past service to his country, is living in the past. He sees things in terms of winning and losing. And it's simply not that simple in 2008. In a way the terrorists have already won - as Bin Laden himself has said, for every dollar they spent on 9/11 America has been forced to spend a billion. His, and their, goal was always economic. It's why they targeted the twin towers in the first place - the symbol of America's economic strength. They'd have hit the New York stock exchange but it's just not high enough!

There's a reason that the economy has risen to be the number one concern of most Americans. It's because we are "concerned" primarily with ourselves. And that's why some of the reactions to Obama's Berlin speech are just plain misguided. This was not a time for dealing with domestic "issues" - it was an opportunity to deal with world unity. Which he did. Magnificently.

The Iraq war has become the number one topic only for those families unfortunate enough to have one of their own serving in the military and, of course, the Republicans and their oil company financiers who have a vested interest in staying in that oil-producing nation. Permanent bases! This is what McCain meant when he talked of "100 years." Not a hundred years of war...a hundred years of control. The truth is, the number one issue should be ending our occupation. This will free untold amounts of money that can then help our ailing economy.

Even on the topic of war, Obama rightly points out that Afghanistan was and should have remained our one and only focus, being, at the time, the host of the people who actually inspired and financed 9/11. Iraq had NOTHING to do with it. A fact I wish ALL Americans would remember - especially as they cast their votes in November. (And they should remember that it is Afghanistan that borders on Pakistan - despite what McCain may say to the contrary!)

Yet again, Berlin raised the issue of Obama representing "just words."

And I ask, what is wrong with that if they are words the whole world needs to hear...nowhere more so than here at home, here in America?

Read Barack Obama's Berlin speech here.