David Fufkin on Whatever

August, 2000

Napster

The raging debate about Napster has inspired rabid
discussion on music and technology. Sure, like
Napster says, it is merely a conduit or portal for
those that violate the copyright law where it hosts
no music content on its servers. I disagree.

Users argue that copying is nothing more than making
a copy of a CD for a friend. In the industry's defense
(God, I can't believe I just said that), the difference
is that, instead of loaning your pal a CD who makes
one copy, the Napster result is that it's like going out
and burning 1000s of CD-Rs and giving them away at
a flea market. You paid for one copy, and you should
be entitled to burn a copy or two for a friend. Beyond
that, a copyright holder's property right is infringed upon.

No one, including the industry and musicians, wants people
to have less access to music. They just want to get
paid.

The proposal that seems to make the most sense
is a system similar to the performance royalty system
which estimates the number of radio plays by formula.
A performing rights society such as ASCAP, BMI or SESAC
then pays the song's copyright holder a royalty based on
a convoluted formula. The same concept might work here,
except who pays?

Well, I think the portal like Napster should pay.

Why?

To make the downloader pay would be like requiring a radio
listener to pay .05 every time they listened
to a song on the radio. One might argue that the captured
sound has more value, but with increasing bandwidth and
download speeds, burning your favorite songs will be as easy
as tuning in to your favorite FM station. Napster is just like a
broadcaster by providing the means and method to distribute
copyright-protected material without physical product.

As much as I have problems with the corporatization of the
industry, I support the songwriter who puts his life savings
into pressing his own CD of material. He or she should not have
that recording or composition copied without getting paid.
Nobody works for free, including musicians. It is not about the
huge conglomerate; it is about the woman you see at the
coffeehouse whose CD is offered for download for free. She is
thrilled that you love her stuff, but she just wants to get paid
for allowing someone else to make it available to her fans.

Just like the Napster people have their eye on that new BMW,
our coffeehouse songsmith has her eye on that beautiful
Taylor acoustic. If Napster doesn't pay, she will never have
that guitar, and the Napster exec gets a Mercedes instead.

That is just not fair.

______________________________________________

Brian Wilson

I saw Brian Wilson in Atlanta. It was the most heartwarming,
inspiring, courageous performance I have ever witnessed.
It is a miracle he is on the road and performing after all
the abuse suffered at the hands of his father, the pressure
of actually trying to compete with The Beatles, the pain
of the rejection of his crowning work, Pet Sounds, the
addiction to deal with all of it, the death of his brothers,
Dennis and Carl, and the death of his mom in the last year
or so. No artist before or after has put his heart and soul
on the line like Mr. Wilson. It was like watching his
beating heart on stage. When he paused, looked down, and,
with a hushed tone and a forced half smile, introduced a song
with the following words: "...this is a song that I used to sing
with my brother, Carl", I stood in the pouring rain, drenched
to the bone, and allowed myself to feel that moment and I
cried. I cried and I didn't care what anyone thought.
Awesome. Brian is it. Number One. Thanks for surviving and
having the courage to make it to Atlanta so that I could
have the honor of seeing you.

IPO

IPO in LA this month. Great bands, great people.
Attending IPO is like the feeling I used to get
around 5 am on Christmas morning, dreaming of
what Hot Wheels might be under our Christmas
tree.

Hot Wheels ® "Deora" (1968) by Mattel, Inc.

Highlights were meeting people like Mike Bennett,
Gary Gold, Mark Johnson, Brian from Barely Pink, Angie
and Bill from the Villas, Scott Thurling, Cathy Gale,
David Stephens, Robert Pally, Einstein's Sister, Ray
Paul, Jeff Glenn, Michael Quercio, Phil Angotti, Quinton
Flynn, Brian Curtis, Darryl Jensen, Blue Cartoon and
many from the Audities list. It was great to hang a bit
with The Masticators. Of course, it was great to see
Bruce Brodeen, David Bash, John Borack, Robbie Rist,
Doug Edmunds, and so many others that I am sure I
am forgetting. It was also a sincere pleasure to see
two guys whose warm personalities are only exceeded
by their tremendous talents, Walter Clevenger and Chris
Dorn. Oh...and there were some great bands...too many
to mention...only a couple of lackluster efforts out of
the 50 bands I saw.

BayPop too in San Francisco. I am sure it was great.

And how was The Las Vegas Grind? Any
reports on this great garage fest would be
appreciated.

Books I like

Great books: The Devil and Sonny Liston by Nick
Tosches. Tosches is the greatest living American
writer IMHO. This book reveals the seamy Mafia side
of boxing, and suggests that the Cassius Clay-Liston
fight was fixed. The writing is beyond superb, and is
great reading even if you are horrified by the sport of
boxing. Also, Let It Blurt by Jim DeRogatis. A great
contemporary rock critic writes a definitive
biography on the great Lester Bangs, a man who
really understood the meaning of rock and roll as
expressed through his astute rock criticism. How
about A Whore Just Like the Rest by the great Richard
Meltzer. The man preceded Bangs, who in the opinion
of Lou Reed, was "...number one, Lester number two."
Acidic, insightful, hilarious writing. Check out the book
reviews by See Hear.

Recordings

Great new (to me) recordings. The new Frisbie CD:
On some tracks, it reminds me of if you had Eric
Carmen singing lead vocals for Big Star. BS, you say?
Before you scoff, open up your ears to this one.
This is not as amazing as some people think, but it is
very, very good.

Beezewax: South of Boredom. Sounds like The Posies.
The reissue of Matt Bruno's Punch & Beauty on Parasol.
The song, "That Someone" is a beautiful monster.
Jupiter Affect's new one on EggBERT. Michael Quercio
has never sounded better. Read the Fufkin
article in this issue of Amplifier. And The
Lola's CD has a HUGE BUZZ. Boy, is it powerful pop.
New Jayhawks. Another great piece of work. Stunning
simple melodic songs. Elliott Smith. Good, of course.

Other stuff

Websites.

Consumable Online is closing. Too bad. Way
ahead of its time. In web history, it will go down as
the Crawdaddy! of web writing. It will be archived and
I encourage you to check it out.

New *to me* site:

Apollo Jams! at www.apollojams.com. It's not pop, and
focused primarily on soul and funk, but this site has
some of the best music content on the web. The
operator is one serious music historian. Really great.

See you next month.

__________________________________________________