Quincy Jones Interview

As I’m just about to send this out to you Lefsetz just sent out about the same thing. 

Oh well.

Great minds. Right?

You need to click through and read this Quincy Jones article.

I’ve copied and pasted a few things here, but the full article is better and has a lot more cussing.

But here’s the thing that sticks out the most…he’s 85 and answers questions freely. He’s concerned with having a quality conversation with the interviewer, not appeasing the interviewer.

Reading this gives a sense of what music culture used to be.  Bold. Sassy. Unconcerned with anyone who isn’t interested.

Read it. You’ll get it.

So yes, here’s a few golden nuggets. But it’s worth clicking though to the article.

Is there innovation happening in modern pop music?   Hell no. It’s just loops, beats, rhymes and hooks. What is there for me to learn from that? There ain’t no fucking songs. The song is the power; the singer is the messenger. The greatest singer in the world cannot save a bad song. I learned that 50 years ago, and it’s the single greatest lesson I ever learned as a producer. If you don’t have a great song, it doesn’t matter what else you put around it.

Putting aside the quality of contemporary songs, are there any technical or sonic production techniques that feel fresh? No. There ain’t nothing new. The producers are lazy and greedy.

How does that laziness manifest itself? Listen to the music — these guys don’t know what they’re doing. You’ve got to respect the gift God gave you by learning your craft.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Remembering Causes Your Phone To Ring

You want to get the credit for being good at ALL of the things you’re good at.

But most of us are too busy for that. Too busy to think about you for very long at all.

We need you to make it easy to give you credit for one specific thing.

And I dare say it’s the specificity of the thing even more than your sheer excellence of the thing that causes us to remember. (But I do hope you have both specificity and excellence)

It’s specificity more often that causes the remembering…and the remembering that causes your phone to ring.

Sure, everyone is a jack of all trades. You can do it all. 

But especially in your marketing: what is true and what is useful are different.

We’re dying to know you as something specific. 

Will you tell that story?

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JT

We tend to remember things how they ended up.

And the JT halftime show ended in a remarkable way…literally…lots of people immediately remarked about how it ended…and are still remarking today.

Can’t Stop The Feeling might not be an all time classic…but it was the fuel that caused an ending that lots of people thought was fun and funny and celebratory.

And maybe that was the plan all along.

The Super Bowl halftime show is part of the pop culture lexicon (more than the music lexicon) and the end of the show lined up with this current social reality.

p.s. I grew up in Minnesota and I got text messages from both fellow-Minnesotans and non-Minnesotans when they did the arial shot of the stadium when the streets were lit up purple and they sprinkled in the Prince logo. So by nature, remarkable.


p.p.s. People seem to “just kinda like” Justin Timberlake.  He sings. He dances. He acts. And people just kinda like him. 

This isn’t going to win him the Nobel Prize, but it is impressive.


p.p.p.s. The last line of the first Tide commercial was one of the best marketing lines I’ve heard in a long time.  I don’t have the slightest idea if it will help sell more detergent (tons of research from past tv ads would argue it won’t)…but what a great idea for a commercial.


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Nightcap 17

Never do I feel like more of a privileged, expectant American than when I get mad at the automatic soap dispenser for not dispensingonly to realize it’s not an automatic soap dispenser. 

When I walk under a ladder I don’t think I have bad luck but I do think about luck when I walk under a ladder.

A really sucky thing about being sick is that you lose the ability to imagine what it feels like to feel good.

Everyone has to say something to justify having their landline.

Most people glance at the Kleenex after they’ve blown into it. 

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What If The Show Was First...

…and the record second. 

After all ‘the show’ has been around for thousands of years, recorded music only a little over a hundred years.

Artists spend endless hours, months and years making their records…and then rehearse for two weeks before going on tour.

What if, before you make another record, you created a show?

A show worth taking on the road. A show that people talk about. A show that is a bargain at $100 a ticket.

Could you? 

Will you?

What if the show was first?

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Two Ways To Reduce Sickness

Complaining begets and perpetuates complaining. 

And in this industry, it’s rampant.

Complaining most often deflects responsibility rather than taking it.

And it just keeps going because when you complain, your buddy says “yeah you’re right” (perpetuating)…instead of “shut up, stop complaining”.

—

There are two main ways to reduce sickness.

1. Reduce the amount to toxins that come in contact with you

2. Strengthen your immune system

The complainer is in love with #1, because that way it’s everyone else’s fault, it’s the world’s fault.  And they think they can’t change #2.

The true champion knows to focus on #2, while being mindful of #1.

—

Stop complaining.

Keep looking for the responsibility…it might be hiding. It might be that you want it to be hiding.  But keep looking for it, finding it, and taking it.

And when you hear someone else complaining, show them an unusually high level of kindness and reply “shut up, stop complaining”. 

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com