Sonny Gets His Share

Forgotten gems turn up when you're cleaning. I came across Bonograph: Sonny Gets His Share. This CD pays tribute to the musical genius of Sonny Bono. There are covers of songs he wrote by Flat Duo Jets, Scott McCaughey, The Skeletons, Peter Holsapple and Ben Vaughn. Perhaps the most haunting song Sonny wrote, gets a haunting treatment: You Better Sit Down Kids is performed by What Else featuring Jim Babjak and Dennis Diken of the Smithereens and the latter also of Dennis Diken and Bell Sounds. The pounding of drums accentuates the spoken lyrics. It's driving home the message: hey kids divorce isn't pretty. It's the facts. The narrator/father is blunt, to the point and not mincing words. By the end of the version you might think the father has gone mad. Taking a song and turning it upside down is probably one of the greatest compliments to a songwriter.

A father is telling his kids that he and their mother are divorcing, a taboo subject in 1967 and still a strange topic for a top 10 hit. Cher took it to #9. Her version is eerie as the lyrics weren't changed to reflect a female singer. She's singing lines like "Your mother is staying and I'm going away." The production is varied. There are musical interludes that sound reminiscent of "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" the Shangri-La's hit, which preceded this song by 3 years. The lines "Say your prayers before you go to bed/Make sure you get yourself to school on time" are sung with urgency and speed. The ending is a blizzard of music: A foreshadowing of the chaos in the family? The staging of Cher's performance on a 1960's TV show is creepy. Why the cuts to mannequins of children? The song begins about 1 minute into the video.


Sonny faced realities in his music. Laugh At Me, his only solo hit (brilliantly covered by Mott the Hoople), was a protest song. "What do they care, about the clothes I wear?/Why get their kicks from making fun." He was famous for his fur vests and if people didn't like it, tough.
"So I don't care
Let 'em laugh at me
If that's the fare
I have to pay to be free
then baby
Laugh at me, and I'll cry for you
and I'll pray for you."

No grudges held. Sonny was too good a songwriter for that.



Dave Stewart on Tranparency in Accouting

In Billboard Magazine, Dave Stewart makes a point that managers and artists have been pondering for years. When you buy a shirt with a credit card, you and retailer can see the transaction in 1.6 seconds. Why is it when you sell a record, the record labels do not give the artist access to the accounting (unless you audit them) and there is no transparency? It's a digital world and the labels are still living by that 50 year old structure. It also helps their bottom line, just ask Cher and the estate of Sonny Bono. They are suing for back royalties on Sonny and Cher records due to what they claim is illegal/creative accounting.

Quote of the Day from Bob Lefsetz

"A Palm is like a Haircut 100 record. A hit once, but no one even wants to go to the reunion show."

Bob Lefsetz is referring to Elevation Partners investments in Palm and how Elevation is the only thing keeping Palm alive. This was spurred by Bob's review of an op-ed piece by Bono in the NY Times. The article is Bono's stream of consciousness writings on Frank Sinatra.

It's Blog Action Day

There's a movement to have all blogs unite on a single issue. The inaugural issue is the environment. Al Gore has been in the news non-stop since winning his shared Nobel Peace Prize. Al Gore is the face of saving the environment these days. I met Mr Gore in Nashville at an Earth Day celebration. At the time I was working with Rosanne Cash who was performing. This was my first trip to Nashville and as I was advised, you may not know a lot of people involved in the event or otherwise, but they will know you. It scared me how accurate that was. Nashville is like Cheers-everyone knows your name. Al was the senator from Tennessee at the time and was promoting saving the earth. The initiatives then were recycle, ride your bike, etc. This was about 17 years ago and if we were doing what he suggested then, he wouldn't be winning a Nobel Prize for his work. As posted here weeks ago, it could be as simple as recycling CDs. In New York City, the recycling is not as extensive as it should be. We can only recycle plastic that is in the shape of a bottle, but we can recycle copy paper and envelops, which I'm sure a lot of New Yorkers don't know. I heard on NPR last week that water is the new oil, meaning our water resources are drying up. Don't leave the faucet running, take quicker showers. We're doing our part by putting off washing our car which is in much need of a washing. The rain doesn't clean it. To quote Sonny Bono "It's the little things, that mean a lot".....