Author Archives: Jennifer Carney

Justin Hayward is doing things a little differently right now. His new album, Spirits of the Western Sky, is his first in sixteen years and is still collecting warm reviews. He’s embarked on a rare solo tour to support it and fans are happily along for the ride. “It’s been very well received and they work beautifully as stage songs,” he tells us. “I’m very lucky.”

Hayward uses the word “lucky” to describe himself throughout our conversation with him. Most would use the words “supremely talented” and maybe “legendary,” but we won’t split hairs. While he’s reverent and grateful for his past, Spirits feels like a step into the future for Hayward, who continues to perform as frontman for proto-prog-rockers, The Moody Blues. The songwriting on Spirits departs from his Moodies past and explores some unexpected genres—most notably bluegrass and electronica—without losing the ethereal, melodic style that earned him his third Ivor Novello songwriting award in May.

Hayward reflected on his luck, his foray into the Nashville bluegrass scene, and he told us how the idea of the western sky has always been part of his creative life. To our delight, he brought it back to vinyl in the end, too. We feel pretty lucky about that. 

In Search of the Lost Chord and Days of Future Passed were the first two vinyl records I ever bought myself, and that’s still my favorite way to listen to those albums. What made you decide to release Spirits of the Western Sky on vinyl as well as digitally and CD? Has vinyl become a new priority for you?

Yes, it is a priority because there are definitely people out there who feel exactly the same way. I’m not sure—I don’t have a preference; I don’t put one vinyl system or analog above digital, really. I know that when Universal asked me to re-master those first seven Moody Blues albums, I realized that the transfer to digital had been done in such a rush in the ’80s that it was really badly done. The vinyl was far superior for many years—I hope now that’s been rectified.

But as a thing to hold and to own, of course the vinyl was much nicer. I was kind of hoping when they did the transfer to digital that they’d keep the packaging the same and just put a little CD in the middle of a big sleeve. [Laughs] But that didn’t happen, so there you go.

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After twenty-seven years of making music, you’ve earned the right to a “Greatest Hits” album or two. But the Goo Goo Dolls keep making music that’s ridiculously popular. They’ve just released their tenth album—the sunny, unabashedly summery Magnetic—and the band’s picked up a new generation of fans who are snatching up tickets for their co-headlining tour with Matchbox 20. How did the ’90s alt-rockers get to this point? 

Magnetic is notable not only as the band’s tenth album, but also for the impressive roster of producers brought in to craft the sound and songwriting. For those expecting alt-rock-lite, Magnetic might surprise you. The word “upbeat” is bandied around in the press when talking about Magnetic, and I can’t find a better word to describe it. These are some happy dudes, and at a time when it feels like the world is working against everyone, maybe a happier sound is just what we need. It certainly seems that way; Magnetic is their fourth Top 10 album in a row. 

Bass guitarist Robby Takac agrees that it’s time to turn the spotlight on some good stuff for a change. He waxed nostalgic about his musical influences, his thoughts on being in a band for almost thirty years, and reveals that Magnetic is the first Goo Goo Dolls album to be released on vinyl in years.

A popular band experiencing a creative renaissance deciding to put their newest record down on vinyl? Now that’s some upbeat news.

I think many music fans would be surprised to learn that you’ve been together for almost 30 years. Does it feel strange to hear about “new generations of fans” listening to your music?

Yeah, it’s pretty cool! I mean, to see kids comin’ to these shows at the same time with people who are older than me… it’s interesting to see that cross-section of people. It’s interesting to see that part of the result of sticking around for a while.

It’s probably more surprising to many people that most of the bands that have “made it” have actually been at it for decades.

Yeah, yeah. We’re pretty lucky, though, I think. We’re pretty fortunate that we came in at the end of a different kind of record business and managed to make that transition, before the industry became a different beast.

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A Capitol Fourth is easily the biggest, most extravagant Independence Day celebration in the country (unless San Diego is planning to set off all their fireworks at once again, that is.) Hosted by Tom Bergeron on the West Lawn of the US Capitol building, America’s favorite Fourth of July tradition features a star-spangled lineup of performers this year—including Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, American Idol winner Candace Glover, Darren Criss of Glee fame, country singer Scotty McCreery and many others—all accompanying Jack Everly and the National Symphony Orchestra. 

Megan Hilty, who rose to fame on Broadway to become the star of TV’s late, lamented Smash, is back at A Capitol Fourth for the second time, and she couldn’t be more excited. In fact, this year has been an exciting one already for Megan: her first album, It Happens All the Time, was released in March and she got a new TV series with Will & Grace‘s Sean Hayes just last month. We gabbed with Megan just before the big concert about the latest goings-on in her multi-faceted career, her thoughts on being asked back to A Capitol Fourth, and her latest vintage vinyl acquisition.

What are you most looking forward to at your second A Capitol Fourth?

Oh my gosh. First of all, I had so much fun last year and I’m so excited to be going back. There are so many reasons to be excited about this. To celebrate our nation’s birthday in our capitol is incredible. To sing with the National Symphony Orchestra is amazing. The lineup is just ridiculous, so I really can’t wait for next week.

The line-up is pretty ridiculous. Are you hoping to get to do a duet with anyone in particular, or is your performance pretty much all set?

Oh, I know I won’t be doing any duets, but I’m hoping to rub elbows with everyone backstage. Maybe they’ll autograph my Playbill. [Laughs]

Your album, It Happens All The Time, represents a stretch for you in your career, recording a pop album. Have you felt as validated for doing it as you do for your work in the theater and on TV?

I guess so. For me, I feel like it’s important to keep doing things that you don’t normally do. This is so far from what I normally… as far as material and singing style goes, I was really out of my comfort zone. And I was really proud of it at the end; it ended up being really different, conceptually, from what we started out thinking it was going to be. But I’m really proud of it.

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Billy Talbot is best known as the bass guitarist for Crazy Horse, and that’s just fine by him. Crazy Horse has been his life, on and off, for over four decades and right now it’s on again. “It’s what I’ve been up to for the last year,” he tells TVD.

There’s this reverent irreverence and energetic authenticity that makes Crazy Horse so compelling not only to Neil Young fans, but to rock and roll fans in general. That same spirit pervades On the Road to Spearfish, Talbot’s second solo album (released on May 21) after 2004’s Alive in the Spirit World.

As I start my questions about the new album, he interrupts me and asks if I’ve ever seen him play with Crazy Horse. When I tell him I did when I profiled Everest while they were opening for Neil Young and Crazy Horse late last year, he immediately wants to know what I thought of the shows. Talbot is proud of his work with his legendary band—so proud that it doesn’t seem to bother him that he won’t be touring to support On the Road to Spearfish until Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Alchemy tour comes to an end later this summer. That’s just what happens when Crazy Horse is on again.

Spearfish is an eclectic and ethereal album that mixes acoustic ambiance with electrified rock and roll. The songs tell stories that feel very personal, and the recording itself is equally intimate. Listen closely and you’ll feel like you’re in the studio with Talbot and his band: you hear the lift off a piano’s sustain pedal, the creaking of chairs, the breaths and strums that make this album sound as expansive as the prairies that inspired it. Reviews have been mixed, but even that inspires Talbot. “One guy said that he wished he had four arms to give it two more thumbs down!” he says with a laugh. “It gave me an idea for new song about a guy with two extra arms and all the damage he could do.” 

I had a fun conversation with Billy on the eve of his departure for Berlin—the first show of the European leg of the Alchemy tour. He talks at length about his songwriting process and the crack band he recorded with on the record, the first records he remembers buying, and gives sage advice to his younger self. 

I read somewhere that you don’t like to do interviews, so I hope to make this as painless as possible.

Did you get a chance to listen to On The Road to Spearfish?

Yes, I did. And I did what the booklet said and read it along with the songs. One of the things that struck me immediately was that many of the songs on On the Road to Spearfish have very transient themes to them—there’s lots of travel and movement and people leaving and big open spaces. As a guy from New York, did you expect the Great Plains to capture your creativity they way they have?

It seems like I’ve been headin’ in that direction all my life. I didn’t expect it to hit me the way it did; I didn’t expect to be writing songs about it or thinking about it in that way. But, that’s what happened! I love going to the Great Plains, the prairie, I love the whole idea of it. I was fascinated by the thought of a sea of grass. But I didn’t put it together—that it would be in the Dakotas. When I went out there, it just was “in the now” and it struck me, and then I was writing about it without thinking about it. Things just added up in such a way and culminated in ways that made it be what it is. I didn’t know it was all of that until I was done.

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“Whatever you want to ask me, I’m an open book of honesty right now,” Laura Stevenson tells me, laughing. And there was lots of laughing during our chat.

For someone whose music has been called melancholic and dark, Laura Stevenson is remarkably cheery about her songwriting and her career. The former sorta-punk turned country-tinged songstress released her third album in two years, Wheel, on April 23. It’s a treatise on the modern-day anxieties and deep musings of a gentle, introverted soul—with an extroverted voice. 

Uninterested in having a carefully cultivated “rock chick” persona, fans have come to adore Laura for her authenticity. Her songs are honest. Her finger picking guitar style is impressive. And she’s not out to be famous. “I kind of just started it because it was what I loved to do and I didn’t know what to do with my life, so I’ll do this while I’m figuring that out,” she tells us.

In the meantime, Stevenson‘s on a relentless tour across the US with her band in support of Wheel. We chatted with her between West Coast gigs and found out the song she’s most proud of, the songs she’s writing, and the song she’s always loved.

First of all, I love that you call Dolly Parton your “guitar god” because I don’t think she gets the respect she deserves.

Yeah, I think so, too, because she’s absolutely incredible, and nobody really pays attention to her playing. [They talk about] her singing and performing, and her whole persona. But just as a musician and songwriter and technical guitar player, she’s off the charts. I’m very inspired by her; I think she’s awesome.

Your new album, Wheel is getting great reviews. The production is being called more “refined” than your last albums, but I think the sound compliments A Record and Sit Resist beautifully. If your mind is even onto the next album, do you think you’ll want to keep exploring different sounds?

I have songs that are written and I’m thinking about the production and where I want to go—if I want to take electric instruments out or… I’ve been definitely going through that in my mind, especially on these long drives. I’ve been thinking about the songs and listening to a lot of records in the van, taking inspiration from that. It’s definitely very up in the air right now in my head, but it will probably get a lot clearer as the songs form more and I show them to the band—because I haven’t even shown them to the band yet. [Laughs] We’ll see!

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It’s not lost on us that some of the biggest and most talented artists and musicians of this or any generation have gone on the record—on records—here at TVD. This week we’re sharing some of our favorites from the archive. —Ed.

Donovan has been doing more with music than you might think. The 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and ’60s folk rock icon has played SXSW, released several internet-exclusive albums through his website, been honored as a BMI Icon, re-wrote one of his songs for Futurama, and supports the musical wing of the David Lynch Foundation by putting together exclusive musical collaborations — featuring musicians like Peter Gabriel, Moby, Ozomatli, Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, Tom Waits and many others — that fund rehabilitative Transcendental Meditation programs (techniques that, incidentally, he learned in India with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and The Beatles).

Whew!

Any of this would be cause for celebration, but the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction was a long-overdue honor for one of the world’s greatest songwriting treasures. 

How do you do? You’re from a thing called The Vinyl District – what’s that?

Well, we’re an online music magazine that’s dedicated to supporting independent record stores and the vinyl/ analog format.

Wow, that’s great! That’s good news, because that’s where I started.

Yeah! I understand you have the distinction of releasing the one of the first double LPs in rock music.

Isn’t that amazing? Yeah, I’ve heard that story that I was the first double in popular music. I guess you would know more than I about that! [Note: Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde was the first rock double LP; Donovan’s A Gift from a Flower to a Garden was one of the first box sets.]

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It’s not lost on us that some of the biggest and most talented artists and musicians of this or any generation have gone on the record—on records—here at TVD. This week we’re sharing some of our favorites from the archive. —Ed.

When MTV started re-broadcasting The Monkees in the ’80s, my parents were amused that I latched onto their music so strongly. I never got that The Monkees weren’t a band. All I knew was that I loved their show and I loved their songs.

And why wouldn’t I? They had the best songwriters in the industry writing their hits, and they set the standard for music television that pre-dated MTV by nearly two decades and Glee by nearly four decades. Hell, The Monkees out-sold most of the biggest acts of the ’60s — including The Beatles. Despite pressure to tour as a “real” band, artists from John Lennon to Jerry Garcia to Frank Zappa loved The Monkees for what they were: talented actors who could sing and play their own instruments, shining a humorous light on the travails common to all rock bands.

When I spoke with Micky Dolenz in Los Angeles, it was forty years nearly to the day that “Last Train to Clarksville” hit the Top 40, and just one day after his new album, Remember, was released. While perhaps officially a “nostalgia” album of some of his favorite tunes, Dolenz and producer David Harris have gone to great lengths to re-imagine those songs. Remember includes a countrified “I’m a Believer,” an incredibly cool “Good Morning, Good Morning” with swapped time signatures—even “Sugar, Sugar” sounds fresh as a tongue-in-cheek lounge lizard “standard.”

But it’s the title track, written by Harry Nilsson—completed prior to Davy Jones’ untimely passing in February—that makes the record feel more wistful than he perhaps intended it to be—especially as Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Mike Nesmith prepare for a 12-date Monkees tour beginning next month. (A summer tour is planned for 2013. —Ed.)

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It’s not lost on us that some of the biggest and most talented artists and musicians of this or any generation have gone on the record—on records—here at TVD. This week we’re sharing some of our favorites from the archive. —Ed.

In the days leading up to an artist’s interview, I spend as much time as I can listening to their music. In Al Kooper’s case, I’ve been listening to his music for my entire life. Most of the time, I didn’t even know it.

If you’re not familiar with Kooper, he’s the man who plays that iconic organ on Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” He added in psychedelic whimsy to a Pete Townshend “mini-opera.” He got epic with Lynyrd Skynyrd on “Free Bird.” He kicked in the organ riffs in the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Dig deeper and you’ll find countless gems that he was involved in, including the famous Super Session with Stephen Stills and Mike Bloomfield, and the equally famous Blues Project, to name but two more.

Al Kooper also happened to found Blood, Sweat and Tears; produce both Shuggie Otis and The Tubes; discover Lynrd Skynrd; and has even been sampled by Jay-Z and the Beastie Boys.

But, you know what? I’m probably wrong about all that. You’re wrong, too. In fact, forget everything you think you know about rock and roll, because everything you know is wrong. How do I know? Because Al Kooper told me so, and he was there for most of it.

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It’s not lost on us that some of the biggest and most talented artists and musicians of this or any generation have gone on the record—on records—here at TVD. This week we’re sharing some of our favorites from the archive. —Ed.

It doesn’t matter what you or I think about Steve Vai. There are no statues dedicated to critics, no lifetime achievement awards for music journalists. Vai is an undeniable talent, taught guitar by the likes of Joe Satriani, weaned into the music industry by Frank Zappa, and who found his own way in whatever musical landscape he thought was interesting a particular time. He’s a shredder, sure, but he’s also a keen student of music theory, and has a genuine appreciation for artists from Tom Waits to Skrillex.

This appreciation is very evident on Vai’s latest album, The Story of Light, which brings together proto-blues, Celtic melodies, progressive rock, metal — you name it. But there’s no mistaking that it’s Steve Vai. I caught up with Steve in the midst of his nationwide tour, and got to chat with him about the new album, his unexpected influences, and how his son got him back into vinyl. 

The Story of Light continues a story arc from your previous album, 2005’s Real Illusions: Reflections. Why concept albums today?

The story has been kicking around years before that. When you’re the kind of artist that I am, you can really do anything that you want. I don’t really have to worry too much about radio airplay and stuff like that, so I can get pretty esoteric. And my music is kind of esoteric as it is, so I thought, “What if I take a story and kind of stretch it out over a series of records and create a concept/story that can unfold through time?”

So when I did Real Illusions, I basically had the story – what I wanted it to be – and I had the characters… the thought was to create the songs based on characters or events in the story and then display them over a series of three records, but not in any proper order – and they just get snippets of the concept of the story through the lyrics or the liner notes so people who are not really interested in following the concept… they don’t really have to. They aren’t getting clobbered over the head with it.

But those who are really interested in fetishing the details, they can start putting pieces together. And then the idea is after the next record – and it’s not going to be the next record I record – just whenever I do the third installment, it will be similar; it will have pieces and will have little story chunks here and there. And then the goal would be at sometime in the future to create a four-CD box set that has all the songs in the proper order, with maybe some melodic songs having lyrics and adding narrative, so it’s a real story you can follow from beginning to end.

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Forget what you think you know about Julian Lennon right now. He has a name, sure, but he’s followed the muse in and out of his father’s long shadow into photography, philanthropy and, naturally, music. 

His sometimes contentious relationship with John Lennon’s legacy has yielded mixed results over the years—and he would probably be the first to admit that—but Julian is far past worrying about what critics think. He’s been happy to attend to his creativity and his conscience in his own ways. Right now it’s all about his photography (his photos are being met with critical acclaim at prestigious galleries around the world) and his latest album, Everything Changes, which is due out in the US on June 4. 

Everything Changes marks the end of a fifteen years hiatus from music, and the fifty-year-old Lennon is using it as an opportunity reacquaint himself with his songwriting. The single, “Someday,” is a thoughtful, socially-conscious ballad—featuring Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler—that sets the tone for the next chapter in a quietly remarkable life. A documentary is also forthcoming, giving Julian the chance not so much to “set the record straight,” but to let the world see what it’s really been like to be Julian Lennon. We chatted with him about this as well as the new album, his many artistic passions and, of course, what’s in his record collection. 

It’s been a while between your last album, Photograph Smile, and your upcoming one Everything Changes. What made you decide to come back to music?

Well, to me it never goes away, really. But also I get restless if I just do the same thing all the time; my mind wanders too much. I feel I’ve always been a creative person, and so for a while I was involved, and still am, in restaurants because I love food. I’m a foodie on crack! If I actually hadn’t been a muso or, now, a photographer I’d have been a chef—no question about it. I was doing lots of other projects and, slowly but surely, ideas creep back into my mind. Melodies will come into my head and I’ll go, “Oh, I quite like that! Maybe I should play around with that!”

And slowly but surely, after extensive periods of time away from music, it tends to all flood back. Then it’s a question of working with those ideas. Some I can finish off at the time, some I have partial finished songs… and how it’s worked over the last few years, especially, is many of my friends are great players and great singers and great writers. And so, if they come by for the weekend or whatever, I’ll say “Have a listen to this, see if you can spark any ideas—either from yourself or by giving me other ideas.” And then one thing leads to another and you’ve got a finished song. After having enough for a couple of albums worth, I just decided to chop it all down to what I felt were the fourteen strongest. Voila—there you go! It’s as simple as that in many respects.

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It’s not lost on us that some of the biggest and most talented artists and musicians of this or any generation have gone on the record—on records—here at TVD. This week we’re sharing some of our favorites from the archive. —Ed.

I spoke with David Johansen as he was surrounded by devastation from Superstorm Sandy. “I’m doing good for being in a disaster area,” he said in his distinctive growl. He knows the City will make it. Johansen is a New Yorker through and through: resilient, creative, irreverent.

The frontman for The New York Dolls—one of the most quintessentially New York rock bands that has ever existed—strutted his way into the chaotic music scene of the ‘70s, and stuck around as an inventive and genre-defying solo artist. The Dolls dissolved after a handful of furious years, yet despite a decades-long hiatus the proto-punk/glam/dirty rockers are riding a resurgence in acclaim and popularity. In fact, the band (whose surviving original members include Johansen and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain) have released more albums since their 2005 reunion than they did during their early ’70s heyday.

In the face of historic hurricanes and ever-changing musical landscapes, Johansen remains an all-around hard-working, genre-bending, perma-touring musician. He has a wry sense of humor about it all, and he talked to us about his career, his early influences, and why you won’t find him hanging out online.

You’re taking a break from touring with the Dolls and doing some solo club shows. Why did you decide to stay out on the road?

Oh, I’ve been doing it for a while when the Dolls are down. So, it’s just something I like to do. I like to sing.

And you have an opportunity to sing different songs than you do with the Dolls?

Yeah. Exactly. I do songs from my solo career, and I do songs from when I had the Harry Smiths. I do some other songs that are from neither here nor there. And some of the Dolls’, like, ballad-y kind of songs that we never do on stage. It’s gonna be a great show—I really enjoy doing it, and the audiences have been really great.

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There are many ways to label Jay Brannan: Singer-songwriter. YouTube sensation. Gay troubadour. “The male Joni Mitchell.” None of those quite do justice to the multifaceted musician. 

Raised in a conservative, religious family in Texas, Brannan found his own truth in the arts early on. Songwriting came about after a turn as an actor. He landed a role in the experimental film, Shortbus, but “Soda Shop,” a tune he wrote for the soundtrack, became a smash on YouTube and launched an unexpected songwriting career that’s spanned four EPs, two LPs, and a live album over the course of just eight years. 

Brannan released his second full-length album, Rob Me Blind, in 2012. This LP brims with songs both wistful and cheeky, written with a cynical eye and a beautiful ear. Considering Brannan’s around-the-world-and-back touring schedule, it’s almost a miracle that Rob Me Blind was released as quickly as it was, without a sacrifice of musical integrity. “I had such a surreal time working with a legend like David Kahne,” says Brannan of the studio experience with the same man who’s produced Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, Regina Spektor, and many others.”He’s a genius and a dream producer… He really knows how to create memorable moments in music that are tasteful and not cheesy or over-the-top.” Indeed, if you’re into well-written lyrics atop affecting melodies sung by a mellifluous tenor, Jay Brannan is your man.

Brannan is about to embark on yet another tour, playing intimate venues and working out new songs alongside his fan favorites and beloved covers. “I’m just writing and recording as I go,” he tells us.

Read on: He’s got a lot more to say about where he came from, where he’s going, and the songs he’s been writing about it all. 

I spent my high school years in the South around kids from conservative Baptist families. Because I knew a lot of people who grew up as you did, I’m curious: How did your experience growing up in this way shape your decision to get into movies and music?

Well, I think I was probably… you know, a lot of this is subconscious so I can only sort of guess, but I think a lot of what drew me to acting originally—and music—and the creative, expressive art forms was probably coming from such a conservative background. A lot of things that are based around image or suppressing reality or the way you really feel about things, you know, like social obligations and those sorts of things.

I imagine that this craving to express what was really going on, or just to talk about what was really going on—even if it wasn’t things I was feeling, but things that I was seeing and how the world works—I’m sure I wanted to have a voice. I felt like I was always trying to acknowledge things that no one else would acknowledge. Once you put some of that stuff into music or a movie form or a story, all of a sudden it’s socially acceptable to be expressive. I think that was probably a way to express myself in a way that was validated rather than criticized. Does that make sense? I know that’s kind of the long way around!

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Children of the ’80s may remember The Fabulous Thunderbirds as “stuff our dads listened to when they wanted to look cool.” The Thunderbirds doctored up raucous blues rock with hooks so catchy that songs like “Tuff Enuff” and “Wrap It Up” found their way into heavy rotation on Top 40 radio and MTV. 

But that was then, and Kim Wilson is all about now. He and the latest incarnation of the T-Birds have created a fresh-yet-familiar record with On The Verge, mixing funk, rock, blues, soul, and even pop elements into the new songs. They have a reputation as a stellar live band, and with their intense touring schedule there’s a good chance they’re playing at your favorite hometown venue tonight. 

In addition to a successful solo career as a blues singer and harmonica slinger, Kim records and performs with dozens of rock and blues legends—when he’s not carrying the torch for the Thunderbirds, that is. The jovial Wilson chatted up a storm about the making of On The Verge, his affection for vinyl, and a passion for music that keeps him going 40 years after he began. 

It’s been six years since the last Fabulous Thunderbirds album. On the Verge is said to be kind of a departure from the expected blues rock-y stuff you’re known for; I hear R&B and even funk. How would you best describe the sound of the new album?

I think it’s a very diverse record. I think there’s a lot of bluesy stuff, but there is a lot of soul-y kind of R&B. It’s really more Americana. I’m not really a dyed-in-the-wool soul singer, but people seem to think I am on this one. I am just singing along with the tracks and doing it in my own way.

As far as it being a departure, I am not sure that there’s [all] that many expectations, you know, at this stage. I think people are really just wondering what the next one is going to be. That’s just the way it is. You have to be creative in this business to keep it fresh for as long as I have been playing—especially contemporary music. I can play straight blues the rest of my life you know, but that’s not what I desire to do all the time.

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When someone like legendary music mogul Clive Davis writes yet another tome extolling his endless virtues and successes, critical backlash is inevitable and satisfying. But what you probably wouldn’t expect is a response that’s kind yet honest; heartbreaking, yet fascinating. 

Don Silver is an everyman music fiend who finessed his way into a dream job. Thanks to one ballsy letter and dozens of phone calls, the inexperienced Silver was given the chance of a lifetime: to work as an A&R man at Arista Records under Clive Davis, the man who discovered legends like Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Simon & Garfunkel, Billy Joel, and Whitney Houston. Almost before he knew it was happening, Don was scouting New York music clubs, sifting through piles of demos, opining in front of Clive Davis himself, and performing the unenviable task of telling aspiring musicians “as nicely as possible that they sucked.” 

His memoir of the experience, Clive: Working for The Man in the Age of Vinyl, recounts the story of a middle class boy who was fascinated by rock gods and full of the kind of earnest ambition that’s usually (and quickly) crushed by guys like Clive. And yet he’s so damned nice about the experience because, after all, what really mattered—and what continues to matter most—is the music.

Clive gives an insider’s perspective that’s instantly relatable—no small feat where the music industry’s concerned. In the spirit of all good barstool-type conversations, Don chatted us up about his time in the record biz, his theories about music and, of course, the specialness of vinyl. 

I suppose I should start out by asking if you’ve read all of Clive’s autobiography.

I got about a third of the way through it. I’d take my version of things over his. [Laughs] I think it was an extraordinary first job. Part of my burden, or the thing I carried into this experience, was a naiveté about how I was going to show up on somebody’s doorstep and they were going to love me like they were my dad or something. And it was probably a pretty common experience for very ambitious people who start out in the workforce.

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