Parental Advisory News Report 11.29.09: Adam Lambert Shakes Things Up

Posted by Dan Haggerty on 11.29.2009

This week in the PANR: Your 2010 inductees into the Grammy Hall Of Fame, the top band’s people want to see reunite, Live Nation sends live concerts to iTunes, immigration laws are hurting tours, Warner Music has a good quarter and still losses money, and we have the final word an Adam Lambert kissing a guy. Click the link for all the details!

Wow. Talk about a slow week thanks to the holiday. We've got a few stories from the streets this week otherwise we'll be punting. An apt term considering the state of Football in Michigan! So, hope you guys had a good holiday and kept out of the crazy stores this weekend.

Good lord I'm going to take some crap for this week's motivational poster, but I couldn't resist. I promise something scandalous for next week.

Poor some eggnog and shake off that turkey coma as we crank through the best of what was left!


Who Do You Love?

Maybe this Hall
does know Diddley!

It's that time again. The Recording Academy announced last Tuesday 25 classic recordings that would be added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was another eclectic list that features classics than spanned genres. From the Beach boys to Louis Armstrong to Bo Diddley and hell, even a George Carlin piece made it in under comedy (which is really cool). Unlike the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this Hall can be albums or singles, and it may be any recording that is considered quality or influential as a part of recording history.

For those who are curious, you can get entire Hall of Fame if you go HERE. Otherwise, for your reading pleasure and critical approval I have taken the list of this year's 25 inductees and provided them for your commentary. I will add that I'm surprised the Pearl wasn't in nor the singles from Bo or the Doors.

Finally, I'm glad to see George Carlin's early material getting a nod. It gets overlooked in favor of his later more incendiary material, but the early stuff is still quality. Do yourself a favor and check it out sometime. The Hippie Dippy Weatherman FTW!

Here's the list of 2010 inductees:

"AS TIME GOES BY" - Dooley Wilson
Decca (1944)
Traditional Pop (Single)

"BIRDLAND" - Weather Report
Columbia (1977)
Jazz (Single)

"CALIFORNIA GIRLS"
The Beach Boys
Capitol (1965)
Pop (Single)

CATCH A FIRE - Bob Marley & The Wailers
Island (1973)
Reggae (Album)

CLASS CLOWN - George Carlin
Little David (1972)
Comedy (Album)

"CRAZY HE CALLS ME" - Billie Holiday
Decca (1949)
Jazz (Single)
(more)

"DIPPER MOUTH BLUES" - King Oliver & His Jazz Band
Okeh (1923)
Jazz (Single)

"DON'T GET AROUND MUCH - ANYMORE (NEVER NO LAMENT)"
Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra
Victor (1940)
Jazz (Single)

"ELLA AND BASIE!" - Ella Fitzgerald/Count Basie
Verve (1963)
Jazz (Album)

"FELIZ NAVIDAD" - Jose Feliciano
RCA Victor (1970)
Latin (Single)

"FOR ME AND MY GAL" - Judy Garland & Gene Kelly
Decca (1942)
Traditional Pop (Single)

"HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW" - Mahalia Jackson
Columbia (1958)
Gospel (Single)

"I FEEL LIKE GOING HOME" - Muddy Waters
Aristocrat (1948)
Blues (Single)

"IT'S A MAN'S MAN'S MAN'S WORLD" - James Brown
King (1966)
R&B (Single)

JAZZ SAMBA - Stan Getz/Charlie Byrd
Verve (1962)
Jazz (Album)

"KANSAS CITY STOMPS" - Jelly Roll Morton
Victor (1928)
Jazz (Single)

"LAZY RIVER" - Louis Armstrong
Okeh (1931)
Jazz (Single)

LOUIS ARMSTRONG PLAYS W. C. HANDY - Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars
Columbia (1954)
Jazz (Album)

"MR. BOJANGLES" - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Liberty (1970)
Pop (Single)

PEARL - Janis Joplin
Columbia (1971)
Rock (Album)

"RIDERS ON THE STORM" - The Doors
Elektra (1971)
Rock (Single)

"TWIST AND SHOUT" - The Isley Brothers
Wand (1962)
R&B (Single)

"WHO DO YOU LOVE?" - Bo Diddley
Checker (1956)
R&B (Single)

"YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU (I DIDN'T WANT TO DO IT)" - Harry James & His Orchestra
Columbia (1941)
Traditional Pop (Single)

"ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH" - Johnny Mercer
Capitol (1946)
Pop (Single)

SOS

Would they still look good
in gogo boots?

A poll of British citizens was conducted to see what classic acts the music buying public would like to see reunited. And the grand prize winner is…

ABBA.

ABBA, made up of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Faltskog, performed in public for the last time in 1982. Since then the classic Swedish supper pop group continues to be the top asked for reunion, to the point the group was offered a cool billion over five years back to do it. That isn't a typo. They were seriously offered $1,000,000,000.00 if they would reunite for a world tour. They said no, sighting age and the fact their time had gone.

Damn.

What I find funny is how many people slam ABBA. It's like they are one of the jokes of the disco era and gets more grief than any act outside of the Bee Gees (maybe), but the reality is they must be the biggest guilty pleasure because every time I see one of these polls they're at the top. Plus, whoever offered the band that money did it only because they knew they could score a payoff.

For the curious, here are the results of the poll:

ABBA (25 percent)
The Police (13)
Pink Floyd (11)
The Smiths (11)
Oasis (10)
The Jam (9)
Dire Straits (8)
The Clash (6)
Spice Girls (4)
Sex Pistols (3)

Considering the Police, the Spice Girls, and Oasis had recent goes at a reunion this is a bit surprising (and silly). I mean, come on people. But I'd be there for Pink Floyd (although it would be sad to not have Wright) or Dire Straights. The Jam would be cool but I doubt they would get a good schedule here in the States.

Good question though. Who would YOU like to see reunited?

Personally I'd love the whole MK II lineup of Deep Purple.

One Step Closer

Who am I kidding?
I just wanted to use
this picture again…

Apple iTunes on Tuesday began featuring downloads of live concerts by 20 artists who are promoted by Live Nation. In a deal to continue crossover promotion and online integration, Live Nation is working with Apple to grow new directions in downloading. It's expected that several hundred more will follow in the coming months after this test run is complete. Not only is their contracted artists I non this but insiders say Live Nation is already working with major labels whose artists they promote live. The deals are already in ink.

Prices will start at about $7.99.

We should have seen this coming. I mean, Live Nation is the biggest promoter of concert tours now with over 20,000 shows going off each year. Now that Live Nation is working with the 360 deals with big artists, it was only a mater of time they would merge their concert division with their recording division - Very smart. When you add in how little it costs to distribute music through iTunes, this will be gold. Warner could learn something here, but I'm getting ahead of myself

One Step Farther

Members of the touring industry are sounding an alarm that stricter enforcement of U.S. immigration regulations are interfering with the U.S. touring plans of international artists. According to officials no new regulations have been enacted but the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Service has only begun using a restrictive reading of current regulations in approving visas.

But concert promoters are calling foul.

Formerly, artists wishing to work and tour in the U.S. needed to apply for a work visa (type "O" for solo artists or "P" for groups). The visa would then cover the artist for a period of time; up to three years for a solo artist and up to one year for a group. Additionally, a U.S.-based sponsor such as a label, manager or tour promoter was needed to apply for the visa. Under the new, stricter interpretation, artists now are required to provide an itinerary, including a specific length with a detailed itinerary for the tour. Additionally, the USCIS has become stricter in enforcing who may serve as a sponsor for the artist. The new strictness also costs more for promoters to comply with plus reported errors in paperwork can cost as much as $6,000 in additional filing fees.

That might seem like not much for a big act, but imagine this impact on small bands who get by traveling together in a van to make it pay to tour here.

Since this new interpretation of the regulations went into effect numerous artists have been forced to cancel gigs or revise planned tours. One such artist sited is Mercury Prize winner Speech Debelle who was forced to withdraw from New York's CMJ Marathon in October behind visa headaches.

Another one I know of is ProgPower USA this year had to reschedule several slots due to European artist getting caught up in red tape and not making it. That's too bad, because the Atlanta festival has been going for a number of years now and is a great showcase for acts not well known here in the States. Great acts that might not get a whole tour can come to the festival and hook up with fans. The guy who runs ProgPower is already telling people that next years card is subject to change due to these issues.

And that, quite frankly, is a croc of shit. It sounds like an excuse for politicians to pretend they're fixing a problem ("See, I cracked down on immigration!") or bureaucrats to make some easy money. Not to mention, discouraging business and people from spending money DURING A RECESSION is about the dumbest thing I've heard. And trust me, I read a lot of this shit so I see a lot of dumb things in the headlines.

Anyway, lets hope Planet DC pulls their heads out of their ass and realizes that discouraging people from coming to our country because some bass player might be carrying a dirty bomb in his amp is only slightly more likely than those same politicians finding honest work.

Going Down

Is Dat All Foks?

Warner Music Group announced this week they had a "surprise earnings loss". Warner Music reported a fourth-quarter loss of $18 million or 12 cents per share, compared with net income of $6 million or 4 cents per share a year ago. It was so bad that the news sent the shares close to negative territory for a moment when insiders and traders had whiplash. Considering that WMG had had good trade status this sent a few shockwaves through the investment community and at least one investment firm has cut the rating of the company afterwards.

This is what Wedbush Securities said: "We believe the stock's appreciation of recent months has raised the operational bar for the company, and we're not sure recent results meet this elevated standard."

Warner Music spun this announcement by warning that the music industry continues to face the dual challenge of a suspect global economy along with music industry changes in business. The biggest being sited is how consumers are turning their attention away from CDs and focus on expanding "their digital libraries". Those are my quotes, not theirs.

This is bad news and the reason is more than what the core story says. Because of recent artist sales Warner's share of business in the industry GREW during the same quarter this loss came in. That is damn impressive considering how much Michael Jackson music sold through WMG competitors at Sony. So Warner has been doing good business that has out performed competitors but still managed to cough up a bad quarter. What that means is that the business has something dragging it down, likely debt.

But there are two things I'd also like to know. First, how is this a "surprise"? Didn't they know they were losing money? More like it was a surprise to traders on the open exchange and the company has been holding the information close and crossing their fingers. The last minute sell off also shows how they've kept this a secret and a surprised exchanged started to dump stock so fast in momentarily came close to negative.

Second, how long can businesses keep using the "changing business" excuse? It has been changing for a decade now and as we have seen this week alone Live Nation seems to keep growing just fine. How long does it take to deal with "change" and try and get ahead of the curve?

Someone at Warner needs to man up and just admit they're in trouble, then fix the problem.

The Final Word On Adam Lambert Kissing A Guy


Oh COME ON people. Stop making a freaking big deal about this.

Lady Gaga, God bless the crazy woman, does this shit on a schedule to promote herself. Lady Gaga dressed up as a dominatrix then got into a lesbian style catfight with Madonna. Lady Gaga said she has a penis. Lady Gaga does fucked up shit all the time and a bored media laps it up.

And you know why? Because as Lady Gaga said it herself - When she played in a bar before she was famous for a bunch of kids from NYU, they ignored her. One night she walked in wearing lingerie and they noticed her. She has been working the crowd since.

Guess what, Lambert just pulled a Lady Gaga.

Except everyone has a problem with a guy doing it. Why? Did the rules change when the chromosomes changed? Was there a meeting I missed? As a society do we have the mental capacity to fire communication satellites into precise geo-centric orbit but we still believe men and women suffer under different societal rules?

And while everyone was reasserting their manhood guess what happened?

Just like Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert got tons of free publicity which will end up pushing his album.

Good job Lambert! It might be a silly glass ceiling but you just broke it. Now watch everyone squirm all the way to the bank.

And that is the final word for November 29, 2009!