Ask The Man Who Owns One

You can learn a lot from listening to smart people.

Many times, I get asked where do I learn about obscure music?

Really, in the olden days, it was pretty difficult but I had both a methodology and some trusted sources.

The first way - the methodology - was to look and see who produced the record, what songs [if any] the group covered, and ... you know, what they looked like. I mean, the Carpenters and Deep Purple look different from each other. But that does not mean you should pass either group up ... and lastly, the record label would give you some clue, sometimes. The Kinks on Reprise? What's that about? So, sometimes it did not. And we all know about the infamous Black Monday at Curb Records [Where is Mike Curb nowadays? Someone? Anyone?] So that was my method, and it led me to some pretty cool records, and vast confusion when New Wave came out ... new labels! no covers! or generic covers! So, forgive me for buying the Shirts and the Yachts when I should have been buying the Buzzcocks and Stiff Little Fingers.

The second way was hanging out at record stores à la High Fidelity. Though the kindly record store managers Rick and Jim tried to steer me towards the Modern Lovers and Captain Beefheart and Spirit, for the most part, I resisted, and listened to their recommendations to listen to the Byrds, Yardbirds and the Who. So at least I had some idea what the 1960s were about when I was a teenager.

Nowadays, it is so much easier ... and so much tougher. As I have famously remarked, "the internet is the playground of the obsessive." [And that would be me, when it comes to music.] So I can find free demos for Tanya Donnelly and crazy crazy sensitive Canadian genius Issa [née Jane Siberry]. But am I listening to the right stuff? Am I missing some new trifle by Grant Hart or the Decemberists that I should be catching?

[Re: Issa. I could do an all-day rant [both pro and con] about her decision to become the new Woody Guthrie, but I won't because she once sent me a nice responsive email. And also because I have enormous respect for her as an artist.]

What brought this subject up was viewing the Bob Dylan interview posted on YouTube from December of 1965, when he was briefly in San Francisco. Bob, in that interview, gets asked all manner of question, most of them inane. But when he does respond about pop music and culture, he references some really remarkable artists, especially given what was floating around in 1965. He recommends Charlie Rich, Doug Sahm and calls Smokey Robinson a great American poet.

He was right then, and he's still right. How cool is that?