Funny, you don't look famous: Roy Silver, Bob Dylan's first manager

A new Bob Dylan album is always cause for curiosity, especially when it comes to the extras that have been a feast for hard-core Bobologists. The deluxe edition of his latest, "Together Through Life," continues this tradition with "Roy Silver: The Lost Interview," a genuinely engaging DVD oddity that features Dylan's earliest manager.

Conducted shortly before Silver's death in 2003, the interview was intended for the Martin Scorsese doc "No Direction Home" and provides refreshingly candid peek into the beginning of the Dylan legend. On screen, Dylan dismisses Silver as "a hustler" and "one of those guys always selling something." In kind, Silver remembers the 1961 Dylan as "weird" and a malleable pawn of the famously overpowering Albert Grossman -- the manager who escorted Dylan into fame after he "convinced" Silver that selling him Dylan's management contract for $10,000 would be a good idea.

Silver went on to manage Bill Cosby and become an investor in the Rainbow Bar and Grill, but he is perhaps best remembered in Hollywood as an owner (along with recording czar Neil Bogart and future studio chief Peter Guber) of another Sunset Strip establishment, Roy's. For those who don't remember the establishment, Josh Karp's biography of National Lampoon cofounder Doug Kenney, "A Futile and Stupid Gesture," contains this reminiscence:

Roy's was an after-hours club (open until three or four AM) for people such as the Eagles, Mick Jagger, Neil Young, Burt Reynolds, Hunter Thompson... In the back were booths built to resemble separate Pullman cars — cabins that seated four to six, with a large drape that could be drawn around each table. Roy himself catered to his clientele by providing instant access to cocaine for anyone who wanted it. If there wasn't enough available from the restaurant's private stock, Roy called a dealer who arrived in minutes. Even the dinner plates at Roy's were billed as perfect for using to snort lines.

Ah, the '70s. -- Steve Gaydos

Billboard is reporting that director Cameron Crowe and Pearl Jam are teaming up on an upcoming film about the Seattle-based rock group.

The project, which sounds like a compilation of pre-existing Pearl Jam footage, was revealed last month on Seattle's "Don and Ron" radio show by guitarist Mike McCready.

"We're building up to our big 20th anniversary," McCready said. "We're trying to have a little campaign of building rereleases with new mixes and new outtakes up until that time and we're also trying to do a movie with Cameron Crowe with all of our footage."

Crowe and Pearl Jam first teamed together on the '90s grunge pic, "Singles," which featured soundtrack music, baggy flannels and "acting" from band members Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament. Crowe also exec produced, "Pearl Jam: Single Video Theory," a short making-of documentary about the group's 1998 LP, "Yield."

Pearl Jam is currently working on a new album due out later this year and are scheduled to headline the Outside Lands Festival (August 28-30) in San Francisco.

--Stuart Oldham

Celebrities beware: Slim Shady is ba'aack.

"We Made You," Eminem's first not-so-great single off of the forthcoming disc, "Relapse," has gotten the video treatment. The Detroit rapper's latest targets? Jessica Simpson, Sarah Palin and Lindsay Lohan, among others.

Ladies and gentlemen, Trent Reznor has gone and made a funny! (And you thought he was just a buff, evil S.O.B.)

This morning the Nine Inch Nails frontman, who has been very active in the online community as of late, tweeted (not "twatted") this cryptic message, "I've been busy. Brand new FULL LENGTH Nine Inch Nails record available now."

As NIN fans shook their heads, parted those dyed-black bangs, and clicked on their finger-smudged mouses, a wonderful surprise awaited them: a new Nine Inch Nails album...R&B-style!

WTF?!?!

Reznor, who recently made headlines by slamming Chris Cornell's "embarassing" new Timbaland-produced album, ironically went and made an R&B album of his own, "Strobe Light." (Or so he jokes...)

"Your email will be kept confidential," the order form says, "and will not be used for spam, unless we can make some money selling it."

Check out the full tracklisting below. It's pretty hilarious. "Laid, paid and played" is our favorite. If only he would've added, "This is Why I'm Yoked"

--Stuart Oldham

Tracklisting:

1. intro skit
2. everybody's doing it (featuring chris martin, jay-z AND bono)
3. black t-shirt
4. pussygrinder (featuring sheryl crow)
5. coffin on the dancefloor
6. this rhythm is infected
7. slide to the dark side
8. even closer (featuring justin timberlake and maynard james keenan)
9. on the list (she's not)
10. clap trap crack slap
11. laid, paid and played (featuring fergie of the black eyed peas and al jourgensen)
12. feel like being dead again
13. still hurts (featuring alicia keys)
14. outro sk

This weekend, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor will be interviewed at his L.A. home by Digg founder and Twitter buddy (ironically enough), Kevin Rose. Rose will pose the most popular questions submitted by fans.

From now until April 4th at 12:00pm PDT, Digg users will have an opportunity to submit questions and Digg up other inquiries that Rose will, in turn, field to Reznor.

Also, on Monday Tuesday, April 7th, Variety.com is teaming with Digg to play the Reznor-Rose interview in its entirety on our website(s), beginning at 10 am PT.

For more information on how and where to submit your questions, click here.

--Stuart Oldham

Fresh off their South American tour, Radiohead has unveiled plans to headline the Leeds and Reading festivals come August.

The U.K. music fests, which take place August 28-30 in England, will also feature Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, Vampire Weekend, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Bloc Party.

Click here and here for the full lineup(s).

In other music news, the All Points West Festival has named Coldplay, Beastie Boys and Tool as its 2009 headliners. The Coachella-inspired event, which debuted last year to somewhat positive reviews, featured fest-monger Radiohead headlining two out of three nights.

The All Points West Music & Arts Festival kicks off July 31- Aug. 2 at Liberty State Park in New Jersey.

--Stuart Oldham

While vacationing in the Caribbean last year, Amy Winehouse apparently found the inspiration for her new album: tons of crack  reggae music.

Winehouse, who wrote and recorded several tracks while 'holidaying' in St. Lucia, recently submitted the new reggae jams to Island/Universal Records, who, in turn, said, 'No no no.'

According to English paper The Sun, label execs are none too thrilled that Winehouse has abandoned her trademark style of vintage soul.

"It is crucial Amy's return is handled properly,” one source tells The Sun. “If she puts out a record that is in any way half-baked, that could severely damage her long-term prospects."

Correct. Whip up a kick-ass record, Amy, and your "long-term prospects" look right as rain.

--Stuart Oldham

Lead-singer Adam Duritz writes on the band's official site: "The internet opens a world of limitless possibility, where the only boundaries are the boundaries of your own imagination. We want a chance to push those boundaries back as far as we can."

While this is a far cry from Radiohead's pay-what-you-want release (2007), nor are the Crows as relevant as they used to be, the Bay Area-based quartet are yet another example of musicians opting for artistic and digital freedom.

Duritz also mentions that the Counting Crows will dedicate their new live album to, of all people, Madonna:

"This is a big change for us but it's a border we've been wanting to cross for a long time so we want to celebrate it. The best way to do that seems to be to give a little something to all of you since, after all, you've been with us the whole time too. So, in the spirit of this new frontier we're entering, we offer you our homage to a certain lady who honored us last year by expressing her longtime deep and abiding worship of our band by naming her entire album after one of ours. From us to you, Live from The Royal Albert Hall in London, our tribute to Madonna: "Borderline". Dig it."

--Stuart Oldham

If you haven't read Trent Reznor's thoughtful diatribe against the concert-ticket business, you oughta. Perhaps I should have known that it's standard practice to set aside 10% of the best seats so the performer can sell them to the highest bidder; but I didn't. Much more, below: [Hat tip: Stereogum]

As we approach on-sale dates for the upcoming tour, I've noticed lots of you are curious / concerned / outraged at the plethora of tickets that somehow appear on all these reseller sites at inflated prices - even before the pre-sale dates. I'll do my best to explain the situation as I see it, as well as clarify my organization's stance in the matter.

NIN decides to tour this summer. We arrive at the conclusion outdoor amphitheaters are the right venue for this outing, for a variety of reasons we've throughly considered*. In the past, NIN would sell the shows in each market to local promoters, who then "buy" the show from us to sell to you. Live Nation happens to own all the amphitheaters and bought most of the local promoters - so if you want to play those venues, you're being promoted by Live Nation. Live Nation has had an exclusive deal with TicketMaster that has just expired, so Live Nation launched their own ticketing service. Most of the dates on this tour are through Live Nation, some are through TicketMaster - this is determined by the promoter (Live Nation), not us.

Now we get into the issue of secondary markets for tickets, which is the hot issue here. The ticketing marketplace for rock concerts shows a real lack of sophistication, meaning this: the true market value of some tickets for some concerts is much higher than what the act wants to be perceived as charging. For example, there are some people who would be willing to pay $1,000 and up to be in the best seats for various shows, but MOST acts in the rock / pop world don't want to come off as greedy pricks asking that much, even though the market says its value is that high. The acts know this, the venue knows this, the promoters know this, the ticketing company knows this and the scalpers really know this. So...

The venue, the promoter, the ticketing agency and often the artist camp (artist, management and agent) take tickets from the pool of available seats and feed them directly to the re-seller (which from this point on will be referred to by their true name: SCALPER). I am not saying every one of the above entities all do this, nor am I saying they do it for all shows but this is a very common practice that happens more often than not. There is money to be made and they feel they should participate in it. There are a number of scams they employ to pull this off which is beyond the scope of this note.

StubHub.com is an example of a re-seller / scalper. So is TicketsNow.com.

Here's the rub: TicketMaster has essentially been a monopoly for many years - certainly up until Live Nation's exclusive deal ran out. They could have (and can right now) stop the secondary market dead in its tracks by doing the following: limit the amount of sales per customer, print names on the tickets and require ID / ticket matches at the venue. We know this works because we do it for our pre-sales. Why don't THEY do it? It's obvious - they make a lot of money fueling the secondary market. TicketMaster even bought a re-seller site and often bounces you over to that site to buy tickets (TicketsNow.com)!

NIN gets 10% of the available seats for our own pre-sale. We won a tough (and I mean TOUGH) battle to get the best seats. We require you to sign up at our site (for free) to get tickets. We limit the amount you can buy, we print your name on the tickets and we have our own person let you in a separate entrance where we check your ID to match the ticket. We charge you a surcharge that has been less than TicketMaster's or Live Nation's in all cases so far to pay for the costs of doing this - it's not a profit center for us. We have essentially stopped scalping by doing these things - because we want true fans to be able to get great seats and not get ripped off by these parasites.

I assure you nobody in the NIN camp supplies or supports the practice of supplying tickets to these re-sellers because it's not something we morally feel is the right thing to do. We are leaving money on the table here but it's not always about money.

Being completely honest, it IS something I've had to consider. If people are willing to pay a lot of money to sit up front AND ARE GOING TO ANYWAY thanks to the rigged system, why let that money go into the hands of the scalpers? I'm the one busting my ass up there every night. The conclusion really came down to it not feeling like the right thing to do - simple as that.

My guess as to what will eventually happen if / when Live Nation and TicketMaster merges is that they'll move to an auction or market-based pricing scheme - which will simply mean it will cost a lot more to get a good seat for a hot show. They will simply BECOME the scalper, eliminating them from the mix.

Nothing's going to change until the ticketing entity gets serious about stopping the problem - which of course they don't see as a problem. The ultimate way to hurt scalpers is to not support them. Leave them holding the merchandise. If this subject interests you, check out the following links. Don't buy from scalpers, and be suspect of artists singing the praises of the Live Nation / TicketMaster merger. What's in it for them?

Yes, indeedy. They got a street and everything.

Although with all due respect, I am hoping that their new CD ("No Line on the Horizon") contains tuneage more appealing than what they brought last night.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' upcoming album, "It's Blitz!," has leaked on the web.

Due April 14th on Interscope, the Brooklyn-based rock group's new LP features the band returning to an '80s synth-pop sound. First single, "Zero," hit radio waves last week with lead-singer Karen O telling listeners to 'Get your leather on!' over a dizzying riff from guitarist turned synth master, Nick Zinner.

While the band has yet to comment on yesterday's leak, we know one thing is for sure (besides the fact that they're pissed!): the cover of the album (right) is pretty bad ass. 

Listen to the new single, "Zero," here.

--Stuart Oldham

As further proof that no aspect of American culture gets a break from the economic crisis, Chet Flippo reports on CMT.com how one financial scam artist has put the "precious jewels" of country music history at risk.

The Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville was the beneficiary of the late high-flying investor Bob McLean, who bequeathed nearly $2 million to acquire Maybelle Carter's 1928 Gibson L-5, which is famously part of the "Big Bang" that launched commercial country music, and Bill Monroe's 1923 Gibson F-5 mandolin, which Flippo describes as an essential instrument in the "invention" of bluegrass music.

What McLean invented, unfortunately, was a Madoff-like ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of nearly $70 million and led to his own "Big Bang," as in suicide by handgun when the scheme finally unraveled.

The administrators of his estate are now telling the Country Music Hall of Fame to pay up their share of the ill-gotten $2 million that purchased these gems. Otherwise the instruments will go to the highest bidder, which means a loss of precious cultural heritage for the public (although perhaps a big score for a private music fan). That's assuming there's one left somewhere in the world with the dough required to pick out "Wildwood Flower" on the original picking machine. - Steven Gaydos

Coldplay and the Killers will play a joint gig February 18 in London for an elite group of 2,000 fans. Becoming one of them requires entering a lottery; winners will be allowed to buy a ticket for £50 (about $71).

All proceeds go to international charity network War Child, which aids children in war-torn countries. And it's a promotion for the February 16 release of the album "War Child: Heroes," a collection of 15 covers that include Beck doing Bob Dylan's "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat," TV On The Radio doing David Bowie's "Heroes" and Franz Ferdinand's cover of the Blondie hit "Call Me."

If you feel lucky and will be in London, the lottery registration opens at 9 am January 30 GMT (that's 1 am PST) and runs through February 3, with winners notified by February 6. The performances follow the 2009 BRIT Awards, with each band playing 45-minute sets at London venue Shepherd's Bush Empire. The lottery registration link isn't live yet, but it will be available here; you can also click there to sign up for a War Child newsletter that will alert you when the link goes live (ooh, fatter mailing lists! clever, they are). -- Stuart Oldham
 

Variety's David Rooney says the new Broadway production of "Hedda Gabler" is "loopy." Not necessarily a bad thing, since it's a word that might also be used to describe musician PJ Harvey and she scored the work. In speaking with Jim Farber (who describes the play as "Henrik Ibsen’s classic ode to the ultimate psycho bitch from hell"), Harvey says, “As an artist, I’ve always been drawn to what human beings are capable of, in how far you can push things. And Hedda pushes things to the limit.”

The score — which takes up the first two minutes of the play, then creepy-crawls around the starts and finishes of all four acts — centers on a hiss, a compressed signal of menace and torment. It’s the sound of seething. “I just kept coming back to that sound,” Harvey says.

Unfortunately, according to our critic, "(Mary-Louise) Parker's seething kook remains remote." [NY Daily News] 

Ron Asheton, original guitarist for Iggy and the Stooges, was found dead at his home in Ann Arbor, Mich. He was 60. Anyone who's listened to "Fun House" and "Raw Power" (I know, was only the bassist on that one, but it's a great album) mourns. A note of comfort: Another legendary guitarist from the same era,Tom Verlaine, is scheduled to perform tomorrow night in Los Angeles as an accompanist to a series of experimental short films. It's part of the Avant-Garde Silent Films series at the Silent Movie Theater. (Video is footage from a 1970 Stooges performance in Cincinnatti; the footage is a little blurry, but Asheton comes through loud and clear.) [AP]

Big news! to come from the final day of the Macworld Conference and Expo, maybe. According to Greg Sandoval, iTunes will start offering:

• "flexible" pricing -- in other words, more-popular songs will cost more than 99 cents; less-popular will cost less.

• Music free from copy-protection software (aka the well-intentioned but ultimately toothless "digital rights management"). Apple already sells DRM-free music from EMI; the new deal would extend to  the other three major labels (Sony BMG, Universal and Warner Music).

Let iPods everywhere rejoice. The announcement will likely be part of the Steve Jobs-free keynote, which will be delivered by Apple VP Phil Schiller. [CNET]

UPDATE: Yeah, it's all true. But it didn't keep the whole thing from being a total snooze. [Silicon Alley Insider]

Turnabout is fair play: If you believe that Elvis stole rock-and-roll from the African-American traditions, there may be an equally strong case that rappers came from, er... the Scots. Writes Simon Johnson:

Professor Ferenc Szasz argued that so-called rap battles, where two or more performers trade elaborate insults, derive from the ancient Caledonian art of "flyting."

According to the theory, Scottish slave owners took the tradition with them to the United States, where it was adopted and developed by slaves, emerging many years later as rap.

Professor Szasz is convinced there is a clear link between this tradition for settling scores in Scotland and rap battles, which were famously portrayed in Eminem's 2002 movie 8 Mile.

He said: "The Scots have a lengthy tradition of flyting - intense verbal jousting, often laced with vulgarity, that is similar to the dozens that one finds among contemporary inner-city African-American youth.

"Both cultures accord high marks to satire. The skilled use of satire takes this verbal jousting to its ultimate level - one step short of a fist fight."

The academic, who specialises in American and Scottish culture at the University of New Mexico, made the link in a new study examining the historical context of Robert Burns' work.

The most famous surviving example of flyting comes from a 16th-century piece in which two rival poets hurl increasingly obscene rhyming insults at one another before the Court of King James IV.

Titled the Flyting Of Dunbar And Kennedy, it has been described by academics as "just over 500 lines of filth."

Professor Szasz cites an American civil war poem, printed in the New York Vanity Fair magazine on November 9, 1861, as the first recorded example of the battles being used in the United States.

Professor Willie Ruff, of Yale University, agreed that Scottish slave owners had a profound impact on the development of African American music traditions.

Comparing flyting and rap battles, he said: "Two people engage in ritual verbal duelling and the winner has the last word in the argument, with the loser falling conspicuously silent." [The Telegraph -- thanks, Steve!]

It's an interesting, maybe even compelling, theory. However, it's a little loose with the logic.

Roger Friedman reports that Sony plans to put Columbia Records co-head Rick Rubin out to pasture in a side-label deal. Reasons: They're paying him too much and haven't seen results, Rubin moved Sony to more-expensive offices (old CAA building) even though he works from home, and Rubin's most recent hit album, Metallica's "Death Magnetic," was produced for Atlantic. He's also working with Universal Music Group's U2, not that the band appears to like what he's done. [Fox News, via The Daily Swarm] 

Vermont-based jam band Phish, which broke up in 2004, is the rumored headliner for two nights of the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. While I've never been a Phish fan (I was so annoyed when the Grateful Dead sounded like noodly country music sung off key -- judging by their name, I thought they'd be the perfect band to annoy my parents), I'm sure the news has sparked spontaneous celebrations at head shops everywhere. 

And it's a hell of a happier ending than what was suggested for leader Trey Anastasio two years ago, when he was arrested for driving under the influence of a hilbilly-heroin cocktail.

Another rumored headliner for the 2009 Manchester, TN festival, which runs June 11-14, is Bruce Springsteen. And keep in mind that rumors were rampant last year that Led Zeppelin and Metallica would headline the 2008 festival. Both bands fiercely denied it, although Metallica later showed that they were good liars.

Pre-sale tickets are available now (they began December 4), but that ticket window will close December 31.

(And even if you're a reprobate cynic like myself, check out the video -- it's Phish doing "99 Problems" with Jay-Z.) [Rolling Stone -- Thanks, Stu]

You'd think it's awful, but it's kind of great: Adam Sandler singing Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane." They both have the same warble-y falsetto tenor. This comes from last night's David Letterman and promotes an upcoming Warner Bros. Records collection of Warners artists covering other Warners artists, "Covered: A Revolution in Sound." [Thanks, Stu!]

As you might have heard, the music industry is in a spot of trouble. Damian Reece does a fine job of delineating how that's working out for EMI, which recently lost $1.1 billion and owes Citigroup about $3.9 billion. So now EMI's owned by private equity firm Terra Firma and run by the improbably named Guy Hands, who has been sorting out bands "who we think can bring the business forward and who won't" (i.e., firing). So how's that going? Verve manager Jazz Summers suggests not so well:

"I think what he's done in the past is he's gone in and said, 'Here are whatever pubs he's bought, this is how we're going to turn them round.'

"And here's a load of service stations in Germany and we've sorted out the toilets and now everything is working right, and it was really badly run before.

"And he started to do that in the music industry but what it did was it de-motivated everybody you would ever want to meet, because none of them knew whether they were going to get a job.

"And then he went out, unfortunately for him, and said artists were taking big advances and not working very hard and that got under all our skins."

Gee, it's enough to make you glad that we spent all that time for nothing. [BBC]

Today would have been the 83rd birthday of Sammy Davis, Jr., who was more than $7 million in debt when he died 18 years ago. How that happened is the story of Matt Birkbeck's "Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, Madness, and the Mob;" what follows are new developments in how, his children claim, his legacy was lost and why they may be able to reclaim it.

Two months before legendary entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. died from throat cancer in May 1990, his manager Shirley Rhodes and three others walked into his room at Cedar's Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, told bodyguard Brian Dellow to leave, and closed the door behind them.  When they emerged some ten minutes later, Brian walked in and saw his terminally ill employer staring aimlessly out the window.

"What was that about?" said Brian.

Sammy said it was nothing, but Brian knew otherwise.

Years later Brian, a former British intelligence officer, relayed that story during a lengthy interview I had with him in July 2007.

"What was that about?" I asked Brian.

"They changed Sammy’s will,” he said matter-of-factly.

That will, which was probated in August 1990, named Rhodes and Sammy’s Cleveland-based attorney John Climaco as co-executors of Sammy’s estate. It also gave rights to Sammy’s “name and likeness” to his troubled widow Altovise, while leaving no provisions for Sammy’s three children. 

Following Sammy’s death, Climaco and Rhodes oversaw the dismantling of the estate, selling Sammy’s Beverly Hills mansion and auctioning what was left of personal possessions that weren’t looted from his home before and after he died. In addition, nearly $4 million in insurance money disappeared.

But Sammy’s $5 million IRS tax bill – in part the result of a Climaco-created tax shelter the U.S. Tax Court ruled was fraudulent – remained, and the sale of the home and possessions failed to put a dent in the massive debt, which left the IRS no choice but to take ownership of Sammy’s name and likeness and declare his estate insolvent. 

Altovise ended up living in poverty in Pennsylvania while Sammy’s rich legacy never recovered. 

Today, because of the tax debt, the man who was arguably the greatest entertainer of the 20th Century remains a distant memory while the multi-million dollar estates of other dead legends, including Elvis, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, continue to thrive.

The story of Sammy’s tragic demise is told in my book, “Deconstructing Sammy,” which reports the numerous allegations by Brian Dellow and others close to Sammy of malfeasance and fraud perpetrated by his handlers, as well as the heroic efforts of a Pennsylvania attorney, Albert “Sonny” Murray, Jr., to right the wrongs that befell Sammy and his legacy.   

Murray, a former federal prosecutor who put E.F. Hutton out of business for check kiting in the 1980’s, subsequently spent seven years representing Altovise, ultimately settling Sammy’s debts, restoring his legacy, and getting Sammy his one and only Grammy Award (posthumously) in 2001. 

Unfortunately, even when fighting the good fight to restore a legend such as Sammy Davis Jr. to his rightful place in American culture, the care and respect shown by Murray counted little next to the forces that took Sammy’s legacy down in the first place, greed and more greed.

Altovise, wishing a return to her once glamorous life, replaced Murray in 2001 with managers whose only success was a Sammy Davis Jr. bobble-head doll. In the meantime, Murray’s IRS settlement was ignored, and Sammy’s estate again fell into tax hell, precluding once again any use of his name and likeness. 

But on the eve of what would have been Sammy’s 83rd birthday on Dec. 8, there is hope that Sammy could rise again.

So now there's a Grammy Museum, only it seems to be short on actual, you know, Grammys. Variety to the rescue! Our recent move to new offices exposed the darkest reaches of executive editor Steve Gaydos' questionable filing system and he found a fax that claims to commemorate the first time Amy Winehouse canceled a gig.

It's a letter dated Feb. 22, 2005 from Nick Godwyn, the man who discovered Winehouse when she was 16 and became her first manager. More importantly, he's also the man who inspired her hit "Rehab," according to the Times: "It was Godwyn’s attempt to encourage Winehouse to seek professional help at a clinic in Guildford, after discovering her in her Camden flat one day, crying inconsolably and skinny as a rake, that inspired her bolshie riposte in Rehab: 'I said, no, no, no!' "

However, first Godwyn wrote this letter to then-UIP chairman Stewart Till, apologizing for "your disappointment that Amy was unable to perform on the night of the 11th February." And isn't that a hell of a lot more impressive, not mention more relevant, than a goldish mini gramophone?

Venn diagrams rule! From "Venn That Tune: Bringing the Poetry of Maths to the Magic of Pop," by Andrew Viner:

• Now THAT'S a pop chart! The diagrams that reveal hit songs [Daily Mail]

I am really, really glad that Elijah Wood starred in a billion-dollar trilogy because it provides me a convenient if threadbare excuse to post this music video in which he has a charming and utterly low-key presence. This is Greg Laswell's "How the Day Sounds" and while it's a very fine song, and the video was shot in the world's best soda shop (Galco's, in my neighborhood! We even shopped there the day they were shooting this!), it's also the best lo-fi music video since OK Go's treadmills. Kind of like emo treadmills. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

OK, John McCain, we get it: You'll never be president, but you are and always will be The Angriest Man In The World. In August, Jackson Browne sued McCain for using his song "Running On Empty" without permission. This week, Eriq Gardner reports, McCain responded with two 20-page motions: one's to dismiss the charge under "fair use," the second is to collect attorney fees and other costs under a statute that defines Browne's case as a SLAPP, or a "strategic lawsuit against public participation" -- in other words, it's the hippie who's the free-speech bad guy. Well played, McCain. [THR]

RELATED in HAL

• Jackson Browne sues the Republican Party
• John McCain continues to use songs without permission
• John McCain: Country first, artists last?
• Even dead musicians don't want to be associated with John McCain

Heads up, all you music supervisors who believe the highest expression of your art is a stint on "Grey's Anatomy" or on Wes Anderson's next movie. Ronald Bergan has a real challenge for you: "Leaving aside the many meretricious or fanciful biopics of composers or films about musicians, there have been few instances of celluloid characters actually listening to classical music."

He cites Manoel de Oliveira's "Belle Toujours" as containing 'one of the rare extended sequences of classical music in a film, to which the characters listen intently, without talking." Even Ingmar Bergman's work was unable to scale the heights; Bergan says the auteur presents the overture to "The Magic Flute" "as if it was a Coca-Cola commercial, cutting rapidly between faces in an audience of all ages and races." And too often classical music serves as a cue for bloodthirsty madness to follow, as in "A Clockwork Orange," "Elephant," "Funny Games" and "The Piano Teacher."

Intriguing stuff, but he loses points for this sentence: "Pier Pasolini has seldom been bettered for the use of non-diegetic classical music, but that's another blog." God, I hope so. [Guardian]

Daryl Hall and John Oates have filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court, claiming that publisher Warner/Chappell Music "failed to protect their rights" to their 1982 hit "Maneater." The complaint, Samuel Maull writes, centers on "an unidentified singer-songwriter" who used the song in a 2006 recording. (HAL notes that was the year Nelly Furtado covered the song on her Geffen Records album, "Loose.") Warner refused to sue for copyright infringement, so now Hall & Oates are suing Warner for "unspecified money damages." They also want to terminate their Warner/Chappell agreement. [AP]

Death is not enough guarantee that your music won't be connected to John McCain. Mickey Leigh, brother of the late Joey Ramone and a veteran of the downtown New York music scene, emailed the following release this morning: "It has been brought to my attention that Linda Cummings, using the name 'Ramone,' has recently been in the media joining with the Palin family and the McCains to attempt to aid their campaign for the Presidency. As a President of Ramones Productions, and brother of Joey Ramone, I just want it to be clear that Linda Cummings does not represent the political views of the Ramones. Surely, as for Joey Ramone, the only Ramones song he would sing at a Republican campaign event would be 'Glad To See You Go!' "

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• John McCain keeps using songs without permission

You know the "Kerrang!" of a guitar chord that launches "A Hard Day's Night"? Turns out it was a mystery that needed solving. Writes Eliot Van Buskirk, "Guitarists have puzzled over the riddle of how this chord is played for decades because it contains a note that would be impossible for the Beatles' two guitarists and bassist to play in one take, and experts have concluded that no multitracking was involved in this part of the song." However, mathematics professor Jason Brown from Nova Scotia's Dalhousie University cracked the code by "disassembling the sampled amplitudes into the original frequencies using Fourier transforms." If you say so. Bottom line: the Kerrang includes five piano notes played by George Martin. Somehow, I feel I can sleep better now. However, one mystery still remains: How will MTV handle the chord in the Beatles videogame? [Listening Post]

Does EMI want out of the U.S.? Multiple sources tell Devin Leonard that the U.K. music label is talking to Warner Music, SonyBMG and Universal Music Group about taking over its distribution, sales and marketing operations in America, as well as licensing its jazz and classical division. (An EMI spokeswoman "strongly denied" the latter.) Writes Leonard, "A source familiar with the industry said all EMI wanted to do in the United States was outsource its CD distribution to retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy." Making such a deal could save EMI $300 million a year; the company lost $415 million in its fiscal year ending in March 2008. [Fortune]

Would you pay $162 a year (£100) to download all the music you want? That's sort of the opportunity now available (to U.K. residents) through the just-launched Datz.com, a "music lounge" that lets you download unencrypted playable-anywhere MP3s. That said, Datz currently offers only "a wide (read: incomplete) selection of new music released in 2009" from two big labels, EMI and Warner Music. "But play along," Peter Kafka writes. "Say Datz does does end up getting most of the majors’ catalogs. And say Datz is still able to keep the price point about the same Could that work, from both a consumer and industry perspective? Yes. It could.... $162 a year is much, much more than most people were ever spending on CDs, even during the format’s boom years. And those, obviously, are long gone. Today the industry would be pleased if the average consumer spent $20 a year on music, no matter what format it’s in." Note: The Datz fee would come to $13.50 per month. [MediaMemo]

The Beatles have licensed songs to MTV Networks' "Rock Band" videogame, Ethan Smith, Nick Wingfield and Sam Schechner report, calling the deal "a coup" in its battle with rival Activision's "Guitar Hero." The deal is expected to be announced tomorrow. "The Beatles represent by far the biggest prize to date in the category," they write. "Not only do they have the best-selling album catalog of any band, they have not yet licensed their music for sale by download services such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store." [WSJ]

UPDATED TO ADD: Even the Wall Street Journal is capable of jumping the gun. While the rights to the Beatles' music was acquired by Harmonix/MTV Games, which publishes the "Rock Band" franchise, the Beatles' music will not be part of "Rock Band." Instead, it will be used in the creation of an entirely separate interactive performance videogame that will also be published by Harmonix/MTV Games. Variety's coverage here; press release here.

Like Madonna, MTV is struggling to re-redefine itself. This may explain why MTV went to the trouble to launch a site that, according to Peter Kafka, is "not really supposed to be something that regular Web surfers are meant to use." MTV.com spokesman Tom Biro says mtvmusic.com is supposed to be a sort of music video repository that anyone, pro or amateur, can use to build other video sites. That would also explain why the site has such a nice clean, look: Writes Kafka, "There aren’t any ads there, because MTV isn’t selling it as a destination site." So, let me get this straight: If a site has a design that makes us want to visit, odds are we aren't really supposed to hang around? [MediaMemo]

Is "Shoot The Summer" the first full-length concert film made using mobile phones? Probably. Produced by the UK's Radio 1, "Shoot The Summer" is comprised of mobile-phone footage shot at music festivals by audience members as well as bands such as Wombats and Black Kids. (Click here for footage.) The hour-long film had its premiere Wednesday night at the BBC's annual music festival, Electric Proms, and is now available online. [BBC]

The Recording Industry Association of America continues to take charm lessons from the Cosa Nostra. The RIAA has demanded $7,400 from 20-year-old Whitney Harper in a piracy lawsuit that stems from her high school habit of listening to music via file-sharing service Kazaa while doing her homework. "I didn't know I was stealing or distributing it. I thought I was like listening to MTV on the internet," Harper told David Kravets. The case is one of RIAA's 30,000 copyright file-sharing lawsuits; here, the organization wants $200 for each of Harper's 37 offending tracks. Harper, who wants a jury trial, is currently a junior at Texas Tech, where she is studying public relations. [Wired's Threat Level]

Good news: Digital music just 10 cents a song! Bad news: No iPods allowed! This scheme is the brainchild of Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG's president of digital business and U.S. sales. "Sony, the three other major record labels and thousands of independent labels plan to sell Web songs via the revamped website Lala is unveiling today," Michelle Quinn reports. If you want to listen to the songs on something other than your web browser, they'll cost you another 79 or 89 cents. [Los Angeles Times]

Facebook is considering a move into the digital music business not unlike MySpace Music, Brian Garrity reports. However, Facebook is more interested in outsourcing the project and has held talks with Rhapsody, iMeem and others in addition to discussions with major labels. However, Garrity says the whole thing may go away instead and that's understandable; these are stressful times for music services. Matt Kapko points to a blog post from Pandora founder Tim Westergren announcing the layoffs of 20 employees; the nine-year-old Pandora now employs 120 people. None of the layoffs came from the sales department. [New York Post/Paid Content]

"The Bee Gee's 1977 hit song "Stayin' Alive" has just about the perfect tempo for performing chest compressions during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), according to the American Heart Association." [Wired's Listening Post]

Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, who won Oscars for their song "Falling Slowly" from the film "Once," will make an animated appearance on an upcoming episode of "The Simpsons" that mourns the decline of the Irish pub. Like the characters they portrayed in "Once," Hansard and Irglová will play local buskers. "Simpsons" executive producer James L. Brooks recently saw the duo perform at the Oscar Wilde Awards, held in August in Los Angeles. Kenneth Branagh will also provide a voice on the episode as the pub's landlord. Being translated into a yellow-skinned Simpsons character is an honor also shared by musicians such as U2, Paul McCartney, Metallica and Michael Jackson. [Irish Times]

OK, at this point will anyone let the McCain campaign use their music? Earlier this week, it was the Rolling Stones with "Start Me Up;" now Jon Bon Jovi is crying foul, specificially over "Who Says You Can't Go Home" being used this week during rallies by GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin. Like other musicians who have released statements chastising McCain for unauthorized use of their music -- including Foo Fighters, Jackson Browne and Heart -- Bon Jovi is a Democrat. However, if it makes McCain feel any better, "Sam Moore has also asked for his songs to not be played at Obama events." [BBC News]

>> Rolling Stone will adopt standard magazine format with the Oct. 30 issue [AP]

>> Phil Spector prepares for retrial [BBC]

>> UK study says fewer people downloading music illegally [Telegraph]

Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" will be released Sunday, Nov. 23 as a Best Buy exclusive, Jonathan Cohen reports. The Sunday drop date is a nod to the Best Buy sales week, which runs Sunday to Saturday. In an inexplicable moment of cross promotion shortly after the album missed its March 6 release date, Dr Pepper offered to send a free can of the soda to "everyone in America" except former-GNR members Slash and Buckethead if "Chinese Democracy" arrived in 2008."We're waiting to hear about 'Chinese Democracy' just like all the other GNR fans," Said Dr Pepper VP marketing Tony Jacobs. "If the rumors are true, we're putting the Dr Pepper on ice." [Billboard]

The Republican Party apparently subscribes to the theory that it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission; once again, they've used a song in their campaign without asking. This time, it's Foo Fighters' "My Hero." The band's statement follows (props for the use of "perverts" as a verb):

"This isn't the first time the McCain campaign has used a song without making any attempt to get approval or permission from the artist. It's frustrating and infuriating that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property. The saddest thing about this is that 'My Hero' was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song. We hope that the McCain campaign will do the right thing and stop using our song--and start asking artists' permission in general!" [Prefix Mag]

The motto of 16-year-old UK music industry summit In The City is "It's all about the music, stupid." Like its U.S. counterparts SXSW Music or CMJ, ITC showcased 500 British acts; its alums include Oasis, Radiohead, Coldplay and Snow Patrol. The Manchester event is still a talent hot spot, but Ian Youngs reports that A&R execs have become gunshy in a dodgy music economy. Whereas the UK used to sign 100 acts in a year, the number is down to just 10-15 bands that are "super commercial," according to Franz Ferdinand manager Cerne Canning. However, Warner Music chairman Lyor Cohen had a different spin: "Good sucks," he says. "I'd rather be terrible or magnificent." [BBC News]

Could the eBay model be the magic bullet in solving online music licensing? That's the hope of YouLicense where, Eliot Van Buskirk reports, "artists and copyright holders can license their music to advertisers, videogame developers, filmmakers, photographers, hobbyists and anyone else who wants to pay $20 and up to legally license a song." Says YouLicense CEO Maor Ezer, "A lot of these long tail guys came in (saying), 'I'm a film school student, I want it for my wedding DVD or for my photography website for between $10 and $200.' " Those long tailers attracted larger licensing firms. A copyright holder can offer music for free and pay a 9% commission upon licensing -- or, they can pay a flat fee ($30 for individuals, $60 for organizations) and as offer as much music as they want for six months with no commission. [Wired I Listening Post]
>> RELATED: MySpace inflates its music numbers [Valleywag]

The Salvation Army signed a million-pound record deal with Universal on London's Millennium Bridge Tuesday. The Army's first album for the label, "Together," is already recorded and slated for release in November as a boost for Christmas fundraising. Said the Salvation Army's Mjr. David Hinton, "These are uncertain times and we anticipate increasing numbers of people in need." The songs performed by the Army's International Staff Band include "Nessun Dorma," "You Raise Me Up" and "In the Bleak Midwinter." [Reuters]

British culture secretary Andy Burnham told a music industry conference that broadcasters must "promote and champion new music in this country, rather than having just very safe options on prime-time TV," Ian Youngs writes. Specificially, he wishes for a modern-day "Top of the Pops," which ran from 1964-2006 and helped break acts such as the Smiths, The Police, Oasis and Arctic Monkeys. "The Smiths did become a national name, even though I can remember my dad moaning about them on 'Top of the Pops,' " Burnham said. While UK TV audiences currently adore talent shows like "The X Factor" and "Britain's Got Talent," he said they were "not quite the same." [BBC]

More record companies are avoiding iTunes, the largest U.S. music retailer, saying that the single-track sales model hurts sales overall, Ethan Smith and Nick Wingfield report. Among those who have just said no to Apple's music store are Kid Rock (his last album sold 1.7 million copies). That led his label, Atlantic Records, to pull another performer, Estelle, from iTunes -- even though one of her tracks had just entered the top 10 of that week's downloads. By comparison, rapper M.I.A. sold 888,000 downloads of the single "Paper Planes;" the album it comes from, "Kala," has moved 272,000 units. [Wall Street Journal]

>> RELATED: Radiohead, other UK artists form Featured Artists Coalition in bid to gain control [BBC]