A Word from Bobby Charles

I have generally avoided cross-referencing my blogs, but since I haven't figured out how to put an mp3 up on this one, here's a link to my more New Orleans-centric blog, where I posted a new song by Bobby Charles, best known as the writer of "See You Later, Alligator," "Walkin' to New Orleans," "Tennessee Waltz" and "But I Do." "Take Back My Country" features Lafayette's Sonny Landreth on guitar, and it only scratches the surface of Charles' attitude toward politicians. For more on Bobby, go here.

What is Real?

At a point when McCain and Palin are asking, "Who is the real Barack Obama?" - a question that implies, "Someone other than the person you think you know." - it grabs your attention to run across the line, "This is the story of the real John McCain" in Tim Dickinson's "Make-Believe Maverick" story in the current Rolling Stone. Considering Rolling Stone's lead time, the phrase had to have already been written before the McCain campaign picked it up, but it mocks his effort to stain Obama and is a yet another reminder about the value of remembering who you are and what you've done before going after others.

By the way, Dickinson's story is pretty brutal, going into the up-to-now no-fly-zone of McCain's military record, which he finds to be as, ummmmm, checkered as McCain's political career.

More Cold Truth

[Note: Skip Down to "Words to Live By" and read up to this. They're related.]

More PR 101: A publicist is talking about how brutal sales are. "Record labels are dead," she says, telling people the money's in the live show. Now the audience is starting to peel off and go.

Regionalism

More PR 101: I'm going to stop doing this (I think), but this became more interesting than it was when I sat down. Another guy - damn, name signs would be useful - contends that corporate rap is dead and rap's regional again, and that once again, all business is local (my phrase, not his).

A Real Honest Moment

Still at the PR 101: A rapper from Houston told everybody to keep talking about the things they want to rap about and not worry about what the professionals - specifically the guy connected to Nas - say because they'll be out of jobs in six months. It's funny because it's true.

Now the Nas guy is trying to defend his approach along the lines of "integrity" - good friggin' luck when dealing with popular music of any stripe. Things are getting more engaged now that the Nas guy and the Houston guy are starting to get into a North/South spat, "serious" hip-hop vs. Southern "party" hip-hop. The Nas guy put his foot in it when he talked about Luke and 2 Live Crew only having one hit; everybody in the room started naming other songs that were regional hits.

Someone else has the mic now and points out that Ja Rule, Nelly and many northern hip-hop artists can't chart because Southern rappers are dominating and influencing hip-hop charts.

Another woman has people nodding their heads because she says hip-hop's dead because no one wants to be individual and be the first to do something. "Don't be afraid to be the first to do something because others think like you." She also inspired some guy who's obviously in his mid-20s to say "exactly" when she says Soulja Boy's not for her ... at 28.

Stop Making Sense

Still at the PR 101, and a guy who I think is associated with Nas - no signage on the table - is telling people that they need to be real and realize that music might not be for them. He was advocating people having something fresh to say and/or have a back-up plan. Very sensible advice, but guys at a table to my left are shaking their heads. They and most of the room know their music is strong and the people who shouldn't be making music are somebody else. This isn't an R&B/hip-hop thing; when indie artists from around the country approach me about sending their CDs for review, I tell them only to do so if their musically absolutely kills because regional genre-based artists that don't travel beyond their region are low priorities for us. They all send their CDs anyway. And none of those CDs have killed.

Words to Live By

Funny - I'm sitting right now in a "Professional PR 101" session, an urban/hip-hop-oriented seminar/educational event put on by a PR agency (don't have the name in front of me - a PR mistake, I'd say). The panel has spent much of the last half hour emphasizing professionalism, which is good. Oddly, the agency that put the event together called and mispronounced the names of two invited members of our editorial staff - referring to "Jan" as "Jane." The email press release was similarly full of vague connections, but it didn't have basic information like a schedule. The information coming from the panel all sounds right, but the shaky effort by the PR agency might be the reason there are only 25 people here.