Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: And welcome back George Noy here with Harvey Koupernick. As
Speaker 2: we're talking about the music world. Harvey, the technology, we
Speaker 2: were talking about the point where it is today with
Speaker 2: streaming and downloading. Is that better or worse than what
Speaker 2: it was, let's say in the fifties.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's way better because there's kind of a level
Speaker 3: playing field that has been established where economics aren't determining
Speaker 3: like the best seats or who can get into the concert.
Speaker 3: It's available for everybody and if you want, if you
Speaker 3: want to keep listening to your favorite groups, or if
Speaker 3: you want to discover new groups. And the disc jockey
Speaker 3: and the programmers are becoming more important again as they
Speaker 3: veer away a bit from some of these syndicated, you know,
Speaker 3: shows with strict playlists and all that. There's a uniqueness
Speaker 3: of disc jockeys and people sort of introducing us to
Speaker 3: new music. But they're also co reliant on the music
Speaker 3: that comes from the past. But I also think what's
Speaker 3: going on is we're also seeing the renaissance or the
Speaker 3: growth of the music documentary. Currently on HBO, they're showing
Speaker 3: David Bowie's moon Age Daydream, which you know, there's songs
Speaker 3: like Life on Mars and Starman, or there's a Donna
Speaker 3: Summers documentary. I'm currently involved in a documentary about the
Speaker 3: legendary recording studio gold Star with a terrific director, Christopher Allport.
Speaker 3: And there's just all kinds of documentaries that truly are
Speaker 3: going behind the music and giving us, you know, rare
Speaker 3: clips and also interviews with the witnesses or the principles
Speaker 3: that are still with us, like your friend Pat Boone
Speaker 3: at what age eighty eight? Still visible? He still can
Speaker 3: tell a story, He has incredible recall. I say treasure
Speaker 3: and respect these people because they're walking history. And I
Speaker 3: think the streaming and the downloading and the record stores
Speaker 3: are still active, and there are things like Record Store
Speaker 3: Day or National Record Store Day, which I think is
Speaker 3: twice a year now in Black Friday. People are lining
Speaker 3: up to buy vinyl and rare cuts and unreleased material.
Speaker 3: I think the music business has never been healthier, especially
Speaker 3: the concert business, although I do think the ticket prices
Speaker 3: and all the taxes and all the handling phase are
Speaker 3: really making it kind of price prohibitive for a lot
Speaker 3: of passionate music fans. But I think the best is
Speaker 3: yet to come.
Speaker 2: I think so too. It is truly remarkable, though, what's
Speaker 2: been going on? What about the singers when you let
Speaker 2: the think back of the singers of the old days,
Speaker 2: the Sinatras, the Bobby Darren's and then the great groups
Speaker 2: like the Beatles, the Beach Boys and groups like that.
Speaker 2: Do we have that anymore today?
Speaker 3: We do? Although I was talking to this incredible musician
Speaker 3: named Don Peak, who has played on all the Phil
Speaker 3: Spector sessions, and he played with the Beach Boys, and
Speaker 3: from nineteen sixty one to nineteen sixty three he was
Speaker 3: the guitarist in the Everly Brothers group. Just say that
Speaker 3: to yourself, the Everly Brothers nineteen sixty one to nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty three. And I recorded him yesterday, six years ago,
Speaker 3: Mike Yes, And I said to him, you know, I
Speaker 3: was listening to some music with sher singing, and I
Speaker 3: was listening to some Carol King stuff that Lou Adler produced,
Speaker 3: and Don Peek said to me, listen a lot of
Speaker 3: the singers today they're really good, but their music or
Speaker 3: the recordings are informed or helped by things like auto
Speaker 3: tuning and the singers back then, thirty forty fifty sixty
Speaker 3: years ago, they're on two track, three track or four tracks.
Speaker 3: They're recording live. There's very little overdubbing, and they didn't
Speaker 3: have technology that could improve. It's almost like booster shots
Speaker 3: there could you have to It has to be in
Speaker 3: the track and move you or it doesn't work. And
Speaker 3: so the singers back then, when you hear Sinatra, or
Speaker 3: you hear you hear even Tony Bennett, you realize, boy,
Speaker 3: these things are ed ames who just left us. Hear
Speaker 3: you hear a purity in the vocal because it's not
Speaker 3: crowded a lot by many tracks and samples and other
Speaker 3: kind of you know things crowding the action. But you
Speaker 3: know there's there's room for everybody. But we want the
Speaker 3: real singers. We we meaning not just me, all of
Speaker 3: us who pay money to see a show or collect them.
Speaker 3: We want to be touched by the pure natural timber
Speaker 3: of somebody's voice. And sometimes I think we're because you
Speaker 3: have to give people a show. Now on stage, all
Speaker 3: kinds of dancers smoke bombs and listen. That's part of theatrics.
Speaker 3: David Bowie, Alice Cooper. People have sort of always done that.
Speaker 3: But somehow when you hear a Sinatra, or you hear
Speaker 3: Assignment and Garfunkel, maybe just with a guitar, something happens
Speaker 3: where the people are in the room with you instead
Speaker 3: of across the street from you.
Speaker 2: What about the orchestras now, Harvey, the people who knew
Speaker 2: how to play saxophones and trumpets and stuff like that, Well,
Speaker 2: are the young kids learning that still?
Speaker 3: Well? I have a whole theory that sometimes in lectures
Speaker 3: I talk about, but I do think either due to
Speaker 3: budget cuts or something, and I'm only coming from a
Speaker 3: perspective from the LA City School system, or maybe it's
Speaker 3: national as well. The music of the arts programs were
Speaker 3: cut a lot over the last five, ten, fifteen, twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five years. There used to be lots of glee
Speaker 3: clubs and choirs and began even I was in beginning
Speaker 3: percussion in junior high and my teacher taught you know,
Speaker 3: Timmy Buro, phil Spector and Andre Previn, you had that lineage.
Speaker 3: You have these things. I don't know if it exists
Speaker 3: as much. And the orchestras have sometimes on stage or
Speaker 3: on record now are being replaced by synthesizers and other
Speaker 3: equipment kind of emulating. I remember Don Randy, a fantastic
Speaker 3: session player, keyboardist, arranger. He's on so many records it's ridiculous,
Speaker 3: including Bridge or Trouble Water and all the Specter dates.
Speaker 3: When the first synthesizers arrived, maybe in the late sixties
Speaker 3: or really all through the seventies, he went to the
Speaker 3: local Musicians' union out here on Vine Street, Local forty seven,
Speaker 3: and he said, listen, these synthesizers are going to put
Speaker 3: arrangers and orchestras out of work. Why don't we kind
Speaker 3: of come up with something where they could be used
Speaker 3: for coding or augmentation. And so he saw the way
Speaker 3: drum machines kind of came in and replaced a lot
Speaker 3: of real drummers, although real drummers are still working, and
Speaker 3: so the orchestras have. If they haven't been reduced, they've
Speaker 3: been sort of put in the second tier because I'm
Speaker 3: due to cost on stage and union rules and all that.
Speaker 3: You still get some groups built tour, maybe with an
Speaker 3: orchestra or a small combo orchestra, but the orchestra is
Speaker 3: not a thing of the past. It's just been in
Speaker 3: a reduced capacity.
Speaker 2: The Ed Sullivan show. He made some of the greatest artists.
Speaker 2: He made Elvis, he made the Beatles.
Speaker 3: I mean, well, listen, let me just say something. And
Speaker 3: I don't want to get into a rock and roll
Speaker 3: Hall of Fame spiel. Ed Sullivan's not in the rock
Speaker 3: and roll Hall of Fame. Closed you and I know
Speaker 3: the impact the vision he had. He treated rock and
Speaker 3: roll kind of seriously, especially when his show went to color.
Speaker 3: He let a lot of people introduce their music and
Speaker 3: and be on shows with m R and comedians and dancers,
Speaker 3: and the stage sets were great. I'm just so glad.
Speaker 3: A lot of the material of Ed Sullivan, the catalog
Speaker 3: that Sofa is made available digitally, and there's many compilations
Speaker 3: of the Ed Sullivan Show.
Speaker 2: I mean, he was as stiff as a bored as
Speaker 2: a talent himself, but I mean the group.
Speaker 3: I like the fact that he was sort of like
Speaker 3: a Matre de ator restaurant kind of Yeah. Yeah, there
Speaker 3: was a robotic stiffness action to him. But listen, he
Speaker 3: started as a newspaper columnist. He was on the beat.
Speaker 3: And I sometimes our hosts on TV are so slick
Speaker 3: with so cut makeup and all kinds of lighting techniques.
Speaker 3: When you see Ed Sullivan, the action stops because who
Speaker 3: is this guy that all of a sudden he goes,
Speaker 3: here are the rolling Stones, here are the Beatles, her
Speaker 3: the vanilla fudge. You're spanking our gang, Here are the doors,
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden he at least him and
Speaker 3: his staff gave forum to music fifty and sixty years
Speaker 3: later made it happen. He made it happen, and I
Speaker 3: think he's one underrated visionary in popular culture.
Speaker 2: Are you familiar with Louis Prima?
Speaker 3: Are you kidding? I met Keeley Smith.
Speaker 2: She was a great singer, well she I saw.
Speaker 3: Louis and Keeley as a kid with my parents in
Speaker 3: Las Vegas, and that was Tina Turner type energy too.
Speaker 2: They were Vegas before Sinatra was were They.
Speaker 3: Put on a show and it was kind of wild,
Speaker 3: and she had a great haircut, and he was older
Speaker 3: than her, but he just carried the action.
Speaker 2: And she had that certain look about her, that pouty look.
Speaker 3: Come on, And I just think, you know, people like
Speaker 3: that made impressions. And I was really lucky to see
Speaker 3: the Buddy Riches and Sammy Davis Junior and a lot
Speaker 3: of these people as a kid, and I even saw
Speaker 3: Spike Jones, who no one ever talks about it, and
Speaker 3: he was marvelous on stage.
Speaker 2: The great times. I mean, but would these guys were
Speaker 2: these people, would they make it today?
Speaker 3: I think a lot of them wouldn't even get a
Speaker 3: record deal.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think Jimmy Duranty, for example, could
Speaker 2: make it. He was a singer.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think three cord of these people could never
Speaker 3: even get a meeting with a record company. No, Bob
Speaker 3: Dylan wouldn't be signed today if you judged him visually
Speaker 3: on his vocal. I mean, now it's how what's your streaming?
Speaker 3: If you're verified with your fan club. I understand popularity
Speaker 3: and TikTok and and just the amount of impressions that
Speaker 3: follow you and bring magnet people to you. And that's
Speaker 3: shadow people too. But I don't think right now, especially
Speaker 3: with our obsession with youth at record companies, I don't
Speaker 3: think some of these people would even be able to
Speaker 3: walk through the door these days.
Speaker 2: But you's always drove music because I remember even when
Speaker 2: old Pat Boom was singing back in those days as
Speaker 2: a youngster, it was the bobbysock girls that just kept
Speaker 2: things going. Sinatra and listen.
Speaker 3: Part of that is marketing. Part of that was the
Speaker 3: existing demographic of who buys the product. But I think
Speaker 3: we've gone a little deeper than that, where the haircut guys, well,
Speaker 3: Bobby right now was fantastic, but the guys with the
Speaker 3: haircut some the Bobby soxsers later on, I think they
Speaker 3: moved to the side. And then the English invasion showed
Speaker 3: up with those groups and all that. But it's always
Speaker 3: been a youth driven market, whether it be teen dance
Speaker 3: shows or or you know, exposures. You know, in various
Speaker 3: merchandise stuff, whether it be T shirts or bubble gum,
Speaker 3: that always exists except right now, Like my friend Gary
Speaker 3: strobel tonight is seeing Judy Collins at age eighty eight.
Speaker 3: At age eighty eight, she's doing a concert. I just
Speaker 3: think that's great that she's out there doing those things
Speaker 3: and she still has a lot of guests still in
Speaker 3: the tank. And people want to hear songs, they want
Speaker 3: to hear singers, they do want to hear all kinds
Speaker 3: of other music. So we have there's plenty for everybody.
Speaker 3: So I think the future is, you know, really bright,
Speaker 3: but a song or a good tune when when you
Speaker 3: get exposed to it. Even in a supermarket or a
Speaker 3: seven to eleven or a restaurant. You stop eating when
Speaker 3: something you hear shows up from fifty years ago.
Speaker 2: And it's good.
Speaker 3: And that shows the durability, you know, of the audio
Speaker 3: as we used what.
Speaker 2: Do you hear, Harvey about Tony Bennett? How's she doing?
Speaker 3: I know there's I mean, it's sort of well documented,
Speaker 3: but he's sort of retired and there's you know, he's
Speaker 3: done his nine most right ninety three. I think has
Speaker 3: got some medical conditions that are kind of prohibiting him
Speaker 3: from performing again. But his legacy is intact, and the
Speaker 3: records he did with Bill Evans on piano or Ralph Sharon,
Speaker 3: He'll be around, and I will say, people like Lady
Speaker 3: Gaga and I'd like to see more of this. Lady
Speaker 3: Gaga on him, did an award winning together, and you know,
Speaker 3: I remember.
Speaker 2: That she was so respectful of him.
Speaker 3: Yes, and I remember, and this will speak to your
Speaker 3: Michigan roots. Forty years ago, when I was a record
Speaker 3: executive at MCA Records, I made the bold decision to
Speaker 3: put Tom Petty in the Heartbreakers for them to do
Speaker 3: a record in an album with Del Shannon Wow from Michigan,
Speaker 3: and that record did get made, and I had a
Speaker 3: credit on an Organic Catalyst and now I'm a consulting
Speaker 3: producer and a Del Shannon documentary. So when the old
Speaker 3: and the new or the current people embrace the elders,
Speaker 3: we get something from that. And I'd like to see
Speaker 3: that continue where the new people not. You know, Bonnie
Speaker 3: Rayett used to put blues singers on as her opening
Speaker 3: acts at her concerts. I'd like to see some of
Speaker 3: that stuff instead of the usual machinations and all the
Speaker 3: other game that have to be played.
Speaker 2: Did you know an old friend of mine who passed
Speaker 2: on Russ Reagan?
Speaker 3: Are you kidding? Russ Reagan is my mentor. He told me, you.
Speaker 2: Know, founded the Beach Boys, he.
Speaker 3: Gave them their name. He signed Elton John to MCA Records.
Speaker 3: He signed the Strawberry.
Speaker 2: Alarm clock Neil Diamond.
Speaker 3: And I remember Russ and I would have a lunch
Speaker 3: every six months for thirty years, and I wrote I
Speaker 3: wrote his I'll call it an obituary. It was really
Speaker 3: a tribute to him. And his daughter called me crying
Speaker 3: on the phone, and I'm so aware, and again he
Speaker 3: should be in the rock and roll Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: He said, I was responsible for a billion dollars worth
Speaker 3: of retail sales of all the people he signed. That's amazing,
Speaker 3: isn't that amazing?
Speaker 2: He was He was a giant. He was as a giant,
Speaker 2: and he was.
Speaker 3: He just and he just had ears. He understood songs,
Speaker 3: he understood records, he understood he understood trends. And he's
Speaker 3: the guy in the mid eighties or late eighties gave
Speaker 3: a speech at the convention and said, they'll come a
Speaker 3: time one day where you go to a concert and
Speaker 3: you'll be able to leave with the recording of that
Speaker 3: concert the same night.
Speaker 2: And he was right.
Speaker 3: He was right.
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