"Before the call, when they wrote it on the wall, when there wasn't even any Hollywood..."
(from Steely Dan)
Is this about the call to bring musicians in to Hollywood to begin the pop music age of the 1960's? The call that seems to have gone out particularly to those with families highly connected to the military intelligence establishment?
Well one might only expect, that, given that the music industry in the 1960's worked like this:
1) You get selected by major producer with industry connections.
2) You make hit-ready album, with lots of technical (and musical) assistance
3) Album gets played endlessly on commercial radio stations*
4) Album gets sold at vertically integrated stores (themselves on the take)
5) You do "live" concert, with newsworthy gags to keep interest live
6) Repeat 2-5 until mysterious heart attack after contract expires
(and btw, Cass Elliot died alone of heart attack. All other stories are diversion. The heart attack was not highly improbable, but still cause for interest, and concern about conspiracy.)
*Commercial radio stations were a key part of the system. There was incentive to buy them up to promote your brand. So we had CBS and NBC and their respective recording enterprises Columbia and RCA. Commercial radio stations depended on licensing from USA and support from corporations. So they did not much want to bite the hands that were feeding them with anti-war, pro-labor, or that kind of political message. Instead, the political message should be to "be oneself" and express that with premium brands.
THIS is true even without assuming some conspiracy. AND there might have been some very active conspiracies too! It is well known that the US military, CIA, and FBI followed the production of motion pictures carefully, and would put in a word (or more) if something was said wrong or revealed too much. I''ve never heard this sort of thing alleged for hit music, but it seems like an easy stretch, especially when you have radio stations and such.
But it is true, given the nature of the music business, that the tendency toward self-censorship would have been very high as well, automatically. It could have been so high that if your life history included a family with military intelligence background, they would know you had the right sort of stuff. Then take one step further, and wonder if some of the producers didn't have some additional incentive, it wouldn't take much, or even themselves be fronts for government.
Look back at the catalog of 1960's hits, and how many deep anti-war songs are there? There are lots of songs which play around the edges of the identity of being different, mostly. One could interpret that different identity in various ways. And this is especially true of what came from LA, and especially Laurel Canyon.
(from Steely Dan)
Is this about the call to bring musicians in to Hollywood to begin the pop music age of the 1960's? The call that seems to have gone out particularly to those with families highly connected to the military intelligence establishment?
Well one might only expect, that, given that the music industry in the 1960's worked like this:
1) You get selected by major producer with industry connections.
2) You make hit-ready album, with lots of technical (and musical) assistance
3) Album gets played endlessly on commercial radio stations*
4) Album gets sold at vertically integrated stores (themselves on the take)
5) You do "live" concert, with newsworthy gags to keep interest live
6) Repeat 2-5 until mysterious heart attack after contract expires
(and btw, Cass Elliot died alone of heart attack. All other stories are diversion. The heart attack was not highly improbable, but still cause for interest, and concern about conspiracy.)
*Commercial radio stations were a key part of the system. There was incentive to buy them up to promote your brand. So we had CBS and NBC and their respective recording enterprises Columbia and RCA. Commercial radio stations depended on licensing from USA and support from corporations. So they did not much want to bite the hands that were feeding them with anti-war, pro-labor, or that kind of political message. Instead, the political message should be to "be oneself" and express that with premium brands.
THIS is true even without assuming some conspiracy. AND there might have been some very active conspiracies too! It is well known that the US military, CIA, and FBI followed the production of motion pictures carefully, and would put in a word (or more) if something was said wrong or revealed too much. I''ve never heard this sort of thing alleged for hit music, but it seems like an easy stretch, especially when you have radio stations and such.
But it is true, given the nature of the music business, that the tendency toward self-censorship would have been very high as well, automatically. It could have been so high that if your life history included a family with military intelligence background, they would know you had the right sort of stuff. Then take one step further, and wonder if some of the producers didn't have some additional incentive, it wouldn't take much, or even themselves be fronts for government.
Look back at the catalog of 1960's hits, and how many deep anti-war songs are there? There are lots of songs which play around the edges of the identity of being different, mostly. One could interpret that different identity in various ways. And this is especially true of what came from LA, and especially Laurel Canyon.
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