Time to Testify about Spotify

"It's the silly songs they like. Daft punters" - Pete Townshend

To date, I have not enlisted in the Spotify army. Originated in Sweden in 2006 — ooh, something to thank the Swedes for besides Ann Margaret — it now lists 713 million monthly active users, but not me. And I’m not exactly sure why unless it’s that musical snob thing — if 713 million people flock there already, why do they need me?

Those numbers are staggering, let’s face it. And the idea of having one uniform site constantly under siege from the listening public could turn up some interesting items in terms of public demands, ones that I am quite certain I would take instant objection to, much in the manner of one Peter Townshend of The Who as quoted above.

Why some songs are hits - “Gangnam Style” or “Ice, Ice Baby” or the God awful “Soulja boy” — and others aren’t is a mystery for the ages. There is no way to measure or forecast the justice or the corrective of the “hit parade.” It is as independent of public sentiment or merit or common sense as anything I or anybody else can think of.

You can study the charts for decades and I guarantee you’ll be no closer to solving what makes a hit than I am on this sunny Friday morning, watching a Bryan Ferry performance at Glastonbury from a couple years ago on the great YouTube. (Thanks for inventing that!)

Ferry is another example of a brilliant, challenging, innovative artist who did OK on the charts and did make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his brilliant band Roxy Music but for me, the measure of his celebrity and chart success were always well behind far-less deserving (in my view) musical challengers.

In my younger days, it’d annoy me that an artist like Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen who, in my view, offered so much more than some of the crap dominating the airwaves, would be more or less an afterthought on the charts, the Grammy Awards, record sales in general.

Now that we seemed to move to a world where you listen to what you want to and ONLY what you want to — thanks, Spotify, it all seems irrelevant.

Frankly, I don’t know that I understand any of this any better after all these years of listening. But I was immensely curious to see what the musical response would be to the new Springsteen film, “Deliver Me From Nowhere” since that film reflected on one of his, one of anyone’s darkest albums, the acoustic gem “Nebraska.”

With the spirited response to the wonderful “A Complete Unknown,” which caught Bob Dylan on the rise from acoustic folk anthems (“Times They Are A-Changin’) to resurgent rock (“Like A Rolling Stone”) it made sense that the film’s success would drive additional Dylan record sales of that remarkable period and it did. Just as Austin Butler’s tremendous performance in “Elvis” got sales jangling at RCA Records again, recordings of The King in action.

That was why, when I spotted this little tidbit on Facebook the other day, I had to take a long look.

And sure enough, there were some “Nebraska” cuts on there. “Johnny 99”and “Highway Patrolman” and “Atlantic City” and “Mansion On The Hill” and yes, the title cut, too. And I was elated to see the film’s stunning re-creation of the stirring “Born In The USA” recording session, register highly among Spotifiers.

But you have to admit, it is funny that the one song Springsteen wrote specifically because manager Jon Landau told him he didn’t hear a single on the album (there ended up being a bunch!) and Springsteen responded with “Dancing In The Dark,” a cute, clever tune as well as the sort-of Johnny Cash cop “I’m On Fire” as Spotify’s top two songs when - “Born In The USA,” a bombshell of a song that just forced you to listen and absorb, a song that MATTERED, just slides in quietly at No. 3, minding its own business.

Then you pull back and reflect on the entire Springsteen catalogue and what, no “Rosalita”? No “Jungleland” with Clarence Clemons’ soul-asserting saxophone solo? No “Backstreets?” No “Because The Night” with the swirling, hard-charging guitars? No “Adam Raised A Cain” with the fire and brimstone of familial stress?

Hardly a true sampling of the Springsteen catalogue, is it? So this is what the masses do given a certain situation, they sift for the easy stuff, the lighter part of the load? Like Pete Townshend said, a bunch of “daft punters.”

Is that what Spotify is all about? Sort of a general common denominator for popular music. What about for a fabulous band like The Beatles? Let’s take a look.

Pretty impressive list, don’t you think? And George Harrison, the guy who couldn’t get a song on an album, wins! He wins! Why “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da” is on there is a disgrace - no “Day Tripper” or “Paperback Writer” or my God, the harmony heaven number that might have started things, “She Loves You” NOT EVEN MENTIONED. That was, sob, my first favorite song and later I found it was released on my 10th birthday. Thanks, John and Paul. But leaving it OFF? Still, Spotify, that’s a damn good Beatles’ breakout. Encouraging.

Then, I thought, what about U2? I’ve enjoyed their music since they started, they’ve had a number of Grammy successes behind them, what would their Spotify track record show?

Hard to disagree with any of those. Maybe we miss “Bad” or “Zoo City” or “I Will Follow” which got the whole thing started, “Walk On” or maybe even “Elevation,” sort of the whole point of their act and maybe my unsung favorite all-time U2 song “Invisible,” a brilliantly performed and superbly written lyric that encapsulates so much of what’s great about the Irish rockers, particularly in these oh-so-divisive days when we cannot seem to agree on anything, especially music.

There was a day, long before Spotify was even a thought in a Swede’s dome, when we all AGREED with what was on our airwaves, whether it was Elvis Presley and “Hound Dog” or The Beatles and “She Loves You” or the Rolling Stones and “Satisfaction” or Bob Dylan with “Like A Rolling Stone” or James Brown with “Papa’ Got A Brand New Bag” or Creedence Clearwater Revival with “Proud Mary.” We KNEW it was great, we all agreed on it, there didn’t need to be any discussion.

This Spotify place - not ready to join but am ready to explore — will be interesting, a place of research. What about The Replacements and say, Roxy Music? What do the masses say there? The Band and Neil Young? The Clash and The Who? Led Zeppelin vs. Cream, Rod Stewart and beltin’ Elton?

The project seems intriguing. Not ready to join yet. But I’m interested… and maybe there’s more of a tie-in to the song that didn’t make the list, but should have.

The idea of U2’s “Invisible” — which was debuted on a Super Bowl ad — was to shrink the distance between band and fan, how each one offered more to the other than seemed apparent at the start. The closer you broke it down — Bono does it brilliantly — their utter humanity shines through. There is no THEM. There’s only you, there’s only me. How about it, Spotify?

From U2’s “Invisible”:

“Finally found my real name. I won’t be me when you see me again. No, I won’t be my father’s son. I’m more than you know. I’m more than you see here. I’m more than you let me be.
I’m more than you know. A body in a soul. You don’t see me but you will. I am not invisible.

“I am here. There is no them. There is no them. There’s only us. There’s only us. There’s only you. And there’s only me. There is no them.”