Tune in to Boss Radio 66 on TuneIn, tomorrow @ 1 PM ET, for more of Tom’s Hanksy-Pansky song selections!
Category: Music
UMG Leaves Tiktok Then Fills Dog Rat’s Order!
Over two months ago, in a moment of weakness I went for a promotional deal from Universal Music Group on a Deutsche Grammophon CD set. Eleven discs for $35, plus shipping.
https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/brahms-complete-chamber-music-4304
I waited for the order to be shipped. And waited. And waited. The shipping date kept being moved out by three days. Queries to customer support seemed to be answered by AI bots. This went on and on until I finally requested the order be canceled and my money refunded.
UMG came back with an offer from, I assume, a human being. They would refund the $12 shipping charge, and take about $7.50 off the purchase price and, somewhat to my surprise, they did. Yet the order remained unfilled for almost another month.
Universal Music Group issued a $12.14 USD refund Universal Music Group issued a $7.43 USD refund
A few days ago the package was shipped at last. It should be here today.
The timing of my order being shipped coincides with Universal Music Group’s announcement that it is pulling everything off of TikTok. Obviously, my order was delayed because of the ongoing negotiations.
An Open Letter to the Artist and Songwriter Community
Why We Must Call Time Out on TikTok
As soon as the impasse with TikTok was reached they were able to turn their attention to me. “Why hasn’t this order for the respected and influential blogger Dog Rat been filled yet? Get on it immediately or he’ll rip us online and we’ll never be able to sell another Classical release!”
His Kind of Town, Motown
When you think of Broadway, everybody of course immediately thinks of… MARVIN GAYE?? Mark Lindsay closed out his American Revolution show on SiriusXM today with “My Kind of Town” from Marvin’s “Hello Broadway” album. Chicago wasn’t Marvin’s town, and Broadway wasn’t his beat!
George’s Providential Clock
A tip o’ the Dog Rat toupee to Denro for pointing out this item. It explains what the object is on the back of the Beatles “Now and Then” single, and its surprising connection to the song.
Phone rings. It’s Paul, reminding me of this third song that was on the cassette tape with Real Love and Free As A Bird. He said, ‘The song, it’s called Now And Then.’ I’m standing there with the phone… looking at the clock that said, ‘Now And Then’, and I was sort of dumbfounded.
Alan Peter Kuperschmidt of Somerville, MA
Bob Dylan went electric in 1965, turning the Newport Folk Festival into the Newport Rock Festival. Playing the organ on “Like a Rolling Stone” was Al Kooper, the same guy who played it in the studio.
Kooper is now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Much to my surprise, for some 30 years he’s been living in Somerville, MA.
Al Kooper got Columbia Records subsidiary Date Records to release “Odessey and Oracle” by the Zombies in America, with “Time of the Season” becoming a surprise Top Ten hit in 1969. The band had already broken up by then, due to the lackluster response to the album in England.
“Odessey and Oracle” is now regarded as one of the finest albums of all time, and the Zombies were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. Without Al Kooper’s influence, it’s uncertain what the album’s fate would have been.
When my life was turned upside down by my father’s stroke, leading me to finalize my retirement, I listened to “Odessey and Oracle” every day. I did that, often more than once daily, through his death and my recovery from melanoma surgery.
The Gold Star Sound
According to Jim Dawson, this was one of the early recordings produced at the legendary Gold Star Studios in Hollywood. Jim says co-founder David Gold is still alive.