Some of you have heard the Tom Petty song “Runnin’ Down A Dream,” a guitar-heavy tribute to Del Shannon with an excellent closing solo by Mike Campbell.
Tom Petty (technically a solo song, but…).
Petty of course is no longer with us, but the song lives on in covers, including this cover by Mike Campbell himself, with his band the Dirty Knobs.
Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs.
And this one by Marty Stuart, with acoustic stringed instruments.
Marty Stuart.
Well, it’s been covered again; recorded a few years ago, and released on an album in 2025.
Without any stringed instruments at all.
Gary Brolsma.
If you don’t recognize the artist name Gary Brolsma, I only have to say two words. One is “Numa.” And you can figure out the other one.
If you like electronic music, you’ll love this. And Brolsma has a pleasant singing voice.
And Petty’s estate, co-author Campbell, and additional co-author the ever-present Jeff Lynne make money off every one of these covers.
Speaking of Jeff, here’s an early live performance of his. He’s the guitarist in the gown. The lyrics were subsequently reworked for album release.
Electric Light Orchestra.
As far as I know, Brolsma hasn’t covered this song…yet.
This has been a long-standing favorite of mine, from the old days before everyone used artificial intelligence to create their own robots. (Or lovers.)
Imagine if Capitol Records employed age verification in 1963.
Some musicians reach superstardom in their early 20s, feeling tremendous pressure at a young age.
But sometimes they’re younger: when “Surfin’ U.S.A.” hit number 3 on Billboard and Cash Box, surf guitarists Carl Wilson and (soon to depart) David Marks were 16 and 14, respectively.
Of course, Capitol Records would face a bigger problem—Know Your Composer. Brian Wilson did not write the song alone.
David Hentschel: ARP 2500 synthesizer (uncredited)
The video doesn’t match this list. According to the video, Elton played more than the guitar, and Bernie Taupin performed on the track.
So while we didn’t use the term “deepfake” in 1973, this promotional video meets at least some of the criteria of a deepfake.
And before you protest that everybody knew that Elton John didn’t play guitar…undoubtedly some people saw this video and believed that Elton was a guitarist. After all, they saw it with their own eyes.
One of the oddest movie song juxtapositions is the pairing of Pops Staples’ “Papa Legba” and John Goodman’s “People Like Us” in the David Byrne movie True Stories. While researching the former I accidentally typed Papa KEGBA. Which resulted in this.
If you’re curious about the Google Gemini (Nano Banana this week) prompt used to create the first picture, I documented it in the Bredemarket Picture Clubhouse Facebook group here.
Some of you have heard of Dave Winer, who started Scripting News…when?
“Scripting News was started in 1997, by me, Dave Winer.
“Or 1994 or 1996 or whenever you think it actually started.
“I wrote my first blog posts in 1994, that’s for sure.”
Because of his early interest in immediate and direct sharing of information without intermediaries, Winer is considered as one of the first bloggers. And he has undeniable longevity, still publishing today.
But there is a blogger that preceded Winer, Justin Hall, Jorn Barger, Peter Merholz, and others.
Going off on a tangent
And me.
For the record, I didn’t write my first blog post until October 14, 2003.
“Why did synthetica start with fake bluegrass sounds? Why not? This is the Ontario Empoblog, or the blog for Ontario Emperor, which has nothing and everything to do with Canada, New Mexico, and Texas, but also California, which is a location in California. It exists in cyberspace, which is also synthetic.
“The Ontario Empoblog may or may not touch on a variety of subjects, including music, poetry, poker, the supposed familial relationship between Brian Eno and Slim Whitman, the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop (1,121 – I checked), various comments about frogs, and the nature of nature.”
So back then I discussed synthetic music and frogs. Today I discuss synthetic identities and wildebeests. Not much has changed.
What were we talking about?
Back to the first blogger
Oh yeah, the first blogger, predating everyone else by decades.
And blogging on a physical medium, seven inch wide circles of vinyl.
Because I maintain that the first blogger was John Lennon.
Although he didn’t start out that way.
Early Lennon couldn’t “blog”
When Lennon and his band signed a recording contract with a subsidiary of EMI in 1962, the four of them became cogs in a monstrous machine.
They had to report to EMI’s studio, record for an EMI producer, and were almost forced to record someone else’s songs. After they recorded multiple takes (some with a session drummer), their first EMI recording was processed through the EMI sausage system and released in the UK. (EMI’s U.S. subsidiary didn’t want it.)
The September 4, 1962 recording of “Love Me Do” (with Ringo Starr drumming) was released as a single about a month later, on October 5, 1962.
September 4 version. Andy White would come later.
(Most subsequent releases of the song used the September 11 version with Andy White drumming.)
Of course, some later Beatles releases took longer than a month to travel from the studio to the record shops. For example, “When I’m Sixty-Four” was recorded on December 6, 20, and 21, 1966, but was not released on record until May 26, 1967 (in the U.K.; June 2 in the U.S.).
But the times, they were a’changing.
Later Lennon “blogging”
Within the year, the Beatles would have their own record label. Apple was still distributed by EMI, but the Beatles now had more control over the process, especially for their solo releases.
And John Lennon had things he wanted to say…now.
His first chance to practice immediacy was on a song formally credited to The Beatles, but actually recorded by Lennon with Paul McCartney’s help on piano, bass, and drums. Lennon and Yoko Ono married in March 1969. Lennon (with McCartney) recorded “The Ballad of John and Yoko” on April 14, and Apple released it on May 30. Quickly.
“In his biography, McCartney states that Lennon had a sudden inspiration for the song and had suggested that the two of them should record it immediately, without waiting for the other Beatles to return.”
Then Lennon turned to his solo career, which up to this point had consisted of two solo albums with Yoko Ono. Now Lennon started releasing singles.
On June 1, 1969, Lennon recorded “Give Peace a Chance” in Montreal and released it in the U.K. on July 4.
“Cold Turkey” was recorded September 30 and released October 20.
“Instant Karma!” lived up to its name: recorded January 27, 1970 and released February 6. Even with Phil Spector producing.
A mostly-mimed “Top of the Pops” performance.
Lennon subsequently re-focused on albums rather than singles and didn’t release songs as quickly. But those four singles achieved Lennon’s goal of getting something out quickly.
Like a blogger.
Google Gemini. This is not real.
Lennon died before technology allowed musicians (or pirates) to post music files directly on the World Wide Web for immediate download. You can, um, imagine what Lennon could have done if those capabilities had existed in 1969.
Or in 1962.
June 1962, when Ringo Starr was still playing at Butlins with Rory Storm.
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