[NewMusic] death of industry

[Peter Nyboer]

On Jun 4, 2007, at 8:17 PM, newmusic-request at music.mills.edu wrote:

>  National Semiconductor, I am not willing to give them much credit  
> for making their community a better place.  Many of the things that  
> made my hometown (Campbell, CA) appealing as a child & a teenager  
> (orchards, small self contained neighborhoods that aren't gated  
> communities, public property, all ages clubs) are long since gone,  
> replaced by malls, strip malls, tex mex chains, nail salons,  
> frogurt franchises, gated communities, condos that look like  
> prisons from the outside, and more malls.  It's never been a kid- 
> friendly area, but it was definitely more of one back then.

So substitute "Hughes Ground Systems" for National Semiconductor (not  
my dad's employer, but definitely a patriarchal presence in the city)  
and "Fullerton" for Campbell, and I believe you described MY  
childhood.  GIVE IT BACK DAMMIT - I HEAR IT WAS BETTER THEN!

I came across this interview of the lead guitarist for Dokken
(...ah, that felt good to write. Is this the first time Dokken has  
made mention on BANEWMUS?  See what San Jose does to someone?  let me  
continue...)
and he had some great things to say about his coming-up in the world  
of rock in the late 70's and 80's:
http://www.seaoftranquility.org/article.php?sid=272
aside from gems like:
"I remember when Ratt got signed. We had some kind of shitty, fucked- 
up deal back in France or something with no money and living in a  
little hovel, living off of stale pizza and shit while those guys had  
just signed with Atlantic. It was like, “Goddamnit! What makes them  
any better than us?” It just made us more determined to get over the  
hump. "
there's actually some introspection going on...
"It’s really about what you do after you get signed and who you have  
behind you and how you manage yourself and the connections you have.  
Dokken would have never made it without the management we had. We  
made it despite ourselves, despite our inabilities and a lack of a  
lot of things. [Laughs.] I really don’t think that Dokken deserved to  
be a band that was out there, honestly. That’s my absolute, honest  
opinion. I think that we made it despite ourselves. We had tremendous  
management––Q-Prime management which managed Metallica, Queensryche,  
Def Leppard and a half-dozen other amazing bands. They were supremely  
powerful and we got seven years of major support touring out of it.  
We were jammed down WEA’s and Elektra/Asylum’s throat. We were jammed  
at radio. We were created. "

There it is, straight from the horse's mouth.  Finally someone admits  
it!!!!

P.