A brand new 🔗🎵 Album Whale List that is three times as large as my 2nd largest list.

Back in January …

🔗🎵Announcing “Life, Death, and Dennis Hopper” from The Waterboys | Sun Records

The announcement wasn’t very clear …

“Life, Death, and Dennis Hopper” releases from The Waterboys on April 4th.

Today is the 4th. Not here. I guess it will be tomorrow - when it is the 4th in America.

I’ve started a new AlbumWhale list (and I haven’t even finished the others! Still.) The new list is called ‘Formative Years’ …

I’m an ‘artist’ guy, then an ‘album’ guy and then a singles/track guy. I like my music ‘in context’ The lists in here are way behind what I see in my mind’s eye - BUT the topics provide a clue to how I relate them all.
This new list is all about albums that ‘formed me’ and contributed to the music world I am today. At the time I might not have recognised it - but in the rear view mirror - absolutely.

First Up: Odessey and Oracle By The Zombies

Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level.

💬 Ernest Becker

… and then I thought of 🔗🎵 The Overview

🔗 Scripting News: Monday, March 24, 2025

Peter O’Toole starred in 🔗🎬The Ruling Class, a favorite when I was younger. The 🎵📼 last song in the movie is pretty freaking great.

💬 Dave Winer

I agree with Dave - ‘The Ruling Class’ was a good movie (not great - but good). ‘Favorite’? Not so sure, definitely not ‘in general- since it was pretty much panned at the time only time turning it into what we now call a ‘cult classic’. (But do watch the song - it has all the expected cheesiness of its time!)

Four years earlier was 🔗🎬 If - now THAT was a film and arguably did for McDowell what Layer Cake did for Craig.

🔗🎵📼 Objects Outlive Us

Her shopping bag broke sending eggs and flour crashing
Down to the ground, just like star clusters smashing
But no one will give her a glance
They just shuffle on home in a trance
The tiniest lives fill their hives up with worry
To make it to church, well, she needs to hurry
When late she will bow down contrite
While a meteor turns out the light

And there in an ordinary street
A car isn’t where it would normally be
The driver in tears, ‘bout his payment arrears
Still, nobody hears whеn a sun disappears
In a galaxy afar

First day of the new job and hе was so nervous
The suit and the platitude, “Can I be of service?”
His boss made him clean all the cars
While he wondered, “Is there life on Mars?”
And meanwhile the stars line themselves up in order
While we bicker on with our fences and borders
But best not think about that
It’s better to live without facts

And now in her old wedding bed
A lady will dream that her husband is dead
Of course he’s alive, he’ll be home around five
Still, silence arrives, when a nebula dives into our Milky Way

The thunder and rain start, the paving stones melt
And oddly the first spots make Orion’s belt as
You queue at the bank for an hour
‘Cause a solar flare blew out the power
The nurse in the care home now empties a bath tub
The water will spiral, a galaxies vast hub
Is draining away as we speak
But she loses her job there next week

And there with his first telescope
A teenager stands full of hormones and hope
As he squints at the night, like a painting of light
He doesn’t suppose that a black hole implodes
In a trillion tears from now (Ah)

💬 Andy Partridge (Music - Wilson)

🔗 How Long Can the Apple TV+ Experiment Sputter On?

🔗 Apple Losing Over $1 Billion A Year On Streaming

And still they don’t get it.

In business there is a concept called channel attribution where they try to tie the expenses of email, social, web site, collateral, inside sales, field sales …. You name it .. to sales - and then leaders of those departments attempt to win more budget for their channel because that channel will give the best ROI. #Bollocks

Back in ’96 a little company started up - its intention was to be the solution to omni channel attribution. Bought by Adobe 15 years later to continue to do that. It doesn’t but that’s an altogether different story. Today, the likes of Gartner even maintain a category called multi touch attribution it’s big - and still doesn’t answer the question.

But - back to Apple. The thing that both those pieces up there are going on about is meaningless and strikes me more as ‘reverse Channel attribution’. In this model they are trying to work out what revenue contribution to the mothership each channel (streaming in this case) is responsible for and whether it is profitable. I am far from convinced Apple thinks this way. In face they barely even break out their hardware, much less something like streaming. (That said - if anyone really wants to get into the down and dirty look no further than [Horace Dediu])(https://www.asymco.com) - but I digress.

IF that was even a concern of Apple’s do you think they wouldn’t have been doing something about it? I could go on - but will resist - because @gruber said it best.

How much did Apple “lose” on electricity bills last year?

He had two pieces on the NON story. 🔗 Here and 🔗 here

🔗🎵📼 Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood