antiMUSIC is pleased to welcome industry insider Jake Brown to give us his perspective on topics involving the music business. Jake comes to us with an impressive resume that not only includes heading his own record label, but also as an established music biographer with several books under his belt. 
 

Ever want to go back to a time in life when innocence was something cherished, something we weren't impatiently waiting to discard?  For those of you reading this article who are 35 or younger, that meant you grew up in the 1980s, the greatest pop culture decade in our history!  Every musical genre had a shot at the brass ring in the 1980s, be it rap, pop, dance, heavy metal, hard rock, alternative, new wave- they all existed on the pop charts in a happy musical melting pot.  Leading the pop pack of weirdoes, who fused a little bit of new wave with blue collar rock and subtle blues/R&B overtones was the GOD of unapologetic, cheesy Top 40 pop rock, Huey Lewis and the News!  
 

Who else could sing "I got my boys in business suits, I watch them on TV, I'm working out most every day, and watching what I eat!" and get away with it.  Only the Hugh!  Huey Lewis's greatest album reviews came in the pages of a novel about a yuppie serial killer, American Psycho, but in a generic pop culture-age of pregnant wife-killers and manufactured pop stars, his feel-good rhythms are readily reminiscent of 1950s topical innocence that breathed new life in the corrupt Reagan-era!  A coke-head singing about commitment and clean-living!  Beautiful contradictions having a shameless affair with one another in a ideologically transparent age of blissful confusion!  Money was rolling in, and Huey Lewis was making an important social statement for our generation!  Huey Lewis was, in a way, a prophet for Generation X, the slackers who grew up in bliss, with friendship bracelets, dexters shoes and cuffed jeans, Growing Pains, Michael Milken getting off with 11 months and a half billion left in his pocket, Rocky IV, an appreciation for both Roth and Hagar simultaneously, Casey Casem's Top 40, Knight Rider, Street Hawk, Miami Vice, Sledge Hammer, and the A Team (all in one week!), and the mother f***in' HUGH!   

Think about his string of hits- all catchy, all motivating, all feel-good, all inspirational, all hooky, all cheesy as hell, you could blare them on the soccer field, on the playground in middle-school, in the car with dad running Saturday errands, in your neighbor's basement making out with your girl, in a John Hughes movie, even in a book about a yuppie psycho killer!  Huey Lewis was endlessly relevant, and still is when you're looking for living, breathing innocence in an era of plastic pop culture!  I saw Huey Lewis live twice in the 1980s, on the "Fore" (in 1986) and "Small World" (in 1988)World Tours, he was my third concert ever, and I have a vivid aural memory of every song, even though I was sitting in the nose-bleeds!  Huey had a nose-bleed going on too, but there was still a sea of kids there with their parents, because Hugh was a good-hearted guy who believed in his feel-good cheese message of innocence and positivity!  Why is that so lost in today's pop-culture anthems?  Jimmy Eat World gave us a little taste of revival a couple years ago with "The Middle", and in 1998, the New Radicals did it with "You've Got the Music in You", but by and large, our teenagers would rather see "Kids" than "The Goonies".    

Its time to re-embrace the Hugh, and everything his (AND OUR) generation once stood for!  This campaign Mr. Ed and John �Do Gooder' Edwards are leading might get us there, to a small degree, not with their election necessarily, but with their campaign's re-energizing of music and pop culture into the political movement in America.  It was for too long dead.  So I suppose the real message of this psycho-babble rant is to be proactive in a positive way, regardless how contradictory it seems or IS- go out and VOTE this November, whether its for the Chimp (Bush) or the Horse (Kerry), make a difference!  Go volunteer for a movement you oppose for a day, be informed!  Do something good for a stranger!  Say yes to a date with that dork in your high school who you know is in love with you but afraid to say anything about it, even if you wouldn't normally date him in a million years!  Parents- let your kids stay an hour or two at a party, the more you shelter them, the more out of control they'll be later on in a negative way!  Its time for us to return to the message Huey Lewis prided himself on- its important to laugh!  Even if its with your enemies, its important to bear good will to all, even on the off chance that they might see the error in their ways through you!  Music has changed a generation of minds!  But there is no substance in today's crap, and there was in Huey, as cheesy it might have seemed- Huey preached love, compassion, pro-action, political consciousness, social awareness, commitment, positivity, legalization of drugs, tolerance of all people and cultures, and believe me, he had his finger on the pulse of his generation!  And ours!  And yours!  

So go out to your used record store tomorrow and pick up a copy of "Fore" or "Sports", you'll be pleasantly surprised at the enlightenment that awaits you!  Or go online and download it for free, I don't give a s***, the important thing is that you give the message a chance to become yours!  As Huey said, "It don't take money, don't take fame, don't take no credit card to ride this train, It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes, But it might just save your life- That's the power of love!" (LOVE!)  Or what about, "And when there's trouble in my face, I'm a tired runner in the human race, It's so good to see a familiar face, I never walk alone, I never walk alone" (FRIENDSHIP!).   Or what about "Coming over the airwaves, the man says I'm overdue, Sing along send some money join the chosen few, Well mister I'm not in a hurry And I don't want to be like you, And all I want from tomorrow is to get it better than today. Step by step one by one higher and higher- climbing Jacob's Latter!" (HOPE!)  Or what about "And a vision of the future is impossible to see, Nobody's perfect, not even a perfect fool, ain't no livin' in a Perfect World!" (AWARENESS!)  Or what about "You pay your bills the best that you can, But the rising cost sure hurts a family man, While the rich man gets fat, it's as simple as that!" (REALITY!) Or could we ever forget "I want a new drug- One that won't make me nervous, Wondering what to do, One that makes me feel like I feel when I'm with you!" (COMMITMENT!)  Or what about "Bus boy, bartender, ladies of the night, Grease monkey, ex-junky, winner of the fight, Walking on the streets its really all the same selling souls, rock n' roll, any other day, I'm takin' what they're giving cause I'm working for a living!"  (RESPONSIBILITY!)  Or what about "They say the heart of rock and roll is still beating, And from what I've seen I believe 'em, Now the old boy may be barely breathing, But the heart of rock and roll is still beating!" (The Power of MUSIC!)  Most of all perhaps, "It's not too hard to figure out, you see it everyday, And those that were the farthest out, have gone the other way, You see them on the freeway, It don't look like a lot of fun, But don't you try to fight it, An idea who's time has come!- Its Hip to be Square!" (The importance of TRENDS, this song is about fighting conformity!)  

Huey Lewis had number one hits with all of the aforementioned messages, and as far as I'm concerned, he still has the right idea, his ideals are more relevant today than ever before!  We're in a state of pop-cultural emergency, and well, to quote my favorite author Bret Easton Ellis on the subject of the Hugh, "songs about struggle and overcoming compromise, fitting reminders of what Huey and the News represent...Huey Lewis and the News prove that if this really is a small world, then these guys are the best American band of the 1980s on this or any other continent!"  Isn't it time to think outside the FOX box for a change, or the empty coattails of the Donkey party?!!  Let's start a people's party, with a populist platform decided by Propositions in a national referendum, like California does it!  One vote, one voice, where the people have some real power for a change!  This is a dream, and will likely never be a reality with all the special interest money sliming around the political arena!  But you know what, we have our own arena too, and the music that blares out of it changed a nation once based on a generation of young people, and music was the catalyst!  Perhaps with a return to some honest roots, rather than those planted in us by the plastic Machinery I spoke of earlier, we can own our own country again, instead of corporate interests, on either side of the aisle!  Michael Moore, Barack Obama, Mos Def, Cormega, Mel Gibson, and Russel Simmons have the right idea, but so does Huey Lewis and a whole new generation of unsung musical heroes we need to quickly discover, before its too late!  Otherwise, we need to look into the past for quick answers to our present dilemma... Do you really want someone deciding your future for you who refers to you as "youngsters?"  Rent "The Breakfast Club" for some real perspective, or go check out www.rockthevote.com, or take my advice and pick up Huey Lewis and the News' Greatest Hits collection!  It will give you the clarity you need to see past the bulls*** this election season!  Good luck!

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About the author: Jake Brown is owner/operator of Nashville-based Versailles Records and a biographer who has published several books. Click here to more details.