Pro tip, kids: always start your tour with a colonoscopy. Even more shocking marketing truths: Copy protection is your friend. Streaming is bad. Ownership and scarcity rule.

Roger CortonBig week. Tour starting. The first few shows are sold out. ARE YOU READY?

JCHYou bet I am, Marv! I’ve been practicing. I’ve been working out. And just to make sure I’m in tip top shape, I am havin’ that colonoscopy we discussed right before the flight.

RCThat’s crazy.

JCHNo, it’s great. I’ll be all relaxed from the gas.

RCMaybe for you.

JCHNot that gas. The anesthesia. Don’t be gross. It’ll be the best flight I’ve had in a while.

RCAnd five pounds lighter.

JCHThat too. I owe it to the fans to have a squeaky clean show.

RCNot in terms of language, however. Switching gears, we discussed marketing and the death of CDs last time and we agreed to extend that discussion.

JCHAllow me to […]

Since JC is busy practicing for the upcoming tour I am doing some housecleaning. As you know, many of our chats are heavily edited. Usually this is just to get to the point. I cut out lots of our ‘ummms’, gaping pauses and lewd humor. And then there are the times JC will drop into some made-up scene from some sci-fi movie that never got made in an alien language that should’ve been in an episode of Star Trek. And then there are the ad hoc songs. To give you an idea of the literary quality we’re talking about, here’s an example from the unedited text below.

I’d rather think of you and me
Than my next colonoscopy
But I can’t seem to put my fear behiiiiiiiiiiind mmeeeeeee!

I know I should hold back these tears
It’s only once ev’ry five years
But I can’t seem to put my fear behiiiiiiiiiiind mmeeeeeee!

We also have had about a hundred chats that have never see the light of day. Sometimes we talk and […]

It’s as pointless to say Chris Squire was the best rock bassist ever as it is to argue about the ‘best’ football or basketball player. But this is Chris Squire so, as he might have put it, “that’s not an entirely unreasonable argument to make.”

Yes came along in 1969 at a time when there were a number of soon to be ‘legendary’ bassists such as John Entwistle to name his biggest influence. But let’s face it: to that point, no matter how many notes were played, the sound of the bass was more often than not a rumble. Even the legends did more than their share of noodling, and (heresy!) sometimes not paying quite as much attention to the time as to their bluesy licks. Squire was different. And to my mind he was the first modern bassist.

If you’re a bass player, what’s your first thought of Chris Squire? Trebly tone, right? That’s a myth. Sure he had attack, but a big […]

The Plan. Two records next year! Remastered Epics! New stuff! Unsightly midriff bulge. Chris Squire

Roger CortonSo you’ve got news.

JCHYes. This is my two year plan.

RCNot a five year plan?

JCHThis ain’t some commie social realist deal. Two years is quite enough for me, comrade!

RCSo… shoot.

JCHFirst, I got the high-school ready score of Detroit done and sold. And there will be at least a couple of rentals next year. So there’s a enough money to keep going. Which means there is gonna be a new record next year; actually two new records.

RCTwo? And you’re touring. And there’s work on the opera? It’s a Renaissance.

JCHNice reference.

RCYou’re not a big fan, but that’s a rant for another day. Let’s have some details.

JCHOK, the easy bit. There’s gonna be a second ‘Remastered’ record.

RCYou’re remastering? Which record?

JCHIt’s gonna be a compilation; the long form […]