NOW THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT!

What kind of crazy f*cked up world do we live in where Bryan Adams writes the best protest song of the Trump era?

At a time where you only get a second or two to hook people, I got this song immediately. It’s like Adams channeled his eighties success and pulled one out of his back pocket to wow us.

First and foremost it’s about the music, the lyrics come second. This is one of the reasons Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis” was a failure, Bruce was coming from the right place, it’s just that he came up with a lame song. You could applaud his effort, it’s just that one listen, if you could make it through, was more than enough, whereas “Lake Ontario” works IRRELEVANT OF THE LYRICS!

Now if you know your Bryan Adams history, he had huge success with his “Reckless” album and then was criticized for having nothing to say, not facing the issues, unlike his compatriots on the hit parade, U2. That’s what happens when you succeed, people find fault. Your success cannot be complete, the cognoscenti have to find fault. And in this case Adams blinked.

Now there are some good songs on “Into the Fire,” most notably the title track and “Heat of the Night,” but it was criticized as a lame effort to be au courant, to make a statement, and it was nowhere near as successful as its predecessor. “Reckless” went five times platinum, whereas “Into the Fire” topped out at one. Then Adams hooked up with the best producer in the business, Mutt Lange, and released “Waking Up the Neighbours,” which went four times platinum, a very solid album, it was boosted by the inclusion of the title track for the “Robin Hood” movie, “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” which cut like a knife in the wrong way to those who’d spent their lonely nights with Adams’s second album breakthrough, “You Want It You Got It,” still my favorite record of his.

And then Adams became the theme song guy. He recorded “All for Love” with Rod Stewart and Sting for “The Three Musketeers” and then “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” for “Don Juan DeMarco.” Bryan had huge commercial success with these numbers, but talk about playing it safe…

Furthermore, on his second Mutt album Adams put out the hooky “The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You” which had lyrics only a pimply teenager who can’t get laid could resonate with and “18 til I Die” was not a whole hell of a lot better. Talk about meaningless music.

But his catalog was deep and his voice was unique and Adams continued to deliver live, his audience in Europe remained especially strong.

Now unlike most of his brethren, Adams continued to make new music into the twenty first century, and it was good, but it had little traction, after all there was nowhere to play this music anymore. So if you had Adams on your Bingo card to deliver such a straight to the heart take on Donald Trump and today’s inane situation…you didn’t. You didn’t even bother to put a bet on Kalshi. Bryan was in his own private Idaho, playing to fans who remembered when and…

THEN HE COMES OUT WITH THIS!

“From glacial erosion – to indigenous care
From European exploration – to industrial wear and tear
The ‘lake of shining waters’ is what the Iroquois called her
It’s a First Nations name – not an executive order”

That’s what Canadians call Native Americans, First Nations. The indigenous people were treated badly in Canada just like in the U.S., the only difference being that in the Great White North they’ve acknowledged their bad behavior and have been paying penance up front and center for the last few decades. Go to a public event, the First Nations are mentioned. And Adams is giving the Iroquois their due, they were here first, he’s honoring their heritage, unlike Donald Trump, disrespecting seemingly everybody but himself and those who pay him fealty, thinking he can change history with a pronouncement on Truth Social.

But that verse is oblique compared to what comes after. Sure, there’s a reference to the “executive order,” but then…

“But things weren’t going his way in Iran
So like a baby tossing the toys from the pram
He may have thought it best to throw a low blow
And create a real dog and pony show
But it feels like another distraction
While the Epstein files were getting traction
One day they’ll come out and we’ll say ‘there you go’
And then we’ll all dive into Lake Ontario”

Talk about going for the jugular… Adams isn’t worried about retribution, like Carney he’s standing up to the bully. Not only singing about the disaster in Iran, but the Epstein files! Which had reverberations everywhere in the world except…here. People with status lost it. They were blown out. But there’s no price to be paid by offenders south of the border.

As for diving into the lake…this is pure rock and roll, over the top, not constricted by norms, when things are insane you used to be able to play in a rock and roll band, now you just say F*CK IT and jump off the cliff.

“After centuries of trade and war
People settled down on the banks and shores
All rivalries and conflicts – had all but ceased
But it just took one dude to break that peace”

A knife to the heart. We were living in peace before this bastard came along and broke it. Canadians were our friends, but Trump nuked centuries of harmony. Wreaking economic havoc… And unlike the wimps in the rest of the world, Carney said NO MAS! And now you’ve got Bryan Adams giving the Donald the middle finger.

Now if this were 1986, the debate would be whether this was too political to air on MTV, because one thing is for sure, it would have fit perfectly into the outlet’s oeuvre, AOR, rock that hit you in the gut, the outlet had put Michael Jackson on the air, but this was before hip-hop truly made inroads, it was still rock and roll.

And “Lake Ontario” is rock and roll.

In 1966 AM radio would have eaten it up. Before all the stations were rolled up individual broadcasters took chances, and if something was a hit they were sure to play it.

But “Lake Ontario” isn’t from that tumultuous decade, it sounds just like Adams’s heyday, the aforementioned eighties. And even though shows by these artists sell out sheds, and in the case of Def Leppard stadiums, good luck getting airplay on their new material.

Then again, records are not made on radio anymore, but online.

But this is not a sound the youngsters cotton to. There’s no 808. It contains more than one chord. Actually it’s the changes that make “Lake Ontario,” Adams rediscovered the lost formula and delivered. “Lake Ontario” is not quite “Ohio,” but what is? By time we hit the seventies protest songs died with the endless Vietnam war which whimpered to an end and in the go-go eighties the boomers put on suits and raped and plundered the nation and kept most of the money when Reagan lowered taxes. Income inequality started to grow. Playing in a rock and roll band was not an option, you couldn’t make it on minimum wage so the best and the brightest didn’t even try, only the lowest common denominator made music, and they’d do whatever their handlers told them to. And screw straight from the heart, songs were written by committee, and much of the time the “artists” had no hand in the creation, and the final record was remixed ad infinitum until it fit some formula, a streamlined one that the public abandoned for TikTok and streaming TV.

And then Bryan Adams throws one straight down the middle.

Can’t you see it? The Boss is willing to acknowledge the accomplishments of others, he’s always sitting in, can you picture Bruce and Bryan slashing their guitars performing “Lake Ontario”?

This is “We Are the World” with a much better song. Do I think all the players are gonna come out to make a mass number in search of ubiquity? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Why take the risk? Trump still has believers, and they buy concert tickets too.

So, what happens now? If I was a betting man, I’d say nothing. However…

I didn’t find out about “Lake Ontario” online, but from a reader, I got an e-mail, word of mouth, the most powerful promotion, and you might still hate Bryan Adams because he was so damn successful but the people who bought all those records would eat this up, Bryan can even play it in concert and no one will go to the bathroom. “Lake Ontario” is an under three minute tear, that I have on endless repeat right now, because I love rock and roll, and I find this song much more palatable than the Active Rock drivel played fast with less than great singers.

Just listen. It starts with an explosive guitar. And Bryan’s voice has character, unlike those competing on TV. And he’s not quite sotto voce during the verses, but he drops it down for gravitas, but then there’s that change, not the greatest of all time, but still magic, and then Bryan raises his voice and the song becomes positively anthemic.

The haters will be out in force. Unless it derives from the Ramones they can’t acknowledge it. Mainstream is anathema. Like it’s easy to do this. If it were so, we’d have had a great protest song like this in the last two decades, but we haven’t.

If you picked up a guitar after seeing the Beatles on “Ed Sullivan,” if you formed groups that rehearsed in the garage, if your roots are in BANDS as opposed solo stars…

Make no mistake, this might have Bryan’s name on it, but this is positively a band effort, with all the players locked in.

UTTERLY FANTASTIC!

If I hear one more self-satisfied, establishment Democrat rail against Democratic Socialists…

I’m gonna laugh. These people are so out of touch, they don’t realize that they themselves are the problem. You see young people today don’t believe in the system, and how can you, with today’s news that the Democrats were responsible for the other Dan Sullivan running in Alaska:

“Inside Democrats’ Secret Effort to Stack Alaska’s Ballot – Operatives aligned with Mary Peltola, the Democratic nominee for Senate, spent months recruiting candidates to peel votes from Senator Dan Sullivan, the Republican.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/28/us/politics/alaska-dan-sullivan-conspiracy-peltola.html?unlocked_article_code=1.MVE.iaMH.e-RVF8mArvXR&smid=url-share

It’s hard to believe Democrats occupy the moral high ground with shenanigans like this.

Then again, this is just evidence of how detached the Dems are from the public. The same public that continues to be told to vote, as if it would make a difference.

Milos is our driver in Vail. He’s from Serbia. Over the years I’ve gotten a complete education on the power of that country’s strongman leader and the impossibility of any change. The public had surrendered to its fate.

And then…

The youngsters organized and ousted Vucic. They were dancing in the streets over there and ex-pats were doing the same over here.

Kind of like the ousting of Orbán in Hungary.

What do both of these despots have in common? They were supported by Donald Trump and they both accepted the election results and relinquished power. Funny when that is a feature of eastern European governments, but in question over here. Then again, Vladimir Putin is now our ally, and Zelensky and Ukraine are the problem. If your head is not spinning yet…

But Trump believes he operates with impunity.

Then again, Trumpers are concerned with corruption, the story was even featured in the “Wall Street Journal”:

“Grift Becomes Bigger Issue for Voters in Final Days Before Midterms”

https://apple.news/ACSckEZ1mTUq2UH0PRNH8vA

So who led this revolution in Serbia. THE YOUTH! The same youth who kept Lula in power in Brazil. And how did they organize? ONLINE!

“The Digital Army That Catapulted Lula to Victory in Brazil – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won another term on Sunday, with the help of a seismic social media campaign that convinced Brazilians to reject his rival.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/26/world/americas/brazil-election-lula-social-media.html

Oldsters decry and deride social media not understanding it will lead to their downfall. No wonder they want to ban it. Then again, most people against TikTok have never even used the service.

So the youth have detached from the government in the U.S. And it’s not only them, but great swaths of the public. The affordability crisis? I just open my wallet and let them take the money out, I’ve got no idea what things cost or are worth anymore with runaway inflation, never mind the tax I’m paying as a result of Trump’s tariffs.

They think we don’t know.

Oh yes we do.

Now in Serbia, the complicit media is under attack:

“Serbian Students, Victorious and Leaderless, Go After the Media – Supporters of the opposition movement that won Sunday’s election stormed the offices of a pro-government tabloid. Another news outlet apologized for years of ‘one-sided’ coverage.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/27/world/europe/serbia-student-list-news-media-vucic.html

All those ass-kissers, from Bezos to Tim Apple, never mind Fox News…

Did you see that Fox News’s ratings have gone down?

“Fox News Ratings Sink a Staggering 27% in October, but It Still Has Much a Larger Audience Than CNN or MS NOW”

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/fox-news-ratings-plunge-october-2026-cnn-ms-now-1236933379/

The nitwits in Hollywood fearful of the Skydance/Warner Discovery merger and how it will affect the news… If you’re getting your news from television…you’re one of those baked-in believers, whether on the right or left, who believes this is still an organized game with clearly defined rules that everybody obeys.

Call it a cultural revolution, happening in the hearts and minds of the digitally native who are connected to more people online than the oldsters telling them to disconnect. You only know what is happening if you’re on the phone all day long. We live in a new world, and D.C. is living in a past era.

So the Democrats look like they will have huge victories next week.

But this does not mean that those who voted for left wing candidates have faith in either them or the party. It’s just a protest vote. Primarily against Trump. The Democratic party is about as in touch with its constituents as the Republicans are, meaning they both think they know a lot about left wing voters, but really know almost nothing.

So we’re having an election. Protest has waned until the dust has settled. But don’t think when the voting is done everybody’s going back into their hole. No, that’s when the real games will begin. Having made headway, young, digitally native voters are going to go for the jugular.

And it’s all so obvious.

The billionaires funding an anti-tax campaign in California… Talk about a bad look. Furthermore, even the hoi polloi now know these people never pay any taxes:

“The ‘Buy, Borrow and Die’ Wealth Strategy Has Become a $5 Trillion Market – Deloitte study finds booming market in stock-based loans to billionaires—and the lesser rich”

https://apple.news/ANt-mSgk_REyuZqk5QqyGlQ

You truly think that this growing income inequality would go on unchecked?

And your money won’t keep you safe.

Collaborators?

Trump may act with impunity, but it’s gonna be open season on his enablers. Morality is gonna make a comeback, that’s one card that the outsiders hold, and there are many more outsiders than insiders.

They’re rioting in the streets in France. And people think it can’t happen here. They’re wrong. It’s just a matter of a spark, then there’s a conflagration. Kinda like George Floyd in 2001, if Floyd had been white and the cop was Trump, with Schumer and Jeffries standing by saying nothing.

America is much more broken than you think. On the INSIDE!

As far as the outside goes, we’ve severed relationships with all our allies and are cozying up to dictators.

When will it all break?

It is not business as usual. And there’s something in the air, which both Thunderclap Newman and Tom Petty knew.

And the leaders are not elected officials, and they’re not musicians, even techies. They’re all thinking about their wallet first, meanwhile the rank and file find their coffers empty.

America is ready for a rewrite.

Now the Arab Spring taught us that after uproar you might end up with even more oppression, but you can only ignore the will of the people for so long.

Are there left wing crackpots? OF COURSE! But if you equate them with those on the right, you’re inside the right wing bubble.

No, most Americans are dissatisfied with the state of our nation. And hating and owning the Dems won’t put gas in your car and food on your table.

Are the problems daunting? ABSOLUTELY! But the wankers who are enriching themselves in both D.C. and Silicon Valley… They’re making them worse, not better. We’re going in the wrong direction.

Meanwhile, we’re told to shut up because we’ve got flat screen TVs.

So you walked five miles to school in the snow…THAT WAS HALF A CENTURY AGO! Sure, the standard of living has risen, but that does not mean it’s risen high enough.

But all we’ve got is newspeople so up their own rear ends, talking about the horse race, that they can’t see what’s really going on.

There is rampant disenchantment, the public is fed up. They’d rather vote for a Democratic Socialist who aligns with their values more than the usual suspects. This does not mean they want a handout, they just want to be noticed, have a seat at the table, which they do not have now. Do they truly expect change? No, because the system is rotten. And if you start defending it you’re the problem. We can’t even come up with an AI policy when the technology has a 10% chance of ending civilization. And if we got rid of tariffs, Chinese cars would decimate Detroit overnight.

“I went to Mexico to test-drive the cars Americans can’t buy – Mexico is a showroom for electric cars, with a growing fleet of sleek new vehicles from Chinese brands unavailable to Americans.”

https://apple.news/ADQ8wQTGgQqWGz13h3P5Eug

The younger generation cares about pollution, they’re concerned with global warming, after all, it’s their planet to inherit.

Assuming we’re all not wiped out by some rogue AI software.

All of this is self-evident. But people can’t question their beliefs, can’t accept that their cheese has been moved. Hollywood worries about how many movies Skydance is going to make when YouTube is eating up market share on the television screen. Turns out the public knows what it wants more than the studio chiefs. They want authenticity, credibility, they abhor edges being shorn off by committee, they want a zillion options… Does this sound like Hollywood to you?

The spark is unforeseen. Everything is calm today, then there’s turmoil tomorrow. America is ready to blow. Will it? Even if it doesn’t right away, if those in power don’t change their ways and deliver reasons to have faith in the system, it’s just a matter of when.

From: Stacie Griffn

We have finally posted Jim’s obituary today. It was not an easy task as there is so much more to know about him and there was so much more left for him to do. 

We continue to receive an enormous number of emails and postings on social media from friends and colleagues sharing stories and memories. These are very comforting to me and his son, Hazen. 

He was one of the greats who led the charge that changed an entire industry.  In the beginning many people were angry and fought his ideas. Others embraced his vision and created new business models and revenue streams still in place today. 

While there were years of heated debates, one mission was always at his core; he wanted artists to be fairly compensated and for fans to have unlimited access to music, movies and art. That is essentially the model for subscription streaming services that we know today.  He lobbied so hard for so long to get the industry to move from product to service. As you may remember, it was an unpopular battle to take on. 

He also saw it bigger than the internet. In the late 90’s, his time in Finland with Nokia executives opened his eyes to music on mobile phones. This was at a time when most people didn’t own a cell phone. 

I’ll never forget Jim sharing a meal with Russ Solomon and telling Russ that he needed to begin adapting his business model or Tower Records would never survive. Russ was furious.  I think Russ told him that he was crazy and Jim had no idea what he was talking about. A heated debate ensued.  Russ was not alone. I witnessed many people have this same visceral reaction. Jim took the brunt of many harsh comments behind his back and to his face, but he never wavered. 

When I rewatch his testimony from the 2000 Napster hearing with Lars Ulrich, Hank Barry and others, I am in awe that everything Jim predicted would happen is now true. More than true, it’s so second nature to all of us that it seems impossible to think it wasn’t always this way.

The Pho List was his way to bring all these ideas and discussions forward. At times, he was the loudest voice in the room, but he never wanted to be the only voice. He listened carefully and especially loved it when students joined in. We are committed to keeping the Pho List going and new discussions are happening even today. 

Please feel free to share this along with Jim’s obituary.  So many of your readers may have their own stories to share about this time in history. Many are still making it happen.  For the readers who were born-digital, they may enjoy the nostalgia of how we got here.

Obituary: https://www.donaldsonodenton.com/obituaries/james-griffin?ttm_pid=212678139&ttm_affiliate=legacypro&ttm_affiliatetype=standard&ttm_campaign=legacy

Stacie Seifrit-Griffin

It’s anti-country bias.

If a pop or hip-hop song broke the “Billboard” record you’d hear hardly a negative peep, only hosannas, how this act had paid its dues and their success is evidence of the health of the music market. But I’ve got to ask you, have you heard a single song from “Diary of a Mad Showgirl”? You may not even realize I bastardized the name, referencing a classic movie starring Neil Young’s ex-partner.

Everybody knows Drake, but can you even name his last album, never mind one of its tracks?

In a world that doesn’t make sense major labels and the media proffer a framework, a lens, through which we can see a perceived ladder of success. But we no longer live in the pre-internet era and the chart, which is manipulated to begin with, has never been more inaccurate. Furthermore, what evidences success more, streams or live business? (Please don’t talk to me about sales, now the iTunes Store is seeing a bump because acts are getting their lemming fans to purchase the overweighted digital downloads to increase their chart position.)

No one goes on record that BTS and its brethren are not as big as they appear, if for no other reason than this would be seen as anti-Korean bias. But when it comes to country, it’s OPEN SEASON!

All the news is about pop acts, which were decried as useless drivel in the classic rock era. Songs written by people in the shadows and shaped by producers into a Teflon product that might get you humming or tapping your foot, but had the nutritional equivalent of a Twinkie. All the action was in albums with their deep cuts, which have sustained.

You expect people to pay attention to music when it’s endless youngsters focused on image more than music, busy building a brand? There’s little there at all. If I read one more word about Ariana Grande… So she’s got a good voice, you don’t know how many good voices were wiped off the map with the advent of the Beatles, turned out you needed to have something to say, as well as the chops.

So what we’ve got here is traditional songs with verses, choruses and bridges, and the cognoscenti, the so-called “elite,” look down upon them because they believe they’re made by crackers, if you wear a cowboy hat you can’t be taken seriously.

Now I’ve got a problem with the affectation of the cowboy hat and western dress, it worked when Gram Parsons and his buddies donned Nudie suits, but that was a wink of the eye, the clothes represented more than face value. In an era when rockers appeared on stage in their street clothes, it made you think. There’s no thinking involved when you wear cowboy boots and fringe. But is this any worse than the endless parade of two-bit divas foisted upon us?

The biggest American act?

Morgan Wallen. Hands down. Look at the ticket counts. And Kenny Chesney sells out stadiums, and has for years, but since he doesn’t cross over to the pop chart outsiders don’t take his success seriously, when they should.

And the most credible rocker happens to be in country music, i.e. Chris Stapleton. He drips more authenticity than the overly promoted Brandon Flowers and other younger, more photogenic rockers that they keep telling us to pay attention to…and isn’t it interesting that Flowers has now gone country?

All these acts going country… Because they can’t have commercial success in their traditional genres. Wouldn’t this illustrate the power of country?

No. All the analyses of the success of “Choosin’ Texas” talk about a country music ghetto that is overrepresented on the chart as a result of playlisting and country fans now streaming. No one says that this song is just damn good, better than the one chord drivel with 808s that you hear in pop music.

But since so many of these artists are from the south…

They can’t be taken seriously, they’re seen as two-bit crackers, uninformed right wing racists.

Now I will say that so much of the country hit parade is filled with lowest common denominator stuff about family and drinking, made for a market, so broad as to be inoffensive. And yes, much of the south is red. However, what has this got to do with music? Isn’t music supposed to infect you, make you feel something?

At the pop shows, the audience is busy taking selfies, they are the stars.

At a country show… Everyone is paying attention to the stage, they know who the true star is and they’re dedicated fans of these artists. These country artists have longer careers than the pop stars, but they get no respect.

Actually, it took Rodney Dangerfield years to get respect, he didn’t go back to school until he was in his sixties. His act hadn’t changed, people just finally acknowledged how great he was. He went from being derided to exalted. No one was doing what he was, with his brief, self-deprecating jokes. I never missed him on late night TV, from back in the day when these shows were not pure comedy set-ups. Back then the host actually interviewed the guest, but Rodney came on and took over, Johnny could only smile in admiration.

Rodney knew it was about dedication and perseverance. An outsider fighting his way in as opposed to some diminutive nitwit who has been in the public eye since before puberty, all over the Disney Channel.

Don’t conflate celebrity with music. They can coexist, but oftentimes they do not. All that ink about Miley Cyrus’s new album, switching labels, and when you listen to it…there’s nothing truly new and different and special.

As for going back to the basics… Having it be about songs as opposed to production, you find that in country music.

But country music is not banging you over the head to pay attention, its stars are not all over the gossip pages. Of course there are exceptions, but image is much more important in pop, whereas the song is paramount in country.

Furthermore, all you rock fans… Modern rock lives in country, get over yourself and the occasional accent and listen, you’ll be stunned. There’s more honesty and insight in an Eric Church song than there is in any number on the Active Rock chart.

Now in truth, country artists are laughing all the way to the bank. They don’t need your accolades. But when you question their success, claim they’re not entitled to dominance…those are fighting words.

There’s no mystery here, no need to look for angles as to why “Choosin’ Texas” broke the “Billboard” record. It’s a damn good catchy song with a message that resonates with people. Not everybody, because nothing does this anymore, but far more than those just perceived to live in the country backwater.

There are no more universal hits, no songs known by everybody, despite what the media keeps telling us. But when it comes to today’s music, Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” is as big as anything out there, it cuts the pop records down to size.

What did they say about rock and roll, the little girls understand? Same with country, listeners, fans, know. It’s only the highfalutin’ bloviators who believe if you don’t live in the metropolis you’re ignorant who don’t get it.

But the joke is on them.