Chords for Lou Reed hosts MTV's 120 Minutes (1986)

Through the 60s, 70s, and right through the 80s, but oddly enough, there's a couple like the Rolling Stones, for instance.
I was amazed to find out that a lot of American musicians who I like really liked English groups,
and in fact got to hear a lot of old American blues through the translation of an English group.
I couldn't believe it.
Muddy Waters via the Rolling Stones coming over here from Brooklyn.
So, it's a wild and funny world, and I'm just starting to tune into it, and I'm sure you'd be
really happy to hear that after all these years.
So, we're coming up with a break, and I'll be
talking to Mark Josephson about the, quote, new, quote, music seminar, underline, question mark. _ _
Is Mark Josephson one of the organizers of the new music seminar,
which takes place in New York this week?
How you doing, Mark?
I'm good, thanks.
First question we have is, what is the new music seminar all about?
The seminar was started seven years ago as an alternative meeting.
At that time,
the music industry had gone into a period of exhaustion.
The major labels had succeeded
in once again taking over everything, and were then blowing the opportunity.
They were ignoring new artists, and they were ignoring dance music.
They were ignoring a lot of things that we felt were very vital.
Vital not only in the sense of
keeping the industry financially viable, but vital in the sense of interesting, important artists.
Makes me always a little nervous when I hear the term financially viable thrown out.
Makes me always think of the fat cats.
Well, you think people become the fat cats now?
Something that we're accused of, but I don't believe that [Bb] it's true.
The seminar was started to include many, many different segments of the business.
That was always from the beginning, even [Bb] before we had enough reputation to get the fat cats to attend.
[Eb] It was a convention that [N] included black music, independent music, major label music,
blue wave music.
I didn't know the seminar was a team.
We get the point.
We get the point.
I know you had a lot of different kinds of music,
including me.
That's right.
Including me.
So you don't have to convince me I had different kinds of music.
What I'm wondering about is how seriously you take music as opposed to
parading them around like a circus.
The reason I bring that, and I hope this doesn't sound unfriendly,
is that when I appeared there with you, you had Howie Montour.
I think on our panel, maybe you can refresh my memory.
It was me, James Brown, Peter Wolfe.
Madonna.
Madonna just before she'd made it, by the way.
It was really incredible.
I think one week later, all over, and she wouldn't have been at the new music seminar,
so you were really lucky.
But you had as the moderator, the guy who lets in people into the club, the Palladium now.
Let me fill you in what happened backstage.
Backstage, we were getting it together, what we were going to speak about.
It wasn't very together about subjects, and [Bb] this guy said,
well, association.
I'll give you a word.
You say the first thing that pops into your mind,
and I got a little hostile about it.
Peter Wolfe said, now Lou, don't be negative.
Loosen up.
Now, I really objected to that.
I thought it trivialized the people.
I thought it made a_
Well, I thought it treated the artists as though they're morons.
And anyway, a lot of people complained about it, but you had him back last year, didn't you?
Yeah.
Howie is somebody for whom we have a great deal of respect.
You can take it from me, he's not an idiot.
He's an associate director of the new music seminar,
with a variety of responsibilities that he fulfills very well.
You know, people in New York do get ahead by who they know.
I think that you didn't think that that artist panel was a good one.
But, in fact_
I didn't say that.
I said the artist panel was terrific.
The people on the panel, what I said was,
it was handled stupidly and showed a contempt for them.
Well, I don't think_
And why do you continue to show that kind of contempt in the next panel?
I don't think that it shows contempt.
It's like, why don't you have the janitor up?
I mean, I don't have anything against doormen or _ music.
I think that this year you would find that it is an improved situation
with Gary Gersh, an [C] A&R executive from Geffen Records,
doing the panel, moderating the panel.
I think that the overall seriousness of the seminar
should not be confused with your bad reflections on a single year's event.
The seminar remains an important way for new kinds of music,
new companies, new people in the business to get together.
And it also remains the only convention
which young people in the business are given an [Bb] opportunity to learn.
Why do you charge money to get in?
Because it costs a great deal of money to put on.
That's [Bbm] fair enough.
Okay.
_ _ [F] I just want to know about the keynote themes last year
were for the anti-apartheid and anti-censorship.
What progress has been made in these issues over the past year?
I'm particularly interested in that because we did Sun City with Steve Van Zandt.
Well, this year we're doing a panel which concerns
the record industry's attempts to get involved with various beneficial social movements.
We're going to have representatives from Band Aid and from USA for Africa
and we're going to discuss that.
As for actual progress_
Who's going to moderate that?
A guy named Danny Schechter, who's a producer for 2020.
I know Danny Schechter.
He's instrumental in helping to put together USA for Africa.
As a matter of fact, Danny Schechter corrected the way I pronounce [C] apartheid.
Okay, well_
So, you know Danny has the credentials to do that.
And we're going to look at it.
Obviously, the apartheid situation is one which is going to be blowing up in there
in the South African regime [Gb] space soon.
And if we had some small measure of responsibility for that, good.
Do you have any black or female moderators?
Yes, we do.
Or I guess one black female [Eb] moderator.
Keep [Db] those minorities in.
[Bb] We have_
What themes did this year's seminar have as the last question?
The seminar this year is going to be concerned with the plight of the independents
in a situation, in a world music situation, which is increasingly dominated by majors.
That's a very important thing to us.
We see fewer and fewer avenues open.
Who are us?
Us, the directors of the New Music Seminar.
Who are?
And our constituency, such as it is.
The directors of the seminar are myself, Tom Silverman from Tommy Boy Records, and Joel Weber.
I'm a member of the Tommy Boy Records.
Are you?
The future Beat Alliance, I think you mean.
Right.
And_
The video we have next, by the way, is from one of the bands that's going to be in this
year's seminar, isn't it?
Quite so.
The Wooden Tops, who are a good example of a new kind of pop music coming out of England.
And also an interesting thing from a business standpoint, because they started off as an
independent group and end up as a major group.
Great.