Lecture Series: The Journey of Lance Jones

What intrigued me to attend this lecture was the title of Lance Jones' lecture "Passages, A life in tune: Moving with the music". Although i don't make music myself (i wish i had the talent), it is still a huge part of my life. I know there are so many people out there who claim they love music and it completes them and blah blah blah. I however, am obsessed with music. I used to be one of those music snobs who if you didn't listen to what i did, i couldn't stand you. I say used to be because now i broaden what i listen to and accept different styles of music outside of the punk realm. I definitely still hate radio music though and most commercial music is catchy garbage. Before i get off topic, this is what intrigued me to attend a lecture about the passage of Lance Jones' life.

Jones started off with a proclamation that his brain was "wired for music", that maybe all of our brains are. He made a reference to a book "This is your brain on music", which in the book it is stated that the human brain is hardwired to find meaning in music. He stated that at an early age he was consumed with music, he just couldn't get enough of it. I was the same way, so i completely related to him. He also mentioned that his grandmother had given him a book once called "Rock N Roll: The Devil's Diversion". A quote from the book was "Rock N Roll is a part of Satan's plan to achieve moral decay", this made me laugh. Another thing that Jones said was that in college he "forged friendships on how much they (people in general) knew musically". Although i'm not the snobby music elitist that i was, i have formed the best friendships with people that like the same music as me. Not only does music bridge a gap between us, it allows for a deeper connection. I have realized that a lot of my friends who have my same musical tastes also share a lot of my other believes. What Jones said made sense though and i don't think someone should go around asking for musical resumes but when you find someone who can connect with you in that way, its usually refreshing.

He told us about his "mentor", who was simply his friend's older brother whose name was Dave. After returning from Penn State, Jones went to work at Dave's record store called Exile off Main Street (based off the Rolling Stones album Exile on Main Street). This was around 1975 and Jones said "there was an incredible wealth of music hitting the record stores". He mentioned Queen, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, etc. who were all producing music that people couldn't get enough of. After this through 1978-1980, Jones went to work for the WEA label, which stood for Warner, Elektra, and Atlantic records. In 1983, he managed to take a "musical side trip" where one of the highlighted events was when he visited Jim Morrison's grave site in Paris. Then in 1985 he went to work for the Civic Arena, essentially being an organizer for shows put on there. The Civic Arena was a big deal to Jones, who mentioned that both the Beatles and Elvis had played there. In fact, in 1988 Micheal Jackson's Bad Tour played there 3 nights in a row and Jones played a part in meeting with Jackson's manager to make the show happen.

Then Jones went on to work at the Star Lake Amphitheater, now called the Post-Gazette Pavilion where he is currently the general manager. He talked about the Steve Miller Phenomenon where there was once a show of 26,154 people and where 6,000 tickets were sold in a matter of 3 hours (mentioning that the crowd was around 18-22 years old). In 1992, Ozzy Osborne played and then the creation of Ozzfest formed. There were many reunion shows that took place there like Steely Dan in '93, The Eagles in '94, Rusted Roots in '95, Fleetwood Mac in '97, etc. Closer to the year 2000 was the boy band/girl power era. I like how Jones mentioned that he knew to wear earplugs when bands like Ozzy, Korn, and Metallica played, but he was not prepared for the sound of girls screaming over boy bands on stage (which he said is the most painful sound ever). Jones then talked shortly on the consolidation of the live music business, in which all the live music venues were owned under one company, which created the rise of ticket prices.

I realized during this point that Jones' life was really like traveling down the history of music. He took us through the times of when classic rock was loved, then metal, then country, then boy bands. He also made an important statement about how before bands would only tour when they had a new album to promote. Now however it is reversed, where bands make their money not from album sales but from touring. Jones noted that technology and the internet is changing the music business, he's not sure what the change is yet, but he said it's coming fast. He ended saying that music always "had a pull on me, has always been my glue", which couldn't have stated his passion for music any clearer. As a music lover i tend to be drawn to the more private venues and typically see the bigger venues as just a place for money sucking souls. Hearing Jones talk about his passion opened my eyes a bit as to why some people get into the music business and it's nice to know that not everyone is a "sellout". My ending statements on this lecture come from the music lover himself, "Work hard, be open to all possible opportunities, and attack your goals with passion."