Phil Alvin has been a significant figure in the resurrection and preservation of rock and roll via his solo career and time with The Blasters. In this video, Phil gives an impassioned lesson in music history.

Phil explains that record companies got their start selling furniture and fell into the music business as a way to sell you record players (Victrolas). Musicians meant little to these furniture/record companies. Musicians were a necessary evil in the furniture companies marketing of phonograph systems - big old wooden boxes with electronics in them that looked like…furniture.

“Music lives in bars.”

This is from 1993:
 

 
Thank you Miss Mercy GTO and Chris Campion