"The moon comes up and the sun goes down
We find a little spot on the edge of town
Twist off, sip a little, pass it around
Dance in the dust, turn the radio up
And that fireball whiskey whispers
Temptation in my ear
It's a feelin' alright FRIDAY night
And that's how we do it 'round here
Yeah, that's how we do it round here"
So I'm in the middle of a dusty field in the California desert and Thomas Rhett, cowriter of this gigantic hit for Florida Georgia Line, drops out and from behind me I hear this giant noise as the thousands sing the chorus, in time, every word, at the top of their lungs.
Brings tears to my eyes.
This ain't no Coachella.
Not that there aren't beautiful women in skimpy outfits, it's just that you don't know their names. Oh, I saw Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis at Shelby Lynne, but truly, the only famous people in attendance were on stage.
In case you missed the memo, country is the number one radio format. You might think Miley Cyrus is a star. Or Avicii. But the truth is, in America these young pickers singing songs sans beats are the biggest players in the market, and if you went to one of their shows you'd say...THIS FEELS ALL RIGHT, I RECOGNIZE THIS!
Yes, Tom Petty is right, much of what emanates from Nashville resembles nothing so much as the rock music of the seventies. But this is the sound so many love. Write a new song, put in a fiddle or banjo, and voila! You've got modern country!
Now I'm not saying I saw no bad bodies. But if you're into ogling, Stagecoach is your thing, boy or girl. I saw hunks walking around sans t-shirts who looked like they just came from the gym, and if your idea of attractiveness is cowboy boots and cut-off jeans...COME ON DOWN!
And they're here for the music.
Not the undercard, but the headliners.
I was stunned how few people showed up for Shelby Lynne and the Wailin' Jennys. Isn't that what festivals are supposed to be about, grazing? You know, you go to Coachella, see the band of the moment, and forget about it. No one ever broke out of Coachella. And no one's gonna break out of Stagecoach, but if you've already made it, you're gonna go on a victory lap nonpareil.
And it is rock. Lynyrd Skynyrd started off with a full play of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck." Unfortunately, it was better than their performance, because there's only one Ronnie Van Zant, and rock music should not be played in a tent, it doesn't sound so good, bouncing off the walls.
And when Eric Church took the stage and sang his hit the girls were leaning against the fence with their arms in the air, noggins pointing to the sky singing...
"Give me back my hometown
'CAUSE THIS IS MY HOMETOWN!"
Is there anything more fun, more enjoyable than singing along with a song you know by heart as its performer blasts the sound from the stage so loud you can't hear yourself?
Come on you pill-poppin' dancin' fools, admit it, you remember grammar school, sitting in the car with your beloved as the radio played, it's as American as apple pie, as life-affirming as an A on the test and riding up PCH with the top down and the wind blowing back your hair!
A giant sea of humanity on the exact same page, exulting...
THIS IS MY HOMETOWN!
Yes, I saw anti-Obama t-shirts, too many American flags, I heard a bunch of jingoistic lyrics, and I winced, but I did feel included, it felt like...America.
Society is unfathomable. The right and the left fight in Washington. People shoot and stab each other. Every week there's a new tech invention. Making sense of it is essentially undoable.
And then you go to the country show and it all comes clear, you're right where you belong. You say to yourself...THIS IS THE MUSIC BUSINESS I KNOW AND BELIEVE IN!
Come on, we don't want to pay extra to be down front, we want to be part of the assembled multitude, feeling as one as the energy ripples up and down the crowd.
The people-watching is incredible. Like that old song, there are short ones, tall ones, big ones, small ones...
And they're all here not to make the scene, see and seen, but TO HEAR THE MUSIC!
I'd say it's refreshing, but it's been this way for years, and the coastal establishment continues to ignore it, Top Forty radio banishes it, but it's the sound that is truly underpinning our country.
When Katy Perry's hits run out, I hope she has an acting career, because no one will want to see her.
But even though he's still wet behind the ears, people will want to see Thomas Rhett for decades, because he didn't sing about how he was better than us, he didn't play to a glitterati we'll never be a member of, rather he sang to and about US!
Life is so confusing.
The rich have all the money and tell us how much better they are, creating our jobs, all kinds of hogwash.
We can't pay the bills, we're worried about the future, hope flickers.
And then we turn on the country radio and we say...WE RECOGNIZE THIS!
And there's too much about babies and Jesus and trucks, but if you hang in there, you see guitars and songs, no dancing, no backdrops, only music.
And the power is palpable and undeniable.
See Eric Church on stage and you won't want to be a techie, neither banker nor doctor, you'll pick up your axe and practice, because your heart's desire will be to take the stage in front of tens of thousands, singing your heart out as they sing your message BACK TO YOU!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Saturday 26 April 2014
Friday 25 April 2014
Rhinofy-Janis Joplin Primer
DOWN ON ME
Nobody heard it until after "Cheap Thrills," but despite distant, lame instrumentation and production, Janis's magic shines through.
At first, we in the hinterlands, i.e. not San Francisco, were thrown off by Joplin's vocals, the same way we were years later with Rod Stewart's, but we soon became enamored of her voice.
We can debate all day long her range and proficiency, but there's no denying her passion, which is evident here, on the single from Big Brother's initial LP.
Some people just have to make it. They need it. It's palpable. You can hear and feel the PASSION!
COMBINATION OF THE TWO
Despite "Cheap Thrills" not truly being live, it mostly being recorded in the studio, this opening cut has truly got the Fillmore feel, with the energy and excitement.
You only knew this track when you bought the album, but still, there was something infectious about it, like you were being initiated into the cult.
When Janis sings..."Whoa...whoa, whoah, whoah, whoah" you just want to get closer.
PIECE OF MY HEART
The Bert Berns/Jerry Ragavoy composition that put the band over the top, the one that played everywhere when "Cheap Thrills" hit big in the summer of '68.
COME ON, COME ON, COME ON, COME ON!
It was the career-defining number. Just like Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Relax" and so many other indelible debut tracks, but in this case, there was more...
P.S. Joel Selvin has just written a book about Mr. Berns...fascinating!
SUMMERTIME
Instantly accessible, because we already knew this song... But the spacey arrangement made you want to run off to the Bay Area and join the hippies, and so many did!
BALL AND CHAIN
The piece de resistance, the track that stuck from "Cheap Thrills," the one that established Joplin's bona fides.
I've got to reinforce that "Cheap Thrills" didn't sound like pop music, it sounded like nothing on the radio, and that was its magic. If you bought it, opened the Robert Crumb cover and listened to it, you were a goner.
Remind me to tell you the story of playing guitar with Mr. Crumb in his apartment back in '73...
TRY (JUST A LITTLE BIT HARDER)
She fired the band, since everybody said they were so bad, which they were, but this is almost always a mistake, because talent is superseded by feel and emotion. They'd coalesced as a unit, never underestimate this. Hell, that's what's wrong with today's music, with its usual suspect players and writers, it's not organic, and Big Brother & the Holding Company most definitely were.
With its all star cast, "Kozmic Blues" was much slicker, but that was a detriment. But it did all come together on this cut.
We could just say Gabriel Mekler was not as good a fit as John Simon, who produced "Cheap Thrills."
MOVE OVER
And speaking of producers, on paper Paul Rothchild was not a good fit for Joplin either. But maybe the fact that she died during the album's production and they had to employ scratch vocals gave the result magic that may not have been in the grooves if Janis had lived.
Who knows.
But it's clear that "Pearl" is Joplin's definitive statement. The one where it all comes together, the band and the singer, and it all starts here, with an opening cut full of energy, one that grabbed you immediately, despite not being an AM radio hit.
"Pearl" is the one posthumous album that lived up to the hype.
MERCEDES BENZ
She cowrote this one, and it sounds as fresh today as it did yesterday, despite the ancient references, because we all have hope, especially in the underclass, and that's what this song is all about, along with a huge dollop of humor. That's the way our star musicians used to be, funny people poking fun at society and the human condition, before they all became automatons selling out in search of a buck.
ME AND BOBBY MCGHEE
We had no idea who Kris Kristofferson was, without this cover we might never have known.
This is Americana...going on the road in search of adventure and yourself.
Brilliant song, but Janis makes it her own. Hell, she owns the key line...
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"
That's the magic of music, when done right it distills life and serves it up in a matter of minutes.
CRY BABY
It's the organ, along with Janis's tour-de-force rendition of this Berns/Ragavoy composition originally done by Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters back in '63.
But this is the version everybody remembers.
It's a story song, it's like Janis is singing in your ear, or you stumbled upon her on a little stage in your local beer joint and she's ringing your bell like no one on the stadium stage.
GET IT WHILE YOU CAN
And ain't that the case, get it while you can, because you may not be here tomorrow, like Janis.
This is a fitting closer to "Pearl," and Joplin's career.
Today stars are different. They're belting without nuance, they're dieted down to nothing, they're two-dimensional.
But Janis Joplin was not. She was one of the boys. She drank her Southern Comfort and did her best to fit in, which she never really did, the road is a boys' club.
But the truth is Janis Joplin needed to make it. With her bad complexion and youth in an insular two-bit town, she was the constant outsider, with a personality too big for the burg to hold her. She had to leave to prove herself.
And it was big news when she returned for her high school reunion, triumphant.
But the truth is you can never go back home.
Once upon a time, before Facebook, we could leave our upbringing behind, move to California and become the people we were inside, which is what Janis Joplin did.
And for a few years there, we were all entranced.
And she was not mysterious, she was not distant, she appeared on Dick Cavett, she toured, but we never really knew her. Because she always played the role.
And that becomes tiresome, putting up a front for people who are never satisfied with enough. You turn to substances to get you through. And sometimes they bite you in the ass.
And I'm not saying if Joplin lived she'd be on the victory lap Aretha Franklin is presently on, but the truth is there has never been anybody like her since. Which is why we remember.
Not all the songs were hers, but she was definitely an original.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1rnt80K
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Nobody heard it until after "Cheap Thrills," but despite distant, lame instrumentation and production, Janis's magic shines through.
At first, we in the hinterlands, i.e. not San Francisco, were thrown off by Joplin's vocals, the same way we were years later with Rod Stewart's, but we soon became enamored of her voice.
We can debate all day long her range and proficiency, but there's no denying her passion, which is evident here, on the single from Big Brother's initial LP.
Some people just have to make it. They need it. It's palpable. You can hear and feel the PASSION!
COMBINATION OF THE TWO
Despite "Cheap Thrills" not truly being live, it mostly being recorded in the studio, this opening cut has truly got the Fillmore feel, with the energy and excitement.
You only knew this track when you bought the album, but still, there was something infectious about it, like you were being initiated into the cult.
When Janis sings..."Whoa...whoa, whoah, whoah, whoah" you just want to get closer.
PIECE OF MY HEART
The Bert Berns/Jerry Ragavoy composition that put the band over the top, the one that played everywhere when "Cheap Thrills" hit big in the summer of '68.
COME ON, COME ON, COME ON, COME ON!
It was the career-defining number. Just like Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Relax" and so many other indelible debut tracks, but in this case, there was more...
P.S. Joel Selvin has just written a book about Mr. Berns...fascinating!
SUMMERTIME
Instantly accessible, because we already knew this song... But the spacey arrangement made you want to run off to the Bay Area and join the hippies, and so many did!
BALL AND CHAIN
The piece de resistance, the track that stuck from "Cheap Thrills," the one that established Joplin's bona fides.
I've got to reinforce that "Cheap Thrills" didn't sound like pop music, it sounded like nothing on the radio, and that was its magic. If you bought it, opened the Robert Crumb cover and listened to it, you were a goner.
Remind me to tell you the story of playing guitar with Mr. Crumb in his apartment back in '73...
TRY (JUST A LITTLE BIT HARDER)
She fired the band, since everybody said they were so bad, which they were, but this is almost always a mistake, because talent is superseded by feel and emotion. They'd coalesced as a unit, never underestimate this. Hell, that's what's wrong with today's music, with its usual suspect players and writers, it's not organic, and Big Brother & the Holding Company most definitely were.
With its all star cast, "Kozmic Blues" was much slicker, but that was a detriment. But it did all come together on this cut.
We could just say Gabriel Mekler was not as good a fit as John Simon, who produced "Cheap Thrills."
MOVE OVER
And speaking of producers, on paper Paul Rothchild was not a good fit for Joplin either. But maybe the fact that she died during the album's production and they had to employ scratch vocals gave the result magic that may not have been in the grooves if Janis had lived.
Who knows.
But it's clear that "Pearl" is Joplin's definitive statement. The one where it all comes together, the band and the singer, and it all starts here, with an opening cut full of energy, one that grabbed you immediately, despite not being an AM radio hit.
"Pearl" is the one posthumous album that lived up to the hype.
MERCEDES BENZ
She cowrote this one, and it sounds as fresh today as it did yesterday, despite the ancient references, because we all have hope, especially in the underclass, and that's what this song is all about, along with a huge dollop of humor. That's the way our star musicians used to be, funny people poking fun at society and the human condition, before they all became automatons selling out in search of a buck.
ME AND BOBBY MCGHEE
We had no idea who Kris Kristofferson was, without this cover we might never have known.
This is Americana...going on the road in search of adventure and yourself.
Brilliant song, but Janis makes it her own. Hell, she owns the key line...
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"
That's the magic of music, when done right it distills life and serves it up in a matter of minutes.
CRY BABY
It's the organ, along with Janis's tour-de-force rendition of this Berns/Ragavoy composition originally done by Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters back in '63.
But this is the version everybody remembers.
It's a story song, it's like Janis is singing in your ear, or you stumbled upon her on a little stage in your local beer joint and she's ringing your bell like no one on the stadium stage.
GET IT WHILE YOU CAN
And ain't that the case, get it while you can, because you may not be here tomorrow, like Janis.
This is a fitting closer to "Pearl," and Joplin's career.
Today stars are different. They're belting without nuance, they're dieted down to nothing, they're two-dimensional.
But Janis Joplin was not. She was one of the boys. She drank her Southern Comfort and did her best to fit in, which she never really did, the road is a boys' club.
But the truth is Janis Joplin needed to make it. With her bad complexion and youth in an insular two-bit town, she was the constant outsider, with a personality too big for the burg to hold her. She had to leave to prove herself.
And it was big news when she returned for her high school reunion, triumphant.
But the truth is you can never go back home.
Once upon a time, before Facebook, we could leave our upbringing behind, move to California and become the people we were inside, which is what Janis Joplin did.
And for a few years there, we were all entranced.
And she was not mysterious, she was not distant, she appeared on Dick Cavett, she toured, but we never really knew her. Because she always played the role.
And that becomes tiresome, putting up a front for people who are never satisfied with enough. You turn to substances to get you through. And sometimes they bite you in the ass.
And I'm not saying if Joplin lived she'd be on the victory lap Aretha Franklin is presently on, but the truth is there has never been anybody like her since. Which is why we remember.
Not all the songs were hers, but she was definitely an original.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1rnt80K
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
What People Don't Want To Believe
1. Only blockbusters count and make serious dough. Either you're a superstar or you're starving. Yes, the Internet allows old folks and some young 'uns to troll on on a subsistence budget doing house concerts and maybe playing theatres, which have now all been relabeled "clubs," but the dream of paying your dues and breaking through is just a dream.
2. You have to be great. Elton John great. Yes, Dr. Luke and Max Martin can push an average talent up the chart, but THEY'RE great! Don't listen the sour grapes patrol decrying Dr. Luke and Max Martin's talent, they're brilliant, and they understand the game. If you are unwilling to learn the game, which is much more than knowing how streaming royalties work and bitching about it, you're going to have a very hard time succeeding.
The game:
a. Anybody with money only wants to invest in money. In other words, anybody in the music business is only interested in you if you can make THEM money. Sure, they might like your music, but unless they can sell you, they don't want you.
b. Presently, radio is the driver of hits. If your music doesn't fit on Top Forty radio, which is more open than it was just a few years ago, but still plays very few records, you're not gonna break through.
3. Money talks. Internet cacophony has made it almost impossible to get your message to rise above the fray. Furthermore, almost nothing sticks. You need a backer to get your message out and to keep getting it out, sorry.
4. Publicity is back in vogue. The Internet is no longer the wild west. It's solidified. Sure, there are new sites/apps now and again, but almost all get picked up by the usual suspects, i.e. Google and Facebook. Don't think it's as easy as paying someone, there are plenty of people who will spam the Web and say it's not their fault when you don't get traction. Rather, you need an experienced powerhouse behind you, like a label, that believes you're commercial, and has relationships with news outlets from newspapers to cable TV to Yahoo. It's a relationships business, and unless you've got 'em, you ain't goin' nowhere.
5. If you're old, no one wants you in music, as either talent or an executive, because unfortunately your demo neither buys nor streams new music...no money, no action. As for execs... You have families, you have obligations, they can get someone younger to work harder for less money. Don't like it? Sue. And lose. Or start an independent company that ultimately fails. It's a young people's business, even though baby boomers don't like this.
6. Pandora doesn't break acts.
7. Festivals don't break acts.
8. One mention in the press might make your heart pitter-patter, but almost no one sees it and no one remembers it.
9. People can smell hype.
10. You only get one chance to make a first impression. And if it's not spectacular, you're doomed. Bad news spreads fast and lives forever online.
11. It's easier to market and sell music than find it. In other words, armchair quarterbacks are a dime a dozen, the music business is not waiting for your expertise, but it is always open to you delivering PHENOMENAL new acts.
12. You don't have to know how to play, you don't have to have a great voice, you don't have to write, but if you can do all three, it puts you miles ahead of everybody else.
13. If you want it, that does not mean it will happen. Forget all the new age/self-help b.s. Staying in the game and wishing it to happen yields almost nothing. Making it is hard work, dependent upon talent, forging relationships and a little bit of luck.
14. Coldplay, Radiohead and Dave Matthews are huge because they snuck in under the wire via the old system, they were the beneficiaries of big TV video play, when that meant something, before the Web obliterated it. Otherwise, they'd be Arcade Fire, which garners great reviews, wins Grammys and most people still have not heard and don't even care about.
15. There's tons of money in music, more than ever before, if you're a superstar, if not, you're starving.
16. The best and the brightest don't go into music. There's not enough money in it.
17. No one cares what you did. They just care what you're doing.
18. The generations keep changing, people keep getting older, if you had a hit five years ago, and not one since, you're a has-been who's on the way to being forgotten, hope you have some fans who can keep you alive on the road.
19. There's plenty of money in recorded music. Streaming revenue is just gonna rise. But the twenty first century has taught everybody about the other money out there, instead of just the easy money, this is good.
20. Credibility counts.
21. People know when you sell out, and young people care about it.
22. It's a hits business. It's ALWAYS been a hits business. You're not gonna go far unless you've got that one big track, sorry.
And a hit is something instant and ubiquitous that cries out for repeat play. It doesn't have to be featured on the radio, but it frequently is.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
2. You have to be great. Elton John great. Yes, Dr. Luke and Max Martin can push an average talent up the chart, but THEY'RE great! Don't listen the sour grapes patrol decrying Dr. Luke and Max Martin's talent, they're brilliant, and they understand the game. If you are unwilling to learn the game, which is much more than knowing how streaming royalties work and bitching about it, you're going to have a very hard time succeeding.
The game:
a. Anybody with money only wants to invest in money. In other words, anybody in the music business is only interested in you if you can make THEM money. Sure, they might like your music, but unless they can sell you, they don't want you.
b. Presently, radio is the driver of hits. If your music doesn't fit on Top Forty radio, which is more open than it was just a few years ago, but still plays very few records, you're not gonna break through.
3. Money talks. Internet cacophony has made it almost impossible to get your message to rise above the fray. Furthermore, almost nothing sticks. You need a backer to get your message out and to keep getting it out, sorry.
4. Publicity is back in vogue. The Internet is no longer the wild west. It's solidified. Sure, there are new sites/apps now and again, but almost all get picked up by the usual suspects, i.e. Google and Facebook. Don't think it's as easy as paying someone, there are plenty of people who will spam the Web and say it's not their fault when you don't get traction. Rather, you need an experienced powerhouse behind you, like a label, that believes you're commercial, and has relationships with news outlets from newspapers to cable TV to Yahoo. It's a relationships business, and unless you've got 'em, you ain't goin' nowhere.
5. If you're old, no one wants you in music, as either talent or an executive, because unfortunately your demo neither buys nor streams new music...no money, no action. As for execs... You have families, you have obligations, they can get someone younger to work harder for less money. Don't like it? Sue. And lose. Or start an independent company that ultimately fails. It's a young people's business, even though baby boomers don't like this.
6. Pandora doesn't break acts.
7. Festivals don't break acts.
8. One mention in the press might make your heart pitter-patter, but almost no one sees it and no one remembers it.
9. People can smell hype.
10. You only get one chance to make a first impression. And if it's not spectacular, you're doomed. Bad news spreads fast and lives forever online.
11. It's easier to market and sell music than find it. In other words, armchair quarterbacks are a dime a dozen, the music business is not waiting for your expertise, but it is always open to you delivering PHENOMENAL new acts.
12. You don't have to know how to play, you don't have to have a great voice, you don't have to write, but if you can do all three, it puts you miles ahead of everybody else.
13. If you want it, that does not mean it will happen. Forget all the new age/self-help b.s. Staying in the game and wishing it to happen yields almost nothing. Making it is hard work, dependent upon talent, forging relationships and a little bit of luck.
14. Coldplay, Radiohead and Dave Matthews are huge because they snuck in under the wire via the old system, they were the beneficiaries of big TV video play, when that meant something, before the Web obliterated it. Otherwise, they'd be Arcade Fire, which garners great reviews, wins Grammys and most people still have not heard and don't even care about.
15. There's tons of money in music, more than ever before, if you're a superstar, if not, you're starving.
16. The best and the brightest don't go into music. There's not enough money in it.
17. No one cares what you did. They just care what you're doing.
18. The generations keep changing, people keep getting older, if you had a hit five years ago, and not one since, you're a has-been who's on the way to being forgotten, hope you have some fans who can keep you alive on the road.
19. There's plenty of money in recorded music. Streaming revenue is just gonna rise. But the twenty first century has taught everybody about the other money out there, instead of just the easy money, this is good.
20. Credibility counts.
21. People know when you sell out, and young people care about it.
22. It's a hits business. It's ALWAYS been a hits business. You're not gonna go far unless you've got that one big track, sorry.
And a hit is something instant and ubiquitous that cries out for repeat play. It doesn't have to be featured on the radio, but it frequently is.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Thursday 24 April 2014
Truths
1. You're gonna keep your mobile handset a hell of a lot longer. With T-Mobile shifting the tide to non-subsidized handsets, many people are going to balk at paying $649 for a new iPhone, they believe it's only $200, the same way some people believe the handset they got for free with a two year contract is really free. If you've got an iPhone 5 or the latest Samsung, with LTE connectivity, there's no reason to get a new one, not a good one, just like there's no reason to upgrade your computer.
2. Steve Jobs was all about usability. Somehow this message got lost on Spotify. Although their new interface looks cool, it's much harder to use, and not intuitive. If you've got to Google for instruction, the developer missed the boat. And remember, Jobs was all about REMOVING functions as opposed to adding them like Microsoft. And look where Microsoft is today...
3. You don't need a connection to use a streaming service on your smartphone, you just sync playlists and it's like owning the tracks (as long as you pay the monthly fee!) But most people still don't know this, they're worried about nonexistent data fees, proving that people are stupid and the streaming companies are doing a bad job of getting the message across.
4. Red Bull has a record company. And is heavily involved in music. I know this because my inbox is filling up with people telling me. They got their message across, have you? And are you giving back, doing something that is not your core mission, in order to burnish the image of your brand?
5. Quarterly numbers are for Wall Street only. Just like debut sales are for the music industry, but not the consumer. Publications are migrating to printing the streaming chart, so get people to listen, not buy.
6. Phenomena still exist. I.e. "Frozen." Sure, it's a target audience of kids, sure, parents will buy anything for their children, but I haven't found one person who says the film sucks, and the album is a souvenir, and repeat play builds loyalty, the more you hear it, the more you like it. We had the same phenomenon in the music business with Adele's "21," but so far no one's replicated it. Because in music, unlike with Disney and Pixar, it's not about getting it right but about getting it out. If you do something superlative, truly better than anything else, it will break through and sustain. Instead the music business is selling good or intermittently great, with all focus on touring revenue. This is a mistake, the same way focusing on production does not add longevity to your concert career. It's about music, the way it makes people feel, it's about involving someone as opposed to spectacle.
7. People are victimized by the silos they live in. Most have blinders. If you're not getting your news from multiple sources, you're missing out on huge swaths of information. Fox News people should watch MSNBC, and vice versa. And "New York Times" readers should peruse the "Wall Street Journal," and vice versa.
8. There's a new rock star in town, he's Thomas Piketty, a French economist. His book came out in his native language eons ago, but it's just been put out in English and it states...when return on capital exceeds the rate of economic growth, income inequality is the result. The book is number one on Amazon. This is the issue of our day. While "artists" keep flaunting their wealth, kissing up to corporations all the while, their audience is waking up to the fact that their future is hampered. Want long term success? Raise the difficult questions, get on the side of the people, but it's all meaningless if you don't have music as good as Adele, we don't care what you've got to say or your charitable contribution if your music sucks. Your music is your entrance ticket, without it, you're nothing. No one would have cared that John Lennon said the Beatles were bigger than God if the band hadn't put out "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "A Hard Day's Night" and "Eight Days A Week," none of which
were social commentary.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
2. Steve Jobs was all about usability. Somehow this message got lost on Spotify. Although their new interface looks cool, it's much harder to use, and not intuitive. If you've got to Google for instruction, the developer missed the boat. And remember, Jobs was all about REMOVING functions as opposed to adding them like Microsoft. And look where Microsoft is today...
3. You don't need a connection to use a streaming service on your smartphone, you just sync playlists and it's like owning the tracks (as long as you pay the monthly fee!) But most people still don't know this, they're worried about nonexistent data fees, proving that people are stupid and the streaming companies are doing a bad job of getting the message across.
4. Red Bull has a record company. And is heavily involved in music. I know this because my inbox is filling up with people telling me. They got their message across, have you? And are you giving back, doing something that is not your core mission, in order to burnish the image of your brand?
5. Quarterly numbers are for Wall Street only. Just like debut sales are for the music industry, but not the consumer. Publications are migrating to printing the streaming chart, so get people to listen, not buy.
6. Phenomena still exist. I.e. "Frozen." Sure, it's a target audience of kids, sure, parents will buy anything for their children, but I haven't found one person who says the film sucks, and the album is a souvenir, and repeat play builds loyalty, the more you hear it, the more you like it. We had the same phenomenon in the music business with Adele's "21," but so far no one's replicated it. Because in music, unlike with Disney and Pixar, it's not about getting it right but about getting it out. If you do something superlative, truly better than anything else, it will break through and sustain. Instead the music business is selling good or intermittently great, with all focus on touring revenue. This is a mistake, the same way focusing on production does not add longevity to your concert career. It's about music, the way it makes people feel, it's about involving someone as opposed to spectacle.
7. People are victimized by the silos they live in. Most have blinders. If you're not getting your news from multiple sources, you're missing out on huge swaths of information. Fox News people should watch MSNBC, and vice versa. And "New York Times" readers should peruse the "Wall Street Journal," and vice versa.
8. There's a new rock star in town, he's Thomas Piketty, a French economist. His book came out in his native language eons ago, but it's just been put out in English and it states...when return on capital exceeds the rate of economic growth, income inequality is the result. The book is number one on Amazon. This is the issue of our day. While "artists" keep flaunting their wealth, kissing up to corporations all the while, their audience is waking up to the fact that their future is hampered. Want long term success? Raise the difficult questions, get on the side of the people, but it's all meaningless if you don't have music as good as Adele, we don't care what you've got to say or your charitable contribution if your music sucks. Your music is your entrance ticket, without it, you're nothing. No one would have cared that John Lennon said the Beatles were bigger than God if the band hadn't put out "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "A Hard Day's Night" and "Eight Days A Week," none of which
were social commentary.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Wednesday 23 April 2014
Mailbag
Subject: RE: Gotta Get To Know You
Hello Bob,
Thank you for putting this out there. I loved doing the track. It was kind of hypnotic. This is a song that I have wanted to add to our current set list. But you just never know what the fans want to hear. Unfortunately (or fortunately) they only want to hear our most well known songs. And, we have such a huge catalog after 43 years of playing. It is hard to choose.
This was a Bobby Blue Bland song. Dave and I were huge fans. And we got to sit in with him at Unganos in NYC back in the day. What a thrill to meet him. It was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales with Dave Edmunds.
Thanks again for remembering us. Twice!
We seriously appreciate it.
Keep on Rockin'
Roger Earl
www.foghat.net
www.facebook.com/foghat
www.twitter.com/foghat
____________________________________________________
From: Billy F Gibbons
Subject: Fwd: Beards 'n' Beck! ZZ Top and Jeff Beck touring together this summer for the first time
Yo, B…
Thanks…! I agree, this'll be a good'un… Side-note for your amusement… Bass-guitarist, Tal Wilkenfeld, forwarded this YouTube link, (very entertaining), which is totally bogus in the fact that some crafty fellow, obviously with too much time on hand, re-cobbled together some 25TH Anniversary Rock 'n Roll Hall Of Fame Madison Square footage where I joined Jeff on the deck to perform a couple for the event. The outcome is also fantastic with a re-edit transforming "Foxey Lady" into Tennessee Ernie Ford's "16 Tons"…! I sent it over to Jeff who responded with, "Bloody Hell, We must learn it for a possible encore…!" It's actually not only marginally believable, it's just right for the extreme unexpected. Luv it.
YouTube link : 16 Tone - Billy Gibbons & Jeff Beck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2aqvKY6zLc
Speak wit'cha 'round th' corner... Dan Tana's, Palm, El Compadre, you name it, Chill time, fo' sho'…!
____________________________________________________
From: Tom Rush
Subject: Re: WIMP/Urge For Going
Thanks for the nod, Bob! Joni took a LONG time putting out her version of
the song -- it first appeared as the B-side for her single "You Turn Me On,
I'm a Radio." Great song, and always will be, as long as the seasons turn.
TR
____________________________________________________
From: Brian Ray
Subject: Re: Mailbag
Hi Bob,
Tell Berton that is the very excellent guitar work of Mike Campbell, not Kootch, on "Boys of Summer".
It's a track he played everything on and produced, first offered to and turned down by TP. Don says he wrote the lyric driving up PCH, while listening to the track..
probably on cassette :-)
B
____________________________________________________
Subject: Re: Now
Hey bob...
I was at coachella for the first time, working with _____ _____, and it was an eye opener!!
We rocked the mojave tent both Fridays, but the general opinion was that this was a pale imitation of uk and indeed European festivals...
"See and be seen" as you say seems to be the demographic...the bands are great but you can't take a beer in and it's hard to get a vibe going. Lots of teens having a great time, but it's very clean and safe...almost like a film of a festival...at least at Glastonbury you can get lost at 4am and not surface for 2 days!!!
That said, the crowd for _____ _____, especially show 2 were outstanding...palpable buzz and kids rocking out even as they were passing through to the edm tent...
_____ ______,
Engineer, _____ _____
____________________________________________________
Dear Bob,
Oh yes... Foghat... The champions of "Camaro Rock"...
I remember going with you to see Foghat at The House of Blues.. incredible...
Paul Fishkin was managing them and he asked me to arrange for them to do an
interview at KLOS. Jim Ladd said,"F__k Yes!".. The band came in and did the
unthinkable.. they played "unplugged"... It just worked!
The next day Lonesome Dave was so happy about the response he got the guys
into the studio and started a "Unplugged" album... They never finished it but I have a few of the tracks. The project was shelved until they had more material... later, Dave became ill and well you know the rest.
Foghat...Take Me to The River... unplugged..
https://soundcloud.com/laufdogpro/foghat-take-me-to-the-river-acoustic
enjoy..
Jeff Laufer
____________________________________________________
Subject: Foghat et al
Very cool song, Bob. Thanks.
I clicked on a nearby link and came up with an amazing video: The BBC program on the 1977 Bearsville Records Picnic. Look 10 minutes in and there's a couple of wonderful performances by a VERY young Jesse Winchester.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNK4wRc4O8U
Here's the blurb from YouTube:
VIDEO TOUR OF BEARSVILLE'S ANNUAL PICNIC IN BEARSVILLE NEW YORK. PICNIC IS HELD AT THE BEARSVILLE THEATER, PERFORMANCES ARE AT THE STUDIO AND POSSIBLY OUTSIDE ON THE STUDIO GROUNDS. iNTERVIEWS WITH BEARSVILLE OWNER ALBERT GROSSMAN, JOHN SEBASTIAN, MICK RONSON PAUL BUTTERFIELD(SEEMS ANNOYED) JESSE WINCHESTER, TONY WILSON AND TODD RUNDGREN, PERFORMANCES BY FOGHAT, JESSE WINCHESTER, PAUL BUTTERFIELD, CORKY LAING, ELIZABETH BARRACLOUGH, TONY WILSON AND UTOPIA.
Rik Shafer
____________________________________________________
Subject: Re: Pono vs. Wimp
Fantastic.
I'm a singer songwriter who is embracing streaming and seeing revenue rise.
I put acoustic performances on YouTube and encourage people to check out the full recording on spotify or iTunes if they still use it.
I'm small enough that people don't put my recordings on YouTube and when they have, I've sent them a polite message asking them to take it down and explain my reasons. They always do it without me having to get google involved. Although I'm partnered and I'd receive royalties from other people's uploads due to content ID match. (I've uploaded all my songs on unlisted videos to make sure this happens).
From my side of it, if people know you're a small business and you have the correct people skills then people respect it and honour your wishes.
I have small numbers on social networks, but they're consistent with each other, and I'm selling about 50% of the number of tickets to my tours as I have on my highest social network. (3100 tickets for my next uk tour of 13 dates in may vs. 6700 twitter followers and YouTube subscribers).
You're so right that trying to get heard in the noise is almost impossible. Old school marketing still is brilliant though. A personal tweet or message to someone on Facebook is more successful than bombarding people with statuses and tweets and it almost guarantees people seeing or responding to you. I'm not talking about spam. I'm talking about engagement. Speaking to the people who have clicked "like"or "follow". Sending them messages asking how they are and what they're up to. And when they respond and ask the same questions of you, you can tell them about your latest project. It's up to them if they really want to then support you.
Yes this is time consuming. But it does make it feasible to make a living from your music at a small level. If I get 2000 people spending £50 on me a year (a few gig tickets, tshirts, CDs/iTunes, other misc merch) and also watch my videos on YouTube and listen on spotify, then there's at least 100000 revenue. Yes there are expenses in that. But as one man with a guitar with a home studio set up, this is more than adequate to make me a living!
The thing that challenges me the most is to find the time to write songs and make content that keeps them interested when I have to do all the business/direct marketing. As you keep saying, an artist needs to be an artist.
I want to take more risks and be a better songwriter but do I have time? I'm not after fame or fortune, I'm after making a living, however humble from the years I've spent learning how to sing, play, perform and write. I'm doing this ok, and I guess as i keep doing it, hopefully more word of mouth things happen so I can stop the direct marketing and free up my time to write more frequently.
Anyway.
Thank you for continuing to challenge me to new ideas of business and art!
Dave Giles.
____________________________________________________
Subject: An interesting story about IBM/Nazis and Oslo
My wife is half Norwegian
Her mum and grandparents live in Oslo
Her grandparents are 93 & 94 and still married. We visit them every summer
They were involved in the Norwegian resistance against the Nazis.
When we go over each summer he tells me stories about the 2nd World war, from when they were occupied by the Nazis
He worked in the office of statistics. The one IBM computer in the whole of Norway was stationed in their building. They used it to identify the students and the troublemakers (I am not sure how). One evening there was a large explosion at his building (probably by British secret agents who conducted missions is Norway).
The machine was damaged but not completely put out of action. It could be repaired but there was only one person in the company who could repair it, and by coincidence he was the only person at the company who was a German sympathiser, the rest hated the Germans.
On the next day, waiting at the bus stop the one person who could repair the computer was shot in the head.
It is amazing to speak to someone who was involved back then, he has so many stories. There is a wall in a central Oslo square that still has bullet holes in it where they lined up the students and shot them.
James
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Hello Bob,
Thank you for putting this out there. I loved doing the track. It was kind of hypnotic. This is a song that I have wanted to add to our current set list. But you just never know what the fans want to hear. Unfortunately (or fortunately) they only want to hear our most well known songs. And, we have such a huge catalog after 43 years of playing. It is hard to choose.
This was a Bobby Blue Bland song. Dave and I were huge fans. And we got to sit in with him at Unganos in NYC back in the day. What a thrill to meet him. It was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales with Dave Edmunds.
Thanks again for remembering us. Twice!
We seriously appreciate it.
Keep on Rockin'
Roger Earl
www.foghat.net
www.facebook.com/foghat
www.twitter.com/foghat
____________________________________________________
From: Billy F Gibbons
Subject: Fwd: Beards 'n' Beck! ZZ Top and Jeff Beck touring together this summer for the first time
Yo, B…
Thanks…! I agree, this'll be a good'un… Side-note for your amusement… Bass-guitarist, Tal Wilkenfeld, forwarded this YouTube link, (very entertaining), which is totally bogus in the fact that some crafty fellow, obviously with too much time on hand, re-cobbled together some 25TH Anniversary Rock 'n Roll Hall Of Fame Madison Square footage where I joined Jeff on the deck to perform a couple for the event. The outcome is also fantastic with a re-edit transforming "Foxey Lady" into Tennessee Ernie Ford's "16 Tons"…! I sent it over to Jeff who responded with, "Bloody Hell, We must learn it for a possible encore…!" It's actually not only marginally believable, it's just right for the extreme unexpected. Luv it.
YouTube link : 16 Tone - Billy Gibbons & Jeff Beck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2aqvKY6zLc
Speak wit'cha 'round th' corner... Dan Tana's, Palm, El Compadre, you name it, Chill time, fo' sho'…!
____________________________________________________
From: Tom Rush
Subject: Re: WIMP/Urge For Going
Thanks for the nod, Bob! Joni took a LONG time putting out her version of
the song -- it first appeared as the B-side for her single "You Turn Me On,
I'm a Radio." Great song, and always will be, as long as the seasons turn.
TR
____________________________________________________
From: Brian Ray
Subject: Re: Mailbag
Hi Bob,
Tell Berton that is the very excellent guitar work of Mike Campbell, not Kootch, on "Boys of Summer".
It's a track he played everything on and produced, first offered to and turned down by TP. Don says he wrote the lyric driving up PCH, while listening to the track..
probably on cassette :-)
B
____________________________________________________
Subject: Re: Now
Hey bob...
I was at coachella for the first time, working with _____ _____, and it was an eye opener!!
We rocked the mojave tent both Fridays, but the general opinion was that this was a pale imitation of uk and indeed European festivals...
"See and be seen" as you say seems to be the demographic...the bands are great but you can't take a beer in and it's hard to get a vibe going. Lots of teens having a great time, but it's very clean and safe...almost like a film of a festival...at least at Glastonbury you can get lost at 4am and not surface for 2 days!!!
That said, the crowd for _____ _____, especially show 2 were outstanding...palpable buzz and kids rocking out even as they were passing through to the edm tent...
_____ ______,
Engineer, _____ _____
____________________________________________________
Dear Bob,
Oh yes... Foghat... The champions of "Camaro Rock"...
I remember going with you to see Foghat at The House of Blues.. incredible...
Paul Fishkin was managing them and he asked me to arrange for them to do an
interview at KLOS. Jim Ladd said,"F__k Yes!".. The band came in and did the
unthinkable.. they played "unplugged"... It just worked!
The next day Lonesome Dave was so happy about the response he got the guys
into the studio and started a "Unplugged" album... They never finished it but I have a few of the tracks. The project was shelved until they had more material... later, Dave became ill and well you know the rest.
Foghat...Take Me to The River... unplugged..
https://soundcloud.com/laufdogpro/foghat-take-me-to-the-river-acoustic
enjoy..
Jeff Laufer
____________________________________________________
Subject: Foghat et al
Very cool song, Bob. Thanks.
I clicked on a nearby link and came up with an amazing video: The BBC program on the 1977 Bearsville Records Picnic. Look 10 minutes in and there's a couple of wonderful performances by a VERY young Jesse Winchester.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNK4wRc4O8U
Here's the blurb from YouTube:
VIDEO TOUR OF BEARSVILLE'S ANNUAL PICNIC IN BEARSVILLE NEW YORK. PICNIC IS HELD AT THE BEARSVILLE THEATER, PERFORMANCES ARE AT THE STUDIO AND POSSIBLY OUTSIDE ON THE STUDIO GROUNDS. iNTERVIEWS WITH BEARSVILLE OWNER ALBERT GROSSMAN, JOHN SEBASTIAN, MICK RONSON PAUL BUTTERFIELD(SEEMS ANNOYED) JESSE WINCHESTER, TONY WILSON AND TODD RUNDGREN, PERFORMANCES BY FOGHAT, JESSE WINCHESTER, PAUL BUTTERFIELD, CORKY LAING, ELIZABETH BARRACLOUGH, TONY WILSON AND UTOPIA.
Rik Shafer
____________________________________________________
Subject: Re: Pono vs. Wimp
Fantastic.
I'm a singer songwriter who is embracing streaming and seeing revenue rise.
I put acoustic performances on YouTube and encourage people to check out the full recording on spotify or iTunes if they still use it.
I'm small enough that people don't put my recordings on YouTube and when they have, I've sent them a polite message asking them to take it down and explain my reasons. They always do it without me having to get google involved. Although I'm partnered and I'd receive royalties from other people's uploads due to content ID match. (I've uploaded all my songs on unlisted videos to make sure this happens).
From my side of it, if people know you're a small business and you have the correct people skills then people respect it and honour your wishes.
I have small numbers on social networks, but they're consistent with each other, and I'm selling about 50% of the number of tickets to my tours as I have on my highest social network. (3100 tickets for my next uk tour of 13 dates in may vs. 6700 twitter followers and YouTube subscribers).
You're so right that trying to get heard in the noise is almost impossible. Old school marketing still is brilliant though. A personal tweet or message to someone on Facebook is more successful than bombarding people with statuses and tweets and it almost guarantees people seeing or responding to you. I'm not talking about spam. I'm talking about engagement. Speaking to the people who have clicked "like"or "follow". Sending them messages asking how they are and what they're up to. And when they respond and ask the same questions of you, you can tell them about your latest project. It's up to them if they really want to then support you.
Yes this is time consuming. But it does make it feasible to make a living from your music at a small level. If I get 2000 people spending £50 on me a year (a few gig tickets, tshirts, CDs/iTunes, other misc merch) and also watch my videos on YouTube and listen on spotify, then there's at least 100000 revenue. Yes there are expenses in that. But as one man with a guitar with a home studio set up, this is more than adequate to make me a living!
The thing that challenges me the most is to find the time to write songs and make content that keeps them interested when I have to do all the business/direct marketing. As you keep saying, an artist needs to be an artist.
I want to take more risks and be a better songwriter but do I have time? I'm not after fame or fortune, I'm after making a living, however humble from the years I've spent learning how to sing, play, perform and write. I'm doing this ok, and I guess as i keep doing it, hopefully more word of mouth things happen so I can stop the direct marketing and free up my time to write more frequently.
Anyway.
Thank you for continuing to challenge me to new ideas of business and art!
Dave Giles.
____________________________________________________
Subject: An interesting story about IBM/Nazis and Oslo
My wife is half Norwegian
Her mum and grandparents live in Oslo
Her grandparents are 93 & 94 and still married. We visit them every summer
They were involved in the Norwegian resistance against the Nazis.
When we go over each summer he tells me stories about the 2nd World war, from when they were occupied by the Nazis
He worked in the office of statistics. The one IBM computer in the whole of Norway was stationed in their building. They used it to identify the students and the troublemakers (I am not sure how). One evening there was a large explosion at his building (probably by British secret agents who conducted missions is Norway).
The machine was damaged but not completely put out of action. It could be repaired but there was only one person in the company who could repair it, and by coincidence he was the only person at the company who was a German sympathiser, the rest hated the Germans.
On the next day, waiting at the bus stop the one person who could repair the computer was shot in the head.
It is amazing to speak to someone who was involved back then, he has so many stories. There is a wall in a central Oslo square that still has bullet holes in it where they lined up the students and shot them.
James
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Tuesday 22 April 2014
My Birthday
I'm numb, both literally and figuratively, and not comfortably.
Mama said there'd be days like this, when the best laid plans go to waste.
Yes, plans. I have a birthday routine. Langer's, a movie and a hot fudge sundae.
It hearkens back to '77, when I went with my girlfriend to the aforementioned home of America's best pastrami sandwich and then to C.C. Brown's and "Annie Hall." A perfect trio that I've repeated ever since. But not today.
So where does this story begin?
Let's call it the Counter. The overpriced burger joint with too loud music with amazing fries and rings, it's where I go when I've had a bad day and I want to reward myself, yes, some use alcohol, I use food.
And I'm biting down on a soft burger, they employ pre-made patties, which is a mistake, and...
UGH!
I'd just had my teeth cleaned. By a woman who thought she was scraping graffiti from the subway, despite labeling me an excellent flosser. And now...there was a tooth that was moving in two directions at once...IMPOSSIBLE!
So, like a good boy who was brought up by a mother who believed it was illegal to be ill, I ignored it. That's what happens if you don't succumb to pain, it goes away. Unless it doesn't.
And then you end up in the hospital. That happened to me.
But maybe the hygienist just tweaked a nerve, the pain would go away, the same way the pain from LAST YEAR'S April break did.
That's right, my teeth are crumbling. Well, cracking to be exact. After not having a cavity since my teens, being proud of my rock hard teeth, they suddenly decided to give up the ghost. I've sworn off trail mix, my favorite food, but still...they're going.
So I'm in Utah a week later, and I bite down on some jerky...
I know, bad choice, but I hadn't eaten in hours, and I feel this sensitivity.
And then I got to wonder...what if this tooth decided to announce itself in Oslo?
It didn't.
It waited until last night, at our reunion seder, when I bit down on some salmon and...
That's right, salmon, from Costco, soft and flaky. Suddenly, my birthday plans were in jeopardy.
To say I didn't sleep soundly is an understatement. You've got to go to the dentist immediately if you have sensitivity when you drink, but I didn't, so I didn't pull the emergency cord, which I'm always afraid to do, afraid to be judged by the provider, hell, I'm always worried when I show up they'll give me a hard time, claiming I'm a pussy and there's nothing wrong.
But not this time.
I was ringing them before they were there. I wanted to get in. I wanted to save the day.
But I didn't.
They wondered if I could come TOMORROW!
No f'ing way. I can't EAT!
Okay, I'll come at 4:30.
And what did I do all day?
Read, and watched the minutes tick by on my iPhone. I was in a state of suspended animation, celebrating my birthday didn't even enter my mind.
And at first the dentist can't find the spot. Because I think it's a tooth that had previous work, it all made sense to me, that the hygienist tweaked a preexisting condition.
But he thought differently. I had to bite down on wood twice to convince myself that another virgin tooth had decided to go.
But how deep was the crack?
This ain't no amateur dentist. He's not going by guesswork. He wonders if I have time to walk a few blocks to the endodontist. I'VE GOT ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD, I'VE ALREADY BLOWN MY BIRTHDAY!
So I walk over to Bedford and I'm waiting and waiting and waiting, which means if nothing's wrong I won't have time to go back to the dentist and get the crown I crave and...
Finally I'm seen by a mad scientist who resembles no one as much as John Turturro. Someone so caught up in his work he's giving me detail I'd only need if I went to dental school, which I love, I'm all about information.
And he dives in and says...
We've got to go deeper, he needs to shoot me up, and after doing this, he reaches down and removes half of my pearly white and announces that not only do I need a root canal, but probably gum surgery too.
HUH?
And how does he know this dentist anyway, he looks like he just graduated from school.
BECAUSE HE USES A MICROSCOPE!
That's right, in the last five years there's been a revolution in endodontics. Either you peer through the microscope or you're history.
And I'm peeing and texting, waiting for my turn as the minutes tick by, and then I'm in a scene from "Marathon Man," only much shorter than the last time I had a root canal. I'm running sexual fantasies in my brain, trying to distract myself from the droning of the drill, and then...it's done.
So I've got an appointment at the dentist tomorrow at 9 AM, to see if he can execute a crown or whether I need that aforementioned gum surgery first, since the tooth broke below the line.
And I'm wondering how life plays out...
Is this my future?
I mean I can bang the bumps on the South Rim no problem, but body parts I never think about are saying NO MAS and my best laid plans are jumping the rails.
So, I want to thank all the people who e-mailed, called, tweeted and texted me birthday wishes, I truly appreciate it.
But it hasn't been a very happy birthday.
But I'm afraid of appearing ungrateful, not responding.
So let the foregoing be my explanation, my excuse.
P.S. The endodontist told me to tell anybody who said I had a big mouth that I didn't, he'd been inside, he could testify... And I didn't even tell him I was a writer!
P.P.S. The endodontist told me twice that it was an EMERGENCY! And he doubted if I'd come in a month earlier, when I first felt the pain, that the result would have been any different. So, I guess that's my big birthday gift...JUSTIFICATION!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Mama said there'd be days like this, when the best laid plans go to waste.
Yes, plans. I have a birthday routine. Langer's, a movie and a hot fudge sundae.
It hearkens back to '77, when I went with my girlfriend to the aforementioned home of America's best pastrami sandwich and then to C.C. Brown's and "Annie Hall." A perfect trio that I've repeated ever since. But not today.
So where does this story begin?
Let's call it the Counter. The overpriced burger joint with too loud music with amazing fries and rings, it's where I go when I've had a bad day and I want to reward myself, yes, some use alcohol, I use food.
And I'm biting down on a soft burger, they employ pre-made patties, which is a mistake, and...
UGH!
I'd just had my teeth cleaned. By a woman who thought she was scraping graffiti from the subway, despite labeling me an excellent flosser. And now...there was a tooth that was moving in two directions at once...IMPOSSIBLE!
So, like a good boy who was brought up by a mother who believed it was illegal to be ill, I ignored it. That's what happens if you don't succumb to pain, it goes away. Unless it doesn't.
And then you end up in the hospital. That happened to me.
But maybe the hygienist just tweaked a nerve, the pain would go away, the same way the pain from LAST YEAR'S April break did.
That's right, my teeth are crumbling. Well, cracking to be exact. After not having a cavity since my teens, being proud of my rock hard teeth, they suddenly decided to give up the ghost. I've sworn off trail mix, my favorite food, but still...they're going.
So I'm in Utah a week later, and I bite down on some jerky...
I know, bad choice, but I hadn't eaten in hours, and I feel this sensitivity.
And then I got to wonder...what if this tooth decided to announce itself in Oslo?
It didn't.
It waited until last night, at our reunion seder, when I bit down on some salmon and...
That's right, salmon, from Costco, soft and flaky. Suddenly, my birthday plans were in jeopardy.
To say I didn't sleep soundly is an understatement. You've got to go to the dentist immediately if you have sensitivity when you drink, but I didn't, so I didn't pull the emergency cord, which I'm always afraid to do, afraid to be judged by the provider, hell, I'm always worried when I show up they'll give me a hard time, claiming I'm a pussy and there's nothing wrong.
But not this time.
I was ringing them before they were there. I wanted to get in. I wanted to save the day.
But I didn't.
They wondered if I could come TOMORROW!
No f'ing way. I can't EAT!
Okay, I'll come at 4:30.
And what did I do all day?
Read, and watched the minutes tick by on my iPhone. I was in a state of suspended animation, celebrating my birthday didn't even enter my mind.
And at first the dentist can't find the spot. Because I think it's a tooth that had previous work, it all made sense to me, that the hygienist tweaked a preexisting condition.
But he thought differently. I had to bite down on wood twice to convince myself that another virgin tooth had decided to go.
But how deep was the crack?
This ain't no amateur dentist. He's not going by guesswork. He wonders if I have time to walk a few blocks to the endodontist. I'VE GOT ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD, I'VE ALREADY BLOWN MY BIRTHDAY!
So I walk over to Bedford and I'm waiting and waiting and waiting, which means if nothing's wrong I won't have time to go back to the dentist and get the crown I crave and...
Finally I'm seen by a mad scientist who resembles no one as much as John Turturro. Someone so caught up in his work he's giving me detail I'd only need if I went to dental school, which I love, I'm all about information.
And he dives in and says...
We've got to go deeper, he needs to shoot me up, and after doing this, he reaches down and removes half of my pearly white and announces that not only do I need a root canal, but probably gum surgery too.
HUH?
And how does he know this dentist anyway, he looks like he just graduated from school.
BECAUSE HE USES A MICROSCOPE!
That's right, in the last five years there's been a revolution in endodontics. Either you peer through the microscope or you're history.
And I'm peeing and texting, waiting for my turn as the minutes tick by, and then I'm in a scene from "Marathon Man," only much shorter than the last time I had a root canal. I'm running sexual fantasies in my brain, trying to distract myself from the droning of the drill, and then...it's done.
So I've got an appointment at the dentist tomorrow at 9 AM, to see if he can execute a crown or whether I need that aforementioned gum surgery first, since the tooth broke below the line.
And I'm wondering how life plays out...
Is this my future?
I mean I can bang the bumps on the South Rim no problem, but body parts I never think about are saying NO MAS and my best laid plans are jumping the rails.
So, I want to thank all the people who e-mailed, called, tweeted and texted me birthday wishes, I truly appreciate it.
But it hasn't been a very happy birthday.
But I'm afraid of appearing ungrateful, not responding.
So let the foregoing be my explanation, my excuse.
P.S. The endodontist told me to tell anybody who said I had a big mouth that I didn't, he'd been inside, he could testify... And I didn't even tell him I was a writer!
P.P.S. The endodontist told me twice that it was an EMERGENCY! And he doubted if I'd come in a month earlier, when I first felt the pain, that the result would have been any different. So, I guess that's my big birthday gift...JUSTIFICATION!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Monday 21 April 2014
Gotta Get To Know You
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1iapuQD
YouTube: http://bit.ly/1gOhbdT
And this is why algorithms will never replace deejays...
I just got an e-mail from Mike Marrone, of Sirius XM's Loft, he sent me a track from Foghat's debut LP that immediately took me to a zone wherein I felt fuzzy all over.
And I'd never ever heard it. Even though Mike figured I had.
That's the thing about music, it may be recorded in 1's and 0's, but it can't be quantified, it's something you feel, that changes your life.
And it doesn't matter if you drop the needle or push play, whether it's rendered on a $50,000 stereo or comes out of the single speaker in your Chevy, the essence maintains.
Lonesome Dave is singing about getting to know a woman, but what we've gotta get to know are numbers like this, lurking on YouTube, buried on Spotify, just waiting for someone to point us to them, not because they want to profit from the exchange, but because they want the payment of the joy they see on our face when we finally listen.
Why is "Gotta Get To Know You" so fantastic?
Because of the MOOD!
That's why we sat in front of our stereos, why we wanted to pull back the foam on our JBLs and climb inside, because we wanted to merge with this sound, we wanted to be taken away to a fantasyland where we were immersed in warm honey, floating down a river of dreams.
And this is not the kind of stuff you can build by committee. It's got to emanate from a core of like-minded individuals who pour their hearts into a groove, thrilled that they're making this music.
Just as much as we're thrilled to be listening to it.
So, take your eyes off of Katy Perry, get your head out of the Sahara Tent, put down your smartphone and slow down for an ethereal ride inside your own brain. Isn't that what the Moody Blues sang about, not having to leave your own home, your own mind, to go on an amazing journey?
Yes, "Gotta Get To Know You" is an album cut. Its sound hooks you instantly, but the reward comes in playing it to its conclusion, and then listening once again, not because it's being trumpeted by the media but because your best friend told you to check it out, because you stumbled upon it at the end of an LP.
Once upon a time, this exquisite number would have been dead and gone, only remembered by the few who heard it the first time around.
But now, through the magic of the Internet, it's right here for all to enjoy, to be transported to a land where TV and movies don't matter, where your only desire is to tell everybody you know...LISTEN TO THIS!
But not until you've spun it so much it's bonded with your DNA.
"Gotta Get To Know You" is subtle. There's no guest rapper. It's got no superfluous instrumentation. It's fully-formed, it's genius on wax, it needs no remixing, no release of stems so fans can place their stamp, it's sealed, listening to it is like stumbling upon the Dead Sea Scrolls, an artifact from the past.
And Lonesome Dave is long gone. Rod Price too. They're not going to know you played this. Their heirs are not going to profit handsomely, hell, they didn't even write it. But money is not what music is about. Cash is just a byproduct. The jism on the sheets that Gene Simmons keeps pointing to that really doesn't matter.
Because it's about the experience, whether it be coming or listening to music, it's what it feels like during, not what you're left with after.
And these land mines are all over the Web, throughout music history, just when you think you've heard it all, you haven't.
We just need someone to point us to them.
Thank god Mike Marrone pointed this one to me!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
YouTube: http://bit.ly/1gOhbdT
And this is why algorithms will never replace deejays...
I just got an e-mail from Mike Marrone, of Sirius XM's Loft, he sent me a track from Foghat's debut LP that immediately took me to a zone wherein I felt fuzzy all over.
And I'd never ever heard it. Even though Mike figured I had.
That's the thing about music, it may be recorded in 1's and 0's, but it can't be quantified, it's something you feel, that changes your life.
And it doesn't matter if you drop the needle or push play, whether it's rendered on a $50,000 stereo or comes out of the single speaker in your Chevy, the essence maintains.
Lonesome Dave is singing about getting to know a woman, but what we've gotta get to know are numbers like this, lurking on YouTube, buried on Spotify, just waiting for someone to point us to them, not because they want to profit from the exchange, but because they want the payment of the joy they see on our face when we finally listen.
Why is "Gotta Get To Know You" so fantastic?
Because of the MOOD!
That's why we sat in front of our stereos, why we wanted to pull back the foam on our JBLs and climb inside, because we wanted to merge with this sound, we wanted to be taken away to a fantasyland where we were immersed in warm honey, floating down a river of dreams.
And this is not the kind of stuff you can build by committee. It's got to emanate from a core of like-minded individuals who pour their hearts into a groove, thrilled that they're making this music.
Just as much as we're thrilled to be listening to it.
So, take your eyes off of Katy Perry, get your head out of the Sahara Tent, put down your smartphone and slow down for an ethereal ride inside your own brain. Isn't that what the Moody Blues sang about, not having to leave your own home, your own mind, to go on an amazing journey?
Yes, "Gotta Get To Know You" is an album cut. Its sound hooks you instantly, but the reward comes in playing it to its conclusion, and then listening once again, not because it's being trumpeted by the media but because your best friend told you to check it out, because you stumbled upon it at the end of an LP.
Once upon a time, this exquisite number would have been dead and gone, only remembered by the few who heard it the first time around.
But now, through the magic of the Internet, it's right here for all to enjoy, to be transported to a land where TV and movies don't matter, where your only desire is to tell everybody you know...LISTEN TO THIS!
But not until you've spun it so much it's bonded with your DNA.
"Gotta Get To Know You" is subtle. There's no guest rapper. It's got no superfluous instrumentation. It's fully-formed, it's genius on wax, it needs no remixing, no release of stems so fans can place their stamp, it's sealed, listening to it is like stumbling upon the Dead Sea Scrolls, an artifact from the past.
And Lonesome Dave is long gone. Rod Price too. They're not going to know you played this. Their heirs are not going to profit handsomely, hell, they didn't even write it. But money is not what music is about. Cash is just a byproduct. The jism on the sheets that Gene Simmons keeps pointing to that really doesn't matter.
Because it's about the experience, whether it be coming or listening to music, it's what it feels like during, not what you're left with after.
And these land mines are all over the Web, throughout music history, just when you think you've heard it all, you haven't.
We just need someone to point us to them.
Thank god Mike Marrone pointed this one to me!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Sunday 20 April 2014
Young/Old
YOUNG
Are friendly, they'll talk to anybody.
OLD
Won't talk to anybody they don't know.
YOUNG
Believe they're all in it together.
OLD
Are all about status. They want everybody to know they're better than they are and will pony up for VIP access or anything that separates them from the hoi polloi, especially if it's visible.
YOUNG
Go to the gig to have a good time, it's about hanging with your friends, known and unknown, it's a license to party.
OLD
Go to the gig to hear the band. They know at least a few songs, if not all of them, unless, of course, they got the tickets through Goldstar or another discount operation...old people love a deal, they'll sit through almost anything if it's cheap enough.
YOUNG
Don't remember a day when hats were not cool.
OLD
Some will wear hats, a bunch still will not, other than baseball caps, they still remember Kennedy being inaugurated sans chapeau, or the influence thereof.
YOUNG
Love to dress up, Halloween was always a national holiday to them, they're unafraid of looking stupid.
OLD
Will dress up on occasion, but are too inhibited to look stupid.
YOUNG
Let their freak flags fly. If you're odd, you can still be included.
OLD
Don't want to be the victim of derision. They're judging their brethren all the time. They haven't seen each other as equal since Woodstock.
YOUNG
Are optimistic.
OLD
Are pessimistic.
YOUNG
Are laissez-faire, they believe life will work out.
OLD
Are afraid if they don't pay attention, they're gonna get screwed, they're always afraid of getting screwed.
YOUNG
Want a photo.
OLD
Want an autograph.
YOUNG
See marijuana as part of the culture.
OLD
Still see marijuana as cool.
YOUNG
Don't need a fancy car, if they need a car at all. They want to go places, but they're willing to use every mode of transportation, from the bus to the plane.
OLD
See a car as a status item. They've got to have one and most keep theirs in good shape, they believe their auto is a reflection of their identity.
YOUNG
Want to travel.
OLD
Want to stay put.
YOUNG
Need to be there.
OLD
Don't need to be anywhere, unless it confers status upon them, they'd rather stay home and watch television than go to the gig.
YOUNG
Listen to all kinds of music.
OLD
Only listen to the music they already know.
YOUNG
Will live with a broken cell phone screen, but they upgrade their handset as soon as they're eligible.
OLD
Get their broken screen replaced, and are not eager to replace their handset.
YOUNG
Think that money comes and goes.
OLD
Think if you don't hold on to the money you've got, you're gonna run out in the future and they fear being destitute.
YOUNG
Smile.
OLD
Scowl.
YOUNG
Don't talk much politics, they see the parties as similar and controlled by corporations. They see politics as "other."
OLD
Talk politics all the time. They think they can make a difference. And they're very busy protecting what they've got, irrelevant of whether this will negatively impact someone else.
YOUNG
Believe if you skip the dentist your teeth will be okay, that accidents will happen, but generally they're invulnerable, and if they get hurt, they'll heal.
OLD
Only skip the dentist or doctor if they can't afford it. They shy away from activities for fear they'll get hurt, worrying they'll never heal.
YOUNG
Think they know everything, at least everything necessary to live.
OLD
Are so much wiser than the young, but the young won't listen to them.
YOUNG
Don't want to be old.
OLD
Are dying to be young.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Are friendly, they'll talk to anybody.
OLD
Won't talk to anybody they don't know.
YOUNG
Believe they're all in it together.
OLD
Are all about status. They want everybody to know they're better than they are and will pony up for VIP access or anything that separates them from the hoi polloi, especially if it's visible.
YOUNG
Go to the gig to have a good time, it's about hanging with your friends, known and unknown, it's a license to party.
OLD
Go to the gig to hear the band. They know at least a few songs, if not all of them, unless, of course, they got the tickets through Goldstar or another discount operation...old people love a deal, they'll sit through almost anything if it's cheap enough.
YOUNG
Don't remember a day when hats were not cool.
OLD
Some will wear hats, a bunch still will not, other than baseball caps, they still remember Kennedy being inaugurated sans chapeau, or the influence thereof.
YOUNG
Love to dress up, Halloween was always a national holiday to them, they're unafraid of looking stupid.
OLD
Will dress up on occasion, but are too inhibited to look stupid.
YOUNG
Let their freak flags fly. If you're odd, you can still be included.
OLD
Don't want to be the victim of derision. They're judging their brethren all the time. They haven't seen each other as equal since Woodstock.
YOUNG
Are optimistic.
OLD
Are pessimistic.
YOUNG
Are laissez-faire, they believe life will work out.
OLD
Are afraid if they don't pay attention, they're gonna get screwed, they're always afraid of getting screwed.
YOUNG
Want a photo.
OLD
Want an autograph.
YOUNG
See marijuana as part of the culture.
OLD
Still see marijuana as cool.
YOUNG
Don't need a fancy car, if they need a car at all. They want to go places, but they're willing to use every mode of transportation, from the bus to the plane.
OLD
See a car as a status item. They've got to have one and most keep theirs in good shape, they believe their auto is a reflection of their identity.
YOUNG
Want to travel.
OLD
Want to stay put.
YOUNG
Need to be there.
OLD
Don't need to be anywhere, unless it confers status upon them, they'd rather stay home and watch television than go to the gig.
YOUNG
Listen to all kinds of music.
OLD
Only listen to the music they already know.
YOUNG
Will live with a broken cell phone screen, but they upgrade their handset as soon as they're eligible.
OLD
Get their broken screen replaced, and are not eager to replace their handset.
YOUNG
Think that money comes and goes.
OLD
Think if you don't hold on to the money you've got, you're gonna run out in the future and they fear being destitute.
YOUNG
Smile.
OLD
Scowl.
YOUNG
Don't talk much politics, they see the parties as similar and controlled by corporations. They see politics as "other."
OLD
Talk politics all the time. They think they can make a difference. And they're very busy protecting what they've got, irrelevant of whether this will negatively impact someone else.
YOUNG
Believe if you skip the dentist your teeth will be okay, that accidents will happen, but generally they're invulnerable, and if they get hurt, they'll heal.
OLD
Only skip the dentist or doctor if they can't afford it. They shy away from activities for fear they'll get hurt, worrying they'll never heal.
YOUNG
Think they know everything, at least everything necessary to live.
OLD
Are so much wiser than the young, but the young won't listen to them.
YOUNG
Don't want to be old.
OLD
Are dying to be young.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Red Bull Rules
1. It's not for everyone. I.e. it tastes like horse piss.
a. You're defined by your haters as much as your lovers. Anti is everything. If someone thinks you're trash, there's someone else who loves you, who testifies about you and will die for you.
b. If you want everyone to love you you're on the wrong path, that just means you've muddled your message so much that no one is passionate about you, and passion is everything.
2. Brand identity is key.
a. First and foremost someone has to know your name and remember it. How often does someone ask you if you know this musical act or not and you realize you don't? Names are important. Making sure people are aware of that name is just as important.
3. The long haul.
a. Everybody today wants to be an instant success. Hell, we can even say it took twenty years for Apple to hit its stride, why does everyone in the arts believe they're entitled to recognition right away, never mind riches? First you have an idea, then you refine that idea, then you market that idea. In other words, ideas are everything. Which is why the Ramones were so successful, they inaugurated punk, they realized the conception exceeded the execution. In other words, Johnny Ramone couldn't play like Steve Howe, but it made no difference, he was a perfect executor of the idea. Also, you learn along the way. No one emerges fully-formed. It's not until you journey down the path that you discover what you're good at, what people respond to. So adjustment is key. What Steve Jobs was good at was synthesizing preexisting ideas and then marketing them via extended presentations and unique advertising. Having the idea/product is not enough. You must figure out a way to sell it.
4. Align yourself with a subculture.
In the case of Red Bull, it was extreme sports. This lent a renegade spirit to the brand. Instead of hiring an actor or another well-known celebrity, Red Bull signed up those who were stars in niches or weren't stars at all, from Shaun White to that guy who parachuted from space. We're all drawn to those who can do what we cannot. Furthermore, when they have a skill, they separate themselves from the reality television stars, who are famous for being famous and that's it.
5. Support charity. As Red Bull does with: http://www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com/en/
Start giving from the beginning, make it part of your core mission. And never profit from your involvement. When I see "a portion of proceeds will be donated to charity" I hate the purveyor/perpetrator. If you're not willing to give away all of the money, don't even tell us. When you're giving away a "portion" I believe it's tiny, otherwise you'd give all of the proceeds away, like all the entry fees for the Wings For Life World Run. Don't use charity to break your brand, but to enhance your brand. It's just part of your core mission, it's not the leading edge, it's not the reason I should get involved, it's just a BENEFIT!
6. Spend.
Nothing makes it without money. Certainly not in the era of Internet cacophony. If you're asking for someone else's cash, expect to give up power. No one is going to invest for nothing. And no one invests unless they expect a return. Better to execute a proof of concept first. Demonstrate you can make money, then you'll get better terms. Even better, be in charge of your own destiny, don't sell out. But without money, you're nowhere, sorry.
7. Allow people to show your colors.
Red Bull's got an online shop that sells a plethora of merch for all its pursuits: https://www.redbullshop.com/redbull/ If people believe in you, they want to demonstrate that belief by buying and using your merch. It's great if you don't need it, like Howard Stern, who refuses to do merch, but he's spreading the word about himself all the time in the media. Red Bull is creating its own media. Once again, it's the anti. And people want to align with the anti by wearing a company's colors.
8. The CEO Must Embody The Brand.
Dietrich Mateschitz is not a wannabe banker.
Yup, losers who get rich don expensive suits and imitate the lifestyle of the people their customers hold in contempt. I may not love Facebook, but I love that Mark Zuckerberg wears that damn hoodie. He's earned the right to. That's what musicians used to stand for, the alternative... We made a fortune on the backs of our fans and now we do whatever we want. Instead, today's musicians rarely have a core identity, their image is confused, with all their endorsement deals and their obvious desire to climb the economic ladder.
9. Never rest on your laurels.
Red Bull dives into magazines, TV production, it never rests, whereas when an act makes it today, it stops recording new music and goes on the road to rake in the bucks, forgetting its core mission. Lady Gaga might make money this time around, but with no hit records, she won't be able to sell out arenas in the future. Gaga should cancel her tour and put out one hit record. Even if she has to sign up with Max Martin and Dr. Luke. She's forgetting her core mission. Or maybe do an acoustic record. By going on tour, she's taking her eye from the prize. The fact that she's continuing to get mainstream publicity? So does Kim Kardashian, and when she's done you'll hear a giant sucking sound as her body collapses in upon itself, because there's nothing inside. Kim Kardashian is perfect for today's age, she's all about money, that's why she's famous. But if you think money is a core product, then I hope you save it, because you're not going to make it for long.
Wherever cool events take place, Red Bull is there. And that's the only place it is. It's not a classic brand, doling out a bit of cash here and there, its execs too ignorant to realize that's a waste. Bud Light sponsors events, but it doesn't burnish the image of the brand. Instead of sponsoring everything, Bud Light should just focus on one thing. Even better, Bud should have a new brand that ONLY sponsors music or another endeavor. Red Bull is about sports. It's about extreme. You know that if you've never tasted the yellow liquid. There's no point in being everywhere if no one knows what you stand for.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
a. You're defined by your haters as much as your lovers. Anti is everything. If someone thinks you're trash, there's someone else who loves you, who testifies about you and will die for you.
b. If you want everyone to love you you're on the wrong path, that just means you've muddled your message so much that no one is passionate about you, and passion is everything.
2. Brand identity is key.
a. First and foremost someone has to know your name and remember it. How often does someone ask you if you know this musical act or not and you realize you don't? Names are important. Making sure people are aware of that name is just as important.
3. The long haul.
a. Everybody today wants to be an instant success. Hell, we can even say it took twenty years for Apple to hit its stride, why does everyone in the arts believe they're entitled to recognition right away, never mind riches? First you have an idea, then you refine that idea, then you market that idea. In other words, ideas are everything. Which is why the Ramones were so successful, they inaugurated punk, they realized the conception exceeded the execution. In other words, Johnny Ramone couldn't play like Steve Howe, but it made no difference, he was a perfect executor of the idea. Also, you learn along the way. No one emerges fully-formed. It's not until you journey down the path that you discover what you're good at, what people respond to. So adjustment is key. What Steve Jobs was good at was synthesizing preexisting ideas and then marketing them via extended presentations and unique advertising. Having the idea/product is not enough. You must figure out a way to sell it.
4. Align yourself with a subculture.
In the case of Red Bull, it was extreme sports. This lent a renegade spirit to the brand. Instead of hiring an actor or another well-known celebrity, Red Bull signed up those who were stars in niches or weren't stars at all, from Shaun White to that guy who parachuted from space. We're all drawn to those who can do what we cannot. Furthermore, when they have a skill, they separate themselves from the reality television stars, who are famous for being famous and that's it.
5. Support charity. As Red Bull does with: http://www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com/en/
Start giving from the beginning, make it part of your core mission. And never profit from your involvement. When I see "a portion of proceeds will be donated to charity" I hate the purveyor/perpetrator. If you're not willing to give away all of the money, don't even tell us. When you're giving away a "portion" I believe it's tiny, otherwise you'd give all of the proceeds away, like all the entry fees for the Wings For Life World Run. Don't use charity to break your brand, but to enhance your brand. It's just part of your core mission, it's not the leading edge, it's not the reason I should get involved, it's just a BENEFIT!
6. Spend.
Nothing makes it without money. Certainly not in the era of Internet cacophony. If you're asking for someone else's cash, expect to give up power. No one is going to invest for nothing. And no one invests unless they expect a return. Better to execute a proof of concept first. Demonstrate you can make money, then you'll get better terms. Even better, be in charge of your own destiny, don't sell out. But without money, you're nowhere, sorry.
7. Allow people to show your colors.
Red Bull's got an online shop that sells a plethora of merch for all its pursuits: https://www.redbullshop.com/redbull/ If people believe in you, they want to demonstrate that belief by buying and using your merch. It's great if you don't need it, like Howard Stern, who refuses to do merch, but he's spreading the word about himself all the time in the media. Red Bull is creating its own media. Once again, it's the anti. And people want to align with the anti by wearing a company's colors.
8. The CEO Must Embody The Brand.
Dietrich Mateschitz is not a wannabe banker.
Yup, losers who get rich don expensive suits and imitate the lifestyle of the people their customers hold in contempt. I may not love Facebook, but I love that Mark Zuckerberg wears that damn hoodie. He's earned the right to. That's what musicians used to stand for, the alternative... We made a fortune on the backs of our fans and now we do whatever we want. Instead, today's musicians rarely have a core identity, their image is confused, with all their endorsement deals and their obvious desire to climb the economic ladder.
9. Never rest on your laurels.
Red Bull dives into magazines, TV production, it never rests, whereas when an act makes it today, it stops recording new music and goes on the road to rake in the bucks, forgetting its core mission. Lady Gaga might make money this time around, but with no hit records, she won't be able to sell out arenas in the future. Gaga should cancel her tour and put out one hit record. Even if she has to sign up with Max Martin and Dr. Luke. She's forgetting her core mission. Or maybe do an acoustic record. By going on tour, she's taking her eye from the prize. The fact that she's continuing to get mainstream publicity? So does Kim Kardashian, and when she's done you'll hear a giant sucking sound as her body collapses in upon itself, because there's nothing inside. Kim Kardashian is perfect for today's age, she's all about money, that's why she's famous. But if you think money is a core product, then I hope you save it, because you're not going to make it for long.
Wherever cool events take place, Red Bull is there. And that's the only place it is. It's not a classic brand, doling out a bit of cash here and there, its execs too ignorant to realize that's a waste. Bud Light sponsors events, but it doesn't burnish the image of the brand. Instead of sponsoring everything, Bud Light should just focus on one thing. Even better, Bud should have a new brand that ONLY sponsors music or another endeavor. Red Bull is about sports. It's about extreme. You know that if you've never tasted the yellow liquid. There's no point in being everywhere if no one knows what you stand for.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)