There's no buzz.
How long until HBO cancels Bill Simmons? It's gonna happen, hell, the new regime scrapped the second season of "Vinyl" after the show had already been picked up. You see the ratings sucked. And TV lives by statistics, they trump friends every time. Sure, it's great to be in business with Mick Jagger and Marty Scorsese, but not when you're losing money, or could put something much more profitable in their place. HBO is all about premium content, a cut above, that you can't get anywhere else, and as soon as something substandard airs, they cancel it.
Bill Simmons spoke truth to power, he angered his ESPN bosses. But leaving was like graduating from high school, once he was gone no one cared, there was nothing to rebel against, just another overaged teenager wondering what to do next.
HBO rescued him.
But is there a need for a sports talk show on the outlet? One based on the personality of someone most find edgy and offensive? Once again, it's like taking someone from nowheresville and putting them in the big leagues, a high school thespian in Hollywood, does anybody really care?
Only if you're great out of the box.
And Simmons was mediocre, a deer in the headlights. If they give him enough rope he'll get better, he might find himself, but this is not Bryant Gumbel transferring from the "Today" show. Or Bill Maher moving "Politically Incorrect" from ABC. Simmons had essentially no television experience, and like David Lee Roth trying to replace Howard Stern, he failed. Broadcasting is a skill, and so far Simmons doesn't have it.
And then there was the endless repetition of the arrogant promos, wherein Simmons looked like nothing so much as what he is, an overeducated boy/man bitching from the sidelines about a game he was unable to participate in. Why couldn't they make more than one clip? Why couldn't they have had a teaser campaign online? Released video on YouTube in advance?
We either need the show or the personality must be transcendent. Or, the story can be so good that it hooks us. Simmons laid goose eggs on every level. Proving that the institution is bigger than the individual, that's the story of the past few years. Ezra Klein left the "Washington Post" claiming he was gonna reinvent news for the millennial generation. No, the millennials all go to social media sites, Vox has no traction whatsoever.
Don't step out on your own, in a cluttered world of endless messages he who already has traction is king. Media stars can jump from one platform to another, but starting a new one from scratch... That'd be like Kevin Durant forgoing the Warriors to play in Dubuque on a team without a television contract. He'd claim you could see the games online, but could you tear yourself away from cat videos and porn and the rest of the cornucopia of short form material that overloads us online?
Which brings us to the Ringer. Simmons' replacement for Grantland. What if they launched a site and no one went there? I have never ever been sent a link from the Ringer. I've never ever seen it mentioned in anything I've read. Sure, it's new, but today you've got to start with a splash. And do we really need one more Bro site with snarky comment mixed in with overlong analyses of that which we don't care that much about to begin with?
Simmons will walk away with his money and his identity. He does an informative podcast, he shines there. And there's room for his antics on other sports platforms.
But he cannot build it himself.
It's kind of like Trent Reznor leaving Interscope to reinvent the wheel. No, he went back to the major label, the majors have relationships, they do stuff better than you, they can cover all the bases.
ESPN is challenged by cord-cutting. But it built its rep in a pre-internet era and not only do its bona fides survive, it has assets and traction. You harness those to get ahead, as opposed to trailblazing from zero. It'd be one thing if Simmons' HBO show was innovative, but you can get the same crap elsewhere easily. As for the internet, it's a haven of opinions. We want news, facts, and stars. Simmons is a star in print, as for the rest of the people on his site? Kind of like fivethirtyeight.com, there's Nate Silver and twenty no-names I don't want to read the work of.
This is not about Bill Simmons.
This is about television. HBO is competing with the revamped Starz, run by its old majordomo, Chris Albrecht, that service now eclipses Showtime in subscribers. And Netflix and Amazon and Hulu. Being artist-friendly is not enough, you've got to deliver great consistently. Used to be HBO was the only playground, now it's not. They haven't got time to let you develop, like a deejay in Des Moines honing his chops before he gets to L.A.
This is about the internet. It's much less rogue and up for grabs than you think it is. It's about established players fighting for market share. Facebook is going into video, what was that site that was gonna compete with YouTube by paying the creators more? It's already history. Only established players can compete with YouTube.
And only established players can compete in news. Bezos injects cash into the WaPo which is run by Marty Baron of "Spotlight" fame and Bill Simmons thinks he can compete with that?
And that's what the Ringer is competing with. It's an attention economy. And if I peruse the Ringer I've got less time for the authorities.
So, you want a name at an established place.
Otherwise you're just pissing in the wind.
This is the world we're living in.
P.S. The name of that video site was Vessel. It was run by Jason Kilar, the former CEO of Hulu. Hulu is still standing, it's triumphing. Kilar and Vessel are in the rearview mirror. Don't get caught up in the cult of personality. NBC just needs someone to host the "Tonight Show," not Jimmy Fallon. And if ratings suck, they blow you out, despite you having a contract, just ask Conan O'Brien. Does anybody watch his show anymore?
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Saturday 16 July 2016
Bonnaroo Bummer
"Bonnaroo ticket sales drop by 28,000, hitting an all-time low": http://goo.gl/a32UQM
The name wasn't bigger than the lineup.
Ever since Coachella went on sale without a slate, we've come to believe it's all about the experience. Isn't that what we're told millennials want?
But the drastic decline in Bonnaroo attendance tells us this isn't so. Coachella might be a rite of passage for SoCal teenagers, despite the press fawning over its musical bona fides, but every other festival in America other than EDC lives and dies on who is performing.
And the acts performing at Bonnaroo were aged, appealing to the wrong demo.
Millennials don't care about the Dead, certainly not Pearl Jam. And LCD Soundsystem peaked years ago. And only millennials want to camp out in the heat and endure the crowds to see acts in the summer in Tennessee.
Conversely, baby boomers are flocking to Oldchella because of the lineup, as stellar as has ever been put together, eclipsing even Woodstock, which didn't have either the Beatles or the Stones, but they're part of the Desert Trip. That's the buzz in L.A., who plays next year? And believe me, Goldenvoice wants to do this next year, create an institution. Do the oldsters flock for a reunion of the Kinks or to hear David Gilmour or can this only be a one time event because the assets have been strip-mined and the landscape is now empty? Furthermore, there might be a backlash, these are people who are used to being up close and personal and inherently they won't be, not with hard seats and this many in attendance, so, buzz... No, let's not kid ourselves, baby boomers will testify as to how great it is no matter how bad it is, unless it's an utter disaster. It's all about their image. We think youngsters worry about how they're perceived? Oldsters care even more, after spending thousands
they won't complain. But they may not return.
But they keep coming back to EDC, the Electric Daisy Carnival, because that's a culture, that's a scene, the headliners aren't everything. But the truth is the headliners are everything to the rest of these music-focused festivals.
So it is about who you book.
And these festivals have to start booking youngsters. The acts millennials really want to see.
Like Bieber. He's now credible, after working with Skrillex and Diplo. He should headline Coachella next year, usher that festival into the new paradigm, illustrate the changing of the guard. Millennials don't care about reunions, they weren't there the first time around!
So it's all about headliners. And it's all about scarcity. Country business has faltered because these acts go out every year. Why go to the festival to see them when they're in your hometown on a regular basis? Whereas there's far more demand for Drake than can be fulfilled, Beyonce too.
And we've got to stop hearing how good the festival site is, all the smoke the promoters blow out their ass, patting themselves on the back, trying to believe it's about them.
It's never about them. As long as people don't get trampled to death, as long as there's enough water and bathrooms, people will flock to a field in the middle of nowhere to see the right talent.
But what is that talent?
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The name wasn't bigger than the lineup.
Ever since Coachella went on sale without a slate, we've come to believe it's all about the experience. Isn't that what we're told millennials want?
But the drastic decline in Bonnaroo attendance tells us this isn't so. Coachella might be a rite of passage for SoCal teenagers, despite the press fawning over its musical bona fides, but every other festival in America other than EDC lives and dies on who is performing.
And the acts performing at Bonnaroo were aged, appealing to the wrong demo.
Millennials don't care about the Dead, certainly not Pearl Jam. And LCD Soundsystem peaked years ago. And only millennials want to camp out in the heat and endure the crowds to see acts in the summer in Tennessee.
Conversely, baby boomers are flocking to Oldchella because of the lineup, as stellar as has ever been put together, eclipsing even Woodstock, which didn't have either the Beatles or the Stones, but they're part of the Desert Trip. That's the buzz in L.A., who plays next year? And believe me, Goldenvoice wants to do this next year, create an institution. Do the oldsters flock for a reunion of the Kinks or to hear David Gilmour or can this only be a one time event because the assets have been strip-mined and the landscape is now empty? Furthermore, there might be a backlash, these are people who are used to being up close and personal and inherently they won't be, not with hard seats and this many in attendance, so, buzz... No, let's not kid ourselves, baby boomers will testify as to how great it is no matter how bad it is, unless it's an utter disaster. It's all about their image. We think youngsters worry about how they're perceived? Oldsters care even more, after spending thousands
they won't complain. But they may not return.
But they keep coming back to EDC, the Electric Daisy Carnival, because that's a culture, that's a scene, the headliners aren't everything. But the truth is the headliners are everything to the rest of these music-focused festivals.
So it is about who you book.
And these festivals have to start booking youngsters. The acts millennials really want to see.
Like Bieber. He's now credible, after working with Skrillex and Diplo. He should headline Coachella next year, usher that festival into the new paradigm, illustrate the changing of the guard. Millennials don't care about reunions, they weren't there the first time around!
So it's all about headliners. And it's all about scarcity. Country business has faltered because these acts go out every year. Why go to the festival to see them when they're in your hometown on a regular basis? Whereas there's far more demand for Drake than can be fulfilled, Beyonce too.
And we've got to stop hearing how good the festival site is, all the smoke the promoters blow out their ass, patting themselves on the back, trying to believe it's about them.
It's never about them. As long as people don't get trampled to death, as long as there's enough water and bathrooms, people will flock to a field in the middle of nowhere to see the right talent.
But what is that talent?
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Friday 15 July 2016
Chaos Monkeys
"Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley": https://goo.gl/bK0Aul
Maybe we should all read this together.
I'm serious. You've got a smartphone, probably a tablet too. The Kindle app is free, you go to Amazon (Amazon won't let you buy the book through the iPhone or iPad app, it doesn't want to cough up 30%), purchase the Kindle version of the book, which is presently $12.99, launch the app on your device and then download the book from your library in the cloud. It's just that easy.
Aaron Ross Sorkin broke the book. You know, the boyish financial columnist in the "New York Times," the one you see on Bill Maher's show on HBO. You should be reading Sorkin, along with Eduardo Porter, the "Times'" other financial reporter, I used to depend on the "Wall Street Journal," but in its dash to cover everything and become the right wing paper of record it's faltered in the financial sphere.
And when Sorkin speaks, people pay attention.
And now there's a buzz on this book.
I'd like to tell you it's highly readable, that it cuts like butter. But Antonio Garcia Martinez is no Michael Lewis. And speaking of Lewis, when you've finished reading this column immediately pull up the "Big Short" movie, it's on Netflix. I'm talking now. Obey me, I'm not getting paid here, it's for your own benefit. The film is the best illustration of herd mentality I've ever seen. Not only do so many have faith in a failed system, even those questioning it have no problem profiting from it. There's fraud in America people, WAKE UP!
But as I was saying, just because you're educated, wrote papers in college, that does not mean you're a good writer. Writing is a developed skill, and Martinez is not quite there yet. Not that he's completely off the mark, Martinez references Shakespeare and so many other things with which I'm unfamiliar. But what keeps me reading is his delineation of the Silicon Valley sphere, I've never read anything like this, ever. He names names, he tells the truth, you might hate his personality but he's brimming with facts, he knows the territory, and you can't believe all this is hiding in plain sight, but it's not. That's the dirty little secret of America, you only see the topsoil, what's beneath is hidden, intentionally, it's the code of silence.
So, unwilling to finish his PhD, Martinez goes to work at Goldman Sachs as a quant. If you don't know what that is, Martinez explains it. he explains everything, yet you still don't quite understand what Martinez is saying half the time, but you get the gist. And that's just the point, they don't want you to know.
His compatriots at Goldman?
They end up fired, in jail.
Michael Lewis started at Salomon Brothers. But he's been removed from the trenches for decades.
Then Martinez answers an ad and goes to work for Adchemy, in Silicon Valley. After revealing the shenanigans at Goldman, the eating contests, the other frat boy behavior.
And there's a lot of drinking at Adchemy. As a matter of fact, Martinez gets stopped for drunk driving right away. But he negotiates his way out. He teaches you how to negotiate from a position of weakness.
That's right kiddies, this is a business book, filled with so much insight you'll feel inadequate. And I'll tell you not to obey the learned rules, just know that experience counts and if you don't play you know nothing, everything you say is theoretical, and you don't know what you don't know, which is death.
Like if only one man at the enterprise is still standing that's a bad sign. What did he do to survive? That's gonna impact you.
And making money is also a bad sign. Because frequently you can do this without customers. Sounds counterintuitive, I know, read the book, you'll get it.
And now I'm at the point of Y Combinator.
Read "Wired" or "Fast Company" and you'll know the name, but you truly have no idea what goes on there. Yes, it's an incubator, but... How do you qualify? Who's in charge? What are they looking for?
And most of what they back bombs. Despite millions going in.
Martinez ends up at Facebook. That's how the book starts. We're so busy lionizing Sheryl Sandberg that we don't see her as a real person. She's just that high-ranking female exec who tells us all to lean in. But she does have a job, and so far it looks like it's being Zuckerberg's gatekeeper. And Zuck lives up to his rep, as being autocratic and idiosyncratic, but he just doesn't have enough time to get down into the weeds.
It's every man for himself in today's world. If you're working for the man and evidencing loyalty you're just a mark waiting to get screwed. Drinking the kool-aid and investing good cash in stock options that will be worthless when the company crashes. Doing favors before those above you squeeze you out.
Let me tell you some of the things I've learned so far...
Your enterprise has to have a leader, you can't be egalitarian. Someone has to plot strategy and make the hard decisions, even if they're wrong. That's the story of bands. If there's no leader, failure or breakup or both is on the horizon.
Pick your partners wisely, you'll spend more time and know them better than your spouse. As the chapter title says..."Like Marriage, but without the F___ing."
Don't start small, Mom & Pop are mercurial and you don't have enough manpower to service them. You can help them and they'll still fire you.
"Dogfooding" means to use your own product, to give the illusion of demand when one may not even exist. It derives from those old Alpo commercials, wherein Lorne Greene's dog eats the product. You've got to know the terminology, otherwise you look like a rube.
As I referenced above... "Never trust the survivor of a massacre until you know what he did to survive." That's from Kurt Vonnegut, there are quotes throughout the book, but the point is when the CEO of the record label is the only one left standing is there opportunity in the offing or death?
"A man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions." There you have it folks, from Marcus Aurelius himself, not only is a couch potato not worth much, they're going to hold you back. Hook your star to those with big desires.
Friends are soon enemies. They'll hold your immigration status over your head, quit and they'll report you to the government and have your ass deported.
And I'll give you one of Martinez's lists, full of wisdom:
"Investors are people with more money than time.
Employees are people with more time than money.
Entrepreneurs are simply the seductive go-betweens.
Startups are business experiments performed with other people's money.
Marketing is like sex: only losers pay for it.
Company culture is what goes without saying.
There are no real rules, only laws.
Success forgives all sins.
People who leak to you, leak about you.
Meritocracy is the propaganda we use to bless the charade.
Greed and vanity are the twin engines of bourgeois society.
Most managers are incompetent and maintain their jobs via inertia and politics.
Lawsuits are merely expensive feints in a well-scripted conflict narrative between corporate entities.
Capitalism is an amoral farce in which every player - investor, employee, entrepreneur, consumer - is complicit."
Antonio Garcia Martinez is the anti-millennial. One who pooh-poohs the trophy just for participating who is not busy fitting in and being a member of the group.
Forget the celebrity feuds. The truth is the hoi polloi, the weaklings, are so busy getting along that they cannot triumph. The winners have sharp edges. You're not gonna like Martinez, but you are gonna marvel that he was able to play the game and move up the food chain, even if he ultimately got canned at Facebook.
And that's the lion's share of the book and I haven't even gotten there yet, I'm only 18% of the way through.
Want an easy life? Read a thriller, a mystery, go for "Girl On The Train."
Want to learn something, want insight you can get nowhere else, want to see how the world really works? Than read "Chaos Monkeys."
We live in an on demand culture with instant gratification. This book is only a click away.
But you won't take the risk. You hate digital books. You're worried about the $12.99. You'd rather watch Netflix.
Pussy.
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Maybe we should all read this together.
I'm serious. You've got a smartphone, probably a tablet too. The Kindle app is free, you go to Amazon (Amazon won't let you buy the book through the iPhone or iPad app, it doesn't want to cough up 30%), purchase the Kindle version of the book, which is presently $12.99, launch the app on your device and then download the book from your library in the cloud. It's just that easy.
Aaron Ross Sorkin broke the book. You know, the boyish financial columnist in the "New York Times," the one you see on Bill Maher's show on HBO. You should be reading Sorkin, along with Eduardo Porter, the "Times'" other financial reporter, I used to depend on the "Wall Street Journal," but in its dash to cover everything and become the right wing paper of record it's faltered in the financial sphere.
And when Sorkin speaks, people pay attention.
And now there's a buzz on this book.
I'd like to tell you it's highly readable, that it cuts like butter. But Antonio Garcia Martinez is no Michael Lewis. And speaking of Lewis, when you've finished reading this column immediately pull up the "Big Short" movie, it's on Netflix. I'm talking now. Obey me, I'm not getting paid here, it's for your own benefit. The film is the best illustration of herd mentality I've ever seen. Not only do so many have faith in a failed system, even those questioning it have no problem profiting from it. There's fraud in America people, WAKE UP!
But as I was saying, just because you're educated, wrote papers in college, that does not mean you're a good writer. Writing is a developed skill, and Martinez is not quite there yet. Not that he's completely off the mark, Martinez references Shakespeare and so many other things with which I'm unfamiliar. But what keeps me reading is his delineation of the Silicon Valley sphere, I've never read anything like this, ever. He names names, he tells the truth, you might hate his personality but he's brimming with facts, he knows the territory, and you can't believe all this is hiding in plain sight, but it's not. That's the dirty little secret of America, you only see the topsoil, what's beneath is hidden, intentionally, it's the code of silence.
So, unwilling to finish his PhD, Martinez goes to work at Goldman Sachs as a quant. If you don't know what that is, Martinez explains it. he explains everything, yet you still don't quite understand what Martinez is saying half the time, but you get the gist. And that's just the point, they don't want you to know.
His compatriots at Goldman?
They end up fired, in jail.
Michael Lewis started at Salomon Brothers. But he's been removed from the trenches for decades.
Then Martinez answers an ad and goes to work for Adchemy, in Silicon Valley. After revealing the shenanigans at Goldman, the eating contests, the other frat boy behavior.
And there's a lot of drinking at Adchemy. As a matter of fact, Martinez gets stopped for drunk driving right away. But he negotiates his way out. He teaches you how to negotiate from a position of weakness.
That's right kiddies, this is a business book, filled with so much insight you'll feel inadequate. And I'll tell you not to obey the learned rules, just know that experience counts and if you don't play you know nothing, everything you say is theoretical, and you don't know what you don't know, which is death.
Like if only one man at the enterprise is still standing that's a bad sign. What did he do to survive? That's gonna impact you.
And making money is also a bad sign. Because frequently you can do this without customers. Sounds counterintuitive, I know, read the book, you'll get it.
And now I'm at the point of Y Combinator.
Read "Wired" or "Fast Company" and you'll know the name, but you truly have no idea what goes on there. Yes, it's an incubator, but... How do you qualify? Who's in charge? What are they looking for?
And most of what they back bombs. Despite millions going in.
Martinez ends up at Facebook. That's how the book starts. We're so busy lionizing Sheryl Sandberg that we don't see her as a real person. She's just that high-ranking female exec who tells us all to lean in. But she does have a job, and so far it looks like it's being Zuckerberg's gatekeeper. And Zuck lives up to his rep, as being autocratic and idiosyncratic, but he just doesn't have enough time to get down into the weeds.
It's every man for himself in today's world. If you're working for the man and evidencing loyalty you're just a mark waiting to get screwed. Drinking the kool-aid and investing good cash in stock options that will be worthless when the company crashes. Doing favors before those above you squeeze you out.
Let me tell you some of the things I've learned so far...
Your enterprise has to have a leader, you can't be egalitarian. Someone has to plot strategy and make the hard decisions, even if they're wrong. That's the story of bands. If there's no leader, failure or breakup or both is on the horizon.
Pick your partners wisely, you'll spend more time and know them better than your spouse. As the chapter title says..."Like Marriage, but without the F___ing."
Don't start small, Mom & Pop are mercurial and you don't have enough manpower to service them. You can help them and they'll still fire you.
"Dogfooding" means to use your own product, to give the illusion of demand when one may not even exist. It derives from those old Alpo commercials, wherein Lorne Greene's dog eats the product. You've got to know the terminology, otherwise you look like a rube.
As I referenced above... "Never trust the survivor of a massacre until you know what he did to survive." That's from Kurt Vonnegut, there are quotes throughout the book, but the point is when the CEO of the record label is the only one left standing is there opportunity in the offing or death?
"A man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions." There you have it folks, from Marcus Aurelius himself, not only is a couch potato not worth much, they're going to hold you back. Hook your star to those with big desires.
Friends are soon enemies. They'll hold your immigration status over your head, quit and they'll report you to the government and have your ass deported.
And I'll give you one of Martinez's lists, full of wisdom:
"Investors are people with more money than time.
Employees are people with more time than money.
Entrepreneurs are simply the seductive go-betweens.
Startups are business experiments performed with other people's money.
Marketing is like sex: only losers pay for it.
Company culture is what goes without saying.
There are no real rules, only laws.
Success forgives all sins.
People who leak to you, leak about you.
Meritocracy is the propaganda we use to bless the charade.
Greed and vanity are the twin engines of bourgeois society.
Most managers are incompetent and maintain their jobs via inertia and politics.
Lawsuits are merely expensive feints in a well-scripted conflict narrative between corporate entities.
Capitalism is an amoral farce in which every player - investor, employee, entrepreneur, consumer - is complicit."
Antonio Garcia Martinez is the anti-millennial. One who pooh-poohs the trophy just for participating who is not busy fitting in and being a member of the group.
Forget the celebrity feuds. The truth is the hoi polloi, the weaklings, are so busy getting along that they cannot triumph. The winners have sharp edges. You're not gonna like Martinez, but you are gonna marvel that he was able to play the game and move up the food chain, even if he ultimately got canned at Facebook.
And that's the lion's share of the book and I haven't even gotten there yet, I'm only 18% of the way through.
Want an easy life? Read a thriller, a mystery, go for "Girl On The Train."
Want to learn something, want insight you can get nowhere else, want to see how the world really works? Than read "Chaos Monkeys."
We live in an on demand culture with instant gratification. This book is only a click away.
But you won't take the risk. You hate digital books. You're worried about the $12.99. You'd rather watch Netflix.
Pussy.
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Thursday 14 July 2016
Spontaneous Versus Calculated
It's why Trump pulled even with Clinton (http://goo.gl/ftSylN). Why Facebook Live is making inroads on YouTube. And why Snapchat is a juggernaut.
The elites tell us it's all about preparation. For the test. First in school, then in business. Mistakes are not tolerated, and if you commit a faux pas you must apologize.
But Donald Trump is doing none of this.
Hillary Clinton's campaign is like a military assault, with a zillion troops staying on message, believing in the old saw of the ground game and that all politics are local. Whereas Trump has no infrastructure and has thrown the rule book out. If this doesn't remind you of how the Vietcong triumphed over the United States you weren't alive back then. The U.S. was better organized with a bigger army it's just that it could not adjust to guerilla warfare.
Yesterday's big story was the Calvin Harris/Taylor Swift brouhaha. It was hard to peel your eyes away, because Calvin was shooting from the hip with his heart and emotions out front. Even Katy Perry weighed in.
Rappers release mixtapes. Knowing that raw and dangerous is appealing.
Image is no longer everything, identity is. You want to be three-dimensional, you want to stand for something. Which is why movie stars have faded. Groomed by the studios and publicists there's no there there. There's nothing to hold on to or react to.
Life is about choices. What to wear, what to eat, where to go... And if you pondered each one in advance, trying to get it exactly right, you'd be left far behind, you'd barely make it out of your house. You forget your keys, your wallet, you say the wrong thing to a friend or business colleague. But you also crack a joke and give a wink and evidence your humanity and that's what makes people stick to you.
Think about it, the younger generation is addicted to online influencers. Whose videos are far from professional, that's their appeal, they're shot in bedrooms, you feel like you know those people. That if you ran into them you could gossip, and never forget, the world runs on gossip.
The Republicans are all about gotcha. And that's why the elite lost control of their party.
The Clintons think it's 1995 and most people have no internet access, never mind a smartphone. Trump is tweeting and the Clintons are sending mailers.
Even Ruth Bader Ginsburg... Ignore the blowback. Her statements about Trump burnished her image more than any Supreme Court opinion. She suddenly looked real. All the balderdash about the dignity of the Court was just that, irrelevant gobbledygook. She's my hero. Less because of the content of her statements than the fact she showed emotion, she expressed an identity. And that's everything in today's world.
Display your rough edges. Don't worry so much about getting it right. If you're in the public eye you've got to appeal to us as a person.
This is a sea change, and the older generation doesn't get it.
It's no longer business as usual. Society moves much more quickly and is much more fluid and you're better off jumping into the pool and flailing till you find your stroke as opposed to sitting on the sidelines practicing until you get it right.
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The elites tell us it's all about preparation. For the test. First in school, then in business. Mistakes are not tolerated, and if you commit a faux pas you must apologize.
But Donald Trump is doing none of this.
Hillary Clinton's campaign is like a military assault, with a zillion troops staying on message, believing in the old saw of the ground game and that all politics are local. Whereas Trump has no infrastructure and has thrown the rule book out. If this doesn't remind you of how the Vietcong triumphed over the United States you weren't alive back then. The U.S. was better organized with a bigger army it's just that it could not adjust to guerilla warfare.
Yesterday's big story was the Calvin Harris/Taylor Swift brouhaha. It was hard to peel your eyes away, because Calvin was shooting from the hip with his heart and emotions out front. Even Katy Perry weighed in.
Rappers release mixtapes. Knowing that raw and dangerous is appealing.
Image is no longer everything, identity is. You want to be three-dimensional, you want to stand for something. Which is why movie stars have faded. Groomed by the studios and publicists there's no there there. There's nothing to hold on to or react to.
Life is about choices. What to wear, what to eat, where to go... And if you pondered each one in advance, trying to get it exactly right, you'd be left far behind, you'd barely make it out of your house. You forget your keys, your wallet, you say the wrong thing to a friend or business colleague. But you also crack a joke and give a wink and evidence your humanity and that's what makes people stick to you.
Think about it, the younger generation is addicted to online influencers. Whose videos are far from professional, that's their appeal, they're shot in bedrooms, you feel like you know those people. That if you ran into them you could gossip, and never forget, the world runs on gossip.
The Republicans are all about gotcha. And that's why the elite lost control of their party.
The Clintons think it's 1995 and most people have no internet access, never mind a smartphone. Trump is tweeting and the Clintons are sending mailers.
Even Ruth Bader Ginsburg... Ignore the blowback. Her statements about Trump burnished her image more than any Supreme Court opinion. She suddenly looked real. All the balderdash about the dignity of the Court was just that, irrelevant gobbledygook. She's my hero. Less because of the content of her statements than the fact she showed emotion, she expressed an identity. And that's everything in today's world.
Display your rough edges. Don't worry so much about getting it right. If you're in the public eye you've got to appeal to us as a person.
This is a sea change, and the older generation doesn't get it.
It's no longer business as usual. Society moves much more quickly and is much more fluid and you're better off jumping into the pool and flailing till you find your stroke as opposed to sitting on the sidelines practicing until you get it right.
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Wednesday 13 July 2016
Classic Beach Boys
Spotify playlist: https://goo.gl/IeQ3uS
Summer means fun. Or is it new love?
Could be both. All I know is the season is synonymous with the group from Hawthorne, California, which only featured one surfer, but epitomized the west coast beach culture that not only permeated our country, but made us all want to gravitate to California and become a part of. I heard their music and believed there was someplace better, where there were two girls for every boy, and even though that may not be true, the Golden State is the land of possibilities. It's where you go when you want to get out of your rut, leave your past behind and reinvent yourself.
If Brian Wilson had died, his band would get as much respect as the Beatles. But when he finally spirals from this mortal coil, having outlived his two brothers and so many others, a veritable Keith Richards, the accolades will come pouring in. Sometimes the best is hiding in plain sight. Like the music of the Beach Boys.
SURFIN'
You've got to start somewhere.
This is a curio with historical value at best. If nothing followed it it would be forgotten. But within its production we can hear the building blocks to the band's success. Everybody has to start somewhere, we never know who will burn out and who will grow. It usually comes down to passion, which Brian Wilson had in spades. He gathered his family, relatives and friends to achieve his dream, he could not do it alone, and he had no idea where he was going, his initial goals were small, world domination always come later.
SURFIN' SAFARI
"Let's go surfin' now
Everybody's learnin' how
Come on a safari with me"
No, everybody was clueless, they weren't learning whatsoever, it was a SoCal pastime, yet this track was so infectious it dragged the whole country along, as well as informing them of locales like Rincon and Malibu... That's how we learned our geography, via music. Pico and Sepulveda anybody? El Monte Legion Stadium? Music was made in Hollywood and what was obvious and de rigueur to locals was exotic to outsiders who soon wanted to be insiders.
409
Also on the initial LP, "Surfin' Safari." I gave up on singles early, they were a bad value proposition, I bought "Surfin' Safari" after "Surfin' U.S.A.," but I want to say in this pre-"Sgt. Pepper" era that "Surfin' Safari" was completely listenable, especially this, the progenitor of car music, which took over when surf music started to fade. As for "409"... You do know that's cubic inches, right? Which Teslas don't have, car culture dominated the twentieth century, it's evaporating in the twenty first.
SURFIN' U.S.A.
"If everybody had an ocean"...
This reworking of Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" was the victory lap, the knockout punch no one expected, a positive number that just made you feel good to be alive. It's the lyrics, the changes and the guitar. Sounds dated, I know, but if you were there, and I was, it brings you right back.
FARMER'S DAUGHTER
An album track unknown by most that portended the sensitive Brian Wilson numbers to follow. This sets your mind free as the salt gets stuck in your hair... Some tracks just have that je nais se quois, they take you away, make you feel good, even though you may not be able to explain why.
LONELY SEA
Ditto on this number, also sung by Brian Wilson. For a guy from a place where it never rained, he did melancholy better than almost anyone else.
SHUT DOWN
"Tach it up
Tach it up
Buddy gonna shut you down"
As in TACHOMETER! Something your car only had if it was a foreign number or it had high performance. This story song pushed the "409" paradigm further down the road, it even had a magic bridge, along with that surfin' pickin'.
MISIRLOU/LET'S GO TRIPPIN'
Two covers, two surf classics, the band had limited material and needed to fill out the "Surfin' U.S.A." LP, and it sounds just like that, these numbers are filler. But it's hard to fulfill the corporate obligations, you've got to hit that release date, you've got to make that money.
SURFER GIRL
The title track from the third album, it did not break the top ten and was very much a throwback to the work of the male vocal groups which dominated in the previous years, still... It's got that prom gravitas, except for when they sing about the woodie, then you've just got to laugh.
CATCH A WAVE
The second song on the "Surfer Girl" LP it's my favorite on the record, maybe because I heard Jan & Dean's reworking of it called "Sidewalk Surfin'" first. Listen for the harp, luxuriate in the organ, groove to the classic surf pickin', but marvel at the vocals. Some music just makes you feel good, this is one of those numbers.
HAWAII
It was barely a state, there were few flights, no one went there, we found out about it from the Beach Boys and then the rep was cemented by a TV show, "Hawaii Five-O."
IN MY ROOM
Not the hit you think it was, it went to number one in Boston and Seattle, number two in San Francisco and Top Ten in a few other markets, but this is a song whose rep has only grown as time has gone by.
It's magic without the words, but it's the words that make it a classic. It'd be like Kanye questioning himself, vulnerability is a quality that's been excised from not only modern music, but modern society. Oh, you can screw up and apologize, utter mea culpas, but admitting you don't have all the answers, revealing all your warts as anything but a publicity ploy, it just isn't done.
LITTLE DEUCE COUPE
This LP was a holding event. Four numbers had already appeared on albums before. This was the band's third compendium of '63, no wonder the cupboards were empty.
The title cut was infectious because of its jauntiness, its upbeat spirit, the boasting about something so irrelevant, then again, in the sixties, especially in SoCal, your wheels were everything.
BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL
Marrying the drama of the east coast overproduced singles with the sunniness of SoCal with a tribute to high school layered on top... HUH? This was before the Beatles, before Kennedy was shot, if there were cracks in the firmament we didn't acknowledge them, you may have hated school but publicly everybody was Eddie Haskell, they got along.
FUN, FUN, FUN
Two minutes of pure pop whose magic cannot be escaped. My father drove a T-Bird and my sister used the library as cover... This came out in February '64, when the Beatles were burgeoning but before we realized that the slate would be wiped clean of all American acts except the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons and that a rivalry had begun.
DON'T WORRY BABY
The b-side of "I Get Around," this, like "In My Room," is a number whose cachet has only grown over time. Despite Mike Love singing so many upbeat classics, it's these more introspective songs sung by Brian Wilson that seem to penetrate and stick.
THE WARMTH OF THE SUN
Another Wilson-sung number that was an album track way back when, but is a classic today.
DENNY'S DRUMS
Times were changing and no one at Capitol seemed to get the message. Despite releasing the Beatles' LPs, after passing on the work that came out on VeeJay, Capitol almost missed the entire sixties, while its crosstown neighbor Warner Brothers was surfing the zeitgeist the Tower was nearly moribund, it ultimately had the Band and little else, it coasted on its catalog, the acts already signed. "Shut Down Volume 2" was tone deaf, and if not a sales disaster, it was certainly a disappointment. The British had invaded and the second side of this record had covers of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" and "Louie Louie" and this, the "Toad" of its day, ha!
ALL SUMMER LONG
The album came out in '64, but I didn't get it until 1970, when Ellen gifted it and "Surfer Girl" to me for my birthday, artifacts from an older sister, not in shrinkwrap, but well-played, this music was fading in the rearview mirror but it meant everything to me.
The title track was never a single and was not famous in its day, but it seared itself into the public consciousness in the seventies, during the Beach Boys renaissance, when George Lucas featured the song in the soundtrack of his paean to car culture, "American Graffiti."
GIRLS ON THE BEACH
Featured in the 1965 movie of the same name, if I remember correctly Brian and the boys were sitting around the campfire singing it. I saw the flick at the Steel Pier, that's right, in Atlantic City, years before gambling, when the trick was to get up early and ride your bicycle on the boardwalk. Sure, we saw the diving horse and went on the diving bell and later in the evening we saw Peter & Gordon on stage, but there were two movie theatres on the pier and we also ducked in to see this. The Beach Boys also performed "Lonely Sea" and "Little Honda" in the flick.
DON'T BACK DOWN
My college roommate played this the night before getting into his Saab for the long drive from Middlebury to the beach in Maine, to hit the waves. The Beach Boys were truly the soundtrack of surf culture.
I GET AROUND
A monster hit that grabbed you immediately, a ride better than most theme park attractions, talk about a hit single...
WENDY
My younger sister's name! How amazing is it to have a song in your own name!
LITTLE SAINT NICK
A bigger hit today than it was back then. It has stood the test of time, whereas even Phil Spector's vaunted Christmas album has faded away and not radiated.
DO YOU WANNA DANCE
On one hand a cheesy choice, couldn't you write another hit? But Dennis's vocal puts this over the top, it may not be equal to the Bobby Freeman original, but it stands on its own feet.
GOOD TO MY BABY
An antecedent to "Pet Sounds." So many changes, so many hooks, it might not have been a hit but I know it by heart because it came right after "Do You Wanna Dance" on the album "The Beach Boys Today!"
WHEN I GROW UP (TO BE A MAN)
It's the counting that puts it over the top.
I was too young to get it, I knew what they were singing about, but now I understand it. And I'm not yet sure if I'm a man, even if I am chronologically. Baby boomers never quite grew up, we're all still teenagers in our minds.
DANCE, DANCE, DANCE
I wasn't a big dancer, I still am not, unless the music inspires me, but I understood the freedom of being let out of school. Pure magic.
CALIFORNIA GIRLS
It was the summer of '65, "Rubber Soul" was still months away, albums were an afterthought, most people bought singles, but upon buying "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)" I was stunned to find all the tracks were infectious and could stand alone, even "I'm Bugged At My Old Man."
HELP ME, RHONDA
The hit version, funny what a remake can do, it's the same song as the one on "Today!" but it's so much better, so much more. And at age 12 I couldn't understand someone helping me get over a love, but I understand the concept today.
SALT LAKE CITY
At this point I hadn't been there, I only knew where it was on the map. But now every time I land in SLC this song goes through my brain, that's the power of music.
AMUSEMENT PARKS U.S.A.
Better than any theme park I've ever been too.
GIRL DON'T TELL ME
Sung by the band's secret weapon, Carl Wilson, who kept the act together in the seventies but really came into his own with this. He's got the most mellifluous voice in the band, I became a fan, I bought both of his solo albums, I went to see him at the Roxy...
We used to write letters back then, all my romances were in the summer, I RESONATED!
BARBARA ANN
From the "Party!" album, a holding maneuver, but you've got to give the band credit for staying on the chart, albeit with a cover of a classic track.
WOULDN'T IT BE NICE
Truly didn't permeate the culture until '75, when it was featured in the Warren Beatty movie "Shampoo," what a great sync, it epitomized the Southern California ethos.
SLOOP JOHN B
The big hit on "Pet Sounds."
GOD ONLY KNOWS
I spent August of '65 at Boy Scout camp, the leader had a thing for this song, every time it came on the radio we'd run to his lean-to to listen.
Not a big hit single, but probably the most famous song on "Pet Sounds" today. It's timeless.
CAROLINE, NO
It's so Brian Wilson. So wistful, so meaningful. But it wasn't made for these times. The album cut era was just beginning, hits meant everything, as they do today.
GOOD VIBRATIONS
Just another Beach Boys hit back then, an iconic classic today.
Not that we didn't know it was special, it's just that we were too busy singing along. The story was the theremin, that got all the press, but I was most happy the band was back, ruling the chart once again. Sometimes you don't know what's classic during its heyday. "Blurred Lines" has already faded whereas "Good Vibrations" is FOREVER!
WONDERFUL
And it truly is. The iteration on "Smiley Smile" is good, but the version from the "Smile Sessions," released in 2011, will blow your mind. It's so sweet, you want to eat it!
HEROES AND VILLAINS
Meant little back then, means everything today, it's one of Brian's signature songs since his comeback, but "Smiley Smile" was a stiff and the band was fading out and most people didn't know it back then.
VEGETABLES
The greats surprise us, confound our expectations, are willing to take risks. Anybody can repeat themselves, imitate what is already successful, but to create pure magic in left field? Brian and the boys did here.
DARLIN'
It was a HIT!
Records moved faster, but the radio had moved on, you never heard the Beach Boys' old tracks, they were a relic of the past, most people never thought of them, and now they were back! With this Carl vocal!
WILD HONEY
Not as successful as "Darlin'," this is far superior. Once again sung by Carl, his emotive vocal penetrates and the energy is palpable, it's timeless, listen, it sounds dated not at all.
I WAS MADE TO LOVE HER
My favorite track on the "Wild Honey" album. Sure, the Stevie Wonder original is indelible, but Carl is singing like his relationship depends upon it.
DO IT AGAIN
I gave up. It was becoming creepy. It was just too weird to see my favorites fade out. The Beatles were testing limits, but the Beach Boys were stultified. Little did we know that Brian had exited, mentally and oftentimes physically, the band was running on fumes, which is an explanation as to why I didn't buy "Friends," the 1968 album with no hits that insiders now say is so great, but I did buy "20/20" since it contained this, which was a big hit.
I CAN HEAR MUSIC
My favorite version of this track, far superior to the Ronettes' original, because of Carl's impassioned vocal and the updated production.
CABINESSENCE
The best song on "20/20," this is a "Smile" leftover, they were literally scraping the barrel. Once again, I prefer the original, the iteration from the "Smile Sessions."
IT'S ABOUT TIME
The band disappeared, they were gone for a year and a half, they missed Woodstock, Led Zeppelin had made inroads and then...
The Beach Boys switched labels, went to Warner Brothers with their own imprint, Brother Records, and put out "Sunflower," which benefited from tons of press, but sank like a stone...
However, this is the best album of the post-sixties period. It's incredible, play it twice and you won't be able to stop playing it.
"It's About Time" is the best song on "Sunflower," almost a pocket symphony itself, written by Dennis Wilson and Al Jardine along with Bob Burchman but sung by Carl with Mike on the bridge. Every time I hear "It's About Time" it puts me in a good mood, that's the power of music
THIS WHOLE WORLD
Written by Brian, but sung by Carl, it's a dreamy ride through your best life, how can one track have so many changes, so many goodies?
SLIP ON THROUGH
Written and sung by Dennis, "Sunflower" is where the middle brother made his bones, established his bona fides. It's as good as Brian's work but it's not by him! Who knew the band had so many threats?
ADD SOME MUSIC TO YOUR DAY
The emphasis single, the one that was supposed to be a hit, kinda like the Doobie Brothers' "Another Park, Another Sunday," from "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits." Both faltered in the marketplace but come across as pure genius when you hear them now.
FOREVER
Ironically, the longest lasting track on "Sunflower." Sung and written by Dennis (with co-writer Gregg Jakobson) this is the one John Stamos sang on "Full House," it's the one played at weddings, but it was less than a footnote back in '71.
SURF'S UP
The press was taking hold, this album was not as good as "Sunflower," but it was much more successful. Media focused on this song, the title track, retrieved from the past, made famous in the sixties when Brian played it on a Leonard Bernstein TV special... Imagine that, a classical artist with his own TV presence.
DISNEY GIRLS
Bruce Johnston's number, it gained traction in covers years later, most famously by Art Garfunkel, but even Doris Day did a version.
FEEL FLOWS
The hidden gem on "Surf's Up," this is Carl's work (cowritten with Jack Rieley). It just feels so RIGHT!
'TIL I DIE
Quite possibly the most beautiful record ever made, at least by Brian Wilson.
I got it immediately, I didn't think anybody heard it, but I was stunned when Don Was featured it in his "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" documentary, now it's an acknowledged masterpiece.
MARCELLA
By the time of 1972's "Carl & The Passions - 'So Tough'" record, Brian was checked out, and it's evident, the album is barely playable, except for this, the opening cut.
In an alternative universe, this is a number one record, as good as anything Brian ever did, it was completely ignored, but if you heard it you couldn't stop dropping the needle and listening to it again.
SAIL ON, SAILOR
A complete return to form, a Brian number tacked on to the album "Holland" in search of a hit, which it was not. But Blondie Chaplin added energy, this too was a hit in an alternative universe, but unlike "Marcella" it sustains, people know it.
THE TRADER
You think it's pedestrian until you hit the changes. Then your head turns, amazing how pure sound can make you feel so good.
FUNKY PRETTY
Another winner on "Holland." Once again, Carl shines, hang in there until you hear his vocal get so soulful you can see into his identity.
IT'S O.K.
The band was giant on the road and meant little in recordings and the "15 Big Ones" album was so disappointing it's astounding. But this track hearkens back to the days of yore.
SUSIE CINCINNATI
This is the other winner on "15 Big Ones," sounds like Brian, but it's Al.
JOHNNY CARSON
"Love You" is a disaster. Brian was back, but he wasn't. This was the famous cut and it's a one listen song. The LP was unfinished and sans hits and it resembled nothing so much as peering into the brain of someone mentally ill, which it was.
COME GO WITH ME
And now no one cared, the band had extinguished their good will, and although "M.I.U. Album" is listenable, what can you say when the best cut is a cover, this?
GOOD TIMIN'
From "L.A. (Light Album)" when the Beach Boys went disco and put their career in a coffin. There was another studio album, but it was meaningless, I purchased "Keepin' The Summer Alive" but no one else did and it was a one listen project at most. But this cut, it's classic!
FULL SAIL
Imperfect, but it benefits from Carl's heartfelt vocal.
ANGEL COME HOME
Written by Carl with Geoffrey Cushing-Murray, this is the best cut on "L.A. (Light Album)," it's put over the top by Dennis's ragged vocal, saturated in emotion.
"I'm waitin' till my angel comes home"
How many late nights did I stare into the darkness and sing this song to myself. Even if I did the leaving...they were here and now they're gone, can't they come back?
"Angel, come home"
But they couldn't. Dennis died. And then Carl too. Brian was in the public eye but could never live up to expectations.
But now our angel has finally come home. Brian has stabilized, he's creating once again, and performing regularly. And for those who were there back then, it's truly heaven.
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Summer means fun. Or is it new love?
Could be both. All I know is the season is synonymous with the group from Hawthorne, California, which only featured one surfer, but epitomized the west coast beach culture that not only permeated our country, but made us all want to gravitate to California and become a part of. I heard their music and believed there was someplace better, where there were two girls for every boy, and even though that may not be true, the Golden State is the land of possibilities. It's where you go when you want to get out of your rut, leave your past behind and reinvent yourself.
If Brian Wilson had died, his band would get as much respect as the Beatles. But when he finally spirals from this mortal coil, having outlived his two brothers and so many others, a veritable Keith Richards, the accolades will come pouring in. Sometimes the best is hiding in plain sight. Like the music of the Beach Boys.
SURFIN'
You've got to start somewhere.
This is a curio with historical value at best. If nothing followed it it would be forgotten. But within its production we can hear the building blocks to the band's success. Everybody has to start somewhere, we never know who will burn out and who will grow. It usually comes down to passion, which Brian Wilson had in spades. He gathered his family, relatives and friends to achieve his dream, he could not do it alone, and he had no idea where he was going, his initial goals were small, world domination always come later.
SURFIN' SAFARI
"Let's go surfin' now
Everybody's learnin' how
Come on a safari with me"
No, everybody was clueless, they weren't learning whatsoever, it was a SoCal pastime, yet this track was so infectious it dragged the whole country along, as well as informing them of locales like Rincon and Malibu... That's how we learned our geography, via music. Pico and Sepulveda anybody? El Monte Legion Stadium? Music was made in Hollywood and what was obvious and de rigueur to locals was exotic to outsiders who soon wanted to be insiders.
409
Also on the initial LP, "Surfin' Safari." I gave up on singles early, they were a bad value proposition, I bought "Surfin' Safari" after "Surfin' U.S.A.," but I want to say in this pre-"Sgt. Pepper" era that "Surfin' Safari" was completely listenable, especially this, the progenitor of car music, which took over when surf music started to fade. As for "409"... You do know that's cubic inches, right? Which Teslas don't have, car culture dominated the twentieth century, it's evaporating in the twenty first.
SURFIN' U.S.A.
"If everybody had an ocean"...
This reworking of Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" was the victory lap, the knockout punch no one expected, a positive number that just made you feel good to be alive. It's the lyrics, the changes and the guitar. Sounds dated, I know, but if you were there, and I was, it brings you right back.
FARMER'S DAUGHTER
An album track unknown by most that portended the sensitive Brian Wilson numbers to follow. This sets your mind free as the salt gets stuck in your hair... Some tracks just have that je nais se quois, they take you away, make you feel good, even though you may not be able to explain why.
LONELY SEA
Ditto on this number, also sung by Brian Wilson. For a guy from a place where it never rained, he did melancholy better than almost anyone else.
SHUT DOWN
"Tach it up
Tach it up
Buddy gonna shut you down"
As in TACHOMETER! Something your car only had if it was a foreign number or it had high performance. This story song pushed the "409" paradigm further down the road, it even had a magic bridge, along with that surfin' pickin'.
MISIRLOU/LET'S GO TRIPPIN'
Two covers, two surf classics, the band had limited material and needed to fill out the "Surfin' U.S.A." LP, and it sounds just like that, these numbers are filler. But it's hard to fulfill the corporate obligations, you've got to hit that release date, you've got to make that money.
SURFER GIRL
The title track from the third album, it did not break the top ten and was very much a throwback to the work of the male vocal groups which dominated in the previous years, still... It's got that prom gravitas, except for when they sing about the woodie, then you've just got to laugh.
CATCH A WAVE
The second song on the "Surfer Girl" LP it's my favorite on the record, maybe because I heard Jan & Dean's reworking of it called "Sidewalk Surfin'" first. Listen for the harp, luxuriate in the organ, groove to the classic surf pickin', but marvel at the vocals. Some music just makes you feel good, this is one of those numbers.
HAWAII
It was barely a state, there were few flights, no one went there, we found out about it from the Beach Boys and then the rep was cemented by a TV show, "Hawaii Five-O."
IN MY ROOM
Not the hit you think it was, it went to number one in Boston and Seattle, number two in San Francisco and Top Ten in a few other markets, but this is a song whose rep has only grown as time has gone by.
It's magic without the words, but it's the words that make it a classic. It'd be like Kanye questioning himself, vulnerability is a quality that's been excised from not only modern music, but modern society. Oh, you can screw up and apologize, utter mea culpas, but admitting you don't have all the answers, revealing all your warts as anything but a publicity ploy, it just isn't done.
LITTLE DEUCE COUPE
This LP was a holding event. Four numbers had already appeared on albums before. This was the band's third compendium of '63, no wonder the cupboards were empty.
The title cut was infectious because of its jauntiness, its upbeat spirit, the boasting about something so irrelevant, then again, in the sixties, especially in SoCal, your wheels were everything.
BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL
Marrying the drama of the east coast overproduced singles with the sunniness of SoCal with a tribute to high school layered on top... HUH? This was before the Beatles, before Kennedy was shot, if there were cracks in the firmament we didn't acknowledge them, you may have hated school but publicly everybody was Eddie Haskell, they got along.
FUN, FUN, FUN
Two minutes of pure pop whose magic cannot be escaped. My father drove a T-Bird and my sister used the library as cover... This came out in February '64, when the Beatles were burgeoning but before we realized that the slate would be wiped clean of all American acts except the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons and that a rivalry had begun.
DON'T WORRY BABY
The b-side of "I Get Around," this, like "In My Room," is a number whose cachet has only grown over time. Despite Mike Love singing so many upbeat classics, it's these more introspective songs sung by Brian Wilson that seem to penetrate and stick.
THE WARMTH OF THE SUN
Another Wilson-sung number that was an album track way back when, but is a classic today.
DENNY'S DRUMS
Times were changing and no one at Capitol seemed to get the message. Despite releasing the Beatles' LPs, after passing on the work that came out on VeeJay, Capitol almost missed the entire sixties, while its crosstown neighbor Warner Brothers was surfing the zeitgeist the Tower was nearly moribund, it ultimately had the Band and little else, it coasted on its catalog, the acts already signed. "Shut Down Volume 2" was tone deaf, and if not a sales disaster, it was certainly a disappointment. The British had invaded and the second side of this record had covers of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" and "Louie Louie" and this, the "Toad" of its day, ha!
ALL SUMMER LONG
The album came out in '64, but I didn't get it until 1970, when Ellen gifted it and "Surfer Girl" to me for my birthday, artifacts from an older sister, not in shrinkwrap, but well-played, this music was fading in the rearview mirror but it meant everything to me.
The title track was never a single and was not famous in its day, but it seared itself into the public consciousness in the seventies, during the Beach Boys renaissance, when George Lucas featured the song in the soundtrack of his paean to car culture, "American Graffiti."
GIRLS ON THE BEACH
Featured in the 1965 movie of the same name, if I remember correctly Brian and the boys were sitting around the campfire singing it. I saw the flick at the Steel Pier, that's right, in Atlantic City, years before gambling, when the trick was to get up early and ride your bicycle on the boardwalk. Sure, we saw the diving horse and went on the diving bell and later in the evening we saw Peter & Gordon on stage, but there were two movie theatres on the pier and we also ducked in to see this. The Beach Boys also performed "Lonely Sea" and "Little Honda" in the flick.
DON'T BACK DOWN
My college roommate played this the night before getting into his Saab for the long drive from Middlebury to the beach in Maine, to hit the waves. The Beach Boys were truly the soundtrack of surf culture.
I GET AROUND
A monster hit that grabbed you immediately, a ride better than most theme park attractions, talk about a hit single...
WENDY
My younger sister's name! How amazing is it to have a song in your own name!
LITTLE SAINT NICK
A bigger hit today than it was back then. It has stood the test of time, whereas even Phil Spector's vaunted Christmas album has faded away and not radiated.
DO YOU WANNA DANCE
On one hand a cheesy choice, couldn't you write another hit? But Dennis's vocal puts this over the top, it may not be equal to the Bobby Freeman original, but it stands on its own feet.
GOOD TO MY BABY
An antecedent to "Pet Sounds." So many changes, so many hooks, it might not have been a hit but I know it by heart because it came right after "Do You Wanna Dance" on the album "The Beach Boys Today!"
WHEN I GROW UP (TO BE A MAN)
It's the counting that puts it over the top.
I was too young to get it, I knew what they were singing about, but now I understand it. And I'm not yet sure if I'm a man, even if I am chronologically. Baby boomers never quite grew up, we're all still teenagers in our minds.
DANCE, DANCE, DANCE
I wasn't a big dancer, I still am not, unless the music inspires me, but I understood the freedom of being let out of school. Pure magic.
CALIFORNIA GIRLS
It was the summer of '65, "Rubber Soul" was still months away, albums were an afterthought, most people bought singles, but upon buying "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)" I was stunned to find all the tracks were infectious and could stand alone, even "I'm Bugged At My Old Man."
HELP ME, RHONDA
The hit version, funny what a remake can do, it's the same song as the one on "Today!" but it's so much better, so much more. And at age 12 I couldn't understand someone helping me get over a love, but I understand the concept today.
SALT LAKE CITY
At this point I hadn't been there, I only knew where it was on the map. But now every time I land in SLC this song goes through my brain, that's the power of music.
AMUSEMENT PARKS U.S.A.
Better than any theme park I've ever been too.
GIRL DON'T TELL ME
Sung by the band's secret weapon, Carl Wilson, who kept the act together in the seventies but really came into his own with this. He's got the most mellifluous voice in the band, I became a fan, I bought both of his solo albums, I went to see him at the Roxy...
We used to write letters back then, all my romances were in the summer, I RESONATED!
BARBARA ANN
From the "Party!" album, a holding maneuver, but you've got to give the band credit for staying on the chart, albeit with a cover of a classic track.
WOULDN'T IT BE NICE
Truly didn't permeate the culture until '75, when it was featured in the Warren Beatty movie "Shampoo," what a great sync, it epitomized the Southern California ethos.
SLOOP JOHN B
The big hit on "Pet Sounds."
GOD ONLY KNOWS
I spent August of '65 at Boy Scout camp, the leader had a thing for this song, every time it came on the radio we'd run to his lean-to to listen.
Not a big hit single, but probably the most famous song on "Pet Sounds" today. It's timeless.
CAROLINE, NO
It's so Brian Wilson. So wistful, so meaningful. But it wasn't made for these times. The album cut era was just beginning, hits meant everything, as they do today.
GOOD VIBRATIONS
Just another Beach Boys hit back then, an iconic classic today.
Not that we didn't know it was special, it's just that we were too busy singing along. The story was the theremin, that got all the press, but I was most happy the band was back, ruling the chart once again. Sometimes you don't know what's classic during its heyday. "Blurred Lines" has already faded whereas "Good Vibrations" is FOREVER!
WONDERFUL
And it truly is. The iteration on "Smiley Smile" is good, but the version from the "Smile Sessions," released in 2011, will blow your mind. It's so sweet, you want to eat it!
HEROES AND VILLAINS
Meant little back then, means everything today, it's one of Brian's signature songs since his comeback, but "Smiley Smile" was a stiff and the band was fading out and most people didn't know it back then.
VEGETABLES
The greats surprise us, confound our expectations, are willing to take risks. Anybody can repeat themselves, imitate what is already successful, but to create pure magic in left field? Brian and the boys did here.
DARLIN'
It was a HIT!
Records moved faster, but the radio had moved on, you never heard the Beach Boys' old tracks, they were a relic of the past, most people never thought of them, and now they were back! With this Carl vocal!
WILD HONEY
Not as successful as "Darlin'," this is far superior. Once again sung by Carl, his emotive vocal penetrates and the energy is palpable, it's timeless, listen, it sounds dated not at all.
I WAS MADE TO LOVE HER
My favorite track on the "Wild Honey" album. Sure, the Stevie Wonder original is indelible, but Carl is singing like his relationship depends upon it.
DO IT AGAIN
I gave up. It was becoming creepy. It was just too weird to see my favorites fade out. The Beatles were testing limits, but the Beach Boys were stultified. Little did we know that Brian had exited, mentally and oftentimes physically, the band was running on fumes, which is an explanation as to why I didn't buy "Friends," the 1968 album with no hits that insiders now say is so great, but I did buy "20/20" since it contained this, which was a big hit.
I CAN HEAR MUSIC
My favorite version of this track, far superior to the Ronettes' original, because of Carl's impassioned vocal and the updated production.
CABINESSENCE
The best song on "20/20," this is a "Smile" leftover, they were literally scraping the barrel. Once again, I prefer the original, the iteration from the "Smile Sessions."
IT'S ABOUT TIME
The band disappeared, they were gone for a year and a half, they missed Woodstock, Led Zeppelin had made inroads and then...
The Beach Boys switched labels, went to Warner Brothers with their own imprint, Brother Records, and put out "Sunflower," which benefited from tons of press, but sank like a stone...
However, this is the best album of the post-sixties period. It's incredible, play it twice and you won't be able to stop playing it.
"It's About Time" is the best song on "Sunflower," almost a pocket symphony itself, written by Dennis Wilson and Al Jardine along with Bob Burchman but sung by Carl with Mike on the bridge. Every time I hear "It's About Time" it puts me in a good mood, that's the power of music
THIS WHOLE WORLD
Written by Brian, but sung by Carl, it's a dreamy ride through your best life, how can one track have so many changes, so many goodies?
SLIP ON THROUGH
Written and sung by Dennis, "Sunflower" is where the middle brother made his bones, established his bona fides. It's as good as Brian's work but it's not by him! Who knew the band had so many threats?
ADD SOME MUSIC TO YOUR DAY
The emphasis single, the one that was supposed to be a hit, kinda like the Doobie Brothers' "Another Park, Another Sunday," from "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits." Both faltered in the marketplace but come across as pure genius when you hear them now.
FOREVER
Ironically, the longest lasting track on "Sunflower." Sung and written by Dennis (with co-writer Gregg Jakobson) this is the one John Stamos sang on "Full House," it's the one played at weddings, but it was less than a footnote back in '71.
SURF'S UP
The press was taking hold, this album was not as good as "Sunflower," but it was much more successful. Media focused on this song, the title track, retrieved from the past, made famous in the sixties when Brian played it on a Leonard Bernstein TV special... Imagine that, a classical artist with his own TV presence.
DISNEY GIRLS
Bruce Johnston's number, it gained traction in covers years later, most famously by Art Garfunkel, but even Doris Day did a version.
FEEL FLOWS
The hidden gem on "Surf's Up," this is Carl's work (cowritten with Jack Rieley). It just feels so RIGHT!
'TIL I DIE
Quite possibly the most beautiful record ever made, at least by Brian Wilson.
I got it immediately, I didn't think anybody heard it, but I was stunned when Don Was featured it in his "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" documentary, now it's an acknowledged masterpiece.
MARCELLA
By the time of 1972's "Carl & The Passions - 'So Tough'" record, Brian was checked out, and it's evident, the album is barely playable, except for this, the opening cut.
In an alternative universe, this is a number one record, as good as anything Brian ever did, it was completely ignored, but if you heard it you couldn't stop dropping the needle and listening to it again.
SAIL ON, SAILOR
A complete return to form, a Brian number tacked on to the album "Holland" in search of a hit, which it was not. But Blondie Chaplin added energy, this too was a hit in an alternative universe, but unlike "Marcella" it sustains, people know it.
THE TRADER
You think it's pedestrian until you hit the changes. Then your head turns, amazing how pure sound can make you feel so good.
FUNKY PRETTY
Another winner on "Holland." Once again, Carl shines, hang in there until you hear his vocal get so soulful you can see into his identity.
IT'S O.K.
The band was giant on the road and meant little in recordings and the "15 Big Ones" album was so disappointing it's astounding. But this track hearkens back to the days of yore.
SUSIE CINCINNATI
This is the other winner on "15 Big Ones," sounds like Brian, but it's Al.
JOHNNY CARSON
"Love You" is a disaster. Brian was back, but he wasn't. This was the famous cut and it's a one listen song. The LP was unfinished and sans hits and it resembled nothing so much as peering into the brain of someone mentally ill, which it was.
COME GO WITH ME
And now no one cared, the band had extinguished their good will, and although "M.I.U. Album" is listenable, what can you say when the best cut is a cover, this?
GOOD TIMIN'
From "L.A. (Light Album)" when the Beach Boys went disco and put their career in a coffin. There was another studio album, but it was meaningless, I purchased "Keepin' The Summer Alive" but no one else did and it was a one listen project at most. But this cut, it's classic!
FULL SAIL
Imperfect, but it benefits from Carl's heartfelt vocal.
ANGEL COME HOME
Written by Carl with Geoffrey Cushing-Murray, this is the best cut on "L.A. (Light Album)," it's put over the top by Dennis's ragged vocal, saturated in emotion.
"I'm waitin' till my angel comes home"
How many late nights did I stare into the darkness and sing this song to myself. Even if I did the leaving...they were here and now they're gone, can't they come back?
"Angel, come home"
But they couldn't. Dennis died. And then Carl too. Brian was in the public eye but could never live up to expectations.
But now our angel has finally come home. Brian has stabilized, he's creating once again, and performing regularly. And for those who were there back then, it's truly heaven.
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The Past Doesn't Matter
Feeling anxious about Dallas? How about Hillary's e-mail scandal? Or are you still too busy bitching about Apple Maps.
Forget your faux pas. Don't even bother apologizing, especially if you don't think you're guilty and you're only doing it for the crowd. What we admire most these days are those with a backbone who keep soldiering on. Taylor Swift may be a two-dimensional phony creating content for a brain dead audience but she knows the game, you've got to keep on creating, stay in the public eye, or you're forgotten.
This is so different from the old three year album cycle. If you're staying at home creating an opus to drop on the public you don't realize that classic acts' albums last a day, not even a weekend, and if you're not already famous, you're putting out your work to crickets, it's your audience and your audience only. You need an awareness campaign, but the truth is in moments you're no longer new, and please, only have that campaign when you're selling, advance press is for dummies, if I can't click and buy it immediately you've lost, kind of like the book business, which issues all its reviews a week or more before retail availability, WHO CAN REMEMBER?
And then you've got the Republican Congress that just can't believe they got beaten, that the FBI director did not favor indictment for Hillary Clinton. They want change, they want justice, they want someone to pay... THAT'S AN OLD STORY, FORGET ABOUT IT!
As for Dallas, et al, in the back of our minds we're thinking it's bad to be black in America, and no rational person wants cops dead, but we've already moved on to making our living, updating our Facebook page, watching Snapchat stories...
If you think today's paradigm is all about world domination, you're still living in the seventies. No one has a sustained hold on the public consciousness, NO ONE! At best you can own the dialogue for a week. Like Beyonce did with "Lemonade." But was that really just a press story? I know about it, but I didn't listen to it, and the real story is not that many did. Old wave media needs something to trumpet but we go more for the spontaneous, the new, that which we adopt as opposed to having shoved down our throat, like Pokemon Go.
And speaking of Go, you don't collect $200, you're now just in the game. Releasing a record is like walking into first grade. Okay, now you're in school, but how are you gonna get traction, how are you gonna pass? And he not busy learning is dying. But the great thing is you can adjust on the fly, because no one is paying attention. And if they are, they've already forgotten your mistakes anyway.
So forget gotcha moments. They're so last century, so Republican in a world where that party's clock was cleaned by outsider Donald Trump, who speaks to their rank and file better than they do. We want what resonates now, we don't care about playing a game of tag in the past.
And are you in the news business or the career business anyway?
If the latter, don't worry about hitting a peak, don't worry about starting off slow. Just know if you're willing to do the work you can make it, assuming the indicators are there. If your listens and views aren't climbing, you missed the target. Publicity won't help. Subsequent to launch it's all about word of mouth and you've got none. Better to go back to the drawing board.
And now creation is your full time job. You come to bat as much as a baseball player. Who hits .300 and is a superstar. Not everyone knows Drake's deep tracks, but his hits are more ubiquitous than anybody's and he puts out multiple projects a year, he gets it.
And the young do too.
It's only the old farts still playing by the old rules, demanding the game change back as they put their head in the ground, who don't. Tech eats itself. And so does entertainment. Don't fight the last war, establish a new front. WME owns the UFC, it may not pay off, but sitting in Beverly Hills trying to package movies in an industry that's moribund...that's death.
And he not busy being born is dying.
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Forget your faux pas. Don't even bother apologizing, especially if you don't think you're guilty and you're only doing it for the crowd. What we admire most these days are those with a backbone who keep soldiering on. Taylor Swift may be a two-dimensional phony creating content for a brain dead audience but she knows the game, you've got to keep on creating, stay in the public eye, or you're forgotten.
This is so different from the old three year album cycle. If you're staying at home creating an opus to drop on the public you don't realize that classic acts' albums last a day, not even a weekend, and if you're not already famous, you're putting out your work to crickets, it's your audience and your audience only. You need an awareness campaign, but the truth is in moments you're no longer new, and please, only have that campaign when you're selling, advance press is for dummies, if I can't click and buy it immediately you've lost, kind of like the book business, which issues all its reviews a week or more before retail availability, WHO CAN REMEMBER?
And then you've got the Republican Congress that just can't believe they got beaten, that the FBI director did not favor indictment for Hillary Clinton. They want change, they want justice, they want someone to pay... THAT'S AN OLD STORY, FORGET ABOUT IT!
As for Dallas, et al, in the back of our minds we're thinking it's bad to be black in America, and no rational person wants cops dead, but we've already moved on to making our living, updating our Facebook page, watching Snapchat stories...
If you think today's paradigm is all about world domination, you're still living in the seventies. No one has a sustained hold on the public consciousness, NO ONE! At best you can own the dialogue for a week. Like Beyonce did with "Lemonade." But was that really just a press story? I know about it, but I didn't listen to it, and the real story is not that many did. Old wave media needs something to trumpet but we go more for the spontaneous, the new, that which we adopt as opposed to having shoved down our throat, like Pokemon Go.
And speaking of Go, you don't collect $200, you're now just in the game. Releasing a record is like walking into first grade. Okay, now you're in school, but how are you gonna get traction, how are you gonna pass? And he not busy learning is dying. But the great thing is you can adjust on the fly, because no one is paying attention. And if they are, they've already forgotten your mistakes anyway.
So forget gotcha moments. They're so last century, so Republican in a world where that party's clock was cleaned by outsider Donald Trump, who speaks to their rank and file better than they do. We want what resonates now, we don't care about playing a game of tag in the past.
And are you in the news business or the career business anyway?
If the latter, don't worry about hitting a peak, don't worry about starting off slow. Just know if you're willing to do the work you can make it, assuming the indicators are there. If your listens and views aren't climbing, you missed the target. Publicity won't help. Subsequent to launch it's all about word of mouth and you've got none. Better to go back to the drawing board.
And now creation is your full time job. You come to bat as much as a baseball player. Who hits .300 and is a superstar. Not everyone knows Drake's deep tracks, but his hits are more ubiquitous than anybody's and he puts out multiple projects a year, he gets it.
And the young do too.
It's only the old farts still playing by the old rules, demanding the game change back as they put their head in the ground, who don't. Tech eats itself. And so does entertainment. Don't fight the last war, establish a new front. WME owns the UFC, it may not pay off, but sitting in Beverly Hills trying to package movies in an industry that's moribund...that's death.
And he not busy being born is dying.
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The Gay Talese Book
"The Voyeur's Motel": https://goo.gl/XERNOy
It's an easy read and it's fantastic.
Ignore the controversy, within its pages Mr. Talese ponders the unreliability of his voyeur narrator. Hell, even if the whole thing were made up, and it's not, Gay visited the motel and saw the viewing posts and looked in on the action himself, the insights would be intriguing and illuminating.
Especially the ones about people on vacation.
Gerald Foos, the proprietor, the voyeur, checks couples into the motel who are lovey-dovey, dignified and nice. And then they retire to their rooms and don't stop arguing. One complains not enough sights were seen, the other stares blankly at the television set, and Foos muses on the backstory of their lives.
We have no idea what's really happening.
I have no idea what's really happening with you. Never mind your fantasies, but your everyday activities. I assumed everybody sat on the toilet the same way, but not according to Foos. Some people sit backwards!
And he finds lesbians make the best lovers, it's not just wham, bam, thank you ma'am, they care about each other and take time and I'm always worried about satisfying my female partner, I have no idea what she's feeling and what she wants, and despite protestations and advice, directions and advisements, there's still an incredible gulf between us.
People, they're all that matter. Even though our puritanical society keeps score via money and believes that's all that really counts. If you look good and you're rich, you've got it made. But do you?
And how repressed are you? How uptight? Some guests parade around nude, keep the bathroom door open, others are never seen naked and insist on sex in the dark.
But less interesting than the behaviors is the interactions. How do we interact? Some seem so suave and debonair, are they confident or just covering up? And is it best to reveal your warts or hold them back?
And if you're looking for normal, it doesn't exist.
I wasn't on the Gay Talese train. I read "Honor Thy Father" back in the seventies, during an interlude when mononucleosis left me with so much free time. It didn't evidence any zest! This was the era of "The Godfather," I was expecting Mafiosi to be anything but boring.
But maybe that was Talese's point.
And the writing here is heavily observed. As in there's more description of the surroundings than necessary, because that's Talese's style, he takes copious notes. To the point where emotion is absent, but then you're just left with bodies and actions and...
We all have a secret life. All of us have urges and desires, behaviors and aberrations. And we're yearning to share them, but are usually too inhibited to do so.
Then again, some of the couples Foos observes are quite happy. Sex is good, he posits they're winners.
But then there's the nurse who drains the doctor in the motel and then goes home to place these same lips on her husband, as her kids swirl around them. Does he know? Does he want to know? Are they sexually mismatched? Will they stay together?
And then there's the fiftysomething widow who's paying for sex, but the ruse is she's helping the gigolo with his bills. She's overweight and depressed and are such individuals unable to meet people the natural way or is Foos just judging them. Are they too unattractive and too shy to connect in regular life or...
I don't know.
And I don't expect you to tell me.
And I don't expect you to read this book either. Because then you'd have to admit you're a sexual deviant.
Not really. You'd just be really interested in people. If it's just sex you're looking for, Google is your friend, you'll get better visuals and better descriptions than you'd ever find in this book.
But you wouldn't get the insight into humanity.
Gerald Foos is a voyeur. He bought a motel to spy on people. He broke not only taboos, but the law.
Yet his documentation of his experiences is utterly riveting.
This is real life folks.
And it's only real life that matters.
"You can never really determine during their appearances in public that their private life is full of hell and unhappiness. I have pondered why it is absolutely mandatory for people to guard with all secrecy and never let it be known that their personal lives are unhappy and deplorable."
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It's an easy read and it's fantastic.
Ignore the controversy, within its pages Mr. Talese ponders the unreliability of his voyeur narrator. Hell, even if the whole thing were made up, and it's not, Gay visited the motel and saw the viewing posts and looked in on the action himself, the insights would be intriguing and illuminating.
Especially the ones about people on vacation.
Gerald Foos, the proprietor, the voyeur, checks couples into the motel who are lovey-dovey, dignified and nice. And then they retire to their rooms and don't stop arguing. One complains not enough sights were seen, the other stares blankly at the television set, and Foos muses on the backstory of their lives.
We have no idea what's really happening.
I have no idea what's really happening with you. Never mind your fantasies, but your everyday activities. I assumed everybody sat on the toilet the same way, but not according to Foos. Some people sit backwards!
And he finds lesbians make the best lovers, it's not just wham, bam, thank you ma'am, they care about each other and take time and I'm always worried about satisfying my female partner, I have no idea what she's feeling and what she wants, and despite protestations and advice, directions and advisements, there's still an incredible gulf between us.
People, they're all that matter. Even though our puritanical society keeps score via money and believes that's all that really counts. If you look good and you're rich, you've got it made. But do you?
And how repressed are you? How uptight? Some guests parade around nude, keep the bathroom door open, others are never seen naked and insist on sex in the dark.
But less interesting than the behaviors is the interactions. How do we interact? Some seem so suave and debonair, are they confident or just covering up? And is it best to reveal your warts or hold them back?
And if you're looking for normal, it doesn't exist.
I wasn't on the Gay Talese train. I read "Honor Thy Father" back in the seventies, during an interlude when mononucleosis left me with so much free time. It didn't evidence any zest! This was the era of "The Godfather," I was expecting Mafiosi to be anything but boring.
But maybe that was Talese's point.
And the writing here is heavily observed. As in there's more description of the surroundings than necessary, because that's Talese's style, he takes copious notes. To the point where emotion is absent, but then you're just left with bodies and actions and...
We all have a secret life. All of us have urges and desires, behaviors and aberrations. And we're yearning to share them, but are usually too inhibited to do so.
Then again, some of the couples Foos observes are quite happy. Sex is good, he posits they're winners.
But then there's the nurse who drains the doctor in the motel and then goes home to place these same lips on her husband, as her kids swirl around them. Does he know? Does he want to know? Are they sexually mismatched? Will they stay together?
And then there's the fiftysomething widow who's paying for sex, but the ruse is she's helping the gigolo with his bills. She's overweight and depressed and are such individuals unable to meet people the natural way or is Foos just judging them. Are they too unattractive and too shy to connect in regular life or...
I don't know.
And I don't expect you to tell me.
And I don't expect you to read this book either. Because then you'd have to admit you're a sexual deviant.
Not really. You'd just be really interested in people. If it's just sex you're looking for, Google is your friend, you'll get better visuals and better descriptions than you'd ever find in this book.
But you wouldn't get the insight into humanity.
Gerald Foos is a voyeur. He bought a motel to spy on people. He broke not only taboos, but the law.
Yet his documentation of his experiences is utterly riveting.
This is real life folks.
And it's only real life that matters.
"You can never really determine during their appearances in public that their private life is full of hell and unhappiness. I have pondered why it is absolutely mandatory for people to guard with all secrecy and never let it be known that their personal lives are unhappy and deplorable."
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Tuesday 12 July 2016
Taylor Swift
Surfing the new paradigm or tone-deaf?
I'm not sure.
Bernie Sanders captures the youth vote by appealing to millennials' lack of opportunity, their mountains of college debt in a land of income inequality. The modern economy losers voted for Brexit and Trump won the nomination by appealing to those left out. Yet Twizzle Stick is jetting all over the world with her new star boyfriend after having a July 4th party so over the top, shot by a professional with the results distributed on all platforms online, that one has to ask if she's winning or losing.
Is America just aspirational? Do we all believe something better is gonna come? And when we see winners, do we venerate them, adhere to them, because we view ourselves as victorious soon?
Or, are we sick and tired of the b.s. and want a revolution.
Is everybody content with their mobile and flat screen or do black lives really matter?
Forget Rudy Giuliani. He's from an over the hill generation. That's what this election cycle has taught us, the oldsters are out of touch and while they were asleep the game changed and those speaking truth, or perceived truth, ascended to power. And the media has gotten it so wrong for so long that it's become untrustworthy, another elite denigrated and tossed on the scrapheap.
But Taylor Swift keeps rolling right along.
Or does she?
It's all about perception. And one thing about pollsters and research, they can tell us where we've been but not where we're going.
On one hand TS owns social media. Her brand is bigger than her music. She never disappears and despite saying she's doing it all for her fans, she seems to be doing it mostly for herself. She surrounds herself with elite celebrities, mostly women, and she is lauded for her girl power but it's hard to sit at home and not feel left out. And the manipulation is self-evident. There are cameras everywhere, nothing is secret. Is she laughing all the way to the bank, with a bead on today's culture, or is she as out of touch as the politicians?
I don't know.
Music used to be the cutting edge, it defined the culture. But now an ancient video game comes out of retirement to steal the social scene more than any track in memory, no one's got the mindshare of Pokemon Go. Makes the uninitiated want to play, the same way they used to buy the work of Grammy winners after viewing the telecast, before all popular music became so niche that most people tuned out. How can it be that a video game can cross all lines?
One with a brand name, sans promotion, sold by word of mouth, enhanced by the social element outside the house. They keep telling us today's generation is one of couch potatoes, but suddenly they're up and at 'em without provocation from adults and traipsing all over the landscape?
Not that there will be a new augmented reality app as big as Pokemon Go in the future, but the paradigm remains the same, we love the unexpected, the different, the limit-testing, and we want to belong.
But there's been nothing different coming from Taylor Swift since she jumped to pop. She's just utilizing the best hitmakers, her sound is anything but revelatory, and the lyrics have gotten dumber, but she's gotten BIGGER!
Or maybe not. Maybe the laugh's on her. That's certainly the story of entertainment, of fads, they're huge and then they crash.
But we do live in a social world where we constantly interact. And we're all purveying our personal brand, admit it, the reason you post concert and vacation videos is to make yourself special, you were there and your followers were not. And fashion is fast and cheap and everybody's focusing on their look...
But the have-nots have been left behind. Even though their ranks are swelling. Will they take over or continue to be laughed at?
Or is the Taylor Swift universe really not that big and the media is just saying it's so.
TS has her finger on the pulse of social media, but no frustration is in evidence, is the national temperature angst and anger, or is the truth that everybody's happy and wants to party like it's 1999?
Oxy and heroin are a scourge.
Then again, they make you really skinny. And if you put together the right outfit you too can be a social media star, a world in which followers and likes mean everything.
Or do they?
"Taylor Swift just can't help herself": https://goo.gl/Gh2thq
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I'm not sure.
Bernie Sanders captures the youth vote by appealing to millennials' lack of opportunity, their mountains of college debt in a land of income inequality. The modern economy losers voted for Brexit and Trump won the nomination by appealing to those left out. Yet Twizzle Stick is jetting all over the world with her new star boyfriend after having a July 4th party so over the top, shot by a professional with the results distributed on all platforms online, that one has to ask if she's winning or losing.
Is America just aspirational? Do we all believe something better is gonna come? And when we see winners, do we venerate them, adhere to them, because we view ourselves as victorious soon?
Or, are we sick and tired of the b.s. and want a revolution.
Is everybody content with their mobile and flat screen or do black lives really matter?
Forget Rudy Giuliani. He's from an over the hill generation. That's what this election cycle has taught us, the oldsters are out of touch and while they were asleep the game changed and those speaking truth, or perceived truth, ascended to power. And the media has gotten it so wrong for so long that it's become untrustworthy, another elite denigrated and tossed on the scrapheap.
But Taylor Swift keeps rolling right along.
Or does she?
It's all about perception. And one thing about pollsters and research, they can tell us where we've been but not where we're going.
On one hand TS owns social media. Her brand is bigger than her music. She never disappears and despite saying she's doing it all for her fans, she seems to be doing it mostly for herself. She surrounds herself with elite celebrities, mostly women, and she is lauded for her girl power but it's hard to sit at home and not feel left out. And the manipulation is self-evident. There are cameras everywhere, nothing is secret. Is she laughing all the way to the bank, with a bead on today's culture, or is she as out of touch as the politicians?
I don't know.
Music used to be the cutting edge, it defined the culture. But now an ancient video game comes out of retirement to steal the social scene more than any track in memory, no one's got the mindshare of Pokemon Go. Makes the uninitiated want to play, the same way they used to buy the work of Grammy winners after viewing the telecast, before all popular music became so niche that most people tuned out. How can it be that a video game can cross all lines?
One with a brand name, sans promotion, sold by word of mouth, enhanced by the social element outside the house. They keep telling us today's generation is one of couch potatoes, but suddenly they're up and at 'em without provocation from adults and traipsing all over the landscape?
Not that there will be a new augmented reality app as big as Pokemon Go in the future, but the paradigm remains the same, we love the unexpected, the different, the limit-testing, and we want to belong.
But there's been nothing different coming from Taylor Swift since she jumped to pop. She's just utilizing the best hitmakers, her sound is anything but revelatory, and the lyrics have gotten dumber, but she's gotten BIGGER!
Or maybe not. Maybe the laugh's on her. That's certainly the story of entertainment, of fads, they're huge and then they crash.
But we do live in a social world where we constantly interact. And we're all purveying our personal brand, admit it, the reason you post concert and vacation videos is to make yourself special, you were there and your followers were not. And fashion is fast and cheap and everybody's focusing on their look...
But the have-nots have been left behind. Even though their ranks are swelling. Will they take over or continue to be laughed at?
Or is the Taylor Swift universe really not that big and the media is just saying it's so.
TS has her finger on the pulse of social media, but no frustration is in evidence, is the national temperature angst and anger, or is the truth that everybody's happy and wants to party like it's 1999?
Oxy and heroin are a scourge.
Then again, they make you really skinny. And if you put together the right outfit you too can be a social media star, a world in which followers and likes mean everything.
Or do they?
"Taylor Swift just can't help herself": https://goo.gl/Gh2thq
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Monday 11 July 2016
Brian Wilson At The Hollywood Bowl
What could be better than hearing "Good Vibrations" on a hot summer night in America's premier outdoor concert venue?
Hearing "California Girls" for the very first time?
"I Get Around" hooked me. I was an avid bowler. I lived to knock down the pins. I was in a league on Saturday and every Friday Mr. Conley took our sixth grade class to the lanes. Two strings were de rigueur, on Saturdays sometimes I bowled a third, at thirty five cents, before automated scoring, when you were actively involved even if you weren't mowing down the pins yourself, using that big black marker to write down the totals, something seemingly most people were unable to do, like read a map, we live in a modern world where basic skills are no longer needed, arithmetic anybody? But in the dark ages of the sixties you not only scored, you ate french fries, krinkly things from the snack bar, and after cleaning my ball, as I waited for departure, I was glued to the jukebox.
I remember hearing "Walk Like A Man,' I was a Four Seasons fanatic. My mother purchased "Big Girls Don't Cry," but I was the one who needed "Dawn (Go Away)," that's still my favorite, although I bought "Ronnie" and "Ragdoll" and the British were invading and obliterating everyone in their wake except for a little old band from Hawthorne, California, the Beach Boys, "I Get Around" held its own on the Nutmeg Bowl jukebox that spring of 1964.
Round round get around, I get around.
They played that last night. And when I say "they" I mean Brian didn't sing everything, his high notes were performed by Matt Jardine, who also sang "Don't Worry Baby," his voice was uncannily akin to Brian's on the records.
But when the assembled multitude backed Brian as he sang about being bugged about driving down the same old strip...
Crickets. The Bowl was quiet. Weren't they aware they were in the presence of America's greatest rock and roll songwriter? An icon with so many hits that he can't play them all in one night? The assembled multitude ultimately warmed up for "Pet Sounds," but by that time Brian's voice was ragged, he was struggling, yet before that...
He was the best I've heard him in his comeback days.
I'm not saying he didn't miss notes, but in the early numbers you didn't need to pull for him, he was carrying the show, and I marveled.
When you get infected by a song your whole perspective changes. Your life makes a left turn. It's aural dope, you can't live without it. I rode my bike down to Topps discount department store in July of '65 to buy "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)" because I had to own "California Girls."
I'd gone back and bought "Surfin' USA." "Shut Down Volume 2" and "Surfin' Safari" previously. Just months before I'd had my dad take me to Korvette's to buy "The Beach Boys Today!," with the ultimately ersatz iteration of "Help Me Ronda," but with "When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)" and "Dance, Dance, Dance" too. But the album started off with their cover of "Do You Wanna Dance?" which I dropped the needle on at the Camp Laurelwood social the first weekend in August and stole Jimmy Calechman's girlfriend Jill Philipson, just like that, I had the music in me, I was inspired.
But "Today!" didn't prepare me for "Summer Days." It contained my favorite Carl Wilson vocal ever, "Girl Don't Tell Me," the hit version of "Help Me, Rhonda," the indelible "Let Him Run Wild"...
And "California Girls."
For the month of July, before I went to Laurelwood, I went to the day camp up at Fairfield Woods Junior High, and I slung my transistor over the handlebars and it was there, riding my bike on the asphalt path, that I first heard "California Girls."
And that sealed the deal, Californ-i-a here I come!
And that's where I am.
And when I heard that intro last night...
"California Girls" was like nothing else, it started with an extended instrumental, and then started to gallop...
"Well east coast girls are hip, I really dig those styles they wear"
It was a different era, the world was bigger, melody ruled, singability was key, harmony was transcendent and...
I kept calling to see if "Summer Nights" was in stock and I rode down the day of release, I had to walk my bike up the hill on my way back, but when I got home all sweaty and I broke the shrinkwrap and dropped the needle...I WAS IN HEAVEN!
And I was in heaven when I heard "California Girls" last night, singing along to all the words I knew by heart.
And when Al Jardine sang "Help Me, Rhonda" the circle was complete, my life made sense, I was exactly where I wanted to be.
I know, I know, Brian Wilson is 74. And tech rules the world. And it's all about personal branding. You boast about your accomplishments on LinkedIn and shoot endless snaps for social media but...
None of that holds a candle to a song.
When it tests limits and pleases all at the same time.
By time Brian cued up "Good Vibrations" everybody was on their feet, singing along, heads aimed skyward in tribute to God, that he delivered such exquisite life-stimulating and life-saving work through his subject Brian Wilson.
We knew it was great back then, but we were exposed to greatness every day. Everybody played the guitar, bands tried to top each other, barriers were to be broken and all we had to do was flick the switch and these mellifluous sounds emanated from our transistors, the iPhones of their day.
Sometimes when I hear these songs I'm just a little boy. The attrition of the years wears off. I'm not only reminded of who I once was, but I'm that same person once again.
It's like I just finished a string at the Nutmeg Bowl, like I just stole Jimmy's girlfriend, like I just came home in the July heat and dropped the needle on the best Beach Boys album of all time.
God only knows how Brian wrote this music, how inexperienced and unheralded Tony Asher wrote these lyrics.
Tony was on stage last night. He's still here.
And so is Brian.
And you know all these songs by heart.
And if you're looking for fun in the sun, go to the show and you'll be happy.
But for those of us who went down the rabbit hole, whose lives were changed by hearing this music... When you see Brian Wilson on stage, singing the story of your life...
You leave your phone in your pocket.
You love instead of hate.
And you feel privileged to have lived through this era and to still be standing.
We came on the Sloop John B. You and me. And last night the boat slipped into the dock and we were most definitely HOME!
P.S. Blondie Chaplin sang "Wild Honey" and his signature song, "Sail On Sailor." And as thrilling as that was, what made me marvel was when he worked out on his Les Paul in between verses, I didn't know the South African had the chops, and as he was wringing out the notes I realized that one Gibson is more powerful than any computer, any app, through its strings you can pull a noise more addictive than OxyContin, people are gonna pick up guitars and other musical instruments in the future, because there's no other way to gain that power, plugging your guitar into a bank of amps and dominating those in attendance, making them pay attention.
P.P.S. The best and the brightest made music. The audience lived for it, there was nothing more powerful. It was the soundtrack to life and love, protest and politics too. If you're younger, I'm not sure you'll get it. If you evaluate last night's show through a modern lens you might find it substandard. Today we expect perfection, we expect everything to work right out of the box and never fail. The record never skips and no one ever hits a bad note. Whereas as great as the supporting players were, Brian was imperfect. As are we. He evidenced humanity. He was stiff, albeit less so than recently. He was reading the lyrics from a too-obvious teleprompter, but he was there, with a smile on his face, he knew he'd written these songs, he knew what they meant to us, he was hanging ten on the ocean of our support. It ended up a tribal rite that left you speechless. Because music possesses that power, the ability to take over your brain and transport you to another dimension. And Brian
Wilson was definitely somewhere else when he wrote all this stuff, but he brought it back from another planet just for us, without our ears it's meaningless, with ours it's more powerful than any gun, any weapon of mass destruction, because it's all about hearts and minds, and last night Brian had OURS!
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Hearing "California Girls" for the very first time?
"I Get Around" hooked me. I was an avid bowler. I lived to knock down the pins. I was in a league on Saturday and every Friday Mr. Conley took our sixth grade class to the lanes. Two strings were de rigueur, on Saturdays sometimes I bowled a third, at thirty five cents, before automated scoring, when you were actively involved even if you weren't mowing down the pins yourself, using that big black marker to write down the totals, something seemingly most people were unable to do, like read a map, we live in a modern world where basic skills are no longer needed, arithmetic anybody? But in the dark ages of the sixties you not only scored, you ate french fries, krinkly things from the snack bar, and after cleaning my ball, as I waited for departure, I was glued to the jukebox.
I remember hearing "Walk Like A Man,' I was a Four Seasons fanatic. My mother purchased "Big Girls Don't Cry," but I was the one who needed "Dawn (Go Away)," that's still my favorite, although I bought "Ronnie" and "Ragdoll" and the British were invading and obliterating everyone in their wake except for a little old band from Hawthorne, California, the Beach Boys, "I Get Around" held its own on the Nutmeg Bowl jukebox that spring of 1964.
Round round get around, I get around.
They played that last night. And when I say "they" I mean Brian didn't sing everything, his high notes were performed by Matt Jardine, who also sang "Don't Worry Baby," his voice was uncannily akin to Brian's on the records.
But when the assembled multitude backed Brian as he sang about being bugged about driving down the same old strip...
Crickets. The Bowl was quiet. Weren't they aware they were in the presence of America's greatest rock and roll songwriter? An icon with so many hits that he can't play them all in one night? The assembled multitude ultimately warmed up for "Pet Sounds," but by that time Brian's voice was ragged, he was struggling, yet before that...
He was the best I've heard him in his comeback days.
I'm not saying he didn't miss notes, but in the early numbers you didn't need to pull for him, he was carrying the show, and I marveled.
When you get infected by a song your whole perspective changes. Your life makes a left turn. It's aural dope, you can't live without it. I rode my bike down to Topps discount department store in July of '65 to buy "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)" because I had to own "California Girls."
I'd gone back and bought "Surfin' USA." "Shut Down Volume 2" and "Surfin' Safari" previously. Just months before I'd had my dad take me to Korvette's to buy "The Beach Boys Today!," with the ultimately ersatz iteration of "Help Me Ronda," but with "When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)" and "Dance, Dance, Dance" too. But the album started off with their cover of "Do You Wanna Dance?" which I dropped the needle on at the Camp Laurelwood social the first weekend in August and stole Jimmy Calechman's girlfriend Jill Philipson, just like that, I had the music in me, I was inspired.
But "Today!" didn't prepare me for "Summer Days." It contained my favorite Carl Wilson vocal ever, "Girl Don't Tell Me," the hit version of "Help Me, Rhonda," the indelible "Let Him Run Wild"...
And "California Girls."
For the month of July, before I went to Laurelwood, I went to the day camp up at Fairfield Woods Junior High, and I slung my transistor over the handlebars and it was there, riding my bike on the asphalt path, that I first heard "California Girls."
And that sealed the deal, Californ-i-a here I come!
And that's where I am.
And when I heard that intro last night...
"California Girls" was like nothing else, it started with an extended instrumental, and then started to gallop...
"Well east coast girls are hip, I really dig those styles they wear"
It was a different era, the world was bigger, melody ruled, singability was key, harmony was transcendent and...
I kept calling to see if "Summer Nights" was in stock and I rode down the day of release, I had to walk my bike up the hill on my way back, but when I got home all sweaty and I broke the shrinkwrap and dropped the needle...I WAS IN HEAVEN!
And I was in heaven when I heard "California Girls" last night, singing along to all the words I knew by heart.
And when Al Jardine sang "Help Me, Rhonda" the circle was complete, my life made sense, I was exactly where I wanted to be.
I know, I know, Brian Wilson is 74. And tech rules the world. And it's all about personal branding. You boast about your accomplishments on LinkedIn and shoot endless snaps for social media but...
None of that holds a candle to a song.
When it tests limits and pleases all at the same time.
By time Brian cued up "Good Vibrations" everybody was on their feet, singing along, heads aimed skyward in tribute to God, that he delivered such exquisite life-stimulating and life-saving work through his subject Brian Wilson.
We knew it was great back then, but we were exposed to greatness every day. Everybody played the guitar, bands tried to top each other, barriers were to be broken and all we had to do was flick the switch and these mellifluous sounds emanated from our transistors, the iPhones of their day.
Sometimes when I hear these songs I'm just a little boy. The attrition of the years wears off. I'm not only reminded of who I once was, but I'm that same person once again.
It's like I just finished a string at the Nutmeg Bowl, like I just stole Jimmy's girlfriend, like I just came home in the July heat and dropped the needle on the best Beach Boys album of all time.
God only knows how Brian wrote this music, how inexperienced and unheralded Tony Asher wrote these lyrics.
Tony was on stage last night. He's still here.
And so is Brian.
And you know all these songs by heart.
And if you're looking for fun in the sun, go to the show and you'll be happy.
But for those of us who went down the rabbit hole, whose lives were changed by hearing this music... When you see Brian Wilson on stage, singing the story of your life...
You leave your phone in your pocket.
You love instead of hate.
And you feel privileged to have lived through this era and to still be standing.
We came on the Sloop John B. You and me. And last night the boat slipped into the dock and we were most definitely HOME!
P.S. Blondie Chaplin sang "Wild Honey" and his signature song, "Sail On Sailor." And as thrilling as that was, what made me marvel was when he worked out on his Les Paul in between verses, I didn't know the South African had the chops, and as he was wringing out the notes I realized that one Gibson is more powerful than any computer, any app, through its strings you can pull a noise more addictive than OxyContin, people are gonna pick up guitars and other musical instruments in the future, because there's no other way to gain that power, plugging your guitar into a bank of amps and dominating those in attendance, making them pay attention.
P.P.S. The best and the brightest made music. The audience lived for it, there was nothing more powerful. It was the soundtrack to life and love, protest and politics too. If you're younger, I'm not sure you'll get it. If you evaluate last night's show through a modern lens you might find it substandard. Today we expect perfection, we expect everything to work right out of the box and never fail. The record never skips and no one ever hits a bad note. Whereas as great as the supporting players were, Brian was imperfect. As are we. He evidenced humanity. He was stiff, albeit less so than recently. He was reading the lyrics from a too-obvious teleprompter, but he was there, with a smile on his face, he knew he'd written these songs, he knew what they meant to us, he was hanging ten on the ocean of our support. It ended up a tribal rite that left you speechless. Because music possesses that power, the ability to take over your brain and transport you to another dimension. And Brian
Wilson was definitely somewhere else when he wrote all this stuff, but he brought it back from another planet just for us, without our ears it's meaningless, with ours it's more powerful than any gun, any weapon of mass destruction, because it's all about hearts and minds, and last night Brian had OURS!
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Sunday 10 July 2016
Beautycon LA
They screamed every time Tana Mongeau spoke.
Do you know who that is?
I don't either.
The woman who runs Beautycon is a force of nature. I met Moj Mahdara at the Atom Factory, Troy Carter's joint, it's always the same people, investing in the new and different which you'd expect to be run by a new breed, but they're not. I had a long conversation with Guy Oseary, he's a backer, and the link to the organization was Eric Greenspan, the music attorney, who brokered the fit, Moj was looking for something to do after having two victories, after putting fifties and hundreds into multiple ventures, she's the CEO.
I could not get a parking spot. Vehicles were parked willy-nilly, but driving Felice's machine I was especially wary of illegitimate spaces. I ultimately found a spot in the far reaches and had to walk the better part of ten minutes to get to the hall.
Turns out there were 15,000 people there. Mostly girls, 16-34, and I thought they were there for the products, but Moj told me they were there for the community.
It was strangely desexualized. After JonBenet, our antenna are up for the underage made up like adults, but that was not this crowd, it seemed like they'd just graduated from Disneyland, this was the next stop on the theme park tour.
And Radio Disney was there.
Along with endless booths for cosmetics I've never of, and I get more magazines than anybody I know, I think I know the names.
Lime Crime?
That was the longest line in the joint. Over half an hour. To PAY! I figured they were giving something away, but it turns out Lime Crime has no brick and mortar presence, so the ability to reach out and touch the product had girls lining up with their wallets open. Maybe they took Apple Pay, there were some cash registers but multiple iPads, and the truth is everybody had a handset. The sheer number was staggering. When Jack & Jack took the stage and the assembled multitude lifted their devices over their heads for pictures you said to yourself... We live in a changed world. Everything we know is wrong.
Like the actresses in cosmetic ads. Moj told me her influencers were far more powerful. I crossed this with the CMO of L'Oreal, she said so too.
That's what this affair is really about, getting up close and personal with influencers.
They line up for pictures. The influencers are young and made up and dressed up and you know none of them, but they're all making good money. Or are they? I heard conflicting reports. That they were deep into six figures or all they had was their fame. I don't know, you do your best to collect data but everybody's selling and it's hard to get to the truth, ain't that America.
But you only get paid on YouTube, and so many of these girls are on Instagram and Snapchat. But you can do embedded sponsorships. There are agencies to broker this.
Confused yet?
Snapchat rules. It's the Beatles of the generation, where they all live. Imagine a Fillmore East that accommodated EVERYBODY, then you'd get a semblance of the idea.
Although the difference is you can reach and out and touch the stars. They're no different from you except they've broken through, and you want to too. That's why you're posting on Instagram, et al.
But the influencers are not like the musicians, they're not young and dumb, they're educated and articulate. It was amazing to see. Go to a music conference and you'll learn nothing. The industry folk won't tell you the truth and the musicians can barely eke out a sentence. But the aforementioned Tana Mongeau said it was all about Black Lives Matter, she was taking a stand, how refreshing! And each influencer could talk about haters and frequency of posting...they're all students of the game.
As for Jack & Jack... The started on Vine, they're out of Omaha, their manager told me they make seven figures, they employ household name producers, but they keep everything in-house. Too many have flopped with major labels. And when you do it yourself you make so much more money. J&J have sold over a million iTunes downloads, do the math, at 70%.
So something is happening here, and it ain't exactly clear.
It was a sea of ethnicity, everybody could belong, so different from the baby boomer ethos where it's about ascending to the top and keeping everybody else out.
And you try to discern the talent and you're not quite sure what it is, you wonder if these influencers have a future, but you do know legions are lining up to replace them, and it's all based on honesty and interaction.
And Beautycon is a business. Not only these profitable conventions, but monthly boxes of cosmetics, each one curated by an influencer whose picture is stashed inside. At the nexus of community and brands you find money. Yes, the smell of mazuma was palpable in the hall.
And I'm not saying musicians are second-class citizens, that these same girls don't love them too. But I am saying that movies, TV and music are no longer the only world, and the barriers to entry are much lower online and the elements, the qualities of character that break you through, are different.
But everybody's still into the bucks. I listened to Tyra Banks do her thing. She's very personable, if not riveting, extremely interesting. She sometimes feels inadequate, the haters get to her, she relies on her mother to get her through. Hell, after forty five minutes I thought I knew her, and even though I'm old enough to know that's untrue, that's the game, personality and intimacy.
But she was hyping her branded cosmetics which depend upon multi-level marketing, which is a scam, it preys on people, it's a pyramid scheme. And I find that offensive.
But Toni Ko started NYX as a teenager and sold it to L'Oreal for $500 million. So, you can win playing legitimately.
It's a whole new world out there baby.
And it's exciting.
But overwhelming.
"Hillary Clinton and Beautycon Draw Digital Influencers to Town Hall to Encourage Youth Vote": http://goo.gl/jz4hzL
https://beautycon.com/beautycon-los-angeles
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Do you know who that is?
I don't either.
The woman who runs Beautycon is a force of nature. I met Moj Mahdara at the Atom Factory, Troy Carter's joint, it's always the same people, investing in the new and different which you'd expect to be run by a new breed, but they're not. I had a long conversation with Guy Oseary, he's a backer, and the link to the organization was Eric Greenspan, the music attorney, who brokered the fit, Moj was looking for something to do after having two victories, after putting fifties and hundreds into multiple ventures, she's the CEO.
I could not get a parking spot. Vehicles were parked willy-nilly, but driving Felice's machine I was especially wary of illegitimate spaces. I ultimately found a spot in the far reaches and had to walk the better part of ten minutes to get to the hall.
Turns out there were 15,000 people there. Mostly girls, 16-34, and I thought they were there for the products, but Moj told me they were there for the community.
It was strangely desexualized. After JonBenet, our antenna are up for the underage made up like adults, but that was not this crowd, it seemed like they'd just graduated from Disneyland, this was the next stop on the theme park tour.
And Radio Disney was there.
Along with endless booths for cosmetics I've never of, and I get more magazines than anybody I know, I think I know the names.
Lime Crime?
That was the longest line in the joint. Over half an hour. To PAY! I figured they were giving something away, but it turns out Lime Crime has no brick and mortar presence, so the ability to reach out and touch the product had girls lining up with their wallets open. Maybe they took Apple Pay, there were some cash registers but multiple iPads, and the truth is everybody had a handset. The sheer number was staggering. When Jack & Jack took the stage and the assembled multitude lifted their devices over their heads for pictures you said to yourself... We live in a changed world. Everything we know is wrong.
Like the actresses in cosmetic ads. Moj told me her influencers were far more powerful. I crossed this with the CMO of L'Oreal, she said so too.
That's what this affair is really about, getting up close and personal with influencers.
They line up for pictures. The influencers are young and made up and dressed up and you know none of them, but they're all making good money. Or are they? I heard conflicting reports. That they were deep into six figures or all they had was their fame. I don't know, you do your best to collect data but everybody's selling and it's hard to get to the truth, ain't that America.
But you only get paid on YouTube, and so many of these girls are on Instagram and Snapchat. But you can do embedded sponsorships. There are agencies to broker this.
Confused yet?
Snapchat rules. It's the Beatles of the generation, where they all live. Imagine a Fillmore East that accommodated EVERYBODY, then you'd get a semblance of the idea.
Although the difference is you can reach and out and touch the stars. They're no different from you except they've broken through, and you want to too. That's why you're posting on Instagram, et al.
But the influencers are not like the musicians, they're not young and dumb, they're educated and articulate. It was amazing to see. Go to a music conference and you'll learn nothing. The industry folk won't tell you the truth and the musicians can barely eke out a sentence. But the aforementioned Tana Mongeau said it was all about Black Lives Matter, she was taking a stand, how refreshing! And each influencer could talk about haters and frequency of posting...they're all students of the game.
As for Jack & Jack... The started on Vine, they're out of Omaha, their manager told me they make seven figures, they employ household name producers, but they keep everything in-house. Too many have flopped with major labels. And when you do it yourself you make so much more money. J&J have sold over a million iTunes downloads, do the math, at 70%.
So something is happening here, and it ain't exactly clear.
It was a sea of ethnicity, everybody could belong, so different from the baby boomer ethos where it's about ascending to the top and keeping everybody else out.
And you try to discern the talent and you're not quite sure what it is, you wonder if these influencers have a future, but you do know legions are lining up to replace them, and it's all based on honesty and interaction.
And Beautycon is a business. Not only these profitable conventions, but monthly boxes of cosmetics, each one curated by an influencer whose picture is stashed inside. At the nexus of community and brands you find money. Yes, the smell of mazuma was palpable in the hall.
And I'm not saying musicians are second-class citizens, that these same girls don't love them too. But I am saying that movies, TV and music are no longer the only world, and the barriers to entry are much lower online and the elements, the qualities of character that break you through, are different.
But everybody's still into the bucks. I listened to Tyra Banks do her thing. She's very personable, if not riveting, extremely interesting. She sometimes feels inadequate, the haters get to her, she relies on her mother to get her through. Hell, after forty five minutes I thought I knew her, and even though I'm old enough to know that's untrue, that's the game, personality and intimacy.
But she was hyping her branded cosmetics which depend upon multi-level marketing, which is a scam, it preys on people, it's a pyramid scheme. And I find that offensive.
But Toni Ko started NYX as a teenager and sold it to L'Oreal for $500 million. So, you can win playing legitimately.
It's a whole new world out there baby.
And it's exciting.
But overwhelming.
"Hillary Clinton and Beautycon Draw Digital Influencers to Town Hall to Encourage Youth Vote": http://goo.gl/jz4hzL
https://beautycon.com/beautycon-los-angeles
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