While I'm talking TV, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how exceptional Billy Bob Thornton is in "Goliath." It's on Amazon Prime, and although half the households in America have it and don't have to pay for it nothing on that outlet gets any traction, it seems people don't know how to pull the service up or they don't have a Roku or it's not on Apple TV and they don't know how to operate their smart TV but I wouldn't count out Amazon, it's a long game and that's the one they play best and they've got oh-so-deep pockets and I'm not saying you have to watch "Goliath," because it's a typical David E. Kelley legal drama with holes galore, but Billy Bob Thornton, the excoriated actor who moonlighted as a musician, he's FANTASTIC!
We seem to have forgotten the power of the individual. Of one person to make a difference. I'm not saying of one person to become successful, we have multiple iterations of that, we prop up nitwits for nothing and marvel at their remuneration but they've got no talent, whether it be the YouTube stars with their gaming and fashion tips or the models, even the one-dimensional pop stars fronting for Max Martin, but then there are talented people so good that what they say makes a difference. Like some people on Twitter. You need to follow Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner), the disgraced investment banker who went to work for Obama as the car czar. He took over for Felix Rohatyn at Lazard Freres, left media for the money, and now he's returned to media, writing occasionally for the NYT and tweeting not only emotion, but facts, and if you still believe in facts it's a revelation.
And one great band member can carry a whole act. How many have survived the loss of their lead singer? There's Genesis and Van Halen, although both acts were the same yet different, but there are so many others with charismatic frontmen who couldn't soldier on, whether it be the Doors or now Soundgarden. You see the magic is often in one person.
And millennials don't get this, they've been taught it's best to be a member of the group, they didn't want to raise their hand in class for fear of standing out.
And business school is all about teams and relationships. God, if I hear the word "networking" one more time I'm gonna explode. Is that what life has come down to, finding people you can use to get ahead? And people have no shame, they want to go to lunch, talk on the phone, just so they can express their agenda, use me to further their careers, they do it unabashedly, which is why the odds of me talking on the phone or getting together with you are so damn low, although now I will have scared away the reasonable people but the unreasonable ones have no shame.
Which brings us back to Billy Bob Thornton, the rugged individual walking his own way who we get mad at because he doesn't comport with our desires, doesn't do it the way we think he should. Hell, all these years later it's Jian Ghomeshi who's the loser, funny how time lifts those who deserve attention and buries those who don't. Which is why you can tune out today's music scene for a couple of years and miss nothing, because none of these people are gonna last.
The heroes of America used to be rugged individuals. Hell, I can start naming them and continue for days. Whether it be Steve McQueen, or even musicians like Bob Dylan and John Lennon. These are artists we can't take our eyes off of.
We can't take our eyes off of Billy Bob Thornton in "Goliath."
And sure, the role is written for him. The moral lawyer who can't handle the results of his excellent work who goes off the deep end and trashes his life, ruins his family and career. But there's still an inner mounting flame. And when it's given oxygen, the old Billy Bob fights the goliath, because if you don't believe in something, if you're not fighting for something, why even get up in the morning?
The cinematography is incredible. William Hurt is acting at B level. Molly Parker is always great. Maria Bello acts to the limits of her ability, which unfortunately are not anywhere near Billy Bob's, and you end up seeing that Nina Arianda deserved all those Broadway accolades, she's not Hollywood beautiful, but she can ACT!
But Billy Bob is in his own league. He carries the whole damn show. Because he's so damn BELIEVABLE! In an era where no one is, or there's no one home. You think he really is the character. Who is willing to bob and weave and tolerate slights all in the furtherance of the ultimate goal, sticking it to the man.
Does anybody want to stick it to the man anymore?
No, they want to BE THE MAN!
But we'd rather watch the outsider, look to the lone gunman, the person outside of the system, not beholden to the rules, who thinks for themselves, they're the beacon.
Like Billy Bob.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5864&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Billy+Bob+In+Goliath
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5864&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Billy+Bob+In+Goliath
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5864&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Billy+Bob+In+Goliath
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5864&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Billy+Bob+In+Goliath
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5864&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Billy+Bob+In+Goliath
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Saturday 27 May 2017
The Keepers
You'll never look at the Catholic church the same way again. When you hear the word "Archdiocese," you'll shudder.
Netflix is CBS Records. A monolith that's making money that's spending money that needs something to hit, but not everything to hit. That's what's wrong with the HBO model, they're so busy developing exceptional product that it takes years, and what results can often be lame, can you say "John from Cincinnati"? Whereas on Netflix you just ignore the detritus and go for the gold.
And "The Keepers" is gold.
You've got to start with the viewer reviews. Which are nearly five star. Before this we watched an episode of "The Crown," which had three stars, even though I'd heard personally, albeit from a Brit, that it was a winner. Great acting, great production, but it was like watching paint dry, I'm not sure we can endure another episode.
But then I saw "The Keepers," which I knew nothing about, but noted the rating and decided to give it a try.
Who killed Cathy Cesnik?
When's the last time you even saw a nun. We used to laugh that we saw them driving around in their station wagons back in the sixties, but now all the nuns in this program have left the church and I read they're having a hard time recruiting but the sixties were different.
Boy were they different.
They were the bridge to where we are now, the future, but they were also a bridge to the past, the fifties and forties and...
Can you abuse teenagers and not have the word get out?
You'll be watching "The Keepers" yelling back at the TV, you truly can't believe it, how could Father Maskell have perpetrated such crimes without anybody talking, without the word leaking out?
That's the power of the Catholic Church, that's the power of intimidation, that's the power of fear.
So you've got two old ladies who decide to research the death of their teacher, the aforementioned nun, Cathy Cesnik, back in '69.
And then you realize, you were in high school at the same time. And do you look as bad as they do?
We stop looking in the mirror at some point, we stop seeing ourselves the way others do, but the truth is age takes a toll, or maybe it's got to to do with income, maybe I've been living in L.A. too long, with the focus on the physical, but you see these people, all good-hearted and earnest, and you ask yourself, am I too over and done, one step from the grave, already thrown upon the scrapheap?
But then you realize the power of these people, the persistence, to bring to life a fifty year old crime!
And at times "The Keepers" is slow too. And at times it's a bit manipulative. You're going down one path, but then they suddenly go down another, which explains it all or opens a whole new door, but you can't stop watching, because you're so intrigued, you want to know what happens, how it turns out, in a city that's not New York or L.A., where everybody's just living their life, where everybody didn't go to college, where somebody graduates from Catholic school and marries a carpenter and they buy a house and raise two children, that was the American Dream.
But it doesn't work anymore, the numbers don't add up, did you see the WSJ article how "Rural America Is The New Inner City," disadvantaged economically? You can't make it there and you can't make it here, because in the metropolis you can't afford real property on your salary, so much has changed.
I don't know families with ten kids anymore. Oh sure, they're on reality TV, but it used to be you went to school with kids who were number five out of seven, or... And frequently their dads weren't rich, in this case the father of ten was a cop, but they believed in the church.
I'm not sure anybody believes to that extent anymore. Oh, you've got a vocal minority talking about God, but they're not so true blue, every televangelist seems to have been busted for faux pas. But in Baltimore in the sixties, the church ran the community, everybody was Catholic, and the Archdiocese circled the wagons, and that always scares me when they do that, the groupthink, protecting the institution, my dad was an outsider, an outlier, and I guess I inherited his genes, and when you go against the grain, speak the truth, you'd be shocked at the abuse you endure, it takes a lot of strength to be the "other," which is why none of these women came forward.
And when they eventually do, eons later, they're dragged through the mud. Ain't that America, where it's the victim's fault. And if you don't think it's our philosophy, you haven't been paying attention to Ben Carson, to Trump's budget, the problem with the poor is they're lazy, if they'd just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, fly straight and get jobs... Whew, and these are the people who keep testifying how compassionate they are! It's like America has lost its soul, especially when you see the corporate compensation just published in the "New York Times," these wankers make more in a year than most people will make in a lifetime, more than your whole apartment building will make in a lifetime, your whole NEIGHBORHOOD! Does anybody need that much money? Does anybody DESERVE that much money?
And believe me, the Catholic Church has money. To paper over problems.
And now all the religiosos are pissed at the Pope, who wants them to worry about climate change, take care of the less fortunate, that's the ruling class, they embrace something as long as it's expedient, then they abandon it.
And you WILL think about all of the above when you watch "The Keepers."
And I won't say the conclusion is so satisfying, but like life the journey is worth it.
And what we're talking about here are lives, of reasonable people, whose journeys on this planet were ruined, by one man, who the Archdiocese covered for. Justice doesn't always reign.
But ultimately "The Keepers" makes you feel part of a community, you're not a scumbag, you wouldn't put up with this, you'd report it...
But would you? What if the police didn't take action? What if everybody dismissed you, said you were telling lies?
Life is much more complicated than it looks on the surface.
But it's rarely complicated on screen, producers believe the public can't handle it, they need everything wrapped up tight, so they can go to sleep at night. But there are enough loose ends in "The Keepers" to keep you up for a week.
WATCH IT!
P.S. It's seven hours long. Conventional wisdom keeps telling us we've got short attention spans, we love to multitask, but the truth is we're dying to turn off our phones and dig deep into something meaty, at length. We want to go along for the ride. Sure, we can hop from crap to crap. But when we find something solid, WE'RE IN!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5863&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Keepers
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5863&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Keepers
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5863&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Keepers
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5863&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Keepers
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5863&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Keepers
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Netflix is CBS Records. A monolith that's making money that's spending money that needs something to hit, but not everything to hit. That's what's wrong with the HBO model, they're so busy developing exceptional product that it takes years, and what results can often be lame, can you say "John from Cincinnati"? Whereas on Netflix you just ignore the detritus and go for the gold.
And "The Keepers" is gold.
You've got to start with the viewer reviews. Which are nearly five star. Before this we watched an episode of "The Crown," which had three stars, even though I'd heard personally, albeit from a Brit, that it was a winner. Great acting, great production, but it was like watching paint dry, I'm not sure we can endure another episode.
But then I saw "The Keepers," which I knew nothing about, but noted the rating and decided to give it a try.
Who killed Cathy Cesnik?
When's the last time you even saw a nun. We used to laugh that we saw them driving around in their station wagons back in the sixties, but now all the nuns in this program have left the church and I read they're having a hard time recruiting but the sixties were different.
Boy were they different.
They were the bridge to where we are now, the future, but they were also a bridge to the past, the fifties and forties and...
Can you abuse teenagers and not have the word get out?
You'll be watching "The Keepers" yelling back at the TV, you truly can't believe it, how could Father Maskell have perpetrated such crimes without anybody talking, without the word leaking out?
That's the power of the Catholic Church, that's the power of intimidation, that's the power of fear.
So you've got two old ladies who decide to research the death of their teacher, the aforementioned nun, Cathy Cesnik, back in '69.
And then you realize, you were in high school at the same time. And do you look as bad as they do?
We stop looking in the mirror at some point, we stop seeing ourselves the way others do, but the truth is age takes a toll, or maybe it's got to to do with income, maybe I've been living in L.A. too long, with the focus on the physical, but you see these people, all good-hearted and earnest, and you ask yourself, am I too over and done, one step from the grave, already thrown upon the scrapheap?
But then you realize the power of these people, the persistence, to bring to life a fifty year old crime!
And at times "The Keepers" is slow too. And at times it's a bit manipulative. You're going down one path, but then they suddenly go down another, which explains it all or opens a whole new door, but you can't stop watching, because you're so intrigued, you want to know what happens, how it turns out, in a city that's not New York or L.A., where everybody's just living their life, where everybody didn't go to college, where somebody graduates from Catholic school and marries a carpenter and they buy a house and raise two children, that was the American Dream.
But it doesn't work anymore, the numbers don't add up, did you see the WSJ article how "Rural America Is The New Inner City," disadvantaged economically? You can't make it there and you can't make it here, because in the metropolis you can't afford real property on your salary, so much has changed.
I don't know families with ten kids anymore. Oh sure, they're on reality TV, but it used to be you went to school with kids who were number five out of seven, or... And frequently their dads weren't rich, in this case the father of ten was a cop, but they believed in the church.
I'm not sure anybody believes to that extent anymore. Oh, you've got a vocal minority talking about God, but they're not so true blue, every televangelist seems to have been busted for faux pas. But in Baltimore in the sixties, the church ran the community, everybody was Catholic, and the Archdiocese circled the wagons, and that always scares me when they do that, the groupthink, protecting the institution, my dad was an outsider, an outlier, and I guess I inherited his genes, and when you go against the grain, speak the truth, you'd be shocked at the abuse you endure, it takes a lot of strength to be the "other," which is why none of these women came forward.
And when they eventually do, eons later, they're dragged through the mud. Ain't that America, where it's the victim's fault. And if you don't think it's our philosophy, you haven't been paying attention to Ben Carson, to Trump's budget, the problem with the poor is they're lazy, if they'd just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, fly straight and get jobs... Whew, and these are the people who keep testifying how compassionate they are! It's like America has lost its soul, especially when you see the corporate compensation just published in the "New York Times," these wankers make more in a year than most people will make in a lifetime, more than your whole apartment building will make in a lifetime, your whole NEIGHBORHOOD! Does anybody need that much money? Does anybody DESERVE that much money?
And believe me, the Catholic Church has money. To paper over problems.
And now all the religiosos are pissed at the Pope, who wants them to worry about climate change, take care of the less fortunate, that's the ruling class, they embrace something as long as it's expedient, then they abandon it.
And you WILL think about all of the above when you watch "The Keepers."
And I won't say the conclusion is so satisfying, but like life the journey is worth it.
And what we're talking about here are lives, of reasonable people, whose journeys on this planet were ruined, by one man, who the Archdiocese covered for. Justice doesn't always reign.
But ultimately "The Keepers" makes you feel part of a community, you're not a scumbag, you wouldn't put up with this, you'd report it...
But would you? What if the police didn't take action? What if everybody dismissed you, said you were telling lies?
Life is much more complicated than it looks on the surface.
But it's rarely complicated on screen, producers believe the public can't handle it, they need everything wrapped up tight, so they can go to sleep at night. But there are enough loose ends in "The Keepers" to keep you up for a week.
WATCH IT!
P.S. It's seven hours long. Conventional wisdom keeps telling us we've got short attention spans, we love to multitask, but the truth is we're dying to turn off our phones and dig deep into something meaty, at length. We want to go along for the ride. Sure, we can hop from crap to crap. But when we find something solid, WE'RE IN!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5863&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Keepers
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5863&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Keepers
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5863&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Keepers
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5863&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Keepers
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5863&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Keepers
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Friday 26 May 2017
The Sgt. Pepper Remix
https://open.spotify.com/album/3LXItxKnnJcEDc5QdTc00n
It's sacrilegious.
Couldn't they leave well enough alone? Do the Beatles need any more money? Isn't Capitol/Universal flush enough? How dare they mess with our memories.
Assuming you were there the first time around, when "Sgt. Pepper" engrossed us and changed our perceptions of what was and what could be.
That's right, it was 1967. Almost nobody was buying albums! It was still a singles world, dominated by AM radio, within the year underground FM radio would start in San Francisco, but FM didn't penetrate the heartland for nearly five years, maybe more. The point being, "Sgt. Pepper" was a REVOLUTION!
It was not on the radio, because there were no singles. As for the two prior LPs, "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver," their UK iterations had hits, the material was darker, more expansive than what had come before, but it wasn't all of a piece, it didn't all hang together, "Sgt. Pepper" came from outer space, it was unexpected.
And word did not spread immediately. What I hate is the rewrites of history. Like the Beatles were successful because they were a respite from JFK. NO! The Beatles would have been successful at any time, because they were just that damn good, furthermore the youth were bursting at the seams, to break the walls of control of their parents. To say it had to do with JFK is like intimating that Michael Jordan was so damn good because Bill Clinton became President, huh?
As for the remix... It's great that gems come out of the vaults, not that anybody listens to those double-CD Beatles packages from decades back, only collectors and uber-fans, but when you mess with the essence... Hell, they still can't agree whether Roger Maris broke the home run record, since he played in 162 games instead of Babe Ruth's 154, and then the steroid-enhanced brutes topped that and no one even talks about home run records anymore, that's what happens when you can't agree on the rules, when you mess with the rules, which is what's so great about music, it's laid down and that's it. The creator dies but their records live on. Come on, listen to some Buddy Holly, he's still alive on wax, he's an inspiration.
So "Sgt. Pepper" comes out and a small fraction of Beatle fans buy it. And back then sales were anemic compared to the MTV/CD era, people had less money, they depended upon the radio. So when you bought the LP, you were a party of one. It's like watching "Game Of Thrones" if it weren't on HBO and you'd never seen an episode previously and there was no internet. You'd tell the people you came in contact with, but getting someone to buy an LP unheard is nearly impossible, and when you play something for somebody they usually don't get it, you've got to marinate in it yourself, bask in the tunes, let them unfold.
Now of course there was the cover. And sure, there were a bunch of personages on it, but that wasn't the story, that was the ERA! Of pop art, of minimalist art, of black lights and psychedelia. Art was the fashion of the era, and it wasn't about sales/money, it was about testing limits and the Beatles were part of it and wanted to push the envelope. So sure, you looked at who was depicted, but you were even more impressed by the fact that the Beatles were playing a role. Only a few years before there were no gatefold albums, there was only a picture on the cover and an inner sleeve promoting other acts on the label. The Beatles had taken over the complete package, they were standing apart, that was what was so confounding and influential, it's like they resigned from the game to create a new game. And for all those who prefer "Abbey Road" or the White Album, you have to know, they were nowhere near the artistic breakthrough, they were song collections, "Sgt. Pepper" changed the course of history, suddenly everybody else wanted to make an album-length statement, hell, everybody wants to make an album-length statement to this day, BECAUSE OF SGT. PEPPER!
So what exactly was this? The Beatles or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band?
And the opener, the title cut, rocked in a way the band usually did not. This was long before heavy metal, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and eventually Black Sabbath and Metallica. This was uncharacteristic, but in the pocket. This was Paul exhorting like he used to when he imitated Little Richard, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" hearkened both forward and backward, and you never ever heard it on the radio, never.
As for "With A Little Help From My Friends"... Ringo needed friends? It was the insecurity that resonated. How he just needed someone to love.
And then "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"... No one even knew what LSD was, this was before every young American read Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." All we knew was this was a dreamy song sung by the most emotive Beatle, who always seemed to believe what he was singing, and it made you want to drop out and join the circus. Never forget, the Beatles caused kids to question all their precepts, to jump the tracks, no Beatles, no San Francisco and Summer of Love.
"I used to get mad at my school
The teachers that taught me weren't cool
They're holding me down
Turning me 'round
Filling me up with your rules"
HUH? Only scant years before the Beach Boys were singing we should be true to our school, we got no truth in popular culture, and suddenly the Beatles were singing what we felt inside, calling a spade to spade, with optimism underneath. There's the sixties right there, the younger generation thought about the possibilities, it wasn't millennials saying they're mired in debt and they've got no future, the world was our oyster!
As for "Fixing A Hole"... How many times did you have to listen, to contemplate the lyrics, this wasn't a straightforward ditty, this was a vision from beyond, a place where you wanted to go, where you questioned EVERYTHING!
And leaving home... We were misunderstood, people were voyaging from the homestead in droves. Your parents weren't your best friends, they didn't get you, you wanted to cast off the reins.
"Mr. Kite" was part of the concept, ethereal and otherworldly, the words and changes resonated.
As for "Within You Without You," if you got it immediately, you're lying. But if it was on a Beatles album it deserved our trust, we had to listen, we had to unpack it, we had to get it. And sure, some boomers were old, in their early twenties, but most were just teens, this Eastern philosophy was new to them, they knew the Beatles had gone to India, they wanted to know what it was all about.
But they never thought they'd be 64, they just listened and bopped their head.
But you fell in love with Lovely Rita, were woken up by the rooster in "Good Morning Good Morning" and after the reprise, which was brief but even more energetic than the original opening anthem, you were forced to contemplate at length how many holes it took to fill the Albert Hall.
WHAT WAS THAT?
No one listened to "Sgt. Pepper" and immediately pronounced it a classic, it was just too different. But because funds were limited, you flipped the record over and played it again and again until it revealed itself. AND IT DID! There were no clunkers, you developed favorites, you learned the lyrics, and you started to break away from the paradigm, you were no longer a slave to the radio, you'd been set free.
Hell, it wasn't until the White Album that the paradigm permeated the public at large, when everybody bought the double LP not caring whether there was airplay or not, but they'd been primed by "Sgt. Pepper" and the cascade of imitators. And everybody seems to forget that the White Album cover was, white that is, as a rebellion against overspending on artwork, the music had to speak for itself. That's right, the Beatles were innovators, testing limits, not doing market research afraid of pissing off potential customers. They didn't come to you, YOU CAME TO THEM!
But now they're coming to us. With this inane remix.
It's just not the same. It's not like "Sgt. Pepper" wasn't released in stereo to begin with. And it was the wash of sound that knocked you down and overwhelmed you. It wasn't about the individual voices or instruments, but the entire passion play you were exposed to.
Fifty years ago.
I kinda get anniversaries, not that the Beatles, or "Sgt. Pepper," have been forgotten.
But in this era of streaming the focus on the original would have been good enough. A few minutes with the remix and you're offended and tune out. As for the extras, you can't even listen through, they're curios. But when you put on the original LP, you're brought back to what once was.
When music was the hottest art form in the world.
Practiced by men secure in their abilities and vision.
Who decided to push the envelope, creating the modern music business in their wake.
That's how it was, don't let them rewrite history.
It's sacrilegious.
Couldn't they leave well enough alone? Do the Beatles need any more money? Isn't Capitol/Universal flush enough? How dare they mess with our memories.
Assuming you were there the first time around, when "Sgt. Pepper" engrossed us and changed our perceptions of what was and what could be.
That's right, it was 1967. Almost nobody was buying albums! It was still a singles world, dominated by AM radio, within the year underground FM radio would start in San Francisco, but FM didn't penetrate the heartland for nearly five years, maybe more. The point being, "Sgt. Pepper" was a REVOLUTION!
It was not on the radio, because there were no singles. As for the two prior LPs, "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver," their UK iterations had hits, the material was darker, more expansive than what had come before, but it wasn't all of a piece, it didn't all hang together, "Sgt. Pepper" came from outer space, it was unexpected.
And word did not spread immediately. What I hate is the rewrites of history. Like the Beatles were successful because they were a respite from JFK. NO! The Beatles would have been successful at any time, because they were just that damn good, furthermore the youth were bursting at the seams, to break the walls of control of their parents. To say it had to do with JFK is like intimating that Michael Jordan was so damn good because Bill Clinton became President, huh?
As for the remix... It's great that gems come out of the vaults, not that anybody listens to those double-CD Beatles packages from decades back, only collectors and uber-fans, but when you mess with the essence... Hell, they still can't agree whether Roger Maris broke the home run record, since he played in 162 games instead of Babe Ruth's 154, and then the steroid-enhanced brutes topped that and no one even talks about home run records anymore, that's what happens when you can't agree on the rules, when you mess with the rules, which is what's so great about music, it's laid down and that's it. The creator dies but their records live on. Come on, listen to some Buddy Holly, he's still alive on wax, he's an inspiration.
So "Sgt. Pepper" comes out and a small fraction of Beatle fans buy it. And back then sales were anemic compared to the MTV/CD era, people had less money, they depended upon the radio. So when you bought the LP, you were a party of one. It's like watching "Game Of Thrones" if it weren't on HBO and you'd never seen an episode previously and there was no internet. You'd tell the people you came in contact with, but getting someone to buy an LP unheard is nearly impossible, and when you play something for somebody they usually don't get it, you've got to marinate in it yourself, bask in the tunes, let them unfold.
Now of course there was the cover. And sure, there were a bunch of personages on it, but that wasn't the story, that was the ERA! Of pop art, of minimalist art, of black lights and psychedelia. Art was the fashion of the era, and it wasn't about sales/money, it was about testing limits and the Beatles were part of it and wanted to push the envelope. So sure, you looked at who was depicted, but you were even more impressed by the fact that the Beatles were playing a role. Only a few years before there were no gatefold albums, there was only a picture on the cover and an inner sleeve promoting other acts on the label. The Beatles had taken over the complete package, they were standing apart, that was what was so confounding and influential, it's like they resigned from the game to create a new game. And for all those who prefer "Abbey Road" or the White Album, you have to know, they were nowhere near the artistic breakthrough, they were song collections, "Sgt. Pepper" changed the course of history, suddenly everybody else wanted to make an album-length statement, hell, everybody wants to make an album-length statement to this day, BECAUSE OF SGT. PEPPER!
So what exactly was this? The Beatles or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band?
And the opener, the title cut, rocked in a way the band usually did not. This was long before heavy metal, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and eventually Black Sabbath and Metallica. This was uncharacteristic, but in the pocket. This was Paul exhorting like he used to when he imitated Little Richard, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" hearkened both forward and backward, and you never ever heard it on the radio, never.
As for "With A Little Help From My Friends"... Ringo needed friends? It was the insecurity that resonated. How he just needed someone to love.
And then "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"... No one even knew what LSD was, this was before every young American read Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." All we knew was this was a dreamy song sung by the most emotive Beatle, who always seemed to believe what he was singing, and it made you want to drop out and join the circus. Never forget, the Beatles caused kids to question all their precepts, to jump the tracks, no Beatles, no San Francisco and Summer of Love.
"I used to get mad at my school
The teachers that taught me weren't cool
They're holding me down
Turning me 'round
Filling me up with your rules"
HUH? Only scant years before the Beach Boys were singing we should be true to our school, we got no truth in popular culture, and suddenly the Beatles were singing what we felt inside, calling a spade to spade, with optimism underneath. There's the sixties right there, the younger generation thought about the possibilities, it wasn't millennials saying they're mired in debt and they've got no future, the world was our oyster!
As for "Fixing A Hole"... How many times did you have to listen, to contemplate the lyrics, this wasn't a straightforward ditty, this was a vision from beyond, a place where you wanted to go, where you questioned EVERYTHING!
And leaving home... We were misunderstood, people were voyaging from the homestead in droves. Your parents weren't your best friends, they didn't get you, you wanted to cast off the reins.
"Mr. Kite" was part of the concept, ethereal and otherworldly, the words and changes resonated.
As for "Within You Without You," if you got it immediately, you're lying. But if it was on a Beatles album it deserved our trust, we had to listen, we had to unpack it, we had to get it. And sure, some boomers were old, in their early twenties, but most were just teens, this Eastern philosophy was new to them, they knew the Beatles had gone to India, they wanted to know what it was all about.
But they never thought they'd be 64, they just listened and bopped their head.
But you fell in love with Lovely Rita, were woken up by the rooster in "Good Morning Good Morning" and after the reprise, which was brief but even more energetic than the original opening anthem, you were forced to contemplate at length how many holes it took to fill the Albert Hall.
WHAT WAS THAT?
No one listened to "Sgt. Pepper" and immediately pronounced it a classic, it was just too different. But because funds were limited, you flipped the record over and played it again and again until it revealed itself. AND IT DID! There were no clunkers, you developed favorites, you learned the lyrics, and you started to break away from the paradigm, you were no longer a slave to the radio, you'd been set free.
Hell, it wasn't until the White Album that the paradigm permeated the public at large, when everybody bought the double LP not caring whether there was airplay or not, but they'd been primed by "Sgt. Pepper" and the cascade of imitators. And everybody seems to forget that the White Album cover was, white that is, as a rebellion against overspending on artwork, the music had to speak for itself. That's right, the Beatles were innovators, testing limits, not doing market research afraid of pissing off potential customers. They didn't come to you, YOU CAME TO THEM!
But now they're coming to us. With this inane remix.
It's just not the same. It's not like "Sgt. Pepper" wasn't released in stereo to begin with. And it was the wash of sound that knocked you down and overwhelmed you. It wasn't about the individual voices or instruments, but the entire passion play you were exposed to.
Fifty years ago.
I kinda get anniversaries, not that the Beatles, or "Sgt. Pepper," have been forgotten.
But in this era of streaming the focus on the original would have been good enough. A few minutes with the remix and you're offended and tune out. As for the extras, you can't even listen through, they're curios. But when you put on the original LP, you're brought back to what once was.
When music was the hottest art form in the world.
Practiced by men secure in their abilities and vision.
Who decided to push the envelope, creating the modern music business in their wake.
That's how it was, don't let them rewrite history.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Thursday 25 May 2017
Paul Simon Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/lefsetz/playlist/10b48mOpUMCraK9orqMjyq?utm_source=phplist5861&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Paul+Simon+Playlist
"The Sound Of Silence"
Album: "The Paul Simon Songbook"
Recorded in London before Simon & Garfunkel's success, this album was released after said success, because that's the way the music business works, it's sleazy. Not that many people bought it, at least not many I knew, but now through the magic of the internet you can listen to it, and it's fascinating.
You can be fully ready but the marketplace may not be ready for you. The songs were there, maybe they needed better treatments, but imagine you're Simon, frustrated, having had success as a teenager with Garfunkel as Tom and Jerry and then all you hear is crickets...
You've got to persevere.
And you've got to be lucky.
"The Sound Of Silence"
Album: "Sounds Of Silence"
Simon & Garfunkel
The hit version, which erupted on AM radio during the 1965 holiday season, we didn't believe these were their real names, we thought this was a one hit wonder.
And it's the SOUND of silence, not SOUNDS, just like it's "Bridge Over Troubled WATER," not WATERS! Then again, if you're listening they're getting paid, they don't care, but knowing Simon, he probably prays you get it, we took our music seriously back then, every word counted, and to no one in America more than Simon, who taught a course about songwriting at NYU.
"April Come She Will"
Album: "Sounds Of Silence"
Simon & Garfunkel
It just makes you feel good.
In our heads we're optimistic, we dream, we believe in the possibilities, and listening to this we think we can succeed, but know we may not, but if we don't, we can just go back to the record and be set free and get inspired once again.
"The Dangling Conversation"
Album: "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme"
Simon & Garfunkel
Remember when artists were intelligent and respected? When it was not an honor to be dumb?
This was back when they started to discuss lyrics in class. There was a revolution going on, and it all wasn't in the streets, it all wasn't about the war, we were expanding our minds, lifting the world on our shoulders, the future was so bright, but the present was pretty good too.
"For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her"
Album: "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme"
Simon & Garfunkel
John Mendelsohn called "Waterloo Sunset" the most beautiful song in the English language, I disagree, I think it's this.
"Homeward Bound"
Album: "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme"
Simon & Garfunkel
The loneliness was palpable, when the radio was a cornucopia of sounds and emotions, when the goal was to follow your muse and create something different from everything else that would earn you kudos and the ability to continue.
And it was after this that I rode my bike down to Fairfield U. to see Simon & Garfunkel at a festival on the football field where the New York football Giants practiced earlier in the summer. Soupy Sales was the headliner, riding the popularity of "The Mouse," Simon & Garfunkel were nearly an oldies act, with enough songs to tour, and then came...
"Mrs. Robinson"
Album: "Bookends"
Simon & Garfunkel
You've got no idea how big this was, no song today has the equivalent ubiquity, and it was broken by what was seen as a subversive film known as "The Graduate," we had more questions than answers, but that did not stop us from asking.
"America"
Album: "Bookends"
Simon & Garfunkel
"Bookends" has been forgotten, a nearly perfect album far from one-dimensional that made you not only feel good, but think.
Every baby boomer knows the lyrics to this song, because that's what they used to do, drive, save up their cash and go cross-country, in search of adventure, before you could just sit at home and surf the net.
No one's looking for America anymore, they're convinced they've found it.
But how wrong they are.
"Fakin' It"
Album: "Bookends"
Simon & Garfunkel
It starts like it's ending, and then twists into an adventure, never heard on the radio, you owned the album and knew it by heart, this was when LPs were truly important, when the songs were just not revenue producers, but statements, when fakin' it was anathema, when authenticity was key.
"Old Friends"
Album: "Bookends"
Simon & Garfunkel
"How terribly strange to be seventy"
People sing this line to me all the time, I sing it in my head, "When I'm Sixty-Four" is more famous, but it's this one that resonates, that creeps us out, the Beatles cut is all upbeat, this is sad and reflective, old friends are all that count and soon we're to be forgotten, I'm watching "The Keepers" on Netflix and when they ask the retired cop who found the body for connections at the police department he says no one there would know him. Whew! It's gonna happen to ALL OF US!
"The Only Living Boy In New York"
Album: "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
Simon & Garfunkel
You're a musician, you think you can cross over to the movies but you can't. Just ask Sting and Madonna, then again, Ice Cube has done a good job of it, and Ice-T too, so maybe you've got to be a rapper with your hits behind you.
Famously written when Garfunkel was off filming "Catch-22," a book teenagers no longer read, now that "Catcher In The Rye" is banned again, this is from the last Simon & Garfunkel album, which is not as good as "Bookends" but was even more successful.
"Baby Driver"
Album: "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
Simon & Garfunkel
Whimsy. Like I said, you could evidence different sides of your personality, before you had to do only one thing or you were excoriated.
"Armistice Day"
Album: "Paul Simon"
The last song on the first side of 1972's solo LP which ended up having hits but got little respect, people still wanted Simon & Garfunkel, yes "Me and Julio" became a cultural staple and Simon was successful with reggae with "Mother and Child Reunion" before Bob Marley had any impact in the United States, but it's the other cuts that put this LP over the top, it's like going into Simon's house, getting into his head, a very personal experience, where chances were taken and there were no limits, the changes and the picking in "Armistice Day" will blow your mind, and it was especially resonant in the winter, when it came out.
"Duncan"
Album: "Paul Simon"
A positively creepy story song.
If you're young and don't know this, listen to it, use it as inspiration, if you hit peaks this high you too will have a career.
"One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor"
Album: "There Goes Rhymin' Simon"
"There Goes Rhymin' Simon" is a masterpiece, but it's not lauded like Nick Drake's work because it had huge hits, it's the equal of "Band On The Run," as good or better than any solo Beatle LP and no one ever talks about it, you don't see it considered.
This is my favorite cut on the LP, if for no other reason than Barry Beckett's piano, which breaks your heart before Simon rescues you and makes you feel okay, but not that okay...
"Something So Right"
Album: "There Goes Rhymin' Simon"
"When something goes wrong
I'm the first to admit it
The first to admit it
But the last one to know"
Blame my mother, who always kept me on my toes, was constantly keeping me from being too big for my britches, I had to go to the shrink to learn how to stop apologizing.
"When something goes right
Oh, it's likely to lose me
It's apt to confuse me
It's such an unusual sight
Oh, I can't, I can't get used to something so right
Something so right"
I can't believe it, I believe there's a trick, it's gonna be taken away from me, it's not real.
And then it disappears, slips through my grasp, is it a self-fulfilling prophecy?
"My Little Town"
Simon & Garfunkel
Rumor was they were back.
But they weren't. Yet we had this hit on each of their solo LPs.
"50 Ways To Leave Your Lover"
Album: "Still Crazy After All These Years"
Paul Simon
"Kodachrome" burst out of the dashboard and obscured the magic of the album cuts and this album had huge hit singles too, although I must say the rest of the record was not quite as good as "There Goes Rhymin' Simon," but nothing could be.
"You just slip out the back Jack"
Fascinating how this number could have dark and light in the same song, kinda like a relationship, kinda like thinking about your life, where you are and where you could be
"50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" and "Still Crazy After All These Years" have remained part of the conversation, the social fabric, the earlier solo stuff has faded.
"Ace In The Hole"
Album: "One Trick Pony"
We walked to Westwood to see the movie, which I thought was quite good, Simon left Columbia for Warner Brothers for the freedom and the promise of being able to direct, when that was still a goal, before the movies became moribund and everybody had a video camera in their pocket.
"Late In The Evening"
Album: "One Trick Pony"
This was the single, not so successfully so, when you tie your album to a movie you're in trouble if the movie doesn't hit, and this one did not.
But, like I said, I dug the movie, when they were driving in the van playing Dead Rock Stars...
"Rene and George Magritte With Their Dog After The War"
Album: "Hearts And Bones"
A complete stiff, that's what "Hearts And Bones" was, the first time Simon had completely failed, it looked like he was done, and then...
"You Can Call Me Al"
Album: "Graceland"
It wasn't an immediate hit, it took that video with Chevy Chase to put it over the top, and talk about creativity, it was so simple, proving conception is key, soon video became all about bells and whistles.
Because of MTV, which amplified the hits and tamped down that which was not aired, "Graceland" was bigger than anything Simon did previously, it was an unexpected victory lap, he was a household word, but this was before MTV went all pop and the classic rockers were wiped from the channel, and the map.
"Born At The Right Time"
Album: The Rhythm Of The Saints"
A bit of a cheap shot if you ask me, well, not exactly cheap, but repetitious, weren't we supposed to get a traditional singer-songwriter album after "Graceland" as opposed to another musing on another musical style?
"Wristband"
Album: "Stranger To Stranger"
I know I'm skipping a bunch of albums, but so did everybody else, Simon was making music, but it was not resonating with the public. But "Stranger To Stranger" is closer to the mark. Especially the subject of this song and its catchy chorus. Who else is singing about this stuff?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5861&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Paul+Simon+Playlist
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5861&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Paul+Simon+Playlist
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5861&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Paul+Simon+Playlist
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5861&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Paul+Simon+Playlist
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5861&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Paul+Simon+Playlist
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
"The Sound Of Silence"
Album: "The Paul Simon Songbook"
Recorded in London before Simon & Garfunkel's success, this album was released after said success, because that's the way the music business works, it's sleazy. Not that many people bought it, at least not many I knew, but now through the magic of the internet you can listen to it, and it's fascinating.
You can be fully ready but the marketplace may not be ready for you. The songs were there, maybe they needed better treatments, but imagine you're Simon, frustrated, having had success as a teenager with Garfunkel as Tom and Jerry and then all you hear is crickets...
You've got to persevere.
And you've got to be lucky.
"The Sound Of Silence"
Album: "Sounds Of Silence"
Simon & Garfunkel
The hit version, which erupted on AM radio during the 1965 holiday season, we didn't believe these were their real names, we thought this was a one hit wonder.
And it's the SOUND of silence, not SOUNDS, just like it's "Bridge Over Troubled WATER," not WATERS! Then again, if you're listening they're getting paid, they don't care, but knowing Simon, he probably prays you get it, we took our music seriously back then, every word counted, and to no one in America more than Simon, who taught a course about songwriting at NYU.
"April Come She Will"
Album: "Sounds Of Silence"
Simon & Garfunkel
It just makes you feel good.
In our heads we're optimistic, we dream, we believe in the possibilities, and listening to this we think we can succeed, but know we may not, but if we don't, we can just go back to the record and be set free and get inspired once again.
"The Dangling Conversation"
Album: "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme"
Simon & Garfunkel
Remember when artists were intelligent and respected? When it was not an honor to be dumb?
This was back when they started to discuss lyrics in class. There was a revolution going on, and it all wasn't in the streets, it all wasn't about the war, we were expanding our minds, lifting the world on our shoulders, the future was so bright, but the present was pretty good too.
"For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her"
Album: "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme"
Simon & Garfunkel
John Mendelsohn called "Waterloo Sunset" the most beautiful song in the English language, I disagree, I think it's this.
"Homeward Bound"
Album: "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme"
Simon & Garfunkel
The loneliness was palpable, when the radio was a cornucopia of sounds and emotions, when the goal was to follow your muse and create something different from everything else that would earn you kudos and the ability to continue.
And it was after this that I rode my bike down to Fairfield U. to see Simon & Garfunkel at a festival on the football field where the New York football Giants practiced earlier in the summer. Soupy Sales was the headliner, riding the popularity of "The Mouse," Simon & Garfunkel were nearly an oldies act, with enough songs to tour, and then came...
"Mrs. Robinson"
Album: "Bookends"
Simon & Garfunkel
You've got no idea how big this was, no song today has the equivalent ubiquity, and it was broken by what was seen as a subversive film known as "The Graduate," we had more questions than answers, but that did not stop us from asking.
"America"
Album: "Bookends"
Simon & Garfunkel
"Bookends" has been forgotten, a nearly perfect album far from one-dimensional that made you not only feel good, but think.
Every baby boomer knows the lyrics to this song, because that's what they used to do, drive, save up their cash and go cross-country, in search of adventure, before you could just sit at home and surf the net.
No one's looking for America anymore, they're convinced they've found it.
But how wrong they are.
"Fakin' It"
Album: "Bookends"
Simon & Garfunkel
It starts like it's ending, and then twists into an adventure, never heard on the radio, you owned the album and knew it by heart, this was when LPs were truly important, when the songs were just not revenue producers, but statements, when fakin' it was anathema, when authenticity was key.
"Old Friends"
Album: "Bookends"
Simon & Garfunkel
"How terribly strange to be seventy"
People sing this line to me all the time, I sing it in my head, "When I'm Sixty-Four" is more famous, but it's this one that resonates, that creeps us out, the Beatles cut is all upbeat, this is sad and reflective, old friends are all that count and soon we're to be forgotten, I'm watching "The Keepers" on Netflix and when they ask the retired cop who found the body for connections at the police department he says no one there would know him. Whew! It's gonna happen to ALL OF US!
"The Only Living Boy In New York"
Album: "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
Simon & Garfunkel
You're a musician, you think you can cross over to the movies but you can't. Just ask Sting and Madonna, then again, Ice Cube has done a good job of it, and Ice-T too, so maybe you've got to be a rapper with your hits behind you.
Famously written when Garfunkel was off filming "Catch-22," a book teenagers no longer read, now that "Catcher In The Rye" is banned again, this is from the last Simon & Garfunkel album, which is not as good as "Bookends" but was even more successful.
"Baby Driver"
Album: "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
Simon & Garfunkel
Whimsy. Like I said, you could evidence different sides of your personality, before you had to do only one thing or you were excoriated.
"Armistice Day"
Album: "Paul Simon"
The last song on the first side of 1972's solo LP which ended up having hits but got little respect, people still wanted Simon & Garfunkel, yes "Me and Julio" became a cultural staple and Simon was successful with reggae with "Mother and Child Reunion" before Bob Marley had any impact in the United States, but it's the other cuts that put this LP over the top, it's like going into Simon's house, getting into his head, a very personal experience, where chances were taken and there were no limits, the changes and the picking in "Armistice Day" will blow your mind, and it was especially resonant in the winter, when it came out.
"Duncan"
Album: "Paul Simon"
A positively creepy story song.
If you're young and don't know this, listen to it, use it as inspiration, if you hit peaks this high you too will have a career.
"One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor"
Album: "There Goes Rhymin' Simon"
"There Goes Rhymin' Simon" is a masterpiece, but it's not lauded like Nick Drake's work because it had huge hits, it's the equal of "Band On The Run," as good or better than any solo Beatle LP and no one ever talks about it, you don't see it considered.
This is my favorite cut on the LP, if for no other reason than Barry Beckett's piano, which breaks your heart before Simon rescues you and makes you feel okay, but not that okay...
"Something So Right"
Album: "There Goes Rhymin' Simon"
"When something goes wrong
I'm the first to admit it
The first to admit it
But the last one to know"
Blame my mother, who always kept me on my toes, was constantly keeping me from being too big for my britches, I had to go to the shrink to learn how to stop apologizing.
"When something goes right
Oh, it's likely to lose me
It's apt to confuse me
It's such an unusual sight
Oh, I can't, I can't get used to something so right
Something so right"
I can't believe it, I believe there's a trick, it's gonna be taken away from me, it's not real.
And then it disappears, slips through my grasp, is it a self-fulfilling prophecy?
"My Little Town"
Simon & Garfunkel
Rumor was they were back.
But they weren't. Yet we had this hit on each of their solo LPs.
"50 Ways To Leave Your Lover"
Album: "Still Crazy After All These Years"
Paul Simon
"Kodachrome" burst out of the dashboard and obscured the magic of the album cuts and this album had huge hit singles too, although I must say the rest of the record was not quite as good as "There Goes Rhymin' Simon," but nothing could be.
"You just slip out the back Jack"
Fascinating how this number could have dark and light in the same song, kinda like a relationship, kinda like thinking about your life, where you are and where you could be
"50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" and "Still Crazy After All These Years" have remained part of the conversation, the social fabric, the earlier solo stuff has faded.
"Ace In The Hole"
Album: "One Trick Pony"
We walked to Westwood to see the movie, which I thought was quite good, Simon left Columbia for Warner Brothers for the freedom and the promise of being able to direct, when that was still a goal, before the movies became moribund and everybody had a video camera in their pocket.
"Late In The Evening"
Album: "One Trick Pony"
This was the single, not so successfully so, when you tie your album to a movie you're in trouble if the movie doesn't hit, and this one did not.
But, like I said, I dug the movie, when they were driving in the van playing Dead Rock Stars...
"Rene and George Magritte With Their Dog After The War"
Album: "Hearts And Bones"
A complete stiff, that's what "Hearts And Bones" was, the first time Simon had completely failed, it looked like he was done, and then...
"You Can Call Me Al"
Album: "Graceland"
It wasn't an immediate hit, it took that video with Chevy Chase to put it over the top, and talk about creativity, it was so simple, proving conception is key, soon video became all about bells and whistles.
Because of MTV, which amplified the hits and tamped down that which was not aired, "Graceland" was bigger than anything Simon did previously, it was an unexpected victory lap, he was a household word, but this was before MTV went all pop and the classic rockers were wiped from the channel, and the map.
"Born At The Right Time"
Album: The Rhythm Of The Saints"
A bit of a cheap shot if you ask me, well, not exactly cheap, but repetitious, weren't we supposed to get a traditional singer-songwriter album after "Graceland" as opposed to another musing on another musical style?
"Wristband"
Album: "Stranger To Stranger"
I know I'm skipping a bunch of albums, but so did everybody else, Simon was making music, but it was not resonating with the public. But "Stranger To Stranger" is closer to the mark. Especially the subject of this song and its catchy chorus. Who else is singing about this stuff?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5861&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Paul+Simon+Playlist
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5861&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Paul+Simon+Playlist
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5861&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Paul+Simon+Playlist
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5861&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Paul+Simon+Playlist
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5861&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Paul+Simon+Playlist
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Paul Simon And Stephen Colbert Are 'Feelin' Groovy'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI2PXkXZPfk
Maybe you've got to be 75 not to give a fuck.
That's right, Paul Simon was 34 back when SNL launched, when he made fun of himself, when he was still a soft rock superstar as opposed to a world musician, before he infected a younger generation via MTV and Chevy Chase in the eighties.
The seventies were a weird era, we had sixties hangover, we knew we'd been though something that would never return, we were looking inward instead of outward, testing our own personal limits, and that's what SNL was about, not an institution without impact, but a clubhouse for a generation, whose sensibility said we're not part of the mainstream and we can make fun of not only them, but ourselves and our culture.
Not that Mr. Simon has been able to have an impact recently, times have changed too much, his records get reviewed but his audience only wants to hear the oldies and the younger generation is impenetrable so it's like he's in the rearview mirror, he's even toyed with retirement, and then he goes on Colbert and blows away all the youngsters a third his age.
You see a baby boomer has a viewpoint. Scratch under the surface, get rid of the BMW and the fancy meals, all the lifestyle stuff, and a boomer remembers what once was, when we were all on the same page, against the war, when if you weren't questioning everything, you weren't conscious.
Very different from today's generation. First and foremost it's split. Many are left and many are right. And a whole bunch of them feel unheard, like they don't even matter, as their parents and the press keep shitting on them, deploring the ethos of the millennials. And their best and the brightest are mercenary fucks like Zuckerberg and Spiegel, if you think Facebook and Snapchat are equivalent to the Fillmore East, the gigs of yore, you never went. There were no cameras, no selfies, it was about the music, like-minded people coming together to celebrate the elixir of life.
But it hasn't been that way for a very long time.
And then Paul Simon goes on Colbert and captures the zeitgeist.
This is not Chris Stapleton and Kevin Bacon imitating ZZ Top on Fallon, that's just supposed to be funny, this clip has a VIEWPOINT!
First and foremost you're stunned that Simon can actually play, he starts picking and your heart melts, this is the sound that had you addicted to the radio, going to the show way back when.
And when Paul starts crapping on "59th Street Bridge Song"...it's the antithesis of today, where everybody's boasting, trumpeting their accomplishments, worried if they don't claim every bit of their CV and more they'll be left out in the scrum of life. Hell, ever read anybody's bio today? You'd think they're President! Oops! A blowhard self-promoter IS President!
And now my inbox is gonna go wild. That's what you don't realize if you're not in the game, the gotcha people who breathe down your throat anytime you take a left wing position. Hell, the media missed it, because the reporters are faceless and don't engage, but play on the internet and you see the real America.
But you cannot be afraid.
And Stephen Colbert is not afraid. Which is why his show just won the season war, beat Fallon. Because it's not about appealing to everybody, but SOMEBODY! Just by playing you're gonna alienate so many people, by having a viewpoint, ignore them, those aligned with you will be titillated and will double-down.
"Hello lamppost, nice to see ya
We might get bombed by North Korea
We're gettin' close to World War III
So run for the shelters
Feelin' groovy"
This is the sixties ethos, this is the essence of the SNL of yore, you take something innocuous and with a bit of creativity and insight you turn it into something cutting and poignant, it resonates with the audience, your intelligence shines through, and in the internet era nothing is more powerful, take that fashion and makeup!
"The Arctic's meltin'
The seas are boilin'
These aren't the first pants that I'm soilin'
We won't survive the century
We're all doomed
I'm feelin' groovy"
Simon is not afraid to participate, he doesn't put all the weight on Colbert, he's willing to do the heavy lifting, unlike today's wankers. Furthermore, who doesn't like some toilet humor, especially boomers who were scared shitless the first time around, who hid under their desks to prevent the carnage of a nuclear war.
"Kellyanne Conway makes no sense
And even if Trump goes we're stuck with Mike Pence
But he might win the big one in 2020
Nevertheless, all is groovy"
Name names, take your shot, don't play nice, have a viewpoint, how come Colbert and Simon know this and the younger generation does not?
But comedians are more powerful than musicians today, not only do they sell tickets they speak truth, about our society, Netflix is all over them, the specials are abundant, from edgy people like Chappelle and Norm Macdonald and soon Chris Rock. TV is willing to take a risk, musicians?
And whether consciously or unconsciously, Paul Simon is acting positively in the now. It's not about sitting at home concocting perfect albums for three years that are ultimately ignored, but being in the game, taking chances, creating all the time, taking a shot at going viral.
And so far, this clip has not.
But the truth is it's not like the old days, there's a delay, the word doesn't spread so fast, it takes time to percolate.
This clip made me smile and feel good, made me feel that I am not alone and I'm a member of a team which may be losing today but could win tomorrow.
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU ASK FOR?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Maybe you've got to be 75 not to give a fuck.
That's right, Paul Simon was 34 back when SNL launched, when he made fun of himself, when he was still a soft rock superstar as opposed to a world musician, before he infected a younger generation via MTV and Chevy Chase in the eighties.
The seventies were a weird era, we had sixties hangover, we knew we'd been though something that would never return, we were looking inward instead of outward, testing our own personal limits, and that's what SNL was about, not an institution without impact, but a clubhouse for a generation, whose sensibility said we're not part of the mainstream and we can make fun of not only them, but ourselves and our culture.
Not that Mr. Simon has been able to have an impact recently, times have changed too much, his records get reviewed but his audience only wants to hear the oldies and the younger generation is impenetrable so it's like he's in the rearview mirror, he's even toyed with retirement, and then he goes on Colbert and blows away all the youngsters a third his age.
You see a baby boomer has a viewpoint. Scratch under the surface, get rid of the BMW and the fancy meals, all the lifestyle stuff, and a boomer remembers what once was, when we were all on the same page, against the war, when if you weren't questioning everything, you weren't conscious.
Very different from today's generation. First and foremost it's split. Many are left and many are right. And a whole bunch of them feel unheard, like they don't even matter, as their parents and the press keep shitting on them, deploring the ethos of the millennials. And their best and the brightest are mercenary fucks like Zuckerberg and Spiegel, if you think Facebook and Snapchat are equivalent to the Fillmore East, the gigs of yore, you never went. There were no cameras, no selfies, it was about the music, like-minded people coming together to celebrate the elixir of life.
But it hasn't been that way for a very long time.
And then Paul Simon goes on Colbert and captures the zeitgeist.
This is not Chris Stapleton and Kevin Bacon imitating ZZ Top on Fallon, that's just supposed to be funny, this clip has a VIEWPOINT!
First and foremost you're stunned that Simon can actually play, he starts picking and your heart melts, this is the sound that had you addicted to the radio, going to the show way back when.
And when Paul starts crapping on "59th Street Bridge Song"...it's the antithesis of today, where everybody's boasting, trumpeting their accomplishments, worried if they don't claim every bit of their CV and more they'll be left out in the scrum of life. Hell, ever read anybody's bio today? You'd think they're President! Oops! A blowhard self-promoter IS President!
And now my inbox is gonna go wild. That's what you don't realize if you're not in the game, the gotcha people who breathe down your throat anytime you take a left wing position. Hell, the media missed it, because the reporters are faceless and don't engage, but play on the internet and you see the real America.
But you cannot be afraid.
And Stephen Colbert is not afraid. Which is why his show just won the season war, beat Fallon. Because it's not about appealing to everybody, but SOMEBODY! Just by playing you're gonna alienate so many people, by having a viewpoint, ignore them, those aligned with you will be titillated and will double-down.
"Hello lamppost, nice to see ya
We might get bombed by North Korea
We're gettin' close to World War III
So run for the shelters
Feelin' groovy"
This is the sixties ethos, this is the essence of the SNL of yore, you take something innocuous and with a bit of creativity and insight you turn it into something cutting and poignant, it resonates with the audience, your intelligence shines through, and in the internet era nothing is more powerful, take that fashion and makeup!
"The Arctic's meltin'
The seas are boilin'
These aren't the first pants that I'm soilin'
We won't survive the century
We're all doomed
I'm feelin' groovy"
Simon is not afraid to participate, he doesn't put all the weight on Colbert, he's willing to do the heavy lifting, unlike today's wankers. Furthermore, who doesn't like some toilet humor, especially boomers who were scared shitless the first time around, who hid under their desks to prevent the carnage of a nuclear war.
"Kellyanne Conway makes no sense
And even if Trump goes we're stuck with Mike Pence
But he might win the big one in 2020
Nevertheless, all is groovy"
Name names, take your shot, don't play nice, have a viewpoint, how come Colbert and Simon know this and the younger generation does not?
But comedians are more powerful than musicians today, not only do they sell tickets they speak truth, about our society, Netflix is all over them, the specials are abundant, from edgy people like Chappelle and Norm Macdonald and soon Chris Rock. TV is willing to take a risk, musicians?
And whether consciously or unconsciously, Paul Simon is acting positively in the now. It's not about sitting at home concocting perfect albums for three years that are ultimately ignored, but being in the game, taking chances, creating all the time, taking a shot at going viral.
And so far, this clip has not.
But the truth is it's not like the old days, there's a delay, the word doesn't spread so fast, it takes time to percolate.
This clip made me smile and feel good, made me feel that I am not alone and I'm a member of a team which may be losing today but could win tomorrow.
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU ASK FOR?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Wednesday 24 May 2017
Black Edge
"Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street": http://amzn.to/2l2h1Mn
The world runs on information.
And so much of that information is at your fingertips. In newspapers, online...you too can be an expert and compete with world-beaters, assuming you've got the interest, the desire and the smarts.
Stevie Cohen is very smart.
I wanted to read a book. So I began my research. Of recently released items, highly-rated items, that's the world we live in, of course personal recommendations are important, but whenever I get a sincere one I immediately go online and check it out, and if the tome doesn't get four stars, I'm out, my time is just too precious, too valuable, and there's nothing worse than a second-rate experience, a boring one in a world that is so exciting and is moving so quickly.
You too can become an expert on hedge funds if you read "Black Edge."
But you won't know what went through Steve Cohen's mind, because he was never interviewed by Sheelah Kolhatkar, and he was never personally convicted. That's what Andrew Ross Sorkin said, that "Black Edge" is for amateurs, and he almost dissuaded me from reading it, but the other reviews were so positive and I am an amateur, so I dove in.
And I could not stop reading. "Black Edge" is UNPUTDOWNABLE!
Now the author separates the financial world into two groups. The rich and privileged, groomed for this life, and those educated and smart with a chip on their shoulder who have something to prove. You can separate today's society into two groups also... Those who want to know the truth and those who do not care. In the latter category you've got the followers of celebrity, those who adore Kim Kardashian and the two-dimensional pop stars. But you've also got the team players, the ones who e-mail me the Twin Towers were blown-up, who believe Hillary is the devil and everything on Fox News is true. I hate to tell them, everybody's on the same team. Hill and Bill went to Donald and Melania's wedding. Everybody went to Harvard. Or Wharton. It's a club. And you're either a member or you're not. Either you know how the game is played or you don't. And if you want to know how the financial game is played, the game that runs America today, and has for decades...
Read "Black Edge."
This is not news. If you read the financial page, "Bloomberg," you know all the highlights. But it's the nuances that are scintillating.
Yes, Steve Cohen's SAC Capital paid a huge fine, more than half a billion, and Cohen can only trade for himself until 2018, but then...
And hedge funds have recently had lousy returns. But if you think Lloyd Blankfein is the enemy, you've got no idea his salary is a pittance compared to the men in t-shirts and flip-flops at hedge funds.
Now it's a moving target. If you've been reading recently you're noting the ascension of the quants. But that's how you survive in this world to begin with, by adapting.
Steve Cohen did not grow up as disadvantaged as the author portrays, and he had an interest in Wall Street (and poker, oftentimes the same thing!) from his high school days. Proving you've got to follow your interests, you can't be someone you're not, although many people in this book are, because of the MONEY!
That's right, you go work at the hedge fund for a couple of years and if all goes right you never have to work again! And chances are you can't, not at this level of remuneration, people wash out faster than they do from MLB. You're hot and then you're not, and then you're done and no one will hire you.
But, if you want to make money, you go where it is.
So Cohen is a natural trader. In a pre-computer world for a third-rate financial firm.
And then he goes solo. Note that, all the greats cannot be contained, they write their own rules, they take risks, huge risks, and do what they wanna do whenever they wanna do it.
When he first goes to work at Gruntal, it's about beating the spread. Noticing price differences. But then computers eliminate this option and...
Cohen becomes a glorified day trader and he buys so much from Goldman Sachs that he insists they give him information first. Yup, you call this leverage. Information comes first, leverage comes second, usually with a bit of cash sprinkled in.
But everybody gets the memo and it's harder to compete so what does SAC Capital focus on?
Black edge.
INSIDE INFORMATION!
It's no different from working radio promotion. Your boss says he needs adds, he doesn't care how you get 'em, you've just got to deliver 'em or you get canned. So you bend the rules, after all, you've got a family to feed.
And the truth is...THEY'RE ALL CROOKS! All those people buying triple-digit million paintings, sitting courtside for the Knicks, on multi-hundred foot yachts....when someone says they make this money legitimately, don't believe it, after all, Microsoft charged for Windows even if you put Linux on the box.
But these are the people running this country. Whether it be Geithner working for Obama or a Cohen guy helping Trump pick his Justice Department. You can bitch all you want to, say it's unfair, but that's the way it is.
And they're living in a dark world and skating free. They're untouchable. The government is green and gun-shy, without resources, and the best and the brightest flip to the other side, the private sector, anyway.
And that's mightily depressing.
But the first half of the book is mightily exciting. Because the players are so damn SMART!
These are not entertainers, nitwits afraid to take a stand. These are people like the dearly departed Jerry Perenchio, who refuse to talk to the press, who most people have no idea even exist, even if they consume their products. You want to come into contact with these geniuses, glean some of their wisdom, as opposed to the public rabble-rousers on Twitter who know no one but are convinced they've got the one true truth but are unaware how the game is played.
Do you know how the game is played?
Let's start from the beginning. There's no money in music, in most of entertainment, it's dwarfed by finance and tech. And you might think that is irrelevant, but why is Vivendi testing the waters, thinking of selling Universal Music? FOR THE MONEY! Now is not the time if you're a long term player, the labels are only gonna go up in value, but Vivendi does not care about music, the financial players aren't interested in the asset, they're interested in the CASH!
It's a funny world we live in. A bifurcated one where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer but all the smart people are rich. Yup, I hate to say that. But the truth is so many poor people are uninformed or holier-than-thou, they think their lack of cash makes them better, but the truth is it only takes them out of the game.
I wish it weren't so. It didn't used to be so. Fifty years ago, forty years ago, a successful musician was as rich as anybody in America. But not today, today they've all got tech investments, they too want to make bank, whereas their power lies elsewhere, which is speaking truth to power, but they abdicate this ability, because they're enthralled by power.
Wanna know what that power is?
READ THIS BOOK!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
The world runs on information.
And so much of that information is at your fingertips. In newspapers, online...you too can be an expert and compete with world-beaters, assuming you've got the interest, the desire and the smarts.
Stevie Cohen is very smart.
I wanted to read a book. So I began my research. Of recently released items, highly-rated items, that's the world we live in, of course personal recommendations are important, but whenever I get a sincere one I immediately go online and check it out, and if the tome doesn't get four stars, I'm out, my time is just too precious, too valuable, and there's nothing worse than a second-rate experience, a boring one in a world that is so exciting and is moving so quickly.
You too can become an expert on hedge funds if you read "Black Edge."
But you won't know what went through Steve Cohen's mind, because he was never interviewed by Sheelah Kolhatkar, and he was never personally convicted. That's what Andrew Ross Sorkin said, that "Black Edge" is for amateurs, and he almost dissuaded me from reading it, but the other reviews were so positive and I am an amateur, so I dove in.
And I could not stop reading. "Black Edge" is UNPUTDOWNABLE!
Now the author separates the financial world into two groups. The rich and privileged, groomed for this life, and those educated and smart with a chip on their shoulder who have something to prove. You can separate today's society into two groups also... Those who want to know the truth and those who do not care. In the latter category you've got the followers of celebrity, those who adore Kim Kardashian and the two-dimensional pop stars. But you've also got the team players, the ones who e-mail me the Twin Towers were blown-up, who believe Hillary is the devil and everything on Fox News is true. I hate to tell them, everybody's on the same team. Hill and Bill went to Donald and Melania's wedding. Everybody went to Harvard. Or Wharton. It's a club. And you're either a member or you're not. Either you know how the game is played or you don't. And if you want to know how the financial game is played, the game that runs America today, and has for decades...
Read "Black Edge."
This is not news. If you read the financial page, "Bloomberg," you know all the highlights. But it's the nuances that are scintillating.
Yes, Steve Cohen's SAC Capital paid a huge fine, more than half a billion, and Cohen can only trade for himself until 2018, but then...
And hedge funds have recently had lousy returns. But if you think Lloyd Blankfein is the enemy, you've got no idea his salary is a pittance compared to the men in t-shirts and flip-flops at hedge funds.
Now it's a moving target. If you've been reading recently you're noting the ascension of the quants. But that's how you survive in this world to begin with, by adapting.
Steve Cohen did not grow up as disadvantaged as the author portrays, and he had an interest in Wall Street (and poker, oftentimes the same thing!) from his high school days. Proving you've got to follow your interests, you can't be someone you're not, although many people in this book are, because of the MONEY!
That's right, you go work at the hedge fund for a couple of years and if all goes right you never have to work again! And chances are you can't, not at this level of remuneration, people wash out faster than they do from MLB. You're hot and then you're not, and then you're done and no one will hire you.
But, if you want to make money, you go where it is.
So Cohen is a natural trader. In a pre-computer world for a third-rate financial firm.
And then he goes solo. Note that, all the greats cannot be contained, they write their own rules, they take risks, huge risks, and do what they wanna do whenever they wanna do it.
When he first goes to work at Gruntal, it's about beating the spread. Noticing price differences. But then computers eliminate this option and...
Cohen becomes a glorified day trader and he buys so much from Goldman Sachs that he insists they give him information first. Yup, you call this leverage. Information comes first, leverage comes second, usually with a bit of cash sprinkled in.
But everybody gets the memo and it's harder to compete so what does SAC Capital focus on?
Black edge.
INSIDE INFORMATION!
It's no different from working radio promotion. Your boss says he needs adds, he doesn't care how you get 'em, you've just got to deliver 'em or you get canned. So you bend the rules, after all, you've got a family to feed.
And the truth is...THEY'RE ALL CROOKS! All those people buying triple-digit million paintings, sitting courtside for the Knicks, on multi-hundred foot yachts....when someone says they make this money legitimately, don't believe it, after all, Microsoft charged for Windows even if you put Linux on the box.
But these are the people running this country. Whether it be Geithner working for Obama or a Cohen guy helping Trump pick his Justice Department. You can bitch all you want to, say it's unfair, but that's the way it is.
And they're living in a dark world and skating free. They're untouchable. The government is green and gun-shy, without resources, and the best and the brightest flip to the other side, the private sector, anyway.
And that's mightily depressing.
But the first half of the book is mightily exciting. Because the players are so damn SMART!
These are not entertainers, nitwits afraid to take a stand. These are people like the dearly departed Jerry Perenchio, who refuse to talk to the press, who most people have no idea even exist, even if they consume their products. You want to come into contact with these geniuses, glean some of their wisdom, as opposed to the public rabble-rousers on Twitter who know no one but are convinced they've got the one true truth but are unaware how the game is played.
Do you know how the game is played?
Let's start from the beginning. There's no money in music, in most of entertainment, it's dwarfed by finance and tech. And you might think that is irrelevant, but why is Vivendi testing the waters, thinking of selling Universal Music? FOR THE MONEY! Now is not the time if you're a long term player, the labels are only gonna go up in value, but Vivendi does not care about music, the financial players aren't interested in the asset, they're interested in the CASH!
It's a funny world we live in. A bifurcated one where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer but all the smart people are rich. Yup, I hate to say that. But the truth is so many poor people are uninformed or holier-than-thou, they think their lack of cash makes them better, but the truth is it only takes them out of the game.
I wish it weren't so. It didn't used to be so. Fifty years ago, forty years ago, a successful musician was as rich as anybody in America. But not today, today they've all got tech investments, they too want to make bank, whereas their power lies elsewhere, which is speaking truth to power, but they abdicate this ability, because they're enthralled by power.
Wanna know what that power is?
READ THIS BOOK!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Tuesday 23 May 2017
Reboots
It costs too much to do something new.
It's not only the development expenses, never mind coming up with a new idea, but the marketing money, how do you make people aware of what you're doing in a sea of endless messages, one in which the vaunted "Breaking Bad" took years to gain traction.
I didn't go to see U2. I like "The Joshua Tree," but how many times can I go and relive the past? Have you looked at what's playing in Live Nation's amphitheatres this summer? It's like a reboot of what once was, from the seventies and eighties, the same damn acts doing the same damn songs because it's just too hard to have a hit today and to have another.
Blame the internet.
The internet opened the floodgates, decimated the barrier to entry and then no matter how fat the pipe got it was clogged. And what started out as a social network, remember AOL?, turned into a for-profit venture, and obliterated everything in its path.
Especially television ratings.
So we end up with "American Idol" and "Love Connection," and if you think people are clamoring for these shows, you probably believe Bono can write another hit.
But they're safe.
"Idol" was canceled because ratings sank, now those same ratings are investment-worthy, only a couple of years later.
If you think there's a drag on our creativity, you're right.
We rely on outsiders to break the paradigm, but no one wants to risk in a world where there are so many challenges, especially economic. Quit your job in Canada and you still have health insurance, there's a good safety net, quit your job in America and you're on the way to poverty, and if you get sick you will go bankrupt.
So those at the top, who don't want to let their companies lay fallow, take some time off to develop new wares, keep rebooting in order to generate revenue. That's why all the records sound the same, the days of Mo & Joe at Warner Brothers are long gone, where the hits allowed the company to invest in innovation, left field stuff, like the electronic Beaver & Krause, the picker Ry Cooder, in the hopes of generating income years down the line. Look at a label's roster today, no one's even gonna play out their contract, after their hit they'll fade into obscurity and investment will falter. As for stuff that sounds different, the only person seemingly able to do this is Richard Russell at XL. It takes guts to say no, to go the other way, and if you're working for the man, you don't, corporations engender groupthink.
So we end up with superhero movies.
And superhero shows on TV.
All the while they keep telling us you can get rich being an influencer on Instagram, making videos on YouTube, but the truth is very few people are making coin there, and they're working 24/7, and looking to sell out to the big boys. Everybody's living in the present, what about tomorrow? Isn't that what Fleetwood Mac implored us to do, think about tomorrow?
The public craves new and different. It latches on to trends when made aware of them. But we've got no infrastructure crusading for the new and different, we just have endless self-congratulatory awards shows that feature the same old stuff that makes you tune out.
We're all tuning out.
Creators need self-respect. The techies are not going to save our industries, it's not in their DNA, they're too practical.
The reason that Netflix burgeoned is because of investment, in creators, allowing them to do what they choose. Remember when the streaming service was all about old stuff? Now that's all gone and you jump in to capture the zeitgeist as you cut the cord 'cause you're sick of overpaying for moribund sports talk on ESPN, sick of paying for all the detritus you don't use.
Good for Katy Perry that she got $25 mil for "Idol."
But that show ain't gonna work, it hasn't minted a star in years, and "The Voice" never has. But we're subjected to the endless celebrity parade like we care.
And some nitwits do.
But most people are smarter than that and don't.
So pay your dues, take chances, evaluate whether you've got it or not, we've got no room for journeymen.
But until the gatekeepers start living in the future, and the gatekeepers are as powerful as they ever were, even though they've sometimes got different names, we're screwed.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5858&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Reboots
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5858&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Reboots
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5858&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Reboots
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5858&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Reboots
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5858&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Reboots
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
It's not only the development expenses, never mind coming up with a new idea, but the marketing money, how do you make people aware of what you're doing in a sea of endless messages, one in which the vaunted "Breaking Bad" took years to gain traction.
I didn't go to see U2. I like "The Joshua Tree," but how many times can I go and relive the past? Have you looked at what's playing in Live Nation's amphitheatres this summer? It's like a reboot of what once was, from the seventies and eighties, the same damn acts doing the same damn songs because it's just too hard to have a hit today and to have another.
Blame the internet.
The internet opened the floodgates, decimated the barrier to entry and then no matter how fat the pipe got it was clogged. And what started out as a social network, remember AOL?, turned into a for-profit venture, and obliterated everything in its path.
Especially television ratings.
So we end up with "American Idol" and "Love Connection," and if you think people are clamoring for these shows, you probably believe Bono can write another hit.
But they're safe.
"Idol" was canceled because ratings sank, now those same ratings are investment-worthy, only a couple of years later.
If you think there's a drag on our creativity, you're right.
We rely on outsiders to break the paradigm, but no one wants to risk in a world where there are so many challenges, especially economic. Quit your job in Canada and you still have health insurance, there's a good safety net, quit your job in America and you're on the way to poverty, and if you get sick you will go bankrupt.
So those at the top, who don't want to let their companies lay fallow, take some time off to develop new wares, keep rebooting in order to generate revenue. That's why all the records sound the same, the days of Mo & Joe at Warner Brothers are long gone, where the hits allowed the company to invest in innovation, left field stuff, like the electronic Beaver & Krause, the picker Ry Cooder, in the hopes of generating income years down the line. Look at a label's roster today, no one's even gonna play out their contract, after their hit they'll fade into obscurity and investment will falter. As for stuff that sounds different, the only person seemingly able to do this is Richard Russell at XL. It takes guts to say no, to go the other way, and if you're working for the man, you don't, corporations engender groupthink.
So we end up with superhero movies.
And superhero shows on TV.
All the while they keep telling us you can get rich being an influencer on Instagram, making videos on YouTube, but the truth is very few people are making coin there, and they're working 24/7, and looking to sell out to the big boys. Everybody's living in the present, what about tomorrow? Isn't that what Fleetwood Mac implored us to do, think about tomorrow?
The public craves new and different. It latches on to trends when made aware of them. But we've got no infrastructure crusading for the new and different, we just have endless self-congratulatory awards shows that feature the same old stuff that makes you tune out.
We're all tuning out.
Creators need self-respect. The techies are not going to save our industries, it's not in their DNA, they're too practical.
The reason that Netflix burgeoned is because of investment, in creators, allowing them to do what they choose. Remember when the streaming service was all about old stuff? Now that's all gone and you jump in to capture the zeitgeist as you cut the cord 'cause you're sick of overpaying for moribund sports talk on ESPN, sick of paying for all the detritus you don't use.
Good for Katy Perry that she got $25 mil for "Idol."
But that show ain't gonna work, it hasn't minted a star in years, and "The Voice" never has. But we're subjected to the endless celebrity parade like we care.
And some nitwits do.
But most people are smarter than that and don't.
So pay your dues, take chances, evaluate whether you've got it or not, we've got no room for journeymen.
But until the gatekeepers start living in the future, and the gatekeepers are as powerful as they ever were, even though they've sometimes got different names, we're screwed.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5858&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Reboots
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5858&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Reboots
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5858&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Reboots
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5858&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Reboots
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5858&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Reboots
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
No Car
The engineer got here early.
I'm a stickler for time, if it's booked for 11, I'll be there, maybe with only seconds to spare, but I don't expect anybody early, certainly not in L.A.
But Hannah was. She came at 10:40. I was dressed, but in the bathroom, preparing...
Now this was for a podcast, with a household name, so I said yes. And while we were waiting for the phone call, I got some info. Hannah was freelance, a radio engineer/producer, she'd gone to college in Wisconsin, she lived in Koreatown with a roommate and then...
The call came in.
And when it was over, we talked music. Because everyone's got an opinion, and I always want to hear what the younger generation has to say. She's on Apple Music, she says when she lived in London she had trouble connecting to Spotify, and she liked Kendrick Lamar and Kid Cudi and...we talked equipment, headphones, recorders, and then she asked for the bathroom and when I got up to show her I noticed, there was no car parked out front.
Did she Uber here?
YES.
So, I told her it was best to call a car, because it can take the better part of ten minutes for one to arrive.
So I'm gonna forgo tackling the email, the triple digits that have accumulated over the hours, that have me antsy, and engage in further conversation until the car arrives.
And that's when I ask her, DO YOU OWN A CAR?
SHE'S NEVER OWNED A CAR!
She's got a driver's license, but no, she sees no need for car, she's got an Uber package. She pays ten bucks for a month of rides, twenty to be exact, and then it's $6 if she takes UberX and $3 if she takes Uber Pool.
Huh? HOW COME I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THIS?
I dove deeper. She's not committed to twenty rides, she's just got to pay the ten bucks. And then she has the option of twenty rides, which she pays for as she goes.
WHAT IF YOU WANT TO GO TO THE BEACH?
No problem, she can go to the beach, she said she could go anywhere for $6.
And then I wondered why it paid to have an automobile at all.
WHAT ABOUT GROCERIES?
There's a market on the corner.
And she has a bicycle, and...
You've got to know, how does the song go, NOBODY WALKS IN L.A? Without wheels you were a non-factor, you couldn't even exist, everything was too far away, but now...
There's a whole generation living in spread-out Los Angeles without wheels. And Hannah's not the only one I know, Richard's son has got no car, and Daniel's son doesn't either.
Talk about a change in generations.
I wouldn't have to get my car smogged, never mind pay insurance. I wouldn't have to worry about maintenance, depreciation...
I'm over the whole car thing anyway, if someone offered me a new machine I'd say no. Why, so I can be anxious about parking it, scratching it? As for impressing others, ever since Larry David drove a Prius on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" that paradigm was undercut. If you're laying out tonnage for an automobile, other than a Tesla, you're a joke, you don't see the importance of the environment, your priorities are screwed up, that's right, we're judging you, especially if you've got one of those exotic sports cars.
Talk about a change in generations, there's a gap as wide as the one between boomers and their parents back in the sixties. Boomers think they're so hip, so knowledgeable and up-to-date, but they're the first to e-mail me about CDs or files and acquisitions, whereas the youngsters know it's all about on demand, you want to be footloose and fancy free, to travel on a whim, uninhibited, baggage is anathema.
Just like Snapchat, they get it and their parents don't. But also, they don't care about its valuation, its usership, it fulfills a function and then they'll go somewhere else, they're not locked into a format, they're fluid.
Ford just fired their CEO, because the one they had wasn't forward-looking enough, wasn't into driverless cars and electrics. It's a wonder no one at the record label was fired because of a lack of knowledge of technology.
You can fight the old wars or jump into the pool. You can complain about recording revenue, you can talk about piracy, bitch about Ticketmaster, or you can realize those issues are all in the rearview mirror, because today's generations don't care about them. They'll pay for convenience, they'll overpay if they desire something, they're about building their lives as opposed to accumulating goods.
This is not only a sea change for generations...
This is a sea change for America.
First they came for our CDs.
Then they came for our retail stores.
Now they're coming for all our assets, all the stuff we thought immutable and desirable, that we had to have. You might build a shrine to yourself online, but in the real world?
Forget about it.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5857&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=No+Car
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5857&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=No+Car
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5857&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=No+Car
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5857&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=No+Car
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5857&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=No+Car
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
I'm a stickler for time, if it's booked for 11, I'll be there, maybe with only seconds to spare, but I don't expect anybody early, certainly not in L.A.
But Hannah was. She came at 10:40. I was dressed, but in the bathroom, preparing...
Now this was for a podcast, with a household name, so I said yes. And while we were waiting for the phone call, I got some info. Hannah was freelance, a radio engineer/producer, she'd gone to college in Wisconsin, she lived in Koreatown with a roommate and then...
The call came in.
And when it was over, we talked music. Because everyone's got an opinion, and I always want to hear what the younger generation has to say. She's on Apple Music, she says when she lived in London she had trouble connecting to Spotify, and she liked Kendrick Lamar and Kid Cudi and...we talked equipment, headphones, recorders, and then she asked for the bathroom and when I got up to show her I noticed, there was no car parked out front.
Did she Uber here?
YES.
So, I told her it was best to call a car, because it can take the better part of ten minutes for one to arrive.
So I'm gonna forgo tackling the email, the triple digits that have accumulated over the hours, that have me antsy, and engage in further conversation until the car arrives.
And that's when I ask her, DO YOU OWN A CAR?
SHE'S NEVER OWNED A CAR!
She's got a driver's license, but no, she sees no need for car, she's got an Uber package. She pays ten bucks for a month of rides, twenty to be exact, and then it's $6 if she takes UberX and $3 if she takes Uber Pool.
Huh? HOW COME I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THIS?
I dove deeper. She's not committed to twenty rides, she's just got to pay the ten bucks. And then she has the option of twenty rides, which she pays for as she goes.
WHAT IF YOU WANT TO GO TO THE BEACH?
No problem, she can go to the beach, she said she could go anywhere for $6.
And then I wondered why it paid to have an automobile at all.
WHAT ABOUT GROCERIES?
There's a market on the corner.
And she has a bicycle, and...
You've got to know, how does the song go, NOBODY WALKS IN L.A? Without wheels you were a non-factor, you couldn't even exist, everything was too far away, but now...
There's a whole generation living in spread-out Los Angeles without wheels. And Hannah's not the only one I know, Richard's son has got no car, and Daniel's son doesn't either.
Talk about a change in generations.
I wouldn't have to get my car smogged, never mind pay insurance. I wouldn't have to worry about maintenance, depreciation...
I'm over the whole car thing anyway, if someone offered me a new machine I'd say no. Why, so I can be anxious about parking it, scratching it? As for impressing others, ever since Larry David drove a Prius on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" that paradigm was undercut. If you're laying out tonnage for an automobile, other than a Tesla, you're a joke, you don't see the importance of the environment, your priorities are screwed up, that's right, we're judging you, especially if you've got one of those exotic sports cars.
Talk about a change in generations, there's a gap as wide as the one between boomers and their parents back in the sixties. Boomers think they're so hip, so knowledgeable and up-to-date, but they're the first to e-mail me about CDs or files and acquisitions, whereas the youngsters know it's all about on demand, you want to be footloose and fancy free, to travel on a whim, uninhibited, baggage is anathema.
Just like Snapchat, they get it and their parents don't. But also, they don't care about its valuation, its usership, it fulfills a function and then they'll go somewhere else, they're not locked into a format, they're fluid.
Ford just fired their CEO, because the one they had wasn't forward-looking enough, wasn't into driverless cars and electrics. It's a wonder no one at the record label was fired because of a lack of knowledge of technology.
You can fight the old wars or jump into the pool. You can complain about recording revenue, you can talk about piracy, bitch about Ticketmaster, or you can realize those issues are all in the rearview mirror, because today's generations don't care about them. They'll pay for convenience, they'll overpay if they desire something, they're about building their lives as opposed to accumulating goods.
This is not only a sea change for generations...
This is a sea change for America.
First they came for our CDs.
Then they came for our retail stores.
Now they're coming for all our assets, all the stuff we thought immutable and desirable, that we had to have. You might build a shrine to yourself online, but in the real world?
Forget about it.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5857&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=No+Car
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5857&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=No+Car
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5857&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=No+Car
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5857&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=No+Car
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5857&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=No+Car
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Monday 22 May 2017
Manchester
I do not know what happened here.
But I do know it stopped me in my tracks.
That's how modern life seems to go, you don't sit down at 7 o'clock for the news, you're just minding your own business and you get a tweet, a text, an e-mail, and your whole life is changed.
That's how it was today, when that message came through. And at first you try to be optimistic, and then you see the word "fatalities" and you go into shock, because dead is dead, and for every person playing Russian roulette with their lives there are zillions just going on with their business peacefully, who end up innocent victims.
And not only are their lives ended, but the lives of those left behind are ruined, it's positively awful.
And as of this writing there are a lot of facts but no definitive answers. The police are saying it's terrorism. The alert was high and there were threats and you never know what's gonna happen...
And then it does.
We believe we're immune in the U.S. Somehow, by being an ocean away our citizens feel they're invulnerable, until 9/11, and then San Bernardino...but most people have never been to San Bernardino, whereas Manchester is the cradle of the industrial revolution, where the first computer was built, where Tony Wilson and the ravers built a culture that still survives, albeit having morphed into what is now called EDM.
So if you're living in the U.K...
It feels really close.
But everything is close today, there is no refuge, and you can't bury your head, there are so many threats.
So what are we going to do?
We're gonna march forward, we're gonna play music, we're gonna have concerts.
Of course we're gonna honor the dead. Of course we're never gonna forget. But this is what we're fighting for, our way of life, the ability to go to a show for a couple of hours and exalt in the sound of music, to be taken away and have a reason to live. That's right, we play these tracks on our phones, they're part of our DNA, and then we need to bond with those that make them, an especially desirable desire in a phony world where everything's evanescent and duplicity reigns.
So we track down the real killer, we hold those responsible accountable, we institute new safety systems, but we don't blink, we go on.
We didn't expect it to be this way. The future was so bright we had to wear shades. The wall fell, Communism ended, and then terrorism burgeoned and the rich got richer and the poor got poorer and we ended up divided with more questions than answers.
Trump is a sideshow.
We are the main show. The creators, the artists, and the infrastructure that supports them. We create the culture, we influence people, it's our responsibility to take a stand.
And what stand is that?
Well, right now, we're emotionally gutted, I get that.
But when the shock starts to fade...
You've got to stand for something. Besides money. Your music should say something. And that money you make, or the power to make it, should be harnessed for good, not only lifestyle.
Maybe this is the inspiration we need to reboot our musical culture. Maybe it is not what is going on in D.C. And I'm not sure how we can fight terrorism, but I do know we can bring people together, support each other, cast aside the infighting and look to bigger issues.
Yup, music reflects the culture at large, where it's every person for him or herself, and this stuff sucks and that stuff doesn't and the acts all have beefs and no wonder we live in a Tower of Babel society, no wonder we can't get along.
Your job as an artist is to spread unity, to spread love, our army is much stronger than theirs, that's the power of music, it's the hottest medium in the world. We can raise funds, but even more we can spread a message.
It's early, it's a war.
But we have power.
We will have further losses, but never underestimate the power of a leader, the power of togetherness, the power of a SONG!
Songs got us into this and songs are gonna get us out.
We've got creators on every street corner, in every village, we just have to stop shrugging our shoulders and unite on one message.
This is our way of life. We live to hear the note played pure and easy. We love to come together with our brethren in our own religious experience at the club, arena and stadium.
And it's incumbent upon our leaders, the artists, managers and promoters, to stand up and tell us where to go, what to do, how to cope.
That's right, first you've got to cope.
Nothing heals like song.
I challenge a superstar to write a healing number.
But that's only the beginning.
This is a wake-up call, in a seemingly too long history of wake-up calls, are we just gonna sit back and wait for the next tragedy or are we gonna rise up and fight back?
We can do this.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5856&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Manchester
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5856&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Manchester
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5856&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Manchester
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5856&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Manchester
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5856&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Manchester
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
But I do know it stopped me in my tracks.
That's how modern life seems to go, you don't sit down at 7 o'clock for the news, you're just minding your own business and you get a tweet, a text, an e-mail, and your whole life is changed.
That's how it was today, when that message came through. And at first you try to be optimistic, and then you see the word "fatalities" and you go into shock, because dead is dead, and for every person playing Russian roulette with their lives there are zillions just going on with their business peacefully, who end up innocent victims.
And not only are their lives ended, but the lives of those left behind are ruined, it's positively awful.
And as of this writing there are a lot of facts but no definitive answers. The police are saying it's terrorism. The alert was high and there were threats and you never know what's gonna happen...
And then it does.
We believe we're immune in the U.S. Somehow, by being an ocean away our citizens feel they're invulnerable, until 9/11, and then San Bernardino...but most people have never been to San Bernardino, whereas Manchester is the cradle of the industrial revolution, where the first computer was built, where Tony Wilson and the ravers built a culture that still survives, albeit having morphed into what is now called EDM.
So if you're living in the U.K...
It feels really close.
But everything is close today, there is no refuge, and you can't bury your head, there are so many threats.
So what are we going to do?
We're gonna march forward, we're gonna play music, we're gonna have concerts.
Of course we're gonna honor the dead. Of course we're never gonna forget. But this is what we're fighting for, our way of life, the ability to go to a show for a couple of hours and exalt in the sound of music, to be taken away and have a reason to live. That's right, we play these tracks on our phones, they're part of our DNA, and then we need to bond with those that make them, an especially desirable desire in a phony world where everything's evanescent and duplicity reigns.
So we track down the real killer, we hold those responsible accountable, we institute new safety systems, but we don't blink, we go on.
We didn't expect it to be this way. The future was so bright we had to wear shades. The wall fell, Communism ended, and then terrorism burgeoned and the rich got richer and the poor got poorer and we ended up divided with more questions than answers.
Trump is a sideshow.
We are the main show. The creators, the artists, and the infrastructure that supports them. We create the culture, we influence people, it's our responsibility to take a stand.
And what stand is that?
Well, right now, we're emotionally gutted, I get that.
But when the shock starts to fade...
You've got to stand for something. Besides money. Your music should say something. And that money you make, or the power to make it, should be harnessed for good, not only lifestyle.
Maybe this is the inspiration we need to reboot our musical culture. Maybe it is not what is going on in D.C. And I'm not sure how we can fight terrorism, but I do know we can bring people together, support each other, cast aside the infighting and look to bigger issues.
Yup, music reflects the culture at large, where it's every person for him or herself, and this stuff sucks and that stuff doesn't and the acts all have beefs and no wonder we live in a Tower of Babel society, no wonder we can't get along.
Your job as an artist is to spread unity, to spread love, our army is much stronger than theirs, that's the power of music, it's the hottest medium in the world. We can raise funds, but even more we can spread a message.
It's early, it's a war.
But we have power.
We will have further losses, but never underestimate the power of a leader, the power of togetherness, the power of a SONG!
Songs got us into this and songs are gonna get us out.
We've got creators on every street corner, in every village, we just have to stop shrugging our shoulders and unite on one message.
This is our way of life. We live to hear the note played pure and easy. We love to come together with our brethren in our own religious experience at the club, arena and stadium.
And it's incumbent upon our leaders, the artists, managers and promoters, to stand up and tell us where to go, what to do, how to cope.
That's right, first you've got to cope.
Nothing heals like song.
I challenge a superstar to write a healing number.
But that's only the beginning.
This is a wake-up call, in a seemingly too long history of wake-up calls, are we just gonna sit back and wait for the next tragedy or are we gonna rise up and fight back?
We can do this.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5856&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Manchester
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5856&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Manchester
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5856&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Manchester
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5856&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Manchester
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5856&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Manchester
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Today's Playlist
http://spoti.fi/2rJWtZE
"The Song Of Purple Summer"
"Spring Awakening"
Do they do "Spring Awakening" at high schools yet? I'm kinda stunned, this is from 2006, over ten years ago, and I can't say the rest of the score resonates with me/I remember it, but I absolutely LOVE THIS!
It reminds me of the finale of "Fame," I guess I love the majesty, the melody, it simultaneously makes you want to conduct the choir and sing along at the same time.
Your hitmaking era is usually brief. Give Duncan Sheik credit for realizing this, and you must realize how hard it is to have a Broadway success, not only to write but get it mounted and stick on the Great White Way.
ALL SHALL KNOW THE WONDER OF PURPLE SUMMER!
"So Little Time To Fly"
Spirit
From 1969's "Clear," and it's amazing how crisp and clear this sounds considering that was almost fifty years ago.
I never knew that this was covered by Status Quo, just found that doing research, and I won't say it's as good, because the English band is lacking the exquisite vocal of Jay Ferguson, who is most famous for "Thunder Island" and is still around, but no one seems to know this, unfortunately.
But when you listen to the original...
You'll get an idea of what it was like way back when, when underground FM ruled and it was anathema to have a hit on AM, when you bought the LPs and played them in a marijuana haze and nodded and knew every note and went to hear your favorites live more than to take selfies at the show.
It's impossible to listen to "So Little Time To Fly" without nodding your head, without feeling you want to get behind the wheel and lower the window, put your arm on the sill and mash the accelerator.
Actually, I didn't know this way back when, we couldn't afford everything, it surfaced for me during the Napster/download era, of course I'm deep into "Dr. Sardonicus," but this is just as magical.
"Sewn"
The Feeling
If you're under twenty five have you ever heard this?
Certainly not if you're living on this side of the pond, the Feeling had some huge success in the UK back in 2006, and if you're the type of person who loved the Raspberries, who believe catchiness is cool, who believes the ability to sing and employ melody are a good thing, you'll love this, it's magical.
I yearn for the return of stuff like this.
I feel I'm gonna have to wait a very long time.
"Sewn" is deceptively long, be sure to hang in there until the transition at 3:25 when the guitar slashes and the song gets intense and builds to a release, you cannot listen to this and feel you're alone, you believe you're part of a vast audience with this mellifluous sound washing over you and it feels so GOOD!
"The Long Goodbye"
Paul Brady
Being a songwriter used to be different, you weren't a topliner, improvising, your goal was to capture life in verse, a few minutes, much shorter than a book or a movie but encapsulating life even more accurately and powerfully, that's the essence of music, sure, it's a sound that makes you move your feet, makes you feel good, but...
"Sometimes I ask my heart did we really
Give our love a chance"
That's something that went out the window with the turn of the century, commitment. Or maybe we've got to go back to the seventies, or back to the sixties, with the birth control pill, when everybody thought there was something better around the corner if you could just break up and take the risk.
I don't believe this is true. I'm not saying you've always got to stay together, sometimes breakups are right, but too often one partner is unwilling to do the hard work, it's so hard to get this far, to find someone, to click, to get along, you don't want to throw that away too fast, without thinking about it.
"What Comes After"
Stories
Michael Lookofsky, aka Michael Brown, is gone now, but his work with the Left Banke lives on, deservedly so.
And after that act Brown was in a band called Stories, which ultimately had a hit with "Brother Louie," but that's not representative of what the band was about, "What Comes After" is.
Now music has become communal, despite being listened to via earbuds, it's all about being a member of the group, but "What Comes After" is for you personally, I had the album "About Us" on a cassette I played driving cross-country, to hear "What Comes After" made me feel like it was all gonna be all right, and I don't always feel that way...
"Blue Of Your Backdrop"
Honk
"Be your own saving grace
Tip your hat, take your place
And shine on"
California used to be different. Actually, it's different once again, only in a different way. It's the anti-D.C., the anti-Trumpland, we've got our own emissions standards, we're fighting for a more equitable society and taxes are high but no one wants to leave because living is so damn good, even if real estate is astronomically expensive. And if you don't believe that, you probably don't live here, so save me your exhortations, that's what's wrong with America, everybody telling everybody else they're doing it wrong, if you like to live where it's every person for themselves, sans safety net, be my guest, but don't rain on my parade.
But the mentality used to be different, before the world shrank, when the Golden State was three hours behind the rest of the country and didn't care, when it went its own way and let its freak flag fly.
This is from the soundtrack of one of the greatest surf flicks of all time, "5 Summer Stories," and you don't have to see it but everybody active back in the seventies knows this album and this band from the soundtrack.
I want you to shine on. I want you to cast off the shackles, stop worrying about the limitations, forget about who your parents want you to be and be your best self.
I'm gonna try too.
"Dandy"
The Kinks
Did you know it was a Kinks song first, before Peter Noone and his band of merrymen made it a ubiquitous hit?
Of course, it all makes sense when you listen...
"Fountain Of Sorrow"
Jackson Browne
From back before he was a rocker, before the Fender became upfront and center, when he was America's wise before his years troubadour without a hit but a growing audience.
"Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer
I was taken by a photograph of you"
My father took slides, but that was an era of snapshots, I wish I had some now. Every once in a while someone will send one along from back then and I'll be stunned, was I ever that young, that thin, why was I so insecure?
And the thing about memories is they fade but they never go away, you're alternately haunted and elated by what once was, and fifteen years ago, maybe ten, it was cool to reach out to all those you'd been disconnected from for decades but I did not, because it's too unsettling, there's a reason you left them behind or vice versa...and I'm not a stalker, I don't want to see what an ex-girlfriend is doing every damn day, and I don't think they're stalking me, but what if they are?
"There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more
But they didn't show your spirit quite as true"
Why does everybody hate themselves in photographs, why do they hold themselves up to unattainable standards, when done right a photo captures a part of you, but not all of you, and that part of you is true.
"Fountain Of Sorrow" is nearly seven minutes long, and when I say they don't make them like this anymore, I mean it. No one's shooting this high, a record is what you use to rationalize the tour, and even if you nail it you're just part of the endless wash, why be new and different and independent when even those playing the game can't get recognized?
I'm not sure.
But "Fountain Of Sorrow" cut us to the bone, it was unforgettable, it's stuff like this that keeps us still going to the show today.
"Tell Me Why"
Taylor Swift
All of the above songs are from my iTunes Top 200. I go back there now and again, to reconnect, when I need to be rooted, the app is so damn bad and I never download music anymore, I'm a streamer, but when I hear these old songs they remind me...
Of 2009, when Taylor Swift was still a secret, only known by the country world and her fans.
"I took a chance
I took a shot
And you might thing I'm bulletproof
But I'm not"
How brave, how inspirational! They keep telling us to take a risk, we get it, but it's so hard to do...
"You took a swing
I took it hard
And down here from the ground I see who you are"
This was back when Tay Tay was still punching up, when she was still the geek, the underdog, before she achieved world domination and felt it was her duty to be loved by all and to excoriate those not on her team. And that's just plain sad, that she grew up in the spotlight, that she doesn't realize that no one really cares, that we're all equal and forgettable, only known for a moment. Fame has its perks, but it's got its costs too. She's licking her wounds now, and that's good, but I wish she'd go back to rock and roll/country instead of the pop tripe she's purveying today, hey, look even her old paramour Harry Styles has!
"I'm sick and tired of your attitude
I'm feeling like I don't know you
You tell me that you love me then you cut me down"
Look at this through the lens of 2009, not 2017, she was hurt and she was expressing her anger, this was before she evolved into her GOTCHA! persona, when she started to settle scores, when the truth is you never can, you've got to declare individual victory and march on.
"Tell me why
Why, tell me why"
In ten short years the world has turned completely upside down, Taylor Swift was once the great white hope, and then she bought in and helped bring the whole edifice down.
It was all about sincerity, credibility, changes and the ability to sing along, those first two Taylor Swift LPs are exquisite, documents nearly equal to Joni Mitchell's peak, in their sheer honesty and insight, and listening now you do wonder how much responsibility she had, her voice is thin, she's not playing the instruments, but it's her name on the record.
We're all just people. Insecure. With more questions than answers. Geeky. Taylor Swift too.
But she made a career out of it, and an audience clamored for her authenticity, it could not be gotten anywhere else, she invented the paradigm and now...
She's standing up for stuff that doesn't even matter.
You know this isn't even on Spotify?
Why?
What battle is she fighting here? One she's already lost. Along with all that money.
And I think Taylor Swift is too old and too experienced to recapture the zeitgeist, but...
Imagine if she pulled back the layers and sang the truth about what she's been through this past ten years, the journey from zero to hero, nowhere to everywhere, everybody wanting a piece of her but fumbling towards ecstasy in public, that's an album I'd want to hear.
Like "Tell Me Why."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvD5-J1tdl0
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
"The Song Of Purple Summer"
"Spring Awakening"
Do they do "Spring Awakening" at high schools yet? I'm kinda stunned, this is from 2006, over ten years ago, and I can't say the rest of the score resonates with me/I remember it, but I absolutely LOVE THIS!
It reminds me of the finale of "Fame," I guess I love the majesty, the melody, it simultaneously makes you want to conduct the choir and sing along at the same time.
Your hitmaking era is usually brief. Give Duncan Sheik credit for realizing this, and you must realize how hard it is to have a Broadway success, not only to write but get it mounted and stick on the Great White Way.
ALL SHALL KNOW THE WONDER OF PURPLE SUMMER!
"So Little Time To Fly"
Spirit
From 1969's "Clear," and it's amazing how crisp and clear this sounds considering that was almost fifty years ago.
I never knew that this was covered by Status Quo, just found that doing research, and I won't say it's as good, because the English band is lacking the exquisite vocal of Jay Ferguson, who is most famous for "Thunder Island" and is still around, but no one seems to know this, unfortunately.
But when you listen to the original...
You'll get an idea of what it was like way back when, when underground FM ruled and it was anathema to have a hit on AM, when you bought the LPs and played them in a marijuana haze and nodded and knew every note and went to hear your favorites live more than to take selfies at the show.
It's impossible to listen to "So Little Time To Fly" without nodding your head, without feeling you want to get behind the wheel and lower the window, put your arm on the sill and mash the accelerator.
Actually, I didn't know this way back when, we couldn't afford everything, it surfaced for me during the Napster/download era, of course I'm deep into "Dr. Sardonicus," but this is just as magical.
"Sewn"
The Feeling
If you're under twenty five have you ever heard this?
Certainly not if you're living on this side of the pond, the Feeling had some huge success in the UK back in 2006, and if you're the type of person who loved the Raspberries, who believe catchiness is cool, who believes the ability to sing and employ melody are a good thing, you'll love this, it's magical.
I yearn for the return of stuff like this.
I feel I'm gonna have to wait a very long time.
"Sewn" is deceptively long, be sure to hang in there until the transition at 3:25 when the guitar slashes and the song gets intense and builds to a release, you cannot listen to this and feel you're alone, you believe you're part of a vast audience with this mellifluous sound washing over you and it feels so GOOD!
"The Long Goodbye"
Paul Brady
Being a songwriter used to be different, you weren't a topliner, improvising, your goal was to capture life in verse, a few minutes, much shorter than a book or a movie but encapsulating life even more accurately and powerfully, that's the essence of music, sure, it's a sound that makes you move your feet, makes you feel good, but...
"Sometimes I ask my heart did we really
Give our love a chance"
That's something that went out the window with the turn of the century, commitment. Or maybe we've got to go back to the seventies, or back to the sixties, with the birth control pill, when everybody thought there was something better around the corner if you could just break up and take the risk.
I don't believe this is true. I'm not saying you've always got to stay together, sometimes breakups are right, but too often one partner is unwilling to do the hard work, it's so hard to get this far, to find someone, to click, to get along, you don't want to throw that away too fast, without thinking about it.
"What Comes After"
Stories
Michael Lookofsky, aka Michael Brown, is gone now, but his work with the Left Banke lives on, deservedly so.
And after that act Brown was in a band called Stories, which ultimately had a hit with "Brother Louie," but that's not representative of what the band was about, "What Comes After" is.
Now music has become communal, despite being listened to via earbuds, it's all about being a member of the group, but "What Comes After" is for you personally, I had the album "About Us" on a cassette I played driving cross-country, to hear "What Comes After" made me feel like it was all gonna be all right, and I don't always feel that way...
"Blue Of Your Backdrop"
Honk
"Be your own saving grace
Tip your hat, take your place
And shine on"
California used to be different. Actually, it's different once again, only in a different way. It's the anti-D.C., the anti-Trumpland, we've got our own emissions standards, we're fighting for a more equitable society and taxes are high but no one wants to leave because living is so damn good, even if real estate is astronomically expensive. And if you don't believe that, you probably don't live here, so save me your exhortations, that's what's wrong with America, everybody telling everybody else they're doing it wrong, if you like to live where it's every person for themselves, sans safety net, be my guest, but don't rain on my parade.
But the mentality used to be different, before the world shrank, when the Golden State was three hours behind the rest of the country and didn't care, when it went its own way and let its freak flag fly.
This is from the soundtrack of one of the greatest surf flicks of all time, "5 Summer Stories," and you don't have to see it but everybody active back in the seventies knows this album and this band from the soundtrack.
I want you to shine on. I want you to cast off the shackles, stop worrying about the limitations, forget about who your parents want you to be and be your best self.
I'm gonna try too.
"Dandy"
The Kinks
Did you know it was a Kinks song first, before Peter Noone and his band of merrymen made it a ubiquitous hit?
Of course, it all makes sense when you listen...
"Fountain Of Sorrow"
Jackson Browne
From back before he was a rocker, before the Fender became upfront and center, when he was America's wise before his years troubadour without a hit but a growing audience.
"Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer
I was taken by a photograph of you"
My father took slides, but that was an era of snapshots, I wish I had some now. Every once in a while someone will send one along from back then and I'll be stunned, was I ever that young, that thin, why was I so insecure?
And the thing about memories is they fade but they never go away, you're alternately haunted and elated by what once was, and fifteen years ago, maybe ten, it was cool to reach out to all those you'd been disconnected from for decades but I did not, because it's too unsettling, there's a reason you left them behind or vice versa...and I'm not a stalker, I don't want to see what an ex-girlfriend is doing every damn day, and I don't think they're stalking me, but what if they are?
"There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more
But they didn't show your spirit quite as true"
Why does everybody hate themselves in photographs, why do they hold themselves up to unattainable standards, when done right a photo captures a part of you, but not all of you, and that part of you is true.
"Fountain Of Sorrow" is nearly seven minutes long, and when I say they don't make them like this anymore, I mean it. No one's shooting this high, a record is what you use to rationalize the tour, and even if you nail it you're just part of the endless wash, why be new and different and independent when even those playing the game can't get recognized?
I'm not sure.
But "Fountain Of Sorrow" cut us to the bone, it was unforgettable, it's stuff like this that keeps us still going to the show today.
"Tell Me Why"
Taylor Swift
All of the above songs are from my iTunes Top 200. I go back there now and again, to reconnect, when I need to be rooted, the app is so damn bad and I never download music anymore, I'm a streamer, but when I hear these old songs they remind me...
Of 2009, when Taylor Swift was still a secret, only known by the country world and her fans.
"I took a chance
I took a shot
And you might thing I'm bulletproof
But I'm not"
How brave, how inspirational! They keep telling us to take a risk, we get it, but it's so hard to do...
"You took a swing
I took it hard
And down here from the ground I see who you are"
This was back when Tay Tay was still punching up, when she was still the geek, the underdog, before she achieved world domination and felt it was her duty to be loved by all and to excoriate those not on her team. And that's just plain sad, that she grew up in the spotlight, that she doesn't realize that no one really cares, that we're all equal and forgettable, only known for a moment. Fame has its perks, but it's got its costs too. She's licking her wounds now, and that's good, but I wish she'd go back to rock and roll/country instead of the pop tripe she's purveying today, hey, look even her old paramour Harry Styles has!
"I'm sick and tired of your attitude
I'm feeling like I don't know you
You tell me that you love me then you cut me down"
Look at this through the lens of 2009, not 2017, she was hurt and she was expressing her anger, this was before she evolved into her GOTCHA! persona, when she started to settle scores, when the truth is you never can, you've got to declare individual victory and march on.
"Tell me why
Why, tell me why"
In ten short years the world has turned completely upside down, Taylor Swift was once the great white hope, and then she bought in and helped bring the whole edifice down.
It was all about sincerity, credibility, changes and the ability to sing along, those first two Taylor Swift LPs are exquisite, documents nearly equal to Joni Mitchell's peak, in their sheer honesty and insight, and listening now you do wonder how much responsibility she had, her voice is thin, she's not playing the instruments, but it's her name on the record.
We're all just people. Insecure. With more questions than answers. Geeky. Taylor Swift too.
But she made a career out of it, and an audience clamored for her authenticity, it could not be gotten anywhere else, she invented the paradigm and now...
She's standing up for stuff that doesn't even matter.
You know this isn't even on Spotify?
Why?
What battle is she fighting here? One she's already lost. Along with all that money.
And I think Taylor Swift is too old and too experienced to recapture the zeitgeist, but...
Imagine if she pulled back the layers and sang the truth about what she's been through this past ten years, the journey from zero to hero, nowhere to everywhere, everybody wanting a piece of her but fumbling towards ecstasy in public, that's an album I'd want to hear.
Like "Tell Me Why."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvD5-J1tdl0
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)