There are two music businesses. The one you see in the media and the one that flies under the radar. You know everything about what Is happening with today's stars, shenanigans are part of the sale, with it so hard to reach anybody these days, they appear everywhere, just so you'll know their name, even if you've never heard their music.
We saw this once before. In the sixties. With AM and FM. FM was adventurous, played extended cuts, the new and different, it was fully alive with players who thought their music was enough. AM was about safety, pleasing all palates.
And when it was all united on FM by Lee Abrams it had a historic run and then cratered, when disco came along and killed it, or at least put a dent in it. Disco was new and different. And the funny thing is today disco has survived more than rock, there are disco beats everywhere.
And then MTV made it a monoculture. You were either on the channel or not. And if you were, you were making more money than anybody in the history of the music business, you could sell and tour all over the world as overpriced CDs flew out of the bins.
Until the internet came along and blew it all apart. Suddenly we had choice. And there were those who adopted the new systems and those who did not. Hip-hop embraced the internet ethos, they saw giving it away for free as a road to success. Rockers still rail at the net, last night Lucinda was singing the praises of albums, after referencing Sheryl Crow's decision not to make anymore. Sheryl is right. She had a brief moment of sunshine on her new LP, and then it all disappeared, it's almost like it never came out. The key is to be in the marketplace on a regular basis today.
But not yesterday.
And "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road" was recorded yesterday, released in 1998, when recordings still resulted in revenue, when a hungry audience ate up CDs, when the scene was comprehensible.
It's not comprehensible anymore.
You can be exposed to the tsunami of media and feel completely out of it and then...
You go to a Lucinda Williams show and feel superior, knowing this is where it's really at, this is the epicenter, this is the sound, the music that hooked you in the first place.
Not that there were any youngsters there. As a matter of fact, the Orpheum was filled with boomers, who remember when. And these were fans, there was no in-between songs talking, not even many smartphones videoing and taking pictures, they were relishing the experience, being in a hall with nothing but the sound.
Oh, Lucinda had a backdrop, but the show would have been just as effective without it. How long has it been since the music has been enough? When it sounded live, not programmed, when the people on stage were just as alive as you in the audience, no different except they'd taken the road more challenging, with no guarantees.
Lucinda talked a lot about her upbringing. The mentally ill mother. The incessant travel. She was so honest, your eyes bugged out.
Now to be honest, I am not the biggest Lucinda Williams fan. I met her once backstage at Marc Cohen show back in the early nineties, when she was cruising on success of her legendary Rough Trade record, and if you listen to it you'll know why it is, legendary that is, but she was struggling to make another album. She needed to get it right. Steve Earle said it was just a record, but she didn't agree. Lucinda Williams is not a pushover, she's got a backbone, she's stood up to the men blocking her way again and again.
But Lisa is a huge Lucinda fan, and when it was announced Williams was going on the road to perform the entire "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road" on its twentieth anniversary, she sent out an e-mail blast asking all of us if we wanted to go. I told her I could miss it, at this point in my life, I can miss anything, but she got a ticket for me and we went last night and I'm glad I did, it renewed my faith in music, made me feel I was with it as opposed to out of it.
It's just a small band, like the Beatles, if the songs are good enough you don't need all the trimmings, they're superfluous.
Not that Lucinda Williams sounds anything like the Beatles, but there was a guitar, a bass, drums and her on and off strumming.
Now I decided to prepare for this show. Over the weekend I listened to "Car Wheels" over and over again. And the best place is in the car, because suddenly you're taken away from this news-infested world, you're just in a cocoon, you and this sound.
So I was ready.
Of course I knew certain songs well, like the title track and "Joy." I've seen Lucinda multiple times, but she's always been an opening act, last night she was the headliner.
So the evening opened with a video of her family packing up and moving from the States for a year in Mexico City. You see Lucinda as a teenager, and you instantly remember that era, when our lives were in front of us instead of behind us. Lucinda's now 66, just like me. You always think of musicians/celebrities as being older than you until they're suddenly younger than you, but Lucinda saw the world from my exact vantage point.
But we lived different lives.
Yet again, they were similar.
I wandered for two years after college, but I felt the urge to get back on track, even though you could live on minimum wage back then, I certainly did.
Lucinda went to Texas, she played, she had boyfriends, she lived her life, she drank. When she said the late seventies were all about drinking, I howled, I certainly lived that life!
"I take off my watch and earrings
My bracelets and everything
Lie on my back and moan at the ceiling
Oh my baby"
There's more truth in that verse than anything on the hit parade, it's honest, it's real, you can relate.
That's from the opening cut on the album, "Right In Time."
But it was my favorite, the title cut, next.
"Sittin' in the kitchen, a house in Macon
Loretta's singing on the radio
Smell of coffee, eggs and bacon"
It's about Lucinda's youth, at least that's what she told us. All about her father being a poet, apologizing after he heard her sing it at the Bluebird.
Yup, every song had a story.
And they were all told in this laconic southern style, not fast like a New Yorker. This is the speech style the elites consider ignorant, but Lucinda is not. If you hung in there, hooked into her rhythm, she always got to the point. It was like reading a southern novel, not about someone making it, but living her life.
The best story concerned "Metal Firecracker."
"Once we rode together
In a metal firecracker
You told me I was your queen
You told me I was your biker
You told me I was your everything
Once I was in your blood
And you were obsessed with me
You wanted to paint my picture
You wanted to undress me
You wanted to see me in your future"
That's a true story. He was a replacement bass player. They fell in love on the metal firecracker, what he called the bus. He was her soulmate. Only one problem, she was living with another guy. Who she told when they hit New York. He promptly destroyed the hotel room, and when the tour was over the bass player told Lucinda she didn't fit his "agenda."
WHERE DID THAT LEAVE HER? WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE US?
Some people don't live their lives, they do what they're told, color inside in the lines, afraid to take a risk. That's why we look up to artists, they take chances we won't, they're truer to life, they come back and tell us what they saw.
Last night Lucinda told us what she saw. Clive, who loved to take road trips, cook, drink...he's dead now. A lot of them didn't make it. You see when you test the limits without a net not everybody survives.
And we've got all the women telling us what it's like to work in the office, to be in business, but I can't relate. That's a giant game. Which the men play too, but with even less wisdom. But the main show is really the sideshow. You listen to Lucinda Williams and it makes you want to put on your jeans, throw out your razor, get behind the wheel and see what you encounter, not worried about what you left behind.
This was an adoring audience. Giving Lucinda time to stretch out. She evidenced no charisma, the charisma was in the songs. Played in that style of rock blended with Texas, you know with guitars with few treatments, but with tons of wail.
That's what life is about, wailing. It's what we all want to do. Which is why we were addicted to this music to begin with. We boomers remember when you didn't take endorsements, when your credibility was everything, when you were channeling truth.
And just when you think that's a dead paradigm, you go to see Lucinda Williams. Everybody should buy "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road," play it three or four times and go to see Lucinda play it and tell her stories. Their ears will be opened, and their eyes. They will see there is hope, that music can regain its title as the most vibrant art form. When rock music is done right, IT'S LIFE ITSELF!
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Thursday 31 October 2019
Bill Curbishley-This Week's Podcast
The manager of The Who, Judas Priest and...need I say more?
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3HKbUtztNnl5t7d3TIswQG
https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=64966718
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bill-curbishley/id1316200737?i=1000455579317
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3HKbUtztNnl5t7d3TIswQG
https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=64966718
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bill-curbishley/id1316200737?i=1000455579317
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Wednesday 30 October 2019
HBO Max
This is what happens when you try to protect legacy partners.
And when you let newbies run your business.
Music was the canary in the coal mine for digital disruption. Not that anybody paid attention to what happened. The music business is seen as a poor stepsister run by street hustlers purveying substandard content. Everybody forgets that the Warner Music Group's profits built the Warner cable system, everybody forgets that music used to make more money than movies, Richard Parsons has never been held accountable for blowing out Warner Music at a rock bottom price, when it rose in value not long thereafter, and is still rising in value. That's corporate owners, they play for the short term, not the long term. As for the music business, it's doing quite fine, thank you. Turns out there was a lot more money in concert tickets than previously thought, prices have gone through the roof and customers have paid them. And more opportunities to partner with third party companies. As for recorded music revenues, they went up when rights holders stopped trying to bring back the past and admitted we live in a new era, and that the public wants on demand and that streaming satisfies this. Sure, recorded music revenues haven't returned to their pre-internet level yet, then again, today recorded music revenues are a smaller piece of the pie than ever. Furthermore, music was in the right place at the right time when it turned out the younger generations were more interested in experiences than acquiring goods.
Never underestimate a founder. Steve Jobs came back and revitalized Apple and Reed Hastings pivoted Netflix from DVD by mail to streaming and created a monolith, one that traditional outlets sold to and derided at the same time and then decided they must compete with.
Credit Disney, they came out with a rock bottom price. They own modern movies, albeit superheroes, and they own children's television, and they shocked the sphere by coming out with a product for $6.99 a month. That's less than Netflix. It's a shot across the bow. They're here to compete, and they're going to be in the marketplace in two weeks.
And then there's Apple. It's giving away its TV streaming service for free to people who buy its products. As for others...it'll be $4.99. If Apple has a hit show, you can rationalize that amount, it's certainly less than a movie. It's barely more than a latte.
But HBO Max? Demonstrating its hubris, the price is gonna be $14.99, when the service launches in May. Ever hear of a first mover advantage?
One thing is for sure, at this late date the entertainment world still doesn't understand the lessons of tech, wherein you give it away for free, grow your fanbase and then charge and then raise the price. Audience is key, audience is everything. And also-rans have a hard time generating mass. Try to compete with Facebook lately? How about Google? Even Microsoft couldn't put a dent in Google search.
But HBO/AT&T can't piss off its cable partners.
This is just like the record labels saying they couldn't piss off their retail partners, those selling CDs who either went out of business or threw the labels under the bus. There is no more Tower Records. As for Best Buy? It didn't mind taking back all that floor space to hawk other products.
You never protect your legacy customers, where are they gonna go?
Out of business!
The biggest threat to cable systems is not channel pricing, it's not even streaming services, it's 5G. I can't wait to get rid of my cable provider. They charge a car payment for service and if you want to get rid of TV they just up the price of internet. It's kinda like the record labels at the turn of the century. People were so pissed about one good track on an overpriced CD that they didn't think twice about file-trading, acquiring MP3s. I'd love to see Spectrum go out of business.
As for AT&T...
Acquiring DirectTV? In an era of internet supremacy? That deal is one of the worst of all time. While they're at it, why don't they invest in diesel cars. If something is going in the wrong direction, you buy it at a rock bottom price, not a premium. But that's what happens when wankers with no history, no understanding of another business, dive in, ultimately to their detriment.
We saw this movie already in music. With Andrew Lack. Yup, he came from television, he came from news, he must know more than the idiots in music. He instituted the rootkit and decimated the credibility of Sony Music, and then was blown out and returned to news. What does John Stankey know about entertainment...NOTHING!
This is what happens when you get the consulting companies involved, the bean counters, the accountants. They run on numbers, not instinct. And believe me, entertainment is about instinct. There are no numbers that will tell you what's a hit. Furthermore, if you're lucky enough to have one, you need relationships, honed over years, to make it one in the marketplace.
Of course AT&T would lose money if it lowered the price of HBO to cable systems. But it would be building towards the future, when cable systems die! And what is a cable system gonna do, keep HBO offline? Then customers will just sign up for AT&T's streaming product! That's right, AT&T doesn't even have to lower the price to cable systems, they have nowhere to go! Did labels lower the price of CDs to retailers when people were stealing their product willy-nilly online? Of course not!
Everybody is not going to subscribe to every streaming service, no way. Right now I refuse to sign up for Hulu. I'm paying Spectrum for all the cable channels, I've got Netflix, Amazon Prime... It's not like I don't have enough programming, I feel insulted, ripped-off.
This is another thing purveyors of visual content don't understand. Streaming music sites have everything. Why can't there be the same offering in TV? They're balkanizing the product to their detriment. Not to mention that those with little new product, like HBO Max, will experience churn...i.e. viewers will sign up and sign off based on hits. If you've got everything in one place, churn is reduced.
Kinda like it used to be on cable. If you wanted the product, there was nowhere else to go.
But now there are a ton of places to go.
Someone should roll up all these streaming TV channels for one low price. That's what I want. Charge me $39.99 and I get everything, today and forevermore. Sure, you can raise the price, but not right away. Spotify is still growing its audience, now is not the time to alienate customers. When they're hooked and have no other options, that's when you stick it to them.
Netflix has first mover advantage. It has a plethora of new product. If you think people are going to disconnect because of Disney Plus and HBO Max, you're wrong. Those two outlets have to convince customers to add their services, forcing viewers to make an economic choice. Do I need two cars? How many pairs of skis do I need? Am I really gonna feel left out if I don't have your service, in a world where we're all watching different product anyway, where ratings for shows are lower than ever, where the only club is in your house, in a Tower of Babel society.
You don't price based on Excel, you price on gut.
Customers no longer expect new products to be expensive with kinks to be worked out, they expect it to be cheap and flawless, with the price rising when the market is stabilized.
The road is littered with legacy companies bitching their cheese has been moved. The key is not to placate them, but to put them out of business. And to survive, first you need eyeballs. In a world of cacophony, where there are so many options, that is difficult to do.
As for HBO Max's launch, they couldn't even get that right.
Apple launches to the public, via its keynotes. The public pays, not the scribes. Furthermore, the scribes mean less than ever before. Sure, it's a business story, and the investors are eager for information, but this is the same press that went along with WeWork and... Facebook stock went down before it went up, the street is clueless when it comes to the value of a new business, the key is customers. And AT&T/HBO Max left them out of the equation, in an egalitarian society where the hoi polloi believe they're equal to the titans.
I'm not saying that HBO Max will be a complete failure. But I am saying good luck reaching your projections, which come out of thin air anyway. Steve Jobs had no idea the iTunes Store would be a runaway success, neither did his suppliers, the labels. Predicting the future on a new product is like...making it up. Yup, that's what they're doing, making it up there is no data that can establish the success of HBO Max.
But everybody prints the story and moves on to the next.
But not me!
And not the customers.
And when you let newbies run your business.
Music was the canary in the coal mine for digital disruption. Not that anybody paid attention to what happened. The music business is seen as a poor stepsister run by street hustlers purveying substandard content. Everybody forgets that the Warner Music Group's profits built the Warner cable system, everybody forgets that music used to make more money than movies, Richard Parsons has never been held accountable for blowing out Warner Music at a rock bottom price, when it rose in value not long thereafter, and is still rising in value. That's corporate owners, they play for the short term, not the long term. As for the music business, it's doing quite fine, thank you. Turns out there was a lot more money in concert tickets than previously thought, prices have gone through the roof and customers have paid them. And more opportunities to partner with third party companies. As for recorded music revenues, they went up when rights holders stopped trying to bring back the past and admitted we live in a new era, and that the public wants on demand and that streaming satisfies this. Sure, recorded music revenues haven't returned to their pre-internet level yet, then again, today recorded music revenues are a smaller piece of the pie than ever. Furthermore, music was in the right place at the right time when it turned out the younger generations were more interested in experiences than acquiring goods.
Never underestimate a founder. Steve Jobs came back and revitalized Apple and Reed Hastings pivoted Netflix from DVD by mail to streaming and created a monolith, one that traditional outlets sold to and derided at the same time and then decided they must compete with.
Credit Disney, they came out with a rock bottom price. They own modern movies, albeit superheroes, and they own children's television, and they shocked the sphere by coming out with a product for $6.99 a month. That's less than Netflix. It's a shot across the bow. They're here to compete, and they're going to be in the marketplace in two weeks.
And then there's Apple. It's giving away its TV streaming service for free to people who buy its products. As for others...it'll be $4.99. If Apple has a hit show, you can rationalize that amount, it's certainly less than a movie. It's barely more than a latte.
But HBO Max? Demonstrating its hubris, the price is gonna be $14.99, when the service launches in May. Ever hear of a first mover advantage?
One thing is for sure, at this late date the entertainment world still doesn't understand the lessons of tech, wherein you give it away for free, grow your fanbase and then charge and then raise the price. Audience is key, audience is everything. And also-rans have a hard time generating mass. Try to compete with Facebook lately? How about Google? Even Microsoft couldn't put a dent in Google search.
But HBO/AT&T can't piss off its cable partners.
This is just like the record labels saying they couldn't piss off their retail partners, those selling CDs who either went out of business or threw the labels under the bus. There is no more Tower Records. As for Best Buy? It didn't mind taking back all that floor space to hawk other products.
You never protect your legacy customers, where are they gonna go?
Out of business!
The biggest threat to cable systems is not channel pricing, it's not even streaming services, it's 5G. I can't wait to get rid of my cable provider. They charge a car payment for service and if you want to get rid of TV they just up the price of internet. It's kinda like the record labels at the turn of the century. People were so pissed about one good track on an overpriced CD that they didn't think twice about file-trading, acquiring MP3s. I'd love to see Spectrum go out of business.
As for AT&T...
Acquiring DirectTV? In an era of internet supremacy? That deal is one of the worst of all time. While they're at it, why don't they invest in diesel cars. If something is going in the wrong direction, you buy it at a rock bottom price, not a premium. But that's what happens when wankers with no history, no understanding of another business, dive in, ultimately to their detriment.
We saw this movie already in music. With Andrew Lack. Yup, he came from television, he came from news, he must know more than the idiots in music. He instituted the rootkit and decimated the credibility of Sony Music, and then was blown out and returned to news. What does John Stankey know about entertainment...NOTHING!
This is what happens when you get the consulting companies involved, the bean counters, the accountants. They run on numbers, not instinct. And believe me, entertainment is about instinct. There are no numbers that will tell you what's a hit. Furthermore, if you're lucky enough to have one, you need relationships, honed over years, to make it one in the marketplace.
Of course AT&T would lose money if it lowered the price of HBO to cable systems. But it would be building towards the future, when cable systems die! And what is a cable system gonna do, keep HBO offline? Then customers will just sign up for AT&T's streaming product! That's right, AT&T doesn't even have to lower the price to cable systems, they have nowhere to go! Did labels lower the price of CDs to retailers when people were stealing their product willy-nilly online? Of course not!
Everybody is not going to subscribe to every streaming service, no way. Right now I refuse to sign up for Hulu. I'm paying Spectrum for all the cable channels, I've got Netflix, Amazon Prime... It's not like I don't have enough programming, I feel insulted, ripped-off.
This is another thing purveyors of visual content don't understand. Streaming music sites have everything. Why can't there be the same offering in TV? They're balkanizing the product to their detriment. Not to mention that those with little new product, like HBO Max, will experience churn...i.e. viewers will sign up and sign off based on hits. If you've got everything in one place, churn is reduced.
Kinda like it used to be on cable. If you wanted the product, there was nowhere else to go.
But now there are a ton of places to go.
Someone should roll up all these streaming TV channels for one low price. That's what I want. Charge me $39.99 and I get everything, today and forevermore. Sure, you can raise the price, but not right away. Spotify is still growing its audience, now is not the time to alienate customers. When they're hooked and have no other options, that's when you stick it to them.
Netflix has first mover advantage. It has a plethora of new product. If you think people are going to disconnect because of Disney Plus and HBO Max, you're wrong. Those two outlets have to convince customers to add their services, forcing viewers to make an economic choice. Do I need two cars? How many pairs of skis do I need? Am I really gonna feel left out if I don't have your service, in a world where we're all watching different product anyway, where ratings for shows are lower than ever, where the only club is in your house, in a Tower of Babel society.
You don't price based on Excel, you price on gut.
Customers no longer expect new products to be expensive with kinks to be worked out, they expect it to be cheap and flawless, with the price rising when the market is stabilized.
The road is littered with legacy companies bitching their cheese has been moved. The key is not to placate them, but to put them out of business. And to survive, first you need eyeballs. In a world of cacophony, where there are so many options, that is difficult to do.
As for HBO Max's launch, they couldn't even get that right.
Apple launches to the public, via its keynotes. The public pays, not the scribes. Furthermore, the scribes mean less than ever before. Sure, it's a business story, and the investors are eager for information, but this is the same press that went along with WeWork and... Facebook stock went down before it went up, the street is clueless when it comes to the value of a new business, the key is customers. And AT&T/HBO Max left them out of the equation, in an egalitarian society where the hoi polloi believe they're equal to the titans.
I'm not saying that HBO Max will be a complete failure. But I am saying good luck reaching your projections, which come out of thin air anyway. Steve Jobs had no idea the iTunes Store would be a runaway success, neither did his suppliers, the labels. Predicting the future on a new product is like...making it up. Yup, that's what they're doing, making it up there is no data that can establish the success of HBO Max.
But everybody prints the story and moves on to the next.
But not me!
And not the customers.
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Bill Burr On Netflix
"Paper Tiger": https://bit.ly/2prl0X7
Baba Booey told me to watch it.
The news has got me depressed.
I know, I know, you're overloaded, you don't want to hear my opinion, I get that. But you've got to read this story in the "New York Times," "How Florida Republicans Are Talking About Impeachment - Working-class Republicans see Donald Trump as a white businessman who made a lot of money. The investigations only strengthen their kinship with him": https://nyti.ms/2JsRqYf
I know, I know, both sides are up in arms. The right hates being labeled and the left says it's all not true.
So maybe you should read Robert Reich's column, "No wonder Wall Street fears Warren and Sanders - they speak for the people": https://bit.ly/2MYsiec
Oh, now you certainly won't bother. I've given you homework, two articles. Remember hyperlinks? How everything was gonna be connected to everything else? Well, now it is, and we're on strike, we never want to click through, we're overloaded, and everything's a scam, made to sell us something or perpetrate some untruth.
So since I'm now deep in the hole, I'm gonna give you one more...
Hmm, I can't find it. It was on the "Washington Post" app. It was facetious, talking about how the Democrats need a new centrist candidate, because none of those running today appeal to anybody.
Maybe you don't even get the joke. No one gets the joke anymore. We're too thin-skinned, protective of the little territory we've got.
And that's what Bill Burr skewers.
Now I remember when my favorite comedian was Alan King. And to tell you the truth, the young comics give King props. But those comedians aren't even young anymore, they're boomers, so he'll be forgotten.
But in the early seventies, there was a comedy revolution. Its name was George Carlin.
Carlin famously changed his act, he couldn't do the Hippy-Dippy Weatherman anymore, he had to speak his truth, about politics and society. His old audience abandoned him, but he soon had a new one on board. Carlin's routines were legendary. About baseball versus football. But also about the seven dirty words you can't say on television. And in my head right now, I remember his routine on voting...you can vote all you want, do it if it makes you feel good, but the owners of this country are never gonna let you have any power. It went something like that.
Carlin was a dorm room favorite. Along with the Firesign Theatre. But Firesign was more about absurdity, whereas Carlin was more about truth, he changed people's minds.
Like Bill Burr.
We're going through a comedy revolution folks. And it doesn't quite look like the one that came before. Oh, there have been comedians forever. But then the giant sitcom opportunity opened up. Even before "Mork," even after "Seinfeld," that was the holy grail, to get a network sitcom. Yup, "network," does anybody watch network anymore? No, but they do remember laughter.
So now maybe you have a podcast, and a Twitter feed, to popularize yourself, to stay in contact with your audience, so they'll come see you live, so they'll watch your Netflix special.
Yup, the comedy specials used to be dribbled out on HBO. Starting with Robert Klein and then George Carlin...comedy was a poor stepsister. But not on Netflix, there's more than you can eat there. To the point where one is overwhelmed and doesn't play at all. Do you ever get that feeling? That you're so far behind that you might as well not even start? Miss some "Succession," some "Billions"...sure, you could stream history, the earlier episodes, but do you really care that much? You already missed being part of the discussion, and you're gonna take hours away from something else.
And it's even worse with music. It rains down on you every damn day. They keep telling us the biggest acts are big, but they're nowhere near as big as those of yore, and those of yore release albums and they're gone immediately. Yup, Madonna put out a new album. Bruce too. Oh, Bruce is trying to goose his project with some movie, but why do I need to watch that? It's for hard core fans, it's not part of the mainstream, nobody will talk about it, at least not rationally.
It's like we're in a grain silo. And they keep on pouring in new corn, or wheat, and we're slowly sinking, to our deaths. We want to be part of the culture, we want to fit in, but today we're all in our own verticals. Even worse, nobodies on social media are imploring us to get into their verticals. Why?
So we wait for suggestions. We need to hear from a trusted source. Or a few people. Before we partake.
We finished the third season of "Goliath." When it was done, I said THAT SUCKED. And Felice started complaining about the loose ends and I started searching for a new show. I wanted to watch that French agent show but couldn't find it fast enough so we settled for Bill Burr.
I was not prepared.
Only cartoon characters and comedians can speak the truth in today's society. That's what made the "Simpsons" so popular. The truth, we could accept it from two-dimensional characters.
But the heyday of cartoons is past, how long has the "Simpsons" been on the air? I love that they're still producing new episodes, but I gave up years ago. Felice is done with "South Park," I read about it in the news, but I don't watch it. And the new cartoons? They're safe. Everything's safe in America, for fear someone will get offended.
Like the trailer for "Paper Tiger" above. Netflix is too scared to show the essence of Bill Burr's act, they just defer to the usual marriage stuff.
But the truth is...
Let's see, it started with Dave Chappelle, nearly two years ago, on his New Year's special. He said if the women don't involve men in the Me Too discussion, there will be no forward movement.
Here we are.
So Burr hits the stage and says so much offensive stuff, the stuff you can't say, about women and race and... You know, trigger words, sensitivity. And at first you're shocked, you don't know quite know how to digest this. He doesn't really mean it...or does he? But then Burr switches sides and starts talking about Kaepernick, how people criticized him saying they have relatives fighting in Iraq... Nobody gets the story anymore, they're too busy defending themselves.
Yup, tonight I listened to Laura Ingraham. Tucker Carlson too. They're dead serious. This is war. But the viewpoint is so slanted that if you're living in that bubble, you've got no idea what's going on.
Oh, don't give me that crap about MSNBC being the same thing on the left, it's not. You may not agree with MSNBC, but it's not outright lies, facts are not omitted to make the case. Yup, today Ingraham accused Vindman of espionage. Is no one safe? Is everybody working the refs?
Not comedians.
Of course we've got a ton of standups afraid of the third rail, worried about offending someone, decreasing their audience. But the truth is unless you're passionate, about the truth, unless you push it over the limit, you're irrelevant, you're entertainment, like most of the musicians.
Yup, musicians are now "brands." Do you want to cozy up with Tide? Maybe Downy? No, musicians are people. And it should be about the music, but now that's just a starting point, to building an empire.
Yup, most of these "musicians" are uneducated nitwits, grubbing for a dollar, believing if they just work hard enough they can be Bill Gates. Huh?
But the comedians?
You've got to be smart to make it work.
Now one of the most confounding things about recent right wing politicians is that they frequently like left wing music. Yup, Chris Christie loves Springsteen. How do you explain that? I mean the Boss is all about the working man and unions, but Christie loves the sound.
The same way people love the jokes.
Being a comedian is the best gig ever, assuming you've got an audience. You show up at the hall, maybe with your own microphone, maybe with a road manager/buddy, and you take home all the money. Yup, costs are almost nil.
But it used to be only English comedians could sell out arenas.
Now it happens in the U.S. too. There's so much money, you don't need a TV show, you don't need to be in movies.
But Bill Burr was. Still is. He's 51 years old, he's paid a ton of dues.
No one expects a comedian to be great out of the box. They've got to woodshed. But fifteen year old pop stars? We're all for it. Forget the life experience, they're young and cute and adolescents are brain dead and will buy anything, even virtual goods, so let's appeal to them. If you're an adult, it's scant pickings.
But not in comedy. You can get away with almost anything, by saying it's a joke!
Of course I know that's not true, Bill Maher lost his TV show. But the needle is moving back to the center, there is pushback, because comedians thrive on this stuff. Hell, I saw Richard Pryor at the Comedy Store mere months after he burned himself up. What did he do? Richard Pryor jokes! He knew what we'd been saying. It felt like we were exposed. It was brilliant comedy.
So, Chappelle doesn't apologize. Maybe he is homophobic, but he puts it out there.
You may not be able to host the Oscars, but the truth is your fans understand and those complaining oftentimes have never even seen your act, never mind being fans.
I'm not endorsing homophobia, but the truth is unless we discuss the issues, there will be no progress. Yup, Bill Burr sheds more light on Me Too than a month's worth of opinion pieces, and he does it with comedy.
That's what's gonna change the discourse. Because the young and impressionable are addicted to these jokesters. And those on the right and left too. We agree on comedy. We can no longer agree on music, so much else, but when someone prowls the stage and starts hanging it out there, daring us to laugh...
That's right, our only hope of coming together as a nation, not only solving our problems, but first seeing our problems, is comedy. We all watch, and one thing about comedy, it makes you think.
Comedy today is dangerous. I'm not talking about rap feuds, where people get shot, but the mind.
Watch Bill Burr's special. You may not laugh at first, but then he'll nail something and you won't stop snorting.
Now unfortunately, Burr ultimately slides into the marriage wars, to his detriment. Granted, you need stories to hold the set together, but there's just not that edge, it's just not as dangerous. The key is to not be warm and fuzzy, to not reveal the trick, to leave the audience wondering...was that real? Does he really believe that? WHAT DO I BELIEVE?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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--
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Baba Booey told me to watch it.
The news has got me depressed.
I know, I know, you're overloaded, you don't want to hear my opinion, I get that. But you've got to read this story in the "New York Times," "How Florida Republicans Are Talking About Impeachment - Working-class Republicans see Donald Trump as a white businessman who made a lot of money. The investigations only strengthen their kinship with him": https://nyti.ms/2JsRqYf
I know, I know, both sides are up in arms. The right hates being labeled and the left says it's all not true.
So maybe you should read Robert Reich's column, "No wonder Wall Street fears Warren and Sanders - they speak for the people": https://bit.ly/2MYsiec
Oh, now you certainly won't bother. I've given you homework, two articles. Remember hyperlinks? How everything was gonna be connected to everything else? Well, now it is, and we're on strike, we never want to click through, we're overloaded, and everything's a scam, made to sell us something or perpetrate some untruth.
So since I'm now deep in the hole, I'm gonna give you one more...
Hmm, I can't find it. It was on the "Washington Post" app. It was facetious, talking about how the Democrats need a new centrist candidate, because none of those running today appeal to anybody.
Maybe you don't even get the joke. No one gets the joke anymore. We're too thin-skinned, protective of the little territory we've got.
And that's what Bill Burr skewers.
Now I remember when my favorite comedian was Alan King. And to tell you the truth, the young comics give King props. But those comedians aren't even young anymore, they're boomers, so he'll be forgotten.
But in the early seventies, there was a comedy revolution. Its name was George Carlin.
Carlin famously changed his act, he couldn't do the Hippy-Dippy Weatherman anymore, he had to speak his truth, about politics and society. His old audience abandoned him, but he soon had a new one on board. Carlin's routines were legendary. About baseball versus football. But also about the seven dirty words you can't say on television. And in my head right now, I remember his routine on voting...you can vote all you want, do it if it makes you feel good, but the owners of this country are never gonna let you have any power. It went something like that.
Carlin was a dorm room favorite. Along with the Firesign Theatre. But Firesign was more about absurdity, whereas Carlin was more about truth, he changed people's minds.
Like Bill Burr.
We're going through a comedy revolution folks. And it doesn't quite look like the one that came before. Oh, there have been comedians forever. But then the giant sitcom opportunity opened up. Even before "Mork," even after "Seinfeld," that was the holy grail, to get a network sitcom. Yup, "network," does anybody watch network anymore? No, but they do remember laughter.
So now maybe you have a podcast, and a Twitter feed, to popularize yourself, to stay in contact with your audience, so they'll come see you live, so they'll watch your Netflix special.
Yup, the comedy specials used to be dribbled out on HBO. Starting with Robert Klein and then George Carlin...comedy was a poor stepsister. But not on Netflix, there's more than you can eat there. To the point where one is overwhelmed and doesn't play at all. Do you ever get that feeling? That you're so far behind that you might as well not even start? Miss some "Succession," some "Billions"...sure, you could stream history, the earlier episodes, but do you really care that much? You already missed being part of the discussion, and you're gonna take hours away from something else.
And it's even worse with music. It rains down on you every damn day. They keep telling us the biggest acts are big, but they're nowhere near as big as those of yore, and those of yore release albums and they're gone immediately. Yup, Madonna put out a new album. Bruce too. Oh, Bruce is trying to goose his project with some movie, but why do I need to watch that? It's for hard core fans, it's not part of the mainstream, nobody will talk about it, at least not rationally.
It's like we're in a grain silo. And they keep on pouring in new corn, or wheat, and we're slowly sinking, to our deaths. We want to be part of the culture, we want to fit in, but today we're all in our own verticals. Even worse, nobodies on social media are imploring us to get into their verticals. Why?
So we wait for suggestions. We need to hear from a trusted source. Or a few people. Before we partake.
We finished the third season of "Goliath." When it was done, I said THAT SUCKED. And Felice started complaining about the loose ends and I started searching for a new show. I wanted to watch that French agent show but couldn't find it fast enough so we settled for Bill Burr.
I was not prepared.
Only cartoon characters and comedians can speak the truth in today's society. That's what made the "Simpsons" so popular. The truth, we could accept it from two-dimensional characters.
But the heyday of cartoons is past, how long has the "Simpsons" been on the air? I love that they're still producing new episodes, but I gave up years ago. Felice is done with "South Park," I read about it in the news, but I don't watch it. And the new cartoons? They're safe. Everything's safe in America, for fear someone will get offended.
Like the trailer for "Paper Tiger" above. Netflix is too scared to show the essence of Bill Burr's act, they just defer to the usual marriage stuff.
But the truth is...
Let's see, it started with Dave Chappelle, nearly two years ago, on his New Year's special. He said if the women don't involve men in the Me Too discussion, there will be no forward movement.
Here we are.
So Burr hits the stage and says so much offensive stuff, the stuff you can't say, about women and race and... You know, trigger words, sensitivity. And at first you're shocked, you don't know quite know how to digest this. He doesn't really mean it...or does he? But then Burr switches sides and starts talking about Kaepernick, how people criticized him saying they have relatives fighting in Iraq... Nobody gets the story anymore, they're too busy defending themselves.
Yup, tonight I listened to Laura Ingraham. Tucker Carlson too. They're dead serious. This is war. But the viewpoint is so slanted that if you're living in that bubble, you've got no idea what's going on.
Oh, don't give me that crap about MSNBC being the same thing on the left, it's not. You may not agree with MSNBC, but it's not outright lies, facts are not omitted to make the case. Yup, today Ingraham accused Vindman of espionage. Is no one safe? Is everybody working the refs?
Not comedians.
Of course we've got a ton of standups afraid of the third rail, worried about offending someone, decreasing their audience. But the truth is unless you're passionate, about the truth, unless you push it over the limit, you're irrelevant, you're entertainment, like most of the musicians.
Yup, musicians are now "brands." Do you want to cozy up with Tide? Maybe Downy? No, musicians are people. And it should be about the music, but now that's just a starting point, to building an empire.
Yup, most of these "musicians" are uneducated nitwits, grubbing for a dollar, believing if they just work hard enough they can be Bill Gates. Huh?
But the comedians?
You've got to be smart to make it work.
Now one of the most confounding things about recent right wing politicians is that they frequently like left wing music. Yup, Chris Christie loves Springsteen. How do you explain that? I mean the Boss is all about the working man and unions, but Christie loves the sound.
The same way people love the jokes.
Being a comedian is the best gig ever, assuming you've got an audience. You show up at the hall, maybe with your own microphone, maybe with a road manager/buddy, and you take home all the money. Yup, costs are almost nil.
But it used to be only English comedians could sell out arenas.
Now it happens in the U.S. too. There's so much money, you don't need a TV show, you don't need to be in movies.
But Bill Burr was. Still is. He's 51 years old, he's paid a ton of dues.
No one expects a comedian to be great out of the box. They've got to woodshed. But fifteen year old pop stars? We're all for it. Forget the life experience, they're young and cute and adolescents are brain dead and will buy anything, even virtual goods, so let's appeal to them. If you're an adult, it's scant pickings.
But not in comedy. You can get away with almost anything, by saying it's a joke!
Of course I know that's not true, Bill Maher lost his TV show. But the needle is moving back to the center, there is pushback, because comedians thrive on this stuff. Hell, I saw Richard Pryor at the Comedy Store mere months after he burned himself up. What did he do? Richard Pryor jokes! He knew what we'd been saying. It felt like we were exposed. It was brilliant comedy.
So, Chappelle doesn't apologize. Maybe he is homophobic, but he puts it out there.
You may not be able to host the Oscars, but the truth is your fans understand and those complaining oftentimes have never even seen your act, never mind being fans.
I'm not endorsing homophobia, but the truth is unless we discuss the issues, there will be no progress. Yup, Bill Burr sheds more light on Me Too than a month's worth of opinion pieces, and he does it with comedy.
That's what's gonna change the discourse. Because the young and impressionable are addicted to these jokesters. And those on the right and left too. We agree on comedy. We can no longer agree on music, so much else, but when someone prowls the stage and starts hanging it out there, daring us to laugh...
That's right, our only hope of coming together as a nation, not only solving our problems, but first seeing our problems, is comedy. We all watch, and one thing about comedy, it makes you think.
Comedy today is dangerous. I'm not talking about rap feuds, where people get shot, but the mind.
Watch Bill Burr's special. You may not laugh at first, but then he'll nail something and you won't stop snorting.
Now unfortunately, Burr ultimately slides into the marriage wars, to his detriment. Granted, you need stories to hold the set together, but there's just not that edge, it's just not as dangerous. The key is to not be warm and fuzzy, to not reveal the trick, to leave the audience wondering...was that real? Does he really believe that? WHAT DO I BELIEVE?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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--
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Monday 28 October 2019
Best Opening Act-SiriusXM This Week
Tune in tomorrow, Tuesday October 29nd, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive
Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive
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Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive
Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive
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Sunday 27 October 2019
More Ed Cherney
I can't thank you enough for what you wrote about Ed. You said many things that even his closest friends haven't said yet.
I flew into LA last weekend before Ed left us. We were all there.... Chuck, Al, George and Jim, the way Ed was always there for us.
Rose treated us all like the family we've been for decades. I don't know how she does it, and I don't know what we're gonna do without him.
I counted my best friends in life as Ed Cherney and Glenn Frey. I never thought we'd be living in a world without them.
Thanks for being Ed's friend.
Elliot Scheiner
_______________________________________
I had the ultimate pleasure of working with Ed on 7 different Stones projects from all over the world.
I could easily echo what everyone has already said. Instead I will simply state that I truly loved him,
and that is a huge understatement. I only wish he was here to experience what people are saying about him.
A shining example of what it is to be a professional and how to live a life.
Marty Callner
_______________________________________
Thank you for your warm tribute to Ed Cherney, who is most deserving. Eddie and I first met in 1988 on the film Coming to America, which was Nile Rodgers' first attempt at scoring a major movie. The 3 of us, along with Nile's programmer, spent 6 weeks together in a now-gone recording/mixing room on the Paramount lot. I was excited to collaborate with Nile, who was a star by then; he was terrific and still is--a genuine talent and a truly good person. But Eddie was the guy we all fell in love with. It quickly became clear why he had a circle of close friends comprised of the biz' beloved best and brightest brothers: Phil Ramone, Al Schmitt, Elliott Scheiner, George Massenburg, Bruce Swedien, Jeff Greenberg, Chuck Ainley, and more. And fans of Eddie and Rose were over the moon when those 2 fell in love and married. Anyone visiting them either in the studio or at their home in the Venice Canals rightfully felt blessed to share in their joy and good will. This is a tough loss for a lotta folks because you just can't replace someone so large in life--Eddie was a swashbuckler for sure.
Dan Carlin
_______________________________________
I was out of town when I got word of Ed?s passing, just got home last
night. I was stunned to hear of his death, had no idea he was ill.
Ed and I got to know each other at NARAS Governors meetings maybe 15 years ago. We knew each other initially from his work with my friend Kevin Montgomery way back in the early 90s. He was always warm and gracious, and in the room gave the Producers & Engineers Wing his best efforts.
Ed was always supportive even if it was'?t his project. No better a time
than when Ed "blessed" Steve Postell's studio when we started my album
there in 2013. I was the first guy in at Steve's, doing a record that took
five years to make. He gave us some different mic placement ideas for
upright bass, which I wanted throughout and is always a bear to record
properly. His input made a huge difference, and set us on exactly the
right road.
He was that way. Didn't matter if you were Bonnie or li'l ol' me, he was
helpful, upbeat, way fucking cool and generous with his time and talent. I
actually credited him on the liners for blessing the studio, and got a
copy to him through a mutual friend late last year. Wish I had known he
was ill, never gonna forget him or his friendship.
Dan Navarro
_______________________________________
I am so grateful for your love and honoring of Eddie Cherney.
I knew Eddie from Paragon Studios in Chicago where he was an apprentice with Harry Andronis under the eye of Marty Feldman and Dick Blumenthal. I was the bookkeeper and only dealt with the $. The Ohio Players were there during the night, and the daytime stories were hysterical. We were young and full of fun and music. Eddie was already a superstar. Styxx recorded in the daytime with Barry Mraz. Life was beautiful and always filled with music.
Eddie shared his life and his music with all of us, and we are grateful. My deepest sympathy to Eddie's beloved Rose and to Chucky and Leslie.
To everyone who knew and loved Ed Cherney - you were blessed.
CJ McCaro
_______________________________________
I did not know Ed very well. We did know each other From all of the interconnected people that we each knew I used to see him in different studios in LA When I was out there working and I saw him at many AES shows..Every time I saw him he acted like we were great friends and was so friendly and funny for our short time spent together. He was a giant in his field and was highly regarded and recognize it by so many greats..Would've been very easy for him just to blow me off when he saw me but he always took a couple of minutes to talk see what I was working on and just left me with an incredibly good vibe all the time..It really pisses me off when beautiful people suffer with a terrible disease it doesn't make an end of life easy..So I'm going to try and just remember how he was and when I meet somebody that maybe I don't know that well I will act the way Ed acted towards me..RIP
Peace, Jason Miles
I flew into LA last weekend before Ed left us. We were all there.... Chuck, Al, George and Jim, the way Ed was always there for us.
Rose treated us all like the family we've been for decades. I don't know how she does it, and I don't know what we're gonna do without him.
I counted my best friends in life as Ed Cherney and Glenn Frey. I never thought we'd be living in a world without them.
Thanks for being Ed's friend.
Elliot Scheiner
_______________________________________
I had the ultimate pleasure of working with Ed on 7 different Stones projects from all over the world.
I could easily echo what everyone has already said. Instead I will simply state that I truly loved him,
and that is a huge understatement. I only wish he was here to experience what people are saying about him.
A shining example of what it is to be a professional and how to live a life.
Marty Callner
_______________________________________
Thank you for your warm tribute to Ed Cherney, who is most deserving. Eddie and I first met in 1988 on the film Coming to America, which was Nile Rodgers' first attempt at scoring a major movie. The 3 of us, along with Nile's programmer, spent 6 weeks together in a now-gone recording/mixing room on the Paramount lot. I was excited to collaborate with Nile, who was a star by then; he was terrific and still is--a genuine talent and a truly good person. But Eddie was the guy we all fell in love with. It quickly became clear why he had a circle of close friends comprised of the biz' beloved best and brightest brothers: Phil Ramone, Al Schmitt, Elliott Scheiner, George Massenburg, Bruce Swedien, Jeff Greenberg, Chuck Ainley, and more. And fans of Eddie and Rose were over the moon when those 2 fell in love and married. Anyone visiting them either in the studio or at their home in the Venice Canals rightfully felt blessed to share in their joy and good will. This is a tough loss for a lotta folks because you just can't replace someone so large in life--Eddie was a swashbuckler for sure.
Dan Carlin
_______________________________________
I was out of town when I got word of Ed?s passing, just got home last
night. I was stunned to hear of his death, had no idea he was ill.
Ed and I got to know each other at NARAS Governors meetings maybe 15 years ago. We knew each other initially from his work with my friend Kevin Montgomery way back in the early 90s. He was always warm and gracious, and in the room gave the Producers & Engineers Wing his best efforts.
Ed was always supportive even if it was'?t his project. No better a time
than when Ed "blessed" Steve Postell's studio when we started my album
there in 2013. I was the first guy in at Steve's, doing a record that took
five years to make. He gave us some different mic placement ideas for
upright bass, which I wanted throughout and is always a bear to record
properly. His input made a huge difference, and set us on exactly the
right road.
He was that way. Didn't matter if you were Bonnie or li'l ol' me, he was
helpful, upbeat, way fucking cool and generous with his time and talent. I
actually credited him on the liners for blessing the studio, and got a
copy to him through a mutual friend late last year. Wish I had known he
was ill, never gonna forget him or his friendship.
Dan Navarro
_______________________________________
I am so grateful for your love and honoring of Eddie Cherney.
I knew Eddie from Paragon Studios in Chicago where he was an apprentice with Harry Andronis under the eye of Marty Feldman and Dick Blumenthal. I was the bookkeeper and only dealt with the $. The Ohio Players were there during the night, and the daytime stories were hysterical. We were young and full of fun and music. Eddie was already a superstar. Styxx recorded in the daytime with Barry Mraz. Life was beautiful and always filled with music.
Eddie shared his life and his music with all of us, and we are grateful. My deepest sympathy to Eddie's beloved Rose and to Chucky and Leslie.
To everyone who knew and loved Ed Cherney - you were blessed.
CJ McCaro
_______________________________________
I did not know Ed very well. We did know each other From all of the interconnected people that we each knew I used to see him in different studios in LA When I was out there working and I saw him at many AES shows..Every time I saw him he acted like we were great friends and was so friendly and funny for our short time spent together. He was a giant in his field and was highly regarded and recognize it by so many greats..Would've been very easy for him just to blow me off when he saw me but he always took a couple of minutes to talk see what I was working on and just left me with an incredibly good vibe all the time..It really pisses me off when beautiful people suffer with a terrible disease it doesn't make an end of life easy..So I'm going to try and just remember how he was and when I meet somebody that maybe I don't know that well I will act the way Ed acted towards me..RIP
Peace, Jason Miles
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