Dua Lipa/London Grammar

https://spoti.fi/3iI9XhW

I got stuck in a Dua Lipa loop.

You're probably aware that "Rolling Stone" just published their updated "500 Greatest Albums of All Time." It's a complete waste of time. A way to draw attention to a dying empire hurt by the lack of advertising that is charging up the yin-yang for magazine and online access, SEPARATELY! As a matter of fact, "Rolling Stone"'s music news is top-notch, far superior to "Billboard"'s, which is a vast wasteland of wanker writing appealing to a public that's not interested, a true trade magazine no more. But once you put up a paywall, you inherently lessen your audience. And tycoons and wannabes can pay for the "Wall Street Journal," and most other highfalutin' publications have a soft paywall, but the hoi polloi are notoriously cheap, people don't want to pay.

However, "Rolling Stone" is baked into Apple News+, both the magazine and the online news, but I'm vastly disappointed in Apple's product, because too often the pages turn slowly, you're waiting forever, it's not equivalent to reading in print.

But the "Wall Street Journal" is where I want to start. Referencing Mark Richardson's article on "Rolling Stone"'s "500 Greatest" list.

First and foremost, these lists are just a way to grab attention. Buzzfeed built a whole business on lists. But now they're devalued and seen as clickbait and most people ignore them but since it's music and "Rolling Stone" there's been attention, if for no other reason than the re-ranking of legendary LPs, like "Sgt. Pepper." That breakthrough album was #1 the last two times "Rolling Stone" did this, now it's #24, and that's positively insane. It creates controversy just for the sake of controversy. For if you were alive back then, you'd remember the huge breakthrough "Sgt. Pepper" was, an album long statement with no singles, all the rest of the albums on this list would not be there if it hadn't been for "Sgt. Pepper." As for comparing albums from the sixties to today, that's like including Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey in a similar listing in the heyday of the Beatles. Times are different. The Beatles tested and surpassed limits. Inspiration is the essence of creation. Doing something new is what we look to, what we cherish, that we drown in accolades. And then there's public acceptance and so many other reasons this 500 list is a waste of time but I'd recommend Mark Richardson's article, even though it too is behind a paywall, because he says something I've been saying for eons, to seemingly myself. But now that it's in the WSJ, maybe the public will accept it.

We no longer live in a monoculture. There is no longer one music business. The major labels and the Spotify Top 50 are one business, but only a sliver of the overall business. They're getting disproportionate ink.

But here's what Mark Richardson has to say:

"In 2020, we're living in a shapeshifting musical world filled with many possible histories. Today, two serious music fans can have lengthy year-end lists of favorites that have zero records in common. The sheer number of releases on offer - tens of thousands of new songs are uploaded to streaming services each week - and the proliferation of new genres and sounds mean that everyone who devotes significant time to listening to and following music is a specialist.

The website Every Noise at Once provides a list of almost 5,000 genres, each of which might have hundreds of subgenres beneath it (the site was started by an engineer at the streaming platform Spotify). When you sort genres by popularity, at the time of my writing this Brooklyn Drill, the aggressive style of hip-hop defined by the rapper Pop Smoke, was the 140th most popular genre; grunge, most associated with Nirvana (the group's 1991 "Nevermind" is No. 6 on Rolling Stone's recent list), came in at 266."

https://on.wsj.com/3nKSppl

BINGO!

5,000 genres? No one owned 5,000 records in the last century, before the internet, before file-trading and streaming. We're all listening to different music. And the news is a fiction. Nothing is as big as it used to be, and everything is smaller than the media hype tells us it is. The manipulated "Billboard" chart is almost completely irrelevant. There can be a festival that sells 100,000 tickets and none of the acts even appear on it.

Which brings me back to Dua Lipa.

I stumbled upon the Tensnake remix of her track "Hallucinate."

And I couldn't turn it off.

From the very first moment it's got that EDM sound, that disco beat. Which is anathema to mainstream rock fans, even though Prince employed it to incredible success on "Dirty Mind," even though seemingly everybody likes the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack, even though disco never died.

"Hallucinate" was not a hit in any fashion in the U.S. This disco sound does not work on Top Forty, and it certainly does not fit on Hot AC and it brings up the sign of the cross at AAA. But...

Keep your ears open. Let it play. You will not be able to sit still. You don't have to tell anybody you're listening, that you like it, this experience is just for you. This remix is a monster. Not a breakthrough like Avicii's "Wake Me Up," but a distillation of all that came before into something undeniable.

And this is how I like to listen. Over and over again. It's kind of like the short attention span that everybody accuses the younger generation of having. NO WAY! We've just got no tolerance for average, even good, but when we find something we love, that rings our bell, we've got unlimited time for it.

So, I decided to go to the original track. "Hallucinate" before the remix, from Dua Lipa's "Future Nostalgia" LP that's such a smash. And the basics are still there, I like it. But the Tensnake remix elevates it. Blows the roof off the joint and jets listeners into the stratosphere, the remix takes over your body and mind, permeates your physicality, if not your soul.

And what I'm really doing is checking myself. Finding out if I'm behind the curve, if the Tensnake remix is really that good.

So I go to Dua Lipa's "Club Future Nostalgia (DJ Mix)" remix album, because I listened to it and I don't remember being stopped in my tracks by "Hallucinate." And there are two remixes on the album, but neither are by Tensnake. As a matter of fact, they're a bit generic, in their own genres, neither are as good as the original studio version on "Future Nostalgia," even with Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" inserted into the Blessed Madonna remix.

So, to check my ears, I went back to the Tensnake remix and once again I got that feeling, it was just ten or fifteen percent better than the original studio version, but that made all the difference.

But I could not write about it. Because I'd be inundated with hate, put-downs. The rockers would decry the disco and the Dua Lipa/pop fanatics would tell me I wasn't immersed enough in the scene to comment.

But then Felice came into my office, where the Tensnake remix of "Hallucinate" was blasting, and she started to dance, it was just that infectious. But was it just for me?

And then I listened to London Grammar's "California Soil."

I was a fan, but I was not impressed live, the band did not touch me in quite the same way. But "California Soil," I couldn't turn it off! It reminded me of Air's breakthrough "All I Need," but it was its own independent concoction.

This could not be more different from "Hallucinate," in any incarnation, other than for the 808/fake drum sound, which always offends me. But not enough to overlook this dreamy track, which had me floating above the ground, like listening on headphones in the dark fifty years ago, not that it sounds anything like the music I liked back then, that anybody even made.

"I left my soul
On California soil"

This is not the troubled California of the news, this is the California dream of the English, the non-Americans, who are mesmerized by the freedom and weather of California.

Not that "California Soil" is about the lyrics. Rather it's about the feel, the sound, the ethereal vocal. It's hypnotic.

I wasn't gripped quite as immediately as I was with "Hallucinate," but then I played "California Soil" so much I started hearing it when I wasn't listening to it, it was playing in my brain, I couldn't get rid of it, I needed to hear it, I put it on my phone as I stretched.

And just like with the albums of yore, "California Soil" slipped into "Baby It's You," not the old sixties nugget but something brand new. And "Baby It's You" was more upbeat, more optimistic, and I got hooked on that too.

Honestly, I discovered "Hallucinate" from a playlist this guy sends me, there's always one or two good tracks. But I was reluctant to mention that for fear I'd be inundated with recommendations from people whose taste is suspect.

And I discovered "California Soil" from Jeff Pollack's weekly playlist. Nothing else resonated, but I immediately heard "California Soil," that's how it is, the greats jump out.

But what would my audience think of what I was into. I knew I'd be judged, negatively. That's just how it is.

But then I read Mark Richardson's article in the "WSJ" and I realized just like in the sixties, it's about letting your freak flag fly. You can feel comfortable being into what you are. It's those stuck in major label/Spotify Top 50 land who are suffering, who are left out, as well as the rockers who cannot be open to a synth, to a new sound, their ears are closed.

The "Future Nostalgia" "Hallucinate" has 93 million listens. The YouTube clip has 32 million. The Tensnake remix doesn't break a million on either platform. It's like it doesn't even exist, yet I'm hooked on it, it's superior to all the other iterations.

"Hallucinate" is the most streamed track from "Future Nostalgia" in the U.K. But in the U.S...CRICKETS!

As for the London Grammar tracks..."California Soil" has a million streams on Spotify, "Baby It's You" has got five million. As for YouTube, "Baby It's You" has just over a million, "California Soil" about half of that.

These are the numbers the acts of yore bitch about, that they're not getting paid enough for. But London Grammar knows all the money is not in streams, but fans! Who'll come to see you live, who will invest in the act's culture, irrelevant of whether the band ever breaks into, probably doubtful, the Spotify Top 50. And chances are London Grammar fans never ever listen to Top Forty radio, never. Chances are they don't listen to terrestrial radio at all!

So I'm wandering in the wilderness just like everybody else, assuming you haven't given up as a result of the tyranny of choice and the labels and the complicit media hyping a very narrow sliver of what's available.

This is the new world. We are never going back to a monoculture. There are more genres, more sounds than ever, we just need a way to establish coherence, expose those who are interested in what they very much might like.

YouTube links:

"Hallucinate"-Tensnake Remix: https://bit.ly/34JkDIj

"Hallucinate"-"Future Nostalgia" original: https://bit.ly/3lv7FVh

"California Soil": https://bit.ly/33N1K7V

"Baby It's You": https://bit.ly/3lCSusX

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Mrs. Everything

https://amzn.to/2GXKjZy

I loved this book. I mean loved, loved, LOVED!

I am not a guy's guy. If you want to make fart jokes and snap towels in the locker room I won't be there, or I'll be standing in the corner, detached.

Not that I don't like a good fart joke. I'm just referencing the way guys interact, with sexual innuendos, talking about people's appearances, what they'd do to so and so, however laughingly. I guess I've been put down enough in my life that I'm unwilling to put down another. And I've been made to do so much I don't want to that I won't force anyone to do anything they wouldn't want to. In other words, I'd never get arrested for sexual harassment. Or as that old shrink once told me, I'd rather talk to women than screw them.

Which is all to say this is not a book for most men.

Men like to read books that get them somewhere. Biographies, business books. They want to improve themselves, they want to see themselves as members of the group, participants in the game. And even though music is very much an independent business, where individuals thrive, inside the halls of the corporations, the labels, the radio stations, the promotion outfit, it's very much about getting along. That bro behavior I referenced above. It's anything but being vulnerable. You can be vulnerable in your music, but that does not work if you're a cog in the machine. And in this machine, the music business, if you're not going up, you're out. Which is why all the successful acts have managers, because they themselves can't interact with the suits. The better the artist, the less they're able to be compromised. They can't go through the mental machinations of negotiation, they don't have a tolerance for it.

But women?

Women are different.

Then again, our entire culture has changed. You can express vulnerability if you're on your way to rehab, or giving a mea culpa, otherwise everybody is a winner, at least on the exterior. And groupthink is rampant, whether it be on the college campus or amongst your own little circle. Challenge the precepts at your peril.

In the seventies it was different. Sure, we had the personal development programs like EST, but after the tumultuous sixties, people were looking inward, trying to figure out their problems, and that's when Sara Davidson's "Loose Change" came out. It was a rage amongst my older sister's friends. It told the story of girl friends from the sixties and how their lives played out. I read it, I've never forgotten it. Even though I've never read it again. I don't understand rereading, watching movies over when there's so much stuff left to check out for the first time.

But life, it's a mystery.

Today I had a long conversation with my mother. In December, she'll be 94. You think you want to live that long, but you don't. All your friends are dead, you're forgotten by society, at best you can play cards and go to the movies and to a great degree just wait to die.

You don't want to be old in America. First and foremost because you might be broke. This is what I don't understand about people taking social security early. You'll want more dollars if you live that long, because you won't be able to make any, there's no place for you in the workforce. And I'm willing to die with some money on the table, letting the government beat me, but in a world where the government is the enemy and it's everybody for themselves that's anathema. You blew your money on a fancy car and now you want someone to rescue you when times are bad. I feel for you, but how come our entire country can't save for a rainy day, assuming people can do more than make ends meet. Meanwhile, the rich get mad when the public hoards its money, because by not spending they're hurting the economy, the stock market, the rich are not continuing to get richer.

And if you're over sixty, wait for it, you're instantly irrelevant. Younger people make fun of you. You're happier and have earned wisdom but that does not matter, you've got lines on your face and are subject to derision. So how many people can be true winners, have all of their dreams fulfilled? Very few, if any at all.

So "Mrs. Everything" is the story of a family, from there to here, essentially from the nineteen forties until now. The two sisters are a little older than I am, and that matters, because what was acceptable in the seventies was not in the sixties, but people are people, as Depeche Mode sang.

So you think you're in charge of your journey. But if you keep the reins too tight, you miss out on opportunities. And if you loosen them too much, you close doors. I didn't want to get married, because I didn't want to get off track, I didn't want to sacrifice my vision. Buy a house, have kids, and you're working to support them. Then again, family might be the most important thing, who knows.

And your choices...

Talk to anybody and they have dreams. Some times puffed-up, false dreams. Oh, I was pre-med before I dropped out and became a musician. Yeah, right. I went to college and I know that organic chem separated the winners from the losers. If you didn't get an A, find another career track. I'd see it in slow motion, students' dreams getting dashed.

But you've got to pay your bills and you end up with a job that becomes your life. It started out temporary, or maybe you prepared for it in graduate school, and now it's unfulfilling, it was your safety net, but you're making too much money to start over and you certainly wouldn't be able to pay your bills so here you are, this is your life.

This describes many huge music fans. They use their bucks to feed their addiction. They couldn't risk coming to Hollywood and trying to make it. It was too dangerous. Or maybe their parents would not have been supportive. Which is to a great degree why entertainment is run by individuals, entrepreneurs, oftentimes college dropouts, who are so unique that if they didn't run their own organization, they wouldn't be able to get a job. That's what they don't teach you in school. As a matter of fact, school teaches you to conform. It's very hard to break out of the system, just like it's very hard to be anti-bro amongst bros.

So...

Kids never turn out the way you planned. The one with straight A's drops out of school, or gets pregnant. Or loses their job.

And who is your responsibility to? Your parents or your siblings or yourself?

And what if what you're doing is taboo? Kind of like trans rights today. But that was just like gay rights back then. And gays are still fighting for equal rights, look at what Thomas and Alito said just this week.

So, life is complicated, daunting, and you wake up one day and you find out you're too old. Hopefully, before that, you found out you don't matter. Even Sumner Redstone died, even though he believed he never would.

So I grew up in a female dominated household. My dad earned the money, took care of the financial issues, but my mother and two sisters steered the softer issues, the social issues. So, I'm quite comfortable hanging with women, I know what they're interested in. However I have learned, that despite their delineated preferences, their yearning for softer men, they frequently like the exotica of the opposite, the bros. For every woman who wants to forge their own path, there's another who wants the door opened, the chair pulled back and the man to bring home the bacon.

I'm not laying down the percentages. I'm just saying it's complicated, not that we can discuss any of this out loud, because chances are we'll fall into a politically incorrect pit, where we'll offend someone and when you're the target of slings and arrows, those bros won't come out and defend you, no way, they're staying silent behind the scenes, which is also to say that despite Harvey Weinstein many men are still unconscious sexual abusers.

So, "Mrs. Everything" is the story of women. Sure, men play a part. And they're sometimes what they appear to be on the surface, but...

You're in high school and you're hyper-aware, everything is important. And then you get old and laugh at yourself. You're hung up on someone romantically and you get older and you can't believe you were. Or you get married and wake up one day and realize not only does it not solve all your problems, it hinders you and you'd rather be somewhere else.

These are the questions, the issues you won't find in business books. Or biographies. The issues of life. The choices, the mistakes, the successes, the willingness to accept where you are, even if it does not match your dreams.

And life never works out how it's planned. Hopefully not, it's the accidents that deliver rewards. But a lot of bad stuff happens along the way.

This is what "Mrs. Everything" is about. Life. How it's rough and tumble. How you make snap decisions that have you turning left and end up somewhere where it's impossible to turn right.

I looked forward to reading it every day. It's a treat.

For a special kind of reader.

Maybe that's you.


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Re-Eddie

Edward Van Halen was one of the best friends I ever had. No one will be like him! I knew him as a close riend more than the guitar hero. The legend.
I knew the man. 40+ years. The world has lost a game changer and someone I loved dearly.

Steve Lukather

_________________________________________

When we were opening up the Microsoft Theatre, Neil Young was playing one night. Larry Vallon and I were at Neil Young together and I mentioned that Van Halen was across the across the street playing at Staples Center. Larry and I went through the tunnel from the theatre to the arena and we popped out right next to the stage. We stood there a few minutes and the band went into a drum solo. Eddie walked off stage and down the stairs, put his guitar away and walked right over to Larry and shook his hand. Larry said, "Edward, how are you." Eddie smiled and turned around, picked up another guitar and went back on stage. What a memory. Two legends, Eddie and Larry.

Skip Paige

_________________________________________

As for true mind blowing Guitar innovation you can say Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.
All the others including the greats we all know fall in behind these 3.
It's true Ed had an amazing left hand on the fretboard that brought the boys to the yard but it's his right hand that brought the girls. He was FUNKY and all the gals could dance to his riffs.
He was a kind sweet soul underneath it all and I shall miss him.
RIP EVH

Stevie Salas

_________________________________________

Eddie rarely played guitar on anybody's albums but his own.
He played Van Halen music.Many years ago I was rehearsing at SIR in Los Angeles and we stopped for a moment and I heard this powerful,fevered,operatic sound coming from the room next to us so I went over and knocked on the door and he said "Come on in Michael." I think we did a Humble pie song. ...I saw him play many times upfront & dazzled...
All those nine-year-olds you talk about,who are shredding on YouTube,were locked & loaded by the shimmering Eddie Van Halen. Notes tapped & cascading from another world entirely.There never will be anyone like him...
I too, am in Shock.

Michael Des Barres.

_________________________________________

Wow, I am hurting on this one and since I heard the horrible news today I have had so many flashbacks. The many concerts, the interviews I did with him and the band for their radio world premier broadcasts, the nights at Camp Leffler hearing the finished (and unfinished) albums before their release and so many more. A funny story with one of those radio shows I produced...it was for VH3, which debuted Gary Cherone. I had talked Ray Danniels and the WB team and pushed hard for it to happen live and I think everyone was a bit nervous. Well the decision was made to do it and it was at the Key Club/Billboard Live and that was originally Gazzarri's (you know the history). The band was doing a live set on the air, we were playing back the album and interview. Well we start, the band and I walk on stage and immediately Eddie has the crew take my chair and bring out a toilet with him making no bones about it...that was where I was going to do the interview from. We all laughed our asses off, settled in quite well and had a tremendous night and performance. Eddie loosened us all up and his sense of humor shined brightly.

One more, Eddie produced the band Private Life and asked me if I would record their EPK with the band and of course I said yes. Well during that time of their first track getting released to radio, WB Promo guru's Stu Cohen, Kenny Puvogel and I came up with idea of Eddie being at the Album Network office the Tuesday of release. Back then all of the PD's and MD's called their new adds and playlist's in. Well we let them know that Eddie was there if they added Private Life Eddie would do an interview with the station right then!!! Needless to say, that went over huge and coincidentally that day Elvis Costello also visited us and the two actually met and exchanged pleasantries.

So many more stories that I am sure many of your readers will share. RIP Eddie, and sincere condolences to Janie, Wolf and Alex. One of the best guitarists that ever lived!!!!

Sincerely,

Tommy Nast

_________________________________________

This is heartbreaking. As phenomenal as his talent was, it was his heart that I'll always remember. Whenever I saw him it was always a hug and a kiss and an "I love you, Steve." I first met Ed in 1980 when I was working for Carol Ross at The Press Office (my first job after college and first job in the music biz). We had been contacted by Noel Monk who asked us to come to Nassau Coliseum to see the show and meet the band to talk about PR representation. I met Ed and we had an immediate connection and became fast friends. The band signed on, I was assigned the account and I was off. It really was like running away to join the circus. My work for the band between 1980-1985 speaks for itself and it was something I took great pride in and they asked me back in 1993-1994. But I'm most proud of being one of the very few people to encourage Ed to pursue his keyboard explorations. He would play me the most amazing demos and he was so sad and frustrated that Roth and Templeman expressed little interest. I would constantly remind him that it was his name on the band and since he wrote the music, he should just do what he wants. In the years to come, he would always thank me for giving him the encouragement to stick to his guns.

It was really special to be able to listen to his playing night after night - it didn't matter if he was on stage, backstage, on the bus, in the hotel or in the studio - it was always mind blowing.

I will miss that big smile, the glorious brown sound of the Frankenstrat and the music that might have come. My deepest condolences go out to Janie, Al, Wolf , Valerie and everyone at 5150.

Steven Mandel

_________________________________________

It's late '94. I was standing in line about to board a flight from Amsterdam to London and as I'm standing there Van Halen joins the queue. We get on the plane and our bass player happens to be seated next to EVH. He graciously comes over to my seat and says, "there's no way I'm NOT gonna let you sit next to Eddie" and switches seats with me.
I'm a fairly reserved guy, but as soon as I put my seatbelt on, I was a 13 year old fan girl. We talked about Hendrix, Clapton, guitars of all kinds, amps, the never ending quest for tone and family.
Eddie was sober at the time so when I ordered a beer from the stewardess, he ordered a non alcoholic one. She brought the beers and after a couple sips, Eddie leans over and whispers "I ordered unleaded, but I'm pretty sure this is leaded. Don't tell Alex" who was sitting right behind us. The fact that he asked me to keep a secret from his brother made me feel like I got entrusted with nuclear codes.
They had just finished recording Balance and Eddie was really excited. He kept telling me that he'd gotten his tone back. Kept saying how he couldn't wait for the record to be released. I was excited too! My hero got his mojo back!! We landed, deplaned and said our goodbyes in London and I lost sight of him when he joined his band mates and crew in the customs line. As I'm standing there I catch Eddie out of the corner of my eye. I didn't want to say a second goodbye but he motioned for me to come over. When I got to him, he says to his tour manager "hey, look in your stuff and see if you have any copies of the new record I can give my buddy David". So, his guy digs around in the bag and gets me a CDR of the unreleased Van Halen record. Are you kidding me?! Eddie and I shook hands with a loud smack of our palms and I ran off to rejoin my group. I was like a kid. I couldn't wait to get to my hotel room so i could listen to the record.
In all honesty, I hated that record at the time, but I'm going to listen to it today with new ears. Don't get me wrong, my family is about to be sick of Atomic Punk, but I'm gonna toss Balance in the mix just because my buddy Eddie gave it to me. Thank you for your fearlessness EVH. You set so many ships to sea.

David Ryan Harris

_________________________________________

It's such a sad day and huge loss. Ed was an idol of mine growing up. To get to call him a client and friend over the past 6 years has been mind-blowing. I remember two distinct things that to me exemplified how Ed was much more than a guitar god, but also someone who was incredibly generous with his time and money. First was in business, and this one will hit home for you and Felice. He donated a 6 figure sync fee entirely to the Mr Holland's Opus Foundation. Not even a blink. He just said 'Rich, if they want that song they have to pay the fee to the charity.' The next was personal. My young son CJ was going to get to play goalie in a shoot out at MSG between periods of a Rangers game. He was of course excited and nervous. I told Ed about it and he said 'Let me talk to him.' He chatted on the phone with CJ for about 10 minutes and let him know that he too performed at MSG and it was gonna be a great experience that he'd never forget. That really gave CJ the confidence he needed to do an outstanding job that day. The world will miss Ed. I'm gutted for his family. I'm lucky to have had the chance to intersect with him for a few laps around the sun and call him a friend. Keep it loud up there Ed.

Richard Stumpf

_________________________________________

I interviewed Eddie several times over the years. Enough that I'd get appreciative backstage passes and opportunities to say hi after shows. One of those times - August 26, 1995, at the Meadows in Hartford, CT on the Balance tour - I brought my sister. I wasn't the editor of Metal Edge yet (I wouldn't even write my first Metal Edge article until 1996), but I'd already interviewed him a few times for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and Night Sights & Sounds, the first being one of the biggest major dailies in the midwest, and the other the biggest free rock mag in Wisconsin.

My sister and I weren't what one would call "musically compatible," but she loved Van Halen with Sammy Hagar, so it was a rare opportunity where she would appreciate being my plus one. It was also right after her birthday, so it was an equally rare opportunity for me to be the "cool" big brother (as opposed to any number of adjectives she might otherwise employ to color my persona, haha). I was still new enough where nobody felt obligated to leave me passes, but I'd also been around long enough to know that even if they said they would, they might not be there. I didn't tell my sister we'd be doing anything beyond seeing the show - but sure enough, when we picked up our tickets at will call, there were two after show passes.

"Dreams" closed the main set, followed by the "Poundcake" and "Panama" encore. I love David Lee Roth far more than the next guy, I even penned the back cover of his autobiography - but Van Halen with Sammy took it to another level. They weren't as rock n roll, they weren't dirty, and they were far from dangerous. They were what happens when you fuel a machine with motor oil instead of Jack Daniels. Everything was smoother. You didn't need the kicks, because the transmission just hummed. My sister had never been backstage before, but I definitely didn't need to worry about walking her into Dave's den of debauchery.

We were escorted by the tour manager, who knocked on the door to Eddie's dressing room and told him, "Paul Gargano's here." What he didn't tell him, was that my sister was standing alongside me. "Bring him in," you heard Eddie say from inside. The tour manager opens the door and, because my parents raised me right, I let my sister walk in first. Eddie stands up from the couch and takes a step forward, not yet looking up. I'm not sure what surprised him more - that his robe wasn't closed, or that my sister was face to face with his Van Halen twins. He covered up quickly and we laughed. Talk about making an entrance!

My sister texted me moments after today's news broke: "I just read that Eddie Van Halen died." I asked her if she got a picture with him that day, and she said no, "but being in their dressing room will always be one my best memories." Eddie's magic was that whatever he did, he made look effortless. And when he smiled, he lit up a room like no other. Being in his presence was like standing on top of the world.

I wasn't the editor of Guitar World - hell, I don't even play guitar - but he talked to me anyway, an up-and-coming writer in the midwest. Again and again, he took the time. And he always did it with a smile on his face. It's hard to say what kind of impact a single interview can have on your career, but I can say with relative certainty that my Eddie Van Halen clips played a significant role when Metal Edge approached me to be their Managing Editor less than a year later.

But even more importantly than that, Eddie Van Halen made me look cool in front of my sister. I somehow think he might appreciate that more.

RIP, Eddie. Say hi to Dime - I'm looking forward to some thunder from above!

--Paul Gargano

_________________________________________

I was lucky enough to meet Eddie Van Halen May 22nd, 1998. I was working for Wind-up Records and our band Creed was opening for them that night at Madison Square Garden. I was talking with Creed's guitarist Mark Tremonti and some of Creed's road crew and he came up and introduced himself to Mark. He was psyched to chat with another fellow guitarist but he went out of his way to say hi and shake hands with all of us. Same thing again at the end of the night. Gracious, friendly and genuinely warm guy. I'll always remember that. Met some of my other musical heroes and they don't always live up to that standard. Sad that he's gone. My first true rock concert was VH in 1986 at the New Haven Colisuem. They filmed Live Without a Net over two nights in New Haven. I think I might have to watch that again tonight. RIP Eddie Van Halen.

Mike Mongillo

_________________________________________

Do you remember the engineer Chris who has filled in a couple times, well he and his wife rent the house that the Eddie and Alex Van Halen's grew up. Says flowers have been showing up on his porch today

Doug Boehm

_________________________________________

When I was performing Strip-A-Grams back in '81, I was sent to that sushi place that was on the corner of La Cienega & Santa Monica Blvd. to deliver a dancing birthday greeting to Eddie Van Halen. Valerie has arranged it. Eddie was the sweetest, humblest loveliest guy.

DLR. of course, tried to upstage me. It was over so soon he only only able to jump up once from the back of the group.

Valerie thanked me profusely and tipped me well.
Never a fan of the band, I did respect their talent, and was mesmerized by Eddie's solo on Beat It.

Felt like I'd just delivered
this birthday greeting dance to a living god.

Melissa Ward

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Cousin Brucie-This Week's Podcast

Cousin Brucie is a legendary deejay who was friends with everybody from the Beatles to Lesley Gore. Listen to hear how Brucie retrieved Ringo's St. Christopher medal as well as how he got his start, his name and so much more. Brucie was my gateway drug for music radio. It was a thrill to speak with him!

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cousin-brucie/id1316200737?i=1000494016647

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0lGqMFFtfVZiQkZ1mHDcUS?si=NNzbBSApQcuMbAlX35sVow

https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=78354063

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/The-Bob-Lefsetz-Podcast


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The Vice Presidential Debate

Pence wouldn't commit to a peaceful transfer of power.

You need to read this article. It's more important than anything I have to say herein:

"Democrats Need To Be Clear About Where This Could Be Headed": https://bit.ly/3iBqDrf

It's about the system, not the issues. The above was written by a Harvard professor, not someone wearing a tin foil hat.

No one's mind was changed via tonight's debate. As a matter of fact, I'd recommend all further debates be canceled, they're a waste of time. We've seen the candidates, we get it, all that is left is for Donald Trump to browbeat Joe Biden while he fails to observe the debate rules that he agreed to.

Just like Mike Pence.

At first you had to have sympathy for the vice president. He had to defend the terrible record of the Bizarro in Chief. But as one continued to listen, one could see that he buys into a lot of the crap he was saying, which is positively scary.

As for the Trump team's governing philosophy...Pence came out with it right away, and then hammered it over and over again, he believes in the American people, not government, that the people will do the right thing, in other words...YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN!

I'd go deeper but you've already made up your mind. But it's clear if you believe Donald Trump cares about you, is gonna help you, the answer is no, AND PENCE ADMITTED IT RIGHT UP FRONT!

Not that he'd answer the question, almost never. Which is why these debates are such a waste of time. Kamala could think on her feet, Pence just repeated his talking points over and over again, like a third grader who didn't do his homework.

But having said that, it was painfully obvious that the same people who prepared Trump for last week's debate prepared Pence for this one. Not only would Pence not answer direct questions, he consistently went over time, again and again, as if the rules didn't matter. And the truth is both Trump and Pence believe they don't. Never forget that.

The one thing we learned, that was loud and clear, is that Kamala Harris is the smartest of the four people running, the most nimble, the one who can think while talking, who can deftly argue her case. After tonight, no Biden fan should have any worry about Harris taking over his Administration. She's beyond competent. As for experience, she's more experienced in government than Obama was!

But you can see why Kamala lost the nomination. She's a prosecutor through and through. She's tough as nails and there to win. And some of her expressions when Pence railed on worked against her, she was disgusted by his lies. However, she did temper those reactions as the debate wore on.

My point being you wouldn't want to have a beer with either of these people. That was George Bush, who ran on being warm and fuzzy. And I'm talking about impressions here, image, not truth. And the unfortunate thing is running for public office is oftentimes too much about image, substance is kicked aside.

Like Pence's lies.

We live in scary times. The Trumpers get all their news in a parallel universe, where falsehoods and twists of truth are de rigueur, to the point where when Trump or Pence utter them their acolytes believe them. Then again, almost everybody watching is not up on the facts of what is being discussed. Like fracking...it's an ungodly large money pit. These companies will never make any money, meanwhile they paid their CEOs millions. It's been all over the "Wall Street Journal," the right wing paper of record, but once again, don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Americans hate change, sorry to say so. They're all fearful they're gonna lose something in the transition. So if you try to throw the long ball, they cower, even though it's Sanders and Warren who were truly standing up for the average American, who is financially challenged and behind the 8-ball. So we've got Biden.

The problem with Biden is he's not good at conveying his message. He can only lose in further debate. Biden is experienced, he knows the right thing to do, he's exercised good judgment, but as a candidate...not good. Furthermore, there's no doubt he's not as sharp as he was in the VP debates of yore.

Which brings us back to Kamala Harris. She's too edgy to win general election. But as #2 she's a princess, a hammer in a velvet glove. To watch her work her way through what she wanted to say to ultimately answer the question was amazing. We haven't seen this skill since Bill Clinton. Then again, if you're smart and educated you've got two strikes against you with the right. The right would rather pray the problems go away, are so busy keeping themselves in the hole they're in that they cannot be lifted up. The right is so busy denigrating the left that its disadvantaged constituents can't see what they're losing, their religion is hating liberals just as much as loving God.

Now if Biden were to become incapacitated, or to pass, I've got complete confidence in Harris, she proved her mettle tonight. She can think on her feet, weigh the evidence. And if she were to inherit the presidency I have no doubt she would do a good job and be electable thereafter. But, once again, I can see why she lost in the primaries. America doesn't like smart women, doesn't like women with a backbone. And I'm wary of prosecutors, but maybe that's exactly what our country now needs, to stand up to the bullies, not that Harris responded as to what measures she and her party would take if Trump refused to leave office.

No one answered the tough questions, no one answered the gotcha questions. Harris bobbed and weaved. Pence employed the Trump playbook, just hammer the points and lie, lie, lie...what are the chances your voters are gonna see the corrections in the "New York Times" or on CNN, never mind MSNBC. NONE!

But the truth is there is now no truth. We all drink from different media wells and Donald Trump has done an excellent job of undercutting truthful media. So far, it's only been pundits fighting back, but tonight Kamala Harris fought back, and that was inspiring.

It's time we got a fighter.

And isn't it interesting that the fighters in the Democratic party are all women. From Harris to AOC to Pelosi. It's the men we've got to worry about, the mealy-mouthed Schumer who seems to have left his balls in the locker room. You don't bring a knife to a gun fight and to win you have to know your enemy and prepare for their behavior, whereas the men in the Democratic party whine and then say to trust the system. As for that system, I was waiting for Harris to say that Trump put in so many unqualified and biased judges because the Republican Senate refused to approve Obama's picks. But, once again, these are not history lessons, just impressions.

Maybe, like in "Borgen," we need a scoreboard. Maybe we have to move to the world we presently live in, reality television, where Trump made his bones. It seems that straight reporting, doing it the tried and true way, no longer works. So let's get the flashing lights and buzzers. Let's have a counter that evidences the number of lies told. Let's declare a winner. Hell, we can have a panel, like in boxing, or in ice skating...a judge from each team and then a neutral arbiter.

Trump has turned America into a cartoon. Harris expertly listed the Trump administration's foreign policy flaws and Pence couldn't get out of the Middle East, telling lies all the while.

But I guess their debating style, Pence and Trump, is just like their governing style. Let's forget the big picture, the "losers," the people of color, while we drill down on broad issues that don't speak to everyday life, like religion. Or coal. Or the "fraud" in mail-in ballots.

Unfortunately too many Americans are just that dumb. Whomever hammers their message more consistently too often wins, no matter how flawed and fraudulent.

This is where we've arrived.

But thank god we've got someone who's up to the challenge.

That's what we learned about Kamala Harris tonight.


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Johnny Nash

Some records you only have to hear once.

Johnny Nash was the face of reggae. Sure, there was a whole scene down in Jamaica, Paul Simon had used the island groove for "Mother and Child Reunion," but most people still did not know whether you pronounced it "reggie" or "reg-gay," if they'd heard the term at all. The big buzz didn't happen until the following year, in anticipation of the first Wailers album on Island and the ultimate distribution of "The Harder They Come."

Although he's now truly a legend, Bob Marley didn't have purchase in the American market until his fifth American album, when the act was now known as Bob Marley and the Wailers. Recorded at the Lyceum in London in the summer of '75, the album wasn't released until the following December, and then the legend of "Live!" built over the course of a year, to the point where the following studio album, "Exodus," was a certified hit. Not that the studio albums before had not possessed some great numbers, "Burnin'" had "Get Up, Stand Up," never mind "I Shot the Sheriff," but Clapton had the hit, with his execrable overplayed version on "461 Ocean Boulevard." And "Natty Dread" had "No Woman, No Cry" but it took years for that to become a standard. "Rastaman Vibration" had the sound but not the hits and it looked like Marley and the hyped to high heaven reggae sound was going to remain an island curio, it was never going to break through.

You only had to drop the needle on "Live!" to get it. All the way from Jamaica the boys immediately locked into the groove of "Trenchtown Rock" and one thing was for sure, when you were listening you were feeling no pain.

And from thereafter the world was hit with Bob Marley's music. In some respects it was like the Grateful Dead, you had to see the band live to get it. But unlike the Dead, anybody who listened to "Live!" could get it, you could not help but move your body in time. Furthermore, unlike the Dead, Marley permeated the ears of the entire world and reggae was now a well-known genre.

To help promote reggae, to break his acts, Chris Blackwell funded a movie entitled "The Harder They Come." It was raw and violent, yet meaningful. It was a Boston legend, playing forever at the Orson Welles Cinema, but the film took years to permeate the culture. Yesterday you went from market to market and if you were good enough you got a chance, everybody could see what you were doing. Today, you have the power to reach the whole world instantly yet be great and go unnoticed. The times they have 'a-changed.

"The Harder They Come" soundtrack broke earlier and bigger than the film. It introduced the world to Toots and the Maytals, as well as the Melodians, but the star of the album and the film were one Jimmy Cliff, who not only sang the title cut, but "Many Rivers to Cross" and the album's sleeping giant, "Sitting Here in Limbo."

But this was the peak of Cliff's career. Even though he's a stellar performer, he never had a big hit. He faded from the public consciousness. He was ostracized from the scene because he was not a Rastafarian, but a Muslim, he was not a member of the island club.

And Johnny Nash most certainly wasn't.

Now if you read the obits, if you read the press back in '72, not only the rock but the mainstream, you were aware that Johnny Nash had not come from nowhere, but his heyday was in the fifties, before the Beatles, before boomers tuned in and music changed the world.

In 1972 I was going to college in Vermont, back before Amazon, back before VHS, never mind DVD. There was no FedEx and no streaming. As for music? You could listen to the college station. But I never did, because I was used to New York radio, I didn't want to hear the records the wankers spun, too often passé or the same Derek & the Dominos, Allman Brothers and Dead songs I'd burned out on long before. So I was left with the magazines, "Rolling Stone," "Fusion" and "Crawdaddy." That's what I truly studied in college, and reading them word for word I was kept up with what was going on in the real world. And that's how I'd buy my records, based on reviews. Because I could not hear the tracks, no way. And since I bought so many records I needed to buy them at a discount, I found the prices at the Vermont Book Store, full pop, an insult. Occasionally I employed the Record Club of America, but they always lagged on new product, and I had a connection to Sam Goody and could buy at wholesale but the minimum was fifty bucks, which was a little too rich for my blood.

And in the early seventies, most cars did not have FM tuners. Kids still hadn't thrown over 8-track tapes for cassettes, that really started about '76. And the FM tuners in cars were really bad. My dad's '69 Thunderbird and our '70 Country Squire had FM, I'd insisted on it in the latter, but reception was weak, you could not easily listen to New York stations in Connecticut, the signal kept cutting in and out.

So, you listened to AM.

And the first time I heard "I Can See Clearly Now" was in a friend's automobile in Vermont. I did not have a car. And it was like an elixir poured down from the heavens by God. This was an instant smash. It didn't sound like anything else on the radio. Imagine hearing "I Can See Clearly Now" on Top Forty today, it would be just as revolutionary, even though there'd be no chance, Top Forty is only hip-hop and pop.

But I gave up buying singles back in the sixties. They were a bad value. I took my music seriously. I needed the album, I needed to go deep, assuming the LP was just not the hit and some filler.

And "I Can See Clearly Now" was so gigantic that it permeated airwaves to the point where papers and magazines stopped writing about it. Why? It was in plain sight, just twist the radio dial and you'd hear it, but I couldn't, because I lived in Vermont, but every time I got in someone's car I'd yearn for it to come over the airwaves.

My sister Jill graduated from BU in '73 and was starting graduate school at USC in the fall of '74, I drove to California with her. We camped. But the problem is most of these camping areas were for RVs, our tent pegs couldn't penetrate the compacted dirt, and whenever we could we'd camp in state or national parks. And this night in West Virginia we had one picked out.

West Virginia is hilly. Which is a surprise, because the roads leading in are not. And the goal is to get to the campground before nightfall, because there's little lighting in the woods, in the campgrounds themselves. But this evening we were running late. We'd entered the park in pitch black and I was driving the LeMans on the twisty two-lane when...THERE WAS A GIANT HOLE!

You remember your close calls. Obviously there'd been a rain event, which had washed out half the roadway, OUR HALF OF THE ROADWAY!

And this was an American car, not a nimble, fast-braking German automobile. And we're going about 45 and I had to jerk the steering wheel to get the car over to the other side of the road on a curve, I'd say lord knows what would have happened if someone was coming in the other direction, but to tell you the truth that would have been preferable to falling into this ten foot hole that was a good fifteen feet long and like I said, went all the way to the stripe in the middle of the road, assuming there'd been one.

And it's like the circus. You keep on driving. Maybe a bit slower. Meanwhile, you're on autopilot, the Grim Reaper was just about to get you and his scythe missed you by just this much.

And then "I Can See Clearly Now" came over the radio. I remember. Vividly.

When I got back to Connecticut I bought the album and took it with me back for my senior year at Middlebury.

The album opened with "Stir It Up," which wasn't released in America until the Wailers' '73 Island debut, "Catch a Fire" with its hinged cover, once they eliminated that I didn't bother to buy it.

Nash's album also had a version of "Guava Jelly," which had been released by the Wailers in '71 on Tuff Gong, but it had no impact in the U.S. whatsoever, like "Stir It Up" it wasn't commercially released here, at least not to my knowledge.

So, unlike Paul Simon, Johnny Nash was fully embracing reggae, it permeated his LP.

But then, over time the Wailers gained purchase outside Jamaica and then really broke through in the late seventies and Johnny Nash was seen as a pariah, an interloper, he'd become an outcast, like Jimmy Cliff, but much worse.

The truth was Nash was heavily involved in reggae as a business. It was he who broke the sound big in America. But since he wasn't Jamaican, since he was not a Rasta, he failed the authenticity test. Johnny Nash paved the way for reggae in America but then he was plowed under. "Stir It Up" made it all the way to #12 after "I Can See Clearly Now" but then Nash never ever had another hit, he was essentially blackballed.

BUT HE WROTE "I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW"!

It's one thing to rape a culture, be Pat Boone detuning, making R&B safe for white audiences, but that was not the case with Nash, who was black himself, albeit from Texas.

"I Can See Clearly Now" is not the boasting winner of today, rather the singer is coming from under as opposed to on top, he's managed to get his head straight to play another day, his optimism is back.

And the truth is pessimistic songs are more legendary than optimistic ones. But "I Can See Clearly Now" is so much the other, so innocent, so heartfelt, so personal that no one failed to resonate with it. It was not smarmy, this was not the Archies' "Sugar Sugar," this was not bubble gum, this was the real thing!

So yesterday Johnny Nash died. He lamented "I Can See Clearly Now" did not win the Grammy, but as good as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" was, "I Can See Clearly Now" is vastly superior. But the Grammy organization always catches up late, it's a club, if you're an outsider they don't acknowledge you, and what's a Grammy worth anyway? So many legendary artists never won one, then again the Starland Vocal Band has a Grammy for "Afternoon Delight."

I wish everybody could see clearly today. I wish the dark clouds were gone. I wish we could be optimistic, but that's not the vibe permeating the culture. But if you just drop the needle, click Spotify to hear "I Can See Clearly Now," your mood will be instantly transformed, you'll see the opportunities, the glass will be half-full. Only music has this power, but it's hard to achieve. We can talk all day about capturing lightning in a bottle, inspiration, but most people never even see the idea, never mind catch it and lay it down for all to hear.

Johnny Nash retreated from the scene, licking his wounds, like Rodney Dangerfield he got no respect, he could live off the publishing royalties from his one big hit but everybody saw him as a one hit wonder.

Do I want to argue that? Do I want to cite what came before?

I'm not even gonna bother. Sometimes a single track can cement your place in the firmament for all time, just look at Don McLean (sure, he also had "Vincent," but Johnny had "Stir It Up" and more).

At this point in time, I'd wager "I Can See Clearly Now" is the biggest, most well-known reggae track of all time. Johnny Nash achieved what very few have, he wrote and recorded a smash that defies age, that continues to play, that is for all time.

Thanks Johnny, you've given the world many bright, bright, sunshiny days.

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Pffttt...

Covid is killing the theatres, not only for movies but for live shows. And it's only going to get worse.

I'm sure you're aware by now that Regal Cinemas have closed in the U.S. Concert venues are already closed. What can open them up? THE DECIMATION OF COVID-19!

The people are too afraid to go out. Forget the vocal minority, there are not enough people willing to flout mask and other prophylactic measures to keep the economy alive, the rest of us are just afraid. You can open it but they will not come, no way.

So, the movie studios are holding back pictures, they don't want to lose their investment.

And it's not only live business that has been decimated, magazines are dropping by the wayside. "Powder" and "Men's Journal" just died and if you check your print subscription it probably says "Summer" or "Fall" or "September/October," monthly is out the window. These publications were already challenged, with advertising moving online, but with advertisers having fewer bucks to spend and the public tightening its purse strings, somebody's gonna get squeezed.

But you're on your own. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. If you just had the right genes you would be a winner.

The one story you need to read today comes from the "Los Angeles Times":

"Trump's touting of 'racehorse theory' tied to eugenics and Nazis alarms Jewish leaders": https://lat.ms/33zydyw

"'You have good genes, you know that, right?' Trump told a mostly all white crowd of supporters in Bemidji, Minn., on Sept. 18. 'You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn't it? Don't you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we're so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.'"

Talk about white nationalism, Charlottesville was amateur hour compared to this. And if you think this audience believes Black Lives Matter then you're unaware of the militias fighting protesters, never mind the Proud Boys themselves.

Trump thinks he's better. He truly does. We take it as a joke, but he does not.

Meanwhile, there was no ending to the movie, or a premature, unsatisfying one at best. Monday Trump went home, today "he reports no symptoms." Assuming you can read, assuming you have the power of analysis, TRUMP REPORTED HE WAS SYMPTOM FREE, THAT MAY OR MAY NOT BE WHAT THE DOCTORS BELIEVE!

Do you know anybody who's had Covid? Been to the hospital? It never goes down this way. If they do manage to exit from a medical facility they come home broken and barely alive. But Trump believes he's different, and so do his minions. And they're receiving different messaging, that Covid can be whipped, even someone in the demo with a preexisting condition like Trump could conquer it no problem. Let's all get back to work! But as I stated above, most of the public does not want to do this, rightfully so, so...

There's a fiction on the left that this is a normal election, that the regular rules apply, when nothing could be further from the truth. As for applying the laws, the courts are now stacked with Trump appointees, how do you think that's going to play out? So the only way Biden has a chance of beating Trump is if the election results are definitively in Joe's favor on election day. But I don't know about you, but I'm not going to the polls. Furthermore, in many communities, especially in ones of color, voting requires hours long waits. We can't get tens of millions of people to vote at all, do you think they're going to stand in the cold for a full day just to cast their insignificant ballot? Oh, we know that every vote is important, we learned that in 2000, but that was twenty years ago, the youth did not live through it.

As for the mail-in vote, Trump has already said he is not going to accept it.

So, Biden lays off the negative advertising and Trump doubles down. It's like they're not even playing the same game. For illustration read Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers." The white shoe law firms wouldn't do takeovers, you needed upstarts, the Jews these firms would not employ, to get that ball rolling. The DNC is running a white shoe campaign. With "dignity." Why not give us some truth? No, because they're afraid of alienating someone who is gonna vote for Trump anyway. And the right is comprised of crybabies, anything they don't like they complain about until the next crisis comes along.

But none of this is really relevant. Because Trump isn't gonna accept the result if he loses, HE KEEPS SAYING THIS! And I ask you, when has Trump ever changed his mind, unless it was good for him? NEVER! So it's been going Trump's way for four years but somehow the Democrats believe we're still living decades ago, with a modicum of decorum.
This story is starting to be reported. Trump's authoritarian ways. The "New York Times" has published some articles, even Rachel Maddow is talking about authoritarianism now, but the a-word has not penetrated the country at large. It's frightening. I engage with highly educated people who believe this is going to be a fair election and if we just get the vote out Biden will win and it'll all be hunky-dory. IT'S NOT GOING TO GO DOWN THAT WAY!

And never forget, the people on television, the reporters, the anchors, and the reporters for the papers, they're still getting paid, in some cases handsomely. They don't know what it's like to have no cash coming in, living on the financial edge.

But if you say all this who do you get complaints from? THE LEFT! It's astounding, the left elite, and the party and the media are controlled by the elite, tells everybody to just shut up and get behind Biden, who can't even fight when the lane is wide open. WHO IS GOING TO FIGHT TRUMP!

Trump is living in bizarroworld. He thinks he can debate next week. Forget his cognitive abilities, people won't go to movie theatres, do you think everybody is willing to show up to get infected by Trump? And, the left will pull back and the right will make hay of this, that Biden is a wimp, who is afraid.

The last four days have been a lesson. That Trump defines the debate, not the left. And he makes truth. And if it's untrue, that's just your opinion, because facts are just opinions anyway, right?

That's right, for days the left wing media followed Trump's every move, the penumbra, what the doctors had to say, who would be in charge of the government if Trump had to pass the baton. But all their scenarios came to naught. Trump rose from the near-dead MORE POWERFUL THAN HE WAS BEFORE. After all, he looked Covid-19 in the eye and BEAT IT! Talk about a hero!

Give Pelosi credit, she won't cave in to the right with a substandard stimulus bill that won't solve most people's problems but the truth is the Republicans keep blaming the economic crisis on her, on the left! It's like offering ten grand for a new Mercedes-Benz, is the seller supposed to take it?

And sure, the left has commentators, but those in power, those in charge, just don't stand up, they don't rally the troops, they look like they're afraid.

Schumer should say that the Democrats will give no consent in the Senate, which means no business can be done, which means Amy Coney Barrett can't be confirmed, literally impossible. All Schumer has to do is push the button, BUT HE'S AFRAID OF ALIENATING POTENTIAL VOTERS! Come on, the right, Trump himself has no problem completely stopping the federal government, and the truth is his believers still believe. Just like the anti-Trump people are never going to vote for Joe. THERE ARE NO UNDECIDEDS!

In baseball it's all about the data. But the DNC doesn't believe in the data. Rachel Bitecofer says at most there are one to two percent who are undecided and it's all about energizing the base and getting out the vote, but like Casey Stengel or some other alta kacher manager the DNC and its minions keep playing by their gut, looking at history, when the truth is you can't win in baseball today without sabermetrics, it's literally impossible, the game itself has changed. But these are the same people castigating tech, refusing to update their smartphones, giving crap to the voting age people on TikTok. The DNC is so invested in the past that it can be creamed by Trump. And elite boomers too. They think it's still the last century, when that's decades past.

You've got to make the public aware of Trump's faux pas. Because public opinion must be on your side when Trump tries to steal the election. So far, all we are hearing is his side, to the point where even those on the left are susceptible to his bloviating about the flaws in mail-in ballots. Where is the concomitant story on the left? We don't hear Joe Biden talking trash, saying every damn day that we've voted with absentee ballots for years with no significant problem. No, he and his handlers are just sitting on their hands, hoping and praying they can win in November.

Ain't gonna happen folks. Do you think the man who truly believes he's superior, who has lauded everybody from Putin to Xi to Kim Jong-un, is just gonna roll over and pass the baton? NO WAY! That's not how they do it and that's not how he's gonna do it. And I hate to tell you this, but he's got the power. Hell, why not declare martial law, and say the whole country is on lockdown and nothing can change. Sure, you can challenge him in court, but that hasn't worked so far, the "New York Times" got the tax returns, not the system.

Trump says he feels STRONGER! Your head might be spinning, but his base believes it and since everything's behind closed doors with a news blackout, it appears that he is, irrelevant of the truth.

Oh, that's another thing that's gone out the window, truth.

Vaccines are not the only way we can save our economy, return to normal life. Geofencing could do it. Requiring everybody to stay in the same place. Never mind tracking, which has helped so much in South Korea. Oh, but that's right, we don't want to impinge on anybody's FREEDOMS! Meanwhile, a great percentage of Americans are afraid to leave the house. But, if they did, and wore masks, that also would go a long way towards eradicating Covid.

But NO! Biden can't take a hard stand, can't throw the long ball, because he's afraid of alienating those people who are gonna vote for Trump anyway. No, you take a stand and you own it, you double-down on it, but it seems only Trump can do that today.

This election is about democracy. Believe me, those voting for Biden need no further inspiration, the horse race has been long over. But, the left needs to set the tone, get the public on its side for when the inevitable shenanigans begin in November. And if Trump concedes defeat? It's just like war-gaming for the next virus, you prepare for the possibilities, especially the one Trump keeps telling us about over and over and over again.

We're gonna have to fight for this country. ARE YOU WITH ME?


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Eddie Van Halen

And the cradle will no longer rock.

That's my favorite Van Halen song. It sounds so alive, but Eddie Van Halen isn't.

He paid his dues. You've got to be a virtuoso. When no one is watching, no one is paying attention, you're on a mission.

And then they started knocking around town. Most bands fermented in their local burb and ultimately pulled up roots and moved to Hollywood. Van Halen started here. And you could see them all the time. At clubs like the Starwood or Gazzarri's, which never featured stars, just those on the way up or those who would never make it. The stars played the Whisky, the Troubadour, the Roxy. You went to the Starwood and Gazzarri's to rock, to hang with like-minded people, it was a niche, and few broke out of it.

So Gene Simmons decided to pony up for a demo. We knew because we heard it on KROQ. "Runnin' With The Devil."

But still, Van Halen was stuck in no-man's land. Everybody in L.A. knew them, but no one outside Tinseltown did. One wondered if their moment was gonna pass.

And it was not an act that played nicely with others. As in it didn't always fit. Van Halen were born to be headliners. I saw them opening for Nils Lofgren at the Santa Monica Civic before the first album came out. David Lee Roth resembled no one so much as Jim Dandy, of the execrable Black Oak Arkansas. A larger than life cartoon that was playing to the back row of the arena even though we were in a theatre. As for Eddie Van Halen's guitar, it was so loud and I was so close that it all washed over me, I didn't get it.

Until "Van Halen II." When the clerks at Rhino Records were testifying how great Eddie was, and they didn't like anybody unless they were obscure, and someone playing this kind of music? It perked up my ears.

So, they were always around.

I took a class with Jim Rissmiller, he's gone now too, about concert promotion. He brought in Noel Monk, the band's manager at the time, and Noel filled us in on "Diver Down," which was imminent. But it was "1984" that broke the band wide, I mean to everybody.

And David Lee Roth thought he was the act, but it was always Eddie Van Halen, always. Van Halen could continue with a new lead singer, but not without Eddie. Van Halen was one of the very few bands that could succeed at the same level with a new lead singer, that's testimony to Van Halen's skills. Sammy Hagar has the pipes, but look at the venues Hagar's playing now.

But back to "1984." It was released on New Year's Day, when at the time no one put out any music in January whatsoever. And it dominated the airwaves. "Jump" was in the jukebox at the Rainbow, it was played over and over that spring and summer, long after it had left the airwaves.

And of course Van Halen was supercharged by MTV. But somehow they truly bridged the gap. Most of the classic rockers, those with careers before the music television service, did performance videos, where they stood still, Van Halen jumped around, to the point where Eddie had to get his hips replaced.

Actually, my favorite track on "1984" is "I'll Wait." That was one of the album's breakthroughs. Not only was Eddie a star on guitar, he mastered the keys too, he could add new sounds, he wanted to grow.

And Dave went on to sing about "California Girls" as the Van Halen brothers and Michael Anthony licked their wounds and then two years later, the newly configured Van Hagar came out with "5150."

The hit was "Why Can't This Be Love." The work track, the one that came out in advance. And at first it was different, you didn't quite get it, but then you couldn't get enough of it, you played it over and over again.

It was still the vinyl era. I bought the LP the day it came out. And it's very good. At this point its most famous, most played cut, is "Dreams," which could never be done with Dave, but my favorite opens the second side, "Best of Both Worlds." It was the riff and the dynamics. From loud to understated. I tingle as I listen right now. This wasn't pure balls to the wall, it mixed in-your-face with subtle, twisting and turning along the way.

And if you watch the video live from New Haven, not only can you see Eddie play the notes effortlessly, you see him moving in time, dancing at the front of the stage and the effect is one of pure, unmitigated joy. Isn't that the point, to let the sound elevate your mood, to take you to heaven right here on earth?

https://bit.ly/33ywLwd

And Sammy's manager, Ed Leffler lifted the band to new financial heights. They were true superstars. They continued while everyone else faded.

As for the ill-fated encore with Gary Cherone, let's forget it, everyone else has.

But we can never forget what came before.

Van Halen hooked up with Ted Templeman and redid "Runnin' With the Devil" and it was all over the radio in L.A.

Eddie Van Halen lived his life like there was no tomorrow. As did those caught up in the sound. To the point there are tons of old fans scraping by, they never expected the sound to die.

And it turned out the simple life wasn't that simple. Once you made the record you went on the endless road, where you got high and got laid but it was never enough and you could not get off the treadmill and Eddie got further into drink to cope. It's hard to be a hero when you're shy and you're not sure if people truly understand you.

As for Jamie cryin'...the bands did not want to get stuck, they were reaching for the brass ring, settling down to a traditional life was not in the cards, you made it or died trying, there was no safety net.

And Eddie could make covers his own, but it was always the originals that gripped you, you truly wanted to dance the night away. And when you did you were singing along at the top of your lungs, even if you couldn't hear yourself, because you bonded with the sound, it was your sound, your life. We all wanted some. As for Junior's grades...school didn't help you in rock and roll, it was religion, not something you could learn in class, you were either bitten by the bug or you were not, and those of us who were needed heroes to put our faith in, like Eddie Van Halen.

So where have all the good times gone?

That's what I want to know. They evaporated. Rod Stewart sold out and sang the Great American Songbook which a rock fan might have heard on the way up, but never wanted to hear again. We believed, we put our faith in you, you weren't supposed to let us down. It was love with Van Halen. We were looking for something to fill the hole and Eddie always did.

Did Eddie finish what he started?

I guess he did, but it doesn't feel that way. We expected him to pull through. We expected to see him on the boards again.

And Eddie forged his own path. You know if you see his original Frankenstein guitar. If you owned it you wouldn't let it leave your bedroom, it appeared that fragile. But in Eddie's hands not only was it solid, it emanated the elixir of life, that's what music provides when it's done right, and Van Halen did it right.

What can I tell you. Everybody on the inside knew Eddie was sick. But he was sick for so long it looked like he would always be with us. But now he's not.

And Eddie had a reputation for being off-putting, but the truth was he was just gun-shy, that's how you get when you've been ripped-off and pushed around so much, some people embrace stardom, others know to put it on a shelf, they know who they are, and they don't want the accolades to change who they are.

And first and foremost Eddie Van Halen was a musician. He'd be silent and uncomfortable, but if you got him into conversation, if he trusted you, he'd light up, he'd talk a mile a minute about music, he was passionate. That's the essence of a great artist, that passion, the quest, which has got more to do with the music than the fame, the fame is just a byproduct.

So we expect the classic rockers to die. After all, many are pushing eighty. But Eddie Van Halen came from the second generation, he didn't make it in the sixties but the seventies, and he knew what came before, he'd digested the Beatles, unlike today's rockers he knew about melody and song structure.

But we don't expect anybody from the second generation to die yet, unless it's an accident, or...

The Big C.

It knows no limits, no matter how rich you are, oftentimes no matter how healthy you eat and live, it can still get you, it can still bite you in the ass.

Now one of the great things about being a musician is if you do it right your work sustains. And the work of so many of the bands of the seventies and eighties has already been forgotten, but not Van Halen, never Van Halen.

And there will be no more Van Halen. Without Eddie you just can't do it, no one can replace him. Didn't we learn that with Dave, with his revolving door of axemen? You see it isn't solely about skill, it's something more than that, it's inspiration. Being able to transcend what has come before and create something new. To the point where Eddie Van Halen has a place in the same cadre of guitarists as Clapton, Page and Beck. Like Jimi Hendrix before him, Eddie Van Halen tested the limits, came up with a new sound. Suddenly everybody was tapping, trying to re-create "Eruption." But the key is to come up with it first, to innovate, to push the envelope for the thrill of it all.

And it wasn't only guys who were fans, but girls too, which wasn't always the case with these bands. And Eddie married America's sweetheart and looked like he was living the life, but life is more complicated than that.

Janie got Eddie clean. She sat him on the couch and said he was going to do rehab her way. And it stuck. But you can use all the bullets in your arsenal and still not beat the Big C.

And now I don't want to end this. I could write about Van Halen forever. And I have, many a time.

And there's such exuberance in tracks like "And the Cradle Will Rock..."

And such gravitas in numbers like "Love Walks In."

It's a conundrum. Eddie could do more than one thing, it was fascinating to follow the evolution.

But now it's done.

But on hot summer nights to come we'll still have that mellifluous sound of his guitar coming out of dashboards, out of earbuds. Van Halen was the sound of life, how can Eddie be dead?

I'm in shock.


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River Songs-Songs With "River" In The Title-Part 2-This Week On SiriusXM

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/33yy1j2

Pandora: https://bit.ly/34w4g1n

Tune in today, October 6th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

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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Trump's Infection

Now we know why we can't have concerts.

Actually, there are a number of music business lessons here. Like news is short haul and music is long haul. In other words, it used to be about making a splash and then making hay off of it. Kinda like a movie release...bombard the public with information and get them to pay before they realize it's crap. After all, it's all about the Benjamins.

You think it's all about your one big break. But the "New York Times" publishes the story of the year, an investigation of Trump's tax returns, and it's already in the rearview mirror. So, if you're not in it forever, you're better off not even starting. Because it's a really long haul, a mighty long way down rock 'n roll, from the Liverpool docks and chances are you'll never make it to the Hollywood Bowl, and the only people out on parole are the poor, because the rich don't go to jail. That's another lesson we learned this week, the IRS admitted it doesn't bother auditing the rich, it's too expensive...proving once again, the government is no match for the billionaires, even the millionaires.

Maybe you don't know what I'm talking about. But the preceding all comes from Mott the Hoople's "All the Way From Memphis":

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2GDMHnM
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3cXkm8h

But rock is dead, and contrary to what the Who sang, we can't say "Long Live Rock." Why? Because it's all been done, played out. And it's too expensive to make. You've got to form a band, you've got to rehearse, you've got to write and record and keep the band together, all of which are a near impossibility, never mind creating stuff so good that you can take it on the road and start a career. Whereas with hip-hop, you can borrow some beats online, post your new ditty on TikTok and you can be a star all over the world and go back to your own little life nearly instantly. As for hip-hop, it's rock in that it started as outside music and then was generally accepted and then morphed constantly, it's still morphing, whereas hair band ballads just about put a stake in the heart of rock and roll but grunge came along to rescue the genre and then...nothing, it's all over. You see what kept rock alive was the conception. The constant pushing of the envelope. No one's doing that anymore. So, you're another singer songwriter...well, you'd better be as good as Joni Mitchell, because we've seen that movie before.

But it's not about the music anymore, it's about the brand. Just ask Rihanna. And it's not like a lot of these acts are even responsible for the music, that's oftentimes old white guys in pop or studio rats in hip-hop and it's all so soulless that when the country breaks apart music can't deliver a believable message, because no one's got any credibility. Except for the nobodies. They're constantly telling you how great they are even though they almost always suck. Self-promotion...if your music doesn't speak for itself, if it doesn't go viral all by itself, however slowly, maybe you should look for another line of work.

And speaking of work, the government can't save the concert industry because the right and the left can't agree on a number, a package to save the starving. Once again, you've got to be rich to get paid. And you've got to play both sides. If you don't give money to the Republicans, they're gonna give you the shiv down the line.

And that's another weird thing about this Covid era, how so many musicians are out of their minds. Like Van Morrison.

I guess what we've learned is the music didn't inform the populace but vice versa back then. What I really mean is the musicians were influenced by what was happening in society and then they distilled the message for the masses, they didn't come up with the ideas themselves. So, in this mercenary culture what other message do you expect "artists" to come up with?

But everybody misses shows, concerts. They keep focusing on ways to do it, they're champing at the bit, give us our shows back.

Well, Trump had a club show in the backyard at the White House, featuring Amy Coney Barrett, and everybody got sick, especially those who went backstage, into the White House itself. Kinda like rock stars doing coke backstage and O.D.'ing back in their hotel room. It's all a party until it's not.

Superspreader events. You just can't put that many people together at one time, especially not indoors, and if you're packed together you're not safe outdoors either. And, the more exposed you are to the virus, the more you're infected, the worse your illness is.

But don't let the facts get in the way of emotions.

America has no character. It failed the marshmallow test. No one can forgo for a reward down the line, they want it now, even if it means death.

Today in "Parade," a right wing hype sheet if there ever was one, Jerry Seinfeld said he's not going to tour until the middle of 2022. Yet, my inbox is filled with agents who keep rescheduling shows, from the fall of 2020 to the late winter/early spring of 2021 and then to the summer of 2021. It's all busy work, making these people believe they're important when the truth is they're better off disconnecting from the internet and contemplating the world and their place in it and how they're gonna fix it. But no, if you believe it's true, it's gonna happen. Just like Trump believing he couldn't get infected, look how that turned out.

Which brings us to credibility. No one in America's got any anymore. That's the story of the weekend, how you can't believe what the doctors and the White House say, and Trump is parading around like he's Putin, giving a false image of his superiority, togetherness and imperviousness. You can't beat Covid on pure intention.

Then again, everybody in America is an optimist and no one wants to do the hard work.

And the left believes this is the nail in the coffin of Trump's campaign.

But if you go to Fox, and I do, you'll learn that the fault is the Democrats, and both the NYT and WaPo have done stories how the Republican base does not blame Trump and still doesn't see a need for masks. That's right, up is down and down is up, welcome to Eastern Europe!

And all of this is out of the authoritarian handbook, but no one in America has ever seen it so they think with their will and intent they can defeat Trump. No way, that's not the solution. He's not going quietly. Did you read Sunday's "New York Times Magazine" on the right's voter suppression campaign of decades?

https://nyti.ms/30ygmWB

It went live five days ago online, not a single person has e-mailed me about it. I read it from beginning to end and I can't say it's riveting but with all the facts together it's overwhelming, how the right suppresses the vote, and the governor of Texas does it right before our eyes and gets away with it. As for DeJoy, he told the judge he can't put back the sorting machines because they've been stripped for parts. In other words, even the law can't help you. As for Amy Coney Barrett and textualism, I point you to this opinion piece in the "Los Angeles Times," and you should read it:

"Op-Ed: Why Judge Barrett's legal philosophy is deeply antidemocratic": https://lat.ms/2HQgTNa

That's right, I subscribe to four newspapers as well as Apple News as well as combing Twitter and I don't know about you, but the last 72 hours all I've been doing is checking my newsfeed. It's kinda like the Kennedy assassination or 9/11, it's stopped the world cold, we want to know more. Then again, if you're getting your news from TV you're only getting a sliver. But America has forgotten how to read, or never learned, so most people are uninformed...but there's so much to know!

And Trump getting Covid is also representative of the public and the government, there's no preparation for a rainy day, no scouting of the possibilities and preparing for them. Then again, no one wants to pay any taxes to fund the government and the IRS and the CDC...oops, that's another organization that's fallen by the wayside, probably never to be resuscitated, like lawyers after Watergate.

And Trump's totally right, if you're a believer you're gonna be sick of so much winning. That's right, it's been going his way, facilitated by Bill Barr and the rest of the Donald's cronies. You may be losing, but they don't care about you. Did you catch that segment from last night's South Carolina debate? Where Harrison trumped the divisive Graham by saying that whomever wins must work with the other side for the benefit of all of the people? Probably not, if you know anything at all about the debate it's about the plexiglass shield, the campaign is all about the penumbra as opposed to the issues, Fox makes it that way.

As for Biden and the left refusing to go negative...do you really think the right would do this if Biden got sick? OF COURSE NOT! But the left is afraid of alienating Trump's core, the only ones who will take offense, and then the Democrats will become defensive, like Hillary did with the deplorables. Aren't you supposed to make hay while the sun shines (using that farm metaphor for the second time in this screed)? Trump's ill, if you're not going to focus on his mishandling of the virus when are you, this is the best time!

And we still don't have a plan for the virus.

And Cam Newton gets Covid but somehow college football players will not.

This is the best movie of my lifetime. I'm addicted. And so is America.

But the worst thing is we're paying for it, not only with our cash but in some cases our lives.

But since the internet flattened distribution, despite the cries of the hypesters, the big are no longer as big and falsehood reigns and give Trump credit, even in the hospital he's making news, he's dominating the discussion, there's no air for Biden or anybody else, never mind entertainers. Trump rode modern communications to victory once, he knows the game and the left still does not. And the truth is people are truly suffering, and Trump is giving them a scapegoat, many, from immigrants to China to Ilhan Omar...the Donald is appealing to the oppressed and claiming to be the most oppressed of all! Can you believe it, the president is the most oppressed person in America? What next...oh, wait a minute, everybody says they're oppressed, even Katy Perry, I guess he does speak for America.

So how are we gonna turn this ship around?

A ton of sacrifice, imposed by a leader.

But we don't have anyone with brains who has captured the imagination of the public and can carry the flag to the finish line.

So, tomorrow there will be a whole new set of facts. And we'll argue them but the truth is Trump is leading and we're reacting and nothing he does alienates his hard core and the right is rigging the election through voter suppression and all of this is happening in plain sight.

Scary.

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