Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3EosWK8
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3rzQsjx
You've got to listen to this on headphones.
I got the "Let It Be (Super Deluxe)" boxed set a couple of weeks back. I immediately had to listen to the multiple renditions of "I've Got a Feeling," my favorite song on the original LP. I cherry-picked some other titles that looked interesting, but the experience wasn't satisfying, they were often just fragments and...
I didn't listen again until last night.
I was hiking in the mountains and I decided to listen to the 1969 Glyn Johns mix. Which upon previous perusal I thought was a little dull, a little underproduced, but that was before I saw the documentary. I wanted to get as close to the music as possible.
So the original Glyn Johns mix starts on Disc 4, and the opening track is "One After 909." Which I know by heart, but it was never one of my favorites. And I push play and...IT'S REVELATORY!
It starts with some nonsense noise, but now I know this is the exact track from the roof, and then...
It's rough in a way the original is not, it's rock and roll like the original is not, AND JOHN AND PAUL ARE IN SEPARATE CHANNELS! You listen and you can SEE the documentary.
That's a feature of the documentary, the four lads in the studio and John and Paul doing call and response vocals. But this is the complete, original live track, AND THEY'RE SINGING AT THE SAME TIME, it's so incredible you've got to pull it up to listen to it.
But please watch the documentary, see the rooftop performance first. You can't help but see the images in your mind's eye as the track unspools.
A studio recording is different from a live performance. The elements are all mixed, effects are added, it oftentimes sounds very different from how it did when the instruments were all played together initially, if they were all played at the same time to begin with. But live...
Sometime in the seventies they started mixing all the instruments in the PA, but before that, vocals only came through the PA, the rest came through the players' respective amps. And if you were standing up close and personal, the music was separated. The lead guitar to the left or right, the bass on the other side, and oftentimes the lead vocal on one side of the stage and the backups on the other.
So there are always these intermittent sounds before a song starts live, it's not silent between the songs like it is on a record.
And the guitars start wailing, and you can feel the energy, and they're a bit rough, it's not a homogenous sound, rather the instruments breathe. But really it's the vocals. Paul in the left, John in the right. And they're not perfectly aligned, they might be singing the same words, but with different vocal timbres and not simultaneously and in sync. It's absolutely incredible, it's the ESSENCE OF ROCK AND ROLL!
But I had to be sure my mind wasn't playing tricks, so I went back to the original Phil Spector release. It's a bit dull, the rough sounds have been excised, it's everybody playing together, although the piano is in one ear and the lead in the other, but John and Paul are mixed together. It's a record, not a performance. The energy is absent.
So then I pull up the 2021 Giles Martin mix from the deluxe package. It escapes the box, it's less controlled than Phil Spector's take, but once again John and Paul are mixed together, something is lost in the process.
But then I went back to Glyn Johns's 1969 mix. I got the same damn feeling, the fix once again. It had a a raw quality, even Billy Preston's piano, but with one Beatle singing in each channel, from different parts on the stage, you can hear exactly what they're singing, the track is alive in a way the other two or not, this is a band, these are people, THIS IS ROCK AND ROLL!
It's driving, it's edgy, it's got that prickly lead guitar so prevalent in the era, especially live, and the band is playing together, but there's air in between each one of the players, it's a BAND!
Suddenly what was once an album track, not one of my favorites, becomes the best cut on the album, it's the Beatles from the first half of the sixties, when they still played live, it's the exact same sound.
You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.
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Friday 3 December 2021
Re-Those Fender Amps
Regarding those Fender amps, the bass and guitar amps they're using are tube amps (or valve, as they would have called them), but, as Fender amps go, they are abominable. Those silver face Twin Reverbs sound like breaking glass, which gives even more credit to those guys for making them sound good. It's in the fingers, in the mind, and in the heart, as anyone with experience will tell you.
The Fender PA system is, however, solid state, which makes sense for a PA. Interesting, though, that the Fenders eventually disappear and the trusty old Vox cabinets take their place.
One great gear geek moment is when they wheel in a brand new Leslie cabinet in the box. We always think of Leslies as antiquities, but they were still making those beasts in 1970 on a regular basis.
Eric Bazilian
P.S. Fender did make solid stare guitar amps for a little while, they were horrific but Jan Akkerman managed to eke out a decent sound from them during his Focus days.
_________________________________________
Fyi, those CBS Fender Twins were tube amps.
There are also a couple of Fairchild compressors in the background, coveted to this day and worth a fortune if you can find one. In fact, there are many software companies that make emulations of those units.
Wade Mosher
_________________________________________
You're going to get a lot of mail about the fender gear. The guitar amps were twin reverbs and the bass amp a bassman (50 watt). These 68/69 models had silver control panels (silver face) and a thin "drip edge" frame around the grill cloth. They were transitional models, these first silver faces had pretty much identical circuitry to the previous 3 years' blackface models and are all tube.
They're still much in demand
The pa was solid state.
Best
Jack Morer
_________________________________________
Those are drip edge Fender 1968 amplifiers they are definitely not transistor they are extremely desirable. I own four of them.
Matt Peyton
_________________________________________
Bob sez: "They were all transistor based, the cognoscenti pooh-poohed them, tubes rule, but now there is some affection for this CBS era gear. Imagine, a record company owning a musical instrument company!"
I didn't have to imagine, I was The Electric Flag's roadie and I went to the Fender warehouse in Fullerton, backed the truck up and filled it. 2 Twin Reverbs, 2 Supers, 3 Dual Showmen, couple of Champs, Rhodes piano, and, because CBS owned Rodgers Drums, a full beautiful blonde wood set for Buddy. This was 1967 and it was all tube except for the piano. I would have gotten a couple of Leslies-yes, CBS owned it too- for the Hammond B-3 but we already had 2. Those amps were tough and they had to be because we played them hard and put them up wet.
Phil Brown
_________________________________________
Those "silver face" Fender guitar amps were absolutely tube circuits
The PA units were indeed transistor
-Bob Carey
_________________________________________
Bob, the Fender amps were not transistor or solid state, they were all point to point tube amps. What was solid state was the PA they were using for vocals. Those late 60's amps are classics and still produced, though not point to point like these were.
Joel Goldman
_________________________________________
If I may, I'd like to point out that the Fender Twin Reverbs and Fender Bassman amps used in the film are very much TUBE amps, and quite heavy. I wouldn't have wanted to carry them up to the roof. George also plays through a Leslie rotary speaker, which is also a tube power amplifier. The Fender PA was solid state however.
Bob Rice
Culver CIty, CA
keys/guitar tech for Neil Young
_________________________________________
I am sure you have heard by now
those Fender instrument amps (twin and bassman) all are prue tube baby!
and Georges fender tele is one of a kind!
I dig a a pony too! :-)
Peter Stema
_________________________________________
Just a brief clarification. The Fender bass and guitar amps, Twin Reverbs for John and George and a Bassman for Paul, were tube amps. At that time Fender did offer solid-state versions of those models, but they were universally disliked. (And looked completely different.)
The Fender P.A. used by The Beatles was only available in the solid-state version. Fender was very late in the P.A. field and they didn't make a tube P.A. head until years later. You can see the solid-state head in some of the rooftop shots. And they had the accompanying Fender P.A. cabinets leaning on a railing, aimed down at the street.
Long-time reader,
Carl Grefenstette
Pittsburgh Guitars
_________________________________________
Those are tube amps
Bill Whitbeck
_________________________________________
The Fender amps used in the Get Back sessions were absolutely NOT "transistor based" - they were standard Twin Reverb amps which happened to be the best combo amps money could buy and arguably still are. The puny Fender "P.A." they were using was an awful solid state (transistor) model that were low powered and sounded mediocre at best.
Carry on..
Rob Wolfson
_________________________________________
Really great read. Although, I can't help but point out that the silver panel Fender guitar amps (introduced in 68) were in fact tube amps and nearly identical (at that time) to the earlier black panel amps. Solid state amps really didn't take hold until the late 70s with Roland, etc. Interesting bit about the PA though.
Anyway thanks for writing!
Nick Hamilton
_________________________________________
Fender had been trying for years to get the Beatles and this is where the fruits of their labors are seen - the BAss VI, George's custom rosewood telecaster (too heavy).
The guitar and bass amps are all tubes - no transistors - and are called silverface amps vs the black panel pre CBS amps. By this time they weren't that different sonically especially for twin reverbs which is what we see. It was the 70s where quality control started dropping and they changed parts values…
The PA however is solid state and that line was a disaster.
Regards,
Ned Ward
_________________________________________
Bob - The silver faced twin reverbs and the bassman were all tube amps. The fender PA was the only transistor item (sounded terrible). CBS made both black face (at first) and then silver face amps. What changed when CBS took over was merely the size of the speaker cabinet in the Showman and Bassman. I think nothing but the face changed on the Twins.
Bob Pfeifer
_________________________________________
The Fender amps at that time were tube amps, not transistor. The CBS era at Fender was considered bad because of some modifications CBS made at that time that were poor, but generally their products were still usable.
Keith Fretz
_________________________________________
Someone else will probably say this too, but the Fender ProReverb amps they were using were tube amps…I had one (1968) and it was awesome!
Proudly sold it to https://thechrisforsyth.com/ as it was ultimately too loud for my needs
Jesse Lundy
_________________________________________
re; cbs era amps:
at this time fender had two lines of amplification; tube AND solid state. the ss were soon discontinued due to excessive failure rates.
the pa is from the ss line, thus the complaints with the sound.
the guitar amps, 'twin reverb" and "bassman", are from the tube amp line; no transistors involved.
as far as collect ability, only the pre cbs by leo fender himself (pre 1965) hold any cache. cbs made cost cutting measures (printed circut boards vs hand wiring) which lowered desirability.
Frank Distefano
_________________________________________
You'll probably get 1,000 emails from dorks like me, but the amplifiers that John, George and Paul are playing through are classic models of Fender's most notable and long-lasting tube amp designs, not transistor amps.
John and George play through Twin Reverbs and Paul is playing through a Bassman. All are from 1968, a year notable for the aluminum "drip edge" trim that surrounds the edge of the grill cloth, for that year only. These amps were good then and are still sought-after today.
You're right about the PA -- solid state and not popular.
What IS really notable is that unlike today, when even the most hack indie band guitar and bass player is obsessed with her or his vintage or boutique or otherwise-special-in-some-way instrument, amp and effects pedals, these guys are just using the "newest and best" equipment and obviously could care less about the gear or obsessing over getting a particular "tasty" tone.
BECAUSE THE MUSIC IS WHAT MATTERS, NOT THE GEAR.
FWIW John Fogerty played through a transistor Kustom amp on many of CCR's hits.
Dave Dederer
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The Fender PA system is, however, solid state, which makes sense for a PA. Interesting, though, that the Fenders eventually disappear and the trusty old Vox cabinets take their place.
One great gear geek moment is when they wheel in a brand new Leslie cabinet in the box. We always think of Leslies as antiquities, but they were still making those beasts in 1970 on a regular basis.
Eric Bazilian
P.S. Fender did make solid stare guitar amps for a little while, they were horrific but Jan Akkerman managed to eke out a decent sound from them during his Focus days.
_________________________________________
Fyi, those CBS Fender Twins were tube amps.
There are also a couple of Fairchild compressors in the background, coveted to this day and worth a fortune if you can find one. In fact, there are many software companies that make emulations of those units.
Wade Mosher
_________________________________________
You're going to get a lot of mail about the fender gear. The guitar amps were twin reverbs and the bass amp a bassman (50 watt). These 68/69 models had silver control panels (silver face) and a thin "drip edge" frame around the grill cloth. They were transitional models, these first silver faces had pretty much identical circuitry to the previous 3 years' blackface models and are all tube.
They're still much in demand
The pa was solid state.
Best
Jack Morer
_________________________________________
Those are drip edge Fender 1968 amplifiers they are definitely not transistor they are extremely desirable. I own four of them.
Matt Peyton
_________________________________________
Bob sez: "They were all transistor based, the cognoscenti pooh-poohed them, tubes rule, but now there is some affection for this CBS era gear. Imagine, a record company owning a musical instrument company!"
I didn't have to imagine, I was The Electric Flag's roadie and I went to the Fender warehouse in Fullerton, backed the truck up and filled it. 2 Twin Reverbs, 2 Supers, 3 Dual Showmen, couple of Champs, Rhodes piano, and, because CBS owned Rodgers Drums, a full beautiful blonde wood set for Buddy. This was 1967 and it was all tube except for the piano. I would have gotten a couple of Leslies-yes, CBS owned it too- for the Hammond B-3 but we already had 2. Those amps were tough and they had to be because we played them hard and put them up wet.
Phil Brown
_________________________________________
Those "silver face" Fender guitar amps were absolutely tube circuits
The PA units were indeed transistor
-Bob Carey
_________________________________________
Bob, the Fender amps were not transistor or solid state, they were all point to point tube amps. What was solid state was the PA they were using for vocals. Those late 60's amps are classics and still produced, though not point to point like these were.
Joel Goldman
_________________________________________
If I may, I'd like to point out that the Fender Twin Reverbs and Fender Bassman amps used in the film are very much TUBE amps, and quite heavy. I wouldn't have wanted to carry them up to the roof. George also plays through a Leslie rotary speaker, which is also a tube power amplifier. The Fender PA was solid state however.
Bob Rice
Culver CIty, CA
keys/guitar tech for Neil Young
_________________________________________
I am sure you have heard by now
those Fender instrument amps (twin and bassman) all are prue tube baby!
and Georges fender tele is one of a kind!
I dig a a pony too! :-)
Peter Stema
_________________________________________
Just a brief clarification. The Fender bass and guitar amps, Twin Reverbs for John and George and a Bassman for Paul, were tube amps. At that time Fender did offer solid-state versions of those models, but they were universally disliked. (And looked completely different.)
The Fender P.A. used by The Beatles was only available in the solid-state version. Fender was very late in the P.A. field and they didn't make a tube P.A. head until years later. You can see the solid-state head in some of the rooftop shots. And they had the accompanying Fender P.A. cabinets leaning on a railing, aimed down at the street.
Long-time reader,
Carl Grefenstette
Pittsburgh Guitars
_________________________________________
Those are tube amps
Bill Whitbeck
_________________________________________
The Fender amps used in the Get Back sessions were absolutely NOT "transistor based" - they were standard Twin Reverb amps which happened to be the best combo amps money could buy and arguably still are. The puny Fender "P.A." they were using was an awful solid state (transistor) model that were low powered and sounded mediocre at best.
Carry on..
Rob Wolfson
_________________________________________
Really great read. Although, I can't help but point out that the silver panel Fender guitar amps (introduced in 68) were in fact tube amps and nearly identical (at that time) to the earlier black panel amps. Solid state amps really didn't take hold until the late 70s with Roland, etc. Interesting bit about the PA though.
Anyway thanks for writing!
Nick Hamilton
_________________________________________
Fender had been trying for years to get the Beatles and this is where the fruits of their labors are seen - the BAss VI, George's custom rosewood telecaster (too heavy).
The guitar and bass amps are all tubes - no transistors - and are called silverface amps vs the black panel pre CBS amps. By this time they weren't that different sonically especially for twin reverbs which is what we see. It was the 70s where quality control started dropping and they changed parts values…
The PA however is solid state and that line was a disaster.
Regards,
Ned Ward
_________________________________________
Bob - The silver faced twin reverbs and the bassman were all tube amps. The fender PA was the only transistor item (sounded terrible). CBS made both black face (at first) and then silver face amps. What changed when CBS took over was merely the size of the speaker cabinet in the Showman and Bassman. I think nothing but the face changed on the Twins.
Bob Pfeifer
_________________________________________
The Fender amps at that time were tube amps, not transistor. The CBS era at Fender was considered bad because of some modifications CBS made at that time that were poor, but generally their products were still usable.
Keith Fretz
_________________________________________
Someone else will probably say this too, but the Fender ProReverb amps they were using were tube amps…I had one (1968) and it was awesome!
Proudly sold it to https://thechrisforsyth.com/ as it was ultimately too loud for my needs
Jesse Lundy
_________________________________________
re; cbs era amps:
at this time fender had two lines of amplification; tube AND solid state. the ss were soon discontinued due to excessive failure rates.
the pa is from the ss line, thus the complaints with the sound.
the guitar amps, 'twin reverb" and "bassman", are from the tube amp line; no transistors involved.
as far as collect ability, only the pre cbs by leo fender himself (pre 1965) hold any cache. cbs made cost cutting measures (printed circut boards vs hand wiring) which lowered desirability.
Frank Distefano
_________________________________________
You'll probably get 1,000 emails from dorks like me, but the amplifiers that John, George and Paul are playing through are classic models of Fender's most notable and long-lasting tube amp designs, not transistor amps.
John and George play through Twin Reverbs and Paul is playing through a Bassman. All are from 1968, a year notable for the aluminum "drip edge" trim that surrounds the edge of the grill cloth, for that year only. These amps were good then and are still sought-after today.
You're right about the PA -- solid state and not popular.
What IS really notable is that unlike today, when even the most hack indie band guitar and bass player is obsessed with her or his vintage or boutique or otherwise-special-in-some-way instrument, amp and effects pedals, these guys are just using the "newest and best" equipment and obviously could care less about the gear or obsessing over getting a particular "tasty" tone.
BECAUSE THE MUSIC IS WHAT MATTERS, NOT THE GEAR.
FWIW John Fogerty played through a transistor Kustom amp on many of CCR's hits.
Dave Dederer
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Thursday 2 December 2021
Get Back-Part Three
I used to ski with Scott Brooksbank, the World Freestyle Champion. Every day he was just one of us, but when he hit competition he took it up a notch, he was SPECTACULAR!
As were the Beatles on the roof of the Apple building.
You can't appreciate how great they were unless you've watched the previous seven hours. The noodling, the disagreements, the endless repetition, the tweaking... Like they say, the more they played certain numbers they got tired and the productions got worse. The definitive statements were elusive. As a matter of fact, in some cases the definitive recordings, the ones that ultimately appeared on the "Let It Be" album, were cut live, outside, and that's positively jaw-dropping, especially in this day of Pro Tools and hard drives and...
It's funny how Paul, the driving force of the project, is reluctant to hit the roof. Whereas John and Ringo are into it, it's a lark, why not? It'll be a new and different experience, it may not work out. But Paul is gun-shy. It's not exactly clear why, whether it's the raw fear or the feeling it's not the proper conclusion to the film.
And it is film, with big heavy cameras. You see that at the end of this documentary, when we see the slate and the other intrusions the filmmakers make. How inhibiting! Then again, most creative people require complete silence or complete noise, they need to be in their heads, with their thoughts resonating.
Which also makes it hard to understand the presence of Heather McCartney. Talk about intrusive. But Paul's got time for her, and in truth how long was she there really? There was so much footage, and so much unshot, ultimately you could make any film you wanted, positive or negative. The 1970 version was negative, this is positively positive. Sure, George leaves the band, but in retrospect, was he really leaving? He is certainly integrated after the fact.
And place matters. Twickenham did not have the right vibe. A smaller room with all the clutter did. And it's fascinating how they're using brand new Fender amps and PAs, no one seemed to use Fender PAs thereafter. As for these latest Fender amps? They were all transistor based, the cognoscenti pooh-poohed them, tubes rule, but now there is some affection for this CBS era gear. Imagine, a record company owning a musical instrument company! Then again, the conglomerate ultimately owned the Yankees. It's kinda like a Don Henley song, they build 'em up and then they tear them back down. Gulf + Western, aka Engulf + Devour, bought Paramount Pictures in the sixties. Coca-Cola even owned a movie studio. Now they're selling GE for parts. Turns out the so-called greatest manager of the century, Jack Welch, cooked the books to show a steady profit and left Jeffrey Immelt with an unmanageable company, not that Immelt rose to the challenge.
So as the episode moves on there's a discussion of what they're actually doing. Is it an album, a movie, a TV show, or..? And what is made clear is it's the Beatles decision. This was the sixties, the acts took charge, and since the Tommy Mottola era their power has been slowly whittled away. But the artists know best, not that they really know, they're just on an endless quest until it feels right.
So for an album they need fourteen songs. But they've only got seven. But in reality maybe they have fourteen. And then it occurs to you that rummaging through these tapes to create an LP would be very difficult, which is why they abandoned the project and ultimately left it to Phil Spector. Would I hate "The Long and Winding Road" as much without Phil's strings? It resonates much more in its naked version in the documentary.
And the whole concept of writing in the studio. As for everybody marveling how Paul McCartney created "Get Back" on camera out of thin air, I don't buy it. He probably had the elements in hand before the cameras turned on. Having said that, watching the band spontaneously add and change words, and watching George work with Ringo on "Octopus's Garden," is revelatory. George says it's got to RESOLVE! There is a method to the madness, they know all the chords, they've paid all those dues on stage previously, as demonstrated when they spontaneously play the fifties classics. Records are finite, but until they're finished, they're fluid.
And you see George Martin finally weigh in. And John Lennon is more amenable.
And then comes the roof.
First, will the structure support the weight?
Then there's the set-up. With Glyn Johns and George Martin downstairs in the control room. But there's a tape op on set with a Nagra. Nagra, the state of the art, what all the Grateful Dead shows were recorded on. Rare and expensive Swiss machines with utmost quality, normally used for films.
And Mal has the drums nailed down wrong. When did they start nailing down drums, and did they do it at every gig?
And it's cold. And there's fur, a no-no today. And despite being hesitant, Paul's got on his look, and then...
THEY START TO PLAY AND IT'S AMAZING, ASTOUNDING!
You almost can't believe it. Sure, there were moments of perfection in the studio, mostly with the vocals, sometimes with the instruments, but it never ever sounded THIS GOOD!
It's a band. Not the kind of band you see in an arena today, but the kind of band that permeated the landscape in the sixties, they were everywhere, oftentimes with the same construction: drums, bass and two guitars. Occasionally you got a keyboard player, like Mike Smith in the Dave Clark Five, and a lead singer sans instrument, like Eric Burdon in the Animals, but one thing is for sure, everywhere you went people were forming bands, live music was everywhere.
But how can it sound so good without modern effects? Without backup musicians? Without hard drives?
Not only Paul's voice, but John's guitar playing, he's picking the notes and they sound just right. And Ringo proves his worth after being an afterthought so much of the time downstairs. And you watch George Harrison and you realize this guy invented so much of this, he was there first. He's talking about Eric, but he's no slouch.
But it's the way they come together that astounds. It's a mellifluous sound.
And they play long enough for you to analyze. What sounds good at the gig oftentimes doesn't sound good at home, you were caught up in the moment, filling in the gaps. But the Beatles on the roof sound...well, a bit rougher and noisier, but mostly it's the energy of a live performance, different from a studio concoction, it breathes, it's alive!
But not only is reluctant Paul delivering, he's INTO IT! The way he twists his body, he's got the music in him.
As for John... He's bouncing like he did on Ed Sullivan. Almost like a frog. They're musicians, not stars. They're doing their jobs and we can just watch, with our jaws dropped.
They're so comfortable, they haven't played live for years, but there's no rust to shake off, they're right back into it. And you can see the band before the studio productions, when the albums were cut nearly instantly and the band made its bones on the road.
As for the assembled multitude...
It's unclear how good the sound is on the street, and you certainly can't see the band. But one thing is very clear, everybody's so OLD! People don't get old anymore. They dress young and hip, even if they don't get plastic surgery. And almost no one is this formal anymore. And mostly the band gets kudos, as for the naysayers...you wouldn't get that today, then again if it was hip-hop...
As for the Bobbies... Doesn't that strap on your chin annoy you? And then one cop starts chewing on his!
And then there's the subterfuge. The sincere lying, the dissuasion, of Mal Evans and others. This happens all the time. There are layers of interference protecting the band, allowing them to do what they want. And even when the Bobbies get to the roof Mal keeps them at bay, ultimately turns off the amplifiers but the musicians turn them back on, and keep playing.
As for the Bobbies... I can't believe they've got their names. Where are those guys today? Never mind the Apple receptionist, Debbie Wellum. (See a cast list here: https://bit.ly/3DioU4w) It was a long, long, time ago. Hell, "American Pie" is fifty years old!
And when you hear the casual asides, never mind the music, that end up on the final album your adrenaline spikes. The circle of life is complete.
And then it's over. But not really. The rooftop was not finality, there's more recording to be done, they're back in the studio the next day. But before that... They wanted to keep recording that afternoon/evening, but the instruments were still on the roof and ultimately they're all sitting in the control room, listening to the playback, grooving. No airs, it's just them.
And now you know why you wanted to be them. For a zillion reasons, not only the money and the perks, but the ability to play, channel their thoughts and emotions AND LIVE BY THEIR OWN RULES! Freedom, and not the kind that allows you to avoid getting a vaccine. The Beatles were leaders, they kept looking forward, unlike Jo Jo, they didn't want to get back to where they once belonged, rather the four of them wanted to get on the 909 and experience life and its tribulations, to ultimately distill it into music.
So it's cognitive dissonance. You're watching the documentary and you think you're in the present, but you're firmly in the past, which has already been written. The recording equipment, the automobiles, the clothing...they're all passé, yet the music is curiously modern. It was created on barely more than a whim, and it's FOREVER!
So ultimately the pace of the beginning pays off in the end, with the rooftop performance. You feel what the band feels, you see the challenge, and you're overwhelmed by the delivery.
But it wouldn't go down that way today. Because everything is fixed in post. To the point where almost nothing is alive and kicking. And it's humanity we're looking for. We want our machines to be perfect, but not our art.
But that's it, done, definitive.
John and George are dead. John by the bullet of a deranged assassin, George by lung cancer... You're astounded everybody in the film is not dead from lung cancer, they're smoking up a storm, everybody's a chimney. Remember when you could smoke in public buildings?
Oh that's right, most people weren't born or conscious when this was the case. So many commenting on the Beatles were not there the first time around. Sure, you can listen to the records but you don't know the experience. Just like you can listen to Robert Johnson but really have no idea what it was like being an itinerant blues musician a hundred years ago.
But if you were there, you not only remember the Beatles, but the clothing, what you were doing. Life was going on while the Beatles were playing and recording. You were going to school, or working. And music was not everywhere, there were no smartphones, never mind portable tape players. And you couldn't afford everything. So the albums you did purchase you played ad infinitum, you know them by heart, not only the tunes, but the clicks and skips.
That was then and this is now.
Turns out history is not written in stone. During the recording of what ultimately became the "Let It Be" album it turns out the boys were not at each other's throats, the band was not about to implode, that was a narrative that took hold when the "Let It Be" movie and album were released after the subsequently cut "Abbey Road," after "McCartney" had already come out.
But the band had to break up, for so many reasons. We didn't want it to, but life is a journey, and you can't cripple someone's trip. Which is why parents should guide their children but not dictate to them.
And John was still an impressionable child, mesmerized by Allen Klein, even though Glyn Johns lays out a detailed case why the manager should not be trusted. In retrospect, Paul was right. But charlatans will always permeate the music business, you need someone to speak to your dreams, to speak to the suits, to make you feel you've got an advocate on your side. But it's a rare manager who can subjugate their priorities to those of the band. I'll make it simple, if the band doesn't work the manager doesn't get paid, and managers want to get paid, which is why so many bands tour year after year.
So now what?
Turns out no one could ever replicate the Beatles' success. Not only did we never get a new Beatles, no one even makes this music anymore, especially today, it's too hard. You've got to have experience, you've got to have talent, you've got to have not only chops, but great voices. You've got to be willing to fly without a net, and continue to do this even when the financial struggle is in the rearview mirror.
And you've got to cut records with melody and changes that people can sing along to, that they can't get out of their head.
That's the Beatles. Demonstrated exquisitely, at length, in "Get Back." You can watch it as nostalgia, you can watch it as a learning experience, or you can watch it to be inspired. Yes, that's the ultimate lesson, you've got to put one foot in front of the other, you've got to risk, you've got to do it.
Dig it?
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-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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As were the Beatles on the roof of the Apple building.
You can't appreciate how great they were unless you've watched the previous seven hours. The noodling, the disagreements, the endless repetition, the tweaking... Like they say, the more they played certain numbers they got tired and the productions got worse. The definitive statements were elusive. As a matter of fact, in some cases the definitive recordings, the ones that ultimately appeared on the "Let It Be" album, were cut live, outside, and that's positively jaw-dropping, especially in this day of Pro Tools and hard drives and...
It's funny how Paul, the driving force of the project, is reluctant to hit the roof. Whereas John and Ringo are into it, it's a lark, why not? It'll be a new and different experience, it may not work out. But Paul is gun-shy. It's not exactly clear why, whether it's the raw fear or the feeling it's not the proper conclusion to the film.
And it is film, with big heavy cameras. You see that at the end of this documentary, when we see the slate and the other intrusions the filmmakers make. How inhibiting! Then again, most creative people require complete silence or complete noise, they need to be in their heads, with their thoughts resonating.
Which also makes it hard to understand the presence of Heather McCartney. Talk about intrusive. But Paul's got time for her, and in truth how long was she there really? There was so much footage, and so much unshot, ultimately you could make any film you wanted, positive or negative. The 1970 version was negative, this is positively positive. Sure, George leaves the band, but in retrospect, was he really leaving? He is certainly integrated after the fact.
And place matters. Twickenham did not have the right vibe. A smaller room with all the clutter did. And it's fascinating how they're using brand new Fender amps and PAs, no one seemed to use Fender PAs thereafter. As for these latest Fender amps? They were all transistor based, the cognoscenti pooh-poohed them, tubes rule, but now there is some affection for this CBS era gear. Imagine, a record company owning a musical instrument company! Then again, the conglomerate ultimately owned the Yankees. It's kinda like a Don Henley song, they build 'em up and then they tear them back down. Gulf + Western, aka Engulf + Devour, bought Paramount Pictures in the sixties. Coca-Cola even owned a movie studio. Now they're selling GE for parts. Turns out the so-called greatest manager of the century, Jack Welch, cooked the books to show a steady profit and left Jeffrey Immelt with an unmanageable company, not that Immelt rose to the challenge.
So as the episode moves on there's a discussion of what they're actually doing. Is it an album, a movie, a TV show, or..? And what is made clear is it's the Beatles decision. This was the sixties, the acts took charge, and since the Tommy Mottola era their power has been slowly whittled away. But the artists know best, not that they really know, they're just on an endless quest until it feels right.
So for an album they need fourteen songs. But they've only got seven. But in reality maybe they have fourteen. And then it occurs to you that rummaging through these tapes to create an LP would be very difficult, which is why they abandoned the project and ultimately left it to Phil Spector. Would I hate "The Long and Winding Road" as much without Phil's strings? It resonates much more in its naked version in the documentary.
And the whole concept of writing in the studio. As for everybody marveling how Paul McCartney created "Get Back" on camera out of thin air, I don't buy it. He probably had the elements in hand before the cameras turned on. Having said that, watching the band spontaneously add and change words, and watching George work with Ringo on "Octopus's Garden," is revelatory. George says it's got to RESOLVE! There is a method to the madness, they know all the chords, they've paid all those dues on stage previously, as demonstrated when they spontaneously play the fifties classics. Records are finite, but until they're finished, they're fluid.
And you see George Martin finally weigh in. And John Lennon is more amenable.
And then comes the roof.
First, will the structure support the weight?
Then there's the set-up. With Glyn Johns and George Martin downstairs in the control room. But there's a tape op on set with a Nagra. Nagra, the state of the art, what all the Grateful Dead shows were recorded on. Rare and expensive Swiss machines with utmost quality, normally used for films.
And Mal has the drums nailed down wrong. When did they start nailing down drums, and did they do it at every gig?
And it's cold. And there's fur, a no-no today. And despite being hesitant, Paul's got on his look, and then...
THEY START TO PLAY AND IT'S AMAZING, ASTOUNDING!
You almost can't believe it. Sure, there were moments of perfection in the studio, mostly with the vocals, sometimes with the instruments, but it never ever sounded THIS GOOD!
It's a band. Not the kind of band you see in an arena today, but the kind of band that permeated the landscape in the sixties, they were everywhere, oftentimes with the same construction: drums, bass and two guitars. Occasionally you got a keyboard player, like Mike Smith in the Dave Clark Five, and a lead singer sans instrument, like Eric Burdon in the Animals, but one thing is for sure, everywhere you went people were forming bands, live music was everywhere.
But how can it sound so good without modern effects? Without backup musicians? Without hard drives?
Not only Paul's voice, but John's guitar playing, he's picking the notes and they sound just right. And Ringo proves his worth after being an afterthought so much of the time downstairs. And you watch George Harrison and you realize this guy invented so much of this, he was there first. He's talking about Eric, but he's no slouch.
But it's the way they come together that astounds. It's a mellifluous sound.
And they play long enough for you to analyze. What sounds good at the gig oftentimes doesn't sound good at home, you were caught up in the moment, filling in the gaps. But the Beatles on the roof sound...well, a bit rougher and noisier, but mostly it's the energy of a live performance, different from a studio concoction, it breathes, it's alive!
But not only is reluctant Paul delivering, he's INTO IT! The way he twists his body, he's got the music in him.
As for John... He's bouncing like he did on Ed Sullivan. Almost like a frog. They're musicians, not stars. They're doing their jobs and we can just watch, with our jaws dropped.
They're so comfortable, they haven't played live for years, but there's no rust to shake off, they're right back into it. And you can see the band before the studio productions, when the albums were cut nearly instantly and the band made its bones on the road.
As for the assembled multitude...
It's unclear how good the sound is on the street, and you certainly can't see the band. But one thing is very clear, everybody's so OLD! People don't get old anymore. They dress young and hip, even if they don't get plastic surgery. And almost no one is this formal anymore. And mostly the band gets kudos, as for the naysayers...you wouldn't get that today, then again if it was hip-hop...
As for the Bobbies... Doesn't that strap on your chin annoy you? And then one cop starts chewing on his!
And then there's the subterfuge. The sincere lying, the dissuasion, of Mal Evans and others. This happens all the time. There are layers of interference protecting the band, allowing them to do what they want. And even when the Bobbies get to the roof Mal keeps them at bay, ultimately turns off the amplifiers but the musicians turn them back on, and keep playing.
As for the Bobbies... I can't believe they've got their names. Where are those guys today? Never mind the Apple receptionist, Debbie Wellum. (See a cast list here: https://bit.ly/3DioU4w) It was a long, long, time ago. Hell, "American Pie" is fifty years old!
And when you hear the casual asides, never mind the music, that end up on the final album your adrenaline spikes. The circle of life is complete.
And then it's over. But not really. The rooftop was not finality, there's more recording to be done, they're back in the studio the next day. But before that... They wanted to keep recording that afternoon/evening, but the instruments were still on the roof and ultimately they're all sitting in the control room, listening to the playback, grooving. No airs, it's just them.
And now you know why you wanted to be them. For a zillion reasons, not only the money and the perks, but the ability to play, channel their thoughts and emotions AND LIVE BY THEIR OWN RULES! Freedom, and not the kind that allows you to avoid getting a vaccine. The Beatles were leaders, they kept looking forward, unlike Jo Jo, they didn't want to get back to where they once belonged, rather the four of them wanted to get on the 909 and experience life and its tribulations, to ultimately distill it into music.
So it's cognitive dissonance. You're watching the documentary and you think you're in the present, but you're firmly in the past, which has already been written. The recording equipment, the automobiles, the clothing...they're all passé, yet the music is curiously modern. It was created on barely more than a whim, and it's FOREVER!
So ultimately the pace of the beginning pays off in the end, with the rooftop performance. You feel what the band feels, you see the challenge, and you're overwhelmed by the delivery.
But it wouldn't go down that way today. Because everything is fixed in post. To the point where almost nothing is alive and kicking. And it's humanity we're looking for. We want our machines to be perfect, but not our art.
But that's it, done, definitive.
John and George are dead. John by the bullet of a deranged assassin, George by lung cancer... You're astounded everybody in the film is not dead from lung cancer, they're smoking up a storm, everybody's a chimney. Remember when you could smoke in public buildings?
Oh that's right, most people weren't born or conscious when this was the case. So many commenting on the Beatles were not there the first time around. Sure, you can listen to the records but you don't know the experience. Just like you can listen to Robert Johnson but really have no idea what it was like being an itinerant blues musician a hundred years ago.
But if you were there, you not only remember the Beatles, but the clothing, what you were doing. Life was going on while the Beatles were playing and recording. You were going to school, or working. And music was not everywhere, there were no smartphones, never mind portable tape players. And you couldn't afford everything. So the albums you did purchase you played ad infinitum, you know them by heart, not only the tunes, but the clicks and skips.
That was then and this is now.
Turns out history is not written in stone. During the recording of what ultimately became the "Let It Be" album it turns out the boys were not at each other's throats, the band was not about to implode, that was a narrative that took hold when the "Let It Be" movie and album were released after the subsequently cut "Abbey Road," after "McCartney" had already come out.
But the band had to break up, for so many reasons. We didn't want it to, but life is a journey, and you can't cripple someone's trip. Which is why parents should guide their children but not dictate to them.
And John was still an impressionable child, mesmerized by Allen Klein, even though Glyn Johns lays out a detailed case why the manager should not be trusted. In retrospect, Paul was right. But charlatans will always permeate the music business, you need someone to speak to your dreams, to speak to the suits, to make you feel you've got an advocate on your side. But it's a rare manager who can subjugate their priorities to those of the band. I'll make it simple, if the band doesn't work the manager doesn't get paid, and managers want to get paid, which is why so many bands tour year after year.
So now what?
Turns out no one could ever replicate the Beatles' success. Not only did we never get a new Beatles, no one even makes this music anymore, especially today, it's too hard. You've got to have experience, you've got to have talent, you've got to have not only chops, but great voices. You've got to be willing to fly without a net, and continue to do this even when the financial struggle is in the rearview mirror.
And you've got to cut records with melody and changes that people can sing along to, that they can't get out of their head.
That's the Beatles. Demonstrated exquisitely, at length, in "Get Back." You can watch it as nostalgia, you can watch it as a learning experience, or you can watch it to be inspired. Yes, that's the ultimate lesson, you've got to put one foot in front of the other, you've got to risk, you've got to do it.
Dig it?
--
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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Brinsley Schwarz-This Week's Podcast
Brinsley Schwarz was a king of the pub rock scene with his own band and then became a member of the Rumour, which backed up Graham Parker and ultimately released records under its own moniker. Brinsley went on to work as a guitar tech in a music shop and then reunited with Graham Parker after getting over his fear of flying. Listen to the story of a journeyman who was never a star, but made a life out of music, who has a new album to boot!
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brinsley-schwarz/id1316200737?i=1000543732505
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5JkOnppa8e1dIlOG0qE9G4?si=hsy813u3Sq6JqmzzekF8Pg
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast?
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast
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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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http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brinsley-schwarz/id1316200737?i=1000543732505
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5JkOnppa8e1dIlOG0qE9G4?si=hsy813u3Sq6JqmzzekF8Pg
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast?
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast
--
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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Wednesday 1 December 2021
The Power Of The Dog
Trailer: https://bit.ly/3pCfkoz
I thought it was based on the Don Winslow book.
When I know I'm going to see a movie I don't read the reviews. The unfolding experience is what entrances me, which is why I'm so pissed that trailers reveal so much. Then again, I never go to the movies anymore so I don't see trailers. "The Power of the Dog" is playing in theatres, but today it opened on Netflix.
There is no buzz, none that I can feel. But when it comes to streaming TV it's all viewer generated, and it happens slowly, but I don't think there will be a huge groundswell of "The Power of the Dog" viewers, because it's so slow at the beginning.
They're in Montana, endlessly beautiful, but I hung on through the credits to find out where they shot it and it turns out New Zealand, chalking up another mark to visit the country where I have only been to the airport.
So what you've got here is a western set in Montana in 1925, not a cross-border dope dealing movie like I thought. Although it took me a while to realize it wasn't. I was waiting for my memory of the book to kick in, and it never did. But you should read "The Power of the Dog" trilogy. It's pulpy and far from highbrow but it's eminently readable and will keep you hooked, as it educates you on dope in America.
But like I said, this movie is not that book. Rather it's based on a obscure fifty year old novel. Jane Campion wrote the screenplay. And as I'm watching the film unfold I'm remembering, as great as Campion is, her films are usually very slow.
So I'll tell you, up until nearly the end I wasn't impressed. I had no desire to write about "The Power of the Dog." But when it was over...
I misunderstood what was happening. I needed Felice to explain it. And then I'm running through the scenes in my head, figuring it out. Then I'm discussing it with Felice again. Finally, I have to go online to research, I wanted more, needed more, I wanted to make sure I understood the film correctly.
This is what moviegoing experiences used to be like. This is what the golden age of cinema was all about, the late sixties into the seventies, all the way up to the eighties, when the blockbuster paradigm instituted by Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" took hold and the film business was forever altered. Before that there was no talk of tentpoles, not every film was required to be a blockbuster, and superheroes were rare, never mind cartoons. I mean you see a Marvel movie and what is there to say?
So... I never would have gone to the theatre to see "The Power of the Dog." I don't want to waste that much time. I can't be late. So I go early. And I've got to budget for traffic and endure the aforementioned trailers and... One of the main reasons I don't go, other than Covid, is I've found I can't slow down enough for them. My regular life has my brain firing and the experience is unsatisfactory.
And to be honest, my brain was firing during the initial scenes of "The Power of the Dog" and then...
Did I need to see this to the end? Was Felice mad that I made her watch it, the day it came out, telling her about it all day?
The cinematography is astounding. And unless you've got an OLED TV you'll miss something, it'll be better on the big screen, you need those blacks, that contrast.
So, you get hooked by the movie, you're trying to figure out the plot, and then it's over and you wonder WHAT HAPPENED?
"The Power of the Dog" is a bit too highbrow for it to become a streaming phenomenon. But I will tell you that if it didn't open within a week of its big screen debut, I probably never would have watched it when it finally came to pay cable, even streaming services. The heat is off. Whereas opening day on Netflix, the heat is on!
So it's two hours and change. You've got to commit. It's not painful, but at first you will not be riveted. But then you'll be drawn in...
Jesse Plemons as brother George is always good, although he always has the same slow, stilted delivery in every film, I wonder how he talks in real life.
As far as Benedict Cumberbatch... I've missed seemingly everything he's done other than "Sherlock Holmes," so...he's good, and different.
Now if you check RottenTomatoes, "The Power of the Dog" has a 95% critics rating and a 76% audience rating, which is exactly what I expected. "The Power of the Dog" is not for everybody. But if the foregoing resonates, if you're a fan of art house cinema, if you can spend the time to get the dividend, I highly recommend it. Because it will get you thinking, it will stick with you.
--
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Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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I thought it was based on the Don Winslow book.
When I know I'm going to see a movie I don't read the reviews. The unfolding experience is what entrances me, which is why I'm so pissed that trailers reveal so much. Then again, I never go to the movies anymore so I don't see trailers. "The Power of the Dog" is playing in theatres, but today it opened on Netflix.
There is no buzz, none that I can feel. But when it comes to streaming TV it's all viewer generated, and it happens slowly, but I don't think there will be a huge groundswell of "The Power of the Dog" viewers, because it's so slow at the beginning.
They're in Montana, endlessly beautiful, but I hung on through the credits to find out where they shot it and it turns out New Zealand, chalking up another mark to visit the country where I have only been to the airport.
So what you've got here is a western set in Montana in 1925, not a cross-border dope dealing movie like I thought. Although it took me a while to realize it wasn't. I was waiting for my memory of the book to kick in, and it never did. But you should read "The Power of the Dog" trilogy. It's pulpy and far from highbrow but it's eminently readable and will keep you hooked, as it educates you on dope in America.
But like I said, this movie is not that book. Rather it's based on a obscure fifty year old novel. Jane Campion wrote the screenplay. And as I'm watching the film unfold I'm remembering, as great as Campion is, her films are usually very slow.
So I'll tell you, up until nearly the end I wasn't impressed. I had no desire to write about "The Power of the Dog." But when it was over...
I misunderstood what was happening. I needed Felice to explain it. And then I'm running through the scenes in my head, figuring it out. Then I'm discussing it with Felice again. Finally, I have to go online to research, I wanted more, needed more, I wanted to make sure I understood the film correctly.
This is what moviegoing experiences used to be like. This is what the golden age of cinema was all about, the late sixties into the seventies, all the way up to the eighties, when the blockbuster paradigm instituted by Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" took hold and the film business was forever altered. Before that there was no talk of tentpoles, not every film was required to be a blockbuster, and superheroes were rare, never mind cartoons. I mean you see a Marvel movie and what is there to say?
So... I never would have gone to the theatre to see "The Power of the Dog." I don't want to waste that much time. I can't be late. So I go early. And I've got to budget for traffic and endure the aforementioned trailers and... One of the main reasons I don't go, other than Covid, is I've found I can't slow down enough for them. My regular life has my brain firing and the experience is unsatisfactory.
And to be honest, my brain was firing during the initial scenes of "The Power of the Dog" and then...
Did I need to see this to the end? Was Felice mad that I made her watch it, the day it came out, telling her about it all day?
The cinematography is astounding. And unless you've got an OLED TV you'll miss something, it'll be better on the big screen, you need those blacks, that contrast.
So, you get hooked by the movie, you're trying to figure out the plot, and then it's over and you wonder WHAT HAPPENED?
"The Power of the Dog" is a bit too highbrow for it to become a streaming phenomenon. But I will tell you that if it didn't open within a week of its big screen debut, I probably never would have watched it when it finally came to pay cable, even streaming services. The heat is off. Whereas opening day on Netflix, the heat is on!
So it's two hours and change. You've got to commit. It's not painful, but at first you will not be riveted. But then you'll be drawn in...
Jesse Plemons as brother George is always good, although he always has the same slow, stilted delivery in every film, I wonder how he talks in real life.
As far as Benedict Cumberbatch... I've missed seemingly everything he's done other than "Sherlock Holmes," so...he's good, and different.
Now if you check RottenTomatoes, "The Power of the Dog" has a 95% critics rating and a 76% audience rating, which is exactly what I expected. "The Power of the Dog" is not for everybody. But if the foregoing resonates, if you're a fan of art house cinema, if you can spend the time to get the dividend, I highly recommend it. Because it will get you thinking, it will stick with you.
--
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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Donny & Chris
DONNY OSMOND:
Best...podcast ..EVER!
James Spencer
__________________________________
I didn't think you'd match the Paul Anka so soon, but you did! His honest answers to your blunt questions were awesome, and the little digressions ("why Android instead of Apple?") were great too. I loved it!
Mark B. Spiegel
__________________________________
I just listened to the Spotify interview interview you did with Donny Osmond. It was fabulous! You were wondering if Donny was for real. Yes, he is. He has both feet planted on the ground, but can look ahead and look behind and still be present. He is as nice as he seems. When you talk with him, you feel like he's your best friend.
Be healthy, stay strong, live safely
Randy Fuchs
__________________________________
You have interviewed so many cool people on your podcast - who would ever guess that two of the most fascinating would be Paul Anka and Donny Osmond? Donny seemed a little tough to crack open, and he wouldn't go all the way, but tons of interesting info was revealed. Lots of inside "showbiz" stuff. Nicely done!
Rich Madow
__________________________________
Great interview with Donny.
I would have to guess that you haven't been the recipient of the amazing birthday ecard he did for American Greetings online, otherwise you would have mentioned it. It's the best one out there, far and away better than Shaq's or Dolly's, which are both really good, don't get me wrong, but Donny's production is at another level. https://www.americangreetings.com/
Since I don't know when your birthday really is, I just sent you the Donny ecard to witness for yourself. Enjoy!
BTW, dunno about you, but I quit having birthdays years ago. Of course, that hasn't stopped me from reminding others of theirs!
Larry Butler
__________________________________
another good one. You are the Charlie Rose for the music industry. Good Questions
Kyle J. Ferraro
__________________________________
Killer interview. You are right on - his self-awareness is really rare, and in addition to his other-worldly talent, it's what has enabled him to keep it alive.
He's also genuinely as nice as he seems. In the early '90s he was in Toronto doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and I was President of EMI Music Publishing. Donny was signed to Virgin publishing, which EMI had just acquired. He reached out to invite my family to see the show. We had great seats, he put on an incredible performance, and when it was over we the followed instructions to stay in our seats. When the theater was empty someone came and ushered us into his dressing room. Donny was incredibly gracious, letting my 7 year old son TJ try on his coat, and entertaining us for about half an hour. That was nearly 30 years ago and my wife still talks about it.
Donny told you about the Canadian National Exhibition shows where he met Michael Jackson. My first industry job was at Jack Richardson's Nimbus Nine studio, and his son Cub was at those shows. I vividly recall him the next day saying "nobody will ever believe this but Donny Osmond and his brothers absolutely blew Michael Jackson and his brothers off the stage". I've had great respect for his talent ever since.
Best,
Michael McCarty
__________________________________
I didn't think I'd like it. But if you chose to interview him, there must be something there. Impressive guy and clearly super talented. Great interview. Good questions.
Lizzz Kritzer
__________________________________
I just finished listening to this and was amazed at DO's business acumen. His unwillingness to give up was inspiring as hell! He's on top, then broke, reinvents himself to please himself artistically. The fire in his belly still burns!!!!
Tim Pringle
I worked Marie gigs here and there when she was signed to Columbia and I was in college. Donny would sometimes play those gigs with her. I found them both to be polite, profession…just nice people. I don't care what their public image is, as you said…they are good apples!
Jim Lewi
__________________________________
One of the greatest guys I ever interviewed.
Jonathan Gross
__________________________________
one of my most favorite ever. what a life..what a guy!!
Gary W. Mendel
__________________________________
As you may recall, in Jeff Beck's video for 'Ambitious' directed by Jim Yukich for Epic (1985), various array of singers step-up to audition as the vocalist for Jeff Beck. In a surprise, amongst celebrity cameos, Donny Osmond appears in the audition line-up and has a tongue-in cheek response when asked if he has done anything lately? This was a brilliant clip to bring Jeff Beck to the MTV world and was equally as hip for Donny Osmond at the time. It was a great way for Donny to poke fun at himself and associate with an artist who has street cred like Jeff Beck - setting up his a potential comeback for the child star. (Clip also features guest appearances by Parker Stevenson, Marilyn McCoo, Herve Villechaize, John Butcher Axis, Cheech Marin, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Phil Alvin (Blasters), Willie Tyler & Lester, and Herb Alpert).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbpQf22c494
Bruce Barrow
__________________________________
Quick story about Donny. I was a freelance concert reviewer for the New York Daily News ('88-'93.) He did a show at the Palladium in NYC back in '89 when "Soldier of Love" was out. I dug him and took that angle for the review. I later heard he called the News and asked for me; he wanted to thank me for the review. In all my time at the newspaper, he was the only performer to do that. I dig Donny.
Matt Auerbach.
__________________________________
Crazy Horses - one of the great lost classic rock albums of the 1970's…
Vince Welsh
__________________________________
Really enjoyed the Donny Osmond podcast in part because I was working in promotion at Capitol during Soldier Of Love. He's as genuine as he comes across. A pleasure to work with and a really good guy.
If you end up having dinner or speaking with him again please make a gentle reminder about putting the single version of Soldier on Spotify.
Thanks Bob.
Frank Murray
__________________________________
Listened to the Donny podcast. I played in his touring band for 6 yrs, 2001-2007. Its funny about how he mentions that his name is poison, because when I first got the call from Phil Ramone's assistant (Phil had just produced an album for Donny and got involved with our first tour), it was, 'I won't tell you the artists name yet, but can you do a tour for 'X Dollars' a week". I said yes and then had second thoughts when I found out it was Donny, but it turned out to be a really fun gig. He's a way better musician than I had imagined...hired stellar musicians, rehearsed our butts off, and the gig was always smokin'. One thing I was surprised about was…. how huge he was/is in the UK. We played theaters and casinos in the states, but arenas in the UK and it really was insanity. At the end of the interview you asked if you were getting the real guy, because he always sounds on. I would say yes you were, that's him, always up, energetic and looking forward, a true pro.
FRANK VILARDI
__________________________________
best podcast interview of year.
@Lefsetz is the best interviewer in podcasts, @donnyosmond
is the truth
@makeamoveUKCAN
__________________________________
I consider You the finest interviewer around.
When you had Bode Miller on your podcast, I almost did not listen as I don't follow skiing at all, last time I was skiing was when I was 17 ( I'm 64 now), but I figure your interviews are always great, loved hearing Bode. Next was Paul Anka , I know some of his top songs, but 2 hours of him, again excellent interview.
This week with Donny Osmond, I had the same thoughts, I am the same age as Donny but I never listened to his music, when he was young it was too bubblegum for me, and when he tried to position himself as a adult singer after Michael Jackson's success with Thriller, I sampled a bit and thought he was trying to hard. I totally enjoyed the interview, was sorry when it ended after only 130 minutes.
I found him to be real, friendly and open, of course we all know he is doing interviews for the publicity, I have heard enough to know when the interviewee is going thru the motions. I will try and seek out some of his later stuff on Apple Music or iff not available on YouTube.
I love your podcasts and the SiriusXM show.
Tom Melle
__________________________________
CHRIS KIMSEY:
Dear Bob, the Kimsey podcast was the most entertaining I have ever listened to. BRAVO. Joel
Joel Sercarz
__________________________________
Hi Bob, the interview with Chris was a total grand slam. He is such a fabulous storyteller and remembers everything! There are so many things about his storied career nobody could really know about until now. I urge everyone to listen and learn. I wanna meet him!
Danny Melnick
Absolutely Live Entertainment
__________________________________
One of your best interviews/interviewees ever, which must become a book/author/+.
Talk about two keen minds/memories for this beautifully crafted composition beautifully played! We all thank you both.
Please share our appreciation with Chris Kimsey
Don Brannon
__________________________________
Thoroughly enjoyed your podcast with Chris Kimsey, Bob. What a humble, forthright guy. You can see why everyone he's worked with has stayed friends with him. Once again, you were a great facilitator in drawing him out. Thank you
Mark Doyle
__________________________________
This was great! Thanks for pushing for some technical details! Love that stuff!
Anthony Goddess
__________________________________
A great interview of a guy behind the scenes who played an integral part of so many recordings. And a nice guy as well! It's interesting that a lot of people in the music industry didn't make a lot of money or got cut out of the revenue stream.
Ron Maiorino
__________________________________
To my #1 podcast of 2021, The Bob Lefsetz Podcast: thank you for keeping me company on @Spotify all year long! #SpotifyWrapped
Anthony J. Resta
__________________________________
industry...lastest with Chris Kimsey excellent
Blair Morgan
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Best...podcast ..EVER!
James Spencer
__________________________________
I didn't think you'd match the Paul Anka so soon, but you did! His honest answers to your blunt questions were awesome, and the little digressions ("why Android instead of Apple?") were great too. I loved it!
Mark B. Spiegel
__________________________________
I just listened to the Spotify interview interview you did with Donny Osmond. It was fabulous! You were wondering if Donny was for real. Yes, he is. He has both feet planted on the ground, but can look ahead and look behind and still be present. He is as nice as he seems. When you talk with him, you feel like he's your best friend.
Be healthy, stay strong, live safely
Randy Fuchs
__________________________________
You have interviewed so many cool people on your podcast - who would ever guess that two of the most fascinating would be Paul Anka and Donny Osmond? Donny seemed a little tough to crack open, and he wouldn't go all the way, but tons of interesting info was revealed. Lots of inside "showbiz" stuff. Nicely done!
Rich Madow
__________________________________
Great interview with Donny.
I would have to guess that you haven't been the recipient of the amazing birthday ecard he did for American Greetings online, otherwise you would have mentioned it. It's the best one out there, far and away better than Shaq's or Dolly's, which are both really good, don't get me wrong, but Donny's production is at another level. https://www.americangreetings.com/
Since I don't know when your birthday really is, I just sent you the Donny ecard to witness for yourself. Enjoy!
BTW, dunno about you, but I quit having birthdays years ago. Of course, that hasn't stopped me from reminding others of theirs!
Larry Butler
__________________________________
another good one. You are the Charlie Rose for the music industry. Good Questions
Kyle J. Ferraro
__________________________________
Killer interview. You are right on - his self-awareness is really rare, and in addition to his other-worldly talent, it's what has enabled him to keep it alive.
He's also genuinely as nice as he seems. In the early '90s he was in Toronto doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and I was President of EMI Music Publishing. Donny was signed to Virgin publishing, which EMI had just acquired. He reached out to invite my family to see the show. We had great seats, he put on an incredible performance, and when it was over we the followed instructions to stay in our seats. When the theater was empty someone came and ushered us into his dressing room. Donny was incredibly gracious, letting my 7 year old son TJ try on his coat, and entertaining us for about half an hour. That was nearly 30 years ago and my wife still talks about it.
Donny told you about the Canadian National Exhibition shows where he met Michael Jackson. My first industry job was at Jack Richardson's Nimbus Nine studio, and his son Cub was at those shows. I vividly recall him the next day saying "nobody will ever believe this but Donny Osmond and his brothers absolutely blew Michael Jackson and his brothers off the stage". I've had great respect for his talent ever since.
Best,
Michael McCarty
__________________________________
I didn't think I'd like it. But if you chose to interview him, there must be something there. Impressive guy and clearly super talented. Great interview. Good questions.
Lizzz Kritzer
__________________________________
I just finished listening to this and was amazed at DO's business acumen. His unwillingness to give up was inspiring as hell! He's on top, then broke, reinvents himself to please himself artistically. The fire in his belly still burns!!!!
Tim Pringle
I worked Marie gigs here and there when she was signed to Columbia and I was in college. Donny would sometimes play those gigs with her. I found them both to be polite, profession…just nice people. I don't care what their public image is, as you said…they are good apples!
Jim Lewi
__________________________________
One of the greatest guys I ever interviewed.
Jonathan Gross
__________________________________
one of my most favorite ever. what a life..what a guy!!
Gary W. Mendel
__________________________________
As you may recall, in Jeff Beck's video for 'Ambitious' directed by Jim Yukich for Epic (1985), various array of singers step-up to audition as the vocalist for Jeff Beck. In a surprise, amongst celebrity cameos, Donny Osmond appears in the audition line-up and has a tongue-in cheek response when asked if he has done anything lately? This was a brilliant clip to bring Jeff Beck to the MTV world and was equally as hip for Donny Osmond at the time. It was a great way for Donny to poke fun at himself and associate with an artist who has street cred like Jeff Beck - setting up his a potential comeback for the child star. (Clip also features guest appearances by Parker Stevenson, Marilyn McCoo, Herve Villechaize, John Butcher Axis, Cheech Marin, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Phil Alvin (Blasters), Willie Tyler & Lester, and Herb Alpert).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbpQf22c494
Bruce Barrow
__________________________________
Quick story about Donny. I was a freelance concert reviewer for the New York Daily News ('88-'93.) He did a show at the Palladium in NYC back in '89 when "Soldier of Love" was out. I dug him and took that angle for the review. I later heard he called the News and asked for me; he wanted to thank me for the review. In all my time at the newspaper, he was the only performer to do that. I dig Donny.
Matt Auerbach.
__________________________________
Crazy Horses - one of the great lost classic rock albums of the 1970's…
Vince Welsh
__________________________________
Really enjoyed the Donny Osmond podcast in part because I was working in promotion at Capitol during Soldier Of Love. He's as genuine as he comes across. A pleasure to work with and a really good guy.
If you end up having dinner or speaking with him again please make a gentle reminder about putting the single version of Soldier on Spotify.
Thanks Bob.
Frank Murray
__________________________________
Listened to the Donny podcast. I played in his touring band for 6 yrs, 2001-2007. Its funny about how he mentions that his name is poison, because when I first got the call from Phil Ramone's assistant (Phil had just produced an album for Donny and got involved with our first tour), it was, 'I won't tell you the artists name yet, but can you do a tour for 'X Dollars' a week". I said yes and then had second thoughts when I found out it was Donny, but it turned out to be a really fun gig. He's a way better musician than I had imagined...hired stellar musicians, rehearsed our butts off, and the gig was always smokin'. One thing I was surprised about was…. how huge he was/is in the UK. We played theaters and casinos in the states, but arenas in the UK and it really was insanity. At the end of the interview you asked if you were getting the real guy, because he always sounds on. I would say yes you were, that's him, always up, energetic and looking forward, a true pro.
FRANK VILARDI
__________________________________
best podcast interview of year.
@Lefsetz is the best interviewer in podcasts, @donnyosmond
is the truth
@makeamoveUKCAN
__________________________________
I consider You the finest interviewer around.
When you had Bode Miller on your podcast, I almost did not listen as I don't follow skiing at all, last time I was skiing was when I was 17 ( I'm 64 now), but I figure your interviews are always great, loved hearing Bode. Next was Paul Anka , I know some of his top songs, but 2 hours of him, again excellent interview.
This week with Donny Osmond, I had the same thoughts, I am the same age as Donny but I never listened to his music, when he was young it was too bubblegum for me, and when he tried to position himself as a adult singer after Michael Jackson's success with Thriller, I sampled a bit and thought he was trying to hard. I totally enjoyed the interview, was sorry when it ended after only 130 minutes.
I found him to be real, friendly and open, of course we all know he is doing interviews for the publicity, I have heard enough to know when the interviewee is going thru the motions. I will try and seek out some of his later stuff on Apple Music or iff not available on YouTube.
I love your podcasts and the SiriusXM show.
Tom Melle
__________________________________
CHRIS KIMSEY:
Dear Bob, the Kimsey podcast was the most entertaining I have ever listened to. BRAVO. Joel
Joel Sercarz
__________________________________
Hi Bob, the interview with Chris was a total grand slam. He is such a fabulous storyteller and remembers everything! There are so many things about his storied career nobody could really know about until now. I urge everyone to listen and learn. I wanna meet him!
Danny Melnick
Absolutely Live Entertainment
__________________________________
One of your best interviews/interviewees ever, which must become a book/author/+.
Talk about two keen minds/memories for this beautifully crafted composition beautifully played! We all thank you both.
Please share our appreciation with Chris Kimsey
Don Brannon
__________________________________
Thoroughly enjoyed your podcast with Chris Kimsey, Bob. What a humble, forthright guy. You can see why everyone he's worked with has stayed friends with him. Once again, you were a great facilitator in drawing him out. Thank you
Mark Doyle
__________________________________
This was great! Thanks for pushing for some technical details! Love that stuff!
Anthony Goddess
__________________________________
A great interview of a guy behind the scenes who played an integral part of so many recordings. And a nice guy as well! It's interesting that a lot of people in the music industry didn't make a lot of money or got cut out of the revenue stream.
Ron Maiorino
__________________________________
To my #1 podcast of 2021, The Bob Lefsetz Podcast: thank you for keeping me company on @Spotify all year long! #SpotifyWrapped
Anthony J. Resta
__________________________________
industry...lastest with Chris Kimsey excellent
Blair Morgan
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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Tuesday 30 November 2021
Good Morning Judge
Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3EaXgb3
"He didn't do it, he wasn't there
He didn't want it, he wouldn't dare"
I don't know why these words started going through my head twenty minutes ago but there they were, unable to be excised. And the more they played in my brain the happier I was. I was entranced by the music, in my own private bubble, if not Idaho. I was so happy I didn't want to be free.
10cc. At this point known for "I'm Not in Love" and "The Things We Do for Love," if they're known at all. Scratch that, if they're REMEMBERED at all. The latter hit came out in 1977, and that's 44 years ago. And the opening cut on that album, entitled "Deceptive Bends," was "Good Morning Judge."
The track is jaunty. But would it close someone who never heard it before? "The Things We Do for Love" is a one listen smash, perfect, a hit in any era. And then there's the suite that ends the album, "Feel the Benefit," an eleven and a half minute opus that reminds me of the Sweet's "Love is Like Oxygen," from their 1977 LP "Level Headed," the only one I ever bought, even though they're not really similar tracks, but they're both extended, majestic.
You didn't quite get this majesty in the original iteration of 10cc, which had too much talent to maintain. Ultimately Kevin Godley and Lol Creme went on to make a triple album boxed set with their musical invention the Gizmo and when that failed they became legendary video directors, pushing the envelope in the original explosion of MTV. But Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart soldiered on under the old moniker.
But those initial LPs, especially the eponymous first one, whew! Now that's a masterpiece of not only construction and production, writing and playing, but HUMOR! Which is completely absent in today's music sphere, then again it was just a small part of the enterprise back when, but the band's "Rubber Bullets" ran up the chart in the U.K., and meant nothing over here.
"Rubber Bullets" is the best Beach Boys song Brian Wilson never wrote. Well, maybe we need to include "Back in the U.S.S.R." in the equation too, but..."Rubber Bullets exploded out of the speakers, you had to run to catch up with it. As for the other songs on the LP, they were tongue-in-cheek and in the style of classics and the whole album was infectious, one of my favorites, but it was on Mercury, which was poison, and was far from meat and potatoes, which was dominating FM rock in the United States, so it stiffed over here.
The second LP had a radio track, "The Wall Street Shuffle," and then the third, which I did not think was as good as the first two, had the gigantic hit, "I'm Not in Love."
The fourth LP sounded much more like the first two, especially the second, and it did nothing in the U.S. marketplace, despite containing "Art for Art's Sake" and "I'm Mandy Fly Me," and then the band splintered.
Now the truth is I actually prefer the second Gouldman/Stewart album, "Bloody Tourists," over "Deceptive Bends." "Dreadlock Holiday" was a hit seemingly everywhere but the States, but it's actually the slower, dreamier numbers that ring my bell, like "Old Mister Time."
Anyway, I was thrilled one of my favorite bands had another hit so I rushed out and bought "Deceptive Bends," which I would have bought anyway, and thus I know "Good Morning Judge" by heart. Just like seemingly everybody in the U.K. and northern Europe, where it was a successful single, which even had a video!
https://bit.ly/3rnzzIU
I just learned that, doing some research on credits. And I watched it, wary of this early video, pre-MTV, when they were made as ads for Europe where state radio was hard to crack. But when I watched it...it was magical! That sense of humor. Never forget, conception supersedes production every day of the week. And the video just reinforced what I knew from revisiting the track, these guys could WAIL!
"Well good morning judge how are you today?
I'm in trouble please put me away"
There's a brash guitar opening, a lick and a slash, this cut hits the track running, it needs no build, it's already built.
But then leaning towards sotto voce:
"I couldn't stop it so I let it be"
Then comes the part that is stuck in my head:
"He didn't do it, he wasn't there
He didn't want it, he wouldn't dare
I didn't do it, I wasn't there,
I didn't want it, I wouldn't dare"
And then a little over ninety seconds in the cut starts to explode, there's a guitar flourish and then a dancing lead which ultimately gets syncopated akin to an Allman Brothers cut and then both guitars are playing and there's more of the hooky riff, and then it's back to the story:
"Alcatraz is like a home sweet home
I'm so wanted and I'm never alone
San Quentin is the place to be"
There's that humor, the ranking of prisons, never mind the HAPPINESS!
"I'm so happy I don't wanna be free
So happy I don't wanna be free"
That's rock and roll, it takes you prisoner, you can't shake it, you can think you're burned out, done, but then it creeps back in. And it's a big tent, the guitar is a key element, but there are so many styles, there's a whole world to explore and relish. And the thing is you believe you're the only fan and then you go to the show and find all these people who feel exactly like you, who were in their bedrooms alone, spinning the records, who are now at the gig to bond with the sound. They don't need to talk, they don't shoot selfies, they may even close their eyes as the music washes over them, a live version of what they know so well.
And I went to see 10cc at the Santa Monica Civic and...
Now they no longer have shows there.
And rock and roll no longer dominates the chart.
And chances are the obscure album you're into has few other fans, there's just so much product.
And everybody's complaining they can't make any money while they're grubbing for it.
And the audience itself believes it's entitled to be stars, as rich and well known as those on stage.
And the work is secondary to money and fame.
But if you were there, it was different. And it's not coming back. But the tunes, the magic remains. I'm so happy I don't wanna be free!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
"He didn't do it, he wasn't there
He didn't want it, he wouldn't dare"
I don't know why these words started going through my head twenty minutes ago but there they were, unable to be excised. And the more they played in my brain the happier I was. I was entranced by the music, in my own private bubble, if not Idaho. I was so happy I didn't want to be free.
10cc. At this point known for "I'm Not in Love" and "The Things We Do for Love," if they're known at all. Scratch that, if they're REMEMBERED at all. The latter hit came out in 1977, and that's 44 years ago. And the opening cut on that album, entitled "Deceptive Bends," was "Good Morning Judge."
The track is jaunty. But would it close someone who never heard it before? "The Things We Do for Love" is a one listen smash, perfect, a hit in any era. And then there's the suite that ends the album, "Feel the Benefit," an eleven and a half minute opus that reminds me of the Sweet's "Love is Like Oxygen," from their 1977 LP "Level Headed," the only one I ever bought, even though they're not really similar tracks, but they're both extended, majestic.
You didn't quite get this majesty in the original iteration of 10cc, which had too much talent to maintain. Ultimately Kevin Godley and Lol Creme went on to make a triple album boxed set with their musical invention the Gizmo and when that failed they became legendary video directors, pushing the envelope in the original explosion of MTV. But Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart soldiered on under the old moniker.
But those initial LPs, especially the eponymous first one, whew! Now that's a masterpiece of not only construction and production, writing and playing, but HUMOR! Which is completely absent in today's music sphere, then again it was just a small part of the enterprise back when, but the band's "Rubber Bullets" ran up the chart in the U.K., and meant nothing over here.
"Rubber Bullets" is the best Beach Boys song Brian Wilson never wrote. Well, maybe we need to include "Back in the U.S.S.R." in the equation too, but..."Rubber Bullets exploded out of the speakers, you had to run to catch up with it. As for the other songs on the LP, they were tongue-in-cheek and in the style of classics and the whole album was infectious, one of my favorites, but it was on Mercury, which was poison, and was far from meat and potatoes, which was dominating FM rock in the United States, so it stiffed over here.
The second LP had a radio track, "The Wall Street Shuffle," and then the third, which I did not think was as good as the first two, had the gigantic hit, "I'm Not in Love."
The fourth LP sounded much more like the first two, especially the second, and it did nothing in the U.S. marketplace, despite containing "Art for Art's Sake" and "I'm Mandy Fly Me," and then the band splintered.
Now the truth is I actually prefer the second Gouldman/Stewart album, "Bloody Tourists," over "Deceptive Bends." "Dreadlock Holiday" was a hit seemingly everywhere but the States, but it's actually the slower, dreamier numbers that ring my bell, like "Old Mister Time."
Anyway, I was thrilled one of my favorite bands had another hit so I rushed out and bought "Deceptive Bends," which I would have bought anyway, and thus I know "Good Morning Judge" by heart. Just like seemingly everybody in the U.K. and northern Europe, where it was a successful single, which even had a video!
https://bit.ly/3rnzzIU
I just learned that, doing some research on credits. And I watched it, wary of this early video, pre-MTV, when they were made as ads for Europe where state radio was hard to crack. But when I watched it...it was magical! That sense of humor. Never forget, conception supersedes production every day of the week. And the video just reinforced what I knew from revisiting the track, these guys could WAIL!
"Well good morning judge how are you today?
I'm in trouble please put me away"
There's a brash guitar opening, a lick and a slash, this cut hits the track running, it needs no build, it's already built.
But then leaning towards sotto voce:
"I couldn't stop it so I let it be"
Then comes the part that is stuck in my head:
"He didn't do it, he wasn't there
He didn't want it, he wouldn't dare
I didn't do it, I wasn't there,
I didn't want it, I wouldn't dare"
And then a little over ninety seconds in the cut starts to explode, there's a guitar flourish and then a dancing lead which ultimately gets syncopated akin to an Allman Brothers cut and then both guitars are playing and there's more of the hooky riff, and then it's back to the story:
"Alcatraz is like a home sweet home
I'm so wanted and I'm never alone
San Quentin is the place to be"
There's that humor, the ranking of prisons, never mind the HAPPINESS!
"I'm so happy I don't wanna be free
So happy I don't wanna be free"
That's rock and roll, it takes you prisoner, you can't shake it, you can think you're burned out, done, but then it creeps back in. And it's a big tent, the guitar is a key element, but there are so many styles, there's a whole world to explore and relish. And the thing is you believe you're the only fan and then you go to the show and find all these people who feel exactly like you, who were in their bedrooms alone, spinning the records, who are now at the gig to bond with the sound. They don't need to talk, they don't shoot selfies, they may even close their eyes as the music washes over them, a live version of what they know so well.
And I went to see 10cc at the Santa Monica Civic and...
Now they no longer have shows there.
And rock and roll no longer dominates the chart.
And chances are the obscure album you're into has few other fans, there's just so much product.
And everybody's complaining they can't make any money while they're grubbing for it.
And the audience itself believes it's entitled to be stars, as rich and well known as those on stage.
And the work is secondary to money and fame.
But if you were there, it was different. And it's not coming back. But the tunes, the magic remains. I'm so happy I don't wanna be free!
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Adele In Vegas
It's always the stars that change the paradigm.
Credit John Meglen with starting the Vegas residency trend, with Celine Dion. And over the years more and more acts have played there for extended periods. And now we've got Adele.
The traveling is hell. Isn't that what Dan Fogelberg said? The traveling kills you. The best part is the hour or so you're on stage, the rest of the time...you're unable to sleep, hanging with the same people every damn day and just trying to hang on. As for the rock star shenanigans, those are history now that everybody has a smartphone with a camera, never mind the #MeToo movement.
But let's not forget Garth Brooks. Who plays until demand is exhausted. At low prices. This is the best way to kill scalpers ever invented. Why do more people not do this?
Because they want the money, they'd rather not work that hard, a lot of the old acts are pissed they've got to go on the road to earn their keep now that recording income is down.
But having the audience come to you?
It's no longer the 1960s. Everybody's been on a plane, flight is no longer classy, as evidenced by the air rage incidents of the last eighteen months.
And if you want to go to Vegas, not only are there numerous direct flights, but there are a zillion hotel rooms, and not all of them expensive, and Vegas needs to fill them. It's a win win win. For the acts, the audience and the hotels.
There's nothing cool about it, but it turns out cool is out of style. Do you want to go to Bonnaroo or JazzFest, do you want to camp in the mud or retire every night to your hotel room? Which is why the most successful new festivals are based in cities, not only are there a ton of customers in the surrounding area, you don't have to camp and live together with everybody else. People don't want to get together and live together, that faded with the sixties too.
As for Vegas... The truth is if acts are willing to commit to dates, tickets become available. Much of the mania of on sale dates is overblown. The flames of the hysteria are fanned by the absence of tickets, many having gone to scalpers, prices are driven up beyond demand. This is the Garth model. You could always get tickets for Celine. The showroom might be full at the end but you didn't have to buy your tickets a year in advance to make sure you could see the show.
It's business, it's mature. You don't go backwards. Concerts were nascent fifty and sixty years ago. There weren't that many rooms, they weren't all for music and sound was a challenge. Those problems have been fixed. In addition, with the roll-up in the nineties, the business has become professionalized. You're not worried about Live Nation stiffing you, you're willing to be paid by check instead of cash. So in what other ways can the business evolve beyond the old slog from town to town?
Credit country music, they figured it out years ago, with Branson. I'm not saying we need a whole new city, costs are too high and Vegas has the infrastructure. You've just got to train the public to go to Vegas to see their favorite acts.
And it's well known that superstars don't travel from city to city anyway, they park their butts in one metropolis and jet out to local gigs and then relocate to another hub. Maybe there can be residencies in these other hubs. You can play Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta and New York. Everybody is close enough to one of these cities. Forget the people who bitch, the truth is fans are willing to pay umpteen bucks to see their favorites, money is not the issue, why shouldn't the burden be shouldered by the fans instead of the acts?
We haven't had a revolution in touring in decades. Recorded music was disrupted, but not touring. But touring is ripe. The model can be changed to the benefit of everyone. Adele is going to do a better show if she's not hassled with all that travel.
As for the coronavirus, did you read about Phish's Halloween shows in Vegas?
"COVID from Vegas.' Phish concerts leave a long trail of infections, fans say - Those who attended the Vermont-based band's Las Vegas concerts over Halloween weekend say few wore masks and air was stagnant": https://bit.ly/3EaixBv
Bring everybody to one location and they bring everything back all around the country.
Food for thought.
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Credit John Meglen with starting the Vegas residency trend, with Celine Dion. And over the years more and more acts have played there for extended periods. And now we've got Adele.
The traveling is hell. Isn't that what Dan Fogelberg said? The traveling kills you. The best part is the hour or so you're on stage, the rest of the time...you're unable to sleep, hanging with the same people every damn day and just trying to hang on. As for the rock star shenanigans, those are history now that everybody has a smartphone with a camera, never mind the #MeToo movement.
But let's not forget Garth Brooks. Who plays until demand is exhausted. At low prices. This is the best way to kill scalpers ever invented. Why do more people not do this?
Because they want the money, they'd rather not work that hard, a lot of the old acts are pissed they've got to go on the road to earn their keep now that recording income is down.
But having the audience come to you?
It's no longer the 1960s. Everybody's been on a plane, flight is no longer classy, as evidenced by the air rage incidents of the last eighteen months.
And if you want to go to Vegas, not only are there numerous direct flights, but there are a zillion hotel rooms, and not all of them expensive, and Vegas needs to fill them. It's a win win win. For the acts, the audience and the hotels.
There's nothing cool about it, but it turns out cool is out of style. Do you want to go to Bonnaroo or JazzFest, do you want to camp in the mud or retire every night to your hotel room? Which is why the most successful new festivals are based in cities, not only are there a ton of customers in the surrounding area, you don't have to camp and live together with everybody else. People don't want to get together and live together, that faded with the sixties too.
As for Vegas... The truth is if acts are willing to commit to dates, tickets become available. Much of the mania of on sale dates is overblown. The flames of the hysteria are fanned by the absence of tickets, many having gone to scalpers, prices are driven up beyond demand. This is the Garth model. You could always get tickets for Celine. The showroom might be full at the end but you didn't have to buy your tickets a year in advance to make sure you could see the show.
It's business, it's mature. You don't go backwards. Concerts were nascent fifty and sixty years ago. There weren't that many rooms, they weren't all for music and sound was a challenge. Those problems have been fixed. In addition, with the roll-up in the nineties, the business has become professionalized. You're not worried about Live Nation stiffing you, you're willing to be paid by check instead of cash. So in what other ways can the business evolve beyond the old slog from town to town?
Credit country music, they figured it out years ago, with Branson. I'm not saying we need a whole new city, costs are too high and Vegas has the infrastructure. You've just got to train the public to go to Vegas to see their favorite acts.
And it's well known that superstars don't travel from city to city anyway, they park their butts in one metropolis and jet out to local gigs and then relocate to another hub. Maybe there can be residencies in these other hubs. You can play Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta and New York. Everybody is close enough to one of these cities. Forget the people who bitch, the truth is fans are willing to pay umpteen bucks to see their favorites, money is not the issue, why shouldn't the burden be shouldered by the fans instead of the acts?
We haven't had a revolution in touring in decades. Recorded music was disrupted, but not touring. But touring is ripe. The model can be changed to the benefit of everyone. Adele is going to do a better show if she's not hassled with all that travel.
As for the coronavirus, did you read about Phish's Halloween shows in Vegas?
"COVID from Vegas.' Phish concerts leave a long trail of infections, fans say - Those who attended the Vermont-based band's Las Vegas concerts over Halloween weekend say few wore masks and air was stagnant": https://bit.ly/3EaixBv
Bring everybody to one location and they bring everything back all around the country.
Food for thought.
--
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--
Listen to the podcast:
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Get Back-Part Two
John Lennon is an asshole.
But Paul McCartney can be passive-aggressive.
So the shock here is the old cars. Watching the miniseries you believe you're in the present, so why are the cars in the street so ancient? It's cognitive dissonance. Paul may be complaining about the quality of 16mm film, but just like the Beatles' recordings themselves, the images are pristine.
So in the second part George is back, the songs are coming together and the Beatle magic is evident. It's the vocals, not only Paul's pure voice but John's light grade sandpapery one too.
And there are revelations... John plays the into guitar part of "I've Got a Feeling," and solos too. And he can play the lap steel, it's him on "For You Blue." And Ringo can even play the piano, but he's definitely a secondary character here. He plays the drums, you can't have a band without them, but he's not a major songwriter, a good part of the time he's staring into the distance, that is when he's not camping it up, a la "A Hard Day's Night."
As for George... There's really no room for him. Oh, there's plenty of room for his guitar, just not his input. He's relatively quiet, thoughtful, and he speaks slowly, at times self-consciously, whereas Lennon just spouts whatever comes into his brain and McCartney oozes a subtle confidence. And most of the time the music creation is a conversation between John and Paul, this is how they've done it for years. But George was in the band from almost the beginning. As for Ringo, not only is the drummer, but he's a latecomer, a la Jason Newsted in Metallica, and never fully accepted by the others, or should I say never feels completely comfortable with them.
So for decades we've seen the Beatles as the epitome of the sixties, the paragon, the tertiary acts have faded away and everybody else has become secondary. But that's not the way it was. As a matter of fact, the way it was was music was everything for the younger generation. TV was a joke. As for films... The renaissance started in '67, with "Bonnie and Clyde" and "The Graduate," but it really didn't gain full traction until '69 and then the seventies. But in the interim, the youngsters had not only taken over music, but seemingly every other walk of life. This was the era when it became cool to be young, before this was not the case, your elders were respected and in control. Today, the boomers are in many cases out of it, just ask them for tech help, but they want to hold on to power and the younger generations believe that youth continues to rule, even though they have not demonstrated any reason why it should.
Bottom line, the Beatles were part of a scene, they weren't the entire scene. Today the Beatles represent the sixties, during the era they were just part of the sixties.
And the band knew it.
When John talks about Fleetwood Mac... He's not verbalizing from the perspective of a superior, but a contemporary, he digs what they do, he's not quite envious, but he's wowed.
There's constant context. The Beatles are alone in a room, but they're reading the newspaper, talking about what's going on around them, yet still...
Self-referential.
We see the Beatle albums as discrete, each one individual, with a definite forward progression. But to the band itself, it's all just part of their work, all accessible, not in the past but still in the present. In the first episode John goes off on my favorite Beatle song, "Every Little Thing." In the second episode, he sings "I Feel Fine" and...these songs are part of the band's history, part of their conversation, they're their catalog, not to be discarded and forgotten, but referred to on a regular basis.
And they're not above publicity. They're reading what's written about them constantly, despite remarking on its falsehood and asking Derek Taylor if they can sue. Then again, this was the sixties, WHEN THERE WAS SO MUCH ROCK PRESS! Funny how in the internet era there are more words, but fewer facts, and the stories don't drive the culture, whereas back then they were everything.
So John Lennon acts like that kid in high school...who bats below his intelligence, but does not care, who believes he's superior to the system and doesn't need it anyway, he can survive without it. He's constantly cracking jokes, throwing off asides, but almost always they have an edge to them, if you're the recipient of his words you can feel bad. The band tolerates him, would anybody else?
Well the truth is when you're a rock star you can get away with so much, but as you age this personality wears thin. Most people mellow out, the ones who don't end up isolated. I wouldn't say John can't read the room so much as he doesn't care what the room has to say or think. This makes him John Lennon, a singular rock hero, but it also demonstrates how if he were not a Beatle he'd have a hard time making it in life, getting along with everyday people.
As for Paul McCartney...when the going gets rough, he shuts up. You can tell he's pissed, but he won't tell you why, never mind proffer a solution. So the others keep talking while Paul stays quiet, waiting for a breaking point. Can you imagine being in a band with these guys?
They've all got issues. Which is why they're musicians, artists. They've got a calling, they know they don't fit in anywhere else, and they're not big on compromise, because if it's not right, it's worthless.
But George does say the band always meanders to a conclusion, and that's the best result. It's the opposite of business, which has a distinct target and is regimented in its journey to the destination. The Beatles are messing around, they'll get it done, but they'll also have some laughs, and they'll do a ton of experimentation, but when it's all said and done it has to reach a certain bar, they insist upon it.
But the band is constantly playing material that ends up on other albums, your jaw drops when you hear McCartney sing "Her Majesty," the throwaway coda at the end of "Abbey Road." You thought it was written that way, an afterthought. Hm, no. It was a piece from the past that was jiggled into the second side.
And there's "Oh! Darling" and so many other "Abbey Road" songs, as well as McCartney's "Another Day" and "Teddy Boy," the former of which is not going to come out on wax for years.
And Glyn Johns is the engineer, quiet, as most of them are, unwilling to weigh in for fear of losing their job, trying to get the sound right while the band is ready to go.
But the studio equipment! It looks like it's out of a war room from the forties, maybe even the thirties! Now the truth is recording takes a giant leap forward at just about this time, with 16 track machines and Neve and other consoles, this is the last vestige of the old. But it's cognitive dissonance once again, everything is so modern, where did they get this equipment, is this a joke?
And there's not the constant overdubbing and comping of vocals which took hold in the seventies and are even worse in the era of Pro Tools. That's why they're doing it this way, as a band, to get back to where they once belonged.
So yes, the second episode moves forward, the songs come together, the tracks are laid down, they're building to a conclusion.
Yet George Martin is there in his suit, on the floor reading the newspaper, about as engaged as Yoko, what is he doing, the vaunted producer?
So if you don't want to invest eight hours, you can start with Part Two.
And a completist can watch it all, even over again, but that's not the way the Beatles themselves were. They were just making another record, other than Paul, they were not taking it that seriously. As Paul tightens up, John actually gets looser and more involved. George enjoys playing every day. They're a band again, the way it once was. As for being worried that the new record has to be as good as what came before, it has to top the chart, we hear nothing of that. That's the modern paradigm. Which is inhibiting. Because if you feel the pressure of the audience/world, you can rarely deliver.
And the truth is in this episode the band is removed, in their own private world, they don't even acknowledge the Scruffs outside the building.
And of course I must mention Billy Preston. This is how music works, behind the scenes it's a culture, a family, if you don't keep up relationships you get no opportunities. And Billy is invited to sit down at the piano as a casual thought, he'd just stopped by to say hi, this spontaneity, this refusal to weigh every decision heavily, is what results in the unexpectedly great, if you want to push forward you can't rigidly adhere to the manual. As a matter of fact, so many famous rock sounds were created by musicians messing with the equipment.
And Billy is so skilled. He doesn't have to go home and study, he's paid his dues for years, on the road, in the studio, he can just sit down and play what is right, it's amazing.
So the truth is George and Ringo evolved. After his solo albums hit a wall, George got the Traveling Wilburys together. Ringo became an actor, made music in different genres and ultimately went on the road. John? John recorded solo tunes, many worked out in these sessions, and then canceled his subscription to "Billboard" and retired, he wanted to have a life, see what he had missed. Being famous was not important. Then again, he had plenty of money. And then just when he came back, he was killed.
Paul?
He's done the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Sure, the initial "McCartney," done all by himself, was a revelation. And then Wings. But thereafter it became the McCartney show, the same thing over and over, he continued to hold the Beatles torch, but he was crippled by it. (Of course Paul eventually did the Fireman and recorded classical music, but he was never a leader in these areas, pushing the envelope.)
All the peripheral people... They were working with the Beatles, but if that's all they had, they were heading for a big fall. Only the Beatles were the Beatles, only they could rest on their laurels. Glyn Johns and George Martin had to get other gigs. Ditto Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Even Derek Taylor. Time keeps running, you've got to keep moving, which can be hard to do after you've reached the pinnacle of success.
So the second episode moves faster, and is more interesting, but what you've got to remember is you may have more reverence for what you see on screen than the band itself. For them it was just another project, part of their life. It is not everything, it was just something. "Let It Be" was just another song. Ditto "Get Back." Hell, they let Joe Cocker record "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" before they did. The band was in motion, and only Paul seems to be linked to the past, the others are exploring, wanting to move forward, the Beatles is something they're doing now, but it's not the only thing they want to do in life. There's so much more to life. But in the ensuing years, when music has been commoditized, when it panders, when it's massaged to be a hit, it's hard not to look back at the glory days evidenced here without being wowed. But that was then and this is now. And in many ways, just like in so many other walks of modern life, then was better than now.
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But Paul McCartney can be passive-aggressive.
So the shock here is the old cars. Watching the miniseries you believe you're in the present, so why are the cars in the street so ancient? It's cognitive dissonance. Paul may be complaining about the quality of 16mm film, but just like the Beatles' recordings themselves, the images are pristine.
So in the second part George is back, the songs are coming together and the Beatle magic is evident. It's the vocals, not only Paul's pure voice but John's light grade sandpapery one too.
And there are revelations... John plays the into guitar part of "I've Got a Feeling," and solos too. And he can play the lap steel, it's him on "For You Blue." And Ringo can even play the piano, but he's definitely a secondary character here. He plays the drums, you can't have a band without them, but he's not a major songwriter, a good part of the time he's staring into the distance, that is when he's not camping it up, a la "A Hard Day's Night."
As for George... There's really no room for him. Oh, there's plenty of room for his guitar, just not his input. He's relatively quiet, thoughtful, and he speaks slowly, at times self-consciously, whereas Lennon just spouts whatever comes into his brain and McCartney oozes a subtle confidence. And most of the time the music creation is a conversation between John and Paul, this is how they've done it for years. But George was in the band from almost the beginning. As for Ringo, not only is the drummer, but he's a latecomer, a la Jason Newsted in Metallica, and never fully accepted by the others, or should I say never feels completely comfortable with them.
So for decades we've seen the Beatles as the epitome of the sixties, the paragon, the tertiary acts have faded away and everybody else has become secondary. But that's not the way it was. As a matter of fact, the way it was was music was everything for the younger generation. TV was a joke. As for films... The renaissance started in '67, with "Bonnie and Clyde" and "The Graduate," but it really didn't gain full traction until '69 and then the seventies. But in the interim, the youngsters had not only taken over music, but seemingly every other walk of life. This was the era when it became cool to be young, before this was not the case, your elders were respected and in control. Today, the boomers are in many cases out of it, just ask them for tech help, but they want to hold on to power and the younger generations believe that youth continues to rule, even though they have not demonstrated any reason why it should.
Bottom line, the Beatles were part of a scene, they weren't the entire scene. Today the Beatles represent the sixties, during the era they were just part of the sixties.
And the band knew it.
When John talks about Fleetwood Mac... He's not verbalizing from the perspective of a superior, but a contemporary, he digs what they do, he's not quite envious, but he's wowed.
There's constant context. The Beatles are alone in a room, but they're reading the newspaper, talking about what's going on around them, yet still...
Self-referential.
We see the Beatle albums as discrete, each one individual, with a definite forward progression. But to the band itself, it's all just part of their work, all accessible, not in the past but still in the present. In the first episode John goes off on my favorite Beatle song, "Every Little Thing." In the second episode, he sings "I Feel Fine" and...these songs are part of the band's history, part of their conversation, they're their catalog, not to be discarded and forgotten, but referred to on a regular basis.
And they're not above publicity. They're reading what's written about them constantly, despite remarking on its falsehood and asking Derek Taylor if they can sue. Then again, this was the sixties, WHEN THERE WAS SO MUCH ROCK PRESS! Funny how in the internet era there are more words, but fewer facts, and the stories don't drive the culture, whereas back then they were everything.
So John Lennon acts like that kid in high school...who bats below his intelligence, but does not care, who believes he's superior to the system and doesn't need it anyway, he can survive without it. He's constantly cracking jokes, throwing off asides, but almost always they have an edge to them, if you're the recipient of his words you can feel bad. The band tolerates him, would anybody else?
Well the truth is when you're a rock star you can get away with so much, but as you age this personality wears thin. Most people mellow out, the ones who don't end up isolated. I wouldn't say John can't read the room so much as he doesn't care what the room has to say or think. This makes him John Lennon, a singular rock hero, but it also demonstrates how if he were not a Beatle he'd have a hard time making it in life, getting along with everyday people.
As for Paul McCartney...when the going gets rough, he shuts up. You can tell he's pissed, but he won't tell you why, never mind proffer a solution. So the others keep talking while Paul stays quiet, waiting for a breaking point. Can you imagine being in a band with these guys?
They've all got issues. Which is why they're musicians, artists. They've got a calling, they know they don't fit in anywhere else, and they're not big on compromise, because if it's not right, it's worthless.
But George does say the band always meanders to a conclusion, and that's the best result. It's the opposite of business, which has a distinct target and is regimented in its journey to the destination. The Beatles are messing around, they'll get it done, but they'll also have some laughs, and they'll do a ton of experimentation, but when it's all said and done it has to reach a certain bar, they insist upon it.
But the band is constantly playing material that ends up on other albums, your jaw drops when you hear McCartney sing "Her Majesty," the throwaway coda at the end of "Abbey Road." You thought it was written that way, an afterthought. Hm, no. It was a piece from the past that was jiggled into the second side.
And there's "Oh! Darling" and so many other "Abbey Road" songs, as well as McCartney's "Another Day" and "Teddy Boy," the former of which is not going to come out on wax for years.
And Glyn Johns is the engineer, quiet, as most of them are, unwilling to weigh in for fear of losing their job, trying to get the sound right while the band is ready to go.
But the studio equipment! It looks like it's out of a war room from the forties, maybe even the thirties! Now the truth is recording takes a giant leap forward at just about this time, with 16 track machines and Neve and other consoles, this is the last vestige of the old. But it's cognitive dissonance once again, everything is so modern, where did they get this equipment, is this a joke?
And there's not the constant overdubbing and comping of vocals which took hold in the seventies and are even worse in the era of Pro Tools. That's why they're doing it this way, as a band, to get back to where they once belonged.
So yes, the second episode moves forward, the songs come together, the tracks are laid down, they're building to a conclusion.
Yet George Martin is there in his suit, on the floor reading the newspaper, about as engaged as Yoko, what is he doing, the vaunted producer?
So if you don't want to invest eight hours, you can start with Part Two.
And a completist can watch it all, even over again, but that's not the way the Beatles themselves were. They were just making another record, other than Paul, they were not taking it that seriously. As Paul tightens up, John actually gets looser and more involved. George enjoys playing every day. They're a band again, the way it once was. As for being worried that the new record has to be as good as what came before, it has to top the chart, we hear nothing of that. That's the modern paradigm. Which is inhibiting. Because if you feel the pressure of the audience/world, you can rarely deliver.
And the truth is in this episode the band is removed, in their own private world, they don't even acknowledge the Scruffs outside the building.
And of course I must mention Billy Preston. This is how music works, behind the scenes it's a culture, a family, if you don't keep up relationships you get no opportunities. And Billy is invited to sit down at the piano as a casual thought, he'd just stopped by to say hi, this spontaneity, this refusal to weigh every decision heavily, is what results in the unexpectedly great, if you want to push forward you can't rigidly adhere to the manual. As a matter of fact, so many famous rock sounds were created by musicians messing with the equipment.
And Billy is so skilled. He doesn't have to go home and study, he's paid his dues for years, on the road, in the studio, he can just sit down and play what is right, it's amazing.
So the truth is George and Ringo evolved. After his solo albums hit a wall, George got the Traveling Wilburys together. Ringo became an actor, made music in different genres and ultimately went on the road. John? John recorded solo tunes, many worked out in these sessions, and then canceled his subscription to "Billboard" and retired, he wanted to have a life, see what he had missed. Being famous was not important. Then again, he had plenty of money. And then just when he came back, he was killed.
Paul?
He's done the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Sure, the initial "McCartney," done all by himself, was a revelation. And then Wings. But thereafter it became the McCartney show, the same thing over and over, he continued to hold the Beatles torch, but he was crippled by it. (Of course Paul eventually did the Fireman and recorded classical music, but he was never a leader in these areas, pushing the envelope.)
All the peripheral people... They were working with the Beatles, but if that's all they had, they were heading for a big fall. Only the Beatles were the Beatles, only they could rest on their laurels. Glyn Johns and George Martin had to get other gigs. Ditto Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Even Derek Taylor. Time keeps running, you've got to keep moving, which can be hard to do after you've reached the pinnacle of success.
So the second episode moves faster, and is more interesting, but what you've got to remember is you may have more reverence for what you see on screen than the band itself. For them it was just another project, part of their life. It is not everything, it was just something. "Let It Be" was just another song. Ditto "Get Back." Hell, they let Joe Cocker record "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" before they did. The band was in motion, and only Paul seems to be linked to the past, the others are exploring, wanting to move forward, the Beatles is something they're doing now, but it's not the only thing they want to do in life. There's so much more to life. But in the ensuing years, when music has been commoditized, when it panders, when it's massaged to be a hit, it's hard not to look back at the glory days evidenced here without being wowed. But that was then and this is now. And in many ways, just like in so many other walks of modern life, then was better than now.
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The Beatles: Get Back-This Week On SiriusXM
Tune in today, November 30th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive
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Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863
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Monday 29 November 2021
Beautiful World, Where Are You
https://amzn.to/3E8zvAr
This book did not get universally good reviews. And that's significant, because its author, Sally Rooney, is the latest literary phenom.
Oh, you know her, even if you didn't read her two previous books. She's the one behind "Normal People," on Hulu, which everybody was raving about last year. I tried, but once again the images did not square with the ones in my head, because so much of what Rooney writes is internal, not external, and visual entertainment is inherently external, which is another reason why some of the greatest books have never been made into movies or TV shows.
So, Rooney wrote about young life. Adolescence. College. Now what?
It's hard to grow up, especially in the public eye, with so many expectations. And people believe they know who you are, they're invested in your work, and reviewers, who usually are writers themselves, are out to get you, because they wish they'd gotten the acclaim you did.
So at first I'm reading "Beautiful World, Where Are You," and I'm wondering what the blowback is all about, I'm really digging it, it's great. But then...it becomes a bit repetitive, and the paragraphs are long, and I was getting sleepy, but then the second half of the book picked up and I finished it in one marathon jaunt Saturday afternoon.
So, what you've got here is two college friends, who profess nerdiness, who grew up without many friends and now have each other, even though in many ways they're different.
Alice is a writer. She graduated, wrote a book and had instant success. She's a millionaire, even though she's barely thirty. Eileen is only making 20,000 a year at a literary magazine. So they're living in two completely different economic strata, and that makes a difference. Although they're both looking for love.
So Alice had her success and then had a nervous breakdown. She's decamped for the west coast of Ireland, the other side of the country from Eileen's Dublin, and she's trying to start her life again and recover. And she goes on a Tinder date...
Yes, the book is very up to date. And it assumes you're familiar with the experience. Rooney is not here to educate the reader, get up to speed on your own. As a matter of fact, the book is endless navel-gazing, which means many people will pick it up and be offended, talk about first world problems and move on. But although there's nothing worse than having no money, no food and shelter, the truth is we're all human beings and we're all struggling, otherwise why would Christina Onassis commit suicide?
And most of the book is e-mail correspondence between Alice and Eileen, and it reads almost like a Greta Thunberg screed. The old fat cats, mostly men, may be in charge of the world, but it's the youngsters who are gonna have to live in it. And they're fiercely aware of global warming and the inane political situation, and Alice and Eileen write about this and debate how to live in modern society.
I mean it's really frustrating. Do you read the news? Watching it is not the same. Bottom line, the world is insane, and America is one of the worst offenders. We now have a new Covid variant yet people are still refusing vaccination. The odds of dying are 11x higher if you're unvaxxed, but if you get the vax you've surrendered, amongst your group your character is at stake. Never mind voting laws and... Nothing is gonna change, you can't convince anybody to change their mind, you've just got to deal with the consequences. I mean I'm old and I live in California, but if you're young and live elsewhere, it's even more depressing,.
And the truth is what Alice and Eileen talk about...is what I talked about in college.
Today nobody wants to debate the issues, they're too busy getting rich, or trying to. Subtleties are irrelevant, and if it doesn't produce cash it's off the table. So, you can be a college professor and analyze issues all day yet have no power in the real world, or you can be a businessman and focus on acquisition and lifestyle.
I used to think it was a west coast/east coast thing, but now that the nouveau riche financial sector dominates in NYC it's all about money there too. And I want to have a deeper conversation and where can I turn? Certainly not the music business. But the musicians? They can debate this stuff all day long, they're detached from society, they know the game is rigged, they're inherently outsiders and they recognize this. But I'm not a musician, so it's not my everyday life experience and...
I certainly don't want to be part of the intelligentsia, self-righteous sans power.
So I'm left in between, with more questions than answers, like Alice and Eileen.
Alice is into a guy who is not into her. How do you behave? Retreat or lean in?
Eileen was dumped by a musician who is featured everywhere online and can't get over the relationship even though all her friends put her ex down and say he wasn't right for her, none of that that sways Eileen.
And then you've got the guy in love with Eileen who can't get out of his own way. Everybody's on their own life trip, and other than Alice, nobody is going anywhere fast, and Alice has got her status and money, her fame...but then she riffs how bogus fame is, that most of the people are doing it for the fame, and then people admire them and want to be them and how screwed up that is.
You can put your head down and ignore the world around you, but if you look up at all, you're gonna have an existential crisis. Hell, we can't even build anything in America anymore. That's in today's paper. All this money for infrastructure...all our projects go over budget and sometimes they're not even completed!
And then you've got the Dems wanting to prop up local newspapers. Uh, no. Haven't they seen twenty years of digital disruption? You don't prop up the past, you look for a solution that will work tomorrow!
And then you've got the insane Afghanistan situation. The "Wall Street Journal" did a story today how the Taliban had infiltrated every aspect of the government and business, over years, so that's why the coup was instant and to a great degree bloodless. But somehow it's Biden's fault, when he was living up to Trump's timetable, intelligence officers were removed and... If you dig deep, thank god we got out of there, and Biden didn't do such a bad job at all. But even Democrats think he was at fault, because they don't read the facts, never mind them being in the right wing paper of record!
Feel powerless yet?
I certainly do.
Alice and Eileen are struggling to put one foot in front of the other. They've got the weight of the world on their shoulders and like me feel powerless to enact change. Should they just punt their futures as a result?
So I don't recommend you read "Beautiful World, Where Are You." Not unless my foregoing screed appeals to you. And most of my male readers only want to read nonfiction, when they'll learn much more from this book and yes, the girls are whiners by today's standards, but if you're not whining, you're an automaton.
So Sally Rooney is trying to grow up. And it's a struggle. Obviously Alice is based on her own experience. I mean the best writing is from what you know.
And Rooney herself is not lovable. As for her stance on not allowing this book to be translated into Hebrew... If I hear one more person excoriating the Israelis and defending the Palestinians... Yes, they both have positives and negatives, but the Palestinians believe that Israel SHOULD NOT EXIST! How would you like living in a country like that? Put that in your book Sally Rooney.
But it's not there. But so many issues are.
I found it stimulating.
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This book did not get universally good reviews. And that's significant, because its author, Sally Rooney, is the latest literary phenom.
Oh, you know her, even if you didn't read her two previous books. She's the one behind "Normal People," on Hulu, which everybody was raving about last year. I tried, but once again the images did not square with the ones in my head, because so much of what Rooney writes is internal, not external, and visual entertainment is inherently external, which is another reason why some of the greatest books have never been made into movies or TV shows.
So, Rooney wrote about young life. Adolescence. College. Now what?
It's hard to grow up, especially in the public eye, with so many expectations. And people believe they know who you are, they're invested in your work, and reviewers, who usually are writers themselves, are out to get you, because they wish they'd gotten the acclaim you did.
So at first I'm reading "Beautiful World, Where Are You," and I'm wondering what the blowback is all about, I'm really digging it, it's great. But then...it becomes a bit repetitive, and the paragraphs are long, and I was getting sleepy, but then the second half of the book picked up and I finished it in one marathon jaunt Saturday afternoon.
So, what you've got here is two college friends, who profess nerdiness, who grew up without many friends and now have each other, even though in many ways they're different.
Alice is a writer. She graduated, wrote a book and had instant success. She's a millionaire, even though she's barely thirty. Eileen is only making 20,000 a year at a literary magazine. So they're living in two completely different economic strata, and that makes a difference. Although they're both looking for love.
So Alice had her success and then had a nervous breakdown. She's decamped for the west coast of Ireland, the other side of the country from Eileen's Dublin, and she's trying to start her life again and recover. And she goes on a Tinder date...
Yes, the book is very up to date. And it assumes you're familiar with the experience. Rooney is not here to educate the reader, get up to speed on your own. As a matter of fact, the book is endless navel-gazing, which means many people will pick it up and be offended, talk about first world problems and move on. But although there's nothing worse than having no money, no food and shelter, the truth is we're all human beings and we're all struggling, otherwise why would Christina Onassis commit suicide?
And most of the book is e-mail correspondence between Alice and Eileen, and it reads almost like a Greta Thunberg screed. The old fat cats, mostly men, may be in charge of the world, but it's the youngsters who are gonna have to live in it. And they're fiercely aware of global warming and the inane political situation, and Alice and Eileen write about this and debate how to live in modern society.
I mean it's really frustrating. Do you read the news? Watching it is not the same. Bottom line, the world is insane, and America is one of the worst offenders. We now have a new Covid variant yet people are still refusing vaccination. The odds of dying are 11x higher if you're unvaxxed, but if you get the vax you've surrendered, amongst your group your character is at stake. Never mind voting laws and... Nothing is gonna change, you can't convince anybody to change their mind, you've just got to deal with the consequences. I mean I'm old and I live in California, but if you're young and live elsewhere, it's even more depressing,.
And the truth is what Alice and Eileen talk about...is what I talked about in college.
Today nobody wants to debate the issues, they're too busy getting rich, or trying to. Subtleties are irrelevant, and if it doesn't produce cash it's off the table. So, you can be a college professor and analyze issues all day yet have no power in the real world, or you can be a businessman and focus on acquisition and lifestyle.
I used to think it was a west coast/east coast thing, but now that the nouveau riche financial sector dominates in NYC it's all about money there too. And I want to have a deeper conversation and where can I turn? Certainly not the music business. But the musicians? They can debate this stuff all day long, they're detached from society, they know the game is rigged, they're inherently outsiders and they recognize this. But I'm not a musician, so it's not my everyday life experience and...
I certainly don't want to be part of the intelligentsia, self-righteous sans power.
So I'm left in between, with more questions than answers, like Alice and Eileen.
Alice is into a guy who is not into her. How do you behave? Retreat or lean in?
Eileen was dumped by a musician who is featured everywhere online and can't get over the relationship even though all her friends put her ex down and say he wasn't right for her, none of that that sways Eileen.
And then you've got the guy in love with Eileen who can't get out of his own way. Everybody's on their own life trip, and other than Alice, nobody is going anywhere fast, and Alice has got her status and money, her fame...but then she riffs how bogus fame is, that most of the people are doing it for the fame, and then people admire them and want to be them and how screwed up that is.
You can put your head down and ignore the world around you, but if you look up at all, you're gonna have an existential crisis. Hell, we can't even build anything in America anymore. That's in today's paper. All this money for infrastructure...all our projects go over budget and sometimes they're not even completed!
And then you've got the Dems wanting to prop up local newspapers. Uh, no. Haven't they seen twenty years of digital disruption? You don't prop up the past, you look for a solution that will work tomorrow!
And then you've got the insane Afghanistan situation. The "Wall Street Journal" did a story today how the Taliban had infiltrated every aspect of the government and business, over years, so that's why the coup was instant and to a great degree bloodless. But somehow it's Biden's fault, when he was living up to Trump's timetable, intelligence officers were removed and... If you dig deep, thank god we got out of there, and Biden didn't do such a bad job at all. But even Democrats think he was at fault, because they don't read the facts, never mind them being in the right wing paper of record!
Feel powerless yet?
I certainly do.
Alice and Eileen are struggling to put one foot in front of the other. They've got the weight of the world on their shoulders and like me feel powerless to enact change. Should they just punt their futures as a result?
So I don't recommend you read "Beautiful World, Where Are You." Not unless my foregoing screed appeals to you. And most of my male readers only want to read nonfiction, when they'll learn much more from this book and yes, the girls are whiners by today's standards, but if you're not whining, you're an automaton.
So Sally Rooney is trying to grow up. And it's a struggle. Obviously Alice is based on her own experience. I mean the best writing is from what you know.
And Rooney herself is not lovable. As for her stance on not allowing this book to be translated into Hebrew... If I hear one more person excoriating the Israelis and defending the Palestinians... Yes, they both have positives and negatives, but the Palestinians believe that Israel SHOULD NOT EXIST! How would you like living in a country like that? Put that in your book Sally Rooney.
But it's not there. But so many issues are.
I found it stimulating.
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The Chestnut Man
Trailer: https://bit.ly/3D8mdm5
Thanksgiving used to be for movies. This is the weekend the serious ones launched. Of course there were family flicks, and stuff in between, like "Mrs. Doubtfire," it's just that I remember going to the movies over the Thanksgiving holiday but that tradition petered out a decade or so ago. I think the last movie I saw over the Thanksgiving holiday was "Slumdog Millionaire," since then there hasn't been anything I've wanted to see.
Now if we want to talk the movie business, it's been permanently hobbled by Covid-19. Yes, there are tons of oldsters too scared to go to the theatre, but the truth is over the last eighteen months everybody has subscribed to multiple services and has become entranced by what streams on the flat screen. Furthermore, these shows are points of discussion. Seemingly everybody saw "Tiger King" and "Squid Game," so you could discuss and fawn over and argue about them. You can't do that with movies, because no one goes. Yes, the older boomers go to art films and the youngsters go to Marvel extravaganzas, but the art movies don't get much mindshare, they sink into oblivion, and there's not much to say about Marvel movies. I wish all these art films just launched on a streaming service, or maybe there could be a new service for all of them, because I read about them and forget about them unless I stumble upon them on a streaming service homepage months, or even years, later, and so many are great. Like "The Donut King," now on Hulu. We were talking about visual entertainment last night and when it turned out everybody in attendance had not seen it Felice and I started testifying, there's plenty to say about it. I used to testify about "House of Games," before Mamet became further embedded in the public consciousness, but I don't have enough movies to rave about anymore, "Donut King" is one of them.
But in truth I'm pretty burned out on movies. They're too short, I love more detail, and that's what you get in streaming series, the movies of today.
And it is well known that the Danes and the Israelis make the best television, and "The Chestnut Man" is Danish, it's not the best series I've ever seen, but it's far superior to the American dreck being hyped in today's media. I laughed at the L.A. "Times" streaming recommendations, domestic and lowbrow, what the nitwits like, when the truth is exposed to something better they'd like that even more. Then again, I can't understand why people hate subtitles. You can watch "The Chestnut Man" dubbed, but it's not the same. But better to watch it dubbed than not at all.
So ultimately "The Chestnut Man" is a murder mystery. But in Danish and Israeli productions the plot, the story, the dialogue, is superior to the design. American directors are the reverse, they focus on the look first, and that's a mistake. Not that the look of "The Chestnut Man" is not good, it just doesn't dominate, there are no holds on vistas, cinematography to impress us. The series is shot in the late fall, and it's dark and dreary at times and it matches the plot, enhances the tone.
You see there are murders. What is the motivation? Are they connected?
And the daughter of a government official is a victim, and her interactions with her sidekick are like Kasper's with Birgitte in "Borgen."
But there are so many issues. How does a couple handle the death of a child. Usually differently, usually the marriage doesn't survive.
And how important is your work? What do you sacrifice to be good at it, great. Relationships? Children?
And hurt... How long does it last. Forever?
People keep dying. The police feel they're not doing their job, never mind what outsiders think. And the story keeps unfolding and you're not sure where it's going and you're guessing all along who you think is the perpetrator, and even when the person is revealed the series is not over, there's more to play out.
So I highly recommend "The Chestnut Man." We were watching an episode before I planned on hiking on Friday night and then I punted my hike, not only because I wanted to finish the series that night, but because I was enjoying the experience, it was so visceral, like being at a movie.
And I love that feeling.
Thanksgiving used to be for movies. This is the weekend the serious ones launched. Of course there were family flicks, and stuff in between, like "Mrs. Doubtfire," it's just that I remember going to the movies over the Thanksgiving holiday but that tradition petered out a decade or so ago. I think the last movie I saw over the Thanksgiving holiday was "Slumdog Millionaire," since then there hasn't been anything I've wanted to see.
Now if we want to talk the movie business, it's been permanently hobbled by Covid-19. Yes, there are tons of oldsters too scared to go to the theatre, but the truth is over the last eighteen months everybody has subscribed to multiple services and has become entranced by what streams on the flat screen. Furthermore, these shows are points of discussion. Seemingly everybody saw "Tiger King" and "Squid Game," so you could discuss and fawn over and argue about them. You can't do that with movies, because no one goes. Yes, the older boomers go to art films and the youngsters go to Marvel extravaganzas, but the art movies don't get much mindshare, they sink into oblivion, and there's not much to say about Marvel movies. I wish all these art films just launched on a streaming service, or maybe there could be a new service for all of them, because I read about them and forget about them unless I stumble upon them on a streaming service homepage months, or even years, later, and so many are great. Like "The Donut King," now on Hulu. We were talking about visual entertainment last night and when it turned out everybody in attendance had not seen it Felice and I started testifying, there's plenty to say about it. I used to testify about "House of Games," before Mamet became further embedded in the public consciousness, but I don't have enough movies to rave about anymore, "Donut King" is one of them.
But in truth I'm pretty burned out on movies. They're too short, I love more detail, and that's what you get in streaming series, the movies of today.
And it is well known that the Danes and the Israelis make the best television, and "The Chestnut Man" is Danish, it's not the best series I've ever seen, but it's far superior to the American dreck being hyped in today's media. I laughed at the L.A. "Times" streaming recommendations, domestic and lowbrow, what the nitwits like, when the truth is exposed to something better they'd like that even more. Then again, I can't understand why people hate subtitles. You can watch "The Chestnut Man" dubbed, but it's not the same. But better to watch it dubbed than not at all.
So ultimately "The Chestnut Man" is a murder mystery. But in Danish and Israeli productions the plot, the story, the dialogue, is superior to the design. American directors are the reverse, they focus on the look first, and that's a mistake. Not that the look of "The Chestnut Man" is not good, it just doesn't dominate, there are no holds on vistas, cinematography to impress us. The series is shot in the late fall, and it's dark and dreary at times and it matches the plot, enhances the tone.
You see there are murders. What is the motivation? Are they connected?
And the daughter of a government official is a victim, and her interactions with her sidekick are like Kasper's with Birgitte in "Borgen."
But there are so many issues. How does a couple handle the death of a child. Usually differently, usually the marriage doesn't survive.
And how important is your work? What do you sacrifice to be good at it, great. Relationships? Children?
And hurt... How long does it last. Forever?
People keep dying. The police feel they're not doing their job, never mind what outsiders think. And the story keeps unfolding and you're not sure where it's going and you're guessing all along who you think is the perpetrator, and even when the person is revealed the series is not over, there's more to play out.
So I highly recommend "The Chestnut Man." We were watching an episode before I planned on hiking on Friday night and then I punted my hike, not only because I wanted to finish the series that night, but because I was enjoying the experience, it was so visceral, like being at a movie.
And I love that feeling.
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Oh William!
https://amzn.to/3lk2YA0
Every baby boomer should read this book.
Getting old is weird, in ways they never told you about. Sure, you regret the time you wasted. And you know so much more but nobody wants to listen to you. But the most revelatory thing is you just don't care. It happens almost overnight. Suddenly you realize all those games people play, the so-called winners and losers, they no longer give you a shot of adrenaline, you're no longer invested, you know at the end of the day they're irrelevant and...on one hand you feel empty, because the secret of life has been exposed to you and no one cares, and on the other you feel liberated. And the truth is you can fight this feeling, but you can never beat it. It's something in the bones, in the DNA, you hit a certain point and your perspective changes no matter what you did previously. The funniest thing is seeing people try to hold on to what they had, fearful of looking bad, not knowing that nobody is really paying attention anymore.
Not that you can't achieve in your old age. Elizabeth Strout published her first book, "Amy and Isabelle," in 1998, when she was 42. Her age, her experience, have given her wisdom, and she writes so well about the odd, the disenfranchised, the different, which so many of us are, even though we might try to hide it.
So the truth is almost all baby boomers have been divorced. We were sold a bill of goods in the sixties and seventies, telling us we could meet our soulmate and have it all when that is patently untrue. As a matter of fact, if you meet someone who utters this garbage ignore them, two people getting along is incredibly difficult, and if the couple professes endless love with no disagreements that just means one partner has the power and the other accedes to his or her wishes. If you're not fighting, you're not in a good relationship.
Now today the educated marry the educated and stay together while the uneducated often don't get married at all, they have babies out of wedlock, oftentimes with multiple partners, and they do their best to ensure they stay members of the underclass. I'm quoting statistics, not feelings, but you can argue with me anyway. And there are exceptions to every rule, not that anything can be gray anymore.
So it was Strout's third book, "Olive Kitteridge," that was her monumental breakthrough. It was shot into the stratosphere when it became an HBO miniseries, starring the incredible Frances McDormand, but I couldn't watch it, because it didn't square with the vision I had in my head, and Strout's books are personal, for the reader only, and when depicted on screen they inherently lose something, small stories become well known and this isn't the way life works.
But every Strout book is good, she's the Pixar of novels. And she gets her due, but I'm surprised even more people don't read her books, because they're so fulfilling, you don't want them to end.
Not that they're a huge commitment. In a few pages you're hooked and you don't need to read with a dictionary and although there's tons of plot, there is tons of wisdom too, Strout's books are what the graduate writing schools should hold up as their model, instead they produce self-conscious turgid works where the words supersede the plot and the only people who read them are the cognoscenti who keep this system alive.
They can't study Strout, they believe she's beneath them, she makes it seem effortless. But the best work is not always highbrow.
So what you've got here is a divorced couple. With two adult children. And the wife's second spouse dies and the husband ends up single again and they interact.
Now in a conventional romance book they'd get back together, all lovey-dovey, but that's not how the world works. William still bugs Lucy, but they share so much history, they were married all those years, never mind having those kids, so...
They're on the downhill side of life and end up interacting again.
William continues to work. But is his self-worth and identity caught up in his work? And how good was he at it really?
As for Lucy...she comes from nothing and can never get over it. She always feels she's out of the loop, doesn't know something, and in truth she's never felt fully comfortable in a love relationship, she's made them work, her second husband was nice, but to say they were soulmates would be a stretch. As for William, can he ever open up, can he ever be known? This is common amongst men. They can talk all day yet reveal nothing. You hear their truth in stolen moments if you hear it at all. And they get to the end of their lives and they wonder if they missed it, played it wrong.
Also, so many are putting up a front. They may look together, but they grew up poor and isolated. And every family has secrets, things they don't want people to know, that they sometimes keep from other family members. And...
I don't want to tell you any more.
But you'll learn more about life reading "Oh William!" than watching the Beatles miniseries. Not that they should be equated. Well, let's just say that reading "Oh William!" is like listening to a late period Beatles album, maybe the White Album. It's a personal experience, it sets your mind free, you're in a private space, thinking about life. That's what great art does, and that's what people are looking for. Which is why Strout is so successful, why her every book is a best seller, because people hunger for this feeling and fulfillment. Facts are interesting, feelings are life.
Every boomer will dig this book, and many others too. If you're willing to reflect, question your behavior and desires, you'll be stimulated by reading "Oh William!"
Not that reading a book is as easy as watching TV or listening to a record, but when done right it's a unique experience, that you cannot get anywhere else, that resonates so. Check out "Oh William!"
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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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Every baby boomer should read this book.
Getting old is weird, in ways they never told you about. Sure, you regret the time you wasted. And you know so much more but nobody wants to listen to you. But the most revelatory thing is you just don't care. It happens almost overnight. Suddenly you realize all those games people play, the so-called winners and losers, they no longer give you a shot of adrenaline, you're no longer invested, you know at the end of the day they're irrelevant and...on one hand you feel empty, because the secret of life has been exposed to you and no one cares, and on the other you feel liberated. And the truth is you can fight this feeling, but you can never beat it. It's something in the bones, in the DNA, you hit a certain point and your perspective changes no matter what you did previously. The funniest thing is seeing people try to hold on to what they had, fearful of looking bad, not knowing that nobody is really paying attention anymore.
Not that you can't achieve in your old age. Elizabeth Strout published her first book, "Amy and Isabelle," in 1998, when she was 42. Her age, her experience, have given her wisdom, and she writes so well about the odd, the disenfranchised, the different, which so many of us are, even though we might try to hide it.
So the truth is almost all baby boomers have been divorced. We were sold a bill of goods in the sixties and seventies, telling us we could meet our soulmate and have it all when that is patently untrue. As a matter of fact, if you meet someone who utters this garbage ignore them, two people getting along is incredibly difficult, and if the couple professes endless love with no disagreements that just means one partner has the power and the other accedes to his or her wishes. If you're not fighting, you're not in a good relationship.
Now today the educated marry the educated and stay together while the uneducated often don't get married at all, they have babies out of wedlock, oftentimes with multiple partners, and they do their best to ensure they stay members of the underclass. I'm quoting statistics, not feelings, but you can argue with me anyway. And there are exceptions to every rule, not that anything can be gray anymore.
So it was Strout's third book, "Olive Kitteridge," that was her monumental breakthrough. It was shot into the stratosphere when it became an HBO miniseries, starring the incredible Frances McDormand, but I couldn't watch it, because it didn't square with the vision I had in my head, and Strout's books are personal, for the reader only, and when depicted on screen they inherently lose something, small stories become well known and this isn't the way life works.
But every Strout book is good, she's the Pixar of novels. And she gets her due, but I'm surprised even more people don't read her books, because they're so fulfilling, you don't want them to end.
Not that they're a huge commitment. In a few pages you're hooked and you don't need to read with a dictionary and although there's tons of plot, there is tons of wisdom too, Strout's books are what the graduate writing schools should hold up as their model, instead they produce self-conscious turgid works where the words supersede the plot and the only people who read them are the cognoscenti who keep this system alive.
They can't study Strout, they believe she's beneath them, she makes it seem effortless. But the best work is not always highbrow.
So what you've got here is a divorced couple. With two adult children. And the wife's second spouse dies and the husband ends up single again and they interact.
Now in a conventional romance book they'd get back together, all lovey-dovey, but that's not how the world works. William still bugs Lucy, but they share so much history, they were married all those years, never mind having those kids, so...
They're on the downhill side of life and end up interacting again.
William continues to work. But is his self-worth and identity caught up in his work? And how good was he at it really?
As for Lucy...she comes from nothing and can never get over it. She always feels she's out of the loop, doesn't know something, and in truth she's never felt fully comfortable in a love relationship, she's made them work, her second husband was nice, but to say they were soulmates would be a stretch. As for William, can he ever open up, can he ever be known? This is common amongst men. They can talk all day yet reveal nothing. You hear their truth in stolen moments if you hear it at all. And they get to the end of their lives and they wonder if they missed it, played it wrong.
Also, so many are putting up a front. They may look together, but they grew up poor and isolated. And every family has secrets, things they don't want people to know, that they sometimes keep from other family members. And...
I don't want to tell you any more.
But you'll learn more about life reading "Oh William!" than watching the Beatles miniseries. Not that they should be equated. Well, let's just say that reading "Oh William!" is like listening to a late period Beatles album, maybe the White Album. It's a personal experience, it sets your mind free, you're in a private space, thinking about life. That's what great art does, and that's what people are looking for. Which is why Strout is so successful, why her every book is a best seller, because people hunger for this feeling and fulfillment. Facts are interesting, feelings are life.
Every boomer will dig this book, and many others too. If you're willing to reflect, question your behavior and desires, you'll be stimulated by reading "Oh William!"
Not that reading a book is as easy as watching TV or listening to a record, but when done right it's a unique experience, that you cannot get anywhere else, that resonates so. Check out "Oh William!"
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
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If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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